Genesis 31:28

31:28 You didn’t even allow me to kiss my daughters and my grandchildren ¹  good-bye. You have acted foolishly!

Genesis 31:55

31:55 (32:1) ²  Early in the morning Laban kissed ³  his grandchildren ⁴  and his daughters goodbye and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned home. ⁵ 

Genesis 31:1

Jacob’s Flight from Laban

31:1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, ⁶  “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich ⁷  at our father’s expense!” ⁸ 

Genesis 19:20

19:20 Look, this town ⁹  over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. ¹⁰  Let me go there. ¹¹  It’s just a little place, isn’t it? ¹²  Then I’ll survive.” ¹³ 

Matthew 10:37

10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 19:22

19:22 But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. ¹⁴ 

Mark 10:21-22

10:21 As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money ¹⁵  to the poor, and you will have treasure ¹⁶  in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 10:22 But at this statement, the man ¹⁷  looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. ¹⁸ 

Mark 10:2

10:2 Then some Pharisees ¹⁹  came, and to test him ²⁰  they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his ²¹  wife?” ²² 

Mark 4:10

The Purpose of Parables

4:10 When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

[31:28]  ¹ tn Heb “my sons and my daughters.” Here “sons” refers to “grandsons,” and has been translated “grandchildren” since at least one granddaughter, Dinah, was involved. The order has been reversed in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:55]  ² sn Beginning with 31:55, the verse numbers in the English Bible through 32:32 differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 31:55 ET = 32:1 HT, 32:1 ET = 32:2 HT, etc., through 32:32 ET = 32:33 HT. From 33:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[31:55]  ³ tn Heb “and Laban got up early in the morning and he kissed.”

[31:55]  ⁴ tn Heb “his sons.”

[31:55]  ⁵ tn Heb “to his place.”

[31:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying.”

[31:1]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew word translated “gotten rich” (כָּבוֹד, cavod) has the basic idea of “weight.” If one is heavy with possessions, then that one is wealthy (13:2). Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph all became wealthy when they left the promised land. Jacob’s wealth foreshadows what will happen to Israel when they leave the land of Egypt (Exod 12:35-38).

[31:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and from that which belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.”

[19:20]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word עִיר (’ir) can refer to either a city or a town, depending on the size of the place. Given that this place was described by Lot later in this verse as a “little place,” the translation uses “town.”

[19:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, this town is near to flee to there. And it is little.”

[19:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Let me escape to there.” The cohortative here expresses Lot’s request.

[19:20]  ¹² tn Heb “Is it not little?”

[19:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “my soul will live.” After the cohortative the jussive with vav conjunctive here indicates purpose/result.

[19:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he had many possessions.” This term (κτῆμα, kthma) is often used for land as a possession.

[10:21]  ¹⁵ tn The words “the money” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[10:21]  ¹⁶ sn The call for sacrifice comes with a promise of eternal reward: You will have treasure in heaven. Jesus’ call is a test to see how responsive the man is to God’s direction through him. Will he walk the path God’s agent calls him to walk? For a rich person who got it right, see Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10.

[10:22]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man who asked the question in v. 17) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:22]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “he had many possessions.” This term (κτῆμα, kthma) is often used for land as a possession.

[10:2]  ¹⁹ tc The Western text (D it) and a few others have only καί (kai) here, rather than καὶ προσελθόντες Φαρισαῖοι (kai proselqonte" Farisaioi, here translated as “then some Pharisees came”). The longer reading, a specific identification of the subject, may have been prompted by the parallel in Matt 19:3. The fact that the mss vary in how they express this subject lends credence to this judgment: οἱ δὲ Φαρισαῖοι προσελθόντες (Joi de Farisaioi proselqonte", “now the Pharisees came”) in W Θ 565 2542 pc; καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι (kai proselqonte" Joi Farisaioi, “then the Pharisees came”) in א C N (˹: καὶ προσελθόντες ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι) 579 1241 1424 pm; and καὶ προσελθόντες Φαρισαῖοι in A B K L Γ Δ Ψ Ë¹³ 28 700 892 2427 pm. Further, the use of an indefinite plural (a general “they”) is a Markan feature, occurring over twenty times. Thus, internally the evidence looks rather strong for the shorter reading, in spite of the minimal external support for it. However, if scribes assimilated this text to Matt 19:3, a more exact parallel might have been expected: Matthew has καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ Φαρισαῖοι (kai proshlqon aujtw Farisaioi, “then Pharisees came to him”). Although the verb form needs to be different according to syntactical requirements of the respective sentences, the word order variety, as well as the presence or absence of the article and the alternation between δέ and καί as the introductory conjunction, all suggest that the variety of readings might not be due to scribal adjustments toward Matthew. At the same time, the article with Φαρισαῖοι is found in both Gospels in many of the same witnesses (א Ï in Matt; א pm in Mark), and the anarthrous Φαρισαῖοι is likewise parallel in many mss (B L ˹³ 700 892). Another consideration is the possibility that very early in the transmissional history, scribes naturally inserted the most obvious subject (the Pharisees would be the obvious candidates as the ones to test Jesus). This may account for the reading with δέ, since Mark nowhere else uses this conjunction to introduce the Pharisees into the narrative. As solid as the internal arguments against the longer reading seem to be, the greatest weakness is the witnesses that support it. The Western mss are prone to alter the text by adding, deleting, substituting, or rearranging large amounts of material. There are times when the rationale for this seems inexplicable. In light of the much stronger evidence for “the Pharisees came,” even though it occurs in various permutations, it is probably wisest to retain the words. This judgment, however, is hardly certain.

[10:2]  ²⁰ tn In Greek this phrase occurs at the end of the sentence. It has been brought forward to conform to English style.

[10:2]  ²¹ tn The personal pronoun “his” is not in the Greek text, but is certainly implied and has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the statement (cf. “his wife” in 10:7).

[10:2]  ²² tn The particle εἰ (ei) is often used to introduce both indirect and direct questions. Thus, another possible translation is to take this as an indirect question: “They asked him if it were lawful for a man to divorce his wife.” See BDF §440.3.