The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew25:31–46

The Sheep and the Goats

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Matthew 25:31–46 — The Sheep and the Goats. 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.

31

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hotan ho huios tou anthrōpou elthē en autou tē doxē kai pantes hoi angeloi met’ autou tote kathisei epi autou doxēs thronou

Word by word23 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
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, used very widely of immediate, remote or figurative kinship The self-title of the whole passage, and the hinge on which its authority hangs. Benson notes the title is kept here "because, when he appears as the great Judge, he will appear in the human form, and as very man," so that the Judge shares the nature of the judged. The same Son of Man will in v34 be called Basileus, and in vv35 to 36 will claim the hunger and the prison as His own: one figure, three registers.
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
ἔλθῃelthēcomesG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
erchomai: to come or go Aorist subjunctive after hotan: the coming is presented as a whole act whose hour is unstated. The same verb, in the aorist indicative, is what the righteous are told they did in v36 (ēlthate pros me, you came to Me). The Judge's coming and the visitor's coming to a cell are one word.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, 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
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
δόξῃdoxēgloryG1391
√ δόξα — glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective)NounDative Feminine Singular
doxa: glory (as very apparent), in a wide application, literal or figurative, objective or subjective Ellicott ties the whole announcement, and "the throne of His glory," to the vision of Daniel 7:13 and to the throne He shares with the Ancient of Days. Maclaren presses the contrast that the text itself sets up: the speaker is "a wearied man on the Mount of Olives" three days from Calvary.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάντεςpantesallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄγγελοιangeloiangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounNominative Masculine Plural
angelos: a messenger, one who brings tidings Benson reads the retinue functionally rather than ornamentally: they come "not only for state, as his attendants, but for service, as ministers of his justice." Gill agrees that they will be employed "in gathering all before him."
μετ’met’withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ 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
τότεtoteG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
καθίσειkathiseiHe will sitG2523
√ καθίζω — to seat down, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
kathizo: to seat down The only future indicative in the sentence. JFB names what the seating signifies: "the glory of His judicial authority."
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, a throne Barnes cautions against literalism here: the phrase "is not to be taken literally, as if there would be a material throne or seat for the King of Zion." The point is office, not furniture.
32

All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai panta ta ethnē synachthēsontai emprosthen autou kai aphorisei autous ap’ allēlōn hōsper ho poimēn aphorizei ta probata apo tōn eriphōn

Word by word21 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάνταpantaAllG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
ἔθνηethnēnationsG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounNominative Neuter Plural
ethnos: a race, as of the same habit The most contested word in the unit. Ellicott argues that the articular plural "marks out, with scarcely an exception, the heathen nations of the world as distinguished from God's people Israel," and builds his whole reading on it. JFB and Pulpit both refuse that limit, Pulpit concluding it is "safest to consider all the nations as meaning the whole race of men." Gill narrows it another way again, to professors of the Christian religion. We record the disagreement rather than settle it.
συναχθήσονταιsynachthēsontaiwill be gatheredG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
synago: to lead together Future passive: the nations do not assemble themselves. The same verb is the sixth work of mercy in v35 and the corresponding charge in v43. Whoever leads a stranger in is doing in small what the angels will do in full.
ἔμπροσθενemprosthenbeforeG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ 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
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀφορίσειaphoriseiHe will separateG873
√ ἀφορίζω — to set off by boundary, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphorizo: to set off by boundary Maclaren notices what the tense implies about the order of events: "the separation is the work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken." In the earlier parables of this chapter the sorting was self-acting or self-reported; here it is done by the Judge's glance before any dialogue begins.
αὐτοὺςautous[the people]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 PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἀπ’ap’vvvG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἀλλήλωνallēlōnone from anotherG240
√ ἀλλήλων — one anotherPersonal / Reciprocal PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
ὥσπερhōsperasG5618
√ ὥσπερ — just as, iAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ποιμὴνpoimēna shepherdG4166
√ ποιμήν — a shepherd (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
poimen: a shepherd, literally or figuratively The one figurative element in a passage that Ellicott and Pulpit both insist is prophecy rather than parable. JFB and Pulpit independently send the reader to Ezekiel 34:17, where the Lord judges between cattle and cattle. Pulpit adds the husbandry: flocks of sheep and goats pasture together by day and are parted at night.
ἀφορίζειaphorizeiseparatesG873
√ ἀφορίζω — to set off by boundary, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
πρόβαταprobatasheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
probaton: something that walks forward, a quadruped, a sheep Barnes explains the choice of emblem: the sheep is "an emblem of innocence and harmlessness," and he anchors it in John 10 and Psalm 23. Benson adds meekness and usefulness.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐρίφωνeriphōngoatsG2056
√ ἔριφος — a kid or (genitive case) goatNounGenitive Masculine Plural
eriphos: a kid or goat Here the full form; v33 switches to the diminutive. Poole supplies the Puritan edge to the emblem, calling the wicked "stinking and lascivious goats," compared to goats "for the filthy qualities by which they resemble them." The animals carry no moral weight of their own; they are the shepherd's two obvious piles.
33

He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai men stēsei ta probata ek autou dexiōn de ta eriphia ex euōnymōn

Word by word13 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
στήσειstēseiHe will placeG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
histemi: to stand, transitively or intransitively Transitive future: the Judge stands them where they belong. Gill reads the staging as already a verdict: "These different situations plainly pre-signify how things will go with each." Nothing has yet been said, and everything has already been decided.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
πρόβαταprobatasheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐκekonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
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
δεξιῶνdexiōnrightG1188
√ δεξιός — the right side or (feminine) hand (as that which usually takes)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
dexios: the right side or hand, as that which usually takes Barnes calls it "the place of honor," citing Ecclesiastes 10:2, Psalm 110:1 and Ephesians 1:20. Gill records a rabbinic parallel of a right hand "for absolution" and a left "for condemnation," and a tradition of two sanhedrin scribes who wrote the two sentences. Pulpit adds a pagan parallel from Plato's Republic 10 and Virgil's Aeneid 6, where the just go right and upward and the unjust left and down.
δὲdeandG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐρίφιαeriphiagoatsG2055
√ ἐρίφιον — a kidling, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
eriphion: a kidling The diminutive. Note that the goat is not an unclean animal in the Law and not a wicked one in husbandry; it is simply the other kind in a mixed flock. The emblem does its work by difference, not by defect.
ἐξexonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
εὐωνύμωνeuōnymōn[His] leftG2176
√ εὐώνυμος — properly, well-named (good-omened), iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
euonymos: properly well-named, good-omened A euphemism doing duty as a direction. That the doomed side of the throne is named with a word of good omen is the kind of irony Greek keeps and English cannot.
34

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote ho Basileus erei tois ek autou dexiōn Deute hoi eulogēmenoi tou mou Patros klēronomēsate tēn basileian hētoimasmenēn hymin apo katabolēs kosmou

