The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew19:16–30

The Rich Young Man

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Matthew 19:16–30 — The Rich Young Man. 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.

16

Just then a man came up to Jesus and inquired, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai idou heis proselthōn autō eipen Didaskale ti agathon poiēsō hina schō aiōnion zōēn

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiJust thenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold, lo A frozen imperative used as an exclamation. Pulpit: the word “as usual, denotes the suddenness and unexpected nature of the occurrence.”
εἷςheisa manG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
heis: one A numeral, not an indefinite article, and Pulpit holds the choice deliberate: “This is more emphatic than the enclitic τις.” Watch where the word goes next. The same heis that counts one man out of the crowd here is the word Jesus uses in v. 17 of God: one is the good One. The parse cannot settle whether Matthew intended the echo, but the two occurrences stand two verses apart and the second is the answer to the first.
προσελθὼνproselthōncame upG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
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
εἶπενeipen[and] inquiredG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
didaskalos: instructor, teacher The title is the ceiling of the man's estimate of Jesus. Barnes: the word “Master” here means teacher, and the epithet refers “not so much to the moral character of Jesus as to his character as a religious teacher.” Pulpit says he “recognized in Jesus a Rabbi worthy of all honour and veneration, though he saw in him nothing more.” Everything Jesus says next works on that ceiling.
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀγαθὸνagathongood [thing]G18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
agathos: good, in any sense The pivot of the whole dialogue. He asks for a good thing in the accusative, an object he can produce; Jesus answers with the same lexeme in the nominative, a Person (v. 17, ἀγαθός of God). Cambridge locates in this question “the central error of the Pharisaic system.” The word will not stay a commodity.
ποιήσωpoiēsōmust I doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
poieō: to make or do Aorist subjunctive, first person: a single decisive act is in view, not a life. Gill: he “expected eternal life by doing some good thing, or things.”
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
σχῶschōobtainG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
echō: to hold, have Aorist subjunctive of possession. He wants eternal life the way he holds his estates, as a thing acquired and kept. The same root returns as a participle in v. 22 (ἔχων, “having” great wealth), and the unit's last word on the subject is a different verb entirely: in v. 29 the reward is not held but inherited (κληρονομήσει).
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
aiōnios: perpetual, age-lasting Paired with ζωή, G2222. Gill quotes the rabbinic idiom “he inherits the life of the world to come” and says the phrase was “much in use with the Jewish Rabbins.” The man is not inventing a category; he is asking, inside a real Jewish hope, for terms he can meet.
ζωὴνzōēnlifeG2222
√ ζωή — life (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
zōē: life Barnes: to have eternal life “means to be saved,” and the happiness of heaven is called life “in opposition to the pains of hell, called death.” Note the framing of the unit: it opens with a question about life (v. 16) and closes with the promise of inheriting life (v. 29), with everything in between arguing about who can enter it.
17

“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ti erōtas me peri tou agathou de Ho eipen autō estin heis ho agathos de ei theleis eiselthein eis tēn zōēn tērēson tas entolas

Word by word24 · parsed
ΤίTiWhyG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐρωτᾷςerōtasdo you askG2065
√ ἐρωτάω — to interrogateVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
περὶperiaboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
τοῦtouwhat isG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ἀγαθοῦagathougoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
agathos: good The second of four occurrences of this lexeme in two verses. Ellicott: what the questioner needed “was to be taught to deepen and widen his thoughts of goodness until they rose to Him in whom alone it was absolute and infinite.” Ellicott even compares the method, “without irreverence,” to the grave, sad irony of Socrates with his questioners.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] repliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
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
ἐστινestinThere isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἷςheisonly OneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
heis: one Numerically the same word that introduced the man in v. 16 now names God. Gill: God alone is good “originally, essentially, independently, infinitely, and immutably,” and he insists this is said of God considered essentially, “not personally,” so that it excludes neither the Son nor the Spirit. Poole reads it as an argument aimed at the Pharisaic refusal to own Christ as God or as come forth from God.
ὁhowho isG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀγαθόςagathosgoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
agathos: good Nominative now, with the article: the adjective has become an identity. Pulpit: “He does not deny the applicability of the epithet to himself, but turns the questioner's thoughts to the Source of all good.”
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
εἰeiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
θέλειςtheleisyou wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
thelō: to will, determine Present indicative: a standing willingness is assumed, not produced. The same verb heads v. 21, so the two halves of the encounter are hinged on the man's own will.
εἰσελθεῖνeiseltheinto enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
eiserchomai: to enter Aorist infinitive. The verb of entering is the spine of this unit: entering life here, entering the kingdom in vv. 23 and 24 (twice), where it becomes the thing a rich man cannot do.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ζωὴνzōēnlifeG2222
√ ζωή — life (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
τήρησονtērēsonkeepG5083
√ τηρέω — perhaps akin to G2334 (θεωρέω))VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
tēreō: to watch, guard, keep Aorist imperative. Barnes holds that Jesus said this “doubtless, to try him,” since if he was depending on the commandments “he must keep them perfectly.” Gill is blunter: the answer is given “according to the tenor of the covenant of works,” to unhinge the man from the legal foundation he is standing on. Poole agrees that no passable road to heaven lies that way. This is the interpretive fork of the unit, and the commentators are unanimous that the imperative is real but not offered as a way of merit.
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἐντολάςentolascommandmentsG1785
√ ἐντολή — injunction, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
entolē: injunction, commandment Plural and articular: the known commandments. Ellicott: “the great moral laws of God, as distinct from ordinances and traditions,” with which every Israelite was familiar. The Verifier records this same lexeme shared with the parallel commandment lists at Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20 and with Romans 13:9.
18

“Which ones?” the man asked. Jesus answered, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Poias Legei autō de Ho Iēsous eipen To Ou phoneuseis Ou moicheuseis Ou klepseis Ou pseudomartyrēseis

Word by word16 · parsed
ΠοίαςPoiasWhich [ones]G4169
√ ποῖος — individualizing interrogative (of character) what sort of, or (of number) which oneInterrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Feminine Plural
poios: what sort of Qualitative, and the question is a rabbinic one. Ellicott: the questioner “has been trained in the language of the schools, has heard debates as to which was the great commandment of the Law.” Pulpit: he expected “some special precept or precepts, difficult of accomplishment, and not usually regarded.” The answer disappoints him precisely by being ordinary.
ΛέγειLegei[the man] askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
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
δὲdeG1161
√ 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
εἶπενeipenansweredG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΤὸToG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ΟὐOuvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Standing before each future indicative, the mark of quoted Decalogue.
φονεύσειςphoneuseisDo not murderG5407
√ φονεύω — to be a murderer (of)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
phoneuō: to be a murderer A relatively rare verb (the Verifier's data shows it in 10 verses), shared with the parallel lists at Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, and Romans 13:9. Barnes identifies the sequence as the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and fifth commandments of Exodus 20:12-16.
ΟὐOuvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μοιχεύσειςmoicheuseisdo not commit adulteryG3431
√ μοιχεύω — to commit adulteryVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ΟὐOuvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
κλέψειςklepseisdo not stealG2813
√ κλέπτω — to filchVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ΟὐOuvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ψευδομαρτυρήσειςpseudomartyrēseisdo not bear false witnessG5576
√ ψευδομαρτυρέω — to be an untrue testifier, iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
pseudomartyreō: to be an untrue testifier The rarest lexeme in the unit (the Verifier records it in 5 verses), which is what makes the Synoptic parallel at Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20 a genuinely verbal link rather than a shared theme. Barnes glosses it as giving testimony contrary to truth, “in a court of justice, or by private or public slander.” Cambridge notes that the enumeration “stops at covetousness,” the one command left unspoken and the one the next verses will expose.
19

honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tima ton patera kai tēn mētera kai Agapēseis sou ton plēsion hōs seauton

