The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew7:28–29

The Authority of Jesus

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Matthew 7:28–29 — The Authority of Jesus. 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.

28

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai egeneto hote ho Iēsous etelesen tous logous toutous hoi ochloi exeplēssonto epi tē autou didachē

Word by word16 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγένετοegenetovvvG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to come to pass, to be generated The aorist middle ἐγένετο paired with ὅτε is the Septuagintal narrative formula carried into Greek Matthew, and Matthew uses it five times to close a discourse block. Pulpit names it "the formula" and cross-references Matthew 11:1. BSB drops it, so the English reader loses the one word that tells him a structural unit has just ended.
ὅτεhoteWhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ὅτε: at which time, when Temporal adverb; it carries no weight of its own, but it is half of the fixed formula with ἐγένετο.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
Ἰησοῦς: Jesus The named subject stands in the nominative with the article, ὁ Ἰησοῦς, at the exact seam. Matthew does not say the Sermon ended; he says Jesus finished it. The person, not the material, closes the discourse, and the person is exactly what verse 29 makes the point of.
ἐτέλεσενetelesenhad finishedG5055
√ τελέω — to end, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τελέω: to end, to bring to completion Aorist active indicative: a punctiliar act of completing, not of trailing off. The verb is uncommon, standing in only 28 verses, and the Verifier finds it again at Matthew 11:1, 19:1 and 26:1, the other closing formulas. ⚙ Beyond the Verifier's list, the same root stands behind the cry τετέλεσται at John 19:30, which is my own cross-reference and not part of the sourced basis.
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγουςlogoussayingG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγος: something said, including the thought Accusative plural: the Sermon is handled as a countable, finished deposit of words. The Revised Version's "words" against the Authorized "sayings" is the reading Pulpit endorses.
τούτουςtoutousthese thingsG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
οὗτος: this, these The demonstrative fixes the reference backward. Ellicott reads it as evidence "that the Evangelist believed that he had been recording one continuous discourse," not an anthology assembled by the editor.
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλος: a throng, as borne along Not disciples, not rulers: the mass carried along. Pulpit sets them "In contrust to the scribes and ruling classes" (the typographical slip is in the source text). The verdict on Jesus in this unit is rendered by people with no standing in the guild whose authority is about to be measured against his.
ἐξεπλήσσοντοexeplēssontowere astonishedG1605
√ ἐκπλήσσω — to strike with astonishmentVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ἐκπλήσσω: to strike with astonishment Imperfect Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd plural: a continuing state of being struck out of themselves. The verb is rare, occurring in 13 verses, and the Verifier finds it clustered at exactly the moments when a crowd meets something in Jesus it cannot classify (Matthew 13:54; 19:25; 22:33; Mark 1:22; 6:2; 7:37; Luke 2:48; 4:32; 9:43; Acts 13:12). Matthew records shock, not agreement; nothing here says the crowds obeyed.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἐπί: superimposition, upon With the dative it fixes the ground of the astonishment: it rests upon the teaching.
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
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
αὐτός: himself, his Genitive of possession, placed before the noun in the Greek: his teaching, over against their scribes in the next verse. The two pronouns are the hinge of the whole comparison.
διδαχῇdidachēteachingG1322
√ διδαχή — instruction (the act or the matter)NounDative Feminine Singular
διδαχή: instruction, the act or the matter The lexicon permits both act and content, and both Ellicott and JFB press the act: it is the manner of the speaking that lands. Gill adds the content side, that it was "something new, and unheard of." The unit's claim is not that the ethics were unprecedented but that the speaking was.
29

because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar ēn didaskōn autous hōs echōn exousian kai ouch hōs hoi autōn grammateis

