Deuteronomy 13:1-5

13:1 Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams ¹  should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder, ²  13:2 and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.” 13:3 You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, ³  for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him ⁴  with all your mind and being. ⁵  13:4 You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him. 13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, ⁶  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 23:25-27

23:25 The Lord says, ⁸  “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ ⁹  23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ¹⁰  23:27 How long will they go on plotting ¹¹  to make my people forget who I am ¹²  through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors ¹³  did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. ¹⁴ 

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹⁵ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ¹⁶ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹⁷ 

Matthew 24:4-5

24:4 Jesus answered them, ¹⁸  “Watch out ¹⁹  that no one misleads you. 24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ ²⁰  and they will mislead many.

Matthew 24:24

24:24 For false messiahs ²¹  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:2

24:2 And he said to them, ²²  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ²³  not one stone will be left on another. ²⁴  All will be torn down!” ²⁵ 

Matthew 2:1-3

The Visit of the Wise Men

2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem ²⁶  in Judea, in the time ²⁷  of King Herod, ²⁸  wise men ²⁹  from the East came to Jerusalem ³⁰  2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ³¹  and have come to worship him.” 2:3 When King Herod ³²  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Matthew 2:1

The Visit of the Wise Men

2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem ³³  in Judea, in the time ³⁴  of King Herod, ³⁵  wise men ³⁶  from the East came to Jerusalem ³⁷ 

Matthew 4:1-2

The Temptation of Jesus

4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness ³⁸  to be tempted by the devil. 4:2 After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished. ³⁹ 

Revelation 19:20

19:20 Now ⁴⁰  the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf ⁴¹  – signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. ⁴² 

[13:1]  ¹ tn Heb “or a dreamer of dreams” (so KJV, ASV, NASB). The difference between a prophet (נָבִיא, navi’) and one who foretells by dreams (חֹלֵם אוֹ, ’o kholem) was not so much one of office – for both received revelation by dreams (cf. Num 12:6) – as it was of function or emphasis. The prophet was more a proclaimer and interpreter of revelation whereas the one who foretold by dreams was a receiver of revelation. In later times the role of the one who foretold by dreams was abused and thus denigrated as compared to that of the prophet (cf. Jer 23:28).

[13:1]  ² tn The expression אוֹת אוֹ מוֹפֵת (’ot ’o mofet) became a formulaic way of speaking of ways of authenticating prophetic messages or other works of God (cf. Deut 28:46; Isa 20:3). The NT equivalent is the Greek term σημεῖον (shmeion), a sign performed (used frequently in the Gospel of John, cf. 2:11, 18; 20:30-31). They could, however, be counterfeited or (as here) permitted to false prophets by the Lord as a means of testing his people.

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

[13:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “all your heart and soul” (so NRSV, CEV, NLT); or “heart and being” (NCV “your whole being”). See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

[13:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “your midst” (so NAB, NRSV). The severity of the judgment here (i.e., capital punishment) is because of the severity of the sin, namely, high treason against the Great King. Idolatry is a violation of the first two commandments (Deut 5:6-10) as well as the spirit and intent of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[23:25]  ⁸ tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that the Lord continues speaking.

[23:25]  ⁹ sn To have had a dream was not an illegitimate means of receiving divine revelation. God had revealed himself in the past to his servants through dreams (e.g., Jacob [Gen 31:10-11] and Joseph [Gen 37:6, 7, 9]) and God promised to reveal himself through dreams (Num 12:6; Joel 2:28 [3:1 HT]). What was illegitimate was to use the dream to lead people away from the Lord (Deut 13:1-5 [13:2-6 HT]). That was what the prophets were doing through their dreams which were “lies” and “the delusions of their own minds.” Through them they were making people forget who the Lord really was which was just like what their ancestors had done through worshiping Baal.

[23:26]  ¹⁰ sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

[23:27]  ¹¹ tn The relation of the words to one another in v. 26 and the beginning of v. 27 has created difficulties for translators and commentators. The proper solution is reflected in the NJPS. Verses 26-27 read somewhat literally, “How long is there in the hearts of the prophets who are prophesying the lie and [in the hearts of] the prophets of the delusions of their [own] heart the plotting to cause my people to forget my name…” Most commentaries complain that the text is corrupt, that there is no subject for “is there.” However, the long construct qualification “in the hearts of” has led to the lack of observation that the proper subject is “the plotting to make my people forget.” There are no exact parallels but Jer 14:22; Neh 5:5 follow the same structure. The “How long” precedes the other means of asking a question for the purpose of emphasis (cf. BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.b and compare for example the usage in 2 Sam 7:7). There has also been a failure to see that “the prophets of the delusion of…” is a parallel construct noun after “heart of.” Stripping the syntax down to its barest minimum and translating literally, the sentence would read “How long will the plotting…continue in the hearts of the prophets who…and [in hearts of] the prophets of…” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform to contemporary English style but attempt has been made to maintain the same subordinations.

[23:27]  ¹² tn Heb “my name.”

[23:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 39).

[23:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “through Baal.” This is an elliptical expression for the worship of Baal. See 11:17; 12:16; 19:5 for other references to their relation to Baal. There is a deliberate paralleling in the syntax here between “through their dreams” and “through Baal.”

[2:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[24:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

[24:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Be on guard.”

[24:5]  ²⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:24]  ²¹ tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:2]  ²² tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[24:2]  ²³ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[24:2]  ²⁴ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

[24:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

[2:1]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “in the days.”

[2:1]  ²⁸ sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37 b.c. until he died in 4 b.c. He was known for his extensive building projects (including the temple in Jerusalem) and for his cruelty.

[2:1]  ²⁹ sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).

[2:1]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ³¹ tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).

[2:3]  ³² sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:1]  ³³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “in the days.”

[2:1]  ³⁵ sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37 b.c. until he died in 4 b.c. He was known for his extensive building projects (including the temple in Jerusalem) and for his cruelty.

[2:1]  ³⁶ sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).

[2:1]  ³⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:1]  ³⁸ tn Or “desert.”

[4:2]  ³⁹ tn Grk “and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.”

[19:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of an unexpected development in the account: The opposing armies do not come together in battle; rather the leader of one side is captured.

[19:20]  ⁴¹ tn For this meaning see BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνώπιον 4.b, “by the authority of, on behalf of Rv 13:12, 14; 19:20.”

[19:20]  ⁴² tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”