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 

Luke 9:19

9:19 They ⁴  answered, ⁵  “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; ⁶  and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has risen.” ⁷ 

Luke 7:20

7:20 When ⁸  the men came to Jesus, ⁹  they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ¹⁰  ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’” ¹¹ 

[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.

[9:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “And they.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:19]  ⁵ tn Grk “And answering, they said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “They answered.”

[9:19]  ⁶ sn The appearance of Elijah would mean that the end time had come. According to 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah.

[9:19]  ⁷ sn The phrase has risen could be understood to mean “has been resurrected,” but this is only a possible option, not a necessary one, since the phrase could merely mean that a figure had appeared on the scene who mirrored an earlier historical figure. Note that the three categories in the reply match the ones in Luke 9:7-8.

[7:20]  ⁷ tn Grk “And when.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[7:20]  ⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:20]  ⁹ tn Grk “to you, saying,” but since this takes the form of a question, it is preferable to use the phrase “to ask” in English.

[7:20]  ¹⁰ tn This question is repeated word for word from v. 19.