Word by word13 · parsed
ΤίμαTimahonorG5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
timaō: to prize, to honor Present imperative, and fifth in the Decalogue though last in this list. Gill notes the inversion is of no consequence and cites the rabbinic saying that “there is neither first nor last in the law,” observing that Romans 13:9 likewise puts the seventh before the sixth and omits the fifth. Ellicott reads the reordering as design: the seeker is led “through the negative to the positive forms of law.”
τὸνton[your]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
patēr: father
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
mētēr: mother
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἈγαπήσειςAgapēseisloveG25
√ ἀγαπάω — to love (in a social or moral sense)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
agapaō: to love The command Jesus adds that is not from the Decalogue at all but from Leviticus 19:18, which Barnes notes Christ elsewhere declares “the second great commandment of the law” (Matthew 22:39). Placed at the end of a list of prohibitions, it is the clause that cannot be satisfied by abstention, and it is the clause against which v. 21 will measure him.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πλησίονplēsionneighborG4139
√ πλησίον — (adverbially) close byAdverb
plēsion: close by, the one near An adverb doing a noun's work. The man's neighbors, in v. 21, turn out to be the poor (πτωχοῖς), and the test of this commandment turns out to be his estate.
ὡςhōsasG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
σεαυτόνseautonyourselfG4572
√ σεαυτοῦ — of (with, to) thyselfPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
seautou: thyself The standard of measure. Poole's point is that a man unready to relieve the poor at God's command “argued a covetous mind,” so the omitted tenth commandment is in fact present here, hidden inside the measuring rod.
20

“All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tauta panta ephylaxa Legei ho neaniskos autō ti eti hysterō

Word by word10 · parsed
ΤαῦταTautavvvG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
πάνταpantaAll theseG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐφύλαξαephylaxaI have keptG5442
√ φυλάσσω — to watch, iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
phylassō: to watch, guard Aorist. Poole is precise about how such a claim was possible: the young man understood the commandments “according to the Pharisees' interpretation of them,” as prohibiting only overt acts, “not the inward lusts and motions of the heart,” and he cites Paul at Romans 7:7 on not having known lust but for the tenth commandment. Ellicott's judgment is sharper still: the man “had not learnt that to keep any one of those commandments in its completeness is the task of a life.”
ΛέγειLegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
νεανίσκοςneaniskosyoung manG3495
√ νεανίσκος — a youth (under forty)NounNominative Masculine Singular
neaniskos: a youth Matthew's own detail, and the reason the unit is remembered under this title. Gill finds it remarkable that amid “so much riches and grandeur” he was “so early serious and religious,” even if only externally.
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
τίtiWhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔτιetivvvG2089
√ ἔτι — "yet," still (of time or degree)Adverb
eti: yet, still One small adverb carries the confession: something is outstanding.
ὑστερῶhysterōdo I still lackG5302
√ ὑστερέω — to be later, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
hystereō: to fall behind, come short The question is not self-satisfied. Ellicott: “his condition was not that of the self-satisfied Pharisee. The question implied a dissatisfaction with himself, a sense of incompleteness.” Pulpit adds from Mark that Jesus, “beholding him, loved him,” and refuses to read the claim as mere boasting. This is why the answer in v. 21 is a remedy and not a rebuke.
21

Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho Iēsous Ephē autō Ei theleis einai teleios hypage pōlēson sou ta hyparchonta kai dos tois ptōchois kai hexeis thēsauron en ouranois kai deuro akolouthei moi

Word by word26 · parsed
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἜφηEphētoldG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phēmi: to make known one's thoughts Imperfect, ἔφη, the only imperfect of speaking in the exchange: the narrative slows for this sentence.
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ 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
ΕἰEiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
θέλειςtheleisyou wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
εἶναιeinaito beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
τέλειοςteleiosperfectG5046
√ τέλειος — complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etcAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
teleios: complete, finished Barnes's analysis is the most careful in the brief: perfect means “the filling up, or the carrying out, or the expression of a principle of action,” as at 1 John 2:5. Pulpit: “To be ‘perfect’ is to be lacking in nothing that is required for life eternal.” Poole argues against a two-tier reading, that keeping the commandments “was perfection enough,” so this word cannot open a higher class of Christian above the ordinary.
ὕπαγεhypagegoG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
πώλησόνpōlēsonsellG4453
√ πωλέω — to barter (as a pedlar), iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
pōleō: to barter, sell Aorist imperative. Gill is emphatic that neither law nor Gospel requires this of all men at all times, and Ellicott calls it “strictly a remedy for the special evil which hindered the young ruler's progress.” Pulpit takes the opposite line and calls it a genuine counsel of perfection suited to those “capable of such absolute self-surrender,” instancing Anthony of Egypt, who obeyed the words literally. Our sources genuinely divide here.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὑπάρχονταhyparchontapossessionsG5225
√ ὑπάρχω — to begin under (quietly), iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Neuter Plural
hyparchō: to be at hand, to be one's substance A participle, not a noun: the thing that stands under him.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δὸςdosgiveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
πτωχοῖςptōchoispoorG4434
√ πτωχός — akin to G4422 (πτοέω) and the alternate of G4098 (πίπτω))AdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
ptōchos: destitute, beggarly The neighbor of v. 19 given a face. The command is not a tax but the law of love made specific to the one man who could satisfy it and would not.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἕξειςhexeisyou will haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
θησαυρὸνthēsaurontreasureG2344
√ θησαυρός — a deposit, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
thēsauros: a deposit, treasure Ellicott ties it back to the Sermon on the Mount and identifies the treasure with “the ‘eternal life’ which the young ruler was seeking.” Note the exchange the Greek proposes: the participle of having (ὑπάρχοντα) is traded for a future of having (ἕξεις), the same root he used in v. 16 when he asked how to get eternal life. He wanted something to hold, and is offered a holding, in heaven, on the far side of letting go.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
οὐρανοῖςouranoisheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δεῦροdeurocomeG1204
√ δεῦρο — hereVerbImperative2nd Person Singular
deuro: here!
ἀκολούθειakoloutheifollowG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
akoloutheō: to be in the same way with Present imperative: continuous. Gill: “to ‘follow’ him, is to be obedient to his will, to be observant of his commands,” and he notes that Mark sets “take up the cross” between the selling and the following, so that the demand is not poverty but discipleship. Henry: “To sell all, and give to the poor, will not serve, but we are to follow Christ.”
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
22

When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho neaniskos Akousas touton ton logon apēlthen lypoumenos gar ēn echōn polla ktēmata

Word by word14 · parsed
δὲde[When]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
νεανίσκοςneaniskosyoung manG3495
√ νεανίσκος — a youth (under forty)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἈκούσαςAkousasheardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
akouō: to hear Aorist participle. The same participle opens v. 25, where the disciples hear and are astonished: hearing is what this unit does to people.
τοῦτονtoutonthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀπῆλθενapēlthenhe went awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aperchomai: to go off, away The only exit in the passage. Poole: “He went away; he would hear no more of that discourse.”
λυπούμενοςlypoumenosin sorrowG3076
√ λυπέω — to distressVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
lypeō: to distress Ellicott reads the grief as itself a hopeful sign, because “a mere worldling would have smiled with cynical contempt, as the Pharisees did” at Luke 16:14, so that “here there was at least a conflict.” Cambridge: “A conflict of opposite desires vexed his soul.” The verb is the hinge between the two halves of the unit: the man's sorrow provokes the teaching on riches that follows.
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἦνēnheG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔχωνechōnhadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
echō: to hold, have The verb he used in v. 16 of eternal life, now used of him by his estate. He asked how he might have life and is described as one who kept on having acquisitions.
πολλάpollagreatG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
κτήματαktēmatawealthG2933
√ κτῆμα — an acquirement, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ktēma: an acquirement Rare (4 verses). The Verifier's candidate list pairs this unit with Acts 2:45 and Acts 5:1 on this lexeme, which sets the young man beside both the believers who sold their acquisitions and Ananias who sold one and lied about the price.
23

