Galatians 4:5-6

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ¹  4:6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls ²  “Abba! ³  Father!”

John 1:12-13

1:12 But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name ⁴  – he has given the right to become God’s children 1:13 – children not born ⁵  by human parents ⁶  or by human desire ⁷  or a husband’s ⁸  decision, ⁹  but by God.

John 20:17

20:17 Jesus replied, ¹⁰  “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Romans 8:14-17

8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are ¹¹  the sons of God. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹²  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ¹³  by whom ¹⁴  we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ¹⁵  our spirit that we are God’s children. 8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ¹⁶  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:2

8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit ¹⁷  in Christ Jesus has set you ¹⁸  free from the law of sin and death.

Colossians 1:18

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ¹⁹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ²⁰ 

Ephesians 1:5

1:5 He did this by predestining ²¹  us to adoption as his ²²  sons ²³  through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure ²⁴  of his will –

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ²⁵  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Philippians 2:15

2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world ²⁶ 

Hebrews 2:10-15

2:10 For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, ²⁷  in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer ²⁸  of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 2:11 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, ²⁹  and so ³⁰  he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ³¹  2:12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; ³²  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” ³³  2:13 Again he says, ³⁴  “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, ³⁵  with ³⁶  the children God has given me.” ³⁷  2:14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in ³⁸  their humanity, ³⁹  so that through death he could destroy ⁴⁰  the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), 2:15 and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 3:1-2

Jesus and Moses

3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, ⁴¹  partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, ⁴²  3:2 who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s ⁴³  house. ⁴⁴ 

Revelation 21:7

21:7 The one who conquers ⁴⁵  will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

[4:5]  ¹ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[4:6]  ² tn Grk “calling.” The participle is neuter indicating that the Spirit is the one who calls.

[4:6]  ³ tn The term “Abba” is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic אַבָּא (’abba’), literally meaning “my father” but taken over simply as “father,” used in prayer and in the family circle, and later taken over by the early Greek-speaking Christians (BDAG 1 s.v. ἀββα).

[1:12]  ⁴ tn On the use of the πιστεύω + εἰς (pisteuw + ei") construction in John: The verb πιστεύω occurs 98 times in John (compared to 11 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark [including the longer ending], and 9 times in Luke). One of the unsolved mysteries is why the corresponding noun form πίστις (pistis) is never used at all. Many have held the noun was in use in some pre-Gnostic sects and this rendered it suspect for John. It might also be that for John, faith was an activity, something that men do (cf. W. Turner, “Believing and Everlasting Life – A Johannine Inquiry,” ExpTim 64 [1952/53]: 50-52). John uses πιστεύω in 4 major ways: (1) of believing facts, reports, etc., 12 times; (2) of believing people (or the scriptures), 19 times; (3) of believing “in” Christ” (πιστεύω + εἰς + acc.), 36 times; (4) used absolutely without any person or object specified, 30 times (the one remaining passage is 2:24, where Jesus refused to “trust” himself to certain individuals). Of these, the most significant is the use of πιστεύω with εἰς + accusative. It is not unlike the Pauline ἐν Χριστῷ (en Cristw) formula. Some have argued that this points to a Hebrew (more likely Aramaic) original behind the Fourth Gospel. But it probably indicates something else, as C. H. Dodd observed: “πιστεύειν with the dative so inevitably connoted simple credence, in the sense of an intellectual judgment, that the moral element of personal trust or reliance inherent in the Hebrew or Aramaic phrase – an element integral to the primitive Christian conception of faith in Christ – needed to be otherwise expressed” (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 183).

[1:13]  ⁵ tn The Greek term translated “born” here also involves conception.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “of blood(s).” The plural αἱμάτων (Jaimatwn) has seemed a problem to many interpreters. At least some sources in antiquity imply that blood was thought of as being important in the development of the fetus during its time in the womb: thus Wis 7:1: “in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of 10 months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.” In John 1:13, the plural αἱμάτων may imply the action of both parents. It may also refer to the “genetic” contribution of both parents, and so be equivalent to “human descent” (see BDAG 26 s.v. αἷμα 1.a). E. C. Hoskyns thinks John could not have used the singular here because Christians are in fact ‘begotten’ by the blood of Christ (The Fourth Gospel, 143), although the context would seem to make it clear that the blood in question is something other than the blood of Christ.

