The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew9:9–13

Jesus Calls Matthew

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Matthew 9:9–13 — Jesus Calls Matthew. 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.

9

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous paragōn ekeithen eiden anthrōpon legomenon Maththaion kathēmenon epi to telōnion Akolouthei moi kai legei autō kai anastas ēkolouthēsen autō

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAsG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
παράγωνparagōnwent onG3855
√ παράγω — to lead near, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
παράγω: to lead near, to pass along A verb of transit, not of arrival. Jesus is moving from the scene of a forgiven paralytic to the lake road; the toll booth is on the way. Ellicott judges the sequence “probably, in part at least, one of cause and effect,” the pardon of sins in the previous scene having reached the ear of a man who knew he had sins to be pardoned.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom thereG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
εἶδενeidenHe sawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἄνθρωπονanthrōpona manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Singular
λεγόμενονlegomenonnamedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ΜαθθαῖονMaththaionMatthewG3156
√ Ματθαῖος — Matthæus (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Ματθαῖος: Matthew A rare name in the Greek New Testament (the Verifier finds it in only five verses). Mark and Luke call this man Levi; Cambridge holds that “the name Matthew, ‘Gift of God,’ was adopted by the Apostle when he became a follower of Jesus,” and Ellicott gives the same sense, “the gift of Jehovah.” JFB notes the deliberate self-portrait: the evangelist sinks his family name and keeps his occupation, so that the grace that called him stands over against the trade it called him out of.
καθήμενονkathēmenonsittingG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
κάθημαι: to sit, to be seated Present participle, continuous. The posture is the whole indictment: he is not on his way anywhere, he is installed. Note that the same root returns in v. 10 in its compound form, synanakeimai, where the sitting is at a table with Jesus. A man is moved from one seat to another.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
τελώνιονtelōniontax boothG5058
√ τελώνιον — a tax-gatherer's place of businessNounAccusative Neuter Singular
τελώνιον: the tax collector's booth A genuinely rare word (the Verifier records it in only three verses in the whole New Testament, all three of them this one call). Benson, citing Campbell, doubts it was a house at all: “Most probably it was a temporary stall which could easily be erected in any place where occasion required.” Pulpit places it by the lake road where the octroi on fish and produce was levied. Its rarity is why the Verifier can tie Matthew, Mark and Luke together at the verbal level here and almost nowhere else.
ἈκολούθειAkoloutheiFollowG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἀκολουθέω: to follow, to be in the same way with Present imperative, second person singular: a continuing command addressed to one man. Strong's root sense, “to be in the same way with,” is exactly what the tense asks for. Pulpit observes what is missing: “No promise is given corresponding to that in ch. 4:19,” no “I will make you fishers of men,” only the bare word. Benson, Poole and JFB all locate the efficacy in the word itself rather than in anything offered with it.
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeiHe toldG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
Present tense legei, “he says,” dropped into an aorist narrative. Greek narrative uses this historic present to put the reader at the booth while it happens.
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναστὰςanastas[Matthew] got upG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνίστημι: to stand up, to rise Aorist participle: one motion, no deliberation recorded. Gill presses the omission: “without telling him what work he must do, or how he must live, and without his consulting with flesh and blood.” Benson reports that Porphyry and Julian mocked the speed as rashness, and answers that a publican resident in Capernaum had heard Jesus preach many times already.
ἠκολούθησενēkolouthēsen[and] followedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀκολουθέω: to follow Now aorist indicative: the standing command of v. 13 answered by a single completed act. Luke adds the two words Matthew leaves out, “he left all,” and Barnes notes the pattern: “Luke has mentioned a circumstance favorable to Matthew, which Matthew himself has omitted.”
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
10

Later, as Jesus was dining at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai egeneto autou anakeimenou en tē oikia kai idou polloi telōnai kai hamartōloi elthontes synanekeinto tō Iēsou kai tois autou mathētais

