Acts 21:20

21:20 When they heard this, they praised ¹  God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews ²  there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers ³  of the law. ⁴ 

Matthew 13:31

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

13:31 He gave ⁵  them another parable: ⁶  “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed ⁷  that a man took and sowed in his field.

John 14:12

14:12 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁸  the person who believes in me will perform ⁹  the miraculous deeds ¹⁰  that I am doing, ¹¹  and will perform ¹²  greater deeds ¹³  than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ¹⁴  You believe in God; ¹⁵  believe also in me.

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹⁶  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ¹⁷  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

¹ tn Or “glorified.”

² tn Grk “how many thousands there are among the Jews.”

³ tn Or “are all zealous for the law.” BDAG 427 s.v. ζηλωτής 1.a.β has “of thing…τοῦ νόμου an ardent observer of the law Ac 21:20.”

⁴ sn That is, the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had remained close to their Jewish practices after becoming believers (1 Cor 7:18-19; Acts 16:3).

⁵ tn Grk “put before.”

⁶ tn Grk “He set before them another parable, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

⁷ sn The mustard seed was noted for its tiny size.

⁸ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

⁹ tn Or “will do.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “the works.”

¹¹ tn Or “that I do.”

¹² tn Or “will do.”

¹³ tn Grk “greater works.”

¹⁴ sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

¹⁵ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.