Matthew 9:37

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on Matthew 9:37:

Τότε λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, οἱ δὲ ἐργάται ὀλίγοι·

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" [ESV]

I noticed that in my German New Testament, the word order is altered so that the structure is inverted between "the harvest is plentiful" ("die Ernte ist groß") and "the laborers are few" ("wenige sind der Arbeiter"), highlighting the opposite nature of "plentiful" ("groß") and "few" ("wenige"):

Da sprach er zu seinen Jüngern:  Die Ernte ist groß, aber wenige sind der Arbeiter.

Matthew 9:9

On Worship Anew a couple months ago (11 June, the Second Sunday after Pentecost), the Gospel reading was Matthew 9:9-13.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed in verse 9 that what the ESV translates as a finite verb ("rose") is a participle in Latin ("surgens").  Here are the verses in full:

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me."  And he rose and followed him.

Et cum transiret inde Iesus vidit hominem sedentem in teloneo Mattheum nomine et ait illi sequere me et surgens secutus est eum

It's also a participle (ἀναστὰς) in the Greek:

Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Μαθθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· ἀκολούθει μοι. καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.

I have the same comment about this as I had for similar constructions in the calling of the other disciples in Mark 1:18, 20, Matthew 4:20, 22, and Luke 5:11:  I think the participle should remain a participle in the English translation because this results in a greater emphasis on the finite verb ("followed" "secutus est," ἠκολούθησεν), which describes a more significant action.

Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17

Near the beginning of the month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 21 September:

This was the Feast Day of St. Matthew, and the reading was Matthew 9:9-13.  Not too long before this, I'd read the parallel account in Mark 2:13-17.  I felt that something was off about the structure of "'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick'" (in verse 17), but it wasn't until hearing the same construction in Matthew (in verse 12) that I had some insight into it.

What had puzzled me is that there are some implied words in the second clause:  "Those who are sick [have need of a physician]."  I'd understood the meaning, of course; I simply hadn't understood what was going on in the grammar.

Consequently, I realized that such an ellipsis is significant.  In the same way that the phrase "those who are sick" requires the implied words in order to form a complete clause, the sick people need the treatment of a doctor in order to become healthy.