The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew5:17–20

The Fulfillment of the Law

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Matthew 5:17–20 — The Fulfillment of the Law. 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.

17

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Mē nomisēte hoti ēlthon katalysai ton nomon ē tous prophētas ēlthon ouk katalysai alla plērōsai

Word by word15 · parsed
ΜὴMē{Do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
νομίσητεnomisētethinkG3543
√ νομίζω — properly, to do by law (usage), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
νομίζω: to hold as lawful, to suppose Aorist subjunctive under mē, the construction that bars a thought from ever being formed. The lexicon derives the verb from nomos, so the sentence opens with a word from the same stem as its object: do not legislate about me that I came to unloose the law. The Pulpit Commentary places this suspicion beside the charge later formulated against Stephen at Acts 6:14, where the same fear of a teacher who dissolves Moses reappears.
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἦλθονēlthonI have comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ἔρχομαι: to come First of two aorists that frame the verse. Ellicott notes that “I came” could be said by any teacher conscious of a mission, but gains a new weight from one who was emphatically “He that should come.” The Pulpit Commentary reads the primary reference as his coming forth from private life, with a possible further allusion to his coming from above (John 8:14).
καταλῦσαιkatalysaito abolishG2647
√ καταλύω — to loosen down (disintegrate), iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
καταλύω: to loosen down, demolish A relatively rare verb (the Verifier finds it in 16 verses) used of tearing down buildings. Gamaliel will use it at Acts 5:38 of a movement that collapses of itself, and Paul at 2 Corinthians 5:1 of the earthly tent dissolved. The metaphor matters: the Law and the Prophets are pictured as a standing structure, and the question on the table is whether this Teacher is a wrecker.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
νόμονnomonLawG3551
√ νόμος — law (through the idea of prescriptive usage), genitive case (regulation), specially, (of Moses (including the volume)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
νόμος: law Accusative, governed by the infinitive. Benson, Poole and Gill all argue from the following discourse that the moral law is chiefly in view, Gill adding that the ceremonial part ceased “by being fulfilled,” not by being demolished. JFB declines the division entirely and takes “the law, or the prophets” as one phrase for “the authority and principles of the Old Testament.”
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
Disjunctive ē; the Pulpit Commentary notes the “or” distributes the infinitive across both nouns because the sentence is negative.
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
προφήταςprophētasProphetsG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounAccusative Masculine Plural
προφήτης: a foreteller, prophet Ellicott observes that “the Law and the prophets” was popularly the whole Old Testament, though strictly the Hagiographa should be added; the Pulpit Commentary makes the same point and asks why the Writings are omitted, answering that they were either less used as a basis for rule of life or practically included in the Prophets (Acts 2:30). Ellicott adds that the prophets stand here partly as ethical teachers who spiritualised the Law.
ἦλθονēlthonI have not comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
οὐκouk. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
καταλῦσαιkatalysaito abolish [them]G2647
√ καταλύω — to loosen down (disintegrate), iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἀλλὰallabutG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
Strong adversative alla, not the mild de: the second clause does not qualify the first, it replaces it.
πληρῶσαιplērōsaito fulfill [them]G4137
√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
πληρόω: to make replete, fill full The pivot of the unit, and the commentators divide honestly over its reach. Ellicott confines it chiefly to teaching work. Benson and Poole extend it to personal obedience and, in Poole, to “taking the curse of it upon myself.” Barnes stretches it to the sacrifices “designed to shadow forth the Messiah.” Geneva makes it the fulfilling of “that which was shadowed by the figures of the Law.” Note that v. 18 will not repeat this verb: Ellicott and Cambridge both flag that “till all be fulfilled” renders a different Greek word.
18

For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar legō hymin amēn heōs an ho ouranos kai hē gē parelthē ou mē hen iōta ē mia keraia parelthē apo tou nomou heōs an panta genētai

