But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!
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Matthew 16:2-3 sits inside this longer paragraph.
The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times! An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them, and departed.
Parallel Translations
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But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!
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He answered and sayde vnto the. At even ye saye we shall have fayre wedder and that because the skye is reed:
and in the morninge ye saye to daye shalbe foule wedder and that because the skye is cloudy and reed. O ye ypocrites ye can discerne the fassion of the skye: and can ye not discerne the signes of the tymes?
Show all 3 translations
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But he answered, and said vnto them, When it is euening, ye say, Faire wether: for ye skie is red.
And in the morning ye say, To day shall be a tempest: for the skie is red and lowring. O hypocrites, ye can discerne the face of the skie, and can ye not discerne the signes of the times?
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (11)
- Luke 12:56 (v3) You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time?
- 1 Chronicles 12:32 (v3) Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all…
- Matthew 11:5 (v3) the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news…
- Luke 12:54-56 (v2) He said to the multitudes also, “When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens.…
- Luke 13:15 (v3) Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead…
Show all 11 cross-references
- Matthew 4:23 (v3) Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every…
- Matthew 7:5 (v3) You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.
- Matthew 15:7 (v3) You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
- Matthew 22:18 (v3) But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?
- Matthew 23:13 (v3) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- Luke 11:44 (v3) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (15 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v3 The outward show and countenance as it were of…
The outward show and countenance as it were of all things, is called in the Hebrews’ tongue, a face.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–3 2 He answered and said unto them, When it…
2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
Ver. 2. When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair, &c.] q.d. Are you so weatherwise (which yet is not your profession)? are ye so skilful in nature, and yet so ignorant of Scripture, as not to know that now is the time for the Messiah to come, and that I am he? Surely you are either notorious sots, or deep dissemblers, or both, in seeming so curiously to search after the truth, which yet you neither care to know, nor obey.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v2 You can, saith our Saviour, make observations upon the…
You can, saith our Saviour, make observations upon the works of God in nature and common providence, and from such observations you can make conclusions; if you see the sky red in the evening, you can conclude from thence that the morrow will be fair, because you think that the redness of the sky at night speaks the clouds thin and the air pure; and on the other side, the redness of it in the morning speaks the clouds thick, so as the sun cannot disperse them; or because you observe that generally it so proveth, though nothing be more mutable than the air. But you cannot
discern the signs of the times: you are only dull at making observations upon the Scriptures, and the will of God revealed in them concerning me. You might observe that all the signs of the Messias are fulfilled in me: I was born of a virgin, as was prophesied by Isaiah, Isa 7:14; in Bethlehem Judah, as was prophesied by Micah, Mic 5:2; at a time when the sceptre was departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from his feet, as was prophesied by Jacob, Gen 49:10; that John the Baptist is come in the power and spirit of Elias, to prepare my way before me, as was prophesied by Malachi, Mal 4:5; that there is one come, who openeth the eyes of the blind, and unstops the ears of the deaf, and maketh the lame to leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing, according to the prophecy, Isa 35:5,6. All these are the signs of the time when the Messiah was to come; but these things you cannot discern, but, like a company of hypocrites, who pretend one thing and do another, you come and ask a sign, that you might believe in me, when you have so many, and yet will not believe.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–3 He answered and said unto them,.... Knowing full well…
He answered and said unto them,.... Knowing full well their views, and having wrought sufficient miracles to confirm his Messiahship, he thought fit to give them no other answer than this:
when it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red; when the sun is setting, it is a common thing for you to say, looking up to the heavens, and observing the face and colour of them, that it is like to be fair weather; no rain, that night, nor perhaps the next day, for the sky is red like fire, through the rays of the sun; which show the clouds to be very thin, and so will soon waste away, and consequently fine weather must follow.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Luke xii, 54.
