The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew7:24–27

The House on the Rock

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Matthew 7:24–27 — The House on the Rock. 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.

24

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun Pas hostis akouei toutous tous logous mou kai poiei autous homoiōthēsetai phronimō andri hostis ōkodomēsen autou tēn oikian epi tēn petran

Word by word22 · parsed
οὖνounThereforeG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
οὖν: therefore, accordingly The inferential particle that hinges the whole parable onto everything preceding it. JFB reads it plainly: "to bring this discourse to a close." The two houses are not a detachable illustration; they are the verdict on chapters 5 to 7.
ΠᾶςPaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πᾶς: all, every, the whole Ellicott presses the scope: "The Greek is more emphatically universal, every one whosoever." Paired with hostis it leaves no listener outside the two categories. There is no third house in this parable, and no neutral ground between the rock and the sand.
ὅστιςhostiswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούειakoueihearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀκούω: to hear (in various senses) Present indicative active, a standing, habitual hearing. Pulpit weighs how much the verb carries here: it "cannot indicate that full 'hearing' which it sometimes connotes (Matthew 10:14), yet it seems to mean more than merely listening, and to imply both a grasp of what is intended by the statements made and at least some acquiescence in their truth." Cambridge sets the trap in one line: "Both classes of men hear the word. So far they are alike."
τούτουςtoutoustheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγουςlogouswordsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγος: something said (including the thought) A common word (318 verses) doing uncommon work: these are the words the house stands or falls on. The same lexeme sits in 1 Peter 2:8 beside the same petra, where stumbling at the word and stumbling at the stone are one act.
μουmouof MineG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ἐγώ: I, me The genitive mou is the quiet center of the unit. The prophets closed with "thus says the LORD"; this speaker closes with my words, and makes obedience to them the difference between standing and ruin. The crowd's reaction two verses later (they were astonished at his authority) is the first recorded reading of this pronoun.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ποιεῖpoieiacts onG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ποιέω: to make or do Present active, set in a single grammatical yoke with akouei: one subject, two present verbs, one life. JFB hears an apostolic echo already: "see Jas 1:22, which seems a plain allusion to these words." Benson takes the yoke as hearing that has gone all the way through: "hears, considers, understands, believes, and obeys."
αὐτούςautousthemG846
√ 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
ὁμοιωθήσεταιhomoiōthēsetaiis likeG3666
√ ὁμοιόω — to assimilate, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ὁμοιόω: to assimilate, to liken Future indicative passive, third singular. The passive matters: the man does not choose his own comparison, he is placed in one. Pulpit holds the line against reading it as an act of transformation ("Not shall, in fact, be made like"), which leaves the future tense pointing where Cambridge points it: "The great day of trial shews the difference."
φρονίμῳphronimō[a] wiseG5429
√ φρόνιμος — thoughtful, iAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
φρόνιμος: thoughtful, prudent Not sophos (wise in the philosophical sense) but practical shrewdness, the sense that calculates consequences. JFB glosses it "a shrewd, prudent, provident man"; Pulpit, "Prudent, sensible." The contrast word in v. 26 will be mōros, and the whole parable's wisdom is therefore of the plainest kind: it is the foresight to ask what happens in winter.
ἀνδρὶandrimanG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounDative Masculine Singular
ὅστιςhostiswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ᾠκοδόμησενōkodomēsenbuiltG3618
√ οἰκοδομέω — to be a house-builder, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οἰκοδομέω: to be a house-builder Aorist indicative active: a finished act, done once, before the weather came. Gill draws out Luke's fuller form, "he is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation a rock," and applies it to the labor of searching the Scriptures before the storm rather than during it.
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
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
οἰκίανoikianhouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πέτρανpetranrockG4073
√ πέτρα — a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
πέτρα: a (mass of) rock A relatively rare noun (14 verses) and the pivot of the unit's whole reception history. Ellicott, Gill and Poole all read Christ Himself as the rock (Poole: "by the rock is meant Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4 Ephesians 2:20 1 Peter 2:4"), while Ellicott's own first reading keeps it inside the parable's logic: "the firm foundation of repentance and obedience." Pulpit calls the christological reading "hardly exegesis, but application." The two readings are not enemies, but they are not the same claim, and the text itself says only the rock.
25