Word by word22 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΒασιλεὺςBasileusKingG935
√ βασιλεύς — a sovereign (abstractly, relatively, or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
basileus: a sovereign, abstractly, relatively or figuratively Benson explains the timing of the new title: He takes it "when he is speaking of himself as exercising the highest act of kingly power, in passing the final sentence on all men as his subjects." Pulpit and Cambridge both note (Cambridge through Bengel) that the appellation is full of majesty and glad only to the godly.
ἐρεῖereiwill sayG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisto thoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἐκekonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
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
δεξιῶνdexiōnrightG1188
√ δεξιός — the right side or (feminine) hand (as that which usually takes)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
ΔεῦτεDeuteComeG1205
√ δεῦτε — come hither!VerbImperative2nd Person Plural
deute: come hither JFB hears the whole Gospel in the word: "the same sweet word with which He had so long invited all the weary and heavy laden to come unto Him for rest," now said to those who came. Benson, on v41, draws the mirror: those who would not come are told to depart.
οἱhoiyou who areG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
εὐλογημένοιeulogēmenoiblessedG2127
√ εὐλογέω — to speak well of, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveVocative Masculine Plural
eulogeo: to speak well of Perfect passive participle in the vocative: they are addressed by what has been done to them, not by what they have done. This is the grammatical ground of the Reformed reading that Poole, Gill and JFB all press here, and it is exactly what Pulpit resists, insisting they are rewarded "not because of their election, but because they used the grace given to them." The participle supports Poole and Gill; the imperative that follows supports Pulpit. Both stand in the text.
τοῦtoubyG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ΠατρόςPatrosFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
κληρονομήσατεklēronomēsateinheritG2816
√ κληρονομέω — to be an heir to (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
kleronomeo: to be an heir to, literally or figuratively Aorist imperative. Henry draws the consequence: "What we inherit is not got by ourselves. It is God that makes heirs of heaven." Poole is blunter still: "you have not purchased it by your works." The six deeds of vv35 to 36 are therefore evidence in this court, not currency.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
basileia: properly royalty, hence a kingdom The King's own title given away as a possession. Henry: "It is a kingdom; the most valuable possession on earth; yet this is but a faint resemblance of the blessed state of the saints in heaven."
ἡτοιμασμένηνhētoimasmenēnpreparedG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Feminine Singular
hetoimazo: to prepare Perfect passive: prepared and standing prepared. Its twin in v41 is the fire, and there the same participle is used with a different beneficiary, the devil. Barnes builds his whole comment on that asymmetry.
ὑμῖνhyminfor youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
καταβολῆςkatabolēs[the] foundationG2602
√ καταβολή — a deposition, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
katabole: a deposition, a casting down, hence a founding Gill labours the phrase and reports the ancient versions that read "before the world" and "before the foundation of the world was laid," and Dr Hammond's paraphrase "before all eternity." Whatever the metaphysics, the syntax puts the preparing of the kingdom before any of the deeds that are about to be recited.
κόσμουkosmouof [the] worldG2889
√ κόσμος — orderly arrangement, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
35

For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar epeinasa kai edōkate moi phagein edipsēsa kai me epotisate ēmēn xenos kai synēgagete me

Word by word15 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἐπείνασαepeinasaI was hungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
peinao: to be famished, to pine with hunger First of six, and the only one of the six that the Gospel has already shown of Jesus himself. The verb returns as a participle in the astonished question of v37 and again in v44, and Cambridge points the reader to Romans 12:20, where the same hunger and thirst belong to an enemy.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδώκατέedōkateyou gaveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
φαγεῖνphagein[something] to eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
phago: to eat, literally or figuratively A bare aorist infinitive with no object: you gave Me to eat. The plainness matters, and Pulpit catches it through Chrysostom: the King "requires only what is within our power, or rather even less than what is within our power."
ἐδίψησαedipsēsaI was thirstyG1372
√ διψάω — to thirst for (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μεmevvvG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ἐποτίσατέepotisateyou gave Me [something] to drinkG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἤμηνēmēnI wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
ξένοςxenosa strangerG3581
√ ξένος — foreign (literally, alien, or figuratively, novel)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
xenos: foreign, literally alien, or figuratively novel Barnes fills in the social weight: a stranger is "a foreigner or traveler," and receiving one "was, in Eastern countries, where there were few or no public houses, a great virtue." Cambridge says oriental custom required "at least a bare hospitality," which is why this item sits at the hinge of his climax, between duties anyone would own and acts no one could be compelled to.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνηγάγετέsynēgageteyou took Me inG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
synago: to lead together The word that ties the deed to the assize. The one who gathers a stranger into a house is doing, on a doorstep, the thing the angels will do to the nations. Whether the King means his believing poor (Gill) or the afflicted of the whole race (Ellicott, Pulpit) is the dispute of v40; the verb itself is neutral.
μεme. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
36

I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gymnos kai periebalete me ēsthenēsa kai epeskepsasthe me ēmēn en phylakē kai ēlthate pros me

Word by word15 · parsed
γυμνὸςgymnos[I was] nakedG1131
√ γυμνός — nude (absolute or relative, literal or figurative)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
gymnos: nude, absolute or relative, literal or figurative Cambridge places this item above the first three: "to clothe the naked implies a liberal and loving spirit." Barnes ties the word to Matthew 5:40 and Isaiah 58:7, which is where the whole list finds its Hebrew shape.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιεβάλετέperiebaleteyou clothedG4016
√ περιβάλλω — to throw all around, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ἠσθένησαēsthenēsaI was sickG770
√ ἀσθενέω — to be feeble (in any sense)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
astheneo: to be feeble, in any sense A verb here (I was made weak), whereas v43 uses the adjective ἀσθενὴς, strengthless. Sickness is stated as an event in the King's own history, which Gill notes is not literally true of Jesus in the Gospels: He bore sicknesses but was never recorded sick.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπεσκέψασθέepeskepsastheyou looked afterG1980
√ ἐπισκέπτομαι — to inspect, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
episkeptomai: to inspect The theological weight of the verse sits in this middle-voice verb, not in its object. Its noun relative names the pastoral office, and Gill records the Jewish estimate of the duty: one rabbi held that failing to visit the sick is as if a man shed blood. To oversee the sick is the smallest exercise of the office the Judge himself holds.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ἤμηνēmēnI wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
φυλακῇphylakēprisonG5438
√ φυλακή — a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the personNounDative Feminine Singular
phylake: a guarding, or concretely a guard, the act, the person Cambridge calls going to the imprisoned "perhaps an unheard of act of charity in those days," and quotes Sallust on the Roman Tullianum to say how foul such places were. Pulpit adds, through Chrysostom, that the prisoner wants release and the sick want healing, and the King asks only for the visit.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἤλθατεēlthateyou visitedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
erchomai: to come or go The same verb as the coming of the Son of Man in v31, now in the second person plural aorist. The whole passage turns on two comings: His, in glory, and theirs, to a cell.
πρόςpros. . .G4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
37

Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote hoi dikaioi apokrithēsontai autō legontes Kyrie pote eidomen se peinōnta kai ethrepsamen ē dipsōnta kai epotisamen

