Matthew 25: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus continues teaching about the time when the Son of Man returns. He tells a story about ten young women waiting for a bridegroom, five ready with extra oil and five not, and a story about a man who leaves money with three servants and later settles accounts with them. He then describes the Son of Man coming in glory and separating all nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, judging them by how they treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner.

Claim by Claim

1. 25:1
   • Jesus said that at that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins.
   • The ten virgins took their lamps.
   • The ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom.
2. 25:2
   • Five of the virgins were foolish.
   • Five of the virgins were wise.
3. 25:3
   • The foolish virgins took their lamps.
   • The foolish virgins took no oil with them.
4. 25:4
   • The wise virgins took oil in vessels along with their lamps.
5. 25:5
   • The bridegroom was delayed.
   • All the virgins became drowsy.
   • All the virgins fell asleep.
6. 25:6
   • At midnight a cry went out.
   • The cry announced that the bridegroom was there.
   • The cry told them to go out to meet him.
7. 25:7
   • All those virgins woke up.
   • All those virgins trimmed their lamps.
8. 25:8
   • The foolish virgins asked the wise ones to give them some of their oil.
   • The foolish virgins said their lamps were going out.
9. 25:9
   • The wise virgins answered that there might not be enough oil for both groups.
   • The wise virgins told the foolish ones to go instead to those who sell oil.
   • The wise virgins told the foolish ones to buy oil for themselves.
10. 25:10
    • While the foolish virgins were going to buy oil, the bridegroom came.
    • Those who were ready went in with the bridegroom to the wedding feast.
    • The door was shut.
11. 25:11
    • Afterward the other virgins also came.
    • The other virgins said, Lord, lord, open to us.
12. 25:12
    • The bridegroom answered them.
    • He said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.
13. 25:13
    • Jesus commanded them to keep watch.
    • The reason given is that they do not know the day nor the hour.
    • The King James adds that they do not know the day or hour in which the Son of man comes.
14. 25:14
    • The King James says the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country.
    • The man called his own servants.
    • The man handed over his possessions to them.
15. 25:15
    • To one servant he gave five talents.
    • To another he gave two talents.
    • To another he gave one talent.
    • He gave to each according to his own ability.
    • The man went on his journey.
16. 25:16
    • The servant who had received the five talents went and put them to work.
    • That servant gained another five talents.
17. 25:17
    • Likewise the servant with the two talents gained another two.
18. 25:18
    • The servant who had received the one talent went off and dug in the ground.
    • That servant hid his master's money.
19. 25:19
    • After a long time the master of those servants came.
    • The master settled accounts with them.
20. 25:20
    • The servant who had received the five talents came and brought another five talents.
    • He said the master had entrusted him with five talents.
    • He said he had gained five more talents.
21. 25:21
    • His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
    • The master said he had been faithful over a few things.
    • The master said he would set him over many things.
    • The master told him to enter into the joy of his master.
22. 25:22
    • The servant who had received the two talents also came.
    • He said the master had entrusted him with two talents.
    • He said he had gained two more talents.
23. 25:23
    • His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
    • The master said he had been faithful over a few things.
    • The master said he would set him over many things.
    • The master told him to enter into the joy of his master.
24. 25:24
    • The servant who had received the one talent came.
    • He said he knew the master was a hard man.
    • He said the master reaps where he has not sown.
    • He said the master gathers where he has not scattered.
25. 25:25
    • The servant said he was afraid.
    • The servant said he went and hid the talent in the ground.
    • The servant said the master has what belongs to him.
26. 25:26
    • His master answered him.
    • The master called him a wicked and slothful servant.
    • The master said the servant knew that he reaps where he did not sow and gathers where he did not scatter.
27. 25:27
    • The master said the servant ought therefore to have put his money with the bankers.
    • The master said that at his coming he would then have received his own back with interest.
28. 25:28
    • The master ordered the talent taken from that servant.
    • The master ordered it given to the one who has the ten talents.
29. 25:29
    • To everyone who has, more will be given.
    • He who has will have abundance.
    • From him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
30. 25:30
    • The master ordered the unprofitable servant thrown into the outer darkness.
    • In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
31. 25:31
    • The Son of man will come in his glory.
    • All the angels will come with him.
    • The King James specifies that the angels with him are holy.
    • Then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32. 25:32
    • All the nations will be gathered before him.
    • He will separate them one from another.
    • The separation is like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats.
33. 25:33
    • He will set the sheep on his right hand.
    • He will set the goats on his left.
34. 25:34
    • Then the King will speak to those on his right hand.
    • The King will call them blessed of his Father.
    • The King will tell them to come.
    • The King will tell them to inherit the kingdom.
    • The kingdom has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
35. 25:35
    • The King says he was hungry and they gave him food.
    • The King says he was thirsty and they gave him drink.
    • The King says he was a stranger and they took him in.
36. 25:36
    • The King says he was naked and they clothed him.
    • The King says he was sick and they visited him.
    • The King says he was in prison and they came to him.
37. 25:37
    • Then the righteous will answer him.
    • They will ask when they saw him hungry and fed him.
    • They will ask when they saw him thirsty and gave him drink.
38. 25:38
    • They will ask when they saw him a stranger and took him in.
    • They will ask when they saw him naked and clothed him.
39. 25:39
    • They will ask when they saw him sick or in prison and came to him.
40. 25:40
    • The King will answer them.
    • The King says, Truly I say to you.
    • The King says that whatever they did for one of the least of these his brothers, they did for him.
41. 25:41
    • Then he will also speak to those on the left hand.
    • He will tell them to depart from him.
    • He will call them cursed.
    • He will send them into the everlasting fire.
    • That fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
42. 25:42
    • He says he was hungry and they gave him no food.
    • He says he was thirsty and they gave him no drink.
43. 25:43
    • He says he was a stranger and they did not take him in.
    • He says he was naked and they did not clothe him.
    • He says he was sick and in prison and they did not visit him.
44. 25:44
    • Then they also will answer him.
    • They will ask when they saw him hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to him.
45. 25:45
    • Then he will answer them.
    • He says, Truly I say to you.
    • He says that inasmuch as they did not do it to one of the least of these, they did not do it to him.
46. 25:46
    • These will go away into everlasting punishment.
    • The righteous will go into eternal life.