Word by word27 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἀμὴνamēntrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
ἀμήν: firm, established, so be it Parsed in the interlinear as a Hebrew word inside a Greek sentence. Its normal Old Testament use was to accept a statement someone else had made (Numbers 5:22; Deuteronomy 27:15), which is why the Pulpit Commentary argues that on Jesus' lips it never sank to a bare “verily” but kept its force of personal concurrence in what he himself was saying. JFB presses further: prefixed to a pronouncement on the moral law, “I say unto you” is legislative speech, and “such language as this of our Lord will appear totally unsuitable, and indeed abhorrent, from any creature lips.”
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Conjunction
Conjunction of continuance with the particle an: not a date but a limit.
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
οὐρανὸςouranosheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
γῆgēearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounNominative Feminine Singular
παρέλθῃparelthēpass awayG3928
√ παρέρχομαι — to come near or aside, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
παρέρχομαι: to come aside, pass by, pass away Aorist subjunctive, 3rd singular, with a compound subject (heaven and earth) taken as one. JFB notes the tension in the Old Testament witness itself: Psalm 102:24-27 announces the perdition of the heavens, while Psalm 119:89-91, Ecclesiastes 1:4 and Jeremiah 33:25 use them as the figure of stability. Either way the rhetorical point holds, and the Verifier's candidate list shows the same verb at 2 Peter 3:10 with heaven and earth again.
οὐounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
Emphatic ou mē with the aorist subjunctive: the strongest denial Greek can make.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἓνhena singleG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἰῶταiōtajotG2503
√ ἰῶτα — "iota", the name of the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, put (figuratively) for a very small part of anythingNounNominative Neuter Singular
ἰῶτα: the letter iota, a very small part Strong's itself says the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet is “put (figuratively) for a very small part of anything.” Every commentator here reads it back to the Hebrew yod. Cambridge notes it is “generally a silent letter, rather the adjunct of a letter than an independent letter,” yet an interpretation might turn on its presence, and it is the first letter in the Hebrew form of Jesus or Joshua. Gill reports the rabbinic saying that if all the nations gathered to root one yod out of the law they could not do it.
ἢēnotG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
μίαmiaaG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
κεραίαkeraiastroke of a penG2762
√ κεραία — something horn-like, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
κεραία: something horn-like, a point The mark that separates letters otherwise identical. Ellicott names the pairs (daleth from resh, kaph from beth) and records that Rabbis warned scholars against writing so that one letter could be mistaken for another. Gill adds that some Jewish expounders searched the meaning of every crown and spike on the letter tops. The claim of the verse is therefore at the smallest possible scale: not a doctrine, a serif.
παρέλθῃparelthēwill disappearG3928
√ παρέρχομαι — to come near or aside, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
νόμουnomouLawG3551
√ νόμος — law (through the idea of prescriptive usage), genitive case (regulation), specially, (of Moses (including the volume)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
νόμος: law Genitive after apo. Poole takes the verse as a guarantee of stability rather than a code of practice: “the law is the certain and unchangeable will of God concerning reasonable creatures.” JFB reads it as the enduring authority of the Old Testament's moral and spiritual principles, and refuses to split the fulfilment between moral and ceremonial parts.
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Conjunction
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
πάνταpantaeverythingG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
γένηταιgenētaiis accomplishedG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to come to be, happen Aorist subjunctive middle. The second until of the verse, and the harder one. Ellicott argues the two “untils” each do work: each jot must first complete its task, and only then pass, so that the sentence states a limit rather than an eternal obligation, which is why he judges it not inconsistent with Hebrews 8:13. Benson offers the alternative, that the law “has its effect when its sanctions are executed, as well as when its precepts are obeyed.” JFB declines both readings as over-doctrinal. We record the disagreement and do not settle it.
19

So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ean oun Hos lysē mian tōn tōn elachistōn toutōn entolōn kai didaxē tous anthrōpous houtōs klēthēsetai elachistos en tē basileia tōn ouranōn d’ hos an poiēsē kai didaxē houtos klēthēsetai megas en tē basileia tōn ouranōn

