59:15 Honesty has disappeared;
the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.
The Lord watches and is displeased, 1
for there is no justice.
9:7 The time of judgment 8 is about to arrive! 9
The time of retribution 10 is imminent! 11
Let Israel know! 12
The prophet is considered a fool 13 –
the inspired man 14 is viewed as a madman 15 –
because of the multitude of your sins
and your intense 16 animosity.
26:24 As Paul 26 was saying these things in his defense, Festus 27 exclaimed loudly, “You have lost your mind, 28 Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!”
26:1 So Agrippa 29 said to Paul, “You have permission 30 to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand 31 and began his defense: 32
4:10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him).
4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
1 tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”
2 tn Heb “in place of Jehoiada the priest.” The word “the priest” is unnecessary to the English sentence.
3 tc Heb “The
4 sn The Hebrew term translated lunatic applies to anyone who exhibits irrational behavior. It was used for example of David who drooled and scratched on the city gate to convince Achish not to arrest him as a politically dangerous threat (1 Sam 21:14). It was often used contemptuously of the prophets by those who wanted to play down the significance of their words (2 Kgs 9:11; Hos 9:7 and here).
5 tn The verb here is a good example of what IBHS 431 §26.2f calls the estimative-declarative reflexive where a person presents himself in a certain light. For examples of this usage see 2 Sam 13:5; Prov 13:7.
6 tn See the translator’s note on 20:2 for this word which only occurs here and in 20:2-3.
7 tn This word only occurs here in the Hebrew Bible. All the lexicons are agreed as seeing it referring to a collar placed around the neck. The basis for this definition are the cognate languages (see, e.g., HALOT 958-59 s.v. צִינֹק for the most complete discussion).
8 tn Heb “the days of the visitation”; NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “the days of punishment.”
9 tn Heb “has come” (בָּאוּ, ba’u). The two perfect tense (suffix-conjugation) verbs בָּאוּ (Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from בּוֹא, bo’, “to come”) repeated in this verse are both examples of the so-called “prophetic perfect”: the perfect, which connotes completed or factual action, is used in reference to future events to emphasize the certainty of the announced event taking place.
10 tn Heb “the days of the retribution”; NIV “of reckoning”; NRSV “of recompense.”
11 tn Heb “has come”; NIV “are at hand”; NLT “is almost here.”
12 tc The Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex (the MT
13 tn Or “is distraught”; cf. CEV, NLT “are crazy.”
14 tn Heb “the man of the Spirit”; NAB, NRSV “spirit.”
15 tn Or “is driven to despair.” The term מְשֻׁגָּע (mÿshugga’, Pual participle masculine singular from שָׁגַע, shaga’, “to be mad”) may be understood in two senses: (1) It could be a predicate adjective which is a figure of speech: “to be maddened,” to be driven to despair (Deut 28:34); or (2) it could be a substantive: “a madman,” referring to prophets who attempted to enter into a prophetic state through whipping themselves into a frenzy (1 Sam 21:16; 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26; see BDB 993 s.v. שָׁגַע). The prophetic context of 9:7 favors the latter option (which is followed by most English versions). Apparently, the general populace viewed these mantics with suspicion and questioned the legitimacy of their claim to be true prophets (e.g., 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26).
16 tn Heb “great.”
17 tc Western witnesses D W it, instead of reading οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ (Joi par’ aujtou, here translated “family”), have περὶ αὐτοῦ οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ λοιποί (peri autou Joi grammatei" kai Joi loipoi, “[when] the scribes and others [heard] about him”). But this reading is obviously motivated, for it removes the embarrassing statement about Jesus’ family’s opinion of him as “out of his mind” and transfers this view to the Lord’s opponents. The fact that virtually all other witnesses have οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ here, coupled with the strong internal evidence for the shorter reading, shows this Western reading to be secondary.
18 tn Or “is insane.” To translate simply “he is mad” (so KJV, ASV, RSV; “raving mad” NIV) could give the impression that Jesus was angry, while the actual charge was madness or insanity.
19 sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300
20 sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270
21 tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.
22 tn Grk “saying.”
23 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.”
24 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.
25 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
26 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
28 tn On the term translated “lost your mind” see BDAG 610 s.v. μαίνομαι, which has “you’re out of your mind, you’re raving, said to one whose enthusiasm seems to have outrun better judgment 26:24.”
29 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
30 tn Grk “It is permitted for you.”
31 tn Or “extended his hand” (a speaker’s gesture).
32 tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”
33 tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).