Matthew 19:20

19:20 The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ¹  all these laws. ²  What do I still lack?”

Luke 10:25-29

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

10:25 Now ³  an expert in religious law ⁴  stood up to test Jesus, ⁵  saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ⁶  10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” ⁷  10:27 The expert ⁸  answered, “Love ⁹  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, ¹⁰  and love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹¹  10:28 Jesus ¹²  said to him, “You have answered correctly; ¹³  do this, and you will live.”

10:29 But the expert, ¹⁴  wanting to justify ¹⁵  himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 15:29

15:29 but he answered ¹⁶  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ¹⁷  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ¹⁸  you never gave me even a goat ¹⁹  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

Luke 18:9-12

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

18:9 Jesus ²⁰  also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down ²¹  on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up ²²  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ²³  and the other a tax collector. ²⁴  18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ²⁵  ‘God, I thank ²⁶  you that I am not like other people: ²⁷  extortionists, ²⁸  unrighteous people, ²⁹  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ³⁰  18:12 I fast twice ³¹  a week; I give a tenth ³²  of everything I get.’

Luke 18:21

18:21 The man ³³  replied, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ³⁴  all these laws ³⁵  since my youth.” ³⁶ 

Philippians 3:5-6

3:5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. ³⁷  3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.

[19:20]  ¹ tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[19:20]  ² tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:25]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:25]  ⁶ sn The combination of inherit with eternal life asks, in effect, “What must I do to be saved?”

[10:26]  ⁷ tn Grk “How do you read?” The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[10:27]  ⁸ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:27]  ⁹ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[10:27]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[10:27]  ¹¹ tn This portion of the reply is a quotation from Lev 19:18. The verb is repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:28]  ¹² tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ¹³ sn Jesus commends the reply (you have answered correctly). What is assumed here, given the previous context, is that he will respond to Jesus’ message, as to love God is to respond to his Son; see v. 22.

[10:29]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:29]  ¹⁵ tn Or “vindicate.”

[15:29]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”

[15:29]  ¹⁷ tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.

[15:29]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.

[15:29]  ¹⁹ sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”

[18:9]  ²⁰ tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.

[18:10]  ²² sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

[18:10]  ²³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[18:10]  ²⁴ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[18:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ²⁶ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ²⁷ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ²⁸ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ²⁹ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ³⁰ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ³¹ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ³² tn Or “I tithe.”

[18:21]  ³³ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the ruler mentioned in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:21]  ³⁴ tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail throughout his life, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[18:21]  ³⁵ tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:21]  ³⁶ sn Since my youth. Judaism regarded the age of thirteen as the age when a man would have become responsible to live by God’s commands.

[3:5]  ³⁷ sn A Pharisee was a member of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.