3:15 While the people were filled with anticipation 5 and they all wondered 6 whether perhaps John 7 could be the Christ, 8
7:33 For John the Baptist has come 9 eating no bread and drinking no wine, 10 and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 11
1 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
2 sn The writing tablet requested by Zechariah would have been a wax tablet.
3 tn Grk “and wrote, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant is English and has not been translated.
4 sn The response, they were all amazed, expresses a mixture of surprise and reflection in this setting where they were so certain of what the child’s name would be.
5 tn Or “with expectation.” The participle προσδοκῶντος (prosdokwnto") is taken temporally.
sn The people were filled with anticipation because they were hoping God would send someone to deliver them.
6 tn Grk “pondered in their hearts.”
7 tn Grk “in their hearts concerning John, (whether) perhaps he might be the Christ.” The translation simplifies the style here.
8 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
sn See the note on Christ in 2:11.
9 tn The perfect tenses in both this verse and the next do more than mere aorists would. They not only summarize, but suggest the characteristics of each ministry were still in existence at the time of speaking.
10 tn Grk “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” but this is somewhat awkward in contemporary English.
11 sn John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.