The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hē brochē katebē kai hoi potamoi ēlthon kai hoi anemoi epneusan kai prosepesan ekeinē tē oikia kai epesen ouk gar tethemeliōto epi tēn petran

Word by word25 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βροχὴbrochērainG1028
√ βροχή — rainNounNominative Feminine Singular
βροχή: rain A rare noun, used in the New Testament only in this unit's two storm descriptions. Matthew has the ordinary word for rain available (huetos) and does not use it; Cambridge notes that Matthew, "living near the lake had often witnessed such sudden floods as are described, uses more vigorous language and draws the picture more vividly" than Luke.
κατέβηkatebēfellG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καταβαίνω: to descend Aorist: one decisive descent, not a season of drizzle. The storm in this parable is a single event with a single verdict, which is why Henry can read it eschatologically: "There is a storm coming that will try every man's work."
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ποταμοὶpotamoitorrentsG4215
√ ποταμός — a current, brook or freshet (as drinkable), iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἦλθονēlthonragedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνεμοιanemoiwindsG417
√ ἄνεμος — windNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἔπνευσανepneusanblewG4154
√ πνέω — to breathe hard, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
πνέω: to breathe hard, to blow A rare verb (7 verses) and every other occurrence is weather over water or wind as a figure of the unseen: the gale on the lake in John 6:18, the four winds held back in Revelation 7:1, the wind that "blows where it wishes" in John 3:8. Matthew's storm is built out of the same small vocabulary the rest of the New Testament reserves for forces no builder controls.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσέπεσανprosepesanbeat againstG4363
√ προσπίπτω — to fall towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
προσπίπτω: to fall towards, to fall against Aorist active, the third and heaviest of the storm's verbs. The compound puts piptō (to fall) on the attacking side of the sentence, so that the clause "and it did not fall" is a refusal of the storm's own verb.
ἐκείνῃekeinēthatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
οἰκίᾳoikiahouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiyetG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔπεσενepesenit did not fallG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πίπτω: to fall The negation (ouk, the absolute negative) stands with this aorist as the whole point of the verse. Gill is careful not to overclaim what the rock secures: the man "may be shaken by them, but not so as to be removed off of the foundation." Damage is conceded; collapse is not.
οὐκouk. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
γάρ: for, assigning a reason The explanatory particle that makes the verse an argument rather than a story: the house stood, and here is why.
τεθεμελίωτοtethemeliōtoits foundation wasG2311
√ θεμελιόω — to lay a basis for, iVerbPluperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
θεμελιόω: to lay a basis for Pluperfect middle or passive, a rare verb (5 verses), and everywhere else in the New Testament it carries exactly this weight: love as the ground of the believer in Ephesians 3:17, the settled faith of Colossians 1:23, the God who will "establish" the suffering church in 1 Peter 5:10, and the Lord who founded the earth in Hebrews 1:10. The tense says the founding is prior and complete, which is why Poole can let the house be "sometimes assaulted with fears, doubts, temptations" without letting it fall.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πέτρανpetranrockG4073
√ πέτρα — a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
πέτρα: a (mass of) rock The same articular tēn petran as v. 24, closing the inclusio: built on the rock, founded on the rock. JFB's whole comment on the verse is a cross-reference, "See 1Jo 2:17," which reads the permanence as the permanence of the one who does God's will.
26

But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai pas ho akouōn toutous tous logous mou kai mē poiōn autous homoiōthēsetai mōrō andri hostis ōkodomēsen autou tēn oikian epi tēn ammon