Word by word36 · parsed
ἐὰνeanvvvG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
οὖνounSo thenG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ὋςHoswhoeverG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
λύσῃlysēbreaksG3089
√ λύω — to "loosen" (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
λύω: to loosen Aorist subjunctive in an indefinite relative clause. The Pulpit Commentary makes the key grammatical observation of the verse: this simple verb is a less complete abrogation than the compound katalysai of v. 17, because no individual disciple has power to abolish even one command, while the Lord, speaking of himself, could use the strongest word available. Gill takes it more simply, of acting contrary to a precept.
μίανmianoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Plural
ἐλαχίστωνelachistōnleastG1646
√ ἐλάχιστος — used as equivalent to G3398 (μικρός)AdjectiveGenitive Feminine PluralSuperlative
ἐλάχιστος: least (superlative) The Verifier finds this superlative in only 11 verses, which makes its recurrences traceable: Luke 16:10 and Luke 19:17 both turn on faithfulness in the very least, and Paul calls himself elachistos of the apostles at 1 Corinthians 15:9. Barnes reads the phrase against the Pharisaic sorting of precepts into greater and lesser (Matthew 23:23); the Pulpit Commentary denies that the Pharisees' reckoning is in view and takes it of what our Lord himself symbolised by jot and tittle. Ellicott names them the commands that seemed trivial but govern thought, desire and word.
τούτωνtoutōnof theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Feminine Plural
ἐντολῶνentolōncommandmentsG1785
√ ἐντολή — injunction, iNounGenitive Feminine Plural
ἐντολή: injunction, command Ellicott argues from usage that the word is confined to moral laws throughout the New Testament, with the possible exception of Hebrews 7:5, 16, and that the following context (which deals with anger, lust and oaths, never with ceremony) settles it. Gill takes them as precepts of the law comparatively lesser than others.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διδάξῃdidaxēteachesG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
διδάσκω: to teach Aorist subjunctive, paired with the verb of breaking, and paired again in the second half with poiēsē. The offence in view is compound: not private failure but failure made into instruction. Cambridge puts the positive side in one sentence: the union of doing and teaching is essential, and the Pharisees' grave sin was to teach without doing.
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀνθρώπουςanthrōpousothersG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
οὕτωςhoutōsto do likewiseG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
κληθήσεταιklēthēsetaiwill be calledG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
καλέω: to call, aloud Future passive. Commentators split on how hard the verdict falls. Poole reads it severely: such a man “shall never come into the kingdom of glory.” Geneva glosses the “least” bluntly, “He shall have no place in the Church.” Ellicott hears the sentence as at once severe and gentle, since being least is humiliation, not exclusion, and the Pulpit Commentary agrees the man is not cast out. JFB reads it of present standing, not of heaven at all.
ἐλάχιστοςelachistosleastG1646
√ ἐλάχιστος — used as equivalent to G3398 (μικρός)AdjectiveNominative Masculine SingularSuperlative
ἐλάχιστος: least (superlative) The word returns, now of the person, and the exact repetition is the judgment: the measure a teacher applies to a command is the measure applied to him. The Pulpit Commentary sets it against Luke 19:17, where faithfulness in a very little (the same rare adjective) wins much, and under the principle of Luke 16:10.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
βασιλείᾳbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounDative Feminine Singular
βασιλεία: royalty, rule, kingdom Dative after en. Whether this means the present church or the final state divides the witnesses sharply. JFB restricts it to “the present stage of the kingdom of God,” a degraded standing rather than a place in heaven. The Pulpit Commentary takes it as probably the full and final establishment. Benson reads it of the church of the Messiah, from which such a man is cut off. We leave it open.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
δ’d’butG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃςhoswhoeverG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ποιήσῃpoiēsēpracticesG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ποιέω: to make or do Aorist subjunctive, and the structural answer to lysē at index 3: the opposite of loosening a command is not admiring it but doing it. Note the asymmetry the Greek builds, that the first clause pairs breaking with teaching and the second pairs doing with teaching, so that teaching is the constant in both verdicts and practice is the only variable. Ellicott presses the pairing: “Not right doing only, still less right teaching only, but both together, made up the ideal of the preacher's work.” The Pulpit Commentary adds the observation that many will perform a command without taking any conscious part in spreading it, which is precisely what this verse will not allow a teacher to do.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διδάξῃdidaxēteaches [them]G1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
οὗτοςhoutosG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
κληθήσεταιklēthēsetaiwill be calledG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
μέγαςmegasgreatG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
μέγας: great Ellicott notices what is not written: “Great. Not ‘greatest.’” Read with Matthew 18:4, he judges the avoidance deliberate, since a conscious aim at being greatest defeats itself, and the honour belongs only to one unaware he has any claim to it.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
βασιλείᾳbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounDative Feminine Singular
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
20

For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar legō hymin hoti ean mē hymōn hē dikaiosynē perisseusē pleion tōn grammateōn kai Pharisaiōn eiselthēte ou mē eis tēn basileian tōn ouranōn

