Deuteronomy 6:4

The Essence of the Covenant Principles

6:4 Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ¹ 

Isaiah 43:10

43:10 You are my witnesses,” says the Lord,

“my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may consider ²  and believe in me,

and understand that I am he.

No god was formed before me,

and none will outlive me. ³ 

Isaiah 44:6

The Absurdity of Idolatry

44:6 This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says,

their protector, ⁴  the Lord who commands armies:

“I am the first and I am the last,

there is no God but me.

Isaiah 44:8

44:8 Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! ⁵ 

Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?

You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?

There is no other sheltering rock; ⁶  I know of none.

Isaiah 45:6

45:6 I do this ⁷  so people ⁸  will recognize from east to west

that there is no God but me;

I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 45:21-22

45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! ⁹ 

Let them consult with one another!

Who predicted this in the past?

Who announced it beforehand?

Was it not I, the Lord?

I have no peer, there is no God but me,

a God who vindicates and delivers; ¹⁰ 

there is none but me.

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹¹ 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

Isaiah 46:9

46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ¹² 

Truly I am God, I have no peer; ¹³ 

I am God, and there is none like me,

Zechariah 14:9

14:9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name. ¹⁴ 

Mark 12:29

12:29 Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

John 17:3

17:3 Now this ¹⁵  is eternal life ¹⁶  – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, ¹⁷  whom you sent.

Romans 3:30

3:30 Since God is one, ¹⁸  he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Romans 3:1

3:1 Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision?

Colossians 1:4

1:4 since ¹⁹  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ²⁰  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ²¹  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Galatians 3:20

3:20 Now an intermediary is not for one party alone, but God is one. ²² 

Ephesians 4:5-6

4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²³  urge you to live ²⁴  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²⁵ 

Ephesians 2:5

2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ²⁶  –

Jude 1:4

1:4 For certain men ²⁷  have secretly slipped in among you ²⁸  – men who long ago ²⁹  were marked out ³⁰  for the condemnation I am about to describe ³¹  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ³²  and who deny our only Master ³³  and Lord, ³⁴  Jesus Christ.

[6:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord, our God, the Lord, one.” (1) One option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). This would be an affirmation that the Lord was the sole object of their devotion. This interpretation finds support from the appeals to loyalty that follow (vv. 5, 14). (2) Another option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is unique.” In this case the text would be affirming the people’s allegiance to the Lord, as well as the Lord’s superiority to all other gods. It would also imply that he is the only one worthy of their worship. Support for this view comes from parallel texts such as Deut 7:9 and 10:17, as well as the use of “one” in Song 6:8-9, where the starstruck lover declares that his beloved is unique (literally, “one,” that is, “one of a kind”) when compared to all other women.

[43:10]  ² tn Or “know” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[43:10]  ³ tn Heb “and after me, there will not be”; NASB “there will be none after Me.”

[44:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “his kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:8]  ⁵ tn BDB 923 s.v. רָהָה derives this verb from an otherwise unattested root, while HALOT 403 s.v. יָרָה defines it as “be stupefied” on the basis of an Arabic cognate. The form is likely a corruption of תיראו, the reading attested in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a.

[44:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “rock” or “rocky cliff,” a title that depicts God as a protective refuge in his role as sovereign king; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”

[45:6]  ⁷ tn The words “I do this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “they” (so KJV, ASV); TEV, CEV “everyone”; NLT “all the world.”

[45:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.

[45:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”

[45:22]  ¹¹ tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

[46:9]  ¹² tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”

[46:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:9]  ¹⁴ sn The expression the Lord will be seen as one with a single name is an unmistakable reference to the so-called Shema, the crystallized statement of faith in the Lord as the covenant God of Israel (cf. Deut 6:4-5). Zechariah, however, universalizes the extent of the Lord’s dominion – he will be “king over all the earth.”

[17:3]  ¹⁵ tn Using αὕτη δέ (Jauth de) to introduce an explanation is typical Johannine style; it was used before in John 1:19, 3:19, and 15:12.

[17:3]  ¹⁶ sn This is eternal life. The author here defines eternal life for the readers, although it is worked into the prayer in such a way that many interpreters do not regard it as another of the author’s parenthetical comments. It is not just unending life in the sense of prolonged duration. Rather it is a quality of life, with its quality derived from a relationship with God. Having eternal life is here defined as being in relationship with the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent. Christ (Χριστός, Cristos) is not characteristically attached to Jesus’ name in John’s Gospel; it occurs elsewhere primarily as a title and is used with Jesus’ name only in 1:17. But that is connected to its use here: The statement here in 17:3 enables us to correlate the statement made in 1:18 of the prologue, that Jesus has fully revealed what God is like, with Jesus’ statement in 10:10 that he has come that people might have life, and have it abundantly. These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant) eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. The only way to gain this eternal life, that is, to obtain this knowledge of the Father, is through the Son (cf. 14:6). Although some have pointed to the use of know (γινώσκω, ginwskw) here as evidence of Gnostic influence in the Fourth Gospel, there is a crucial difference: For John this knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves being in relationship.

[17:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “and Jesus the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[3:30]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “but if indeed God is one.”

[1:4]  ¹⁹ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[3:20]  ²² tn The meaning of this verse is disputed. According to BDAG 634 s.v. μεσίτης, “It prob. means that the activity of an intermediary implies the existence of more than one party, and hence may be unsatisfactory because it must result in a compromise. The presence of an intermediary would prevent attainment, without any impediment, of the purpose of the εἶς θεός in giving the law.” See also A. Oepke, TDNT 4:598-624, esp. 618-19.

[4:1]  ²³ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²⁵ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[2:5]  ²⁶ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn Grk “people.” However, if Jude is indeed arguing that Peter’s prophecy about false teachers has come true, these are most likely men in the original historical and cultural setting. See discussion of this point in the note on the phrase “these men” in 2 Pet 2:12.

[1:4]  ²⁸ tn “Among you” is not in the Greek text, but is obviously implied.

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn Or “in the past.” The adverb πάλαι (palai) can refer to either, though the meaning “long ago” is more common.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tn Grk “written about.”

[1:4]  ³¹ tn Grk “for this condemnation.” τοῦτο (touto) is almost surely a kataphoric demonstrative pronoun, pointing to what follows in vv. 5-18. Otherwise, the condemnation is only implied (in v. 3b) or is merely a statement of their sinfulness (“ungodly” in v. 4b), not a judgment of it.

[1:4]  ³² tn Grk “debauchery.” This is the same word Peter uses to predict what the false teachers will be like (2 Pet 2:2, 7, 18).

[1:4]  ³³ tc Most later witnesses (P Ψ Ï sy) have θεόν (qeon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despothn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despoth") was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (Ì^72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 1241 1739 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.

[1:4]  ³⁴ tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1