Matthew 12:37-39
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
37 By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
The Demand for a Sign.[a] 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher,[b] we wish to see a sign from you.”(A) 39 He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful[c] generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
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- 12:38–42 This section is mainly from Q (see Lk 11:29–32). Mk 8:11–12, which Matthew has followed in Mt 16:1–4, has a similar demand for a sign. The scribes and Pharisees refuse to accept the exorcisms of Jesus as authentication of his claims and demand a sign that will end all possibility of doubt. Jesus’ response is that no such sign will be given. Because his opponents are evil and see him as an agent of Satan, nothing will convince them.
- 12:38 Teacher: see note on Mt 8:19. In Mt 16:1 the request is for a sign “from heaven” (Mk 8:11).
- 12:39 Unfaithful: literally, “adulterous.” The covenant between God and Israel was portrayed as a marriage bond, and unfaithfulness to the covenant as adultery; cf. Hos 2:4–14; Jer 3:6–10.
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