Matthew 9:14

The Superiority of the New

9:14 Then John’s ¹  disciples came to Jesus ²  and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees ³  fast often, ⁴  but your disciples don’t fast?”

John 3:25-28

3:25 Now a dispute came about between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew ⁵  concerning ceremonial washing. ⁶  3:26 So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, ⁷  about whom you testified – see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!”

3:27 John replied, ⁸  “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 3:28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ ⁹  but rather, ‘I have been sent before him.’

John 4:1

Departure From Judea

4:1 Now when Jesus ¹⁰  knew that the Pharisees ¹¹  had heard that he ¹²  was winning ¹³  and baptizing more disciples than John

Acts 19:1-3

Disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus

19:1 While ¹⁴  Apollos was in Corinth, ¹⁵  Paul went through the inland ¹⁶  regions ¹⁷  and came to Ephesus. ¹⁸  He ¹⁹  found some disciples there ²⁰  19:2 and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” ²¹  They replied, ²²  “No, we have not even ²³  heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 19:3 So Paul ²⁴  said, “Into what then were you baptized?” “Into John’s baptism,” they replied. ²⁵ 

[9:14]  ¹ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[9:14]  ² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:14]  ³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[9:14]  ⁴ sn John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

[3:25]  ⁵ tc Was this dispute between the Baptist’s disciples and an individual Judean (᾿Ιουδαίου, Ioudaiou) or representatives of the Jewish authorities (᾿Ιουδαίων, Ioudaiwn)? There is good external support for the plural ᾿Ιουδαίων (Ì⁶⁶ א* Θ Ë^1,13 565 al latt), but the external evidence for the singular ᾿Ιουδαίου is slightly stronger ({Ì⁷⁵ א² A B L Ψ 33 1241 the majority of Byzantine minuscules and others}).

[3:25]  ⁶ tn Or “ceremonial cleansing,” or “purification.”

[3:26]  ⁷ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

[3:27]  ⁸ tn Grk “answered and said.”

[3:28]  ⁹ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[4:1]  ¹⁰ tc Several early and important witnesses, along with the majority of later ones (Ì^66c,75 A B C L W^s Ψ 083 ˹³ 33 Ï sa), have κύριος (kurio", “Lord”) here instead of ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”). As significant as this external support is, the internal evidence seems to be on the side of ᾿Ιησοῦς. “Jesus” is mentioned two more times in the first two verses of chapter four in a way that is stylistically awkward (so much so that the translation has substituted the pronoun for the first one; see tn note below). This seems to be sufficient reason to motivate scribes to change the wording to κύριος. Further, the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is not without decent support, though admittedly not as strong as that for κύριος (Ì^66* א D Θ 086 ˹ 565 1241 al lat bo). On the other hand, this Gospel speaks of Jesus as Lord in the evangelist’s narrative descriptions elsewhere only in 11:2; 20:18, 20; 21:12; and probably 6:23, preferring ᾿Ιησοῦς most of the time. This fact could be used to argue that scribes, acquainted with John’s style, changed κύριος to ᾿Ιησοῦς. But the immediate context generally is weighed more heavily than an author’s style. It is possible that neither word was in the original text and scribes supplied what they thought most appropriate (see TCGNT 176). But without ms evidence to this effect coupled with the harder reading ᾿Ιησοῦς, this conjecture must remain doubtful. All in all, it is best to regard ᾿Ιησοῦς as the original reading here.

[4:1]  ¹¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[4:1]  ¹² tn Grk “Jesus”; the repetition of the proper name is somewhat redundant in English (see the beginning of the verse) and so the pronoun (“he”) has been substituted here.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “was making.”

[19:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “It happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[19:1]  ¹⁵ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[19:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “interior.”

[19:1]  ¹⁷ tn BDAG 92 s.v. ἀνωτερικός has “upper τὰ ἀ. μέρη the upper (i.e. inland) country, the interior Ac 19:1.”

[19:1]  ¹⁸ map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.

[19:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and found.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the sequencing with the following verse the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[19:1]  ²⁰ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[19:2]  ²¹ tn The participle πιστεύσαντες (pisteusante") is taken temporally.

[19:2]  ²² tn Grk “they [said] to him” (the word “said” is implied in the Greek text).

[19:2]  ²³ tn This use of ἀλλά (alla) is ascensive and involves an ellipsis (BDAG 45 s.v. ἀλλά 3): “No, [not only did we not receive the Spirit,] but also we have not heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” However, this is lengthy and somewhat awkward in English, and the ascensive meaning can be much more easily represented by including the word “even” after the negation. Apparently these disciples were unaware of the provision of the Spirit that is represented in baptism. The language sounds like they did not know about a Holy Spirit, but this seems to be only linguistic shorthand for not knowing about the Spirit’s presence (Luke 3:15-18). The situation is parallel to that of Apollos. Apollos and these disciples represent those who “complete” their transition to messianic faith as Jews.

[19:3]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:3]  ²⁵ tn Grk “they said.”