Exodus 28:11

28:11 You are to engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel with the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a seal; you are to have them set in gold filigree settings.

Exodus 28:21

28:21 The stones are to be for the names of the sons of Israel, twelve, according to the number of their names. Each name according to the twelve tribes is to be like the engravings of a seal.

Exodus 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: “Holiness to the Lord.”

John 6:27

6:27 Do not work for the food that disappears, but for the food that remains to eternal life – the food 10  which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.” 11 

John 6:2

6:2 A large crowd was following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick.

Colossians 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you 12  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

Colossians 3:3

3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:2

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

Colossians 2:19

2:19 He has not held fast 13  to the head from whom the whole body, supported 14  and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. 15 


sn Expert stone or gem engravers were used to engrave designs and names in identification seals of various sizes. It was work that skilled artisans did.

tn Or “you will mount them” (NRSV similar).

tn Or “rosettes,” shield-like frames for the stones. The Hebrew word means “to plait, checker.”

tn For clarity the words “the number of” have been supplied.

tn The phrase translated “the engravings of a seal” is an adverbial accusative of manner here.

tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.

tn Or “perishes” (this might refer to spoiling, but is more focused on the temporary nature of this kind of food).

10 tn The referent (the food) has been specified for clarity by repeating the word “food” from the previous clause.

11 tn Grk “on this one.”

12 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.

13 tn The Greek participle κρατῶν (kratwn) was translated as a finite verb to avoid an unusually long and pedantic sentence structure in English.

14 tn See BDAG 387 s.v. ἐπιχορηγέω 3.

15 tn The genitive τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) has been translated as a genitive of source, “from God.”