1:10 (2:1) 1 However, 2 in the future the number of the people 3 of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered. Although 4 it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are 5 children 6 of the living God!”
“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, 15 ‘My beloved.’” 16
9:26 “And in the very place 17 where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 18
1 sn Beginning with 1:10, the verse numbers through 2:23 in the English Bible differ by two from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 1:10 ET = 2:1 HT, 1:11 ET = 2:2 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:3 HT, etc., through 2:23 ET = 2:25 HT. Beginning with 3:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.
2 tn The vav prefixed to וְהָיָה (véhaya) functions in an adversative sense: “however” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §432).
3 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV “the children”; NAB, NIV “the Israelites.”
4 tn Heb “in the place” (בִּמְקוֹם, bimqom). BDB 880 s.v. מָקוֹם 7.b suggests that בִּמְקוֹם (preposition בְּ, bet, + noun מָקוֹם, maqom) is an idiom carrying a concessive sense: “instead of” (e.g., Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1). However, HALOT suggests that it functions in a locative sense: “in the same place” (HALOT 626 s.v. מָקוֹם 2b; e.g., 1 Kgs 21:19; Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1).
5 tn The predicate nominative, “You are…,” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “sons” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).
7 tn BDAG 384 s.v. ἐπιτίθημι 2 has “to set upon, attack, lay a hand on” here, but “assault” is a contemporary English equivalent very close to the meaning of the original.
8 tn Or “injure.”
9 tn Verses 16-17 comprise one sentence in Greek, but this has been divided into two sentences due to English requirements.
10 tn The words “He is our father” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to show that they resume Paul’s argument from 16b. (It is also possible to supply “Abraham had faith” here [so REB], taking the relative clause [“who is the father of us all”] as part of the parenthesis, and making the connection back to “the faith of Abraham,” but such an option is not as likely [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:243].)
11 tn “The God” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.
12 tn Or “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The translation of ὡς ὄντα (Jw" onta) allows for two different interpretations. If it has the force of result, then creatio ex nihilo is in view and the variant rendering is to be accepted (so C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:244). A problem with this view is the scarcity of ὡς plus participle to indicate result (though for the telic idea with ὡς plus participle, cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Thess 2:4). If it has a comparative force, then the translation given in the text is to be accepted: “this interpretation fits the immediate context better than a reference to God’s creative power, for it explains the assurance with which God can speak of the ‘many nations’ that will be descended from Abraham” (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 282; so also W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans [ICC], 113). Further, this view is in line with a Pauline idiom, viz., verb followed by ὡς plus participle (of the same verb or, in certain contexts, its antonym) to compare present reality with what is not a present reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:7; 5:3; 7:29, 30 (three times), 31; Col 2:20 [similarly, 2 Cor 6:9, 10]).
13 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God’s Son) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
15 tn Grk “and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’”
16 sn A quotation from Hos 2:23.
17 tn Grk “And it will be in the very place.”
18 sn A quotation from Hos 1:10.
19 tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).
20 tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”
21 tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…sons.”
22 tn Or “good pleasure.”
23 tn Grk “according to.” The verse is a prepositional phrase subordinate to v. 10.
24 sn If indeed. The author is not doubting whether his audience has heard, but is rather using provocative language (if indeed) to engage his audience in thinking about the magnificence of God’s grace. However, in English translation, the apodosis (“then”-clause) does not come until v. 13, leaving the protasis (“if”-clause) dangling. Eph 3:2-7 constitute one sentence in Greek.
25 tn Or “administration,” “dispensation,” “commission.”
26 tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”
27 tn Grk “who made the both one.”