Luke 7:31-35

7:31 “To what then should I compare the people ¹  of this generation, and what are they like? 7:32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, ² 

‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ³ 

we wailed in mourning, ⁴  yet you did not weep.’

7:33 For John the Baptist has come ⁵  eating no bread and drinking no wine, ⁶  and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ⁷  7:34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, ⁸  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ⁹  7:35 But wisdom is vindicated ¹⁰  by all her children.” ¹¹ 

[7:31]  ¹ tn Grk “men,” but this is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"). The comparison that follows in vv. 32-34 describes “this generation,” not Jesus and John.

[7:32]  ² tn Grk “They are like children sitting…and calling out…who say.”

[7:32]  ³ sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 33-34) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.

[7:32]  ⁴ tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (eqrhnhsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.

[7:33]  ⁵ tn The perfect tenses in both this verse and the next do more than mere aorists would. They not only summarize, but suggest the characteristics of each ministry were still in existence at the time of speaking.

[7:33]  ⁶ tn Grk “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” but this is somewhat awkward in contemporary English.

[7:33]  ⁷ sn John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.

[7:34]  ⁸ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[7:34]  ⁹ sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[7:35]  ¹⁰ tn Or “shown to be right.” This is the same verb translated “acknowledged… justice” in v. 29, with a similar sense – including the notion of response. Wisdom’s children are those who respond to God through John and Jesus.

[7:35]  ¹¹ tn Or “by all those who follow her” (cf. CEV, NLT). Note that the parallel in Matt 11:19 reads “by her deeds.”