Word by word23 · parsed
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
καί: and, also, even BSB renders it "But." The Greek simply sets the second builder alongside the first with and, which is part of the parable's menace: the two lives are told in the same breath and in almost the same words.
πᾶςpaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhowhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούωνakouōnhearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούω: to hear (in various senses) Present active participle. The fool's hearing is real, continuous and identical to the wise man's; nothing in the vocabulary distinguishes them until the negated participle arrives. Gill allows for both kinds of failure here, the man who "has no understanding of them" and the man who "contents himself with a speculative knowledge, without the practice of them."
τούτουςtoutoustheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγουςlogouswordsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
μουmouof MineG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
μή: not, lest The negative proper to non-indicative forms; with the participle it draws a character rather than reporting an event.
ποιῶνpoiōndoes not act onG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ποιέω: to make or do Present participle, negated. Everything in the unit turns on this one word's presence or absence, and the commentators are unanimous that it is not a work added to faith but faith's evidence. Benson: the man is "a mere hearer of the word, and not a doer of it, how constantly soever he may attend to hear it." Pulpit: "Assent is insufficient; there must be action."
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ 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
ὁμοιωθήσεταιhomoiōthēsetaiis likeG3666
√ ὁμοιόω — to assimilate, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
μωρῷmōrōa foolishG3474
√ μωρός — dull or stupid (as if shut up), iAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
μωρός: dull or stupid (as if shut up) A moral verdict rather than an intellectual one, and the same adjective Matthew later gives the five virgins who took no oil (Matthew 25:2-3). The folly in both places is identical and entirely practical: arithmetic that is correct for the short term and has left out the one event certain to come. Benson names the deficiency exactly, "neither foresight nor consideration," which is the precise negative of phronimos in v. 24.
ἀνδρὶandrimanG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounDative Masculine Singular
ὅστιςhostiswhoG3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ᾠκοδόμησενōkodomēsenbuiltG3618
√ οἰκοδομέω — to be a house-builder, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οἰκοδομέω: to be a house-builder The same aorist as v. 24: a whole house, finished, on the wrong ground. Ellicott notes the motive with sympathy: the level surface left by the summer wadi is inviting, and "It would be easier to build there instead of working upon the hard and rugged rock."
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
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
οἰκίανoikianhouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἄμμονammonsandG285
√ ἄμμος — sand (as heaped on the beach)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἄμμος: sand (as heaped on the beach) A rare word (5 verses), and in its other uses it means innumerable multitude: Abraham's seed as the sand of the seashore (Hebrews 11:12), Israel's number in Romans 9:27, the armies of Gog in Revelation 20:8. Here the image of countless abundance becomes the image of nothing to stand on. JFB reads it as "a loose foundation—that of an empty profession and mere external services"; Henry, more sweepingly, "every thing besides Christ is sand."
27

The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hē brochē katebē kai hoi potamoi ēlthon kai hoi anemoi epneusan kai prosekopsan ekeinē tē oikia kai epesen kai megalē ēn hē autēs ptōsis

