Matthew 5:18

5:18 I ¹  tell you the truth, ²  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ³  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Matthew 6:2

6:2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, ⁴  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues ⁵  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, ⁶  they have their reward.

Matthew 6:5

Private Prayer

6:5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues ⁷  and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.

Matthew 6:16

Proper Fasting

6:16 “When ⁸  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ⁹  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ¹⁰  they have their reward.

John 1:51

1:51 He continued, ¹¹  “I tell all of you the solemn truth ¹²  – you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” ¹³ 

John 3:3

3:3 Jesus replied, ¹⁴  “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁵  unless a person is born from above, ¹⁶  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ 

[5:18]  ¹ tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[5:18]  ² tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[5:18]  ³ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”

[6:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today. The giving of alms was highly regarded in the ancient world (Deut 15:7-11).

[6:2]  ⁵ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[6:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[6:5]  ⁷ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[6:16]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:16]  ⁹ tn Here the term “disfigure” used in a number of translations was not used because it could convey to the modern reader the notion of mutilation. L&N 79.17 states, “‘to make unsightly, to disfigure, to make ugly.’ ἀφανίζουσιν γὰρ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν ‘for they make their faces unsightly’ Mt 6:16.”

[6:16]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[1:51]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and he said to him.”

[1:51]  ¹² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[1:51]  ¹³ sn The title Son of Man appears 13 times in John’s Gospel. It is associated especially with the themes of crucifixion (3:14; 8:28), revelation (6:27; 6:53), and eschatological authority (5:27; 9:35). The title as used in John’s Gospel has for its background the son of man figure who appears in Dan 7:13-14 and is granted universal regal authority. Thus for the author, the emphasis in this title is not on Jesus’ humanity, but on his heavenly origin and divine authority.

[3:3]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ¹⁶ tn The word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) has a double meaning, either “again” (in which case it is synonymous with παλίν [palin]) or “from above” (BDAG 92 s.v. ἄνωθεν). This is a favorite technique of the author of the Fourth Gospel, and it is lost in almost all translations at this point. John uses the word 5 times, in 3:3, 7; 3:31; 19:11 and 23. In the latter 3 cases the context makes clear that it means “from above.” Here (3:3, 7) it could mean either, but the primary meaning intended by Jesus is “from above.” Nicodemus apparently understood it the other way, which explains his reply, “How can a man be born when he is old? He can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” The author uses the technique of the “misunderstood question” often to bring out a particularly important point: Jesus says something which is misunderstood by the disciples or (as here) someone else, which then gives Jesus the opportunity to explain more fully and in more detail what he really meant.

[3:3]  ¹⁷ sn What does Jesus’ statement about not being able to see the kingdom of God mean within the framework of John’s Gospel? John uses the word kingdom (βασιλεία, basileia) only 5 times (3:3, 5; 18:36 [3x]). Only here is it qualified with the phrase of God. The fact that John does not stress the concept of the kingdom of God does not mean it is absent from his theology, however. Remember the messianic implications found in John 2, both the wedding and miracle at Cana and the cleansing of the temple. For Nicodemus, the term must surely have brought to mind the messianic kingdom which Messiah was supposed to bring. But Nicodemus had missed precisely this point about who Jesus was. It was the Messiah himself with whom Nicodemus was speaking. Whatever Nicodemus understood, it is clear that the point is this: He misunderstood Jesus’ words. He over-literalized them, and thought Jesus was talking about repeated physical birth, when he was in fact referring to new spiritual birth.