Luke 16:15

16:15 But ¹  Jesus ²  said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, ³  but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized ⁴  among men is utterly detestable ⁵  in God’s sight.

Luke 18:9-11

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

18:9 Jesus ⁶  also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down ⁷  on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up ⁸  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ⁹  and the other a tax collector. ¹⁰  18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹¹  ‘God, I thank ¹²  you that I am not like other people: ¹³  extortionists, ¹⁴  unrighteous people, ¹⁵  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹⁶ 

Leviticus 19:34

19:34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so ¹⁷  you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Job 32:2

32:2 Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry. ¹⁸  He was angry ¹⁹  with Job for justifying ²⁰  himself rather than God. ²¹ 

Romans 4:2

4:2 For if Abraham was declared righteous ²²  by the works of the law, he has something to boast about – but not before God.

Romans 10:3

10:3 For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Galatians 3:11

3:11 Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith. ²³ 

James 2:24

2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “before men.” The contrast is between outward appearance (“in people’s eyes”) and inward reality (“God knows your hearts”). Here the Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used twice in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, but “men” has been retained in the text to provide a strong verbal contrast with “God” in the second half of the verse.

⁴ tn Or “exalted.” This refers to the pride that often comes with money and position.

⁵ tn Or “is an abomination,” “is abhorrent” (L&N 25.187).

⁶ tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.

⁸ sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

⁹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

¹⁰ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

¹¹ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

¹² sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

¹³ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

¹⁴ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

¹⁵ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

¹⁶ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

¹⁸ tn The verse begins with וַיִּחַר אַף (vayyikhar ’af, “and the anger became hot”), meaning Elihu became very angry.

¹⁹ tn The second comment about Elihu’s anger comes right before the statement of its cause. Now the perfect verb is used: “he was angry.”

²⁰ tn The explanation is the causal clause עַל־צַדְּקוֹ נַפְשׁוֹ (’al-tsaddÿqo nafsho, “because he justified himself”). It is the preposition with the Piel infinitive construct with a suffixed subjective genitive.

²¹ tc The LXX and Latin versions soften the expression slightly by saying “before God.”

²² tn Or “was justified.”

²³ tn Or “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (a quotation from Hab 2:4).