The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew18:10–14

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

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Matthew 18:10–14 — The Parable of the Lost Sheep. 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.

10

See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Horate mē kataphronēsēte henos toutōn tōn mikrōn gar legō hymin hoti autōn hoi angeloi en ouranois dia pantos blepousi to prosōpon tou mou Patros tou en ouranois

Word by word27 · parsed
ὉρᾶτεHorateSee [that]G3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
horaō: to see, to attend to A present imperative: keep looking. Pulpit sets the whole verse under it, reading the command as protecting the child who, on Ellicott's reading, was still standing there, perhaps still folded in the arms of Jesus.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
καταφρονήσητεkataphronēsēteyou do not look down onG2706
√ καταφρονέω — to think against, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
kataphroneō: to think down on, despise A rare verb in the Greek New Testament (nine verses), and every other occurrence is weighty: the servant who despises one master for the other (Matthew 6:24), the man who despises the riches of God's forbearance (Romans 2:4), Christ who despised the shame of the cross (Hebrews 12:2). The sin named here is therefore not rudeness but a settled low valuation. Gill reads it against the disciples' own quarrel over who should be greatest, each looking upon himself as the greater, and every other as little.
ἑνὸςhenosanyG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
μικρῶνmikrōnlittle onesG3398
√ μικρός — small (in size, quantity, number or (figuratively) dignity)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
mikros: small in size, number or dignity Strong's own gloss carries the double sense, and the ambiguity is the passage's hinge. Ellicott takes the little ones to include the child-like as well as children, all whom Christ came to save; Gill takes them as believers little in their own eyes and despicable in the eyes of the world; Cambridge, reading with Luke 15, identifies them with the publicans and sinners whom the Pharisees despised. The text does not force a choice, and this synthesis does not either.
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Genitive “of them.” The pronoun is what generates the whole guardian-angel debate: whose angels, and how distributed.
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄγγελοιangeloiangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounNominative Masculine Plural
angelos: messenger, angel Plural, and possessed: “their angels.” The commentators divide sharply and honestly. Pulpit affirms that each soul has assigned to it by God a special angel and grounds the doctrine here. Poole denies that the text will bear it, observing that our Saviour doth not say their several and respective angels, but their angels. Benson proposes rotation: different angels are at different times employed in this kind office. Ellicott and Barnes both decline to settle it and rest on the general ministry of Hebrews 1:14. The one thing all agree the verse asserts is that the guardianship is real and is exercised by angels of the highest rank.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
οὐρανοῖςouranoisheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Plural
διὰdiaalwaysG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
dia: through With the genitive παντός, the idiom for continuance: through the whole of it, without a break.
παντὸςpantos. . .G3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
βλέπουσιblepousiseeG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
blepō: to look at, to see Present indicative, ongoing. Gill insists the seeing is not primarily contemplative but official: of their ministering before him, waiting, as servants, upon him, watching to receive his orders. Gregory's answer, which Pulpit records, holds both together: they go forth to us in a spiritual presence, and yet keep themselves there, whence they had gone out.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πρόσωπονprosōponfaceG4383
√ πρόσωπον — the front (as being towards view), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
prosōpon: the face, the front toward view To see the king's face is court language for admitted access and standing favour. Barnes cites 1 Kings 10:8 and Esther 1:14; Pulpit adds 2 Kings 25:19, Esther 1:14 and Jeremiah 52:25, and names the rank the idiom implies, the angels of the presence, or of the face.
τοῦtouofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ΠατρόςPatrosFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
patēr: father “My Father,” not yet “your Father.” Pulpit records Alford's observation that the pronoun shifts deliberately: Πατρός μου here where the dignity of the little ones is being asserted, Πατρὸς ὑμῶν at v. 14 where a motive is pressed on the conscience. Ellicott draws the further inference that in the same sentence in which Jesus proclaims the universal Fatherhood of God he claims a sonship nearer and higher than could have been claimed by any child of man.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
οὐρανοῖςouranoisheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Plural
11

⚙ The critical text omits the original-language words of this verse (a textual variant); the BSB prints it. No word cards are shown — a stated gap, not invented text.

12

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ti hymin dokei ean tini anthrōpō genētai hekaton probata kai hen ex autōn planēthē ouchi aphēsei ta enenēkonta ennea epi ta orē kai poreutheis zētei to planōmenon

