Exodus 4:31

4:31 and the people believed. When they heard ¹  that the Lord had attended to ²  the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground. ³ 

Exodus 19:9

19:9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come ⁴  to you in a dense cloud, ⁵  so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you.” ⁶  And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus 19:2

19:2 After they journeyed ⁷  from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ⁸ 

Exodus 20:20

20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ⁹  that the fear of him ¹⁰  may be before you so that you do not ¹¹  sin.”

Psalms 106:12-13

106:12 They believed his promises; ¹² 

they sang praises to him.

106:13 They quickly forgot what he had done; ¹³ 

they did not wait for his instructions. ¹⁴ 

Luke 8:13

8:13 Those ¹⁵  on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, ¹⁶  but ¹⁷  in a time of testing ¹⁸  fall away. ¹⁹ 

John 2:11

2:11 Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, ²⁰  in Cana ²¹  of Galilee. In this way he revealed ²²  his glory, and his disciples believed in him. ²³ 

John 2:23-25

Jesus at the Passover Feast

2:23 Now while Jesus ²⁴  was in Jerusalem ²⁵  at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing. ²⁶  2:24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. ²⁷  2:25 He did not need anyone to testify about man, ²⁸  for he knew what was in man. ²⁹ 

John 8:30-32

8:30 While he was saying these things, many people ³⁰  believed in him.

Abraham’s Children and the Devil’s Children

8:31 Then Jesus said to those Judeans ³¹  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ³²  you are really ³³  my disciples 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³⁴ 

John 11:45

The Response of the Jewish Leaders

11:45 Then many of the people, ³⁵  who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus ³⁶  did, believed in him.

Acts 8:13

8:13 Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to ³⁷  Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed. ³⁸ 

[4:31]  ¹ tc The LXX (Greek OT) has “and they rejoiced,” probably reading וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ (vayyismÿkhu) instead of what the MT reading, וַיִּשְׂמְעוּ (vayyismÿ’u, “and they heard”). To rejoice would have seemed a natural response of the people at the news, and the words sound similar in Hebrew.

[4:31]  ² tn Or “intervened for.” The word פָּקַד (paqad) has traditionally been translated “visited,” which is open to many interpretations. It means that God intervened in the life of the Israelites to bless them with the fulfillment of the promises. It says more than that he took notice of them, took pity on them, or remembered them. He had not yet fulfilled the promises, but he had begun to act by calling Moses and Aaron. The translation “attended to” attempts to capture that much.

[4:31]  ³ tn The verb וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ (vayyishtakhavu) is usually rendered “worshiped.” More specifically, the verbal root חָוָה (khava) in the hishtaphel stem means “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” While there is nothing wrong with giving it a general translation of “worship,” it may be better in a passage like this to take it in conjunction with the other verb (“bow”) as a verbal hendiadys, using it as an adverb to that verb. The implication is certainly that they prayed, or praised, and performed some other aspect of worship, but the text may just be describing it from their posture of worship. With this response, all the fears of Moses are swept aside – they believed and they were thankful to God.

[19:9]  ⁴ tn The construction uses the deictic particle and the participle to express the imminent future, what God was about to do. Here is the first announcement of the theophany.

[19:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the thickness of the cloud”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT “in a thick cloud.”

[19:9]  ⁶ tn Since “and also in you” begins the clause, the emphasis must be that the people would also trust Moses. See Exod 4:1-9, 31; 14:31.

[19:2]  ⁷ tn The form is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, “and they journeyed.” It is here subordinated to the next clause as a temporal clause. But since the action of this temporal clause preceded the actions recorded in v. 1, a translation of “after” will keep the sequence in order. Verse 2 adds details to the summary in v. 1.

[19:2]  ⁸ sn The mountain is Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the place where God had met and called Moses and had promised that they would be here to worship him. If this mountain is Jebel Musa, the traditional site of Sinai, then the plain in front of it would be Er-Rahah, about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, fronting the mountain on the NW side (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 169). The plain itself is about 5000 feet above sea level. A mountain on the west side of the Arabian Peninsula has also been suggested as a possible site.