Word by word21 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiLaterG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγένετοegenetoasG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to come to pass, to become The formula that opens a new scene rather than dating one. It is worth noting how much of the harmonists' quarrel rests on this one vague word: JFB builds an entire case for a later date of the feast on the fact that the Greek does not say when.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀνακειμένουanakeimenouwas diningG345
√ ἀνακεῖμαι — to recline (as a corpse or at a meal)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνάκειμαι: to recline at a meal A genitive absolute with an unnamed subject. Table posture in this world was reclining on couches, so the guests are not seated in rows facing a host but lying close, shoulder to shoulder. This is the physical fact the Pharisees object to: not proximity of opinion but proximity of body.
ἐνenatG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtē[Matthew’s]G3588
√ 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
οἰκία: house, dwelling Cambridge settles the owner from the parallel: “St Luke says ‘and Levi made him a great feast,’ which makes it clear that the meal was in Levi's house.” Matthew's own text says only “the house,” which is part of his habit of leaving himself out.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidouG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού: behold, look An imperative frozen into an interjection. Untranslated in BSB, it is the hinge of the verse: the evangelist wants the reader to see who walked in.
πολλοὶpolloimanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
τελῶναιtelōnaitax collectorsG5057
√ τελώνης — a tax-farmer, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
τελώνης: a tax farmer, a collector of revenue Not merely a disliked profession. Gill documents the rabbinic rulings: a collector's entry defiled a house, false swearing to publicans was permitted, and Maimonides ranked a publican with a thief. Geneva adds the political root, that they gathered the Roman taxes “after that time Judea was brought into the form of a province.” Ellicott's summary is the shortest: the pariah of Palestine.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἁμαρτωλοὶhamartōloisinnersG268
√ ἁμαρτωλός — sinful, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἁμαρτωλός: sinful, a sinner Pulpit defines the term from usage: “all who openly impugned or neglected the Law,” sometimes with reference to Gentiles. Ellicott declines to narrow it to Gentiles here and keeps “its simple and natural sense.” The word is doing double duty in this unit: it is the Pharisees' label in v. 11 and Christ's own chosen object in v. 13.
ἐλθόντεςelthontescameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
συνανέκειντοsynanekeinto[and] ate withG4873
√ συνανάκειμαι — to recline in company with (at a meal)VerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
συνανάκειμαι: to recline in company with The compound puts the whole controversy in one verb. Note the quiet move across the unit: in v. 9 Matthew is kathēmenon, sitting alone at a booth collecting from his neighbours; here the same posture-root has become syn-anakeimai, lying at table alongside the Lord. The imperfect tense holds the scene open.
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsou[Him]G2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounDative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
11

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hoi Pharisaioi idontes elegon tois autou mathētais Dia ti ho hymōn didaskalos esthiei meta tōn telōnōn kai hamartōlōn

Word by word19 · parsed
καὶkaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Φαρισαῖος: a separatist The name itself is the argument. Pulpit notes that this is the first time in Matthew that the Pharisees come into direct contact with Jesus, and that here it is their name and not their scribal training that is in view: “men who by their very name professed to hold aloof from those who neglected the Law.” Ellicott adds from Mark that these were scribes of the Pharisees, probably the same party present at the healing of the paralytic.
ἰδόντεςidontessaw thisG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὁράω: to see, to attend to Aorist participle. Cambridge explains how they could see a meal they were not invited to: uninvited onlookers taking seats along the wall of an eastern reception room was ordinary custom, and Pulpit notes they could stand in the open court and both see and hear.
ἔλεγονelegonthey askedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
λέγω / εἶπον: to say Imperfect, iterative. Not a question so much as a running complaint. Poole reads motive into it: they sought not only to carp but to bring him under a popular odium, and this looked like a fair opportunity.
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
μαθητής: a learner, a disciple They address the learners, not the teacher. JFB is blunt about why: “not venturing to put their question to Jesus Himself.” Gill adds that having just been exposed by one who read their thoughts (v. 4), they judged the students the softer target.
ΔιὰDiaWhyG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὑμῶνhymōn{does} yourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
διδάσκαλοςdidaskalosTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounNominative Masculine Singular
διδάσκαλος: an instructor, a teacher The title is granted and weaponised in the same breath. It also sets up the answer: in v. 13 the Teacher sends the teachers of Israel back to school with a rabbinic formula, “go and learn.”
ἐσθίειesthieieatG2068
√ ἐσθίω — used only in certain tenses, the rest being supplied by G5315 (φάγω)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐσθίω: to eat Present indicative, habitual. Barnes explains why a verb of eating carries the whole accusation: “To eat and drink with others denotes intimacy and familiarity,” so the charge is not about food but about declared company.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
τελωνῶνtelōnōntax collectorsG5057
√ τελώνης — a tax-farmer, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἁμαρτωλῶνhamartōlōnsinnersG268
√ ἁμαρτωλός — sinful, iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
12

