12:1 Meanwhile, 1 when many thousands of the crowd had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus 2 began to speak first to his disciples, “Be on your guard against 3 the yeast of the Pharisees, 4 which is hypocrisy. 5
34:30 so that the godless man should not rule,
and not lay snares for the people. 6
11:9 With his speech 7 the godless person 8 destroys 9 his neighbor,
but by knowledge 10 the righteous will be delivered.
29:20 For tyrants will disappear,
those who taunt will vanish,
and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated 11 –
23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law 14 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! 15 You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! 16 For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
1 tn The phrase ἐν οἷς (en Jois) can be translated “meanwhile.”
2 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn According to L&N 27.59, “to pay attention to, to keep on the lookout for, to be alert for, to be on your guard against.” This is another Lukan present imperative calling for constant vigilance.
4 sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.
5 sn The pursuit of popularity can lead to hypocrisy, if one is not careful.
6 tn This last verse is difficult because it is unbalanced and cryptic. Some have joined the third line of v. 29 with this entire verse to make a couplet. But the same result is achieved by simply regarding this verse as the purpose of v. 29. But there still are some words that must be added. In the first colon, “[he is over the nations]…preventing from ruling.” And in the second colon, “laying” has to be supplied before “snares.”
7 tn Heb “with his mouth.” The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.
8 sn The Hebrew word originally meant “impious, godless, polluted, profane.” It later developed the idea of a “hypocrite” (Dan 11:32), one who conceals his evil under the appearance of godliness or kindness. This one is a false flatterer.
9 sn The verb שָׁחַת (shakhat) means “to destroy; to ruin” (e.g., the destruction of Sodom in Gen 13:10). The imperfect tense is probably not an habitual imperfect (because the second colon shows exceptions), but probably a progressive imperfect (“this goes on”) or potential imperfect (“they can do this”).
10 sn The antithetical proverb states that a righteous person can escape devastating slander through knowledge. The righteous will have sufficient knowledge and perception to see through the hypocrisy and avoid its effect.
11 tn Heb “and all the watchers of wrong will be cut off.”
12 tc ‡ Most
13 tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”
14 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
15 tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).
16 tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”
17 tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.
18 tn Or “obtain.”
19 tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.
20 tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.
21 tn Or “and implore the Lord.”
22 tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.
23 tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.
24 sn A parenthetical note by the author.
25 sn This qualifying clause in the narrative indicates who represented God in the dispute.
26 tn Or “gazed intently.”
27 tn Or “unscrupulousness.”
28 sn “You who…paths of the Lord?” This rebuke is like ones from the OT prophets: Jer 5:27; Gen 32:11; Prov 10:7; Hos 14:9. Five separate remarks indicate the magician’s failings. The closing rhetorical question of v. 10 (“will you not stop…?”) shows how opposed he is to the way of God.