Words Worth Explaining

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

25:1

"The kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's regular phrase for what the other Gospels call the kingdom of God. Jewish writers of the time often said "heaven" in place of the name of God out of reverence, and the word translated "kingdom" means a reign or rule rather than a territory. The "virgins" are unmarried young women serving as the bride's attendants; the King James word describes their unmarried status and is not a comment on their conduct. At a Jewish wedding the groom came in procession, often at night, to fetch the bride from her family's house to his own, and the attendants met the procession and escorted it with lamps.

25:2

In the Bible's wisdom vocabulary "wise" and "foolish" are not about intelligence. A fool is someone who will not think ahead or act on what he already knows.

25:3

The lamps are small clay oil lamps, or possibly rag torches, burning olive oil. Either kind holds only a few hours' worth of fuel, so anyone expecting a long wait carries a separate flask of oil to refill it.

25:5

"Tarried" simply means was delayed. A wedding procession starting late was ordinary, not sinister.

25:6

Wedding processions moved at night, and the lamps of the welcoming party were what lit the road. A guest with a dead lamp had nothing to contribute to the arrival.

25:7

"Trimmed their lamps" means they pulled the wick up, pinched off the charred end so it would burn clean instead of smoking, and topped up the oil.

25:9

Oil was an ordinary household commodity, sold by neighbors and small dealers rather than only in a market open by day, so a late errand to buy some is not as far fetched as it sounds to a modern reader. Whether anyone would actually be selling at midnight is left unaddressed by the story.

25:10

A wedding celebration ran for days and the feast was the center of it. Shutting the door is the normal end of the reception of guests, not an unusual cruelty: once the procession was inside, the house was closed for the night.

25:11

The word behind "Lord, Lord" is the everyday Greek word of respectful address. It can mean simply "sir", or the owner of a household, or the Lord; the same word is used of the master in the next parable.

