Discovery BoxMatthew 5:18 
Context5:18 I 1 tell you the truth, 2 until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter 3 will pass from the law until everything takes place.
Matthew 22:4
Context22:4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. 4 My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’
Matthew 23:27
Context23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law 5 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. 6
1 tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
2 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
3 tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”
sn The smallest letter refers to the smallest Hebrew letter (yod) and the stroke of a letter to a serif (a hook or projection on a Hebrew letter).
4 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).”
5 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
6 sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.
