Matthew Chapter 14 — The Mission of the Seventy-Two, the Lord's Prayer, and the Thanksgiving

Overview

UPDV chapter 14 covers the appointment and mission of the seventy-two (14:1-11), the woes on the Galilean cities (14:12-15), the return of the seventy-two (14:16-19), Jesus' thanksgiving prayer and the "blessed eyes" saying (14:20-25), the Lord's Prayer (14:26-32), and the Ask/Seek/Knock passage (14:33-37). This material is drawn entirely from Q, pulled from at least five different locations in the compiler's gospel — canonical Matt 9:37-38, 10:5-16, 11:20-27, 13:16-17, 6:9-13, and 7:7-11 — and restored to the Lukan sequence of Luke 10:1-11:13.

This chapter represents the UPDV's most ambitious Q reconstruction. The compiler dismantled a single Q narrative unit — the mission of the seventy-two and its aftermath — and scattered its parts across his Sermon on the Mount, mission discourse, and parables discourse. The UPDV reassembles these fragments into the sequence attested by Luke: mission instructions, woes, thanksgiving, Lord's Prayer, Ask/Seek/Knock. Davies and Allison confirm the reconstructed order: "If the order of Lk 10:13-15 and 16 is reversed, thereby restoring what we have argued was the original sequence of Q, Luke's Q material from 10:12 through 10:24 appears in precisely the same order as it does in the First Gospel: mission discourse — woes — the great thanksgiving. This is not likely to be coincidence."

The Mission of the Seventy-Two (14:1-11)

"And Jesus appointed seventy-two others, and sent them forth to preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and to heal the sick." The number follows the manuscript tradition of P75 and Vaticanus ("seventy-two"), over the variant "seventy" in Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus — a famously divided reading in Luke 10:1. The mission of the seventy-two (14:1-11) is the UPDV's reconstruction of Q's mission discourse, drawing on canonical Matt 9:37-38, 10:5-16, and 10:40, restored to the Lukan sequence of Luke 10:1-12, 16.

The compiler absorbed Q's mission discourse into his own far larger composition, the second of his five great discourses (canonical Matt 10). Davies and Allison confirm that "once the priority of Mark and Q is accepted, the non-Markan parallels between Mt 10 and Lk 10 demand that Q had a mission discourse of its own." They reconstruct Q's core as "very close to what is now Lk 10:3-12," with the harvest saying (Matt 9:37-38 = Luke 10:2) and the receiving saying (Matt 10:40 = Luke 10:16) belonging to the same Q unit. The compiler, however, conflated this Q material with Markan material (Mark 6:7-13) and with eschatological material drawn forward from the Olivet discourse (Mark 13:9-13), creating a composite mission speech that is "primarily a conflation of Q and Markan materials."

The UPDV strips the conflation and restores Q's mission instructions to the Lukan sequence. The mission framework itself — Jesus appointing seventy-two and sending them out (14:1) — comes from Luke 10:1, which has no parallel in Matthew. The compiler sent out the Twelve (Matt 10:1-4, based on Mark 3:13-19); Q sent out a larger group. The harvest saying (14:2) — "The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the workers are few" — is Q (Matt 9:37-38 = Luke 10:2), relocated by the compiler to serve as the narrative bridge into his Twelve discourse. The sheep-among-wolves saying (14:3) and the travel instructions (14:4-5) follow Q as preserved in Luke 10:3-7, stripping the compiler's expansion with Markan material (cf. Mark 6:8-11). The house-and-city instructions (14:6-11) preserve the compiler's text where it follows Q closely (Matt 10:11-15), including the Sodom saying (14:11), which Davies and Allison confirm appears in both Matthew and Luke at the same position in the mission discourse.

The compiler's additions to Q's mission discourse are removed. Matt 10:5b-6 — "Don't go into any way of the Gentiles, and don't enter into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" — is a genuinely difficult case. Davies and Allison argue it belongs to Q's mission discourse, noting that "the ὑπάγετε of Lk 10:3a may well be the remnant of the omitted Mt 10:5f." If they are right, this is Q material that Luke suppressed — and the obvious motivation is theological: Luke, the evangelist of the Gentile mission, would have strong reason to omit a dominical command restricting the mission to Israel. The UPDV nonetheless follows the Lukan form. The defense is not that Luke lacked theological motivation to omit it — he clearly did — but that the saying belongs to a cluster of Israel-limitation logia (10:5b-6 and 10:23) that the compiler gathered from multiple sources into his mission discourse, and that the Matthean church's particularist concerns may have preserved and even sharpened these sayings beyond their original Q form. The UPDV's Q reconstruction follows the Lukan text where it disagrees with Matthew, even when Luke's omission may be theologically motivated — because the alternative, retaining every Matthean addition that "Luke might have deleted," would collapse the entire two-source method. The criterion must be applied consistently, not selectively.