Word by word25 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βροχὴbrochērainG1028
√ βροχή — rainNounNominative Feminine Singular
κατέβηkatebēfellG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ποταμοὶpotamoitorrentsG4215
√ ποταμός — a current, brook or freshet (as drinkable), iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἦλθονēlthonragedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἔρχομαι: to come or go The rivers simply "came," exactly as in v. 25. The storms are word-for-word identical until v. 27's thirteenth word: the weather is not worse for the fool, only the ground beneath him.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνεμοιanemoiwindsG417
√ ἄνεμος — windNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἔπνευσανepneusanblewG4154
√ πνέω — to breathe hard, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσέκοψανprosekopsanbeat againstG4350
√ προσκόπτω — to strike at, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
προσκόπτω: to strike at Aorist active. Elsewhere in the New Testament this verb is what the foot does against a stone and what the unbelieving do at the word and at the rock (1 Peter 2:8). Here the storm strikes the house; in Peter's use the man strikes the stone. Same collision, opposite parties.
ἐκείνῃekeinēthatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
οἰκίᾳoikiahouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔπεσενepesenit fellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πίπτω: to fall Aorist, unqualified, with no adversative to soften it. Poole marks the timing rather than the fact: such hopes "may stand a while, but when a day of visitation, or death, or sharp afflictions or temptation, comes, then their house, their hopes, all fail and perish in a moment."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μεγάληmegalēgreatG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
μέγας: big (literally or figuratively) Fronted for emphasis before the verb, the last adjective of the Sermon. Benson ties its size to the builder's: "Even as great as the building had been." Poole makes the same proportion moral rather than architectural: the misery is greater "by how much their hopes have been the stronger."
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰμί: I exist, to be Imperfect indicative. Cambridge notices that the Greek is doing something English cannot easily carry: "In the original both the tense and the position of the verbs give great vivacity to the description."
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
αὐτῆςautēsitsG846
√ 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 Feminine 3rd Person Singular
πτῶσιςptōsiscollapseG4431
√ πτῶσις — a crash, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
πτῶσις: a crash, a falling One of only two New Testament occurrences. The other is Simeon's word over the infant Christ in Luke 2:34, where the child is set "for the fall and rising of many in Israel." The same rare noun therefore names both what this house suffers and what the presence of Christ effects in those who will not have him, which is the parable's severity in a single lexeme.

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. Two men, one vocabulary — 7:24, 7:26

⚙ The parable's craft is its refusal to differentiate. Both men hear (ἀκούει / ἀκούων, G191); both build (ᾠκοδόμησεν, aorist, the same form twice); both finish a house (οἰκίαν) before any weather arrives. Cambridge states the point flatly: "Both classes of men hear the word. So far they are alike." Matthew changes exactly two things, the presence of ποιεῖ and the noun under the foundation. Ellicott, who knows the terrain, explains why the sand is tempting rather than stupid: the winter torrents leave "a tract covered with debris of stones and sand," and "A stranger coming to build might be attracted by the ready-prepared level surface of the sand." Barnes adds the local fact that removes the excuse: "Rocks in that country were common, and it was easy to secure for their houses a solid foundation." The adjectives sharpen it further. JFB reads φρονίμῳ as "a shrewd, prudent, provident man," and Strong's gives μωρῷ as "dull or stupid (as if shut up)." Neither word is religious. The parable's wisdom is the ordinary foresight to ask what the place looks like in January.

ii. The pluperfect under the house — 7:25

⚙ Verse 25 is the only place in the unit where Matthew reaches for a pluperfect: τεθεμελίωτο (G2311, "it had been founded"), middle or passive, a rare verb standing in only five New Testament verses. Everything else in the two storms is aorist, blow after blow. Against that rhythm the pluperfect reports something already complete before the narrative began, and done to the house rather than by it. That grammar is what licenses Poole's pastoral concession, that the hope "may be sometimes assaulted with fears, doubts, temptations... yet it shall not fail," and Gill's more systematic version, that the man "may be shaken by them, but not so as to be removed off of the foundation." JFB hears the three clauses as a siege from three directions: rain "from above," floods "from below," winds "sweeping across," and therefore "thus from every direction." Note also the verbal joke Matthew builds into the assault: the winds προσέπεσαν, fell against the house, and the house οὐκ ἔπεσεν, did not fall. The storm's own verb is denied it.

