matthew-7:13-14

Rock (4073) (petra feminine of the masculine noun petros) refers to a massive rock, a large expanse of bedrock or a great outcropping of rock. Vine distinguishes petra as a "mass of rock" from the masculine petros which refers to a detached stone or boulder, including a stone that might be thrown or... Read More

Shepherd (4165) (poimaino from poimen = shepherd) was one who tended flocks like a shepherd and who carried out oversight, protecting, leading, encouraging, discipling, guarding, guiding and feeding ("feed and lead"). Here Peter applies this agricultural term metaphorically to church leaders who wer... Read More

Sabbath rest (4520) (sabbatismos from sabbatízo = keep the Sabbath) literally means a keeping of a sabbath or a keeping of days of rest. It is used in this passage not in the literal sense (meaning to keep a specific day, the "Sabbath" day) but to describe a period of rest for God’s people which is ... Read More

Scattered (1290) (diaspora noun form of diaspeiro from dia = through + speiro = sow, scatter seed) literally means "through a sowing". "Speiro" is the derivative from which sperma the Greek word for “seed” comes. All this to say that diaspora indicates a scattering abroad which is a technical term t... Read More

Sin (266) (hamartia) literally conveys the idea of missing the mark as when hunting with a bow and arrow (in Homer some hundred times of a warrior hurling his spear but missing his foe). Later hamartia came to mean missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose. Hamartia in the Bible sig... Read More

Stroke (KJV = tittle) (2762) (keraia from kéras = a horn) means something horn-like and is specifically the apex, point or extremity of a Hebrew letter, these small marks helping to distinguish one Hebrew letter from another. Keraia was a small extension of a letter similar to a serif (any of the sh... Read More

Teach (1321) (didasko from dáo= know or teach; English = didactic; see study of related noun didaskalia and the adjective didaktikos) means to provide instruction or information in a formal or informal setting. In the 97 NT uses of didasko the meaning is virtually always to teach or instruct, althou... Read More

Teaching (1322) (didache from didasko = to give instruction in a formal or informal setting with the highest possible development of the pupil as the goal; English = didactic = intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive) is a noun which describes the activity o... Read More

Transgression (3900) (paraptoma from para = aside + pipto = fall) is literally a falling aside or beside to stumble on something (so as to loose footing) and in its figurative ethical usage (all uses in the NT) it describes a "false step", a violation of moral standards or a deviation from living ac... Read More

"Enter in at the strait gate." Matthew 7:13 All truly valuable things cost much. Such a glorious privilege as the Christian's, therefore, cannot be gotten without effort. To open the way, and to purchase for us the privilege of becoming children of God — the Son of God had to come from Heaven in con... Read More