Word by word17 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
δίκαιοιdikaioirighteousG1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
dikaios: equitable in character or act Gill reads the title backwards to its ground: these are they "who have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them," and their surprise shows "they had put no confidence in their works." Barnes reads it forward, as humility: their acts "have come so far short of what they should have been that they have no claim to praise or reward." Both readings depend on the same fact, that the reply is a question and not a claim.
ἀποκριθήσονταιapokrithēsontaiwill answerG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, hence to answer Barnes is careful here, and his caution is worth keeping: it is not to be supposed that this will actually be said, "but that this would be a proper expression of their feelings." The verse reports a disposition in the form of a dialogue.
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
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, hence lord The only title the sheep use. They do not dispute the verdict, only its account of them; they address the Judge as Lord and ask when they ever saw Him.
πότεpotewhenG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
εἴδομενeidomendid we seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
horao: to see, by extension to attend to Repeated at the head of vv38 and 39 and again in v44: four times in the unit, always aorist, always first person plural. The whole cross-examination on both sides turns on a claim about sight, and on both sides the answer is that the King was not recognised. Ellicott makes this the key to the passage, arguing that only the heathen could ask such a question; Pulpit answers that a Christian could ask it too, out of "profound humility, which had never hitherto realized the grand idea."
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
πεινῶνταpeinōntahungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθρέψαμενethrepsamenfeed [You]G5142
√ τρέφω — but perhaps strengthened from the base of G5157 (τροπή) through the idea of convolution)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
trepho: to nourish, to rear Strong's entry for this root is truncated in our lexicon, so we do not press its etymology. The point available to us is the substitution itself: the witnesses do not quote the King's own words back to Him.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
διψῶνταdipsōntathirstyG1372
√ διψάω — to thirst for (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐποτίσαμενepotisamengive [You] something to drinkG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
38

When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de pote eidomen se xenon kai synēgagomen ē gymnon kai periebalomen

Word by word11 · parsed
δέdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πότεpoteWhenG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
εἴδομενeidomendid we seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
horao: to see, by extension to attend to Second of the three questions. The threefold repetition is the point: the deeds are recited twice in the unit by the King (vv35 to 36, vv42 to 43) and twice by the parties (vv37 to 39, v44), and every recital differs slightly in wording. Nothing here is a formula.
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
ξένονxenona strangerG3581
√ ξένος — foreign (literally, alien, or figuratively, novel)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
xenos: foreign, literally alien, or figuratively novel The word covers both the traveller with no bed and the outsider with no claim. Gill, holding that the brethren are believers, points out that Christ in person was never in this condition: "they had never seen him a stranger, and took him into their houses; yet they had, seen him hungry and thirsty, and as a stranger in his members."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνηγάγομενsynēgagomentake [You] inG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
γυμνὸνgymnonnakedG1131
√ γυμνός — nude (absolute or relative, literal or figurative)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
gymnos: nude, absolute or relative, literal or figurative Accusative, agreeing with You. Whatever the degree of nakedness, the scandal of the sentence is the pronoun it is attached to.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιεβάλομενperiebalomenclothe [You]G4016
√ περιβάλλω — to throw all around, iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
39

When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de pote eidomen se asthenounta ē en phylakē kai ēlthomen pros se

Word by word12 · parsed
δέdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πότεpoteWhenG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
εἴδομενeidomendid we seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
horao: to see, by extension to attend to Third and last of the righteous questions. Barnes's caution governs all three: this is not a transcript but "a proper expression of their feelings."
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
ἀσθενοῦνταasthenountasickG770
√ ἀσθενέω — to be feeble (in any sense)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
astheneo: to be feeble, in any sense Gill notes what the Gospels do and do not record: Christ "bore the sicknesses of his people, yet we never read of his being sick himself, nor was he ever cast into prison," while John the Baptist, Peter and Paul were. On Gill's reading the first person of vv35 to 36 is therefore always the body of Christ and never the physical history of Jesus.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
φυλακῇphylakēprisonG5438
√ φυλακή — a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the personNounDative Feminine Singular
phylake: a guarding, or concretely a guard, the act, the person Second of four occurrences in the unit (vv36, 39, 43, and the goats' summary at v44): the most repeated of the six conditions. Whatever else this passage is about, it will not let the prison go.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἤλθομενēlthomenvisitG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
erchomai: to come or go The verb of the Advent, in the first person plural. That Matthew uses one word for the Son of Man's coming in glory and for a believer walking to a cell is the quiet structural joke of the unit.
πρόςpros. . .G4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
40

And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Basileus apokritheis erei autois Amēn legō hymin eph’ hoson epoiēsate heni tōn elachistōn toutōn tōn adelphōn mou epoiēsate emoi

Word by word21 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΒασιλεὺςBasileusKingG935
√ βασιλεύς — a sovereign (abstractly, relatively, or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
basileus: a sovereign, abstractly, relatively or figuratively The royal title is used for the explanation, not only for the sentence. Gill notes the condescension of the form: though a king, He "will return an answer to the queries of his people."
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisvvvG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐρεῖereiwill replyG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture 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
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amen: properly, firm Tagged "Hebrew Word" in the parse. The oath formula marks this as the interpretive key the King himself supplies for vv35 to 36: the deeds were done to Him. Much of what the commentators dispute about this passage is dispute about the range of this one sentence rather than about its force; the duration of v46 is the other front.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἐφ’eph’whateverG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ὅσονhoson. . .G3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐποιήσατεepoiēsateyou didG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἑνὶhenifor oneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐλαχίστωνelachistōnleastG1646
√ ἐλάχιστος — used as equivalent to G3398 (μικρός)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine PluralSuperlative
elachistos: the least, used as equivalent to mikros Superlative. Barnes reads it socially: "one of the obscurest, the least known, the poorest, the most despised and afflicted." Ellicott reads the whole clause as true "in different degrees of intensity, in proportion as the relationship is consciously recognised, of every member of the family of man." Gill will not go past "the saints only." The superlative itself takes no side.
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἀδελφῶνadelphōnbrothersG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounGenitive Masculine Plural
adelphos: a brother, literally or figuratively, near or remote Ellicott and Barnes both anchor the word in Hebrews 2:11, He "is not ashamed to call them brethren"; Barnes also cites Matthew 12:50, and Cambridge and Pulpit both hear Acts 9:4 behind it, "Why persecutest thou me." Gill turns the same texts the other way, arguing that only those born of God and doing the will of Christ are His brethren. We have tiered that whole cluster of cross-references flagged rather than confirmed, precisely because the same citations are made to serve opposite conclusions.
μουmouof MineG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ἐποιήσατεepoiēsateyou didG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἐμοὶemoifor MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
emoi: to me (emphatic dative of ego) Note the form. When the King recited the deeds in v35 he used the unstressed enclitic μοι (you gave to Me); here, in the sentence that interprets them, he uses the emphatic ἐμοὶ, and the clause order puts it last: to ME you did it. The same emphatic form closes the verdict on the goats at v45. So the two sentences that carry the whole weight of the unit both end on the stressed first person pronoun, which is the grammatical form of JFB's point that the surprise is not that they acted in love but "that Christ Himself was the Personal Object of all their deeds."
41

Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote kai erei tois ex euōnymōn Poreuesthe ap’ emou hoi katēramenoi eis to to aiōnion pyr to hētoimasmenon tō diabolō kai autou tois angelois

