Isaiah 50:4

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ¹ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ² 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ³ 

Isaiah 59:21

59:21 “As for me, this is my promise to ⁴  them,” says the Lord. “My spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and descendants from this time forward,” ⁵  says the Lord.

Deuteronomy 18:18

18:18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.

John 3:34

3:34 For the one whom God has sent ⁶  speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly. ⁷ 

John 8:38-40

8:38 I am telling you the things I have seen while with the ⁸  Father; ⁹  as for you, ¹⁰  practice the things you have heard from the ¹¹  Father!”

8:39 They answered him, ¹²  “Abraham is our father!” ¹³  Jesus replied, ¹⁴  “If you are ¹⁵  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ¹⁶  the deeds of Abraham. 8:40 But now you are trying ¹⁷  to kill me, a man who has told you ¹⁸  the truth I heard from God. Abraham did not do this! ¹⁹ 

John 17:8

17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ²⁰  accepted ²¹  them ²²  and really ²³  understand ²⁴  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Revelation 1:1

The Prologue

1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, ²⁵  which God gave him to show his servants ²⁶  what must happen very soon. ²⁷  He made it clear ²⁸  by sending his angel to his servant ²⁹  John,

¹ tn Heb “has given to me a tongue of disciples.”

² tc Heb “to know [?] the weary with a word.” Comparing it with Arabic and Aramaic cognates yields the meaning of “help, sustain.” Nevertheless, the meaning of עוּת (’ut) is uncertain. The word occurs only here in the OT (see BDB 736 s.v.). Various scholars have suggested an emendation to עָנוֹת (’anot) from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”): “so that I know how to respond kindly to the weary.” Since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and the Vulgate support the MT reading, that reading is retained.

³ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

⁴ tn Or “my covenant with” (so many English versions); NCV “my agreement with.”

⁵ tn Heb “from now and on into the future.”

⁶ tn That is, Christ.

⁷ tn Grk “for not by measure does he give the Spirit” (an idiom). Leviticus Rabbah 15:2 states: “The Holy Spirit rested on the prophets by measure.” Jesus is contrasted to this. The Spirit rests upon him without measure.

⁸ tc The first person pronoun μου (mou, “my”) may be implied, especially if ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) follows the second mention of “father” in this verse (as it does in the majority of mss); no doubt this implication gave rise to the reading μου found in most witnesses (א D Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï it sy). No pronoun here is read by Ì^66,75 B C L 070 pc. This problem cannot be isolated from the second in the verse, however. See that discussion below.

⁹ tn Grk “The things which I have seen with the Father I speak about.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “and you.”

¹¹ tc A few significant witnesses lack ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here (Ì^66,75 B L W 070 pc), while the majority have the pronoun (א C D Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 565 892 Ï al lat sy). However, these mss do not agree on the placement of the pronoun: τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν ποιεῖτε (tou patro" Jumwn poieite), τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν (tw patri Jumwn), and τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν ταῦτα (tw patri Jumwn tauta) all occur. If the pronoun is read, then the devil is in view and the text should be translated as “you are practicing the things you have heard from your father.” If it is not read, then the same Father mentioned in the first part of the verse is in view. In this case, ποιεῖτε should be taken as an imperative: “you [must] practice the things you have heard from the Father.” The omission is decidedly the harder reading, both because the contrast between God and the devil is now delayed until v. 41, and because ποιεῖτε could be read as an indicative, especially since the two clauses are joined by καί (kai, “and”). Thus, the pronoun looks to be a motivated reading. In light of the better external and internal evidence the omission is preferred.

¹² tn Grk “They answered and said to him.”

¹³ tn Or “Our father is Abraham.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

¹⁵ tc Although most mss (C W Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï) have the imperfect ἦτε (hte, “you were”) here, making this sentence a proper second class condition, the harder reading, ἐστε (este, “you are”), is found in the better witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B D L 070 pc lat).

¹⁶ tc Some important mss (Ì⁶⁶ B* [700]) have the present imperative ποιεῖτε (poieite) here: “If you are Abraham’s children, then do,” while many others (א² C K L N Δ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 565 579 892 pm) add the contingent particle ἄν (an) to ἐποιεῖτε (epoieite) making it a more proper second class condition by Attic standards. The simple ἐποιεῖτε without the ἄν is the hardest reading, and is found in some excellent witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* B² D W Γ Θ 070 0250 1424 pm).

¹⁷ tn Grk “seeking.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “has spoken to you.”

¹⁹ tn The Greek word order is emphatic: “This Abraham did not do.” The emphasis is indicated in the translation by an exclamation point.

²⁰ tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

²¹ tn Or “received.”

²² tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

²³ tn Or “truly.”

²⁴ tn Or have come to know.”

²⁵ tn The phrase ἀποκάλυψις ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (ajpokaluyi" Ihsou Cristou, “the revelation of Jesus Christ”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“the revelation about Jesus Christ”), subjective genitive (“the revelation from Jesus Christ”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [Biblical Greek, §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). In 1:1 and 22:16 it is clear that Jesus has sent his angel to proclaim the message to John; thus the message is from Christ, and this would be a subjective genitive. On a broader scale, though, the revelation is about Christ, so this would be an objective genitive. One important point to note is that the phrase under consideration is best regarded as the title of the book and therefore refers to the whole of the work in all its aspects. This fact favors considering this as a plenary genitive.

²⁶ tn Grk “slaves.” Although this translation frequently renders δοῦλος (doulos) as “slave,” the connotation is often of one who has sold himself into slavery; in a spiritual sense, the idea is that of becoming a slave of God or of Jesus Christ voluntarily. The voluntary notion is not conspicuous here; hence, the translation “servants.” In any case, the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

²⁷ tn BDAG 992-93 s.v. τάχος has “quickly, at once, without delay Ac 10:33 D; 12:7; 17:15 D; 22:18; 1 Cl 48:1; 63:4…soon, in a short time…Rv 1:1; 22:6…shortly Ac 25:4.”

²⁸ tn Or “He indicated it clearly” (L&N 33.153).

²⁹ tn See the note on the word “servants” earlier in this verse.