The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew19:13–15

Jesus Blesses the Children

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Matthew 19:13–15 — Jesus Blesses the Children. 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.

13

Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. And the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote paidia prosēnechthēsan autō hina epithē tas cheiras autois kai proseuxētai de hoi mathētai epetimēsan autois

Word by word16 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tote: then, at that time Not a bare filler here: Pulpit reads it as "directly after the preceding conversation", so that the blessing of children follows the discourse on marriage and celibacy, and Cambridge says the connection between the purity of married life and the love of little children cannot be overlooked.
παιδίαpaidialittle childrenG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounNominative Neuter Plural
paidion: a childling, of either sex The diminutive of pais. It is the word Matthew uses for the child set in the disciples' midst at 18:2, which is why Gill argues these were not newborns but children able to walk and be spoken to, while Pulpit and Ellicott lean on Luke's brephē (infants) and make them babes carried in arms. The brief preserves that disagreement rather than settling it, and nothing in Matthew's own vocabulary decides it.
προσηνέχθησανprosēnechthēsanwere broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
prospherō: to bear towards Aorist passive, third plural. The children do nothing; they are the object of someone else's action, and the agent is never named. Barnes hears in it a devoting of children to God, comparable to circumcision; Gill will only say they were brought, and that the purpose clause tells us why.
αὐτῷautōto [Jesus]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
ἵναhinaforG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
hina: in order that Purpose, governing the two aorist subjunctives that follow.
ἐπιθῇepithēHim to placeG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
epitithēmi: to impose, lay upon Aorist subjunctive active: the single decisive act requested. Benson and Barnes both identify the gesture as the Jewish custom of laying a hand on the head of the person prayed for, and both send the reader to Genesis 48:14, where Jacob lays his hands on Joseph's sons. Poole adds the principle from Hebrews 7:7 that the less is blessed of the better, which is exactly the claim the parents are making about Jesus by asking for his hands.
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheiras[His] handsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
cheir: the hand, literally or figuratively power Strong's gives the word both senses at once, the physical hand and power, and that double sense is the point of the request: a hand laid on a head is the visible form of a power transferred. The pairing of epitithēmi with cheiras is a fixed idiom (38 verses carry the verb) and it runs in two directions in the Gospels, toward the sick, as in the ruler's request at Matthew 9:18 which Barnes cites here, and toward blessing and commissioning, as in Genesis 48:14 which Benson, Barnes, Gill, Poole and Pulpit all name. Pulpit adds that from the Jewish use the gesture passed into the Christian Church and continues to this day. What is asked of Jesus in this verse is the blessing sense, with no illness in view.
αὐτοῖςautoison themG846
√ 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 Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσεύξηταιproseuxētaipray [for them]G4336
√ προσεύχομαι — to pray to God, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
proseuchomai: to pray to God Aorist subjunctive middle, the verb's normal voice, and the second half of the single request. What is asked for is therefore not a touch only but intercession: Henry's summary is that we can but beg a blessing, Christ only can command it. Matthew reports the request here and, in v. 15, reports only the laying on of hands.
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐπετίμησανepetimēsanrebukedG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
epitimaō: to tax upon, to rebuke, censure A relatively uncommon verb (29 verses) and a hard one: Matthew uses it where Jesus silences a demon (17:18) and where Peter takes his Master aside to contradict him (16:22). The disciples now aim it at people bringing children. Gill lists four possible motives (rudeness of the crowd, trouble to Christ, the thing being beneath him, fear of a fresh rebuke about their own ambition); Pulpit says frankly that why they did so is not quite obvious. Mark, as several of these voices note, records that Jesus was much displeased.
αὐτοῖςautoisthose [who brought them]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 Plural
14

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho Iēsous eipen Aphete ta paidia elthein pros me kai mē kōlyete auta gar hē basileia tōn ouranōn estin tōn toioutōn

