The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew11:25–30

Rest for the Weary

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

Matthew 11:25–30 — Rest for the Weary. 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.

25

At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

En ekeinō tō kairō ho Iēsous apokritheis eipen Exomologoumai soi Pater Kyrie tou ouranou kai tēs gēs hoti ekrypsas tauta apo sophōn kai synetōn kai apekalypsas auta nēpiois

Word by word28 · parsed
ἘνEnAtG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείνῳekeinōthatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Masculine Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
καιρῷkairōtimeG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounDative Masculine Singular
kairos: an occasion, a season Not chronos (clock-time) but the appointed juncture. The Pulpit Commentary notes that Luke's parallel is more precise (“in that very hour,” ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ) while “St. Matthew's refers rather to that stage or period in his ministry.” Matthew is marking a moment in the plot of the kingdom, not a timestamp.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisvvvG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, to answer Aorist passive participle. The commentators divide here and the division is worth keeping: Ellicott, Cambridge, Poole and Gill read it as a Semitic formula for opening speech; JFB reads it as a real answer to the unbelief of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Both readings are available in the grammar; neither can be proved from it.
εἶπενeipendeclaredG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἘξομολογοῦμαίExomologoumaiI praiseG1843
√ ἐξομολογέω — to acknowledge or (by implication, of assent) agree fullyVerbPresent Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
exomologeō: to acknowledge, to agree fully The verb that governs the whole prayer, and a relatively uncommon one (10 verses). Present tense, middle voice: Jesus is not reporting a past gratitude but performing an ongoing, public act of assent. The Pulpit Commentary traces its Septuagint and apostolic range across assent (Luke 22:6), confession (Matthew 3:6) and acknowledgment (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:11), and lands on “I profess to thee my entire and joyful acquiescence in what thou doest.”
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
ΠάτερPaterFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounVocative Masculine Singular
patēr: father Vocative. The Pulpit Commentary observes that “Father” stands in all our Lord's recorded prayers except Matthew 27:46, which is itself a quotation. The address is not decoration; it is the relation from which everything in verse 27 will be deduced.
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority The second vocative sets sovereign majesty beside intimate relation in one breath. Gill: “He mentions this to show the sovereignty of his Father, in the conversion of men; and that it was not for want of power in him.” Poole draws the same inference: “he acknowledgeth his absolute power to have done otherwise, even as it pleased him.” Matthew Henry hears both notes at once, reverence and confidence.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
οὐρανοῦouranouof heavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γῆςgēsearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ὅτιhotibecauseG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
hoti: that, because The hinge. Cambridge and Ellicott both supply the elided main clause in verse 26 as “[I thank thee] that,” which makes this hoti the content of the confession, not merely its cause.
ἔκρυψαςekrypsasYou have hiddenG2928
√ κρύπτω — to conceal (properly, by covering)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
kryptō: to conceal, properly by covering Aorist active. The verb of covering over, set here as the exact antonym of apokalyptō (to take the cover off) nine words later. Poole insists the hiding is not the withholding of preaching but of the inward work: “nor can it be understood of a mere external revelation by the preaching of the gospel, but of an internal revelation by his Spirit,” citing 1 Corinthians 2:10 and 2 Corinthians 4:3.
ταῦταtautathese thingsG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
σοφῶνsophōn[the] wiseG4680
√ σοφός — wise (in a most general application)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
sophos: wise in a general application Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill and Cambridge agree the referents are the scribes and Pharisees; Barnes adds the decisive qualifier, those “who ‘thought’ themselves wise.” JFB distinguishes the pair: sophoi are “the men who pride themselves upon their speculative or philosophical attainments.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνετῶνsynetōnlearnedG4908
√ συνετός — mentally put (or putting) together, iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
synetos: mentally putting together A rare word (4 verses in the New Testament). Cambridge corrects the old English rendering: “prudent ] Rather, intelligent, acute.” JFB reads it of “the men of worldly shrewdness, the clever, the sharp-witted, the men of affairs.” Ellicott notes that the same pair, sophos and synetos, is joined at 1 Corinthians 1:19, where Paul is himself quoting Isaiah 29:14 against the wise. The rarity of the lexeme is what makes that link more than thematic.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπεκάλυψαςapekalypsasrevealedG601
√ ἀποκαλύπτω — to take off the cover, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
apokalyptō: to take off the cover The mirror of ekrypsas: one verb covers, one uncovers, and the same 2nd person singular subject does both. This is the verb that will govern verse 27 as well (apokalypsai), where the Son takes over the uncovering. Nothing in the unit describes revelation as discovery; it is always something done to a covered thing by a person who chooses.
αὐτὰautathemG846
√ 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 PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
νηπίοιςnēpioisto little childrenG3516
√ νήπιος — not speaking, iAdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
nēpios: not speaking, an infant Barnes: “To the poor, the ignorant, and the obscure; the teachable, the simple, the humble.” JFB glosses “babe-like men; men of unassuming docility.” The dative is one of advantage: the uncovering is done for them. Note that the contrast is not intelligence against stupidity but self-assessment against receptivity, which is why Benson can say babes are those “only wise to God-ward.”
26

Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

nai ho Patēr hoti houtōs egeneto eudokia emprosthen sou

Word by word9 · parsed
ναίnaiYesG3483
√ ναί — yesParticle
nai: yes A function word carrying the entire weight of the verse: the Son ratifies the Father's arrangement rather than explaining it.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Singular
ΠατήρPatērFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounNominative Masculine Singular
patēr: father The second address in two verses. Geneva's gloss on this repetition is the whole doctrine in one line: “This word shows that he contents himself in his Father's council.”
ὅτιhotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
οὕτωςhoutōsthisG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
ἐγένετοegenetowasG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to cause to be, to become Aorist middle. Gill takes the referent to be “the sovereign counsel and purpose of God,” not a passing divine mood. Geneva's second gloss states the premise on which that rests: “God's will is the only rule of righteousness.” Barnes reaches the same floor by a different road, through the exhaustion of every other explanation: “Our philosophy fails, and all that we can say is, ‘Even so, Father.’”
εὐδοκίαeudokiawell-pleasingG2107
√ εὐδοκία — satisfaction, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
eudokia: satisfaction, good pleasure The theological centre of the unit's first movement. JFB reads the verse as “just a sublime echo of the foregoing words,” with the glory of it lying “not so much in the light of its own reasonableness as of God's absolute will that so it should be.” Gill lists and rejects three alternative causes in turn: natural sagacity, worthiness in the receivers, and foreseen improvement of the revelation.
ἔμπροσθένemprosthenin Your sightG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
emprosthen: in front of Preposition; light in itself, but its spatial force keeps the good pleasure objective and visible rather than hidden in the divine mind.
σουsou. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
27

All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Panta paredothē moi hypo mou tou Patros kai oudeis epiginōskei ton Huion ei mē ho Patēr oude tis epiginōskei ton Patera ei mē ho Huios kai hō ean ho Huios boulētai apokalypsai

Word by word32 · parsed
ΠάνταPantaAll thingsG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
pas: all, every, the whole Neuter plural, standing first for emphasis. Ellicott holds the context limits it “specially to the mysteries of the kingdom implied in the word ‘reveal,’” while noting the wider sense surfaces at Matthew 28:18. Barnes and JFB read it of the whole administration of the kingdom of grace, which of necessity includes unlimited power. Ellicott adds a striking note: in both passages “we may trace a formal denial of the claim of the Tempter” who offered what was not his to give (Luke 4:6).
παρεδόθηparedothēhave been entrustedG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
paradidōmi: to surrender, to hand over Aorist passive, with the agent named (hypo tou Patros). Poole marshals John 3:35, Matthew 28:18, John 17:2, Psalm 62:11 and Revelation 1:18 to the same point: God is the fountain of power, and this power is committed to Christ as Mediator. Gill enumerates what is handed over: angels, spirits, the elect, the little ones of verse 25, and the treasures of wisdom. The passive voice is the guard rail: the Son's universal authority is received, never seized.
μοιmoito MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
ὑπὸhypobyG5259
√ ὑπό — under, iPreposition
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΠατρόςPatrosFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐδεὶςoudeisNo oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιγινώσκειepiginōskeiknowsG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epiginōskō: to know upon a mark, to recognise fully Present tense, twice repeated, framing the two halves of the mutual exclusion. Barnes presses the argument from the grammar: “If he had been only a mere man, this language surely would not have been used of him.” JFB states the dilemma the verse forces: “Either, then, we have here one of the revolting assumptions ever uttered, or the proper divinity of Christ should to Christians be beyond dispute.”
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸνHuionSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounAccusative Masculine Singular
huios: a son Articular and absolute, “the Son,” with no qualifier. Benson: “No one knoweth the mystery of his person, his character, and dignity.” Poole narrows it further, to “his Divine essence, his eternal generation.”
εἰeiexceptG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠατήρPatērFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounNominative Masculine Singular
οὐδὲoude[and]G3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iConjunction
τιςtis[no one]G5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιγινώσκειepiginōskeiknowsG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΠατέραPateraFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
patēr: a father Accusative now, the object of knowing rather than the subject of giving. Benson draws the hard edge: worship that rejects the Son is “in fact rendered to an imaginary deity.” Ellicott puts the same point positively, that Jews and Gentiles had partial glimpses of Fatherhood which are completed only in Christ.
εἰeiexceptG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ᾧhōthose to whomG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Masculine Singular
ἐὰνean. . .G1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
βούληταιboulētaichoosesG1014
√ βούλομαι — to "will," iVerbPresent Subjunctive Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
boulomai: to will, to purpose Present subjunctive middle in an indefinite relative clause. This is the verse's narrow gate and its open door at once. JFB refuses to let it terrify: this testimony to sovereign will is “designed but to reveal the source and enhance the glory of it when once imparted,” and, in his own words, “not to paralyze or shut the soul up in despair.” He then points forward: “Hear, accordingly, what follows.” Verse 28 is the answer to the anxiety verse 27 creates.
ἀποκαλύψαιapokalypsaito reveal [Him]G601
√ ἀποκαλύπτω — to take off the cover, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
apokalyptō: to take off the cover Aorist infinitive. Gill specifies the mode: the Son reveals “by his Spirit; who is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” The Pulpit Commentary notes the Johannine register of this whole verse, so unlike verses 25 and 26 in style that it suspects a distinct source behind it.
28

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Deute pros me pantes hoi kopiōntes kai pephortismenoi kagō hymas anapausō

