Chapter 18 of the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...

contains the fourth of the

five Discourses of Matthew In Christianity, the term Five Discourses of Matthew refers to five specific discourses by Jesus within the Gospel of Matthew.''The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament'' by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kell ...

, also called the ''Discourse on the Church'' or the ''ecclesiastical discourse''. It compares "the greatest in the

Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven may refer to: Religious * Kingdom of Heaven (Gospel of Matthew) **Kingship and kingdom of God, or simply Kingdom of God, the phrase used in the other gospels * Kingdom of Heaven (Daviesite), a schismatic sect, founded by Will ...

" to a child, and also includes the parables of the lost sheep and

the unforgiving servant The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (also known as ''Ungrateful Servant'', ''Unmerciful Servant'', or ''Wicked Servant'' but not to be confused with the parable of the Two Debtors) is a parable of Jesus which appears in the Gospel of Matthew. ...

, the second of which also refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. The general theme of the discourse is the anticipation of a future community of followers, and the role of his apostles in leading it.

Dale Allison Dale C. Allison (born November 25, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar, historian of Early Christianity, and Christian theologian who for years served as Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity at Pittsb ...

states that this chapter offers "Instructions for the Church". Addressing his apostles in ,

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

states: "what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". The discourse emphasizes the importance of humility and self-sacrifice as the high virtues within the anticipated community. It teaches that in the

Kingdom of God The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" b ...

, it is childlike humility that matters, not social prominence and clout.

Structure

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 203

The chapter can be divided into the following subsections: *

The Little Children Jesus' teachings referring to little children (, ''paidíon'') and infants/babies appear in several places in the New Testament and in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. New Testament The King James Version of Matthew's gospel ( chapter 18) rela ...

(18:1–5) *Jesus warns of offences (18:6-7) *If thy hand offend thee (18:8–9) *

Parable of the Lost Sheep The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in the Gospels of Matthew () and Luke (). It is about a shepherd who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost. It is the first member ...

(18:10–14) *

Binding and loosing Binding and loosing is originally a Jewish Mishnaic phrase also mentioned in the New Testament, as well as in the Targum. In usage, ''to bind'' and ''to loose'' simply means ''to forbid by an indisputable authority'' and ''to permit by an indisput ...

(18:15–18) *Prayer in common (18:19-20) *

Parable of the unforgiving servant The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (also known as ''Ungrateful Servant'', ''Unmerciful Servant'', or ''Wicked Servant'' but not to be confused with the parable of the Two Debtors) is a parable of Jesus which appears in the Gospel of Matthew. ...

(18:21–35)

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 35 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: *

Papyrus 25 Papyrus 25 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓25, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew, it contains only Matthew 18:32-34; 19:1-3.5-7.9-10. The manuscript paleograp ...

(4th century; extant verses 32–34) *

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(325-350) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

(330-360) *

Codex Bezae The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum D or 05 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 5 (in the von Soden of New Testament manuscript), is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century writ ...

(~400) *

Codex Washingtonianus The Codex Washingtonianus or Codex Washingtonensis, designated by W or 032 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 014 ( Soden), also called the ''Washington Manuscript of the Gospels'', and ''The Freer Gospel'', contains the four biblical gospels an ...

(~400) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) designated by the siglum C or 04 {in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 3 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

(~450) *

Codex Purpureus Rossanensis The Rossano Gospels, designated by 042 or Σ (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 18 ( Soden), held at the cathedral of Rossano in Italy, is a 6th-century illuminated manuscript Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian penins ...

(6th century) * Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus (6th century; extant verses 6-25) * Codex Sinopensis (6th century; extant verses 4-30) *

Papyrus 44 Papyrus 44 (in Gregory-Aland numbering), signed by 𝔓44, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of John. It contains Matt. 17:1-3.6-7; 18:15-17.19; 25:8-10 and John 10:8-14 ...

(6th/7th century; extant verses 15–17, 19)

Receiving believers (18:1–11)

Verse 3

:''"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." "Be converted" is more literally translated as "be turned ... so as to go in an opposite direction". The phrase "enter the kingdom of heaven" appears three other times in the Gospel, at Matthew 5:20, 7:21, and 23:13.

Verse 7

:''Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!'' ''Woe to the world'' ( gr, οὐαὶ τῶ κόσμῳ, ''Ouai tō kosmō''). In , Jesus utters "an exclamation of pity at thought of the miseries that come upon mankind through ambitious passions".

Verse 11

: :''For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.'' Verse 11 is present in some ancient texts but not in others. It appears in the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denomi ...

, and the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

includes it, but the

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The ''NIV'' was created as a modern translation, by Bible scholars using the earliest an ...

omits it and the omission in the NU text is noted in a

footnote A note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a chapter, volume, or the whole text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the ...

in the

New King James Version The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

The local church (18:12–35)

Commentator John Philips looks at this chapter in relation to the local church or community of believers.

Restoring backsliders (18:12–14)

The threefold function of a local church is not only to receive new believers into its midst (cf. 18:1–11), but also to restore of backsliders and to reconcile brethren ( 18:15–35). The restoration of backsliders is illustrated by Jesus in a story of the lost sheep and the loving shepherd, which is more fully told and elaborated into a three-part story in

Luke 15 Luke 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as ...

concerning a lost sheep, a lost piece of silver, and a lost son.

Reconciling brethren (18:15–35)

The third of the threefold functions of a local church (after receiving new believers in 18:1–11 and restoring backsliders in 18:12–14) is to reconcile brethren. Allison observes that "as soon as

esus Esus, Hesus, or Aisus was a Brittonic and Gaulish god known from two monumental statues and a line in Lucan's '' Bellum civile''. Name T. F. O'Rahilly derives the theonym ''Esus'', as well as ''Aoibheall'', ''Éibhleann'', ''Aoife'', and ...

finishes the subject of disciplinary measures, he talks about reconciliation and forgiveness. The

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

effect is to strike a balance". Jesus teaches that the attempt to reconcile a brother involves three steps: the Christian Love Rules (18:15), the Common Law Rules (18:16) and the Christian Leaders Rule (18:17–20), which is followed by an exposition of forgiveness (18:21–22) accompanied by a parable about a man whose debt is forgiven but refused to forgive others and therefore is punished (18:23–35). Verses 15-17 are of particular significance to

Baptists Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

in their support of the principle of

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

of the local church.

Verse 17

:''And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.'' If a sinner remains recalcitrant, even after the matter is brought to the whole community, then the person must be regarded as "outside the community" ("excommunication").

Verse 18

:''Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.''

MEV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV, also written electron-volt and electron volt) is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating from rest through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacu ...

Cross reference: Matthew 16:19, John 20:23

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Matthew chapters