Exodus 12:5

12:5 Your lamb must be ¹  perfect, ²  a male, one year old; ³  you may take ⁴  it from the sheep or from the goats.

Isaiah 53:7

53:7 He was treated harshly and afflicted, ⁵ 

but he did not even open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block,

like a sheep silent before her shearers,

he did not even open his mouth. ⁶ 

John 1:29

1:29 On the next day John ⁷  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God ⁸  who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:36

1:36 Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ⁹ 

Acts 8:32-35

8:32 Now the passage of scripture the man ¹⁰  was reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to slaughter,

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he did ¹¹  not open his mouth.

8:33 In humiliation ¹²  justice was taken from him. ¹³ 

Who can describe his posterity? ¹⁴ 

For his life was taken away ¹⁵  from the earth.” ¹⁶ 

8:34 Then the eunuch said ¹⁷  to Philip, “Please tell me, ¹⁸  who is the prophet saying this about – himself or someone else?” ¹⁹  8:35 So Philip started speaking, ²⁰  and beginning with this scripture ²¹  proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.

Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ²²  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ²³  persecution began ²⁴  against the church in Jerusalem, ²⁵  and all ²⁶  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ²⁷  of Judea and Samaria.

Colossians 1:7-8

1:7 You learned the gospel ²⁸  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ²⁹  – a ³⁰  faithful minister of Christ on our ³¹  behalf – 1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Revelation 5:6

5:6 Then ³²  I saw standing in the middle of the throne ³³  and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been killed. ³⁴  He had ³⁵  seven horns and seven eyes, which ³⁶  are the seven ³⁷  spirits of God ³⁸  sent out into all the earth.

Revelation 7:14

7:14 So ³⁹  I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” ⁴⁰  Then ⁴¹  he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They ⁴²  have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!

Revelation 14:1

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then ⁴³  I looked, and here was ⁴⁴  the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

[12:5]  ¹ tn The construction has: “[The] lamb…will be to you.” This may be interpreted as a possessive use of the lamed, meaning, “[the] lamb…you have” (your lamb) for the Passover. In the context instructing the people to take an animal for this festival, the idea is that the one they select, their animal, must meet these qualifications.

[12:5]  ² tn The Hebrew word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect” or “whole” or “complete” in the sense of not having blemishes and diseases – no physical defects. The rules for sacrificial animals applied here (see Lev 22:19-21; Deut 17:1).

[12:5]  ³ tn The idiom says “a son of a year” (בֶּן־שָׁנָה, ben shanah), meaning a “yearling” or “one year old” (see GKC 418 §128.v).

[12:5]  ⁴ tn Because a choice is being given in this last clause, the imperfect tense nuance of permission should be used. They must have a perfect animal, but it may be a sheep or a goat. The verb’s object “it” is supplied from the context.

[53:7]  ⁵ tn The translation assumes the Niphal is passive; another option is take the clause (note the subject + verb pattern) as concessive and the Niphal as reflexive, “though he humbled himself.”

[53:7]  ⁶ sn This verse emphasizes the servant’s silent submission. The comparison to a sheep does not necessarily suggest a sacrificial metaphor. Sheep were slaughtered for food as well as for sacrificial rituals, and טֶבַח (tevakh) need not refer to sacrificial slaughter (see Gen 43:16; Prov 7:22; 9:2; Jer 50:27; note also the use of the related verb in Exod 21:37; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 25:11).

[1:29]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ⁸ sn Gen 22:8 is an important passage in the background of the title Lamb of God as applied to Jesus. In Jewish thought this was held to be a supremely important sacrifice. G. Vermès stated: “For the Palestinian Jew, all lamb sacrifice, and especially the Passover lamb and the Tamid offering, was a memorial of the Akedah with its effects of deliverance, forgiveness of sin and messianic salvation” (Scripture and Tradition in Judaism [StPB], 225).

[1:36]  ⁹ sn This section (1:35-51) is joined to the preceding by the literary expedient of repeating the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus being the Lamb of God (1:36, cf. 1:29). This repeated testimony (1:36) no longer has revelatory value in itself, since it has been given before; its purpose, instead, is to institute a chain reaction which will bring John the Baptist’s disciples to Jesus and make them Jesus’ own disciples.

