New English Translation
Matthew 12:6
6I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
Matthew 12:6 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
- New International Version (NIV)I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
- English Standard Version (ESV)I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
Context of Matthew 12:6
4how he entered the house of God and they ate the sacred bread, which was against the law for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? 5Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Read all of Matthew 12Matthew 12:6 word by word
λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι τοῦ ἱεροῦ μεῖζόν ἐστιν ὧδε.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Matthew 12:6
- Matthew 12:41The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them – and now, something greater than Jonah is here!
- Matthew 23:17Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
- 2 Chronicles 6:18“God does not really live with humankind on the earth! Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!
- Haggai 2:7I will also shake up all the nations, and they will offer their treasures; then I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord who rules over all.
- Malachi 3:1“I am about to send my messenger, who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.
- John 2:19Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.”
- Ephesians 2:20because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
- Colossians 2:9For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form,
- 1 Peter 2:4So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and priceless in God’s sight,
Commentaries on Matthew 12:6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 6In this place is one greater than the temple - Does not our Lord refer here to Malachi 3:1;? Compare this with Hebrews 3:3. The Jews esteemed nothing greater than the temple, except that God who was worshipped in it. Christ, by asserting he was greater than the temple, asserts that he was God; and this he does, in still more direct terms, Matthew 12:8, The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath - is Institutor and Governor of it. Compare this with Genesis 2:3…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 6One greater than the temple - Here the Saviour refers to himself, and to his own dignity and power. “I have power over the laws; I can grant to my disciples a dispensation from those laws. An act which I command or permit them to do is therefore right.” This proves that he was divine. None but God can authorize people to do a thing contrary to the divine laws. He refers them again Matthew 12:7 to a passage he had before quoted (See the notes at Matthew…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 5-6Priests worked on the Sabbath (Leviticus 24:8–9; Numbers 28:9–10), and the Pharisees did not find this offensive. If the priests’ work for the temple on the Sabbath is allowed, then certainly Jesus can do the same because he is greater than the temple (see Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 11:2–6, 20–30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 66. But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple--or rather, according to the reading which is best supported, "something greater." The argument stands thus: "The ordinary rules for the observance of the sabbath give way before the requirements of the temple; but there are rights here before which the temple itself must give way." Thus indirectly, but not the less decidedly, does our Lord put in His own claims to consideration in…Read the comment
Topics related to Matthew 12:6
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Matthew 12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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