Matthew 22 Study Notes

22:1-7 This parable is an allegory of Israel’s history. The king represents God; the son, Jesus; the servants, the prophets and possibly Jesus’s disciples; and the wedding banquet symbolized the great messianic feast that Jews expected to share with Messiah at the beginning of his rule. Those who rejected, persecuted, and murdered the servants represent OT Israel and their rejection of the prophets. The destruction of the city represents God’s judgment on those who refuse to honor his Son. This destruction, like the penalty described in v. 13, portrays eternal punishment but may also hint at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

22:8-12 The guests represent Jesus’s disciples who are invited into the kingdom despite their unworthiness. The improperly dressed guest represents a false disciple (7:15-23). His presence seems initially to honor the Son, but his refusal to wear festive garments dishonors him. Similarly, many false disciples appear to honor Jesus by calling him “Lord,” but their lack of true faith and repentance offends him.

22:13-14 On the guest’s punishment, see note at 8:12. Many people are invited to God’s kingdom, but only those who repent and honor the Son are chosen to enter.

22:15-17 The question was a trap. By expressing approval, Jesus would have seemed to be supporting the Roman occupation. On the other hand, by disapproving, he would have been seen as treasonous against Rome. Matthew mentioned the Herodians only here. Little is known about them. They were probably Jews who preferred the rule of the Herodian dynasty over the rule of Roman procurators.

22:18 On hypocrites, see note at 6:2-4.

22:19 The parallel texts in Mark and Luke refer to the coin as a denarius (see notes at vv. 20-22 and 20:1-7), but Matthew also uses the more precise term for “state coin” (Gk nomisma). This may reflect his background as a tax collector.

22:20-22 The denarius was a Roman silver coin that bore a portrait of Emperor Tiberius, a Latin superscription that said “Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus,” an image of a goddess, and superscripted titles of the Roman high priest. Thus the coins were loaded with propaganda for the worship of emperors and pagan gods, and the Jews considered them to be idolatrous. Jesus approved the payment of taxes to Rome. However, he said that coins ultimately belong to the one whose image it bears, which implied that all a person is and has belongs to God since we bear God’s image and likeness (Gn 1:26-27).

22:23 The Sadducees believed that humans cease to exist at the moment of physical death (Ac 23:6-8; Josephus, Ant. 18.16; War 2.164-65).

22:24-28 The Sadducees appealed to the law of levirate marriage (Dt 25:5) in an attempt to disprove the doctrine of resurrection. Although many first-century Jews practiced polygamy, they generally rejected polyandry (a woman having multiple husbands). The Sadducees tried to force Jesus either to reject the doctrine of resurrection or admit the legitimacy of polyandry.

22:29-33 Like angels, resurrected people will not marry because they are eternal and have no need to procreate. This shows that the dilemma described by the Sadducees is false. The Sadducees accepted only the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) as Scripture, and so they dismissed resurrection texts like Is 26:19 and Dn 12:2. In order to convince them of the resurrection, Jesus needed to appeal to the books they revered. Thus he cited Ex 3:6,15-16, where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and he referred to the dead patriarchs in a manner that implied that they still existed, i.e., I am the God of Abraham rather than “I was the God of Abraham.”

22:34-39 Deuteronomy 6:4-5, known as the Shema, was recited several times daily by faithful Jews.

22:40 Deuteronomy 6:4 and Lv 19:18 summarized the essence of God’s demands in Scripture by calling individuals to love God and their fellow man (Mt 5:43-47).

22:41-42 After having been questioned by his opponents repeatedly (vv. 17,23-28,34-36), Jesus entrapped them with a question of his own. Son was used in ancient Greek and Hebrew to describe any male descendant. Due to several OT prophecies, the Christ was expected to be David’s descendant (see note at 1:1).

22:43-46 Psalm 110:1 describes Yahweh’s command to David’s Lord (Gk kurios; Hb ʼadon). “Lord” was a title of authority and/or deity that portrayed the Christ as David’s divine superior, not just his descendant. Psalm 110:1-4 is quoted more often in the NT than any other OT passage.