2:6 “I myself 1 have installed 2 my king
on Zion, my holy hill.”
45:7 You love 3 justice and hate evil. 4
For this reason God, your God 5 has anointed you 6
with the oil of joy, 7 elevating you above your companions. 8
61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has chosen 9 me. 10
He has commissioned 11 me to encourage 12 the poor,
to help 13 the brokenhearted,
to decree the release of captives,
and the freeing of prisoners,
4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed 14 me to proclaim good news 15 to the poor. 16
He has sent me 17 to proclaim release 18 to the captives
and the regaining of sight 19 to the blind,
to set free 20 those who are oppressed, 21
4:19 to proclaim the year 22 of the Lord’s favor.” 23
4:20 Then 24 he rolled up 25 the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on 26 him. 4:21 Then 27 he began to tell them, “Today 28 this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” 29
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, 37
and a righteous scepter 38 is the scepter of your kingdom.
1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions 39 with the oil of rejoicing.” 40
9:11 But now Christ has come 41 as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,
1 tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”
2 tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”
3 sn To love justice means to actively promote it.
4 sn To hate evil means to actively oppose it.
5 tn For other examples of the repetition of Elohim, “God,” see Pss 43:4; 48:8, 14; 50:7; 51:14; 67:7. Because the name Yahweh (“
6 sn Anointed you. When read in the light of the preceding context, the anointing is most naturally taken as referring to the king’s coronation. However, the following context (vv. 8-9) focuses on the wedding ceremony, so some prefer to see this anointing as part of the king’s preparations for the wedding celebration. Perhaps the reference to his anointing at his coronation facilitates the transition to the description of the wedding, for the king was also anointed on this occasion.
7 sn The phrase oil of joy alludes to the fact that the coronation of the king, which was ritually accomplished by anointing his head with olive oil, was a time of great celebration and renewed hope. (If one understands the anointing in conjunction with the wedding ceremony, the “joy” would be that associated with the marriage.) The phrase “oil of joy” also appears in Isa 61:3, where mourners are granted “oil of joy” in conjunction with their deliverance from oppression.
8 tn Heb “from your companions.” The “companions” are most naturally understood as others in the royal family or, more generally, as the king’s countrymen.
9 tn Heb “anointed,” i.e., designated to carry out an assigned task.
10 sn The speaker is not identified, but he is distinct from the Lord and from Zion’s suffering people. He possesses the divine spirit, is God’s spokesman, and is sent to release prisoners from bondage. The evidence suggests he is the Lord’s special servant, described earlier in the servant songs (see 42:1-4, 7; 49:2, 9; 50:4; see also 51:16).
11 tn Or “sent” (NAB); NCV “has appointed me.”
12 tn Or “proclaim good news to.”
13 tn Heb “to bind up [the wounds of].”
14 sn The phrase he has anointed me is an allusion back to Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3:21-22.
15 tn Grk “to evangelize,” “to preach the gospel.”
16 sn The poor is a key term in Luke. It refers to the pious poor and indicates Jesus’ desire to reach out to those the world tends to forget or mistreat. It is like 1:52 in force and also will be echoed in 6:20 (also 1 Pet 2:11-25). Jesus is commissioned to do this.
17 tc The majority of
18 sn The release in view here is comprehensive, both at a physical level and a spiritual one, as the entire ministry of Jesus makes clear (Luke 1:77-79; 7:47; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43).
19 sn Again, as with the previous phrase, regaining of sight may well mean more than simply miraculously restoring physical sight, which itself pictures a deeper reality (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).
20 sn The essence of Jesus’ messianic work is expressed in the phrase to set free. This line from Isa 58 says that Jesus will do what the nation had failed to do. It makes the proclamation messianic, not merely prophetic, because Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message – he brings the deliverance. The word translated set free is the same Greek word (ἄφεσις, afesi") translated release earlier in the verse.
21 sn Again, as with the previous phrases, oppressed may well mean more than simply political or economic oppression, but a deeper reality of oppression by sin (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).
22 sn The year of the Lord’s favor (Grk “the acceptable year of the Lord”) is a description of the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:10). The year of the total forgiveness of debt is now turned into a metaphor for salvation. Jesus had come to proclaim that God was ready to forgive sin totally.
23 sn A quotation from Isa 61:1-2a. Within the citation is a line from Isa 58:6, with its reference to setting the oppressed free.
24 tn Grk “And closing.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
25 tn Grk “closing,” but a scroll of this period would have to be rolled up. The participle πτύξας (ptuxas) has been translated as a finite verb due to the requirements of contemporary English style.
26 tn Or “gazing at,” “staring at.”
27 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
28 sn See the note on today in 2:11.
29 tn Grk “in your hearing.”
30 tc Most witnesses (א* L Ws Ï) read πρῶτος (prwtos) here instead of πρῶτον (prwton). The former reading would be a predicate adjective and suggest that Andrew “was the first” person to proselytize another regarding Jesus. The reading preferred, however, is the neuter πρῶτον, used as an adverb (BDAG 893 s.v. πρῶτος 1.a.β.), and it suggests that the first thing that Andrew did was to proselytize Peter. The evidence for this reading is early and weighty: Ì66,75 א2 A B Θ Ψ 083 Ë1,13 892 al lat.
31 sn Naturally part of Andrew’s concept of the Messiah would have been learned from John the Baptist (v. 40). However, there were a number of different messianic expectations in 1st century Palestine (see the note on “Who are you?” in v. 19), and it would be wrong to assume that what Andrew meant here is the same thing the author means in the purpose statement at the end of the Fourth Gospel, 20:31. The issue here is not whether the disciples’ initial faith in Jesus as Messiah was genuine or not, but whether their concept of who Jesus was grew and developed progressively as they spent time following him, until finally after his resurrection it is affirmed in the climactic statement of John’s Gospel, the affirmation of Thomas in 20:28.
32 tn Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “the one who has been anointed.”
33 tn That is, Christ.
34 tn Grk “for not by measure does he give the Spirit” (an idiom). Leviticus Rabbah 15:2 states: “The Holy Spirit rested on the prophets by measure.” Jesus is contrasted to this. The Spirit rests upon him without measure.
35 tn Or “to.”
36 tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.
37 tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.
38 tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.
39 sn God…has anointed you over your companions. God’s anointing gives the son a superior position and authority over his fellows.
40 sn A quotation from Ps 45:6-7.
41 tn Grk “But Christ, when he came,” introducing a sentence that includes all of Heb 9:11-12. The main construction is “Christ, having come…, entered…, having secured…,” and everything else describes his entrance.