Word by word23 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐὰνeanunlessG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
δικαιοσύνηdikaiosynērighteousnessG1343
√ δικαιοσύνη — equity (of character or act)NounNominative Feminine Singular
δικαιοσύνη: equity of character or act The unit's last pivot, and the place where the commentators divide most sharply. Gill and Henry read past the surface to imputed righteousness: Gill says the Pharisaic kind “lay only in an external observance of the law,” and that above all “the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to them, and received by faith,” is the only title to glory. The Pulpit Commentary flatly denies that reading here: “there is no thought here of the imputed righteousness of Christ,” since the word means the righteousness shown in observing the commands just discussed. Both are recorded; the text itself supplies only the noun.
περισσεύσῃperisseusēexceedsG4052
√ περισσεύω — to superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, be superfluousVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
περισσεύω: to superabound, be in excess Aorist subjunctive in a third-class condition with ean mē. The verb is one of surplus, not of pass marks. JFB argues the superiority required is “plainly in kind, not degree,” reasoning that entrance never depends on a degree of excellence; the grammar, with its comparative pleion, pulls the other way, and the Pulpit Commentary reads it as genuinely comparative while locating the difference in a higher principle within the Law itself. The tension is worth holding rather than resolving.
πλεῖονpleion. . .G4119
√ πλείων — more in quantity, number, or qualityAdjectiveAccusative Neuter SingularComparative
πλείων: more in quantity, number, or quality An accusative neuter comparative that the BSB does not render at all (the interlinear marks it with dots), stacked on top of a verb that already means overflow. The Pulpit Commentary draws out what the doubling concedes: the construction “implies an abundance even in the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,” since the Jewish spirit reckoned up good actions “as producing in many cases even a superfluity of righteousness,” and the demand is that the disciples' righteousness be still more abundant than that surplus. This untranslated word is the exact point at which JFB's reading (“in kind, not degree”) has to argue against the grammar rather than from it.
τῶνtōn[that] of theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
γραμματέωνgrammateōnscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounGenitive Masculine Plural
γραμματεύς: scribe, town-clerk Ellicott traces the shift: in the Old Testament the scribe is the king's secretary or registrar (2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Kings 18:18), but after the return from Babylon, as with Ezra, the word passes first to transcribers and editors of the sacred books and then to their interpreters, which is its dominant New Testament sense. He adds that the traditional comments they handled “had come to usurp the rightful place of the Law.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΦαρισαίωνPharisaiōnPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
Φαρισαῖος: a separatist Joined to the scribes under a single article in the Greek, which the Pulpit Commentary notes places them in one class: the most learned and the most zealous together. Poole warns against caricature by pointing at Paul, a Pharisee bred at Gamaliel's feet (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Philippians 3:5); JFB concedes some scribes and Pharisees might personally have had the righteousness demanded, since our Lord is speaking of a system and not of persons.
εἰσέλθητεeiselthēteyou will never enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
εἰσέρχομαι: to enter Aorist subjunctive under the emphatic ou mē. Ellicott argues the kingdom here is neither the visible church, where wheat and tares grow together, nor the church triumphant, but the ideal and invisible church on earth, and that none enter it who are content with a conventional outward standard. The Pulpit Commentary marks the escalation from v. 19: there one disciple was compared with another, here disciples are set against non-disciples, and exclusion, not demotion, is in view.
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
The second half of the emphatic ou mē; in Greek the denial trails the verb it crushes.
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
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural

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. A rumour answered before it hardens — 5:17

⚙ The discourse turns here, and it turns defensively. Μὴ νομίσητε is not a correction of a settled opinion but a bar thrown across a thought before it sets, and Ellicott reads the prohibition as evidence of the rumour it answers: “The words imply that men had begun so to think.” The Pulpit Commentary locates the same suspicion later in Acts, noting that this charge “was near akin to the basis of the charge formulated afterwards against St. Stephen.” Gill supplies the crowd's reasoning: hearing the Gospel preached, “many of them might be ready to imagine” that Moses and the prophets were being set aside as useless. Barnes says plainly why the moment demanded a statement: “Our Saviour was just entering on his work.” The verb at stake, καταλῦσαι, is architectural, to loosen a structure down, and Benson renders it “To abrogate, annul, or repeal.” Against it stands πληρῶσαι, to fill full. What that filling includes is where the voices part: Ellicott confines it chiefly to teaching, “to turn rules into principles”; Benson and Poole add personal obedience, Poole adding the curse borne; Barnes adds the sacrifices that “shadow forth the Messiah”; Geneva folds all of it into one clause, that Christ came “to fulfil that which was shadowed by the figures of the Law.” JFB refuses the sorting altogether and answers three audiences at once, telling the trembling not to fear, the revolutionary not to hope, and the hypocritically reverent not to pretend.