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ho de akousas eipen Ou hoi ischyontes echousin chreian iatrou all’ hoi echontes kakōs

Word by word14 · parsed
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δὲde[On]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀκούσαςakousashearing thisG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούω: to hear Aorist participle. Benson explains the mechanics: the Pharisees addressed the disciples, not Jesus, but spoke loudly enough for the guests to hear, so the censure had to be answered publicly. Gill adds that Christ answered “with an audible voice,” chiefly to steady the disciples the Pharisees were trying to detach.
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΟὐOu[It is] notG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἰσχύοντεςischyonteshealthyG2480
√ ἰσχύω — to have (or exercise) force (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἰσχύω: to have or exercise force, to be strong The theological weight of the verse sits here. Christ does not say the Pharisees are well; he says the strong have no need of a physician and leaves them to place themselves. Cambridge names the device: “There is a touch of irony in the words. They that are ‘whole’ are they who think themselves whole.” Barnes reads the sentence the same way, as an argument conducted entirely on the opponent's own premises.
ἔχουσινechousin[who]G2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
χρείανchreianneedG5532
√ χρεία — employment, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
χρεία: need, employment Pulpit marks ou chreian echousin as “the emphatic words in the sentence,” and the emphasis decides how the whole reply is read: Christ is not conceding health, he is withholding his services from men who have declared they want none. Barnes hears the same conditional force, “If you Pharisees are such as you think yourselves, already pure and holy, you do not need my aid.” The whole gospel question of this unit is who will admit a need, and the men at the wall have already answered by refusing to come in.
ἰατροῦiatroua doctorG2395
√ ἰατρός — a physicianNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἰατρός: a physician A rare word, and a claim. Gill unfolds it as a full doctrine: a physician who needs no account of the symptoms from the patient, who treats every disease and every sort of person, who never loses a case, and who charges nothing. He notes that Philo had already called the divine Word “a healer of diseases,” which places the image within Jewish usage rather than outside it.
ἀλλ’all’butG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἔχοντεςechontesvvvG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
κακῶςkakōssickG2560
√ κακῶς — badly (physically or morally)Adverb
κακῶς: badly, ill, whether physically or morally The adverb refuses the separation the Pharisees assume. In Matthew's own narrative the phrase kakōs echontes has been running through the healing accounts of chapters 4 and 8 for bodily illness; here it is turned on a dining room full of men whose bodies are fine.
13

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de poreuthentes mathete ti estin thelō Eleos kai ou thysian gar ēlthon ou kalesai dikaious alla hamartōlous

