CHAPTER 14

1. At that time Herodus the Tetrarch heard reports of Yeshua,

2. and he told his servants, “Look! I believe Yochanan the Immerser is the one doing these wonders!”

The Greek adds, “He has risen from the dead, and for this reason powerful works are operative in him!”

3. (This came about on account of [the fact that] Herodus had seized Yochanan and bound him in prison because he was reproving him that he should not [have] take[n] Herodias, who was his brother’s wife, as a wife.

The Greek names the brother as Philippos, but Trimm points out that none of the Hebrew versions includes it, and Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, 18:5:1) only says the brother’s name was also Herod, and that they had the same father but not the same mother. Josephus also identifies Herodias as the daughter of their brother, another reason she would be off-limits to either of them as a wife. Josephus identifies his place of imprisonment as the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea on an inaccessible hill that was on the border of the realms of Herodus and Aretas, King of Arabia Petrea. The dungeon where he was held can still be seen there today.

4. That is, Yochanan was telling him, “She is not permissible to you.”

DuTillet Heb., Because she was telling him, ‘Yochanan is not worthy to be with you.’

5. And indeed Herodus wished to kill him, except that he was afraid of the people, for he was like a prophet in their eyes.

6. Now at the banquet for the day of Herodus’ birth, he summoned the nobles of the kingdom to eat with him, and while they were still eating, his daughter danced among them, and it was pleasing to Herodus.

His daughter: DuTillet Heb., the daughter of Herodias (and the Gk. concurs). She would thus have been Herodus’ daughter by adoption after he married her mother. It was pleasing: DuTillet, she won approval in the eyes of…

7. So he swore [an oath] to her to give her anything she might ask of him.

8. And the girl, being instructed by her mother, asked, “Give me here on a platter the head of Yochanan the Immerser!”

Platter: Shem-Tov has, bowl.

9. And the king was very grieved, but on account of the oath he had made before those he had invited [who were embarrassed together with him at the table], he ordered it [to be given to her],

10. and he sent and slaughtered Yochanan, [who was] in the prison [by severing his head],

11. so that his head might be carried on a platter so they might give it to the girl, and they did so. When it was given to the girl, she carried it to her mother.

12. Then Yochanan’s disciples approached and removed his body and buried it, and the disciples [came and] recounted [the matter] to Yeshua.

13. Now when he heard it, Yeshua departed from there in a boat to a deserted place alone, but when the companies heard it, they followed him on foot from all their towns.

Deserted place: where he could ponder, mourn, and, if necessary, regroup, as he may have been counting on Yochanan to be the high priest when he became king. Companies: or companions; Gk., crowds.

14. When they came out, he saw a large people, and extended compassion toward them, and healed those of them that were sick.

Du Tillet: When he came out…

15. And at the time of evening, his disciples approached him and told him, “This is a limited place, [and they have] a large stretch [of ground] to cross; let the companies go so they can walk among the towers and catch for themselves what they need.” 

Towers: Du Tillet and Gk., towns. The town-name Magdalah means “place of the tower”, and it was common for fishermen to have towers along Lake Kinnereth, apparently having shallower pools where it was easier to catch the fish that swam into them. What they need: from an obscure root which may mean to dig up.

16. But Yeshua replied to them, “They have no need to walk; [You] give them [something] to eat!”

17. But they answered him, “We have nothing to be found [here] except five round [loaves of bread and] two fish!”

Yochanan 6:9 adds the detail that these loaves were made of barley. (This will prove important.) David had asked for five loaves of bread when he came to Akhimelekh the priest while fleeing King Sha’ul. (1 Shmu’el 21:4) So there must be a connection here to the fact that Yeshua is also the rightful king in David’s line, though he is not yet in that position at this point.

18. So he told them, “Bring them to me.”

19. And he commanded that the people should sit down [to eat] on the vegetation [in the field]. And when they had sat down, he took the five loaves and two fish, and as he began to look into the heavens, he said a blessing, then divided and gave the bread to his disciples, and his disciples distributed it to the assembled [group]s.

Blessing: possibly the familiar “Blessed are You, YHWH our Elohim, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” Look into the heavens: into the realm where the supply is unlimited, and where the reality was after which each detail in the physical realm had to be patterned in order to teach. The numbers in this passage matter. (See note on 16:12.) Y’shua was also showing that he was a prophet like Moshe by manifesting the bread YHWH sent from heaven. (Ex. 16:4; Compare Yochanan 6:31-33)

20. And they all ate and were satisfied. And likewise they ate of the fish as [much as] they desired. After they had finished, they picked up the fragments that were left over and from them filled up twelve se’im.

This demonstrated that he was also a prophet like Elisha. (2 Kings 4:42-44) Of the fish: This seems to have been optional, and with reason. Remember that they were quite a distance from the lake. (v. 15) The only other place in Scripture that we see fish multiply “in the midst of the land” is in Gen. 48:16, where Efrayim and Menashe are blessed with such proliferation. So these two tribes, which at the time of this miracle are in exile, are about to again become available as feeders of Israel along with the five books of the Torah, which Yehudah had safeguarded and were adequate to more than satisfy the twelve tribes of Israel, not Yehudah alone. Left over: Trimm points out that Greek seems to have misread this word as another that lacks one of the letters and means “they took up”. Se’im: the same dry measure of which Avraham told Sarah to prepare three for three guests. (Gen. 18:6)  

21. And the count of those who ate was 5,000 men, apart from the women and children.

5,000: Yeshua demonstrated that he was a high-caliber prophet because there was a precedent for this event in the life of Elisha, who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of barley bread and newly-ripened grain, and still had some left over. (2 Kings 4:42-44) Y’shua far superseded the earlier miracle in scope, but it was of the same sort, showing that what he was teaching through this sign or wonder was not something their ancestors had not known. (Deut. 13:1-2)


​22. Then after this, he ordered his students to assemble in a boat, and he sent them in advance of himself into the city to which the crowds were walking.

23. And after he left the crowds behind, he went up into the mountains to pray alone. At the time of evening, he was standing alone

24. but the boat was in the heart of the lake, being tossed around by the waves, because the wind was against [them].

25. And in the fourth watch of the night, Y'shua went to them, walking on the lake.

Rabbinic midrashim on Gen. 1:1-2 say that “the Spirit of Elohim moved over the surface of the waters” refers to the Messiah, because Yeshayahu 11:2 says “the Spirit of YHWH shall rest on him.” (B’reshith Rabbah 2:4, 97)

26. And when his students saw him walking over the lake, they were terrified, thinking he was an evil spirit, and they were so afraid that they were screaming.

27. But immediately Yeshua responded and said to them, “Be trusting, because it’s [just] me; don’t be afraid!”

Be trusting: from a word emphasizing security; Shem-Tov: “Believe within yourselves.”

28. So Kefa answered and said, “My master, if it is you, give the order, and I will come over the water to you!”

Give the order: Shem-Tov: give me the order.

29. So Yeshua said, “Come!” So Kefa got down from the boat and walked on the lake to come to Yeshua,

30. but when he saw how strong the wind was, he became very afraid that he would sink, and he cried out, “Master, rescue me!”

Afraid that he would sink: Shem-Tov: afraid, and as he began to sink…

31. And right away, Y’shua extended his hand and caught him, and said to him, “You are small in confidence! Why did you doubt?”

You are small in confidence: Shem-Tov, O man of little security.

32. And as they were climbing up into the boat, right away the wind subsided.

Subsided: Shem-tov: quieted down, a term based on “comfort”.

33. And while they were in the boat, they bowed to him, to say, “You are the son of Elohim!”

Son of Elohim: a special term describing the king of Israel in the line of David. (Psalm 2:7; 1 Chron. 28:6)  They may have been alluding to thIyov 9:8 speaks of YHWH treading on the waves of the sea. Y’shua is again demonstrating what the Father is like. A rabbinic Midrash on Genesis 1:1 says that the reference to “the spirit of Elohim…over the water” alludes to the Messiah, upon whom the Spirit of Elohim would rest. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 11:2)  


34. And they went across the lake and came into the region of Ginnosar.

Ginnosar: At the northwestern corner of the Kinnereth, just below the slopes of the Arbel. Interestingly, at this beach, a boat from the time of Y’shua was found with the hull intact in 1985 when the lake level was unusually low. It has since been preserved and is on display in the museum at Kibbutz Nof Ginnosar (see photo).

35. And when they recognized him, the people from that place sent into that whole land and brought to him any who were in a bad [condition],

36. and they begged him for a favor—that they could touch the lip of his cloak, and all of them who touched [it] were delivered.

Lip (s’fat): Shem-Tov, wing (kanaf), the place Numbers 15 tells us to place the blue fringe (tzitzit). Delivered: Shem-Tov, healed. They were basing their hope on the prophecy in Mal’akhi 4:2 that the “sun of righteousness” would have “healing in his wings”.


CHAPTER 15

1. Then the sages and P’rushim came to Yeshua and said to him,

2. “Why do your students transgress the primary enactments [in] that they neglect to wash their hands before eating?”

Enactments: or reforms, commonly accepted as valid in rabbinical circles, but which actually alter the Torah.

