Isaiah 45:24-25

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ¹ 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ² 

45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord

and will boast in him. ³ 

Psalms 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ⁴ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ⁵ 

Psalms 45:6

45:6 Your throne, ⁶  O God, is permanent. ⁷ 

The scepter ⁸  of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

Psalms 50:1

Psalm 50 ⁹ 

A psalm by Asaph.

50:1 El, God, the Lord ¹⁰  speaks,

and summons the earth to come from the east and west. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 23:5-6

23:5 “I, the Lord, promise ¹²  that a new time will certainly come ¹³ 

when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, ¹⁴  a descendant of David.

He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding ¹⁵ 

and will do what is just and right in the land. ¹⁶ 

23:6 Under his rule ¹⁷  Judah will enjoy safety ¹⁸ 

and Israel will live in security. ¹⁹ 

This is the name he will go by:

‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ ²⁰ 

John 1:1-2

The Prologue to the Gospel

1:1 In the beginning ²¹  was the Word, and the Word was with God, ²²  and the Word was fully God. ²³  1:2 The Word ²⁴  was with God in the beginning.

Acts 20:28

20:28 Watch out for ²⁵  yourselves and for all the flock of which ²⁶  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ²⁷  to shepherd the church of God ²⁸  that he obtained ²⁹  with the blood of his own Son. ³⁰ 

Romans 9:5

9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ³¹  and from them, ³²  by human descent, ³³  came the Christ, ³⁴  who is God over all, blessed forever! ³⁵  Amen.

Titus 2:13

2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing ³⁶  of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ³⁷ 

Hebrews 1:8

1:8 but of ³⁸  the Son he says, ³⁹ 

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, ⁴⁰ 

and a righteous scepter ⁴¹  is the scepter of your kingdom.

Hebrews 1:1

Introduction: God Has Spoken Fully and Finally in His Son

1:1 After God spoke long ago ⁴²  in various portions ⁴³  and in various ways ⁴⁴  to our ancestors ⁴⁵  through the prophets,

Hebrews 5:1

5:1 For every high priest is taken from among the people ⁴⁶  and appointed ⁴⁷  to represent them before God, ⁴⁸  to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

[45:24]  ¹ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

[45:24]  ² tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

[45:25]  ³ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”

[45:3]  ⁴ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[45:6]  ⁶ sn The king’s throne here symbolizes his rule.

[45:6]  ⁷ tn Or “forever and ever.”

[45:6]  ⁸ sn The king’s scepter symbolizes his royal authority.

[50:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 50. This psalm takes the form of a covenant lawsuit in which the Lord comes to confront his people in a formal manner (as in Isa 1:2-20). The Lord emphasizes that he places priority on obedience and genuine worship, not empty ritual.

[50:1]  ¹⁰ sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: El (אֵל [’el], or “God”), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים [’elohim], or “God”), and Yahweh (יְהוָה [yÿhvah] or “the Lord”). There is an obvious allusion here to Josh 22:22, the only other passage where these three names appear in succession. In that passage the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh declare, “El, God, the Lord! El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, don’t spare us today!” In that context the other tribes had accused the trans-Jordanian tribes of breaking God’s covenant by worshiping idols. The trans-Jordanian tribes appealed to “El, God, the Lord” as their witness that they were innocent of the charges brought against them. Ironically here in Ps 50 “El, God, the Lord” accuses his sinful covenant people of violating the covenant and warns that he will not spare them if they persist in their rebellion.

[50:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and calls [the] earth from the sunrise to its going.”

[23:5]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).

[23:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).

[23:5]  ¹⁶ sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).

[23:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “In his days [= during the time he rules].”

[23:6]  ¹⁸ tn Parallelism and context (cf. v. 4) suggest this nuance for the word often translated “be saved.” For this nuance elsewhere see Ps 119:117; Prov 28:18 for the verb (יָשַׁע [yasha’] in the Niphal); and Ps 12:6; Job 5:4, 11 for the related noun (יֶשַׁע, yesha’).

[23:6]  ¹⁹ sn It should be noted that this brief oracle of deliverance implies the reunification of Israel and Judah under the future Davidic ruler. Jeremiah has already spoken about this reunification earlier in 3:18 and will have more to say about it in 30:3; 31:27, 31. This same ideal was espoused in the prophecies of Hosea (1:10-11 [2:1-2 HT]), Isaiah (11:1-4, 10-12), and Ezekiel (37:15-28) all of which have messianic and eschatological significance.

[23:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his name will be called ‘The Lord our righteousness’.”