Word by word27 · parsed
ΤίTiWhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ὑμῖνhymin{do} youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
δοκεῖdokeithinkG1380
√ δοκέω — compare the base of G1166 (δεικνύω)) of the same meaningVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
dokeō: to seem, to suppose Impersonal with the dative: “what seems to you?” Gill identifies it as a Talmudic way of speaking, the rabbinic move of throwing a settled question back to the room, and notes that Christ here appeals to his disciples, makes them judges themselves in this matter.
ἐὰνeanIfG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
τινιtiniaG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounDative Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπῳanthrōpōmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Singular
γένηταίgenētaihasG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
ἑκατὸνhekatona hundredG1540
√ ἑκατόν — a hundredAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
A hundred. Gill reads it as the ordinary unit of a flock, and cites a Maronite will bequeathing a hundred sheep with each half of a field; Pulpit reads it simply as a round number, representing a considerable flock. Either way the point is proportion: one in a hundred is a loss a careless owner would absorb.
πρόβαταprobatasheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounNominative Neuter Plural
probaton: something that walks forward, a sheep Neuter plural, which is why every pronoun for the strayed one in vv. 12 to 13 is neuter (αὐτό, αὐτῷ) rather than personal. The English “it” is therefore exact, and the tenderness of the parable runs entirely through the shepherd, never through a personified sheep.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἓνhenoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἐξexofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
αὐτῶνautōnthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Neuter 3rd Person Plural
πλανηθῇplanēthēgoes astrayG4105
√ πλανάω — to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue)VerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
planaō: to cause to roam from safety, truth or virtue Aorist passive: the straying is something done to the sheep. Gill notes that sheep are very prone to it and sends the reader to Psalm 119:176; the same verb governs Revelation's deceiving of the nations and 1 Peter's “ye were as sheep going astray.” Read with the chapter's warning about offences, the passive quietly implicates whoever caused the wandering.
οὐχὶouchivvvG3780
√ οὐχί — not indeedIntPrtcl
ἀφήσειaphēseiwill he not leaveG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, to leave Future indicative, the only future in the verse: the leaving is the decisive act the hearer is asked to concede. Note that it is a leaving, not an abandoning; Pulpit argues the shepherd is not regardless of the safety and comfort of the flock during his temporary absence.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐνενήκονταenenēkontaninety-nineG1768
√ ἐννενηκονταεννέα — ninety-nineAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
Ninety nine. Two words in Greek (ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα). The compound form ἐννενηκονταεννέα, G1768, occurs in only four verses in the whole New Testament, all of them in this parable and its Lukan twin, which is what makes the verbal tie to Luke 15:4 and 15:7 unusually secure.
ἐννέαennea. . .G1767
√ ἐννέα — nineAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὄρηorēhillsG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
oros: mountain, hill With ἐπί and the accusative, “over/upon the hills.” The syntax is genuinely disputed: the Vulgate and, Gill reports, the Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic and Persic versions attach the phrase to “leave” (he leaves the ninety nine on the mountains), while the English versions attach it to “goeth.” Pulpit argues for the former and reads the hill tops as pasture that, catching clouds and dew, are never without fresh grass; Gill argues for the latter, hearing the mountains of Israel of Ezekiel 34:13 and the wandering of Jeremiah 50:6. The Greek allows both.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πορευθεὶςporeutheisgo outG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ζητεῖzēteito search forG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
zēteō: to seek Present indicative inside a future-oriented question: the seeking is durative, pictured as under way. Pulpit fills it out pastorally: such erring souls Jesus seeks by the inspiration of his Spirit, by allowing distress and sorrow, by awakening conscience and memory.
τὸtothe [one]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πλανώμενονplanōmenonthat is lostG4105
√ πλανάω — to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
planaō: to cause to roam (present participle middle or passive) Present, not aorist: the sheep is still straying when the search begins. The object of the search is a wandering in progress, not a finished defection, which is the grammatical ground of every pastoral use of this parable.
13

And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ean genētai heurein auto amēn legō hymin hoti chairei mallon ep’ autō ē epi tois enenēkonta ennea tois mē peplanēmenois

Word by word21 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
γένηταιgenētaiheG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
εὑρεῖνheureinfindsG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
heuriskō: to find Aorist infinitive governed by γένηται, so the finding is not asserted but supposed: the one event in the parable the Greek leaves formally open. Everything before it is certain (the owner will leave, will go, will seek); only the outcome is conditional. Gill closes the gap christologically, that this is casual and uncertain with the shepherd but not so with Christ, who certainly finds all those he goes after; Pulpit holds it open and reads the condition as real, that if a man will not open his heart to good inspirations and cooperate with preventing grace, he will not be found and brought home. The same verb carries the joy of Luke 15:5, 15:9 and 15:24, where finding is in every case the occasion of the rejoicing that follows here.
αὐτόautoitG846
√ 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 Singular
ἀμὴνamēntrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: firm, verily A Hebrew loan word standing inside Greek, used by Jesus to put his own word under oath. It is the same formula that in Luke 15:7 and 15:10 introduces the joy in heaven, which is one reason Ellicott hears the two sayings as a single family of utterance.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
χαίρειchaireihe rejoicesG5463
√ χαίρω — to be "cheer"ful, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
chairō: to rejoice, to be cheerful Present indicative: not a burst of feeling at a moment but the shepherd's standing disposition. Pulpit grounds it in ordinary affection, that a mother loves better an afflicted child whom she has nursed through a long malady, and reasons that the joy is proportional to the sorrow occasioned by its loss. Read with Luke 15:7 and 15:10, the same joy is located in heaven and before the angels of God, which ties this verse back to the angels of v. 10.
μᾶλλονmallonmoreG3123
√ μᾶλλον — (adverbially) more (in a greater degree)) or ratherAdverb
More. The comparison is of degree, not of worth; the ninety nine are not loved less, the one is rejoiced over more.
ἐπ’ep’overG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτῷautō[that one sheep]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 Neuter 3rd Person Singular
ἢēthanG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἐπὶepioverG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τοῖςtoistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
ἐνενήκονταenenēkontaninety-nineG1768
√ ἐννενηκονταεννέα — ninety-nineAdjectiveDative Neuter Plural
ἐννέαennea. . .G1767
√ ἐννέα — nineAdjectiveDative Neuter Plural
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
πεπλανημένοιςpeplanēmenoisthat did not go astrayG4105
√ πλανάω — to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue)VerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveDative Neuter Plural
planaō: to cause to roam (perfect participle) Perfect passive with μή: a fixed state of not having been led astray. JFB reads the whole verse as the counterpart of Luke 15, where the object is what the Shepherd will do to find the lost, whereas here the object is to show, when found, how reluctant He is to lose it.
14

