Deuteronomy 30:1

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ²  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

Deuteronomy 30:19

30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

Deuteronomy 11:26

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ³ 

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ⁴  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ⁵  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ⁶  if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ⁷  28:4 Your children ⁸  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ⁹  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ¹⁰  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ¹¹  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he ¹²  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ¹³  and obey him. ¹⁴  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ¹⁵  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ¹⁶  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ¹⁷  promised your ancestors ¹⁸  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹⁹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ²⁰  commandments which I am urging ²¹  you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ²²  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ²³  them.

Deuteronomy 32:47

32:47 For this is no idle word for you – it is your life! By this word you will live a long time in the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

Mark 16:16

16:16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who does not believe will be condemned.

John 3:16

3:16 For this is the way ²⁴  God loved the world: He gave his one and only ²⁵  Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish ²⁶  but have eternal life. ²⁷ 

Galatians 3:13-14

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ²⁸  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ²⁹  3:14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, ³⁰  so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.

Galatians 5:6

5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith working through love. ³¹ 

Galatians 5:1

Freedom of the Believer

5:1 For freedom ³²  Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke ³³  of slavery.

Galatians 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ³⁴  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ³⁵  until the coming faith would be revealed.

Galatians 5:11-12

5:11 Now, brothers and sisters, ³⁶  if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? ³⁷  In that case the offense of the cross ³⁸  has been removed. ³⁹  5:12 I wish those agitators ⁴⁰  would go so far as to ⁴¹  castrate themselves! ⁴² 

[30:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ² tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”

[11:26]  ³ sn A blessing and a curse. Every extant treaty text of the late Bronze Age attests to a section known as the “blessings and curses,” the former for covenant loyalty and the latter for covenant breach. Blessings were promised rewards for obedience; curses were threatened judgments for disobedience. In the Book of Deuteronomy these are fully developed in 27:1–28:68. Here Moses adumbrates the whole by way of anticipation.

[28:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[28:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:3]  ⁷ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ⁹ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

[28:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[28:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

[28:14]  ²² tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

[28:14]  ²³ tn Heb “in order to serve.”

[3:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “this is how much”; or “in this way.” The Greek adverb οὕτως (Joutws) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16,” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (Jwste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love. This is in keeping with John’s style of using double entendre or double meaning. Thus, the focus of the Greek construction here is on the nature of God's love, addressing its mode, intensity, and extent.

[3:16]  ²⁵ tn Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna qeou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[3:16]  ²⁶ tn In John the word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) can mean either (1) to be lost (2) to perish or be destroyed, depending on the context.

[3:16]  ²⁷ sn The alternatives presented are only two (again, it is typical of Johannine thought for this to be presented in terms of polar opposites): perish or have eternal life.

[3:13]  ²⁸ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[3:14]  ³⁰ tn Or “so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus.”

[5:6]  ³¹ tn Grk “but faith working through love.”

[5:1]  ³² tn Translating the dative as “For freedom” shows the purpose for Christ setting us free; however, it is also possible to take the phrase in the sense of means or instrument (“with [or by] freedom”), referring to the freedom mentioned in 4:31 and implied throughout the letter.

[5:1]  ³³ sn Here the yoke figuratively represents the burdensome nature of slavery.

[3:23]  ³⁴ tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ³⁵ tc Instead of the present participle συγκλειόμενοι (sunkleiomenoi; found in Ì⁴⁶ א A B D* F G P Ψ 33 1739 al), C D¹ 0176 0278 Ï have the perfect συγκεκλεισμένοι (sunkekleismenoi). The syntactical implication of the perfect is that the cause or the means of being held in custody was confinement (“we were held in custody [by/because of] being confined”). The present participle of course allows for such options, but also allows for contemporaneous time (“while being confined”) and result (“with the result that we were confined”). Externally, the perfect participle has little to commend it, being restricted for the most part to later and Byzantine witnesses.

[5:11]  ³⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

[5:11]  ³⁷ sn That is, if Paul still teaches observance of the Mosaic law (preaches circumcision), why is he still being persecuted by his opponents, who insist that Gentile converts to Christianity must observe the Mosaic law?

[5:11]  ³⁸ sn The offense of the cross refers to the offense to Jews caused by preaching Christ crucified.

[5:11]  ³⁹ tn Or “nullified.”

[5:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the ones who are upsetting you.” The same verb is used in Acts 21:38 to refer to a person who incited a revolt. Paul could be alluding indirectly to the fact that his opponents are inciting the Galatians to rebel against his teaching with regard to circumcision and the law.

[5:12]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “would even.”

[5:12]  ⁴² tn Or “make eunuchs of themselves”; Grk “cut themselves off.” This statement is rhetorical hyperbole on Paul’s part. It does strongly suggest, however, that Paul’s adversaries in this case (“those agitators”) were men. Some interpreters (notably Erasmus and the Reformers) have attempted to soften the meaning to a figurative “separate themselves” (meaning the opponents would withdraw from fellowship) but such an understanding dramatically weakens the rhetorical force of Paul’s argument. Although it has been argued that such an act of emasculation would be unthinkable for Paul, it must be noted that Paul’s statement is one of biting sarcasm, obviously not meant to be taken literally. See further G. Stählin, TDNT 3:853-55.