Word by word13 · parsed
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
γάρ: assigning a reason The verse is offered as the ground of the astonishment, not as a fresh observation. Matthew explains the crowd to us.
ἦνēnHeG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰμί: I exist, I am Imperfect Indicative Active, the auxiliary half of the periphrastic ἦν διδάσκων. Standing alone it would be colourless; joined to the participle it converts a single sermon into a described habit.
διδάσκωνdidaskōntaughtG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
διδάσκω: to teach Present Participle Active with ἦν: the periphrastic imperfect of settled practice. Ellicott reads the continuity directly off the Greek; Pulpit calls it his "constant habit." Note the grammar's quiet reach: the verdict of verse 28 is not about one hillside but about how this man always spoke.
αὐτοὺςautousG846
√ 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
ὡςhōsas [one]G5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
ἔχωνechōnwho hadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἔχω: to hold, to have Present participle: ongoing possession, not a role assumed for the occasion. JFB judges the translators' inserted "one" a weakening of the statement, and the parse supports him, since there is no indefinite pronoun in the Greek, only ὡς plus a participle describing the subject already named.
ἐξουσίανexousianauthorityG1849
√ ἐξουσία — privilege, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐξουσία: privilege, warrant, authority The decisive noun of the unit and a common one, standing in 93 verses, which is why the link to Mark 1:22 rests on the rarer ἐκπλήσσω rather than on this word. Its force here is juridical rather than physical: the right to legislate, which Cambridge states flatly ("He was Himself a lawgiver") and which JFB expands into Lawgiver, Expounder and Judge. ⚙ The same noun returns on another mountain at Matthew 28:18, where all of it is said to be given to him.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐχouchnotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐ: the absolute negative Not a qualified comparison. The contrast is denied outright, not graded.
ὡςhōsasG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
ὡς: as, how The second ὡς balances the first: one clause of likeness for Jesus, one for the scribes, with the negative between them.
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ 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 Plural
αὐτός: their Genitive plural, preceding the noun: "their scribes," the reading Pulpit records as the Revised Version's, "with the manuscripts." It pins the comparison to the crowd's own teachers, the men they actually sat under.
γραμματεῖςgrammateisscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounNominative Masculine Plural
γραμματεύς: scribe, town-clerk Cambridge supplies the institutional detail: Sopherim, either "those who count" (they counted each word and letter of the Scriptures) or "those occupied with books," an order originating with Ezra, whose successors in our Lord's time were the Tanaim, "those who repeat." Their whole office was transmission, and Cambridge notes the scribe expounded the law "always with reference to authority," meaning someone else's. That is the exact point of difference the crowd heard.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

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

i. The formula that ends a sermon and builds a Gospel — 7:28a

The unit opens with a word BSB does not translate. Καὶ ἐγένετο (G1096, Aorist Indicative Middle) is the Septuagintal "and it came to pass," and Pulpit treats it as a technical seam: "With the exception of the formula, 'It came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings' (cf. Matthew 11:1, note), the words are almost identical with Mark 1:22." The Verifier confirms the formula's other members by shared lexeme: G5055 τελέω (a verb standing in only 28 verses) with G3753 ὅτε recurs at Matthew 11:1, 19:1 and 26:1. So the sentence does two jobs at once. It closes the Sermon, and it lays a course in the Gospel's masonry. Ellicott draws the first inference from the demonstrative τούτους: the formula points "to the conclusion that the Evangelist believed that he had been recording one continuous discourse." ⚙ Note what the verb ἐτέλεσεν claims and does not claim: it says Jesus brought the words to completion, which is a stronger thing than stopping.

ii. Struck, which is not the same as persuaded — 7:28b

ἐξεπλήσσοντο (G1605) is a rare verb, in 13 verses, and the lexicon's gloss is physical: "to strike with astonishment." The imperfect holds the blow open. Matthew reports impact, and he reports nothing else; there is no repentance in this sentence, no following, no faith. Gill goes further than the Greek does, saying the teaching "wrought conviction in their minds, and obliged them to acknowledge the truth of it," and that is Gill's judgement rather than Matthew's report. What the astonishment fastened on is disputed only in emphasis. Ellicott: "Better, at his teaching; with greater prominence given, as the words that follow show, to its manner than to its substance." JFB agrees, "for the reference is to the manner of it quite as much as the matter, or rather more so." Maclaren states it as thesis: "the first impression made on the masses by the Sermon on the Mount was not so much an appreciation of its high morality, as a feeling of the personal authority with which Christ spoke." The crowd's first response to the Sermon on the Mount was a question about the preacher.

