Ezekiel 18:30

18:30 “Therefore I will judge each person according to his conduct, ¹  O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent ²  and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity. ³ 

Psalms 62:12

62:12 and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love. ⁴ 

For you repay men for what they do. ⁵ 

Ecclesiastes 12:14

12:14 For God will evaluate every deed, ⁶ 

including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Matthew 16:27

16:27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ⁷ 

John 5:29

5:29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. ⁸ 

John 5:2

5:2 Now there is ⁹  in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate ¹⁰  a pool called Bethzatha ¹¹  in Aramaic, ¹²  which has five covered walkways. ¹³ 

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ¹⁴  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ¹⁵  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Revelation 20:12-15

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ¹⁶  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ¹⁷  So ¹⁸  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ¹⁹  20:13 The ²⁰  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ²¹  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 20:14 Then ²²  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 20:15 If ²³  anyone’s name ²⁴  was not found written in the book of life, that person ²⁵  was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 22:12

22:12 (Look! I am coming soon,

and my reward is with me to pay ²⁶  each one according to what he has done!

¹ tn Heb “ways.”

² tn The verbs and persons in this verse are plural whereas the individual has been the subject of the chapter.

³ tn Or “leading to punishment.”

⁴ tn Heb “and to you, O Master, [is] loyal love.”

⁵ tn Heb “for you pay back to a man according to his deed.” Another option is to understand vv. 11b and 12a as the first principle and v. 12b as the second. In this case one might translate, “God has declared one principle, two principles I have heard, namely, that God is strong, and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love, and that you repay men for what they do.”

⁶ tn Heb “will bring every deed into judgment.”

⁷ sn An allusion to Pss 28:4; 62:12; cf. Prov 24:12.

⁸ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

⁹ tn Regarding the use of the present tense ἐστιν (estin) and its implications for the dating of the Gospel of John, see the article by D. B. Wallace, “John 5,2 and the Date of the Fourth Gospel,” Bib 71 (1990): 177-205.

¹⁰ tn The site of the miracle is also something of a problem: προβατικῇ (probatikh) is usually taken as a reference to the Sheep Gate near the temple. Some (R. E. Brown and others) would place the word κολυμβήθρα (kolumbhqra) with προβατικῇ to read “in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Pool, there is (another pool) with the Hebrew name.” This would imply that there is reference to two pools in the context rather than only one. This does not seem necessary (although it is a grammatical possibility). The gender of the words does not help since both are feminine (as is the participle ἐπιλεγομένη [epilegomenh]). Note however that Brown’s suggestion would require a feminine word to be supplied (for the participle ἐπιλεγομένη to modify). The traditional understanding of the phrase as a reference to the Sheep Gate near the temple appears more probably correct.

¹¹ tc Some mss (א [L] 33 it) read Bethzatha, while others read Bethsaida (Ì^[66],75 B T W^s [Ψ] pc vg); codex D has Belzetha. A lot of controversy has surrounded the name of the pool itself: The reading of the Byzantine (or majority) text (A C Θ 078 Ë^1,13 Ï), Bethesda, has been virtually discarded by scholars in favor of what is thought to be the more primitive Bethzatha, even though many recent translations continue to employ Bethesda, the traditional reading. The latter is attested by Josephus as the name of a quarter of the city near the northeast corner of the temple area. He reports that the Syrian Legate Cestius burned this suburb in his attack on Jerusalem in October a.d. 68 (J. W. 2.19.4 [2.530]). However, there is some new archaeological evidence for this problem. 3Q15 (Copper Scroll) from Qumran seems to indicate that in the general area of the temple, on the eastern hill of Jerusalem, a treasure was buried in Bet áEsdatayin, in the pool at the entrance to the smaller basin. The name of the region or pool itself seems then to have been Bet ᾿Esda, “house of the flowing.” It appears with the dual ending in the scroll because there were two basins. Bethesda seems to be an accurate Greek rendition of the name, while J. T. Milik suggests Bethzatha is a rendition of the Aramaic intensive plural Bet áEsdata (DJDJ 3, 271). As for the text of John 5:2, the fundamental problems with the Bethesda reading are that it looks motivated (with an edifying Semitic etymology, meaning “House of Mercy” [TCGNT 178]), and is minimally attested. Apart from the Copper Scroll, the evidence for Bethesda is almost entirely shut up to the Byzantine text (C being the most notable exception, but it often has Byzantine encroachments). On the one hand, this argues the Byzantine reading here had ancient, semitic roots; on the other hand, since both readings are attested as historically accurate, a decision has to be based on the better witnesses. The fact that there are multiple readings here suggests that the original was not well understood. Which reading best explains the rise of the others? It seems that Bethzatha is the best choice.

¹² tn Grk “in Hebrew.”

¹³ tn Or “porticoes,” or “colonnades”; Grk “stoas.”

¹⁴ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

¹⁵ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

¹⁷ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

¹⁹ tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”

²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²¹ sn Here Death is personified (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).

²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

²³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁴ tn The word “name” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

²⁵ tn Grk “he”; the pronoun has been intensified by translating as “that person.”

²⁶ tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ἀποδοῦναι (apodounai) was used here.