Isaiah 29:20-21

29:20 For tyrants will disappear,

those who taunt will vanish,

and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated ¹  –

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, ² 

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ³ 

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ⁴ 

Matthew 22:15

Paying Taxes to Caesar

22:15 Then the Pharisees ⁵  went out and planned together to entrap him with his own words. ⁶ 

Matthew 26:61

26:61 and declared, “This man ⁷  said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

Luke 11:54

11:54 plotting against ⁸  him, to catch ⁹  him in something he might say.

John 2:19

2:19 Jesus replied, ¹⁰  “Destroy ¹¹  this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.”

John 2:2

2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ¹² 

John 3:16

3:16 For this is the way ¹³  God loved the world: He gave his one and only ¹⁴  Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish ¹⁵  but have eternal life. ¹⁶ 

[29:20]  ¹ tn Heb “and all the watchers of wrong will be cut off.”

[29:21]  ² tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”

[29:21]  ³ sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.

[29:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”

[22:15]  ⁵ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[22:15]  ⁶ tn Grk “trap him in word.”

[26:61]  ⁷ tn Grk “This one.”

[11:54]  ⁸ tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.

[11:54]  ⁹ tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.

[2:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[2:19]  ¹¹ tn The imperative here is really more than a simple conditional imperative (= “if you destroy”); its semantic force here is more like the ironical imperative found in the prophets (Amos 4:4, Isa 8:9) = “Go ahead and do this and see what happens.”

[2:2]  ¹² sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.

[3:16]  ¹³ tn Or “this is how much”; or “in this way.” The Greek adverb οὕτως (Joutws) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16,” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (Jwste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love. This is in keeping with John’s style of using double entendre or double meaning. Thus, the focus of the Greek construction here is on the nature of God's love, addressing its mode, intensity, and extent.

[3:16]  ¹⁴ tn Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna qeou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[3:16]  ¹⁵ tn In John the word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) can mean either (1) to be lost (2) to perish or be destroyed, depending on the context.

[3:16]  ¹⁶ sn The alternatives presented are only two (again, it is typical of Johannine thought for this to be presented in terms of polar opposites): perish or have eternal life.