Matthew

By chapter/verse

1:1-17

• Genealogy of Jesus (through Joseph)

1:18-25

• Christ#Virgin birth (of Christ only)
• Virgin birth of Christ in the Bible

2:1-12

• Appearance of the Magi (and Stars to appear in visible and invisible heaven before Manifestations of God)

2:13-18

• Escape of Jesus and family to Egypt

2:19-23

• Move of Jesus and family to Nazareth

3

• John the Baptist

3:11

• Baptism by water and fire

3:13-17

• Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist (see also reason for Jesus submitting to baptism)

3:16

• Dove

4:1-11

• Temptation of Christ in the wilderness by the Devil

4:2

• Fast

4:3-4

• Man's dependency on the Word of God (Devil asking for miracle of bread)

4:5-7

• Not to test God

4:8-10

• To worship God alone

4:12-17

• Jesus begins to preach repentance

4:12

• Jesus withdraws to Galilee

4:13-16

• Jesus goes to live in Capernaum

4:17

• Jesus begins to preach repentance

4:18-22

• Jesus calls His first Disciples

4:18-20

• Jesus calls the fishermen, Peter and Andrew, to follow Him so they may become fishers of men

• "Verily, He said: "Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." In this day, however, We say: "Come ye after Me, that We may make you to become quickeners of mankind." Thus hath the decree been inscribed in this Tablet by the Pen of Revelation."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Lawh-i-Páp, par. 129)

4:21-22

• Jesus also calls other brothers, James (son of Zebedee) and his brother John, to follow Him.

4:23-25

• Jesus healing the sick, disabled, and demon-possessed (see Miracle and Bible#Miracles)

5-7

• Sermon on the Mount

5:3-12 (Beatitudes)

• See a similar expression in Bahá'u'lláh's Lawh-i-Aqdas (Tablet to the Christians) in Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 16-17
• 5:3 - Blessedness of the poor
• 5:4 - Mourning
• 5:5 - Humility
• 5:6 - Righteous
• 5:7 - Mercy
• 5:8 - Purity
• 5:9 - Peace
• 5:10 - Persecution

5:11-12

• Persecution

5:13

• Salt of the earth

5:14-16

• Light of the world

5:17-18

• Fulfillment of the Law

5:19

• Need to recognize and obey the Manifestation of God

5:20

• Righteous, Not to be content with relative distinction

5:21-22

• Murder, Cursing and execration, Anger

5:23-24

• Priority for certain social duties over devotional duties

5:25-26

• Litigiousness

5:27-30

• Adultery, Lust

5:31-32

• Divorce (and Christianity#Laws (one of two material ordinances))
• Adultery

5:33-37

• Oaths

5:38-41

• Eye for an eye
• Turning the other cheek

5:42

• Not to deny God's servants

5:42-48

• Loving one's enemies

6:1

• Not to be ostentatious with righteousness

6:2-4

• Not to give ostentatiously to the poor

6:5-6

• Not muttering verses publicly

6:7-8

• Prayer#How to Recite Prayers (Technical)

6:9-13

• Lord's Prayer

6:14-15

• Forgiveness

6:16-18

• Not to be ostentatious in fasting

6:19-24

• Not to hoard riches and count them

6:25-34

• Anxiety
• Clothing
• Food
• Regarding not worrying about needs because God feeds even birds:

"Lord! Pitiful are we, grant us Thy favor; poor, bestow upon us a share from the ocean of Thy wealth; needy, do Thou satisfy us; abased, give us Thy glory. The fowls of the air and the beasts of the field receive their meat each day from Thee, and all beings partake of Thy care and loving-kindness."

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í Prayers, p. 22)

7:1-2

• Fault-finding/Looking for good
• "...magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great"

(Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, from the Persian, no. 44)

7:3-5

• Fault-finding/Looking for good
• "In such a process of purgation, when all humanity is in the throes of dire suffering, the Bahá'ís should not hope to remain unaffected. Should we consider the beam that is in our own eye, we would immediately find that these sufferings are also meant for ourselves, who claimed to have attained. Such world crisis is necessary to awaken us to the importance of our duty and the carrying on of our task. Suffering will increase our energy in setting before humanity the road to salvation, it will move us from our repose for we are far from doing our best in teaching the Cause and conveying the Message with which we have been entrusted...."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer in reply to a letter dated October 14, 1931: Bahá'í News, No. 58, January 1932, p. 1, in Lights of Guidance, no. 447)

• "We are like ploughmen each of whom has his team to manage and his plough to direct, and in order to keep his furrow straight he must keep his eye on his goal and concentrate on his own task. If he looks to this side and that to see how Tom and Harry are getting on and to criticise their ploughing, then his own furrow will assuredly become crooked."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, May 12, 1925: Living the Life, pp. 2-3, in Lights of Guidance, no. 318)

7:6

• Not speaking unless given a hearing

7:7-11

• Seek and you will find

7:12

• Golden Rule

7:13-14

• Narrow is the way

7:15

• False prophet/False prophets in the Bible

7:16-20

• Knowing them by their fruits
• 7:19: "Trees that yield no fruit have been and will ever be for the fire."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, from the Persian, no. 80)

• 7:19: "He that bringeth forth no fruit is fit for the fire."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Súriy-i-Haykal, p. [[slh:h136|136; also in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 49)

7:21-23

• Not everyone who claims belief will enter the Kingdom

7:24-27

• Need to recognize and obey the Manifestation of God

7:28-29

• The people were awed by Christ's teaching

8:1-4

• Leprosy

8:5-13

• The Faith of the Centurion
• Bible#Miracles

8:14-17

• Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law and many others sick with demon-possession
• Bible#Miracles
• Life after death/soul#Lack of influence of evil souls

8:18-20

• Take up thy cross
• Jesus having nowhere to lay His head

8:21-22

• Let the dead bury the dead

19:30

The Period of Turmoil which Accompanies a New Manifestation

"The passage in the Gospel of Matthew 19:30 is a reference to the period of turmoil that accompanies the appearance of a new Manifestation, at which time the humble and the lowly who accept the new Revelation will be raised and the outwardly high, but inwardly corrupt and low, will be abased and degraded."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, January 14, 1938, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1654)

25:31-33: References to Bahá’u’lláh

"...in St. Matthew, chapter 25, the object of verses 31, 32 and 33 is the Blessed Beauty."

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, translated by Shoghi Rabbani, June 4, 1919: Star of the West, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 232, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1715)

"The Prophet came like a thief[4 Matt. c. 24, v. 43|] in the night and was here in our midst while people were wrapped in deep spiritual slumber. He tried and tested souls, separated the spiritual from the unspiritual, true from false believers, the sheep from the goats;[5 Matt. c. 25, v. 33] and the people taken unawares were caught as in a snare[1 Luke c. 21, v. 35] and knew not their danger till the retributive justice of God closed in upon them."

(George Townshend, God Passes By, pp. iv-v)

Non-authoritative references by chapter/verse

2:23

Just as Bahá'u'lláh was exiled to fulfill prophecy, so too was Christ moved beyond His power to fulfill prophecy.