Markus 10:20

10:20 The man ¹  said to him, “Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed ²  all these laws ³  since my youth.” ⁴ 

Lukas 15:7

15:7 I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner ⁵  who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people ⁶  who have no need to repent. ⁷ 

Lukas 15:29

15:29 but he answered ⁸  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ⁹  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ¹⁰  you never gave me even a goat ¹¹  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

Lukas 18:11-12

18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ¹²  ‘God, I thank ¹³  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁴  extortionists, ¹⁵  unrighteous people, ¹⁶  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹⁷  18:12 I fast twice ¹⁸  a week; I give a tenth ¹⁹  of everything I get.’

Lukas 18:21

18:21 The man ²⁰  replied, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ²¹  all these laws ²²  since my youth.” ²³ 

Yohanes 8:7

8:7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight ²⁴  and replied, ²⁵  “Whoever among you is guiltless ²⁶  may be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Roma 3:19-23

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ²⁷  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ²⁸  by the works of the law, ²⁹  for through the law comes ³⁰  the knowledge of sin. 3:21 But now ³¹  apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) ³²  has been disclosed – 3:22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ ³³  for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Roma 7:9

7:9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive

Galatia 3:24

3:24 Thus the law had become our guardian ³⁴  until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous ³⁵  by faith.

Filipi 3:6

3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.

[10:20]  ¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the man who asked the question in v. 17) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:20]  ² tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail throughout his life, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[10:20]  ³ tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:20]  sn While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command to give away all he had revealed that internally he loved money more than God.

[10:20]  ⁴ sn Since my youth. Judaism regarded the age of thirteen as the age when a man would have become responsible to live by God’s commands.

[15:7]  ⁵ sn There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. The pursuit of the sinner is a priority in spite of the presence of others who are doing well (see also Luke 5:32; 19:10). The theme of repentance, a major Lukan theme, is again emphasized.

[15:7]  ⁶ tn Here δικαίοις (dikaioi") is an adjective functioning substantivally and has been translated “righteous people.”

[15:7]  ⁷ tn Or “who do not need to repent”; Grk “who do not have need of repentance.”

[15:29]  ⁸ tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”

[15:29]  ⁹ tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.

[15:29]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.

[15:29]  ¹¹ sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”

[18:11]  ¹² tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ¹³ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁴ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹⁶ sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ¹⁷ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ¹⁸ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I tithe.”

[18:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the ruler mentioned in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:21]  ²¹ tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail throughout his life, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

[18:21]  ²² tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:21]  sn While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command to give away all he had revealed that internally he loved money more than God.

[18:21]  ²³ sn Since my youth. Judaism regarded the age of thirteen as the age when a man would have become responsible to live by God’s commands.

[8:7]  ²⁴ tn Or “he straightened up.”

[8:7]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and said to them.”

[8:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “sinless.”

[3:19]  ²⁷ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”

[3:20]  ²⁸ sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ²⁹ tn Grk “because by the works of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Some recent scholars have understood the phrase ἒργα νόμου (erga nomou, “works of the law”) to refer not to obedience to the Mosaic law generally, but specifically to portions of the law that pertain to things like circumcision and dietary laws which set the Jewish people apart from the other nations (e.g., J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC], 1:155). Other interpreters, like C. E. B. Cranfield (“‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 89-101) reject this narrow interpretation for a number of reasons, among which the most important are: (1) The second half of v. 20, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” is hard to explain if the phrase “works of the law” is understood in a restricted sense; (2) the plural phrase “works of the law” would have to be understood in a different sense from the singular phrase “the work of the law” in 2:15; (3) similar phrases involving the law in Romans (2:13, 14; 2:25, 26, 27; 7:25; 8:4; and 13:8) which are naturally related to the phrase “works of the law” cannot be taken to refer to circumcision (in fact, in 2:25 circumcision is explicitly contrasted with keeping the law). Those interpreters who reject the “narrow” interpretation of “works of the law” understand the phrase to refer to obedience to the Mosaic law in general.

[3:20]  ³⁰ tn Grk “is.”

[3:21]  ³¹ tn Νυνὶ δέ (Nuni de, “But now”) could be understood as either (1) logical or (2) temporal in force, but most recent interpreters take it as temporal, referring to a new phase in salvation history.

[3:21]  ³² tn Grk “being witnessed by the law and the prophets,” a remark which is virtually parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

[3:22]  ³³ tn Or “faith in Christ.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pisti" Cristou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in v. 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Eph 3:12; Phil 3:9) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.

[3:22]  sn ExSyn 116, which notes that the grammar is not decisive, nevertheless suggests that “the faith/faithfulness of Christ is not a denial of faith in Christ as a Pauline concept (for the idea is expressed in many of the same contexts, only with the verb πιστεύω rather than the noun), but implies that the object of faith is a worthy object, for he himself is faithful.” Though Paul elsewhere teaches justification by faith, this presupposes that the object of our faith is reliable and worthy of such faith.

[3:24]  ³⁴ tn Or “disciplinarian,” “custodian,” or “guide.” According to BDAG 748 s.v. παιδαγωγός, “the man, usu. a slave…whose duty it was to conduct a boy or youth…to and from school and to superintend his conduct gener.; he was not a ‘teacher’ (despite the present mng. of the derivative ‘pedagogue’…When the young man became of age, the π. was no longer needed.” L&N 36.5 gives “guardian, leader, guide” here.

[3:24]  ³⁵ tn Or “be justified.”