25:12

"I know you not" is a formal phrase of disowning rather than a statement about memory. It means "I do not recognize you as one of mine", the kind of thing a householder says to people with no claim on him.

25:13

"Son of man" is the title Jesus regularly uses of himself in the Gospels. It can mean simply "a human being", and it also echoes Daniel 7:13, where "one like the Son of man" comes with the clouds of heaven and is given authority over all peoples.

25:14

The "servants" are household slaves. In the Roman world a trusted slave could manage a wealthy man's property, trade on his behalf and handle large sums, which is why the master hands over his whole estate to them while he is away.

25:15

A talent was a unit of weight, not a coin: roughly seventy five pounds of silver, worth about six thousand denarii, and a denarius was a day's pay for a laborer. One talent is therefore something like twenty years' wages, and five talents is a fortune. The English word "talent" meaning a natural ability comes from later readings of this parable; in the story itself it means only money.

25:18

Burying valuables was a recognized way of keeping money safe, and Jewish legal tradition held that someone who buried a deposit in the ground had taken proper care of it and was not liable if it was stolen. The servant is doing the cautious, defensible thing, not something obviously negligent.

25:19

"Reckoneth with them" means settled the accounts: a formal review of what each manager did with the money and what he now owes.

25:21

"Enter thou into the joy of thy lord" can be heard two ways, and the Greek leaves both open: come and share the master's own gladness, or come in and join the celebration he is holding.

25:24

"An hard man" means harsh and demanding, a tough master to work for. "Strawed" is an old spelling of "strewed", meaning scattered. Reaping where you did not sow was a proverbial way of describing someone who takes the profit from other people's labor.

25:26

"Slothful" means lazy. A sloth is an animal that moves very slowly, and the word once simply meant slowness.

25:27

The "exchangers" are bankers or money dealers, who took deposits and paid a return on them. "Usury" in 1611 English meant interest of any kind, not excessive or predatory interest, so the King James wording does not imply the master is asking for something shady.

25:30

"Outer darkness" is the darkness outside the lit house where the feast is going on, the night beyond the doorway. "Gnashing of teeth" is grinding the teeth together, a physical sign of rage or of anguish.

25:31

A king or judge gave verdicts sitting down, so "he shall sit upon the throne" is the posture of someone about to try a case. "Angel" in Greek simply means messenger, and here refers to God's messengers who attend the court.

25:32

Sheep and goats were pastured together in mixed flocks and routinely sorted out, often at evening because goats needed more shelter from the cold. The image is an ordinary daily chore that any listener would have watched done, not a comment on the worth of either animal.

25:33

The right hand was the side of honor and favor in the ancient world; the left was the lesser side. Placing someone on the right of a seated ruler was a public mark of standing.

25:34

"Inherit" means receive as an heir, as property passes to a son, rather than earn or win. "From the foundation of the world" means since the world was founded or laid down.

25:35

"Meat" in 1611 English means food of any kind, not flesh in particular, so "ye gave me meat" means you fed me. "An hungred" is simply an old form of hungry. A "stranger" is a foreigner or a traveler with no household of his own in the place; inns were few, expensive and often dangerous, so taking in such a traveler was a basic and expected duty.

25:36

"Naked" in Greek and in older English can mean stripped down to an undergarment or badly clothed, not necessarily wearing nothing. Ancient prisons supplied no food, bedding or clothing, so a prisoner depended on friends and family bringing these in; "visited me" means came and looked after me, and was a practical lifeline rather than a social call.

25:40

"Brethren" translates the ordinary Greek word for brothers, which covers the members of a family or group and can include women. Who "these my brethren" are has been read both as anyone in need and as Jesus' own followers or messengers, and the wording here does not settle the question.

25:41

The "angels" of the devil are the messengers or spirits counted as belonging to him, using the same Greek word for messenger as in verse 31.

25:44

"Minister unto thee" means wait on you, serve you, look after your needs.

25:46

The same Greek word, aionios, stands behind both "everlasting punishment" and "life eternal" in this verse. It is built on the word for an age or era and means belonging to the age to come; English translations have rendered it "everlasting" and "eternal" interchangeably, and the verse uses one word for both halves of the sentence.