Discovery BoxMatthew 7:6 
Context7:6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. 1
Matthew 18:6
Context18:6 “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, 2 it would be better for him to have a huge millstone 3 hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea. 4
Matthew 20:6
Context20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon 5 he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’
Matthew 21:33
Context21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner 6 who planted a vineyard. 7 He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then 8 he leased it to tenant farmers 9 and went on a journey.
1 tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).
2 tn The Greek term σκανδαλίζω (skandalizw), translated here “causes to sin” can also be translated “offends” or “causes to stumble.”
3 tn Grk “the millstone of a donkey.” This refers to a large flat stone turned by a donkey in the process of grinding grain (BDAG 661 s.v. μύλος 2; L&N 7.68-69). The same term is used in the parallel account in Mark 9:42.
sn The punishment of drowning with a heavy weight attached is extremely gruesome and reflects Jesus’ views concerning those who cause others who believe in him to sin.
4 tn The term translated “open” here (πελάγει, pelagei) refers to the open sea as opposed to a stretch of water near a coastline (BDAG 794 s.v. πέλαγος). A similar English expression would be “the high seas.”
5 tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”
6 tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
7 sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.
8 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
9 sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.