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous eipen tois autou mathētais Amēn legō hymin hoti dyskolōs plousios eiseleusetai eis tēn basileian tōn ouranōn

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdeThenG1161
√ 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
τοῖςtoistoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: firm, sure A Hebrew word left standing in Greek. It appears twice in this unit, here and at v. 28, marking the two most disputed sayings: that the rich can hardly enter, and that the Twelve will sit on thrones.
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
δυσκόλωςdyskolōsit is hard forG1423
√ δυσκόλως — impracticablyAdverb
dyskolōs: impracticably, with difficulty Rare (3 verses), and the Verifier finds the same lexeme in the parallel at Luke 18:24, which makes the Synoptic link here genuinely verbal. Gill's qualification is the standard one: “nor is it riches themselves that make the entrance so difficult,” but trust in them, and he notes Mark's rendering as “they that trust in riches.” Ellicott adds that what the word names is painfulness, not mere improbability.
πλούσιοςplousiosa rich manG4145
√ πλούσιος — wealthyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
plousios: wealthy Barnes: the term “rather means one who loves his riches and makes an idol of them.” Poole is careful that the saying does not damn wealth as such, remembering that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, and Solomon were rich “and yet in heaven.”
εἰσελεύσεταιeiseleusetaito enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, kingdom Ellicott insists that here, as elsewhere, “the ‘kingdom of heaven’ is not the state of happiness after death, but the spiritual life and the society of those in whom it is realised even upon earth,” and Pulpit agrees that the primary reference is the society Jesus came to establish. Gill holds both senses together, the Gospel dispensation and the glory hereafter. Note the immediate context: Matthew's ‘kingdom of the heavens' here becomes ‘kingdom of God' in v. 24, the two phrases used interchangeably one verse apart.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ouranos: the sky, heavens Plural, as in the treasure of v. 21: the treasure and the kingdom are in the same place.
24

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de palin legō hymin estin eukopōteron kamēlon eiselthein dia trypēmatos rhaphidos ē plousion eiselthein eis tēn basileian tou Theou

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdevvvG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πάλινpalinAgainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: anew, again Not repetition but escalation. Gill reconstructs the moment: after the disciples showed their astonishment, Christ spoke “in order to strengthen and confirm what he had before asserted.” Pulpit: “he proceeds to state the startling proposition more unreservedly and energetically.”
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἐστινestin[it] isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εὐκοπώτερόνeukopōteroneasier forG2123
√ εὐκοπώτερος — better for toil, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
eukopōteros: better for toil, easier A comparative of labor, which is why the proverb is about impossibility rather than probability.
κάμηλονkamēlona camelG2574
√ κάμηλος — a "camel"NounAccusative Feminine Singular
kamēlos: a camel Gill supplies the rabbinic parallels verbatim from the Talmud, “nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle,” and the jibe at the school of Pombeditha “who make an elephant pass through the eye of a needle,” and even the preface to the Zohar. Ellicott adds that the Talmud gives the elephant form and that the Koran reproduces the Gospel's own camel. Barnes: such proverbs merely “denote the extreme difficulty of the case.” The unanimity of our sources on this point is worth recording: the saying was a known idiom for the absolutely impossible, and the reader is not required to reduce it.
εἰσελθεῖνeiseltheinto passG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τρυπήματοςtrypēmatos[the] eyeG5169
√ τρύπημα — an aperture, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
trypēma: an aperture, bored hole
ῥαφίδοςrhaphidosof a needleG4476
√ ῥαφίς — perhaps rather akin to the base of G4474 (ῥαπίζω) through the idea of puncturing)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
rhaphis: a needle The smallest bored hole in ordinary life set against the largest beast of burden in Judea. Cambridge: “The exaggeration is quite in the Eastern style. It is unnecessary to give other explanations.”
ἢēthan forG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
πλούσιονplousiona rich manG4145
√ πλούσιος — wealthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
εἰσελθεῖνeiseltheinto enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
theos: God Genitive: kingdom of God, where v. 23 had kingdom of the heavens. Matthew's two idioms are used of the same thing in adjacent verses.
25

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de hoi mathētai Akousantes sphodra exeplēssonto legontes Tis ara dynatai sōthēnai

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ 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
ἈκούσαντεςAkousantesheard thisG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
akouō: to hear The same aorist participle that opened v. 22. The young man heard and went away; the disciples hear and are knocked sideways. Both reactions are to the same demand.
σφόδραsphodra{they were} greatlyG4970
√ σφόδρα — of uncertain derivation) as adverbAdverb
sphodra: exceedingly
ἐξεπλήσσοντοexeplēssontoastonishedG1605
√ ἐκπλήσσω — to strike with astonishmentVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ekplēssō: to strike with astonishment Imperfect passive. Cambridge explains why the blow landed: “Salvation seemed to belong by right to the rulers of synagogues and other rich people. It was a notable fact that the gospel should be preached to the poor.” Pulpit adds the covenantal reason: temporal prosperity “had in their Law been held forth as the reward of righteousness and obedience, a foretaste of future happiness. They must unlearn this principle.”
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΤίςTisWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
tis: who, which The question is universal, not personal. Poole reasons that the disciples could see poverty too has “many great and dangerous temptations,” so that the difficulty extends to everyone. Gill takes a different line and thinks they feared for their own temporal safety in a kingdom without the great men of the nation, which he reads as consistent with their still expecting an earthly messianic reign.
ἄραarathenG686
√ ἄρα — a particle denoting an inference more or less decisive (as follows)Conjunction
δύναταιdynataicanG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
σωθῆναιsōthēnaibe savedG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
sōzō: to save, rescue Aorist infinitive passive: the first passive of salvation in the unit, and the hinge into v. 26. Henry's gloss is the plainest: “None, saith Christ, by any created power.”
26

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho Iēsous Emblepsas eipen autois Para anthrōpois touto estin adynaton de para Theō panta dynata

Word by word16 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ 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
ἘμβλέψαςEmblepsaslooked at [them]G1689
√ ἐμβλέπω — to look on, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
emblepō: to look into, gaze upon Rare (11 verses), and the Verifier finds the same lexeme in the parallel at Mark 10:27. Ellicott reads the look as telling “of wonder, sorrow, tenderness, anxiety”; Pulpit as “full of earnestness, sympathy, and love, soothing their fears.” Gill takes it as evidence that Jesus knew their private reasoning among themselves, which Mark reports they kept to one another.
εἶπενeipen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautois. . .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 Plural
ΠαρὰParaWithG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
ἀνθρώποιςanthrōpoismanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Plural
anthrōpos: man Dative plural after παρά: the human standpoint as such, not one man's weakness.
τοῦτοtoutothisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀδύνατόνadynatonimpossibleG102
√ ἀδύνατος — unable, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
adynatos: unable, powerless The unit's verdict on self-salvation. Benson: “It is observable, he does not retract what he had said; no, nor soften it in the least degree, but rather strengthens it, by representing the salvation of a rich man as the utmost effort of Omnipotence.” Ellicott hears in the words a rebuke of the disciples' hasty judgment on the individual case, since the Teacher “would still hope, as against hope, for one in whom He had seen so much to love.”
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
παρὰparawithG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
ΘεῷTheōGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounDative Masculine Singular
theos: God The second standpoint. Gill is careful to add the qualification the Scriptures require, that all things are possible to be done by God “which are consistent with the glory and perfections of his nature.”
πάνταpantaall things [are]G3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
δυνατάdynatapossibleG1415
√ δυνατός — powerful or capable (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
dynatos: powerful, capable The alpha of ἀδύνατόν removed. Gill spells out what the power effects in practice: it can take a man's affections off his substance, cause him to distribute it, bring him to see his own spiritual poverty, and “carry him through a thousand snares safe to his kingdom and glory, which is Christ's sense.” Pulpit instances Zacchaeus as the worked example.
27

“Look,” Peter replied, “we have left everything to follow You. What then will there be for us?”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Idou Tote ho Petros apokritheis eipen autō hēmeis aphēkamen panta kai ēkolouthēsamen soi ti ara estai hēmin

