Matthew 11:6

11:6 Blessed is anyone ¹  who takes no offense at me.”

Isaiah 8:14

8:14 He will become a sanctuary, ² 

but a stone that makes a person trip,

and a rock that makes one stumble –

to the two houses of Israel. ³ 

He will become ⁴  a trap and a snare

to the residents of Jerusalem. ⁵ 

Isaiah 49:7

49:7 This is what the Lord,

the protector ⁶  of Israel, their Holy One, ⁷  says

to the one who is despised ⁸  and rejected ⁹  by nations, ¹⁰ 

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect, ¹¹ 

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ¹² 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ¹³ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ¹⁴ 

Mark 6:3

6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son ¹⁵  of Mary ¹⁶  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Luke 2:34-35

2:34 Then ¹⁷  Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Listen carefully: ¹⁸  This child ¹⁹  is destined to be the cause of the falling and rising ²⁰  of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be rejected. ²¹  2:35 Indeed, as a result of him the thoughts ²²  of many hearts will be revealed ²³  – and a sword ²⁴  will pierce your own soul as well!” ²⁵ 

Luke 7:23

7:23 Blessed is anyone ²⁶  who takes no offense at me.”

John 6:42

6:42 and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

John 6:61

6:61 When Jesus was aware ²⁷  that his disciples were complaining ²⁸  about this, he said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended? ²⁹ 

John 6:1

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

6:1 After this ³⁰  Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). ³¹ 

Colossians 1:23-28

1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ³²  without shifting ³³  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ³⁴  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ³⁵  the word of God, 1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ³⁶  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 1:28 We proclaim him by instructing ³⁷  and teaching ³⁸  all people ³⁹  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ⁴⁰  in Christ.

[11:6]  ¹ tn Grk “whoever.”

[8:14]  ² tn Because the metaphor of protection (“sanctuary”) does not fit the negative mood that follows in vv. 14b-15, some contend that מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, “sanctuary”) is probably a corruption of an original מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), a word that appears in the next line (cf. NAB and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:355-56). If the MT reading is retained (as in the above translation), the fact that Yahweh is a sanctuary wraps up the point of v. 13 and stands in contrast to God’s treatment of those who rebel against him (the rest of v. 14).

[8:14]  ³ sn The two “houses” of Israel (= the patriarch Jacob) are the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

[8:14]  ⁴ tn These words are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. וְהָיָה (vÿhayah, “and he will be”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[8:14]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[49:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:7]  ⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[49:7]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “to [one who] despises life.” It is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a לבזוי, which should be vocalized as a passive participle, לִבְזוּי (livzuy, “to the one despised with respect to life” [נֶפֶשׁ is a genitive of specification]). The consonantal sequence וי was probably misread as ה in the MT tradition. The contextual argument favors the 1QIsa^a reading. As J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:294) points out, the three terse phrases “convey a picture of lowliness, worthlessness, and helplessness.”

[49:7]  ⁹ tn MT’s Piel participle (“to the one who rejects”) does not fit contextually. The form should be revocalized as a Pual, “to the one rejected.”

[49:7]  ¹⁰ tn Parallelism (see “rulers,” “kings,” “princes”) suggests that the singular גּוֹי (goy) be emended to a plural or understood in a collective sense (see 55:5).

[49:7]  ¹¹ tn For this sense of קוּם (qum), see Gen 19:1; 23:7; 33:10; Lev 19:32; 1 Sam 20:41; 25:41; 1 Kgs 2:19; Job 29:8.

[53:3]  ¹² tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ¹⁴ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tc Evidently because of the possible offensiveness of designating Jesus a carpenter, several mss ([Ì^45vid] ˹³ 33^vid [565 579] 700 [2542] pc it vg^mss) harmonize the words “carpenter, the son” to the parallel passage in Matt 13:55, “the son of the carpenter.” Almost all the rest of the mss read “the carpenter, the son.” Since the explicit designation of Jesus as a carpenter is the more difficult reading, and is much better attested, it is most likely correct.

[6:3]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to him as the son of Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 6:42; 8:41; 9:29).

[2:34]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[2:34]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “behold.”

[2:34]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “this one”; the referent (the child) is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:34]  ²⁰ sn The phrase the falling and rising of many emphasizes that Jesus will bring division in the nation, as some will be judged (falling) and others blessed (rising) because of how they respond to him. The language is like Isa 8:14-15 and conceptually like Isa 28:13-16. Here is the first hint that Jesus’ coming will be accompanied with some difficulties.

[2:34]  ²¹ tn Grk “and for a sign of contradiction.”

[2:35]  ²² tn Or “reasonings” (in a hostile sense). See G. Schrenk, TDNT 2:97.

[2:35]  ²³ sn The remark the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed shows that how people respond to Jesus indicates where their hearts really are before God.

[2:35]  ²⁴ sn A sword refers to a very large, broad two-edged sword. The language is figurative, picturing great pain. Though it refers in part to the cross, it really includes the pain all of Jesus’ ministry will cause, including the next event in Luke 2:41-52 and extending to the opposition he faced throughout his ministry.

[2:35]  ²⁵ sn This remark looks to be parenthetical and addressed to Mary alone, not the nation. Many modern English translations transpose this to make it the final clause in Simeon’s utterance as above to make this clear.

[7:23]  ²⁶ tn Grk “whoever.”

[6:61]  ²⁷ tn Grk “When Jesus knew within himself.”

[6:61]  ²⁸ tn Or “were grumbling.”

[6:61]  ²⁹ tn Or “Does this cause you to no longer believe?” (Grk “cause you to stumble?”)

[6:1]  ³⁰ tn Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:236) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.

[6:1]  ³¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.

[1:23]  ³² tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”

[1:23]  ³³ tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.

[1:25]  ³⁴ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ³⁵ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[1:27]  ³⁶ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”

[1:28]  ³⁷ tn Or “admonishing,” or “warning.” BDAG 679 s.v. νουθετέω states, “to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct,, admonish, warn, instruct.” After the participle νουθετοῦντες (nouqetounte", “instructing”) the words πάντα ἄνθρωπον (panta anqrwpon, “all men”) occur in the Greek text, but since the same phrase appears again after διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) it was omitted in translation to avoid redundancy in English.

[1:28]  ³⁸ tn The two participles “instructing” (νουθετοῦντες, nouqetounte") and “teaching” (διδάσκοντες, didaskonte") are translated as participles of means (“by”) related to the finite verb “we proclaim” (καταγγέλλομεν, katangellomen).

[1:28]  ³⁹ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is twice translated as a generic (“people” and “person”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[1:28]  ⁴⁰ tn Since Paul’s focus is on the present experience of the Colossians, “mature” is a better translation of τέλειον (teleion) than “perfect,” since the latter implies a future, eschatological focus.