Matthew 10

Thaddaeus shows up in only Matthew’s list. Scholars generally guess this was another name for Judas, the son of James (Luke 6:16).

“Zealot” is more literally “Cananaean.” Scholars say this word has nothing to do with the land of Canaan, which is now the nation of Israel and Palestinian territories. It’s a Greek word that some Bible experts trace back to an Aramaic word meaning “zealous.” Scholars say it likely refers to a Jewish rebel movement known as the Zealots. They used guerrilla warfare and terror tactics in an attempt to drive out the Roman-occupying forces from the Jewish homeland. Zealots wanted to restore Israel as an independent nation.

This message is the same one John the Baptist delivered. See Matthew 3:2.

A blessing like this one could have been a short prayer asking God to shower the household with his kindness and give them happiness. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, is a bit like saying, “May everything go well for you, and may you feel fulfilled and comfortable in God’s care.”

Ancient Jewish writings report that Jews would shake the dust off their sandals when they got back home after traveling in Gentile territory. Many Jews considered non-Jewish people as ritually unclean. After coming into contact with them, those Jews went through cleansing rituals before they would worship at the Jerusalem Temple. Shaking the dirt off sandals at someone was a way of saying, “I’m done with you and delighted to give you back your space and the dirt that goes with it.”

This quote refers to Old Testament passages that talk about Judgment Day, including Zechariah 12:3-4 and Jeremiah 30:8.

For people to be worse off than the victims of Sodom and Gomorrah, that’s saying a lot. Those cities got scorched off the planet in a firestorm, with no trace of them left behind (Genesis 19:24).

Followers of Jesus became known as Christians, taking their name from “Christ,” a title that identified Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One promised by the prophets. First-century Roman historian Tacitus (about AD 56-120) described Christians as “a class hated for their abominations.  .  .  . Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.”

Bible experts offer many theories about how to explain the apparent mistake Jesus made when he seemed to say the Second Coming would take place during the generation in which the disciples lived. Perhaps the most popular theory among scholars is that the humanity of Jesus was showing and he got the timing wrong. He admitted elsewhere that he didn’t know when the Second Coming would take place (Matthew 24:36). Another theory is that he was talking about some big event, such as the arrival of the Holy Spirit during the Jewish festival of Pentecost a couple of months after his crucifixion (Acts 2). Yet another theory is that he may have been talking about the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple about 40 years later in AD 70.

The word for Satan is “Beelzebub.” Jewish leaders said Jesus could do miracles because “he’s possessed by Beelzebub. He uses the power of the prince of demons to drive out the demons” (Mark 3:22). Many Bible experts say the word Beelzebub comes from a Hebrew expression meaning “master of the home,” though some suggest “master of the poop.” Well, okay, they say “dung.” The word seemed to have become a title for Satan.

Some Bible experts say Matthew was referring to the message of the good news about the kingdom of heaven, which many people didn’t know anything about. It was a message hidden from them, but would one day be revealed to them by the preaching of the disciples and other Christians. Luke, however, uses a similar quote to show Jesus warning the disciples about their own behavior: “Everything you said under the cover of night is going to get repeated in the light of day. And everything you whispered in the privacy of a room is going to get broadcast everywhere” (Luke 12:3).

The phrase is more literally “destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Many Bibles translate Gehenna as “hell.” Gehenna, also known as the Valley of Hinnom, was located on the southwest side of Jerusalem. Jews offered human sacrifices there (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31). Later, the people used it as a city dump, with a fire that was constantly smoldering. The name became a metaphor describing God’s judgment. That’s because after the Jews started worshiping idols and sacrificing their own children in Gehenna, the Bible says God sent invaders from the Babylonian Empire in what is now Iraq. The Babylonians temporarily wiped the Jewish nation off the political map, destroying Jerusalem and leveling the Temple.

The copper coin was a Roman assarion. Sixteen of these coins would have equaled one denarius, which was considered one day’s wage for a hired worker (Matthew 20:2; John 12:5).

Literally, “a sword.”

Jesus borrows the words of a prophet, Micah 7:6, and uses them to describe how his ministry will split families.

Context clues from the previous verses suggest Jesus was talking about people who turn their backs on him because that’s what their families want them to do.

Jesus may be saying that anyone who tries to escape danger by publicly rejecting him will not get to live in the kingdom of heaven. But those people who die, rather than reject Jesus, will live on in the kingdom of heaven.

The Greek word is dikaios, often translated as “righteous.” It can also mean innocent, just, acceptable to God.