26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, 1 because the Lord blessed him. 2
30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, 3 for I have learned by divination 4 that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”
15:12 If your fellow Hebrew 21 – whether male or female 22 – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant 23 go free. 24 15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously 25 from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them.
3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse 40 so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.
12:41 Then 41 he 42 sat down opposite the offering box, 43 and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts. 12:42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, 44 worth less than a penny. 12:43 He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, 45 this poor widow has put more into the offering box 46 than all the others. 47 12:44 For they all gave out of their wealth. 48 But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.” 49
16:10 “The one who is faithful in a very little 50 is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
1:1 From Paul, 55 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful 56 brothers and sisters 57 in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 58 from God our Father! 59
1:3 We always 60 give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
1:15 65 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn 66 over all creation, 67
1 tn Heb “a hundredfold.”
2 tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.
3 tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
4 tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the
5 tn Or “for.”
6 tn Heb “before me.”
7 tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”
8 tn Heb “at my foot.”
9 tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”
10 tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).
11 tn Heb “you have done with.”
12 tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.
13 tn Heb “this Jordan.”
14 tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.
15 tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.
16 tn Heb “all.”
17 tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.
18 tc Smr and Lucian add “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the standard way of rendering this almost stereotypical formula (cf. Deut 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4). The MT’s harder reading presumptively argues for its originality, however.
19 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”
20 tn Heb “your brother.”
21 sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.
22 tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”
23 tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.
24 tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”
25 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”
26 tn Heb “his neighbor,” used idiomatically to refer to another person.
27 tn Heb “his neighbor and his brother.” The words “his brother” may be a scribal gloss identifying “his neighbor” (on this idiom, see the preceding note) as a fellow Israelite (cf. v. 3). In this case the conjunction before “his brother” does not introduce a second category, but rather has the force of “that is.”
28 tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
29 tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.
30 tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.
31 tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”
32 tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”
33 tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the
34 tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15.
35 sn The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520. See v. 10. Here the reference is to “today,” the day the oracle is being delivered.
36 sn The day work…was resumed. This does not refer to the initial founding of the Jerusalem temple in 536
37 tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15 and at the beginning of this verse.
38 tn Heb “cursed with a curse” that is, “under a curse” (so NIV, NLT, CEV).
39 tn The phrase “is guilty” is not present in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.
40 tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”
41 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
42 tc Most
43 tn On the term γαζοφυλάκιον (gazofulakion), often translated “treasury,” see BDAG 186 s.v., which states, “For Mk 12:41, 43; Lk 21:1 the mng. contribution box or receptacle is attractive. Acc. to Mishnah, Shekalim 6, 5 there were in the temple 13 such receptacles in the form of trumpets. But even in these passages the general sense of ‘treasury’ is prob., for the contributions would go [into] the treasury via the receptacles.” Based upon the extra-biblical evidence (see sn following), however, the translation opts to refer to the actual receptacles and not the treasury itself.
44 sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.
45 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
46 tn See the note on the term “offering box” in v. 41.
47 sn Has put more into the offering box than all the others. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.
48 tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”
49 sn The contrast between this passage, 12:41-44, and what has come before in 11:27-12:40 is remarkable. The woman is set in stark contrast to the religious leaders. She was a poor widow, they were rich. She was uneducated in the law, they were well educated in the law. She was a woman, they were men. But whereas they evidenced no faith and actually stole money from God and men (cf. 11:17), she evidenced great faith and gave out of her extreme poverty everything she had.
50 sn The point of the statement faithful in a very little is that character is shown in how little things are treated.
51 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the result of the reports the man received about his manager.
52 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
53 sn Although phrased as a question, the charges were believed by the owner, as his dismissal of the manager implies.
54 tn Or “stewardship”; the Greek word οἰκονομία (oikonomia) is cognate with the noun for the manager (οἰκονόμος, oikonomo").
55 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
56 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.
57 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).
58 tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”
59 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
60 tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).
61 tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.
62 tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”
63 tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).
64 tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule
65 sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.
66 tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).
67 tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.