Word by word17 · parsed
ἸδοὺIdouLookG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold, lo The unit's second and last “behold,” answering the first at v. 16.
ΤότεToteG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠέτροςPetrosPeterG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisrepliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, answer Aorist participle passive in form. Pulpit notes this “was not so much a reply to any direct word of Jesus, as to the general purport of his late utterances.”
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
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
ἡμεῖςhēmeisweG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Plural
ἀφήκαμενaphēkamenhave leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
aphiēmi: to send away, let go Aorist. Henry measures what was actually released and does not flatter it: “it was but a poor all, only a few boats and nets; yet observe how Peter speaks, as if it had been some mighty thing.” Barnes measures it the other way: “they were their all, their living, their home,” so the surrender was as real as Ophir's gold would have been. Both are in the brief and both are true.
πάνταpantaeverythingG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠκολουθήσαμένēkolouthēsamento followG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, be in the same way with Aorist indicative, and the same verb Jesus used as a present imperative to the young man in v. 21. Peter is claiming, accurately, to have done the thing the rich man refused. What he does not see is that turning it into a claim is the young man's error in a new form. Ellicott: they had complied “with the letter only, not with the spirit, of the command.”
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
τίtiWhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἄραarathenG686
√ ἄρα — a particle denoting an inference more or less decisive (as follows)Conjunction
ἔσταιestaiwill there beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἡμῖνhēminfor usG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Plural
egō: I, me Dative plural: the last word of the question is “for us.” Pulpit thinks Peter is “thinking chiefly of temporal advancement and promotion,” noting that even after the resurrection they asked about restoring the kingdom to Israel; he records that the older commentators instead referred the question to eternal life.
28

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous eipen autois Amēn legō hymin hoti en tē palingenesia hotan ho Huios tou anthrōpou kathisē epi autou doxēs thronou hymeis hoi akolouthēsantes moi hymeis kai kathēsesthe epi dōdeka thronous krinontes tas dōdeka phylas tou Israēl

Word by word38 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ 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
αὐτοῖςautoisto 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 Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: firm, sure The unit's second Amen (see v. 23). Gill: the thing being “something very considerable, and of great moment,” Christ uses the asseveration.
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
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
παλινγενεσίᾳpalingenesiarenewal of all thingsG3824
√ παλιγγενεσία — (spiritual) rebirth (the state or the act), iNounDative Feminine Singular
palingenesia: rebirth, renewal The rarest lexeme in the unit: two New Testament verses in all. Ellicott reads the world's sorrows as “the travail-pangs of that passage into a higher life” and connects it to the restitution of all things at Acts 3:21. Gill dissents and takes it of the new dispensation already beginning, citing the Syriac “in the new world” and the Arabic “in the generation to come.” Geneva takes it of the day when the elect enjoy the heavenly inheritance “both in body and soul”; Pulpit prefers the new heaven and new earth of Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21. The word will bear all this weight; the brief does not settle it, and neither do we.
ὅτανhotanwhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
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 With ἀνθρώπου: the Son of Man, the title of Daniel's vision. Ellicott: these words “recalled the vision of Daniel 7:14.”
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
καθίσῃkathisēsitsG2523
√ καθίζω — to seat down, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
kathizō: to seat down Aorist subjunctive: the moment of taking the seat.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
δόξηςdoxēsgloriousG1391
√ δόξα — glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
θρόνουthronouthroneG2362
√ θρόνος — a stately seat ("throne")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
thronos: a stately seat, throne Barnes reads it as rank and honor rather than furniture; Ellicott traces the imagery to the four and twenty elders on their thrones at Revelation 4:4 and to the apostles' names on the twelve foundations at Revelation 21:14. Pulpit notes what the verse does not give: “Peter has no pre-eminence here, no throne to himself; he merely shares with his colleagues in the session.”
ὑμεῖςhymeisyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
οἱhoiwhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀκολουθήσαντέςakolouthēsanteshave followedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
ὑμεῖςhymeisG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
καθήσεσθεkathēsesthewill also sitG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
kathēmai: to sit Future middle, and a different lexeme from the Son of Man's verb: He seats Himself, they are seated.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
δώδεκαdōdekatwelveG1427
√ δώδεκα — two and ten, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
dōdeka: twelve Twice in the verse, of thrones and of tribes. Pulpit warns that the number must not be pressed as limiting, since Judas forfeited his place and Matthias, Paul, and Barnabas were added; Poole answers that Matthias filled the seat so that “the twelve thrones shall not be empty.” Ellicott and Benson both press the harder point: the promise was absolute in form, and one of the twelve then listening never sat.
θρόνουςthronousthronesG2362
√ θρόνος — a stately seat ("throne")NounAccusative Masculine Plural
κρίνοντεςkrinontesjudgingG2919
√ κρίνω — by implication, to try, condemn, punishVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
krinō: to judge, try, condemn Present participle. Barnes stresses that the ancient judges of Israel were men of courage and honor, so the word connotes “rank, authority, power” as much as the act of sentencing. Pulpit notes the verb can mean “govern or direct” and cites Daniel 7:9, 22 and 1 Corinthians 6:2-3. Benson reads it as the apostles concurring in the sentence passed on the Jewish nation and on all professed members of the church.
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
δώδεκαdōdekatwelveG1427
√ δώδεκα — two and ten, iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
φυλὰςphylastribesG5443
√ φυλή — an offshoot, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
phylē: an offshoot, tribe Barnes argues the phrase names the redeemed rather than the Jewish nation, citing James 1:1 where Christians are addressed as the twelve tribes; Poole reads it as judging the Jews for their unbelief, and others besides. Both readings are in the brief; the Greek does not decide between them.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸσραήλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
29

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai pas hostis aphēken oikias ē adelphous ē adelphas ē patera ē mētera ē gynaika ē tekna ē agrous heneken tou mou onomatos lēmpsetai hekatontaplasiona kai klēronomēsei aiōnion zōēn

Word by word29 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πᾶςpaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὅστιςhostiswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀφῆκενaphēkenhas leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, release Aorist, third singular, and deliberately general. Gill: this covers “any other believer in him, whether at that time, or in any age, that should be called to quit their habitations.”
οἰκίαςoikiashousesG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀδελφοὺςadelphousbrothersG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀδελφὰςadelphassistersG79
√ ἀδελφή — a sister (naturally or ecclesiastically)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
γυναῖκαgynaikawifeG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounAccusative Feminine Singular
gynē: a woman, wife Pulpit records that some manuscripts omit this word, “the omission being probably first made by some critical scribe, who deemed that a wife should never be left,” and suggests the clause may mean abstaining from marriage for the sake of service.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀγροὺςagrousfieldsG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἕνεκενhenekenfor the sake ofG1752
√ ἕνεκα — on account ofPreposition
heneka: on account of The motive clause, and the only thing that distinguishes this renunciation from mere loss.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὀνόματόςonomatosnameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
onoma: a name, authority, character Gill: “for the sake of the Gospel, and a profession of it,” and he is careful that believing in Christ does not of itself require parting with substance and kin, only that Christ be preferred when they stand in competition.
λήμψεταιlēmpsetaiwill receiveG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἑκατονταπλασίοναhekatontaplasionaa hundredfoldG1542
√ ἑκατονταπλασίων — a hundred timesAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
hekatontaplasiōn: a hundred times The most concrete account of this in the brief is Poole's, who lists four things: joy in the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience, a contented frame of spirit with the little that is left, the hearts of others stirred to supply their wants, and God's sometimes repaying in this life as He restored Job. Ellicott adds that relationships multiply “on the ground of spiritual sympathies,” and hears Mark's parenthesis “with persecutions” as words “so strange that they must have been actually spoken.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κληρονομήσειklēronomēseiwill inheritG2816
√ κληρονομέω — to be an heir to (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
klēronomeō: to be an heir to The unit's last verb about eternal life, and it is a verb of inheritance, not acquisition. Gill: this is an inheritance “incorruptible, undefiled, which fades not away, reserved in the heavens, when all other inheritances are corruptible.” Set beside v. 16, the passage has replaced the man's question with a different grammar: not what I must do to hold it, but what is allotted to an heir.
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ζωὴνzōēnlifeG2222
√ ζωή — life (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
zōē: life The word the unit opened with, in the same accusative, closing the frame.
30