Luke xii, 54.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Verse 2. When it is evening] There are certain…
Verse 2. When it is evening] There are certain signs of fair and foul weather, which ye are in the constant habit of observing, and which do not fail. - The signs of the times: the doctrine which I preach, and the miracles which I work among you, are as sure signs that the day-spring from on high has visited you for your salvation; but if ye refute to hear, and continue in darkness, the red and gloomy cloud of vindictive justice shall pour out such a storm of wrath upon you as shalt sweep you from the face of the earth.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v2 Mat 16:2-3. He answered, When it is evening, &c.…
Mat 16:2-3. He answered, When it is evening, &c. — As if he had said, It is evident you ask this out of a desire to cavil rather than to discern the divine will, for in other cases you take up with degrees of evidence far short of those which you here reject: as for instance, you know that a red sky in the evening is a presage of fair weather, and a red and lowering sky in the morning, of foul weather; thus ye can discern the face of the sky, and form from thence very probable conjectures concerning the weather; but can ye not discern the signs of the times — The signs which evidently show that this is the time of the Messiah? The proofs which Jesus was daily giving them by his wonderful works, his holy and beneficent conduct, and heavenly doctrine, of his divine mission, were more than sufficient to establish it; and, had the Pharisees been possessed of any candour at all, or any inclination to know the truth, they could not have been at a loss to judge in this matter, especially, as in ordinary affairs they showed abundance of acuteness. The truth is, as our Lord here signified, their not acknowledging him as the Messiah was neither owing to want of evidence, nor to want of capacity to judge of that evidence; but to their self- confidence and pride, and their carnal and worldly spirit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–3 2-5. Our Lord, in his answer, endeavours to reveal…
2-5. Our Lord, in his answer, endeavours to reveal to these Jews their own gross state of mind. They can appreciate, to be sure, physical and glaring signs in the heavens. But there is a higher moral heavens, in which God hangs out his spiritual tokens, to which they are blind.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On v3 3. the face of the sky] Perhaps Jesus and…
3. the face of the sky] Perhaps Jesus and his questioners were looking across the lake towards the cliffs of Gergesa, with the sky red from the reflected sunset. In Luke the signs are “a cloud rising in the west” and the blowing of the “south wind.”
the signs of the times] Which point in many ways to the fulfilment of prophecy, and to the presence of Christ among men.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v2 (2) When it is evening, ye say, It will…
(2) When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather.—It is remarkable that some of the best MSS., including the Vatican and Sinaitic, omit the whole of these suggestive words. We can hardly think of them, however, looking to their singular originality of form, as interpolated by a later transcriber, and have therefore to ask how we can explain the omission. They are not found in St. Mark, and this in itself shows that there were some reports of our Lord’s answer to the Pharisees in which they did not appear. Possibly the transcriber in this case was unable to read their meaning, and the same feeling, or the wish to bring the reports in the two Gospels into closer agreement with each other, may have influenced the writers of the two MSS. in question. Turning (1) to the words as they stand in the received text, we note, as to their form, that the insertion of the words in italics somewhat mars the colloquial abruptness of the original, “Fair weather, for the sky is red”; and (2) that the use of “sky,” instead of “heaven,” hides the point of the answer. “You watch the heaven,” He in substance answers, “and are weather-wise as to coming storm or sunshine. If your eyes were open to watch the signs of the spiritual firmament, you would find tokens enough of the coming sunshine of God’s truth, the rising of the day-spring from on high—tokens enough, also, of the darkness of the coming storm, the ‘foul weather’ of God’s judgments.” Even the fact that the redness of the sky is the same in both cases is not without its significance. The flush, the glow, the excitement that pervaded men’s minds, was at once the prognostic of a brighter day following on that which was now closing, and the presage of the storm and tempest in which that day should end.
It is a singular instance of the way in which the habit of minute criticism stunts or even kills the power of discernment which depends on imagination, that Strauss should have looked on words so full of profound and suggestive meaning as “absolutely unintelligible” (Leben Jesu, II. viii. p. 85).
