Matthew 22
1 Then Jesus told [the Jewish leaders] other parables [in order to illustrate what will happen to the people who do not accept him as the King God promised to send]. [This is one of those parables: ]
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables.
2 “[God] [MTY/EUP] [is like] a king [SIM] who [told his servants that they should] make a wedding feast for his son.
“The Kingdom of Heaven,” he said, “may be compared to a king who gave a banquet in honour of his son’s wedding.
3 [When] the feast [was ready], the king sent his servants to tell the people who had been {whom he had} invited that it was time for them to come to the wedding feast. [The servants did that]. But the people who had been invited did not want to come.
He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the banquet, but they were unwilling to come.
4 So he sent other servants [to] again [tell the people whom he had invited that they should come to the feast]. He said [to those servants], ‘Say to the people whom I invited [to come to the feast], “The king says that he has prepared the food. The oxen and the fattened calves have been butchered [and cooked]. Everything is ready. It is time [now for you to] come to the wedding feast!’”’
A second time he sent some servants, with orders to say to those who had been invited ‘I have prepared my breakfast, my cattle and fat beasts are killed and everything is ready; come to the banquet.’
5 [But when the servants told them that, they] disregarded [what the servants said]. Some of them went to their own fields. Others went to their places of business.
They, however, took no notice, but went off, one to his farm, another to his business;
6 The rest of them seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
while the rest, seizing his servants, ill-treated them and killed them.
7 [When the king heard what had happened], he became furious. He commanded his soldiers to go and kill those murderers and burn their cities.
The king, in anger, sent his troops, put those murderers to death, and set their city on fire.
8 [After his soldiers had done that], the king said to his other servants, ‘I have prepared the [wedding] feast, but the people who were {whom I} invited do not deserve to [come to it because they did not consider it an honor to have been invited].
Then he said to his servants ‘The banquet is prepared, but those who were invited were not worthy.
9 So, go to the intersections of the main streets. Tell whomever you find that they should come to the [wedding] feast.’
So go to the cross-roads, and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’
10 So the servants went there, and they gathered everyone they saw [who wanted to come to the feast]. They gathered [both people that were considered] to be evil and [those that were considered to be] good. They brought them into the hall where the wedding [feast took place]. The hall was filled with people.
The servants went out into the roads and collected all the people whom they found, whether bad or good; and the bridal-hall was filled with guests.
11 But when the king went [into the hall] to see the guests who were there, he saw someone who was not wearing clothes [that had been provided for the guests to wear] at a wedding [feast].
But, when the king went in to see his guests, he noticed there a man who had not put on a wedding-robe.
12 The king said to him, ‘Friend, (you should never have entered this hall, because you are not wearing the clothes [that guests wear] at wedding [feasts]!/how did you enter this hall, because you are not wearing the clothes [that are appropriate for guests to wear] at a wedding [feast]?) [RHQ]’ The man did not say anything, [because he did not know what to say].
So he said to him ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding-robe?’ The man was speechless.
13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Tie this person’s feet and hands and throw him outside where there is total darkness. People who are there cry out [because they are suffering] and they gnash their teeth [because of their severe pain].’”
Then the king said to the attendants ‘Tie him hand and foot, and ‘put him out into the darkness’ outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’
14 [Then Jesus said, “The point of this story is that God] has invited many [to come to him], but only a few people are the ones whom he has chosen [to be there].”
For many are called, but few chosen.”
15 After Jesus said that, the Pharisees met together in order to plan how they could cause him to say something that would enable them to accuse him.
Then the Pharisees went away and conferred together as to how they might lay a snare for Jesus in the course of conversation.
16 They sent to him some of their disciples, [who thought that the Israelites should pay only the tax that the Jewish authorities required them to pay]. They also sent some members of the party that supported Herod. [The members of that party thought that the Israelites should pay only the tax that the Roman government required them to pay]. [Those who were sent came and] said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and that you teach the truth about what God wants [us to do]. We also know that you do not change what you teach because of what someone says about you, even if it is an important person who does not like what you [IDM] teach.
They sent their disciples, with the Herodians, to say to him: “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man, and that you teach the way of God honestly, and are not afraid of any one; for you pay no regard to a man’s position.
17 So tell us what you think [RHQ] [about this matter]: Is it right that we pay taxes to the Roman government [MTY], or not?”
Tell us, then, what you think. Are we right in paying taxes to the Emperor, or not?”
18 But Jesus knew that what they really wanted to do was evil. [They were wanting him to say something that would get him in trouble with either the Jewish authorities or the Roman authorities. So he said to them], “You are (hypocrites/pretending to ask a legitimate question), but you are just wanting [RHQ] me to say something for which you can accuse me.
Perceiving their malice, Jesus answered: “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
19 Show me [one of] the coins with [which people pay] the [Roman] tax.” So they showed him [a coin called] a denarius.
Show me the coin with which the tax is paid.” And, when they had brought him a florin,
20 He said to them, “Whose picture is [on] this [coin]? And [whose] name [is on it]?”
he asked: “Whose head and title are these?”
21 They answered, “[It has the picture and name of] Caesar, [the head of the Roman government].” Then he said to them, “Okay, give to the government what they [require], and give to God what he [requires].”
“The Emperor’s,” they answered: on which he said to them: “Then pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and to God what belongs to God.”
