Matthew · 34 verses

Matthew 18

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

A servant is forgiven a debt so vast that the arithmetic has plainly gone feral; he then finds a fellow servant owing him a hundred denarii, grabs him by the throat, and sends him to prison.

The child in the middlevv. 1–14

The disciples arrive with a question about rank, and Jesus answers by putting a little child among them—a wonderfully disarming interruption to any discussion of greatness. The child becomes the measure: humility is greatness, welcome is welcome of Jesus, and harm done to the little ones receives the chapter’s most alarming piece of nautical furniture. Then comes the lost sheep, with the shepherd abandoning the tidy ninety-nine on the hills to search for the single wanderer, and rejoicing more over its return.

A brother, a church, and two or threevv. 15–20

The subject turns from wandering sheep to a brother who has done wrong. The matter begins privately, widens to one or two witnesses, and finally reaches the church; even then, refusal remains possible. Jesus gives this small gathering considerable weight: what is bound or loosed on earth is bound or loosed in heaven, and where two or three gather in His name, He is there with them.

The debt that would not stay forgivenvv. 21–35

Peter proposes seven acts of forgiveness, and Jesus answers with seventy-seven, which rather spoils the pleasure of keeping a careful tally. The ensuing king has a servant brought in owing ten thousand talents, orders the man’s sale when payment proves impossible, and then—after the servant begs—does the astonishing thing: he forgives the debt and releases him. Outside, the same servant chokes a fellow servant over a hundred denarii and has him imprisoned. The fellow servants report it; the master summons the man, names the mercy he failed to show, and hands him over to the jailers to be tortured until the debt is repaid.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Matt 18:1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Matt 18:2Jesus invited a little child to stand among them.
Matt 18:3“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 18:4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 18:5And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.
Matt 18:6But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Matt 18:7Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!
Matt 18:8If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.
Matt 18:9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Matt 18:10See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.
Matt 18:12What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?
Matt 18:13And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
Matt 18:14In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
Matt 18:15If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Matt 18:16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Matt 18:17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Matt 18:18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Matt 18:19Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.
Matt 18:20For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”
Matt 18:21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Matt 18:22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!
Matt 18:23Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
Matt 18:24As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him.
Matt 18:25Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
Matt 18:26Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’
Matt 18:27His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him.
Matt 18:28But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’
Matt 18:29So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’
Matt 18:30But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.
Matt 18:31When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.
Matt 18:32Then the master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.
Matt 18:33Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
Matt 18:34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.
Matt 18:35That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

Jesusperson

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 393 passages were voted onto 34 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

20 1 Corinthians 5:4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,
18 Matthew 16:19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
19 Matthew 7:7Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
20 Revelation 21:3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
3 Mark 10:14–15But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
3 1 Peter 2:2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
15 Leviticus 19:17You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.
19 1 John 5:14–16And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
18 2 Corinthians 2:10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake,
19 Mark 11:24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
20 Matthew 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
15 Galatians 6:1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
15 Luke 17:3–4Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
19 John 14:13–14And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
20 Zechariah 2:5For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.’”
15 2 Thessalonians 3:15Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

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