In the Gospel According to Matthew 12:10 (NABRE), the Pharisees question Jesus about religious law concerning healing on the sabbath. In Greek, the word often translated as “to be lawful” has a range of other meanings that have fascinating implications about the nature of religious law. The Greek word ἔξεστι …

Do you want to rest, or are you more interested in stopping or pausing what you’re doing? In the Gospel According to Matthew 11:28, we encounter a common and quotable passage, which I’ve translated as: “Come to me everyone who is tired and burdened, and I will stop you.” My …

In the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus speaks multiple times about the necessity of repentance or change of mind. Specifically, this idea of a change of mind is related to the concept of an afterthought, and it comes up in the Gospel According to Matthew 11:20–21 (NABRE). The Greek word …

What constitutes a scandal? In the Gospel According to Matthew 11:6 (NABRE), we encounter an important word that has no documented uses in classical literature, σκάνδαλον (skandalon) and the related verb form σκανδαλίζω (skandalizo). These words appear in the New Testament, and combined they are used 50 times. Prior to the …

In some older translations of the Gospel According to Matthew 10:41–42, we encounter the odd phrase “in the name” three times: in the name of a prophet, in the name of a just person, and in the name of a student. In every case, it seems to provide an explanation …

How is the Holy Spirit related to God’s breath and to inspiration? In the Gospel According to Matthew 10:20 (NABRE), Jesus says, “For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” The Greek word pneuma translated here as “breath” has a wide …

The Gospel According to Matthew 9:35 (NABRE) records: “Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” The ending words here translated as disease and illness have a range of meaning much broader than …

In the Gospel According to Matthew 9:20–22 (NABRE), Jesus heals a woman who has been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years. One of the most interesting aspects of this passage is lost in English translations. The word used to describe what the woman is seeking when she approaches Jesus …

The Gospel According to Matthew 9:9–17 includes this verse: “And when he heard, he said, ‘The strong do not have need of a healer, but the ones who are ill.’” This passage is interesting largely because of the double meaning contained by the Greek word I translated as ill. The …

The idea of looking and beholding is common in Scripture. We frequently encounter the English word “behold” as a translation of the Greek ἰδοὺ (idou). It’s a singular imperative form of a word that means “see,” so this phrase literally means something like “look.” This word “behold” is used in …