Luke 10:12-15

10:12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom ¹  than for that town! ² 

10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ³  Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if ⁴  the miracles ⁵  done in you had been done in Tyre ⁶  and Sidon, ⁷  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! 10:15 And you, Capernaum, ⁸  will you be exalted to heaven? ⁹  No, you will be thrown down to Hades! ¹⁰ 

Numbers 15:30-31

Deliberate Sin

15:30 “‘But the person ¹¹  who acts defiantly, ¹²  whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults ¹³  the Lord. ¹⁴  That person ¹⁵  must be cut off ¹⁶  from among his people. 15:31 Because he has despised ¹⁷  the word of the Lord and has broken ¹⁸  his commandment, that person ¹⁹  must be completely cut off. ²⁰  His iniquity will be on him.’” ²¹ 

Matthew 11:22-24

11:22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you! 11:23 And you, Capernaum, ²²  will you be exalted to heaven? ²³  No, you will be thrown down to Hades! ²⁴  For if the miracles done among you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued to this day. 11:24 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom ²⁵  on the day of judgment than for you!”

John 9:41

9:41 Jesus replied, ²⁶  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ²⁷  but now because you claim that you can see, ²⁸  your guilt ²⁹  remains.” ³⁰ 

John 12:48

12:48 The one who rejects me and does not accept ³¹  my words has a judge; ³²  the word ³³  I have spoken will judge him at the last day.

John 15:22-24

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ³⁴  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 ³⁵  among them the miraculous deeds ³⁶  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ³⁷  But now they have seen the deeds ³⁸  and have hated both me and my Father. ³⁹ 

John 19:11

19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ⁴⁰  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ⁴¹  is guilty of greater sin.” ⁴² 

Acts 17:30

17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ⁴³  such times of ignorance, ⁴⁴  he now commands all people ⁴⁵  everywhere to repent, ⁴⁶ 

Acts 17:2

17:2 Paul went to the Jews in the synagogue, ⁴⁷  as he customarily did, and on three Sabbath days he addressed ⁴⁸  them from the scriptures,

Colossians 2:15-16

2:15 Disarming ⁴⁹  the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ⁵⁰ 

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days –

James 4:17

4:17 So whoever knows what is good to do ⁵¹  and does not do it is guilty of sin. ⁵² 

[10:12]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “city.”

[10:13]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[10:13]  ⁶ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:13]  ⁷ 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!”

[10:15]  ⁸ sn Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region.

[10:15]  ⁹ tn The interrogative particle introducing this question expects a negative reply.

[10:15]  ¹⁰ sn In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol. It is the place where the unrighteous will reside (Matt 11:23; Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14).

[15:30]  ¹¹ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ¹² tn The sin is described literally as acting “with a high hand” – בְּיָד רָמָה (bÿyad ramah). The expression means that someone would do something with deliberate defiance, with an arrogance in spite of what the Lord said. It is as if the sinner was about to attack God, or at least lifting his hand against God. The implication of the expression is that it was done in full knowledge of the Law (especially since this contrasts throughout with the sins of ignorance). Blatant defiance of the word of the Lord is dealt with differently. For similar expressions, see Exod 14:8 and Num 33:3.

[15:30]  ¹³ tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”

[15:30]  ¹⁴ tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the Lord such a person insults.

[15:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ¹⁶ tn The clause begins with “and” because the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. As discussed with Num 9:13, to be cut off could mean excommunication from the community, death by the community, or death by divine intervention.

[15:31]  ¹⁷ tn The verb בָּזָה (bazah, “to despise”) means to treat something as worthless, to treat it with contempt, to look down the nose at something as it were.

[15:31]  ¹⁸ tn The verb פָּרַר (parar, “to break”) can mean to nullify, break, or violate a covenant.

[15:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:31]  ²⁰ tn The construction uses the Niphal imperfect with the modifying Niphal infinitive absolute. The infinitive makes the sentence more emphatic. If the imperfect tense is taken as an instruction imperfect, then the infinitive makes the instruction more binding. If it is a simple future, then the future is certain. In either case, there is no exclusion from being cut off.

[15:31]  ²¹ sn The point is that the person’s iniquity remains with him – he must pay for his sin. The judgment of God in such a case is both appropriate and unavoidable.

[11:23]  ²² sn Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region.

[11:23]  ²³ tn The interrogative particle introducing this question expects a negative reply.

[11:23]  ²⁴ sn In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol. It is the place where the unrighteous will reside (Luke 10:15; 16:23; Rev 20:13-14).

[11:24]  ²⁵ 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, and will result in more severe punishment, than the worst sins of the old era. The phrase region of Sodom is in emphatic position in the Greek text.

[9:41]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ²⁷ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ²⁸ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ²⁹ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ³⁰ 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).

[12:48]  ³¹ tn Or “does not receive.”

[12:48]  ³² tn Grk “has one who judges him.”

[12:48]  ³³ tn Or “message.”

[15:22]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ³⁵ tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ³⁶ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ³⁷ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ 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.

[19:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “power.”

[19:11]  ⁴¹ tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”

[19:11]  ⁴² tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).

[17:30]  ⁴³ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ⁴⁵ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ⁴⁶ sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.

[17:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “he went in to them”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Although the word διελέξατο (dielexato; from διαλέγομαι, dialegomai) is frequently translated “reasoned,” “disputed,” or “argued,” this sense comes from its classical meaning where it was used of philosophical disputation, including the Socratic method of questions and answers. However, there does not seem to be contextual evidence for this kind of debate in Acts 17:2. As G. Schrenk (TDNT 2:94-95) points out, “What is at issue is the address which any qualified member of a synagogue might give.” Other examples of this may be found in the NT in Matt 4:23 and Mark 1:21.

[2:15]  ⁴⁹ tn See BDAG 100 s.v. ἀπεκδύομαι 2.

[2:15]  ⁵⁰ tn The antecedent of the Greek pronoun αὐτῷ (autw) could either be “Christ” or the “cross.” There are several reasons for choosing “the cross” as the antecedent for αὐτῷ in verse 15: (1) The nearest antecedent is τῷ σταυρῷ (tw staurw) in v. 14; (2) the idea of ἐδειγμάτισεν ἐν παρρησία (edeigmatisen en parrhsia, “made a public disgrace”) seems to be more in keeping with the idea of the cross; (3) a reference to Christ seems to miss the irony involved in the idea of triumph – the whole point is that where one would expect defeat, there came the victory; (4) if Christ is the subject of the participles in v. 15 then almost certainly the cross is the referent for αὐτῷ. Thus the best solution is to see αὐτῷ as a reference to the cross and the preposition ἐν (en) indicating “means” (i.e., by means of the cross) or possibly (though less likely) location (on the cross).

[4:17]  ⁵¹ tn Or “knows how to do what is good.”

[4:17]  ⁵² tn Grk “to him it is sin.”