Matthew 16:2
New International Version
He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’

New Living Translation
He replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow;

English Standard Version
He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

Berean Standard Bible
But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’

Berean Literal Bible
And answering He said to them, "Evening having come, you say, 'Fair weather, for the sky is red,'

King James Bible
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

New King James Version
He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’;

New American Standard Bible
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

NASB 1995
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

NASB 1977
But He answered and said to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

Legacy Standard Bible
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

Amplified Bible
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

Christian Standard Bible
He replied, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He answered them: “When evening comes you say, It will be good weather because the sky is red.’

American Standard Version
But he answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But he answered and said to them, “Whenever it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'.”

Contemporary English Version
He told them: If the sky is red in the evening, you say the weather will be good.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But he answered and said to them: When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.

English Revised Version
But he answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
He responded to them, "In the evening you say that the weather will be fine because the sky is red.

Good News Translation
But Jesus answered, "When the sun is setting, you say, 'We are going to have fine weather, because the sky is red.'

International Standard Version
He replied to them, "You say, 'Red sky at night, what a delight!

Literal Standard Version
and He answering said to them, “Evening having come, you say, Fair weather, for the sky is red,

Majority Standard Bible
But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’

New American Bible
He said to them in reply, “[In the evening you say, ‘Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red’;

NET Bible
He said, "When evening comes you say, 'It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,'

New Revised Standard Version
He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

New Heart English Bible
But he answered and said to them, " When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'

Webster's Bible Translation
He answered and said to them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

Weymouth New Testament
He replied, "In the evening you say, 'It will be fine weather, for the sky is red;'

World English Bible
But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

Young's Literal Translation
and he answering said to them, 'Evening having come, ye say, Fair weather, for the heaven is red,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Demand for a Sign
1Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tested Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. 2But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’ 3and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times.…

Cross References
Luke 12:54
Then Jesus said to the crowds, "As soon as you see a cloud rising in the west, you say, 'A shower is coming,' and that is what happens.

Matthew 16:3
and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times.


Treasury of Scripture

He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

When.

Luke 12:54-56
And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is…

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Evening Fair Fine Good Heaven Nightfall Red Sky Weather Will
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Matthew 16
1. The Pharisees require a sign.
5. Jesus warns his disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
13. The people's opinion of Jesus,
16. and Peter's confession of him.
21. Jesus foretells his death;
23. reproves Peter for dissuading him from it;
24. and admonishes those who will follow him, to bear the cross.














(2) When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather.--It is remarkable that some of the best MSS., including the Vatican and Sinaitic, omit the whole of these suggestive words. We can hardly think of them, however, looking to their singular originality of form, as interpolated by a later transcriber, and have therefore to ask how we can explain the omission. They are not found in St. Mark, and this in itself shows that there were some reports of our Lord's answer to the Pharisees in which they did not appear. Possibly the transcriber in this case was unable to read their meaning, and the same feeling, or the wish to bring the reports in the two Gospels into closer agreement with each other, may have influenced the writers of the two MSS. in question. Turning (1) to the words as they stand in the received text, we note, as to their form, that the insertion of the words in italics somewhat mars the colloquial abruptness of the original, "Fair weather, for the sky is red"; and (2) that the use of "sky," instead of "heaven," hides the point of the answer. "You watch the heaven," He in substance answers, "and are weather-wise as to coming storm or sunshine. If your eyes were open to watch the signs of the spiritual firmament, you would find tokens enough of the coming sunshine of God's truth, the rising of the day-spring from on high--tokens enough, also, of the darkness of the coming storm, the 'foul weather' of God's judgments." Even the fact that the redness of the sky is the same in both cases is not without its significance. The flush, the glow, the excitement that pervaded men's minds, was at once the prognostic of a brighter day following on that which was now closing, and the presage of the storm and tempest in which that day should end.

It is a singular instance of the way in which the habit of minute criticism stunts or even kills the power of discernment which depends on imagination, that Strauss should have looked on words so full of profound and suggestive meaning as "absolutely unintelligible" (Leben Jesu, II. viii. p. 85).

In the outward framework of the parable the weather-signs of Palestine seem to have been the same as those of England. The clear red evening sky is a prophecy of a bright morning. The morning red--not "red" simply, but with the indescribable threatening aspect implied in "lowering," the frown of the sky, as it were (comp. Mark 10:22, where the same word is rendered "grieved")--makes men look for storms.

Verse 2. - The paragraph consisting of this and ver. 3 is omitted by many good manuscripts, probably owing to its similarity to the passage in Matthew 12:38. These verses are most probably genuine; and they certainly could not have been foisted into the text from Luke 12:54-56. The circumstances are too different, and the variations too marked, to make such interpolation probable. When it is evening. The Pharisees had demanded a sign from heaven; Jesus points to the western glow in the sky, and taunts them with being ready enough to read the signs of the weather, but slow to interpret proofs of more important circumstances. He does not, in the case of these mixed cavillers, argue from Scripture, but from the natural world, and he points out that, had they eyes to see and a mind to discern, they might mark tokens in historical events, in the moral and spiritual world, which attested his Messiahship as clearly as any specially given sign from heaven. Ye say, It will be fair weather (εὐδία). Probably an exclamation, Ye say, Fair weather! Rabbinical schools made a point of teaching weather lore; prognostications on this subject were greatly in vogue, and the rains of the coming year were annually foretold. On such meteorological observations, we may refer to Virgil, 'Georg,' 1:425, etc.; and Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.,' 18:35 and 78.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
But
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

He replied,
ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis)
Verb - Aorist Participle Passive - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 611: From apo and krino; to conclude for oneself, i.e. to respond; by Hebraism to begin to speak.

“When evening
Ὀψίας (Opsias)
Adjective - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 3798: Late, evening. From opse; late; feminine afternoon or nightfall.

comes,
γενομένης (genomenēs)
Verb - Aorist Participle Middle - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

you say,
λέγετε (legete)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 3004: (a) I say, speak; I mean, mention, tell, (b) I call, name, especially in the pass., (c) I tell, command.

‘The weather [will be] fair,
Εὐδία (Eudia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2105: Fair weather, good weather. Feminine from eu and the alternate of Zeus; a clear sky, i.e. Fine weather.

for
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

the
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

sky
οὐρανός (ouranos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3772: Perhaps from the same as oros; the sky; by extension, heaven; by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specially, the Gospel.

is red;’
πυρράζει (pyrrazei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 4449: To be red, fire-colored. From purrhos; to redden.


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