102:24 I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! 1
You endure through all generations. 2
102:25 In earlier times you established the earth;
the skies are your handiwork.
102:26 They will perish,
but you will endure. 3
They will wear out like a garment;
like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. 4
102:27 But you remain; 5
your years do not come to an end.
102:28 The children of your servants will settle down here,
and their descendants 6 will live securely in your presence.” 7
104:5 He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be upended.
119:90 You demonstrate your faithfulness to all generations. 8
You established the earth and it stood firm.
119:91 Today they stand firm by your decrees,
for all things are your servants.
3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy 15 to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 16 3:12 His winnowing fork 17 is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, 18 but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” 19
3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. 20
1 tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”
2 tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”
3 tn Heb “stand.”
4 tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.
5 tn Heb “you [are] he,” or “you [are] the one.” The statement may echo the
6 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
7 tn Heb “before you will be established.”
8 tn Heb “to a generation and a generation [is] your faithfulness.”
9 sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.
10 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.
11 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
12 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in
13 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”
14 sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.
15 tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”
16 sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.
17 sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.
18 tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).
19 sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.
20 tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.