Ayub 15:5

15:5 Your sin inspires ¹  your mouth;

you choose the language ²  of the crafty. ³ 

Mazmur 36:4

36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;

he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; ⁴ 

he does not reject what is evil. ⁵ 

Lukas 20:23

20:23 But Jesus ⁶  perceived their deceit ⁷  and said to them,

Lukas 20:1

The Authority of Jesus

20:1 Now one ⁸  day, as Jesus ⁹  was teaching the people in the temple courts ¹⁰  and proclaiming ¹¹  the gospel, the chief priests and the experts in the law ¹²  with the elders came up ¹³ 

1 Korintus 3:19

3:19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” ¹⁴ 

1 Korintus 3:2

3:2 I fed you milk, ¹⁵  not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready,

1 Korintus 11:3

11:3 But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, ¹⁶  and God is the head of Christ.

Efesus 4:14

4:14 So ¹⁷  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ¹⁸ 

¹ tn The verb אַלֵּף (’allef) has the meaning of “to teach; to instruct,” but it is unlikely that the idea of revealing is intended. If the verb is understood metonymically, then “to inspire; to prompt” will be sufficient. Dahood and others find another root, and render the verb “to increase,” reversing subject and object: “your mouth increases your iniquity.”

² tn Heb “tongue.”

³ tn The word means “shrewd; crafty; cunning” (see Gen 3:1). Job uses clever speech that is misleading and destructive.

⁴ tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.

⁵ tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.

⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Or “craftiness.” The term always has negative connotations in the NT (1 Cor 3:19; 2 Cor 4:2; 11:3; Eph 4:14).

⁸ tn Grk “Now it happened that one.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “the temple.”

¹¹ tn Or “preaching.”

¹² tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

¹³ sn The chief priests and the experts in the law with the elders came up. The description is similar to Luke 19:47. The leaders are really watching Jesus at this point.

¹⁴ sn A quotation from Job 5:13.

¹⁵ sn Milk refers figuratively to basic or elementary Christian teaching. Paul’s point was that the Corinthian believers he was writing to here were not mature enough to receive more advanced teaching. This was not a problem at the time, when they were recent converts, but the problem now is that they are still not ready.

¹⁶ tn Or “the husband is the head of his wife.” The same Greek words translated “man” and “woman” can mean, as determined by context, “husband” and “wife” respectively. Such an approach is followed by NAB, TEV, NRSV, and NLT (with some variations).

¹⁷ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹⁸ tn While the sense of the passage is clear enough, translation in English is somewhat difficult. The Greek says: “by the trickery of men, by craftiness with the scheme of deceit.” The point is that the author is concerned about Christians growing into maturity. He is fearful that certain kinds of very cunning people, who are skilled at deceitful scheming, should come in and teach false doctrines which would in turn stunt the growth of the believers.