Discovery Box| (0.20) | (Mar 1:7) | 3 tn The term refers to the leather strap or thong used to bind a sandal. This is often viewed as a collective singular and translated as a plural, “the straps of his sandals,” but it may be more emphatic to retain the singular here. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 27:35) | 3 tn Grk “by throwing the lot” (probably by using marked pebbles or broken pieces of pottery). A modern equivalent, “throwing dice,” was chosen here because of its association with gambling. According to L&N 6.219 a term for “dice” is particularly appropriate. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 27:2) | 3 sn The Jews most assuredly wanted to put Jesus to death, but they lacked the authority to do so. For this reason they handed him over to Pilate in hopes of securing a death sentence. The Romans kept close control of the death penalty in conquered territories to prevent it from being used to execute Roman sympathizers. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 27:15) | 1 sn The custom of Pilate to release one prisoner is unknown outside the gospels in Jewish writings, but it was a Roman custom at the time and thus probably used in Palestine as well (cf. Matt 27:15; John 18:39). |
| (0.20) | (Mat 21:29) | 2 tn The Greek text reads here μεταμέλομαι (metamelomai): “to change one’s mind about something, with the probable implication of regret” (L&N 31.59); cf. also BDAG 639 s.v. The idea in this context involves more than just a change of mind, for the son regrets his initial response. The same verb is used in v. 32. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 18:6) | 2 tn Grk “the millstone of a donkey.” This refers to a large flat stone turned by a donkey in the process of grinding grain (BDAG 661 s.v. μύλος 2; L&N 7.68-69). The same term is used in the parallel account in Mark 9:42. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 13:52) | 1 tn Or “every scribe.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4. It is possible that the term translated “expert in the law” (traditionally, “scribe”) here is a self-description used by the author, Matthew, to represent his role in conveying the traditions about Jesus to his intended audience. See David E. Orton, The Understanding Scribe [JSNTSup]. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 11:29) | 1 sn A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 11:17) | 2 tn Or “we sang a lament” (cf. BDAG 458 s.v. θρηνέω 2). In context, however, it appears the verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (ethrēnēsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture (BDAG 458 s.v. 3, “to mourn for someone in ritual fashion”). |
| (0.20) | (Mat 10:26) | 3 tn The passive voice here and with the next verb is probably used for rhetorical effect. Although it is common to understand such usage, particularly in the gospels, as examples of the so-called “divine passive” where God is the unstated performer of the action, according to Wallace (ExSyn 438) this category is overused. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 9:20) | 2 sn The woman was most likely suffering from a chronic vaginal or uterine hemorrhage which would have made her ritually unclean. The same Greek term is used in the LXX only once, at Lev 15:33, and there it refers to menstruation (J. Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew [NIGTC], 395). |
| (0.20) | (Mat 9:17) | 1 sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 8:14) | 4 tn Or “struck down with a fever”; Grk “having been thrown down.” The verb βεβλημένην (beblēmenēn) is a perfect passive participle of the verb βάλλω (ballō, “to throw”). Given the general description of the illness (“fever”), the use of this verb indicates the severity of the woman’s condition. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 6:28) | 1 tn Traditionally, “lilies.” According to L&N 3.32, “Though traditionally κρίνον has been regarded as a type of lily, scholars have suggested several other possible types of flowers, including an anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.” In view of the uncertainty, the more generic “flowers” has been used in the translation. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 6:16) | 2 tn Here the term “disfigure” (employed in a number of translations) was not used because it could convey to the modern reader the notion of physical mutilation. L&N 79.17 states, “‘to make unsightly, to disfigure, to make ugly.’ ἀφανίζουσιν γὰρ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν ‘for they make their faces unsightly’ Mt 6:16.” |
| (0.20) | (Mat 6:19) | 2 tn Traditionally “rust,” literally “eating” or “consuming.” Greek has a specific word for “rust” (James 5:3), whereas the term used here is not used of rust anywhere else. In the present context where moths are mentioned, some interpreters see a reference to some other kind of consuming insect. Mal 3:11 LXX does appear to use the Greek term as a translation of the Hebrew term for some type of grasshopper. Two OT passages (Job 13:28; Hos 5:12) mention “moth” in parallel with “rot” or “wood rot”; the physician Galen used the Greek term in medical texts to refer to the decay of teeth (6.422; 12.879). It is thus possible to see the second term in Matt 6:19 as referring to some type of rot, decay, or corrosion rather than as a specific reference to damage by insects or other pests. However, a surviving fragment by the Greek poet Pindar (fragment 209; Oxford Text = 222) mentions the inability of moths or weevils to destroy gold: “Gold is the child of Zeus; neither moth nor weevil consumes it” (cf. BDAG 922 s.v. σής where the word for “weevil,” κίς, is mistranslated as “rust”). In light of this usage and the context it was decided to render the Greek term as “devouring insect.” |
| (0.20) | (Mat 6:2) | 1 tn Grk “give alms,” referring primarily to the giving of money or food for the relief of the poor, but this term is not in common use today. The giving of alms was highly regarded in the ancient world (Deut 15:7-11). |
| (0.20) | (Mat 2:23) | 3 tn The Greek could be indirect discourse (as in the text), or direct discourse (“he will be called a Nazarene”). Judging by the difficulty of finding OT quotations (as implied in the plural “prophets”) to match the wording here, it appears that the author was using a current expression of scorn that conceptually (but not verbally) found its roots in the OT. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 1:24) | 1 tn See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20. Here the translation “the angel of the Lord” is used because the Greek article (ὁ, ho) which precedes ἄγγελος (angelos) is taken as an anaphoric article (ExSyn 217-19) referring back to the angel mentioned in v. 20. |
| (0.20) | (Mat 1:23) | 4 sn A quotation from Isa 7:14; 8:8, 10. The Hebrew name Emmanuel literally means “God (is) with us.” This phrase occurs three times in the OT in close proximity, and subsequent uses are likely related to preceding ones. Thus it is very likely the present author had each in mind when he defined the name in v. 23. |
