Acts 8:9

8:9 Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic ¹  and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

Matthew 24:24

24:24 For false messiahs ²  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:2

24:2 And he said to them, ³  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ⁴  not one stone will be left on another. ⁵  All will be torn down!” ⁶ 

Matthew 2:3-7

2:3 When King Herod ⁷  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ⁸  he asked them where the Christ ⁹  was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ¹⁰ 

2:7 Then Herod ¹¹  privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared.

Matthew 2:2

2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ¹²  and have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:18

2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,

weeping and loud wailing, ¹³ 

Rachel weeping for her children,

and she did not want to be comforted, because they were ¹⁴  gone.” ¹⁵ 

Jude 1:16

1:16 These people are grumblers and ¹⁶  fault-finders who go ¹⁷  wherever their desires lead them, ¹⁸  and they give bombastic speeches, ¹⁹  enchanting folks ²⁰  for their own gain. ²¹ 

Revelation 17:3

17:3 So ²²  he carried me away in the Spirit ²³  to a wilderness, ²⁴  and there ²⁵  I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

Revelation 17:5

17:5 On ²⁶  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ²⁷  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

¹ tn On the idiom προϋπῆρχεν μαγεύων (prouphrcen mageuwn) meaning “had been practicing magic” see BDAG 889 s.v. προϋπάρχω.

² tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

³ tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁵ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

⁶ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

⁷ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

⁸ tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

⁹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹⁰ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

¹¹ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

¹² tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).

¹³ tc The LXX of Jer 38:15 (31:15 ET) has “lamentation, weeping, and loud wailing”; most later mss (C D L W 0233 ˹³ 33 Ï) have a quotation in Matthew which conforms to that of the LXX (θρῆνος καὶ κλαυθμός καὶ ὀδυρμός; qrhno" kai klauqmo" kai odurmo"). But such assimilations were routine among the scribes; as such, they typically should be discounted because they are both predictable and motivated. The shorter reading, without “lamentation and,” is thus to be preferred, especially since it cannot easily be accounted for unless it is the original wording here. Further, it is found in the better mss along with a good cross-section of other witnesses (א B Z 0250 ˹ pc lat co).

¹⁴ tn Grk “are”; the Greek text uses a present tense verb.

¹⁵ sn A quotation from Jer 31:15.

¹⁶ tn “And” is not in Greek, but is supplied for the sake of English style.

¹⁷ tn Or “going.” Though the participle is anarthrous, so also is the subject. Thus, the participle could be either adverbial or adjectival.

¹⁸ tn Grk “(who go/going) according to their own lusts.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “and their mouth speaks bombastic things.”

²⁰ sn Enchanting folks (Grk “awing faces”) refers to the fact that the speeches of these false teachers are powerful and seductive.

²¹ tn Or “to their own advantage.”

²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation to witness the fate of the prostitute.

²³ tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

²⁴ tn Or “desert.”

²⁵ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁷ tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).