Romans 1:7

1:7 To all those loved by God in Rome, ¹  called to be saints: ²  Grace and peace to you ³  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Romans 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁴  a slave ⁵  of Christ Jesus, ⁶  called to be an apostle, ⁷  set apart for the gospel of God. ⁸ 

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁹  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Genesis 43:23

43:23 “Everything is fine,” ¹⁰  the man in charge of Joseph’s household told them. “Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. ¹¹  I had your money.” ¹²  Then he brought Simeon out to them.

Genesis 43:1

The Second Journey to Egypt

43:1 Now the famine was severe in the land. ¹³ 

Genesis 25:6

25:6 But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines ¹⁴  and sent them off to the east, away from his son Isaac. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 122:6-9

122:6 Pray ¹⁶  for the peace of Jerusalem!

May those who love her prosper! ¹⁷ 

122:7 May there be peace inside your defenses,

and prosperity ¹⁸  inside your fortresses! ¹⁹ 

122:8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors

I will say, “May there be peace in you!”

122:9 For the sake of the temple of the Lord our God

I will pray for you to prosper. ²⁰ 

John 14:27

14:27 “Peace I leave with you; ²¹  my peace I give to you; I do not give it ²²  to you as the world does. ²³  Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. ²⁴ 

Galatians 6:16

6:16 And all who will behave ²⁵  in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God. ²⁶ 

Galatians 6:1

Support One Another

6:1 Brothers and sisters, ²⁷  if a person ²⁸  is discovered in some sin, ²⁹  you who are spiritual ³⁰  restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. ³¹  Pay close attention ³²  to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.

Galatians 5:14

5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, ³³  namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” ³⁴ 

Revelation 1:4

1:4 From John, ³⁵  to the seven churches that are in the province of Asia: ³⁶  Grace and peace to you ³⁷  from “he who is,” ³⁸  and who was, and who is still to come, ³⁹  and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

¹ map For location see JP4-A1.

² tn Although the first part of v. 7 is not a complete English sentence, it maintains the “From…to” pattern used in all the Pauline letters to indicate the sender and the recipients. Here, however, there are several intervening verses (vv. 2-6), which makes the first half of v. 7 appear as an isolated sentence fragment.

³ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

⁴ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

⁵ tn Traditionally, “servant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

⁶ tc Many important mss, as well as several others (̲⁶ א A G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï), have a reversed order of these words and read “Jesus Christ” rather than “Christ Jesus” (̹⁰ B 81 pc). The meaning is not affected in either case, but the reading “Christ Jesus” is preferred as slightly more difficult and thus more likely the original (a scribe who found it would be prone to change it to the more common expression). At the same time, Paul is fond of the order “Christ Jesus,” especially in certain letters such as Romans, Galatians, and Philippians. As well, the later Pauline letters almost uniformly use this order in the salutations. A decision is difficult, but “Christ Jesus” is slightly preferred.

⁷ tn Grk “a called apostle.”

⁸ tn The genitive in the phrase εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ (euangelion qeou, “the gospel of God”) could be translated as (1) a subjective genitive (“the gospel which God brings”) or (2) 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. However, in view of God’s action in v. 2 concerning this gospel, a subjective genitive notion (“the gospel which God brings”) is slightly preferred.

⁹ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said, ‘peace to you.’” Here the statement has the force of “everything is fine,” or perhaps even “calm down.” The referent of “he” (the man in charge of Joseph’ household) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged for stylistic reasons.

¹¹ sn Your God and the God of your father…This is the first clear reference in the story to the theme of divine providence – that God works through the human actions to do his will.

¹² tn Heb “your money came to me.”

¹³ tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that is important to the storyline.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the sons of the concubines who [belonged] to Abraham.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “And he sent them away from upon Isaac his son, while he was still living, eastward to the land of the east.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “ask [for].”

¹⁷ tn Or “be secure.”

¹⁸ tn or “security.”

