Isaiah 58:1

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ² 

Ezekiel 16:2

16:2 “Son of man, confront Jerusalem ³  with her abominable practices

Ezekiel 20:4

20:4 “Are you willing to pronounce judgment? ⁴  Are you willing to pronounce judgment, son of man? Then confront them with the abominable practices of their fathers,

Ezekiel 22:2

22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ⁵  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ⁶  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

Ezekiel 43:10

43:10 “As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins and measure the pattern.

Matthew 3:7-12

3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees ⁷  and Sadducees ⁸  coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 3:8 Therefore produce fruit ⁹  that proves your ¹⁰  repentance, 3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 3:10 Even now the ax is laid at ¹¹  the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy ¹²  to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹³  3:12 His winnowing fork ¹⁴  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ¹⁵  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹⁶ 

Acts 7:51-52

7:51 “You stubborn ¹⁷  people, with uncircumcised ¹⁸  hearts and ears! ¹⁹  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors ²⁰  did! 7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors ²¹  not persecute? ²²  They ²³  killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, ²⁴  whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! ²⁵ 

[58:1]  ¹ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ² tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[16:2]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[20:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment.

[22:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4.

[22:2]  ⁶ tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

[3:7]  ⁷ sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

[3:7]  ⁸ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

[3:8]  ⁹ sn Fruit worthy of repentance refers to the deeds that indicate a change of attitude (heart) on the part of John’s hearers.

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “fruit worthy of.”

[3:10]  ¹¹ sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.

[3:11]  ¹² tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

[3:11]  ¹³ sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.

[3:12]  ¹⁴ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ¹⁶ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[7:51]  ¹⁷ sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.

[7:51]  ¹⁸ tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.

[7:51]  ¹⁹ tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)

[7:51]  ²⁰ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ²¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ²² sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.

[7:52]  ²³ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:52]  ²⁴ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.

[7:52]  ²⁵ sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).