Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

¹ And answering Jesus again spoke to them in parables saying: ² The kingdom of heaven is like [a] man [who] [was] king, who gave [a] wedding for his son. ³ And he sent his slaves to call those invited¹ to the wedding, and they did not want to come. ⁴ Again he sent other slaves saying: Say to those invited²: Behold my noon meal is prepared, my bull and my fattlings are killed, and five [are] ready. Come to the wedding. ⁵ But being unconcerned they left, one to his own field, and one to his business. ⁶ The rest laying hold of his slaves committed outrages and killed them. ⁷ And the king was angered and sending his troops, he destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he says to his slaves: The wedding is ready, but the invited³ were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the street-corners⁴ or "crossroads", and whoever you find call to the wedding. ¹⁰ And going out into the road these slaves gathered all they found, wicked⁵ and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹ And when the king came in to behold the guests he saw there [a] man not clothed in wedding clothes. ¹² And he says to him: Friend, how do you come here not having wedding clothes? But he was silent. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants: Having bound him hand and foot, throw him into the outermost darkness. There will there be wailing and grinding⁶ of teeth. ¹⁴ For many are called, but few [are] chosen.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁵ Then when the Pharisees departed they plotted how they may trap him in word. ¹⁶ And they sent to him their disciples with those of Herod saying: Teacher, we know you are true and you teach the way⁷ of God in truth, and are anxious toward no one, for you do not see the appearances of men. ¹⁷ They said therefore to him: How does it seem to you, is it permissible to pay Caesar's poll tax or not? ¹⁸ But Jesus having known⁸ their perniciousness said to them: Why do you test me, [You] hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin of the poll-tax. So they brought him [a] denarius. ²⁰ And he says to them: Whose is this image and superscription? ²¹ They say: Caesar's. Then he says to them: Render⁹ to Caesar the things [that] [are] Caesar's, and to God the things [that] [are] God's. ²² And when they heard [this] they were amazed, and going forth they left.

Marriage and the Resurrection

²³ In that day the Sadducees came to him, who say [there] is no resurrection, and they questioned him ²⁴ saying: Teacher, Moses said: If anyone die not having children, his brother shall marry¹⁰ his wife and raise up seed to his brother. ²⁵ Now there were beside him seven brothers. And the first who married came to his end, and not having seed left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ Likewise also the second and the third until the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all the wife died. ²⁸ In the resurrection therefore whose of the seven is the wife? For all had her. ²⁹ But answering Jesus said to them: You are misled, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³¹ but are as¹¹ the angels in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read the [thing] spoken to you from God saying: ³² I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the zoe-living¹² . ³³ And hearing this the crowds were astounded at his teaching.

The Greatest Commandment

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they were gathered together, ³⁵ And one of them, [an] expert on the Law, testing him asked, ³⁶ Teacher, what sort of commandment [is] great in the Law¹³? ³⁷ So he said to him: You will agape-love the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your psyche-life¹⁴ and in all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: You will agape-love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ In these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The Messiah: David's Son and Lord

⁴¹ Now when the Pharisees gathered together Jesus questioned them ⁴² saying: How does it seem to you concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David's. ⁴³ He says to them: How therefore does David in the spirit call him Lord saying¹⁵

⁴⁴ The Lord said to my Lord:
Be seating yourself at my right hand
Until I place your enemies beneath your feet?

⁴⁵ If therefore David calls him Lord, how is he his son? ⁴⁶ And no one was able to be answering him [a] word nor did any dare from that day to ask him anything.

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¹literally "called"

²literally "called"

³literally "called"

⁴or "crossroads"

⁵PONEROS (πoνηρoς ) here. The Greek word KAKOS (κακoς ) is always translated `evil', PONEROS is usually translated as `wicked' although occasionally as `bad'; it can also mean 'diseased', 'sickly' and is thus translated where appropriate. Like KAKOS, PONEROS also means `evil', but the harm that evil does is more in view, where KAKOS is more `evil as evil'.

⁶or "gnashing," "biting," "snarling"

⁷or "road," "path"

⁸or "knowing"

⁹or "give back what is due," "repay"

¹⁰"marry as next of kin". The idea is that if a husband died childless, the wife would have children by his brother so she would have children to take care of her in her old age

¹¹or "like"

¹²from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.

¹³or "of what sort is a great commandment?"

¹⁴from PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. Animals have PSYCHEs as well as humans. Contrast ZOE (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected.

¹⁵Ps.110:1