(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The Lord’s prayer and persistence in prayer
- And it happened while He is at a place praying,1“while He is at a place praying” is more literally “during the time of Him to be in a place praying” when He ceased praying, one of His disciples said to Him: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
- And He told them: “When you pray, say: ‘[Our] Father [in the heavens], let your name be sanctified, let your kingdom come, [let your will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven],
- “give us our daily bread each day,
- “and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive every man indebted to us, and don’t lead us into temptation, [but rescue us from the evil one].”2“the evil one” or simply “evil”; either sense could be intended. However, for simply “evil”, a neuter construction is more likely, whereas these are masculine words here. This implies that “the evil one” is intended, but that definitely isn’t certain.
- And He said to them: “Who from among you will have a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him: “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
- “since my friend came to me from a journey and I don’t have any food whatsoever I will set before him.”
- “And that man answering from within might say: “Don’t cause trouble for me. The door is already *shut and my children are with me in bed. I can’t rise to give you food.”
- “I tell you, even if he won’t give him something after rising because he’s his friend, nevertheless, he will give him as much as he needs after rising because of his bold and shameless persistence.3“bold and shameless persistence” is a single word in Greek.
- “And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.
- “For every man asking receives, and the man seeking finds, and to the man knocking, it will be opened.
- “And which father of you – when his son will ask for a fish – will he also give him a serpent instead of a fish?
- “Or also, if he will ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
- “Therefore, if you — though being wicked — *know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to the men asking Him?”
A divided house
- And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. And it happened with the demon having departed, the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled.
- But some of them said: “He casts out demons by Beelzebul,4From the Hebrew phrase “Baal Zebub” that translates as “lord of the flies”. It’s likely a play on words for the pagan Canaanite god Baal. One of his names was “Ba’al Zevul”, which roughly translates as “Lord of the exalted house”. Since “Ba’al Zevul” sounds very similar to “Baal Zebub”, it was likely a derogatory Hebrew nickname for the Canaanite god. Apparently, the title was later applied to an actual demon. There is some debate on whether Beelzebub is a nickname for Satan, or for another high ranking demon (see following note). the ruler5 “ruler” The Greek word here could mean the one of greatest authority, but it doesn’t have to. It means any “ruler”, not necessarily the one of highest authority. The traditional interpretation of this word in this verse is “prince”. of the demons.”
- And testing Him, others were seeking a miraculous sign from heaven from Him.
- And *knowing their thoughts, He told them: “Every kingdom divided against itself lays waste to itself, and a house divided against its own house falls.
- “And also, if Satan was divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you’re saying of Me that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.
- “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Because of this, they will be your judges.
- “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God came upon you.
- “When an *armed strong man guards his own house, his possessions are in peace.
- “But when a man stronger than him comes and conquers him, he takes away his full armor upon which he had trusted and divides his spoils of war.
- “The one not being with Me is against Me, and the one not assembling with Me, scatters.
- “When the unclean spirit departs from the man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest. And not finding rest, [then] it says: “I’ll return to my house from where I departed.
- “And having come, it finds it [vacant], *swept, and beautifully *decorated.
- “Then it travels and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself. And having entered in, they settle down there and the final state of that man becomes worse than the first state.”
- Now, it happened during His speaking these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and told Him: “Blessed is the womb which bore you, and the breasts from which you nursed.”
- But He said: “On the contrary, blessed are the men listening to the word of God and keeping it.”
This wicked generation
- And with the crowds being assembled around Him, He began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation! It seeks a sign, and a sign won’t be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
- “For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, in this way also, the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.
- “The Queen of the South will be raised in the judgement with the men of this generation and will condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and behold; someone greater than Solomon is here.
- “The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgement with this generation and will condemn it because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and behold; someone greater than Jonah is here.
- “No one who lit a lamp puts it in a cellar nor under a basket, but on a lampstand so that the men entering might see the light.
- “The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye isn’t warped,6“eye isn’t warped” According to some sources, this is an idiom which means “to be generous”, in the sense of giving to others/charity. This makes excellent sense when you consider the context. The phrase is literally “is not warped”, with “not warped” being a single Greek word that literally means “without folds” (Thayers). It carries a similar moral connotation of “upright”, in the sense of not being crooked, bent, evil, etc. While “isn’t folded” would be more literally correct, it would be confusing because we don’t associate “folding” with crooked morals. However, we do associate “warped” with them; hence the translation choice here. your whole body is also full of light. But when it’s evil,7 “it’s evil” according to some sources, and “evil eye” is an idiom which means “to be stingy”. i.e. hoarding your wealth in an unhealthy way. your body is also full of darkness.
- “Therefore watch out, lest the light in you is darkness.”
- “Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, not having any share in the dark, it will be entirely full of light, like when the shining lamp illuminates you.
What defiles a man
- And during the talk, a Pharisee asks Him if He would dine with him. And having entered into his house, He reclined at the table.
- And having seen that He didn’t wash first before dinner, the Pharisee marveled.
- And the Lord said to him: “Currently, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but inwardly you’re full of robbery and wickedness.
- “You fools! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside?
- “Moreover, give to charity from the inside and behold, all things are clean to you.
- “But woe to you, the Pharisees, because you tithe mint, and rue,8“rue” is garden plant used to flavor or garnish food. and every garden herb, and yet you overlook the justice and the ^love of God. But it was necessary to do these things, and not to neglect those.
- “Woe to you, the Pharisees, because you ^love the chief seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
- “Woe to you because you’re like unseen tombs, and the men walking on top of them don’t *know it.”
- And answering, one of the Mosaic Law experts tells Him: “Teacher, by saying these things, you’re also spitefully insulting us.”
- And He said: “And woe to you law experts, because you are burdening men with oppressive burdens and you yourselves don’t touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
- “Woe to you because you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them.
- “Consequently, you are witnesses and join in approvingly with the works of your fathers, because they indeed killed them and you build the tombs.
- “Because of this, even the wisdom of God said: I’ll send prophets and apostles to them, and they will kill and persecute some of them,
- “so that the blood of all the prophets *poured out from the world’s foundation might be sought from this generation.
- “From Abel’s blood to Zechariah’s blood — the man who perished between the altar and the Lord’s house — yes I tell you, it will be sought from this generation.
- “Woe to you law experts because you removed the key of knowledge. You yourselves didn’t enter, and you hindered the men who are entering.”
- With Him having departed from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to vehemently hold a hostile grudge and to interrogate Him concerning many things to trap Him in His words,9“to interrogate… …to trap Him in His words” is one word in Greek, and it has the additional nuance of attempting to do this by catching someone off guard in an attempt to get a less-than-ideal off-hand answer.
- waiting to ambush Him and hunting to entrap Him in something from His mouth.
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