The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew12:38–42

The Sign of Jonah

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Matthew 12:38–42 — The Sign of Jonah. 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.

38

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote tines tōn grammateōn kai Pharisaiōn apekrithēsan autō legontes Didaskale thelomen idein sēmeion apo sou

Word by word15 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tote: then, at that time A hinge adverb: the demand lands immediately on the Beelzebub charge, so the courteous title in v. 38 is the second front of one attack.
τινεςtinessomeG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
γραμματέωνgrammateōnscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounGenitive Masculine Plural
grammateus: scribe, town clerk The professional handlers of the written oracles. That the demand for a fresh sign comes from the very men trained in the texts is the irony the unit runs on: those who hold Jonah in their scrolls will be told that Jonah is the only sign they get.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΦαρισαίωνPharisaiōnPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἀπεκρίθησανapekrithēsansaid to HimG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, to answer Aorist passive in form, active in force. Matthew uses the same verb in the next verse for Jesus (ἀποκριθεὶς, v. 39): the evangelist frames the exchange as answer against answer, and the second answer is the one that settles it.
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ 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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
λέγοντεςlegontes. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
didaskalos: an instructor Vocative singular. The title is real but deliberately small: it grants him a chair, not a commission. Gill reads it as flattery masking the refusal to “own him a prophet”; JFB equates it with Rabbi. The unit ends with the same men being told that more than Jonah and more than Solomon stands in front of them.
θέλομενthelomenwe wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Plural
ἰδεῖνideinto seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Infinitive Active
horaō: to see, to attend to Aorist infinitive, placed emphatically at the clause's end. Barnes and Poole both observe that they had already seen: the withered hand restored, the blind and mute man delivered. The problem is not a shortage of evidence but the demand to set the terms of it.
σημεῖονsēmeiona signG4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounAccusative Neuter Singular
sēmeion: an indication, ceremonial or supernatural Not dynamis (act of power) but sēmeion, a token that authenticates. Luke's parallel adds the qualifier they mean: “a sign from heaven” (Luke 11:16). Barnes suggests they were thinking of Moses and the manna: “A comet, or lightning, or thunder, or sudden darkness, or the gift of food raining upon them.” Poole thinks they wanted “such a sign as the devil could not counterfeit.”
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
apo: off, from The preposition matters: a sign from you, on demand, at their address. Heaven gives signs; it does not take orders.
σοῦsouYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
39

Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho apokritheis eipen autois ponēra kai moichalis Genea epizētei sēmeion kai ou sēmeion dothēsetai autē ei mē to sēmeion tou prophētou Iōna

Word by word23 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheis[Jesus] repliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to answer Aorist participle passive, matching the scribes' verb in v. 38. Gill argues the answer is turned away from the Pharisees and toward the crowd; JFB cites Luke 11:29, “when the people were gathered thick together.”
εἶπενeipenG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ 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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πονηρὰponēraA wickedG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
ponēros: hurtful, evil The same adjective that closes the Lord's Prayer at Matthew 6:13 (Pulpit notes the link). It names not weakness but active harm: a generation whose unbelief is not a deficiency of evidence but an injury done to the light it has.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μοιχαλὶςmoichalisadulterousG3428
√ μοιχαλίς — an adulteress (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Singular
moichalis: an adulteress The covenantal charge, and the sharpest word in the verse. Israel is Jehovah's wife (JFB quotes Jeremiah 3:14, “I am married unto you”), so demanding proof of a husband's faithfulness after a lifetime of it is itself the infidelity. Cambridge: “estranged from God.” Geneva goes further, glossing it “Bastard,” a breed fallen from Abraham's faith.
ΓενεὰGeneagenerationG1074
√ γενεά — a generationNounNominative Feminine Singular
genea: a generation Feminine, which is why every pronoun that follows (αὐτῇ, αὐτήν) is feminine and the adulteress image can be sustained without strain. The word recurs in vv. 41 and 42 as the defendant standing in the judgment: one noun carries the whole indictment.
ἐπιζητεῖepizēteidemandsG1934
√ ἐπιζητέω — to search (inquire) forVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epizēteō: to search, to inquire for Intensive compound: not simply zēteō but to seek after, to keep hunting. Gill documents the idiom from the Talmud, where students say to a rabbi, “we will not seek of thee a sign.” The present tense makes it characteristic behavior, not one request.
σημεῖονsēmeiona signG4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καὶkai[but]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐounoneG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Flat, unqualified denial, placed before the noun for emphasis.
σημεῖονsēmeion. . .G4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounNominative Neuter Singular
δοθήσεταιdothēsetaiwill be givenG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
didōmi: to give Future passive. The verb of gift used for a withholding: signs are grants, never extractions. Henry states the principle exactly, that signs were granted to confirm faith, as to Abraham and Gideon, and denied to those who wanted them to excuse unbelief.
αὐτῇautēitG846
√ 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 PronounDative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
εἰeiexceptG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
σημεῖονsēmeionsignG4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounNominative Neuter Singular
sēmeion: sign The third occurrence in two verses. Twice refused, once granted: the word they used to set the terms is the word by which the terms are overturned.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
προφήτουprophētouprophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸωνᾶIōnaJonahG2495
√ Ἰωνᾶς — Jonas (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iōnas: Jonah The name arrives without explanation, and v. 40 supplies one. Pulpit records the real difficulty honestly: Luke 11:30 seems to locate the sign in Jonah's preaching, Matthew 12:40 in his three days in the fish, and Matthew 16:4 gives no explanation at all.
40

