Acts 2:41

2:41 So those who accepted ¹  his message ²  were baptized, and that day about three thousand people ³  were added. ⁴ 

Acts 17:11

17:11 These Jews ⁵  were more open-minded ⁶  than those in Thessalonica, ⁷  for they eagerly ⁸  received ⁹  the message, examining ¹⁰  the scriptures carefully every day ¹¹  to see if these things were so.

Matthew 13:23

13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” ¹² 

John 12:48

12:48 The one who rejects me and does not accept ¹³  my words has a judge; ¹⁴  the word ¹⁵  I have spoken will judge him at the last day.

John 12:1

Jesus’ Anointing

12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he ¹⁶  had raised from the dead.

John 2:13

2:13 Now the Jewish feast of Passover ¹⁷  was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁸ 

John 2:2

2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ¹⁹ 

John 2:10

2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ²⁰  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ²¹  wine when the guests ²²  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”

¹ tn Or “who acknowledged the truth of.”

² tn Grk “word.”

³ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

⁴ tn Or “were won over.”

⁵ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

⁷ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

⁸ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

⁹ tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

¹⁰ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

¹¹ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

¹² tn The Greek is difficult to translate because it switches from a generic “he” to three people within this generic class (thus, something like: “Who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one instance a hundred times, in another, sixty times, in another, thirty times”).

¹³ tn Or “does not receive.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “has one who judges him.”

¹⁵ tn Or “message.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “whom Jesus,” but a repetition of the proper name (Jesus) here would be redundant in the English clause structure, so the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

¹⁷ tn Grk “the Passover of the Jews.” This is first of at least three (and possibly four) Passovers mentioned in John’s Gospel. If it is assumed that the Passovers appear in the Gospel in their chronological order (and following a date of a.d. 33 for the crucifixion), this would be the Passover of the spring of a.d. 30, the first of Jesus’ public ministry. There is a clear reference to another Passover in 6:4, and another still in 11:55, 12:1, 13:1, 18:28, 39, and 19:14. The latter would be the Passover of a.d. 33. There is a possibility that 5:1 also refers to a Passover, in which case it would be the second of Jesus’ public ministry (a.d. 31), while 6:4 would refer to the third (a.d. 32) and the remaining references would refer to the final Passover at the time of the crucifixion. It is entirely possible, however, that the Passovers occurring in the Fourth Gospel are not intended to be understood as listed in chronological sequence. If the material of the Fourth Gospel originally existed in the form of homilies or sermons by the Apostle John on the life and ministry of Jesus, the present arrangement would not have to be in strict chronological order (it does not explicitly claim to be). In this case the Passover mentioned in 2:13, for example, might actually be later in Jesus’ public ministry than it might at first glance appear. This leads, however, to a discussion of an even greater problem in the passage, the relationship of the temple cleansing in John’s Gospel to the similar account in the synoptic gospels.

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁹ sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.

²⁰ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

²¹ tn Or “poorer.”

²² tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.