Matthew 6:24-26

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Matthew 6:24 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.
2. Matthew 6:24 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”
3. Matthew 6:24 tn Grk “God and mammon.”sn The term money is used to translate mammon, the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. Here “money” is personified as a potential master and thus competes with God for the loyalty of the disciple. The passage is ultimately not a condemnation of wealth (there is no call here for absolute poverty) but a call for unqualified discipleship. God must be first, not money or possessions.
4. Matthew 6:25 tn Or “do not be anxious,” and so throughout the rest of this paragraph.
5. Matthew 6:26 tn Or “the wild birds”; Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).
6. Matthew 6:26 tn Or “your heavenly Father gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”
7. Matthew 6:26 tn Grk “of more value.”