Acts 16:23-25

16:23 After they had beaten them severely, ¹  they threw them into prison and commanded ²  the jailer to guard them securely. 16:24 Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell ³  and fastened their feet in the stocks. ⁴ 

16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying ⁵  and singing hymns to God, ⁶  and the rest of ⁷  the prisoners were listening to them.

Isaiah 61:10

61:10 I ⁸  will greatly rejoice ⁹  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ¹⁰ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ¹¹ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ¹² 

Isaiah 65:14

65:14 Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! ¹³ 

But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; ¹⁴ 

you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 66:5

66:5 Hear the word of the Lord,

you who respect what he has to say! ¹⁶ 

Your countrymen, ¹⁷  who hate you

and exclude you, supposedly for the sake of my name,

say, “May the Lord be glorified,

then we will witness your joy.” ¹⁸ 

But they will be put to shame.

Matthew 5:10-12

5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

5:11 “Blessed are you when people ¹⁹  insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely ²⁰  on account of me. 5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.

Luke 6:22

6:22 “Blessed are you when people ²¹  hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil ²²  on account of the Son of Man!

Romans 5:3

5:3 Not ²³  only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

Romans 5:2

5:2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice ²⁴  in the hope of God’s glory.

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ²⁵  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ²⁶  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Philippians 1:29

1:29 For it has been granted to you ²⁷  not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him,

Hebrews 10:34

10:34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, ²⁸  and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly ²⁹  had a better and lasting possession.

James 1:2

Joy in Trials

1:2 My brothers and sisters, ³⁰  consider it nothing but joy ³¹  when you fall into all sorts of trials,

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ³²  a slave ³³  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ³⁴  Greetings!

James 4:13-16

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ³⁵  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 4:14 You ³⁶  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ³⁷  For you are a puff of smoke ³⁸  that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 4:15 You ought to say instead, ³⁹  “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” 4:16 But as it is, ⁴⁰  you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

[16:23]  ¹ tn Grk “Having inflicted many blows on them.” The participle ἐπιθέντες (epiqente") has been taken temporally. BDAG 384 s.v. ἐπιτίθημι 1.a.β has “inflict blows upon someone” for this expression, but in this context it is simpler to translate in English as “they had beaten them severely.”

[16:23]  ² tn Grk “commanding.” The participle παραγγείλαντες (parangeilante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:24]  ³ tn Or “prison.”

[16:24]  ⁴ tn L&N 6.21 has “stocks” for εἰς τὸ ξύλον (ei" to xulon) here, as does BDAG 685 s.v. ξύλον 2.b. However, it is also possible (as mentioned in L&N 18.12) that this does not mean “stocks” but a block of wood (a log or wooden column) in the prison to which prisoners’ feet were chained or tied. Such a possibility is suggested by v. 26, where the “bonds” (“chains”?) of the prisoners loosened.

[16:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “praying, were singing.” The participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:25]  ⁶ sn Praying and singing hymns to God. Tertullian said, “The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven” (To the Martyrs 2; cf. Rom 5:3; Jas 1:2; 1 Pet 5:6). The presence of God means the potential to be free (cf. v. 26).

[16:25]  ⁷ tn The words “the rest of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[61:10]  ⁸ sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ⁹ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ¹² tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[65:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the good of the heart.”

[65:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from the pain of the heart.”

[65:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from the breaking of the spirit.”

[66:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who tremble at his word.”

[66:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “brothers” (so NASB, NIV); NRSV “Your own people”; NLT “Your close relatives.”

[66:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “so that we might witness your joy.” The point of this statement is unclear.

[5:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “when they insult you.” The third person pronoun (here implied in the verb ὀνειδίσωσιν [ojneidiswsin]) has no specific referent, but refers to people in general.

[5:11]  ²⁰ tc Although ψευδόμενοι (yeudomenoi, “bearing witness falsely”) could be a motivated reading, clarifying that the disciples are unjustly persecuted, its lack in only D it sy^s Tert does not help its case. Since the Western text is known for numerous free alterations, without corroborative evidence the shorter reading must be judged as secondary.

[6:22]  ²¹ tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.

[6:22]  ²² tn Or “disdain you”; Grk “cast out your name as evil.” The word “name” is used here as a figure of speech to refer to the person as a whole.

[5:3]  ²³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[5:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “exult, boast.”

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:29]  ²⁷ tn Grk “For that which is on behalf of Christ has been granted to you – namely, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him.” The infinitive phrases are epexegetical to the subject, τὸ ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ (to Juper Cristou), which has the force of “the on-behalf-of-Christ thing,” or “the thing on behalf of Christ.” To translate this in English requires a different idiom.

[10:34]  ²⁸ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א D² 1881 Ï), read δεσμοῖς μου (desmoi" mou, “my imprisonment”) here, a reading that is probably due to the widespread belief in the early Christian centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews (cf. Phil 1:7; Col 4:18). It may have been generated by the reading δεσμοῖς without the μου (so Ì⁴⁶ Ψ 104 pc), the force of which is so ambiguous (lit., “you shared the sufferings with the bonds”) as to be virtually nonsensical. Most likely, δεσμοῖς resulted when a scribe made an error in copying δεσμίοις (desmioi"), a reading which makes excellent sense (“[of] those in prison”) and is strongly supported by early and significant witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (A D* H 6 33 81 1739 lat sy co). Thus, δεσμίοις best explains the rise of the other readings on both internal and external grounds and is strongly preferred.

[10:34]  ²⁹ tn Grk “you yourselves.”

[1:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). Where the plural term is used in direct address, as here, “brothers and sisters” is used; where the term is singular and not direct address (as in v. 9), “believer” is preferred.

[1:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “all joy,” “full joy,” or “greatest joy.”

[1:1]  ³² tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ³³ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[4:13]  ³⁵ tn Or “city.”

[4:14]  ³⁶ tn Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ³⁷ tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

[4:14]  ³⁸ tn Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).

[4:15]  ³⁹ tn Grk “instead of your saying.”

[4:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “but now.”