In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

houtōs emprosthen hymōn tou Patros tou en ouranois estin ouk thelēma hina hen toutōn tōn mikrōn apolētai

Word by word17 · parsed
οὕτωςhoutōsIn the same wayG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
Thus, so. The single word that converts the parable into doctrine.
ἔμπροσθενemprosthenG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
emprosthen: in front of, in the presence of A preposition BSB does not render. It places the divine will where v. 10 placed the angels: before the Father's face. Gill notes the original phraseology, the will before your Father, and compares Matthew 11:26.
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΠατρὸςPatrosFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
patēr: father Now “your Father,” where v. 10 had “my Father.” Pulpit, citing Alford, reads the change as deliberate: the possessive shifts once the appeal moves from the dignity of the little ones to a motive pressed on the conscience of the hearer. Gill makes the same observation independently and draws the pastoral inference, that a father is infinitely more concerned for their welfare than a proprietor of sheep can be for one that is lost.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
οὐρανοῖςouranoisheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Plural
ἔστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οὐκouknotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
θέλημαthelēmawillingG2307
√ θέλημα — a determination (properly, the thing), iNounNominative Neuter Singular
thelēma: a determination, the thing willed The unit's last and heaviest noun, and the point where the commentators divide most sharply along confessional lines. Gill hears an unchangeable decree securing that not one shall perish eternally. Pulpit hears the opposite and says so bluntly, that with this text before him it is inconceivable that anyone can hold the doctrine of the eternal reprobation of certain souls. Ellicott reads the negative rhetorically and aligns the verse with 1 Timothy 2:4. The Greek noun, standing with ἔμπροσθεν and the ἵνα clause, states what is not willed; it does not tell us by what mode the willing operates.
ἵναhinathatG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἓνhenanyG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
One. Singular, matching the one sheep and the one little one of v. 10: the whole unit is built on the arithmetic of the single exception.
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Neuter Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
μικρῶνmikrōnlittle onesG3398
√ μικρός — small (in size, quantity, number or (figuratively) dignity)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
mikros: small in size, number or dignity The unit closes on the word it opened with, an inclusio around vv. 10 to 14. Whatever the little ones are, they are the same little ones at both ends, and the parable stands inside the bracket as their warrant.
ἀπόληταιapolētaishould perishG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
apollymi: to destroy fully, to perish, to be lost Aorist subjunctive middle. The same root supplies τὸ ἀπολωλός, “that which was lost,” in the omitted clause of v. 11, and also the language of John 6:39 and John 17:12 about losing none of those given. Poole reads the connection as the unit's real logic: every scandal, or offence, hath a tendency to destroy that soul before whom it is laid.

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 command to look, and the verb of looking down — 18:10a

The unit opens with an imperative of sight, Ὁρᾶτε, and forbids a particular act of the mind: καταφρονήσητε, to think down on. Pulpit reproduces the play in the text itself, glossing Take heed as ὁρᾶτε, see, and insists that God's care is minute; it extends to each individual of the class. Ellicott reconstructs the scene: the child was still there, perhaps still folded in the arms of Jesus, and he guesses that the faces of some at least of the disciples betrayed some touch of half-contemptuous wonder that called for this prompt rebuke. ⚙ That is a conjecture about faces, and Ellicott marks it as one. Gill's reading needs no conjecture, because Matthew supplies the motive in the immediate context: the disciples had been contending among themselves who should be greatest, so that each was looking upon himself as the greater, and every other as little. The verb chosen is rare, occurring in only nine New Testament verses, and it names a valuation before it names a behaviour. Pulpit catalogues the ways the valuation can show itself, including the one moderns least expect, that to say or do unseemly things in the presence of children is a mode of despising which may prove a deadly offence. Geneva compresses the whole ethic to a rule of inverse proportion: the weaker the man, the greater the care we owe his salvation, and the warrant is God's own example.

