Jesus’ Yoke and Burden

A Context-less Saying

The “Comfort for the Heavy-Laden” passage (Matt 11:28-30) is unique to Matthew’s gospel—we find no parallels to it in the other three gospels. Furthermore, the setting for the Matthew 11:28-30 passage is difficult to establish. The passage appears following the “Woes on the Cities of Galilee” (Matt. 11:20-24) and “Jesus’ Thanksgiving to the Father” (Matt. 11:25-27) pericopae, neither pericope seemingly providing a context for Jesus’ “Comfort for the Heavy-Laden” teaching. Luke’s gospel, too, preserves the “Woes on the Cities of Galilee” (Luke 10:13-5) and “Jesus’ Thanksgiving to the Father” (Luke 10:21-22), but places the two passages in the context of the “Sending Out and Return of the Seventy.”

• ^[1] Commentators, for example, Geza Vermes (The Authentic Gospel of Jesus [London: Allen Lane, 2003], 330), note the parallel between Jesus' saying and the passage in Ben Sira, but usually only refer to it in passing. Some scholars suggest that Ben Sira's influence on Jesus' words is slight: Robert H. Gundry writes, "At most...the passage in Sira exercised an indirect and vague influence on Matthew" (Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution [2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994], 220). A minority of scholars view the close similarity between Jesus' saying and Ben Sira's as evidence that Matt 11:28-30 was not originally uttered by Jesus, but was put into his mouth by a later editor: "A substantial scholarly opinion holds that Matthew 11:28-30 does not stem from Jesus, but is an excerpt from an otherwise unknown Jewish sapiential book. The term 'yoke', a common expression in rabbinic literature, is used only here in the Gospels and Jesus is nowhere else called 'lowly' (tapeinos). But the strongest argument against associating this saying with him is that much of his moral message was neither easy nor light" (Geza Vermes, The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, 330-31). A number of commentators, however, see the Ben Sira 51 passage's importance, even suggesting that Jesus may have alluded to or quoted Ben Sira. See Konrad Weiss (TDNT 9:85), Karl Heinrich Rengstorf (TDNT 2:900, n. 22), and others, recently, Vermes (see above); Gundry (see above); Willoughby C. Allen: "There seems to be an undoubted dependence of these words [Matt 11:28-30] upon Ecclus [i.e., Ben Sira] 50, 51" (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew [ICC; 3rd ed.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1912], 123-24); W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann speak of "the dependence of these verses [Matt 11:28-30] in the Greek on the LXX of Ecclus 51" (Matthew [AB 26; Garden City: Doubleday, 1971], 146).) ↩
• ^[2] "Buy without money" reminds us of Isa 55:1: "Ho, all who are thirsty, Come for water, Even if you have no money; Come, buy food and eat: Buy food without money, Wine and milk without cost" (JPS). ↩
• ^[3] Perhaps a reference to Deut 30:11-14: "For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it" (RSV). ↩
• ^[4] The invitation "Come to me" extended by Wisdom is also found in Prov 8:1-5; 9:1-6; and Sir 24:19-21: "Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce. For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb. Those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me will thirst for more" (RSV). ↩
• ^[5] The reference in Ben Sira 51:24 to "thirsty souls" reminds us of Jesus' Beatitude 4 (Matt 5:6). ↩
• ^[6] The "seek...you will find" causes one to reflect that perhaps Matt 11:28-30 belongs to the same context as, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matt 7:7-8 = Luke 11:9-10). ↩
• ^[7] Portions of this passage are extant in three Hebrew manuscripts: Genizah A; Genizah B and Qumran. The Qumran text reads, "Study and investigate, seek and find; and when you have gotten hold of her, do not let go. For in the end, you will find rest, and she will become enjoyable" (Ben Sira 6:27-28; translation mine). ↩
