Numbers 8:11

8:11 and Aaron is to offer ¹  the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites, that they may do the work ²  of the Lord.

Numbers 8:21

8:21 The Levites purified themselves ³  and washed their clothing; then Aaron presented them like a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.

Numbers 18:6

18:6 I myself have chosen ⁴  your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties ⁵  of the tent of meeting.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ⁶  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ⁷  – which is your reasonable service.

Romans 15:16

15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve ⁸  the gospel of God ⁹  like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, ¹⁰  sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹ tn The Hebrew text actually has “wave the Levites as a wave offering.” The wave offering was part of the ritual of the peace offering and indicated the priest’s portion being presented to God in a lifted, waving motion for all to see. The Levites were going to be in the sanctuary to serve the Lord and assist the priests. It is unclear how Moses would have presented them as wave offerings, but the intent is that they would be living sacrifices, as Paul would later say in Rom 12:1 for all Christians.

² tn The construction emphasizes the spiritual service of the Levites, using the infinitive construct of עָבַד (’avad) followed by its cognate accusative.

³ tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָּא (khatta’). In this stem the meaning of the root “to sin” is likely to be connected to the noun “sin/purification” offering in a denominative sense, although some would take it as a privative usage, “to remove sin.” The idea is clear enough: They performed all the ritual in order to purify themselves ceremonially.

⁴ tn Heb “taken.”

⁵ tn The infinitive construct in this sentence is from עָבַד (’avad), and so is the noun that serves as its object: to serve the service.

⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

⁷ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

⁸ tn Grk “serving.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but in keeping with contemporary English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁹ tn The genitive in the phrase τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ (to euangelion tou qeou, “the gospel of God”) could be translated as either a subjective genitive (“the gospel which God brings”) or an objective genitive (“the gospel about God”). Either is grammatically possible. This is possibly an instance of a plenary genitive (see ExSyn 119-21; M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek, §§36-39). If so, an interplay between the two concepts is intended: The gospel which God brings is in fact the gospel about himself.

¹⁰ tn Grk “so that the offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable.” This could be understood to refer to an offering belonging to the Gentiles (a possessive genitive) or made by the Gentiles (subjective genitive), but more likely the phrase should be understood as an appositive genitive, with the Gentiles themselves consisting of the offering (so J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC 38], 2:860). The latter view is reflected in the translation “so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering.”