Word by word24 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐρεῖereiHe will sayG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisto thoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἐξexonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
εὐωνύμωνeuōnymōn[His] leftG2176
√ εὐώνυμος — properly, well-named (good-omened), iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
ΠορεύεσθεPoreuestheDepartG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbPresent Imperative Middle or Passive2nd Person Plural
poreuomai: to traverse, hence to go one's way Benson sets the imperative against the invitation of v34: "In this world they were often called to come to Christ, to come for life and rest; but they turned a deaf ear to his calls; justly, therefore, are they bid to depart from him, who would not come to him." Henry says the same in shorter compass. Pulpit adds that banishment from the presence is itself the punishment, before any fire is named.
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἐμοῦemouMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
οἱhoi[you] whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
κατηραμένοιkatēramenoiare cursedG2672
√ καταράομαι — to execrateVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveVocative Masculine Plural
kataraomai: to execrate Perfect passive participle with no stated agent anywhere in the sentence, which is the grammatical fact underlying Cambridge, Ellicott and Chrysostom alike. Cambridge, following Bengel, prints the two sentences of vv34 and 41 in parallel to show the missing words.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
aionios: perpetual, also used of past time, or past and future as well First of three occurrences in the unit (here, then twice in v46). Barnes uses this verse to gather the imagery, tracing the figure to the fires of the Valley of Hinnom and to Isaiah 66:24, while insisting that "the main truth intended to be taught refers not to the manner of suffering, but to the certainty and intensity of it."
πῦρpyrfireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἡτοιμασμένονhētoimasmenonpreparedG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
hetoimazo: to prepare The twin of v34. Benson: "Not originally for you: you are intruders into this everlasting misery." Gill, characteristically, presses the other side and notes that the punishment was "appointed before the world was," while conceding the text does not say when the fire was prepared.
τῷtōfor theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
διαβόλῳdiabolōdevilG1228
√ διάβολος — a traducerAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
diabolos: a traducer, a slanderer Parsed here as an adjective in the dative, which is how the word began life: the slanderous one. Pulpit notes the consequence for the shape of the sentence, that there is no place prepared for human punishment as such, and man "having made himself like unto the evil spirits by rebellion and hatred of good, he must consort with them and share their doom."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
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
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἀγγέλοιςangeloisangelsG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounDative Masculine Plural
angelos: a messenger, one who brings tidings The same noun as v31, where all the angels come with the Son of Man. The unit opens and closes its account of the fire with one word used of two retinues.
42

For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,

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Greek — tap a word ↓

gar epeinasa kai edōkate moi ouk phagein kai edipsēsa kai epotisate ouk me

Word by word13 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἐπείνασαepeinasaI was hungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
peinao: to be famished, to pine with hunger Identical to v35. The two recitals are built as a matched pair, and only three verses separate the King who was fed from the King who was not.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδώκατέedōkateyou gaveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
οὐκouknothingG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative The hinge of the entire second half of the unit. Everything hangs on a negative particle: the goats are condemned not for what they did but for what stands in the place where a deed should be. Gill notes how small the omissions were, "as not the least morsel of bread to eat, so not so much as a cup of cold water to drink."
φαγεῖνphageinto eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίψησαedipsēsaI was thirstyG1372
√ διψάω — to thirst for (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐποτίσατέepotisateyou gave Me nothing to drinkG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
potizo: to furnish drink, to irrigate Same causative verb as v35, negated. In the interlinear the English "you gave Me nothing to drink" is loaded onto this one word with the negative and the pronoun trailing as placeholders, which is a gloss artefact and not a feature of the Greek.
οὐκouk. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μεme. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
43

I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’

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Greek — tap a word ↓

ēmēn xenos kai ou synēgagete me gymnos kai ou periebalete me asthenēs kai en phylakē kai ouk epeskepsasthe me

Word by word19 · parsed
ἤμηνēmēnI wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
ξένοςxenosa strangerG3581
√ ξένος — foreign (literally, alien, or figuratively, novel)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
xenos: foreign, literally alien, or figuratively novel Gill takes this clause concretely and historically: these are Christ's servants who "were obliged to flee from their places of abode," turned away by people who bore the Christian name. On his reading the charge is not a failure of general philanthropy but a refusal of the household of faith.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Three negatives in one verse (indices 3, 8 and 16), against none in v36. The verse is v36 with the particles inserted.
συνηγάγετέsynēgageteyou did not take Me inG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μεme. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
γυμνὸςgymnos[I was] nakedG1131
√ γυμνός — nude (absolute or relative, literal or figurative)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
περιεβάλετέperiebaleteyou did not clotheG4016
√ περιβάλλω — to throw all around, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ἀσθενὴςasthenēs[I was] sickG772
√ ἀσθενής — strengthless (in various applications, literal, figurative and moral)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
asthenes: strengthless, in various applications, literal, figurative and moral A different Strong's number from the verb at v36, and the only place in the unit where the condition is stated as an adjective of the King's person rather than as something that happened to Him.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
φυλακῇphylakēprisonG5438
√ φυλακή — a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the personNounDative Feminine Singular
phylake: a guarding, or concretely a guard, the act, the person Here the prison is joined to the sickness by a bare kai and both are answered by one verb. JFB's dramatised version of the charge catches the tone: "I asked relief, but ye had none to give Me."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἐπεσκέψασθέepeskepsastheyou did not look afterG1980
√ ἐπισκέπτομαι — to inspect, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
episkeptomai: to inspect The verb of oversight, negated. Since its noun relative names the pastoral office (Ellicott's point at v36), the charge against the goats is, in the word's own etymology, that no one oversaw.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
44

And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote autoi kai apokrithēsontai legontes Kyrie pote eidomen se peinōnta ē dipsōnta ē xenon ē gymnon ē asthenē ē en phylakē kai ou diēkonēsamen soi

Word by word25 · parsed
ΤότεToteAndG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
αὐτοὶautoitheyG846
√ 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 PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
autos: the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person Emphatic. The parallelism between the two questions is nearly exact in Greek, which is why the commentators must locate the difference in disposition rather than in wording.
καὶkaitooG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀποκριθήσονταιapokrithēsontaiwill replyG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
πότεpotewhenG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
εἴδομενeidomendid we seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
horao: to see, by extension to attend to Fourth and last occurrence in the unit. Both parties fail at the same point, recognition; only one party is surprised in a way the Judge accepts. Ellicott resolves this by assigning the two questions to different classes of people; Pulpit and Barnes resolve it by assigning them different tones.
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
πεινῶνταpeinōntahungryG3983
√ πεινάω — "pine")VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
διψῶνταdipsōntathirstyG1372
√ διψάω — to thirst for (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ξένονxenona strangerG3581
√ ξένος — foreign (literally, alien, or figuratively, novel)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
γυμνὸνgymnonnakedG1131
√ γυμνός — nude (absolute or relative, literal or figurative)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀσθενῆasthenēsickG772
√ ἀσθενής — strengthless (in various applications, literal, figurative and moral)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
φυλακῇphylakēprisonG5438
√ φυλακή — a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the personNounDative Feminine Singular
phylake: a guarding, or concretely a guard, the act, the person The prison is the last item in every recital and always the shortest. Cambridge's note at vv35 to 36 explains why it stands at the head of the climax: going to the outcasts in prison was "perhaps an unheard of act of charity in those days."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
διηκονήσαμένdiēkonēsamendid not ministerG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
diakoneo: to be an attendant The word on which the goats' defence turns and the word the King never spoke. ⚙ Their plea is that they were never asked to serve anyone of consequence; the charge was that a hungry person went unfed. Pulpit hears self-confidence in this; Benson thinks it may be "the language of their hearts" and not speech at all.
σοιsoito YouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
45

Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote apokrithēsetai autois legōn Amēn legō hymin eph’ hoson ouk epoiēsate heni tōn elachistōn toutōn oude epoiēsate emoi

Word by word18 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ἀποκριθήσεταιapokrithēsetai[the King] will answerG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd 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
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amen: properly, firm The same Hebrew oath word as v40, swearing the negative form of the same principle. The symmetry is total: oath, measure clause, one person, the least, and the Judge's own dative at the end.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἐφ’eph’whateverG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ὅσονhoson. . .G3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἐποιήσατεepoiēsateyou did not doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἑνὶhenifor oneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐλαχίστωνelachistōnleastG1646
√ ἐλάχιστος — used as equivalent to G3398 (μικρός)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine PluralSuperlative
elachistos: the least, used as equivalent to mikros Superlative, and this time standing alone. Cambridge puts the whole verse in one line: "Men will be judged not only for evil done, but for good left undone." Barnes is careful to add that this is the "public" ground of condemnation and not the only one, citing Romans 2:9 and 1 Corinthians 6:9 to 10 for positive sins.
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐδὲoudevvvG3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iAdverb
oude: not however, neither The escalating negative that closes the argument. Poole treats the whole matter of sins of omission here, and concludes that "omissions of acts of charity to the distressed members of Christ are such sins, as, if not repented of, and washed off with the blood of Christ, are enough to condemn us to the pit of hell." Note that Poole, unlike some who quote this passage, keeps the remedy in the sentence.
ἐποιήσατεepoiēsateyou did not doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἐμοὶemoifor MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
emoi: to me The last word of the second verdict, as of the first. Barnes raises the hardest question the verse poses, how the pagan who never heard the Name can be justly condemned, and answers that these duties "are clearly made known by conscience and by the light of nature," not that unbelief as such is the charge here.
46

And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai houtoi apeleusontai eis aiōnion kolasin de hoi dikaioi eis aiōnion zōēn

Word by word12 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὗτοιhoutoitheyG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀπελεύσονταιapeleusontaiwill go awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
aperchomai: to go off Future middle. JFB notes a detail of order that our commentators take from Bengel: sentence is pronounced first on the righteous in the hearing of the wicked, but executed first on the wicked in the sight of the righteous. Pulpit and Benson both repeat it, and Benson concludes that "the damned shall have no view of the everlasting life." This is inference from the sequence of the verses, not a statement of the text.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
aionios: perpetual, also used of past time, or past and future as well First of the two occurrences in this verse. Ellicott concedes the word "does not in itself involve endlessness, but rather duration, whether through an age or a succession of ages," citing Romans 16:25 and the Septuagint of Genesis 17:8 and Leviticus 3:17, and noting Gregory of Nyssa's use of it with "interval." Benson takes the opposite view from the parallelism in this very sentence. We record the disagreement and take no side.
κόλασινkolasinpunishmentG2851
√ κόλασις — penal inflictionNounAccusative Feminine Singular
kolasis: penal infliction The joint rarest lexeme in this unit's candidate set: two verses in the New Testament, tied with G2056 ἔριφος, which the Verifier also reports in only 2 verses. Barnes uses the rarity to argue for its force ("if this word does not teach it, no word could express the idea"); Cambridge uses the classical sense to soften it. The lexicon gloss we have, "penal infliction," supports Barnes on the fact of penalty and says nothing about duration or aim.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
δίκαιοιdikaioirighteousG1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
dikaios: equitable in character or act The word returns from v37 to close the unit. The sheep were named righteous before the verdict was explained and are named righteous again after it is executed; the title brackets the whole dialogue.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
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
zoe: life, literally or figuratively The last noun of the discourse. Cambridge, who is the most cautious of our voices on aiōnios, still holds that life eternal "can only be conceived of as unending and infinite," citing John 17:3 and Habakkuk 1:12. Gill makes the same move from the other direction: because the happiness is eternal, the punishment must be, "for no reason can be given why the word which is the same in both clauses, should be taken in the one for a limited time, and in the other for an eternal duration."

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 throne, and who sits on it — vv31 to 33

The unit opens with a grammatical fact that no English version can carry: the certainty is in the sitting, not in the coming. Ὅταν with the aorist subjunctive ἔλθῃ is "whenever He may come" (Strong's gloss for G3752 is "whenever, implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty"), while καθίσει, He will sit, is flat future indicative. Pulpit notices the untranslated particle ("ὅταν δὲ, but when") and reads it as the seam between this section and the two parables before it. Ellicott and Pulpit agree, against the chapter's own popular title, that what follows is not a parable at all: Ellicott says it "passes beyond the region of parable into that of divine realities," and Pulpit calls it "a prophecy, not a parable," with the sheep and goats a "subordinate and parenthetic illustration." Maclaren, who is the most reluctant of our voices to divide drapery from truth ("The curtain is the picture"), still fixes on the one claim he thinks unmistakable: sitting on the rocks of Olivet, three days from Calvary, "Jesus declared Himself to be the Judge of the world, in language so unlimited in its claims that the speaker must be either a madman or a god." Ellicott traces the form of the announcement to Daniel 7:13 and the throne shared with the Ancient of Days; JFB sends the reader to Deuteronomy 33:2 and Daniel 7:9 to 10 for the angelic retinue, and Benson insists the angels come "not only for state, as his attendants, but for service, as ministers of his justice." Then the two verbs of sorting: ἀφορίσει (G873, "to set off by boundary") in the future for the Judge, and ἀφορίζει in the present habitual for the shepherd. Maclaren draws the inference the tenses force: unlike the sleeping virgins and the reporting servants of this same chapter, here "the separation is the work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken."

ii. The verdict that precedes the evidence — vv34 to 36

The title changes without warning. The Son of Man becomes ὁ Βασιλεὺς, and JFB marks the moment: "Magnificent title, here for the first and only time, save in parabolical language, given to Himself by the Lord Jesus, and that on the eve of His deepest humiliation." Benson explains the timing, that He takes the royal name exactly when passing sentence "on all men as his subjects." Two perfect passive participles then set the shape of everything after: εὐλογημένοι, having been blessed, and ἡτοιμασμένην, having been prepared. Both are finished before the court opens. Poole reads them as decisively as they can be read: "you have not purchased it by your works; no, it was prepared for you before ever you were." Henry agrees that "It is God that makes heirs of heaven." Pulpit dissents in the plainest terms, holding that "Nothing is said about election or predestination, as if they were saved because they were blessed by the Father," and that the reward follows their use of grace. We record both, because the verse itself sets a perfect passive participle beside an aorist imperative, κληρονομήσατε: they are named by what was done to them and commanded to take it up. Then the six deeds, and one of them is a word we have already met. συνηγάγετέ με, you gathered Me in, is the same lexeme (G4863) as συναχθήσονται in v32, where the nations are gathered before the throne. Gill flags the Hebraism in the verb without drawing the link; we draw it as ⚙ synthesis, not as a sourced fact: whoever gathers a stranger over a threshold has done in miniature what the angels will do to the nations. Ellicott counts the list as "six out of the list of the seven corporal works of mercy," and Cambridge finds a climax inside it, the first three being duties even an enemy would be owed (he cites Romans 12:20) and the last three "voluntary acts of self-forgetting love." Note also how small the asked-for deeds are. Chrysostom, quoted by Pulpit, sees it: the King "requires only what is within our power, or rather even less than what is within our power."

iii. Twice astonished, on both sides of the throne — vv37 to 39, v44

Four times the same aorist, εἴδομεν, did we see. Both parties dispute the same thing, and it is not the verdict but the sight. This is where our voices divide hardest. Ellicott argues from πάντα τὰ ἔθνη in v32 (the articular plural which, he says, "marks out, with scarcely an exception, the heathen nations of the world as distinguished from God's people Israel") that the whole scene judges those who never heard the Name, so that the surprise is "natural enough" in heathen lips and impossible in a believer's. JFB calls that exposition amazing to a simple reader and puts an imagined dialogue in the mouth of the sheep instead, concluding that "The surprise expressed is not at their being told that they acted from love to Christ, but that Christ Himself was the Personal Object of all their deeds." Pulpit takes a third route, that all mankind is judged here and the question is "profound humility, which had never hitherto realized the grand idea." Barnes lowers the temperature by denying the dialogue is literal at all: it is "a proper expression of their feelings." Gill notes, tellingly, that the righteous have forgotten their own works, "their left hand not knowing what their right hand had done." The goats' question in v44 is the same words with a different spirit, and Pulpit hears it exactly: "There is a certain self-confidence in their reply, very different from the humility and misgiving of the righteous." Benson adds that the wicked will perhaps not speak this aloud at all, it being "the language of their hearts." One small Greek detail belongs here: the goats' summary in v44 collapses the six deeds into one negative verb, διηκονήσαμέν (G1247, to be an attendant), a word the King never used of them. They answer a charge about service; He had spoken about bread.

iv. The mirror sentence, and the word that is missing from it — vv41 to 46

The second sentence is built to match the first and deliberately fails to match it at one point. ἡτοιμασμένον answers ἡτοιμασμένην, κατηραμένοι answers εὐλογημένοι, Πορεύεσθε answers Δεῦτε; but where v34 said "blessed of my Father," v41 says only "cursed." Cambridge sets the two sentences in parallel and states the conclusion: "The blessing comes from God, the curse is brought by the sinner on himself." Ellicott calls the omission "every way significant. He is not the author of the curse." Barnes reads the same asymmetry out of the prepositional phrases: the kingdom was prepared for them, the fire was prepared "for another race of beings," and Benson puts it starkly, "you are intruders into this everlasting misery." Pulpit follows the logic to its bleak end: there is "no hint of its being remedial or corrective," and the wicked, having made themselves fit for the company of demons, "fall into the society of demons." Then the last word, twice: αἰώνιον. Our commentators disagree honestly and at length. Benson: "Either, therefore, the punishment is strictly eternal, or the reward is not; the very same expression in the original being applied to the former as to the latter." Barnes counts the 66 New Testament occurrences and argues from consistency. Ellicott concedes that the Greek word "does not in itself involve endlessness, but rather duration, whether through an age or a succession of ages," and Cambridge concedes the same of the adjective while insisting that life eternal "can only be conceived of as unending and infinite." Cambridge also presses κόλασις (G2851, "penal infliction") as "not vengeance, but punishment that checks or reforms," and Pulpit doubts that the classical distinction holds in the New Testament. We leave the question where they leave it, and note only what is not in dispute: the adjective is one word used twice in one sentence, and the two destinies are described with the same term.

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

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested. The engine of this passage is a single verb used in two directions. In v32 the nations are led together, συναχθήσονται; in v35 the King says you led Me together with you, συνηγάγετέ με. It is one lexeme, G4863, and the Verifier records no other occurrence of it in this unit's cross-references. If that repetition is meant, then the last judgment is not a new act of God but the public disclosure of a gathering that has been going on at thresholds, bedsides and prison gates all along, and the verdict is only the King saying out loud where each person already stood. Two things follow, and they cut against comfortable readings in both directions. First, the deeds cannot be wages. Both perfect participles of v34, blessed and prepared, are complete before any deed is named, and the kingdom is dated from the foundation of the world; so the six acts function here as evidence of a status, exactly as Gill, Poole and Henry insist. Second, the deeds cannot be optional. The sentence in v45 turns on οὐδὲ, not even, and both parties are condemned or commended for nothing but omission and commission toward bodies. A faith that produces none of the six has produced no evidence, and the court in this passage admits no other kind. We hold one further thing as ⚙ reading and not as fact: the scope of "the least of these My brethren" cannot be settled from this unit. Gill restricts it to believers, Ellicott and Pulpit extend it to the whole suffering race, and the Greek ἀδελφῶν μου supports both. We think the safer pastoral conclusion is the one that no reading escapes: you cannot identify the brethren in advance, which is precisely why both the sheep and the goats have to ask when they ever saw Him. (The line printed as this unit's pullquote is our own sentence, not Scripture.)

The Judge does not ask whether you recognised Him; He asks what you did to the one you did not recognise.

⚙

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 shepherd who judges between sheep and sheep structural / thematic: confirmed

The single figurative element in the passage, ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει, is drawn from Ezekiel 34, where the Lord takes the shepherd's office away from Israel's shepherds and exercises it himself, including its judicial half. Two of our commentators reach for the same chapter independently: JFB ends his note on v32 with "as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats (See Eze 34:17)," and Pulpit quotes the verse in full, "Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats." Barnes cites Ezekiel 34:17 again at v33 for the goats. ⚙ What Matthew adds to Ezekiel is the seat: in Ezekiel the shepherd judges among the flock, here He judges from a throne with the nations before Him. We tier this structural rather than verbal because the link is cross-Testament and cannot rest on a shared Strong's number.

Ezekiel 34:17-22

basis: Cross-Testament link (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no quotation is claimed. Recorded basis is the converging attestation of three named commentators on this unit: JFB at v32 (See Eze 34:17), Pulpit at v32 (quoting Ezekiel 34:17 verbatim), Barnes at v33 (The goats. See Ezekiel 34:17). Shared pattern: one shepherd who both feeds and divides the mixed flock.

The Son of Man given a kingdom, and the nations brought to the valley structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott states the dependence outright: "The form of the announcement is in part based, as indeed are all the thoughts connected with the final Advent, upon the vision of Daniel 7:13," and he reads "the throne of His glory" as the throne He shares with the Ancient of Days. JFB points the retinue to Daniel 7:9 to 10 alongside Deuteronomy 33:2 and Jude 14; Pulpit adds Deuteronomy 33:2 and the assembling of the whole family of heaven and earth. ⚙ The reversal worth naming is that in Daniel the Son of Man receives the kingdom, while in Matthew 25:34 the King gives one away (κληρονομήσατε τὴν βασιλείαν). The gathering of all the nations for judgment matches Joel 3:2, and the holy ones accompanying Him matches Zechariah 14:5, which Maclaren touches indirectly when he notes that Jesus spoke on Olivet with the valley of Jehoshaphat, the traditional site of that judgment, at His feet.

Daniel 7:13-14 · Zechariah 14:5 · Joel 3:2

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible, so no verbal tier is available and none is claimed. Recorded basis: Ellicott names Daniel 7:13 as the source of the form of the announcement, JFB cites Daniel 7:9-10, and the shared pattern is a heavenly court with a throne, an attending host, and assembled nations. The Zechariah and Joel links are pattern only and are not asserted as quotations.