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar hōsper Iōnas ēn treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas en tē koilia tou kētous houtōs ho Huios tou anthrōpou estai treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas en tē kardia tēs gēs

Word by word30 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ὥσπερhōsperasG5618
√ ὥσπερ — just as, iAdverb
hōsper: just as Introduces a formal comparison, not an illustration. Pulpit records that this half of the verse is “Verbally from the LXX. of Jonah 1:17 (2:1),” so the comparison is made in the Greek Bible's own words.
ἸωνᾶςIōnasJonahG2495
√ Ἰωνᾶς — Jonas (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τρεῖςtreisthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
treis: three The number that generates the unit's oldest difficulty. Benson, Barnes, Poole and Gill all answer it the same way, from Jewish reckoning: a part of a day counts as the whole. Gill states the rule, that a part of a day is as the whole, and cites its use for passover, circumcision and mourning. Pulpit alone concedes flatly that “the reckoning, therefore, here is, strictly speaking, inaccurate.”
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τρεῖςtreisthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
νύκταςnyktasnightsG3571
√ νύξ — "night" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
nyx: night Pulpit's observation is the best defense of the phrase: the addition of nights “tends to emphasize the reality of our Lord's stay there.” Both kinds of earthly time are spent in the grave. It is death measured, not death implied.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
κοιλίᾳkoiliabellyG2836
√ κοιλία — a cavity, iNounDative Feminine Singular
koilia: a cavity, belly The word for the body's hollow. Paired with kardia in the second half it makes the verse's architecture visible: a living man swallowed into a hollow, a dead man laid into the earth's core.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
κήτουςkētousgreat fishG2785
√ κῆτος — a huge fish (as gaping for prey)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
kētos: a huge fish, gaping for prey A hapax in the Greek Testament. The gaping jaws became the standing symbol of Hades in Christian art, a development Ellicott notes, along with the constant use of Jonah as the resurrection type.
οὕτωςhoutōssoG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
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
huios: a son The title Jesus answers to when he refuses the Pharisees' terms. Matthew has already used it in this chapter for the Lord of the sabbath (12:8); here the Son of Man is the one who goes down into the earth, and the Danielic figure who receives dominion is first the one who is buried.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπουanthrōpouof ManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
eimi: I exist, I am Future middle, matching the imperfect of Jonah's half. This is the pivot of the whole passage: they asked for a sign from heaven and were told of a sign from underground, which they would witness only after they had helped to produce it.
τρεῖςtreisthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τρεῖςtreisthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
νύκταςnyktasnightsG3571
√ νύξ — "night" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ 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, the interior The commentators split, and the split is worth keeping. Barnes: the word denotes “the interior of a thing,” that is, the sepulchre. Ellicott and Pulpit: set beside “the heart of the seas” (Jonah 2:3) and the “belly of hell” (Jonah 2:2), it implies the descent into Hades, a reading Pulpit traces back to Irenaeus and Tertullian. The Greek word permits both; the parallel with Jonah's psalm favors the larger sense.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γῆςgēsearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
gē: soil, earth The same noun returns in v. 42 as “the ends of the earth,” from which the queen travelled. He goes into its heart; she came from its edge.
41

The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Andres Nineuitai anastēsontai en tē krisei meta tautēs tēs geneas kai katakrinousin autēn hoti metenoēsan eis to kērygma Iōna kai idou pleion Iōna hōde

