The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew10:40–42

The Reward of Service

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Matthew 10:40–42 — The Reward of Service. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

40

He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ho dechomenos hymas dechetai eme kai ho dechomenos eme dechetai ton aposteilanta me

Word by word13 · parsed
ὉHoHe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δεχόμενοςdechomenosreceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
dechomai: to receive, welcome, take to oneself The Berean interlinear parses it present participle middle or passive; the middle sense is the live one, to take a person to yourself. The same verb governs the whole unit (words 1, 3, 7, 9 here, then twice in v. 41), and it recurs in the parallel logion at Luke 9:48, where the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme. Poole is careful that the word is broad: hearing is one branch of it, housing the messenger another, and believing the message a third, and he declines to decide how far this verse reaches.
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
sy: thou, you (plural here) Accusative plural: the twelve just sent out, not a general audience.
δέχεταιdechetaireceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ἐμὲemeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
egō: I, me (emphatic form) The emphatic eme is the hinge of the sentence. JFB reads the logic as ambassadorial: how the envoy is treated is how the sender is treated. Gill adds the rabbinic maxim the Jewish sources supply, that a man's messenger is as himself, and refuses the inference that this makes Christ and the twelve one person.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhohe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δεχόμενοςdechomenosreceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐμὲemeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
δέχεταιdechetaireceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonthe [One who]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀποστείλαντάaposteilantasentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
apostellō: to set apart and send forth Aorist participle: one decisive sending. Ellicott ties it to John 20:21 and Hebrews 3:1, where Christ Himself is named Apostle. The verse thus builds a chain with three links and two of them divine: the Father sends the Son, the Son sends the twelve, and the man at the door who receives the last link has, without knowing it, received the first.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
egō: me (enclitic) Unaccented me, leaning on the participle: the pronoun steps back so that the Sender stands forward.
41

Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho dechomenos prophētēn eis onoma prophētou lēmpsetai prophētou misthon kai ho dechomenos dikaion eis onoma dikaiou lēmpsetai dikaiou misthon

Word by word19 · parsed
ὁhoWhoeverG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δεχόμενοςdechomenosreceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
προφήτηνprophētēna prophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounAccusative Masculine Singular
prophētēs: a foreteller, one who speaks forth for God JFB: "one divinely commissioned to deliver a message from heaven," and he adds that predicting the future is no necessary part of the office in New Testament usage. Gill agrees that the word here means a preacher of the gospel. Pulpit suspects the saying was preserved with the wandering Christian prophets of the 'Didache' in view, and notes that the whole verse is peculiar to Matthew.
εἰςeisbecause he isG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
eis: into, to, toward (of purpose or result) Direction, and therefore intention: the host is moving toward what the name stands for.
ὄνομαonoma. . .G3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
onoma: a name, and so authority or character The unit's controlling word: it governs v. 41 twice and v. 42 once, and the Verifier finds it shared with Mark 9:41 and Revelation 11:18, where the reward is given to God's servants the prophets. Here it does not mean a formula spoken over the act. It means the reason in the giver's mind. Ellicott: the name is invoked "for the sake of that which the name connotes."
προφήτουprophētoua prophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
λήμψεταιlēmpsetaiwill receiveG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
lambanō: to take, to get, to receive Future middle. The tense places the settlement beyond the act; Ellicott says plainly that the reward and the time of its receiving "belong to the future glory of the kingdom." Maclaren, preaching on vv. 41 and 42, will not let that future be made the motive: it is a stimulus to goodness, he argues, and not the reason for it.
προφήτουprophētoua prophet’sG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
μισθὸνmisthonrewardG3408
√ μισθός — pay for service (literally or figuratively), good or badNounAccusative Masculine Singular
misthos: pay for service, good or bad The word is used 28 times in the Greek New Testament and carries no moral colour of its own: Jude 1:11 has the wages of Balaam, Matthew 6:2 the wages of the hypocrite, and 1 Corinthians 3:8 and 3:14 the wages of the builder whose work survives. Gill weighs whether the prophet's reward is paid by the prophet himself, in teaching and prayer, or by God, and answers that it is the same inheritance the prophet receives, "a reward of grace, and not of debt."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhowhoeverG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δεχόμενοςdechomenosreceivesG1209
√ δέχομαι — to receive (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
δίκαιονdikaiona righteous [man]G1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
dikaios: equitable in character or act, righteous A bare adjective used as a noun. The same word will describe those who ask, at Matthew 25:37, when they ever gave the King drink: the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme, and the two passages together make the righteous both the ones received here and the ones surprised there.
εἰςeisbecause he isG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ὄνομαonoma. . .G3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
δικαίουdikaioua righteous [man]G1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
λήμψεταιlēmpsetaiwill receiveG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
δικαίουdikaioua righteous [man’s]G1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
dikaios: righteous (genitive) Genitive of the reward's kind: not payment for righteousness but payment of the righteous sort, the wage that belongs to that class.
μισθὸνmisthonrewardG3408
√ μισθός — pay for service (literally or figuratively), good or badNounAccusative Masculine Singular
42

