1 Corinthians 1:20

1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? ¹  Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?

John 8:23

8:23 Jesus replied, ²  “You people ³  are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world.

John 15:19

15:19 If you belonged to the world, ⁴  the world would love you as its own. ⁵  However, because you do not belong to the world, ⁶  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ⁷  the world hates you. ⁸ 

John 17:6

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

17:6 “I have revealed ⁹  your name to the men ¹⁰  you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, ¹¹  and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed ¹²  your word.

John 17:9

17:9 I am praying ¹³  on behalf of them. I am not praying ¹⁴  on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they belong to you. ¹⁵ 

John 17:15-16

17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe ¹⁶  from the evil one. ¹⁷  17:16 They do not belong to the world ¹⁸  just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁹ 

John 17:2

17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, ²⁰  so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. ²¹ 

Colossians 4:4

4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ²² 

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ²³  you formerly lived ²⁴  according to this world’s present path, ²⁵  according to the ruler of the kingdom ²⁶  of the air, the ruler of ²⁷  the spirit ²⁸  that is now energizing ²⁹  the sons of disobedience, ³⁰ 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ³¹  dead ³²  in your transgressions and sins,

Ephesians 4:5

4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Ephesians 4:7

4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

[1:20]  ¹ tn Grk “the scribe.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the Mosaic law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[8:23]  ² tn Grk “And he said to them.”

[8:23]  ³ tn The word “people” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[15:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ⁵ tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ⁷ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ⁸ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.

[17:6]  ⁹ tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”

[17:6]  ¹⁰ tn Here “men” is retained as a translation for ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") rather than the more generic “people” because in context it specifically refers to the eleven men Jesus had chosen as apostles (Judas had already departed, John 13:30). If one understands the referent here to be the broader group of Jesus’ followers that included both men and women, a translation like “to the people” should be used here instead.

[17:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Yours they were.”

[17:6]  ¹² tn Or “have kept.”

[17:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “I am asking.”

[17:9]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “I am not asking.”

[17:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “because they are yours.”

[17:15]  ¹⁶ tn Or “that you protect them”; Grk “that you keep them.”

[17:15]  ¹⁷ tn The phrase “the evil one” is a reference to Satan. The genitive noun τοῦ πονηροῦ (tou ponhrou) is ambiguous with regard to gender: It may represent the neuter τὸ πονηρόν (to ponhron), “that which is evil,” or the masculine ὁ πονηρός (Jo ponhro"), “the evil one,” i.e., Satan. In view of the frequent use of the masculine in 1 John 2:13-14, 3:12, and 5:18-19 it seems much more probable that the masculine is to be understood here, and that Jesus is praying for his disciples to be protected from Satan. Cf. BDAG 851 s.v. πονηρός 1.b.β and 1.b.γ.

[17:16]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “they are not of the world.” This is a repetition of the second half of v. 14. The only difference is in word order: Verse 14 has οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου (ouk eisin ek tou kosmou), while here the prepositional phrase is stated first: ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσίν (ek tou kosmou ouk eisin). This gives additional emphasis to the idea of the prepositional phrase, i.e., origin, source, or affiliation.

[17:16]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”

[17:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”

[4:4]  ²² tn The phrase begins with the ἵνα (Jina) clause and is subordinate to the imperative προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite) in v. 2. The reference to the idea that Paul must make it known indicates that this clause is probably best viewed as purpose and not content, like the ἵνα of v. 3. It is the second purpose stated in the context; the first is expressed through the infinitive λαλῆσαι (lalhsai) in v. 3. The term “pray” at the beginning of the sentence is intended to pick up the imperative of v. 3.

[2:2]  ²³ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ²⁸ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ³⁰ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[2:1]  ³¹ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ³² sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.