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Polloi prōtoi esontai eschatoi kai eschatoi prōtoi

Word by word8 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΠολλοὶPolloimanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
polys: much, many Governing only the first clause.
πρῶτοιprōtoi[who are] firstG4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
prōtos: foremost in time, place, order or importance Ellicott ties the warning directly to the men listening: the words point “to the individual case of which the disciples had made themselves the judges,” and they were “flattering themselves that they, who had left all, and so could stand that test, were among the first in the hierarchy of the kingdom.” Poole reads it as an awakening sentence spoken “to the best of men,” to the very apostles who had forsaken all.
ἔσονταιesontaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
ἔσχατοιeschatoilastG2078
√ ἔσχατος — farthest, final (of place or time)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
eschatos: farthest, final Gill offers five applications at once: the rich ruler, the Scribes and Pharisees against publicans and sinners, those forward at a distance from persecution and backward when it arrives, Judas against Paul, and Jews against Gentiles. Benson adds the reading that this predicts the Gentiles' precedence, citing Macknight and Romans 11:25-26. The saying is deliberately general; Poole says it “may be applied variously.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔσχατοιeschatoi[the] lastG2078
√ ἔσχατος — farthest, final (of place or time)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
eschatos: last The second half has no verb: the Greek simply reverses the two words. Barnes and Pulpit both note that this verse belongs with the parable of the labourers that follows, which is expressly told to illustrate it.
πρῶτοιprōtoi[will be] firstG4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
prōtos: first Geneva's warning is the unit's last word to the reader: to have begun well and not continued “is not only unprofitable, but also hurts very much.”

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 one who came, and the One who is good — 19:16-17

⚙ The scene turns on a single Greek numeral. In v. 16 εἷς (heis, G1520) means “one man came”; in v. 17 the same word answers him, “one is the good One.” Ellicott names the questioner's frame exactly: the question “exhibits the highest and noblest phase of Pharisaism,” a firm belief in eternal life joined to the conviction that it is won “by some one good deed of exceptional and heroic goodness.” Cambridge locates the fault precisely in the verb: in asking what he shall do, “the ruler touches the central error of the Pharisaic system.” The Geneva note is the most compressed judgment in our sources: those who seek to be saved by the law “do not even know the law themselves.”

The answer our sources read here depends on which text they hold. Ellicott, Cambridge, and Pulpit record that the better manuscripts give “Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good?” and that the received “Why callest thou me good?” of Mark and Luke was probably carried back into Matthew; BSB follows the shorter reading, which is why Barnes, Gill, and Poole in this brief are commenting on words the BSB does not print. Ellicott holds that either way “the answer has the same force,” and even permits himself, “without irreverence,” a comparison with the method of Socrates. On the deity implied, our sources split openly: Barnes says Christ “did not intend here to disclaim divinity, or to say anything about his own character,” but only to reprove a habit of flattering titles; Gill says the whole aim is “to instruct him in the knowledge of his proper deity”; Pulpit lands between them, “He does not deny the applicability of the epithet to himself, but turns the questioner's thoughts to the Source of all good.”

ii. The commandments he could name, and the one he could not — 19:18-20

⚙ Jesus quotes the second table, and the quotation is doing more than testing recall. Ellicott sees design in the reordering that puts the fifth commandment after the sixth through the ninth: it leads the seeker “through the negative to the positive forms of law, through definite prohibitions of single acts to the commandments which were ‘exceeding broad.’” Pulpit notices the single article: “by prefixing the definite article τὸ to the enumeration, he makes the whole a substantial unity.” Five commandments, one object. And Cambridge sees the gap that is left: “the enumeration stops at covetousness, the rich ruler's special failing.” Gill adds that Christ passes over the ceremonial law and the traditions entirely, keeping to precepts that “were more known, and were in common use.”

Then the man says ἐφύλαξα (ephylaxa, G5442): “I stood guard over all these.” Cambridge compares Paul, “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Poole explains how such a claim was psychologically available: the Pharisaic reading forbade “the overt acts, not the inward lusts and motions of the heart.” Ellicott's verdict is that he “had not learnt that to keep any one of those commandments in its completeness is the task of a life.” Yet the last word of the verse undoes the first: ὑστερῶ, “in what am I still falling behind?” Pulpit refuses to hear that as boasting and insists Jesus “did not blame him as boastful and self-deceiving,” recalling Mark's note that Jesus, beholding him, loved him.

iii. Sell, give, come: the remedy and the refusal — 19:21-22

⚙ The Greek of v. 21 is an exchange of one verb of having for another. He asked in v. 16 how he might have (σχῶ) eternal life; he is told to let go of “the things at his disposal” (ὑπάρχοντα, a participle, not a noun) and he will have (ἕξεις) treasure in heaven. Barnes does the most careful work on τέλειος: it “means complete in all its parts, finished, having no part wanting,” and he cites Job as perfect in the sense of proportioned rather than sinless. Ellicott holds the command to be “strictly a remedy for the special evil which hindered the young ruler's progress to perfection.” Gill agrees that neither law nor Gospel requires it of all men and warns that “a man may give all his goods to the poor and yet be destitute of the grace of God.” Poole goes further and argues against any two-tier reading, since Christ had already said that keeping the commandments “was perfection enough.” Pulpit dissents, defending a real counsel of perfection for those “capable of such absolute self-surrender,” and instances Anthony, who obeyed the words literally. We do not resolve that disagreement; we mark it.

What all our voices do agree on is that the money is not the point. Henry: “To sell all, and give to the poor, will not serve, but we are to follow Christ.” Gill notes that Mark sets “take up the cross” between the selling and the following. And the ending is written in the grammar: ἦν ἔχων, an imperfect of continuing possession, which Pulpit glosses “had and continued to have.” Gill diagnoses the grief as “the sorrow of the world, which worketh death,” Cambridge as “a conflict of opposite desires,” Ellicott as at least “a conflict” and therefore not hopeless, Pulpit as a mirror for the reader who “can throw no stone at this defaulter.”

iv. The camel, the needle, and the end of self-rescue — 19:23-26

⚙ The adverb δυσκόλως (G1423) is rare, and Ellicott insists it is stronger than English “hardly”: the words “imply not so much the mere difficulty as the painfulness of the process.” Then the proverb. Ellicott dispatches the cable theory on manuscript grounds, since not a single manuscript reads κάμιλος and the word “is supposed by the best scholars to have been invented for the sake of explaining this passage”; Cambridge calls the gate-called-the-needle's-eye equally unnecessary; Pulpit calls the invented low gate at Jerusalem exactly that, invented. Gill supplies the rabbinic parallels verbatim, an elephant through a needle's eye, and Ellicott notes the Talmud's elephant and that the Koran reproduces the Gospel's own camel. Geneva preserves the dispute in miniature, Theophylact for the rope and Caninius for the beast.

The disciples' reaction is the honest one. Ellicott hears “an almost child-like naïveté” in “Who then can be saved?”; Cambridge explains why, since “salvation seemed to belong by right to the rulers of synagogues and other rich people”; Pulpit says they “must unlearn” the principle that temporal prosperity was the reward of righteousness. And Benson notices what Jesus does not do: “he does not retract what he had said; no, nor soften it in the least degree, but rather strengthens it, by representing the salvation of a rich man as the utmost effort of Omnipotence.” Henry: “The beginning, progress, and perfecting the work of salvation, depend wholly on the almighty power of God, to which all things are possible.” The participle Ἐμβλέψας matters here: the same gaze Mark reports over the young man is now turned on the Twelve, and Ellicott reads it as telling “of wonder, sorrow, tenderness, anxiety.”

v. Peter's ledger, twelve thrones, and the reversal — 19:27-30

⚙ Peter's question is the young man's question in the plural. Ellicott: “It is obvious that in asking for that reward they showed that they had complied with the letter only, not with the spirit, of the command.” Cambridge: Peter “suggests a lower motive for following Christ.” Henry is affectionate and unsparing at once: “it was but a poor all, only a few boats and nets; yet observe how Peter speaks, as if it had been some mighty thing.” Barnes supplies the defense: “they were their all, their living, their home,” and forsaking them they had shown their sincerity “as though they had possessed the gold of Ophir.”

