2:29 “As for you, O king, while you were in your bed your thoughts turned to future things. 8 The revealer of mysteries has made known to you what will take place. 2:30 As for me, this mystery was revealed to me not because I possess more wisdom 9 than any other living person, but so that the king may understand 10 the interpretation and comprehend the thoughts of your mind. 11
10:1 12 In the third 13 year of King Cyrus of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar). This message was true and concerned a great war. 14 He understood the message and gained insight by the vision.
11:25 At that time Jesus said, 15 “I praise 16 you, Father, Lord 17 of heaven and earth, because 18 you have hidden these things from the wise 19 and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.
16:1 Now when the Pharisees 22 and Sadducees 23 came to test Jesus, 24 they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 25
1:1 From Paul, 30 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1 tn Grk “which.” Verse 5 is technically a relative clause, subordinate to the thought of v. 4.
2 tn Grk “the sons of men” (a Semitic idiom referring to human beings, hence, “people”).
3 tn Grk “other.”
4 tn Or “in.”
5 tn Aram “a revealer of mysteries.” The phrase serves as a quasi-title for God in Daniel.
6 tn Aram “in the latter days.”
7 tn Aram “your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed.”
8 tn Aram “your thoughts upon your bed went up to what will be after this.”
9 tn Aram “not for any wisdom which is in me more than [in] any living man.”
10 tn Aram “they might cause the king to know.” The impersonal plural is used here to refer to the role of God’s spirit in revealing the dream and its interpretation to the king. As J. A. Montgomery says, “it appropriately here veils the mysterious agency” (Daniel [ICC], 164-65).
11 tn Aram “heart.”
12 sn This chapter begins the final unit in the book of Daniel, consisting of chapters 10-12. The traditional chapter divisions to some extent obscure the relationship of these chapters.
13 tc The LXX has “first.”
14 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word צָבָא (tsava’) is uncertain in this context. The word most often refers to an army or warfare. It may also mean “hard service,” and many commentators take that to be the sense here (i.e., “the service was great”). The present translation assumes the reference to be to the spiritual conflicts described, for example, in 10:16–11:1.
15 tn Grk “At that time, answering, Jesus said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.
16 tn Or “thank.”
17 sn The title Lord is an important name for God, showing his sovereignty, but it is interesting that it comes next to a reference to the Father, a term indicative of God’s care. The two concepts are often related in the NT; see Eph 1:3-6.
18 tn Or “that.”
19 sn See 1 Cor 1:26-31.
20 tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.
21 tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.
22 sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.
23 sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.
24 tn The object of the participle πειράζοντες (peirazontes) is not given in the Greek text but has been supplied here for clarity.
25 sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.
26 tn Verse two begins a subordinate ἵνα (Jina) clause which was divided up into two sentences for the sake of clarity in English. Thus the phrase “My goal is that” is an attempt to reflect in the translation the purpose expressed through the ἵνα clauses.
27 tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβιβάζω 1.b reads “unite, knit together.” Some commentators take the verb as a reference to instruction, “instructed in love.” See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 93.
28 tn The phrase “and that” translates the first εἰς (eis) clause of v. 2 and reflects the second goal of Paul’s striving and struggle for the Colossians – the first is “encouragement” and the second is “full assurance.”
29 tc There are at least a dozen variants here, almost surely generated by the unusual wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ (tou qeou, Cristou, “of God, Christ”; so Ì46 B Hil). Scribes would be prone to conform this to more common Pauline expressions such as “of God, who is in Christ” (33), “of God, the Father of Christ” (א* A C 048vid 1175 bo), and “of the God and Father of Christ” (א2 Ψ 075 0278 365 1505 pc). Even though the external support for the wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ is hardly overwhelming, it clearly best explains the rise of the other readings and should thus be regarded as authentic.
30 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.