3. But Yeshua said to them, “And why do you transgress the words of the El for the sake of your enactments?

4. “[For example,] that the El said, ‘Give weight to your father and mother”, and, “Whoever strikes his father or mother must certainly be put to death.’

The references are to Exodus 20:12 and 21:15, and are exact quotes.

5. “Yet you say that whatever a person says to his father or mother in regard to any [generous] donation he might have given to them is [instead] an offering, and that this suffices as an excuse!

Suffices as an excuse: literally, covers your eyes, an idiom used in Gen. 20:16 as a contribution that will appease someone who would otherwise be angered by an action; i.e., something that enables them to overlook what would in any other circumstance be an offense.

6. “Thus he does not give weight to his father and mother, and you degrade the word of the El through your enactments!

Give weight: or honor, but the emphasis is on choosing to do something else with something for which they should be given priority, and here it is given a religious cloak. They wanted recognition for having made a large donation out of their excess, but the problem was, they did not have sufficient excess to both care for those they were responsible for and also be such a generous donor, and they chose the recognition over giving back those who had given so much to them. Degrade: or scorn, despise—the opposite of honoring or giving weight to.

7. “Woe [to you], impostors! Indeed, Yeshayahu prophesied of you when he said,

Impostors: or hypocrites, pretending to be both religious and generous, and teachers as well, yet cutting corners and putting emphasis in the wrong places, all the while thinking they are expounding on YHWH’s Torah, when in fact they are cancelling it out.

8. “‘Thus says YHWH, “on account of the fact that this people has come close to Me with their mouth and honored Me with their lips, but have removed their heart far away from Me, 

They are keeping many rules and adding even more, yet missing the point—that the commandments are given to make it possible for us to come closer to YHWH and to one another.

9. “‘“and their respect for Me, which is taught, [turns out to be] the commandments of mortal men.”’

Greek, “Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. I.e., they put men’s interpretations on the same level as (or even above) the actual Torah of YHWH. The Greek version changed the quote somewhat, but Shem-Tov’s version of Matthew preserves the quote from Yeshayahu 29:13 exactly, indicating that the Hebrew version of Matithyahu is not a translation back from the Greek, but predated it. (Gordon)


10. Then Yeshua called to the crowds and told them, “Listen and discern:

11. “What enters through the mouth does not make the man dirty, but rather what comes out of the mouth makes the man dirty.”

12. Then his students came close to him and said to him, “Be aware that the P’rushim were confused by this [thing you] said.”

Confused: or perplexed; Greek, offended (scandalized).

13. Yeshua answered them, “Every plant that my Father who is in the Heavens has not planted will be destroyed.

Destroyed: Greek, uprooted.

​14. “Leave them alone, as blind people directing blind people, and if a blind [man] leads another blind [man], both of them will fall into a pit.”

15. Kefa answered him, “My master, explain its point to us!”

Explain: in Hebrew, from the same root as the P’rushim—to exegete, spread open, give commentary.

16. Yeshua answered them, “Are you still without knowledge?

17. “Don’t you understand that anything that enters through the mouth goes into the belly and then it all goes through the natural place?

Natural place: the term is related to the modern Hebrew word for rectum. Greek, is thrown out through the wastebowl.

18. “But what comes out of the mouth is motivated by the heart, and that is what makes the person dirty;

19. “by way of the mouth defiled by the heart proceed the deceitfulness, the murder, the adulteries, the robberies, and lying witnesses as well as curses. 

Murder and adultery (or prostitution) can be verbal as well, as victims of “character assassination” know well.

20. “And all of these are the things that make a man dirty. [But] truly, eating without washing hands does not make the man dirty.


21. Then Y’shua left that place and withdrew into the area of Tzur and Tizdon.

This is the area known to the Greeks as Phoenicia. It is in present-day Lebanon.

22. And there came a woman out of the same region and shouted out to him saying, “Have compassion on me, master, Son of David! My daughter is miserably demon-possessed!”

23. But he answered her not a word. Then his disciples approached him and begged him, saying, “Send her away, since she is calling out after us so loudly!”

24. And he answered and said, “I am not sent except to the lost flock of the House of Israel.”

He did not answer her, but was telling them that he intended to ignore her, because she was not someone over whom he had any jurisdiction yet. Though she knew who he was, he would not even acknowledge that she existed, even to the point of sending her away! Lost flock: This is a direct allusion to Yirmeyahu 50:6. The House of Israel is not the Jews as such, but is a special title for the Northern Kingdom of Israel, especially after the kingdom divided. If anyone hears the shepherd’s voice (Yoch. 10:16, 27), he is by definition part of this flock, and is expected to live as part of the people of Israel. Sometimes the term includes the Jews as well, but here he is speaking to someone who is not part of either of these groups.  

25. But she came and bowed down to him, saying, “Sir, help me!”

26. So he responded by saying, “It is not appropriate to take away the children’s bread away and throw it to puppies!”

The Messiah insulted someone so severely simply because she was a Gentile, and maybe especially because she was a Kanaanite, from a people who were supposed to have been annihilated by Israel over a thousand years before. .  

27. So she said, “For sure, master, but even the puppies eat from the crumbs that fall from their master’s table!”

Yeshayahu 49:6 suggests that while raising up Yaaqov’s tribes and restoring those of Israel that are preserved was his top priority, Yeshua’s influence would extend further than this. Their master’s table: She yielded to the fact that being a dog at his table was better than being a queen anywhere else. Unlike the kings in Psalm 2, she did not desire to break the king of Israel’s bond over her. She was not there just to ask a favor, then spit on it. She proved she would submit to his authority, and that she is a student worth teaching. This is what turned the conversation in a different direction:

28. Then Y’shua answered and said, “[Wow], lady! Your confidence is massive! Let it be for you just as you wish!” And her daughter was cured starting at that very hour.


29. When Yeshua moved on from there, he walked across the Galil to a mountain. As he stood there,

30. he saw many people—many expecting [him], [who were] lame, afflicted, crippled, and many others, and they fell at his feet, and he healed them.

Crippled: literally, limping, related to the word for Passover (“skipping”).

31. The people were amazed at how the mute started speaking and how the crippled were walking

32. Then Yeshua told his students, “I have compassion on account of their having remained with me these two days since we came across, and they don’t have anything to eat, and I don’t want to send them away while they are fasting, so that tthey don’t faint on the way.”

33. But his students answered him, “Where will we be able to find bread in this uninhabited [place] to satisfy them [all]?”

34. Yeshua answered and said to them, “How many loaves of bread do you have?” And they answered him, “Seven, and a few [small] fish.”

35. So Yeshua ordered the people to sit down on the grass.

36. He took the seven [round] loaves and broke them up, and gave them to his students, and they gave them to the people,

37. and all of them ate and were satisfied, and there were seven se’im left over.

While this in itself would seem enough of a miracle, its full significance does not come out until the next chapter.

38. And the ones who were eating numbered 4,000 men, besides the women and children.

39. After this Yeshua got into a boat and came to the region belonging to the Tzidonians.

Tzidon: outside the area inhabited by Jews, in Phoenicia or present-day Lebanon. Greek, the borders of Magdala (the fishermen’s tower, on the western shore of the Kinnereth north Tiberias).


CHAPTER 16

1. The sages and P’rushim came to him, testing him, [asking him] to teach them some sign from the heavens.

2. Yeshua answered them, “Impostors! In the evening, you say, ‘Tomorrow will be a clear day, because the sky is red.’

Sky: the same word as “heavens” in Hebrew, and although they meant something else by it, he took them at their word and gave them an object lesson about the sky that any simpleton in any land could understand.

3. “Then in the morning you say, ‘Today it will rain, because the skies are darkening.’ If you thus know how to discern the appearance of the skies, [why] can’t you also discern the times?

The times: They were expected to know, from Dani’el’s prophecy (Dan. 9:25), the day of their “visitation”. (Luke 19:44)

4. The seed of evildoers ask for a sign, but a sign will not be given to them, except the sign of Yonah the prophet.” Then he was separated [from them] and went away.

This sign was already explained in 12:39-40.


5. When Yeshua came to the shore of the sea, he told his disciples that they should prepare bread. Then he entered into a boat with his disciples, but his disciples forgot and did not bring any supply of bread. 

6. Then Yeshua said to them, “Watch out and be attentive to the leaven of the P’rushim and the Tzadoqim.

The parallel passages in Markos 8:15 and Lukas 12:21 do not include the Tzadoqim, possibly because, according to Josephus, the Tzadoqim generally rejected the Pharisaical additions to the written Torah, or at least did not consider them obligatory. (Antiquities of the Jews 13:10:6)

7. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “(Is it) because we brought no bread?”

8. But Yeshua told them, “You have little understanding, any who are thinking that you have no bread,

Du Tillet, “What are you thinking, O you of little faith? That it is because we have brought no bread?”

9. “and is there none of you remembering from the five loaves [for the 5,000 men, and how many baskets you took up,

10. nor the seven loaves for the] 4,000 men and how many se’im were left over?

How many: See note on v. 12.

11. “How is it that you did not recognize that I was not talking to you about natural loaves [when I said to] ‘be attentive to the leaven of the P’rushim and the Tzadoqim’?”