Word by word11 · parsed
ΔεῦτεDeuteComeG1205
√ δεῦτε — come hither!VerbImperative2nd Person Plural
deute: come hither! The unit's first imperative, and the turn from the doctrine of verse 27 to its door. Poole hears an echo of Isaiah 55:1 in the very word “Come,” and takes coming to mean believing on the strength of John 6:44 to 46 and Hebrews 11:6. Gill rules out three false readings in a row: it is not local coming, nor coming to hear him preach, nor submission to ordinances, but “the going of the soul to him, in the exercise of grace on him.”
πρόςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
πάντεςpantesallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveVocative Masculine Plural
pas: all, every Vocative plural. The width of this word is the thing Cambridge and Gill both qualify from opposite directions, and their disagreement should be left standing rather than resolved: Cambridge says Jesus gives rest not to all the heavy laden but to those who come; Gill says the invited are “not ‘all’ the individuals of mankind, but with a restriction.” Matthew Henry, by contrast, holds “In some senses all men are so,” and calls it “the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come.”
οἱhoiyou whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
κοπιῶντεςkopiōntesare wearyG2872
√ κοπιάω — to feel fatigueVerbPresent Participle ActiveVocative Masculine Plural
kopiaō: to feel fatigue Present participle, active. Henry catalogues the kinds of toil the word reaches: worldly men labouring after wealth and honours, the sensual after pleasure, and, most pointedly, “those who labour to establish their own righteousness.” The Pulpit Commentary observes that “our Lord purposely did not define in what the toil and burden consisted; for he would include all.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πεφορτισμένοιpephortismenoiburdenedG5412
√ φορτίζω — to load up (properly, as a vessel or animal), iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveVocative Masculine Plural
phortizō: to load up, as a vessel or animal Perfect passive participle, and one of the rarest verbs in the Greek New Testament (2 verses). The perfect describes a standing state, not an episode. Ellicott identifies the load most prominent at the time as “the yoke of traditions and ordinances which the Pharisees and scribes had imposed,” pointing to Matthew 23:4 and Acts 15:10; Barnes reads it chiefly of “the man ‘burdened’ with a consciousness of his transgressions.” The grammar holds both: someone else did the loading.
κἀγὼkagōand IG2504
√ κἀγώ — so also the dative case , and accusative case and (or also, even, etcPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Singular
kagō: and I Crasis, emphatic. The whole weight of verse 27 lands on this pronoun: the one to whom all things were handed over is the one who now says “I Myself.”
ὑμᾶςhymasvvvG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
ἀναπαύσωanapausōwill give you restG373
√ ἀναπαύω — (reflexively) to repose (literally or figuratively (be exempt), remain)VerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
anapauō: to repose, to refresh Future active. Note what the tense does not say: rest is promised, not yet possessed, and it is promised on Christ's own word rather than on any condition in the comer beyond coming. The Pulpit Commentary resists the sentimental reading: “the thought, therefore, here is not that those who come to Christ will have no more work,” but that He refreshes them for it. Gill divides the gift in two, spiritual rest here and eternal rest hereafter.
29

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

arate mou ton zygon eph’ hymas kai mathete ap’ emou hoti eimi praus kai tapeinos tē kardia kai heurēsete anapausin tais hymōn psychais

Word by word23 · parsed
ἄρατεarateTakeG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
airō: to lift up Aorist imperative. The paradox of the unit is set by this one verb: rest is offered to the loaded in verse 28, and the first thing asked of them in verse 29 is to lift something. Poole faces it squarely: the rest “is not to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth, Take my yoke upon you.”
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ζυγόνzygonyokeG2218
√ ζυγός — a coupling, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
zygos: a coupling, a yoke The unit's controlling image and a rare noun (6 verses in the New Testament), used elsewhere of slavery (1 Timothy 6:1) and of the law that Paul refuses to re-impose (Galatians 5:1). The Pulpit Commentary distinguishes yoke from teaching: “the yoke is the service that Christ gives us to do, and therefore implies more than his teaching.” Gill calls it Christ's yoke “in distinction from the yoke of the law of Moses, and of the traditions of the elders.” Henry's line is the best summary of the paradox the word creates: “It is a yoke that is lined with love.”
ἐφ’eph’uponG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μάθετεmathetelearnG3129
√ μανθάνω — to learn (in any way)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
manthanō: to learn in any way Aorist imperative, the disciple-making verb. The Pulpit Commentary gives the reason the imperative is exclusive: “He alone was what he claimed to teach, therefore he alone could teach it properly.” Gill sets the same point against the rabbis by name: the Jewish saying was “be meek as Hillell,” but “our Lord says, ‘learn of me,’ not of Hillell, or any of your doctors.”
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἐμοῦemouMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὅτιhotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
εἰμιeimiI amG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
πραΰςprausgentleG4239
√ πραΰς — mild, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
praus: mild, gentle A rare adjective, and here a self-description, which is the difficulty. Maclaren names it without flinching: “Did ever anybody before say, ‘I am humble,’ without provoking the comment, ‘He that says he is humble proves that he is not’?” Ellicott answers that Christ “could boldly incur the risk of seeming to boast of His humility, in order that He might win men.” The Pulpit Commentary reads praus primarily Godward, receiving whatever yoke the Father lays on.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ταπεινὸςtapeinoshumbleG5011
√ ταπεινός — depressed, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
tapeinos: depressed, lowly The Pulpit Commentary reads this one manward, and observes that “meek and lowly” correspond, in reversed order, to “he humbled himself and became obedient” at Philippians 2:8, where the verb is not that of the incarnation but of his relation to others in this world. Cambridge compares “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” at 2 Corinthians 10:1.
τῇtē[in]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
καρδίᾳkardiaheartG2588
√ καρδία — the heart, iNounDative Feminine Singular
kardia: the heart Dative of sphere. Ellicott insists the stress falls here: “Others might be lowly with the lowliness which is ambition's ladder, but pride and self-assertion were reigning in their hearts.” The qualifier is what makes the claim testable and what makes it unrepeatable by anyone else.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὑρήσετεheurēseteyou will findG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
heuriskō: to find Future active, 2nd person plural, and the change of subject matters: in verse 28 He rests them; here they find. The Pulpit Commentary makes the distinction load-bearing and warns against collapsing it: “The first rest may be termed the peace of justification; the second, that of sanctification. Both are obtained through Christ alone, yet they are not to be confused.”
ἀνάπαυσινanapausinrestG372
√ ἀνάπαυσις — intermissionNounAccusative Feminine Singular
anapausis: intermission, rest A rare noun (5 verses). Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary all identify the clause as coming from Jeremiah 6:16, where rest is promised to those who ask for the old paths and walk in them. The Pulpit Commentary adds the text-critical caution that the wording is “not the LXX.”, which matters for how the echo is classified.
ταῖςtais[for]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ψυχαῖςpsychaissoulsG5590
√ ψυχή — breath, iNounDative Feminine Plural
psychē: breath, soul Cambridge marks the limit of the promise precisely: “Not relief from external bodily toil.” Benson renders the whole clause “Ye shall find refreshment to your souls, such as you would in vain seek elsewhere.”
30