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hos an potisē monon potērion psychrou hena toutōn tōn mikrōn eis onoma mathētou amēn legō hymin apolesē ou mē autou ton misthon

Word by word23 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὃςhosif anyoneG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
hos an: whoever, anyone at all The relative with the particle an and the subjunctive: an open, indefinite case. No one is excluded by poverty, which is precisely Gill's point.
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ποτίσῃpotisēgivesG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
potizō: to give to drink, to irrigate Aorist subjunctive: one act, once. The same verb stands at Matthew 25:37 in the mouths of the righteous who never noticed giving the King drink; the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme (used in only 15 verses), and the two passages are the same deed seen from the two ends of history.
μόνονmononevenG3440
√ μόνον — merelyAdverb
ποτήριονpotēriona cupG4221
√ ποτήριον — a drinking-vesselNounAccusative Neuter Singular
potērion: a drinking vessel A cup, the cheapest container in a house.
ψυχροῦpsychrouof cold [water]G5593
√ ψυχρός — chilly (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
psychros: chilly, cold Cold water needs no fire, no vessel of value and no cost beyond the walk to the well. Gill cites Maimonides, where refusing a neighbour "a drop of cold water" is the smallest imaginable withholding, which makes the giving of it the smallest imaginable gift.
ἕναhenato oneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
μικρῶνmikrōnlittle onesG3398
√ μικρός — small (in size, quantity, number or (figuratively) dignity)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
mikros: small in size, number or dignity JFB calls it a beautiful epithet and traces it to Zechariah 13:7, reading it of lowliness in spirit and littleness in an undiscerning world's eyes. Cambridge suspects a real gradation, apostles, prophets, saints, young disciples, and wonders whether children were standing by. Pulpit answers from v. 41 that the little one and the disciple are the same person under two names, Christ's word of endearment and the world's ordinary word.
εἰςeisG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ὄνομαonoma[because he is My]G3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
onoma: name, and so character or standing Third and last occurrence of the governing phrase. The whole weight of the verse rests here: the cup of cold water is not rewarded as charity but as confession.
μαθητοῦmathētoudiscipleG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
mathētēs: a learner, disciple Genitive: the cup is given into the name of a disciple, the least title in the unit, lower than prophet and lower than righteous man. Mark's parallel states the same motive as "because ye are Christ's" (JFB).
ἀμὴνamēntrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: firm, truly The interlinear tags this not as Greek but as a Hebrew word, carried over untranslated; the root sense is firm, reliable. In ordinary Jewish usage it closes another man's prayer or oath and ratifies it. Here it opens Jesus' own sentence, so that the speaker is underwriting His own promise rather than endorsing someone else's, and the Verifier finds the same formula standing over the opposite verdict at Matthew 6:2, 6:5 and 6:16, where the wage is paid out in full and nothing remains. The word is the seal on the smallest transaction in the chapter.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἀπολέσῃapolesēhe will never loseG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Strong's distinguishes ou, the absolute negative of fact, from mē (G3361), the negative of will and supposition. Greek piles both in front of the aorist subjunctive apolesē, and the compound οὐ μή is the language's most emphatic denial that something will ever happen: not merely it does not, but it shall not, on any supposition. English "never" carries the sense; it cannot carry the doubling. Note that the promise is guarded by a negative rather than stated positively: Christ does not say what the wage is, only that it cannot be lost.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
μισθὸνmisthonrewardG3408
√ μισθός — pay for service (literally or figuratively), good or badNounAccusative Masculine Singular
misthos: pay for service The unit's last word, and the third repetition of it. 2 John 1:8 warns the opposite way, using both this noun and this verb: that a worker may lose what has been worked for. Here the guarantee runs the other direction, and it covers the smallest wage in the chapter.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The chain of sending — Matthew 10:40

