Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 31st, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Amplified Bible

Matthew 22:14

"For many are called (invited, summoned), but few are chosen."

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Chosen, or Elected;   Covetousness;   Feasts;   Jesus, the Christ;   Jesus Continued;   Kingdom of Heaven;   Predestination;   Righteous;   Righteousness;   Salvation;   Wicked (People);   Thompson Chain Reference - Few Saved;   Saved, the;   The Topic Concordance - Calling;   Choosing/chosen;   Kingdom of God;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Parables;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Parable;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Call;   Election;   Parables;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Christ, Christology;   Church, the;   Elect, Election;   Lord's Supper, the;   Mission;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Call, Calling;   Hutchinsonians;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Call;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Scribes;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Election;   Hour;   People of God;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Kingdom of God;   Marriage;   Text of the New Testament;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Call, Called, Calling;   Call, Calling;   Choice;   Circumstantiality in the Parables;   Doctrines;   Dropsy;   Elect, Election ;   Individuality;   Invitation;   Lazarus;   Luke, Gospel According to;   Marriage;   Matthew, Gospel According to;   New Testament;   Punishment (2);   Service;   Wealth (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Calling;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Marriage;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Calling;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Choose;   Christ, Offices of;   Literature, Sub-Apostolic;   Matthew, the Gospel of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Marriage;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
King James Version (1611)
For many are called, but few are chosen.
King James Version
For many are called, but few are chosen.
English Standard Version
For many are called, but few are chosen."
New American Standard Bible
"For many are called, but few are chosen."
New Century Version
"Yes, many are invited, but only a few are chosen."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For many are called, but few are chosen."
Legacy Standard Bible
For many are called, but few are chosen."
Berean Standard Bible
For many are called, but few are chosen."
Contemporary English Version
Many are invited, but only a few are chosen.
Complete Jewish Bible
for many are invited, but few are chosen."
Darby Translation
For many are called ones, but few chosen ones.
Easy-to-Read Version
"Yes, many people are invited. But only a few are chosen."
Geneva Bible (1587)
For many are called, but fewe chosen.
George Lamsa Translation
For many are invited, and few are chosen.
Good News Translation
And Jesus concluded, "Many are invited, but few are chosen."
Lexham English Bible
For many are called but few are chosen."
Literal Translation
For many are called, but few chosen.
American Standard Version
For many are called, but few chosen.
Bible in Basic English
For out of all to whom the good news has come, only a small number will get salvation.
Hebrew Names Version
For many are called, but few chosen."
International Standard Version
For many are invited, but few are chosen."Matthew 20:16;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
For many are the called, but few the chosen.
Murdock Translation
For the called are many, and the chosen are few.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For many be called, but fewe are chosen.
English Revised Version
For many are called, but few chosen.
World English Bible
For many are called, but few chosen."
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For many are called, but few chosen.
Weymouth's New Testament
"For there are many called, but few chosen."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For many ben clepid, but fewe ben chosun.
Update Bible Version
For many are called, but few chosen.
Webster's Bible Translation
For many are called, but few [are] chosen.
New English Translation
For many are called, but few are chosen."
New King James Version
"For many are called, but few are chosen."
New Living Translation
"For many are called, but few are chosen."
New Life Bible
For many are called but few are chosen."
New Revised Standard
For many are called, but few are chosen."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, many, are called, but, few, chosen.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Revised Standard Version
For many are called, but few are chosen."
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For many are called and feawe be chosen.
Young's Literal Translation
for many are called, and few chosen.'
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For many be called, but few are chose.
Mace New Testament (1729)
thus many are called, but few are converted.
THE MESSAGE
"That's what I mean when I say, ‘Many get invited; only a few make it.'"
Simplified Cowboy Version
"Many will be invited, but only a few will come."

Contextual Overview

1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3"And he sent his servants to call those who had [previously] been invited to the wedding feast, but they refused to come. 4"Then he sent out some other servants, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Look, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened calves are butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."' 5"But they paid no attention [they disregarded the invitation, treating it with contempt] and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6"The rest [of the invited guests] seized his servants and mistreated them [insulting and humiliating them] and killed them. 7"The king was enraged [when he heard this], and sent his soldiers and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding [feast] is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9'So go to the main highways that lead out of the city, and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10"Those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all the people they could find, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests [sitting at the banquet table].

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Matthew 7:13, Matthew 7:14, Matthew 20:16, Luke 13:23, Luke 13:24

Reciprocal: Esther 2:4 - let the maiden

Cross-References

Genesis 22:4
On the third day [of travel] Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Genesis 22:5
Abraham said to his servants, "Settle down and stay here with the donkey; the young man and I will go over there and worship [God], and we will come back to you."
Genesis 22:8
Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb for the burnt offering." So the two walked on together.
Genesis 22:10
Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
Genesis 22:13
Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering (ascending sacrifice) instead of his son.
Genesis 22:14
So Abraham named that place The LORD Will Provide. And it is said to this day, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be seen and provided."
Genesis 22:17
indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies [by conquering them].
Genesis 28:19
He named that place Bethel (the house of God); the previous name of that city was Luz (Almond Tree).
Genesis 32:30
So Jacob named the place Peniel (the face of God), saying, "For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has not been snatched away."
Exodus 17:15
And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For many are called, but few chosen. See Gill "Mt 20:16"

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Many are called, but few are chosen - Our Saviour often uses this expression. It was probably proverbial. The Jews had been called, but few of them had been chosen to life. The great mass of the nation was wicked, and they showed by their lives that they were not chosen to salvation. The Gentiles also were invited to be saved, Isaiah 45:22. Nation after nation has been called; but few, few have yet showed that they were real Christians, the elect of God. It is also true that many who are in the church may prove to be without the wedding garment, and show at last that they were not the chosen of God. This remark in the 14th verse is the inference from the “whole parable,” and not of the part about the man without the wedding garment. It does not mean, therefore, that the great mass in the church are simply called and not chosen, or are hypocrites; but the great mass in “the human family,” in the time of Christ, who had been “called,” had rejected the mercy of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 22:14. Many are called, c.] This verse is wanting in one of Colbert's MSS., marked 33 in Griesbach. See the note on Matthew 20:16. Many are called by the preaching of the Gospel into the outward communion of the Church of Christ but few, comparatively, are chosen to dwell with God In glory, because they do not come to the master of the feast for a marriage garment-for that holiness without which none can see the Lord. This is an allusion to the Roman custom of raising their militia; all were mustered, but only those were chosen to serve, who were found proper. See the note on Matthew 20:16. Reader! examine thy soul, and make sure work for eternity!


 
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