Luke 7:33

7:33 For John the Baptist has come ¹  eating no bread and drinking no wine, ²  and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³ 

Numbers 6:2-4

6:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and tell them, ‘When either a man or a woman ⁴  takes a special vow, ⁵  to take a vow ⁶  as a Nazirite, ⁷  to separate ⁸  himself to the Lord, 6:3 he must separate ⁹  himself from wine and strong drink, he must drink neither vinegar ¹⁰  made from wine nor vinegar made from strong drink, nor may he drink any juice ¹¹  of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. ¹²  6:4 All the days of his separation he must not eat anything that is produced by the grapevine, from seed ¹³  to skin. ¹⁴ 

Jude 1:4-6

1:4 For certain men ¹⁵  have secretly slipped in among you ¹⁶  – men who long ago ¹⁷  were marked out ¹⁸  for the condemnation I am about to describe ¹⁹  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ²⁰  and who deny our only Master ²¹  and Lord, ²²  Jesus Christ.

1:5 Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts ²³  once for all ²⁴ ) that Jesus, ²⁵  having saved the ²⁶  people out of the land of Egypt, later ²⁷  destroyed those who did not believe. 1:6 You also know that ²⁸  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ²⁹  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ³⁰  in eternal chains ³¹  in utter ³²  darkness, locked up ³³  for the judgment of the great Day.

Matthew 11:18

11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³⁴ 

[7:33]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Grk “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” but this is somewhat awkward in contemporary English.

[7:33]  ³ 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.

[6:2]  ⁴ tn The formula is used here again: “a man or a woman – when he takes.” The vow is open to both men and women.

[6:2]  ⁵ tn The vow is considered special in view of the use of the verb יַפְלִא (yafli’), the Hiphil imperfect of the verb “to be wonderful, extraordinary.”

[6:2]  ⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the cognate accusative: “to vow a vow.” This intensifies the idea that the vow is being taken carefully.

[6:2]  ⁷ tn The name of the vow is taken from the verb that follows; נָזַר (nazar) means “to consecrate oneself,” and so the Nazirite is a consecrated one. These are folks who would make a decision to take an oath for a time or for a lifetime to be committed to the Lord and show signs of separation from the world. Samuel was to be a Nazirite, as the fragment of the text from Qumran confirms – “he will be a נָזִיר (nazir) forever” (1 Sam 1:22).

[6:2]  ⁸ tn The form of the verb is an Hiphil infinitive construct, forming the wordplay and explanation for the name Nazirite. The Hiphil is here an internal causative, having the meaning of “consecrate oneself” or just “consecrate to the Lord.”

[6:3]  ⁹ tn The operative verb now will be the Hiphil of נָזַר (nazar); the consecration to the Lord meant separation from certain things in the world. The first will be wine and strong drink – barley beer (from Akkadian sikaru, a fermented beer). But the second word may be somewhat wider in its application than beer. The Nazirite, then, was to avoid all intoxicants as a sign of his commitment to the Lord. The restriction may have proved a hardship in the daily diet of the one taking the vow, but it spoke a protest to the corrupt religious and social world that used alcohol to excess.

[6:3]  ¹⁰ tn The “vinegar” (חֹמֶץ, homets) is some kind of drink preparation that has been allowed to go sour.

[6:3]  ¹¹ tn This word occurs only here. It may come from the word “to water, to be moist,” and so refer to juice.

[6:3]  ¹² tn Heb “dried” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[6:4]  ¹³ tn This word also is rare, occurring only here.

[6:4]  ¹⁴ sn Here is another hapax legomenon, a word only found here. The word seems linked to the verb “to be clear,” and so may mean the thin skin of the grape. The reason for the strictness with these two words in this verse is uncertain. We know the actual meanings of the words, and the combination must form a merism here, meaning no part of the grape could be eaten. Abstaining from these common elements of food was to be a mark of commitment to the Lord. Hos 3:1 even denounces the raisin cakes as part of a pagan world, and eating them would be a violation of the oath.

[1:4]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “people.” However, if Jude is indeed arguing that Peter’s prophecy about false teachers has come true, these are most likely men in the original historical and cultural setting. See discussion of this point in the note on the phrase “these men” in 2 Pet 2:12.

[1:4]  ¹⁶ tn “Among you” is not in the Greek text, but is obviously implied.

[1:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in the past.” The adverb πάλαι (palai) can refer to either, though the meaning “long ago” is more common.

[1:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “written about.”

[1:4]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “for this condemnation.” τοῦτο (touto) is almost surely a kataphoric demonstrative pronoun, pointing to what follows in vv. 5-18. Otherwise, the condemnation is only implied (in v. 3b) or is merely a statement of their sinfulness (“ungodly” in v. 4b), not a judgment of it.

[1:4]  ²⁰ tn Grk “debauchery.” This is the same word Peter uses to predict what the false teachers will be like (2 Pet 2:2, 7, 18).

[1:4]  ²¹ tc Most later witnesses (P Ψ Ï sy) have θεόν (qeon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despothn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despoth") was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (Ì^72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 1241 1739 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.

[1:4]  ²² tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1

[1:5]  ²³ tn Grk “knowing all things.” The subject of the participle “knowing” (εἰδότας, eidota") is an implied ὑμᾶς (Jumas), though several ancient witnesses actually add it. The πάντα (panta) takes on an adverbial force in this context (“fully”), intensifying how acquainted the readers are with the following points.

[1:5]  ²⁴ tc ‡ Some translations take ἅπαξ (Japax) with the following clause (thus, “[Jesus,] having saved the people once for all”). Such a translation presupposes that ἅπαξ is a part of the ὅτι (Joti) clause. The reading of NA²⁷, πάντα ὅτι [ὁ] κύριος ἅπαξ (panta {oti [Jo] kurio" {apax), suggests this interpretation (though with “Lord” instead of “Jesus”). This particle is found before λαόν (laon) in the ὅτι clause in א C* Ψ 630 1241 1243 1505 1739 1846 1881 pc co. But ἅπαξ is found before the ὅτι clause in most witnesses, including several important ones (Ì⁷² A B C² 33 81 623 2344 Ï vg). What seems best able to explain the various placements of the adverb is that scribes were uncomfortable with ἅπαξ referring to the readers’ knowledge, feeling it was more appropriate to the theological significance of “saved” (σώσας, swsas).

[1:5]  ²⁵ tc ‡ The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 1241 1739 1881 2344 pc vg co Or^1739mg), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (qeos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (though Ì⁷² has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [qeos Cristos, “God Christ”] for ᾿Ιησοῦς). In addition to the evidence supplied in NA²⁷ for this reading, note also {88 322 323 424^c 665 915 2298 eth Cyr Hier Bede}. As difficult as the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate.

[1:5]  ²⁶ tn Or perhaps “a,” though this is less likely.

[1:5]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the second time.”

[1:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and.” Verse 6 is a continuation of the same sentence begun in v. 5. Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “who did not keep their own domain.”

[1:6]  ³⁰ sn There is an interesting play on words used in this verse. Because the angels did not keep their proper place, Jesus has kept them chained up in another place. The same verb keep is used in v. 1 to describe believers’ status before God and Christ.

[1:6]  ³¹ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ³² tn The word ζόφος (zofos, “utter, deepest darkness”) is used only five times in the NT: two in 2 Peter, two in Jude, and one in Hebrews. Jude 6 parallels 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 13 parallels 2 Pet 2:17.

[1:6]  ³³ tn The words “locked up” are not in Greek, but is expressed in English as a resumptive point after the double prepositional phrase (“in eternal chains in utter darkness”).

[11:18]  ³⁴ 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.