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 5:21

5:21 Then ⁶  the experts in the law ⁷  and the Pharisees began to think ⁸  to themselves, ⁹  “Who is this man ¹⁰  who is uttering blasphemies? ¹¹  Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Luke 7:16

7:16 Fear ¹²  seized them all, and they began to glorify ¹³  God, saying, “A great prophet ¹⁴  has appeared ¹⁵  among us!” and “God has come to help ¹⁶  his people!”

Luke 8:39

8:39 “Return to your home, ¹⁷  and declare ¹⁸  what God has done for you.” ¹⁹  So ²⁰  he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town ²¹  what Jesus ²²  had done for him.

Luke 12:24

12:24 Consider the ravens: ²³  They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds ²⁴  them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!

Luke 16:15

16:15 But ²⁵  Jesus ²⁶  said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, ²⁷  but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized ²⁸  among men is utterly detestable ²⁹  in God’s sight.

Luke 18:11

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ³⁰  ‘God, I thank ³¹  you that I am not like other people: ³²  extortionists, ³³  unrighteous people, ³⁴  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ³⁵ 

Luke 18:13

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ³⁶  far off and would not even look up ³⁷  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³⁸  to me, sinner that I am!’ ³⁹ 

[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.

[5:21]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[5:21]  ⁷ tn Or “Then the scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[5:21]  ⁸ tn Or “to reason” (in a hostile sense). See G. Schrenk, TDNT 2:97.

[5:21]  ⁹ tn The participle λέγοντες (legontes, “saying”) has not been translated because it is redundant in contemporary English.

[5:21]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “this one” (οὗτος, Joutos).

[5:21]  ¹¹ sn Uttering blasphemies 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.

[7:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “Awe.” Grk “fear,” but the context and the following remark show that it is mixed with wonder; see L&N 53.59. This is a reaction to God’s work; see Luke 5:9.

[7:16]  ¹² tn This imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

[7:16]  ¹³ sn That Jesus was a great prophet was a natural conclusion for the crowd to make, given the healing; but Jesus is more than this. See Luke 9:8, 19-20.

[7:16]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “arisen.”

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “visited,” but this conveys a different impression to a modern reader. L&N 85.11 renders the verb, “to be present, with the implication of concern – ‘to be present to help, to be on hand to aid.’ … ‘God has come to help his people’ Lk 7:16.” The language recalls Luke 1:68, 78.

[8:39]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “your house.”

[8:39]  ¹⁷ tn Or “describe.”

[8:39]  ¹⁸ sn Jesus instructs the man to declare what God has done for him, in contrast to the usual instructions (e.g., 8:56; 9:21) to remain silent. Here in Gentile territory Jesus allowed more open discussion of his ministry. D. L. Bock (Luke [BECNT], 1:781) suggests that with few Jewish religious representatives present, there would be less danger of misunderstanding Jesus’ ministry as political.

[8:39]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the man’s response to Jesus’ instructions.

[8:39]  ²⁰ tn Or “city.”

[8:39]  ²¹ sn Note that the man could not separate what God had done from the one through whom God had done it (what Jesus had done for him). This man was called to witness to God’s goodness at home.

[12:24]  ²¹ tn Or “crows.” Crows and ravens belong to the same family of birds. English uses “crow” as a general word for the family. Palestine has several indigenous members of the crow family.

[12:24]  ²² tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[16:15]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[16:15]  ²⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:15]  ²⁸ tn Grk “before men.” The contrast is between outward appearance (“in people’s eyes”) and inward reality (“God knows your hearts”). Here the Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used twice in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, but “men” has been retained in the text to provide a strong verbal contrast with “God” in the second half of the verse.

[16:15]  ²⁹ tn Or “exalted.” This refers to the pride that often comes with money and position.

[16:15]  ³⁰ tn Or “is an abomination,” “is abhorrent” (L&N 25.187).

[18:11]  ³¹ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ³² sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ³³ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ³⁵ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ³⁶ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:13]  ³⁶ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ³⁷ tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ³⁸ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.