[20:20]  ⁹ tn נַסּוֹת (nassot) is the Piel infinitive construct; it forms the purpose of God’s coming with all the accompanying phenomena. The verb can mean “to try, test, prove.” The sense of “prove” fits this context best because the terrifying phenomena were intended to put the fear of God in their hearts so that they would obey. In other words, God was inspiring them to obey, not simply testing to see if they would.

[20:20]  ¹⁰ tn The suffix on the noun is an objective genitive, referring to the fear that the people would have of God (GKC 439 §135.m).

[20:20]  ¹¹ tn The negative form לְבִלְתִּי (lÿvilti) is used here with the imperfect tense (see for other examples GKC 483 §152.x). This gives the imperfect the nuance of a final imperfect: that you might not sin. Others: to keep you from sin.

[106:12]  ¹² tn Heb “his words.”

[106:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “his works.”

[106:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his counsel.”

[8:13]  ¹⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[8:13]  ¹⁶ sn This time of temporary faith represented by the description believe for a while is presented rather tragically in the passage. The seed does not get a chance to do all it can.

[8:13]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[8:13]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally, “temptation.” Such a translation puts the emphasis on temptation to sin rather than testing of faith, which is what the context seems to indicate.

[8:13]  ¹⁹ sn Fall away. On the idea of falling away and the warnings against it, see 2 Tim 3:1; Heb 3:12; Jer 3:14; Dan 9:9.

[2:11]  ²⁰ tn This sentence in Greek involves an object-complement construction. The force can be either “Jesus did this as,” or possibly “Jesus made this to be.” The latter translation accents not only Jesus’ power but his sovereignty too. Cf. also 4:54 where the same construction occurs.

[2:11]  ²¹ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[2:11]  ²² tn Grk “in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed.”

[2:11]  ²³ tn Or “his disciples trusted in him,” or “his disciples put their faith in him.”

[2:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:23]  ²⁶ sn Because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing. The issue here is not whether their faith was genuine or not, but what its object was. These individuals, after seeing the miracles, believed Jesus to be the Messiah. They most likely saw in him a political-eschatological figure of some sort. That does not, however, mean that their concept of “Messiah” was the same as Jesus’ own, or the author’s.

[2:24]  ²⁷ tn Grk “all.” The word “people” has been supplied for clarity, since the Greek word πάντας (pantas) is masculine plural (thus indicating people rather than things).

[2:25]  ²⁸ tn The masculine form has been retained here in the translation to maintain the connection with “a man of the Pharisees” in 3:1, with the understanding that the reference is to people of both genders.

[2:25]  ²⁹ tn See previous note on “man” in this verse.

[8:30]  ³⁰ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity and smoothness in the translation.

[8:31]  ³¹ tn Grk “to the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., “Judeans”), the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9; also BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, “those Judeans who had believed him.” The term “Judeans” is preferred here to the more general “people” because the debate concerns descent from Abraham (v. 33).

[8:31]  ³² tn Grk “If you continue in my word.”

[8:31]  ³³ tn Or “truly.”

[8:32]  ³⁴ tn Or “the truth will release you.” The translation “set you free” or “release you” (unlike the more traditional “make you free”) conveys more the idea that the hearers were currently in a state of slavery from which they needed to be freed. The following context supports precisely this idea.

[11:45]  ³⁵ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19, as well as the notes on the word “people” in vv. 31, 33 and the phrase “people who had come to mourn” in v. 36.

[11:45]  ³⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:13]  ³⁷ tn Or “he kept close company with.”

[8:13]  ³⁸ sn He was amazed. Now Simon, the one who amazed others, is himself amazed, showing the superiority of Philip’s connection to God. Christ is better than anything the culture has to offer.