32:4 As for the Rock, 1 his work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
He is a reliable God who is never unjust,
he is fair 2 and upright.
31:5 Into your hand I entrust my life; 3
you will rescue 4 me, O Lord, the faithful God.
86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient 5 and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. 6
10:10 The Lord is the only true God.
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
When he shows his anger the earth shakes.
None of the nations can stand up to his fury.
1:14 Now 7 the Word became flesh 8 and took up residence 9 among us. We 10 saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, 11 full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.
1 tc The LXX reads Θεός (qeos, “God”) for the MT’s “Rock.”
2 tn Or “just” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “righteous” (NASB).
3 tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.
4 tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.
5 tn Heb “slow to anger.”
6 tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”
7 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic, the incarnation of the Word. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.
8 tn This looks at the Word incarnate in humility and weakness; the word σάρξ (sarx) does not carry overtones of sinfulness here as it frequently does in Pauline usage. See also John 3:6.
9 tn Grk “and tabernacled.”
10 tn Grk “and we saw.”
11 tn Or “of the unique one.” Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clem. 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant., 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God, Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).
12 tn “But” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the implied contrast between the Mosaic law and grace through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 seems to indicate clearly that the Old Covenant (Sinai) was being contrasted with the New. In Jewish sources the Law was regarded as a gift from God (Josephus, Ant. 3.8.10 [3.223]; Pirqe Avot 1.1; Sifre Deut 31:4 §305). Further information can be found in T. F. Glasson, Moses in the Fourth Gospel (SBT).
13 tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”
14 tn Or “I am the way, even the truth and the life.”
15 tn Grk “in which.”
16 tn Or “immutable” (here and in v. 18); Grk “the unchangeableness of his purpose.”
17 tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.