2 Timothy 4:3-4

4:3 For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ³  4:4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 29:4

29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! ⁵ 

Proverbs 14:6

14:6 The scorner ⁶  seeks wisdom but finds none, ⁷ 

but understanding is easy ⁸  for a discerning person.

Isaiah 30:10-11

30:10 They ⁹  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ¹⁰ 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ¹¹ 

30:11 Turn aside from the way,

stray off the path. ¹² 

Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ¹³ 

Ezekiel 14:4-10

14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. ¹⁴  14:5 I will do this in order to capture the hearts of the house of Israel, who have alienated themselves from me on account of all their idols.’

14:6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Return! Turn from your idols, and turn your faces away from your abominations. 14:7 For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally. 14:8 I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword ¹⁵  and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ¹⁶  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. 14:10 They will bear their punishment; ¹⁷  the punishment of the one who sought an oracle will be the same as the punishment of the prophet who gave it ¹⁸ 

Matthew 13:11

13:11 He replied, ¹⁹  “You have been given ²⁰  the opportunity to know ²¹  the secrets ²²  of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not.

John 3:20-21

3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 3:21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. ²³ 

John 5:44

5:44 How can you believe, if you accept praise ²⁴  from one another and don’t seek the praise ²⁵  that comes from the only God? ²⁶ 

John 12:42-43

12:42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers ²⁷  many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees ²⁸  they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, ²⁹  so that they would not be put out of ³⁰  the synagogue. ³¹  12:43 For they loved praise ³²  from men more than praise ³³  from God.

John 12:1

Jesus’ Anointing

12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he ³⁴  had raised from the dead.

Colossians 3:1-4

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:4 When Christ (who is your ³⁵  life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.

Ephesians 4:14

4:14 So ³⁶  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ³⁷ 

Hebrews 5:11

The Need to Move on to Maturity

5:11 On this topic we have much to say ³⁸  and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish ³⁹  in hearing.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the people in that future time) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ² tn Grk “in accord with.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Grk “having an itching in regard to hearing,” “having itching ears.”

[4:4]  ⁴ sn These myths were legendary tales characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus and Crete. See parallels in 1 Tim 1:4; 4:7; and Titus 1:14.

[29:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

[14:6]  ⁶ sn The “scorner” (לֵץ, lets) is intellectually arrogant; he lacks any serious interest in knowledge or religion. He pursues wisdom in a superficial way so that he can appear wise. The acquisition of wisdom is conditioned by one’s attitude toward it (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 149).

[14:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there is not.”

[14:6]  ⁸ sn The Niphal of קָלַל (qalal) means “to appear light; to appear trifling; to appear easy.”

[30:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[30:11]  ¹² sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.

[30:11]  ¹³ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[14:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in accordance with the multitude of his idols.”

[14:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “proverbs.”

[14:9]  ¹⁶ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “They will bear responsibility for their iniquity.” The Hebrew term “iniquity” (three times in this verse) often refers by metonymy to the consequence of sin (see Gen 4:13).

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “As is the guilt of the inquirer so is the guilt of the prophet.”

[13:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And answering, he said to them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:11]  ²⁰ tn This is an example of a “divine passive,” with God understood to be the source of the revelation (see ExSyn 437-38).

[13:11]  ²¹ tn Grk “to you it has been given to know.” The dative pronoun occurs first, in emphatic position in the Greek text, although this position is awkward in contemporary English.

[13:11]  ²² tn Grk “the mysteries.”

