John 9:41

9:41 Jesus replied, ¹  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ²  but now because you claim that you can see, ³  your guilt ⁴  remains.” ⁵ 

John 15:22-24

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ⁶  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. 15:23 The one who hates me hates my Father too. 15:24 If I had not performed ⁷  among them the miraculous deeds ⁸  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ⁹  But now they have seen the deeds ¹⁰  and have hated both me and my Father. ¹¹ 

Luke 7:41-42

7:41 “A certain creditor ¹²  had two debtors; one owed him ¹³  five hundred silver coins, ¹⁴  and the other fifty. 7:42 When they could not pay, he canceled ¹⁵  the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Luke 10:11-14

10:11 ‘Even the dust of your town ¹⁶  that clings to our feet we wipe off ¹⁷  against you. ¹⁸  Nevertheless know this: The kingdom of God has come.’ ¹⁹  10:12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom ²⁰  than for that town! ²¹ 

10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ²²  Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if ²³  the miracles ²⁴  done in you had been done in Tyre ²⁵  and Sidon, ²⁶  they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 10:14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you!

Luke 12:47-48

12:47 That ²⁷  servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked ²⁸  will receive a severe beating. 12:48 But the one who did not know his master’s will ²⁹  and did things worthy of punishment ³⁰  will receive a light beating. ³¹  From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, ³²  and from the one who has been entrusted with much, ³³  even more will be asked. ³⁴ 

Hebrews 6:4-8

6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, ³⁵  to renew them again to repentance, since ³⁶  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ³⁷  and holding him up to contempt. 6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ³⁸  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; ³⁹  its fate is to be burned.

James 4:17

4:17 So whoever knows what is good to do ⁴⁰  and does not do it is guilty of sin. ⁴¹ 

[9:41]  ¹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ² tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ³ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ⁴ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ⁵ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

[15:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ⁷ tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ⁸ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ¹⁰ tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[15:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.

[7:41]  ¹² sn A creditor was a moneylender, whose business was to lend money to others at a fixed rate of interest.

[7:41]  ¹³ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[7:41]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “five hundred denarii.”

[7:42]  ¹⁵ tn The verb ἐχαρίσατο (ecarisato) could be translated as “forgave.” Of course this pictures the forgiveness of God’s grace, which is not earned but bestowed with faith (see v. 49).

[10:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “city.”

[10:11]  ¹⁷ sn See Luke 9:5, where the verb is different but the meaning is the same. This was a sign of rejection.

[10:11]  ¹⁸ tn Here ὑμῖν (Jumin) has been translated as a dative of disadvantage.

[10:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “has come near.” As in v. 9 (see above), the combination of ἐγγίζω (engizw) with the preposition ἐπί (epi) is decisive in showing that the sense is “has come” (see BDAG 270 s.v. ἐγγίζω 2, and W. R. Hutton, “The Kingdom of God Has Come,” ExpTim 64 [Dec 1952]: 89-91).

[10:12]  ²⁰ sn The allusion to Sodom, the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29, shows that to reject the current message is even more serious than the worst sins of the old era and will result in more severe punishment. The noun Sodom is in emphatic position in the Greek text.

[10:12]  ²¹ tn Or “city.”

[10:13]  ²² sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[10:13]  ²³ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[10:13]  ²⁴ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[10:13]  ²⁵ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:13]  ²⁶ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”

[12:47]  ²⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:47]  ²⁸ tn Grk “or do according to his will”; the referent (the master) has been specified in the translation for clarity. This example deals with the slave who knew what the command was and yet failed to complete it.

[12:48]  ²⁹ tn Grk “did not know”; the phrase “his master’s will” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the contemporary English reader.

[12:48]  ³⁰ tn Grk “blows.”

[12:48]  ³¹ tn Grk “will receive few (blows).”

[12:48]  ³² tn Grk “required from him”; but the words “from him” are redundant in English and have not been translated.

[12:48]  ³³ sn Entrusted with much. To be gifted with precious responsibility is something that requires faithfulness.

[12:48]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they will ask even more.”

[6:6]  ³⁵ tn Or “have fallen away.”

[6:6]  ³⁶ tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).

[6:6]  ³⁷ tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”

[6:7]  ³⁸ tn Grk “comes upon.”

[6:8]  ³⁹ tn Grk “near to a curse.”

[4:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “knows how to do what is good.”

[4:17]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “to him it is sin.”