Matthew 3:9

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

and don’t think you can say to yourselves,‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Καὶ μὴ δόξητε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, Πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ: Λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν, ὅτι δύναται ὁ Θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ.

Transliteration

And not doxēte legein in heautois, Patera we echomen the Abraam: Legō gar to you, that dynatai the Theos from the lithōn toutōn egeirai tekna to the Abraam.

Grammar Details

• *doxēte*: aorist subjunctive, 2nd plural - think/presume
• *legein*: present active infinitive - to say
• *heautois*: reflexive pronoun, dative, masculine, plural - to yourselves
• *Patera*: accusative, masculine, singular - father
• *echomen*: present active indicative, 1st plural - we have
• *Abraam*: dative, masculine, singular - to Abraham
• *Legō*: present active indicative, 1st singular - I say
• *gar*: postpositive conjunction - for/because
• *dynatai*: present middle/passive indicative, 3rd singular - is able
• *Theos*: nominative, masculine, singular - God
• *lithōn*: genitive, masculine, plural - of stones
• *toutōn*: demonstrative pronoun, genitive, masculine, plural - these
• *egeirai*: aorist active infinitive - to raise up
• *tekna*: accusative, neuter, plural - children

Word Meanings

• *doxēte*: think/presume/suppose
• *legein*: to say/to speak/to claim
• *echomen*: we have/we possess/we hold
• *Legō*: I say/I tell/I declare
• *dynatai*: is able/can/has power
• *lithōn*: stones/rocks
• *egeirai*: to raise up/to bring forth/to produce
• *tekna*: children/descendants/offspring

Referenced Verses

• Acts 13:26 : 26 Brothers, descendants of Abraham’s family, and those Gentiles among you who fear God, the message of this salvation has been sent to us.
• Rom 9:7-8 : 7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather“through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” 8 This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.
• John 8:33 : 33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they replied,“and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say,‘You will become free’?”
• Luke 3:8 : 8 Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say to yourselves,‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!
• Luke 16:24 : 24 So he called out,‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’
• Rom 4:1 : 1 The Illustration of Justification What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter?
• John 8:53 : 53 You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died too! Who do you claim to be?”
• Rom 4:11-17 : 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. 13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. 15 For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either. 16 For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants– not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written,“I have made you the father of many nations”). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed– the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.
• Luke 19:40 : 40 He answered,“I tell you, if they keep silent, the very stones will cry out!”
• Ezek 33:24 : 24 “Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying,‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.’
• Matt 8:11-12 : 11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
• Mark 7:21 : 21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
• Luke 5:22 : 22 When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, he said to them,“Why are you raising objections within yourselves?
• Luke 7:39 : 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,“If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”
• John 8:39-40 : 39 They answered him,“Abraham is our father!” Jesus replied,“If you are Abraham’s children, you would be doing the deeds of Abraham. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham did not do this!
• Acts 15:14 : 14 Simeon has explained how God first concerned himself to select from among the Gentiles a people for his name.
• 1 Cor 1:27-28 : 27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something,
• Gal 3:27-29 : 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female– for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.
• Gal 4:22-31 : 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise. 24 These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.” 28 But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac. 29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. 30 But what does the scripture say?“Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” of the free woman. 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
• Eph 2:12-13 : 12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
• Luke 12:17 : 17 so he thought to himself,‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’