Matthew 21:31
Context21:31 Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” 1 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, 2 tax collectors 3 and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God!
Jeremiah 44:16
Context44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! 4
Ephesians 4:17-19
Context4:17 So I say this, and insist 5 in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility 6 of their thinking. 7 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, 8 being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 4:19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 9
[21:31] 1 tc Verses 29-31 involve a rather complex and difficult textual problem. The variants cluster into three different groups: (1) The first son says “no” and later has a change of heart, and the second son says “yes” but does not go. The second son is called the one who does his father’s will. This reading is found in the Western
[21:31] 2 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
[21:31] 3 sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.
[44:16] 4 tn Heb “the word [or message] you have spoken to us in the name of the
[4:17] 5 tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.
[4:17] 6 tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.
[4:17] 7 tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”
[4:18] 8 tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.
[4:19] 9 sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.