1 Kings 19:3-4

19:3 Elijah was afraid, ¹  so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there, 19:4 while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub ²  and asked the Lord to take his life: ³  “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” ⁴ 

John 1:2-3

1:2 The Word ⁵  was with God in the beginning. 1:3 All things were created ⁶  by him, and apart from him not one thing was created ⁷  that has been created. ⁸ 

John 4:2-3

4:2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ⁹  4:3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee. ¹⁰ 

Luke 9:62

9:62 Jesus ¹¹  said to him, “No one who puts his ¹²  hand to the plow and looks back ¹³  is fit for the kingdom of God.” ¹⁴ 

Acts 15:37-38

15:37 Barnabas wanted to bring John called Mark along with them too, 15:38 but Paul insisted ¹⁵  that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia ¹⁶  and had not accompanied them in the work.

[19:3]  ¹ tc The MT has “and he saw,” but some medieval Hebrew mss as well as several ancient versions support the reading “he was afraid.” The consonantal text (וַיַּרְא, vayyar’) is ambiguous and can be vocalized וַיַּרְא (from רָאָה, ra’ah, “to see”) or וַיִּרָא (vayyira’, from יָרֵא, yare’, “to fear”).

[19:4]  ² tn Or “broom tree” (also in v. 5).

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “and asked with respect to his life to die.”

[19:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the Word) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Or “made”; Grk “came into existence.”

[1:3]  ⁷ tn Or “made”; Grk “nothing came into existence.”

[1:3]  ⁸ tc There is a major punctuation problem here: Should this relative clause go with v. 3 or v. 4? The earliest mss have no punctuation (Ì^66,75* א* A B Δ al). Many of the later mss which do have punctuation place it before the phrase, thus putting it with v. 4 (Ì^75c C D L W^s 050* pc). NA²⁵ placed the phrase in v. 3; NA²⁶ moved the words to the beginning of v. 4. In a detailed article K. Aland defended the change (“Eine Untersuchung zu Johannes 1, 3-4. Über die Bedeutung eines Punktes,” ZNW 59 [1968]: 174-209). He sought to prove that the attribution of ὃ γέγονεν (}o gegonen) to v. 3 began to be carried out in the 4th century in the Greek church. This came out of the Arian controversy, and was intended as a safeguard for doctrine. The change was unknown in the West. Aland is probably correct in affirming that the phrase was attached to v. 4 by the Gnostics and the Eastern Church; only when the Arians began to use the phrase was it attached to v. 3. But this does not rule out the possibility that, by moving the words from v. 4 to v. 3, one is restoring the original reading. Understanding the words as part of v. 3 is natural and adds to the emphasis which is built up there, while it also gives a terse, forceful statement in v. 4. On the other hand, taking the phrase ὃ γέγονεν with v. 4 gives a complicated expression: C. K. Barrett says that both ways of understanding v. 4 with ὃ γέγονεν included “are almost impossibly clumsy” (St. John, 157): “That which came into being – in it the Word was life”; “That which came into being – in the Word was its life.” The following stylistic points should be noted in the solution of this problem: (1) John frequently starts sentences with ἐν (en); (2) he repeats frequently (“nothing was created that has been created”); (3) 5:26 and 6:53 both give a sense similar to v. 4 if it is understood without the phrase; (4) it makes far better Johannine sense to say that in the Word was life than to say that the created universe (what was made, ὃ γέγονεν) was life in him. In conclusion, the phrase is best taken with v. 3. Schnackenburg, Barrett, Carson, Haenchen, Morris, KJV, and NIV concur (against Brown, Beasley-Murray, and NEB). The arguments of R. Schnackenburg, St. John, 1:239-40, are particularly persuasive.

[4:2]  ⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[4:3]  ¹⁰ sn The author doesn’t tell why Jesus chose to set out once more for Galilee. Some have suggested that the Pharisees turned their attention to Jesus because John the Baptist had now been thrown into prison. But the text gives no hint of this. In any case, perhaps Jesus simply did not want to provoke a confrontation at this time (knowing that his “hour” had not yet come).

[9:62]  ¹¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[9:62]  ¹² tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[9:62]  ¹³ sn Jesus warns that excessive concern for family ties (looks back) will make the kingdom a lesser priority, which is not appropriate for discipleship. The image is graphic, for who can plow straight ahead toward a goal while looking back? Discipleship cannot be double-minded.

[9:62]  ¹⁴ sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21.

[15:38]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 94 s.v. ἀξιόω 2.a has “he insisted (impf.) that they should not take him along” for this phrase.

[15:38]  ¹⁶ sn Pamphylia was a province in the southern part of Asia Minor. See Acts 13:13, where it was mentioned previously.