ii. The oath, and the serif that outlives the sky — 5:18

⚙ The sentence opens with a Hebrew word sitting untranslated inside Greek. The interlinear parses ἀμὴν not as a Greek adverb but as “Hebrew Word,” and Ellicott traces it to the root for “fixed, steadfast, true,” noting that the LXX usually translated it while the Evangelists did not. Poole calls it a phrase “never used but by God and Christ himself,” then at once concedes that God's servants used it as a wish, so we take his claim as emphasis rather than rule. JFB draws the sharper inference, that prefixed to a ruling on the moral law it is “the expression manifestly, of supreme legislative authority,” and that such speech from creature lips would be abhorrent. Then the comparison: παρέλθῃ is used of heaven and earth and again of the jot, one verb weighed against itself, though BSB renders it twice differently. The objects are deliberately tiny. Cambridge calls the yod “generally a silent letter, rather the adjunct of a letter than an independent letter,” and Barnes reports Hackett watching a Jewish scribe and seeing the horn-mark “almost the appearance of an intentional imitation of a ram's head.” Gill records the rabbinic boast that all the nations together could not root one letter from the law. The verse ends on a different verb from v. 17: γένηται, not plērōsai. Ellicott and Cambridge both flag this, and Ellicott builds on it, arguing the two “untils” set a limit rather than an endless obligation, so that Hebrews 8:13 is not contradicted. JFB declines that whole line of reading as over-refined. We do not adjudicate.

iii. The measure you use on the commandment is used on you — 5:19

⚙ The Greek does something the English cannot: the same rare superlative ἐλάχιστος names the commandment and then names the man. Make a command least, and least is what you will be called. The verb is λύσῃ, the simple form of v. 17's compound, and the Pulpit Commentary draws the exact proportion: it “expresses, indeed, a less complete abrogation than καταλῦσαι,” because no disciple has power to abolish even one command, while the Lord, speaking of himself, could use the strongest word there is. JFB insists the offence is not practical disobedience but “annulling or enervating its obligation by a vicious system of interpretation, and teaching others to do the same.” Ellicott identifies the least commandments as those which “seemed trivial, yet were really great,” the government of thought and desire and word, and notes that the address is to future teachers. Cambridge states the positive rule in one line: “The union of doing and teaching is essential.” Gill supplies the documentary evidence that such teachers existed, citing Maimonides and the rabbinic maxim that a man may profane one sabbath in order to keep many. The sentence κληθήσεται is passive with no agent, and the interpreters differ on its weight: Poole says such a man “shall never come into the kingdom of glory,” Geneva that “He shall have no place in the Church,” while Ellicott and the Pulpit Commentary both hold that demotion, not exclusion, is in view. JFB keeps it entirely in the present stage of the kingdom.

iv. More than the best righteousness on offer — 5:20

⚙ Having refused to lower the standard, he raises it past the acknowledged maximum. περισσεύσῃ is a verb of overflow, and πλεῖον, a comparative the BSB leaves unrendered, stacks on top of it: abound, and abound more. Benson reports the proverb that if only two men entered the kingdom, one would be a Pharisee and the other a scribe, which measures the shock. Ellicott explains who the scribes were, tracing the word from the king's registrar in Samuel and Kings to the interpreters whose traditional comments “had come to usurp the rightful place of the Law.” Poole refuses caricature, pointing at Paul, a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, and defines the deficiency precisely: their reading of the moral law “was so short and jejune” that their righteousness was one of works, and imperfect works at that. Gill says it “lay only in an external observance of the law; did not arise from a purified heart.” Then the interpreters split on the nature of the surplus. JFB says the difference is “plainly in kind, not degree,” reasoning that entrance never turns on a degree of excellence. The Pulpit Commentary keeps the comparative and locates the higher righteousness in “a higher principle in the Law,” pointing away from external rules toward the heart's relation to God, and it refuses to find imputed righteousness in this verse at all. Henry and Gill find exactly that: Henry, that “Christ's righteousness, imputed to us by faith alone, is needed by every one that enters.” The unit ends with the honest disagreement unresolved, and we will not manufacture agreement the sources do not have.

