Matthew 21: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey while crowds spread cloaks and branches and shout praise, then drives out those selling and buying in the temple, overturns the money changers' tables, and heals the blind and lame there. He curses a fig tree that has no fruit, and tells his disciples that faith without doubt can do far more. Back in the temple, the chief priests and elders challenge his authority; he answers with a question about John's baptism and with two parables, one about two sons and one about tenant farmers who kill the owner's son. The leaders realize the parables are aimed at them but do not arrest him, because the crowds consider him a prophet.

Claim by Claim

1. 21:1
   • They drew near to Jerusalem.
   • They came to Bethphage.
   • Bethphage was at the Mount of Olives.
   • Jesus then sent two disciples.
2. 21:2
   • Jesus told the two disciples to go into the village opposite them.
   • Jesus said they would immediately find a donkey tied there.
   • Jesus said a colt would be with the donkey.
   • Jesus told them to untie the animals and bring them to him.
3. 21:3
   • Jesus said that if anyone said anything to them, they were to say that the Lord had need of them.
   • Jesus said that the person would immediately send the animals.
4. 21:4
   • This happened so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled.
5. 21:5
   • The prophecy said to tell the daughter of Zion.
   • The prophecy said her King was coming to her.
   • The prophecy said the King was meek.
   • The prophecy said the King was mounted on a donkey.
   • The prophecy said the King was mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
6. 21:6
   • The disciples went.
   • The disciples did as Jesus had directed them.
7. 21:7
   • They brought the donkey and the colt.
   • They put their garments on the animals.
   • Jesus sat on them, which may mean on the garments or on the animals.
8. 21:8
   • A very great crowd spread their own garments on the road.
   • Others cut branches from the trees.
   • Those others spread the branches on the road.
9. 21:9
   • The crowds going ahead of him and the crowds following him cried out.
   • They said, Hosanna to the son of David.
   • They said, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
   • They said, Hosanna in the highest.
10. 21:10
    • Jesus entered Jerusalem.
    • The whole city was shaken.
    • The city asked who this was.
11. 21:11
    • The crowds said this was Jesus the prophet.
    • The crowds said he was from Nazareth of Galilee.
12. 21:12
    • Jesus entered the temple of God.
    • Jesus drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple.
    • Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers.
    • Jesus overturned the seats of those who sold doves.
13. 21:13
    • Jesus said to them that it is written.
    • Jesus quoted that his house shall be called a house of prayer.
    • Jesus said they were making it a den of robbers.
14. 21:14
    • Blind people and lame people came to him in the temple.
    • Jesus healed them.
15. 21:15
    • The chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did.
    • They saw the children crying out in the temple.
    • The children were saying, Hosanna to the son of David.
    • The chief priests and scribes were indignant.
16. 21:16
    • They asked Jesus whether he heard what these were saying.
    • Jesus said yes.
    • Jesus asked whether they had never read that out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies God has perfected praise.
17. 21:17
    • Jesus left them.
    • Jesus went out of the city to Bethany.
    • Jesus lodged there.
18. 21:18
    • In the morning Jesus was returning to the city.
    • Jesus was hungry.
19. 21:19
    • Jesus saw a single fig tree by the road.
    • Jesus came to it.
    • He found nothing on it except leaves only.
    • Jesus said to the tree that no fruit should ever come from it again.
    • The fig tree withered at once.
20. 21:20
    • The disciples saw this.
    • The disciples marveled.
    • The disciples asked how the fig tree had withered so quickly.
21. 21:21
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said truly to them.
    • Jesus said that if they have faith and do not doubt, they will do what was done to the fig tree.
    • Jesus said that they would also be able to tell this mountain to be taken up and thrown into the sea.
    • Jesus said that if they said this, it would happen.
22. 21:22
    • Jesus said that whatever they ask in prayer, believing, they will receive.
23. 21:23
    • Jesus came into the temple.
    • Jesus was teaching.
    • The chief priests and the elders of the people came to him.
    • They asked by what authority he was doing these things.
    • They asked who gave him this authority.
24. 21:24
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said he would also ask them one question.
    • Jesus said that if they answered him, he would tell them by what authority he did these things.
25. 21:25
    • Jesus asked where the baptism of John was from.
    • Jesus asked whether it was from heaven or from men.
    • They reasoned among themselves.
    • They said that if they answered From heaven, he would ask why they did not believe John.
26. 21:26
    • They said that if they answered From men, they feared the crowd.
    • They said that all held John to be a prophet.
27. 21:27
    • They answered Jesus that they did not know.
    • Jesus said that neither would he tell them by what authority he did these things.
28. 21:28
    • Jesus asked them what they thought.
    • A man had two sons.
    • The man came to the first son.
    • The man told him to go work today in the vineyard.
29. 21:29
    • The first son answered that he would not go.
    • Afterward the first son changed his mind.
    • The first son went.
30. 21:30
    • The man came to the second son.
    • The man said the same thing to him.
    • The second son answered that he would go, calling him sir.
    • The second son did not go.
31. 21:31
    • Jesus asked which of the two did the will of the father.
    • They said the first son did.
    • Jesus said truly to them.
    • Jesus said that the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God ahead of them.
32. 21:32
    • Jesus said John came to them in the way of righteousness.
    • Jesus said they did not believe John.
    • Jesus said the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed John.
    • Jesus said that they saw this.
    • Jesus said that afterward they did not change their minds so as to believe him.
33. 21:33
    • Jesus told them to hear another parable.
    • There was a householder.
    • He planted a vineyard.
    • He put a fence around it.
    • He dug a winepress in it.
    • He built a tower.
    • He leased it to tenant farmers.
    • He went away on a journey.
34. 21:34
    • The season of the fruits drew near.
    • He sent his servants to the tenants.
    • The servants were sent to receive his fruits.
35. 21:35
    • The tenants seized his servants.
    • They beat one.
    • They killed another.
    • They stoned another.
36. 21:36
    • He sent other servants again.
    • These servants were more than the first.
    • The tenants did the same to them.
37. 21:37
    • Last of all he sent his son to them.
    • He said that they would respect his son.
38. 21:38
    • The tenants saw the son.
    • They said among themselves that this was the heir.
    • They said to come and kill him.
    • They said to seize his inheritance.
39. 21:39
    • They took him.
    • They cast him out of the vineyard.
    • They killed him.
40. 21:40
    • Jesus asked what the lord of the vineyard will do to those tenants when he comes.
41. 21:41
    • They said he will destroy those evil men badly.
    • They said he will lease the vineyard to other tenants.
    • They said those tenants will give him the fruits in their seasons.
42. 21:42
    • Jesus asked them whether they had never read in the scriptures.
    • The scripture says the stone the builders rejected became the head of the corner.
    • The scripture says this came from the Lord.
    • The scripture says it is marvelous in our eyes.
43. 21:43
    • Jesus said that for this reason he tells them the kingdom of God will be taken from them.
    • Jesus said it will be given to a nation producing its fruits.
44. 21:44
    • Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces.
    • Whomever the stone falls on, it will crush to powder.
45. 21:45
    • The chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables.
    • They perceived that he was speaking about them.
46. 21:46
    • They sought to seize him.
    • They feared the crowds.
    • The crowds held him to be a prophet.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