Word by word22 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epō: to speak, say Aorist. Matthew gives the saying with almost no variation from Mark and Luke, as Pulpit observes.
ἌφετεApheteLetG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
aphiēmi: to send away, let go, leave Aorist imperative plural, addressed to the disciples. The same verb elsewhere carries the sense of releasing a debt or forgiving; here what is released is a group of children from the grip of adult gatekeeping. Gill hears in the command a lesson to the disciples to regard the weakest believers, and such as were but children in knowledge.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
παιδίαpaidialittle childrenG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐλθεῖνeltheincomeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
erchomai: to come or go Aorist infinitive, dependent on the imperative. Pulpit notices the implication: Jesus speaks as though the infants were ready and eager to come to him if they were not prevented, so that the only thing standing between them and him is the disciples.
πρόςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: not, lest The negative that makes the following present imperative a command to desist.
κωλύετεkōlyetedo not hinderG2967
√ κωλύω — to estop, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
kōlyō: to estop, hinder, forbid A relatively rare verb (23 verses). The same verb surfaces at the two hinges of the book of Acts where an outsider's admission is at stake, the eunuch asking what hinders him from being baptized (Acts 8:36) and Peter asking whether anyone can forbid water (Acts 10:47). That lexical link is real and is recorded in the threads below; it is not by itself an argument about infants, and we mark it as an echo, not a proof.
αὐτὰautathemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
gar: for, assigning a reason The whole ground of the command is what follows: the kingdom's ownership.
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, rule, kingdom The word is not primarily a territory but a reign. Read that way, the sentence says the reign of the heavens is the property of such as these, which is an astonishing thing to say over children who have just been treated as an interruption. Barnes takes the kingdom here to mean the church and adds that Christ does not say all these infants are saved; Poole says the argument holds whether one reads church or glory. We follow the text no further than the possessive it actually states.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐστὶνestinbelongsG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eimi: to be, exist Present indicative. With a genitive of possession this is the whole verb of the clause: the kingdom is of such. Present tense, not future: the ownership is asserted now, over children who have done nothing and been examined for nothing.
τῶνtōntoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
τοιούτωνtoioutōnsuch as theseG5108
√ τοιοῦτος — truly this, iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Neuter Plural
toioutos: such as this, of this kind Demonstrative of quality, not of identity. It is the pivot of the entire dispute in the commentary tradition: Pulpit and Barnes take it as character (humility, simplicity, dependence), while Ellicott and Geneva let it reach the children themselves as heirs. The word can hold both, and Matthew does not narrow it.
15

And after He had placed His hands on them, He went on from there.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai epitheis tas cheiras autois eporeuthē ekeithen

Word by word7 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
kai: and Plain coordination; BSB subordinates it into "And after".
ἐπιθεὶςepitheisafter He had placedG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epitithēmi: to impose, lay upon The verb of v. 13 now in the aorist participle: the thing asked for is the thing done, without comment. Cambridge refuses to let it be empty, calling it no unmeaning act, and Ellicott hears behind it Mark's report that he folded them in his arms. The same verb, joined to prayer, is what the apostles do in Acts 6:6 and 13:3, and what is done for the sick in Matthew 9:18, so the gesture here sits inside a recognizable canonical pattern rather than standing alone.
τὰςtas[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheirashandsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
cheir: the hand, power Accusative plural with the article only; the possessive in English is supplied.
αὐτοῖςautoison themG846
√ 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 Plural
ἐπορεύθηeporeuthēHe went onG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
poreuomai: to traverse, journey Aorist, passive in form and intransitive in sense. The blessing does not become a scene; he blesses and walks. Matthew's economy here is part of the point: nothing is asked of the children and nothing is extracted from them.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom thereG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
ekeithen: thence, from there Pulpit places the departure from Peraea toward Jerusalem, that is, toward the passion.

