And one of the scribes came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Parallel translations
- WEB A scribe came, and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
- KJV And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
- NKJV Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
- NASB Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
- NLT Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
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
An enthusiastic scribe declares he will follow Jesus anywhere. His eager promise will be tested by Jesus' sobering reply about the cost of discipleship.
Overview
A teacher of the law, impressed by Jesus, offers wholehearted allegiance with confident words. Jesus does not refuse him but exposes what genuine following entails. The exchange introduces a recurring biblical theme, that discipleship requires counting the cost rather than acting on momentary zeal.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Luke 22:33–34“Lord,” said Peter, “I am ready to go with You even to prison and to death.”
- Luke 14:33In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.
- John 13:36–38“Lord, where are You going?” Simon Peter asked. Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.”
- Luke 14:25–27Large crowds were now traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them,
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
- Mark 12:32–34“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him,
- Luke 9:57–60As they were walking along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
- Ezra 7:6this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
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 8:19 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.