Word by word24 · parsed
ἌνδρεςAndresThe menG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounNominative Masculine Plural
anēr: a man, an individual male Anarthrous and fronted. The grammar carries the argument: unnamed pagan men, no article, no standing, are the ones who will rise as witnesses against the covenant people. Pulpit reads the choice of ἄνδρες rather than ἄνθρωποι as reflecting who would have taken the lead in the city, following the LXX of Jonah 3:5.
ΝινευῖταιNineuitaiof NinevehG3536
√ Νινευΐτης — a Ninevite, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀναστήσονταιanastēsontaiwill standG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
anistēmi: to stand up Future middle. The verb of resurrection put to forensic use. Gill takes it of the general resurrection, Ellicott of standing up to testify; the Greek does both at once, and the double sense is the point, since the generation being condemned will also be there.
ἐνenatG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
κρίσειkriseijudgmentG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounDative Feminine Singular
krisis: decision, for or against With the article: the judgment, the appointed one. Cambridge presses the preposition too: “stand up in the judgment, i.e. in the day of judgment, beside.” Not against them from a distance but alongside them in the dock.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
meta: with, denoting accompaniment Present with them before the judgment seat, which is what makes the comparison unbearable.
ταύτηςtautēsthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Feminine Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γενεᾶςgeneasgenerationG1074
√ γενεά — a generationNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κατακρινοῦσινkatakrinousincondemnG2632
√ κατακρίνω — to judge against, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
katakrinō: to judge against Future active, and the subject is the Ninevites. Scripture's ordinary use of this verb has God or Christ as subject; here repentant pagans are given the verb, because their obedience is itself the evidence. The parallel structure of v. 42 repeats it in the singular for the queen.
αὐτήνautēnitG846
√ 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 Feminine 3rd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
μετενόησανmetenoēsanthey repentedG3340
√ μετανοέω — to think differently or afterwards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
metanoeō: to think differently, afterwards Aorist: a decisive turn at a point in time, not a disposition. Benson, quoting Macknight, weighs the disproportion exactly: a stranger, a poor person, three days, no miracle, and they repented. Gill notes that their repentance was external, in dust and ashes, and even so it spared the city.
εἰςeisatG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
eis: to, into Pulpit: the preposition marks “the direction of their faith,” as at Romans 4:20. They repented into the message, not merely on hearing it.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κήρυγμαkērygmapreachingG2782
√ κήρυγμα — a proclamation (especially of the gospelNounAccusative Neuter Singular
kērygma: a proclamation, especially of the gospel Rare in the Greek Testament (8 verses). Not the act of preaching but the thing proclaimed, the herald's message. Jonah's kērygma was a single sentence of threat with no promise attached; that this bare announcement produced a city's repentance is what indicts a generation that has heard the Sermon on the Mount.
ἸωνᾶIōnaof JonahG2495
√ Ἰωνᾶς — Jonas (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidounowG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo! behold! Formally an Aorist Imperative, a command to look. It arrives twice in this unit, at v. 41 and v. 42, each time immediately before the comparative, and each time it does the work the demanded sign would have done: the evidence is standing in front of you.
πλεῖονpleion[One] greater thanG4119
√ πλείων — more in quantity, number, or qualityAdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
pleiōn: more in quantity, number, or quality Neuter comparative, no copula. Maclaren sets it in the chapter's series: greater than the temple (12:6), than Jonah, than Solomon. Ellicott asks the question the grammar forces: “could this be rightly claimed by any man for himself who was not more than man?”
ἸωνᾶIōnaJonahG2495
√ Ἰωνᾶς — Jonas (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ὧδεhōdeis hereG5602
√ ὧδε — in this same spot, iAdverb
42

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

basilissa notou egerthēsetai en tē krisei meta tautēs tēs geneas kai katakrinei autēn hoti ēlthen ek tōn peratōn tēs gēs akousai tēn sophian Solomōnos kai idou pleion Solomōnos hōde

