12:14 This day will become 1 a memorial 2 for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival 3 to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. 4
4:1 When the entire nation was on the other side, 13 the Lord told Joshua,
2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: 14 “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” 15 They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. 16
10:1 Now there was a man in Caesarea 24 named Cornelius, a centurion 25 of what was known as the Italian Cohort. 26
1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship 29 from God – given to me for you – in order to complete 30 the word of God, 1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.
1 tn Heb “and this day will be.”
2 tn The expression “will be for a memorial” means “will become a memorial.”
3 tn The verb וְחַגֹּתֶם (vÿkhaggotem), a perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive to continue the instruction, is followed by the cognate accusative חַג (khag), for emphasis. As the wording implies and the later legislation required, this would involve a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Yahweh.
4 tn Two expressions show that this celebration was to be kept perpetually: the line has “for your generations, [as] a statute forever.” “Generations” means successive generations (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, perpetual” – no end in sight.
5 sn This was to be a perpetual reminder that the priest ministers on behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel. Their names would always be borne by the priests.
6 sn So Aaron will have the names of the tribes on his shoulders (v. 12) which bear the weight and symbol of office (see Isa 9:6; 22:22), and over his heart (implying that they have a constant place in his thoughts [Deut 6:6]). Thus he was to enter the presence of God as the nation’s representative, ever mindful of the nation’s interests, and ever bringing the remembrance of it before God (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 306).
7 tn Heb “from the seed of.”
8 tn Heb “hand.”
9 tn The Hebrew text does not repeat the word “commanders” here, but it is implied.
10 tn The purpose of the offering was to remind the
11 tn Heb “were cut off from before.”
12 tn Heb “how the waters descending from above stood still.”
13 tn Heb “And when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.”
14 tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”
15 tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”
16 tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”
17 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
18 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
19 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Cornelius) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Grk “said,” but in response to the angel’s address, “replied” is better English style.
21 tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Or “your gifts to the needy.”
23 sn The language used in the expression gone up as a memorial before God parallels what one would say of acceptable sacrifices (Ps 141:2; Sir 35:6; 50:16).
24 sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). It was known as “Caesarea by the sea” (BDAG 499 s.v. Καισάρεια 2). Largely Gentile, it was a center of Roman administration and the location of many of Herod the Great’s building projects (Josephus, Ant. 15.9.6 [15.331-341]).
25 sn A centurion was a noncommissioned officer in the Roman army or one of the auxiliary territorial armies, commanding a centuria of (nominally) 100 men. The responsibilities of centurions were broadly similar to modern junior officers, but there was a wide gap in social status between them and officers, and relatively few were promoted beyond the rank of senior centurion. The Roman troops stationed in Judea were auxiliaries, who would normally be rewarded with Roman citizenship after 25 years of service. Some of the centurions may have served originally in the Roman legions (regular army) and thus gained their citizenship at enlistment. Others may have inherited it, like Paul.
26 sn A cohort was a Roman military unit of about 600 soldiers, one-tenth of a legion (BDAG 936 s.v. σπεῖρα). The Italian Cohort has been identified as cohors II Italica which is known to have been stationed in Syria in
27 tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”
28 tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.
29 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
30 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.