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πορευθέντεςporeuthentesgoG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
πορεύομαι: to traverse, to go Aorist passive participle used as a Semitic auxiliary, carrying no separate journey. Its force is dismissal with homework attached.
μάθετεmathete[and] learnG3129
√ μανθάνω — to learn (in any way)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
μανθάνω: to learn Aorist imperative plural. This is the verb from which mathētēs, disciple, is formed, and it is addressed to the men who objected in v. 11 that Jesus' own mathētai were badly taught. The Teacher they mocked assigns them a text.
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinthis meansG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
θέλωthelōI desireG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
θέλω: to determine, to will, to desire Present, first person: a standing disposition of God, not a mood. Ellicott notes that Jesus cites this same Hosea clause again at Matthew 12:7 over a Sabbath dispute, which makes it something like a settled hermeneutical rule in his hands: where ceremony and mercy compete, mercy states God's will.
ἜλεοςEleosmercyG1656
√ ἔλεος — compassion (human or divine, especially active)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔλεος: compassion, especially active In the Septuagint this noun regularly renders the Hebrew chesed, covenant loyalty, which is the word standing behind Hosea 6:6. Pulpit reads Hosea's sense as God's desire that his people show mercy rather than only perform sacrifice, and judges that this, rather than a bare statement about God's own preference, is probably what is meant here. Cambridge puts it in one line: “Sacrifice without mercy is no acceptable sacrifice.”
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
θυσίανthysiansacrificeG2378
√ θυσία — sacrifice (the act or the victim, literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
θυσία: sacrifice, the act or the victim Barnes stresses that this is no repudiation of the altar, since God commanded and approved it; sacrifice here stands by synecdoche for “external worship in general.” Gill guards the same ground from the other side: sacrifices “offered up in the faith of Christ's sacrifice, and were attended with other acts of religion and piety, were acceptable to God.” What is refused is ritual set against mercy, not ritual as such.
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἦλθονēlthonI have not comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ἔρχομαι: to come Aorist, first person. Pulpit reads it of the Incarnation: “Christ refers to his historic coming in the Incarnation rather than to his abiding presence.” A man may state his purpose; only one kind of man states the purpose of his arrival in the world.
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
καλέσαιkalesaito callG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
καλέω: to call, properly aloud The same root is used of summoning guests to a feast, and the setting is a feast. Note the structure of the unit: “Follow me” in v. 9 was the call in the particular, and this is the call stated as a policy. What was done to one publican is here declared to be the plan.
δικαίουςdikaious[the] righteousG1342
√ δίκαιος — equitable (in character or act)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
δίκαιος: equitable, righteous in character or act Anarthrous and ironic. Barnes states the doctrinal guard plainly, that “no human beings are by nature righteous,” so the word must name a class that exists only in its own estimate. Cambridge had already set up the parallel at v. 12: the whole are those who think themselves whole, the righteous are those righteous in their own eyes.
ἀλλὰallabutG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ἁμαρτωλούςhamartōloussinnersG268
√ ἁμαρτωλός — sinful, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ἁμαρτωλός: sinful, a sinner The unit closes on the word the Pharisees used as an insult in v. 11. It has travelled from a label pinned on other men's guests to the stated object of the Son's mission. BSB rightly stops here: the words “to repentance” that follow in the Authorised Version are absent from the leading manuscripts of Matthew and are certain only in Luke 5:32.

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 word at the booth — 9:9

⚙ The scene is built out of two participles and two finite verbs. παράγων has Jesus in motion, καθήμενον has Matthew installed: one man passing, one man seated at a trade. Ellicott reads the placement as causal, the sequence with the paralytic being “probably, in part at least, one of cause and effect,” since the sympathy shown in pardoning sins “impressed itself on the mind of one who, as a publican, felt that he too had sins that needed to be forgiven.” Pulpit will not soften the seat: “Still plying his irreligious trade.” Into that comes a present imperative, Ἀκολούθει, with no promise attached; Pulpit notes the absence, “No promise is given corresponding to that in ch. 4:19.” Benson calls it “a word which was immediately attended with a secret power,” Poole says “his word carried a secret power with it,” and JFB will not leave it at description. Henry generalises the pattern: Christ's calls come to the employed, as Satan's temptations come to the idle. Barnes notices the self-portrait: Luke records that he left all, and Matthew, who could have, does not.

ii. The table, and the men at the wall — 9:10-9:11

⚙ The controlling verb of v. 10 is συνανέκειντο, imperfect: they were reclining together, and stayed reclining. JFB supplies the posture, “the word rendered ‘sat’ is ‘reclined,’ in allusion to the ancient mode of lying on couches at meals,” which is why the offence is physical and not merely social. Who is at the table is fixed by Gill and Geneva from Jewish sources: Geneva identifies the publicans as Roman tax gatherers “called sinners, that is to say, very vile men,” and Gill piles up the rabbinic rulings, that a collector's entry defiled a house and that the stricter sort “did not eat and drink with them.” Ellicott reads the occasion as a farewell dinner for old colleagues; Poole reads Matthew's motive as evangelistic, “Grace teacheth a man to study the conversion of others.” JFB, alone among these, dates the feast well after the call on the ground that Jairus arrives at that table in v. 18 while Mark and Luke place Jairus after the Gadarene journey. Cambridge then explains how the critics saw anything at all: uninvited men taking seats along the wall was ordinary eastern custom. Their complaint is an imperfect, ἔλεγον; Pulpit hears it as running talk, Luke calls it murmuring, and JFB notes the direction it takes, “not venturing to put their question to Jesus Himself.”