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

⚙ A fallible reading, offered to be tested. Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say the Law is good, or eternal, or binding, though all of that follows. He says something about himself: I came. Twice. The argument of these four verses is not a doctrine of Scripture, it is an autobiography of arrival, and the Law's permanence is asserted as a consequence of who has shown up. That is why v. 18 lands on the smallest visible thing in a written text. A serif is not a principle. It cannot be spiritualised, obeyed in the heart, or fulfilled in spirit; it either survives in the manuscript or it does not. He stakes the credibility of his mission on the survival of an ink stroke, and then in v. 19 turns the same smallness on the hearer, using one rare superlative twice so that the commandment a teacher shrinks becomes the size of the teacher. Then v. 20 closes the trap. If nothing may be lowered, and the highest righteousness available is that of the scribes and Pharisees, and even that is not enough, then the door has been shut from the inside. We take this as intended. The verse does not offer a steeper climb, it exhausts climbing, and the discourse that follows will make it worse before it makes it better, forbidding anger and lust and oaths as well as murder and adultery and perjury. Yet the exhaustion is not the last word, because the one who set the bar is the one who said I came to fill it full. Where Gill and Henry hear imputed righteousness here, and the Pulpit Commentary denies it, we suspect both are answering a question the verse deliberately leaves open: it names the deficit without yet naming the supply, and the Sermon is content to let a man sit in that gap for a few chapters. We may be wrong about that. The sources do not agree, and we have not hidden that they do not.

He hung the credibility of his mission on the survival of a serif. (This is the tool's own line, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same saying, harder: easier for the sky to go verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke's version reverses the emphasis into a comparison of ease: it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail. The Pulpit Commentary judges that “the two evangelists probably record the same utterance, the difference in the form of the sentence pointing rather to an oral than a written common source,” and notes that Luke sets it inside an attack on the Pharisees who scoffed at the parable of the dishonest steward. The Verifier confirms the shared vocabulary: παρέρχομαι and νόμος both stand in both verses. The Pulpit Commentary also draws the careful inference that our Lord does not say the Law will then pass away, only that it will not before.

Luke 16:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3928 παρέρχομαι (in 25 vv) and G3551 νόμος (in 154 vv), plus G2228 ἤ; both refs are New Testament Greek, so a verbal link is admissible. The Pulpit Commentary independently identifies the two as one utterance.

ἐλάχιστος: the word that keeps landing on people verbal / quotation: confirmed

The superlative that v. 19 uses twice is rare, and the Verifier's candidate list shows where else it falls. At Luke 16:10 and Luke 19:17 it names the very little in which faithfulness is tested and rewarded, which the Pulpit Commentary cites as the exact converse of this verse: there faithfulness in elachistō wins much, here disregard of a very little makes a man very little. At 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul takes the word for himself, “the least of the apostles.” The link is lexical, not a quotation: no one here is citing Matthew.

Luke 16:10 · Luke 19:17 · 1 Corinthians 15:9

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G1646 ἐλάχιστος (in 11 vv only) at Luke 16:10, Luke 19:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:9. All refs New Testament Greek. Verbal link by shared rare lexeme, not an act of citation.

Loosened down: what else gets demolished verbal / quotation: confirmed

καταλύω is uncommon, and its other homes sharpen v. 17. Gamaliel uses it at Acts 5:38 of a movement that will be overthrown if it is of men, which is precisely the fate the crowd suspected Jesus intended for Moses. Paul uses it at 2 Corinthians 5:1 of the earthly tent dissolved. The architectural force is consistent in all three, and it is why the Pulpit Commentary can connect this verse to the charge later laid against Stephen (Acts 6:14), that he spoke of destroying the holy place.

Acts 5:38 · 2 Corinthians 5:1

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G2647 καταλύω (in 16 vv) at Acts 5:38 and 2 Corinthians 5:1. All refs New Testament Greek. The Acts 6:14 connection is the Pulpit Commentary's and is not part of the computed basis.

When heaven and earth do pass structural / thematic: confirmed

Jesus dates the Law's security by an event he does not otherwise describe here. Peter does describe it, with the same verb: the heavens will pass away. Gill, glossing the same clause, says heaven and earth “will, with a great noise and fervent heat, as to their present form and condition” pass away, plainly reading Matthew through 2 Peter. JFB balances the Old Testament witness on both sides, Psalm 102:24-27 for perdition, Psalm 119:89-91 and Ecclesiastes 1:4 for stability, and concludes that the figure serves the permanence of the moral principles either way.