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar mou ho zygos chrēstos kai mou to phortion estin elaphron

Word by word11 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
gar: for, assigning a reason A function word carrying the argument: verse 30 is the ground of the promise in verse 29, not an addendum to it.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ζυγόςzygosyokeG2218
√ ζυγός — a coupling, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
zygos: a coupling, a yoke The noun is repeated from verse 29, tying the two verses into one saying. Poole gives five reasons why the yoke can be called easy while the way remains narrow (Matthew 7:13 to 14), of which the fourth is the weightiest: “we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God,” citing Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:25 to 26.
χρηστὸςchrēstosis easyG5543
√ χρηστός — employed, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
chrēstos: useful, kind, good The theological pivot of the verse. The Pulpit Commentary notes that the same adjective is used of God's judgments at Psalm 119:39, so the word is not a concession to human weakness but a description of divine quality. Gill guards the claim from abuse: the commandments “are not grievous, hard and heavy to be borne, as their's were, but easy and light: not that they are so to unregenerate men, or are easily performed by the strength of nature.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
φορτίονphortionburdenG5413
√ φορτίον — an invoice (as part of freight), iNounNominative Neuter Singular
phortion: an invoice, freight Cognate with the perfect participle of verse 28. Gill weighs it against three other loads in turn: the law of Moses, which “required perfect obedience, but gave no strength to perform”; the ceremonial rites; and “the bulky and heavy traditions of the elders.”
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐλαφρόνelaphronlightG1645
√ ἐλαφρός — light, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
elaphros: light in weight A rare adjective (2 verses). JFB calls the whole verse a “matchless paradox,” and the paradox is grammatical as much as spiritual: a phortion is by definition freight, and freight is by definition weight. The Pulpit Commentary lets 1 John 5:3 answer, “his commandments are not grievous,” and cites Augustine to the effect that all things are light to love. Henry reaches the same conclusion from the other end: “forced obedience, far from being easy and light, is a heavy burden.”

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 prayer that answers nobody — 11:25-26

The unit opens on a grammatical oddity that the English cannot show: ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis, G611), an aorist passive participle, “having been answered,” when nobody has spoken. Ellicott treats it as “more or less a Hebraism, implying that the words rose out of some unrecorded occasion”; Cambridge reduces it to a formula, “A Hebraism=‘spake and said’”; Gill sends the reader to Job 3:2 for the same idiom. JFB alone refuses the easy road and argues that the reply is to the silence of Chorazin and Bethsaida in the preceding verses, paraphrasing: “Yes; but there is a brighter side to the picture.” ⚙ We cannot decide between them from the parse, and we do not try.

What the parse does decide is the verb of the prayer. Ἐξομολογοῦμαί (exomologoumai, G1843) is present middle, “I confess out,” and two independent sources reach the same correction: the Pulpit Commentary, “There is no thought of gratitude, but of publicity in assent,” and JFB, “rather, ‘I assent to thee.’ But this is not strong enough.” Benson, working from the word's three Septuagint senses, prefers “adore or celebrate.” Ellicott holds the middle ground, “acknowledge with praise and thanksgiving.” ⚙ The convergence of Pulpit and JFB on the note of assent, arrived at by different routes, is the strongest single fact in this movement: Jesus is not thanking the Father for an outcome, He is publicly countersigning a policy.

The policy is stated in two aorists with one subject: ἔκρυψας (You hid) and ἀπεκάλυψας (You uncovered). Benson softens the first into permission, “thou hast suffered these things to be hid”; Poole and Gill refuse the softening and rest the whole on sovereign pleasure, Poole adding that the hiding cannot be merely the withholding of preaching but “an internal revelation by his Spirit,” on the strength of 1 Corinthians 2:10 and 2 Corinthians 4:3. Verse 26 then names the only cause offered: εὐδοκία (eudokia, G2107), a noun, not a mood. Geneva's two-word gloss is the sharpest statement of the position, “God's will is the only rule of righteousness,” and Barnes arrives there by exhaustion rather than by system: “Our philosophy fails, and all that we can say is, ‘Even so, Father.’”

ii. The mutual knowledge, and the door left open in it — 11:27

Verse 27 changes register so completely that the Pulpit Commentary suspects a distinct, “apparently Johannine, source” behind it, and Ellicott independently notes that these verses are “the only record outside St. John's Gospel of a prayer like that which we find in John 17.” ⚙ That is a literary observation, and we log it as such, not as a datum about composition.

The verb is παρεδόθη (paredothē, G3860), aorist passive: not “are delivered” but “were delivered,” as Ellicott and Cambridge both insist. The passive is the guard rail. Poole gathers John 3:35, Matthew 28:18, John 17:2, Psalm 62:11 and Revelation 1:18 to show that God is the fountain and Christ the mediatorial holder; Gill itemises the handed-over: angels, unclean spirits, the elect, and “all the babes and little ones, to whom it was the Father's will to reveal the mysteries of grace.” Ellicott adds the detail that makes the verse dramatic: here and at Matthew 28:18 “we may trace a formal denial of the claim of the Tempter,” who had offered the kingdoms as though they were his (Luke 4:6).

