World English Bible · Under Rome
Matthew 21
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
When they came near to and came to Bethsphage, to , then sent two , saying to them, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ' needs them,' and immediately he will send them." All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the , saying, "Tell the daughter of , behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." went and did as commanded them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut from the trees and spread them on the road. The who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, " to ! is he who comes in the name of ! in the highest!" When he had come into , all the city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" The said, "This is the , , from of ." entered into of and drove out all of those who sold and bought in , and overthrew the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the . He said to them, ", 'My house shall be called a house of ,' but you have made it a den of robbers!" The lame and the blind came to him in , and he healed them. But when the and the saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in and saying, " to !" they were indignant, and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the of children and nursing babies, you have perfected '?" He left them and went out of the city to , and camped there. Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you !" Immediately the fig tree withered away. When saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?" answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, if you have and don't doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it would be done. All things, whatever you ask in , believing, you will receive." When he had come into , the and the of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what do you do these things? Who gave you this ?" answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what I do these things. The of , where was it from? From or from men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From ,' he will ask us, 'Why then did you not him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear , for all hold as a ." They answered , and said, "We don't know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what I do these things. But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my .' He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his , and went. He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, 'I'm going, sir,' but he didn't go. Which of the two did the will of his ?" They said to him, "The first." said to them, "Most certainly I tell you that the and the are entering into Kingdom before you. For came to you in of , and you didn't him; but the and the him. When you saw it, you didn't even afterward, that you might him. "Hear another . There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a , set a hedge about it, dug a press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the . Come, let's kill him and seize his .' So they took him and threw him out of the , then killed him. When therefore of the comes, what will he do to those farmers?" They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the to other farmers who will give him the fruit ." said to them, "Did you never read in , 'The stone which the builders rejected was made the . This was from . It is marvelous in our eyes'? "Therefore I tell you, Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as ." When the and the heard his , they perceived that he spoke about them. When they sought to seize him, they feared the , because they considered him to be a .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.