6:16 “When 1 you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive 2 so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, 3 they have their reward.
11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ 4 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, 5 a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors 6 and sinners!’ 7 But wisdom is vindicated 8 by her deeds.” 9
20:6 Many people profess their loyalty, 10
but a faithful person 11 – who can find? 12
2:18 Now 13 John’s 14 disciples and the Pharisees 15 were fasting. 16 So 17 they came to Jesus 18 and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 2:19 Jesus 19 said to them, “The wedding guests 20 cannot fast while the bridegroom 21 is with them, can they? 22 As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 2:20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, 23 and at that time 24 they will fast. 2:21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; 25 otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” 26
5:33 Then 27 they said to him, “John’s 28 disciples frequently fast 29 and pray, 30 and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, 31 but yours continue to eat and drink.” 32 5:34 So 33 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the wedding guests 34 fast while the bridegroom 35 is with them, can you? 36 5:35 But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, 37 at that time 38 they will fast.” 5:36 He also told them a parable: 39 “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews 40 it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn 41 the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 42 5:37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. 43 If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 5:38 Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 44 5:39 45 No 46 one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’” 47
18:9 Jesus 48 also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down 49 on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up 50 to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee 51 and the other a tax collector. 52 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 53 ‘God, I thank 54 you that I am not like other people: 55 extortionists, 56 unrighteous people, 57 adulterers – or even like this tax collector. 58 18:12 I fast twice 59 a week; I give a tenth 60 of everything I get.’
1 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
2 tn Here the term “disfigure” used in a number of translations was not used because it could convey to the modern reader the notion of mutilation. L&N 79.17 states, “‘to make unsightly, to disfigure, to make ugly.’ ἀφανίζουσιν γὰρ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν ‘for they make their faces unsightly’ Mt 6:16.”
3 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
4 sn John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.
5 tn Grk “Behold a man.”
6 sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.
7 sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.
8 tn Or “shown to be right.”
9 tc Most witnesses (B2 C D L Θ Ë1 33 Ï lat) have “children” (τέκνων, teknwn) here instead of “deeds” (ἔργων, ergwn), but since “children” is the reading of the parallel in Luke 7:35, scribes would be motivated to convert the less colorful “deeds” into more animate offspring of wisdom. Further, ἔργων enjoys support from א B* W (Ë13) as well as early versional and patristic support.
10 tn Heb “many a man calls/proclaims a man of his loyal love.” The Syriac and Tg. Prov 20:6 render the verb as passive: “many are called kind.” Other suggestions include: “most men meet people who will do them occasional kindnesses” (RSV); “many men profess friendship” (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 384); “many men invite only the one who has shown them kindness.” The simplest interpretation in this context is “many proclaim [themselves to be] a kind person (= a loyal friend).” The contrast is between many who claim to be loyal friends and the one who actually proves to be faithful.
11 tn The shift to the expression “a man of faithfulness[es]” in the second line indicates that of all those who claim to show faithful love, it is rare to find one who is truly reliable (as the word אֱמוּנִים [’emunim] indicates clearly); cf. NAB, NRSV “one worthy of trust.”
12 sn The point of the rhetorical question is that a truly faithful friend is very difficult to find.
13 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
14 sn John refers to John the Baptist.
15 sn See the note on Pharisees in 2:16.
16 sn John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.
17 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate that in the narrative this question happened as a result of the fasting of John’s disciples and the Pharisees.
18 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Grk “And Jesus.”
20 tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically, friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).
21 sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).
22 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “can they?”).
23 sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 8:27ff. (cf. 8:31; 9:31; 10:33).
24 tn Grk “then on that day.”
25 sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.
26 sn The meaning of the saying new wine is poured into new skins is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. It could not be confined within the old religion of Judaism, but involved the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom of God.
27 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
28 tc Most
29 sn John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.
30 tn Grk “and offer prayers,” but this idiom (δέησις + ποιέω) is often simply a circumlocution for praying.
31 sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.
32 tn Grk “but yours are eating and drinking.” The translation “continue to eat and drink” attempts to reflect the progressive or durative nature of the action described, which in context is a practice not limited to the specific occasion at hand (the banquet).
33 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ pronouncement is a result of their statements about his disciples.
34 tn Grk “the sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to guests at the wedding, or more specifically, friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).
35 sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).
36 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here it is “can you?”).
37 sn The statement when the bridegroom is taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 9:18ff.
38 tn Grk “then in those days.”
39 sn The term parable in a Semitic context can cover anything from a long story to a brief wisdom saying. Here it is the latter.
40 tn Grk “puts”; but since the means of attachment would normally be sewing, the translation “sews” has been used.
41 tn Grk “he tears.” The point is that the new garment will be ruined to repair an older, less valuable one.
42 sn The piece from the new will not match the old. The imagery in this saying looks at the fact that what Jesus brings is so new that it cannot simply be combined with the old. To do so would be to destroy what is new and to put together something that does not fit.
43 sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.
44 tc Most
45 tc The Western textual tradition (D it) lacks 5:39. The verse is unique to Luke, so the omission by these
46 tc ‡ Although most
47 tc Most
48 tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
49 tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.
50 sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.
51 sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.
52 sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.
53 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.
54 sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.
55 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”).
56 tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].
57 sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).
58 sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.
59 sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.
60 tn Or “I tithe.”