It seems that the current syntax highlighting does not support \parbox command (which is very similar to \text). In the tex code below, "footext" is highlighted as a normal text but "fooparbox" as a formula.
\documentclass{minimal}
\begin{document}
Hello world!
\begin{equation}
\parbox{10cm}{fooparbox $bar$}
\text{footext $bar$}
\end{equation}
\end{document}