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 

Proverbs 14:15

14:15 A naive person ⁸  believes everything,

but the shrewd person discerns his steps. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹⁰ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 29:8-9

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹²  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ¹³  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream. 29:9 They are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ¹⁴  But I did not send them. I, the Lord, affirm it!’ ¹⁵ 

Matthew 7:15-16

A Tree and Its Fruit

7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. ¹⁶  7:16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered ¹⁷  from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? ¹⁸ 

Matthew 24:4-5

24:4 Jesus answered them, ¹⁹  “Watch out ²⁰  that no one misleads you. 24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ ²¹  and they will mislead many.

Romans 16:18

16:18 For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds ²²  of the naive.

Romans 16:2

16:2 so that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and provide her with whatever help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many, including me.

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ²³ Therefore ²⁴  you are without excuse, ²⁵  whoever you are, ²⁶  when you judge someone else. ²⁷  For on whatever grounds ²⁸  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

[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).

[14:15]  ⁸ sn The contrast is with the simpleton and the shrewd. The simpleton is the young person who is untrained morally or intellectually, and therefore gullible. The shrewd one is the prudent person, the one who has the ability to make critical discriminations.

[14:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “his step”; cf. TEV “sensible people watch their step.”

[5:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[29:8]  ¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  ¹³ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[29:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “prophesying lies to you in my name.”

[29:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[7:15]  ¹⁶ sn Sheep’s clothing…voracious wolves. Jesus uses a metaphor here to point out that these false prophets appear to be one thing, but in reality they are something quite different and dangerous.

[7:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “They do not gather.” This has been simplified to the passive voice in the translation since the subject “they” is not specified further in the context.

[7:16]  ¹⁸ sn The statement illustrates the principle: That which cannot produce fruit does not produce fruit.

[24:4]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

[24:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “Be on guard.”

[24:5]  ²¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[16:18]  ²² tn Grk “hearts.”

[2:1]  ²³ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²⁵ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”