iii. Rock, and what the commentators put under it — 7:24, 7:25

⚙ Here the ✦ voices genuinely divide, and the division should be shown rather than smoothed. Poole is direct: "by the rock is meant Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4 Ephesians 2:20 1 Peter 2:4." Gill builds his whole exposition on "the rock Christ Jesus." Henry is sweeping: "Christ is laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand." Geneva compresses the Reformed reading into one line: "True godliness rests only upon Christ, and therefore always remains invincible." Against them stands Pulpit, who says plainly that in the imagery "the rock represents practice; the sand, mere sentiment," and who judges the christological gloss "hardly exegesis, but application, for the 'coming to Christ' is in Luke only introductory to the hearing and doing, and is altogether omitted here." Ellicott holds both in order: the parable's primary sense is "the firm foundation of repentance and obedience," and only afterward, by "Personal experience and the teaching of the Spirit," did men find "a rock below the rock even of obedience and holiness" in Christ himself (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). Benson is the one who refuses to let the two readings fight: no other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ, "yet we pretend in vain to build on him, if we do not obey his doctrine, and make it the rule of our whole conduct."

iv. The last word of the Sermon is a crash — 7:27

⚙ Matthew repeats the storm word for word and then changes one verb, προσέκοψαν for προσέπεσαν, which Pulpit reads as a shift from the tempest's swoop to its impact, quoting Weiss: "It needed only the first blow, and the house fell." Then the sentence Matthew has been building toward: μεγάλη ἦν ἡ αὐτῆς πτῶσις, with the adjective fronted, the verb in the imperfect, and a noun (πτῶσις, G4431) that is the cognate of the verb just used, so that the Greek says "it fell, and great was its falling." Benson measures the ruin by the structure: "Even as great as the building had been." Poole measures it by the confidence: the calamity is greater "by how much their hopes have been the stronger." Pulpit measures it against the preceding verses and finds it heavier: "The clause conveys an impression even stronger than ver. 23. There the positive worker of lawlessness is banished from Christ's presence; here, on the mere non-worker of Divine messages received is pronounced ruin." Gill, characteristically, sets two rabbinic parallels beside it from Pirke Abot and Abot R. Nathan, in which the man whose works exceed his learning is the tree all the winds in the world cannot move. The Sermon that opened with blessings ends with a heap of rubble, and the crowd's astonishment follows immediately.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. The parable is usually preached as a question about foundations, and it is; but the Greek keeps insisting on something narrower. Both builders hear. Both build a whole house. The storm is described twice in identical words, so the trial is not harder for one man than the other. What separates them is one present participle (ποιῶν) with or without μή in front of it, and one noun under the floor. That means the parable is not primarily about how much a man believes but about whether his believing reaches his hands, and it is emphatically not about how severe his weather was. The pluperfect τεθεμελίωτο then cuts against any reading that makes the standing house a reward for effort during the storm: the founding was finished, passively, long before the rain. So the two truths the commentators quarrel over are held together by the grammar itself. The foundation is laid, done to the house and complete before the test (which is why Poole, Gill, Henry and Geneva are right to name Christ), and the only visible evidence that it was laid is a life that does these words (which is why Pulpit is right that in the imagery the rock is practice). Ellicott's "rock below the rock" is the honest shape of it. And the final grammatical note is the most uncomfortable: ὁμοιωθήσεται is future and passive. Neither man assigns himself to his category. Someone else will do the likening, and neither builder learns which house he built until the weather tells him.

The storm is identical in both verses; only the ground is different. (This line is the tool's own reading, 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 parable in Luke, with the digging made explicit verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke's version of this closing parable shares Matthew's whole building vocabulary but tells it differently: the wise man "digged deep, and laid the foundation a rock" (Gill quotes the phrase), and the ruined house in Luke 6:49 is built "without a foundation upon the earth." Cambridge records both the relation and the difference: Luke 6:47-49, "where the phraseology differs a good deal from St Matthew. St Matthew, who living near the lake had often witnessed such sudden floods as are described, uses more vigorous language... St Luke marks the connection with the insincere 'Lord, Lord,' more distinctly, but omits the reference to the last day and to the future of the Church." Ellicott draws a further inference from the doublet: "the recurrence of the same image there makes it probable that this or some similar parable was not an uncommon close to our Lord's discourses."