22 When those men heard Jesus say that, they marveled [that his answer did not enable anyone to accuse him]. Then they left Jesus.
They wondered at his answer, and left him alone and went away.
23 During that same day, some Sadducees came to Jesus. [They are a Jewish sect who do not] believe that people will become alive again after they die. They [wanted to] ask [Jesus] a question.
That same day some Sadducees came up to Jesus, maintaining that there is no resurrection. Their question was this: —
24 [In order to discredit the idea that dead people will live again], they said [to him], “Teacher, Moses wrote [in the Scriptures], ‘If a man dies who did not have any children, his brother must marry the [dead man’s] widow in order that she can have a child by him. The child [will be considered] the descendant of the man [who died], [and in that way the dead man will have descendants].’
“Teacher, Moses said — ‘should a man die without children, the man’s brother shall become the husband of the widow, and raise a family for his brother.’
25 Well, there were seven boys in a family [living] near us. The oldest one married someone. He [and his wife] did not have any children, and he died. So the second brother married the widow. [But he also died without having a child].
Now we had living among us seven brothers; of whom the eldest married and died, and, as he had no family, left his wife for his brother.
26 The same thing [happened to] the third [brother], and also to the other four [brothers, who one by one married this same woman].
The same thing happened to the second and the third brothers, and indeed to all the seven.
27 Last of all, the widow also died.
The woman herself died last of all.
28 So, at the time when people are raised from the dead, which of the seven [brothers do you think] will be her husband? Keep in mind that they had all been married to her.”
At the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be out of the seven, all of them having had her?”
29 Jesus replied to them, “You are certainly wrong [in what you are thinking]. You do not know [what is written in] the Scriptures. [You] also do not know [that] God has [the] power [to make people alive again].
“Your mistake,” replied Jesus, “is due to your ignorance of the Scriptures, and of the power of God.
30 The fact is that [the woman will not be the wife of any of them, because] after [God causes all dead] people [to] live again, no one will be married. Instead, [people] will be like the angels in heaven. [They do not marry].
For at the resurrection there is no marrying or being married, but all who rise are as angels in Heaven.
31 But as for dead people becoming alive again, God said something about that. (I’m sure you have read it./Have you not read it?) [RHQ] [Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses],
As to the resurrection of the dead, have you not read these words of God —
32 ‘I am the God whom Abraham [worships] and the God whom Isaac [worships] and the God whom Jacob worships.’ It is not dead people who worship God. It is living people who worship him. [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob died long before Moses lived, but God said that they were still worshipping him, so we know their spirits were still alive]!”
‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of dead men, but of living.”
33 When the crowds of people heard [Jesus teach] that, they were amazed.
The crowds, who had been listening to him, were greatly struck with his teaching.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had answered the Sadducees in such a way that the Sadducees could not [think of anything that they might say to] respond to him, the Pharisees gathered together to [plan what they would say to him]. [Then they approached him].
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they collected together.
35 One of them was a man who had studied well the laws [that God gave Moses]. He wanted to see if Jesus [could answer] his question well [or if he would say something wrong]. He asked him,
Then one of them, a Student of the Law, to test him, asked this question —
36 “Teacher, which commandment in the laws [that God gave Moses] is the most important?”
“Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus [quoted the Scriptures as he replied], “‘You must love the Lord your God with all [IDM] your (inner being/heart). [Show that you love him] in all that you desire, in all that you feel, and in all that you think.’
His answer was: “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’
38 That is the most important commandment [in the laws that God gave Moses].
This is the great first commandment.
39 The next most important commandment [that everyone must surely obey] is: ‘You must love the people you come in contact with as much as [you love] yourself.’
The second, which is like it, is this — ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thou dost thyself.’
40 These two commandments are the basis of every law [that Moses wrote in the Scriptures] and also of all that the prophets [wrote].”
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
41 While the Pharisees were still gathered together [near] Jesus, he asked them,
Before the Pharisees separated, Jesus put this question to them —
42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose descendant is he?” They said to him, “[He is] the descendant of [King] David.”
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “David’s,” they said.
43 Jesus said to them, “[If the Messiah is King David’s descendant], then (David should not have called him ‘Lord’ when David was saying [what] the [Holy] Spirit [prompted him to] say./Why did David call the Messiah ‘Lord’ when David was speaking [what] the [Holy] Spirit [prompted him to] say?) [RHQ]
“How is it, then,” Jesus replied, “that David, speaking under inspiration, calls him ‘lord,’ in the passage —
44 [David wrote this in the Scriptures about the Messiah]: ‘God said to my Lord, “Sit [here beside me] on my right, [the place of greatest honor you] [MTY]. [Sit here] while I completely defeat your enemies [MTY].”’
‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I put thy enemies beneath thy feet”’?
45 So, since [King] David called [the Messiah] ‘my Lord’, ([the Messiah] cannot be [just someone] descended from David!/how can he be [only] the descendant of [King] David?) [RHQ] [He must be much greater than David]!”
Since, then, David calls him ‘lord,’ how is he David’s son?”
46 No one [who heard what Jesus said] was able to think of even one word to say to him [in response]. And after that, no one else ever dared to ask him another question [to try to trap him].
No one could say a word in answer; nor did any one after that day venture to question him further.
