1 sn They covered their ears to avoid hearing what they considered to be blasphemy.
2 tn Grk “And when.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here; a new sentence is begun instead.
3 sn They began to stone him. The irony of the scene is that the people do exactly what the speech complains about in v. 52.
4 tn Or “outer garments.”
5 tn Or “masters.”
6 tn On this use of ἐργασία (ergasia), see BDAG 390 s.v. 4. It is often the case that destructive practices and commerce are closely tied together.
7 tn Grk “was gone, seizing.” The participle ἐπιλαβόμενοι (epilabomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
8 tn On the term ἕλκω ({elkw) see BDAG 318 s.v. 1.
9 tn Grk “cast.”
10 tn Or “city.”
11 tn The Greek conjunction ὥστε (Jwste) here indicates their purpose.
12 sn The attempt to throw him down the cliff looks like “lynch law,” but it may really be an indication that Jesus was regarded as a false prophet who was worthy of death (Deut 13:5). Such a sentence meant being thrown into a pit and then stoned.
13 tn Grk “in the desert, for forty days being tempted.” The participle πειραζόμενος (peirazomeno") has been translated as an adverbial clause in English to avoid a run-on sentence with a second “and.” Here the present participle suggests a period of forty days of testing. Three samples of the end of the testing are given in the following verses.
14 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
15 sn The reference to Jesus eating nothing could well be an idiom meaning that he ate only what the desert provided; see Exod 34:28. A desert fast simply meant eating only what one could obtain in the desert. The parallel in Matt 4:2 speaks only of Jesus fasting.
16 tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).