2 Corinthians 4:13-14

4:13 But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in ¹  what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” ²  we also believe, therefore we also speak. 4:14 We do so ³  because we know that the one who raised up Jesus ⁴  will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The Valley of Dry Bones

37:1 The hand ⁵  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ⁶  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. 37:2 He made me walk all around among them. ⁷  I realized ⁸  there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry. 37:3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” 37:4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 37:5 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath ⁹  into you and you will live. 37:6 I will put tendons ¹⁰  on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath ¹¹  in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard ¹²  a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 37:8 As I watched, I saw ¹³  tendons on them, then muscles appeared, ¹⁴  and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath ¹⁵  in them.

37:9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, ¹⁶  – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 37:10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.

37:11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ 37:12 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel. 37:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. 37:14 I will place my breath ¹⁷  in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”

Romans 4:17-25

4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ¹⁸  He is our father ¹⁹  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ²⁰  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ²¹  4:18 Against hope Abraham ²²  believed ²³  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ²⁴  according to the pronouncement, ²⁵  “so will your descendants be.” ²⁶  4:19 Without being weak in faith, he considered ²⁷  his own body as dead ²⁸  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 4:20 He ²⁹  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 4:21 He was ³⁰  fully convinced that what God ³¹  promised he was also able to do. 4:22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham ³²  as righteousness.

4:23 But the statement it was credited to him ³³  was not written only for Abraham’s ³⁴  sake, 4:24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 4:25 He ³⁵  was given over ³⁶  because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of ³⁷  our justification. ³⁸ 

Hebrews 11:19

11:19 and he reasoned ³⁹  that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense ⁴⁰  he received him back from there.

[4:13]  ¹ tn Grk “spirit of faith according to.”

[4:13]  ² sn A quotation from Ps 116:10.

[4:14]  ³ tn Grk “speak, because.” A new sentence was started here in the translation, with the words “We do so” supplied to preserve the connection with the preceding statement.

[4:14]  ⁴ tc ‡ Several important witnesses (א C D F G Ψ 1881), as well as the Byzantine text, add κύριον (kurion) here, changing the reading to “the Lord Jesus.” Although the external evidence in favor of the shorter reading is slim, the witnesses are important, early, and diverse (Ì⁴⁶ B [0243 33] 629 [630] 1175* [1739] pc r sa). Very likely scribes with pietistic motives added the word κύριον, as they were prone to do, thus compounding this title for the Lord.

[37:1]  ⁵ tn Or “power.”

[37:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “caused me to rest.”

[37:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”

[37:2]  ⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and is here translated as “I realized” because it results from Ezekiel’s recognition of the situation around him. In Hebrew, the exclamation is repeated in the following sentence.

[37:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “I am about to bring a spirit.”

[37:6]  ¹⁰ tn The exact physiological meaning of the term is uncertain. In addition to v. 8, the term occurs only in Gen 32:33; Job 10:11; 40:17; and Jer 48:4.

[37:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “a spirit.”

[37:7]  ¹² tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “came up.”

[37:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “spirit.”

[37:9]  ¹⁶ tn Or “spirit,” and several times in this verse.

[37:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “spirit.” This is likely an allusion to Gen 2 and God’s breath which creates life.

[4:17]  ¹⁸ tn Verses 16-17 comprise one sentence in Greek, but this has been divided into two sentences due to English requirements.

[4:17]  ¹⁹ tn The words “He is our father” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to show that they resume Paul’s argument from 16b. (It is also possible to supply “Abraham had faith” here [so REB], taking the relative clause [“who is the father of us all”] as part of the parenthesis, and making the connection back to “the faith of Abraham,” but such an option is not as likely [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:243].)

[4:17]  ²⁰ tn “The God” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

[4:17]  ²¹ tn Or “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The translation of ὡς ὄντα (Jw" onta) allows for two different interpretations. If it has the force of result, then creatio ex nihilo is in view and the variant rendering is to be accepted (so C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:244). A problem with this view is the scarcity of ὡς plus participle to indicate result (though for the telic idea with ὡς plus participle, cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Thess 2:4). If it has a comparative force, then the translation given in the text is to be accepted: “this interpretation fits the immediate context better than a reference to God’s creative power, for it explains the assurance with which God can speak of the ‘many nations’ that will be descended from Abraham” (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 282; so also W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans [ICC], 113). Further, this view is in line with a Pauline idiom, viz., verb followed by ὡς plus participle (of the same verb or, in certain contexts, its antonym) to compare present reality with what is not a present reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:7; 5:3; 7:29, 30 (three times), 31; Col 2:20 [similarly, 2 Cor 6:9, 10]).

[4:18]  ²² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ²³ tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:18]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

[4:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

[4:18]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

[4:19]  ²⁷ tc Most mss (D F G Ψ 33 1881 Ï it) read “he did not consider” by including the negative particle (οὐ, ou), but others (א A B C 6 81 365 1506 1739 pc co) lack οὐ. The reading which includes the negative particle probably represents a scribal attempt to exalt the faith of Abraham by making it appear that his faith was so strong that he did not even consider the physical facts. But “here Paul does not wish to imply that faith means closing one’s eyes to reality, but that Abraham was so strong in faith as to be undaunted by every consideration” (TCGNT 451). Both on external and internal grounds, the reading without the negative particle is preferred.

[4:19]  ²⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A C D Ψ 33 Ï bo) have ἤδη (hdh, “already”) at this point in v. 19. But B F G 630 1739 1881 pc lat sa lack it. Since it appears to heighten the style of the narrative and since there is no easy accounting for an accidental omission, it is best to regard the shorter text as original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:20]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[4:21]  ³⁰ tn Grk “and being.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:21]  ³¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:22]  ³² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:23]  ³³ tn A quotation from Gen 15:6.

[4:23]  ³⁴ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:25]  ³⁵ tn Grk “who,” referring to Jesus. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:25]  ³⁶ tn Or “handed over.”

[4:25]  ³⁷ tn Grk “because of.” However, in light of the unsatisfactory sense that a causal nuance would here suggest, it has been argued that the second διά (dia) is prospective rather than retrospective (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 288-89). The difficulty of this interpretation is the structural balance that both διά phrases provide (“given over because of our transgressions…raised because of our justification”). However the poetic structure of this verse strengthens the likelihood that the clauses each have a different force.

[4:25]  ³⁸ sn Many scholars regard Rom 4:25 to be poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage.

[11:19]  ³⁹ tn Grk “having reasoned,” continuing the ideas of v. 17.

[11:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “in/by a symbol.”