ii. Their angels, and the face they always see — 18:10b

The first proof of the little ones' dignity is drawn from heaven's staffing. Here the sources disagree openly and we will not flatten them. Pulpit affirms the doctrine outright, that each soul has assigned to it by God a special angel, grounds it on this verse and supports it from Hebrews 1:14, Psalm 34:7, Psalm 91:11 and Luke 15:7 and 10. Poole flatly denies that the text will bear it, arguing that our Saviour doth not say their several and respective angels, but their angels, and concluding that the opinion hath no patronage from this text. Benson reports that Jerome, and many others of the ancient fathers, took it as Pulpit does, then questions whether this is the meaning of the passage and proposes rotation instead, that different angels are at different times employed in this kind office. Gill traces the belief to Jewish tradition, citing rabbinic material about an angel particularly appointed for Abraham and the rule that one angel does not do two messages. Barnes and Ellicott decline to settle it. ⚙ What all of them grant, and what the Greek actually says, is narrower and still enormous: the angels are theirs, and διὰ παντὸς they are seeing the face. Benson, Barnes and Pulpit converge independently on the idiom's court setting, where the highest in office and favour are most frequently in the prince's presence; Barnes points to 1 Kings 10:8 and Esther 1:14, Pulpit to 2 Kings 25:19 and Jeremiah 52:25, and names the resulting rank the angels of the presence, or of the face. JFB proposes the sharper version of the image, the nurses of the royal children admitted with a familiarity the highest state ministers dare not assume, and honestly warns that the verse is difficult and this may be only an illustration. Gill turns the same access into a threat: these angels are near the throne and capable of lodging accusations and complaints. Poole says the same, that they are ready both to make report how they are used in the world. The argument, then, runs in two directions at once, honour and danger, and Poole names both.

iii. The verse that is not there — 18:11

In the BSB this verse is empty, and that emptiness is itself sourced information. Cambridge states the case: omitted in the Sinaitic and the Vatican MSS., and consequently rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles. Pulpit adds Westcott and Hort and the Revised Version to the rejecting side, and on the retaining side many good uncials, nearly all the cursives, the Vulgate and Syriac. Gill, writing a century before the critical editions, reports from Beza that it is left out in some Greek copies and argues it cannot be omitted because the following parable, which is an exemplification of it, requires it. Cambridge agrees on internal grounds, that it falls in precisely with the train of thought and is almost required to connect vv. 10 and 12. Pulpit contributes the sharpest internal argument against the usual theory that it was borrowed from Luke 19:10: an interpolator copying that verse would hardly have dropped the striking verb “to seek,” which would naturally have coincided with “seeketh” in v. 12. ⚙ Our own judgment is to follow the BSB and leave the line empty, while recording that every commentator in this brief expounds it, that the sentence they expound is unquestionably true elsewhere in the canon (Luke 19:10; Matthew 15:24), and that the argument of vv. 10 to 14 survives its absence because v. 14 supplies the same conclusion from the Father's will rather than the Son's mission. Henry, reading the block whole, states the pastoral upshot either way: Christ came into the world to save souls, and he will reckon severely with those who hinder the progress of others.

iv. A hundred, one, and the ninety nine on the hills — 18:12-13

Gill notes that “What do you think?” is a Talmudic way of speaking and that by it Christ makes the disciples judges themselves in this matter. The Greek then does something the English hides: the one sheep πλανηθῇ, aorist passive, is made to stray, and at the end of the verse it is still straying, πλανώμενον, present. ⚙ In a chapter about the stumbling block one person lays before another, a passive verb of straying is not an accident of idiom, and Poole draws the line himself: if you see some error in any of my sheep, restore such in the spirit of meekness, as Galatians 6:1, rather than lay further stumbling blocks before them. Gill identifies the man as the owner rather than the hireling, the one who must be thought to be most concerned for anyone of them that should go astray. On the hills the versions divide: Gill reports that the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic and Persic attach the phrase to the leaving, and Pulpit argues for that construal, reading the hill tops as pasture which, catching clouds and dew, are never without fresh grass, and citing Psalm 147:8. Gill prefers the other construal and hears the mountains of Israel of Ezekiel 34:13 and the mountain-to-mountain wandering of Jeremiah 50:6. Cambridge simply records that Luke adds “in the wilderness.” On the ninety nine, Pulpit reports that many of the Fathers took them for the sinless angels and the lost sheep for man, calls that a legitimate application but inexact as an exposition, and holds that the passage regards the whole flock as figuring the human race; Ellicott entertains both, strictly the unfallen creatures of God's spiritual universe and relatively those comparatively free from gross offences; Gill argues at length against the angelic reading on the ground that angels never go by the name of sheep, and identifies the ninety nine with the body of the Jewish nation. In v. 13 the perfect participle πεπλανημένοις sets a finished safety against the present straying, and Gill refuses to read it as praise: they seemed not to go astray, were outwardly righteous before men. JFB states the relation to Luke 15 exactly, that there the object is what the Shepherd will do to find the lost, while here the object is to show, when found, how reluctant He is to lose it. Pulpit, on the conditional “if so be that he find it,” draws the hardest conclusion in the unit, that God forces no one to be saved against his will; Gill draws the opposite, that the finding is uncertain with a shepherd but not so with Christ. ⚙ Both are reading the same periphrastic Greek conditional, and it will not by itself decide between them.

