Deuteronomy 7:26

7:26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.

Numbers 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before the Lord in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

Joshua 7:12

7:12 The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation. I will no longer be with you, unless you destroy what has contaminated you. 10 

Joshua 7:2

7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho 11  to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel 12 ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.

Joshua 21:6

21:6 Gershon’s descendants were allotted thirteen cities from the clans of the tribe of Issachar, and from the tribes of Asher and Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

Romans 9:3

9:3 For I could wish 13  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, 14  my fellow countrymen, 15 

Galatians 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming 16  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) 17 

Galatians 3:1

Justification by Law or by Faith?

3:1 You 18  foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell 19  on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed 20  as crucified!

Colossians 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you 21  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful 22  brothers and sisters 23  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 24  from God our Father! 25 

Colossians 1:21

Paul’s Goal in Ministry

1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your 26  minds 27  as expressed through 28  your evil deeds,


tn Heb “come under the ban” (so NASB); NRSV “be set apart for destruction.” The same phrase occurs again at the end of this verse.

tn Or “like it is.”

tn This Hebrew verb (שָׁקַץ, shaqats) is essentially synonymous with the next verb (תָעַב, taav; cf. תּוֹעֵבָה, toevah; see note on the word “abhorrent” in v. 25), though its field of meaning is more limited to cultic abomination (cf. Lev 11:11, 13; Ps 22:25).

tn Heb “detesting you must detest and abhorring you must abhor.” Both verbs are preceded by a cognate infinitive absolute indicating emphasis.

sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.

tn Heb “they turn [the] back before their enemies because they are set apart [to destruction by the Lord].”

tn The second person pronoun is plural in Hebrew, indicating these words are addressed to the entire nation.

10 tn Heb “what is set apart [to destruction by the Lord] from your midst.”

11 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

12 map For the location of Bethel see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

13 tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

14 tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

15 tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

16 tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

17 sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

18 tn Grk “O” (an interjection used both in address and emotion). In context the following section is highly charged emotionally.

19 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).

20 tn Or “publicly placarded,” “set forth in a public proclamation” (BDAG 867 s.v. προγράφω 2).

21 tc Some of the better representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts have a passive verb here instead of the active ἀποκατήλλαξεν (apokathllaxen, “he has reconciled”): ἀποκατηλλάγητε (apokathllaghte) in (Ì46) B, ἀποκατήλλακται [sic] (apokathllaktai) in 33, and ἀποκαταλλαγέντες (apokatallagente") in D* F G. Yet the active verb is strongly supported by א A C D2 Ψ 048 075 [0278] 1739 1881 Ï lat sy. Internally, the passive creates an anacoluthon in that it looks back to the accusative ὑμᾶς (Juma", “you”) of v. 21 and leaves the following παραστῆσαι (parasthsai) dangling (“you were reconciled…to present you”). The passive reading is certainly the harder reading. As such, it may well explain the rise of the other readings. At the same time, it is possible that the passive was produced by scribes who wanted some symmetry between the ποτε (pote, “at one time”) of v. 21 and the νυνὶ δέ (nuni de, “but now”) of v. 22: Since a passive periphrastic participle is used in v. 21, there may have a temptation to produce a corresponding passive form in v. 22, handling the ὑμᾶς of v. 21 by way of constructio ad sensum. Since παραστῆσαι occurs ten words later, it may not have been considered in this scribal modification. Further, the Western reading (ἀποκαταλλαγέντες) hardly seems to have arisen from ἀποκατηλλάγητε (contra TCGNT 555). As difficult as this decision is, the preferred reading is the active form because it is superior externally and seems to explain the rise of all forms of the passive readings.

22 tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

23 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

24 tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

25 tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

26 tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

27 tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.

28 tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.