Ezekiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ¹  and they sit in front of you as ²  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ³  them. For they talk lustfully, ⁴  and their heart is set on ⁵  their own advantage. ⁶ 

Hosea 8:2-3

8:2 Israel cries out to me,

“My God, we acknowledge you!”

8:3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good;

so an enemy will pursue him.

John 5:42

5:42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God ⁷  within you.

John 8:41-42

8:41 You people ⁸  are doing the deeds of your father.”

Then ⁹  they said to Jesus, ¹⁰  “We were not born as a result of immorality! ¹¹  We have only one Father, God himself.” 8:42 Jesus replied, ¹²  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. ¹³  I ¹⁴  have not come on my own initiative, ¹⁵  but he ¹⁶  sent me.

John 8:54-55

8:54 Jesus replied, ¹⁷  “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. ¹⁸  The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people ¹⁹  say, ‘He is our God.’ 8:55 Yet ²⁰  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ²¹  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ²²  his teaching. ²³ 

John 15:24

15:24 If I had not performed ²⁴  among them the miraculous deeds ²⁵  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ²⁶  But now they have seen the deeds ²⁷  and have hated both me and my Father. ²⁸ 

John 15:2

15:2 He takes away ²⁹  every branch that does not bear ³⁰  fruit in me. He ³¹  prunes ³²  every branch that bears ³³  fruit so that it will bear more fruit.

John 3:5

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³⁴  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ³⁵  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Titus 1:16

1:16 They profess to know God but with their deeds they deny him, since they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

James 2:14-17

Faith and Works Together

2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ³⁶  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ³⁷  save him? ³⁸  2:15 If a brother or sister ³⁹  is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, 2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, ⁴⁰  what good is it? 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.

[33:31]  ¹ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ² tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ³ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ⁶ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[5:42]  ⁷ tn The genitive in the phrase τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ θεοῦ (thn agaphn tou qeou, “the love of God”) could be translated as either a subjective genitive (“God’s love”) or an objective genitive (“love for God”). Either is grammatically possible. This is possibly an instance of a plenary genitive (see ExSyn 119-21; M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek, §§36-39). If so, the emphasis would be on the love God gives which in turn produces love for him, but Jesus’ opponents are lacking any such love inside them.

[8:41]  ¹³ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:41]  ¹⁴ tc ‡ Important and early witnesses (א B L W 070 it sy^s,p co) lack the conjunction here, while the earliest witnesses along with many others read οὖν (oun, “therefore”; Ì^66,75 C D Θ Ψ 0250 ˹³ 33 Ï). This conjunction occurs in John some 200 times, far more than in any other NT book. Even though the combined testimony of two early papyri for the conjunction is impressive, the reading seems to be a predictable scribal emendation. In particular, οὖν is frequently used with the plural of εἶπον (eipon, “they said”) in John (in this chapter alone, note vv. 13, 39, 48, 57, and possibly 52). On balance, it is probably best to consider the shorter reading as authentic, even though “Then” is virtually required in translation for English stylistic reasons. NA²⁷ has the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[8:41]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:41]  ¹⁶ sn We were not born as a result of immorality! is ironic, because Jesus’ opponents implied that it was not themselves but Jesus who had been born as a result of immoral behavior. This shows they did not know Jesus’ true origin and were not aware of the supernatural events surrounding his birth. The author does not even bother to refute the opponents’ suggestion but lets it stand, assuming his readers will know the true story.

[8:42]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:42]  ²⁰ tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”

[8:42]  ²¹ tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[8:42]  ²² tn Grk “from myself.”

[8:42]  ²³ tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).

[8:54]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Jesus answered.”

[8:54]  ²⁶ tn Grk “is nothing.”

[8:54]  ²⁷ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:55]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[8:55]  ³² tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”

[8:55]  ³³ tn Grk “I keep.”

[8:55]  ³⁴ tn Grk “his word.”

[15:24]  ³⁷ tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ³⁸ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[15:24]  ⁴¹ tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.

[15:2]  ⁴³ tn Or “He cuts off.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “does not yield.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “And he”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[15:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “trims”; Grk “cleanses” (a wordplay with “clean” in v. 3). Καθαίρει (kaqairei) is not the word one would have expected here, but it provides the transition from the vine imagery to the disciples – there is a wordplay (not reproducible in English) between αἴρει (airei) and καθαίρει in this verse. While the purpose of the Father in cleansing his people is clear, the precise means by which he does so is not immediately obvious. This will become clearer, however, in the following verse.

[15:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “that yields.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[2:14]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:14]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “the faith,” referring to the kind of faith just described: faith without works. The article here is anaphoric, referring to the previous mention of the noun πίστις (pisti") in the verse. See ExSyn 219.

[2:14]  ⁵⁷ sn The form of the question in Greek expects a negative answer.

[2:15]  ⁶¹ tn It is important to note that the words ἀδελφός (adelfos) and ἀδελφή (adelfh) both occur in the Greek text at this point, confirming that the author intended to refer to both men and women. See the note on “someone” in 2:2.

[2:16]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “what is necessary for the body.”