Matthew 22

Jesus answered them again by telling stories that carried a meaning. He said:

1And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

2"God's kingdom is like a king who put on a wedding feast for his son.

2The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

Note"The kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's usual phrase where Mark and Luke write "the kingdom of God." Jewish writers of the period often said "heaven" as a respectful way of avoiding the word God, and the two phrases mean the same thing. The word behind "kingdom" means a reign or rule rather than a stretch of territory. "Made a marriage" means he put on the wedding feast, an event lasting several days and hosted by the groom's family.

3He sent his servants to call the people he had invited to the wedding, but they would not come.

3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

NoteInvitations went out in two stages: a first invitation, accepted well in advance, and then a second call on the day itself telling guests the food was ready. The people in the story had already accepted the first, so refusing the second was a public insult, and a public insult to a king at that.

4So he sent other servants and said, 'Tell the people who were invited: Look, I have my dinner ready. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is set. Come to the wedding.'

4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

Note"Fatlings" are animals specially fattened for a feast. Once butchered, the meat could not be kept, so a refusal at this point wasted the whole banquet.

5But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.

5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

6The rest grabbed his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

6And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

NoteIn 1611 "entreat" meant to treat or handle someone, not to beg. "Entreated them spitefully" means they mistreated the servants, not that they pleaded with them.

7When the king heard about it, he was furious. He sent his soldiers, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

8Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but the people I invited did not deserve to come.

8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

9So go out to the main roads, and invite to the wedding everyone you find.'

9Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

Note"Highways" translates a phrase meaning the places where the main roads run out of the city, the open crossings where anyone at all might be found. It does not mean a paved highway in the modern sense.

10So those servants went out to the roads and brought together everyone they found, both bad people and good. And the wedding hall was full of guests.

10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

11And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

NoteA wedding garment was not a special costume but clean, fresh clothing suitable for a feast. Whether a host of this kind was expected to supply such clothing to his guests is debated, and the story does not say.

12He said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man had nothing to say.

12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

NoteThe word translated "Friend" is not the ordinary word for a friend. It is a cool, formal form of address; Matthew uses it elsewhere for a landowner speaking to a hired man he is about to send off, and for Jesus speaking to Judas.

13Then the king said to the servants, 'Tie him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him outside into the dark. Out there people cry and grind their teeth.'

13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Note"Outer darkness" is the darkness outside the lit banquet hall, the night beyond the doors. "Gnashing of teeth" means grinding the teeth together, a stock expression for rage or extreme distress.

14Many people are invited, but few are chosen."

14For many are called, but few are chosen.

Note"Called" translates the same word rendered "bidden" earlier in the chapter, that is, invited. The saying repeats the parable's own vocabulary.

15Then the Pharisees went off and made a plan to trap Jesus by something he said.

15Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

NoteThe Pharisees were a movement devoted to strict observance of the law of Moses, including the body of oral tradition built up around it. They were influential teachers among ordinary people rather than officeholders.

16They sent their followers to him, along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know that you are honest, and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You are not swayed by anyone, because you pay no attention to who they are.

16And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

NoteThe Herodians supported the family of Herod, who ruled parts of the region under Roman authority. They had no natural alliance with the Pharisees apart from a shared opposition to Jesus. "Master" is the KJV's word for teacher, the title a student used for the man he studied under. "Thou regardest not the person of men" is a Hebrew idiom, literally about not looking at people's faces: it means judging without regard to rank or appearance.

17So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay the tax to Caesar, or not?"

17Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

NoteThe tax in question was the head tax the Romans imposed on each person in Judea after taking direct control of it in AD 6. Paying it was an acknowledgment of Roman rule, and refusal to pay had already sparked an armed revolt. "Caesar" was the title of the Roman emperor, at this time Tiberius. Either answer was dangerous: "no" was rebellion against Rome, "yes" would offend those who resented Roman rule.

18But Jesus saw the evil in what they were doing and said, "You pretenders, why are you trying to trap me?

18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

19Show me the coin used to pay the tax." So they brought him a penny.

19Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

Note"A penny" translates denarius, a silver coin worth roughly a day's pay for a laborer. The KJV used the English coin of its own day; "penny" here does not mean a trivial amount.

20He asked them, "Whose face is on this coin, and whose name?"

20And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

Note"Image and superscription" means the portrait stamped on the coin and the inscription running around its edge. The denarius in circulation carried the head of Tiberius and named him Caesar and son of the deified Augustus.

21They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "So give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give God what belongs to God."

