2.3 KiB
General Information:
John the Baptist begins to rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees.
You offspring of vipers, who
This is a metaphor. Here "offspring" means "having the characteristic of." Vipers are a kind of dangerous snakes and represent evil. This can be stated as a separate sentence. AT: "You evil poisonous snakes! Who" or "You are evil like poisonous snakes! Who" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)
who warned you to flee from the wrath that is coming?
John uses a question to rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees because they were asking him to baptize them so that God would not punish them, but they did not want to stop sinning. AT: "you cannot flee from God's wrath like this." or "do not think that you can flee from God's wrath just because I baptize you." (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-rquestion)
flee from the wrath that is coming
The word "wrath" is being used to refer to God's punishment because his wrath precedes it. AT: "run away from the punishment that is coming" or "escape because God is about to punish you" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metonymy)
Bear fruit worthy of repentance
The phrase "bear fruit" is a metaphor referring to a person's actions. AT: "Let your actions show that you have truly repented" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)
We have Abraham for our father
"Abraham is our ancestor" or "We are descendants of Abraham." The Jewish leaders thought that God would not punish them since they were descendants of Abraham. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit)
For I say to you
This adds emphasis to what John is about to say.
God is able to raise up children for Abraham even out of these stones
"To raise up" here is an idiomatic expression for saying that God could establish Abraham's children. AT: "God is able to make physical descendants out of even these stones and give them to Abraham" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom)