23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law 9 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! 10 You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! 11 For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
1 tn Grk “from among yourselves.”
2 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.
3 tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”
4 tn Heb “burden of the
5 tn Heb “the burden.”
6 tn Heb “The burden is [or will be] to a man his word.” There is a good deal of ambiguity regarding how this line is to be rendered. For the major options and the issues involved W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:651-52 should be consulted. Most of them are excluded by the observation that מַשָּׂא probably does not mean “oracle” anywhere in this passage (see note on v. 33 regarding the use of this word). Hence it does not mean “every man’s word becomes his oracle” as in NIV or “for that ‘burden’ [= oracle] is what he entrusts to the man of his word” (W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:600-601). The latter is also ruled out by the fact that the antecedent of “his” on “his word” is clearly the word “man” in front of it. This would be the only case where the phrase “man of his word” occurs. There is also no textual reason for repointing the noun with the article as the noun with the interrogative to read “For how can his word become a burden to anyone?” There are, of course, other options but this is sufficient to show that the translation has been chosen after looking at other alternatives.
7 tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”
8 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
9 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
10 tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).
11 tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”
12 sn You have taken away the key to knowledge is another stinging rebuke. They had done the opposite of what they were trying to do.
13 tn Or “you tried to prevent.”
14 tn Grk “which is not another,” but this could be misunderstood to mean “which is not really different.” In fact, as Paul goes on to make clear, there is no other gospel than the one he preaches.
15 tn Grk “except.”
16 tn Or “trying.”