Luke 1:37

1:37 For nothing ¹  will be impossible with God.”

Genesis 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible ²  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ³ 

Job 42:2

42:2 “I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

Jeremiah 32:17

32:17 ‘Oh, Lord God, ⁴  you did indeed ⁵  make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. ⁶  Nothing is too hard for you!

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ⁷ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ⁸  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Zechariah 8:6

8:6 And,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘though such a thing may seem to be difficult in the opinion of the small community of those days, will it also appear difficult to me?’ asks the Lord who rules over all.

Matthew 19:26

19:26 Jesus ⁹  looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, ¹⁰  but for God all things are possible.”

Ephesians 1:19-20

1:19 and what is the incomparable ¹¹  greatness of his power toward ¹²  us who believe, as displayed in ¹³  the exercise of his immense strength. ¹⁴  1:20 This power ¹⁵  he exercised ¹⁶  in Christ when he raised him ¹⁷  from the dead and seated him ¹⁸  at his right hand in the heavenly realms ¹⁹ 

Ephesians 2:4-10

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ²⁰  – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages ²¹  the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward ²²  us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved ²³  through faith, ²⁴  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from ²⁵  works, so that no one can boast. ²⁶  2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ²⁷ 

¹ tn In Greek, the phrase πᾶν ῥῆμα (pan rJhma, “nothing”) has an emphatic position, giving it emphasis as the lesson in the entire discussion. The remark is a call for faith.

² tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

³ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

⁴ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” For an explanation of the rendering here see the study note on 1:6.

⁵ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle normally translated “behold.” See the translator’s note on 1:6 for the usage of this particle.

⁶ tn Heb “by your great power and your outstretched arm.” See 21:5; 27:5 and the marginal note on 27:5 for this idiom.

⁷ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

⁸ tn Aram “strikes against.”

⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁰ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποις (anqrwpois) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NASB 1995 update, “people”). Because of the contrast here between mere mortals and God (“impossible for men, but for God all things are possible”) the phrase “mere humans” has been used in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” in v. 28.

¹¹ tn Or “immeasurable, surpassing”

¹² tn Or “for, to”

¹³ tn Grk “according to.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “according to the exercise of the might of his strength.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “which” (v. 20 is a subordinate clause to v. 19).

¹⁶ tn The verb “exercised” (the aorist of ἐνεργέω, energew) has its nominal cognate in “exercise” in v. 19 (ἐνέργεια, energeia).

¹⁷ tn Or “This power he exercised in Christ by raising him”; Grk “raising him.” The adverbial participle ἐγείρας (egeiras) could be understood as temporal (“when he raised [him]”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “he exercised” earlier in the verse, or as means (“by raising [him]”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

¹⁸ tc The majority of mss, especially the Western and Byzantine mss (D F G Ψ Ï b r Ambst), have the indicative ἐκάθισεν (ekaqisen, “he seated”) for καθίσας (kaqisa", “when he seated, by seating”). The indicative is thus coordinate with ἐνήργησεν (enhrghsen, “he exercised”) and provides an additional statement to “he exercised his power.” The participle (found in Ì^92vid א A B 0278 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 al), on the other hand, is coordinate with ἐγείρας (egeiras) and as such provides evidence of God’s power: He exercised his power by raising Christ from the dead and by seating him at his right hand. As intriguing as the indicative reading is, it is most likely an intentional alteration of the original wording, accomplished by an early “Western” scribe, which made its way in the Byzantine text.

¹⁹ sn Eph 1:19-20. The point made in these verses is that the power required to live a life pleasing to God is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. For a similar thought, cf. John 15:1-11.

²⁰ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

²¹ tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”

²² tn Or “upon.”

²³ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

²⁴ tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

²⁵ tn Or “not as a result of.”

²⁶ tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”

²⁷ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).