Ezekiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ¹  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ²  at the Kebar River, ³  the heavens opened ⁴  and I saw a divine vision. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 8:3

8:3 He stretched out the form ⁶  of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind ⁷  lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem ⁸  by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue ⁹  which provokes to jealousy was located.

Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first ¹⁰  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ¹¹  a dream filled with visions ¹²  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ¹³ 

Daniel 7:7

7:7 “After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ¹⁴  a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ¹⁵  It had two large rows ¹⁶  of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.

Acts 2:17

2:17 ‘And in the last days ¹⁷  it will be,’ God says,

‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, ¹⁸ 

and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,

and your young men will see visions,

and your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 16:9

16:9 A ¹⁹  vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there ²⁰  urging him, ²¹  “Come over ²²  to Macedonia ²³  and help us!”

Acts 16:2

16:2 The brothers in Lystra ²⁴  and Iconium ²⁵  spoke well ²⁶  of him. ²⁷ 

Colossians 1:1-7

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²⁹  brothers and sisters ³⁰  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ³¹  from God our Father! ³² 

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ³³  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 since ³⁴  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³⁵  from the hope laid up ³⁶  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³⁷  1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ³⁸  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ³⁹  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ⁴⁰  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ⁴¹  – a ⁴²  faithful minister of Christ on our ⁴³  behalf –

[1:1]  ¹ sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

[1:1]  ² sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

[1:1]  ³ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

[1:1]  ⁴ sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

[8:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).

[8:3]  ⁷ tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[8:3]  ⁸ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:3]  ⁹ tn Or “image.”

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

[7:1]  ¹¹ tn Aram “saw.”

[7:1]  ¹² tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

[7:1]  ¹³ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”

[7:7]  ¹⁴ tn The Aramaic text has also “and behold.” So also in vv. 8, 13.

[7:7]  ¹⁵ sn The fourth animal differs from the others in that it is nondescript. Apparently it was so fearsome that Daniel could find nothing with which to compare it. Attempts to identify this animal as an elephant or other known creature are conjectural.

[7:7]  ¹⁶ tn The Aramaic word for “teeth” is dual rather than plural, suggesting two rows of teeth.

[2:17]  ¹⁷ sn The phrase in the last days is not quoted from Joel, but represents Peter’s interpretive explanation of the current events as falling “in the last days.”

[2:17]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “on all flesh.”

[16:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And a.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[16:9]  ²⁰ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[16:9]  ²¹ tn The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

[16:9]  ²² tn Grk “Coming over.” The participle διαβάς (diabas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:9]  ²³ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[16:2]  ²⁴ sn Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 25 mi (40 km) south of Iconium.

[16:2]  ²⁵ sn Iconium was a city in Lycaonia about 110 mi (175 km) east of Pisidian Antioch.

[16:2]  ²⁶ tn For this sense of μαρτυρέω (marturew), see BDAG 618 s.v. 2.b.

[16:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “who was well spoken of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.” Because of the awkwardness in English of having two relative clauses follow one another (“who was a believer…who was well spoken of”) and the awkwardness of the passive verb (“was well spoken of”), the relative pronoun at the beginning of 16:2 (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“him”) and the construction converted from passive to active at the same time a new sentence was started in the translation.

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:2]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ³² 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.

[1:3]  ³³ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[1:4]  ³⁴ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ³⁵ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ³⁷ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:6]  ³⁸ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ³⁹ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:7]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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.