v. Not a will before your Father — 18:14

The close is the unit's heaviest sentence and its most contested. θέλημα is a noun, and ἔμπροσθεν, which BSB does not render, sets that noun in front of the Father's face, the same face the angels of v. 10 always see. Gill notices the wording and calls it “the will before your Father,” as in the original text; he then reads it as an unalterable will of purpose, an unchangeable decree, and lists the links of the chain, chosen in his Son, put into his hands, secured in his covenant, kept by his power. Pulpit reads the same clause to the contrary and says so without qualification, that with this text before him it is inconceivable that anyone can hold the doctrine of the eternal reprobation of certain souls. Ellicott takes the negative rhetorically, so that “it is not the will” implies the will of the Father is the very opposite, and aligns the verse with Paul's “He will have all men to be saved.” Both Pulpit and Gill note the pronoun's shift from “my Father” in v. 10 to “your Father” here, Pulpit crediting Alford with the observation that the change follows the change of purpose, from asserting the little ones' dignity to pressing a motive on the conscience. Benson supplies the unit's best one-line map of its own argument: Observe, reader, the gradation: the angels, the Son, the Father. ⚙ The three proofs are cumulative, and the last is the strongest precisely because it rests on nothing in the little one at all.

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

⚙ Under Sola Scriptura, offered to be tested and fallible. Read the unit by its voices rather than its arithmetic. Three times Jesus argues from someone else's regard for the little one, never from the little one's quality: the angels' standing at the throne, the Son's errand, the Father's decree. The child in Ellicott's reconstruction has done nothing; the sheep in the parable has done something wrong, and is still doing it when the search begins (πλανώμενον, present). So the dignity the disciples are commanded to see is entirely derived, and that is the point: the sin forbidden is to price a person by what is visible in them. Notice next what the passive voice contributes. The sheep does not simply wander; it is made to stray, and in a chapter whose subject is the stumbling block, Matthew has put the disciples in the story twice, once as those tempted to despise and once as a cause of the straying. Poole saw this and turned it into a question we cannot escape: will you be more uncharitable to men than you are to the beasts which you keep? Then the two hardest sentences. Pulpit and Gill both read v. 14 accurately and reach opposite conclusions, because the Greek noun θέλημα states what is not willed without stating how the willing works. We decline to settle what the text does not settle, and we note what both sides concede: the verse is addressed to the potential despiser, not to the anxious sheep, and its function is to make contempt an act against the will of God. Finally, the grammar of joy. χαίρει is present and durative, and Luke's twin locates that same joy in heaven and before the angels of God. If Luke is right, then the angels of v. 10 who always see the Father's face are the same ones who see him rejoice over the one that was brought back, and the circle of the unit closes: the beings nearest the throne spend their attention on exactly the people the disciples were tempted to overlook. Which makes contempt for the small not merely unkind but provincial: a misreading of where heaven is actually looking.

Contempt for the small is not merely unkind, it is provincial: a misreading of where heaven is actually looking. (This is the tool's own fallible synthesis, not a verse of 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 parable, told to a different room verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew sets the lost sheep among the disciples arguing about greatness; Luke sets it before Pharisees murmuring that Jesus receives sinners. The verbal tie is unusually hard: the compound ἐννενηκονταεννέα (G1768, ninety nine) stands in only four verses in the whole New Testament, and this parable and its Lukan twin account for all of them. Ellicott judges the reappearance significant as to the prominence, in our Lord's thoughts and teaching, of the whole cycle of imagery on which it rests. JFB distinguishes the two aims, Luke showing what the Shepherd will do to find the lost, Matthew showing how reluctant He is to lose it once found. Gill concludes from the different settings that the parable was twice delivered by our Lord, on two different occasions. Cambridge draws the methodological lesson, that such differences of context are comments by the Evangelists themselves on the drift and bearing of particular sayings of Christ.

Luke 15:4 · Luke 15:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1768 ἐννενηκονταεννέα (in 4 vv), a rare lexeme confined to this parable and its Lukan parallel; also G1520 εἷς (in 288 vv) and G3772 οὐρανός (in 255 vv). Both members are Greek New Testament, so a verbal tier is available; this is a shared dominical saying, not a citation of one text by another.

