The Hard Sayings: Matthew 8:20

Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand. To see a list of these verses, go to this page.

Matthew 8:20 is spoken soon after the Sermon on the Mount. It is notable because it is the first verse where Jesus describes himself as “the son of the man” (see this article). Jesus said this in response to a question from “a teacher of the law.” This man asked, “Where should I go to follow you.”

Here is a modern Biblical translation of Jesus’s answer:

NIV: Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

To understand the wordplay in this verse, we have to think about the context. Who is the man asking? A teacher of the law. Who taught the law in Jesus’s time? Pharisees and Levites, the traditional Judaic priesthood. Most teachers of the law in Jesus’s time were Pharisees, but the man is not described as a Pharisee who could be identified by their black and white robes. The questioner could either be a Pharisee who took off his robes to hide his identity or a Levite, the traditional priesthood who often opposed the Pharisees.

Jesus’s answer suggests these two possibilities using the words translated as “fox and “bird.”

The Greek Words

The word translated as "fox" means "fox" but, in Greek as in English, the word is a metaphor for a sly, crafty person. The term translated as "dens" means "den," or "lair," and interestingly enough, "schoolhouse." The two main “schools” of Judaism in the time of Jesus, Himmel and Shammai, were both branches of the Pharisees. So, “fox” described one kind of teacher of the law, a Pharisee, but in disguise.

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