Discovery BoxJeremiah 8:8-9
Context8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!
We have the law of the Lord”?
The truth is, 1 those who teach it 2 have used their writings
to make it say what it does not really mean. 3
8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. 4
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what wisdom do they really have?
Deuteronomy 33:10
Context33:10 They will teach Jacob your ordinances
and Israel your law;
they will offer incense as a pleasant odor,
and a whole offering on your altar.
Malachi 2:6-9
Context2:6 He taught what was true; 5 sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin. 2:7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him 6 because he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all. 2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; 7 you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” 8 says the Lord who rules over all. 2:9 “Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your 9 instruction.”
Luke 11:52
Context11:52 Woe to you experts in religious law! You have taken away 10 the key to knowledge! You did not go in yourselves, and you hindered 11 those who were going in.”
John 8:55
Context8:55 Yet 12 you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, 13 I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey 14 his teaching. 15
John 16:3
Context16:3 They 16 will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 17
Romans 2:17-24
Context2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law 18 and boast of your relationship to God 19 2:18 and know his will 20 and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 21 2:19 and if you are convinced 22 that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore 23 you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor 24 idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25
Romans 2:2
Context2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth 26 against those who practice such things.
Colossians 4:2
Context4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
[8:8] 1 tn Heb “Surely, behold!”
[8:8] 3 tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.
[8:9] 4 tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).
[2:6] 5 tn Heb “True teaching was in his mouth”; cf. NASB, NRSV “True instruction (doctrine NAB) was in his mouth.”
[2:7] 6 tn Heb “from his mouth” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
[2:8] 7 tn The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה (battorah) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7).
[2:8] 8 tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”
[2:9] 9 tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).
[11:52] 10 sn You have taken away the key to knowledge is another stinging rebuke. They had done the opposite of what they were trying to do.
[11:52] 11 tn Or “you tried to prevent.”
[8:55] 12 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.
[8:55] 13 tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”
[16:3] 16 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.
[16:3] 17 sn Ignorance of Jesus and ignorance of the Father are also linked in 8:19; to know Jesus would be to know the Father also, but since the world does not know Jesus, neither does it know his Father. The world’s ignorance of the Father is also mentioned in 8:55, 15:21, and 17:25.
[2:17] 18 sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
[2:17] 19 tn Grk “boast in God.” This may be an allusion to Jer 9:24.
[2:18] 21 tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”
[2:19] 22 tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.
[2:21] 23 tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).