Then the double exclusion, built on the compound ἐπιγινώσκει (epiginōskei, G1921), full recognition, not acquaintance. JFB states the consequence without cushioning: “Either, then, we have here one of the revolting assumptions ever uttered, or the proper divinity of Christ should to Christians be beyond dispute.” Barnes argues the same from register, “If he had been only a mere man, this language surely would not have been used of him.” Benson, quoting his source, calls the person of Christ “inexplicably mysterious.” ⚙ And then JFB does the pastoral work the verse requires. He voices the objection he expects (“But, alas for me!”) and answers that this testimony to sovereign will is “designed but to reveal the source and enhance the glory of it when once imparted,” and, in his own words, “not to paralyze or shut the soul up in despair.” He closes with a pointer: “Hear, accordingly, what follows.” The Pulpit Commentary marks the same seam from the other side, noting “the sharp contrast between the width of this invitation and the apparent limitation of the preceding statement,” and refusing to separate prevenient grace from free will. Verse 28 is not a change of subject; it is the exit from verse 27.

ii b. Hither to Me: two participles for two kinds of misery — 11:28

Δεῦτε (Deute, G1205) is “hither!”, an adverb doing an imperative's work, and JFB hears the tone before the doctrine, asking “What gentleness, what sweetness is there in the very style of the invitation.” His own rendering of the word is “Hither to Me.” Benson agrees it “expresses not so much a command, as a friendly request.” The Pulpit Commentary observes that there is “less thought of the process of coming” here than in John 7:37.

The two participles are not synonyms and the grammar proves it. κοπιῶντες is present active: the toiler wears himself out by his own effort. πεφορτισμένοι is perfect passive: loaded by another, and still loaded. Maclaren names the pair exactly, “The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and endurance,” and Ellicott the same, “The first of the two words gives prominence to the active, the latter to the passive, aspect of human suffering.” JFB says that in these two words “the universal wretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sides.” ⚙ The verifiable point underneath the rhetoric is lexical: phortizō (G5412) stands in only two verses in the whole New Testament, and the other is Luke 11:46, where the lawyers are the ones doing the loading. The passive voice here has a documented agent elsewhere in the Gospels.

On who may come, the commentators genuinely disagree and we leave the disagreement standing. Henry: “This is the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come.” Cambridge: “Jesus does not give rest to all the heavy laden, but to those of them who show their want of relief by coming to Him.” Gill: “The persons invited, are not ‘all’ the individuals of mankind, but with a restriction.” Ellicott sees the load as primarily Pharisaic tradition (Matthew 23:4; Acts 15:10), Barnes as the conscience of “the poor, lost, ruined sinner.” The Pulpit Commentary settles the exegetical question by refusing it: “Our Lord purposely did not define in what the toil and burden consisted; for he would include all.”

The promise is ἀναπαύσω, future active, transitive, with you as its object. ⚙ He does not hand over a rest; He rests the person. The Pulpit Commentary blocks the daydream: “the thought, therefore, here is not that those who come to Christ will have no more work,” but that He refreshes them for it, the verb connoting the sabbath pause rather than permanent cessation.

iii. The yoke that is the rest — 11:29-30

The invitation's first imperative to the already-loaded is ἄρατε (arate, G142), “lift.” Poole states the problem without evasion: the rest “is not to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth, Take my yoke upon you.” Gill supplies the setting, documenting the rabbinic idiom from the Talmud and Zohar, and quoting the Mishnaic order: “a man must first take upon him the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and after that take upon him the yoke of the commandment.” Cambridge independently cites Stier for the same formula and adds the antonym, “Men of Belial=‘Men without the yoke,’ ‘the uninstructed.’” The Pulpit Commentary distinguishes the yoke from the teaching, “the yoke is the service that Christ gives us to do, and therefore implies more than his teaching.”

The ground given is a self-description, πραΰς καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, and Maclaren refuses to let it pass unexamined: “Did ever anybody before say, ‘I am humble,’ without provoking the comment, ‘He that says he is humble proves that he is not’?” Ellicott answers that the last three words carry the stress, and that Christ “could boldly incur the risk of seeming to boast of His humility, in order that He might win men.” The Pulpit Commentary parses the pair directionally, praus Godward and tapeinos manward, and hears behind them Philippians 2:8. Gill hears Zechariah 9:9. ⚙ The Verifier supports Gill's ear at the lexical level: praus (G4239) appears in only four verses, and Matthew holds three of them, this one, Matthew 5:5, and Matthew 21:5, the entry of the meek King.

The closing paradox is JFB's word, “Matchless paradox, even among the paradoxically couched maxims in which our Lord delights!” It is built into the vocabulary: a φορτίον is freight, and freight is weight, yet it is ἐλαφρόν, light. And the yoke is χρηστός, which Ellicott ranges as “good, helpful, kind, profitable,” Benson as “gracious, sweet, benign,” the Pulpit Commentary tracing “sweete” in the Rheims and suave in the Latin. Poole offers five reasons the burden is bearable, the fourth being that “we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God” (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:25 to 26). Gill will not let the paradox become a platitude: the commandments “are not grievous, hard and heavy to be borne, as their's were, but easy and light: not that they are so to unregenerate men.” Henry states the converse, which is the test of the whole claim: “forced obedience, far from being easy and light, is a heavy burden.”

