For comments on prophets, see 5.17 and 1.22. The normal order of “the Law and the Prophets” is reversed here.

The law is “the Law of Moses” (Good News Translation), the first division of the Jewish Bible.

Prophesied: see comments on 7.22. Good News Translation has “spoke about the Kingdom,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “have announced God’s new world.” Although the Greek verb does not necessarily mean “predict,” a number of translations do see that meaning here: “foretold the things that must happen” (INCL), “foretold things to come” (New English Bible), “foretold” (Phillips), and “told of the things which were destined to happen” (Barclay). New Jerusalem Bible translates the entire first half of the verse “Because it was towards John that all the prophesies of the prophets and of the Law were leading….” One may also translate “… spoke about the time when God would establish his rule.”

Until John raises exegetical problems. “From the days of John” (verse 12) apparently places John among the prophets, which would mean that the Kingdom of heaven is inaugurated after the time of John. However, Matthew elsewhere uses “from…” with the meaning “beginning with” (see 1.17; 2.16; 23.35; 27.45), and that would seem to be his intention here. In verse 9 Jesus has already stated that John is “more than a prophet,” and in verses 18-19 he will closely identify himself with John in a manner such as to suggest that John is included within the Messianic era. The verse may then be translated “The Law of Moses and all the prophets spoke about (the coming of) the Kingdom before John began to proclaim his message.”

With this understanding of until John, depending on the structure of the sentence, translators can also say “up to John” or “up to the time of John,” or, as above, “before John.” Note, too, the order of the sentence can be reversed if necessary, as in “for before John began his ministry, the Law of Moses and the Prophets had spoken about God’s rule.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .