Matthew 2:8

2:8 He ¹  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

Luke 9:9

9:9 Herod said, “I had John ²  beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” So Herod wanted to learn about Jesus. ³ 

Luke 23:8

23:8 When ⁴  Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform ⁵  some miraculous sign. ⁶ 

John 9:27

9:27 He answered, ⁷  “I told you already and you didn’t listen. ⁸  Why do you want to hear it ⁹  again? You people ¹⁰  don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

Acts 24:24

Paul Speaks Repeatedly to Felix

24:24 Some days later, when Felix ¹¹  arrived with his wife Drusilla, ¹²  who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak ¹³  about faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “John I beheaded”; John’s name is in emphatic position in the Greek text. The verb is causative, since Herod would not have personally carried out the execution.

³ tn The expression ἐζήτει ἰδεῖν αὐτόν (ezhtei idein auton, “was seeking to see him”) probably indicates that Herod, for curiosity’s sake or more likely for evil purposes, wanted to get to know Jesus, i.e., who he was and what he was doing. See I. H. Marshall, Luke (NIGTC), 357. Herod finally got his wish in Luke 23:6-12, with inconclusive results from his point of view.

⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁵ tn Grk “to see some sign performed by him.” Here the passive construction has been translated as an active one in keeping with contemporary English style.

⁶ sn Herod, hoping to see him perform some miraculous sign, seems to have treated Jesus as a curiosity (cf. 9:7-9).

⁷ tn Grk “He answered them.” The indirect object αὐτοῖς (autois) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Grk “you did not hear.”

⁹ tn “It” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when they were clearly implied in the context.

¹⁰ tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

¹¹ sn See the note on Antonius Felix in 23:24.

¹² sn It is possible that Drusilla, being Jewish, was the source of Felix’s knowledge about the new movement called Christianity. The youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II, she would have been close to 20 years old at the time. She had married the king of a small region in Syria but divorced him at the age of 16 to marry Felix. This was her second marriage and Felix’s third (Josephus, Ant. 19.9.1 [19.354], 20.7.2 [20.141-144]). As a member of Herod’s family, she probably knew about the Way.

¹³ tn The word “speak” is implied; BDAG 32 s.v. ἀκούω 1.c has “ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ τῆς…πίστεως he heard him speak about faith Ac 24:24.”

¹⁴ tn Or “Messiah Jesus”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”