Acts 13:43

13:43 When the meeting of the synagogue ¹  had broken up, ²  many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes ³  followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading ⁴  them ⁵  to continue ⁶  in the grace of God.

Acts 14:22

14:22 They strengthened ⁷  the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue ⁸  in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom ⁹  of God through many persecutions.” ¹⁰ 

John 8:31-32

Abraham’s Children and the Devil’s Children

8:31 Then Jesus said to those Judeans ¹¹  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ¹²  you are really ¹³  my disciples 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ¹⁴ 

John 15:4

15:4 Remain ¹⁵  in me, and I will remain in you. ¹⁶  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ¹⁷  unless it remains ¹⁸  in ¹⁹  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ²⁰  in me.

John 15:1

The Vine and the Branches

15:1 “I am the true vine ²¹  and my Father is the gardener. ²² 

John 3:2-5

3:2 came to Jesus ²³  at night ²⁴  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ²⁵  that you do unless God is with him.” 3:3 Jesus replied, ²⁶  “I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁷  unless a person is born from above, ²⁸  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ²⁹  3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ³⁰ 

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³¹  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ³²  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 10:19-26

Drawing Near to God in Enduring Faith

10:19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, ³³  since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 10:20 by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us ³⁴  through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ³⁵  10:21 and since we have a great priest ³⁶  over the house of God, 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ³⁷  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ³⁸  and our bodies washed in pure water. 10:23 And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. 10:24 And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, ³⁹  10:25 not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day ⁴⁰  drawing near. ⁴¹ 

10:26 For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, ⁴² 

Hebrews 10:32-39

10:32 But remember the former days when you endured a harsh conflict of suffering after you were enlightened. 10:33 At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way. 10:34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, ⁴³  and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly ⁴⁴  had a better and lasting possession. 10:35 So do not throw away your confidence, because it ⁴⁵  has great reward. 10:36 For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised. ⁴⁶  10:37 For just a little longer ⁴⁷  and he who is coming will arrive and not delay. ⁴⁸  10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I ⁴⁹  take no pleasure in him. ⁵⁰  10:39 But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls. ⁵¹ 

Hebrews 10:2

10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have ⁵²  no further consciousness of sin?

Hebrews 3:17-18

3:17 And against whom was God ⁵³  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ⁵⁴  3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

Hebrews 3:1

Jesus and Moses

3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, ⁵⁵  partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, ⁵⁶ 

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

[13:43]  ¹ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[13:43]  ² tn BDAG 607 s.v. λύω 3 has “λυθείσης τ. συναγωγῆς when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up Ac 13:43.”

[13:43]  ³ tn Normally the phrase σεβόμενοι τὸν θεόν (sebomenoi ton qeon) refers to Gentiles (“God-fearers”) who believed in God, attended the synagogue, and followed the Mosaic law to some extent, but stopped short of undergoing circumcision. BDAG 918 s.v. σέβω 1.b lists in this category references in Acts 16:14; 18:7; with σεβόμενοι alone, Acts 13:50; 17:4, 17; the phrase is also found in Josephus, Ant. 14.7.2 (14.110). Unique to this particular verse is the combination σεβόμενοι προσηλύτων (sebomenoi proshlutwn). Later rabbinic discussion suggests that to be regarded as a proper proselyte, a Gentile male had to submit to circumcision. If that is the case here, these Gentiles in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch should be regarded as full proselytes who had converted completely to Judaism and undergone circumcision. It is probably more likely, however, that προσηλύτων is used here in a somewhat looser sense (note the use of σεβομένας [sebomena"] alone to refer to women in Acts 13:50) and that these Gentiles were still in the category commonly called “God-fearers” without being full, technical proselytes to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 743-44. Regardless, the point is that many Gentiles, as well as Jews, came to faith.

[13:43]  ⁴ tn This is the meaning given for ἔπειθον (epeiqon) in this verse by BDAG 791 s.v. πείθω 1.b.

