Isaiah 58:2

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.

Ezekiel 5:14

5:14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

Ezekiel 33:31-32

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ²  and they sit in front of you as ³  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ⁴  them. For they talk lustfully, ⁵  and their heart is set on ⁶  their own advantage. ⁷  33:32 Realize ⁸  that to them you are like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and skilled musician. ⁹  They hear your words, but they do not obey them. ¹⁰ 

Malachi 3:8

3:8 Can a person rob ¹¹  God? You indeed are robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions! ¹² 

Matthew 19:20

19:20 The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ¹³  all these laws. ¹⁴  What do I still lack?”

Luke 10:29

10:29 But the expert, ¹⁵  wanting to justify ¹⁶  himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 18:11-12

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹⁷  ‘God, I thank ¹⁸  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁹  extortionists, ²⁰  unrighteous people, ²¹  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ²²  18:12 I fast twice ²³  a week; I give a tenth ²⁴  of everything I get.’

Romans 7:9

7:9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive

Philippians 3:6

3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.

Philippians 3:2

3:2 Beware of the dogs, ²⁵  beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ²⁶ 

Philippians 3:5

3:5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. ²⁷ 

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

[33:31]  ² tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ³ tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ⁷ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[33:32]  ⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[33:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “one who makes playing music well.”

[33:32]  ¹⁰ sn Similar responses are found in Isa 29:13; Matt 21:28-32; James 1:22-25.

[3:8]  ¹¹ tc The LXX presupposes an underlying Hebrew text of עָקַב (’aqav, “deceive”), a metathesis of קָבַע (qava’, “rob”), in all four uses of the verb here (vv. 8-9). The intent probably is to soften the impact of “robbing” God, but the language of the passage is intentionally bold and there is no reason to go against the reading of the MT (which is followed here by most English versions).

[3:8]  ¹² sn The tithes and contributions mentioned here are probably those used to sustain the Levites (see Num 18:8, 11, 19, 21-24).

[19:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[19:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:29]  ¹⁶ tn Or “vindicate.”

[18:11]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ²¹ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ²² sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Or “I tithe.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ sn Dogs is a figurative reference to false teachers whom Paul regards as just as filthy as dogs.

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “beware of the mutilation.”

[3:5]  ²⁷ sn A Pharisee was a member 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.