iii. Authority against the chain of precedent — 7:29

Verse 29 gives the reason (γὰρ) and gives it as a habit, not an incident: the periphrastic imperfect ἦν διδάσκων, which Ellicott reads as continuity ("The Greek implies continuity, He was teaching") and Pulpit as "his constant habit." The measure is the men the crowd already knew, their scribes (αὐτῶν, the reading Pulpit records "with the manuscripts"). Cambridge describes the office from the inside: the scribe "expounded the law, always with reference to authority." Ellicott makes the comparison concrete, that the scribe "hardly ever gave his exposition without at least beginning by what had been said by Hillel or by Shammai," so that he depended on precedent "as much as an English lawyer depends on his precedents," and Gill independently supplies the same Talmudic habit, "our Rabbins" and "our wise men say." Against that chain, ἔχων ἐξουσίαν: a present participle of holding, and a noun whose root sense is warrant. JFB refuses the translators' softening ("The word 'one,' which our translators have here inserted, only weakens the statement") and names what beamed through: "The consciousness of divine authority, as Lawgiver, Expounder and Judge." Cambridge says it in four words, "He was Himself a lawgiver." Ellicott closes with the category the crowd reached for: "It is the prophet, or rather, perhaps, the king, who speaks, and not the scribe."

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

⚙ Read under Scripture alone, and fallibly, these two verses are Matthew's own commentary on the three chapters before them, and the commentary is not about ethics. If the Sermon were chiefly a moral code, the recorded reaction would be conviction or resolve. What Matthew records is ἐξεπλήσσοντο, a rare verb of being struck, held open in the imperfect, and then a stated reason that is entirely about the speaker: he was teaching as holding warrant, and not as their scribes. The difference the crowd detected is not that Jesus said better things. It is that he said them without a citation. Every scribe in the hearing of that hillside taught by leaning backward on a name (Cambridge: "always with reference to authority"; Ellicott: Hillel, Shammai, Rabbi Joseph, Rabbi Meir; Gill: "our Rabbins"), and this man leaned on nothing. That is either the plainest blasphemy or a claim that the Word which the scribes were citing is standing in front of them speaking in the first person. ⚙ I would add one caution against the sermons that make this verse a compliment to Christ's delivery. Being struck is not the same as being saved. The crowds here are astonished and then, in Matthew's telling, they are astonished again at Matthew 13:54 and again at Matthew 22:33, and astonishment is where they stay. The Sermon has just ended with two builders and one storm; this closing note quietly asks the reader which of the two he is, because a man can be genuinely knocked sideways by the authority of Christ and still be building on sand. The following line is my own reading, not Scripture, and is offered to be tested.

The crowd did not go home carrying a new ethic; they went home carrying a question about the man who had no one to quote.

⚙

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 verdict, in Mark and in Luke verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 1:22 and Luke 4:32 record the identical reaction in nearly identical Greek, at Capernaum rather than on the mount. Pulpit states the relation plainly: "the words are almost identical with Mark 1:22 (Luke 4:31, 32), but the time is, as it seems, later," and adds the judgement that "The oral statement of an impression which was probably often produced is affirmed of slightly different times." The Verifier records the verbal overlap: Mark 1:22 shares G1322 διδαχή (in 29 vv), G1605 ἐκπλήσσω (in 13 vv) and G1849 ἐξουσία (in 93 vv); Luke 4:32 shares διδαχή, ἐκπλήσσω and G3056 λόγος. The rarity of ἐκπλήσσω carries the link. ⚙ Whether this is one event told twice or a recurring impression recorded twice is a question the sourced data cannot settle, and Pulpit leans to the second.

Mark 1:22 · Luke 4:32

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1605 ἐκπλήσσω (rare, in 13 vv) plus G1322 διδαχή (in 29 vv) and G1849 ἐξουσία (in 93 vv) at Mark 1:22; G1605, G1322 and G3056 λόγος at Luke 4:32. Greek to Greek, and the shared rare verb plus the shared clause structure justify the verbal tier; this is parallel report, not one text quoting another.

"And it came to pass when Jesus finished": Matthew's five seams verbal / quotation: confirmed

The untranslated Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν is the formula Matthew repeats to close each of his great discourse blocks. Pulpit flags it here and sends the reader to Matthew 11:1. The Verifier independently returns three of the other members on shared lexemes: Matthew 11:1 (G5055 τελέω, in 28 vv, with G3753 ὅτε and G1321 διδάσκω), Matthew 19:1 and Matthew 26:1 (G5055 with G3056 λόγος and G3753 ὅτε). ⚙ The fifth member usually listed, Matthew 13:53, did not appear among the Verifier's candidates for this unit, so I name it as my own observation rather than as confirmed basis. The effect of the pattern is architectural: Matthew builds his Gospel as five blocks of teaching, each sealed by this sentence, and this is the first seal.

