Markus 13:5

13:5 Jesus began to say to them, “Watch out ¹  that no one misleads you.

Markus 13:9

Persecution of Disciples

13:9 “You must watch out for yourselves. You will be handed over ²  to councils ³  and beaten in the synagogues. ⁴  You will stand before governors and kings ⁵  because of me, as a witness to them.

Markus 13:33

13:33 Watch out! Stay alert! ⁶  For you do not know when the time will come.

Matius 7:15

A Tree and Its Fruit

7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. ⁷ 

Lukas 21:8

21:8 He ⁸  said, “Watch out ⁹  that you are not misled. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ ¹⁰  and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them!

Lukas 21:34

Be Ready!

21:34 “But be on your guard ¹¹  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ¹² 

Lukas 21:2

21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ¹³ 

Pengkhotbah 3:17

3:17 I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked;

for there is an appropriate time for every activity,

and there is a time of judgment ¹⁴  for every deed.

[13:5]  ¹ tn Or “Be on guard.”

[13:9]  ² tn Grk “They will hand you over.” “They” is an indefinite plural, referring to people in general. The parallel in Matt 10:17 makes this explicit.

[13:9]  ³ sn Councils in this context refers to local judicial bodies attached to the Jewish synagogue. This group would be responsible for meting out justice and discipline within the Jewish community.

[13:9]  ⁴ sn See the note on synagogue in 1:21.

[13:9]  ⁵ sn These statements look at persecution both from a Jewish context as the mention of councils and synagogues suggests, and from a Gentile one as the reference to governors and kings suggests. Some fulfillment of Jewish persecution can be seen in Acts.

[13:33]  ⁶ tc The vast majority of witnesses (א A C L W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï lat sy co) have καὶ προσεύχεσθε after ἀγρυπνεῖτε (agrupneite kai proseucesqe, “stay alert and pray”). This may be a motivated reading, influenced by the similar command in Mark 14:38 where προσεύχεσθε is solidly attested, and more generally from the parallel in Luke 21:36 (though δέομαι [deomai, “ask”] is used there). As B. M. Metzger notes, it is a predictable variant that scribes would have been likely to produce independently of each other (TCGNT 95). The words are not found in B D 2427 a c {d} k. Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is slender, it probably better accounts for the longer reading than vice versa.

[7:15]  ⁷ sn Sheep’s clothing…voracious wolves. Jesus uses a metaphor here to point out that these false prophets appear to be one thing, but in reality they are something quite different and dangerous.

[21:8]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[21:8]  ⁹ tn Or “Be on guard.”

[21:8]  ¹⁰ tn That is, “I am the Messiah.”

[21:34]  ¹¹ tn Grk “watch out for yourselves.”

[21:34]  sn Disciples are to watch out. If they are too absorbed into everyday life, they will stop watching and living faithfully.

[21:34]  ¹² sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.

[21:2]  ¹³ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[3:17]  ¹⁴ tn The phrase “a time of judgment” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.