2 Kings 5:10

5:10 Elisha sent out a messenger who told him, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan; your skin will be restored ¹  and you will be healed.”

2 Kings 5:14

5:14 So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. ²  His skin became as smooth as a young child’s ³  and he was healed.

Psalms 51:2

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ⁴ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ⁵ 

Psalms 51:2

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ⁶ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ⁷ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:8

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Hebrews 9:10

9:10 They served only for matters of food and drink ⁹  and various washings; they are external regulations ¹⁰  imposed until the new order came. ¹¹ 

Revelation 1:5

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ¹²  witness, ¹³  the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free ¹⁴  from our sins at the cost of ¹⁵  his own blood

[5:10]  ¹ tn Heb “will return to you.”

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “according to the word of the man of God.”

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “and his skin was restored, like the skin of a small child.”

[51:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ⁵ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ⁷ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[1:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[9:10]  ⁹ tn Grk “only for foods and drinks.”

[9:10]  ¹⁰ tc Most witnesses (D¹ Ï) have “various washings, and external regulations” (βαπτισμοῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν, baptismoi" kai dikaiwmasin), with both nouns in the dative. The translation “washings; they are… regulations” renders βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα (baptismoi", dikaiwmata; found in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א* A I P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sa) in which case δικαιώματα is taken as the nominative subject of the participle ἐπικείμενα (epikeimena). It seems far more likely that scribes would conform δικαιώματα to the immediately preceding datives and join it to them by καί than they would to the following nominative participle. Both on external and internal evidence the text is thus secure as reading βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα.

[9:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “until the time of setting things right.”

[1:5]  ¹² tn Or “Jesus Christ – the faithful one, the witness…” Some take ὁ πιστός (Jo pistos) as a second substantive in relation to ὁ μάρτυς (Jo martus). In the present translation, however, ὁ πιστός was taken as an adjective in attributive position to ὁ μάρτυς. The idea of martyrdom and faithfulness are intimately connected. See BDAG 820 s.v. πιστός 1.a.α: “ὁ μάρτυς μου ὁ πιστός μου Rv 2:13 (μάρτυς 3); in this ‘book of martyrs’ Christ is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς (καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός) 1:5; 3:14; cp. 19:11 (the combination of ἀληθινός and πιστός in the last two passages is like 3 Macc 2:11). Cp. Rv 17:14.”

[1:5]  ¹³ sn The Greek term translated witness can mean both “witness” and “martyr.”

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tc The reading “set free” (λύσαντι, lusanti) has better ms support (̹⁸ א A C 1611 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A sy) than its rival, λούσαντι (lousanti, “washed”; found in P 1006 1841 1854 2053 2062 Ï^K lat bo). Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar – a difference of only one letter – which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood” – a thought more tolerable in his mind. Both readings, of course, are true to scripture; the current question is what the author wrote in this verse.

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn The style here is somewhat Semitic, with the use of the ἐν (en) + the dative to mean “at the price of.” The addition of “own” in the English is stylistic and is an attempt to bring out the personal nature of the statement and the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ death – a frequent refrain in the Apocalypse.