The nine verses of thinking down verbal / quotation: confirmed

καταφρονέω (G2706) is rare, and its other occurrences read like a map of the same disease in different rooms. The servant who cannot serve two masters will love one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13, the identical saying). Paul asks whether the presumptuous man despises the riches of God's forbearance (Romans 2:4), rebukes the Corinthians for despising the church of God at the supper (1 Corinthians 11:22), tells Timothy to let no one despise his youth (1 Timothy 4:12) and slaves not to despise believing masters (1 Timothy 6:2). Peter marks the false teachers as those who despise authority (2 Peter 2:10). And Hebrews turns the verb inside out: Jesus, for the joy set before him, despised the shame (Hebrews 12:2). ⚙ Placed against Matthew 18:10, that last instance is the exchange the unit assumes: the One who thought the cross's shame beneath his notice will not have anyone think his little ones beneath theirs.

Matthew 6:24 · Luke 16:13 · Romans 2:4 · 1 Corinthians 11:22 · 1 Timothy 4:12 · 1 Timothy 6:2 · 2 Peter 2:10 · Hebrews 12:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2706 καταφρονέω (in 9 vv) across every ref listed, a rare lexeme; all members are Greek New Testament. The link is lexical and thematic, not a quotation of one passage by another.

Straying sheep returned to the Shepherd structural / thematic: confirmed

1 Peter 2:25 joins the unit's two key words in one clause: you were as sheep (πρόβατον, G4263) going astray (πλανάω, G4105), but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. Matthew 18:12 uses both words of the same animal in the same condition. ⚙ The difference worth noting is voice: Peter's participle describes the sheep's condition, while Matthew's πλανηθῇ is passive, the sheep made to stray, which is what ties the parable to the chapter's warning about causing offence. Revelation uses the same verb for the deceiving of the nations (Revelation 20:3), which is the passive agent named.

1 Peter 2:25 · Revelation 20:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4105 πλανάω (in 37 vv) and G4263 πρόβατον (in 37 vv) at 1 Peter 2:25, plus G4105 and G3398 μικρός (in 43 vv) at Revelation 20:3. Neither lexeme is rare enough to justify a verbal tier on its own, so we downgrade to structural despite the striking co-occurrence at 1 Peter 2:25.

The shepherd who searches, against the shepherds who did not structural / thematic: confirmed

Ezekiel 34 is the indictment the parable answers. The shepherds of Israel did not strengthen the weak or seek the lost, so the flock was scattered on every high hill and none searched or sought for them (Ezekiel 34:4 to 6); therefore God himself declares, I will search for my sheep, I will seek the lost and bring back the strayed (Ezekiel 34:11 to 16). Jeremiah names the same failure (Jeremiah 23:1 to 4) and pictures the flock going from mountain to mountain (Jeremiah 50:6). Cambridge states the connection directly, that the expression and the imagery of the parable recall Ezekiel 34; Gill, arguing about the hills of Matthew 18:12, cites Ezekiel 34:13 for the mountains of Israel and Jeremiah 50:6 for the wandering. ⚙ Matthew's shepherd does exactly the three things Ezekiel's shepherds failed to do: he goes, he seeks, and he does not leave the searching to anyone else.

Ezekiel 34:4 · Ezekiel 34:11 · Ezekiel 34:16 · Jeremiah 23:1 · Jeremiah 50:6

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek New Testament to Hebrew Old Testament), so no shared Strong's number can be computed and no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared pattern and motif named by named sources: Cambridge states that the parable's expression and imagery recall Ezekiel 34, and Gill cites Ezekiel 34:13 and Jeremiah 50:6 at this verse. No quotation is claimed.

I have strayed like a lost sheep structural / thematic: confirmed

The confession the parable presupposes is already in the Psalter and the prophets. Psalm 119:176 ends the longest psalm with I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek your servant; Isaiah 53:6 makes it universal, we all like sheep have gone astray, and lays the consequence on the Servant. Gill cites Psalm 119:176 at this very clause of Matthew 18:12, noting that sheep are very prone to straying. ⚙ Read together, the Old Testament supplies both halves of the parable's logic: the sheep knows it cannot return by itself and asks to be sought (Psalm 119), and the going astray is not one sheep's exception but the flock's condition, borne by another (Isaiah 53). Pulpit's pastoral gloss, that the lost sheep would not return of itself, is the same observation.

Psalm 119:176 · Isaiah 53:6

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and a verbal tier is excluded. Recorded basis: a shared straying-sheep motif, with Psalm 119:176 cited at this clause by Gill in the sourced commentary. No quotation formula appears in the Matthew text.

The courtiers who see the king's face structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 18:10 says the angels see the face of the Father, and the idiom is royal court language. The Old Testament supplies both halves. For standing at court: Micaiah sees the Lord on his throne with all the host of heaven standing beside him (1 Kings 22:19); Daniel sees thousands upon thousands attending him (Daniel 7:10). For seeing the king's face as a mark of highest rank and access: the seven princes of Persia who saw the king's face (Esther 1:14), and the happiness of those who stand continually before Solomon (1 Kings 10:8). For angelic guardianship of the small: the angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him (Psalm 34:7) and he will command his angels concerning you (Psalm 91:11). This combination is not our invention: Ellicott cites Psalm 34:7 and Psalm 91:11 for the guardianship and Luke 1:19 for the angels of the Presence who stand before the face of God; Poole cites the same two psalms; Barnes cites 1 Kings 10:8 and Esther 1:14 for the court idiom; Pulpit cites 2 Kings 25:19, Esther 1:14 and Jeremiah 52:25 and names the rank the angels of the presence, or of the face.

