7:30

This verse expresses a contrast with 7:29. In contrast to the ordinary people and tax collectors, who accepted John’s baptism, the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s plan. God planned that they would repent and be ready to receive the Christ/Messiah and be part of his kingdom. But they refused to repent and let John baptize them. Express the contrast in a natural way in your language.

7:30a–b

(God’s Word) But the Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings rejected God’s plan for them: The Greek word that the God’s Word translates as plan means “purpose.” The Pharisees and experts in the law refused what God wanted for them. Some other ways to translate rejected God’s plan for them are:

refused to accept God’s plan for themselves (New Century Version)
-or-
rejected God’s purpose for themselves (Revised English Bible)

(God’s Word) Pharisees: The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to them to obey all of the Jewish religious laws very carefully and in detail. 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 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

See Pharisee, sense A, in Key Biblical Terms. You may also want to include an explanation of Pharisee in the glossary of your translation.

(God’s Word) experts in Moses’ Teachings: The experts in Moses’ Teachings were religious scholars who studied, taught, and interpreted the Jewish law, especially the law of Moses. The Berean Standard Bible translates this as “experts in the law.” These scholars are probably the same people whom Luke calls “teachers of the law” (see 5:17b) or “scribes” (see 5:21a). You may use the same term to translate both of these words. Some ways to translate experts in Moses’ Teachings include:

teachers of the laws ⌊of Moses⌋
-or-
experts in the ⌊Jewish⌋ laws
-or-
those who knew well the laws ⌊which God gave to Moses⌋

Most teachers of the law were Pharisees, but not all Pharisees were teachers of the law.

See expert in the law in the Glossary.

7:30c

(God’s Word) They refused to be baptized: The clause They refused to be baptized is literally “not having been baptized by him.” The connection between it and 7:30a is similar to the connection between 7:29b and 7:29c. Some ways to express it are:

by not letting John baptize them
-or-
and they did not accept baptism from John

General Comment on 7:30a–c

In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of the parts of this verse. For example:

But 30cby refusing to be baptized by him, 30bthe Pharisees and the lawyers 30arejected God’s purpose for themselves. (New Revised Standard Version)

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