Isaiah 50:6

50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, ¹ 

my jaws to those who tore out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insults and spitting.

Isaiah 51:7

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ² 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

Matthew 5:11-12

5:11 “Blessed are you when people ³  insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely ⁴  on account of me. 5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.

Acts 5:41-42

5:41 So they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy ⁵  to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. ⁶  5:42 And every day both in the temple courts ⁷  and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news ⁸  that Jesus was the Christ. ⁹ 

Hebrews 12:2

12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ¹⁰ 

Hebrews 12:1

The Lord’s Discipline

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ¹¹  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

Hebrews 4:14

Jesus Our Compassionate High Priest

4:14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

¹ tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”

² tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

³ tn Grk “when they insult you.” The third person pronoun (here implied in the verb ὀνειδίσωσιν [ojneidiswsin]) has no specific referent, but refers to people in general.

⁴ tc Although ψευδόμενοι (yeudomenoi, “bearing witness falsely”) could be a motivated reading, clarifying that the disciples are unjustly persecuted, its lack in only D it sy^s Tert does not help its case. Since the Western text is known for numerous free alterations, without corroborative evidence the shorter reading must be judged as secondary.

⁵ sn That is, considered worthy by God. They “gloried in their shame” of honoring Jesus with their testimony (Luke 6:22-23; 2 Macc 6:30).

⁶ sn The name refers to the name of Jesus (cf. 3 John 7).

⁷ tn Grk “temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper and has been translated accordingly.

⁸ tn Grk “teaching and evangelizing.” They were still obeying God, not men (see 4:18-20; 5:29).

⁹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹⁰ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

¹¹ tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”