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18:10 It is not that God cares less for the ninety-nine than for the one. The point here is the extraordinary love of God for each individual, without exception. God does not wait for the lost to come back. God goes in search of them. The implication is that the disciples—all believers—must also be good shepherds, who go in search of those who have lost faith because of scandal or some other evil.
18:15 What do we do when our fellow disciples go astray? How should problems within the Church be handled? Jesus o ers a model that is gentle, yet rm. It begins with a simple talk between two persons, and only if the other refuses to listen is the problem brought rst to a small group and then to the community. The model that Jesus gives recognizes the reality of sin and con ict within the Church, but it also gives priority to individual repentance and reconciliation.
Chapter 18
i. [18:16] Dt 19:15; Jn 8:17; 1 Tm 5:19. j. [18:17] 1 Cor 5:1–13.
k. [18:18] 16:19; Jn 20:23.
l. [18:19] 7:7–8; Jn 15:7.
m. [18:20] 1 Cor 5:4.
n. [18:21–22] 6:12; Lk 17:4. o. [18:23] 25:19.
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tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. 16* i If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17j If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.* If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. 18* k Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19* l Again, [amen,] I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. 20* m For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.* 21n Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22* Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 23o That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. 24* When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. 25Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. 26* At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and
* [18:15] Your brother: a fellow disciple; see Mt 23:8. The bracketed words, against you, are widely attested but they are not in the important codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus or in some other textual witnesses. Their omission broadens the type of sin in question. Won over: literally, “gained.”
* [18:16] Cf. Dt 19:15.
* [18:17] The church: the second of the only two instances of this word in the gospels; see
note on Mt 16:18. Here it refers not to the entire church of Jesus, as in Mt 16:18, but to the local congregation. Treat him... a Gentile or a tax collector: just as the observant Jew avoided the company of Gentiles and tax collectors, so must the congregation of Christian disciples separate itself from the arrogantly sinful member who refuses to repent even when convicted of his sin by the whole church. Such a one is to be set outside the fellowship of the community. The harsh language about Gentile and tax collector probably re ects a stage of the Matthean church when it was principally composed of Jewish Christians. That time had long since passed, but the principle of exclusion for such a sinner remained. Paul makes a similar demand for excommunication in 1 Cor 5:1–13.
* [18:18] Except for the plural of the verbs bind and loose, this verse is practically identical with Mt 16:19b and many scholars understand it as granting to all the disciples what was previously given to Peter alone. For a di erent view, based on the di erent contexts of the two verses, see note on Mt 16:19.
* [18:19–20] Some take these verses as applying to prayer on the occasion of the church’s gathering to deal with the sinner of Mt 18:17. Unless an a fortiori argument is supposed, this seems unlikely. God’s answer to the prayer of two or three envisages a di erent situation from one that involves the entire congregation. In addition, the object of this prayer is expressed in most general terms as anything for which they are to pray.
* [18:20] For where two or three... midst of them: the presence of Jesus guarantees the e cacy of the prayer. This saying is similar to one attributed to a rabbi executed in A.D. 135 at the time of the second Jewish revolt: “. . .When two sit and there are between them the words of the Torah, the divine presence (Shekinah) rests upon them” (Pirqê ’Abôt 3, 3).
* [18:21–35] The nal section of the discourse deals with the forgiveness that the disciples are to give to their fellow disciples who sin against them. To the question of Peter how often forgiveness is to be granted (Mt 18:21), Jesus answers that it is to be given without limit (Mt 18:22) and illustrates this with the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt 18:23–34), warning that his heavenly Father will give those who do not forgive the same treatment as that given to the unmerciful servant (Mt 18:35). Mt 18:21–22 correspond to Lk 17:4; the parable and the nal warning are peculiar to Matthew. That the parable did not originally belong to this context is suggested by the fact that it really does not deal with repeated forgiveness, which is the point of Peter’s question and Jesus’ reply.
* [18:22] Seventy-seven times: the Greek corresponds exactly to the LXX of Gn 4:24. There is probably an allusion, by contrast, to the limitless vengeance of Lamech in the Genesis text. In any case, what is demanded of the disciples is limitless forgiveness.
* [18:24] A huge amount: literally, “ten thousand talents.”The talent was a unit of coinage of high but varying value depending on its metal (gold, silver, copper) and its place of origin. It is mentioned in the New Testament only here and in Mt 25:14–30.
* [18:26] Pay you back in full: an empty promise, given the size of the debt.