Jeremiah 23:28-29

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ²  23:29 My message is like a fire that purges dross! ³  It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! ⁴  I, the Lord, so affirm it! ⁵ 

Mark 4:24

4:24 And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, ⁶  and more will be added to you.

Luke 8:11

8:11 “Now the parable means ⁷  this: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:21

8:21 But he replied ⁸  to them, “My mother and my brothers are those ⁹  who hear the word of God and do it.” ¹⁰ 

Luke 11:28

11:28 But he replied, ¹¹  “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey ¹²  it!”

Luke 11:2

11:2 So he said to them, “When you pray, ¹³  say:

Father, ¹⁴  may your name be honored; ¹⁵ 

may your kingdom come. ¹⁶ 

Colossians 2:17

2:17 these are only ¹⁷  the shadow of the things to come, but the reality ¹⁸  is Christ! ¹⁹ 

Hebrews 4:12-13

4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. 4:13 And no creature is hidden from God, ²⁰  but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.

Revelation 1:9

1:9 I, John, your brother and the one who shares ²¹  with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that ²²  are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

³ tn Heb “Is not my message like a fire?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer that is made explicit in the translation. The words “that purges dross” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” See preceding note.

⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

⁶ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

⁷ tn Grk “is,” but in this context it is clearly giving an explanation of the parable.

⁸ tn Grk “answering, he said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he replied.”

⁹ tn There is some discussion about the grammar of this verse in Greek. If “these” is the subject, then it reads, “These are my mother and brothers, those who.” If “these” is a nominative absolute, which is slightly more likely, then the verse more literally reads, “So my mother and brothers, they are those who.” The sense in either case is the same.

¹⁰ sn Hearing and doing the word of God is another important NT theme: Luke 6:47-49; Jas 1:22-25.

¹¹ tn Grk “said.”

¹² sn This is another reference to hearing and doing the word of God, which here describes Jesus’ teaching; see Luke 8:21.

¹³ sn When you pray. What follows, although traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer, is really the disciples’ prayer. It represents how they are to approach God, by acknowledging his uniqueness and their need for his provision and protection.

¹⁴ tc Most mss, including later majority (A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it), add ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (Jhmwn Jo en toi" oujranoi", “our [Father] in heaven”) here. This makes the prayer begin like the version in Matt 6:9. The shorter version is read by Ì⁷⁵ א B (L: + ἡμῶν) 1 700 pc as well as some versions and fathers. Given this more weighty external evidence, combined with the scribal tendency to harmonize Gospel parallels, the shorter reading is preferred.

¹⁵ tn Grk “hallowed be your name.”

¹⁶ tc Most mss (א A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it) read at the end of the verse “may your will be done on earth as [it is] in heaven,” making this version parallel to Matt 6:10. The shorter reading is found, however, in weighty mss (Ì⁷⁵ B L pc), and cannot be easily explained as arising from the longer reading.

¹⁷ tn The word “only,” though not in the Greek text, is supplied in the English translation to bring out the force of the Greek phrase.

¹⁸ tn Grk “but the body of Christ.” The term body here, when used in contrast to shadow (σκιά, skia) indicates the opposite meaning, i.e., the reality or substance itself.

¹⁹ tn The genitive τοῦ Χριστοῦ (tou Cristou) is appositional and translated as such: “the reality is Christ.”

²⁰ tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²¹ tn The translation attempts to bring out the verbal idea in συγκοινωνός (sunkoinwno", “co-sharer”); John was suffering for his faith at the time he wrote this.

²² tn The prepositional phrase ἐν ᾿Ιησοῦ (en Ihsou) could be taken with ὑπομονῇ (Jupomonh) as the translation does or with the more distant συγκοινωνός (sunkoinwno"), in which case the translation would read “your brother and the one who shares with you in Jesus in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance.”

²³ tn The phrase “about Jesus” has been translated as an objective genitive.