16:1 Now when the Pharisees 1 and Sadducees 2 came to test Jesus, 3 they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 4
22:18 But Jesus realized their evil intentions and said, “Hypocrites! Why are you testing me?
12:13 Then 17 they sent some of the Pharisees 18 and Herodians 19 to trap him with his own words. 20
11:53 When he went out from there, the experts in the law 23 and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, 24 and to ask him hostile questions 25 about many things, 11:54 plotting against 26 him, to catch 27 him in something he might say.
3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me, 31 and they saw my works for forty years.
1 sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.
2 sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.
3 tn The object of the participle πειράζοντες (peirazontes) is not given in the Greek text but has been supplied here for clarity.
4 sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.
5 sn The Herodians are mentioned in the NT only once in Matt (22:16 = Mark 12:13) and twice in Mark (3:6; 12:13; some
6 sn Teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Very few comments are as deceitful as this one; they did not really believe this at all. The question of the Pharisees and Herodians was specifically designed to trap Jesus.
7 tn Grk “And it is not a concern to you about anyone because you do not see the face of men.”
8 tn Or “lawful,” that is, in accordance with God’s divine law. On the syntax of ἔξεστιν (exestin) with an infinitive and accusative, see BDF §409.3.
9 tn According to L&N 57.180 the term κῆνσος (khnso") was borrowed from Latin and referred to a poll tax, a tax paid by each adult male to the Roman government.
10 tn Or “to the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).
11 tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law.
12 tn Grk “testing.” The participle, however, is telic in force.
13 tc The Western text (D it) and a few others have only καί (kai) here, rather than καὶ προσελθόντες Φαρισαῖοι (kai proselqonte" Farisaioi, here translated as “then some Pharisees came”). The longer reading, a specific identification of the subject, may have been prompted by the parallel in Matt 19:3. The fact that the
14 tn In Greek this phrase occurs at the end of the sentence. It has been brought forward to conform to English style.
15 tn The personal pronoun “his” is not in the Greek text, but is certainly implied and has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the statement (cf. “his wife” in 10:7).
16 tn The particle εἰ (ei) is often used to introduce both indirect and direct questions. Thus, another possible translation is to take this as an indirect question: “They asked him if it were lawful for a man to divorce his wife.” See BDF §440.3.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
18 sn See the note on Pharisees in 2:16.
19 sn Pharisees and Herodians made a very interesting alliance. W. W. Wessel (“Mark,” EBC 8:733) comments: “The Herodians were as obnoxious to the Pharisees on political grounds as the Sadducees were on theological grounds. Yet the two groups united in their opposition to Jesus. Collaboration in wickedness, as well as goodness, has great power. Their purpose was to trip Jesus up in his words so that he would lose the support of the people, leaving the way open for them to destroy him.” See also the note on “Herodians” in Mark 3:6.
20 tn Grk “trap him in word.”
21 tn Grk “Aware of their hypocrisy he said.”
22 tn Here the specific name of the coin was retained in the translation, because not all coins in circulation in Palestine at the time carried the image of Caesar. In other places δηνάριον (dhnarion) has been translated simply as “silver coin” with an explanatory note.
23 tn Or “the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.
24 tn Or “terribly.”
25 tn For this term see L&N 33.183.
26 tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.
27 tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.
28 tn Grk “so that they could accuse.”
29 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author of 7:53–8:11.
30 tn Or possibly “Jesus bent down and wrote an accusation on the ground with his finger.” The Greek verb καταγράφω (katagrafw) may indicate only the action of writing on the ground by Jesus, but in the overall context (Jesus’ response to the accusation against the woman) it can also be interpreted as implying that what Jesus wrote was a counteraccusation against the accusers (although there is no clue as to the actual content of what he wrote, some scribes added “the sins of each one of them” either here or at the end of v. 8 [U 264 700 al]).
31 tn Grk “tested me by trial.”