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Or “of the will of the flesh.” The phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός (oude ek qelhmato" sarko") is more clearly a reference to sexual desire, but it should be noted that σάρξ (sarx) in John does not convey the evil sense common in Pauline usage. For John it refers to the physical nature in its weakness rather than in its sinfulness. There is no clearer confirmation of this than the immediately following verse, where the λόγος (logos) became σάρξ.

[1:13]  ⁸ tn Or “man’s.”

[1:13]  ⁹ tn The third phrase, οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός (oude ek qelhmato" andros), means much the same as the second one. The word here (ἀνηρ, anhr) is often used for a husband, resulting in the translation “or a husband’s decision,” or more generally, “or of any human volition whatsoever.” L. Morris may be right when he sees here an emphasis directed at the Jewish pride in race and patriarchal ancestry, although such a specific reference is difficult to prove (John [NICNT], 101).

[20:17]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Jesus said to her.”

[8:14]  ¹¹ tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”

[8:15]  ¹² tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ¹³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in that.”

[8:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[8:17]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs – that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

[8:2]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”

[8:2]  ¹⁸ tc Most mss read the first person singular pronoun με (me) here (A D 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa). The second person singular pronoun σε (se) is superior because of external support (א B {F which reads σαι} G 1506* 1739*) and internal support (it is the harder reading since ch. 7 was narrated in the first person). At the same time, it could have arisen via dittography from the final syllable of the verb preceding it (ἠλευθέρωσεν, hleuqerwsen; “has set free”). But for this to happen in such early and diverse witnesses is unlikely, especially as it depends on various scribes repeatedly overlooking either the nu or the nu-bar at the end of the verb.

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

[1:18]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

[1:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).

[1:5]  ²² tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”

[1:5]  ²³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…sons.”

[1:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “good pleasure.”

[5:1]  ²⁵ tn Or “become.”

[2:15]  ²⁶ tn Or “as stars in the universe.”

[2:10]  ²⁷ tn Grk “for whom are all things and through whom are all things.”

[2:10]  ²⁸ sn The Greek word translated pioneer is used of a “prince” or leader, the representative head of a family. It also carries nuances of “trailblazer,” one who breaks through to new ground for those who follow him. It is used some thirty-five times in the Greek OT and four times in the NT, always of Christ (Acts 3:15; 5:31; Heb 2:10; 12:2).

[2:11]  ²⁹ tn Grk “are all from one.”

[2:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “for which reason.”

[2:11]  ³¹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). The context here also indicates both men and women are in view; note especially the collective τὰ παιδία (ta paidia) in v. 14.

[2:12]  ³² tn Here, because of its occurrence in an OT quotation, τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς (tois adelfois) has been translated simply as “brothers” rather than “brothers and sisters” (see the note on the latter phrase in the previous verse).

[2:12]  ³³ sn A quotation from Ps 22:22.

[2:13]  ³⁴ tn Grk “and again,” as a continuation of the preceding.

[2:13]  ³⁵ tn Grk “behold, I,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).

[2:13]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and.”

[2:13]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 8:17-18.

[2:14]  ³⁸ tn Or “partook of” (this is a different word than the one in v. 14a).

[2:14]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the same.”

[2:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “break the power of,” “reduce to nothing.”

[3:1]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “of our confession.”

[3:2]  ⁴³ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:2]  ⁴⁴ tc ‡ The reading adopted by the translation follows a few early mss and some versions (Ì^13,46vid B vg^ms co Ambr). The majority of mss (א A C D Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy) insert “all” (“in all his house”), apparently in anticipation of Heb 3:5 which quotes directly from Num 12:7. On balance, the omission better explains the rise of ὅλῳ ({olw, “all”) than vice versa. NA²⁷ puts ὅλῳ in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[21:7]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.”