Deuteronomy 30:6

30:6 The Lord your God will also cleanse ¹  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ²  so that you may love him ³  with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

Psalms 51:10

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ⁴ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 32:39

32:39 I will give them a single-minded purpose to live in a way that always shows respect for me. They will want to do that for ⁶  their own good and the good of the children who descend from them.

John 3:3-5

3:3 Jesus replied, ⁷  “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁸  unless a person is born from above, ⁹  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ¹⁰  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?” ¹¹ 

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹²  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ¹³  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ¹⁴  at night ¹⁵  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 ¹⁶  that you do unless God is with him.”

Colossians 3:18

Exhortation to Households

3:18 Wives, submit to your ¹⁷  husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Colossians 1:17

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together ¹⁸  in him.

Galatians 6:15

6:15 For ¹⁹  neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for ²⁰  anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! ²¹ 

Ephesians 2:10

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ²² 

Revelation 21:5

21:5 And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then ²³  he said to me, “Write it down, ²⁴  because these words are reliable ²⁵  and true.”

[30:6]  ¹ tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.

[30:6]  ² tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[30:6]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[51:10]  ⁴ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[32:39]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will give to them one heart and one way to [= in order that they may] fear me all the days for good to them.” The phrase “one heart” refers both to unanimity of will and accord (cf. 1 Chr 12:38 [12:39 HT]; 2 Chr 30:12) and to singleness of purpose or intent (cf. Ezek 11:19 and see BDB 525 s.v. ֵלב 4 where reference is made to “inclinations, resolutions, and determinations of the will”). The phrase “one way” refers to one way of life or conduct (cf. BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a where reference is made to moral action and character), a way of life that is further qualified by the goal of showing “fear, reverence, respect” for the Lord. The Hebrew sentence has been broken up to avoid a long complex sentence in English which is contrary to contemporary English style. However, an attempt has been made to preserve all the connections of the original.

[3:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[3:5]  ¹² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ¹⁶ 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.

[3:18]  ¹⁷ tn The article τοῖς (tois) with ἀνδράσιν (andrasin, “husbands”) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (“your”); see ExSyn 215.

[1:17]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.

[6:15]  ¹⁹ tc The phrase “in Christ Jesus” is found after “For” in some mss (א A C D F G 0278 1881 Ï lat bo), but lacking in Ì⁴⁶ B Ψ 33 1175 1505 1739* and several fathers. The longer reading probably represents a harmonization to Gal 5:6.

[6:15]  ²⁰ tn Grk “is.”

[6:15]  ²¹ tn Grk “but a new creation”; the words “the only thing that matters” have been supplied to reflect the implied contrast with the previous clause (see also Gal 5:6).

[2:10]  ²² tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).

[21:5]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[21:5]  ²⁴ tn The words “it down” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[21:5]  ²⁵ tn Grk “faithful.”