• ^[8] This "contextual" reconstruction was put forward in Robert L. Lindsey, Jesus, Rabbi and Lord: A Lifetime's Search for the Meaning of Jesus' Words, 93. See David Bivin, "Cost of Entering the Kingdom of Heaven complex." ↩
• ^[9] See David Bivin, "First-century Discipleship," Jerusalem Perspective 13 (Oct. 1988): 1-2. ↩
• ^[10] According to Donald A. Hagner, "The invitation to come to Jesus is an invitation to discipleship, that is, to follow him and his teaching. 'Yoke' (dzugon) is a common metaphor for the law, both in Judaism (m. 'Abot 3:5; m. Ber. 2:2; cf. 1QH 6:19) and in the NT (Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1). When Jesus invites people with the words...‘take my yoke upon you,' he invites them to follow his own teaching as the definitive interpretation of the law (see on 5:17-20). The same point is stressed in the next clause...‘learn from me'" (Matthew [WBC 33A-33B; Dallas: Word Books, 1993-1995], 324). ↩
• ^[11] See David Bivin, "Hendiadys in the Synoptic Gospels," Jerusalem Perspective 52 (Jul.-Sept. 1997): 14-15. ↩
• ^[12] Robert H. Gundry writes: "'Who are weary and burdened' in vs. 28a echoes Jer 31:25: 'for I have satisfied the weary [LXX: thirsty] soul, and every faint [LXX: hungry] soul I have replenished.' 'And I will give you refreshment' in verse 28b echoes the very same words in Exod 33:14. 'And you will find refreshment for your souls' in verse 29d is a verbatim quotation of Jer. 6:16" (Matthew, 219). ↩
• ^[13] See David Bivin, "Matthew 5:17: 'Destroy' the Law" and "Matthew 5:19: The Importance of 'Light' Commandments." ↩
• ^[14] Samuel Tobias Lachs points out that "one of the blessings forthcoming in the messianic age will be the giving of rest to the weary pious" (A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke [Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1987], 196. Lachs cites En. 48.4, Pesiq. Rab Kah. 27 [163^a], and Pesiq. Rab. 32 [149^a] in support of his statement [196, n. 1].) ↩
• ^[15] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Jr., imply that "and I will give you rest" did not come originally from the mouth of Jesus, but is a quotation from Exod 33:14 that was inserted by a later editor: "The closest OT parallel to Jesus' words, 'and I will give you rest,' is Exod 33.14, where God says to Moses: 'and I will give you rest'...Note that whereas in the OT text it is God, not Moses, who gives rest, in the NT Jesus gives it. Once more, then, Jesus is greater than Moses" (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew [ICC; 3 vols.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988-1997], 2:287. ↩
• ^[16] The sense of וַהֲנִחֹתִי לָךְ (va-hanikhoti lach) is probably not "and I will give you rest" in the absolute sense, that is, total or complete rest, but as the JPS renders, "I will lighten your burden." ↩
• ^[17] F. J. Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake, commenting on the use of "yoke" in Acts 15:10, state: "Zygon ('ol) was commonly used by Jewish writers in the sense of 'obligation'" (The Acts of the Apostles [5 vols.; London: Macmillan , 1920-33], 4:173-74); however, Jackson and Lake give no examples of "yoke" used in the sense of "obligation." Davies and Allison remark: "The word [yoke] came to be a metaphor for obedience, subordination, servitude" (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, 2:289). According to Gundry, citing Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1; Sir 51:26; Pss. Sol. 7:9; 19:32; m. 'Abot 3:6; 2 Apoc. Bar. 41:3; and b. Ber.13a, "yoke" is a well-known metaphor for obedience (Matthew, 219). Konrad Weiss comments: "In rabbinic texts מַשָּׂא [masa', burden]...has...the transf[igurative] sense of 'obligation,' 'duty' (jBer. 3, 1 [5d, 53-56. 