Ezekiel 20:40-41

20:40 For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them ¹  in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things. 20:41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Job 42:8

42:8 So now take ²  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ³  for you, and I will respect him, ⁴  so that I do not deal with you ⁵  according to your folly, ⁶  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ⁷ 

Hosea 8:13

8:13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,

and eat the meat,

but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. ⁸ 

Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,

he will punish their sins,

and they will return to Egypt.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ⁹  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ¹⁰  – which is your reasonable service.

Ephesians 1:6

1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace ¹¹  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ¹² 

Colossians 1:20-21

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ¹³  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Paul’s Goal in Ministry

1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your ¹⁴  minds ¹⁵  as expressed through ¹⁶  your evil deeds,

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 2:5

2:5 For though ¹⁸  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ¹⁹  your morale ²⁰  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

[20:40]  ¹ tn Heb “all of it.”

[42:8]  ² tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ³ tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ⁵ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ⁶ tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ⁷ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “does not accept them”; the referent (their sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Many translations translate δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (doxh" th" carito" autou, literally “of the glory of his grace”) with τῆς χάριτος as an attributed genitive (cf., e.g., NIV, NRSV, ESV). The translation above has retained a literal rendering in order to make clear the relationship of this phrase to the other two similar phrases in v. 12 and 14, which affect the way one divides the material in the passage.

[1:6]  ¹² tn Grk “the beloved.” The term ἠγαπημένῳ (hgaphmenw) means “beloved,” but often bears connotations of “only beloved” in an exclusive sense. “His dearly loved Son” picks up this connotation.

[1:20]  ¹³ 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.

[1:21]  ¹⁴ tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[1:21]  ¹⁵ tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.

[1:21]  ¹⁶ tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.

[1:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn The conditional particle εἰ (ei) together with καί (kai) here indicates a first class condition in Greek and carries a concessive force, especially when seen in contrast to the following phrase which begins with ἀλλά (alla).

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “rejoicing and seeing.”

[2:5]  ²⁰ tn The Greek word τάξις can mean “order,” “discipline,” or even “unbroken ranks” (REB).