[13:43]  ⁵ tn Grk “who, as they were speaking with them, were persuading them.”

[13:43]  ⁶ tn The verb προμένειν (promenein) is similar in force to the use of μένω (menw, “to reside/remain”) in the Gospel and Epistles of John.

[14:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “to Antioch, strengthening.” Due to the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here. This participle (ἐπιστηρίζοντες, episthrizonte") and the following one (παρακαλοῦντες, parakalounte") have been translated as finite verbs connected by the coordinating conjunction “and.”

[14:22]  ⁸ sn And encouraged them to continue. The exhortations are like those noted in Acts 11:23; 13:43. An example of such a speech is found in Acts 20:18-35. Christianity is now characterized as “the faith.”

[14:22]  ⁹ sn This reference to the kingdom of God clearly refers to its future arrival.

[14:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or “sufferings.”

[8:31]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., “Judeans”), the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9; also BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, “those Judeans who had believed him.” The term “Judeans” is preferred here to the more general “people” because the debate concerns descent from Abraham (v. 33).

[8:31]  ¹² tn Grk “If you continue in my word.”

[8:31]  ¹³ tn Or “truly.”

[8:32]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the truth will release you.” The translation “set you free” or “release you” (unlike the more traditional “make you free”) conveys more the idea that the hearers were currently in a state of slavery from which they needed to be freed. The following context supports precisely this idea.

[15:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “and I in you.” The verb has been repeated for clarity and to conform to contemporary English style, which typically allows fewer ellipses (omitted or understood words) than Greek.

[15:4]  ¹⁷ sn The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains connected to the vine, from which its life and sustenance flows. As far as the disciples were concerned, they would produce no fruit from themselves if they did not remain in their relationship to Jesus, because the eternal life which a disciple must possess in order to bear fruit originates with Jesus; he is the source of all life and productivity for the disciple.

[15:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁹ tn While it would be more natural to say “on the vine” (so NAB), the English preposition “in” has been retained here to emphasize the parallelism with the following clause “unless you remain in me.” To speak of remaining “in” a person is not natural English either, but is nevertheless a biblical concept (cf. “in Christ” in Eph 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 11).

[15:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “you reside.”

[15:1]  ²¹ sn I am the true vine. There are numerous OT passages which refer to Israel as a vine: Ps 80:8-16, Isa 5:1-7, Jer 2:21, Ezek 15:1-8, 17:5-10, 19:10-14, and Hos 10:1. The vine became symbolic of Israel, and even appeared on some coins issued by the Maccabees. The OT passages which use this symbol appear to regard Israel as faithless to Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT) and/or the object of severe punishment. Ezek 15:1-8 in particular talks about the worthlessness of wood from a vine (in relation to disobedient Judah). A branch cut from a vine is worthless except to be burned as fuel. This fits more with the statements about the disciples (John 15:6) than with Jesus’ description of himself as the vine. Ezek 17:5-10 contains vine imagery which refers to a king of the house of David, Zedekiah, who was set up as king in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah allied himself to Egypt and broke his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar (and therefore also with God), which would ultimately result in his downfall (17:20-21). Ezek 17:22-24 then describes the planting of a cedar sprig which grows into a lofty tree, a figurative description of Messiah. But it is significant that Messiah himself is not described in Ezek 17 as a vine, but as a cedar tree. The vine imagery here applies to Zedekiah’s disobedience. Jesus’ description of himself as the true vine in John 15:1 ff. is to be seen against this background, but it differs significantly from the imagery surveyed above. It represents new imagery which differs significantly from OT concepts; it appears to be original with Jesus. The imagery of the vine underscores the importance of fruitfulness in the Christian life and the truth that this results not from human achievement, but from one’s position in Christ. Jesus is not just giving some comforting advice, but portraying to the disciples the difficult path of faithful service. To some degree the figure is similar to the head-body metaphor used by Paul, with Christ as head and believers as members of the body. Both metaphors bring out the vital and necessary connection which exists between Christ and believers.

