Acts 8:20-23

8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, ¹  because you thought you could acquire ²  God’s gift with money! 8:21 You have no share or part ³  in this matter ⁴  because your heart is not right before God! 8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord ⁵  that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. ⁶  8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious ⁷  and in bondage to sin.”

Ecclesiastes 9:3

9:3 This is the unfortunate fact ⁸  about everything that happens on earth: ⁹ 

the same fate awaits ¹⁰  everyone.

In addition to this, the hearts of all people ¹¹  are full of evil,

and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die. ¹² 

Matthew 3:7

3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees ¹³  and Sadducees ¹⁴  coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Matthew 15:19

15:19 For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 23:25-33

23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁵  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, ¹⁶  so that the outside may become clean too!

23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁷  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ¹⁸  23:28 In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

23:29 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ²⁰  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ²¹  of the righteous. 23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, ²²  we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 23:31 By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! 23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ²³ 

Luke 11:39

11:39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean ²⁴  the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ²⁵ 

Luke 11:2

11:2 So he said to them, “When you pray, ²⁶  say:

Father, ²⁷  may your name be honored; ²⁸ 

may your kingdom come. ²⁹ 

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ³⁰  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

[8:20]  ¹ tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.

[8:20]  ² tn Or “obtain.”

[8:21]  ³ tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.

[8:21]  ⁴ tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Or “and implore the Lord.”

[8:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.

[8:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “evil.”

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn The term “awaits” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “also the heart of the sons of man.” Here “heart” is a collective singular.

[9:3]  ¹² tn Heb “and after that [they go] to [the place of] the dead.”

[3:7]  ¹³ sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

[3:7]  ¹⁴ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

[23:25]  ¹⁵ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:26]  ¹⁶ tc A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 ˹³ 33 Ï lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai th" paroyido") after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ Ë¹ 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ekto", “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (viz., B* ˹³ al) hints that their archetype lacked the words (TCGNT 50). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtwn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.

[23:27]  ¹⁷ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:27]  ¹⁸ sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.

[23:29]  ¹⁹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:29]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).

[23:30]  ²² tn Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).

[23:33]  ²³ tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”

[11:39]  ²⁴ sn The allusion to washing (clean the outside of the cup) shows Jesus knew what they were thinking and deliberately set up a contrast that charged them with hypocrisy and majoring on minors.

[11:39]  ²⁵ tn Or “and evil.”

[11:2]  ²⁶ sn When you pray. What follows, although traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer, is really the disciples’ prayer. It represents how they are to approach God, by acknowledging his uniqueness and their need for his provision and protection.

[11:2]  ²⁷ tc Most mss, including later majority (A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it), add ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (Jhmwn Jo en toi" oujranoi", “our [Father] in heaven”) here. This makes the prayer begin like the version in Matt 6:9. The shorter version is read by Ì⁷⁵ א B (L: + ἡμῶν) 1 700 pc as well as some versions and fathers. Given this more weighty external evidence, combined with the scribal tendency to harmonize Gospel parallels, the shorter reading is preferred.

[11:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “hallowed be your name.”

[11:2]  ²⁹ tc Most mss (א A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it) read at the end of the verse “may your will be done on earth as [it is] in heaven,” making this version parallel to Matt 6:10. The shorter reading is found, however, in weighty mss (Ì⁷⁵ B L pc), and cannot be easily explained as arising from the longer reading.

[1:3]  ³⁰ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).