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 25:1-13, Ten young women and the bridegroom
Ten young women wait with their lights for a bridegroom who comes late at night. Five brought extra oil and go in to the feast; five go to buy oil and find the door shut.
Matthew 25:1-13, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus compares the kingdom to ten virgins who take their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five are foolish and bring no extra oil; when he is delayed, all of them sleep, and at midnight the cry goes up that he is coming. The wise will not share their oil and send the others to buy some; while they are gone the bridegroom arrives, the ready go in to the wedding feast and the door is shut, and to the latecomers he says that he does not know them.
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- {"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\/parables\/","n":"Parables and riddles","s":"Short stories that compared one thing to another. Jewish teachers used them to make a point plain, and without the point stated they worked as riddles.","r":""}
Being a bridesmaid was a great honor, and being shut out unprepared was the stuff of young women's nightmares (Keener). Grooms were often late, and their coming was announced again and again until they arrived (Keener). The door could be bolted against the latecomers, and I do not know you was a form of repudiation, treating them as strangers (the cultural backgrounds notes). The sources disagree on whether oil could be bought at midnight: Keener thinks dealers would be hard to find, Blomberg says shops would stay open for a festival, and Bailey says in a village everyone knows everyone, so oil would not be hard to get. Bailey adds, "But women, young and old, always carry lamps." Wilkins takes the lamps as torches, oil-soaked rags in a holder that burned for hours if refilled, not small house lamps.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 25:1-13, 25:2-7 and 25:9-10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 25:11 and 25:12
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 20, The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Young Women
- Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 6.6 The Ten Virgins
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 25:8