iii. The Physician's premise and the prophet's rule — 9:12-9:13

⚙ The reply is argued twice, once from a proverb and once from a text. The proverb turns on ἰσχύοντες, “the ones being strong,” which Ellicott renders literally and Pulpit hears as self-assertion that Luke's smoother “in health” loses. Barnes and Cambridge agree on the form of the argument: Christ concedes the Pharisees' own estimate of themselves and derives from it that they have no use for him. Cambridge, “They that are ‘whole’ are they who think themselves whole.” Gill develops the counter-image at length, a physician who diagnoses without report from the patient, who loses no case, and who charges nothing, noting that Philo already called the divine Word a healer of diseases. Then the text: Hosea 6:6, which Matthew alone of the three evangelists records here, as Pulpit observes. Benson and Barnes both read the flat Greek negative as Hebrew comparison, “I prefer mercy to sacrifice.” Gill confirms it from Hosea's own second clause and the Chaldee paraphrase, and both he and Barnes insist that sacrifice as such is not being repudiated. Ellicott adds the sharpest turn: the Pharisees are sent to a context that describes them, “Your goodness is as a morning cloud.” The unit ends on ἁμαρτωλούς, the very word the objectors used in v. 11, now naming the mission.

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

⚙ Read as one argument, the unit moves a single Greek posture-root twice. In v. 9 Matthew is καθήμενον, seated at a booth where his neighbours' money passed through his hands. In v. 10 he is at a table where the same root has become συνανέκειντο, reclining with. Nothing in the text says he repented, apologised, made restitution, or was examined. A present imperative was spoken, an aorist answered it, and the next thing recorded is a meal. That order is the whole quarrel: the Pharisees stand at the wall of a house they will not enter, watching a Teacher who has evidently reversed what they take to be the sequence, cleansing then fellowship. Christ's two answers concede nothing and explain everything. The first is a premise borrowed from his accusers: if you are strong, I am nothing to you, and a physician's place is settled by where the illness is. The second is a homework assignment, πορευθέντες μάθετε, the rabbinic “go and learn,” handed to men whose profession was knowing the text. Hosea 6:6 does not overturn the altar; Barnes and Gill both guard that carefully. It ranks two things God commanded and says which one he desires when they are set against each other. What we would add, and offer to be tested: the men at the wall had not refused mercy in theory. They had built a system in which their own separation counted as the sacrifice, so that withdrawing from that table was itself their offering. That is why the quotation lands. Christ does not accuse them of neglecting worship; he tells them the worship they were performing at that moment, standing outside, was the wrong kind. The line below is our own summary sentence, not Scripture and not a quotation from any commentator.

Their standing outside the house was not their failure to worship; it was their offering, and it is the offering he refused.

⚙

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 booth that appears three times and nowhere else verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The call of Matthew is told by Mark (2:14) and Luke (5:27) with the same furniture and nearly the same words. The Verifier's basis is unusually strong here: τελώνιον (G5058, the tax collector's booth) occurs in only three verses in the whole New Testament, and those three verses are these three accounts of this one call. Barnes lists the grounds for identifying Matthew with Mark's and Luke's Levi: identical circumstances, an identical feast following, and the absence of any Levi from the apostolic lists. JFB is blunter: “No capable jury, with the evidence before them which we have in the Gospels, would hesitate in giving a unanimous verdict of identity.” Poole says “all interpreters agree he was the same man.” Ellicott and Cambridge both explain the double name from the ordinary Jewish practice, with Cambridge suggesting Matthew, “Gift of God,” was taken at the call itself.

Mark 2:14 · Luke 5:27

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G5058 τελώνιον, rare at only 3 verses in the New Testament and all three are this call; with G2521 κάθημαι (89 vv) and G190 ἀκολουθέω (86 vv) in the same clause order. All three refs are Greek, so shared Strong's numbers are a legitimate verbal basis.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician” verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Luke 5:31 records the same saying at the same table, and the Verifier's basis is the rare noun ἰατρός (G2395), found in only seven New Testament verses, alongside kakōs (G2560) and chreia (G5532). The difference between the two is itself instructive: Matthew writes ἰσχύοντες, “the strong,” and Luke substitutes hygiainontes, “those in health.” Ellicott credits Luke with “a more professional precision”; Pulpit judges that Luke's alteration loses a note of moral self-assertion present in Matthew. Ellicott also points to Luke 4:23, where the physician proverb is already on Jesus' lips, so the image at this table is not improvised.