Word by word29 · parsed
βασίλισσαbasilissaThe QueenG938
√ βασίλισσα — a queenNounNominative Feminine Singular
basilissa: a queen Rare (4 verses). Anarthrous, like Ἄνδρες in v. 41, which is why Ellicott and Cambridge disagree over how to render it. Either way the pairing is deliberate: pagan men and a pagan woman, a city and a court, north and south, both rising against one generation.
νότουnotouof [the] SouthG3558
√ νότος — the south(-west) windNounGenitive Masculine Singular
notos: the south wind, the south Geneva and Cambridge both identify her with the queen of Sheba of 1 Kings 10:1; Poole adds 2 Chronicles 9:1 and declines to settle whether Sheba lay in Arabia or Ethiopia, since “certain it is, it was southward of Judea, and a place at a great distance.”
ἐγερθήσεταιegerthēsetaiwill riseG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
egeirō: to waken, to raise Future passive, deliberately varied from the middle ἀναστήσονται in v. 41. Matthew uses this verb of Christ's own resurrection; that the witness against this generation is raised ties her rising to the one sign the generation was promised in v. 40.
ἐνenatG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
κρίσειkriseijudgmentG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounDative Feminine Singular
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
ταύτηςtautēsthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Feminine Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γενεᾶςgeneasgenerationG1074
√ γενεά — a generationNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κατακρινεῖkatakrineicondemnG2632
√ κατακρίνω — to judge against, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
katakrinō: to judge against Singular here, plural in v. 41. One woman is enough. The parallelism is exact down to the pronoun αὐτήν, the feminine that reaches back to the adulteress-generation of v. 39.
αὐτήνautēnitG846
√ 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 Feminine 3rd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἦλθενēlthenshe cameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
erchomai: to come, to go Aorist. The single decisive act of her life for this purpose, set against a generation that would not cross a street. Pulpit marks the escalation over v. 41: “the message was brought to the Ninevites in their own homes. She marks a higher stage of inquiry and faith.”
ἐκekfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
περάτωνperatōnendsG4009
√ πέρας — an extremityNounGenitive Neuter Plural
peras: an extremity Rare, four verses. The far edge of the world sends an inquirer to Jerusalem; Jerusalem, with wisdom standing in its streets, sends for a sign from the sky. Geography becomes the measure of guilt.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γῆςgēsearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἀκοῦσαιakousaito hearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
akouō: to hear Aorist infinitive of purpose. The counterweight to ἰδεῖν in v. 38 and the quiet center of the unit: faith comes by hearing, and the generation that insisted on seeing will be judged by a woman who only wanted to listen.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
σοφίανsophianwisdomG4678
√ σοφία — wisdom (higher or lower, worldly or spiritual)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
sophia: wisdom, higher or lower What she travelled for. Gill presses the comparison to its limit: the one greater than Solomon is greater precisely in the thing Solomon excelled in, “for he is the wisdom of God.” The Jewish sources Gill cites expect the Messiah to be wiser than Solomon.
ΣολομῶνοςSolomōnosof SolomonG4672
√ Σολομών — Solomon (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidounowG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
πλεῖονpleion[One] greater thanG4119
√ πλείων — more in quantity, number, or qualityAdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
pleiōn: more, greater Neuter comparative again, and again without a verb. Benson quotes Doddridge on why the claim is made this way rather than plainly: the reserve of Jesus about naming himself Messiah “made it yet more expedient, that by such phrases as these he should sometimes intimate it.”
ΣολομῶνοςSolomōnosSolomonG4672
√ Σολομών — Solomon (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ὧδεhōdeis hereG5602
√ ὧδε — in this same spot, iAdverb
hōde: in this same spot, here The last word of the unit, and the whole answer to v. 38. They asked for a sign from there; the reply ends with here.

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 polite ambush — 12:38

The demand is dressed as courtesy. Διδάσκαλε grants him a chair, and Gill measures the distance travelled by that one vocative: “not fellow, magician, Samaritan, thou that hast a devil … but doctor, teacher.” JFB fixes what is actually at issue, that the miracles were not in dispute but their source was, so that what is wanted is “something of an immediate and decisive nature, to show, not that His miracles were real … but that they were from above, not from beneath.” Luke supplies the missing qualifier, a sign from heaven (Luke 11:16), and Barnes guesses at the catalogue: “A comet, or lightning, or thunder, or sudden darkness, or the gift of food raining upon them.” Poole thinks they wanted a sign the devil could not counterfeit, and that behind the request lies Moses and the manna of John 6. Ellicott locates the trigger in tone rather than doctrine: “The tone of authority, as of one who is the judge of all men, leads to the challenge.” ⚙ Note what the Greek puts last in the clause: ἰδεῖν, to see. They will not take testimony. Poole asks the question that answers itself: “Had not Christ showed them signs enough?”

ii. One sign, and it is a grave — 12:39-40

The answer names them before it refuses them. μοιχαλὶς is a noun, an adulteress, and Ellicott, Barnes, JFB and Cambridge all read it through the prophets' marriage figure; JFB quotes Jeremiah 3:14, “I am married unto you,” and Geneva, less gently, glosses the word “Bastard, who fell from Abraham's faith.” Henry states the governing principle: signs confirm faith, as for Abraham and Gideon, and are denied to those who want them to excuse unbelief. Then the exception, εἰ μὴ, concedes exactly one sign, and Benson renders it strictly, “but [or, unless it be] the sign of the Prophet Jonas.” Pulpit, verse 40, records that the first half of the comparison is “Verbally from the LXX. of Jonah 1:17,” so the answer is given in the Greek Bible's own words. Cambridge disposes of the whale (“there are no whales in the Mediterranean”); κήτους means a sea monster, and Jonah 1:17 says only a great fish. The three nights remain the oldest difficulty in the unit. Gill supplies the rabbinic rule, Benson, Barnes and Poole the same, while Pulpit alone concedes plainly that “the reckoning, therefore, here is, strictly speaking, inaccurate,” and then turns the concession into an argument: the nights emphasize “the reality of our Lord's stay there.” On the heart of the earth the sources divide and the brief lets them. Barnes: the interior, the sepulchre. Ellicott and Pulpit, hearing Jonah 2:2-3 behind it, take it to imply the descent into Hades, a reading Pulpit traces to Irenaeus and Tertullian.

