Genesis 3:3-7

3:3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, ¹  or else you will die.’” ²  3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, ³  3:5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open ⁴  and you will be like divine beings who know ⁵  good and evil.” ⁶ 

3:6 When ⁷  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ⁸  was attractive ⁹  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ¹⁰  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ¹¹  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ¹²  3:7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:1

The Temptation and the Fall

3:1 Now ¹³  the serpent ¹⁴  was more shrewd ¹⁵ 

than any of the wild animals ¹⁶  that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that ¹⁷  God ¹⁸  said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 22:22

22:22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”

Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ²⁰  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ²¹  replied.

Genesis 21:1

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ²²  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ²³  for Sarah what he had promised. ²⁴ 

James 4:1-7

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ²⁵  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²⁶  from your passions that battle inside you? ²⁷  4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ²⁸  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. 4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ²⁹  “The spirit that God ³⁰  caused ³¹  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ³²  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ³³  4:7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ³⁴  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ³⁵  from your passions that battle inside you? ³⁶ 

James 5:8

5:8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near.

Revelation 2:10

2:10 Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is about to have some of you thrown ³⁷  into prison so you may be tested, ³⁸  and you will experience suffering ³⁹  for ten days. Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself. ⁴⁰ 

Revelation 9:11

9:11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. ⁴¹ 

Revelation 13:6-8

13:6 So ⁴²  the beast ⁴³  opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, ⁴⁴  that is, those who dwell in heaven. 13:7 The beast ⁴⁵  was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. ⁴⁶  He was given ruling authority ⁴⁷  over every tribe, people, ⁴⁸  language, and nation, 13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, ⁴⁹  everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world ