Deuteronomy 32:17

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹  had not known about.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ² 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 11:15

11:15 I will provide pasture ³  for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”

Psalms 106:37

106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ⁴ 

John 12:31

12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world ⁵  will be driven out. ⁶ 

John 14:30

14:30 I will not speak with you much longer, ⁷  for the ruler of this world is coming. ⁸  He has no power over me, ⁹ 

John 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ¹⁰  You believe in God; ¹¹  believe also in me.

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ¹²  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹³  brothers and sisters ¹⁴  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁵  from God our Father! ¹⁶ 

Colossians 4:4

4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ¹⁷ 

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ¹⁸  you formerly lived ¹⁹  according to this world’s present path, ²⁰  according to the ruler of the kingdom ²¹  of the air, the ruler of ²²  the spirit ²³  that is now energizing ²⁴  the sons of disobedience, ²⁵ 

Revelation 9:20

9:20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made ²⁶  of gold, silver, ²⁷  bronze, stone, and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.

[32:17]  ¹ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:2]  ² tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[11:15]  ³ tn Heb “grass in your field.”

[106:37]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.

[12:31]  ⁵ sn The ruler of this world is a reference to Satan.

[12:31]  ⁶ tn Or “will be thrown out.” This translation regards the future passive ἐκβληθήσεται (ekblhqhsetai) as referring to an event future to the time of speaking.

[14:30]  ⁶ tn Grk “I will no longer speak many things with you.”

[14:30]  ⁷ sn The ruler of this world is a reference to Satan.

[14:30]  ⁸ tn Grk “in me he has nothing.”

[14:1]  ⁷ sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

[14:1]  ⁸ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

[1:20]  ⁸ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.

[1:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹² tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[4:4]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase begins with the ἵνα (Jina) clause and is subordinate to the imperative προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite) in v. 2. The reference to the idea that Paul must make it known indicates that this clause is probably best viewed as purpose and not content, like the ἵνα of v. 3. It is the second purpose stated in the context; the first is expressed through the infinitive λαλῆσαι (lalhsai) in v. 3. The term “pray” at the beginning of the sentence is intended to pick up the imperative of v. 3.

[2:2]  ¹¹ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ¹² tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ¹⁶ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ¹⁸ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[9:20]  ¹² tn The word “made” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[9:20]  ¹³ tn The Greek conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following materials in this list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.