Acts 10:15

10:15 The voice ¹  spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not consider ²  ritually unclean!” ³ 

Acts 10:34

10:34 Then Peter started speaking: ⁴  “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people, ⁵ 

Acts 11:9

11:9 But the voice replied a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not consider ⁶  ritually unclean!’

Acts 15:8-9

15:8 And God, who knows the heart, ⁷  has testified ⁸  to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, ⁹  15:9 and he made no distinction ¹⁰  between them and us, cleansing ¹¹  their hearts by faith.

Isaiah 65:5

65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!

Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’

These people are like smoke in my nostrils,

like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

Luke 18:11

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹²  ‘God, I thank ¹³  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁴  extortionists, ¹⁵  unrighteous people, ¹⁶  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹⁷ 

Ephesians 3:6-7

3:6 namely, that through the gospel ¹⁸  the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members ¹⁹  of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel ²⁰  according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by ²¹  the exercise of his power. ²² 

[10:15]  ¹ tn Grk “And the voice.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:15]  ² tn Or “declare.”

[10:15]  ³ sn For the significance of this vision see Mark 7:14-23; Rom 14:14; Eph 2:11-22. God directed this change in practice.

[10:34]  ⁴ tn Grk “Opening his mouth Peter said” (a Semitic idiom for beginning to speak in a somewhat formal manner). The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[10:34]  ⁵ tn Grk “God is not one who is a respecter of persons,” that is, “God is not one to show partiality” (cf. BDAG 887 s.v. προσωπολήμπτης). L&N 88.239 translates this verse “I realize that God does not show favoritism (in dealing with people).” The underlying Hebrew idiom includes the personal element (“respecter of persons”) so the phrase “in dealing with people” is included in the present translation. It fits very well with the following context and serves to emphasize the relational component of God’s lack of partiality. The latter is a major theme in the NT: Rom 2:11; Eph 2:11-22; Col 3:25; Jas 2:1; 1 Pet 1:17. This was the lesson of Peter’s vision.

[11:9]  ⁶ tn Or “declare.” The wording matches Acts 10:15.

[15:8]  ⁷ sn The expression who knows the heart means “who knows what people think.”

[15:8]  ⁸ tn Or “has borne witness.”

[15:8]  ⁹ sn By giving them…just as he did to us. The allusion is to the events of Acts 10-11, esp. 10:44-48 and Peter’s remarks in 11:15-18.

[15:9]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 231 s.v. διακρίνω 1.b lists this passage under the meaning “to conclude that there is a difference, make a distinction, differentiate.”

[15:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “purifying.”

[18:11]  ¹² 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.

[18:11]  ¹³ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁴ 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”).

[18:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹⁶ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ¹⁷ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[3:6]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase through the gospel is placed last in the sentence in Greek for emphasis. It has been moved forward for clarity.

[3:6]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and fellow members.”

[3:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”

[3:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “according to.”

[3:7]  ²² sn On the exercise of his power see 1:19-20.