Matt 10:23 ("You will not have gone through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes") is also removed — it has no Lukan parallel, and D&A note that "omission by Luke or Qlk would only be expected" given its apparently unfulfilled eschatological character.

The receiving saying (14:9) — "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me" — preserves Matt 10:40 = Luke 10:16. Davies and Allison confirm this "concludes the discourses of both Luke and Matthew, so its placement in Q is manifest."

Woes on the Galilean Cities (14:12-15)

"Then he began to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" The woes on the cities (14:12-15) come from canonical Matt 11:20-24, based on Q (Luke 10:13-15). The compiler placed these woes after the John the Baptist section, separated from the mission discourse by a long block of material (10:17-11:19). The UPDV restores the Q sequence where, as Davies and Allison demonstrate, the woes originally appeared "between the missionary discourse and the great thanksgiving."

Davies and Allison confirm that "Lk 10:13-15 awkwardly interrupts the address on mission with a soliloquy on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and it breaks the natural connexion between 10:12 and 16." Luke (or a predecessor) moved the woes into the mission speech because of catchword connection (ἀνεκτότερον ἔσται, anektoteron estai, "it will be more tolerable"). The original Q order — mission, then woes, then thanksgiving — is preserved in both Matthew and Luke once Luke's secondary displacement is corrected.

The UPDV shortens the Capernaum woe (14:15) to "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to Hades." The compiler's 11:23b ("for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have stayed until this day") and 11:24 ("But I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you") are removed. Davies and Allison confirm that "11:23b must be suspected of having an editorial origin. It completes the parallelism between 10:21-2 and 23-4, and our evangelist's proclivity for parallelism is firmly established." Similarly, 11:24 is "a redactional addition inspired by 10:15 = Lk 10:12" — the compiler created it to mirror the Sodom saying already used in the mission instructions. The UPDV retains only what Q attests through Luke 10:15: the bare oracle against Capernaum without the Sodom expansion.

The Return of the Seventy-Two (14:16-19)

"And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I watched Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." The return of the seventy-two (14:16-19) comes from Luke 10:17-20, which has no parallel in canonical Matthew.

This is the most significant inclusion of non-Matthean material in the chapter, and it requires candid methodological explanation. Strict dual-attestation Q reconstruction — requiring that a saying appear in both Matthew and Luke to be assigned to Q — would exclude Luke 10:17-20, since the compiler preserves no parallel. By that standard, this material would be classified as L (Lukan Sondergut) and excluded from the UPDV.

The UPDV departs from strict dual-attestation here, and it does so for a structural reason. Luke 10:17-20 is embedded within a continuous Q narrative unit — everything before it (the mission instructions, Luke 10:2-16) and everything after it (the thanksgiving prayer, Luke 10:21-24) is Q material with Matthean parallels. The return of the missionaries is the narrative bridge between the mission and the thanksgiving: the seventy-two go out, they come back reporting success, and Jesus responds first with the Satan saying and then with the thanksgiving prayer. Without the return, the Q sequence jumps from "shake the dust off your feet" directly to "I thank you, Father" — a seam that makes no narrative sense. The compiler had strong redactional reasons for the omission: having restructured Q's mission into his Twelve discourse (Matt 10), which he treats not as a discrete past event but as a speech that blurs into the ongoing post-resurrection mission (cf. 10:23, "You will not have gone through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes"), the disciples cannot "return" within his narrative framework. The mission, for the compiler, is not yet over.

This creates an asymmetry with the removal of "Come to me, all who labor" (11:28-30), which the UPDV excludes precisely because Luke does not attest it. The tension is real and must be acknowledged. The UPDV's defense rests on the difference between a narrative seam and an appended saying. Luke 10:17-20 fills a structural gap in a Q narrative sequence — without it, mission leads to thanksgiving with no connective tissue. Matt 11:28-30, by contrast, is a self-contained wisdom saying appended to the thanksgiving; its removal leaves no narrative gap, because 11:25-27 is complete without it. Davies and Allison's own analysis supports this distinction: they assign 11:28-30 to Qmt — a saying composed by "a tradent of Qmt" to elaborate on 11:27 — whereas they do not discuss Luke 10:17-20's Q status at all (it falls outside their Matthew commentary). The UPDV treats narrative-structural evidence as a supplementary criterion to dual attestation: when a Lukan passage fills a demonstrable gap in a Q sequence, and the compiler had clear redactional motivation for its omission, it is included. When a Matthean passage is a freestanding saying with no structural gap to fill, dual attestation applies. This is a judgment call, not an algorithm, and the reader should weigh it accordingly.

