Matthew 5:25-26

5:25 Reach agreement ¹  quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, ²  or he ³  may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison. 5:26 I tell you the truth, ⁴  you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny! ⁵ 

Luke 12:58-59

12:58 As you are going with your accuser before the magistrate, ⁶  make an effort to settle with him on the way, so that he will not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, ⁷  and the officer throw you into prison. 12:59 I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the very last cent!” ⁸ 

Luke 12:2

12:2 Nothing is hidden ⁹  that will not be revealed, ¹⁰  and nothing is secret that will not be made known.

Luke 1:8-9

1:8 Now ¹¹  while Zechariah ¹²  was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ¹³  1:9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, ¹⁴  to enter ¹⁵  the holy place ¹⁶  of the Lord and burn incense.

Revelation 14:10-11

14:10 that person ¹⁷  will also drink of the wine of God’s anger ¹⁸  that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur ¹⁹  in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. 14:11 And the smoke from their ²⁰  torture will go up ²¹  forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have ²²  no rest day or night, along with ²³  anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

¹ tn Grk “Make friends.”

² tn The words “to court” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

³ tn Grk “the accuser.”

⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁵ tn Here the English word “penny” is used as opposed to the parallel in Luke 12:59 where “cent” appears since the Greek word there is different and refers to a different but similar coin.

⁷ sn The term magistrate (ἄρχων, arcwn) refers to an official who, under the authority of the government, serves as judge in legal cases (see L&N 56.29).

⁸ sn The officer (πράκτωρ, praktwr) was a civil official who functioned like a bailiff and was in charge of debtor’s prison. The use of the term, however, does not automatically demand a Hellenistic setting (BDAG 859 s.v.; K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT 8:539; C. Maurer, TDNT 6:642).

¹⁰ tn Here the English word “cent” is used as opposed to the parallel in Matt 5:26 where “penny” appears, since the Greek word there is different and refers to a different but similar coin.

¹³ tn Or “concealed.”

¹⁴ sn I.e., be revealed by God. The passive voice verbs here (“be revealed,” be made known”) see the revelation as coming from God. The text is both a warning about bad things being revealed and an encouragement that good things will be made known, though the stress with the images of darkness and what is hidden in vv. 2-3 is on the attempt to conceal.

¹⁶ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Zechariah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Grk “serving as priest in the order of his division before God.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “according to the custom of the priesthood it fell to him by lot.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make it clear that the prepositional phrase κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς ἱερατείας (kata to eqo" th" Jierateia", “according to the custom of the priesthood”) modifies the phrase “it fell to him by lot” rather than the preceding clause.

²⁰ tn This is an aorist participle and is temporally related to the offering of incense, not to when the lot fell.

²¹ tn Or “temple.” Such sacrifices, which included the burning of incense, would have occurred in the holy place according to the Mishnah (m. Tamid 1.2; 3.1; 5-7). A priest would have given this sacrifice, which was offered for the nation, once in one’s career. It would be offered either at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m., since it was made twice a day.

²² tn Grk “he himself.”

²³ tn The Greek word for “anger” here is θυμός (qumos), a wordplay on the “passion” (θυμός) of the personified city of Babylon in 14:8.

²⁴ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

²⁵ tn The Greek pronoun is plural here even though the verbs in the previous verse are singular.

²⁶ tn The present tense ἀναβαίνει (anabainei) has been translated as a futuristic present (ExSyn 535-36). This is also consistent with the future passive βασανισθήσεται (basanisqhsetai) in v. 10.

²⁷ tn The present tense ἔχουσιν (ecousin) has been translated as a futuristic present to keep the English tense consistent with the previous verb (see note on “will go up” earlier in this verse).

²⁸ tn Grk “and.”