18:44 When they hear of my exploits, they submit to me. 3
Foreigners are powerless 4 before me;
1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, 5
then you will again eat the good crops of the land.
3:1 You 24 foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell 25 on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed 26 as crucified!
11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.
11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.
4:1 Therefore we must be wary 34 that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.
1 sn The phrase is not used here in a technical sense for the eschaton, but rather refers to a future time when Israel will be punished for its sin and experience exile. See Deut 31:29.
2 tn Heb “hear his voice.” The expression is an idiom meaning “obey,” occurring in Deut 8:20; 9:23; 13:18; 21:18, 20; 26:14, 17; 27:10; 28:1-2, 15, 45, 62; 30:2, 8, 10, 20.
3 tn Heb “at a report of an ear they submit to me.” The report of the psalmist’s exploits is so impressive that those who hear it submit to his rulership without putting up a fight.
4 tn For the meaning “be weak, powerless” for כָּחַשׁ (kakhash), see Ps 109:24. The next line (see v. 45a), in which “foreigners” are also mentioned, favors this interpretation. Another option is to translate “cower in fear” (see Deut 33:29; Pss 66:3; 81:15; cf. NIV “cringe”; NRSV “came cringing”).
5 tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”
6 tn Grk “kept on spreading”; the verb has been translated as a progressive imperfect.
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 tn Grk “a great multitude.”
9 tn Grk “through whom.”
10 tn Some interpreters understand the phrase “grace and apostleship” as a hendiadys, translating “grace [i.e., gift] of apostleship.” The pronoun “our” is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of the statement.
11 tn Grk “and apostleship for obedience.”
12 tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24.
13 tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.
14 tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”
15 tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”
16 tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”
17 tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.
18 tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”
19 sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.
20 tn Grk “unto obedience.”
21 tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.
22 tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.
23 tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.
24 tn Grk “O” (an interjection used both in address and emotion). In context the following section is highly charged emotionally.
25 tn Or “deceived”; the verb βασκαίνω (baskainw) can be understood literally here in the sense of bewitching by black magic, but could also be understood figuratively to refer to an act of deception (see L&N 53.98 and 88.159).
26 tn Or “publicly placarded,” “set forth in a public proclamation” (BDAG 867 s.v. προγράφω 2).
27 tn The Greek puts an emphasis on the quality of God’s final revelation. As such, it is more than an indefinite notion (“a son”) though less than a definite one (“the son”), for this final revelation is not just through any son of God, nor is the emphasis specifically on the person himself. Rather, the focus here is on the nature of the vehicle of God’s revelation: He is no mere spokesman (or prophet) for God, nor is he merely a heavenly messenger (or angel); instead, this final revelation comes through one who is intimately acquainted with the heavenly Father in a way that only a family member could be. There is, however, no exact equivalent in English (“in son” is hardly good English style).
28 tn Grk “the ages.” The temporal (ages) came to be used of the spatial (what exists in those time periods). See Heb 11:3 for the same usage.
29 sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.
30 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
31 tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.
32 tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of
33 tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”
34 tn Grk “let us fear.”