Discovery BoxMatthew 3:11 
Context3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy 1 to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 2
Matthew 5:29-30
Context5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. 3 5:30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 6:26
Context6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: 4 They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds 5 them. Aren’t you more valuable 6 than they are?
Matthew 12:41-42
Context12:41 The people 7 of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them 8 – and now, 9 something greater than Jonah is here! 12:42 The queen of the South 10 will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, 11 something greater than Solomon is here!
Matthew 18:9
Context18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have 12 two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell. 13
Matthew 19:24
Context19:24 Again I say, 14 it is easier for a camel 15 to go through the eye of a needle 16 than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 25:29
Context25:29 For the one who has will be given more, 17 and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 18
1 tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”
sn The humility of John is evident in the statement I am not worthy. This was considered one of the least worthy tasks of a slave, and John did not consider himself worthy to do even that for the one to come, despite the fact he himself was a prophet.
2 sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.
3 sn On this word here and in the following verse, see the note on the word hell in 5:22.
4 tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).
5 tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”
6 tn Grk “of more value.”
7 tn Grk “men”; the word here (ἀνήρ, anhr) usually indicates males or husbands, but occasionally is used in a generic sense of people in general, as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 1.a, 2).
8 tn Grk “at the preaching of Jonah.”
9 tn Grk “behold.”
10 sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.
11 tn Grk “behold.”
12 tn Grk “than having.”
13 tn Grk “the Gehenna of fire.”
sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.
14 tn Grk “I say to you.”
15 tc A few late witnesses (579 1424 pc) read κάμιλον (kamilon, “rope”) for κάμηλον (kamhlon, “camel”), either through accidental misreading of the text or intentionally so as to soften Jesus’ words.
16 sn The eye of a needle refers to a sewing needle. (The gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” was built during the middle ages and was not in existence in Jesus’ day.) Jesus was saying rhetorically that it is impossible for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom, unless God (v. 26) intervenes.
17 tn Grk “to everyone who has, he will be given more.”
sn The one who has will be given more. Faithfulness yields great reward (see Matt 13:12; also Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18, 19:26).
18 sn The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either.
