12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship 11 of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, 12 the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. 13
2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! 28 –
2:1 And although you were 37 dead 38 in your transgressions and sins,
1 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”
2 tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).
3 tn Heb “according to all.”
4 tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.
5 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I now enjoin on you.”
8 sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).
9 sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.
10 tn Heb “ways.”
11 tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”
12 tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many
13 tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).
14 tn Grk “came to himself” (an idiom).
15 tn Grk “bread,” but used figuratively for food of any kind (L&N 5.1).
16 sn In the confession “I have sinned” there is a recognition of wrong that pictures the penitent coming home and “being found.”
17 sn The phrase against heaven is a circumlocution for God.
18 tn According to BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνωπιον 4.a, “in relation to ἁμαρτάνειν ἐ. τινος sin against someone Lk 15:18, 21 (cf. Jdth 5:17; 1 Km 7:6; 20:1).”
19 tn Or “make me.” Here is a sign of total humility.
20 tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).
21 sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.
22 tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”
23 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
24 tn Grk “we all.”
25 tn Or “even.”
26 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
27 sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.
28 tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).
29 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
30 tn Grk “walked.”
31 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”
32 tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”
33 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
34 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).
35 tn Grk “working in.”
36 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.
37 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
38 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
39 tn Verses 4-7 are set as poetry in NA26/NA27. These verses probably constitute the referent of the expression “this saying” in v. 8.
40 tn Or “on us richly.”
41 tn This is the conclusion of a single, skillfully composed sentence in Greek encompassing Titus 3:4-7. Showing the goal of God’s merciful salvation, v. 7 begins literally, “in order that, being justified…we might become heirs…”
42 tn Grk “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”