Bread: Mark 8:15 clarifies which Tzadoqim he was referring to: the Herodians, called thus by their enemies; they called themselves the Boethusians. From the time of Herod, the Boethusian Sadducees were the dominant faction among the Tzadoqim. Josephus describes how they rose to power when the evil king Herod appointed Simon of the House of Boethus as High Priest in place of the legitimate heir to the high priesthood (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15:9:3) They were the only Tzadoqim known to not believe in the resurrection. (22:23)  Leaven: The extant text of the Shem-Tov Hebrew version is shorter, leaving out the redundancy of verse 12, but specifying that he meant the “behavior” of the P’rushim and Tzadoqim.

12. Then they understood that he had not been speaking to them of the leaven of bread, but of what the P’rushim and Tzadoqim taught.

The difference in the two miracles (in chapters 14 and 15) was that the second time more loaves fed fewer people. The specific numbers are also important. Five loaves fed more people and there were 12 baskets left over. But seven loaves—probably leavened ones, and at least puffed up in number compared to the five--fed 1,000 less people, and the remnants fell short by five basketfuls. 1,000 is the number of years of the Messianic Kingdom, and 4,000 is the number of years from Avraham until it begins. What they taught: often “adding to YHWH’s words” (Deut. 12:32), therefore making it look more substantial, like leavened bread, without having any more actual “nutrients” in it. “Judaism” as defined by the P’rushim might be enough to carry people through 4,000 years, but not through the Kingdom as well. And their ways of interpreting the Torah, though they added the Mishnah (meaning “second” or “repetition”)  and the Gemara (the two making up the Talmud), did not leave enough for all twelve tribes, as Y’shua’s way of interpreting the five books of the Torah without adding anything to it. (Deut. 4:2) The Boethusians (see note on v. 11) were a unique sect of the Tzadoqim in that they denied the reality of the resurrection—the only topic on which Y’shua corrected the Tzadoqim, while he had many scathing words toward the P’rushim. (Nehemia Gordon) In general, the Tzadoqim (the high priests during Second Temple times who traced their lineage to Tzadoq, the high priest under David as per 1 Kings 1:39) were in agreement with Y’shua’s rejection of the P’rushim’s imposing of extra-Scriptural observances as obligatory. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13.10.6) YHWH had spoken very highly of "the Levitical priests, Sons of Tzadoq, who guarded what I wanted guarded in My sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from me." (Y’hezq’el 44:15) In many ways the Karaite Jews of today are successors to the Tzadoqim as the prevalent Rabbinic stream of Judaism is successor to the P’rushim.  

13. When Y’shua came to the region of Caesarea Filippi, he inquired of his disciples, "Who are people saying that I am?"

Caesarea Philippi: called Banyas today (the Arabic pronunciation for Paneas, the shrine of the Roman idol Pan which was there), it was named for Caesar but had to be distinguished from Herodus’ coastal capital of Judea (Casesarea Maritima), so its builder, Herodus’ son Filippos, added a reference to himself. It is in the Golan Heights near a beautiful waterfall, and has a magnificent view of the often-snowcapped Mt. Chermon.

14. And they said, "Some say 'Yochanan the Immerser', and others, 'Eliyahu', and others, 'Yirmiyahu' or another of the prophets."

15. He said to them, "But what about you? Who do you say I am?"

16. And Shim'on Kefa responded, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living Elohim!"

He is not saying that YHWH was Y’shua’s physical father. He is alluding to Psalm 2, in which YHWH calls the anointed one whom He has set in place as king His son, and demands that the rest of the kings of the earth recognize him as His representative. (Compare Psalm 89 as well.) At that time the anointed—or messiah—was David’s son Shlomoh. The title “Son of Elohim” thus transferred to every descendant of David who was the rightful heir to the throne. Kefa is recognizing that this is who Y’shua is, and also that, in the midst of the many sects who were all vying for the right to interpret Torah (since the rightful rulers had become sold out to Rome), and things were becoming as inefficient as Moshe before Yithro corrected him. They were all becoming malicious toward one another in the process, he has seen that Y’shua’s interpretation of Torah is clear and simple, and that no one has ever been able to beat him in an argument. Y’shua speaks with authority, unlike the “scribes”. His attackers always go away beaten, because he knows the Torah better than anyone else. Therefore on both counts, he has the right to rule on how to interpret it.  

17. And he said, "You are blessed, Shim'on Ben-Yonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but My Father in Heaven did.

18. "And I tell you this, too: You are the one they call 'the Rock', and upon this ashlar I will construct My called-out community, and the gates of the underworld will not prevail against her!

Ashlar: a huge stone used in massive construction projects such as the Temple; the word is related to "rock" but not identical, so is probably referring to the solid, crucial foundational principle he has just expressed, Yeshua's messiahship. The underworld: Greek, Hades. "Gates" is an idiom for those who make the momentous decisions. Gates were built to prevail when a city was under attack, and Yeshua is thus saying his congregation will storm the gates of the underworld, and they will not hold against it. (Compare Ephesians 4:8-10 with 1 Kefa 3:19ff.)  To whom is he referring? The reason Yeshua made such a statement here is that at Caesarea Filippi is a cave from which a subterranean stream, thought to be the River Styx of Greek mythology, would sometimes well up. It was considered one of the gates of the underworld, and there was a temple to the idol Pan there, the ruins of which are still visible. This is the context in which he spoke, and we must take it within that framework. Since Kefa had already alluded to Psalm 2, Yeshua does too: “The rulers of the earth take counsel against YHWH and His anointed”, wanting to break the “chains” with which they have been “bound” with. They would rather do things their own way than submit to Yeshua’s Kingship. YHWH tells them they had better do it his way, or suffer the consequences. Yeshua clarifies:

19. "And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall stand, having already been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having already been loosed in heaven. 

Bind…loose: This is legal terminology: "loosing" is used of divorce, sins forgiven, laws relaxed (5:19), and deliverance (Luk. 13:16; Rev. 1:5); "binding" is used of marriage (1 Kor. 7:29), legal ties (Rom. 7:2), and the service of envoys like Paul (Acts 2:42; 20:22; 2 Tim. 2:24-26); also rabbinic terms used for prohibiting or allowing certain activities (cf. 23:4), interpreting what certain Scriptural commands did or didn't include, or the decision to discipline or forgive, tied here expressly to communicating the Glad News: YHWH's judgment is proclaimed upon those who reject it (Mt. 10:12ff; 13:30; 22:13). (Tyndale) Because the system Moshe had put in place of rulers of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 had broken down completely, except possibly on the household level at this time, and the seated Sanhedrin gave too much consideration to Rome’s will, Yeshua is charging those present with the responsibility to take up this burden until he returns to bring the Kingdom in its fullness. They must restore proper judgment without Rome as a consideration. Bound in heaven: The Talmud says, “Our rabbis have taught: You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established for you, and a light shall shine upon your ways…You have decreed below and the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills your word above.” (Ta’Anit 23a) But Kefa was not being given a blank check; the tense shows something that will already have been completed, and because 18:18 is a parallel, it appears that he is saying of all the disciples that they would simply be handing down verdicts already given in Heaven. But it was indeed Kefa who first opened the doors to Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (8:16), and Gentiles (10:44) to receive the Spirit of the Holy Place, the down-payment of the full manifestation of the Kingdom (2 Kor. 5:5)—the very order foretold by Yeshua in Acts 1:8. When the judges rule, those under their authority are bound to do what they say. When it came time for such a "binding or loosing" decision that affected everyone, all the Envoys made it together, and Yaaqov was the spokesperson, not Kefa (Env. 15), for he was in the position to be king in Yeshua’s absence. But he and Kefa worked together in different roles. What has already been bound in heaven is the plain Torah, and with it we must be strict in our insistence that it not be twisted. When not folded over, the vertical length of the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:16) would be double that of the width. The one-span width is parallel to the earth, but the length runs from the earth to the heavens, where the judgment is “twice as powerful”, and when doubled over, the earthly end and the heavenly end are both upheld by the same golden chains—a picture of the judgment on earth being the same as the judgment in the heavens, which is the very purpose of this garment. (Gibor) Yeshua taught this very thing here. No one can loosen the Torah’s commands, but the “how” may vary in particular situations, times, or communities. If the ruler of a house determines that this is the way to interpret a Torah passage, it is binding on his household. It is no longer to be seen just as something a man told you to do, but the Kingdom expects it of us. Keys: The mistaken notion that this one named Petros in Greek (see note on 4:18) was the first Bishop of Rome resulted from a Roman association of the Pontifex Maximus—sovereign head of the pagan College of Pontiffs—with the power of the key of Janus [the "god of gods and mediator of all prayers, in whom the characters of father and son were mysteriously combined", whose worship in Asia minor Yochanan challenged through the claims in Rev. 3:7] and the key of Cybele, earlier called Cardea ("hinge" or opener), from which the "cardinals" of Rome were derived (Ovid). The former idea was already 1,000 years old in A.D. 378 when the bishop also fell heir to these physical symbols and the civil power that accrued with them in the eyes of the pagan citizens, just as Rome's primacy as seat of the Empire was being lost to Constantinople. It was not until 431 that he ever publicly laid claim to possession of Peter's keys. Peter [Kefa] was never the Bishop of Rome (being rather "the apostle of the circumcision", Gal. 2:7), but there was a "Peter" associated with Rome. The word in primitive Chaldee, the original language of the esoteric Mysteries, for the "interpreter" thereof was pether. Initiates were instructed in the secret doctrines from the Book of "Petroma", that is, of Hermes. In this power maneuver it was made out to be related to "Peter of Roma". (Hislop) The fact that the Hebrew word peter means "that which first opens" may have added to the confusion.  

