1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your 10 minds 11 as expressed through 12 your evil deeds,
7:1 Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him. 13
1:1 After God spoke long ago 14 in various portions 15 and in various ways 16 to our ancestors 17 through the prophets,
2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 25
“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 26
3:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.
1 tn Grk “And the angel said to her.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. The pronoun αὐτῇ (auth, “to her”) has not been included in the translation since it is redundant in contemporary English.
2 sn The phrase will overshadow is a reference to God’s glorious presence at work (Exod 40:34-35; Ps 91:4).
3 tn Or “the one born holy will be called the Son of God.” The wording of this phrase depends on whether the adjective is a predicate adjective, as in the text, or is an adjective modifying the participle serving as the subject. The absence of an article with the adjective speaks for a predicate position. Other less appealing options supply a verb for “holy”; thus “the one who is born will be holy”; or argue that both “holy” and “Son of God” are predicates, so “The one who is born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
4 tc A few
5 tn Or “Therefore the holy child to be born will be called the Son of God.” There are two ways to understand the Greek phrase τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον (to gennwmenon {agion) here. First, τὸ γεννώμενον could be considered a substantival participle with ἅγιον as an adjective in the second predicate position, thus making a complete sentence; this interpretation is reflected in the translation above. Second, τὸ ἅγιον could be considered a substantival adjective with γεννώμενον acting as an adjectival participle, thus making the phrase the subject of the verb κληθήσεται (klhqhsetai); this interpretation is reflected in the alternative reading. Treating the participle γεννώμενον as adjectival is a bit unnatural for the very reason that it forces one to understand ἅγιον as substantival; this introduces a new idea in the text with ἅγιον when an already new topic is being introduced with γεννώμενον. Semantically this would overload the new subject introduced at this point. For this reason the first interpretation is preferred.
6 tn Grk “even as”; this compares the recorded tradition of 1:1 with the original eyewitness tradition of 1:2.
7 tn Or “delivered.”
8 sn The phrase eyewitnesses and servants of the word refers to a single group of people who faithfully passed on the accounts about Jesus. The language about delivery (passed on) points to accounts faithfully passed on to the early church.
9 tn Grk “like the accounts those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word passed on to us.” The location of “in the beginning” in the Greek shows that the tradition is rooted in those who were with Jesus from the start.
10 tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
11 tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.
12 tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.
13 sn A series of quotations from Gen 14:17-19.
14 tn Or “spoke formerly.”
15 tn Or “parts.” The idea is that God’s previous revelation came in many parts and was therefore fragmentary or partial (L&N 63.19), in comparison with the final and complete revelation contained in God’s Son. However, some interpret πολυμερῶς (polumerw") in Heb 1:1 to mean “on many different occasions” and would thus translate “many times” (L&N 67.11). This is the option followed by the NIV: “at many times and in various ways.” Finally, this word is also understood to refer to the different manners in which something may be done, and would then be translated “in many different ways” (L&N 89.81). In this last case, the two words πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως (polutropw") mutually reinforce one another (“in many and various ways,” NRSV).
16 tn These two phrases are emphasized in Greek by being placed at the beginning of the sentence and by alliteration.
17 tn Grk “to the fathers.”
18 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
19 sn A quotation from Num 12:7.
20 sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.
21 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
22 tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.
23 tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of
24 tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”
25 sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.
26 tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”