1 Kings 22:19 · Daniel 7:10 · Esther 1:14 · 1 Kings 10:8 · Psalm 34:7 · Psalm 91:11

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot link these, so no verbal tier. The recorded basis is a shared court-and-throne pattern, with each ref supplied by a named source in this brief (Ellicott, Poole, Barnes, Pulpit) rather than by lexical computation.

Flagged: the missing verse and Luke 19:10 flagged: verify source

The standard explanation of Matthew 18:11 is that a copyist imported Luke 19:10, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Pulpit reports the theory and then argues against it from the wording, since an interpolator borrowing Luke would hardly have dropped the striking verb “to seek,” which would naturally have coincided with “seeketh” in v. 12. Cambridge and Pulpit both list the manuscript evidence against the verse (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and the editors Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revised Version), and both note that it fits the argument perfectly. Gill, working before those editions, thought it could not be omitted. ⚙ We flag rather than assert: the substance of the sentence is unquestionably dominical elsewhere (Luke 19:10; compare Matthew 15:24), but whether Matthew wrote it here, and whether Luke 19:10 is its source, are both genuinely disputed in the sources we hold.

Luke 19:10 · Matthew 15:24

basis: Provenance disputed in the sourced commentary itself: Cambridge and Pulpit report Matthew 18:11 as omitted by Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort and the Revised Version, while Gill and Cambridge defend it on internal grounds and Pulpit argues against the Luke 19:10 borrowing theory. The BSB leaves the verse empty. No verbal tier is possible: the clause is not in the base text we are commenting on.

Flagged: a rare shared word that is not a link flagged: verify source

The Verifier's lexical search returns Luke 17:17 with two rare matches, ἐννέα (G1767, nine, in only five verses) and οὐχὶ (G3780). Luke 17:17 is Jesus asking after the ten cleansed lepers: were not ten cleansed, where are the nine? ⚙ We record this candidate in order to refuse it. The shared vocabulary is real and genuinely rare, but it is arithmetic and interrogative particle, not shared subject matter: Matthew's nine is the tail of a compound number, Luke's is a count of ungrateful men. There is a faint thematic rhyme (in both, attention falls on the one who is not with the many), and a reader may find it worth a moment, but nothing in the sourced commentary draws the connection and we do not assert it. This is what a lexical false positive looks like.

Luke 17:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1767 ἐννέα (in 5 vv, rare) and G3780 οὐχί (in 51 vv). The computed lexical basis is real, but we judge it a false positive: the rare word is a numeral inside a compound, with no shared motif attested in any source in this brief. Flagged so the basis can be checked and rejected rather than silently inherited.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The owner, not the hireling ancient/widely-held

Gill's exegetical observation at Matthew 18:12 carries the whole christological weight of the parable: the man with a hundred sheep is the proprietor of them, not the hireling, who has them under his care, and whose the sheep are not, and therefore he is the one who must be thought to be most concerned for anyone of them that should go astray. That distinction is the hinge of John 10, where the good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep while the hireling flees because he does not own them (John 10:11 to 14). It is also the hinge of Ezekiel 34, where God dismisses the shepherds who fed themselves and announces that he will seek his sheep himself. Ellicott states plainly that even in this shorter form the parable involves the claim on our Lord's part to be the true Shepherd, and Matthew 15:24 has already had Jesus describe his own mission as being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 1 Peter 2:25 closes the figure: you were straying sheep, and you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. ⚙ The parable therefore is not an illustration Jesus borrows; it is a self-identification, and the search he describes is the one he is conducting while he speaks.

John 10:11 · Ezekiel 34:11 · Matthew 15:24 · 1 Peter 2:25

The angels, the Son, the Father: a gradation of proofs ancient/widely-held

Benson supplies the structure in a line: Observe, reader, the gradation: the angels, the Son, the Father. Three proofs of the little one's worth, each higher than the last, and each locating that worth outside the little one. Ellicott presses the first two together: the angels, in their ministry, are sharers in the Son's work, and he recalls the promise to Nathanael that he would see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51), adding that in that ascent and descent they were not only doing homage to His glory, but helping Him in His work. JFB cites the same John 1:51 with Hebrews 1:13 to explain the angels' errands to the throne. Hebrews 1:14 supplies the standing office, ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation, and it is the verse Ellicott, Barnes and Poole all fall back on when declining to settle the guardian-angel question. ⚙ The redemptive-historical shape is therefore a descending order of service to the small: the Father wills it, the Son accomplishes it, the angels carry it out, and the disciples, who are last in the order, are the ones tempted to think themselves too high for it. That is why the chapter's next movement is about receiving and forgiving rather than ranking.