iii. Two witnesses from outside the covenant — 12:41-42

The reply does not end in refusal but in a courtroom. Ellicott: “The word ‘rise’ is used not of the mere fact of resurrection but of standing up as witnesses,” and Gill hears the same custom, witnesses rising from their seats. Cambridge presses the preposition: they stand beside the generation, not opposite it. The witnesses are chosen for their disadvantages. Benson, quoting Macknight, itemizes them: Jonah was “a stranger, a poor person, one that continued among them only three days, and wrought no miracle.” JFB states the contrast bare: “The Ninevites, though heathens, repented at a man's preaching; while they, God's covenant-people, repented not at the preaching of the Son of God.” Pulpit then marks the escalation from the first witness to the second, since the message came to the Ninevites at home while the queen travelled: “She marks a higher stage of inquiry and faith.” Barnes adds the sting, that she came a great distance to hear, while this generation would not listen to one much greater “though present with them.” Over both stands the neuter comparative πλεῖον, twice, with no verb: not a greater man but a greater thing, here. Maclaren gathers the series: greater than the temple, than Jonah, than Solomon, “and then withal ‘I am meek and lowly of heart.’” Ellicott asks the question the grammar forces: “could this be rightly claimed by any man for himself who was not more than man?”

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. The unit turns on two verbs the English blurs. In v. 38 the scribes want ἰδεῖν, to see. In v. 42 the queen travelled ἀκοῦσαι, to hear. Between them stands the only sign granted, and it is a sign nobody watched: three days and three nights in a place where there is nothing to see. ⚙ The refusal in v. 39 is therefore not a withholding of evidence but a change of court. A sign in the sky would have settled the question by spectacle, and the generation that got it would have been convinced without being converted; the sign of Jonah settles it by resurrection, which can only be received as testimony, from witnesses, by hearing. Note the irony the grammar keeps: πλεῖον is neuter twice over, so the answer to “show us a sign” is not even “I am greater,” it is “a greater thing is here,” with no verb, no demonstration, nothing to point at except the speaker standing in the room. ⚙ And the witnesses who will rise are the ones who had the least to go on. A pagan city given one sentence of threat and no miracle; a foreign queen given only a rumour of wisdom and a long road. That is the pattern: less evidence, more repentance. So the machine's tentative reading is that this passage is not primarily about the chronology of the entombment, real as that difficulty is, but about what kind of proof God gives and refuses to give. He will not be examined. He will be heard, and then believed, or not. The single line that follows is the tool's own summary sentence, a synthesis and not Scripture; do not read it as a verse.

They asked for a sign in the sky and were promised one underground, where there would be nothing to see and everything to hear about afterward.

⚙

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 demand, the same refusal, in Luke's order verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke carries the whole exchange (Luke 11:29-32) with the sign of Jonah, the Ninevites and the Queen of the South intact, though in a different setting: Luke 11:16 places the demand earlier, and Pulpit notes that it is “expressly attributed to others than those who had brought the accusation.” Cambridge observes that Luke “omits, or at least does not state explicitly, the special application of the sign given in Matthew 12:40,” because the Jonah typology “required a knowledge of the Jewish prophets which would be lacking to St Luke's readers.” Luke 11:30 gives the sign a different cast, “as Jonah became a sign unto the Ninevites,” which Pulpit reports has been read as locating the sign in Jonah's preaching rather than his three days; Pulpit records Godet's counter, that the future tense points to the resurrection, “in which no human agency intervenes.” The parallel is verbal and within the Greek Testament.

Luke 11:29 · Luke 11:30 · Luke 11:31 · Luke 11:32

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2495 Ἰωνᾶς (rare, in 7 vv) twice at Luke 11:32, with G1074 γενεά (in 37 vv) and G4592 σημεῖον (in 69 vv) across Luke 11:29-32. Greek to Greek, rare shared name, and Cambridge and Pulpit both record the passages as recognized parallels.

