Section 16:14–18

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees

In this section Jesus talked to the Pharisees about several topics. He told them that God understood their hearts, that is, that he knew what they most deeply valued and desired. He also talked to them about the authority of God’s law.

Another possible heading for this section is:

Some other things that Jesus taught

There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 5:31–32 and Mark 10:11–12.

Paragraph 16:14–15

16:14

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus: In the preceding verse Jesus said that it is impossible to serve both God and money. The Pharisees loved money, so they scoffed at Jesus as they listened to what he said. Other ways to express this are:

The Pharisees heard what Jesus was saying. As they listened, they scoffed at him, because they loved money.
-or-
The Pharisees were listening to all this. They loved money, so they were ridiculing Jesus.

Pharisees: The Pharisees were members of a Jewish religious group that emphasized obeying all of the Jewish religious laws very carefully. Here are some ways to translate this word:

• Transliterate the word Pharisees according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to a group of people. For example:

Farisi members
-or-
Parise adherents

• Transliterate the word Pharisees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:

people belonging to the Farise religious sect/group
-or-
members of the religious group called the Farasi

This word first occurs in Luke at 5:17b.

who were lovers of money: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as lovers of money describes people who love to obtain money and to be wealthy. In some languages a word such as “love” may not fit with an object like money. Some other ways to translate this expression are:

highly valued money/wealth
-or-
were very fond of money
-or-
were greedy for money

heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus: The form of the Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were scoffing indicates that the Pharisees were showing their ridicule for Jesus during the time that they were listening. The two examples given in the first note on this verse make this explicit. Another way to indicate this ongoing action is to say:

listened mockingly

all of this: The phrase all of this refers to all the things Jesus had just been saying to his disciples about money in 16:1–13.

were scoffing: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were scoffing refers here to showing scorn or disdain. The Pharisees may have ridiculed Jesus by making scornful remarks or gestures or simply by the expressions on their faces. Try to translate in a way that could indicate any of these kinds of mocking behavior. For example:

made fun of Jesus (New Century Version)

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