Discovery BoxMatthew 9:11 
Context9:11 When the Pharisees 1 saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 2
Matthew 14:31
Context14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 17:10
Context17:10 The disciples asked him, 3 “Why then do the experts in the law 4 say that Elijah must come first?”
Matthew 17:19
Context17:19 Then the disciples came 5 to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”
Matthew 19:7
Context19:7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” 6
1 sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.
2 sn The issue here is inappropriate associations. Jews were very careful about personal associations and contact as a matter of ritual cleanliness. Their question borders on an accusation that Jesus is ritually unclean.
3 tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.
4 tn Or “do the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
5 tn Grk “coming, the disciples said.” The participle προσελθόντες (proselqontes) has been translated as a finite verb to make the sequence of events clear in English.
6 tc ‡ Although the majority of witnesses (B C W 078 087 Ë13 33 Ï syp,h) have αὐτήν (authn, “her”) after the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”), a variant lacks the αὐτήν. This shorter reading may be due to assimilation to the Markan parallel, but since it is attested in early and diverse witnesses (א D L Z Θ Ë1 579 700 pc lat) and since the parallel verse (Mark 10:4) already departs at many points, the shorter reading seems more likely to be original. The pronoun has been included in the translation, however, for clarity. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating reservations regarding its authenticity.
sn A quotation from Deut 24:1. The Pharisees were all in agreement that the OT permitted a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce his wife (not vice-versa) and that remarriage was therefore sanctioned. But the two rabbinic schools of Shammai and Hillel differed on the grounds for divorce. Shammai was much stricter than Hillel and permitted divorce only in the case of sexual immorality. Hillel permitted divorce for almost any reason (cf. the Mishnah, m. Gittin 9.10).
