Matthew 13:11-17

13:11 He replied, ¹  “You have been given ²  the opportunity to know ³  the secrets ⁴  of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not. 13:12 For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ⁵  13:13 For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. 13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ⁶  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ⁷  yet will never comprehend.

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ⁸ 

13:16 “But your eyes are blessed ⁹  because they see, and your ears because they hear. 13:17 For I tell you the truth, ¹⁰  many prophets and righteous people longed to see ¹¹  what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Matthew 16:23

16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ¹² 

John 3:3-6

3:3 Jesus replied, ¹³  “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  unless a person is born from above, ¹⁵  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ¹⁶  3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ¹⁷ 

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁸  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ¹⁹  he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, ²⁰  and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 8:43

8:43 Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept ²¹  my teaching. ²² 

John 10:26-27

10:26 But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 12:37

The Outcome of Jesus’ Public Ministry Foretold

12:37 Although Jesus ²³  had performed ²⁴  so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him,

Romans 8:5-8

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by ²⁵  the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook ²⁶  of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

[13:11]  ¹ tn Grk “And answering, he said to them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:11]  ² tn This is an example of a “divine passive,” with God understood to be the source of the revelation (see ExSyn 437-38).

[13:11]  ³ tn Grk “to you it has been given to know.” The dative pronoun occurs first, in emphatic position in the Greek text, although this position is awkward in contemporary English.

[13:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “the mysteries.”

[13:12]  ⁵ sn What he has will be taken from him. The meaning is that the one who accepts Jesus’ teaching concerning his person and the kingdom will receive a share in the kingdom now and even more in the future, but for the one who rejects Jesus’ words, the opportunity that that person presently possesses with respect to the kingdom will someday be taken away forever.

[13:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).

[13:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.

[13:15]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[13:16]  ⁹ sn This beatitude highlights the great honor bestowed on the disciples to share in this salvation.

[13:17]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “truly (ἀμήν, amhn) I say to you.”

[13:17]  ¹¹ sn This is what past prophets and righteous people had wanted very much to see, yet the fulfillment had come to the disciples. This remark is like 1 Pet 1:10-12 or Heb 1:1-2.

[16:23]  ¹² tn Grk “people.”

[3:3]  ¹³ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[3:4]  ¹⁷ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[3:5]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ¹⁹ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:6]  ²⁰ sn What is born of the flesh is flesh, i.e., what is born of physical heritage is physical. (It is interesting to compare this terminology with that of the dialogue in John 4, especially 4:23, 24.) For John the “flesh” (σάρξ, sarx) emphasizes merely the weakness and mortality of the creature – a neutral term, not necessarily sinful as in Paul. This is confirmed by the reference in John 1:14 to the Logos becoming “flesh.” The author avoids associating sinfulness with the incarnate Christ.

[8:43]  ²¹ tn Grk “you cannot hear,” but this is not a reference to deafness, but rather hearing in the sense of listening to something and responding to it.

[8:43]  ²² tn Grk “my word.”

[12:37]  ²³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:37]  ²⁴ tn Or “done.”

[8:5]  ²⁵ tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.

[8:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “mindset,” “way of thinking” (twice in this verse and once in v. 7). The Greek term φρόνημα does not refer to one’s mind, but to one’s outlook or mindset.