He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
Parallel translations
- KJV And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
- BSB Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
- NKJV And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’
- NASB And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
- NLT “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus appeals to creation, citing that God made humanity male and female from the beginning. He grounds marriage in God's design rather than later concessions.
Overview
Rather than entering the rabbinic dispute on its own terms, Jesus returns to Genesis 1:27. By citing the Creator's making of male and female, he establishes that marriage rests on God's intention from the start. This sets the foundation for his high view of the permanence of marriage.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Gen 2:23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”
- Gen 1:27God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
- Gen 5:2He created them male and female, and blessed them. On the day they were created, he named them “Adam”.
- Luke 10:26He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
- Mal 2:15Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
- Gen 2:18Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
- Matt 22:31But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
- Mark 12:10Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner.
- Matt 21:42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?’
- Mark 12:26But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
- Matt 12:3But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;
- Luke 6:3Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him;
- Mark 2:25He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry — he, and those who were with him?
- Matt 21:6The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 19:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.