Matthew 11:1 · Matthew 19:1 · Matthew 26:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G5055 τελέω (in 28 vv, relatively rare) with G3753 ὅτε at Matthew 11:1, 19:1 and 26:1, all within Matthew: a fixed authorial formula, not a citation of an outside source. Matthew 13:53 is excluded from the refs because the Verifier did not return it.

ἐκπλήσσω: the crowd's recurring, unresolved shock structural / thematic: confirmed

The rare verb of verse 28 traces a line through the Gospels. The Verifier finds it at Matthew 13:54 and Mark 6:2 (with G1321 διδάσκω, the Nazareth synagogue), Matthew 19:25 (the disciples at the camel and the needle), Matthew 22:33 and Mark 11:18 (with G3793 ὄχλος and G1322 διδαχή, the temple crowds), Mark 7:37, Mark 10:26, Luke 2:48 and Luke 9:43. Pulpit adds a cross-reference of his own for the sense here: "Were astonished (cf. Acts 13:12)," where the proconsul is struck at the teaching of the Lord. ⚙ I tier this below verbal deliberately: the shared lexeme is real and rare, but no one of these verses quotes another, and what they share is a recurring reaction rather than a wording. Read together they say something uncomfortable, that astonishment at Christ is the most repeated and least decisive response in the record.

Matthew 13:54 · Matthew 22:33 · Mark 6:2 · Acts 13:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1605 ἐκπλήσσω (rare, in 13 vv) at Matthew 13:54, Matthew 22:33 and Mark 6:2, and with G1322 διδαχή at Acts 13:12. A genuine verbal link, but the tier is held at thematic because the motif, not any quotation, is what binds them. Acts 13:12 is additionally cited by Pulpit at this verse.

Their scribes, weighed and found teaching structural / thematic: confirmed

The contrast in verse 29 is not a passing jab; it becomes a running assessment in the Gospels. The Verifier links Mark 12:38 by the two nouns that define the comparison here, G1122 γραμματεύς (in 63 vv) and G1322 διδαχή (in 29 vv): "in his teaching he said, Beware of the scribes." Cambridge supplies what the office actually was, the Sopherim descended from Ezra, transcribers and expounders who worked "always with reference to authority," and Barnes describes the practice, "They taught chiefly the sentiments of their Rabbis, and the traditions which had been delivered." ⚙ What begins at Matthew 7:29 as the crowd's instinctive comparison ends, in Mark 12, as Christ's own warning. The structural link is the shared vocabulary of teaching and scribes; there is no quotation in either direction.

Mark 12:38

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1322 διδαχή (in 29 vv) and G1122 γραμματεύς (in 63 vv). Greek to Greek, common lexemes, no quotation: a shared subject and contrast, tiered thematic.

The prophet who speaks without a precedent typological

Ellicott reaches for a category to name what the crowd heard: "It is the prophet, or rather, perhaps, the king, who speaks, and not the scribe." Deuteronomy 18:18 promises a prophet like Moses in whose mouth God will put his words, and Deuteronomy 18:19 makes hearing him the point of accountability, which is exactly the burden of the two builders immediately preceding this unit. ⚙ This link cannot be verbal: the Verifier returned no cross-Testament candidate, and shared Strong's numbers are impossible between a Hebrew text and a Greek one. I record it as typological and note the tension honestly: the promised prophet speaks because God put words in his mouth, whereas Matthew's crowd is struck because this speaker cites no one at all. The type is stretched by the fulfilment, which is characteristic of how the Gospel handles Moses.

Deuteronomy 18:18 · Deuteronomy 18:19

basis: No shared Strong's basis is possible (Hebrew Deuteronomy against Greek Matthew), and the Verifier returned no cross-Testament candidate for this unit. The link is figural: the prophet like Moses who speaks God's own words, read against Ellicott's naming of Jesus here as prophet or king rather than scribe. Widely held in the apostolic tradition (Acts 3:22), but recorded here as typology, not as a quotation claim.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Lawgiver on the mountain ancient/widely-held

The unit's grammar makes a Christological claim before any doctrine is stated. ἦν διδάσκων plus ἔχων ἐξουσίαν describes a man in continuous possession of warrant, and every commentator in the brief reaches for the same office to explain it. Cambridge: "He was Himself a lawgiver. His teaching was not a mere expansion of the old law." JFB: "The consciousness of divine authority, as Lawgiver, Expounder and Judge, so beamed through His teaching." Benson: "With a dignity and majesty peculiar to himself, as the great lawgiver." Maclaren: he "stood forth as a Legislator, not as a commentator; and commanded, and prohibited, and repealed, and promised, on His own bare word." Gill locates it in the formula itself, "often using those words, 'but I say unto you'; he spoke as a lawgiver, as one that had authority from heaven, and not from men," and Ellicott names the same "I say unto you" set over against what "had been said 'to them of old time'" at Matthew 5:21 and following. ⚙ The setting is not incidental: a man on a mountain, issuing law in the first person, to a people whose law came from a mountain. Poole draws the conclusion the crowd drew, that the preaching "made him appear to them one sent of God, and clothed with his authority."