21:1

Bethphage was a village on the Mount of Olives, the ridge immediately east of Jerusalem and separated from it by the Kidron valley. The road up from Jericho crossed this ridge, so it was the last stage of the pilgrim route, and from its western slope the temple stood in full view.

21:2

The King James "ass" simply means donkey; in 1611 the word carried no insult. A donkey was an ordinary mount for a person of standing traveling in peace, as distinct from a warhorse.

21:3

"If any man say ought unto you" means if anyone says anything to you. "Ought" here is an old spelling of "aught", meaning anything at all.

21:4

A prophet was someone who spoke a message from God. Matthew is pointing back to words written hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

21:5

The quotation runs together a line from Isaiah 62:11 with Zechariah 9:9. "Daughter of Zion" is a standard Hebrew way of addressing a city as though speaking to a woman; Zion was originally the fortified hill of Jerusalem and came to stand for the city and its people. "Meek" in 1611 English meant gentle or unassuming, without the modern suggestion of weakness.

21:7

The clothes are the outer cloaks people wore over their tunics, used here as a makeshift saddle. In the Greek, "set him thereon" and "sat on them" are ambiguous: "them" may refer to the cloaks rather than to both animals. The awkwardness comes from the quoted prophecy, where Hebrew poetry names the same animal twice in parallel lines.

21:8

Spreading cloaks in the road was a recognized way of greeting a king; compare 2 Kings 9:13, where officers throw their garments under Jehu at his acclamation. The crowd is large because Jerusalem was filling with pilgrims for Passover. "Strawed" is the old past tense of "strew", meaning scattered or spread out.

21:9

"Hosanna" is a Hebrew cry meaning "save now" or "save, please", taken from Psalm 118:25; by this period it functioned largely as a shout of welcome rather than a request. The next line is Psalm 118:26, words used to greet pilgrims arriving at the temple. "Son of David" was a title for the promised king descended from David. "In the highest" means in the highest heaven, that is, let the cry be taken up there too.

21:10

The Greek verb behind "was moved" is the one used for the shaking of an earthquake. The city was not merely curious but agitated.

21:11

Nazareth was a small and obscure village, and Galilee was the northern region, well away from Jerusalem. "Prophet" is a more modest identification than the royal title the crowds had just been shouting.

