11:11 “I tell you the truth, 8 among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least 9 in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.
23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law 15 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! 16 You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! 17 For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
24:29 “Immediately 18 after the suffering 19 of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 20
1 tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated concessively.
2 sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.
3 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
4 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
5 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
6 sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.
7 sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.
8 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
9 sn After John comes a shift of eras. The new era is so great that the lowest member of it (the one who is least in the kingdom of God) is greater than the greatest one of the previous era.
10 tc See the tc note on “about to drink” in v. 22.
11 tn Grk “were shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.
12 tn The expression ῾Ωσαννά (Jwsanna, literally in Hebrew, “O Lord, save”) in the quotation from Ps 118:25-26 was probably by this time a familiar liturgical expression of praise, on the order of “Hail to the king,” although both the underlying Aramaic and Hebrew expressions meant “O Lord, save us.” In words familiar to every Jew, the author is indicating that at this point every messianic expectation is now at the point of realization. It is clear from the words of the psalm shouted by the crowd that Jesus is being proclaimed as messianic king. See E. Lohse, TDNT 9:682-84.
sn Hosanna is an Aramaic expression that literally means, “help, I pray,” or “save, I pray.” By Jesus’ time it had become a strictly liturgical formula of praise, however, and was used as an exclamation of praise to God.
13 sn A quotation from Ps 118:25-26.
14 tn Grk “Behold, I have prepared my dinner.” In some contexts, however, to translate ἄριστον (ariston) as “dinner” somewhat misses the point. L&N 23.22 here suggests, “See now, the feast I have prepared (for you is ready).”
15 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
16 tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).
17 tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”
18 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
19 tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”
20 sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.
21 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
22 sn See the note on the word centurion in Matt 8:5.