² tn Or “sinful passions.”

² tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

¹ tn Grk “than to burn,” a figure of speech referring to unfulfilled sexual passion.

¹ sn Handed him over is another summary of the passion like Luke 9:22.

¹ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

³ tn See the notes on the words “passion” in Rev 14:8 and “wrath” in 16:19.

² tn The Greek word for “anger” here is θυμός (thumos), a wordplay on the “passion” (θυμός) of the personified city of Babylon in 14:8.

¹ sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.

³ tn The Greek term παθήμασιν (pathēmasin, translated “passions”) refers to strong physical desires, especially of a sexual nature (L&N 25.30).

⁴ sn They will kill him and after three days he will rise. See the note at the end of Mark 8:30 regarding the passion predictions.

¹ tn Heb “my kidneys”; in biblical Hebrew the term was used for the innermost being, the soul, the central location of the passions. Cf. NASB, NIV “my inmost being.”

¹ tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.

¹ sn After the first passion prediction in 8:31 Jesus rebuked Peter as having been used by Satan. After the second passion prediction in 9:31 the disciples were concerned about who would be the greatest in the kingdom. After the third passion prediction in 10:33 James and John asked for positions of honor and rulership in the kingdom, revealing their complete misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom and exposing their inadequacy as true disciples of Jesus. Jesus replied that such positions were for those for whom it has been prepared.

² tn Or referring to an engaged man: “if he is past the critical point,” “if his passions are too strong.” The word literally means “to be past the high point.”

² sn Their zeal is not in line with the truth means that the Jews’ passion for God was strong, but it ignored the true righteousness of God (v. 3; cf. also 3:21).

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” since vv. 37-38 serve as something of a summary or transition from the discourse preceding to the passion narrative that follows.

⁴ sn And spat on. Later Luke does not note this detail in the passion narrative in chaps. 22-23, but see Mark 14:65; 15:19; Matt 26:67; 27:30 where Jesus’ prediction is fulfilled.

⁴ sn The description of the Son of Man being rejected…killed, and…raised is the first of six passion summaries in Luke: 9:44; 17:25; 18:31-33; 24:7; 24:46-47.

⁴ sn What does the expression to “arouse or awaken love” mean? There are three major views: (1) to force a love relationship to develop prematurely rather than to allow it to develop naturally; (2) to interfere with the experience of passionate love; or (3) to stir up sexual passion, that is, to become sexually active. As noted above, אַהֲבָה (ʾahavah, “love”) probably denotes “sexual passion” (DCH 1:141 s.v. I אַהֲבָה; HALOT 18 s.v. I אַהֲבָה) and עוּר (ʿur, “awaken…arouse”) probably denotes “to stir up, excite” (HALOT 802-803 s.v. II עוּר). Likewise, the verb עוּר (“awake”) is used in Song 4:16 and Hosea 7:4 in reference to stirring up sexual passion to excitement.

⁴ sn The saying would have had greater impact when military prowess was held in high regard. It is harder, and therefore better, to control one’s passions than to do some great exploit on the battlefield.