Matthew 15:4

15:4 For God said, 1  ‘Honor your father and mother’ 2  and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ 3 

Matthew 22:44

22:44 ‘The Lord said to my lord, 4 

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’? 5 

Matthew 27:37

27:37 Above 6  his head they put the charge against him, 7  which read: 8  “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.”

1 tc Most mss (א*,2 C L W 0106 33 Ï) have an expanded introduction here; instead of “For God said,” they read “For God commanded, saying” (ὁ γὰρ θεὸς ἐνετείλατο λέγων, Jo gar qeo" eneteilato legwn). But such expansions are generally motivated readings; in this case, most likely it was due to the wording of the previous verse (“the commandment of God”) that caused early scribes to add to the text. Although it is possible that other witnesses reduced the text to the simple εἶπεν (eipen, “[God] said”) because of perceived redundancy with the statement in v. 3, such is unlikely in light of the great variety and age of these authorities (א1 B D Θ 073 Ë1,13 579 700 892 pc lat co, as well as other versions and fathers).

2 sn A quotation from Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16.

3 sn A quotation from Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9.

4 sn The Lord said to my Lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.

5 sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.

6 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

7 sn Mention of the inscription is an important detail, because the inscription would normally give the reason for the execution. It shows that Jesus was executed for claiming to be a king. It was also probably written with irony from the executioners’ point of view.

8 tn Grk “was written.”