20. Then he warned his disciples that they should tell nobody that he was Y’shua the Messiah.

The particular Y’shua whose name was identified with the "Branch", a term for the Messiah (Zech. 6:12; Ezra 3:2). 

21. From that time onward, Yeshua began to reveal to his students that it was necessary for him to go to Yerushalayim and to suffer injustice from many—from the priests and the elders of the people—to the extent that they would kill him, but that he would rise up the third day

"The third day" is a phrase associated in the Tanach with revival and salvation (Vermes, cf. Gen. 22:4; 42:18; Ex. 19:16; Yehosh. 2:11; Ezra 8:32; Yonah 2:1; Hos. 6:2).

​22. But Kefa took him aside privately and began to rebuke [him], saying, “Heaven forbid that such things should befall you, O master!”

23. Yeshua turned, looked at him, and said to him, “Go away, adversary! Don’t [try to] straighten out my mouth, because you are not acquainted with the words of the El, but only human words.”

24. Then Yeshua said to his students, “Whoever wants to follow me must despise himself and pick up the crucifixion stake—that is, offer himself to [the point of] death—and come after me.

25. “Anyone who wants to spare his own soul may lose it on account of me, but whoever loses his life in this age for my sake will save his soul for the life of the age to come.

26. “What profit [is there] for a man if he gains the whole world, if he loses his own soul forever? And what good exchange does a man make if, for the sake of the present, spoiled things he gives his soul to the judgment of the Valley of Hinnom?

Exchange: i.e., trade. Present, spoiled things: or disadvantageous; the present world is fallen, less than it should be, due to Adam’s fall, and this compares to spoiled food, in contrast to fresh, perfect fruit. Why would one stake everything, even the life of the age to come, just because he cannot yet see it, when the things he could enjoy then would be so much better? Valley of Hinnom: where garbage was burned because past shrines to Molekh there had made it unfit for nobler uses, and this Yeshua used as a picture of the fire of YHWH’s judgment.

27. “Because the Son of the El will come by the authority of his Father who is in the Heavenlies, along with his messengers, to give back to each man according to his actions.

Actions: or accomplishments, works.

28. “It is confirmed, I tell you, that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Eloah come in his kingdom!”

The next event is undoubtedly related to what he just said:


CHAPTER 17

1. After six days Yeshua took Kefa, Yaakov, and his brother Yochanan with him up into a high mountain [here they could be]by themselves.

After six days: An allusion to Yeshua's visible glorification after six 1,000-year "days" (see note on Yoch. 2:1).

2. And he underwent a metamorphosis in front of them in which his face shone like the sun and his clothing became as white as the light.

Like the sun: He is called Sun of Righteousness in Mal. 4:2; juxtaposed with his title, Bridegroom (Ps. 19:4,5). 

3. And, lo and behold, Moshe and Eliyahu appeared to them, talking with him.

This represented the fact that Yeshua was conversant in and compatible with the Torah and the prophets. Moshe was not allowed to see YHWH's face (Ex. 33:23), so no one has seen YHWH; Yeshua is the one who has revealed him (Yoch. 1:18; 14:9; 2 Kor. 4:6; Kol. 1:15), having, possibly through the extremely difficulty choice made in the previous chapter, reclaimed the image of YHWH that Adam lost, which WAS , and now Moshe, whose own face had shone after simply being in YHWH’s presence, “saw” Him to the only extent anyone ever could, through this manifestation that went beyond most in this age—probably a vision or “time warp” that took them into the age to come for a moment.

4. And Kefa responded by saying to Yeshua, "Master, it's good we're here! If You wish, let's make three sukkoth right here, one for You, one for Moshe, and one for Eliyahu!

This appears to have taken place during the feast of Sukkoth, when such temporary shelters were built.

5. While he was still speaking, behold! a radiant cloud overshadowed them. And they heard a voice coming out of the cloud, saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I delight; listen to him!”

Such a cloud also overshadowed Moshe in the tabernacle (Ex. 33:9). Eliyahu had an experience with a cloud too (1 Kings 18:44), and they were both present. Based on their being east of the Yarden at this time, they may have been on the same mountain where both Moshe and Eliyahu went to “heaven” (see note on 2 Kings 2:8). YHWH thus revealed (in front of Moshe too, no less) that Yeshua was the prophet Moshe had said everyone had better listen to (Deut. 18:15).

6. And, hearing it, the disciples fell on their faces and were extremely terrified.

7. But then e’shua came over, touched them, and said, "Don't be afraid."

8. And, looking up, they saw no one except Yeshua alone.

Though Moshe and Eliyahu had set the stage for him well, they were still just supporting cast for Yeshua; he is the one they were to focus on at this time.


9. And as they were coming down the mountain, Yeshua gave them strict orders, saying, "Don't tell anyone about this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the Dead."

If the religious leaders heard of this, they might believe, and thus short-circuit YHWH's plan to include the northern Kingdom’s redemption.

10. And his disciples asked him, "Why then do the scribes say that it's necessary that Eliyahu come first?"

This alludes to Malachi 4:5-6.

11. And Yeshua responded by telling them, "Eliyahu is indeed coming first, and will restore all things.

12. "But I'll tell you, Eliyahu has already come, and they didn't even recognize him, but did with him whatever they felt like doing. And the Son of Man is about to suffer in the same way by their hands."

13. Then the disciples understood that he was talking (to them) about Yochanan the Immerser.

This is borne out in Luke 1:17, who came in the “spirit and authority” (i.e., the same “office”) of Eliyahu.


14. And as they were coming back toward the crowd, a man approached him, bowing on his knees [in subjection],

Bowing: DuTillet Hebrew adds “in front of him”.

15. and said, “My master, show me favor and pity my son, because he is terrorized by an evil spirit. He is very sick and he grinds his teeth, [foams] at the mouth, and falls from his place to the ground, and sometimes he falls into a fire or sometimes into water.

Aramaic: my son is an epileptic (“he has a demon of moon sickness”) and has become worse. DuTillet and the Aramaic leave out from “because” to “ground”, leaving a much shorter verse. Sometimes: DuTillet, often.

16. “And I brought him to your students, but they were unable to heal him.”

17. And Yeshua answered and said, “Evil generation! Woe to you who are unbelievers! How long must I be with you, and how long must I bear your trouble? Bring him to me.”

Evil: DuTillet, stubborn; Greek, perverse. Unbelievers: DuTillet, crooked. Trouble: or wearisomeness; Greek: how long must I put up with you?

18. And Yeshua rebuked it and the demon went out form him, and the lad was healed from that time [on].

Markos 9:20-28 appears in Shem-Tov’s compilation at this point, suggesting that this was originally part of Matithyahu but was only preserved in the Greek version of Markos, but not Matithyahu.

19. Then the students approached Yeshua privately and said to him, “Why weren’t we able to get it [to come] out?”

Get it out: Aramaic, heal him.

20. And he said to them, “For the scantiness of your confidence. [This] is trustworthy, I tell you: If there is within you any confidence like a grain of mustard, if you speak to this mountain, saying, ‘Depart!’, then it will depart, and nothing will be restrained from you!

Scantiness: or limitation. This verse is left out of Markos’ version. Grain of mustard: a very tiny seed. This mountain: possibly a reference to Mt. Sinai, when it was held over the heads of the entire congregation of Israel as a threat as well as a wedding canopy, suggesting that the threatening parts of the Torah will no longer be so when we trust YHWH and proceed with obedience despite the apparent obstacles. (Good) Another angle is that Torah scholars in Yeshua’s day were known as “mountains”, but their strictures could become oppressive at times. (Ben Mordechai) But the context here is huge enemies, much like the giants the spies encountered in the Land that was now rightfully theirs, so the ones who now feared them no longer had authority over it, and were to be “cast into the sea” (as Pharaoh and his horsemen, our former oppressors, were; compare 21:21 with Ex. 15:4). Restrained from: Greek, impossible for.

21. “But this is a different kind of the demons, which does not come out except by prayer and fasting.”

He took them “off the hook” in a way by this statement, saying this was one of the more difficult cases


22. They were in the Galil when Yeshua said to them, “The Son of Adam is being handed over to the sons of men, 

23. “and they will kill him, but he will rise up [on] the third day.”



24. They came to Kfar Nahum on the lake, and the tax collectors approached Kefa and said to them, “It is not your rabbi’s practice to pay the tax.”

Tax: or quota, tribute, custom. In this case, it appears they were speaking of the half-sheqel Temple tax which the Torah specifies is to be collected from soldiers (Ex. 30:13; 38:26 et al), but which had been extended and come to be expected of many more or all of the people.

25. So they said. When they went into the house, Yeshua beat him [to the point], saying to Kefa, “How does it appear to you, Kefa? Kings of [the] earth: from whom do they collect tribute? From their own sons or from foreigners?”

