Luke 3:8

3:8 Therefore produce ¹  fruit ²  that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say ³  to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ ⁴  For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁵ 

Luke 12:17

12:17 so ⁶  he thought to himself, ⁷  ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ⁸ 

Luke 16:3

16:3 Then ⁹  the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position ¹⁰  away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, ¹¹  and I’m too ashamed ¹²  to beg.

Luke 18:4

18:4 For ¹³  a while he refused, but later on ¹⁴  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ¹⁵ 

Luke 18:2

18:2 He said, ¹⁶  “In a certain city ¹⁷  there was a judge ¹⁸  who neither feared God nor respected people. ¹⁹ 

Luke 5:20

5:20 When ²⁰  Jesus ²¹  saw their ²²  faith he said, “Friend, ²³  your sins are forgiven.” ²⁴ 

Proverbs 23:7

23:7 for he is ²⁵  like someone calculating the cost ²⁶  in his mind. ²⁷ 

“Eat and drink,” he says to you,

but his heart is not with you;

Mark 2:6-7

2:6 Now some of the experts in the law ²⁸  were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: ²⁹  2:7 “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! ³⁰  Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Mark 7:21

7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

[3:8]  ¹ tn The verb here is ποιέω (poiew; see v. 4).

[3:8]  ² tn Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit” (so NIV; cf. Matt 3:8 where the singular καρπός is found). Some other translations render the plural καρπούς as “fruits” (e.g., NRSV, NASB, NAB, NKJV).

[3:8]  ³ tn In other words, “do not even begin to think this.”

[3:8]  ⁴ sn We have Abraham as our father. John’s warning to the crowds really assumes two things: (1) A number of John’s listeners apparently believed that simply by their physical descent from Abraham, they were certain heirs of the promises made to the patriarch, and (2) God would never judge his covenant people lest he inadvertently place the fulfillment of his promises in jeopardy. In light of this, John tells these people two things: (1) they need to repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance, for only that saves from the coming wrath, and (2) God will raise up “children for Abraham from these stones” if he wants to. Their disobedience will not threaten the realization of God’s sovereign purposes.

[3:8]  ⁵ sn The point of the statement God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham is that ancestry or association with a tradition tied to the great founder of the Jewish nation is not an automatic source of salvation.

[12:17]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this is a result of the preceding statement.

[12:17]  ⁷ tn Grk “to himself, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[12:17]  ⁸ sn I have nowhere to store my crops. The thinking here is prudent in terms of recognizing the problem. The issue in the parable will be the rich man’s solution, particularly the arrogance reflected in v. 19.

[16:3]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the parable.

[16:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the stewardship,” “the management.”

[16:3]  ¹¹ tn Here “dig” could refer (1) to excavation (“dig ditches,” L&N 19.55) or (2) to agricultural labor (“work the soil,” L&N 43.3). In either case this was labor performed by the uneducated, so it would be an insult as a job for a manager.

[16:3]  ¹² tn Grk “I do not have strength to dig; I am ashamed to beg.”

[18:4]  ¹³ tn Grk “And for.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:4]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “after these things.”

[18:4]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “man,” but the singular ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic in comparison to God.

[18:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “lose heart, saying.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronominal subject “He.”

[18:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “town.”

[18:2]  ¹⁸ sn The judge here is apparently portrayed as a civil judge who often handled financial cases.

[18:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “man,” but the singular ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic in comparison to God.

[5:20]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[5:20]  ²¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:20]  ²² sn The plural pronoun their makes it clear that Jesus was responding to the faith of the entire group, not just the paralyzed man.

[5:20]  ²³ tn Grk “Man,” but the term used in this way was not derogatory in Jewish culture. Used in address (as here) it means “friend” (see BDAG 82 s.v. ἄνθρωπος 8).

[5:20]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke stresses the forgiveness of sins (cf. 1:77; 3:3; 24:47). In 5:20 he uses both the perfect ἀφέωνται and the personal pronoun σοι which together combine to heighten the subjective aspect of the experience of forgiveness. The σοι has been omitted in translation in light of normal English style.

[23:7]  ²⁵ tc The line is difficult; it appears to mean that the miser is the kind of person who has calculated the cost of everything in his mind as he offers the food. The LXX has: “Eating and drinking with him is as if one should swallow a hair; do not introduce him to your company nor eat bread with him.” The Hebrew verb “to calculate” (שָׁעַר, sha’ar) with a change of vocalization and of sibilant would yield “hair” (שֵׂעָר, se’ar) – “like a hair in the throat [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh], so is he.” This would picture an irritating experience. The Instruction of Amenemope uses “blocking the throat” in a similar saying (chapt. 11, 14:7 [ANET 423]). The suggested change is plausible and is followed by NRSV; but the rare verb “to calculate” in the MT would be easier to defend on the basis of the canons of textual criticism because it is the more difficult reading.

[23:7]  ²⁶ tn The phrase “the cost” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the verb; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[23:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “soul.”

[2:6]  ²⁸ tn Or “some of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

[2:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Reasoning within their hearts.”

[2:7]  ³⁰ sn Blaspheming meant to say something that dishonored God. To claim divine prerogatives or claim to speak for God when one really does not would be such an act of offense. The remark raised directly the issue of the nature of Jesus’ ministry.