61])" ("φορτίον," TDNT 9:85). If when he said, "Take my yoke upon you," Jesus spoke of the keeping of commandments, Jesus might have been speaking as only God speaks. By calling this yoke "my yoke" (and the burden "my burden"), Jesus could have been making a shocking statement. The keeping of commandments was referred to as a yoke, but it is unlikely that a sage would have made the claim that this yoke was "his." Jesus made abundant messianic statements. By alluding to Scripture, he claimed to be the "Son of Man" of Daniel 7:13 (Luke 22:69, 19:10; Matt 25:31; see Randall Buth, "Jesus’ Most Important Title”); the "Green Tree" of Ezekiel 20:47 (Luke 23:31); the "King" (Matt 25:34); "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt 12:8; Luke 6:5); and "Greater than Jonah and Solomon" (Luke 11:31-32 ). (By others, Jesus was referred to by such messianic titles as "Lord" [Luke 5:8]; "Son of God" [Luke 1:35]; "Son of David" [Luke 18:38]; and the "Prophet Like Moses," the Last Redeemer of Deuteronomy 18:15 [Luke 7:16; see David Bivin, "'Prophet' as a Messianic Title" ].) However, an audacious claim was almost never Jesus' main thrust. Into his teaching, which addressed specific situations and a wide variety of general subjects, he inserted, naturally and almost unconsciously, very subtle allusions to Scriptures that had been interpreted messianically by contemporary teachers and their predecessors. Some of Jesus' allusions seem to be more than "mere" messianic claims. In delivering his teaching, apparently, he sometimes spoke as only God speaks. For instance, in the preface to his Parable of the House Built on Solid Foundations, Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does [i.e., keeps, observes] them will be like a wise man..." (Matt 7:24; Luke 6:47), employing "my words" when he spoke of hearing and doing God's commandments. Likewise, he proclaimed, "I will build my community [congregation, assembly]..." (Matt 16:18). Jesus' "my yoke" (= "my burden") in Matthew 11:29-30 should be compared to his "my words" and "my community." Jesus also spoke like God when he said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10), a clear reference to Ezekiel 34 where it is God who says repeatedly that he will seek and save his lost sheep. By claiming to be the "Seeker and Saver of the Lost," Jesus assumed a function of God, that of being the "Shepherd of the Lost Sheep." Did Jesus' "come to me," "I will give you rest," "my yoke" and "my burden" indicate his high messianic consciousness, or, were these phrases simply the words of a first-century Jewish teacher calling prospective pupils to his school? Or both? These question have been thoroughly debated in scholarly publications. ↩
• ^[18] In Hagner's opinion, "When Jesus invites people with the words...‘take my yoke upon you,' he invites them to follow his own teaching as the definitive interpretation of the law (see on 5:17-20). The same point is stressed in the next clause...‘learn from me'" (Matthew, 324). ↩
• ^[19] Davies and Allison have suggested that the author of Matthew (or the author of Matthew's source or sources), inserted into the gospel (in Matt 1:1-8:1; 17:1-8; 11:25-30) "a developed Mosaic/exodus typology" (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, 2:296). This editor's purpose, according to Davies and Allison, was to compare and contrast Jesus with Moses. According to them, Matt 11:28-30 did not come from the mouth of Jesus, but from a member, or members, of the early church: "Can we trace the saying [Matt 11:28-30] to Jesus?...we have serious reservations. The implicit identification of Jesus with Wisdom and Torah is more at home in the early church than the teaching of Jesus" (2:293). However, after suggesting that the whole of the saying is secondary, Davies and Allison analyze the saying's parallelism (the characteristic of Semitic, but not of Greek, style, that is so prominent in Matthew 11:28-30. On the one hand, they view Jesus' saying as the work of a editor, but, on the other hand, recognizing the saying's tight Semitic parallelism, they trim away elements of the saying that in their view spoil this parallelism, believing them to be still later additions. Davies and Allison assume that the author of Matthew wrote in Greek but "knew Hebrew and probably also Aramaic" (1:80), and this is one