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

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

i. Carried, and turned away — 13

The grammar of v. 13 is entirely passive at the point where we would expect initiative. προσηνέχθησαν is an aorist passive with no agent: the children were borne toward him. Who bore them is never said, and the named voices divide over it, Ellicott assuming the mothers, Barnes some of Christ's followers, Gill insisting it is simply not known. Nor is Jesus named; he is a dative pronoun, αὐτῷ, until v. 14. What is stated is the purpose: hands laid on, and prayer. Benson identifies the gesture from the Jewish custom of laying a hand on the head of one prayed for, and traces it to Jacob blessing Joseph's sons; Barnes cites the same Genesis text and adds Matthew 9:18. Poole arrives at the purpose by elimination, ruling out baptism (Christ baptized none, John 4:2) and doubting healing, since the disciples would hardly have rebuked a healing, and lands on blessing, quoting Hebrews 7:7 that the less is blessed of the better. Then ἐπετίμησαν, an uncommon and harsh verb (29 verses) that Matthew elsewhere uses of silencing a demon and of Peter contradicting his Master, is aimed by the disciples at the bringers. ⚙ The final αὐτοῖς is neuter and so grammatically could be the children themselves; Gill expressly rejects that reading (against the Persic version) and Pulpit defers to Mark's "those that brought them". Pulpit concedes that the motive is not quite obvious; Gill offers four guesses. No voice here defends the disciples.

ii. Two imperatives and a genitive — 14

Jesus answers with two commands and a reason. Ἄφετε is an aorist imperative of aphiēmi, the verb of releasing and letting go, so the first word is not "permit" so much as "let them loose". μὴ κωλύετε is a present imperative: stop the hindering already in progress. Pulpit catches what this implies about the children, that Jesus speaks as though they were ready and eager to come if they were not prevented. Then the ground: τῶν τοιούτων ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, a bare possessive genitive with the present tense of eimi. Ellicott renders it "is theirs as by inheritance"; Cambridge names the qualities meant, love, simplicity of faith, innocence and above all humility; Barnes, pressing that the word is toioutōn and not toutōn, says the kingdom is made up not of those infants but of persons resembling them; Pulpit says the same, that Christ refers to disposition and character rather than age. Against that, Ellicott and the Geneva note let the saying reach the children themselves, Geneva adding the qualifier "elect" which the text does not supply. Gill, reading the children as older and instructable, makes them lively emblems of the proper subjects of a Gospel church state. ⚙ The Greek phrase carries a quality, and a quality has to be somewhere; Matthew puts it, in this scene, exactly where the disciples were not looking.

iii. The hands, and the road — 15

Verse 15 is one sentence: a participle, ἐπιθεὶς, and a main verb of travel, ἐπορεύθη. Matthew reports the laying on of hands and not the prayer, though both were asked in v. 13. Barnes fills the gap from Mark ("he blessed them", that is, he pronounced or sought a blessing), Gill likewise adds the blessing and reads the departure as a move toward Jerusalem, and Pulpit turns the silence into doctrine, arguing that in conferring blessing Christ acted in his Divine nature and had no need of prayer. Cambridge draws the minimal and safest conclusion, that the act is no unmeaning act and that infants are therefore capable of receiving a blessing though not conscious of an obligation. Here the unit's real fracture opens. Ellicott takes the words and the act as the true warrant for infant baptism, above doubtful passages in the Acts and Epistles; Poole thinks the argument for infant baptism is well drawn from the text, yet warns that it must rest on Christ's words and not on his practice, since he certainly did not baptize these children; Gill reads Christ's entire silence about baptism at so convenient an opportunity as telling against the practice altogether. ⚙ Three honest readers, one text, three verdicts. We report the division rather than dissolve it.