[8:32]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:32]  ¹¹ tn Grk “does.” The present tense here was translated as a past tense to maintain consistency with the first line of the quotation (“he was led like a sheep to slaughter”), which has an aorist passive verb normally translated as a past tense in English.

[8:33]  ¹² tc ‡ Most later mss (C E Ψ 33^vid Ï sy) read “In his humiliation,” adding αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after ταπεινώσει (tapeinwsei, “humiliation”), while the earlier and better witnesses lack the pronoun (so Ì⁷⁴ א A B 1739 pc lat). However, the LXX of Isa 53:8 also lacks the pronoun, supplying motivation for scribes to omit it here. At the same time, scribes would also be motivated to add the pronoun both for clarity’s sake (note the similar impulse that led to the addition of δέ [de] by many of the same mss at the beginning of the next line) and to give balance to the lines (the pronoun is indisputably used five other times in vv. 32-33 in quoting Isa 53). On balance, the shorter reading is preferred.

[8:33]  ¹³ tn Or “justice was denied him”; Grk “his justice was taken away.”

[8:33]  ¹⁴ tn Or “family; or “origin.” The meaning of γενεά (genea) in the quotation is uncertain; BDAG 192 s.v. γενεά 4 suggests “family history.”

[8:33]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “is taken away.” The present tense here was translated as a past tense to maintain consistency with the rest of the quotation.

[8:33]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 53:7-8.

[8:34]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “answered and said.” The redundant participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqei") has not been translated.

[8:34]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “I beg you,” “I ask you.”

[8:34]  ¹⁹ sn About himself, or about someone else? It is likely in 1st century Judaism this would have been understood as either Israel or Isaiah.

[8:35]  ²⁰ tn Grk “opening his mouth” (a Semitic idiom for beginning to speak in a somewhat formal manner). The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[8:35]  ²¹ sn Beginning with this scripture. The discussion likely included many of the scriptures Acts has already noted for the reader in earlier speeches. At the least, readers of Acts would know what other scriptures might be meant.

[8:1]  ²² tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ²³ tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ²⁶ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “countryside.”

[1:7]  ²⁸ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ²⁹ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ³⁰ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ³¹ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[5:6]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[5:6]  ³³ tn Perhaps, “in the middle of the throne area” (see L&N 83.10).

[5:6]  ³⁴ tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.” The phrase behind this translation is ὡς ἐσφαγμένον (Jw" ejsfagmenon). The particle ὡς is used in Greek generally for comparison, and in Revelation it is used often to describe the appearance of what the author saw. This phrase does not imply that the Lamb “appeared to have been killed” but in reality was not, because the wider context of the NT shows that in fact the Lamb, i.e., Jesus, was killed. See 13:3 for the only other occurrence of this phrase in the NT.

[5:6]  ³⁵ tn Grk “killed, having.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “he.”

[5:6]  ³⁶ sn The relative pronoun which is masculine, referring back to the eyes rather than to the horns.

[5:6]  ³⁷ tc There is good ms evidence for the inclusion of “seven” (ἑπτά, Jepta; ̲⁴ א 2053 2351 Ï^K). There is equally good ms support for the omission of the term (A 1006 1611 Ï^A pc). It may have been accidentally added due to its repeated presence in the immediately preceding phrases, or it may have been intentionally added to maintain the symmetry of the phrases or more likely to harmonize the phrase with 1:4; 3:1; 4:5. Or it may have been accidentally deleted by way of homoioteleuton (τὰ ἑπτά, ta Jepta). A decision is difficult in this instance. NA²⁷ also does not find the problem easy to solve, placing the word in brackets to indicate doubts as to its authenticity.

[5:6]  ³⁸ sn See the note on the phrase the seven spirits of God in Rev 4:5.

[7:14]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the previous question.

[7:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Though the expression “the answer” is not in the Greek text, it is clearly implied. Direct objects in Greek were frequently omitted when clear from the context.

[7:14]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[7:14]  ⁴² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[14:1]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:1]  ⁴⁴ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).