Luke 6:48 · Luke 6:49

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexemes G4073 πέτρα (in 14 vv), G3618 οἰκοδομέω (in 39 vv), G3614 οἰκία (in 85 vv) with Luke 6:48, and G3614 οἰκία, G3618 οἰκοδομέω, G191 ἀκούω with Luke 6:49; the clustering of the rare πέτρα with the building verb in a synoptic parallel is a verbal link, not a citation of one text by the other

πτῶσις: the only other crash in the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun Matthew chooses for the ruin, πτῶσις (G4431), stands in only two verses in the whole New Testament. The other is Simeon's oracle over the infant in the temple: this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel. The parable's last word is therefore the same word spoken at the beginning of the Gospel story over the one now speaking it. ⚙ We note the coincidence of lexeme and let it stand as that; none of the commentators in this brief draws the link, and Matthew gives no signal that he intends it.

Luke 2:34

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexeme G4431 πτῶσις (in 2 vv), the rarest lexeme in the unit; a genuine verbal rarity, with no claim that either passage quotes the other

θεμελιόω: the rare verb of being founded verbal / quotation: confirmed

The pluperfect τεθεμελίωτο in v. 25 belongs to a verb (G2311) that appears in only five New Testament verses, and the other four are the apostolic uses of exactly this image: the believer "rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17), continuing in the faith "grounded and settled" (Colossians 1:23), the God who will himself "establish" the suffering church (1 Peter 5:10), and the Lord who in the beginning "laid the foundation of the earth" (Hebrews 1:10). Poole and Gill both read Matthew's foundation through this family of texts, Poole citing Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:4 at the word "rock."

Ephesians 3:17 · Colossians 1:23 · 1 Peter 5:10 · Hebrews 1:10

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexeme G2311 θεμελιόω (in 5 vv) with all four refs (Colossians 1:23 also shares G191 ἀκούω); a rare lexeme shared across New Testament texts, no quotation claimed

ἄμμος: sand as countless multitude, sand as nothing to stand on verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἄμμος (G285, "sand as heaped on the beach") occurs in only five New Testament verses, and in the other three it is the standard figure for an uncountable multitude: Abraham's descendants "as the sand which is by the sea shore" (Hebrews 11:12), the remnant text of Romans 9:27, and the armies of Gog in Revelation 20:8. ⚙ Matthew alone turns the image of boundless abundance into the image of a foundation that will not hold. The observation is ours; the shared lexeme is the Verifier's.

Hebrews 11:12 · Romans 9:27 · Revelation 20:8

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexeme G285 ἄμμος (in 5 vv) with each ref; the reversal of the image is our synthesis, the lexical link is the recorded basis

The rock men build on and the rock men strike verbal / quotation: confirmed

1 Peter 2:8 holds together the two words this unit's storm and foundation are made of: πέτρα (G4073) and λόγος (G3056), in a sentence about those who stumble at the word. Matthew 7:27 uses προσέκοψαν (G4350, "to strike at") for what the storm does to the house, and Peter's verse speaks of those who stumble at the word and of a stone of stumbling, the same family of striking against. ⚙ In the parable the rock is what a man may stand on; in Peter the same rock is what he may trip over, the difference in both cases being obedience to the word. This is our reading of a genuine lexical overlap, not a claim of citation.

1 Peter 2:8

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexemes G4073 πέτρα (in 14 vv) and G3056 λόγος (in 318 vv); πέτρα carries the weight, λόγος is common and adds little on its own

James on the hearer who is not a doer structural / thematic: confirmed

JFB, at the words "and doeth them," records the allusion directly: "see Jas 1:22, which seems a plain allusion to these words; also Lu 11:28; Ro 2:13; 1Jo 3:7." Pulpit sets the same relation more carefully, finding in the parable "a partial correspondence with the works insisted on by St. James in contrast to a bare orthodox faith (James 2:24)," and summing up: "Assent is insufficient; there must be action."