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

⚙ Read only against Scripture, this scene is about who is competent to be in the kingdom. The disciples are not cruel; they are consistent. They have just heard about marriage, divorce and the hard saying on eunuchs, and they have been rebuked once already for arguing about greatness. On any theory where the kingdom is for the capable, children carried in someone else's arms are an interruption, and the mothers who bring them are wasting the Teacher's time. Jesus does not soften that theory, he reverses it: Ἄφετε, let them go, μὴ κωλύετε, stop it, τῶν τοιούτων ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία, the reign is already the property of such. Notice what is absent. Nobody examines the children, nobody asks them a question, nothing is required of them, and they contribute one thing to the whole episode: they are brought, and they are touched. Notice too what Matthew withholds. He does not say these children were saved, he does not say they were baptized, and he does not even report the prayer that was requested. The text will not carry the weight either party in the baptism dispute wants to put on it, and the honest voices in this unit half admit as much: Poole grants the practice cannot be founded on Christ's example here, and Gill's counterargument rests equally on silence. What is not silent is the possessive genitive in the present tense. ⚙ Our reading, offered to be tested: the disciples were guarding the door of a kingdom that was already owned by the people they were pushing back, and that is the standing danger of every gatekeeping the church has since invented. The line below is ours, not Scripture.

The kingdom already belonged to the ones who could only arrive in someone else's arms.

⚙

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 scene in Mark and Luke: one saying, three witnesses verbal / quotation: confirmed

All three synoptists carry this pericope, and nearly every voice in this unit works from the parallels: JFB does nothing but send the reader to Luke 18:15-17, Poole reconstructs the whole event from Mark 10:14-16 and Luke 18:16, and Pulpit says the memorable words are given almost without variation by the three. The Verifier confirms the verbal overlap at the level of vocabulary: Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16 share παιδίον (G3813), τοιοῦτος (G5108) and ἀφίημι (G863), and Mark 10:13 shares with Matthew 19:13 the bringing verb προσφέρω (G4374) and the rebuking verb ἐπιτιμάω (G2008). Mark and Luke add what Matthew omits: that Jesus was much displeased, that he took the children in his arms, and the saying that whoever does not receive the kingdom as a little child will not enter it.

Mark 10:13 · Mark 10:14 · Luke 18:16

basis: Verifier: Matthew 19:14 with Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16 share G3813 παιδίον (in 49 vv), G5108 τοιοῦτος (in 55 vv), G863 ἀφίημι (in 131 vv); Matthew 19:13 with Mark 10:13 shares G4374 προσφέρω (in 45 vv), G2008 ἐπιτιμάω (in 29 vv), G3101 μαθητής (in 247 vv). Greek to Greek within the NT, a synoptic parallel of the same saying, not one book citing another

Hands laid on a child's head: the patriarchal blessing structural / thematic: confirmed

The request in v. 13 is for a known Israelite gesture, and the commentators name it without hesitation. Benson: the imposition of hands was a ceremony used in ancient times, especially in paternal blessing, and Jacob laid his hands on the heads of Joseph's sons. Barnes and Gill cite Genesis 48:14 for the same point, Poole adds Genesis 27:4 for Isaac, and Pulpit cites Genesis 48:14 together with Numbers 27:23 for the hand laid on a successor. Two further Hebrew scenes stand behind the same gesture: Moses laying his hand on Joshua at the LORD's command (Numbers 27:18, Deuteronomy 34:9), and the blessing the LORD put in Aaron's mouth to be spoken over the people (Numbers 6:24-26). ⚙ What the parents want, then, is not a novelty but Jacob's hands, and the blessing of a childless traveling rabbi over children not his own.

Genesis 48:14-16 · Genesis 27:27-29 · Numbers 27:18 · Deuteronomy 34:9 · Numbers 6:24-26

basis: Cross-Testament link (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is the shared ritual pattern of hands laid on the head to bless or commission, named for these very texts by Benson, Barnes, Gill, Poole and Pulpit in this unit's sourced commentary

Hands and prayer together: the gesture in the apostolic church structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit notes that from the Jewish use the laying on of hands passed into the Christian Church and continues to this day on solemn occasions, citing Acts 6. The Verifier's own candidate list is built on precisely that cluster: Acts 6:6, Acts 13:3 and Acts 28:8 all combine χείρ (G5495), ἐπιτίθημι (G2007) and προσεύχομαι (G4336), the exact three words of the request in Matthew 19:13, and 1 Timothy 5:22 warns against doing it hastily. ⚙ The point is not that Matthew 19 institutes ordination, but that the two verbs asked of Jesus here, lay on and pray, become the church's standard pairing for commissioning, healing and blessing.

