Follow me is a command to discipleship and may be translated “Come and be my disciple.” See comments on “follow” in verse 19.

Leave the dead to bury their own dead is best interpreted as a striking image like that of the log in the eye (7.3). One should not spiritualize by translating “Those who refuse to follow me are spiritually dead. Let them stay and bury the dead.”

It may not be possible to say simply the dead unless they are specified as “dead people.” It can be, therefore, “Let those who are dead bury their own dead (people).”

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 .