3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees 1 and Sadducees 2 coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
4:18 As 11 he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). 12
6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate 15 the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise 16 the other. You cannot serve God and money. 17
13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner 40 who planted a vineyard. 41 He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then 42 he leased it to tenant farmers 43 and went on a journey.
27:3 Now when 48 Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus 49 had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders,
1 sn Pharisees were members 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.
2 sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.
3 sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.
4 tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).
5 sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.
6 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
7 tn Grk “behold the heavens.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
8 tn Or “sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ourano") may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The same word is used in v. 17.
9 tc ‡ αὐτῷ (autw, “to/before him”) is found in the majority of witnesses (א1 C Ds L W 0233 Ë1,13 33 Ï lat), perhaps added as a point of clarification or emphasis. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
10 sn The phrase like a dove is a descriptive comparison. The Spirit is not a dove, but descended like one in some sort of bodily representation.
11 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
12 tn The two phrases in this verse placed in parentheses are explanatory comments by the author, parenthetical in nature.
13 tn Or “their boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ (en tw ploiw) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do here); or it can refer to “their” boat, implying possession. Mark assumes a certain preunderstanding on the part of his readers about the first four disciples and hence the translation “their boat” is justified (cf. also v. 20 in which the “hired men” indicates that Zebedee’s family owned the boats), while Matthew does not.
14 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
15 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.
16 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”
17 tn Grk “God and mammon.”
sn The term money is used to translate mammon, the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. God must be first, not money or possessions.
18 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
19 tn Or “commanded” (often with the implication of a threat, L&N 33.331).
20 sn Who has authority over the seas and winds is discussed in the OT: Ps 104:3; 135:7; 107:23-30. When Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea he was making a statement about who he was.
21 tn Grk “Or how can.”
22 sn The strong man here pictures Satan.
23 sn Some see the imagery here as similar to Eph 4:7-10, although no opponents are explicitly named in that passage. Jesus has the victory over Satan. Jesus’ acts of healing mean that the war is being won and the kingdom is coming.
24 tn Grk “was giving them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowd.”
25 sn An allusion to Pss 28:4; 62:12; cf. Prov 24:12.
26 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
27 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
28 tn Grk “let him be to you as.”
29 tn Or “a pagan.”
30 sn To treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector means not to associate with such a person. See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.
31 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
32 tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
33 tn Grk “and his wife.”
34 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
35 tn Grk “one hundred denarii.” The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be about three month’s pay.
36 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so.” A new sentence was started at this point in the translation in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
37 tn Grk “and he grabbed him and started choking him.”
38 tn The word “me” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
39 tn Grk “one fig tree.”
sn The fig tree is a variation on the picture of a vine as representing the nation; see Isa 5:1-7.
40 tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
41 sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.
42 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
43 sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.
44 tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).
45 tn Or “in the desert.”
46 tn Grk “to everyone who has, he will be given more.”
sn The one who has will be given more. Faithfulness yields great reward (see Matt 13:12; also Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18, 19:26).
47 sn The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either.
48 tn Grk “Then when.” Here τότε (tote) has been translated as “now” to indicate a somewhat parenthetical interlude in the sequence of events.
49 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
50 tc ‡ αὐτό (auto, “it”) is found after ἔθηκεν (eqhken, “placed”) in the majority of witnesses, including many important ones, though it seems to be motivated by a need for clarification and cannot therefore easily explain the rise of the shorter reading (which is read by א L Θ Ë13 33 892 pc). Regardless of which reading is original (though with a slight preference for the shorter reading), English style requires the pronoun. NA27 includes αὐτό here, no doubt due to the overwhelming external attestation.
51 tn That is, cut or carved into an outcropping of natural rock, resulting in a cave-like structure (see L&N 19.25).
52 tn Or “to the door,” “against the door.”
53 tn Grk “And behold he.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).