Acts 6:6 · Acts 13:3 · Acts 28:8 · 1 Timothy 5:22

basis: Verifier candidates: shared G5495 χείρ (in 168 vv), G2007 ἐπιτίθημι (in 38 vv), G4336 προσεύχομαι (in 80 vv). All three lexemes are common, so the link is a shared practice and formula rather than a quotation; tier kept structural

The hand that heals, laid on those who are only blessed structural / thematic: confirmed

The same pair of words, ἐπιτίθημι with χεῖρας, is what people ask of Jesus when they want a cure: the ruler at Matthew 9:18 (cited by Barnes on this very verse), Jairus at Mark 5:23, the deaf man at Mark 7:32, the blind man at Mark 8:23-25. Gill takes that resonance seriously enough to suggest some of these children may have been diseased and brought to be touched, since he cannot otherwise see why touching was asked; Pulpit says the disciples would have welcomed the children readily if they had been brought to be healed, and that what defeated them was a blessing with no illness to justify it. ⚙ That is the sharpest thing in the pericope: the hand known for fixing bodies is laid on children with nothing to fix.

Matthew 9:18 · Mark 5:23 · Mark 7:32 · Mark 8:23

basis: Verifier candidates: shared G5495 χείρ (in 168 vv) and G2007 ἐπιτίθημι (in 38 vv) in each pair. Common lexemes and a shared gesture, no quotation; Barnes independently cites Matthew 9:18 in the sourced commentary

What hinders? The verb κωλύω at the doors of Acts structural / thematic: confirmed

The command in v. 14 is μὴ κωλύετε (G2967), a relatively uncommon verb, and it reappears at the two places in Acts where someone outside the expected circle is admitted: the Ethiopian asking what hinders him from being baptized (Acts 8:36) and Peter asking whether anyone can forbid water to those who have received the Spirit (Acts 10:47). ⚙ We note the echo and stop short of the conclusion many have drawn from it. Ellicott and Pulpit would press it toward infant baptism, Gill would deny the inference, and the shared word by itself proves only that the earliest church used the same verb for gatekeeping that Jesus forbade here.

Acts 8:36 · Acts 10:47

basis: Verifier pair check on Matthew 19:14 with Acts 10:47 and with Acts 8:36: shared G2967 κωλύω (in 23 vv), plus common G3361 μή, G1473 ἐγώ, G2064 ἔρχομαι. G2967 is relatively rare, but there is no citation formula and the sense differs (hindering children from Christ, hindering converts from water), so we keep the Verifier's own structural tier rather than claiming a verbal quotation

Children as the LORD's gift, and the child handed over at the sanctuary typological

⚙ The Hebrew Scriptures already put children on the side of gift rather than of achievement: sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward (Psalm 127:3-5, Psalm 128:3), and Hannah brings the child she had begged for to the house of the LORD and leaves him there (1 Samuel 1:24-28). Matthew 19 has no quotation of these texts and makes no argument from them. What it shares is a posture: a child carried to the place of blessing by adults who can do nothing more for him than bring him. We offer this as a figural reading, not as a demonstrated link, and note that no voice in this unit's sourced commentary draws it.

Psalm 127:3-5 · Psalm 128:3 · 1 Samuel 1:24-28

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible, and no quotation or allusion formula is present. A figural reading of the shared motif of the child received as gift and carried to the place of blessing. Novel here in the sense that none of this unit's named commentators asserts it; offered to be tested

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

A kingdom held by possession, not by attainment ancient/widely-held

The reason Jesus gives is a genitive in the present tense: τῶν τοιούτων ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Ellicott hears inheritance in it, "theirs as by inheritance"; Cambridge names humility above all as the mark; Barnes and Pulpit insist the word is such and not these, so that the kingdom is composed of persons of that temper. Mark and Luke, as Poole records, immediately attach the sentence that whoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it, and Matthew has already put a child in the disciples' midst at 18:2-3 with the same demand. ⚙ Redemptive-historically this is of one piece with everything Jesus says about entering: the kingdom is received, never earned, and the qualification he keeps naming is the inability to qualify. The children are the visual argument, and the argument runs straight into the next paragraph of Matthew, where a man who has kept everything cannot get in, and the disciples ask who then can be saved.