The discourse that has promised floggings, betrayal by brothers and a cross ends, as Ellicott observes, "with words of promise and the assurance of victory." The Greek does it with one repeated participle: δεχόμενος (dechomenos, G1209), four times in thirteen words, welcoming and receiving at once. JFB reads the logic diplomatically, that an ambassador's treatment expresses how the sender is viewed. Gill supplies the Jewish maxim the saying leans on, that a man's messenger is as himself, cites the rabbinic reading of Exodus 23:22 in the same sense, and then refuses the polemical inference drawn by R. Isaac that Christ and the twelve are therefore one person. Pulpit adds Bengel's sharpening, that the host does not merely do as much as if he received Christ but receives Him, and Tertullian's saying, quoted by Ford, that to see the brother is to see the Lord. The grammar supports them: the final title is the aorist participle ἀποστείλαντά (aposteilanta, G649), the root of apostolos. The Father sends the Son, the Son sends the twelve, and the chain is one length of rope, not three.

ii. Two names and the motive inside them — Matthew 10:41

The verse is Matthew's alone; Pulpit notes that it "recalls Jewish Christianity" and was hardly likely to be remembered outside those circles. Everything turns on εἰς ὄνομα (eis onoma), and the commentators agree on the force while differing on the idiom. Barnes: "To receive in the 'name' of a prophet is to receive 'as' a prophet." Cambridge: for the sake of, out of regard to the prophet's character. Pulpit weighs whether the phrase is a worn Semitic preposition or keeps its full sense, decides for the latter, and concludes that "not the action, but the motive for the action, is made all-important. It is a matter of faith, not of works." Gill spells out the negative: not because he is kin, not because he is agreeable, not because he is learned or eloquent, but because he is a faithful minister of the gospel. JFB finds the promise's sweetest edge in the second half, that a man cannot sympathise with righteousness unless "he must himself have the seed of righteousness." Poole alone presses the awkward case, and answers it: if the giver was sincere, the reward stands "though the pretended prophet so entertained prove but an impostor."

iii. Down to a cup of cold — Matthew 10:42

JFB names the shape exactly: "There is here a descending climax," prophet, righteous man, little one. Gill traces the same descent, down to those with the least measure of grace, poorest in the world's eyes and least in their own. Maclaren, preaching on vv. 41 and 42, asks whether the scale descends at all, or whether the little one is where the kingdom's greatness actually lies. Meanwhile the gift shrinks faster than the recipient: μόνον ποτήριον ψυχροῦ, merely a cup of cold, with no noun for water in the Greek at all. Gill's citation of Maimonides shows a drop of cold water functioning in Jewish law as the smallest thing one man can refuse another. Barnes puts the knife in: almost anyone would give it to a thirsty man, but "not all people would give it to such a one 'because he was a Christian.'" And then the sentence is locked: amēn, a Hebrew word left untranslated in the Greek, followed by οὐ μὴ with the aorist subjunctive, the strongest denial the language can make. Pulpit points to a Western variant that makes the reward itself the subject that shall not perish, and to Hebrews 6:10 behind the whole promise.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This reading is the machine's own and is offered to be tested. Read the three verses backwards and the unit is not about hospitality at all: it is about how Christ's presence travels. The chapter has just told twelve men they will be handed over, flogged and hated. Verse 40 answers the obvious fear, that nobody will take them in, by telling them what a doorway actually is: the man who opens it has laid hold of the Son, and through the Son of the Father, whether or not he knows the theology of what he has done. Verse 41 then removes the qualification anyone would expect next. Reward is not attached to office, since the host is neither prophet nor righteous man; it is attached to eis onoma, to what the giver saw when he looked. Pulpit calls this faith rather than works, and the grammar backs him, because the one variable in both clauses is the motive, not the deed. Verse 42 removes the last excuse, poverty, by naming a gift that costs nothing: cold water, no fire, no vessel worth anything, drawn for the smallest person present. The unit therefore closes the discourse by making the kingdom impossible to be shut out of and impossible to be bought into. No one is too poor to give the cup; no one can give it for the wrong reason and still be paid. What is under-said in most preaching is the direction of the chain: the reception is counted upward, from a cup in a village house to the Father who sent the Son. The smallest true act is not made big by its result. It is already large, because of whose name was in the giver's mind when he did it. (The pull quote printed beside this reading is the tool's own sentence, not a verse of Scripture.)

