THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Chapter 10: Overview
Reading 9,35-10,4 together means that we can see the final verses of chapter 9 building up to verse 38 and Jesus' prayer for labourers to be sent into the harvest. This is immediately followed by the summoning of labourers as chapter 10 opens with Jesus giving his twelve disciples authority for their new mission. The twelve are then named in verses 2-4. Thus 9,35-10,4 are best read together.
However, we can note that 10,1 and 11,1 both speak of "his twelve disciples" thus forming a bracket around the chapter as a whole. 10,5 refers simply to the twelve.
The discourse therefore opens in 10,5 and ends in 11,1 with the usual closure for the discourses "when Jesus had finished giving these commands..."
(This follows the NABRE. NRSV and RNJB use "instructing" in both 10,5 and 11,1. As we will see, the Greek has different words in these verses.)
The marker for the parts of the discourse is the triple "Amen I say to you..." in verses 15,23 and 42. This is the solemn conclusion by Jesus which divides the discourse into three parts.
The first conclusion with "Amen, I say to you", comes in verse 15. This is followed by verse 16 which begins "Behold..." That makes 10,5-15 the first part of the discourse and thus a page for our reading. Here Jesus is giving the twelve instructions for their mission.
Verse 16 thus begins "Behold" while verse 23 concludes "Amen, I say to you". These verses are dominated by the pronoun "you". Thus 10,16-23 is the second part of the discourse and will our second, rather short, page.
The third part is then 10,24-42, again concluding with "Amen, I say to you". We will look at its development more closely in due course. We can note here that it begins by mentioning "disciple" in verses 24 and 25 and concludes with "disciple" in verse 42. The word does not appear in between. Apart from verse 40, "you" does not occur in these verses.
Verses 24 and 25 are therefore the first section of this part, setting the theme.
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The middle section of this part is formed by the triple repetition of "do not be afraid" in verses 26-31.
Verse 32 is then addressed to "everyone who..." and continues with "whoever..." nine times. Thus the third section is formed of verses 32-42.
Finally, we will include 11,1 here because it concludes the discourse.
It will be best to read this third part together so as to bring out its unity, even though it makes our third page rather long.
As a result, we now have four pages for our reading of this chapter:
- 9,35-10,4: Shepherds for the Sheep
- 10,5-15: Lost Sheep
- 10,16-23: Sheep among wolves
- 10,24-11,1: Disciples like their teacher
You will find that verses 24 and 25 are frequently included with the preceeding verses, 10,16-23. I have not seen an explanation for this. I would comment that the Amen phrase in verse 23 is a conclusion and then "you" does not appear in the two verses. From what we saw above, these verses are best read as an introduction to what follows.
Sunday Gospels
The Gospel for the 11th Sunday is 9,36-10,8, more or less our first page.
The Gospel for the 12th Sunday is 10,26-33, giving a big gap (10,9-25) between the two Sundays.
And the Gospel for the 13th Sunday is 10,37-42, with a smaller gap (10,34-36).
Thus much of the third part of the discourse, 10,24-42 is read over two Sundays
We can note now and consider as we read how the Sunday Gospels cut across the development of the discourse that we have seen.
Now return so we can begin our reading of the chapter.