Genesis 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ¹  because the Lord blessed him. ² 

Genesis 30:27

30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, ³  for I have learned by divination ⁴  that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”

Genesis 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ⁵  you had little before I arrived, ⁶  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ⁷  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁸  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁹ 

Genesis 32:10

32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ¹⁰  you have shown ¹¹  your servant. With only my walking stick ¹²  I crossed the Jordan, ¹³  but now I have become two camps.

Genesis 33:11

33:11 Please take my present ¹⁴  that was brought to you, for God has been generous ¹⁵  to me and I have all I need.” ¹⁶  When Jacob urged him, he took it. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 8:18

8:18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, ¹⁸  even as he has to this day.

Deuteronomy 15:11-14

15:11 There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open ¹⁹  your hand to your fellow Israelites ²⁰  who are needy and poor in your land.

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ²¹  – whether male or female ²²  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ²³  go free. ²⁴  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ²⁵  from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them.

Deuteronomy 15:2

15:2 This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ²⁶  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ²⁷  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.”

Deuteronomy 31:10

31:10 He ²⁸  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ²⁹  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ³⁰ 

Haggai 2:16-19

2:16 From that time ³¹  when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty. 2:17 I struck all the products of your labor ³²  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ³³  says the Lord. 2:18 ‘Think carefully about the past: ³⁴  from today, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, ³⁵  to the day work on the temple of the Lord was resumed, ³⁶  think about it. ³⁷  2:19 The seed is still in the storehouse, isn’t it? And the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not produced. Nevertheless, from today on I will bless you.’”

Malachi 3:9-10

3:9 You are bound for judgment ³⁸  because you are robbing me – this whole nation is guilty. ³⁹ 

3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ⁴⁰  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.

Mark 12:41-44

The Widow’s Offering

12:41 Then ⁴¹  he ⁴²  sat down opposite the offering box, ⁴³  and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts. 12:42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, ⁴⁴  worth less than a penny. 12:43 He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, ⁴⁵  this poor widow has put more into the offering box ⁴⁶  than all the others. ⁴⁷  12:44 For they all gave out of their wealth. ⁴⁸  But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.” ⁴⁹ 

Mark 14:8

14:8 She did what she could. She anointed my body beforehand for burial.

Luke 16:10

16:10 “The one who is faithful in a very little ⁵⁰  is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Luke 16:2

16:2 So ⁵¹  he called the manager ⁵²  in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? ⁵³  Turn in the account of your administration, ⁵⁴  because you can no longer be my manager.’

Colossians 1:1-3

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁵⁵  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful ⁵⁶  brothers and sisters ⁵⁷  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ⁵⁸  from God our Father! ⁵⁹ 

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁶⁰  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Colossians 1:12-15

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ⁶¹  in the saints’ ⁶²  inheritance in the light. 1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ⁶³  1:14 in whom we have redemption, ⁶⁴  the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ⁶⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ⁶⁶  over all creation, ⁶⁷ 

[26:12]  ¹ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ² tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[30:27]  ³ tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[30:27]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.

[30:30]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[30:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “before me.”

[30:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

[30:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “at my foot.”

[30:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

[32:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ¹² tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[33:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.

[33:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.

[33:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all.”

[33:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ¹⁸ tc Smr and Lucian add “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the standard way of rendering this almost stereotypical formula (cf. Deut 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4). The MT’s harder reading presumptively argues for its originality, however.

[15:11]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”

[15:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your brother.”

[15:12]  ²¹ sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.

[15:12]  ²² tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ²³ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[15:14]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”

[15:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his neighbor,” used idiomatically to refer to another person.

[15:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his neighbor and his brother.” The words “his brother” may be a scribal gloss identifying “his neighbor” (on this idiom, see the preceding note) as a fellow Israelite (cf. v. 3). In this case the conjunction before “his brother” does not introduce a second category, but rather has the force of “that is.”

[31:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:10]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

[31:10]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

[2:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”

[2:17]  ³² tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”

[2:17]  ³³ tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the Lord. Cf. KJV and many English versions “yet ye turned not to me,” understanding the phrase to refer to the people’s repentance rather than their failure to bring offerings.

[2:18]  ³⁴ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15.

[2:18]  ³⁵ sn The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520. See v. 10. Here the reference is to “today,” the day the oracle is being delivered.

[2:18]  ³⁶ sn The day work…was resumed. This does not refer to the initial founding of the Jerusalem temple in 536 b.c. but to the renewal of construction three months earlier (see 1:15). This is clear from the situation described in v. 19 which accords with the food scarcities of that time already detailed in Hag 1:10-11.

[2:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15 and at the beginning of this verse.

[3:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “cursed with a curse” that is, “under a curse” (so NIV, NLT, CEV).

[3:9]  ³⁹ tn The phrase “is guilty” is not present in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.

[3:10]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”

[12:41]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:41]  ⁴² tc Most mss, predominantly of the Western and Byzantine texts (A D W Θ Ë^1,13 33 2542 Ï lat), have ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς (Jo Ihsou", “Jesus”) as the explicit subject here, while א B L Δ Ψ 892 2427 pc lack the name. A natural scribal tendency is to expand the text, especially to add the Lord’s name as the explicit subject of a verb. Scribes much less frequently omitted the Lord’s name (cf. the readings of W Θ 565 1424 in Mark 12:17). The internal and external evidence support one another here in behalf of the shorter reading.

[12:41]  ⁴³ tn On the term γαζοφυλάκιον (gazofulakion), often translated “treasury,” see BDAG 186 s.v., which states, “For Mk 12:41, 43; Lk 21:1 the mng. contribution box or receptacle is attractive. Acc. to Mishnah, Shekalim 6, 5 there were in the temple 13 such receptacles in the form of trumpets. But even in these passages the general sense of ‘treasury’ is prob., for the contributions would go [into] the treasury via the receptacles.” Based upon the extra-biblical evidence (see sn following), however, the translation opts to refer to the actual receptacles and not the treasury itself.

[12:42]  ⁴⁴ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[12:43]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[12:43]  ⁴⁶ tn See the note on the term “offering box” in v. 41.

[12:43]  ⁴⁷ sn Has put more into the offering box than all the others. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.

[12:44]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”

[12:44]  ⁴⁹ sn The contrast between this passage, 12:41-44, and what has come before in 11:27-12:40 is remarkable. The woman is set in stark contrast to the religious leaders. She was a poor widow, they were rich. She was uneducated in the law, they were well educated in the law. She was a woman, they were men. But whereas they evidenced no faith and actually stole money from God and men (cf. 11:17), she evidenced great faith and gave out of her extreme poverty everything she had.

[16:10]  ⁵⁰ sn The point of the statement faithful in a very little is that character is shown in how little things are treated.

[16:2]  ⁵¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the result of the reports the man received about his manager.

[16:2]  ⁵² tn Grk “him”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ⁵³ sn Although phrased as a question, the charges were believed by the owner, as his dismissal of the manager implies.

[16:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “stewardship”; the Greek word οἰκονομία (oikonomia) is cognate with the noun for the manager (οἰκονόμος, oikonomo").

[1:1]  ⁵⁵ 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]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ 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]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ⁵⁹ 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]  ⁶⁰ 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).

[1:12]  ⁶¹ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ⁶² tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[1:13]  ⁶³ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[1:14]  ⁶⁴ tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.

[1:15]  ⁶⁵ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as 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, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ⁶⁶ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ⁶⁷ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.