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read the six verses as one argument and the shape is a narrowing that opens. Verses 25 and 26 shut every door: the Father hides, the Father uncovers, and the only reason given is that a good pleasure came to be in front of Him. Verse 27 shuts them tighter: the knowing runs in a closed circle between two persons, and entry depends on whether one of them wills. Any honest reader who stops at verse 27 is in JFB's position, sighing for relief and finding the door locked from the inside. Then verse 28 opens it, and it opens outward: Deute, hither.

⚙ What we think the grammar shows, and what the English mostly hides, is that the opening is not a softening of the doctrine but its fruit. The kagō of verse 28 is emphatic: the one who says “I Myself will rest you” is precisely the one to whom, in the aorist passive of verse 27, all things were handed over. He can issue the invitation because of the exclusivity, not in spite of it. And the terms of entry match the terms of the hiding. Verse 25 uncovers to nēpioi, the not-speaking; verse 28 calls the toiling and the loaded; verse 29 asks for learners. In every case the qualification is the absence of a qualification, and the disqualification is self-assessed sufficiency. The sovereignty of verse 26 and the openness of verse 28 are not two doctrines to be balanced but one doctrine seen from the outside and then from the inside.

⚙ The hardest thing in the unit, and we do not think any commentator here fully dissolves it, is that a man carrying a load is told to lift a beam. Poole names it and answers with five reasons; Gill answers with the contrast to Moses and the elders; Henry answers with the observation that forced obedience is heavier than willing obedience. ⚙ Our own reading follows the vocabulary instead. The cargo of verse 28 was loaded onto a man by someone else, in the perfect passive, and he did not choose it. The zygos of verse 29 is a coupling, a beam that joins two to one work, and it is taken up by a decisive act of the will. The change is not from weight to weightlessness. It is from being freight to being yoked, from cargo to team. That is why the same speaker can say “I will rest you” and “lift my yoke” in consecutive breaths without contradiction, and why He grounds the whole of it not in the lightness of the work but in His own character: because I am gentle and lowly in heart. The yoke is bearable because of who is in it. We hold this reading loosely and submit it to Scripture.

The change is not from weight to weightlessness; it is from being cargo to being yoked. (This line is machine synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

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.

The same prayer, prayed at the return of the Seventy verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke records this prayer word for word in a different setting, on the return of the Seventy, with the added note that Jesus “rejoiced in spirit.” The Verifier confirms three shared lexemes, of which συνετός (G4908) stands in only four verses in the whole New Testament and ἐξομολογέω (G1843) in ten. ⚙ The link is not disputed; the occasion is. Ellicott connects the Matthean placement to the return of the Twelve and adds that “the words, however, were probably repeated as analogous occasions called for them.” Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary prefer Luke's setting as the original, the Pulpit judging that “a sense of a moral and not of a temporal connexion guided St. Matthew in his arrangement,” since what is true in a time of success “is equally true in a time of failure.” Poole simply lays the two texts side by side. We record the verbal identity as fact and the occasion as unsettled.

Luke 10:21

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1843 ἐξομολογέω (in 10 vv), G601 ἀποκαλύπτω (in 26 vv), G4908 συνετός (in 4 vv, rare); a Greek to Greek synoptic parallel of the same saying, not an Old Testament citation

Wise and understanding: the pair Paul turns against the wise verbal / quotation: confirmed

Ellicott flags it at the verse: “the union of the same words in 1Corinthians 1:19.” The Verifier confirms both members of the pair, σοφός (G4680) and συνετός (G4908), the latter rare at four verses. ⚙ The force of the link is that Paul is himself quoting Isaiah 29:14 in that verse, so Matthew 11:25 and 1 Corinthians 1:19 stand as two Greek witnesses to one prophetic pattern: God destroying the wisdom of the wise. Barnes reaches the same passage from the other end, glossing “wise” here as “wise according to the world's estimation of wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27,” and Gill locates the referents concretely in “the schools of Hillell and Shammai.” JFB distinguishes the two adjectives, the first of speculative or philosophical pride, the second of worldly shrewdness, and adds that “the distinction is a natural one, and was well understood.”

1 Corinthians 1:19

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4908 συνετός (in 4 vv, rare) and G4680 σοφός (in 19 vv); Ellicott cites the pairing explicitly; both refs are New Testament Greek, so a verbal tier is available

Who does the loading: the rarest verb in the invitation verbal / quotation: confirmed

πεφορτισμένοι in verse 28 is a perfect passive: somebody loaded these people. The verb phortizō (G5412) occurs in only two verses in the New Testament, and the other names the agent: at Luke 11:46 it is the lawyers who lay the load on. ⚙ Two verses, one of them the accusation and one the rescue, is about as tight a verbal tie as the Greek New Testament offers. The cognate noun φορτίον then returns in verse 30 as Christ's own burden, light. The second ref carries a separate rare tie: ἐλαφρός (G1645) stands in only two verses, here and at 2 Corinthians 4:17, where Paul weighs a light affliction against an eternal weight of glory. Ellicott identifies the Pharisaic load as “most prominent” in the invitation; the Pulpit Commentary points to Luke 11:46 by name for the burdened, and to Romans 10:2 and 3 for the toilers.

