Luk 7:33-34 | NETfull | STEP | For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’

Luke 7:33-34

33 For John the Baptist has come ^{▼▼ The perfect tenses in both this verse and the next do more than mere aorists would. They not only summarize, but suggest the characteristics of each ministry were still in existence at the time of speaking.} eating no bread and drinking no wine, ^{▼▼ Grk “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” but this is somewhat awkward in contemporary English.} and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ^{▼▼ John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.} 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, ^{▼▼ Grk “Behold a man.”} a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ^{▼▼ Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.}