21They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

Note"Render" means to give back or hand over what is owed, not simply to give. The word assumes the thing already belongs to the one receiving it.

22When they heard this, they were amazed. They left him and went away.

22When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

23That same day the Sadducees came to him. They are the group who say there is no rising from the dead. They asked him a question.

23The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

NoteThe Sadducees were a wealthy, largely priestly party centered on the temple in Jerusalem. They denied the resurrection of the dead, holding that it was not taught in the books of Moses, which they treated as the decisive authority.

24They said, "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies and has no children, his brother must marry the widow and have children who will count as the dead brother's family line.

24Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

NoteThis is the practice set out in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, known as levirate marriage, from the Latin word for a husband's brother. If a man died childless, his brother was to marry the widow, and the first son of that marriage counted legally as the dead man's son, so that his name and his share of the family land were not lost. "Raise up seed" is the KJV's literal rendering of the Hebrew idiom for producing offspring.

25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and then died. Since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

25Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:

26The same thing happened to the second brother, and the third, all the way to the seventh.

26Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.

27Last of all, the woman died too.

27And last of all the woman died also.

28So when the dead rise, which of the seven will she be married to? All of them had been married to her."

28Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

29Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

29Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Note"Ye do err" means you are mistaken, led off the track. "The scriptures" means the Hebrew scriptures, the only ones in existence at the time.

30When the dead rise, people do not marry and are not given in marriage. They are like the angels of God in heaven.

30For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

NoteThe two verbs are not a repetition. The first was used of the man, who takes a wife; the second of the woman, who is given in marriage by her father. Together they cover both sides of the arrangement.

31But about the dead rising, have you not read what God himself said to you?

31But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

32He said, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

32I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

NoteThe quotation is from Exodus 3:6, God speaking to Moses at the burning bush. It comes from the books of Moses, the part of scripture the Sadducees held to be decisive. The argument turns on the tense: God says "I am," not "I was," the God of men who died centuries before.

33When the crowd heard this, they were amazed at what he taught.

33And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

Note"Doctrine" in 1611 simply meant teaching, either the act of teaching or its content. It did not carry today's sense of a fixed system of beliefs.

34When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees with nothing to say, they gathered together.

34But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

Note"Put to silence" translates a word that literally means muzzled, as one would muzzle an animal.

35Then one of them, an expert in the law of Moses, asked him a question to test him.

35Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

NoteA "lawyer" here is an expert in the law of Moses, a scholar of scripture, not an attorney practicing in a courtroom.

36He said, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

36Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

NoteJewish teachers of the period debated how the many commands of the law ranked against one another, which were weighty and which were light. Asking for the greatest was a standard test of a teacher's judgment.

37Jesus said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

NoteQuoted from Deuteronomy 6:5, part of the passage known as the Shema, recited daily by observant Jews. "Heart," "soul" and "mind" are not three separate compartments of a person. Piling up the words is a way of saying the whole self, with nothing held back.

38This is the first and greatest commandment.

38This is the first and great commandment.

39And the second one is like it: Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

NoteQuoted from Leviticus 19:18. In its original setting "neighbour" meant a fellow member of the community, and how far out the word reached was itself a matter of argument among teachers.

40Everything in the law and the writings of the prophets depends on these two commandments."

40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Note"Hang" is used as a door hangs on its hinges: the whole weight of the rest rests on these two. "The law and the prophets" is a standard way of referring to the Hebrew scriptures as a whole.

41While the Pharisees were still gathered together, Jesus asked them a question.

41While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

42"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "David's."

42Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.

Note"Christ" is a title, not a name: it is the Greek for the Hebrew "Messiah," meaning the anointed one, a king marked out by having oil poured on his head. "The son of David" means a descendant of King David, and was a recognized way of speaking of the promised king.

43He said to them, "How then does David, speaking by the Spirit, call him Lord? For David said,

43He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,

Note"In spirit" means by the Spirit of God, that is, speaking as a prophet rather than in his own person. The discussion takes for granted that David composed the psalm quoted next.

44'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet.'

44The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?

NoteThe quotation is Psalm 110:1. In the KJV, "the LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God in the Hebrew, while "my Lord" is an ordinary word for a master or superior. So the line has God addressing a second figure, whom David calls his own superior. A footstool is the low stool a seated ruler rests his feet on; enemies made into a footstool is the picture of a conqueror standing over the defeated.

45If David calls him Lord, then how can he be David's son?"

45If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

46No one could answer him a single word. And from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

46And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Note"Durst" is the old past tense of "dare."