Luke 5:31 · Luke 4:23

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2395 ἰατρός, rare at 7 verses, with G2560 κακῶς (16 vv) and G5532 χρεία (47 vv), at Luke 5:31. Luke 4:23 is added by Ellicott's citation as the same image and same rare lexeme, not by Verifier computation; the verbal tier rests on Luke 5:31. Both refs are Greek.

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice”: Hosea in Matthew's hands structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Matthew alone of the three evangelists records the quotation, as Pulpit notes, and he records Jesus using it a second time at Matthew 12:7 in a Sabbath dispute. Ellicott states its force: it “asserted the superiority of ethical to ceremonial law,” and he presses the choice of target, since to withdraw from sinners would itself have been “a formal ‘sacrifice,’ such as Pharisees delighted to offer, and from which they took their very name.” Barnes and Gill both insist this is Hebrew comparison, not abolition: Gill cites Hosea's own parallel clause, “and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings,” and the Chaldee paraphrase. Ellicott further suggests the scribes were meant to read the surrounding verses and find themselves in them: “Your goodness is as a morning cloud” (Hosea 6:4). This link cannot be tiered verbal here: the basis is a Greek text quoting a Hebrew one, so no shared Strong's number exists to record, and the Verifier cannot compute across the Testaments. The Septuagint's ἔλεος standing for Hebrew chesed is a translational equivalence, not a lexical identity.

Hosea 6:6 · Matthew 12:7

basis: Explicit citation of Hosea 6:6, named as such by Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit, and repeated at Matthew 12:7. Cross-Testament (Greek quoting Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme can be recorded and the verbal tier is unavailable by rule; the link is a confirmed quotation carried across a translation boundary, recorded here at the structural tier.

“Matthew the tax collector”: the name he kept in the list structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The proper name Ματθαῖος (G3156) appears in only five verses in the New Testament: this call and the four apostolic lists. Matthew 10:3 is the one that matters, because it is the only list that attaches the trade to the name, “Matthew the tax collector.” JFB draws the conclusion from the pattern: “While he himself sinks his family name, he is careful not to sink his occupation, the obnoxious associations with which he would place over against the grace that called him from it.” Poole says the same, that he describes himself so “to magnify the grace of Christ in calling him,” and Gill that it is so “the grace of God might appear the more illustrious in his calling and conversion.” We decline the verbal tier: the shared lexeme is rare, but it is a personal name, and recurrence of a name is identification rather than verbal echo.

Matthew 10:3 · Mark 3:18 · Luke 6:15 · Acts 1:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3156 Ματθαῖος (rare, 5 vv) at all four refs, plus G5057 τελώνης (20 vv) at Matthew 10:3. Deliberately downgraded from verbal: a recurring proper name establishes identity of person, not a quotation or verbal allusion.

“A friend of tax collectors and sinners” structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The two nouns the Pharisees join in v. 11 with a single article, τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν, recur as a fixed pair in Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34, where the accusation has hardened into a title: a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Pulpit makes the cross-reference himself at v. 11, citing Matthew 11:19 and Luke 15:2 for the thought. The Verifier records G5057 τελώνης and G268 ἁμαρτωλός shared at both places. What was an objection at Matthew's table becomes, four chapters later, the name his enemies give him, and he does not deny it.

Matthew 11:19 · Luke 7:34

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5057 τελώνης (20 vv) and G268 ἁμαρτωλός (45 vv) recurring as a fixed two-noun collocation, with G2400 ἰδού (226 vv) at both refs. Deliberately downgraded from verbal: neither lexeme is rare enough on its own to carry that tier, and a recurring stock collocation is a shared idiom rather than a quotation. Cited independently by Pulpit at Matthew 9:11.

Where sinners draw near, and one who would not come in structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The same pairing runs through Luke's Gospel in two scenes that read as commentary on this one. At Luke 15:1 the tax collectors and sinners draw near to hear him, and the murmuring that follows produces the parables of the lost. At Luke 18:13 a single tax collector stands far off and prays to be shown mercy, while a Pharisee in the same temple thanks God he is not like him. The motif is the one Cambridge names at v. 12: the whole are those who think themselves whole. Gill's rabbinic citations at v. 11 show what social machinery lay behind the Pharisee's prayer, including the rule that a clean person might not eat with an unclean.

