Acts 13:36-37

13:36 For David, after he had served ¹  God’s purpose in his own generation, died, ²  was buried with his ancestors, ³  and experienced ⁴  decay, 13:37 but the one ⁵  whom God raised up did not experience ⁶  decay.

Acts 13:1

The Church at Antioch Commissions Barnabas and Saul

13:1 Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: ⁷  Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, ⁸  Lucius the Cyrenian, ⁹  Manaen (a close friend of Herod ¹⁰  the tetrarch ¹¹  from childhood ¹² ) and Saul.

Colossians 3:5

3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: ¹³  sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, ¹⁴  evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:2

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

Colossians 3:7-11

3:7 You also lived your lives ¹⁵  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. 3:8 But now, put off all such things ¹⁶  as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. 3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices 3:10 and have been clothed with the new man ¹⁷  that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. 3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave ¹⁸  or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Colossians 1:18

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ¹⁹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ²⁰ 

Hebrews 3:2-6

3:2 who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s ²¹  house. ²²  3:3 For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s ²³  house ²⁴  as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. 3:6 But Christ ²⁵  is faithful as a son over God’s ²⁶  house. We are of his house, ²⁷  if in fact we hold firmly ²⁸  to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. ²⁹ 

[13:36]  ¹ tn The participle ὑπηρετήσας (Juphrethsa") is taken temporally.

[13:36]  ² tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.

[13:36]  ³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “was gathered to his fathers” (a Semitic idiom).

[13:36]  ⁴ tn Grk “saw,” but the literal translation of the phrase “saw decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “looked at decay,” while here “saw decay” is really figurative for “experienced decay.” This remark explains why David cannot fulfill the promise.

[13:37]  ⁵ sn The one whom God raised up refers to Jesus.

[13:37]  ⁶ tn Grk “see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “did not see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “did not look at decay,” while here “did not see decay” is really figurative for “did not experience decay.”

[13:1]  ⁷ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia).

[13:1]  ⁸ sn Simeon may well have been from North Africa, since the Latin loanword Niger refers to someone as “dark-complexioned.”

[13:1]  ⁹ sn The Cyrenian refers to a native of the city of Cyrene, on the coast of northern Africa west of Egypt.

[13:1]  ¹⁰ sn Herod is generally taken as a reference to Herod Antipas, who governed Galilee from 4 b.c. to a.d. 39, who had John the Baptist beheaded, and who is mentioned a number of times in the gospels.

[13:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “the governor.”

[13:1]  ¹² tn Or “(a foster brother of Herod the tetrarch).” The meaning “close friend from childhood” is given by L&N 34.15, but the word can also mean “foster brother” (L&N 10.51). BDAG 976 s.v. σύντροφας states, “pert. to being brought up with someone, either as a foster-brother or as a companion/friend,” which covers both alternatives. Context does not given enough information to be certain which is the case here, although many modern translations prefer the meaning “close friend from childhood.”

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “lust.”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).

[3:8]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”

[3:10]  ¹⁷ sn Put off all such things. The commands in vv. 8-9 are based on two reasons given in vv. 9-10 – reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (v. 9) and “have been clothed” (v. 10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion – they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. 1:4). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of v. 10 indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Rom 13:14).

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

[1:18]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

[3:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:2]  ²² tc ‡ The reading adopted by the translation follows a few early mss and some versions (Ì^13,46vid B vg^ms co Ambr). The majority of mss (א A C D Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy) insert “all” (“in all his house”), apparently in anticipation of Heb 3:5 which quotes directly from Num 12:7. On balance, the omission better explains the rise of ὅλῳ ({olw, “all”) than vice versa. NA²⁷ puts ὅλῳ in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[3:5]  ²³ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:5]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Num 12:7.

[3:6]  ²⁵ sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.

[3:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:6]  ²⁷ tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.

[3:6]  ²⁸ tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì^13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of mss (א A C D Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï latt) add μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν (mecri telou" bebaian, “secure until the end”). The external evidence for the omission, though minimal, has excellent credentials. Considering the internal factors, B. M. Metzger (TCGNT 595) finds it surprising that the feminine adjective βεβαίαν should modify the neuter noun καύχημα (kauchma, here translated “we take pride”), a fact that suggests that even the form of the word was borrowed from another place. Since the same phrase occurs at Heb 3:14, it is likely that later scribes added it here at Heb 3:6 in anticipation of Heb 3:14. While these words belong at 3:14, they seem foreign to 3:6.

[3:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”