Deuteronomy 22:26-27

22:26 You must not do anything to the young woman – she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person ¹  and murders him, 22:27 for the man ²  met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

Psalms 71:11

71:11 They say, ³  “God has abandoned him.

Run and seize him, for there is no one who will rescue him!”

Psalms 72:12

72:12 For he will rescue the needy ⁴  when they cry out for help,

and the oppressed ⁵  who have no defender.

Psalms 91:14-15

91:14 The Lord says, ⁶ 

“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;

I will protect him ⁷  because he is loyal to me. ⁸ 

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Psalms 102:20

102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,

and to set free those condemned to die, ⁹ 

Micah 7:19

7:19 You will once again ¹⁰  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ¹¹  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ¹²  sins into the depths of the sea. ¹³ 

Zechariah 9:11-12

9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit. 9:12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners, with hope; today I declare that I will return double what was taken from you.

Luke 4:18

4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed ¹⁴  me to proclaim good news ¹⁵  to the poor. ¹⁶ 

He has sent me ¹⁷  to proclaim release ¹⁸  to the captives

and the regaining of sight ¹⁹  to the blind,

to set free ²⁰  those who are oppressed, ²¹ 

Luke 4:2

4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations ²²  from the devil. He ²³  ate nothing ²⁴  during those days, and when they were completed, ²⁵  he was famished.

Colossians 1:8-10

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ²⁶  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ²⁷  to fill ²⁸  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ²⁹  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³⁰  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ³¹  brothers and sisters ³²  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ³³  from God our Father! ³⁴ 

Colossians 4:18

4:18 I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ³⁵  Remember my chains. ³⁶  Grace be with you. ³⁷ 

Titus 2:14

2:14 He ³⁸  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ³⁹  who are eager to do good. ⁴⁰ 

Hebrews 2:15

2:15 and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.

[22:26]  ¹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

[22:27]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[71:11]  ³ tn Heb “saying.”

[72:12]  ⁴ tn The singular is representative. The typical needy individual here represents the entire group.

[72:12]  ⁵ tn The singular is representative. The typical oppressed individual here represents the entire group.

[91:14]  ⁶ tn The words “the Lord says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the words which follow are the Lord’s oracle of assurance.

[91:14]  ⁷ tn Or “make him secure” (Heb “set him on high”).

[91:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “because he knows my name” (see Ps 9:10).

[102:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.

[7:19]  ¹⁰ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ¹¹ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ¹² tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ¹³ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[4:18]  ¹⁴ sn The phrase he has anointed me is an allusion back to Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3:21-22.

[4:18]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “to evangelize,” “to preach the gospel.”

[4:18]  ¹⁶ sn The poor is a key term in Luke. It refers to the pious poor and indicates Jesus’ desire to reach out to those the world tends to forget or mistreat. It is like 1:52 in force and also will be echoed in 6:20 (also 1 Pet 2:11-25). Jesus is commissioned to do this.

[4:18]  ¹⁷ tc The majority of mss, especially the later Byzantines, include the phrase “to heal the brokenhearted” at this point (A Θ Ψ 0102 ˹ Ï). The phrase is lacking in several weighty mss (א B D L W Ξ Ë¹³ 33 579 700 892* pc lat sy^s co), including representatives from both the Alexandrian and Western texttypes. From the standpoint of external evidence, the omission of the phrase is more likely original. When internal evidence is considered, the shorter reading becomes almost certain. Scribes would be much more prone to add the phrase here to align the text with Isa 61:1, the source of the quotation, than to remove it from the original.

[4:18]  ¹⁸ sn The release in view here is comprehensive, both at a physical level and a spiritual one, as the entire ministry of Jesus makes clear (Luke 1:77-79; 7:47; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43).

[4:18]  ¹⁹ sn Again, as with the previous phrase, regaining of sight may well mean more than simply miraculously restoring physical sight, which itself pictures a deeper reality (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[4:18]  ²⁰ sn The essence of Jesus’ messianic work is expressed in the phrase to set free. This line from Isa 58 says that Jesus will do what the nation had failed to do. It makes the proclamation messianic, not merely prophetic, because Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message – he brings the deliverance. The word translated set free is the same Greek word (ἄφεσις, afesi") translated release earlier in the verse.

[4:18]  ²¹ sn Again, as with the previous phrases, oppressed may well mean more than simply political or economic oppression, but a deeper reality of oppression by sin (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[4:2]  ²² tn Grk “in the desert, for forty days being tempted.” The participle πειραζόμενος (peirazomeno") has been translated as an adverbial clause in English to avoid a run-on sentence with a second “and.” Here the present participle suggests a period of forty days of testing. Three samples of the end of the testing are given in the following verses.

[4:2]  ²³ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:2]  ²⁴ sn The reference to Jesus eating nothing could well be an idiom meaning that he ate only what the desert provided; see Exod 34:28. A desert fast simply meant eating only what one could obtain in the desert. The parallel in Matt 4:2 speaks only of Jesus fasting.

[4:2]  ²⁵ tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).

[1:9]  ²⁶ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ²⁷ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ²⁸ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:10]  ²⁹ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ³² tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ³³ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ³⁴ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[4:18]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the greeting by my hand, of Paul.”

[4:18]  ³⁶ tn Or “my imprisonment.”

[4:18]  ³⁷ tc Most witnesses, including a few important ones (א² D Ψ 075 0278 Ï lat sy), conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the external evidence for the omission is quite compelling (א* A B C F G 048 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa). The strongly preferred reading is therefore the omission of ἀμήν.

[2:14]  ³⁸ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ³⁹ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “for good works.”