The answer contains the rarest word in the unit, παλινγενεσίᾳ (palingenesia, G3824), which the Verifier finds in only two verses of the New Testament, here and Titus 3:5. Ellicott: “There is to be a ‘new birth’ for mankind as well as for the individual.” Cambridge glosses it “the renewal of things, the return to a perfect state.” Gill takes it of the new dispensation already breaking in and connects it with the pouring out of the Spirit; Geneva, Poole, Pulpit, and Barnes take it of the last day; Ellicott reads the thrones against Daniel's vision of the saints of the Most High. Both Ellicott and Benson then make the same uncomfortable observation about the promise's form: it was given absolutely, and “the guilt of Judas left one of the thrones vacant.” Benson: “these twelve did not sit on those twelve thrones: for the throne of Judas another took.” Poole answers that Matthias filled the seat. Then the hundredfold, which Ellicott says cannot be taken literally, “We cannot look for the hundredfold of houses, or wives, or children,” and where he hears Mark's added “with persecutions” as words “so strange that they must have been actually spoken.” Poole's reading of the hundredfold is the most concrete in the brief: joy in the Holy Ghost, contentment, the stirred hearts of others, and sometimes restoration as with Job. Finally the reversal, aimed at the very men who had just asked for wages. Ellicott: the words point “to the individual case of which the disciples had made themselves the judges.” Geneva: “To have begun well, and not to continue unto the end, is not only unprofitable, but also hurts very much.”

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 and against the named voices above. Read the unit by its verbs of holding. The man asks how he may have (σχῶ, G2192) eternal life; he reports that he has guarded (ἐφύλαξα, G5442) the commandments; he is described as one who kept on having (ἦν ἔχων) many acquisitions; and he is told that if he releases what stands under him he will have (ἕξεις) treasure in heaven. He came asking for one more thing to add to a full hand, and was shown that his hand was the problem.

Notice which commandment Jesus leaves out and which He adds. Cambridge observes that the list stops short of covetousness; Pulpit and Poole both see the missing tenth commandment reappear inside the added clause from Leviticus 19:18, “love your neighbor as yourself.” So the command in v. 21 is not a new and higher law. It is the audit of the commandment he had just claimed to keep, run on the one asset that could prove it. The neighbor was already in the list; the poor simply gave the neighbor a face and a price. He had kept every commandment that can be kept by not acting.

Then the disciples ask the right question for the wrong reason, and get an answer that dismantles the whole transaction. “With men this is impossible” does not say that the rich are harder to save than the poor by some margin; it says that the direction of the verb has to reverse. Every voice in this unit that tries to soften the camel and the needle is resisting that. And the sharpest evidence that the lesson had not yet landed is that Peter, six verses later, presents an invoice. The reversal in v. 30 is not aimed at the man who walked away. It is aimed at the eleven who stayed and started counting.

He had kept every commandment that can be kept by not acting.

⚙

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 five commandments in three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Matthew's list of the second table stands almost word for word beside Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20, and the link is not a matter of theme but of shared vocabulary. The Verifier computes the shared lexemes: ἐντολή (G1785, in 61 verses), φονεύω (G5407, in 10 verses), and above all ψευδομαρτυρέω (G5576, in only 5 verses), the rarest lexeme in this unit. A verb that rare appearing in all three lists is a quotation shared among the evangelists, not a coincidence of subject. Barnes and Poole both work from the same observation, that only the second table is cited and not in Decalogue order; Cambridge notes that neither Mark nor Luke preserves Matthew's sequence, which is precisely what makes the shared rare lexeme, rather than the word order, the load-bearing evidence.

Mark 10:19 · Luke 18:20 · Romans 13:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5576 ψευδομαρτυρέω (rare, in 5 vv), G5407 φονεύω (in 10 vv), G3431 μοιχεύω (in 12 vv, with Romans 13:9), G1785 ἐντολή (in 61 vv). All refs are New Testament, so a Greek to Greek verbal basis is computable.

The second table quoted: Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The words Jesus speaks in vv. 18-19 are Scripture before they are His: the prohibitions of murder, adultery, theft, and false witness, plus the honoring of father and mother, from the Decalogue as given at Exodus 20:12-16 and repeated at Deuteronomy 5:16-20; then a clause from outside the Decalogue altogether, “love your neighbor as yourself,” from Leviticus 19:18. Barnes names the Exodus passage and identifies the citation as the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and fifth commandments; he also names Leviticus 19:18 for the added clause and notes that Christ elsewhere calls it the second great commandment. Poole treats the Leviticus clause as standing in for the tenth commandment; Gill calls it “a recapitulation, or compendium, and abridgment of the whole”; Pulpit records Lange's alternative, that the two positive clauses summarize the two tables respectively. The citation is explicit and undisputed, but it cannot be tiered verbal here: the Greek of Matthew and the Hebrew of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus share no computable Strong's lexeme, so the confirmed basis is the quotation itself as named by our sources, not a lexical match.

Exodus 20:12-16 · Deuteronomy 5:16-20 · Leviticus 19:18

basis: Explicit quotation of the second table plus Leviticus 19:18, named by Barnes (Exodus 20:12-16; Leviticus 19:18), Poole, Gill and Pulpit. Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew pair: no shared Strong's lexeme is computable, so the tier is structural rather than verbal even though the citation is certain.

“With difficulty will a rich man enter”: the rare adverb in the parallels verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The saying of v. 23 recurs at Mark 10:23 and Luke 18:24, and the camel proverb of v. 24 at Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25. The Verifier's bases are uneven in strength and should be reported that way. For the kingdom-entry sayings the shared lexemes are common: εἰσέρχομαι (G1525, in 184 verses) and βασιλεία (G932, in 154 verses), which alone would only support a thematic claim. What makes the link verbal is Luke 18:24, where the Verifier finds the rare adverb δυσκόλως (G1423, in only 3 verses), the very word Ellicott presses as meaning “shall not easily enter.” Two independent evangelists reaching for an adverb that occurs three times in the New Testament is a shared wording, not a shared idea. Poole sets the three accounts side by side and observes that Matthew states positively what Mark and Luke put as a question, “the sense is the same, only the interrogation seems to aggravate the difficulty.”

Mark 10:23 · Luke 18:24 · Mark 10:25 · Luke 18:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1423 δυσκόλως (rare, in 3 vv) with Luke 18:24, plus G932 βασιλεία (in 154 vv) and G1525 εἰσέρχομαι (in 184 vv) across all four refs. The common lexemes alone would be thematic only; the rare adverb carries the verbal tier. All refs are New Testament.

παλιγγενεσία: a word used twice in the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ παλινγενεσίᾳ (palingenesia, G3824, “rebirth, the state or the act”) occurs in only two verses of the Greek New Testament, here and Titus 3:5, as the Verifier's frequency data shows. Ellicott makes the point exactly: “In the only other passage in the New Testament in which the word occurs, it is applied to baptism (Titus 3:5), as the instrument of the regeneration or new birth of the individual believer. Here, however, it clearly has a wider range.” So the lexical link is as strong as a link can be and the semantic distance is real: Titus speaks of the washing of one believer, Matthew of the remaking of a world. Barnes says the Titus sense “cannot be applied here,” since Christ was not born again and the disciples did not follow Him in the new birth, and reaches instead for “that universal new birth” at the resurrection. Gill, alone among our sources, takes it of the new dispensation already arriving; Geneva, Poole, Cambridge, and Pulpit take it of the last renewal. Titus 3:5 also shares G4982 σώζω with v. 25 of this unit.

