Matthew 10 is the tenth chapter in 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 form ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

section of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

. This chapter opens with

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 relig ...

calling some of his

disciples A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in t ...

and sending them out to preach and heal. This section is also known as the Mission Discourse or the Little Commission, in contrast to the

Great Commission In Christianity, the Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. The Great Commission is outlined in Matthew 28:16– 20, where on a mountain i ...

at the end of the gospel ( Matthew 28:18– 20). The Little Commission is directed specifically to the "lost sheep of the

house of Israel The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

", while the Great Commission is directed to all nations. The ''

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entri ...

'' suggests that Jesus' message in this discourse "was hardly likely to have been remembered outside Jewish Christian circles". Matthew names the

twelve apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

, or "twelve disciples", in verses 2 to 4 and gives them careful instruction as they travel around Israel. The remainder of the chapter consists almost entirely of sayings attributed to Jesus. Many of the sayings found in Matthew 10 are also found in Luke 10 and the

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...

, which is not part of the accepted

canon of the New Testament A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning " rule" or " measuring stick". The ...

Text

The oldest known texts were 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 42 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: * Papyrus 110 (3rd/4th century; extant verses 13–15, 25–27) *

Uncial 0171 Uncial 0171 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 07 ( Soden) are two vellum leaves of a late third century (or beginning of the fourth) Greek uncial Bible codex containing fragments of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Luke fragment, ...

(~300; extant verses 17–23, 25–32) *

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 manuscript ...

(330–360; complete) *

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) * Papyrus 19 (4th/5th century; extant verses 32–42) *

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; complete) *

Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus, designated by N or 022 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 19 ( Soden), is a Greek New Testament codex containing the four Gospels. It has been paleographically dated to the 6th century. Codex Petropolitanus ...

(6th century) Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus Matt

The twelve (10:1–15)

The text in verse 1 refers to "his twelve disciples" ( gr, τους δωδεκα μαθητας αυτου, ''tous dōdeka mathētas autou''). Verse 2 calls them "the twelve apostles" ( gr, τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων, ''tōn dōdeka apostolōn''):

Verse 5 Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict ...

refers to them simply as "the twelve" ( gr, τοὺς δώδεκα, ''tous dōdeka'') but the verb which follows is "ἀπέστειλεν" (''apesteilen''), meaning "sent forth".

Verses 17-39

The

Jerusalem Bible ''The Jerusalem Bible'' (JB or TJB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the Hebrew Bible, along with the seven deuterocanonica ...

refers to these verses as a "

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

's handbook", and suggests that their scope is wider than that of the "first mission of the apostles" in verses 1-16.

Verse 34

:''"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send r bringpeace, but a sword."'' This is a much-discussed passage, often explained in terms of the "apocalyptic-eschatological" context of the 1st century.

R. T. France Richard Thomas France (1938–2012), known as R. T. France or Dick France, was a New Testament scholar and Anglican cleric. He was Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, from 1989 to 1995. He also worked for the London School of Theology. ...

explains the verse, in context with the subsequent verse 35: "The sword Jesus brings is not here military conflict, but, as vv. 35–36 show, a sharp social division which even severs the closest family ties. … Jesus speaks here, as in the preceding and following verses, more of a division in men’s personal response to him." The text of Matthew's Gospel in the

Book of Kells The Book of Kells ( la, Codex Cenannensis; ga, Leabhar Cheanannais; Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. 8 sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the ...

alters ', the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

translation of ''makhairan'' "sword", to ', "joy", resulting in a reading of "I came not /nowiki>only/nowiki> to bring peace, but lsojoy".

Verse 38

:''And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.'': NKJV *"Take his cross": is in the sense of "willingly to undergo the severe trials that fall to his lot" (; ); a figurative expression taken from the practice that "condemned criminals were compelled to take up their own cross and carry it to the place of execution" (; ; ).Meyer's NT Commentary on Matthew 10
Accessed 24 April 2019.

Parallels in the Gospel of Thomas

Matthew 10 contains many parallels found in the

. *Matthew 10:16 parallels saying 39 in the Gospel of Thomas. *Matthew 10:37 parallels sayings 55 and 101 *Matthew 10:27b parallels saying 33a. *Matthew 10:34–36 parallels saying 16. *Matthew 10:26 parallels saying 5b.

Notes

References

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
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.) {{Apostles Matthew 10