The fast that God chooses: the six deeds in Isaiah's words structural / thematic: confirmed

Five of the six works in vv35 to 36 stand together in Isaiah 58:6 to 7: bread to the hungry, the poor and homeless brought into the house, the naked covered, the bonds loosed. Poole cites the passage himself when explaining why the King chose works of charity rather than works of piety, listing Isaiah 58:7 with Ezekiel 18:7 and Micah 6:8; Barnes cites Isaiah 58:7 at the word "naked." ⚙ Isaiah's list is addressed to a people whose fasting God refuses; Matthew's is the criterion of a court. The transposition is from cult critique to verdict, which is why we tier this thematic and not verbal even though the overlap of items is close to one for one.

Isaiah 58:6-7

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared lexeme basis exists and no quotation is claimed: Matthew nowhere marks these words as a citation. Recorded basis: Poole cites Isaiah 58:7 in his note on vv35 to 40, Barnes cites Isaiah 58:7 at v36, and the shared pattern is the same short list of bodily mercies (feed, shelter, clothe, release) used as the test of true religion.

Some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame structural / thematic: confirmed

The closing sentence divides one adjective between two destinies, which is the shape of Daniel 12:2. Barnes cites Daniel 12:2 in his note on v32 for the general resurrection, and Pulpit gathers Isaiah 66:24 and Daniel 12:2 together as the Old Testament support for the everlasting nature of the second destiny. Barnes also traces the fire image itself to what "was well known to the Jews" in Isaiah 66:24, and adds, separately, that the figure was probably drawn from the fires burning in the Valley of Hinnom. ⚙ Daniel gives the two-outcome structure; Isaiah 66:24 gives the unquenched image. Neither is quoted here, and Barnes's Hinnom derivation is his own inference, marked "probably" in his own text.

Daniel 12:2 · Isaiah 66:24

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's lexeme is possible, and Matthew marks no citation, so no verbal tier is claimed. Recorded basis: Pulpit cites Isaiah 66:24 and Daniel 12:2 at v46, Barnes cites Daniel 12:2 at v32 and Isaiah 66:24 at v41. Shared pattern: a single resurrection issuing in two permanent and opposite ends.

Kolasis: the word that appears only twice verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier reports that κόλασις (G2851, "penal infliction") stands in only two verses of the New Testament: this one and 1 John 4:18, "fear hath torment." Barnes makes exactly this observation in his note here, adding that the cognate verb occurs only at Acts 4:21 and 2 Peter 2:9. ⚙ The rarity cuts both ways and we will not resolve it. Cambridge presses the classical sense, "not vengeance, but punishment that checks or reforms"; Pulpit grants the classical distinction from timoria and then doubts that the New Testament keeps it strictly. What 1 John contributes is the pairing of this rare noun with fear and with a love that casts fear out, which is the opposite pole from the courtroom in Matthew and the reason both texts feel the word as heavy.

1 John 4:18

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2851 κόλασις, in only 2 verses of the New Testament (Matthew 25:46 and 1 John 4:18), which ties with G2056 ἔριφος (in 2 vv) as the rarest shared lexeme in this unit's candidate set. Both refs are New Testament, so no cross-Testament restriction applies. A genuine rare verbal link, corroborated by Barnes, who notes the noun is used in only one other place; no claim is made that either text quotes the other.

The right hand and the left, before the throne and beside the cross structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew uses εὐώνυμος (G2176, literally "well-named," a euphemism for the left) only in a handful of places, and one of them is Matthew 27:38, where two robbers are crucified one on the right and one on the left of Jesus. The Verifier gives the shared pair G1188 δεξιός and G2176 εὐώνυμος for Matthew 27:38, and the same pair again for the request of the sons of Zebedee at Matthew 20:23 and Mark 10:40, where the seats at Christ's right and left are asked for and refused. ⚙ Read together in Matthew's own order, the sequence is a request refused, a crucifixion flanked, and a throne that finally assigns the two sides; the word for the sinister side is a euphemism in all of them. We tier this thematic, not verbal: εὐώνυμος appears in nine verses and δεξιός in fifty four, so the lexemes are not rare enough to carry a quotation claim, and no one is quoting anyone.

Matthew 20:23 · Matthew 27:38

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1188 δεξιός (in 54 vv) and G2176 εὐώνυμος (in 9 vv) with Matthew 27:38, and G2523 καθίζω (in 45 vv) with G1188 δεξιός with Matthew 20:23 and Mark 10:40. Real verbal contact within a shared Matthean motif of the two sides of Christ, but the lexemes are too frequent to justify a verbal tier and no quotation is claimed.

Bread to an enemy: hunger, thirst and the coals structural / thematic: confirmed

Cambridge reaches for Romans 12:20 himself in explaining the climax of the six deeds: "Common humanity would move a man to relieve his bitterest foe when perishing by hunger or by thirst (see Romans 12:20)." The Verifier independently ranks Romans 12:20 the closest candidate to this unit (0.64) on three shared lexemes, G3983 πεινάω, G1372 διψάω and G4222 ποτίζω, the exact triad of the first two works of mercy here. ⚙ The overlap is real but the frame is different: Paul is arguing about enemies, Matthew about the King in disguise. Cambridge's use of the verse is therefore an argument from the minimum, that these first three items are what even hatred owes, so that the reward cannot be resting on them alone.

Romans 12:20

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3983 πεινάω (in 23 vv), G1372 διψάω (in 16 vv), G4222 ποτίζω (in 15 vv); highest-ranked candidate for this unit at 0.64. Both refs are New Testament, but none of the three lexemes is rare and neither text quotes the other, so the tier is thematic and not verbal. Cambridge cites Romans 12:20 at vv35 to 36 independently.

Who are the least of these My brethren? flagged: verify source

Three of our commentators answer this question with cross-references, and they do not agree. Ellicott and Barnes both send the reader to Hebrews 2:11 ("is not ashamed to call them brethren"), Ellicott extending the brotherhood to "every member of the family of man" and Barnes allowing both the Christian and the merely afflicted sense. Gill flatly restricts it: not the apostles, nor "all in human nature," "but the saints only, the children of God, and household of faith," citing the household of faith and Christ's words about who is His brother (Barnes cites Matthew 12:50 for the same point to the opposite end). Cambridge and Pulpit add Acts 9:4, "Why persecutest thou me," as the governing parallel. ⚙ We flag this link rather than confirm it. Hebrews 2:11, Matthew 12:50 and Acts 9:4 are not Verifier-computed lexeme matches with this unit; they are the commentators' own supports, and the commentators use them to reach incompatible conclusions about who stands in the dock and who is in the disguise. Verify each attribution before leaning on it, and treat the scope of ἀδελφῶν μου as unsettled.