Matthew says it twice: the demand renewed at Magadan structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit states the textual fact plainly: “Matthew 16:4 is verbally identical with the answer of our present verse, except the omission of the words, ‘the prophet,’ which occur nowhere else but in this passage.” Gill notes the same repetition from the other side, that the sign demanded here is the sign demanded “at another time, Matthew 16:1.” Pulpit lays out the two hypotheses honestly, that the demand was made twice with near-identical answers, or that one incident reached Matthew through two sources and he kept both. ⚙ Either way the second telling drops the Jonah explanation entirely, which tells against the theory that v. 40 was composed to supply one.

Matthew 16:4 · Matthew 16:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4592 σημεῖον (in 69 vv) twice and G1325 δίδωμι (in 378 vv). Both refs are New Testament, so a verbal tier would be permitted, but neither shared lexeme is rare and neither passage cites the other, so the tier is deliberately downgraded. Pulpit's record that the two replies are verbally identical apart from two words is reported in the body as a source claim rather than used to raise the tier.

The adulteress generation: a rare word with a fixed sense verbal / quotation: confirmed

μοιχαλίς (G3428) occurs in only six verses of the Greek Testament, and every occurrence carries the covenantal charge rather than the merely sexual one. Mark 8:38 pairs it with the same noun γενεά that Matthew uses here, “this adulterous and sinful generation.” James 4:4 turns the word on the church. Pulpit cites James 4:4 and Revelation 2:20-23 as the controlling parallels, and Cambridge glosses the word as “estranged from God; a figure often used by the Prophets.” 2 Peter 2:14 uses it of eyes full of adultery. ⚙ The rarity is what makes the link a real verbal one rather than a common motif: six verses, one sense.

Mark 8:38 · James 4:4 · 2 Peter 2:14

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G3428 μοιχαλίς (in 6 vv); Mark 8:38 additionally shares G1074 γενεά (in 37 vv) and G5207 υἱός (in 344 vv). All refs are New Testament, so no cross-Testament restriction applies.

Jonah in the fish: the type Jesus names typological

Jesus supplies his own cross-reference, and the brief's sources agree on which episode is meant. Ellicott argues against reading the sign as Jonah's preaching: “Jonah's work as a preacher was not a ‘sign’ in any sense, and … nothing in his history had this character, except the two narratives of the whale (Jonah 1:17) and the gourd.” Pulpit notes that Matthew 12:40a follows the LXX of Jonah 1:17 verbally, and that “the heart of the earth” is formed on “the heart of the seas” in Jonah 2:3. Ellicott adds that Jonah 2:6 corresponds closely to Psalm 16:10-11, and suggests that resemblance “may well be thought to have prompted our Lord's reference to it.” Jonah 3:5, the Ninevites' believing and fasting, is the basis of v. 41; Pulpit notes that the LXX there uses ἄνδρες, the same word Matthew chooses. ⚙ This link cannot be tiered verbal here: Matthew is Greek and Jonah is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's numbers exist between them, and the Verifier returns none. The connection is typological, and it is as ancient as the citation itself.

Jonah 1:17 · Jonah 2:2 · Jonah 3:5

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible, so no verbal tier is available. Basis is the explicit naming of Jonah by Jesus plus Pulpit's record that Matthew 12:40a follows the LXX of Jonah 1:17 verbally and that “heart of the earth” is formed on Jonah 2:3. Attestation is ancient and widely held (Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Gill, Poole, Henry, Cambridge all read it so).

The Queen of Sheba, and the journey she did not have to make structural / thematic: confirmed

Geneva names her: “He means the Queen of Sheba: whose country is south in respect to the land of Israel; 1Ki 10:1-13.” Poole adds the Chronicles account and declines to adjudicate Arabia or Ethiopia, since the point is only that it “was southward of Judea, and a place at a great distance.” Barnes explains “the uttermost parts of the earth” as the limit of the then known world rather than literal geography. JFB records what the visit produced: she “was transported with wonder at what she saw and heard (1Ki 10:1-9).” ⚙ Pulpit's contrast is the sharpest thing in the thread: the Ninevites had the message carried to their homes, while she paid for hers with a journey, which is why she marks “a higher stage of inquiry and faith.” Cross-Testament, so no verbal tier.

1 Kings 10:1 · 2 Chronicles 9:1

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot exist, so the verbal tier is unavailable. Basis is the explicit narrative reference by Jesus to the Queen of the South's visit, identified with 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12 by Geneva, Poole, Barnes, JFB, Gill and Cambridge alike.

“The ends of the earth” in both directions verbal / quotation: confirmed

πέρας (G4009) is rare, four verses in the Greek Testament, and two of them pair it with the same two words. Matthew 12:42 has a Gentile coming from τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς to hear (ἀκοῦσαι) wisdom. Romans 10:18 has the word going out εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης so that all may hear, in a sentence where Paul's whole argument is that faith comes by hearing. ⚙ The Verifier records γῆ, ἀκούω and πέρας shared. The queen's journey and the apostolic mission run the same road in opposite directions: she travelled the length of the world to hear, and afterwards the word travelled it to be heard. Hebrews 6:16 uses the same rare noun in a different sense, the end of all dispute, and is not part of this motif.

