Matthew 10:2

10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ¹  first, Simon ²  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

Matthew 10:21

10:21 “Brother ³  will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against ⁴  parents and have them put to death.

Matthew 18:15

Restoring Christian Relationships

18:15 “If ⁵  your brother ⁶  sins, ⁷  go and show him his fault ⁸  when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother.

Matthew 22:24

22:24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children ⁹  for his brother.’ ¹⁰ 

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¹ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

² sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁴ tn Or “will rebel against.”

⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated. All the “if” clauses in this paragraph are third class conditions in Greek.

⁶ tn The Greek term “brother” can mean “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a) whether male or female. It can also refer to siblings, though here it is used in a broader sense to connote familial relationships within the family of God. Therefore, because of the familial connotations, “brother” has been retained in the translation here in preference to the more generic “fellow believer” (“fellow Christian” would be anachronistic in this context).

⁷ tc ‡ The earliest and best witnesses lack “against you” after “if your brother sins.” It is quite possible that the shorter reading in these witnesses (א B, as well as 0281 ˹ 579 pc sa) occurred when scribes either intentionally changed the text (to make it more universal in application) or unintentionally changed the text (owing to the similar sound of the end of the verb ἁμαρτήσῃ [Jamarthsh] and the prepositional phrase εἰς σέ [eis se]). However, if the mss were normally copied by sight rather than by sound, especially in the early centuries of Christianity, such an unintentional change is not as likely for these mss. And since scribes normally added material rather than deleted it for intentional changes, on balance, the shorter reading appears to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

⁸ tn Grk “go reprove him.”

⁹ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for fathering children (L&N 23.59).

¹⁰ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.