26. And he answered him, “From the foreigners!” Yeshua told him, “If so, the sons are free.” But he said [to them all], “Don’t be alarmed by this.”

Free: i.e., exempt. Was he hinting that the price of another kind which he was going to pay would not only cover this, but relegate the tax in the Temple to come to only those foreigners who would come to Israel to use the “House of Prayer for All Peoples”? (e.g., Yeshayahu 2:3; 56:7) Don’t be alarmed: Greek, “Nevertheless, lest we offend them.” "Them all" apparently included the tax collectors.

27. Then he told Kefa, “Go to the lake and cast a hook, and in the mouth of the first fish you catch you will find a silver coin. Donate that for our sake.” 

So it was a win-win situation; Kefa would not lose anything and their accusers would be satisfied.


CHAPTER 18

1. At that time the students approached Yeshua and said to him, “Whom do you think is great in the Kingdom of the Heavens?”

Great: Greek, greatest. Markos’ account says he embarrassed them by asking them what they were discussing when they had been fighting over which of them was the greatest. (Markos 9:33ff)

2. He called a small lad and placed him in their midst.

3. He said, “If you do not reverse direction to become like this lad, you will not enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.

4.  “And anyone who lowers himself like this young lad, he will become great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

5.  “Whoever receives one lad like this in my name receives [me].

The “me” is overt in Greek and Aramaic.

6. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who trust in me to stumble, it would be appropriate for him that a millstone be attached to his neck and he be dangled into the depths of the sea!

There is an allusion here to Mikha 7:19, where we are told that YHWH will throw our sins into the depths of the sea.  . If someone does not separate himself from his sins, he will end up in the same place as they.

7. “Woe to the inhabitants of the world because of stumblingblocks. (It is necessary that stumblingblocks must come, but woe to the man in whose trail they come!)

World: the ShemTov uses the term for “universe”, whereas duTillet uses the form for “habitable earth”. Stumblingblocks: Shem-Tov has “confusions/perplexities”, i.e., things that cause little children to be misled. Trail: or wake, as with ships,

8. “If [even] your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you, because it is better to enter into life weak or limping than to be thrown into ages-long fire [while] having two hands or two feet!

9. “And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away from yourself, because it is better to enter into life having one eye than to have two eyes but be given over to the [fire of the] Valley of Hinnom.

Yeshua uses strong exaggerations to get the point across that we often need to sacrifice normalcy of one kind or another to fight the “evil eye” (an idiom for greed or stinginess) or evil inclination in any form, knowing that one day whatever is really necessary will be restored to us, rather than salvaging all we can of our natural advantages but making compromises that damage ourselves or others morally. The Valley of Hinnom: to the south and west of Yerushalayim, made into a garbage dump because past idolatry there of the most heinous sort (2 Kings 23:10) had made it unworthy of nobler use.

10. “Be careful not to scorn [even] one of the least significant of these [little ones], because I tell you, their messengers are always beholding the face of my Father who is in Heaven.

Their messenegrs: possibly those charged with giving special care to those who are at a disadvantage. The face of: Shem-Tov has “the sons of”.  

11. “because the Son of Adam [is here] to rescue what was lost.

This is a direct allusioin to Y’hezq”el (Ezekiel) 34:4, 16.  Shem-Tov: Because the son of Adam has stopped/cancelled/abolished saving the enemies.

12. “How does it appear to you? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them gets lost, won’t he leave the [other] 99 in the uninhabited land and go search for the one that is lost?

Gets lost: Shem-Tov, runs off. Uninhabioted lands: Shem-Tov has “mountains”.

13. “And if he finds it, I tell you, for sure he will be more glad about it than about the 99 that did not go astray!

14. “Likewise, it is not the desire of your Father in Heaven that one of the least these should be lost.”


15. At that time Yeshua said to Shim’on, who was called “Stone”, “If your brother sins against you, reprove him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

DuTillet’s version of Hebrew does not include the introductory phrase. Gained: Shem-Tov, won over or bought.

16. “If he does not listen to you, reprove him in the presence of another. If with all of this he does not listen to you, add still one or two so there will be two or three witnesses present, so that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter will be established.’

Another: duTillet has “one witness”. Only one Hebrew letter distinguishes “one” from “another” and “witness” from “yet (more)”. He quotes from Deut. 19:15.  

17. “And if with all of these things he does not listen, report it to the assembly, and if he refuses to listen to the assembly, consider him to be like a Gentile or a master transgressor.

Assembly: specifically those in Israel who are eligible to have their opinion counted toward a decision. Gentile or master transgressor: Shem-Tov, ostracized/excommunicated, an enemy, and cruel/pernicious.

18. “For sure, I tell you, anything that you bind on earth, it is bound in Heaven, and everything you loose on earth is loosed in Heaven.

Anything: Shem-tov has “any oath”—i.e., declare that oath binding. Bound: Greek, having been bound—i.e., the burden is on us to determine what has already been bound by Heaven. How do we determine this? By detailed study of the Torah, which tells us what YHWH has already forbidden or permitted. Of course, we must apply it to details, searching for precedents and analogies in Scripture wherever they can be found “Bind” is a Semitic idiom meaning to prohibit or forbid. “Loose” is an idiom for the converse, allowing or permitting.

19. “Furthermore, I also tell you, if two of you come into agreement on earth about any matter about which you ask, it will be [done] for them by my Father who is in Heaven,

Come into agreement: du Tillet; Shem-Tov has, wish to make peace. It will be done: or, it will be yours.

20. “because in every place in which two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.

Gathered together: or joined as friends (Shem-Tov). In my name: i.e., for his purposes as stated explessly by him, for we are acting as his envoys.  


21. Then Kefa came near him and said, “My master, if my brother sins against me, should I forgive him [up to] seven times?”

Came near: Shem-Tov and Munster; duTillet has “called” (different by one letter). DuTillet has, “How many times can my brother sin against me and I forgive him?”

22. But Yeshua said to him, “I don’t tell you ‘up to seven times’, but ‘up to seventy times seven’!”

Shem-Tov has “seventy-seven times”, but Yeshua has Scriptural authority for 490. This is not just some random number he picked, for it was this many years YHWH waited before requiring the 70 missed shmittah (seventh) years (in which the Land is to rest) of Yehudah, sending them into a 70-year exile in Bavel. (Yirm./Jer. 25:11-12; Lev. 26:34) It also seems that YHWH allowed 490 years from the time Avram entered the Land of Kanaan before the “iniquity of the Emorites was filled up” (Gen. 15:16) and He allowed Y’hoshua to conquer them.


23. At that time Yeshua said to his students, “The Kingdom of Heaven is comparable to a man—a king—who sat down to make a reckoning with his servants and ministers.

Again, duTillet does not have the introductory phrase. A king: Many rabbinic parables use the analogy of a king. Sat down: in judgment.  

24. “And as he began the accounting, one approached him who owed him about a hundred thousand gold pieces.

100,000 gold pieces: Shem-Tov; duTillet has “10,000 minas”.

25. “But he had nothing to give, and his master ordered that he, his children, and everything he owned be sold until the full value of what he owed him should be repaid.

DuTillet adds “his wife” to the list. Value: Hebrew, Mammon. (Shem-Tov) 

26. “Then the servant fell down before his master and begged him to have mercy on him and to be patient, and he would repay everything.

Be patient: or, give him time.

27. “And his master had pity on him and forgave him all [that he owed].

28. “But that servant went out and found one of his friends who owed him a hundred pieces of small change, and he grabbed him and hit him, saying, ‘Pay me back what you owe me! Give it to me!’

29. “And that servant knelt down and begged him for favor, saying, ‘Be patient, and I will repay everything!’

Be patient: Shem-Tov alsso adds, “Trust me.”

30. “But he was not willing to listen to him, and he brought him to the prison until he should settle everything with him.

31. “But the [king’s other] servants saw what he had done, and it made them very angry, so they went and reported it to their master.

32. “Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘Cursed servant! Didn’t I forgive you your whole debt when you placated me?

Cursed: Shem-Tov; duTillet has “worthless”.

33. “‘So then why didn’t you forgive your own servant when he begged you for favor, as I forgave you?’

Servant: though he was a friend (v. 28), “the borrower is a slave to the lender”.

34. “His master was furious with him and ordered that he be afflicted until he should repay him the whole debt.

35. “My Father who is in Heaven will do the same to you if you do not each forgive his brother his trespasses from your hearts.

From your hearts: Shem-Tov, “with a whole heart”, “whole” being a play on the word “repay” above, which is from the same root.


CHAPTER 19

1. Now when Y’shua had finished these sayings, he crossed over from the Galil and came to the boundaries of the land of Yehudah on the other side of the Yarden,

Boundaries: borders, limits, outskirts. Land of Yehudah: the tribal territory of Yehudah, which did not include the Galil, though it was mainly Jews who lived in the latter as well.

2. and large companies walked after him, and he healed them all.

3. And the P’rushim came forward toward him to incite him. They asked him a question, saying, “Is it profitable [for someone] to leave his wife at the setting forth of a matter and to give her a certificate of divorce?”

