Luke 7:29

7:29 (Now ¹  all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, ²  acknowledged ³  God’s justice, because they had been baptized ⁴  with John’s baptism.

Proverbs 8:32-36

8:32 “So now, children, ⁵  listen to me;

blessed are those who keep my ways.

8:33 Listen to my instruction ⁶  so that you may be wise, ⁷ 

and do not neglect it.

8:34 Blessed is the one ⁸  who listens to me,

watching ⁹  at my doors day by day,

waiting ¹⁰  beside my doorway. ¹¹ 

8:35 For the one who finds me finds ¹²  life

and receives ¹³  favor from the Lord.

8:36 But the one who does not find me ¹⁴  brings harm ¹⁵  to himself; ¹⁶ 

all who hate me ¹⁷  love death.”

Proverbs 17:16

17:16 Of what ¹⁸  use is money in the hand of a fool, ¹⁹ 

since he has no intention ²⁰  of acquiring wisdom? ²¹ 

Hosea 14:9

Concluding Exhortation

14:9 Who is wise?

Let him discern ²²  these things!

Who is discerning?

Let him understand them!

For the ways of the Lord are right;

the godly walk in them,

but in them the rebellious stumble.

Matthew 11:19

11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, ²³  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors ²⁴  and sinners!’ ²⁵  But wisdom is vindicated ²⁶  by her deeds.” ²⁷ 

Matthew 11:1

11:1 When ²⁸  Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

Colossians 2:14-15

2:14 He has destroyed ²⁹  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ³⁰  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 2:15 Disarming ³¹  the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ³² 

[7:29]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the parenthetical nature of the comment by the author.

[7:29]  ² sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[7:29]  ³ tn Or “vindicated God”; Grk “justified God.” This could be expanded to “vindicated and responded to God.” The point is that God’s goodness and grace as evidenced in the invitation to John was justified and responded to by the group one might least expect, tax collector and sinners. They had more spiritual sensitivity than others. The contrastive response is clear from v. 30.

[7:29]  ⁴ tn The participle βαπτισθέντες (baptisqente") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[8:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[8:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “discipline.”

[8:33]  ⁷ tn The construction uses two imperatives joined with the vav (ו); this is a volitive sequence in which result or consequence is being expressed.

[8:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “the man.”

[8:34]  ⁹ tn The form לִשְׁקֹד (lishqod) is the infinitive construct serving epexegetically in the sentence. It explains how the person will listen to wisdom.

[8:34]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “keeping” or “guarding.”

[8:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “at the posts of my doors” (so KJV, ASV).

[8:35]  ¹² tc The Kethib reads plurals: “those who find me are finders of life”; this is reflected in the LXX and Syriac. But the Qere is singular: “whoever finds me finds life.” The Qere is generally favored as the original reading in such cases as these.

[8:35]  ¹³ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same nuance as the perfect tense that came before it, setting out the timeless principle.

[8:36]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one sinning [against] me.” The verb חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) forms a contrast with “find” in the previous verse, and so has its basic meaning of “failing to find, miss.” So it is talking about the one who misses wisdom, as opposed to the one who finds it.

[8:36]  ¹⁵ tn The Qal active participle functions verbally here. The word stresses both social and physical harm and violence.

[8:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his soul.”

[8:36]  ¹⁷ tn The basic idea of the verb שָׂנֵא (sane’, “to hate”) is that of rejection. Its antonym is also used in the line, “love,” which has the idea of choosing. So not choosing (i.e., hating) wisdom amounts to choosing (i.e., loving) death.

[17:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “why this?” The term זֶּה (zeh) is an enclitic use of the demonstrative pronoun for emphasis: “why ever” would this happen?

[17:16]  ¹⁹ sn The sense seems to be “What good is money” since what the fool needs cannot be bought? The verse is a rhetorical question stating that money would be wasted on a fool.

[17:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “there is no heart”; NASB “he has no (+ common TEV) sense”; NLT “has no heart for wisdom.”

[17:16]  ²¹ sn W. McKane envisions a situation where the fool comes to a sage with a fee in hand, supposing that he can acquire a career as a sage, and this gives rise to the biting comment here: Why does the fool have money in his hands? To buy wisdom when he has no brains? (Proverbs [OTL], 505).

[14:9]  ²² tn The shortened form of the prefix-conjugation verb וְיָבֵן (vÿyaven) indicates that it is a jussive rather than an imperfect. When a jussive comes from a superior to an inferior, it may connote exhortation and instruction or advice and counsel. For the functions of the jussive, see IBHS 568-70 §34.3.

[11:19]  ²³ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[11:19]  ²⁴ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[11:19]  ²⁵ 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.

[11:19]  ²⁶ tn Or “shown to be right.”

[11:19]  ²⁷ tc Most witnesses (B² C D L Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï lat) have “children” (τέκνων, teknwn) here instead of “deeds” (ἔργων, ergwn), but since “children” is the reading of the parallel in Luke 7:35, scribes would be motivated to convert the less colorful “deeds” into more animate offspring of wisdom. Further, ἔργων enjoys support from א B* W (˹³) as well as early versional and patristic support.

[11:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “And it happened when.” The introductory phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto, “it happened that”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[2:14]  ²⁹ tn The participle ἐξαλείψας (exaleiyas) is a temporal adverbial participle of contemporaneous time related to the previous verb συνεζωοποίησεν (sunezwopoihsen), but has been translated as a finite verb because of the complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences. For the meaning “destroy” see BDAG 344-45 s.v. ἐξαλείφω 2.

[2:14]  ³⁰ tn On the translation of χειρόγραφον (ceirografon), see BDAG 1083 s.v. which refers to it as “a certificate of indebtedness.”

[2:15]  ³¹ tn See BDAG 100 s.v. ἀπεκδύομαι 2.

[2:15]  ³² 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).