of the reasons his work is so Semitic. "The Matthean Semitisms...reflect the evangelist's own style of thought" (1:85). However, it is more probably that the author of Matthew was using a source, or sources, that had been translated from Hebrew (or Aramaic). It is less likely that a Hebrew or Aramaic speaker would be confident enough to write in his second language, in this case, in Greek; or that a Greek speaker, whose second language was Hebrew or Aramaic, could compose such Hebraic and un-Greek-like Greek. It is more likely that the extremely Semitic text of Matthew originated in Hebrew (or Aramaic) and was translated to Greek. Davies and Allison would like Matt 11:29 to read, "Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for yourselves." They assert that the line "and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart" "wrecks" the parallelism of Matthew 11:28-30, and contains "redactional" vocabulary (2:290). The vocabulary items termed "redactional" by Davies and Allison are: "μανθάνω [learn]: Mt: 3; Mk: 1; Lk: 0; πραΰς [meek; Mt: 3; Mk: 0; Lk: 0]; (ἐν) τῇ καρδίᾳ [(in) the heart]: Mt: 8; Mk: 1; Lk: 5. Five times Matthew follows (ἐν) τῇ καρδίᾳ with something other than a genitive personal pronoun; Mark and Luke never do this" (2:290, n. 244). It is unlikely that a Greek writer could create the sophisticated parallelism and scriptural allusion that we find in Matthew 11:28-30. The saying was probably first uttered or written in a Semitic language, probably Hebrew or Aramaic. The Semitic doubling of nouns, adjectives and verbs, and its tight parallelism warn us to be extremely cautious about removing elements of the saying. "Learn from me" can stand without "wrecking" the parallelism, as Davies and Allison claim it does. It can be argued that the phrase "for I am gentle and humble in heart" was added later, and is thus secondary, but it is difficult to make this argument since the phrase has a Hebraic-like doublet, "meek and lowly of heart," embedded within it. ↩
• ^[20] For the Greek verb μανθάνειν (manthanein, to study) with the preposition ἀπό (apo, from), see Matt 24:32 = Mark 13:28 and Josephus Ant. 8:317 ("He [Ahab] learned from her [Jezebel] to worship her native gods"). ↩
• ^[21] The NIV's rendering of πραΰς (prays) in Matt 11:29 is "gentle." But prays is the Septuagint's usual translation of עָנָו (anav, meek), so Jesus might have used the same Hebrew word, anav, that described Moses. Prays is also the Septuagint's translation of עָנִי (ani, humble), for instance, in Zechariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, Fair Zion; Raise a shout, Fair Jerusalem! Lo, your king is coming to you. He is victorious, triumphant, Yet ani [עָנִי], riding on an ass, On a donkey foaled by a she-ass" (JPS). ↩
• ^[22] I assume that Matt 11:29 originally read, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Davies and Allison, while suggesting that the whole of Matthew 11:28-30 did not come from the mouth of Jesus, but was the creation of Matthew or his source, include "and you will find rest for your souls" in their reconstruction of the passage (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, 2:290). Davies and Allison argue that "Matthew agrees with the LXX against the MT in both the verbal form and the plural ψυχαῖς [souls]; but ἀνάπαυσις [rest] is not from the Greek OT. Matthew or his source exchanged Jeremiah's ἁγνισμόν [tranquility] for ἀνάπαυσις in order to gain a link with 28b (ἀναπαύσω)" (2:291). They view these textual agreements and disagreements as evidence that "and you will find rest for yourselves" was created by the editor of Matthew. I also see them as evidence that "and you will find rest for your souls" was added by the Matthean editor, but, in that case, it probably was not part of the Semitic stratum. ↩