Romans 10:18

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G4009 πέρας (in 4 vv), with G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv) and G191 ἀκούω (in 398 vv). Greek to Greek within the New Testament. This is a real verbal link within a shared motif; no quotation is claimed in either direction.

The bare proclamation that saves verbal / quotation: confirmed

κήρυγμα (G2782) appears in only eight verses. In Matthew 12:41 the Ninevites repented εἰς τὸ κήρυγμα Ἰωνᾶ, at a proclamation that was one sentence of threat with no promise and no miracle attached. In 1 Corinthians 1:21 God is pleased “through the foolishness of the κήρυγμα to save them that believe,” in a context where Paul says the Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek σοφία, the very two words this unit sets against each other in vv. 38 and 42. ⚙ That convergence of vocabulary is striking, but the Verifier records only κήρυγμα and σοφία as shared, so the claim is kept to the lexical level.

1 Corinthians 1:21

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G2782 κήρυγμα (in 8 vv) with G4678 σοφία (in 49 vv). Greek to Greek within the New Testament. A shared rare lexeme, not a quotation; the wider thematic parallel with 1 Corinthians 1:22 is the machine's observation, not a recorded basis.

Another southern court sends a traveller structural / thematic: confirmed

Acts 8:27 stands up (ἀναστὰς) a man (ἀνήρ) of Ethiopia, an official of Candace the queen, who had come the length of the world to Jerusalem and was reading a prophet on the road home. ⚙ The Verifier records ἰδού, ἀνίστημι and ἀνήρ shared with this unit, all common words, so the link is structural rather than verbal: the pattern of a distant southern court sending someone toward Israel's wisdom, which Matthew 12:42 puts forward as evidence, Acts narrates as it happens. Gill notes that Josephus called the Queen of Sheba “Nicaulis, queen of Egypt and Ethiopia,” which is how the two scenes came to be associated in later tradition, though that identification is legendary and not a basis for the link.

Acts 8:27

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2400 ἰδού (in 226 vv), G450 ἀνίστημι (in 107 vv), G435 ἀνήρ (in 194 vv). All three are common, so no verbal claim is made; the link is the shared pattern of a southern royal court sending an inquirer toward Israel.

Two queens, and a contrast the sources do not draw flagged: verify source

βασίλισσα (G938) occurs in four verses. One is the Queen of the South who left her throne to cross the world for wisdom. Another is Revelation 18:7, where Babylon says in her heart (καρδία) “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no mourning.” ⚙ The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes, and the rarity is real, but the antithesis drawn here, the queen who travelled to hear set against the queen who sits and will not move, is the machine's own construction. No commentator in this brief makes it, and the flag is a caution against treating a lexical coincidence as an intended echo.

Revelation 18:7

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G938 βασίλισσα (in 4 vv) with G2588 καρδία (in 149 vv) and G1325 δίδωμι (in 378 vv). The lexical basis is real and rare, but no source in this brief connects the two queens; the interpretive pairing is machine synthesis and should be verified before it is relied on.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The sign of Jonah is the empty tomb ancient/widely-held

The sources are unanimous on the identification. Henry: “The resurrection of Christ from the dead by his own power, called here the sign of the prophet Jonah, was the great proof of Christ's being the Messiah.” JFB calls v. 40 “the second public announcement of His resurrection three days after His death,” after John 2:19, and reads Jonah's case as analogous in three respects: “a signal judgment of God; reversed in three days; and followed by a glorious mission to the Gentiles.” Poole draws the line himself: “I shall be by them violently put to death and shall be in the grave part of three days and three nights, and then I shall rise again.” Gill calls Jonah's deliverance “a very eminent type of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.” ⚙ What the machine adds is only the shape of the exchange: the one sign granted to a generation that demanded a spectacle was the one event none of them would witness, and which could reach them only as testimony. The proof was given, and it was given in a form that required faith to receive it. Matthew 27:63 shows that the saying was remembered and understood by the very men who asked, which is why they sealed the stone.

