Discovery BoxPsalms 97:7
Context97:7 All who worship idols are ashamed,
those who boast about worthless idols.
All the gods bow down before him. 1
Psalms 135:15-17
Context135:15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold,
they are man-made. 2
135:16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.
Indeed, they cannot breathe. 3
Deuteronomy 4:28
Context4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
Isaiah 40:19-20
Context40:19 A craftsman casts 4 an idol;
a metalsmith overlays it with gold
and forges silver chains for it.
40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; 5
he then seeks a skilled craftsman
to make 6 an idol that will not fall over.
Isaiah 42:17
Context42:17 Those who trust in idols
will turn back and be utterly humiliated, 7
those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”
Isaiah 46:1-2
ContextNebo 9 bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts. 10
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. 11
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 12
they themselves 13 head off into captivity. 14
Isaiah 46:6-7
Context46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale 15
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not 16 move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
Jeremiah 10:3-5
Context10:3 For the religion 17 of these people is worthless.
They cut down a tree in the forest,
and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 18
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.
He uses hammer and nails to fasten it 19 together
so that it will not fall over.
10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.
They cannot talk.
They must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them
because they cannot hurt you.
And they do not have any power to help you.” 20
Hosea 8:6
Context8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!
The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
Habakkuk 2:18-20
Context2:18 What good 21 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 22
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 23
Why would its creator place his trust in it 24
and make 25 such mute, worthless things?
2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 26 –
he who says 27 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 28
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
2:20 But the Lord is in his majestic palace. 29
The whole earth is speechless in his presence!” 30
Acts 19:26
Context19:26 And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded 31 and turned away 32 a large crowd, 33 not only in Ephesus 34 but in practically all of the province of Asia, 35 by saying 36 that gods made by hands are not gods at all. 37
Acts 19:35
Context19:35 After the city secretary 38 quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, what person 39 is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper 40 of the temple of the great Artemis 41 and of her image that fell from heaven? 42
Acts 19:1
Context19:1 While 43 Apollos was in Corinth, 44 Paul went through the inland 45 regions 46 and came to Ephesus. 47 He 48 found some disciples there 49
Colossians 1:19-20
Context1:19 For God 50 was pleased to have all his 51 fullness dwell 52 in the Son 53
1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, 54 whether things on earth or things in heaven.
[97:7] 1 tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verbal form in the first line is an imperfect (“are ashamed”) and that the ambiguous form in the third line is a perfect (“bow down”) because the psalmist appears to be describing the effect of the
[135:15] 2 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
[135:17] 3 tn Heb “indeed, there is not breath in their mouth.” For the collocation אַף אֵין (’af ’en, “indeed, there is not”) see Isa 41:26. Another option is to take אַף as “nose” (see Ps 115:6), in which case one might translate, “a nose, [but] they have no breath in their mouths.”
[40:19] 4 tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”
[40:20] 5 tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.
[40:20] 6 tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”
[42:17] 7 tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”
[46:1] 8 sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.
[46:1] 9 sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.
[46:1] 10 tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”
[46:1] 11 tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”
[46:2] 12 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
[46:2] 13 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
[46:2] 14 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
[46:6] 15 tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.
[46:7] 16 tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.
[10:3] 17 tn Heb “statutes.” According to BDB 350 s.v. חֻקָּה 2.b it refers to the firmly established customs or practices of the pagan nations. Compare the usage in Lev 20:23; 2 Kgs 17:8. Here it is essentially equivalent to דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) in v. 1, which has already been translated “religious practices.”
[10:3] 18 sn This passage is dripping with sarcasm. It begins by talking about the “statutes” of the pagan peoples as a “vapor” using a singular copula and singular predicate. Then it suppresses the subject, the idol, as though it were too horrible to mention, using only the predications about it. The last two lines read literally: “[it is] a tree which one cuts down from the forest; the work of the hands of a craftsman with his chisel.”
[10:4] 19 tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.
[10:5] 20 tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”
[2:18] 21 tn Or “of what value.”
[2:18] 22 tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.
[2:18] 23 tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.
[2:18] 24 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
[2:19] 26 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
[2:19] 27 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
[2:19] 28 tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).
[2:20] 29 tn Or “holy temple.” The
[2:20] 30 tn Or “Be quiet before him, all the earth!”
[19:26] 31 tn Grk “persuading.” The participle πείσας (peisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
[19:26] 33 tn BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 3.a has “of pers. ὄχλος a large crowd…Ac 11:24, 26; 19:26.”
[19:26] 34 map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.
[19:26] 35 tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 22.
[19:26] 36 tn The participle λέγων (legwn) has been regarded as indicating instrumentality.
[19:26] 37 tn The words “at all” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
[19:35] 38 tn Or “clerk.” The “scribe” (γραμματεύς, grammateu") was the keeper of the city’s records.
[19:35] 39 tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo").
[19:35] 40 tn See BDAG 670 s.v. νεωκόρος. The city is described as the “warden” or “guardian” of the goddess and her temple.
[19:35] 41 sn Artemis was a Greek goddess worshiped particularly in Asia Minor, whose temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located just outside the city of Ephesus.
[19:35] 42 tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).
[19:1] 43 tn Grk “It happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
[19:1] 44 map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.
[19:1] 46 tn BDAG 92 s.v. ἀνωτερικός has “upper τὰ ἀ. μέρη the upper (i.e. inland) country, the interior Ac 19:1.”
[19:1] 47 map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.
[19:1] 48 tn Grk “and found.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the sequencing with the following verse the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.
[19:1] 49 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.
[1:19] 50 tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).
[1:19] 51 tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.
[1:19] 52 tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.
[1:19] 53 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:20] 54 tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì46 א A C D1 Ψ 048vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.
