Acts 22:7-8

22:7 Then I ¹  fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 22:8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’

Acts 26:14-15

26:14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ²  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ³  by kicking against the goads.’ ⁴  26:15 So I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied, ⁵  ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Isaiah 63:9

63:9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. ⁶ 

The messenger sent from his very presence ⁷  delivered them.

In his love and mercy he protected ⁸  them;

he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. ⁹ 

Zechariah 2:8

2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ¹⁰  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ¹¹  of his ¹²  eye.

Matthew 25:40

25:40 And the king will answer them, ¹³  ‘I tell you the truth, ¹⁴  just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters ¹⁵  of mine, you did it for me.’

Matthew 25:45-46

25:45 Then he will answer them, ¹⁶  ‘I tell you the truth, ¹⁷  just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ 25:46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:1

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ¹⁸  in the saints’ ¹⁹  inheritance in the light.

Ephesians 5:30

5:30 for we are members of his body. ²⁰ 

¹ tn This is a continuation of the same sentence in Greek using the connective τέ (te), but due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence a new sentence was begun in the translation here. To indicate the logical sequence for the modern English reader, τέ was translated as “then.”

² tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.

³ tn Grk “It is hard for you.”

⁴ tn “Goads” are pointed sticks used to direct a draft animal (an idiom for stubborn resistance). See BDAG 539-40 s.v. κέντρον 2.

³ tn Grk “said.”

⁴ tn Heb “in all their distress, there was distress to him” (reading לוֹ [lo] with the margin/Qere).

⁵ tn Heb “the messenger [or “angel”] of his face”; NIV “the angel of his presence.”

⁶ tn Or “redeemed” (KJV, NAB, NIV), or “delivered.”

⁷ tn Heb “all the days of antiquity”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “days of old.”

⁵ tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the Lord.

⁶ tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the Lord’s eye is to raise her value to an incalculable price (cf. NLT “my most precious possession”).

⁷ tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the Lord saying, in effect, that he has sent himself on the mission to the nations.

⁶ tn Grk “answering, the king will say to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

⁷ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁸ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). In this context Jesus is ultimately speaking of his “followers” (whether men or women, adults or children), but the familial connotation of “brothers and sisters” is also important to retain here.

⁷ tn Grk “answer them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁸ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁸ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

⁹ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

⁹ tc Most Western witnesses, as well as the majority of Byzantine mss and a few others (א² D F G Ψ 0278 0285^vid Ï lat), add the following words to the end of the verse: ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων αὐτοῦ (ek th" sarko" autou kai ek twn ostewn autou, “of his body and of his bones”). This is a (slightly modified) quotation from Gen 2:23a (LXX). The Alexandrian text is solidly behind the shorter reading (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 048 33 81 1739* 1881 pc). Although it is possible that an early scribe’s eye skipped over the final αὐτοῦ, there is a much greater likelihood that a scribe added the Genesis quotation in order to fill out and make explicit the author’s incomplete reference to Gen 2:23. Further, on intrinsic grounds, it seems unlikely that the author would refer to the physical nature of creation when speaking of the “body of Christ” which is spiritual or mystical. Hence, as is often the case with OT quotations, the scribal clarification missed the point the author was making; the shorter reading stands as original.