The ancient Greek word "ὠδίς" ≈ "birth pains, travail, anguish".

The ancient Greek word "παράδοσις" ≈ "transmission, transfer" and comes from two Greek words.

• "παρα" ≈ "beyond".
• "δόσις" ≈ "giving, gift, dose of medicine" and is the source of the English word "dose".

In context, it can mean "tradition" as something "transmitted" or "handed over" from generation to generation as in "beyond" the current generation.

The "traditions" of men that form man's additions to God's law is what Jesus refers to as "jots" as "opinions" or "spots" and "tittles" as "horns" or "rules". These are usually enforced, deceptively, using "oaths".

More: Going beyond the prefix para

More: Matthew 5:18 The true reality of jots and tittles

More: Matthew 5:33-37 Reasoning about oaths - yes no

More: Matthew 15:1-21 Blind leading the blind

Who will do the "delivering" or "turning over" or "betraying" (same word in Greek)? The Latin word "trado" ≈ "hand over, betray" (verb) and is the source, through French, of the English word "traitor" (noun).

☐ civil powers (worldly places)
☐ religious powers (heavenly places)

The Greek word translated as "nations" is that of "peoples". Great "persecution" and "hatred" will result.

The ancient Greek word "ἀποκτείνω" ≈ "kill, slay" and can be figurative instead of a physical action.

More: Matthew 22:1-14 Parable of the wedding feast

The ancient Greek word "θλῖψις" ≈ "pressure" and, figuratively, "oppression", "affliction", etc. Might this include peer "pressure"? [without peer, heron birds]
The Latin word "tribulare" ≈ "press, thresh" and is the source, through French, of the English word "tribulation".

Can we then relate "pressure", "affliction", "oppression" and "tribulation", from the Latin word for "pressure"?

The figurative meaning of "θλῖψις" ≈ "pressure" is the same as the literal meaning of the ancient Greek word "πονηρός" ≈ "oppressed by toils" and which comes from the ancient Greek word "πονέω" ≈ "to toil, labor". Think "oppression", including "oppressing" oneself, and which comes from wanting to be "great" (at the expense of others, or yourself). This is the word often translated as "evil".

Thus, "evil" and "tribulation" and "affliction" have related meanings.

The ancient Greek word "ἀποκτείνω" ≈ "kill, slay" and can be figurative instead of a physical action. When Jesus uses the word "kill" in this verse, which of the following is intended?

☐ A physical "killing" of the body.
☐ A spiritual "killing" of the soul.

Which of these is to be "feared"? Is there another way to look at the meaning of this verse?

Can your "soul" be "pressured" through "deception"? How about "tradition"? How about through "rewards"?

Jesus tells us that the "body" and the "soul" are different. Jesus tells us who we should "fear" and it is not "fear" about the cares and concerns of this world. The most dangerous attacks are not from the outside but from the inside and involve deception.

One cannot "destroy the soul" by "killing" the body is in persecution (e.g., by the Roman administrations). The primary way to "destroy" the "soul" is through deception so that you "sell yourself out" or are "sold out".

Jesus provides an example in the next verse.

More: Matthew 10:26-27 The fear deception: focus on friends rather than Jesus

Discuss:

• How might "sparrows" (birds of the evil one) deceive to "destroy the soul" in order to achieve "earthly gain" (money) by "selling out"?
• Do "sparrows" succeed because those being deceived do not "understand"? This is what Jesus says of the birds in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13.
• Have those "deceived" separated themselves from the love of Christ?



More: Matthew 10: 28-31 Taking care of the sparrows

Alternate paraphrase (using Greek meanings and play on words): Then shall they tradition (hand over) you into (peer and deceptive) pressure (affliction) and shall kill you (your soul, through deception) and you shall be hatefully rewarded under all those peoples through the (deceptive use of) my name.

• Did Jesus warn about false teachers using his name and other deceptions in this discourse?
• Why might this verse be related to those false teachers (and followers) and deceptions?

The famous ambush line from Star Wars by Admiral Ackbar is "It's a trap!". For backpacks, "It's a strap!".

The ancient Greek word "σκάνδαλον" ≈ "trap, snare" as in entice, tempt, etc. The KJV often translates this as "offended" the Greek word that means to "entrap".

A deception may not be detected until it is too late. A con or confidence artist gets ones' confidence and then springs the trap.

A false prophet may deceive with "idle words" which are words that do not work for Christ. Do pastors do this when they mislead or waste time in a sermon rather than preaching words that work for Christ?

More: Matthew 12:30-37 Pardon the idle word counting

More: A snare laced by a lasso string

In the Greek, the word for "snare" or "trap" is the same as the Greek word for "sandal" except for a Greek "κ" (kappa).

