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38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher,[a] we wish to see a sign from you.”(A) 39 He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful[b] generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

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Footnotes

  1. 12:38 Teacher: see note on Mt 8:19. In Mt 16:1 the request is for a sign “from heaven” (Mk 8:11).
  2. 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.

Chapter 16

The Demand for a Sign. [a](A)The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, to test him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. [b]He said to them in reply, “[In the evening you say, ‘Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red’; (B)and, in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times.] (C)An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”[c] Then he left them and went away.

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Footnotes

  1. 16:1 A sign from heaven: see note on Mt 12:38–42.
  2. 16:2–3 The answer of Jesus in these verses is omitted in many important textual witnesses, and it is very uncertain that it is an original part of this gospel. It resembles Lk 12:54–56 and may have been inserted from there. It rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees who are able to read indications of coming weather but not the indications of the coming kingdom in the signs that Jesus does offer, his mighty deeds and teaching.
  3. 16:4 See notes on Mt 12:39, 40.