The sayings themselves bear marks of early tradition. The "Satan fallen as lightning" saying (14:17) is widely regarded as one of the most archaic christological utterances in the synoptic tradition — an apocalyptic vision report in the first person, with no developed theological framework, no title, no explanation. The authority saying (14:18) and the "names written in heaven" corrective (14:19) fit the pattern of Q's mission theology, where the authority given to missionaries comes with the warning not to let spiritual power become a source of pride.

Jesus' Thanksgiving and the Blessed Eyes (14:20-25)

"At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to juveniles." The thanksgiving prayer (14:20-23) comes from canonical Matt 11:25-27, based on Q (Luke 10:21-22). The "blessed eyes" saying (14:24-25) comes from canonical Matt 13:16-17, also Q (Luke 10:23-24). The UPDV reunites these two sayings, which in Q formed a single unit following the return of the missionaries.

The compiler split this Q unit. He placed the thanksgiving prayer in the John the Baptist section (11:25-27), where it serves as a response to the rejection theme of 11:20-24. He placed the "blessed eyes" saying much later, in the parables discourse (13:16-17), where it functions as a contrast between the disciples' understanding and the crowds' incomprehension. Davies and Allison confirm that 13:16-17 is "a saying from Q (vv. 16-17 = Lk 10:23f.)" that the compiler embedded in his parables discussion. The UPDV restores both to their Lukan position following the return of the seventy-two.

The compiler also modified the "blessed eyes" saying. He replaced Luke's "kings" (βασιλεῖς, basileis) with "righteous men" (δίκαιοι, dikaioi), which Davies and Allison identify as "a Matthean favourite" (cf. 10:41, 23:29). He added "and your ears, for they hear" (no parallel in Luke) to increase the parallelism with 13:13. And he assimilated the wording of 13:16 to 13:13, shifting the focus from the content of what is seen (Luke's form) to perception itself (which better suited the compiler's parables discussion). The UPDV reverts to the Lukan form, with "kings" rather than "righteous men" and without the added "ears" clause.

"Come to Me, All Who Labor" (Canonical Matt 11:28-30) — Removed

The compiler's 11:28-30 — "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn of me …" — is removed. Davies and Allison's analysis of this passage is detailed. They argue that "a place in Q is unlikely because, to quote T. W. Manson, 'it is hardly credible that Lk. would have omitted a saying so entirely after his own heart.'" They also reject a purely redactional origin, noting that "most of the vocabulary is not characteristic of the redactor" and that "several words occur nowhere else in Matthew." Their conclusion is that the saying comes from Qmt — Matthew's special edition of Q, not shared with Luke. A tradent of Qmt composed 11:28-30 to "further the Exodus allusion and the comparison/contrast between Jesus and Moses," building on 11:27's dependence on Exodus 33:12-13.

The UPDV removes it because the saying was not in Q as known to Luke. It belongs to the Matthean tradent's elaboration of the Q tradition, not to the common Q source shared by both evangelists. The loss is significant — the "yoke" saying is one of the most beloved utterances attributed to Jesus in the gospel tradition — but the UPDV's two-source framework requires that material attested only in Qmt, with no Lukan witness, be treated as a Matthean-tradition addition rather than as common Q.

The Lord's Prayer (14:26-32)

"And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, Hallowed be your name." The Lord's Prayer (14:26-32) comes from canonical Matt 6:9-13, based on Q (Luke 11:1-4). The compiler embedded it in the Sermon on the Mount, within a section on prayer practices (6:5-15). The UPDV relocates it to the Lukan sequence, where it follows the mission and thanksgiving and is introduced by a disciple's request.

The narrative introduction (14:26) follows Luke 11:1, which has no parallel in Matthew. The compiler replaced Q's narrative frame with his thematic introduction ("After this manner therefore pray," Matt 6:9a), embedding the prayer in his sermon architecture. The UPDV restores Luke's narrative context — a disciple asking Jesus to teach them to pray — which provides the prayer with its original occasion.