• ^[23] An interesting parallel to Matt 11:30 is found in Josephus' Jewish Antiquities. Paraphrasing 1 Kings 12:4, Josephus writes: "...they [Jeroboam and the leaders of the people] urged him [Rehoboam] to lighten their bondage somewhat and to be more lenient [χρηστότερον, chrestoteron, easier] than his father [Solomon], for, they said, the yoke [ζυγὸν, zygon] they had borne under him had been heavy [βαρὺν, baryn]..." (Ant. 8:213; trans. Ralph Marcus, Loeb Classical Library). ↩
• ^[24] See David N. Bivin, "Rich Man Declines the Kingdom of Heaven," Comment to L120. ↩
• ^[25] One also might consider 1 John 5:3: "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome [βαρεῖαι, bareiai]" (NIV), since in this verse we have a Greek adjective for "heavy, burdensome" in reference to God's commandments. However, it is possible that the writer of 1 John was influenced by Matt 11:28-30 and Matthew 23:4, and perhaps also by Acts 15. The author, like most modern commentators, may have wrongly interpreted Matt 11:28-30 in light of Matthew 23:4. ↩
• ^[26] "Bind" and its opposite, "loose," are rabbinic idioms for "prohibit" and "permit" in reference to legal rulings. See David Bivin, "'Binding' and 'Loosing.'" ↩
• ^[27] Most commentators express an extreme bias towards the Pharisees and the Oral Torah. Weiss writes: "Jesus indignantly describes the rules the Pharisaic rabbis lay on the righteous as...‘heavy burdens that cannot be borne,' Mt. 23:4...The real concerns of the Law...are overwhelmed by casuistic and ritualistic obligations, i.e., by these φορτία [burdens]. This helps us to understand the Saviour's call...in which Jesus promises refreshment to the weary and heavy-laden if they accept His φορτίον [burden], Mt. 11:28-30” ("φορτίον," TDNT 9:85). Karl Heinrich Rengstorf states: "The saying [Mt. 11:29 f.]... is obviously formulated as a conscious paradox. How can a ζυγός [yoke] be easy? But the paradox evaporates when we remember who is speaking and to whom. Jesus is clearly speaking to those who already bear a ζυγός, for He refers expressly to His ζυγός, to the ζυγός of the Messiah, contrasting this with another ζυγός, with the other ζυγός. But this other ζυγός can only be that of worship under the Law, which involves the oppressive labour and attitude of the slave. This is clear from Mt. 23:4, where we find the image of the burden used. In this saying, therefore, a contrast is drawn between the Messianic ζυγός of Jesus and the ζυγός of legalism" ("ζυγός in the NT," TDNT 2:899-900). Albright and Mann opine: "An easy yoke and a light burden are offered in exchange for the arbitrary demands of Pharisaic legalism and the uncertainties of ever-proliferating case law" (W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew [AB 26; Garden City: Doubleday, 1971], 146). Gundry writes: "...the burden Jesus puts on his disciples in chap. 11 contrasts with the burdens the scribes and Pharisees put on their followers in chap. 23. Confirmation that Matthew intends his readers to relate the two passages in this way comes from his omitting "you burden" in 23:4 (again cf. Luke 11:46)" (Matthew, 219). Gundry also speaks of "the overbearing conceit of the scribes and Pharisees in their quest for public recognition" (Matthew, 220). Hagner speaks of "the burdensome and tiring way of the Pharisees" (Matthew, 325), and "the overwhelming nomism of the Pharisees," stating that their rulings "involved a complicated casuistry" (Matthew, 323). In his view, the Pharisees were Jesus' "primary rivals" (Matthew, 324). For a more accurate appraisal of the Pharisees and their teaching, see David Flusser, Jesus (3rd ed.; Jerusalem: Magnes, 2001), 66-73, 89, 150, 182-3, 202-3. ↩
• ^[28] For the privations that a first-century disciple was expected to endure, see David Bivin, "First-century Discipleship." ↩
