Matthew 25:31-46
25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
25:33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
25:34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
25:35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
25:38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
25:39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
25:42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
25:43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
25:44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
25:45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
[31]῞Οταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ἄγγελοι μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ, τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ,
[32]καὶ συναχθήσεται ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἀφοριεῖ αὐτοὺς ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων,
[33]καὶ στήσει τὰ μὲν πρόβατα ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, τὰ δὲ ἐρίφια ἐξ εὐωνύμων.
[34]τότε ἐρεῖ ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ· δεῦτε οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου.
[35]ἐπείνασα γάρ, καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα, καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, ξένος ἤμην, καὶ συνηγάγετέ με,
[36]γυμνός, καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα, καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν φυλακῇ ἤμην, καὶ ἤλθετε πρός με.
[37]τότε ἀποκριθήσονται αὐτῷ οἱ δίκαιοι λέγοντες· κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα καὶ ἐθρέψαμεν, ἢ διψῶντα καὶ ἐποτίσαμεν;
[38]πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ξένον καὶ συνηγάγομεν, ἢ γυμνὸν καὶ περιεβάλομεν;
[39]πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ἀσθενῆ ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ, καὶ ἤλθομεν πρός σε;
[40]καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐρεῖ αὐτοῖς· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε.
[41]τότε ἐρεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἐξ εὐωνύμων· πορεύεσθε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ οἱ κατηραμένοι εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ.
[42]ἐπείνασα γάρ, καὶ οὐκ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα, καὶ οὐκ ἐποτίσατέ με,
[43]ξένος ἤμην, καὶ οὐ συνηγάγετέ με, γυμνός, καὶ οὐ περιεβάλετέ με, ἀσθενὴς καὶ ἐν φυλακῇ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με.
[44]τότε ἀποκριθήσονται αὐτῷ καὶ αὐτοὶ λέγοντες· κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα ἢ διψῶντα ἢ ξένον ἢ γυμνὸν ἢ ἀσθενῆ ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ, καὶ οὐ διηκονήσαμέν σοι;
[45]τότε ἀποκριθήσεται αὐτοῖς λέγων· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον οὐκ ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, οὐδὲ ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε.
[46]καὶ ἀπελεύσονται οὗτοι εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον, οἱ δὲ δίκαιοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
Comments
The shepherd-king who will also be a judge is the protagonist of this passage. The shepherd-king, ‘the shepherd of peoples’ metaphor can be traced to Sumer and Akkad in the 3rd millennium (M. L. West, The east face of Helicon, Oxford, 1997, p. 227), and is reflected in Homer’s λαῶν ποιμήν (used of Agamemnon, Nestor, Hector, etc.) and in the OT. The meaning of the plural ἔθνη (v. 32) is crucial, as experts observe.
[32] τὰ ἔθνη: ἔθνος, τό, a collective noun, in Homer, ‘band’, ‘host’, ‘tribe’, ‘flock’; after Homer, ‘nation, people’; from Aristotle onwards, τὰ ἔθνη has a special sense, ‘foreign nations’, hence ‘barbarians’ (as opp. to Hellenes); by analogy in LXX, ‘Gentiles’. But in LXX the pl. τὰ ἔθνη can also generically mean ‘nations’ including Israel. See LSJ, s.v. 2, a-b; Muraoka s.v., c.
The basic meaning ‘group’, ‘swarm’, ‘flock’ inheres in the parable’s imagery of sheep and goats.
τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων: πρόβατον, τό, usu. in pl., ‘cattle’ (in archaic & cl. Gk); but in cl. Attic Gk (Athenian), almost always, ‘sheep’, as here (LSJ s.v.). Cf. the vb προ-βαίνω, ‘step forward’.
ἔριφος, ὁ, ‘goat’ (in koine); in Homer, ‘kid’. τὰ δὲ ἐρίφια (v. 33) < ἐρίφιον, diminutive of ἔριφος.
The attitudes of Sarakatsan shepherds in the mountains of n.w. Greece may offer suggestive parallels. According to the anthropologist John Campbell, these shepherds reckon sheep to be ‘peculiarly God’s animals…Sheep are docile, enduring, pure, and intelligent’.[1] Goats are the opposite of sheep, and associated with sensuality, the Devil, and women. (Might this conception be based ultimately on Matthew’s pericope? But the pericope in turn reflects popular notions among Judaean pastoralists in Jesus’ time.) As Campbell states, ‘’Women and goats are conceptually opposed to men and sheep. Goats are unable to resist pain in silence, they are cunning and insatiate feeders. Greed and cunning are important characteristics of the Devil… as animals they [goats] are despised…women rather than men care for the goats… they alone are responsible for building the goat-pen,… always for milking the goats…’[2]
[33] ἐκ δεξιῶν… ἐξ εὐωνύμων: δεξιός, ά, όν, ‘on the right hand’ (already in Homer); ‘fortunate, auspicious’, esp. of the flight of birds [in augury] and other omens (see LSJ s.v.). Prob. the adj. is derived from δέχομαι (δέκομαι), ‘I greet, welcome’ (Chantraine s.v. δεξιός). ἐκ δεξιῶν is an adverbial formula as is ἐξ εὐωνύμων. εὐώνυμος, ‘of good name, honoured’ (in Hesiod, etc.); a euphemism, as here, for ‘left, on the left hand’ because ill omens came from the left (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. III).
Sheep are to goats as right is to left. As has been remarked, ‘In many cultures, the right hand or right side of the body is symbolically associated with good and the left hand or left side with evil. Right may also symbolize male, and left, female, etc.’[3] This tallies with the symbolic valuation of sheep and goats in Mt.
[34] οἱ εὐλογημένοι: pf. pass. part. < εὐλογῶ (έω), lit., ‘I speak well of, praise’ (cl. GK: LSJ). The part. here reflects LXX usage, ‘blessed’ (cf. Muraoka s.v.).
[35] ἤμην: koine for ἦν, impf., ‘I was’.
[36] ἐπεσκέψασθέ με: ἐπισκέπτομαι, ‘visit and care for’ (cf. EDNT s.v., p. 33.
[1] J. K. Campbell, Honour, family, and patronage, A study of institutions and moral values in a Greek mountain community, Oxford, 1964, p. 26.
[2] Campbell op. cit., 31.
[3] Routledge encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology, eds A. Barnarrd & J. Spencer, London & NY, 1996, p.620 s.v. ‘right and left’.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 