John 9:6

9:6 Having said this, ¹  he spat on the ground and made some mud ²  with the saliva. He ³  smeared the mud on the blind man’s ⁴  eyes

Psalms 78:19-20

78:19 They insulted God, saying, ⁵ 

“Is God really able to give us food ⁶  in the wilderness?

78:20 Yes, ⁷  he struck a rock and water flowed out,

streams gushed forth.

But can he also give us food?

Will he provide meat for his people?”

Matthew 27:40-42

27:40 and saying, “You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! ⁸  If you are God’s Son, come down ⁹  from the cross!” 27:41 In ¹⁰  the same way even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law ¹¹  and elders ¹²  – were mocking him: ¹³  27:42 “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the king of Israel! If he comes down ¹⁴  now from the cross, we will believe in him!

Mark 15:32

15:32 Let the Christ, ¹⁵  the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him. ¹⁶ 

Luke 23:35

23:35 The people also stood there watching, but the rulers ridiculed ¹⁷  him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save ¹⁸  himself if ¹⁹  he is the Christ ²⁰  of God, his chosen one!”

Luke 23:39

23:39 One of the criminals who was hanging there railed at him, saying, “Aren’t ²¹  you the Christ? ²²  Save yourself and us!”

¹ tn Grk “said these things.”

² tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency). The textual variant preserved in the Syriac text of Ephraem’s commentary on the Diatessaron (“he made eyes from his clay”) probably arose from the interpretation given by Irenaeus in Against Heresies: “that which the Artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, he then supplied in public.” This involves taking the clay as an allusion to Gen 2:7, which is very unlikely.

³ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) was replaced by a third person pronoun and a new sentence started here in the translation.

⁴ tn Grk “on his.”

⁵ tn Heb “they spoke against God, they said.”

⁶ tn Heb “to arrange a table [for food].”

⁷ tn Heb “look.”

⁸ sn There is rich irony in the statements of those who were passing by, “save yourself!” and “come down from the cross!” In summary, they wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save his physical life, but it was indeed his staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life.

⁹ tc ‡ Many important witnesses (א* A D pc it sy^[s],p) read καί (kai, here with the force of “then”) before κατάβηθι (katabhqi, “come down”). The shorter reading may well be due to homoioarcton, but judging by the diverse external evidence (א² B L W Θ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) it is equally possible that the shorter reading is original (and is so considered for this translation). NA²⁷ puts the καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹¹ tn Or “with the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹² tn Only “chief priests” is in the nominative case; this sentence structure attempts to capture this emphasis.

¹³ tn Grk “Mocking him, the chief priests…said.”

¹⁴ tn Here the aorist imperative καταβάτω (katabatw) has been translated as a conditional imperative. This fits the pattern of other conditional imperatives (imperative + καί + future indicative) outlined by ExSyn 489.

¹⁵ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹⁶ sn Mark’s wording suggests that both of the criminals spoke abusively to him. If so, one of them quickly changed his attitude toward Jesus (see Luke 23:40-43).

¹⁷ tn A figurative extension of the literal meaning “to turn one’s nose up at someone”; here “ridicule, sneer at, show contempt for” (L&N 33.409).

¹⁸ sn The irony in the statement Let him save himself is that salvation did come, but later, not while on the cross.

¹⁹ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.

²⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

²¹ tc Most mss (A C³ W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) read εἰ σὺ εἶ (ei su ei, “If you are”) here, while οὐχὶ σὺ εἶ (ouci su ei, “Are you not”) is found in overall better and earlier witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א B C* L 070 1241 pc it). The “if” clause reading creates a parallel with the earlier taunts (vv. 35, 37), and thus is most likely a motivated reading.

²² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”