Genesis 14:13

14:13 A fugitive ¹  came and told Abram the Hebrew. ²  Now Abram was living by the oaks ³  of Mamre the Amorite, the brother ⁴  of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty ⁵  with Abram.) ⁶ 

Genesis 40:15

40:15 for I really was kidnapped ⁷  from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon.”

Genesis 41:12

41:12 Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant ⁸  of the captain of the guards, ⁹  was with us there. We told him our dreams, ¹⁰  and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us. ¹¹ 

Genesis 41:1

Joseph’s Rise to Power

41:1 At the end of two full years ¹²  Pharaoh had a dream. ¹³  As he was standing by the Nile,

Genesis 4:6

4:6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast?

Jonah 1:9

1:9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship ¹⁴  the Lord, ¹⁵  the God of heaven, ¹⁶  who made the sea and the dry land.”

Acts 6:1-2

The Appointment of the First Seven Deacons

6:1 Now in those ¹⁷  days, when the disciples were growing in number, ¹⁸  a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews ¹⁹  against the native Hebraic Jews, ²⁰  because their widows ²¹  were being overlooked ²²  in the daily distribution of food. ²³  6:2 So the twelve ²⁴  called ²⁵  the whole group ²⁶  of the disciples together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables. ²⁷ 

Colossians 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you ²⁸  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

[14:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the fugitive.” The article carries a generic force or indicates that this fugitive is definite in the mind of the speaker.

[14:13]  ² sn E. A. Speiser (Genesis [AB], 103) suggests that part of this chapter came from an outside source since it refers to Abram the Hebrew. That is not impossible, given that the narrator likely utilized traditions and genealogies that had been collected and transmitted over the years. The meaning of the word “Hebrew” has proved elusive. It may be related to the verb “to cross over,” perhaps meaning “immigrant.” Or it might be derived from the name of Abram’s ancestor Eber (see Gen 11:14-16).

[14:13]  ³ tn Or “terebinths.”

[14:13]  ⁴ tn Or “a brother”; or “a relative”; or perhaps “an ally.”

[14:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “possessors of a treaty with.” Since it is likely that the qualifying statement refers to all three (Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner) the words “all these” have been supplied in the translation to make this clear.

[14:13]  ⁶ tn This parenthetical disjunctive clause explains how Abram came to be living in their territory, but it also explains why they must go to war with Abram.

[40:15]  ⁷ tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal,” but in the Piel/Pual stem “to steal away.” The idea of “kidnap” would be closer to the sense, meaning he was stolen and carried off. The preceding infinitive absolute underscores the point Joseph is making.

[41:12]  ⁸ tn Or “slave.”

[41:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “a servant to the captain of the guards.” On this construction see GKC 419-20 §129.c.

[41:12]  ¹⁰ tn The words “our dreams” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he interpreted for us our dreams, each according to his dream he interpreted.”

[41:1]  ¹² tn Heb “two years, days.”

[41:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “was dreaming.”

[1:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “fear.” The verb יָרֵא (yare’) has a broad range of meanings, including “to fear, to worship, to revere, to respect” (BDB 431 s.v.). When God is the object, it normally means “to fear” (leading to obedience; BDB 431 s.v. 1) or “to worship” (= to stand in awe of; BDB 431 s.v. 2). Because the fear of God leads to wisdom and obedience, that is probably not the sense here. Instead Jonah professes to be a loyal Yahwist – in contrast to the pagan Phoenician sailors who worshiped false gods, he worshiped the one true God. Unfortunately his worship of the Lord lacked the necessary moral prerequisite.

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The Lord, the God of heaven, I fear.” The Hebrew word order is unusual. Normally the verb appears first, but here the direct object “the Lord, the God of heaven” precedes the verb. Jonah emphasizes the object of his worship. In contrast to the Phoenician sailors who worship pagan polytheistic gods, Jonah took pride in his theological orthodoxy. Ironically, his “fear” of the Lord in this case was limited to this profession of theological orthodoxy because his actions betrayed his refusal to truly “fear” God by obeying him.

[1:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the God of the heavens.” The noun שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “heavens”) always appears in the dual form. Although the dual form sometimes refers to things that exist in pairs, the dual is often used to refer to geographical locations, e.g., יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (yÿrushalayim, “Jerusalem”), אֶפְרַיִם (’efrayim, “Ephraim”), and מִצְרַיִם (mitsrayim, “Egypt,” but see IBHS 118 §7.3d). The dual form of שָׁמַיִם does not refer to two different kinds of heavens or to two levels of heaven; it simply refers to “heaven” as a location – the dwelling place of God. Jonah’s point is that he worships the High God of heaven – the one enthroned over all creation.

[6:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “these.” The translation uses “those” for stylistic reasons.

[6:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “were multiplying.”

[6:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the Hellenists,” but this descriptive term is largely unknown to the modern English reader. The translation “Greek-speaking Jews” attempts to convey something of who these were, but it was more than a matter of language spoken; it involved a degree of adoption of Greek culture as well.

[6:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “against the Hebrews,” but as with “Hellenists” this needs further explanation for the modern reader.

[6:1]  ²¹ sn The care of widows is a major biblical theme: Deut 10:18; 16:11, 14; 24:17, 19-21; 26:12-13; 27:19; Isa 1:17-23; Jer 7:6; Mal 3:5.

[6:1]  ²² tn Or “neglected.”

[6:1]  ²³ tn Grk “in the daily serving.”

[6:2]  ²⁴ sn The twelve refers to the twelve apostles.

[6:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “calling the whole group…together, said.” The participle προσκαλεσάμενοι (proskalesamenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[6:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “the multitude.”

[6:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “to serve tables.”

[1:22]  ²⁸ tc Some of the better representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts have a passive verb here instead of the active ἀποκατήλλαξεν (apokathllaxen, “he has reconciled”): ἀποκατηλλάγητε (apokathllaghte) in (Ì⁴⁶) B, ἀποκατήλλακται [sic] (apokathllaktai) in 33, and ἀποκαταλλαγέντες (apokatallagente") in D* F G. Yet the active verb is strongly supported by א A C D² Ψ 048 075 [0278] 1739 1881 Ï lat sy. Internally, the passive creates an anacoluthon in that it looks back to the accusative ὑμᾶς (Juma", “you”) of v. 21 and leaves the following παραστῆσαι (parasthsai) dangling (“you were reconciled…to present you”). The passive reading is certainly the harder reading. As such, it may well explain the rise of the other readings. At the same time, it is possible that the passive was produced by scribes who wanted some symmetry between the ποτε (pote, “at one time”) of v. 21 and the νυνὶ δέ (nuni de, “but now”) of v. 22: Since a passive periphrastic participle is used in v. 21, there may have a temptation to produce a corresponding passive form in v. 22, handling the ὑμᾶς of v. 21 by way of constructio ad sensum. Since παραστῆσαι occurs ten words later, it may not have been considered in this scribal modification. Further, the Western reading (ἀποκαταλλαγέντες) hardly seems to have arisen from ἀποκατηλλάγητε (contra TCGNT 555). As difficult as this decision is, the preferred reading is the active form because it is superior externally and seems to explain the rise of all forms of the passive readings.