The cup is small; the Name it is given into is not, and the wage is reckoned by the Name.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Mark's cup of water: the same saying, the shorter form verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 9:41 carries the cup-of-water promise in a tighter form, giving the motive as "because ye are Christ's" where Matthew has εἰς ὄνομα μαθητοῦ, and closing with the same assurance about the μισθός. Pulpit states the relation plainly, that Matthew adds in v. 42 "other words also spoken later (Mark 9:41)"; JFB cross-refers to Mark for the sense of the motive clause. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes.

Mark 9:41

basis: Verifier: shared G3408 μισθός (in 28 vv, twice) and G3686 ὄνομα (in 214 vv); both refs are New Testament Greek, and the two verses are the same logion in near-identical wording, with Matthew's dependence recorded by Pulpit

"Receives the One who sent me": the saying in Luke and John verbal / quotation: confirmed

The closing clause of Matthew 10:40 stands almost word for word at Luke 9:48, where receiving a child in Christ's name is receiving Him, and receiving Him is receiving the One who sent Him. Pulpit names the parallels directly (Luke 10:16, Matthew 18:5, Mark 9:37, Luke 9:48) and holds that the evangelist has moulded the saying into its later form. Poole adds John 13:20, where the same two clauses appear under a double amēn, and Luke 10:16, where the negative half is preserved: he that despises you despises Me.

Luke 9:48 · John 13:20

basis: Verifier: shared G1209 δέχομαι (in 45 vv, twice) and G649 ἀποστέλλω (in 130 vv) with Luke 9:48, where the clause stands in the same words; all refs are New Testament Greek. John 13:20 is not a Verifier-computed pair; it is included on Poole's recorded citation and the tier rests on Luke 9:48

Cold: the only other place the word appears verbal / quotation: confirmed

ψυχρός (psychros, G5593) occurs in only three verses of the Greek New Testament: here, and twice in the letter to Laodicea (Revelation 3:15, 3:16), where the risen Christ wishes the church were cold or hot and finds it neither. The contrast is not manufactured by us; it falls out of the lexicon. In Matthew, cold is what the poorest disciple can give and cannot lose. In Revelation, cold is what a rich church cannot manage to be. ⚙ The machine notes the irony and claims nothing about literary dependence: this is lexical, not a quotation.

Revelation 3:15 · Revelation 3:16

basis: Verifier: shared G5593 ψυχρός, a rare lexeme occurring in only 3 verses in all (Matthew 10:42, Revelation 3:15, Revelation 3:16); both refs are New Testament Greek. The link is verbal at the level of a rare word, not a citation of one text by the other

The cup again, at the judgment structural / thematic: confirmed

At Matthew 25:37 the δίκαιοι, the righteous, ask the King when they ever gave Him drink (ποτίζω), and the verb and the adjective are both shared with this unit. Ellicott makes the connection himself, saying that the language of Matthew 25:40 justifies extending the cup of cold water to every act of kindness done in the name of the humanity Christ shares with those He is not ashamed to call brethren (Hebrews 2:11). The two passages are the same deed from opposite ends: here the promise is made, there the accounting is held, and the givers have forgotten what they did.

