Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 22:1-14, The king's wedding feast
A king's invited guests refuse to come to his son's wedding and kill his messengers. He burns their city, fills the hall with people from the roads, and throws out a guest without wedding clothes.
Matthew 22:1-14, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus compares the kingdom to a king who gives a wedding feast for his son. The invited guests will not come when called; some go off to their farms and businesses, others seize and kill the king's servants, and the king sends troops to destroy them and burn their city. He then has his servants bring in everyone they find, good and bad, but when he sees a man without wedding clothes he has him bound and thrown into the outer darkness: many are called, but few are chosen.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/betrothal-and-weddings\/","n":"Betrothal and the wedding feast","s":"A betrothal was a binding marriage contract made months before the couple lived together. The wedding that completed it was a week-long feast.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messianic-banquet\/","n":"The banquet of the age to come","s":"The feast Jews expected God to spread for the righteous when his kingdom came, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the table.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jerusalem-destroyed-ad-70\/","n":"The war with Rome and the fall of Jerusalem","s":"In AD 66 Judea rose against Rome. By AD 70 Roman armies had starved and burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and sacrificed to their standards where it had stood.","r":""}
In rabbinic parables God was often a king whose son stood for Israel, and the setting was often the son's wedding feast (Keener). The guests had already accepted the first invitation, so refusing the second call was a deliberate insult, and in the cultural backgrounds notes' words, "Refusal to accept a banquet invitation insulted the inviter; insulting a king was treason." The meat was already killed and would spoil (the cultural backgrounds notes; Bailey). Messengers were protected by universal custom, and a king's servants stood for his person, so abusing them was a declaration of revolt (Keener). The burned city probably alludes to Jerusalem in AD 70 (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Carson, Moo and Morris answer that burning a city is the standard language, in the Old Testament and the Roman world, of punitive expeditions against rebellious cities, so the verse need not show knowledge of what happened in 70; refusing such a king's invitation, they add, smacked of rebellion. Blomberg defends the story as coherent and realistic, though many read it as Matthew's reworking of the banquet parable in Luke 14. There is some evidence of kings supplying festal clothes to guests (Genesis 45:22; Esther 6:8-9; Wilkins).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 22:1-2, 22:3, 22:5, 22:6, 22:7 and 22:11-13
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 22:2, 22:3, 22:4, 22:6, 22:7 and 22:11
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 24, The Parable of the Great Banquet
- Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 7.5 The Great Supper
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 2, Matthew, section Date
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 22:11
