¹ sn The tax collectors would bid to collect taxes for the Roman government and then add a surcharge, which they kept. Since tax collectors worked for Rome, they were viewed as traitors to their own people and were not well liked.

² sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

³ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

⁴ tn Grk “And answering, Jesus said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

⁵ tn Grk “O.” The marker of direct address, ὦ (w), is functionally equivalent to a vocative and is represented in the translation by “you.”

⁶ tn Or “faithless.”

sn The rebuke for lack of faith has OT roots: Num 14:27; Deut 32:5, 30; Isa 59:8.

⁷ tn Grk “how long.”

⁸ tn Or “put up with.” See Num 11:12; Isa 46:4.

⁹ sn The pronouns you…you are plural, indicating that Jesus is speaking to a group rather than an individual.

¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹¹ sn The point of the comparison become like little children has more to do with a child’s trusting spirit, as well as willingness to be dependent and receive from others, than any inherent humility the child might possess.

¹² tn The negation in Greek (οὐ μή, ou mh) is very strong here.

¹³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated. All the “if” clauses in this paragraph are third class conditions in Greek.

¹⁴ tn The Greek term “brother” can mean “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a) whether male or female. It can also refer to siblings, though here it is used in a broader sense to connote familial relationships within the family of God. Therefore, because of the familial connotations, “brother” has been retained in the translation here in preference to the more generic “fellow believer” (“fellow Christian” would be anachronistic in this context).

¹⁵ tc ‡ The earliest and best witnesses lack “against you” after “if your brother sins.” It is quite possible that the shorter reading in these witnesses (א B, as well as 0281 ˹ 579 pc sa) occurred when scribes either intentionally changed the text (to make it more universal in application) or unintentionally changed the text (owing to the similar sound of the end of the verb ἁμαρτήσῃ [Jamarthsh] and the prepositional phrase εἰς σέ [eis se]). However, if the mss were normally copied by sight rather than by sound, especially in the early centuries of Christianity, such an unintentional change is not as likely for these mss. And since scribes normally added material rather than deleted it for intentional changes, on balance, the shorter reading appears to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

¹⁶ tn Grk “go reprove him.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

²⁰ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

²¹ tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).

²² sn A quotation from Ps 118:26.

²³ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “nations” or “Gentiles”).

²⁴ sn See Matt 5:10-12; 1 Cor 1:25-31.

²⁵ tn Grk “answer him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.