Matthew 25:37

basis: Verifier: shared G4222 ποτίζω (in 15 vv, a narrow distribution) and G1342 δίκαιος (in 74 vv); both refs are New Testament Greek and both stand in Matthew, so the repetition is the same author's. Deliberately not tiered verbal: neither verse quotes the other and this is the same evangelist reusing ordinary vocabulary, so the recorded basis is a shared motif with real lexical overlap

Two kinds of wage: Matthew 6 against Matthew 10 structural / thematic: confirmed

The noun μισθός is the same in both places, and the verdicts are opposite. At Matthew 6:2, 6:5 and 6:16 the hypocrites who give, pray and fast to be seen have their wage in full, introduced by the same amēn formula that guarantees this unit's promise. At Matthew 5:12 (with Luke 6:23) the persecuted are told their wage is great in heaven, and the prophets are named in the same breath, as they are here. The difference in every case is the one thing v. 41 makes decisive: what was in view when the act was done.

Matthew 6:2 · Matthew 6:5 · Matthew 6:16 · Matthew 5:12 · Luke 6:23

basis: Verifier: shared G3408 μισθός (in 28 vv) and G281 ἀμήν (in 104 vv) with Matthew 6:2, 6:5, 6:16; shared G3408 μισθός and G4396 προφήτης (in 138 vv) with Matthew 5:12 and Luke 6:23. All refs are New Testament Greek. No verse quotes another, and μισθός at 28 verses is not rare enough to carry a verbal tier, so the link is recorded as a shared motif of reward with real lexical overlap

A reward that can be lost structural / thematic: confirmed

2 John 1:8 uses both of this unit's closing words, μισθός and ἀπόλλυμι, and turns them into a warning: look to yourselves, that you do not lose what has been worked for, but receive a full wage. Jude 1:11 pairs the same two lexemes around the wage of Balaam. Matthew 10:42 stands between them as the guarantee: ou mē apolesē, he shall by no means lose it. ⚙ The machine records the collocation and does not claim either writer is citing Matthew.

2 John 1:8 · Jude 1:11

basis: Verifier: shared G3408 μισθός (in 28 vv, twice) and G622 ἀπόλλυμι (in 84 vv) in both pairs; all refs are New Testament Greek. Neither lexeme is rare enough alone for a verbal tier and no citation is claimed; the recorded basis is the shared collocation of losing or keeping a wage

Receiving a prophet as a prophet: Zarephath and Shunem structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit grounds v. 41 in the older pattern: "Thus the widow of Sarepta shared in the blessing given to Elijah (1 Kings 17:10; cf. also 2 Kings 4:8, sqq.)," and JFB, glossing "in the name of a prophet," points the reader to the Shunammite's words in 2 Kings 4:9-10, that the man who passes by continually is a holy man of God, therefore let a room be built for him. In both narratives the host is not a prophet, receives one knowingly as one, and is drawn into the prophet's own portion. ⚙ The machine notes that this is the clearest Old Testament shape of the promise, and that the New Testament text does not cite either story.

1 Kings 17:10 · 2 Kings 4:8

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier may be claimed; the Verifier computed no pair here. The recorded basis is the shared narrative pattern of a non-prophet host receiving a prophet as a prophet and sharing his portion, confirmed as the traditional reading by Pulpit (1 Kings 17:10; 2 Kings 4:8ff) and JFB (2 Kings 4:9-10)

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Sent One who sends ancient/widely-held

The verse's last word about the Father is a participle, τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με, the One having sent Me. Ellicott makes the movement explicit: "As Christ was sent by the Father (John 20:21; comp. Hebrews 3:1), so were they His apostles and representatives." Hebrews 3:1 gives Christ the title itself, Apostle of our confession, and John 20:21 gives the sending forward in the same terms: as the Father has sent Me, so send I you. Cambridge draws the further consequence, that whoever welcomes the apostles listens to the voice of Jesus Christ and of the Father, who "will make their abode with him" (John 14:23). JFB puts the authority in Christ's own mouth: "Your authority is Mine, as Mine is My Father's." The unit therefore does not merely commend hospitality. It makes the missionary church the place where the incarnate Sent One keeps arriving, and it makes the door of a house a place where the Trinity is met or refused.

