Acts 4:26

4:26 The kings of the earth stood together, ¹ 

and the rulers assembled together,

against the Lord and against his ²  Christ.’ ³ 

Psalms 2:1-3

Psalm 2 ⁴ 

2:1 Why ⁵  do the nations rebel? ⁶ 

Why ⁷  are the countries ⁸  devising ⁹  plots that will fail? ¹⁰ 

2:2 The kings of the earth ¹¹  form a united front; ¹² 

the rulers collaborate ¹³ 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ¹⁴ 

2:3 They say, ¹⁵  “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! ¹⁶ 

Let’s free ourselves from ¹⁷  their ropes!”

John 11:47-49

11:47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹⁸  called the council ¹⁹  together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. 11:48 If we allow him to go on in this way, ²⁰  everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary ²¹  and our nation.”

11:49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, ²²  “You know nothing at all!

John 12:10

12:10 So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, ²³ 

John 12:19

12:19 Thus the Pharisees ²⁴  said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing. Look, the world has run off after him!”

[4:26]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “The kings of the earth took their stand.”

[4:26]  ² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[4:26]  ³ sn A quotation from Ps 2:1-2.

[2:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.

[2:1]  ⁵ tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.

[2:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.

[2:1]  ⁷ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:1]  ⁸ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

[2:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).

[2:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.

[2:2]  ¹¹ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

[2:2]  ¹² tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[2:3]  ¹⁵ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.

[2:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.

[2:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “throw off from us.”

[11:47]  ¹⁸ tn The phrase “chief priests and Pharisees” is a comprehensive name for the groups represented in the ruling council (the Sanhedrin) as in John 7:45; 18:3; Acts 5:22, 26.

[11:47]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Sanhedrin” (the Sanhedrin was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews). The συνέδριον (sunedrion) which they gathered was probably an informal meeting rather than the official Sanhedrin. This is the only occurrence of the word συνέδριον in the Gospel of John, and the only anarthrous singular use in the NT. There are other plural anarthrous uses which have the general meaning “councils.” The fact that Caiaphas in 11:49 is referred to as “one of them” supports the unofficial nature of the meeting; in the official Sanhedrin he, being high priest that year, would have presided over the assembly. Thus it appears that an informal council was called to discuss what to do about Jesus and his activities.

[11:48]  ²⁰ tn Grk “If we let him do thus.”

[11:48]  ²¹ tn Or “holy place”; Grk “our place” (a reference to the temple in Jerusalem).

[11:49]  ²² tn Grk “said to them.” The indirect object αὐτοῖς (autois) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[12:10]  ²³ sn According to John 11:53 the Jewish leadership had already planned to kill Jesus. This plot against Lazarus apparently never got beyond the planning stage, however, since no further mention is made of it by the author.

[12:19]  ²⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.