John 1:51 · Hebrews 1:14 · Matthew 18:10 · Matthew 18:14

The will that loses nothing ancient/widely-held

The unit's last verb is ἀπόληται (G622, aorist subjunctive middle): the Father's will is that not one of these little ones should be lost. The same root, in the same construction of losing what has been entrusted, carries the Fourth Gospel's account of the Son's commission: this is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing (John 6:39); no one shall snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28); of those you gave me I have lost none (John 17:12). ⚙ Read together, Matthew 18:14 states the Father's will and John states the Son's discharge of it, and the shepherd in the parable stands between them as the picture of how the losing is prevented, by someone going after the one. Honest limits: the Verifier's candidate list does not include these John passages, so we have not had the shared lexeme frequency for G622 computed, and the link is offered as a root resonance we did not verify mechanically. Note also that Gill and Pulpit read Matthew 18:14 in flatly opposite ways, Gill as an unchangeable decree of preservation and Pulpit as an argument against reprobation, so this reading leans toward Gill's side of a genuine dispute and should be weighed as such.

John 6:39 · John 10:28 · John 17:12

The ninety nine left behind: a patristic figure, reported and not endorsed ancient/widely-held

Pulpit records that many of the Fathers interpret the ninety-nine as representing the sinless angels, the lost sheep as man, to seek and save whom Christ left heaven, that is, became incarnate, and Ellicott entertains the same possibility, that strictly the ninety and nine are the unfallen creatures of God's spiritual universe. On this reading the shepherd's leaving is the descent of Philippians 2, and the mountains are the height he came down from. ⚙ We report the figure as ancient and widely held, and we also report the objections, because both are in our sources. Pulpit itself judges it a legitimate application of the parable, but inexact as an exposition of the passage, which regards the whole flock as figuring the human race. Gill argues against it at length, on the grounds that angels never go by the name of sheep, are not of the same nature and kind with the one that strays, and were not in fact left at the incarnation, since a multitude descended at his birth, and sung glory to God. Our own judgment follows Pulpit's: a true typology of the descent, but not what this parable is arguing, whose force depends on the ninety nine and the one belonging to a single flock.

Matthew 18:12 · Philippians 2:7 · Luke 2:13

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)
  • 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)

Matthew 18:11 is empty in the BSB. The clause “For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost” is absent from the earliest manuscripts, and the interlinear for this unit accordingly supplies no words for the verse, so this synthesis offers no literal rendering, divergences or word notes there. Cambridge names Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and the editors Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles; Pulpit adds Westcott and Hort and the Revised Version, and lists the retaining witnesses as many good uncials, nearly all the cursives, the Vulgate and the Syriac. Gill, writing before the critical editions, reports Beza's note that it is left out in some Greek copies and argues it cannot be omitted. Every commentator in this brief expounds the verse; our base text does not contain it. Readers of older commentaries should expect the verse to be treated as genuine there.

Genuine syntactic ambiguity at 18:12. Whether ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη attaches to “leave” or to “go” is unresolved in the sources. Gill reports the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic and Persic joining it to “leave,” and Theophylact likewise; Pulpit argues for that construal and against the English versions; Gill himself prefers joining it to “go.” Our literal rendering keeps the words in Greek order, which leaves the ambiguity visible rather than resolving it.

Versional variants reported by Gill and not independently checked by us. At 18:10 the phrase “in heaven” is omitted in the Syriac and Persic versions. At 18:14 the Arabic and Ethiopic read “my father” where the Greek has “your Father,” which Gill says is without any authority. We record these as Gill's reports; we have not collated the versions.

What the sources genuinely dispute, and we do not settle. (1) Whether 18:10 teaches individual guardian angels: Pulpit affirms it, Poole denies that the text supports it, Benson proposes rotating assignment, Ellicott and Barnes decline. (2) Whether the little ones are literal children, child-like believers, or the despised publicans and sinners of Luke 15: Pulpit allows children literally or metaphorically, Gill argues for humble believers, Ellicott for both, Cambridge for the Lukan identification. (3) What kind of will θέλημα names at 18:14: Gill reads an unchangeable decree of preservation, Pulpit reads a refutation of reprobation and of irresistible grace, Ellicott reads it with 1 Timothy 2:4. These are confessional divisions of long standing, visible in the sourced text itself, and this synthesis reports them rather than adjudicating them.

Capped sources. The Gill entries at 18:10 and 18:12 are truncated in the brief (533 and 1,645 characters respectively). Our quotations and paraphrases of Gill are drawn only from the portions supplied, so his fuller argument, particularly his identification of the ninety nine with the Jewish nation, may carry qualifications we have not seen. Ellicott, Benson, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Geneva, Cambridge and Pulpit entries for this unit appear complete. Henry's entry is a single block covering 18:7 to 14, not a verse-by-verse comment, and we have used it as such.

Machine layer. Every parse, Strong's number, lexeme frequency and quotation above comes from the sourced brief. Marks with the machine sigil, the grand commentary's syntheses, the sola reading, the pull quote, the tier judgments and the refusal of the Luke 17:17 candidate are ours and are 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)