• The ancient Greek word "σκάνδαλον" ≈ "snare, trap, temptation" and is the source of the English word "scandal" (with a different meaning).
• The ancient Greek word "σάνδαλον" ≈ "sandal" and is the source of the English word "sandal".

How might a "shoe" relate to "entrapment"?

How might a "sandal", is in the book of Ruth, be related to an "oath"?

More: Oaths and vows and wells

More: Matthew 5:33-37 Reasoning about oaths - yes no

More: Matthew 11:6: Idiomatic misinterpretations that offend

These are "similar" "others".

• As translated/Greek: And then many shall be offended/entrapped and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.
• Play on words: And then shall many be entrapped/sandaled and shall tradition one another and shall reward one another.

How would the "many" be "entrapped"? Check the next and other verses in this discourse. Can one be "entrapped" through "traditions" and "rewards"?

The ancient Greek word "ψυχρός" ≈ "cold, frigid, cold-hearted". A figurative meaning is that of "ineffectual". Could this be a play on words with "life"?

• "ψῦχος" ≈ "cold" and is related via PIE (Proto Indo-European) to the English word "frigid".
• "ψυχρός" ≈ "cold, frigid, cold-hearted".
• "ψυχρου" ≈ "cold" as used in the verse.

A modern day English idiom is that of giving someone a "douse of cold water" as in a "taste of reality". The Greek word for "truth" is that of "reality" as in not "oblivion". This is not the same as trying to walk through "sinking" "sands".

More: Matthew 23:25-26 Cleaning the cup and bowl

More: Greek truth as reality

The Greek word for "cold" can be a play on words with the Greek word for "life".

• "ψῦχος" ≈ "cold" and is related via PIE to the English word "frigid".
• "ψυχή" ≈ "spirit, life" as in the animating principle of human life as a play on words and the first part of the English word "psychology".

If the "water" is "cold" enough, as in "freezing" "cold", than one can walk on "water". Oh, I see (icy). In that case, the "truth" will make you "freeze".

More: Matthew 10:38-42 Commanded to follow in the cross walk

Since this word is used one time in the GNT (Greek New Testament), and by Jesus, it may be a play on words. It could not be found elsewhere.

• "ψῦχος" ≈ "cold" (noun) and "ψύχω" ≈ "make cold" (verb).
• "ψυχῆς" ≈ "spirit, life" (genitive singular) of "ψυχή" ≈ "spirit, life".
• "γη" ≈ "earth".

• The Greek word translated as "called" is part of the Greek word for "church" as in those believers "called out".
• The Greek word translated as "chosen" is that of "elected".

There is an old line, in or about denominational churches (that have a name), that goes as follows.

• Instead of "many are called, but few are chosen",
• the line is "many are cold, a few are frozen".

The line brings to mind the reference to cold and hot in the letter of Jesus to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation.

More: Revelation 3:15-16 Zesty hot and frigid cold

More: Matthew 22:14 Election callings of the chosen elect

More: Matthew 22:1-14 Parable of the wedding feast

The ancient Greek word "τέλος" ≈ "end, purpose, complete". The ancient Greek word "εις" ≈ "into".


That is, one does not need to endure to the "end" of time or "end" of the age or "end" of life. One needs to endure "into" the "purpose". To do that, one needs to insure that one knows the correct "goal" or "purpose" "into" which to "endure".

The "purpose" is similar to the idea of a "goal" or "postcondition" or "result" of "running" the "code" with "data" in computer science.

The Greek word for "endure" is sometimes translated as "patient" and is related to the word for "abide" or "remain".

More: John 1:1-5 Four causes in a design and implementation model

Matthew 24 is known as the Olivet Discourse where Jesus, at the request of the disciples, talks of the End Times or "All of it".

• Matthew 24:1-2 Seeing the cites at the house of the temple
• Matthew 24:3 All of it in the Olivet Discourse
• Matthew 24:4-5 False Christs and all of it
• Matthew 24:6-7 Wars and rumors of wars
•  Matthew 24:8-14 Beginning of sorrows (this page)
• Matthew 24:15-20 Delimiting the boundary of the region of a mountain
• Matthew 24:21-24 Short day cutoff
• Matthew 24:25-31 Told before
• Matthew 24:32-35 End time fig trees
• Matthew 24:37-42 Days of Noah
• Matthew 24:36 Day and hour
• Matthew 24:43 Identity of the householder
• Matthew 24:43-51 Parable of the evil servant

The Olivet Discourse continues into chapter 25.

More: Matthew