Titus 3:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3824 παλιγγενεσία (in 2 vv, the whole New Testament occurrence set) and G4982 σώζω (in 99 vv). Both refs are New Testament, so the Greek to Greek verbal basis is computable. Recorded as a verbal link, not a quotation: neither text cites the other, and Ellicott and Barnes both note the senses differ.

Thrones set, and judgment given to the saints structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ “When the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones.” Ellicott states the connection our sources agree on: the words that the Son of Man should sit on the throne of His glory “recalled the vision of Daniel 7:14, so these assured them that they should be foremost among those of ‘the saints of the Most High,’ to whom, as in the same vision, had been given glory and dominion (Daniel 7:27).” Pulpit independently names the same source, “so in Daniel we hear of thrones being placed, and judgment given to the saints (Daniel 7:9, 22),” and joins it to 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 and Revelation 20:4. Barnes reads the twelve thrones against the ancient judges of Israel, where judging denotes rank and authority as much as the act of sentencing. Psalm 122:4-5 supplies the other half of the picture, thrones of judgment set for the house of David where the tribes go up. The contact is certain and named by two independent commentators, but it is a Greek to Hebrew pair: no shared Strong's lexeme is computable, so the tier is structural, never verbal.

Daniel 7:9-10 · Daniel 7:22 · Psalm 122:4-5

basis: Shared imagery of set thrones, an enthroned Son of Man, and judgment given to the saints, named explicitly by Ellicott (Daniel 7:14, 7:27) and Pulpit (Daniel 7:9, 22). Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew: no shared Strong's lexeme exists to compute, so no verbal claim is made.

κτῆμα: the acquisitions that were sold, and the one that was not verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The noun that closes v. 22, κτήματα (ktēmata, G2933, “acquirements”), is rare: the Verifier records the lexeme in only 4 verses, two of which are Acts 2:45 and Acts 5:1. At Acts 2:45 the believers sold their acquisitions and distributed to any who had need, which is precisely the thing the young man declined to do; at Acts 5:1 Ananias sold an acquisition and kept back part of the price, which shares with this unit not only κτῆμα but also πωλέω (G4453, “to sell,” in 20 verses), the verb of Jesus' command in v. 21, and ὄνομα (G3686). Luke's narrative vocabulary for the earliest church is the vocabulary of this refusal. ⚙ That is a lexical observation, not a claim that Luke is citing Matthew; we record the shared rare word and leave the literary relationship open.

Acts 2:45 · Acts 5:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2933 κτῆμα (rare, in 4 vv), with Acts 5:1 also sharing G4453 πωλέω (in 20 vv) and G3686 ὄνομα (in 214 vv). Both refs are New Testament, so the verbal basis is computable. No quotation is claimed in either direction; the rare lexeme is the whole of the basis.

“With God all things are possible”: the older confession structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The answer of v. 26 is not a new proposition in Scripture. The same confession, that nothing is too hard or too wonderful for the LORD, is put as a question to Abraham at Genesis 18:14, conceded by Job at Job 42:2, prayed by Jeremiah at Jeremiah 32:17 and answered back to him at Jeremiah 32:27, and used of a restored Jerusalem at Zechariah 8:6. Our commentators reach for the same theology without naming these texts: Henry, “The beginning, progress, and perfecting the work of salvation, depend wholly on the almighty power of God, to which all things are possible”; Poole, “If men indeed were left all to themselves, none would be saved”; Gill, that God can do all “which are consistent with the glory and perfections of his nature”; Benson, that Christ represents the salvation of a rich man “as the utmost effort of Omnipotence.” The link is a shared confession, and it is cross-Testament, so it carries no verbal tier: Matthew's Greek and the Hebrew of these passages share no computable Strong's lexeme.

Genesis 18:14 · Job 42:2 · Jeremiah 32:17 · Jeremiah 32:27 · Zechariah 8:6

basis: Shared confession that nothing is impossible or too wonderful for God, stated in these passages and echoed in v. 26. Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew pair: no shared Strong's lexeme is computable, so the tier is thematic and no quotation is claimed. Our sources supply the theology (Henry, Poole, Gill, Benson) but do not cite these verses.

Treasure in heaven, and the poor as the LORD's creditors structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” joins two Old Testament ideas that the Wisdom books and the Law had already joined: that whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD and will be repaid by Him (Proverbs 19:17), that riches are worthless in the day of wrath while righteousness delivers from death (Proverbs 11:4), and that Israel was commanded to open the hand freely to the poor brother rather than harden the heart (Deuteronomy 15:7-11). Ellicott identifies the treasure with “the ‘eternal life’ which the young ruler was seeking” and ties the phrase to the Sermon on the Mount; Pulpit notes that the gift was directed to those “from whom he could expect no recompense,” which is exactly the logic of the Proverbs saying. ⚙ Cross-Testament, so no verbal claim: our sources do not cite these three passages, and the resonance is ours to be tested.

Proverbs 19:17 · Proverbs 11:4 · Deuteronomy 15:7-11

basis: Shared motif of giving to the poor as a deposit with God and of righteousness rather than riches availing at the end. Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew: no shared Strong's lexeme computable, so never verbal. The verse identifications are the tool's own, offered under-claimed; Ellicott and Pulpit supply the reading of the treasure but name no Old Testament text.

“There is only One who is good”: a confession, and a disputed wording flagged: verify source

⚙ The BSB's “There is only One who is good” stands close to Israel's confession that the LORD alone is God (Deuteronomy 6:4) and to the liturgical refrain that the LORD is good (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 118:1, and the invitation of Psalm 34:8 to taste and see). Gill's exposition is built on exactly that confession, that God alone is good “originally, essentially, independently, infinitely, and immutably,” and he even quotes the rabbinic counter-saying that “there is nothing good but the law.” We flag rather than confirm this thread for one reason: the wording on which it rests is textually contested in our own sources. Ellicott, Cambridge, and Pulpit all record that the best manuscripts read here “Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good,” while Barnes, Gill, and Poole comment on the received “There is none good but one, that is, God,” which Ellicott judges an assimilation to Mark and Luke. Pulpit notes that Luke's own wording differs again. Anyone tracing this link should check which reading and which Gospel they are standing on before pressing it.

Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 34:8 · Psalm 118:1 · 1 Chronicles 16:34

basis: Thematically the confession that God alone is good, and Gill expounds v. 17 in those terms. Flagged because the Greek wording the link depends on is disputed in our own sources (Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit report that the better MSS read “Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good?” and that the received text is an assimilation to Mark and Luke). Cross-Testament in any case: Greek to Hebrew, no shared Strong's lexeme computable, so no verbal tier is possible.

The man who went away, read as a figure of Israel under the law typological

⚙ Several of our voices read the closing reversal of v. 30 figurally, taking the rich young man and the “first” who become last as Israel under the law, and the “last” who become first as the Gentiles. Benson states it outright and credits Macknight: the words “may be considered as a prediction that the Gentiles would receive and obey the gospel, while the Jews should reject it,” and he cites Romans 11:25-26. Gill lists the same reading among five applications, that “the Jews, who were first in outward privileges, would be rejected of God for their unbelief,” and the Gentiles, “who were last called, should be first.” Poole gives it first place: “The Jews that are counted now the first, nearest to the kingdom of heaven, shall have no place there; and the Gentiles, looked upon as most remote from it, shall be admitted into it.” Gill has already prepared the figure back at v. 16, where he says the man “speaks in the language and strain of the nation of Israel, who were seeking for righteousness and life by the works of the law,” which is the substance of Romans 9:31-32 though Gill does not cite it. ⚙ This is a figural reading of a person, not a verbal link, and it is widely held rather than novel: three of our commentators arrive at it independently. Two cautions belong with it. Poole himself says the sentence “is a general sentence, and may be applied variously,” and Poole, Ellicott, and Cambridge all insist the primary target of v. 30 is the Twelve who had just asked for wages, not the nation. A figure of Israel must not be allowed to move the warning off the reader.

