Matthew 11:18-19

11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ ¹  11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, ²  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors ³  and sinners!’ ⁴  But wisdom is vindicated ⁵  by her deeds.” ⁶ 

Matthew 12:24

12:24 But when the Pharisees ⁷  heard this they said, “He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, ⁸  the ruler ⁹  of demons!”

Matthew 12:1

Lord of the Sabbath

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His ¹⁰  disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat ¹¹  and eat them.

Matthew 20:30

20:30 Two ¹²  blind men were sitting by the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ¹³  “Have mercy ¹⁴  on us, Lord, Son of David!” ¹⁵ 

Matthew 20:2

20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ¹⁶  he sent them into his vineyard.

Matthew 16:7

16:7 So ¹⁷  they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “It is because we brought no bread.”

John 7:20

7:20 The crowd ¹⁸  answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! ¹⁹  Who is trying to kill you?” ²⁰ 

John 8:48

8:48 The Judeans ²¹  replied, ²²  “Aren’t we correct in saying ²³  that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?” ²⁴ 

Acts 17:18

17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ²⁵  and Stoic ²⁶  philosophers were conversing ²⁷  with him, and some were asking, ²⁸  “What does this foolish babbler ²⁹  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ³⁰  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ³¹ 

Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ³²  Amphipolis ³³  and Apollonia, ³⁴  they came to Thessalonica, ³⁵  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ³⁶ 

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ³⁷  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³⁸  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Ephesians 4:31-32

4:31 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. 4:32 Instead, ³⁹  be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. ⁴⁰ 

Titus 3:2

3:2 They must not slander ⁴¹  anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people.

Titus 3:1

Conduct Toward Those Outside the Church

3:1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and ⁴²  authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.

Titus 2:1

Conduct Consistent with Sound Teaching

2:1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with ⁴³  sound teaching.

Titus 3:9

3:9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, ⁴⁴  quarrels, and fights about the law, ⁴⁵  because they are useless and empty.

Jude 1:9

1:9 But even ⁴⁶  when Michael the archangel ⁴⁷  was arguing with the devil and debating with him ⁴⁸  concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”

[11:18]  ¹ sn John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.

[11:19]  ² tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[11:19]  ³ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[11:19]  ⁴ sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[11:19]  ⁵ tn Or “shown to be right.”

[11:19]  ⁶ tc Most witnesses (B² C D L Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï lat) have “children” (τέκνων, teknwn) here instead of “deeds” (ἔργων, ergwn), but since “children” is the reading of the parallel in Luke 7:35, scribes would be motivated to convert the less colorful “deeds” into more animate offspring of wisdom. Further, ἔργων enjoys support from א B* W (˹³) as well as early versional and patristic support.

[12:24]  ⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[12:24]  ⁸ tn Grk “except by Beelzebul.”

[12:24]  ⁹ tn Or “prince.”

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “heads of grain.” While the generic term στάχυς (stacus) can refer to the cluster of seeds at the top of grain such as barley or wheat, in the NT the term is restricted to wheat (L&N 3.40; BDAG 941 s.v. 1).

[20:30]  ¹² tn Grk “And behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[20:30]  ¹³ tn Grk “shouted, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[20:30]  ¹⁴ sn Have mercy on us is a request for healing. It is not owed to the men. They simply ask for God’s kind grace.

[20:30]  ¹⁵ sn There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).

[20:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

[16:7]  ¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Jesus’ saying about the Pharisees and Sadducees.

[7:20]  ¹⁸ tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities mentioned in 7:15).

[7:20]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “You have a demon!”

[7:20]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Who is seeking to kill you?”

[8:48]  ²¹ tn Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They had become increasingly hostile as Jesus continued to teach. Now they were ready to say that Jesus was demon-possessed.

[8:48]  ²² tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[8:48]  ²³ tn Grk “Do we not say rightly.”

[8:48]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and have a demon.” It is not clear what is meant by the charge Σαμαρίτης εἶ σὺ καὶ δαιμόνιον ἔχεις (Samarith" ei su kai daimonion ecei"). The meaning could be “you are a heretic and are possessed by a demon.” Note that the dual charge gets one reply (John 8:49). Perhaps the phrases were interchangeable: Simon Magus (Acts 8:14-24) and in later traditions Dositheus, the two Samaritans who claimed to be sons of God, were regarded as mad, that is, possessed by demons.

[17:18]  ²⁵ sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ²⁶ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ²⁸ tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ²⁹ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ³⁰ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ³¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[17:1]  ³² tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ³³ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ³⁴ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ³⁵ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ³⁶ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[1:10]  ³⁷ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[4:32]  ³⁹ tc ‡ Although most witnesses have either δέ (de; Ì⁴⁹ א A D² Ψ 33 1739^mg Ï lat) or οὖν (oun; D* F G 1175) here, a few important mss lack a conjunction (Ì⁴⁶ B 0278 6 1739* 1881). If either conjunction were originally in the text, it is difficult to explain how the asyndetic construction could have arisen (although the dropping of δέ could have occurred via homoioteleuton). Further, although Hellenistic Greek rarely joined sentences without a conjunction, such does occur in the corpus Paulinum on occasion, especially to underscore a somber point. “Instead” has been supplied in the translation because of stylistic requirements, not textual basis. NA²⁷ places δέ in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:32]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “forgiving.”

[3:2]  ⁴¹ tn Or “discredit,” “damage the reputation of.”

[3:1]  ⁴² tc Most later witnesses (D² 0278 Ï lat sy) have καί (kai, “and”) after ἀρχαῖς (arcai", “rulers”), though the earliest and best witnesses (א A C D* F G Ψ 33 104 1739 1881) lack the conjunction. Although the καί is most likely not authentic, it has been added in translation due to the requirements of English style. For more discussion, see TCGNT 586.

[2:1]  ⁴³ tn Grk “say what is fitting for sound teaching” (introducing the behavior called for in this chapter.).

[3:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Cf. 1 Tim 1:4.

[3:9]  ⁴⁵ sn Fights about the law were characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus as well as in Crete (cf. 1 Tim 1:3-7; Titus 1:10, 14).

[1:9]  ⁴⁶ tn The word “even” is not in Greek; it is implied by the height of the contrast.

[1:9]  ⁴⁷ sn According to Jewish intertestamental literature (such as 1 En. 20), Michael was one of seven archangels.

[1:9]  ⁴⁸ tn The sentence structure is a bit different in Greek. Literally it reads: “But Michael the archangel, when arguing with the devil and disputing.”