Hebrews 2:11 · Matthew 12:50 · Acts 9:4

basis: No Verifier-computed shared lexeme: none of these three refs appears in this unit's candidate set, so the basis is commentary attestation only (Ellicott and Barnes cite Hebrews 2:11; Barnes cites Matthew 12:50; Cambridge and Pulpit cite Acts 9:4). The attestation is contested in substance: the same references are used by Gill to restrict the brethren to believers and by Ellicott to extend them to all mankind. Flagged so the reader checks the citations and the scope claim rather than inheriting either conclusion.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Judge who testifies as the victim ancient/widely-held

⚙ The strangest feature of this courtroom is that the Judge gives evidence in the first person about His own hunger, thirst, homelessness, nakedness, sickness and imprisonment: six aorists and one imperfect, all first person singular (ἐπείνασα, ἐδίψησα, ἤμην ξένος, γυμνός, ἠσθένησα, ἤμην ἐν φυλακῇ). Pulpit states the ground as the commentators have long held it: "The Lord so perfectly identifies himself with the human family, whose nature he assumed, that he made their sorrows sufferings his own," citing Isaiah 53:4, Isaiah 63:9 and Matthew 8:17. Barnes reaches the same conclusion from the union of Christ with His people, "not physical, but moral," so that "he considers favors shown to his people as shown to himself." JFB dramatises it: "Me in the disguise of My poor ones." Ellicott grounds it in Hebrews 2:11, and Cambridge in Acts 9:4. Gill, who restricts the brethren to the saints, still reaches the same identification for them. ⚙ Our own addition is only this, that the verb of v36 (ἐπεσκέψασθέ, G1980, to inspect, whose noun relative names the office of overseer) makes the visited prisoner and the visiting Christian trade places: the one who oversees the sick is doing the Judge's own work, on the Judge's own body. Benson draws the practical edge, that such attendance "is what many may have an opportunity of doing, who have very little money to spare."

Isaiah 53:4 · Matthew 8:17 · Hebrews 2:11 · Acts 9:4

He receives a kingdom in Daniel and hands one over in Matthew ancient/widely-held

⚙ Set Daniel 7:13 to 14 beside Matthew 25:31 and 34, as Ellicott does for the first half of the pair ("The form of the announcement is in part based ... upon the vision of Daniel 7:13"), and the movement reverses. In Daniel the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days and is given dominion; in Matthew the Son of Man comes, takes the title King, and tells others to inherit a kingdom (κληρονομήσατε τὴν βασιλείαν) prepared from the foundation of the world. JFB reads the sheep's blessedness straight out of Ephesians 1:3 to 4, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and concludes that "their whole life of love to Christ is the fruit of an eternal purpose of love to them in Christ." Poole says the same in his own idiom: "you were blessed in my Father's eternal thoughts, so he prepared a kingdom for you." Benson notes that even here, at the summit of His kingly act, Christ "represents himself as acting in subordination to his Father." ⚙ The redemptive-historical point is that the enthronement of the Son of Man is not the end of the transfer: what He receives He distributes, and the inheritance clause is the hinge.

Daniel 7:13-14 · Ephesians 1:4

The curse with no Father's name on it ancient/widely-held

⚙ The two sentences of vv34 and 41 are built as mirrors and break symmetry at exactly one word. "Come, ye blessed of my Father" has no answering "cursed of my Father." Cambridge, following Bengel, lays the two sentences side by side and concludes: "The blessing comes from God, the curse is brought by the sinner on himself." Ellicott calls the omission "every way significant. He is not the author of the curse." Pulpit quotes Chrysostom to the same effect, "Not he laid the curse upon them, but their own works," and Barnes finds the parallel asymmetry in the destination itself: the kingdom was prepared for them, the fire "was not prepared for them, but for another race of beings." Benson: "you are intruders into this everlasting misery." ⚙ We add only the grammatical observation that κατηραμένοι (G2672, to execrate) is a perfect passive participle with no stated agent anywhere in the sentence, while εὐλογημένοι has its agent named in the next breath. The Greek leaves the one blank that the commentators all notice.

Matthew 25:34 · Matthew 25:41

The King who crossed His own boundary novel

⚙ This reading is ours and we mark it novel. The verb of judgment in v32 is ἀφορίζω (G873), whose root sense Strong's gives as "to set off by boundary." The King who draws that boundary is the same speaker who, in vv35 to 36, places himself on the far side of every boundary a society draws: outside the food, outside the house, outside the clothing, outside health, outside the walls of the prison. The judgment scene therefore does not invent a line; it reveals which side of an already-crossed line each person stood on when the King was over there. This is why, on our reading, the sheep's question in v37 is not false modesty and the goats' question in v44 is not mere impudence: neither party knew where the King was, because He was not where a King should be. We hold this as ⚙ synthesis only. No commentator in our brief draws the boundary language together with the six deeds in this way, and the argument rests on a root gloss (G873) plus the plain first-person verbs, not on any source we can cite for it.

Matthew 25:32 · Matthew 25:35-36

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The interlinear before us follows the Berean text and contains editorial placeholders ("vvv" and ". . .") where a Greek word is covered by an English phrase elsewhere in the verse; we have treated those as gloss artefacts and not as readings. Two places bear on the text itself. At v31 Pulpit judges that "Holy" in "all the holy angels" is "probably a transcriber's addition, which has crept into the later text," noting that the Vulgate omits it, and our interlinear has no word for it, so the BSB's bare "all the angels" agrees with the shorter text. At v41 the interlinear lists the article τὸ twice (indices 12 and 13) before αἰώνιον πῦρ; we have not built any claim on that duplication.

Lexicon. Several Strong's entries reach us truncated at an abbreviation (for example G281 ἀμήν "properly, firm, i"; G2523 καθίζω "to seat down, i"; G873 ἀφορίζω "to set off by boundary, i"; G444 ἄνθρωπος and G5142 τρέφω arrive garbled). Where a gloss is cut off we have used only the part actually present and have not reconstructed the rest; the note on ἐθρέψαμεν at v37 says so explicitly.

What is genuinely uncertain in this unit. First, the scope of πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (v32). Ellicott restricts it to the heathen, Gill to professors of Christianity, JFB and Pulpit extend it to the whole race, and JFB names Olshausen, Stier, Keil and Alford as holding the restrictive view he rejects. The Greek is genuinely open. Second, the scope of "the least of these My brethren" (v40), which we have tiered flagged rather than confirmed for the same reason. Third, the force of αἰώνιος and κόλασις at v46: Benson and Barnes argue for strict endlessness from the double use of one adjective, Ellicott and Cambridge concede that the word denotes duration through an age or ages and need not in itself mean endless, and Pulpit lays out both cases at length and declines to dogmatise. We have not resolved it either, and every ⚙ statement in this unit about eternity is deliberately worded to leave it open. Fourth, whether the reward rests on election (Poole, Gill, Henry, JFB) or on cooperation with grace (Pulpit): we have printed the dissent at v34 instead of harmonising it.

Sources. All commentary excerpts are public-domain and quoted verbatim by anchor from the brief; several entries in our source are capped (Maclaren at v31, Pulpit at v31, Gill at vv34 and 41, JFB at v40, Poole at v45, Ellicott and Barnes and Pulpit at v46), and we have quoted only from the text actually supplied. Henry's commentary is a single block on vv31 to 46 and is printed by our source at every verse, so the Henry excerpt at v38 should not be read as a note on that verse in particular; the same is true of the repeated Barnes and JFB blocks at vv38 to 39 and vv41 to 45, and of Poole's cross-references ("See Poole on Matthew 25:33 / 25:40 / 25:45"). Gill's rabbinic and Targumic citations (Sabbath 127, Nedarim 40.1, Zohar, Sanhedrin 4.3, and others) are reproduced as he gives them and have not been checked at first hand. The Ellicott and Cambridge remarks about Gregory of Nyssa, Aristotle and Bengel are likewise theirs, not ours.

✦ = 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)