Discovery Box1 Chronicles 29:17-18
Context29:17 I know, my God, that you examine thoughts 1 and are pleased with integrity. With pure motives 2 I contribute all this; and now I look with joy as your people who have gathered here contribute to you. 29:18 O Lord God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, maintain the motives of your people and keep them devoted to you. 3
Psalms 17:1
ContextA prayer of David.
17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! 5
Pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to the prayer
I sincerely offer! 6
Psalms 66:18-19
Context66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, 7
the Lord would not have listened.
66:19 However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
Proverbs 15:8
Context15:8 The Lord abhors 8 the sacrifices 9 of the wicked, 10
but the prayer 11 of the upright pleases him. 12
Acts 9:14
Context9:14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison 13 all who call on your name!” 14
Acts 9:1
Context9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats 15 to murder 16 the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest
Colossians 1:2
Context1:2 to the saints, the faithful 17 brothers and sisters 18 in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 19 from God our Father! 20
Colossians 1:1
Context1:1 From Paul, 21 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Colossians 2:8
Context2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you 22 through an empty, deceitful philosophy 23 that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits 24 of the world, and not according to Christ.
[29:17] 2 tn Heb “with integrity of heart.”
[29:18] 3 tn Heb “keep this permanently with respect to the motive of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and make firm their heart to you.”
[17:1] 4 sn Psalm 17. The psalmist asks God to intervene on his behalf because his life is threatened by dangerous enemies. He appeals to divine justice, for he is certain of his own innocence. Because he is innocent, he expects to encounter God and receive an assuring word.
[17:1] 5 tn Heb “hear,
[17:1] 6 tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”
[66:18] 7 tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”
[15:8] 8 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[15:8] 9 tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).
[15:8] 10 sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the
[15:8] 11 sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).
[15:8] 12 tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.
[9:14] 14 sn The expression “those who call on your name” is a frequent description of believers (Acts 2:21; 1 Cor 1:2; Rom 10:13).
[9:1] 15 tn Or “Saul, making dire threats.”
[9:1] 16 tn The expression “breathing out threats and murder” is an idiomatic expression for “making threats to murder” (see L&N 33.293). Although the two terms “threats” and “murder” are syntactically coordinate, the second is semantically subordinate to the first. In other words, the content of the threats is to murder the disciples.
[1:2] 17 tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.
[1:2] 18 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).
[1:2] 19 tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”
[1:2] 20 tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these
[1:1] 21 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
[2:8] 22 tn The Greek construction here is somewhat difficult and can be literally rendered “Be careful, lest someone shall be the one who takes you captive.”
[2:8] 23 tn The Greek reads τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης (th" filosofia" kai kenh" apath"). The two nouns φιλοσοφίας and κενῆς are joined by one article and probably form a hendiadys. Thus the second noun was taken as modifying the first, as the translation shows.
[2:8] 24 tn The phrase κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (kata ta stoiceia tou kosmou) is difficult to translate because of problems surrounding the precise meaning of στοιχεῖα in this context. Originally it referred to the letters of the alphabet, with the idea at its root of “things in a row”; see C. Vaughn, “Colossians,” EBC 11:198. M. J. Harris (Colossians and Philemon [EGGNT], 93) outlines three probable options: (1) the material elements which comprise the physical world; (2) the elementary teachings of the world (so NEB, NASB, NIV); (3) the elemental spirits of the world (so NEB, RSV). The first option is highly unlikely because Paul is not concerned here with the physical elements, e.g., carbon or nitrogen. The last two options are both possible. Though the Gnostic-like heresy at Colossae would undoubtedly have been regarded by Paul as an “elementary teaching” at best, because the idea of “spirits” played such a role in Gnostic thought, he may very well have had in mind elemental spirits that operated in the world or controlled the world (i.e., under God’s authority and permission).
