Matthew 4:9
4:9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship 1 me.”
Matthew 10:29
10:29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? 2 Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 3
Matthew 13:5
13:5 Other 4 seeds fell on rocky ground 5 where they did not have much soil. They sprang up quickly because the soil was not deep. 6
Matthew 18:26
18:26 Then the slave threw himself to the ground 7 before him, saying, 8 ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’
Matthew 25:18
25:18 But the one who had received one talent went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money in it.
1 tn Grk “if, falling down, you will worship.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
2 sn The penny refers to an assarion, a small Roman copper coin. One of them was worth one-sixteenth of a denarius or less than a half hour’s average wage. Sparrows were the cheapest items sold in the market. God knows about even the most financially insignificant things; see Isa 49:15.
3 tn Or “to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father.”
4 tn Here and in vv. 7 and 8 δέ (de) has not been translated.
5 sn The rocky ground in Palestine would be a limestone base lying right under the soil.
6 tn Grk “it did not have enough depth of earth.”
7 tn Grk “falling therefore the slave bowed down to the ground.” The redundancy of this expression signals the desperation of the slave in begging for mercy.
8 tc The majority of mss (א L W 058 0281 Ë1,13 33 Ï it syp,h co) begin the slave’s plea with “Lord” (κύριε, kurie), though a few important witnesses lack this vocative (B D Θ 700 pc lat sys,c Or Chr). Understanding the parable to refer to the Lord, scribes would be naturally prone to add the vocative here, especially as the slave’s plea is a plea for mercy. Thus, the shorter reading is more likely to be authentic.