Matthew 5:21 · Matthew 5:22 · Deuteronomy 18:18

ἐξουσία on the first mountain and on the last novel

The noun the crowd's astonishment turns on, ἐξουσία (G1849, root sense privilege or warrant, not mere force), is the same noun the risen Christ uses on a mountain in Galilee at Matthew 28:18: all authority has been given to me, in heaven and on earth, therefore go and teach. ⚙ That the Gospel opens its teaching ministry with crowds shocked at his authority and closes it with that authority declared universal and handed into the church's commission is my own structural reading, offered to be tested: the Verifier did not return Matthew 28:18 among its candidates, and I am not claiming a confirmed verbal basis for the inclusio. What is not novel is the substance. Barnes states it from this verse alone: "He came with authority such as no man could have." Cambridge, JFB and Benson say the same from the office. ⚙ If they are right, then the crowd at the end of the Sermon was reacting correctly to something they had not yet named, and the last chapter of Matthew names it.

Matthew 28:18 · Matthew 7:29

He finished the words, and he finished the work novel

ἐτέλεσεν (G5055 τελέω, to bring to completion) is a deliberate verb: Matthew does not say Jesus stopped speaking but that he completed. The Verifier confirms it as Matthew's formula verb across the discourse seams at 11:1, 19:1 and 26:1, and note where the last of those falls, immediately before the passion narrative: when Jesus had finished all these words, he told them he would be delivered up to be crucified. ⚙ The same root stands behind τετέλεσται at John 19:30, which is my own cross-reference and outside the Verifier's basis. Read canonically, the verb that seals each block of teaching is the verb that seals the cross, and Henry draws the practical end of it from this unit: "Christ is laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand."

Matthew 26:1 · John 19:30

Apparatus & Provenance

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

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

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

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) The Berean interlinear supplies no English gloss for ἐγένετο at 7:28 word 1 (the gloss field is a placeholder in the source), because BSB folds the whole formula into "When." My reading of that word therefore rests on the parse (G1096, Aorist Indicative Middle) and on Pulpit's identification of it as "the formula," not on the translation.

(2) Text: at 7:29 the manuscripts read αὐτῶν, "their scribes," which Pulpit records as the Revised Version's correction of the Authorized "the scribes." Separately, Gill reports that "Some copies add, and Pharisees ... and so read the Vulgate Latin, the Syriac, the Persic versions, and the Hebrew edition of Matthew by Munster"; Pulpit judges that this "may either be derived from Luke 5:30 or be an independent gloss." I have not built anything on the longer reading.

(3) Sources: the Maclaren entry is capped in the brief (about 11,700 further characters) and the Barnes entry is capped (about 4,900 further characters); I quoted only from the portions supplied and did not request the remainder, so neither writer's full argument is represented here. The Geneva entries for both verses contain only the verse text and a section heading, with no commentary to quote, and Poole's note at 7:28 is a pointer, "See Poole on Matthew 7:29."

(4) Threads: every verbal tier in this unit is Greek to Greek and rests on the Verifier's computed shared lexemes, chiefly the rare G1605 ἐκπλήσσω (in 13 vv) and G5055 τελέω (in 28 vv). G1849 ἐξουσία and G3793 ὄχλος are common (93 and 170 verses) and carry no weight on their own. The Deuteronomy 18 link is tiered typological because no shared Strong's basis between Hebrew and Greek is possible, and Matthew 13:53 and Matthew 28:18 are named in prose but kept out of the confirmed bases because the Verifier did not return them.

(5) ⚙ Interpretive restraint: Matthew reports astonishment and gives its cause. He does not report belief, repentance or obedience in these two verses. Where Gill says the teaching "obliged them to acknowledge the truth of it," that is commentary going beyond the report, and I have flagged it at the voice rather than quietly adopting it.

✦ = 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)