James 1:22 · Romans 2:13

basis: No Verifier lexeme candidate was returned for James 1:22 or Romans 2:13, so this rests on the named judgment of JFB ("a plain allusion") and Pulpit, not on a computed verbal basis; tiered structural rather than verbal for that reason

Ezekiel's wall of untempered mortar structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit opens its comment on this unit by sending the reader to Ezekiel 13:10-16, where the false prophets daub a wall with untempered mortar and the LORD sends an overflowing shower, great hailstones and a stormy wind to bring it down, so that the wall falls and men ask where the daubing is. ⚙ The structure is the same: a finished-looking work, a storm sent as test, a total collapse that exposes what was underneath. The link is a cross-Testament one and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers, since Ezekiel is Hebrew and Matthew Greek; the basis is the shared pattern and Pulpit's explicit reference.

Ezekiel 13:11 · Ezekiel 13:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared-lexeme basis is possible; recorded basis is the shared motif of a storm sent to test a structure whose foundation or mortar is false, cited explicitly by the Pulpit Commentary at Matthew 7:24-27

The tried foundation stone in Zion typological

Isaiah 28:16 lays in Zion a tried stone, a sure foundation, in a context where the storm of hail sweeps away the refuge of lies. ⚙ Reading Matthew's rock in that light is a figural move, not a lexical one: the apostolic writers themselves apply Isaiah's stone to Christ (1 Peter 2:6, quoted in the same passage as the stone of stumbling above), and Ellicott's "rock below the rock even of obedience and holiness," found "in Christ Himself that Rock and that Foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)," is this reading. Pulpit's caution stands alongside it: taken as exegesis of Matthew's parable, this "is hardly exegesis, but application."

Isaiah 28:16 · 1 Corinthians 3:11

basis: Cross-Testament figural reading, so never verbal: no shared Strong's numbers are possible between Hebrew Isaiah and Greek Matthew, and the Verifier returned no candidate for Isaiah 28:16. Ancient and widely-held as a reading of the foundation stone (apostolic use of Isaiah 28:16; Ellicott, Poole, Gill, Henry all apply the rock to Christ), but the application to this parable is explicitly contested by the Pulpit Commentary

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The rock below the rock ancient/widely-held

The parable says only the rock, articular and undefined. The commentators in this brief are nearly unanimous in filling it in: Poole ("by the rock is meant Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4 Ephesians 2:20 1 Peter 2:4"), Gill ("the rock Christ Jesus"), Henry ("Christ is laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand"), Geneva ("True godliness rests only upon Christ"), Cambridge ("For the spiritual sense of the parable see 1 Corinthians 3:10 foll."), and JFB, who gives the parable's own answer first, "the rock of true discipleship, or genuine subjection to Christ." Ellicott alone shows the reading's history rather than asserting it: Christ had already named one disciple Cephas, and later said "Upon this rock will I build my Church"; then "Personal experience and the teaching of the Spirit led men to the thought that there must be a yet deeper foundation, a rock below the rock even of obedience and holiness." ⚙ We record the Pulpit Commentary's dissent honestly: taken strictly as exegesis of Matthew's words it is "hardly exegesis, but application," since Luke's "cometh unto Me" is absent here. The reading is ancient and widely-held; it is a reading of the whole canon into this parable, not a claim Matthew's sentence makes on its own.

1 Corinthians 3:11 · 1 Corinthians 10:4 · 1 Peter 2:4

"These words of Mine": the Sermon closes on a pronoun ancient/widely-held

⚙ The grammatical center of the unit is the genitive μου, repeated in v. 24 and v. 26. The Sermon does not end "whoever hears the law of the LORD"; it ends with a speaker who makes his own λόγοι the bedrock or the sand of every life that hears them, and who says that he himself will be the reference point of the coming verdict (Matthew 7:22-23, two verses earlier: "I never knew you"). Benson sees the weight of it: "our Lord attests, in the most solemn manner, the certain truth and infinite importance of all he had delivered in the foregoing sermon." Henry hears it in the crowd's reaction: "The multitudes were astonished at the wisdom and power of Christ's doctrine... Every word proves its Author to be Divine." The christology here is not read in from elsewhere; it is the only thing that makes the parable's demand anything but blasphemy.