21:12

The "temple" here is not the sanctuary building but the large outer courtyard open to all comers, where this trade took place. Temple dues and offerings had to be paid in a particular silver coinage, so pilgrims arriving with Roman or Greek money exchanged it, for a fee, with the money changers. Doves were the offering the law permitted to those who could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 5:7; 12:8), so the dove sellers served the poorest worshipers.

21:13

The two quoted lines come from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. The Greek word behind "thieves" means a bandit or brigand, someone violent, rather than a petty thief. A den is where robbers retreat to be safe between raids, not the place where the robbery happens.

21:15

The chief priests were the senior priestly families who ran the temple and its treasury, including the serving high priest and men who had held the office. The scribes were professional experts in the written law, qualified to copy, interpret and teach it. "Sore displeased" means deeply indignant; "sore" in the King James means severely.

21:16

The quotation is Psalm 8:2, cited in its Greek form, which reads "praise" where the Hebrew reads "strength". "Sucklings" are infants still nursing.

21:17

Bethany was a village on the far side of the Mount of Olives, roughly two miles from Jerusalem, an ordinary place for pilgrims to lodge when the city itself was full.

21:19

Fig trees in this region put out their leaves at about the same time as an early crop of small fruit, so a tree in full leaf was in effect advertising fruit. "Presently" in the King James means immediately, on the spot, which was its ordinary sense in 1611, not the modern "in a little while".

21:21

"Verily I say unto you" translates "Amen, I say to you", a formula introducing a solemn assertion. Talk of moving or uprooting a mountain was a familiar figure of speech among teachers of the time for doing what looks impossible.

21:23

The chief priests and the elders, the heads of leading lay families, sat with the scribes on the council that governed Jewish internal affairs. Their question is about license rather than ability: the temple courts were their jurisdiction, and they are demanding to know who authorized the previous day's action there.

21:25

John is John the Baptist, who had immersed crowds in the Jordan as a sign of repentance and had been imprisoned and executed by Herod Antipas. "From heaven" is a reverent way of saying "from God", a common Jewish substitute that avoided saying the divine name directly.

21:28

A vineyard is a field of grapevines. Caring for one was hard, steady work: trimming vines, pulling weeds, and picking the grapes.

21:29

The manuscripts of this parable differ: some reverse the two sons, so that the one who promises and fails comes first, and a few have the questioners approve the second son. The point of the story is the same in every version, but the numbering of the sons is not fixed in the ancient copies.

21:31

"Publicans" were Jews who contracted to collect taxes and tolls for Rome or for Herod. They handled Gentile money, worked for the occupying power, and were widely assumed to take more than was owed, so "publicans and harlots" was a stock pairing for people outside respectable society. "The kingdom of God" means God's reign, his exercise of rule as king, rather than a territory; Matthew usually writes "kingdom of heaven" for the same thing.

21:32

"In the way of righteousness" is ambiguous in the Greek and can mean either that John came living a righteous life or that he came showing the right way to live. Both senses were available to the first hearers, and the text does not settle between them.

21:33

Every detail here echoes the song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-2, which the audience would recognize. The winepress is "digged" because it was cut into rock: an upper basin where grapes were trodden, draining into a lower one. The tower housed a watchman guarding the crop against thieves and animals. Renting land to tenant farmers for a share of the crop, with the owner living elsewhere, was an ordinary and often resented arrangement in Galilee.

21:34

The servants are not coming for cash but for the owner's agreed portion of the harvest itself, which was how rent on such land was usually paid.

21:35

Throwing stones at someone was a way people killed a person back then.

21:38

Under property customs of the period, land whose owner had died leaving no claimant could in some circumstances be claimed by those already occupying it. The arrival of the son alone, rather than more servants, may be what prompts the tenants' reasoning.

21:41

The Greek has a pointed wordplay that "miserably destroy those wicked men" preserves: roughly "he will badly destroy the bad men", the same root used twice.

21:42

The quotation is Psalm 118:22-23, from the same psalm the crowds had sung on the road. "The head of the corner" translates a phrase that can mean either the great stone set at a corner to tie and align two walls, or the stone crowning the top of the structure; both Hebrew and Greek leave it open.

21:43

"Nation" translates a Greek word meaning a people or a group of people, not a political state with borders.

21:44

This verse is missing from several of the earliest manuscripts and closely matches Luke 20:18, so many editors think it was copied in from there; modern editions often print it in brackets. Its imagery draws on Isaiah 8:14-15, a stone that people stumble over, and Daniel 2:34-35, a stone that smashes what it lands on.

21:45

The Pharisees were a party known for strict observance of the law, including oral traditions built up around the written text. They had wide influence among ordinary people but did not control the temple, which is why they appear here alongside the chief priests rather than among them.

21:46

"Lay hands on him" is the King James phrase for making an arrest. Seizing a popular teacher in front of a festival crowd risked starting a riot, and that risk is exactly what they are weighing.