Incite: urge on or entice. Their question was based on a common interpretation of Deut. 24:1 that took “finds no favor in his eyes” as extending to one’s personal preferences rather than only to something improper of indecent by the definitions set forth by Torah. In other words, someone could use the fact that she burned his dinner as an excuse to divorce her.

4. And he replied to them, “Haven’t you read that the One who made them from antiquity created them male and female?

5. “and he said, ‘For this reason a man must leave his father and his mother and stick to his wife, and they will become one flesh.’ [Gen. 2:24]

6. “Thus they are not two of them, but rather ‘one flesh’, and whatever the Creator has joined together, there is not a human being who can separate.” 

Joined together: bound or combined, connected, brought into alliance. This all the more behooves us to be sure the one we wish to marry is really His choice, and not just for the sake of our lust, for this will wear out as soon as the two of you come to be at odds, as we see so commonly today.

7. But they said to him, “If so, why did Moshe command [him] to give her a certificate of ‘severance and send her out from his house’ [Deut. 24:1]?”

8. So he said to them, “Moshe said for you to leave your wives because of the perversity of mouth of your hearts, but from antiquity it was not like this.

Perversity: or possibly, hardness of heart. This would be those unwilling to find favor in their spouses (Deut. 24:1), which literally in Hebrew means they will not bend over backwards for them. From antiquity: Y’shua invokes a more ancient law, which preceded the Torah and was never nullified. Y’shua therefore takes away their loophole. Like this: i.e., there was no hardness of heart at the beginning; YHWH intended mercy toward one another to be the norm in marriage. This fits well with the picture of Israel returning to her “first husband” (Hoshea 2:10)—the one she had “from antiquity”—after whoring around with so many idols.

9. “I tell you that anyone who abandons his wife and takes another, if not in the way of adultery, he commits adultery, and the one who takes the divorced woman commits adultery.”

And takes another: can denote “in order to take another”. Adultery: The term is also used figuratively of idolatry, so this would allow for divorce in the case one spouse wants to follow YHWH more closely and the other does not. (1 Cor. 7:15-16) The divorced woman: may refer to this same abandoned wife.

10. Then his disciples said to him, “If this is how the matter of a man with his woman is, it is best not to take her!”

11. He told them, “This word is not for everyone. It is for those to whom it has been given,

12. “as there are [those who are] eunuchs since their birth; these are the ones who have not sinned. There are also self-made eunuchs who suppress their inclination on the path of the Kingdom of the Kingdom of the Heavens; these are those who are training for a high degree of greatness. Whoever is able to discern, let him discern.”

Training for a high degree of greatness: or, wise in rising to greatness, wise in the thought of majesty. Since it is against Torah to accept into the congregation of Israel one who has cut off his organ of procreation (Deut. 23:1), he must be referring to temporary delays in marrying in order to prioritize Kingdom matters. 1 Cor. 7:5 gives one example of this even within an already-established marriage. Suppressing one’s inclination would include waiting for the one that YHWH has created for him since the beginning. (v. 8) If we are going by our own criteria of what we will accept in a spouse, do not get married, because such an attitude will only bring trouble and the marriage will be under severe strain nearly from the first.


13. Then some young children were brought to him, in order that he would lay his hands on them and offer prayers, but the disciples sharply reproved them.

14. But Y’shua said, “Let little children come to me, and don’t deny them, because the Kingdom of the heavens is [made up] of such as these.”

Deny: withhold, forbid, prevent, or hinder. Such as these: trusting, guileless individuals.

15. And he laid his hands on them, then was transported [away] from there.


16. Then someone approached him and said to him, “Excellent Master, what distinguished thing must I do in order that I may possess eternal life?”  

Approached: Shem-Tov, came bowing before him. Distinguished: or useful, salutary, upright, honorable; the same term as “excellent” here. Master: Heb. texts, rabbi.  

17. But he said to him, “Why do you call me ‘excellent’? There isn’t but one who is excellent—YHWH! But if you want to enter into [the] life [of the age to come], keep the commandments [of Elohim].”

Heb., Why do you ask about excellence (or distinguished things)? No man is excellent; El is the one who is excellent. Want to: have in mind, intend to.  

18. He said to him, “Which ones?” And Y’shua [answer and] said, “‘You will not murder’, ‘You will not commit adultery’, ‘You will not steal’, ‘You will not bear false testimony against your fellow [as an] injurious witness’,

19. “‘Honor your father and your mother’, and ‘Be as committed to your fellow as you are to yourself.’”

Notice that all the types of commands he mentions are toward our fellow human being, not toward YHWH. If we are not loving our neighbor as ourselves, we cannot dare to think we are pleasing YHWH.

20. The young man said to him, “I have observed these since my youth; what do I still lack?”

Lack: or fall short in.

21. So Y’shua said to him, “If you intend to be complete, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have [a great store of] treasure in the heavens, and come, follow me.”

Complete: perfect, full-grown, mature, consummate in integrity, finished, lacking nothing necessary. I.e., to carry all these commandments through to their fullest intention. He sets the bar for entering the Kingdom very high. The poor: Not in an indiscriminate sense, since many are poor because they waste their resources, especially on demon worship. He is speaking about one’s neighbors—which in Hebrew means “those of the same flock”. There are plenty of needy Israelites around us, and though we should do what is beneficial to all as we can, our highest priority must be YHWH’s community. (Galatians 6:10) Follow me: Y’shua exemplified this principle better than anyone, having not even a pillow to his name. (8:20)

22. But, hearing the word, the young man went away troubled, because he had many [inherited] possessions.

Troubled: pained, sorrowful; Greek, saddened, offended, made uneasy, affected with scruples; Shem-Tov, angry because he did not have many lands.

23. And Y’shua said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth: [only] with great difficulty can a rich man enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.

Shem-Tov: it is heavy for a rich man… His possessions weigh him down, and make him less mobile, less able to move when YHWH says to move, as He did with Avram. Avram used his wealth to support the hundreds of students he had, but was willing to give things up when YHWH asked him to or when it was more advantageous for his brother. (Gen. 13)  

24. “I tell you again, it is easier for a thick rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.”

Thick rope: the same in Aramaic as the word for “camel”, hence the common mistranslation.  

25. And when they had heard [this], his disciples were very astounded, saying, “[Then] who can be rescued?”

26. And turning to look directly at them, Y’shua said, “With men this is nearly impossible, but to Elohim all [such things] are possible.”

Are possible: Shem-tov, are easy. A rope can go through the eye of a needle indeed, but only when it is unraveled strand by strand—the very thing Y’shua was asking this rich man to do with his wealth.

27. Then Kefah answered and said to him, “Look at us! We have abandoned everything and are walking after you, so what will there be for us?”

28. And Y’shua told them, “I tell you the truth—that those of you who have followed after me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Adam sits on the seat of his authority, you also will sit on twelve seats to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

Regeneration: literally, “second or repeated begetting”; Shem-tov, the day of judgment. Yochanan 5:28-29 indeed suggests that the judgment and resurrection occur simultaneously. Seat: or throne. The twelve tribes: This assumes that they will be identified and reassembled as such by that time.

29. “And everyone who has left home or brothers or sisters or [his] father or mother or wife or children or fields on account of my name, he will receive a hundred [like them] and will inherit everlasting life.

Left home or brothers or sisters: This is exactly what Avram did. (Gen. 12, 13) Everlasting: or enduring, victorious; Shem-tov, the kingdom of the heavens.

30. “But many of the first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Those who seek their reward now will not have it then (6:2, 5, 16), and vice versa.


CHAPTER 20

1. After this, Yeshua said to his students, “The Kingdom of Heaven is comparable to a particular individual, master of a household, who went out [early] in the morning to hire laborers [to serve in his vineyard].

The duTillet text lacks the introductory phrase. Early: not in Shem Tov; duTillet has, “at the t’hillah”—possibly meaning at the time of morning (shakharit) prayers. Shem-Tov lacks the last phrase.

2. “And when he had contracted with them for a zuz for the whole day, and sent them out into his vineyard.

Zuz: duTillet, a coin worth between 3 and 4 dollars at modern rates; Shem-Tov has dinar, an Arabic or, here, more probably Aramaic term based on the Greek denarius, which others estimate at $7.50 and which is the basis for the Spanish dinero.  

3. “He went out at the third hour of the day and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

Third hour: counting from sunrise, so this is roughly 9:00 a.m.

4. “And he told them, “You go to my vineyard too, and I will give you what is fair.

Fair: or just; Shem-Tov, suitable/appropriate.

5. “So they went. And he came out again at noon and also at the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

Noon: duTillet has “the sixth hour”. Ninth hour: thus about 3:00 p.m.

6. “And he went out at the eleventh hour and found more standing [there], and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’

7. “They replied to him that no man had hired them. So he told them, ‘You go to my vineyard, too.”

It was no fault of their own, as if they had been wasting their time on foolish pursuits, and only later decided to prioritize work.

8. “As it began to be evening, the owner of the vineyard said to the one appointed over the laborers, ‘Call them, so I can give them their wages.’ So he started with the last and ended with the first.

One appointed: duTillet, the provider of livelihood.

9. “And the very last received one zuz,

DuTillet has the full explanation: “When those who had come at the eleventh hour came, they…”

10. “so the first thought they would receive more, but didn’t give any of them more than one zuz.