[1:1]  ²¹ sn In the beginning. The search for the basic “stuff” out of which things are made was the earliest one in Greek philosophy. It was attended by the related question of “What is the process by which the secondary things came out of the primary one (or ones)?,” or in Aristotelian terminology, “What is the ‘beginning’ (same Greek word as beginning, John 1:1) and what is the origin of the things that are made?” In the New Testament the word usually has a temporal sense, but even BDAG 138 s.v. ἀρχή 3 lists a major category of meaning as “the first cause.” For John, the words “In the beginning” are most likely a conscious allusion to the opening words of Genesis – “In the beginning.” Other concepts which occur prominently in Gen 1 are also found in John’s prologue: “life” (1:4) “light” (1:4) and “darkness” (1:5). Gen 1 describes the first (physical) creation; John 1 describes the new (spiritual) creation. But this is not to play off a false dichotomy between “physical” and “spiritual”; the first creation was both physical and spiritual. The new creation is really a re-creation, of the spiritual (first) but also the physical. (In spite of the common understanding of John’s “spiritual” emphasis, the “physical” re-creation should not be overlooked; this occurs in John 2 with the changing of water into wine, in John 11 with the resurrection of Lazarus, and the emphasis of John 20-21 on the aftermath of Jesus’ own resurrection.)

[1:1]  ²² tn The preposition πρός (pros) implies not just proximity, but intimate personal relationship. M. Dods stated, “Πρός …means more than μετά or παρά, and is regularly employed in expressing the presence of one person with another” (“The Gospel of St. John,” The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1:684). See also Mark 6:3, Matt 13:56, Mark 9:19, Gal 1:18, 2 John 12.

[1:1]  ²³ tn Or “and what God was the Word was.” Colwell’s Rule is often invoked to support the translation of θεός (qeos) as definite (“God”) rather than indefinite (“a god”) here. However, Colwell’s Rule merely permits, but does not demand, that a predicate nominative ahead of an equative verb be translated as definite rather than indefinite. Furthermore, Colwell’s Rule did not deal with a third possibility, that the anarthrous predicate noun may have more of a qualitative nuance when placed ahead of the verb. A definite meaning for the term is reflected in the traditional rendering “the word was God.” From a technical standpoint, though, it is preferable to see a qualitative aspect to anarthrous θεός in John 1:1c (ExSyn 266-69). Translations like the NEB, REB, and Moffatt are helpful in capturing the sense in John 1:1c, that the Word was fully deity in essence (just as much God as God the Father). However, in contemporary English “the Word was divine” (Moffatt) does not quite catch the meaning since “divine” as a descriptive term is not used in contemporary English exclusively of God. The translation “what God was the Word was” is perhaps the most nuanced rendering, conveying that everything God was in essence, the Word was too. This points to unity of essence between the Father and the Son without equating the persons. However, in surveying a number of native speakers of English, some of whom had formal theological training and some of whom did not, the editors concluded that the fine distinctions indicated by “what God was the Word was” would not be understood by many contemporary readers. Thus the translation “the Word was fully God” was chosen because it is more likely to convey the meaning to the average English reader that the Logos (which “became flesh and took up residence among us” in John 1:14 and is thereafter identified in the Fourth Gospel as Jesus) is one in essence with God the Father. The previous phrase, “the Word was with God,” shows that the Logos is distinct in person from God the Father.

[1:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the Word) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:28]  ²⁵ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ²⁷ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ²⁸ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ²⁹ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ³⁰ tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.

[9:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ³² tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ³³ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ³⁴ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ³⁵ tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.

[2:13]  ³⁶ tn Grk “the blessed hope and glorious appearing.”

[2:13]  ³⁷ tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, qeos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, swthr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on Sharp’s rule see ExSyn 270-78, esp. 276. See also 2 Pet 1:1 and Jude 4.

[1:8]  ³⁸ tn Or “to.”

[1:8]  ³⁹ tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.

[1:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.

[1:8]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.

[1:1]  ⁴² tn Or “spoke formerly.”

[1:1]  ⁴³ tn Or “parts.” The idea is that God’s previous revelation came in many parts and was therefore fragmentary or partial (L&N 63.19), in comparison with the final and complete revelation contained in God’s Son. However, some interpret πολυμερῶς (polumerw") in Heb 1:1 to mean “on many different occasions” and would thus translate “many times” (L&N 67.11). This is the option followed by the NIV: “at many times and in various ways.” Finally, this word is also understood to refer to the different manners in which something may be done, and would then be translated “in many different ways” (L&N 89.81). In this last case, the two words πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως (polutropw") mutually reinforce one another (“in many and various ways,” NRSV).

[1:1]  ⁴⁴ tn These two phrases are emphasized in Greek by being placed at the beginning of the sentence and by alliteration.

[1:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “to the fathers.”

[5:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated “people.”

[5:1]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”

[5:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”