Genesis 15:10

15:10 So Abram ¹  took all these for him and then cut them in two ²  and placed each half opposite the other, ³  but he did not cut the birds in half.

Psalms 16:10

16:10 You will not abandon me ⁴  to Sheol; ⁵ 

you will not allow your faithful follower ⁶  to see ⁷  the Pit. ⁸ 

Matthew 27:50

27:50 Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

John 19:30

19:30 When ⁹  he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed!” ¹⁰  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ¹¹ 

Romans 4:25

4:25 He ¹²  was given over ¹³  because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of ¹⁴  our justification. ¹⁵ 

Romans 4:1

The Illustration of Justification

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ¹⁶  has discovered regarding this matter? ¹⁷ 

Romans 1:19-21

1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them, ¹⁸  because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people ¹⁹  are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ²⁰  were darkened.

Romans 3:18

3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ²¹ 

[15:10]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ² tn Heb “in the middle.”

[15:10]  ³ tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”

[16:10]  ⁴ tn Or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[16:10]  ⁵ sn In ancient Israelite cosmology Sheol is the realm of the dead, viewed as being under the earth’s surface. See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 165-76.

[16:10]  ⁶ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד [khasid], traditionally rendered “holy one”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10). The psalmist here refers to himself, as the parallel line (“You will not abandon me to Sheol”) indicates.

[16:10]  ⁷ tn That is, “experience.” The psalmist is confident that the Lord will protect him in his present crisis (see v. 1) and prevent him from dying.

[16:10]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew word שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 30:9; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4). Note the parallelism with the previous line.

[19:30]  ⁹ tn Grk “Then when.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[19:30]  ¹⁰ tn Or “It is accomplished,” “It is finished,” or “It is ended.” See tn on John 13:1.

[19:30]  ¹¹ tn Or “he bowed his head and died”; Grk “he bowed his head and gave over the spirit.”

[4:25]  ¹² tn Grk “who,” referring to Jesus. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:25]  ¹³ tn Or “handed over.”

[4:25]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “because of.” However, in light of the unsatisfactory sense that a causal nuance would here suggest, it has been argued that the second διά (dia) is prospective rather than retrospective (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 288-89). The difficulty of this interpretation is the structural balance that both διά phrases provide (“given over because of our transgressions…raised because of our justification”). However the poetic structure of this verse strengthens the likelihood that the clauses each have a different force.

[4:25]  ¹⁵ sn Many scholars regard Rom 4:25 to be poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “according to natural descent” (BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 4).

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “has found?”

[1:19]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “is manifest to/in them.”

[1:20]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “heart.”

[3:18]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Ps 36:1.