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Matthew 22 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Some translations set each line of poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to make it easier to read. The ULB does this with the poetry in verse 44, which are words from the OT.
Special concepts in this chapter
Wedding Feast
In the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14), Jesus taught that when God offers to save a person, that person needs to to accept the offer. Jesus spoke of life with God as a feast that a king prepares for his son, who has just gotten married. In addition, Jesus emphasized that not everyone whom God invites will properly prepare themselves to come to the feast. God will throw these people out from the feast.
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
Implicit information
Speakers usually do not say things that they think their hearers already understand. When the king in the parable said, "My oxen and fattened calves have been killed" (Matthew 22:4), he assumed that the hearers would understand that those who had killed the animals had also cooked them.
Paradox
A paradox is a statement that appears to describe something impossible. To the Jews, the ancestors were the masters of the descendants, but in one psalm David calls one of his descendants "Lord." Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that this is a paradox, saying, "If David then calls the Christ 'Lord,' how is he David's son?" (Matthew 22:45).