Romans 11:25-26 · Romans 9:31-32

basis: Figural reading of the rich ruler and of “first / last” as Israel and the Gentiles, held by Benson (citing Macknight and Romans 11:25-26), Gill, and Poole, so ancient and widely-held rather than novel. Romans 9:31-32 is the tool's own added reference for the substance Gill states at v. 16 without citation. No verbal claim: cross-Testament in its Old Testament reach and figural in method, so no shared Strong's lexeme is asserted.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Good he asked about was standing in the road ancient/widely-held

⚙ The man asks about a good thing, neuter and accusative, and is answered with a good One, masculine and nominative: εἷς ὁ ἀγαθός. Ellicott reads the whole method as leading him “to deepen and widen his thoughts of goodness until they rose to Him in whom alone it was absolute and infinite, through fellowship with whom only could any teacher rightly be called good.” Gill states the redemptive point without hedging: Christ questions the title “to instruct him in the knowledge of his proper deity,” since He “was good, both as God and man, in his divine and human natures.” Pulpit agrees that He “will not have himself regarded simply as a pre-eminently good man, but as Son of God, one with the Father.” Barnes is the honest dissent and must be recorded: he holds that Christ “did not intend here to disclaim divinity, or to say anything about his own character,” but only to reprove a habit of flattering titles, and Cambridge likewise has Jesus refusing “the conventional title of ‘good master.’” ⚙ Our reading follows Gill and Pulpit while keeping Barnes in view: the sentence does not assert the deity of Christ, but it makes the man's own word uninhabitable unless He is God, and four verses later the Teacher he addressed tells him to sell everything and follow Him. Only the Good has the right to ask for everything.

Matthew 19:17 · Matthew 19:21

The Son of Man on the throne, and the twelve who could not buy their seats ancient/widely-held

⚙ The reward Peter asks for is granted in the language of Daniel's vision, and Ellicott and Pulpit independently name the source: thrones set, an enthroned Son of Man, judgment given to the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:9-10, 7:22, 7:27). Ellicott traces the same imagery forward to the four and twenty elders on their thrones, the sealing of the tribes, and the twelve foundations of the heavenly city bearing the apostles' names (Revelation 4:4, 7:4, 21:14), and to Paul's claim that the saints shall judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2). Barnes sees in the twelve thrones the dignity of the ancient judges of Israel. ⚙ The redemptive-historical shape is the point: the twelve thrones are not wages for the boats and nets Henry rightly calls “a poor all,” because they are given by the same Son of Man whose own throne is granted, in Daniel's vision, by the Ancient of Days. Both Ellicott and Benson then press the detail that keeps the promise from being a merit system: one of the twelve named that day never sat. Benson, “these twelve did not sit on those twelve thrones: for the throne of Judas another took”; Ellicott, “The promise was given subject to the implied conditions of faithfulness and endurance lasting even to the end.” A throne promised to a man who betrays is proof that the thrones were never earned.

Daniel 7:9-10 · Daniel 7:13-14 · Revelation 21:14 · 1 Corinthians 6:2

The camel through the needle: the impossible done from God's side novel

⚙ The unit poses a soteriological impossibility and answers it with a Person, not a program. Every voice in the brief that tries to soften the camel is resisting the very thing Benson notices, that Christ “does not retract what he had said; no, nor soften it in the least degree.” Henry: none can be saved “by any created power,” and “the beginning, progress, and perfecting the work of salvation, depend wholly on the almighty power of God.” Poole: “If men indeed were left all to themselves, none would be saved.” Gill: God can “work upon a rich man's heart” and “carry him through a thousand snares safe to his kingdom and glory, which is Christ's sense.”

⚙ Then read the shape of the unit against the One speaking. A rich man is told to give away everything he has, to receive treasure in heaven, and to follow a Teacher who is walking toward Jerusalem; the man will not, and the word stands that with men this is impossible. The disciples who did leave their nets are told that their seats rest on the Son of Man's own enthronement, not on their ledger. So the only figure in the passage who actually does what is asked is the One asking it, and Ellicott, commenting on the command to follow, notes why: “To the Teacher that cross was now coming, day by day, nearer, and He saw that each true disciple must be prepared to follow Him in that path of suffering, which was also the path of glory.” He releases everything and walks the road, for people who could not. ⚙ We mark this novel: it is a coherent reading of the unit's own motion, but none of our named voices draws this line, and the brief supplies no commentary support for it. Test it; do not lean on it.

Matthew 19:21 · Matthew 19:26 · 2 Corinthians 8:9

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)
  • 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. The BSB of v. 16 reads simply “Teacher,” and v. 17 “Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good.” Ellicott, Cambridge, and Pulpit all record that this follows the better manuscripts and that the familiar “Good Master” and “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” are probably assimilations to Mark and Luke. Consequently Barnes, Gill, Geneva, and Poole in this brief are expounding words the BSB does not print, and their arguments about the title “good” must be read with that in view. Pulpit also records the variant εἷς ἐστὶν ὁ ἀγαθός preferred by late editors, and that Luke's wording differs again.

⚙ Further variants our sources name and we have not resolved: “from my youth up” in v. 20, omitted here by the oldest manuscripts though present in Mark and Luke (Cambridge, Pulpit); “or wife” in v. 29, omitted by some manuscripts, which Pulpit suspects was dropped by a scribe who thought a wife should never be left; and “a hundredfold” in v. 29, where Ellicott reports the better manuscripts read “manifold more” as in Luke while the received reading agrees with Mark. Mark's softening clause “them that trust in riches” (Mark 10:24), on which Gill's and Barnes's qualification of v. 23 partly rests, is judged absent from the best manuscripts by both Ellicott and Pulpit; Ellicott suggests a marginal note found its way into the text.

⚙ Sources. JFB supplies no exposition for any verse of this unit, only a cross-reference directing the reader to Luke 18:18-30, so no JFB voice could be quoted anywhere in these fifteen verses. Henry's entry is a single block covering 19:16-22 and a second covering 19:23-30, so his comments are not verse-specific. Ellicott's note on v. 16 contains a long conjecture that the young ruler was Lazarus of Bethany; he calls it conjectural inference and we record it only as his speculation, not as a fact about the text. Several entries in the brief are capped and their tails unread (Poole on v. 21 and vv. 23-24, Gill on v. 21 and v. 28, Benson on vv. 23-24, Pulpit on v. 28); anything in those tails is absent from this synthesis.

⚙ Thread bases. The Verifier computes shared Strong's lexemes only, so every cross-Testament thread here (Decalogue, Daniel's thrones, “all things are possible,” treasure and the poor, “One who is good”) is tiered structural or thematic with the reason stated, and no cross-Testament link in this unit is tiered verbal, however certain the citation. The four verbal threads (Synoptic commandment lists, the rich man and the kingdom, παλιγγενεσία with Titus 3:5, κτῆμα with Acts) rest on rare lexemes inside the Greek New Testament and are all Greek to Greek. One thread is flagged rather than confirmed because the Greek wording it depends on is itself disputed in our sources.

⚙ What remains uncertain in this unit, honestly: whether v. 21 is a remedy for one man (Ellicott, Gill, Cambridge) or a genuine counsel of perfection open to some (Pulpit), against which Poole argues directly; whether v. 17 is ironic (Poole, Gill, Barnes read it as designed conviction) or plain and serious (Benson denies irony outright); whether παλιγγενεσία in v. 28 names the Gospel age already begun (Gill) or the final renewal (Geneva, Poole, Cambridge, Barnes, Pulpit); and how far the twelve thrones are to be read literally, given that Ellicott and Benson both note that one of the twelve then present never sat on one. The synthesis marks these as open rather than choosing for the reader.

✦ = 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)