Matthew 12:40 · Jonah 1:17 · John 2:19 · Matthew 27:63

Greater than the temple, than the prophet, than the king ancient/widely-held

Matthew 12 sets three comparatives in a row, and the same neuter πλεῖον carries all of them: greater than the temple (12:6), than Jonah (12:41), than Solomon (12:42). Maclaren reads the series as a single claim in three parts: “By the first Jesus asserts that He is in reality all that the Temple was in shadowy symbol, and sets Himself above ritual, sacrifices, and priests. By the second he asserts His superiority not only to one prophet but to them all. By the third He asserts His superiority to Solomon, whom the Jews reverenced as the bright, consummate flower of kinghood.” Ellicott, having noted that “no chapter contains more marvellous assertions of our Lord's superhuman majesty,” asks whether such a claim “could … be rightly claimed by any man for himself who was not more than man.” Benson, citing Doddridge, explains the indirection: the reserve about naming himself Messiah made it expedient that “by such phrases as these he should sometimes intimate it.” ⚙ The three offices of Israel, priest, prophet and king, are exhausted in three verses by a man standing in a Galilean room, and the grammar refuses to say “a greater person,” saying only “a greater thing is here.”

Matthew 12:6 · Matthew 12:41 · Matthew 12:42

Into the heart of the earth, and not abandoned there ancient/widely-held

Ellicott reads “the heart of the earth” against “the heart of the seas” and “the belly of hell” in Jonah 2:2-3, concluding that it “means more than the rock-hewn sepulchre, and implies the descent into Hades, the world of the dead.” Pulpit reports that many commentators, “beginning with Irenaeus … and Tertullian,” understood it as directly denoting the place of departed spirits, while noting that Ephesians 4:9 probably refers to the earth as such. Barnes holds the plainer sense, the grave. Ellicott's further observation is the fruitful one: Jonah's psalm at Jonah 2:6 corresponds closely with Psalm 16:10-11, the text Peter would preach at Pentecost as proof that God would not leave his Holy One in Hades. ⚙ If that resonance is real, then the sign given to the scribes was drawn from a psalm the apostles would later use to argue the same case publicly, and the sign refused in Galilee became the sermon preached in Jerusalem. The machine marks this last step as its own inference; the Psalm 16 connection itself is Ellicott's, and its apostolic use is Acts 2:27.

Jonah 2:2 · Psalm 16:10 · Acts 2:27 · Ephesians 4:9

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. Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible (CC0); the interlinear surface forms, glosses, Strong's numbers and parsings are the Berean data as supplied in the brief. Where this synthesis differs from BSB's rendering it is marked as a divergence, never as a correction of the English version.

The three days and three nights. This is the unit's largest genuine difficulty and it is not resolved here. The crucifixion on Friday and the resurrection on Sunday give at most two nights and parts of three days. Benson, Barnes, Poole and Gill all answer from Jewish inclusive reckoning, that a part of a day counts as the whole, and Gill documents the rule from rabbinic use in passover, circumcision and mourning. Ellicott cites 1 Samuel 30:12-13 as an instance. Pulpit alone concedes that “the reckoning, therefore, here is, strictly speaking, inaccurate,” and then argues from that very awkwardness that the phrase is unlikely to be a later insertion. Both positions are preserved above; neither is presented as settled.

Whether v. 40 is Christ's own explanation. Pulpit and Ellicott both report that some critics have held Matthew 12:40 to be an evangelist's addition, since Luke 11:30 appears to locate the sign in Jonah's preaching and Matthew 16:4 offers no explanation at all. Ellicott gives three arguments against that view, Pulpit concludes that “upon our present information, we must say that the phrase was spoken by our Lord himself,” and Cambridge holds that Jonah is a sign in both respects at once. This synthesis follows the sources in treating the verse as spoken, and flags the dispute rather than hiding it.

The article in vv. 41 and 42. Ellicott and Pulpit read ἄνδρες and βασίλισσα as emphatically anarthrous (“a queen of the south”); Cambridge attributes the missing article to Hebrew idiom and renders “The queen of the south.” Both readings are recorded above. The grammar does not decide between them.

Cross-Testament threads. Matthew is Greek and Jonah, Kings and Chronicles are Hebrew, so no shared Strong's numbers can exist between them and the Verifier returns none. Every Old Testament link in this unit is therefore tiered structural or typological, with the reason stated in its basis, even where (as with Jonah 1:17) the Greek follows the Septuagint verbally. The Revelation 18:7 thread is flagged because its lexical basis is real but its interpretive pairing is the machine's own and is supported by no source in this brief.

Sources. Voices are verbatim public-domain commentary, quoted by anchor and expanded mechanically; nothing in a ✦ quotation has been retyped, shortened internally or modernized. Benson at v. 41 is transmitting Macknight, and Benson at v. 42 is transmitting Doddridge; both are flagged in their editorial notes. The Maclaren, Pulpit and Gill entries for several verses are capped in the brief, so the excerpts above are drawn only from the portions supplied. All ⚙ material is machine synthesis and fallible.

✦ = 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)