Matthew 18:3 · Mark 10:15 · Luke 18:17

The greater lays on the hands: Jacob's gesture in Christ's own right ancient/widely-held

Poole grounds the parents' request on Hebrews 7:7, that without contradiction the less is blessed of the better, and says the parents by this act declared they looked on Christ as a great prophet whose prayers could prevail. Benson, Barnes, Gill and Pulpit all identify the gesture with Jacob's hands on Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:14). ⚙ The difference is in who is doing it. Jacob blessed as a dying man passing on a promise he had received; Numbers 6 gives Aaron words the LORD put in his mouth. Here the hands are laid by the one whose own kingdom is being spoken of in the same breath, and Matthew reports the laying on without reporting the prayer. Pulpit takes the omission as proof that he blessed in his divine nature and needed no prayer. That inference is his, from a silence, and we mark it as such rather than adopting it. What is plain in Matthew is that the blessing asked for was given, by hands, and that the next verses set him on the road that ends in Jerusalem.

Genesis 48:14-16 · Hebrews 7:7 · Numbers 6:24-26

He receives what his own disciples turn away ancient/widely-held

The structure of the scene is a rejection reversed. The verb the disciples use, ἐπετίμησαν, is the verb Matthew uses for silencing demons (17:18) and for Peter's attempt to correct his Master (16:22); Mark reports that Jesus was much displeased, which Ellicott describes as tenderness kindled into indignation at the rough indifference of the disciples. Henry states the principle plainly: those who are given to Christ as part of his purchase he will in no wise cast out, and he takes it ill of all who try to shut out those whom he has received. ⚙ This is the same Christ who calls the weary, who does not break what is already bruised, and who at the last is handed over by those closest to him. The pattern in this small episode, the helpless brought to him, the competent standing in the way, and Christ overruling his own inner circle to receive them, is the gospel in miniature, and the church has read it so from early on.

Matthew 11:28 · Matthew 12:20 · John 6:37

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)
  • 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: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; commentary quoted verbatim from public-domain sources named by tag. What is uncertain in this unit, stated plainly. (1) The age of the children is genuinely disputed in the sources: Matthew has παιδία, Ellicott and Pulpit import Luke's brephē (infants) and make them babes in arms, Gill argues from the same word at 18:2 that they were old enough to walk and to be taught. Matthew's vocabulary does not decide it, and Gill's conclusion is visibly shaped by his position on baptism. (2) The referent of the last αὐτοῖς in v. 13 is ambiguous in Matthew: it is neuter plural, agreeing in form with the children; "those who brought them" comes from Mark, as Pulpit says, and Gill explicitly rejects a version that read it of the children. (3) Matthew reports the laying on of hands in v. 15 but not the prayer requested in v. 13, and does not include Mark's embrace or Mark and Luke's saying about receiving the kingdom as a child. Several voices supply those from the parallels; we flag each place where they do. (4) Infant baptism: this unit's sources contradict one another (Ellicott and Pulpit for, Geneva assuming covenant membership, Poole for the doctrine but against founding it on Christ's practice here, Gill against), and our synthesis takes no side. (5) The Pulpit entry on v. 14 as digitized reads "Unconscious intents" where the printed text has "infants"; we quote the corrupted form verbatim rather than repair a source silently. JFB supplies no exposition here, referring the reader to Luke 18:15-17, so no JFB voice is cited. (6) The Psalm and 1 Samuel thread is our own figural reading, tiered typological and marked as unsupported by any named commentator in this unit.

✦ = 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)