The UPDV's form of the Lord's Prayer is shorter than the compiler's version, following D&A's analysis of what belonged to Q. The compiler expanded the prayer with material that D&A identify as distinctively Matthean:

"Our Father who is in heaven" becomes simply "Father". Davies and Allison argue that "the simple 'Father' of Luke is primary, Matthew's 'Our Father who art in heaven' secondary," and that behind the unqualified "Father" stands "the Aramaic ʾabbāʾ" (cf. Mark 14:36).
"Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matt 6:10b) is removed. This petition has no Lukan parallel and contains Matthean vocabulary. Davies and Allison note that "Lk omits precisely those lines which, on the basis of word statistics, have the highest claim to being Matthean."
"But deliver us from the evil one" (Matt 6:13b) is removed. Again, no Lukan parallel. Davies and Allison note that "genuinely convincing reasons for Luke's omission of Mt 6:10b, c, and 13b have yet to be brought forward; and it is much easier to think of additions accruing to the sacred text over time or being added by Matthew than of lines being dropped for no evident reason."

The three shared petitions — daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation — are preserved. The UPDV retains the Matthean form of these petitions where it is closer to the reconstructed Q original. "Give us this day our daily bread" keeps "this day" (σήμερον, sēmeron) rather than Luke's "day by day" (τὸ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν, to kath' hēmeran). "Forgive us our debts" keeps "debts" (ὀφειλήματα, opheilēmata) rather than Luke's "sins" (ἁμαρτίας, hamartias) — D&A reconstruct the Q original with ὀφειλήματα, noting that the Aramaic ḥôbāʾ means both "debt" and "sin."

Davies and Allison reconstruct the original Q Lord's Prayer as essentially what the UPDV preserves: πάτερ / ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου / ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου / τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον / καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν / καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν. The prayer is "almost certainly" authentic: "Jesus spoke of God as Father, announced the coming of the kingdom, and was much concerned with the forgiveness of sins."

Ask, Seek, Knock (14:33-37)

"And I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and it will be opened to you." The Ask/Seek/Knock passage (14:33-37) comes from canonical Matt 7:7-11, based on Q (Luke 11:9-13). The compiler placed it in the Sermon on the Mount; the UPDV relocates it to the Lukan sequence, where it follows the Lord's Prayer.

Davies and Allison confirm Q origin: "So there is, it would seem, no getting around the common origin of Mt 7:7-11 = Lk 11:9-13 in Q." The core — the triple imperative (ask, seek, knock) and its basis (everyone who asks receives) — is verbally identical in both gospels ("twenty-four words are shared and in the same order"). The illustrations differ in detail (Matthew: bread/stone and fish/serpent; Luke: fish/serpent and egg/scorpion), which D&A explain as evidence that "Matthew's edition of Q was at points dissimilar from Luke's."

The UPDV uses the compiler's form of the illustrations (bread/stone, fish/serpent), which preserves one pair from Q shared with Luke and one that differs. The conclusion — "how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him" — keeps the compiler's "good things" (ἀγαθά, agatha) rather than Luke's "the Holy Spirit" (πνεῦμα ἅγιον, pneuma hagion), which is almost certainly a Lukan theological substitution (Luke's characteristic emphasis on the Spirit).

What the UPDV Removes from This Section

Matt 6:1-8 (alms and prayer practices): M material — the compiler's "cult-didache" framework for the Lord's Prayer.
Matt 6:14-15 (forgiveness condition): Editorial expansion of the forgiveness petition. No Lukan parallel.
Matt 10:1-4 (calling of the Twelve): Based on Mark 3:13-19, not part of Q's mission discourse. The Twelve commissioning is preserved elsewhere (UPDV 10:1).
Matt 10:5b-6 ("lost sheep of the house of Israel"): Israel-limitation clause absent from Luke's Q. D&A argue it may be Q. See full discussion above.
Matt 10:17-22 (persecution predictions): Drawn from Mark 13:9-13, not Q mission material. Preserved in the UPDV's Olivet discourse (UPDV 24).
Matt 10:23 ("cities of Israel"): No Lukan parallel. Apparently unfulfilled eschatological prophecy.
Matt 10:24-25 (disciple/master, Beelzebul): Oc — context uncertain.
Matt 10:41-42 (prophet's reward, cup of cold water): Ou — unique to Matthew, no parallel.
Matt 11:12-15 (violence saying, Elijah): Oc — context uncertain, complex tradition-history.
Matt 11:20 (transitional sentence): Redactional introduction to the woes. D&A: "The vocabulary of 11:20 is either characteristic of Matthew or elsewhere redactional."
Matt 11:23b-24 (Capernaum/Sodom expansion): Redactional. D&A: "11:23b must be suspected of having an editorial origin. It completes the parallelism."
Matt 11:28-30 ("Come to me, all who labor"): From Qmt, not shared Q. D&A: "a place in Q is unlikely."

References

Davies, W. D. and Dale C. Allison Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. 3 vols. International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997.