Matthew 7:28-29 · Matthew 7:22-23

ὁμοιωθήσεται: the one who will do the likening novel

⚙ The verb that sorts the two men (ὁμοιωθήσεται, G3666) is future and passive in both verses: he shall be likened. Pulpit rightly refuses to read this as transformation ("Not shall, in fact, be made like... but shall be likened in figure and parable"), yet the passive still leaves an unnamed agent and the future still leaves a day. Cambridge supplies it: "The great day of trial shews the difference," and notes that Matthew, unlike Luke, keeps "the reference to the last day." Henry and Poole both read the storm that way, Henry asking "When God takes away the soul, where is the hope of the hypocrite?" ⚙ Our own reading, offered to be tested, is that the passive is a reverent one and the agent is the speaker himself, the same figure who in the preceding verses will say "I never knew you" on that day. That specific inference from the passive voice we mark as novel; the eschatological reading of the storm is the older and common one.

Matthew 7:22-23 · 2 Corinthians 5:10

The house that was founded before the storm came ancient/widely-held

⚙ The pluperfect τεθεμελίωτο (G2311, middle or passive) says that the standing house was founded, and founded already, before any rain fell. The same rare verb is what Peter promises of the church that has suffered a while (1 Peter 5:10) and what Hebrews says of the Lord who laid earth's foundation (Hebrews 1:10). Read across the canon, the security in this parable is not a quality the builder generates under pressure but a work completed on him beforehand. That is the grammatical ground under Gill's claim that such a man may be shaken "but not so as to fail totally and finally," and under Poole's that the hope "shall not fail, because it is truly founded on Christ." ⚙ We hold this alongside, not against, the parable's plain demand: the text still says the difference visible from outside is doing these words.

1 Peter 5:10 · Hebrews 1:10 · 1 Corinthians 3:10-11

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 as supplied in the brief; all parse data, glosses and lexeme frequencies above are theirs, not ours. Commentary is quoted verbatim from public-domain sources named by tag; Ellicott's entry on 7:24 is capped in the brief and we have quoted only from within the supplied text.

Textual note carried from the sources: Pulpit reports the reading behind "shall be likened" (ὁμοιωθήσεται, future passive) as the manuscript reading against the older "I will liken him" of the AV, which reflects a different Greek text. Our literal rendering follows the interlinear's future passive. Pulpit likewise prefers "the rock" over "a rock" in v. 24, which the Greek article supports.

What is uncertain. (1) The identity of the rock is genuinely contested among the sources: Poole, Gill, Henry, Geneva and Cambridge read it as Christ; Pulpit reads it as practice and calls the christological reading application rather than exegesis; Ellicott holds both in sequence. We have not resolved the dispute, and no thread or christ entry above should be read as resolving it. (2) The James 1:22 link rests on JFB's and Pulpit's judgment alone; the Verifier returned no lexical candidate for it, so we tiered it structural rather than verbal. (3) The Ezekiel 13 and Isaiah 28:16 threads are cross-Testament and cannot carry a shared-Strong's basis in principle, Hebrew and Greek lexeme numbers being different systems; they are tiered structural and typological accordingly. (4) The πτῶσις link to Luke 2:34 is a real lexical rarity (two verses in the New Testament) but no source in this brief draws it and Matthew signals no intent, so we have recorded it as a coincidence of vocabulary and claimed nothing further. (5) The reading of the passive ὁμοιωθήσεται as implying Christ himself as agent is our own and marked novel.

⚙ Everything marked with the gear is machine synthesis and fallible. It is offered to be tested against the Word and against the named human voices above, neither of which it may override.

✦ = 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)