DuTillet: “…they, too, each received a zuz.”

11. “Then the first [when they received] grumbled against the owner of the vineyard,

12. “saying, ‘These last ones worked for one hour, but you have put them on a level with us, who bore the burden and the heat of the [whole] day!’

13. “But he answered one of them and said, ‘My brother, I have done you no injustice; didn’t I contract with you for a zuz?

Injustice: duTillet, violence.

14. “‘Take what is yours and go; if I want to give to this last one what [I gave] to you,

15. “‘isn’t it my right to do what I want according to what I see? Or is your eye bad because I am good?’

Is your eye bad: an idiom for stinginess, and in this case, wanting to withhold from someone what he needs. YHWH will have mercy on whomever it pleases Him to have mercy on. (Ex. 33:19)

16. “As [I said], the first will come to be last, and the last, first, because many are called, but few are chosen.”

As I said: in 19:30.


17. When Yeshua was going up to Yerushalayim, he took his twelve students aside privately and told them,

Shem-Tov, as Yeshua got close to Yerushalayim.

18. “Look. We are going up to Yerushalayim, and the Son of Adam will be handed over to the rulers of the priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,

19. “and will deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, removed, and crucified, but on the third day, he will rise up.”

Mocked…crucified: Shem-Tov, they will strike him [down] and put an end (or a stop) to him.  Removed: or scourged (i.e., have his flesh removed).


20. Then the mother of the sons of Zavdi approached him with her sons and bowed to him, to make a request of him.

Mother…: Shem-Tov, the wife of Zavdi-El.  

21. And he said to her, “What would you like?” And she told him, “Give the order that these, my sons, will sit near you, one on your right and the second on your left, in your kingdom.”

22. And Yeshua answered and said, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I will drink, or be immersed in the immersion in which I will be immersed?” And they answered him, “We are able.”

“You” is plural in each of these instances. Shem-Tov: “Are you able to endure the suffering and death that I have yet to undergo?”

23. And he told them, “Drink my cup, indeed [you will] and undergo the immersion that I will undergo, but to sit at my right hand or my left—that is not mine to grant to you, but to the one who is established by my Father.”

24. When the [other] ten heard this, they were angry at the two brothers.

25. So Yeshua called them to himself to say, “Notice how the rulers of the Gentiles govern them—that among them the big ones dominate.

Dominate: or even, domineer—i.e., with force, belittling, and intimidation.

26. “Among you it will not be like that; rather, whoever among you wants to become great must become one who ministers,

27. “and whoever among you wants to be first must become your servant,

28. “just as the Son of Adam did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his soul as a ransom for many.”


                        29.  As they left Y’rikho, a large group followed them.

                        Y’rikho: in the Aravah Valley, where pilgrims walking to                         Yerushalayim from the Galil would typically turn westward to                         ascend the Rift escarpment, the last leg of the journey. Left: Shem-
                        Tov says, “entered” (as in Luk 18:35). But because of the curse on 
                        those who would rebuild Y’rikho (Y’hoshua 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34), yet it                         being a very fertile oasis not likely to be wasted by disuse, there were two 
                        places then identified as Y’rikho—the ancient ruin and, less than two miles southwest of it, the newer city with the same name, built by Herodus as a kind of summer residence (and since Luke, who may have been a convert himself, wrote to a largely Gentile audience, who would more likely consider this the “real” Y’rikho, would be referring to that Y’rikho in his account). As he left one, he would approach the other, so this event apparently took place between the two, and there is no real contradiction. (Eric Lyons, Arthur Custance)   Group: or class, sect, party (duTillet uses the term kitah; Shem-Tov has chavurah, which referred in second Temple times to a group of people registered for a single Passover offering, and who held a Seder together. (Talmud Tractate Pesachim) This makes sense as he was heading toward Yerushalayim about a week before Passover.

30. Then, lo and behold, two blind men came out and sat on the road. They heard [the noise of the crowd and asked what this was and it was told them] that Yeshua was passing by, so they screamed out, “My master, have mercy, Son of David!” 

Son of David: specifically used as a term for the Messiah.

​31. But the group scolded them, telling them to be quiet, but they screamed out [all the] more, saying, “My master, have mercy, Son of David!”

32. So Yeshua stopped and called out to them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

33. And they told him, “Master, that our eyes be opened!”

They must have been surprised that he apparently could not recognize their obvious problem, but he wanted their request to be specific.

34. So Yeshua showed them favor and touched their eyes, and right away they could see, and they followed him. [And all the people thanked El on account of this.]

The last phrase is in Shem-Tov’s version but not duTillet’s.


                                                                     CHAPTER 21

                                                                     1.  As they neared Yerushalayim, they
                                                                          came to Beyth Pa'agey, belonging to
                                                                          the Mount of Olives, and Yeshua sent 
                                                                          away two of his students

                                                                    2. and told them, “Go to the enclosure that                                                                     is in front of you and right away you will                                                                     find a female donkey tied, and a foal with                                                                     her; untie them and bring them to me.

                                                                   3 . “And if a man says anything to you, tell                                                                     him that the Master has need of them, and                                                                     he will let [the matter] rest right away.”

4. Now this was to establish what was spoken by the prophet who said, 

5. “Say to the daughter of Tzion, ‘Look! Your King will come to you, …humble and mounted on a donkey and …the son of [dependable] female donkeys.”

This is from Z’kharyah 9:9. Shem-Tov includes the intervening phrase, “righteous and being delivered”, which duTillet leaves out. Contrasting this with the apparent contradiction in Dani’el 7:13-14, the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud surmised, “If they are meritorious, [he will come] wit the clouds of heaven; if not, lowly and riding upon a donkey.” (Sanhedrin 98a) Mat. 23:37 and the parallel passage to this context in Luke 19:41-44, together with this allusion, would seem to bear this out. This was his first coming; the later coming will be “without reference to sin”. (Heb. 9:28) Daughter of Tzion: an idiom for the villages surrounding (and thus dependent on) Yerushalayim; Beyth Pa’agey was one of these.  

6. Then the students went and did as Yeshua ordered them:

7. they brought the donkey and foal near, put their garments on them, and mounted him above them.

Garments: Shem-Tov uses two different words than duTillet, meaning “gear and clothing”.

8. and many from the group spread their garments on the road and cut branches from the trees and carpeted the pathway.

Only Yochanan’s account (12:13) specifies “palm trees”. This kind of branch would recall the festival of Sukkoth, when the palm lulav is waved. Sukkoth is, among other things, a prefigurement of the Messianic Kingdom, so they were more than hinting that its time had come. Carpeted: per Trimm; alt., spread them on. Shem-Tov has, “cast them in front of and behind him.”

9. And the groups who went on ahead of him, as well as those behind him, called out saying, “’Hoshia-nah’ to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is he who comes in the Name of YHWH!  Hoshia-nah’ in the highest [ways]!”

Hoshia-nah: Another allusion to Sukkoth, whose final day is called “Hoshanah Rabbah”—the “Great ‘Deliver, Please!’” They were applying Psalm 118:25-26 to call upon Yeshua to take advantage of their willingness to back him in extricating Israel from the Roman occupation and inaugurate his Kingdom.


10. As he came into Yerushalayim, the whole city was in a commotion, saying, “Who is this?”

In a commotion: or quaking; Trimm has “seething”.

11. And the people[s] were saying, “This is Yeshua, the prophet from Natzereth in the Galil!”

​12. Then Yeshua came to the House of YHWH and sent out all the merchants and buyers who had been in the Temple, and threw down the tables of the vendors, and overturned the seats of those who sold doves.

House of YHWH: pre Shem-Tov; duTillet has “Temple of Elohim”. Threw down: a play on the similar word for “tables”. Vendors: The Greek has “moneychangers”—considered necessary because only Hebrew currency was accepted in the Temple, whereas people would be sometimes be using Roman coinage outside. (22:19)

13. And he told them, “It is written, ‘…for My House shall be called a House of Prayer…’, but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

He alludes here to both Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 56:7 and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 7:11. Those familiar with the prophets would immediately recognize the references. Den: literally, cave. Robbers: literally, those who violently break in.


14. Then the blind and lame approached him in the Temple, and he healed them.

15. When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonders he was doing and the youths calling out in the Temple and saying, “Hoshia-nah to the son of David”, they became angry

Chief priests and scribes: Shem-Tov has, “sages and priests”. Saw: Shem-Tov, came to see. Became angry: Shem-Tov, mocked.

16. and said to him, “Have you heard what these [people] are saying?” And Yeshua said to them, “Haven’t you read that ‘from the mouths of children and nursing infants you have established strength’?”

This is from Psalm 8, where the verse continues, “…because of those who harass You [in context, YHWH Himself], so that You might put a stop to the enemy…” He certainly wanted them to catch the allusion and recognize Who they were really opposing, because YHWH was the One who had sent him.


17. He left them and walked out of the city to [the town of] Beyth Anyah, and remained there.

18. And as he returned to the city in the morning, he became hungry.

19. He noticed a fig tree by the road, and approached it, but did not find anything but leaves on it, so he said to it, “May no fruit come from you ever again!” And right away, the fig tree dried up. 

