Acts 9:15

9:15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, because this man is my chosen instrument ¹  to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel. ² 

Acts 14:26

14:26 From there they sailed back to Antioch, ³  where they had been commended ⁴  to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. ⁵ 

Matthew 9:38

9:38 Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest ⁶  to send out ⁷  workers into his harvest.”

Luke 10:1

The Mission of the Seventy-Two

10:1 After this ⁸  the Lord appointed seventy-two ⁹  others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town ¹⁰  and place where he himself was about to go.

Ephesians 3:7

3:7 I became a servant of this gospel ¹¹  according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by ¹²  the exercise of his power. ¹³ 

Ephesians 3:1

Paul's Relationship to the Divine Mystery

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus ¹⁴  for the sake of you Gentiles –

Ephesians 2:7

2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages ¹⁵  the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward ¹⁶  us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ¹⁷  you formerly lived ¹⁸  according to this world’s present path, ¹⁹  according to the ruler of the kingdom ²⁰  of the air, the ruler of ²¹  the spirit ²²  that is now energizing ²³  the sons of disobedience, ²⁴ 

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ²⁵  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²⁶  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Hebrews 5:4

5:4 And no one assumes this honor ²⁷  on his own initiative, ²⁸  but only when called to it by God, ²⁹  as in fact Aaron was.

¹ tn Or “tool.”

² tn Grk “the sons of Israel.” In Acts, Paul is a minister to all nations, including Israel (Rom 1:16-17).

³ sn Antioch was the city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia) from which Paul’s first missionary journey began (see Acts 13:1-4). That first missionary journey ends here, after covering some 1,400 mi (2,240 km).

⁴ tn Or “committed.” BDAG 762 s.v. παραδίδωμι 2 gives “commended to the grace of God for the work 14:26” as the meaning for this phrase, although “give over” and “commit” are listed as alternative meanings for this category.

⁵ tn BDAG 829 s.v. πληρόω 5 has “to bring to completion an activity in which one has been involved from its beginning, complete, finish” as meanings for this category. The ministry to which they were commissioned ends with a note of success.

⁶ sn The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.

⁷ tn Grk “to thrust out.”

⁸ tn Grk “And after these things.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁹ tc There is a difficult textual problem here and in v. 17, where the number is either “seventy” (א A C L W Θ Ξ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï and several church fathers and early versions) or “seventy-two” (Ì⁷⁵ B D 0181 pc lat as well as other versions and fathers). The more difficult reading is “seventy-two,” since scribes would be prone to assimilate this passage to several OT passages that refer to groups of seventy people (Num 11:13-17; Deut 10:22; Judg 8:30; 2 Kgs 10:1 et al.); this reading also has slightly better ms support. “Seventy” could be the preferred reading if scribes drew from the tradition of the number of translators of the LXX, which the Letter of Aristeas puts at seventy-two (TCGNT 127), although this is far less likely. All things considered, “seventy-two” is a much more difficult reading and accounts for the rise of the other. Only Luke notes a second larger mission like the one in 9:1-6.

¹⁰ tn Or “city.”

¹¹ tn Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”

¹² tn Grk “according to.”

¹³ sn On the exercise of his power see 1:19-20.

¹⁴ tc Several early and important witnesses, chiefly of the Western text (א* D* F G [365]), lack ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) here, while most Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (Ì⁴⁶ א¹ A B [C] D¹ Ψ 33 1739 [1881] Ï lat sy bo) have the word. However, because of the Western text’s proclivities to add or delete to the text, seemingly at whim, serious doubts should be attached to the shorter reading. It is strengthened, however, by א’s support. Nevertheless, since both א and D were corrected with the addition of ᾿Ιησοῦ, their testimony might be questioned. Further, in uncial script the nomina sacra here could have led to missing a word by way of homoioteleuton (cMuiMu). At the same time, in light of the rarity of scribal omission of nomina sacra (see TCGNT 582, n. 1), a decision for inclusion of the word here must be tentative. NA²⁷ rightly places ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets.

¹⁵ tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”

¹⁶ tn Or “upon.”

¹⁷ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

¹⁸ tn Grk “walked.”

¹⁹ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

²⁰ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

²¹ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

²² sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

²³ tn Grk “working in.”

²⁴ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

²⁵ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

²⁶ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

²⁷ sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

²⁸ tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

²⁹ tn Grk “being called by God.”