Matthew 7:3-5

7:3 Why ¹  do you see the speck ²  in your brother’s eye, but fail to see ³  the beam of wood ⁴  in your own? 7:4 Or how can you say ⁵  to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? 7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Mark 7:6-8

7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart ⁶  is far from me.

7:7 They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’ ⁷ 

7:8 Having no regard ⁸  for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” ⁹ 

Mark 7:13

7:13 Thus you nullify ¹⁰  the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

Colossians 2:8

2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you ¹¹  through an empty, deceitful philosophy ¹²  that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits ¹³  of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:23

2:23 Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹⁴  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ¹⁵  achieved by an ¹⁶  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ¹⁷ 

Titus 1:14

1:14 and not pay attention to Jewish myths ¹⁸  and commands of people who reject the truth.

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.

³ tn Or “do not notice.”

⁴ sn The term beam of wood refers to a very big piece of wood, the main beam of a building, in contrast to the speck in the other’s eye (L&N 7.78).

⁵ tn Grk “how will you say?”

⁶ tn The term “heart” is a collective singular in the Greek text.

⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 29:13.

⁸ tn Grk “Having left the command.”

⁹ tc The majority of mss, mostly Byzantine ([A] ˹³ 33 Ï), have at the end of v. 8 material that seems to have come from v. 4 and v. 13: “the washing of pots and cups, and you do many other similar things.” A slight variation on the wording occurs at the very beginning of v. 8 in mostly Western witnesses (D Θ 0131^vid 28 565 it). Such floating texts are usually signs of scribal emendations. The fact that the earliest and most reliable mss, as well as other important witnesses (Ì⁴⁵ א B L W Δ 0274 ˹ 2427 co), lacked this material also strongly suggests that the longer reading is secondary.

¹⁰ tn Grk “nullifying.” This participle shows the results of the Pharisees’ command.

¹¹ tn The Greek construction here is somewhat difficult and can be literally rendered “Be careful, lest someone shall be the one who takes you captive.”

¹² tn The Greek reads τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης (th" filosofia" kai kenh" apath"). The two nouns φιλοσοφίας and κενῆς are joined by one article and probably form a hendiadys. Thus the second noun was taken as modifying the first, as the translation shows.

¹³ tn The phrase κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (kata ta stoiceia tou kosmou) is difficult to translate because of problems surrounding the precise meaning of στοιχεῖα in this context. Originally it referred to the letters of the alphabet, with the idea at its root of “things in a row”; see C. Vaughn, “Colossians,” EBC 11:198. M. J. Harris (Colossians and Philemon [EGGNT], 93) outlines three probable options: (1) the material elements which comprise the physical world; (2) the elementary teachings of the world (so NEB, NASB, NIV); (3) the elemental spirits of the world (so NEB, RSV). The first option is highly unlikely because Paul is not concerned here with the physical elements, e.g., carbon or nitrogen. The last two options are both possible. Though the Gnostic-like heresy at Colossae would undoubtedly have been regarded by Paul as an “elementary teaching” at best, because the idea of “spirits” played such a role in Gnostic thought, he may very well have had in mind elemental spirits that operated in the world or controlled the world (i.e., under God’s authority and permission).

¹⁴ tn Grk “having a word of wisdom.”

¹⁵ tn Though the apostle uses the term ταπεινοφροσύνῃ (tapeinofrosunh) elsewhere in a positive sense (cf. 3:12), here the sense is negative and reflects the misguided thinking of Paul’s opponents.

¹⁶ tc ‡ The vast bulk of witnesses, including some important ones (א A C D F G H Ψ 075 0278 33 1881 Ï lat sy), have καί (kai) here, but the shorter reading is supported by some early and important witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ B 1739 b m Hil Ambst Spec). The καί looks to be a motivated reading in that it makes ἀφειδία (afeidia) “the third in a series of datives after ἐν, rather than an instrumental dative qualifying the previous prepositional phrase” (TCGNT 556). At the same time, the omission of καί could possibly have been unintentional. A decision is difficult, but the shorter reading is slightly preferred. NA²⁷ puts καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

¹⁷ tn The translation understands this verse to contain a concessive subordinate clause within the main clause. The Greek particle μέν (men) is the second word of the embedded subordinate clause. The phrase οὐκ ἐν τιμῇ τινι (ouk en timh tini) modifies the subordinate clause, and the main clause resumes with the preposition πρός (pros). The translation has placed the subordinate clause first in order for clarity instead of retaining its embedded location. For a detailed discussion of this grammatical construction, see B. Hollenbach, “Col 2:23: Which Things Lead to the Fulfillment of the Flesh,” NTS 25 (1979): 254-61.

¹⁸ sn Jewish myths were legendary tales characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus and Crete. See parallels in 1 Tim 1:4; 4:7; and 2 Tim 4:4.