[3:21]  ²³ sn John 3:16-21 provides an introduction to the (so-called) “realized” eschatology of the Fourth Gospel: Judgment has come; eternal life may be possessed now, in the present life, as well as in the future. The terminology “realized eschatology” was originally coined by E. Haenchen and used by J. Jeremias in discussion with C. H. Dodd, but is now characteristically used to describe Dodd’s own formulation. See L. Goppelt, Theology of the New Testament, 1:54, note 10, and R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:cxvii-cxviii) for further discussion. Especially important to note is the element of choice portrayed in John’s Gospel. If there is a twofold reaction to Jesus in John’s Gospel, it should be emphasized that that reaction is very much dependent on a person’s choice, a choice that is influenced by his way of life, whether his deeds are wicked or are done in God (John 3:20-21). For John there is virtually no trace of determinism at the surface. Only when one looks beneath the surface does one find statements like “no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

[5:44]  ²⁴ tn Or “honor” (Grk “glory,” in the sense of respect or honor accorded to a person because of their status).

[5:44]  ²⁵ tn Or “honor” (Grk “glory,” in the sense of respect or honor accorded to a person because of their status).

[5:44]  ²⁶ tc Several early and important witnesses (Ì^66,75 B W a b sa) lack θεοῦ (qeou, “God”) here, thus reading “the only one,” while most of the rest of the tradition, including some important mss, has the name ({א A D L Θ Ψ 33 Ï}). Internally, it could be argued that the name of God was not used here, in keeping with the NT practice of suppressing the name of God at times for rhetorical effect, drawing the reader inexorably to the conclusion that the one being spoken of is God himself. On the other hand, never is ὁ μόνος (Jo mono") used absolutely in the NT (i.e., without a noun or substantive with it), and always the subject of the adjunct is God (cf. Matt 24:36; John 17:3; 1 Tim 6:16). What then is to explain the shorter reading? In uncial script, with θεοῦ written as a nomen sacrum, envisioning accidental omission of the name by way of homoioteleuton requires little imagination, largely because of the succession of words ending in -ου: toumonouqMuou. It is thus preferable to retain the word in the text.

[12:42]  ²⁷ sn The term rulers here denotes members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews. Note the same word (“ruler”) is used to describe Nicodemus in 3:1.

[12:42]  ²⁸ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[12:42]  ²⁹ tn The words “Jesus to be the Christ” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (see 9:22). As is often the case in Greek, the direct object is omitted for the verb ὡμολόγουν (Jwmologoun). Some translators supply an ambiguous “it,” or derive the implied direct object from the previous clause “believed in him” so that the rulers would not confess “their faith” or “their belief.” However, when one compares John 9:22, which has many verbal parallels to this verse, it seems clear that the content of the confession would have been “Jesus is the Christ (i.e., Messiah).”

[12:42]  ³⁰ tn Or “be expelled from.”

[12:42]  ³¹ sn Compare John 9:22. See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[12:43]  ³² tn Grk “the glory.”

[12:43]  ³³ tn Grk “the glory.”

[12:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “whom Jesus,” but a repetition of the proper name (Jesus) here would be redundant in the English clause structure, so the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[3:4]  ³⁵ tc Certain mss (B^[*^] D¹ H 0278 1739 Ï sy sa) read ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “our”), while others (Ì⁴⁶ א C D* F G P Ψ 075 33 81 1881 al latt bo) read ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”). Internally, it is possible that the second person pronoun arose through scribal conformity to the second person pronoun used previously in v. 3 (i.e., ὑμῶν) and following in v. 4 (ὑμεῖς, Jumeis). But in terms of external criteria, the second person pronoun has superior ms support (though there is an Alexandrian split) and ἡμῶν may have arisen through accident (error of sight) or scribal attempt to universalize the statement since all Christians have Jesus as their life. See TCGNT 557.

[4:14]  ³⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ³⁷ tn While the sense of the passage is clear enough, translation in English is somewhat difficult. The Greek says: “by the trickery of men, by craftiness with the scheme of deceit.” The point is that the author is concerned about Christians growing into maturity. He is fearful that certain kinds of very cunning people, who are skilled at deceitful scheming, should come in and teach false doctrines which would in turn stunt the growth of the believers.

[5:11]  ³⁸ tn Grk “concerning which the message for us is great.”

[5:11]  ³⁹ tn Or “dull.”