John 20:21 · Hebrews 3:1 · John 14:23

The least of these, and the King who was thirsty ancient/widely-held

Ellicott takes the cup of cold water past its first horizon: the words by themselves reach only the humblest disciple received as such, but "the language of Matthew 25:40 justifies their extension to every act of kindness done to any man in the name of that humanity which He shares with those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren (Hebrews 2:11)." Gill says the same from the other side, that Christ "takes what is done to the least of his brethren, as done to himself." The Verifier confirms that ποτίζω and δίκαιος are shared between this verse and Matthew 25:37. What the little ones receive in a village house, the King receives on the throne, and the identification is not a metaphor the church invented but the saying's own logic already at work in v. 40.

Matthew 25:37 · Hebrews 2:11

⚙ Cold water and the closed door of Laodicea novel

⚙ This reading is the machine's own and is marked novel. The rare adjective ψυχρός ties the poorest disciple's cup to the one church in Revelation that Christ threatens to spit out, the church that is neither cold nor hot and believes it needs nothing (Revelation 3:15-16). Matthew 10:42 sets the whole weight of heaven on a gift so small it can be drawn from a well; Revelation 3 shows a wealthy congregation unable to produce even that temperature. In Matthew the Lord arrives at the door in the person of a disciple and asks to be received; at the end of the Laodicean letter He is still outside a door, still asking. ⚙ No commentator in this brief draws this line, and the New Testament nowhere connects the two passages: the basis is the rare shared word and the recurring image of a door, and nothing more is claimed.

Revelation 3:15 · Revelation 3:16

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; all parsing, glosses and lexeme frequencies above come from that apparatus. Two ordering cautions. At Matthew 10:42 the interlinear prints the verb ἀπολέσῃ before the negatives οὐ μή and the possessive before the article, to align with English word order; the Greek reads the negatives first (ou mē apolesē ton misthon autou), and the literal line above follows the Greek. At 10:40 the same alignment affects the placement of ἐμὲ and δέχεται; the sense is unaffected. Supplied words: "water" at ψυχροῦ and "man" at δίκαιον, δικαίου are English additions with no counterpart in the Greek.

Sources: Poole's notes on vv. 40 and 41 are only cross-references ("See Poole on Matthew 10:42"), so his one substantive comment stands under v. 42 and is quoted there. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary treats 10:16-42 as a single block, so the quotation used is a comment on the discourse, not on v. 40 alone. Maclaren's exposition and the Henry, Barnes and Poole entries are capped in the brief; excerpts are taken from the portions supplied. Pulpit's citations of Bengel, Tertullian, Melvill, Resch and the Mishna, and Gill's citations of Shemot Rabbah, the Talmud, Maimonides and R. Isaac, are reproduced as those commentators give them and have not been independently checked here.

Uncertain: (1) what "a prophet's reward" denotes. Poole lists three readings and calls the question variously guessed; Gill allows two; we have not decided between them. (2) Whether "these little ones" means the twelve, ordinary believers, children physically present, or young converts. Barnes and Pulpit say disciples, Cambridge raises the possibility of children standing by, and the brief gives no evidence that settles it. (3) The reading at the end of v. 42: Pulpit reports a Western variant making the reward itself the subject that shall not perish, and raises an underlying Aramaic that would be ambiguous either way. We have printed the majority sense and recorded the variant rather than choosing. (4) The 1 Kings and 2 Kings thread has no computed lexical basis, since no Strong's number can be shared across Greek and Hebrew; it rests on Pulpit's and JFB's citations and on the shared narrative pattern, and is tiered accordingly.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)