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In the outward framework of the parable the weather-signs of Palestine seem to have been the same as those of England. The clear red evening sky is a prophecy of a bright morning. The morning red—not “red” simply, but with the indescribable threatening aspect implied in “lowering,” the frown of the sky, as it were (comp. Mar_10:22, where the same word is rendered “grieved”)—makes men look for storms.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–3 The paragraph consisting of this and ver. 3 is…
The paragraph consisting of this and ver. 3 is omitted by many good manuscripts, probably owing to its similarity to the passage in Mat_12:38. These verses are most probably genuine; and they certainly could not have been foisted into the text from Luk_12:54-56. The circumstances are too different, and the variations too marked, to make such interpolation probable. When it is evening. The Pharisees had demanded a sign from heaven; Jesus points to the western glow in the sky, and taunts them with being ready enough to read the signs of the weather, but slow to interpret proofs of more important circumstances. He does not, in the case of these mixed cavillers, argue from Scripture, but from the natural world, and he points out that, had they eyes to see and a mind to discern, they might mark tokens in historical events, in the moral and spiritual world, which attested his Messiahship as clearly as any specially given sign from heaven. Ye say, It will be fair weather (eudia). Probably an exclamation, Ye say, Fair weather! Rabbinical schools made a point of teaching weather lore; prognostications on this subject were greatly in vogue, and the rains of the coming year were annually foretold. On such meteorological observations, we may refer to Virgil, "Georg," 1:425, etc.; and Pliny, "Nat. Hist.," 18:35 and 78.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v2 2, 3. Ye cannot discern the signs of the…
2, 3. Ye cannot discern the signs of the times. They could read the weather, but were blind to the events (signs of the times) that showed the fulfillment of prophecy, the end of the Jewish dispensation, and the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v2 Christ’s reply:
Christ’s reply:
v. 2. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red.
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v. 3. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Christ was deeply grieved over their duplicity, since they made their request sound reasonable before the people, as though they wanted to establish His Messiahship, whereas their real reason was blasphemy. Under no circumstances did they intend to believe on Him, Mar 8:12. The Jews were careful observers of the weather. They knew very well the common signs indicating fair and foul weather. Constant and careful watching had taught them to regard a murky and lowering morning sky as a sure sign of an approaching rainstorm, while a red sunset caused them to expect fine weather for the next day. But—skill in observing the signs of the weather; dullness and foolishness in spiritual matters! They knew not the times of their visitation, Luk 19:44. They did not recognize, and refused to accept, Jesus as the Messiah, in spite of the many signs and wonders He had done in their midst. And so the signs of His entire ministry, of His life and death, which were originally intended to invite them into the kingdom of God, would now serve to harden their hearts all the more, thus bringing about their damnation. The ability to judge, distinguish, in spiritual matters was blunted. A constant abuse of their spiritual powers and faculties had resulted in their being much like mechanical toys, or like actors that repeat their lines and make their proper gestures at the indicated places, without entering into the identity of the character whom they represent. "He says thus: Those signs of the sky ye understand; why understand ye not these signs which are done for your salvation, if ye believe, or for your perdition, if ye do not believe? For ye now have a pleasant evening, from which ye may have hope concerning a future salutary and bright day; upon this will follow a murky morning, on which ye may expect eternal damnation. For My signs, and this time of grace and the wrath to come, are not less plain, and shine as brightly as the sky itself with his evening and morning; if ye would but look into the prophets that prophesy of this time, and look at things properly which ye see. But ye permit yourselves to be moved neither through the promises of Scripture nor through things that have actually been done, and are only drowned in these temporal matters, whether happy or sad days will come. Therefore ye pay attention to nothing, and in the meantime ye still demand other signs."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues his response to the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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When it is morning
The situation can be stated more clearly. AT: "If the sky is red in the morning" or "If the sky is red when the sun is rising" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
foul weather
"cloudy, stormy weather"
red and overcast
"red and cloudy"
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky
"You know how to look at the sky and understand what kind of weather you will have"
but you cannot interpret the signs of the times
"but you do not know how to look at what is happening right now and understand what it means"
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign ... given to it
Jesus is speaking to his present generation. AT: "You are an evil and adulterous generation who demands signs from me ... given to you" See how you translated this in Matthew 12:39. (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
An evil and adulterous generation
Here "adulterous" is a metaphor for people who are not faithful to God. See how you translated this in Matthew 12:39. AT: "An unfaithful generation" or "A godless generation" (See: Metaphor)
no sign will be given to it
Jesus would not give them a sign because, though he had already performed many miracles, they refused to believe him. This can be stated in active form. See how you translated this in Matthew 12:39. AT: "I will not give it a sign" or "God will not give you a sign" (See: Active or Passive)
except the sign of Jonah
"except the same sign God gave to Jonah the prophet." See how you translated this in Matthew 12:39.
translationWords
sign
evil
adultery
generation
Jonah
Jesus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2–3 16:2-3 Jesus made a deliberate play on their words…
16:2-3 Jesus made a deliberate play on their words when they sought a “sign from heaven” (16:1). They were able to read the weather in the sky (Greek ouranos, the same word translated “heaven”), but they failed to discern the Messiah despite the many signs already given (see 11:1-6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.