Luke 15:1 · Luke 18:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G268 ἁμαρτωλός (45 vv) and G5057 τελώνης (20 vv) at both refs. Neither is rare, and there is no quotation in either direction, so the link is recorded as a shared motif of the self-righteous and the admittedly sinful, not as verbal dependence.

“To repentance”: a clause of disputed standing flagged: verify source

⚙ The Authorised Version ends this unit “but sinners to repentance,” and much older exposition, including Henry's, leans on those words. The manuscript evidence for them in Matthew is weak. Cambridge: “The words ‘to repentance’ are omitted in the leading MSS.” Pulpit: “Omitted by the Revised Version and Westcott and Hort. From the parallel passage in Luke.” JFB: “The italicized words are of doubtful authority here, and more than doubtful authority in Mr 2:17; but in Lu 5:32 they are undisputed.” Gill defends their retention, noting they are absent from the Vulgate, the Syriac, the Ethiopic and the Persic but present in the Arabic and “in the ancient Greek copies.” BSB, which this edition follows, omits them. We therefore flag any link between Matthew 9:13 and Luke 5:32 that depends on the phrase: the theology of the gospel call to repentance is secure on Luke's undisputed text, but its presence in Matthew's is not.

Luke 5:32

basis: Textual, not lexical. The phrase εἰς μετάνοιαν at the end of Matthew 9:13 is absent from the leading manuscripts (so Cambridge, Pulpit, JFB) and defended by Gill; BSB omits it. No Verifier lexeme basis is available for the disputed clause, so any verbal link to Luke 5:32 through it is flagged rather than asserted.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Physician who goes where the disease is ancient/widely-held

⚙ Christ answers a charge about his company by redefining the category: not guest, but physician, and a physician's location is determined by illness rather than by preference. Poole puts the logic as a question, “With him would they have the physician to converse, but with such as are sick?” Barnes reads the second half of Christ's saying as the positive claim, “I came on purpose to save sinners: my business is with them.” Gill expands the image into a full account of the office: he knows every disease of the soul without being told, he treats every sort of person, he never loses a patient, he heals “by his stripes and wounds, by the application of his blood,” and he charges nothing. Gill also notes that Philo had already called the divine Word “a healer of diseases,” which places the title inside Jewish theological vocabulary rather than outside it. Ellicott points out that Luke 4:23 shows the image was already in Jesus' mouth before this table. This is the ordinary reading of the passage across the whole tradition represented here, held alike by Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill and Cambridge.

Luke 4:23 · Luke 5:31 · Matthew 8:16-17

The word that makes its own obedience ancient/widely-held

⚙ Two Greek words are spoken and a man's life ends. There is no argument recorded, no terms, no promise. Every commentator in this brief who touches v. 9 locates the power in the word rather than in Matthew. Benson: the call was “a word which was immediately attended with a secret power.” Poole: “His word carried a secret power with it, which Matthew obeyed by leaving his employment.” Gill denies any merit or motive in the man, saying the call “was entirely owing to the free, sovereign, and distinguishing grace of Christ, and which was powerful and efficacious.” Henry turns it into prayer: “do thou bid us to follow thee; draw us by thy powerful word, and we shall run after thee.” JFB gathers them all. ⚙ Our addition is only this: Matthew's own narrative is constructed to make the point grammatically. He gives the command in the present imperative and the response in a bare aorist participle plus aorist verb, with not one word between them. The syntax leaves no room for a deliberation that the theology would have to explain away. This reading of the call as effectual is widely held, though it is pressed hardest by the Reformed expositors here (Gill, Poole, Geneva, Henry); Benson and Pulpit describe the same power without drawing the same doctrinal conclusion from it.

