Isaiah 58:2-3

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

58:3 They lament, ²  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ³ 

you oppress your workers. ⁴ 

Zechariah 7:3-5

7:3 by asking both the priests of the temple ⁵  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ⁶  fasting as we have done over the years?” 7:4 The word of the Lord who rules over all then came to me, 7:5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ⁷  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Malachi 1:13

1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ⁸  asks the Lord.

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁹  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁰ 

Luke 15:29-30

15:29 but he answered ¹¹  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ¹²  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ¹³  you never gave me even a goat ¹⁴  so that I could celebrate with my friends! 15:30 But when this son of yours ¹⁵  came back, who has devoured ¹⁶  your assets with prostitutes, ¹⁷  you killed the fattened calf ¹⁸  for him!’

Luke 18:11-12

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹⁹  ‘God, I thank ²⁰  you that I am not like other people: ²¹  extortionists, ²²  unrighteous people, ²³  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ²⁴  18:12 I fast twice ²⁵  a week; I give a tenth ²⁶  of everything I get.’

Romans 3:27

3:27 Where, then, is boasting? ²⁷  It is excluded! By what principle? ²⁸  Of works? No, but by the principle of faith!

Romans 9:30-32

Israel’s Rejection Culpable

9:30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 9:31 but Israel even though pursuing ²⁹  a law of righteousness ³⁰  did not attain it. ³¹  9:32 Why not? Because they pursued ³²  it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. ³³  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³⁴ 

Romans 10:1-3

10:1 Brothers and sisters, ³⁵  my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites ³⁶  is for their salvation. 10:2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, ³⁷  but their zeal is not in line with the truth. ³⁸  10:3 For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Romans 11:5-6

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:1

Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final

11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

Colossians 4:11

4:11 And Jesus who is called Justus also sends greetings. In terms of Jewish converts, ³⁹  these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

Colossians 4:2

Exhortation to Pray for the Success of Paul’s Mission

4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 1:23-28

1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ⁴⁰  without shifting ⁴¹  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ⁴²  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ⁴³  the word of God, 1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ⁴⁴  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 1:28 We proclaim him by instructing ⁴⁵  and teaching ⁴⁶  all people ⁴⁷  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ⁴⁸  in Christ.

[58:2]  ¹ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[58:3]  ² tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ³ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[7:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[7:3]  ⁶ sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).

[7:5]  ⁷ tn The seventh month apparently refers to the anniversary of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (Jer 40:13-14; 41:1), in approximately 581 b.c.

[1:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).

[3:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ¹⁰ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[15:29]  ¹¹ tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”

[15:29]  ¹² tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.

[15:29]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.

[15:29]  ¹⁴ sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”

[15:30]  ¹⁵ sn Note the younger son is not “my brother” but this son of yours (an expression with a distinctly pejorative nuance).

[15:30]  ¹⁶ sn This is another graphic description. The younger son’s consumption had been like a glutton. He had both figuratively and literally devoured the assets which were given to him.

[15:30]  ¹⁷ sn The charge concerning the prostitutes is unproven, but essentially the older brother accuses the father of committing an injustice by rewarding his younger son’s unrighteous behavior.

[15:30]  ¹⁸ sn See note on the phrase “fattened calf” in v. 23.

[18:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ²⁰ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ²¹ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ²² tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ²³ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ²⁴ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ²⁵ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “I tithe.”

[3:27]  ²⁷ tn Although a number of interpreters understand the “boasting” here to refer to Jewish boasting, others (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, “‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 96) take the phrase to refer to all human boasting before God.

[3:27]  ²⁸ tn Grk “By what sort of law?”

[9:31]  ²⁹ tn Or “who pursued.” The participle could be taken adverbially or adjectivally.

[9:31]  ³⁰ tn Or “a legal righteousness,” that is, a righteousness based on law. This translation would treat the genitive δικαιοσύνης (dikaiosunh") as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-91).

[9:31]  ³¹ tn Grk “has not attained unto the law.”

[9:32]  ³² tn Grk “Why? Because not by faith but as though by works.” The verb (“they pursued [it]”) is to be supplied from the preceding verse for the sake of English style; yet a certain literary power is seen in Paul’s laconic style.

[9:32]  ³³ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (א² D Ψ 33 Ï sy), read νόμου (nomou, “of the law”) here, echoing Paul’s usage in Rom 3:20, 28 and elsewhere. The qualifying phrase is lacking in א* A B F G 6 629 630 1739 1881 pc lat co. The longer reading thus is weaker externally and internally, being motivated apparently by a need to clarify.

[9:32]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the stone of stumbling.”

[10:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[10:1]  ³⁶ tn Grk “on behalf of them”; the referent (Paul’s fellow Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:2]  ³⁷ tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”

[10:2]  ³⁸ tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”

[4:11]  ³⁹ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” The verse as a whole is difficult to translate because it is unclear whether Paul is saying (1) that the only people working with him are Jewish converts at the time the letter is being written or previously, or (2) that Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus were the only Jewish Christians who ever worked with him. Verses 12-14 appear to indicate that Luke and Demas, who were Gentiles, were also working currently with Paul. This is the view adopted in the translation. See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 207-8.

[1:23]  ⁴⁰ tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”

[1:23]  ⁴¹ tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.

[1:25]  ⁴² tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ⁴³ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[1:27]  ⁴⁴ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”

[1:28]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “admonishing,” or “warning.” BDAG 679 s.v. νουθετέω states, “to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct,, admonish, warn, instruct.” After the participle νουθετοῦντες (nouqetounte", “instructing”) the words πάντα ἄνθρωπον (panta anqrwpon, “all men”) occur in the Greek text, but since the same phrase appears again after διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) it was omitted in translation to avoid redundancy in English.

[1:28]  ⁴⁶ tn The two participles “instructing” (νουθετοῦντες, nouqetounte") and “teaching” (διδάσκοντες, didaskonte") are translated as participles of means (“by”) related to the finite verb “we proclaim” (καταγγέλλομεν, katangellomen).

[1:28]  ⁴⁷ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is twice translated as a generic (“people” and “person”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[1:28]  ⁴⁸ tn Since Paul’s focus is on the present experience of the Colossians, “mature” is a better translation of τέλειον (teleion) than “perfect,” since the latter implies a future, eschatological focus.