2 Peter 3:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3928 παρέρχομαι (in 25 vv), G3772 οὐρανός and G1093 γῆ; both refs New Testament Greek, so a verbal tier would be admissible. We downgrade deliberately: παρέρχομαι is only moderately uncommon, οὐρανός and γῆ are very common, and 2 Peter is not citing Matthew. The honest basis is a shared eschatological motif with one real lexical overlap, not a quotation.

The letter that made Sarah and Joshua structural / thematic: confirmed

Every commentator here reads the Greek ἰῶτα back to the Hebrew yod, and two of them give the canonical examples. Ellicott: “It distinguished Joshua from Hoshea, Sarai from Sarah,” and he records the Jewish legend that the yod's insertion in the one name compensated for its removal from the other. Cambridge adds that the yod “is the first letter in Jehovah and in the Hebrew form of Jesus or Joshua,” and that the Shiloh controversy at Genesis 49:10 turns on the presence or absence of the letter. The point is a demonstration, not a quotation: a single silent character has already changed a covenant name twice in the narrative Jesus is defending.

Genesis 17:15 · Numbers 13:16

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's number is possible, so this cannot be tiered verbal. The recorded basis is the observation supplied verbatim by Ellicott (Sarai to Sarah, Hoshea to Joshua) and by Cambridge (yod in the Hebrew form of Jesus or Joshua), applied to the named renaming texts.

One of the least of these structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew will return to the smallest members of a set and make a verdict turn on them, this time persons rather than precepts, with the same solemn amēn opening the sentence. The pattern is Matthean: what is treated as negligible is where the judgment is decided. We record it as a pattern only. The Verifier's computed overlap for these verses is limited to very common words, so nothing stronger than a shared shape can be claimed from the data in hand.

Matthew 25:40 · Matthew 25:45

basis: Verifier returns only high-frequency shared lexemes for these pairs: G1520 εἷς (in 288 vv) and G281 ἀμήν (in 104 vv). Too common to support a verbal tier, so this is recorded as a shared pattern (judgment turning on the least member of a set), not a quotation.

“The Law and the Prophets” as a standing phrase flagged: verify source

Ellicott holds that the phrase was “popularly equivalent to the whole of the Old Testament,” and the Pulpit Commentary lists the places it recurs, including Matthew 11:13 and, by JFB's citation, Luke 16:16, where the formula is used with a terminus at John. Those two verses matter to this unit because they appear to set a limit where v. 18 refuses one, and any reading of Matthew 5:17-20 has to sit beside them. We flag this rather than assert it: the Verifier returned no computed lexical basis for either reference, so the connection here rests entirely on the commentators' citation of the phrase.

Matthew 11:13 · Luke 16:16

basis: No Verifier candidate was returned for Matthew 11:13 or Luke 16:16, so there is no computed shared-lexeme basis. The link exists only as a citation inside JFB and the Pulpit Commentary. Recorded as unverified pending a Verifier pair check.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The filling of an unfinished measure ancient/widely-held

⚙ πληρῶσαι is not a synonym for obedience; it is a verb of filling something that stood partly empty. That the fulfilment is christological, and not merely pedagogical, is the settled reading of nearly every voice in this brief, though they distribute it differently. Geneva: Christ came “to fulfil that which was shadowed by the figures of the Law, by delivering men through grace from the curse of the Law.” Poole makes the same threefold division, obedience rendered, interpretation given, and “taking the curse of it (so far as concerneth my disciples) upon myself.” Barnes points to the sacrifices that shadowed the Messiah and were fulfilled “when he came and offered himself a sacrifice to God.” Benson gathers Colossians 2:14 for the ceremonial handwriting nailed to the cross and Romans 8:4 for the righteousness of the law fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit. Gill answers the Jewish objection that Christian teaching contradicts this verse by appealing to Romans 3:31, that faith establishes the law. Ellicott is the dissenting note worth preserving: he thinks the reference to Messianic prediction “hardly comes within the range of the words,” since the immediate context is teaching. We record him with the rest.

