Isaiah 30:10-11

30:10 They ¹  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ² 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ³ 

30:11 Turn aside from the way,

stray off the path. ⁴ 

Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ⁶ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁸  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ⁹  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹⁰ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ¹¹ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹² 

John 15:19

15:19 If you belonged to the world, ¹³  the world would love you as its own. ¹⁴  However, because you do not belong to the world, ¹⁵  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ¹⁶  the world hates you. ¹⁷ 

John 17:14

17:14 I have given them your word, ¹⁸  and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, ¹⁹  just as I do not belong to the world. ²⁰ 

John 17:2

17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, ²¹  so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. ²² 

John 4:3

4:3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee. ²³ 

John 4:2

4:2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ²⁴ 

John 2:2-3

2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ²⁵  2:3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.” ²⁶ 

[30:10]  ¹ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ² tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ³ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[30:11]  ⁴ sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.

[30:11]  ⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[5:31]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

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

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

[2:11]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹² tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[15:19]  ¹³ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹⁴ tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ¹⁷ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.

[17:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “your message.”

[17:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “because they are not of the world.”

[17:14]  ²⁰ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:2]  ²¹ tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”

[17:2]  ²² tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”

[4:3]  ²³ sn The author doesn’t tell why Jesus chose to set out once more for Galilee. Some have suggested that the Pharisees turned their attention to Jesus because John the Baptist had now been thrown into prison. But the text gives no hint of this. In any case, perhaps Jesus simply did not want to provoke a confrontation at this time (knowing that his “hour” had not yet come).

[4:2]  ²⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[2:2]  ²⁵ 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.

[2:3]  ²⁶ tn The word “left” is not in the Greek text but is implied.