Acts 3:26

3:26 God raised up ¹  his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning ²  each one of you from your iniquities.” ³ 

Acts 11:18

11:18 When they heard this, ⁴  they ceased their objections ⁵  and praised ⁶  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ⁷  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:31-33

31:31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, ⁹  “when I will make a new covenant ¹⁰  with the people of Israel and Judah. ¹¹  31:32 It will not be like the old ¹²  covenant that I made with their ancestors ¹³  when I delivered them ¹⁴  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ¹⁵  says the Lord. ¹⁶  31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹⁷  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹⁸  says the Lord. ¹⁹  “I will ²⁰  put my law within them ²¹  and write it on their hearts and minds. ²²  I will be their God and they will be my people. ²³ 

Ezekiel 36:25-38

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ²⁴  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ²⁵  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁶  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ²⁷  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²⁸  and carefully observe my regulations. ²⁹  36:28 Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ³⁰  36:29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it; I will not bring a famine on you. 36:30 I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the produce of the fields, so that you will never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 36:31 Then you will remember your evil behavior ³¹  and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds. 36:32 Understand that ³²  it is not for your sake I am about to act, declares the sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and embarrassed by your behavior, O house of Israel.

36:33 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt. 36:34 The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. 36:35 They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.” 36:36 Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken – and I will do it!’

36:37 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: ³³  I will multiply their people like sheep. ³⁴  36:38 Like the sheep for offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem ³⁵  during her appointed feasts, so will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ³⁶  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ³⁷  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ³⁸ 

Luke 24:47

24:47 and repentance ³⁹  for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed ⁴⁰  in his name to all nations, ⁴¹  beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴² 

Romans 11:26-27

11:26 And so ⁴³  all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;

he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

11:27 And this is my covenant with them, ⁴⁴ 

when I take away their sins.” ⁴⁵ 

Romans 11:2

11:2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

Romans 2:25-26

2:25 For circumcision ⁴⁶  has its value if you practice the law, but ⁴⁷  if you break the law, ⁴⁸  your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys ⁴⁹  the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

[3:26]  ¹ tn Grk “God raising up his servant, sent him.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Some translations (e.g., NIV, NRSV) render this participle as temporal (“when God raised up his servant”).

[3:26]  ² sn The picture of turning is again seen as the appropriate response to the message. See v. 19 above. In v. 19 it was “turning to,” here it is “turning away from.” The direction of the two metaphors is important.

[3:26]  ³ tn For the translation of plural πονηρία (ponhria) as “iniquities,” see G. Harder, TDNT 6:565. The plural is important, since for Luke turning to Jesus means turning away from sins, not just the sin of rejecting Jesus.

[11:18]  ⁴ tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ⁵ tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.

[11:18]  ⁶ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ⁷ sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).

[11:18]  ⁸ sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.

[31:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a renewed covenant” (also in vv. 22-23).

[31:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

[31:32]  ¹² tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ¹⁵ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ²⁰ tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ²¹ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ²² tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ²³ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[36:25]  ²⁴ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ²⁵ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²⁶ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ²⁷ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[36:28]  ³⁰ sn This promise reflects the ancient covenantal ideal (see Exod 6:7).

[36:31]  ³¹ tn Heb “ways.”

[36:32]  ³² tn Heb “Let it be known.”

[36:37]  ³³ tn The Niphal verb may have a tolerative function here, “Again (for) this I will allow myself to be sought by the house of Israel to act for them.” Or it may be reflexive: “I will reveal myself to the house of Israel by doing this also.”

[36:37]  ³⁴ sn Heb “I will multiply them like sheep, human(s).”

[36:38]  ³⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[12:10]  ³⁶ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ³⁷ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

[24:47]  ³⁹ sn This repentance has its roots in declarations of the Old Testament. It is the Hebrew concept of a turning of direction.

[24:47]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “preached,” “announced.”

[24:47]  ⁴¹ sn To all nations. The same Greek term (τὰ ἔθνη, ta eqnh) may be translated “the Gentiles” or “the nations.” The hope of God in Christ was for all the nations from the beginning.

[24:47]  ⁴² sn Beginning from Jerusalem. See Acts 2, which is where it all starts.

[11:26]  ⁴³ tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai Joutws, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).

[11:27]  ⁴⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 59:20-21.

[11:27]  ⁴⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33-34.

[2:25]  ⁴⁶ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

[2:25]  ⁴⁷ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:26]  ⁴⁹ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.