⭐WEB · Matthew 18:22
What does Matthew 18:22 mean?
"Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven."
— Matthew 18:22 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.
Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.
When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Explanation
Matthew 18:22 records Jesus's response to a question Peter had just asked: how many times should he forgive someone who sins against him, suggesting seven times as a generous number. Jesus's reply pushes far beyond that limit, saying not seven times but "seventy times seven." In plain language, Jesus is saying that forgiveness should not be measured or capped at all. Peter thought he was being magnanimous by proposing seven, since seven often symbolized completeness in Jewish thought, but Jesus's answer shatters the idea that forgiveness can be tallied up and eventually exhausted.
The context is a broader teaching of Jesus on relationships within the community of his followers, found in Matthew 18. Just before this exchange, Jesus had taught about seeking out a sinning brother and about the danger of causing others to stumble, and he follows this verse with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, which vividly illustrates the point. Matthew, writing primarily to a Jewish-Christian audience, presents Jesus as a teacher whose ethical demands exceed the letter of the law that his listeners already knew. Peter's question reflects a rabbinic-style desire for a clear rule or boundary, and Jesus responds not with a rule but with a principle that resists quantification.
The number "seventy times seven" (or "seventy-seven," depending on translation) is not meant to be taken as a literal count to reach and then stop. It is a rhetorical device signaling limitless forgiveness, echoing Genesis 4:24, where Lam
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