Matthew 16:1-4

The Demand for a Sign

16:1 Now when the Pharisees ¹  and Sadducees ²  came to test Jesus, ³  they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ⁴  16:2 He ⁵  said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’ 16:3 and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.’ ⁶  You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, ⁷  but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times. 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then ⁸  he left them and went away.

Matthew 19:3

19:3 Then some Pharisees ⁹  came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful ¹⁰  to divorce a wife for any cause?” ¹¹ 

Mark 12:5

12:5 He sent another, and that one they killed. This happened to many others, some of whom were beaten, others killed.

Luke 10:25

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

10:25 Now ¹²  an expert in religious law ¹³  stood up to test Jesus, ¹⁴  saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁵ 

John 8:6

8:6 (Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against ¹⁶  him.) ¹⁷  Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. ¹⁸ 

Acts 5:9

5:9 Peter then told her, “Why have you agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out!”

[16:1]  ¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[16:1]  ² sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.

[16:1]  ³ tn The object of the participle πειράζοντες (peirazontes) is not given in the Greek text but has been supplied here for clarity.

[16:1]  ⁴ sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.

[16:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “But answering, he said to them.” The construction has been simplified in the translation and δέ (de) has not been translated.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Or “red and gloomy” (L&N 14.56).

[16:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “The face of the sky you know how to discern.”

[16:4]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[19:3]  ⁹ tn Grk “And Pharisees.”

[19:3]  ¹⁰ tc ‡ Most mss have either ἀνθρώπῳ (anqrwpw, “for a man” [so א² C D W Θ 087 Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt]) or ἀνδρί (andri, “for a husband” [1424^c pc]) before the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”). The latter reading is an assimilation to the parallel in Mark; the former reading may have been motivated by the clarification needed (especially to give the following αὐτοῦ [autou, “his”] an antecedent). But a few significant mss (א* B L Γ 579 [700] 1424* pc) have neither noun. As the harder reading, it seems to best explain the rise of the others. NA²⁷, however, reads ἀνθρώπῳ here.

[19:3]  ¹¹ sn The question of the Pharisees was anything but sincere; they were asking it to test him. Jesus was now in the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas (i.e., Judea and beyond the Jordan) and it is likely that the Pharisees were hoping he might answer the question of divorce in a way similar to John the Baptist and so suffer the same fate as John, i.e., death at the hands of Herod (cf. 14:1-12). Jesus answered the question not on the basis of rabbinic custom and the debate over Deut 24:1, but rather from the account of creation and God’s original design.

[10:25]  ¹² tn Grk “And behold.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic. The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[10:25]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law (see also Luke 7:30, where the same term occurs).

[10:25]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:25]  ¹⁵ sn The combination of inherit with eternal life asks, in effect, “What must I do to be saved?”

[8:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “so that they could accuse.”

[8:6]  ¹⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author of 7:53–8:11.

[8:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or possibly “Jesus bent down and wrote an accusation on the ground with his finger.” The Greek verb καταγράφω (katagrafw) may indicate only the action of writing on the ground by Jesus, but in the overall context (Jesus’ response to the accusation against the woman) it can also be interpreted as implying that what Jesus wrote was a counteraccusation against the accusers (although there is no clue as to the actual content of what he wrote, some scribes added “the sins of each one of them” either here or at the end of v. 8 [U 264 700 al]).