[15:1]  ²² tn Or “the farmer.”

[3:2]  ²³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.

[3:3]  ²⁶ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ²⁸ tn The word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) has a double meaning, either “again” (in which case it is synonymous with παλίν [palin]) or “from above” (BDAG 92 s.v. ἄνωθεν). This is a favorite technique of the author of the Fourth Gospel, and it is lost in almost all translations at this point. John uses the word 5 times, in 3:3, 7; 3:31; 19:11 and 23. In the latter 3 cases the context makes clear that it means “from above.” Here (3:3, 7) it could mean either, but the primary meaning intended by Jesus is “from above.” Nicodemus apparently understood it the other way, which explains his reply, “How can a man be born when he is old? He can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” The author uses the technique of the “misunderstood question” often to bring out a particularly important point: Jesus says something which is misunderstood by the disciples or (as here) someone else, which then gives Jesus the opportunity to explain more fully and in more detail what he really meant.

[3:3]  ²⁹ sn What does Jesus’ statement about not being able to see the kingdom of God mean within the framework of John’s Gospel? John uses the word kingdom (βασιλεία, basileia) only 5 times (3:3, 5; 18:36 [3x]). Only here is it qualified with the phrase of God. The fact that John does not stress the concept of the kingdom of God does not mean it is absent from his theology, however. Remember the messianic implications found in John 2, both the wedding and miracle at Cana and the cleansing of the temple. For Nicodemus, the term must surely have brought to mind the messianic kingdom which Messiah was supposed to bring. But Nicodemus had missed precisely this point about who Jesus was. It was the Messiah himself with whom Nicodemus was speaking. Whatever Nicodemus understood, it is clear that the point is this: He misunderstood Jesus’ words. He over-literalized them, and thought Jesus was talking about repeated physical birth, when he was in fact referring to new spiritual birth.

[3:4]  ³⁰ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ³² tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[10:19]  ³³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[10:20]  ³⁴ tn Grk “that he inaugurated for us as a fresh and living way,” referring to the entrance mentioned in v. 19.

[10:20]  ³⁵ sn Through his flesh. In a bold shift the writer changes from a spatial phrase (Christ opened the way through the curtain into the inner sanctuary) to an instrumental phrase (he did this through [by means of] his flesh in his sacrifice of himself), associating the two in an allusion to the splitting of the curtain in the temple from top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Just as the curtain was split, so Christ’s body was broken for us, to give us access into God’s presence.

[10:21]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and a great priest,” continuing the construction begun in v. 19.

[10:22]  ³⁷ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ³⁸ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[10:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “let us consider one another for provoking of love and good deeds.”

[10:25]  ⁴⁰ sn The day refers to that well-known time of Christ’s coming and judgment in the future; see a similar use of “day” in 1 Cor 3:13.

[10:25]  ⁴¹ tn This paragraph (vv. 19-25) is actually a single, skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments for English idiom. It begins with several subordinate phrases (since we have confidence and a great priest), has three parallel exhortations as its main verbs (let us draw near, hold, and take thought), and concludes with several subordinate phrases related to the final exhortation (not abandoning but encouraging).

[10:26]  ⁴² tn Grk “is left,” with “for us” implied by the first half of the verse.

[10:34]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “you yourselves.”

[10:35]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “which,” but showing the reason.

[10:36]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “the promise,” referring to the thing God promised, not to the pledge itself.

[10:37]  ⁴⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 26:20.

[10:37]  ⁴⁸ sn A quotation from Hab 2:3.

[10:38]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “my soul.”

[10:38]  ⁵⁰ sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.

[10:39]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “not…of shrinking back to perdition but of faith to the preservation of the soul.”

[10:2]  ⁵² tn Grk “the worshipers, having been purified once for all, would have.”

[3:17]  ⁵³ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:17]  ⁵⁴ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.

[3:1]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:1]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “of our confession.”