Fig tree: The Talmud says the words of Torah are compared to a fig tree, because “the more one searches, the more… one finds in it…; the more one studies them, the more relish he finds in them.” (Tractate Eruvin 54a-b) “Good figs are an allusion to those who are righteous.” (Eruvin 21a-b) But Yeshua was pronouncing a judgment against Israel’s Sanhedrin, which was responsible for bringing forth the fruit of the Torah in Israel, but was not tending to the tree. He did this on the second day of the week, the same day the Great Sanhedrin would have been meeting in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple. (Talmud tractate Shabbat 129b). Yaaqov (Gen. 49:10) said the scepter would not depart from Yehudah until Shiloh came, and the consensus of the rabbis was that Shiloh referred to Messiah (Tractate Sanhedrin 98b,m Gen. Rabbah 97, 98.8, Lamentations Rabbah 1:51). The scepter was understood in Judaism as the right to adjudicate capital cases, and forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the Sanhedrin went into exile and took its seat in the trade halls, no longer judging in capital cases. (Tractate Shabbat 15a) That was the year the Sanhedrin sealed its failure as a righteous court by unjustly judging Yeshua on many counts. Knowing their days were numbered, Yeshua transferred the authority (21:43) from the Sanhedrin to the Torah-observant Netzerim Sanhedrin led by Yaaqov (James) and Kefa (16:19), who were then forming a nation that would include both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel again. (Avi Ben Mordechai)

20. And his students saw it and were amazed, and said, “How did it dry up immediately?”

21. And Yeshua answered and said to them, “Believe me [when] I tell you, if you can have faith and not be skeptical, you can do such things not just to a fig tree! If you say to this mountain, ‘Be picked up and thrown into the sea’, it will come about!

This mountain: possibly Mount Moryah, the Temple Mount, which was right in front of them: in the same vein as he had seen that the Kingdom was not ready to come, he may have been predicting the Temple’s demise (as in 24:2), since it had not accomplished its purpose. Or he may have been speaking of Mt. Sinai, which hung over the people as both a wedding canopy and a threat if they failed to do their part; trust in YHWH’s power to enable us to obey does away with the threat. (J. Good) The sea: often an idiom for the nations.  

22. “Anything you ask in prayer and believe, you will receive.”

Remember, though, that the Hebrew word for “pray” means “to judge yourself”, so all must be screened through the Torah, which tells us what YHWH’s will is, before it can “get through” to YHWH and then be poured back out on earth. (Rev. 5:8)


23. When he went into the Temple, the chief priests and elders of the people approached him to say, “How are you able to do these things, and who gave you this ability?”

Ability: or means; the term that includes not only power but also authority and right or liberty to act.

24. And Yeshua answered and said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, and if you tell it to me, I will also tell you by what authority I do what I have been doing:

25. “The immersion of Yochanan—what was its source? From Heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, and said, “If we say, ‘From Heaven’, he will say to us, “[Then] why didn’t you believe him?’

26. “But if we say, ‘From men’, we are afraid of the crowd, because in he eyes of them all, Yochanan was like a prophet!”

27. So they answered and told Yeshua, “We don’t know.” So he also answered them, “Then neither will I tell you by what authority I have done these things.

28. “How does it appear to you? There was one person and he had two sons, and he approached the first and said, ‘My son, go to my vineyard today and work!’

Shem-Tov includes the introductory phrase, but duTillet does not.

29. “And he said, ‘I won’t do it!’ But later he changed his mind and actually went.

30. “And he approached the second, too, and said the same thing. And he answered and said, “Sir, I will go.” But he didn’t go.

31. “Which of these two did what their father wanted?” And they answered, “The first.” And Yeshua said to them, “Believe me [when] I tell you that the master transgressors and prostitutes will precede you into the Kingdom of Elohim

32. “because Yochanan came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; these master transgressors and prostitutes did believe him, and you saw them, but afterward you didn’t make a change and believe him. [The one who has ears to hear, let him hear and be ashamed.]

A change: or turnabout. Those he was addressing claimed to be super-religious, even making it their full-time business, but they missed the cues when someone unorthodox came preaching repentance, but those who knew they needed help were glad to take him up on the offer, recognizing their errors and doing the right thing. Shem-Tov includes the last sentence; duTillet lacks it.

33. “Listen to another analogy: There was a person—master of the household—and he planted a vineyard and surrounded it with a wall and dug a winecellar in it and built a watchtower , and turned it over to vinedressers to cultivate it, and went abroad.

34. “When the time of the fruit was getting close, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to collect the fruit.

35. “But the vinedressers seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and threw stones at another.

36. “Again he sent servants—more than the first—but they did the same thing to them also.

More: or greater.

37. “Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘Maybe they will respect my son!’

38. “But when they saw the son, the vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir! Come on, let’s kill him, and then his inheritance will be ours!’

39. “So they seized him and took him outside the vineyard and killed him.

40. “Figure it out in your hearts: when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these vinedressers?”

41. And they answered and said, “He will destroy those evil vinedressers in their wickedness, and give his vineyard to another instead of those to whom he hired it, who will return the produce to him in its season.”

42. Yeshua said to them, “Have you not read in the psalms, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner! This was from YHWH; it is marvelous in our eyes.’?  

This is from Psalm 118:22, read in the liturgy each new moon. Head of the corner: the stone against which all the others come to be measured.

43. “Therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of Heaven will be torn from you and given to a nation that produces fruit.

A nation: YHWH had told Israel that when they would make Him jealous through their idols, He would make us jealous through a non-people and provoke us to anger through a foolish nation. (Deut. 32:20-21) Though not having any background in Torah, many “transgressors and prostitutes” from other nations who have followed Yeshua because his words rang true to them have often turned out to live out the Torah’s core message of loving one’s neighbor as oneself more sincerely than those who had all the advantages of having grown up in Hebrew culture, to whom it may have begun to seem “old hat” and who had therefore turned the Torah into another means by which to gain an advantage for themselves. But why a “nation” and not just “Gentiles”? Because there is a nation that, as corrupt as it is, YHWH has said was outdone in corruption by its sister, Yehudah (to whom Yeshua was speaking)—the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Y’hezq’El 23:11; Yirmeyahu/Jer. 3:11), to which Yeshua geared his primary focus (15:24 et al). They have borne fruit indeed, though more righteous only through Yeshua.  Most of the “Gentiles” referred to above, who have responded to his call, are indeed descendants of that Kingdom, which YHWH says He will make a nation again, eventually to merge again with Yehudah into one greater nation (see note on v. 19)—Israel again. But this is one step in the process that, sadly, had to take place.

44. “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but whomever it falls on, it will shatter him.”

Broken: Shem-Tov has “displaced” instead of another form of the same word. This gives more of a contrast, as the rest of the conversation has seemed to do. He may be saying, again, “Take the initiative in confessing that you are wrong, and you will be shown mercy, but keep pretending you have done no wrong, and the truth will catch up to you.”

45. When the chief priests and P’rushim heard the analogy, they understood that he was talking about them,

46. and they were seeking to seize him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because in their eyes he was a prophet.
THE MESSIAH’S LIFE 
AS RECOUNTED BY 
Matithyahu
INTRODUCTION:    Mattithyahu ben Chalfai, a Levite, was a tax collector hired by Rome who became Y'shua's disciple very spontaneously. (Markos 2:1-4) His emphasis is on the Messiah's kingship, and he writes to a mainly Jewish audience. Papias, Eusebius, and Jerome quote from a Hebrew version; for centuries, only their quotes were known to be extant, but among Hebrew texts confiscated in Rome by the Inquisitor General in 1553 was found a manuscript of Mattithyahu salvaged by a French priest, Jean du Tillet. Two other Hebrew versions are known, the Munster text, which the publisher claimed was received from the Jews in 1537 with many holes in the manuscript, and the one Shem Tov Ben Yitzhaq Ben Shaprut transcribed into his 1380 apologetic work, Even Bohan.  

The Greek manuscripts may have been written separately by Mattithyahu with the additional explanatory notes needed by non-Jewish readers. But some expert scholars believe the Hebrew version underlies the Greek. James Trimm, a Nazarene Jewish scholar, argues that the variations among the Greek Synoptic Gospels (Mattithyahu, Markos, and Luqa) results from different readings of the same Hebrew phrases. He points out that, according to contemporary historian Josephus, Greek, though the lingua franca of the time, was not spoken widely enough in Judea even by the time the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, and the Romans had to translate their request for surrender into Hebrew. Thus a Greek version would have been adequate only in the diaspora. Ireneus, Origen, Papias, and other 2nd-4th century "church fathers" all acknowledged that Mattithyahu had written first in Hebrew, and an eighth-century commentary by Isho'dad claims that this was still common knowledge in his day. The book begins c. 2-4 B.C., or 4000 years after creation.

Chapter 14           Chapter 15

Chapter 16            Chapter 17

Chapter 18            Chapter 19

Chapter 20            Chapter 21

            Chapters 1-7

            Chapters 8-13  

            Chapters 22-28
Ginnosar from the Arbel
Y'rikho from the western rim of the Great Rift
Beyt Pa'agey with Yerushalayim on the edge at right
Artwork by Rabbi Micha'el Washer; used by permission