1 Corinthians 1:18

The Message of the Cross

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:23

1:23 but we preach about a crucified Christ, ¹  a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

John 8:51-52

8:51 I tell you the solemn truth, ²  if anyone obeys ³  my teaching, ⁴  he will never see death.” ⁵ 

8:52 Then ⁶  the Judeans ⁷  responded, ⁸  “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon! ⁹  Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet ¹⁰  you say, ‘If anyone obeys ¹¹  my teaching, ¹²  he will never experience ¹³  death.’ ¹⁴ 

John 10:20

10:20 Many of them were saying, “He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind! ¹⁵  Why do you listen to him?”

Acts 17:18

17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ¹⁶  and Stoic ¹⁷  philosophers were conversing ¹⁸  with him, and some were asking, ¹⁹  “What does this foolish babbler ²⁰  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ²¹  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ²² 

Acts 17:32

17:32 Now when they heard about ²³  the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, ²⁴  but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

Acts 18:15

18:15 but since it concerns points of disagreement ²⁵  about words and names and your own law, settle ²⁶  it yourselves. I will not be ²⁷  a judge of these things!”

Acts 25:19

25:19 Rather they had several points of disagreement ²⁸  with him about their own religion ²⁹  and about a man named Jesus ³⁰  who was dead, whom Paul claimed ³¹  to be alive.

Acts 26:24-25

26:24 As Paul ³²  was saying these things in his defense, Festus ³³  exclaimed loudly, “You have lost your mind, ³⁴  Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!” 26:25 But Paul replied, ³⁵  “I have not lost my mind, most excellent Festus, ³⁶  but am speaking ³⁷  true and rational ³⁸  words.

[1:23]  ¹ tn Or “Messiah”; Grk “preach Christ [Messiah] crucified,” giving the content of the message.

[8:51]  ² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:51]  ³ tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”

[8:51]  ⁴ tn Grk “my word.”

[8:51]  ⁵ tn Grk “he will never see death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.

[8:52]  ⁶ tc ‡ Important and early witnesses (Ì⁶⁶ א B C W Θ 579 it) lack the conjunction here, while other witnesses read οὖν (oun, “therefore”; Ì⁷⁵ D L Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). This conjunction occurs in John some 200 times, far more than in any other NT book. Even though the most important Johannine papyrus (Ì⁷⁵) has the conjunction, the combination of Ì⁶⁶ א B for the omission is even stronger. Further, the reading seems to be a predictable scribal emendation. In particular, οὖν is frequently used with the plural of εἶπον (eipon, “they said”) in John (in this chapter alone, note vv. 13, 39, 48, 57, and possibly 41). On balance, it is probably best to consider the shorter reading as authentic, even though “Then” is virtually required in translation for English stylistic reasons. NA²⁷ has the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[8:52]  ⁷ tn Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31 and 48, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31).

[8:52]  ⁸ tn Grk “said to him.”

[8:52]  ⁹ tn Grk “you have a demon.”

[8:52]  ¹⁰ tn “Yet” has been supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.

[8:52]  ¹¹ tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”

[8:52]  ¹² tn Grk “my word.”

[8:52]  ¹³ tn Grk “will never taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[8:52]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he will never taste of death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.

[10:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “is insane.” To translate simply “he is mad” (so KJV, ASV, RSV; “raving mad” NIV) could give the impression that Jesus was angry, while the actual charge was madness or insanity.

[17:18]  ¹⁶ sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ¹⁷ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ²¹ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ²² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[17:32]  ²³ tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally.

[17:32]  ²⁴ tn L&N 33.408 has “some scoffed (at him) Ac 17:32” for ἐχλεύαζον (ecleuazon) here; the imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“began to scoff”).

[18:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “dispute.”

[18:15]  ²⁶ tn Grk “see to it” (an idiom).

[18:15]  ²⁷ tn Or “I am not willing to be.” Gallio would not adjudicate their religious dispute.

[25:19]  ²⁸ tn Grk “several controversial issues.” BDAG 428 s.v. ζήτημα states, “in our lit. only in Ac, w. the mng. it still has in Mod. Gk. (controversial) question, issue, argument…Ac 15:2; 26:3. ζ. περί τινος questions about someth.…18:15; 25:19.”

[25:19]  ²⁹ tn On this term see BDAG 216 s.v. δεισιδαιμονία 2. It is a broad term for religion.

[25:19]  ³⁰ tn Grk “a certain Jesus.”

[25:19]  ³¹ tn Or “asserted.”

[26:24]  ³² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:24]  ³³ sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.

[26:24]  ³⁴ tn On the term translated “lost your mind” see BDAG 610 s.v. μαίνομαι, which has “you’re out of your mind, you’re raving, said to one whose enthusiasm seems to have outrun better judgment 26:24.”

[26:25]  ³⁵ tn Grk “said.”

[26:25]  ³⁶ sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.

[26:25]  ³⁷ tn Or “declaring.” BDAG 125 s.v. ἀποφθέγγομαι states, “speak out, declare boldly or loudly…τὶ: σωφροσύνης ῥήματα Ac 26:25.”

[26:25]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 987 s.v. σωφροσύνη 1 has “gener. soundness of mind, reasonableness, rationality…ἀληθείας καὶ σωφροσύνης ῥήματα true and rational words (opp. μαίνομαι) Ac 26:25.”