Lukas 13:25-27

13:25 Once ¹  the head of the house ²  gets up ³  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ⁴  let us in!’ ⁵  But he will answer you, ⁶  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ⁷  13:26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ⁸  13:27 But ⁹  he will reply, ¹⁰  ‘I don’t know where you come from! ¹¹  Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ¹² 

Matius 7:22-23

7:22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do ¹³  many powerful deeds?’ 7:23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ ¹⁴ 

Wahyu 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ¹⁵  idol worshipers, ¹⁶  and all those who lie, their place ¹⁷  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ¹⁸  That ¹⁹  is the second death.”

[13:25]  ¹ tn The syntactical relationship between vv. 24-25 is disputed. The question turns on whether v. 25 is connected to v. 24 or not. A lack of a clear connective makes an independent idea more likely. However, one must then determine what the beginning of the sentence connects to. Though it makes for slightly awkward English, the translation has opted to connect it to “he will answer” so that this functions, in effect, as an apodosis. One could end the sentence after “us” and begin a new sentence with “He will answer” to make simpler sentences, although the connection between the two sentences is thereby less clear. The point of the passage, however, is clear. Once the door is shut, because one failed to come in through the narrow way, it is closed permanently. The moral: Do not be too late in deciding to respond.

[13:25]  ² tn Or “the master of the household.”

[13:25]  ³ tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”

[13:25]  ⁴ tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ⁶ tn Grk “and answering, he will say to you.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will answer you.”

[13:25]  ⁷ sn For the imagery behind the statement “I do not know where you come from,” see Ps 138:6; Isa 63:16; Jer 1:5; Hos 5:3.

[13:26]  ⁸ sn This term refers to wide streets, and thus suggests the major streets of a city.

[13:27]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[13:27]  ¹⁰ tc Most mss (Ì^75* A D L W Θ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 Ï) have ἐρεῖ λέγω ὑμῖν (erei legw Jumin; “he will say, ‘I say to you’”) here, while some have only ἐρεῖ ὑμῖν (“he will say to you” in א 579 pc lat sa) or simply ἐρεῖ (“he will say” in 1195 pc). The variety of readings seems to have arisen from the somewhat unusual wording of the original, ἐρεῖ λέγων ὑμῖν (erei legwn Jumin; “he will say, saying to you” found in Ì^75c B 892 pc). Given the indicative λέγω, it is difficult to explain how the other readings would have arisen. But if the participle λέγων were original, the other readings can more easily be explained as arising from it. Although the external evidence is significantly stronger in support of the indicative reading, the internal evidence is on the side of the participle.

[13:27]  tn Grk “he will say, saying to you.” The participle λέγων (legwn) and its indirect object ὑμῖν (Jumin) are redundant in contemporary English and have not been translated.

[13:27]  ¹¹ sn The issue is not familiarity (with Jesus’ teaching) or even shared activity (eating and drinking with him), but knowing Jesus. Those who do not know him, he will not know where they come from (i.e., will not acknowledge) at the judgment.

[13:27]  ¹² tn Grk “all you workers of iniquity.” The phrase resembles Ps 6:8.

[7:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “and in your name do.” This phrase was not repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:23]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “workers of lawlessness.”

[21:8]  ¹⁵ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”