¹⁹ tn The psalmist uses second feminine singular pronominal forms to address personified Jerusalem.

²⁰ tn Heb “I will seek good for you.” The psalmist will seek Jerusalem’s “good” through prayer.

²¹ sn Peace I leave with you. In spite of appearances, this verse does not introduce a new subject (peace). Jesus will use the phrase as a greeting to his disciples after his resurrection (20:19, 21, 26). It is here a reflection of the Hebrew shalom as a farewell. But Jesus says he leaves peace with his disciples. This should probably be understood ultimately in terms of the indwelling of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who has been the topic of the preceding verses. It is his presence, after Jesus has left the disciples and finally returned to the Father, which will remain with them and comfort them.

²² tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

²³ tn Grk “not as the world gives do I give to you.”

²⁴ tn Or “distressed or fearful and cowardly.”

²⁵ tn The same Greek verb, στοιχέω (stoicew), occurs in Gal 5:25.

²⁶ tn The word “and” (καί) can be interpreted in two ways: (1) It could be rendered as “also” which would indicate that two distinct groups are in view, namely “all who will behave in accordance with this rule” and “the Israel of God.” Or (2) it could be rendered “even,” which would indicate that “all who behave in accordance with this rule” are “the Israel of God.” In other words, in this latter view, “even” = “that is.”

²⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

²⁸ tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense, referring to both men and women.

²⁹ tn Or “some transgression” (L&N 88.297).

³⁰ sn Who are spiritual refers to people who are controlled and directed by God’s Spirit.

³¹ tn Or “with a gentle spirit” or “gently.”

³² tn Grk “taking careful notice.”

³³ tn Or “can be fulfilled in one commandment.”

³⁴ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

³⁵ tn Grk “John.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

³⁶ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

³⁷ tn It is probable that the ὑμῖν (Jumin) applies to both elements of the greeting, i.e., to both grace and peace.

³⁸ tc The earliest and best mss (Ì^18vid א A C P 2050 al lat sy co) lack the term “God” (θεοῦ, qeou) between “from” (ἀπό, apo) and “he who is” (ὁ ὤν, Jo wn). Its inclusion, as supported by the bulk of the Byzantine witnesses, is clearly secondary and a scribal attempt to achieve two things: (1) to make explicit the referent in the passage, namely, God, and (2) to smooth out the grammar. The preposition “from” in Greek required a noun in the genitive case. But here in Rev 1:4 the words following the preposition “from” (ἀπό) are in another case, i.e., the nominative. There are two principal ways in which to deal with this grammatical anomaly. First, it could be a mistake arising from someone who just did not know Greek very well, or as a Jew, was heavily influenced by a Semitic form of Greek. Both of these unintentional errors are unlikely here. Commenting on this ExSyn 63 argues: “Either of these is doubtful here because (1) such a flagrant misunderstanding of the rudiments of Greek would almost surely mean that the author could not compose in Greek, yet the Apocalypse itself argues against this; (2) nowhere else does the Seer [i.e., John] use a nom. immediately after a preposition (in fact, he uses ἀπό 32 times with the gen. immediately following).” The passage appears to be an allusion to Exod 3:14 (in the LXX) where God refers to himself as “he who is” (ὁ ὤν), the same wording in Greek as here in Rev 1:4. Thus, it appears that John is wanting to leave the divine name untouched (perhaps to allude to God’s immutability, or as a pointer to the Old Testament as the key to unlocking the meaning of this book), irrespective of what it “looks” like grammatically. The translation has placed the “he who is” in quotation marks to indicate to the reader that the syntactical awkwardness is intentional. (For further comments, see ExSyn 63).

³⁹ tn BDAG 106 s.v. ἀπό 5.d states: “The expr. εἰρήνη ἀπὸ ‘ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος’ Rv 1:4 is quite extraordinary. It may be an interpretation of the name Yahweh already current, or an attempt to show reverence for the divine name by preserving it unchanged, or simply one more of the grammatical peculiarities so frequent in Rv.”