Romans 8:4 · Colossians 2:14 · Romans 3:31

“I came”: an arrival that is also a claim ancient/widely-held

⚙ Twice in one verse the aorist ἦλθον states a completed arrival, and both Ellicott and Cambridge insist on the correction, “Lit. I came.” Ellicott draws the weight out: such words could be used by any teacher conscious of a mission, “but they gain a new meaning when we remember that He who so spake was emphatically ‘He that should come;’ that ‘He came into the world’ not in the same sense as other men.” The Pulpit Commentary reads the primary reference as coming forth from private life (John 1:31), with a further allusion in his own mind to coming from above (John 8:14), and compares Matthew 10:34, where the same formula introduces a sword. Then v. 18 raises the stakes: the Amen formula which guarantees the Law's permanence is, as Ellicott notes, afterwards applied by the same speaker to his own words, “with even augmented force” (Matthew 24:35). The permanence claimed for Scripture and the permanence claimed for his own sayings come out of one mouth, in one formula.

John 1:31 · Matthew 10:34 · Matthew 24:35

The righteousness the verse demands and does not supply ancient/widely-held

⚙ v. 20 states a deficit in the highest available righteousness and stops. Henry, Gill and Geneva all fill the silence from elsewhere in the canon: Henry, that “Christ's righteousness, imputed to us by faith alone, is needed by every one that enters the kingdom of grace or of glory”; Gill, that above every inherent righteousness stands “the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to them, and received by faith,” their only title to glory; Geneva, that Christ came “to engrave in our hearts the power for obedience.” Poole reaches the same conclusion negatively, by way of James 2:10: a righteousness of imperfect works “is to say, it was no righteousness.” The Pulpit Commentary objects that this verse speaks of the righteousness the disciples show in observing the commands, with “no thought here of the imputed righteousness of Christ.” Our own judgment, offered as fallible: the objection is right about this verse and wrong about the unit, because the same speaker who closes the door in v. 20 has already said in v. 17 that he came to fill the thing full. The identification of the supply with Christ is ancient and widely held; our particular way of relating v. 17 to v. 20 is ours, and may be pressed too far.

Philippians 3:5 · James 2:10

Apparatus & Provenance

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

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

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

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; the parse data here is Greek throughout, and no Hebrew root stands behind any word in this unit except ἀμὴν, which the interlinear itself tags as a Hebrew word carried over untranslated.

Known uncertainties in this unit. (1) The sense of plērōsai in v. 17 is genuinely disputed among the sources: Ellicott confines it chiefly to teaching and thinks Messianic prediction is out of range; Benson, Poole, Barnes, Gill and Geneva all extend it to obedience, sacrifice and type. (2) Ellicott and Cambridge both observe that “till all be fulfilled” in v. 18 translates genētai, a different verb from v. 17's plērōsai; Ellicott builds a substantial argument on that difference (that the verse sets a limit to the obligation rather than asserting it endlessly) and JFB explicitly declines that whole line of interpretation. We have recorded both and settled neither. (3) “Kingdom of heaven” in vv. 19 and 20 is read by JFB of the present stage of the kingdom, by Ellicott of the ideal invisible church on earth, by Benson of the church of the Messiah, and by the Pulpit Commentary of the final establishment. (4) Whether v. 20 speaks of imputed righteousness is directly contested between Henry and Gill on one side and the Pulpit Commentary on the other.

Source cautions. Gill quotes a Talmudic citation of this verse (b. Shabbat 116b) with a hostile play on “Amen,” and himself calls it “not a just citation”; the reading and its interpretation are disputed and should not be treated as an independent witness to Matthew's text. Ellicott reports Marcion's claim that the verse was altered by Judaisers and originally read the opposite way; Ellicott records it as “a singular instance of the boldness of some of the early heretics,” not as a textual variant with manuscript support, and we pass it on with the same warning. Gill's rabbinic citations in v. 19 (Maimonides and others on a court's power to set aside a command) are his own polemical assembly; they are reproduced here as his argument, not as verified rabbinic consensus. Poole's assertion that the Amen formula is “never used but by God and Christ himself” is contradicted by his own next clause. Henry's note is a single block covering 5:17-20 and is not verse-specific.

Thread bases. Four threads rest on Verifier-computed shared Greek lexemes between New Testament verses and are tiered verbal on that ground. The yod thread is cross-Testament and therefore cannot use shared Strong's numbers at all; its basis is the commentators' own philological observation, and it is tiered structural. The Matthew 25 thread is tiered structural because the only shared lexemes the Verifier returned are too frequent to carry a claim. The Matthew 11:13 and Luke 16:16 thread is flagged because the Verifier returned no basis for it whatever and it rests only on citation inside the commentaries.

✦ = 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)