Luke 11:46 · 2 Corinthians 4:17

basis: Verifier: Luke 11:46 shares G5412 φορτίζω (in 2 vv, rare) and G5413 φορτίον (in 5 vv); 2 Corinthians 4:17 shares G1645 ἐλαφρός (in 2 vv, rare); all refs are New Testament Greek. Verbal link only: no quotation of Matthew is claimed in either passage

The yoke as a term of art structural / thematic: confirmed

ζυγός (G2218) is a rare noun, six verses in the New Testament, and its other occurrences are almost all negative: the yoke of slavery under which servants are placed (1 Timothy 6:1), the yoke of bondage Paul forbids the Galatians to take up again, and the balance-beam of famine in the hand of the third horseman. ⚙ Against that background Jesus' claim to a chrēstos yoke is deliberately counter-idiomatic. Barnes catalogues the biblical senses of the emblem, bondage, affliction, the punishment of sin, the commandments of God, and legal ceremonies, and concludes that “of all the yokes ever imposed on people, that of the Redeemer is the lightest.” Gill and Cambridge both document the positive rabbinic usage, “the yoke of the kingdom of heaven,” which is the idiom Jesus is actually working inside. We tier this structural rather than verbal because no passage quotes another; the shared rare noun is the recorded basis for a genuine motif, not for a citation.

Galatians 5:1 · 1 Timothy 6:1 · Revelation 6:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2218 ζυγός (in 6 vv, rare) across all three refs; a real verbal tie inside a shared motif of imposed yokes, but no passage cites another, so the tier is downgraded from verbal

Rest for your souls: the promise at the crossroads in Jeremiah structural / thematic: confirmed

Four of this unit's commentators identify the closing clause of verse 29 as coming from Jeremiah 6:16, where the Lord says: stand in the ways and see, ask for the old paths, walk therein, “and ye shall find rest for your souls,” to which the people answer, “We will not walk therein.” Cambridge prints the verse in full; Gill names the reference and draws from it the conclusion that the rest of verse 28 is therefore spiritual and not bodily; Ellicott calls it “a direct quotation.” ⚙ We do not tier it verbal, for two reasons, and both are load-bearing. First, a Greek to Hebrew pair cannot share Strong's numbers, so no lexical basis of the kind the Verifier computes is even possible. Second, the Pulpit Commentary notes that the Greek here is “not the LXX.”, so the wording is not lifted from the standard Greek Old Testament. The link is a real and widely recognised echo, and the irony is exact: Jeremiah's hearers refused the rest offered at the crossroads, and Matthew 11 stands immediately after three cities have done the same.

Jeremiah 6:16

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so no verbal tier is available. Basis is the echo named independently by Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary, with the Pulpit's caution that the Greek is not the Septuagint wording

Gentle: Matthew's rare word for his King verbal / quotation: confirmed

πραΰς (G4239) stands in only four verses in the New Testament, and Matthew holds three: the third beatitude, this self-description, and the triumphal entry, where the word belongs to the quoted oracle of the King who comes riding on a donkey. ⚙ Gill hears the connection at 11:29 without the lexical data: “respect seems to be had to Zechariah 9:9, where such characters as these are given of the Messiah.” The Verifier's shared-lexeme count supports him. Barnes sends the reader from 11:29 to Matthew 5:5, and the Pulpit Commentary does the same. Peter's fourth rare occurrence, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, shares both praus and καρδία with this verse, which is the other half of Jesus' phrase.

Matthew 21:5 · Matthew 5:5 · 1 Peter 3:4

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4239 πραΰς (in 4 vv, rare) across all three refs; 1 Peter 3:4 additionally shares G2588 καρδία (in 149 vv), Matthew 5:5 shares G1093 γῆ, Matthew 21:5 shares G5207 υἱός. All refs are New Testament Greek; the underlying Zechariah 9:9 oracle is reached only through Matthew 21:5's own quotation of it, and is not claimed here as a verbal link from Matthew 11

The rest the unclean spirit cannot find structural / thematic: confirmed

ἀνάπαυσις (G372) is a rare noun, five verses, and one chapter later in Matthew it turns up in the opposite mouth: the unclean spirit walks through dry places seeking rest and finds none. The verb heuriskō is shared as well, so both halves of Jesus' promise (“you will find rest”) recur, negated, in the next chapter and in Luke's parallel. ⚙ The contrast is not asserted by any commentator in this brief; it rests on the Verifier's lexical data and on Matthew's own proximity. We therefore tier it structural rather than verbal: the shared rare noun is real, the ironic pairing is our reading. The fifth occurrence, in Revelation 4:8, is the living creatures who have no rest day and night, a rest denied for the opposite reason.

Matthew 12:43 · Luke 11:24 · Revelation 4:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G372 ἀνάπαυσις (in 5 vv, rare), with G2147 εὑρίσκω (in 167 vv) additionally shared by Matthew 12:43 and Luke 11:24. The ironic contrast is machine synthesis, not a commentator's claim, so the tier is structural

The yoke our fathers could not bear: a link the commentators assert and the Verifier does not confirm flagged: verify source

Ellicott, Barnes and Poole all cite Acts 15:10 at this unit, where Peter asks why a yoke should be laid on the neck of the disciples that neither their fathers nor they were able to bear. The sense-connection is obvious and the three sources are independent. ⚙ But we are flagging it, because the Verifier's computed basis for Acts 15:10 against this unit is only πατήρ (G3962), a word standing in 367 verses, which supports nothing. Either the shared yoke vocabulary was not picked up by the lexeme pass, or the link is carried by sense alone. Until the pair is checked directly, the honest statement is: three named commentators assert it, and our computed basis does not yet support a verbal claim. Read the reference as their testimony, not as ours.