• ^[29] As Gundry points out, "learning from Jesus defines the taking of his yoke on oneself" (Matthew, 218). Hagner connects Matthew 11:28-30 with Matthew 23, but understands that Jesus' Matt 11 saying has to do with discipleship, and that Jesus was speaking as Wisdom did in Ben Sira 51, and even as God spoke to Moses in Exod 33:14 (Matthew, 323). Israel Abrahams also was not mislead. He noted that "The Pharisaic view [which in his opinion was also Jesus' view] is well brought out in...the Apocalypse of Baruch, xli. 3, 4 [= 2 Baruch 51:3-4 in Charlesworth ed.]: 'For lo! I see many of thy people who have withdrawn from thy covenant, and cast from them the yoke of thy law. But others again I have seen who have forsaken their vanity, and fled for refuge beneath thy wings.' Galled by the yoke, or feeling it a profitless burden, the one casts it off. But another, willingly assuming it, finds it no yoke, but a refuge under the wings of the Divine Presence" (Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels [2 vols.; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1924], 2:14). ↩
• ^[30] Nor was Jesus suggesting, in Matthew 11:28-30, new, lighter commandments as replacements for the commandments of the Torah. He would never have contrasted his commandments with God's commandments: "Until the end of time, not the smallest letter of God's Torah will ever pass away from the Torah," he said (Matt 5:18). Furthermore, Jesus himself observed the commandments, even commandments of the Oral Torah. See David Bivin, "Did Jesus Observe The Oral Torah? - Blessing," "Oral Torah: Unutterable Name," and "Oral Torah: The Hem of His Garment." ↩
• ^[31] Apparently, the prohibitions that leaders of the new community of Jesus proscribed for members not of Jewish origin were only three: "Thou shalt not commit idolatry"; "Thou shalt not commit murder"; and "Thou shalt not engage in sexual immorality," (probably, the taking part in cult prostitution at pagan temples) (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25 ). See David Bivin, "Acts 15:20: How Many Commandments Were Jesus' Followers of Non-Jewish Parentage Commanded to Keep?" (forthcoming). ↩
• ^[32] It is possible, as some authorities (e.g., Jackson and Lake, The Acts of the Apostles, 4:174) have suggested, that the continuation of Peter's comment, "that neither we nor our forefathers have been able to bear [i.e., keep]," is a later addition to the text, since it is unlikely that Peter or any of his Jewish contemporaries would have said that the commandments could not be kept. See, for instance, the statement of a rich man who approached Jesus: "All these (commandments) I have done [i.e., kept] from my youth" (Luke 18:21). Notice that Jesus did not take issue with the man's statement. ↩
• ^[33] Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korkhah said, "Why does the Shema passage [Deut 6:4-9] precede the "So if you faithfully obey" passage [Deut 11:13-21]? So that a person may first accept the kingdom of heaven, and only afterwards the yoke of the commandments" (m. Ber. 2:2). (Note that in printed texts of the Mishnah we find the reading, "So that a person may first accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven..."; however, in ancient Judaism, the "Kingdom of Heaven" was never thought of as a burden, or yoke, and this is reflected in tannaic sources—Codex Kaufmann, the most reliable manuscript of the Mishnah, reads, "So that a person may first accept the kingdom of heaven...") ↩
• ^[34] As mentioned above (see section on "take my yoke upon you"), in their comments on Acts 15:10, Jackson and Lake note that "yoke" was used by Jewish writers in the sense of "obligation," but give no evidence for such usage (The Acts of the Apostles, 4:173-74). I am indebted to James W. Fox for six examples showing that "burden" could be used in the sense of mitzvah and mitzvoth (Isa 43:23; Midr. Gen. 72:4; Midr. Lev. 13:2; b. Yoma 9^a; 75^b; b. Shabb. 146^b). ↩
• ^[35] One should consult the standard commentaries on this passage. In addition, see S. Bacchiocchi, “Matthew 11.28-30: Jesus’ Rest and the Sabbath,” AUSS 22 (1984): 289-316; Hans Dieter Betz, “The Logion of the Easy Yoke and of Rest,” JBL 86 (1967): 10-24; J. J. C. Cox, “‘Bearers of Heavy Burdens,’ A Significant Textual Variant,” AUSS 9 (1971): 1-15; M. Maher, “‘Take my yoke upon you’ (Matt xi.29),” NTS 22 (1975): 97-102; G. N. Stanton, “Matthew 11.28-30: Comfortable Words?” ExpTim 94 (1982): 3-9. ↩