translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MAT

label: NET study note

text: John refers to John the Baptist.


text: Aspects of Jesus’ ministry may have led John to question whether Jesus was the promised stronger and greater one who is to come that he had preached about in Matt 3:1-12 .


text: What you hear and see. The following activities all paraphrase various OT descriptions of the time of promised salvation: Isa 35:5-6; 26:19; 29:18-19; 61:1 . Jesus is answering not by acknowledging a title, but by pointing to the nature of his works, thus indicating the nature of the time.


text: The reference to fancy clothes makes the point that John was not rich or powerful, in that he did not come from the wealthy classes.


text: The quotation is primarily from Mal 3:1 with pronouns from Exod 23:20 . Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.


text: After John comes a shift of eras. The new era is so great that the lowest member of it ( the one who is least in the kingdom of God ) is greater than the greatest one of the previous era.


text: ‘ We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance… ’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 18-19 ) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.


text: John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon .


text: See the note on tax collectors in 5:46 .


text: Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners . Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.


text: Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.


text: Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (; Jer 25:22; 47:4 ). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!” map For location see Map1-A1 ; JP3-F3 ; JP4-F3 .


text: Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region. map For location see Map1-D2 ; Map2-C3 ; Map3-B2 .


text: In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol . It is the place where the unrighteous will reside ( Luke 10:15; 16:23 ; Rev 20:13-14 ).


text: The allusion to Sodom , the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29 , shows that to reject the current message is even more serious, and will result in more severe punishment, than the worst sins of the old era. The phrase region of Sodom is in emphatic position in the Greek text.


text: The title Lord is an important name for God, showing his sovereignty, but it is interesting that it comes next to a reference to the Father , a term indicative of God’s care. The two concepts are often related in the NT; see Eph 1:3-6 .


text: See 1 Cor 1:26-31 .


text: This verse has been noted for its conceptual similarity to teaching in John’s Gospel ( 10:15; 17:2 ). The authority of the Son and the Father are totally intertwined.


text: A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers.