When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.[1] 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”[2]
4 He answered, “Haven’t you read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command a man to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”[3]
8 He said to them, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not that way from the beginning. 9 And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife — except for forbidden sex — and marries another woman commits adultery. And the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to him, “If that’s how it stands between a husband and wife, it’s better not to marry.”
11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching — only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who can accept this accept it.”[4]
13 Then people brought little children to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and don’t stop them — the kingdom of heaven belongs to ones like these.” 15 And after he laid his hands on them, he went on from there.
16 Now a man came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?”
17 Jesus said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man asked.
Jesus said, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. 19 Honor your father and mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all of these. What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be complete, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 But when the young man heard this, he went away upset, because he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I tell you, it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”[5]
25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
27 Then Peter answered him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Amen, I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.[6] 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Notes
Note 1. “Beyond the Jordan” points to Perea, the strip of land east of the Jordan River. In Jesus’ day it was not part of Judea proper but was governed by Herod Antipas, the same ruler who executed John the Baptist. It was a common route for Galilean pilgrims heading south, letting travelers skirt Samaria. ↩
Note 2. The phrasing echoes a live dispute among the rabbis, set out in the Mishnah (Gittin 9:10). The school of Shammai held that a man could divorce his wife only over “a matter of forbidden sexual intercourse”; the school of Hillel allowed it for a minor fault, the Mishnah’s example being a wife who burned or over-salted his dish. Rabbi Akiva went further still — even finding a better-looking woman would do. ↩
Note 3. This refers to the written document Jewish law required a husband to give his wife to end a marriage, later known as a get. Written on the husband’s instruction, its core declared the woman free to remarry, and it served as her legal proof that she was no longer bound. ↩
Note 4. One Greek root runs through the whole verse: the noun eunouchos — which English took over, through Latin, as “eunuch” — and the verb built from it, eunouchizō, “to make a eunuch of.” The noun heads all three clauses; the second and third add the verb. The word is usually derived from eunē, “bed,” and echein, “to keep,” and it named a position as much as a bodily condition: castrated men served as court officials, guards, and household stewards across the ancient Near East. Greek had blunter words for the act itself — Paul uses one at Galatians 5:12 — and none of them appears here. The verb used here occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. ↩
Note 5. A popular explanation claims “the eye of the needle” was a low gate in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through on its knees. There is no historical evidence such a gate existed; the idea appears only in medieval commentary. A camel was the largest animal in common use in the region; a needle’s eye, among the smallest openings in daily life. ↩
Note 6. The Greek word here is palingenesia, meaning a rebirth or making-new. Stoic philosophers used the same term for the periodic re-creation of the whole cosmos, so it carried a sweeping sense of the world being remade rather than merely repaired. The only other place it appears in the New Testament describes personal spiritual renewal. ↩