2 Tawarikh 14:3-5

14:3 He removed the pagan altars ¹  and the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. ²  14:4 He ordered Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors ³  and to observe his law and commands. ⁴  14:5 He removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. The kingdom had rest under his rule. ⁵ 

Keluaran 32:27-28

32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten ⁶  his sword on his side, and go back and forth ⁷  from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” ⁸ 

32:28 The Levites did what Moses ordered, ⁹  and that day about three thousand men of the people died. ¹⁰ 

Ulangan 13:6-8

False Prophets in the Family

13:6 Suppose your own full brother, ¹¹  your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods ¹²  that neither you nor your ancestors ¹³  have previously known, ¹⁴  13:7 the gods of the surrounding people (whether near you or far from you, from one end of the earth ¹⁵  to the other). 13:8 You must not give in to him or even listen to him; do not feel sympathy for him or spare him or cover up for him.

Ulangan 33:9

33:9 He said to his father and mother, “I have not seen him,” ¹⁶ 

and he did not acknowledge his own brothers

or know his own children,

for they kept your word,

and guarded your covenant.

Zakharia 13:3

13:3 Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ¹⁷ 

Markus 3:21

3:21 When his family ¹⁸  heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Markus 3:31-35

Jesus’ True Family

3:31 Then ¹⁹  Jesus’ ²⁰  mother and his brothers ²¹  came. Standing ²²  outside, they sent word to him, to summon him. 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers ²³  are outside looking for you.” 3:33 He answered them and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ²⁴  3:34 And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, “Here ²⁵  are my mother and my brothers! 3:35 For whoever does the will of God is ²⁶  my brother and sister and mother.”

Markus 3:2

3:2 They watched ²⁷  Jesus ²⁸  closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, ²⁹  so that they could accuse him.

Kolose 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ³⁰  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

[14:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the altars of the foreigner.”

[14:3]  ² sn Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[14:4]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[14:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the law and the command.”

[14:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “before him.”

[32:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “put.”

[32:27]  ⁷ tn The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys: “pass over and return,” meaning, “go back and forth” throughout the camp.

[32:27]  ⁸ tn The phrases have “and kill a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbor.” The instructions were probably intended to mean that they should kill leaders they knew to be guilty because they had been seen or because they failed the water test – whoever they were.

[32:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “did according to the word of Moses.”

[32:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fell.”

[13:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your brother, the son of your mother.” In a polygamous society it was not rare to have half brothers and sisters by way of a common father and different mothers.

[13:6]  ¹² tn In the Hebrew text these words are in the form of a brief quotation: “entice you secretly saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods.’”

[13:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 17).

[13:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which you have not known, you or your fathers.” (cf. KJV, ASV; on “fathers” cf. v. 18).

[13:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “land” (so NIV, NCV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “land” or “earth.”

[33:9]  ¹⁶ sn This statement no doubt alludes to the Levites’ destruction of their own fellow tribesmen following the golden calf incident (Exod 32:25-29).

[13:3]  ¹⁷ sn Death (in this case being run…through with a sword) was the penalty required in the OT for prophesying falsely (Deut 13:6-11; 18:20-22).

[3:21]  ¹⁸ tc Western witnesses D W it, instead of reading οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ (Joi par’ aujtou, here translated “family”), have περὶ αὐτοῦ οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ λοιποί (peri autou Joi grammatei" kai Joi loipoi, “[when] the scribes and others [heard] about him”). But this reading is obviously motivated, for it removes the embarrassing statement about Jesus’ family’s opinion of him as “out of his mind” and transfers this view to the Lord’s opponents. The fact that virtually all other witnesses have οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ here, coupled with the strong internal evidence for the shorter reading, shows this Western reading to be secondary.

[3:21]  tn On the meaning “family” for οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ (Joi par’ autou), see BDAG 756-57 s.v. παρά A.3.b.β.ב.

[3:21]  sn The incident involving the religious leaders accusing Jesus of being in league with the devil (3:22-30) is sandwiched between Mark’s mention of Jesus’ family coming to restrain him (the Greek word for restrain here is also used to mean arrest; see Mark 6:17; 12:12; 14:1, 44, 46, 49, 51) because they thought he was out of his mind (3:21). It is probably Mark’s intention in this structure to show that Jesus’ family is to be regarded as not altogether unlike the experts in the law [scribes] in their perception of the true identity of Jesus; they are incorrect in their understanding of him as well. The tone is obviously one of sadness and the emphasis on Jesus’ true family in vv. 31-35 serves to underscore the comparison between his relatives and the scribes on the one hand, and those who truly obey God on the other.

[3:31]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[3:31]  ²⁰ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:31]  ²¹ sn The issue of whether Jesus had brothers (siblings) has had a long history in the church. Epiphanius, in the 4th century, argued that Mary was a perpetual virgin and had no offspring other than Jesus. Others argued that these brothers were really cousins. Nothing in the text suggests any of this. See also John 7:3.

[3:31]  ²² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:32]  ²³ tc ‡ Many mss read “and your sisters” here after “your brothers” (A D Γ 700 pm it). However, the pedigree of several of the mss which lack this phrase is considerable (א B C K L W Δ Θ Ë^1,13 28 33 565 892 1241 1424 2542 pm lat sy). It seems likely that this phrase was added by an early Western scribe to harmonize this statement with Jesus’ response in v. 35. NA²⁷ has the words in brackets, indicating some doubt as to their authenticity.

[3:33]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Who is my mother and my brothers?” The use of the singular verb ἐστιν (estin) here singles out Mary above Jesus’ brothers, giving her special prominence (see ExSyn 401-2). This is slightly unnatural in English since the predicate nominative is plural, though, so a plural verb was used in the translation.

[3:34]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”

[3:35]  ²⁶ tn The pleonastic pronoun οὗτος (Jouto", “this one”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[3:2]  ²⁷ sn The term translated watched…closely is emotive, since it carries negative connotations. It means they were watching him out of the corner of their eye or spying on him.

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁹ sn The background for this is the view that only if life was endangered should one attempt to heal on the Sabbath (see the Mishnah, m. Shabbat 6.3; 12.1; 18.3; 19.2; m. Yoma 8.6).

[1:16]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.