Acts 15:10

basis: Verifier's computed basis for Acts 15:10 is only G3962 πατήρ (in 367 vv), far too common to support a verbal link. The connection rests on the sense-citation by Ellicott, Barnes and Poole. Provenance of the lexical tie is unverified and the badge is downgraded accordingly

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The only Revealer of the Father ancient/widely-held

Verse 27 is, in the judgement of every commentator in this brief, a claim no creature could make. JFB: “A higher claim to equality with the Father cannot be conceived.” Barnes argues from the register of the language that “if he had been only a mere man, this language surely would not have been used of him.” Poole records Calvin's reading, that “the Son is said to know the Father, as he is his lively image, the express image of his person, and the brightness of his glory,” and joins it to John 14:9, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” concluding that “all our saving knowledge of God is in and through Christ.” Geneva compresses it: “There is no true knowledge of God, nor quietness of mind, but only in Christ alone.” Benson presses the negative, that worship offered apart from the Son is “rendered to an imaginary deity.” ⚙ The grammar carries the doctrine: epiginōskei, full recognition, in the present tense, running in both directions between two and only two, with a door opened by the Son's own boulētai. This is the apostolic reading, attested here by Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill and Geneva alike.

John 1:18 · John 3:35 · John 14:9 · John 17:2 · Matthew 28:18 · Colossians 1:16-17

The gentle King under the yoke ancient/widely-held

Gill reads the self-description of verse 29 straight back into Zechariah's oracle: “respect seems to be had to Zechariah 9:9, where such characters as these are given of the Messiah.” Matthew himself makes the identification ten chapters later, quoting that oracle with the same rare adjective πραΰς as the King enters His city on a donkey. ⚙ The picture holds together at the level of the image as well as the word: a yoke is a coupling beam, and the one who invites others under His yoke is the one whom the Pulpit Commentary reads as “receiving in my degree whatever yoke my Father puts on me.” Gill traces that meekness through the assumption of human nature, the submission to baptism, and the obedience of the cross; the Pulpit Commentary aligns “meek and lowly” with “he humbled himself and became obedient” (Philippians 2:8), and notes that the honour of Philippians 2:9 follows. The one who asks the weary to be yoked with Him is the one who was Himself yoked first.

Zechariah 9:9 · Matthew 21:5 · Philippians 2:8-9 · 2 Corinthians 10:1

The sabbath rest that a man gives novel

The Pulpit Commentary supplies the philological fact that turns verse 28 into a redemptive-historical claim: ἀνάπαυσις is “regularly used in the LXX. as a translation of sabbathon,” for which Hebrews 4:9 substitutes sabbatismos. Poole independently ends his exposition of the promise at Hebrews 4:9, “that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God.” ⚙ Put the two together and the shape is hard to miss: the rest the Law appointed by a day, and the rest Israel did not enter, is here offered by a person in the first person singular and the future indicative active, “I will rest you.” Note also that Matthew places this invitation immediately before two Sabbath controversies in chapter 12, at the end of which the Son of Man is declared Lord of the Sabbath. ⚙ That arrangement observation is our own reading of Matthew's sequence and no commentator in this brief makes it; the philology beneath it is the Pulpit Commentary's and is sourced, but the inference from the chapter order is ours and should be tested. Gill's division of the gift, spiritual rest now and uninterrupted communion hereafter, is the older and safer statement of the same hope.

Hebrews 4:9 · Exodus 16:23 · Matthew 12:8

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)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • 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. Greek and parsing are from the Berean interlinear with Strong's numbering; the English base is the BSB. No variant readings are raised by any source in this brief, and we raise none. Where we say “the Greek says,” we mean the interlinear surface and parse given in the brief, nothing more.

What is uncertain. Three things, and none of them is settled here. (1) The occasion. Luke sets this prayer at the return of the Seventy; Ellicott connects the Matthean placement to the return of the Twelve; Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary treat Luke's as original and Matthew's as topical. We have not chosen. (2) The force of ἀποκριθεὶς. Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and Poole read it as a Semitic formula for opening speech; JFB reads it as a genuine answer to the unbelief of verses 20 to 24. The parse alone cannot decide. (3) The extent of the invitation. Henry's “Whoever will, let him come” and Gill's “not ‘all’ the individuals of mankind, but with a restriction” are both printed above without arbitration, because the text contains both a universal vocative and a sovereign boulētai in the same breath.

Source cautions. The Pulpit Commentary, at verses 29 and 30, judges that Ecclesiasticus 51:26 and 27 “probably was in our Lord's mind,” and Ellicott offers the same comparison. That is a deuterocanonical parallel and a conjecture about mental sources; we have not built any thread on it and note it here only so the reader knows it was offered. The Pulpit Commentary also infers from the Johannine style of verse 27 that the language of the Fourth Gospel “underwent a long process of development.” That is a critical hypothesis, not a datum, and nothing above depends on it. Benson quotes Macknight, and Poole quotes Calvin; both are quotations within our sources and are labelled as such where used. Gill's Talmudic citations are given with his own reference apparatus and we have not verified them independently.

Capped entries. Several long entries in the brief were truncated: Gill and the Pulpit Commentary at 11:25, Poole at 11:26 and 11:30, Maclaren at 11:28, and Barnes at 11:30. We wrote from the text supplied and did not open the full entries. Any excerpt taken from those authors is drawn from the visible portion only, so their arguments may continue beyond what is quoted here. Maclaren in particular is represented by a single rhetorical passage from the opening of a long exposition, which is a thin sample of him.

Badges. One thread (Acts 15:10) is flagged because three commentators assert a link our computed basis does not support. The Jeremiah 6:16 echo is tiered structural rather than verbal on two grounds stated in its basis: a Greek to Hebrew pair cannot share Strong's numbers, and the Pulpit Commentary observes that the Greek is not Septuagint wording. The Matthew 12:43 contrast is our own reading built on a real shared lexeme, and is labelled as such. The third Christ entry is marked novel because its inference from Matthew's chapter arrangement is ours, not a commentator's.

Authority. Everything marked ⚙ above is machine synthesis and is fallible. The commentary excerpts are verbatim and public domain, quoted by author. The Scripture is not ours and is not fallible; our reading of it is.

✦ = 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)