Mark 2:14 · Luke 5:27-28 · John 15:16

The one who prefers mercy is the one who provides the sacrifice ancient/widely-held

⚙ Christ quotes Hosea in the first person and does not hand the pronoun back. “I desire mercy” is God speaking through the prophet; in Matthew 9:13 the same clause is spoken by a man reclining at a publican's dinner, and immediately followed by a second first-person clause that is his own: “I came.” The evangelist makes no comment on this; the grammar does the work. Barnes states the theological guard that keeps this from becoming an attack on the altar: sacrifices were commanded by God, were the principal part of Jewish worship, and were “pointing to the great sacrifice or offering which Christ was to make for the sins of the world.” Gill says the same from the other direction, that sacrifices “offered up in the faith of Christ's sacrifice” were acceptable. ⚙ Taken together these two sourced claims produce the redemptive-historical shape of the saying: the speaker who ranks mercy above sacrifice is himself the one toward whom the sacrifices pointed, and he is at that moment on his way to become the offering that makes the mercy lawful. Barnes and Gill supply the premises here; the conclusion as stated is our own synthesis, and is offered to be tested rather than asserted as their words.

Hosea 6:6 · Matthew 12:7 · Matthew 20:28

A table set by the man who was called novel

⚙ The order of events is worth noticing and is not commented on by the sources: the first recorded act of the first man called in this Gospel after the four fishermen is to set a table and fill it with the people he used to work beside. Poole reads the motive from the narrative, “Grace teacheth a man to study the conversion of others, and never dwelleth in a narrow soul”; Henry says he “knew by experience what the grace of Christ could do, and would not despair concerning them”; Gill says his bowels yearned toward them. Ellicott reads it more soberly as a farewell dinner to old friends before entering a new calling. ⚙ We note, as a fallible observation and not as a claim any of these authors make, that Matthew's Gospel later closes with a commission to go to all nations, and that the evangelist's own first act as a disciple was a dinner invitation to the people nobody else would eat with. Marked novel: the connection is ours, drawn across the book rather than from the commentators.

Luke 5:29 · Luke 15:1-2 · Matthew 28:19

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. The BSB base text of 9:13 ends at “sinners,” omitting “to repentance.” That omission is deliberate and well supported: Cambridge, Pulpit and JFB all record the phrase as absent from the leading manuscripts of Matthew, with JFB adding that it is undisputed only at Luke 5:32; Gill defends retention, listing the versions that lack it (Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, Persic) and those that have it (Arabic, “the ancient Greek copies”). Henry's excerpt in our v. 13 voices reflects the longer reading, and is annotated accordingly. The interlinear spells the name Μαθθαῖον with a double theta, the form of the critical text; older commentary spells it Ματθαῖος.

⚙ Sources. All ten commentators in the brief are used across the unit. Several entries are shared blocks: Matthew Henry's concise note covers 9:10 through 9:13 as one paragraph, so the same text stands at four verses; Poole's note at 9:12 simply refers the reader to 9:13. Geneva's entries at 9:11, 9:12 and 9:13 contain only the verse text with no gloss, so Geneva is quoted only where he actually comments, at 9:9 and 9:10. Gill's notes at 9:11 and 9:13 are capped in the brief; the excerpts used are drawn from the visible portion, and no claim is made about the capped remainder.

⚙ What is uncertain. (1) The date of the feast. JFB argues it occurred a considerable time after the call, on the ground that Jairus arrives at that table in Matthew 9:18 while Mark and Luke place Jairus after the Gadarene journey; Gill, Poole, Benson and Barnes read it as following the call directly. Matthew's Greek says only ἐγένετο, and settles nothing. (2) The reference of Hosea 6:6 in Christ's mouth. Pulpit lays out three possible construals and prefers the first, that Christ wishes the Pharisees to show mercy rather than perform external acts, while allowing that he may be using the words as a summary of free grace apart from their original context. We have followed Pulpit's preference without claiming certainty. (3) The word “sinners” may or may not include Gentiles; Pulpit allows it, Ellicott keeps it in its simple sense here. (4) Cross-Testament links in this unit cannot be verified lexically. The Verifier computes shared Strong's numbers, which exist only within one language, so the Hosea citation is recorded at the structural tier by rule even though it is an explicit quotation; the reason, not a doubt about the quotation, is what the badge records.

⚙ Method. Every thread badge above cites the Verifier's computed basis where one exists, with lexeme frequencies as given. Two candidate links were deliberately downgraded from the verbal tier: the apostolic-list thread (a rare shared lexeme, but a proper name) and the Hosea thread (an explicit quotation, but across languages). One thread is flagged on textual rather than lexical grounds. Everything marked ⚙ is machine synthesis and fallible; everything marked ✦ is verbatim public-domain commentary, resolved from anchors rather than retyped.

✦ = 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)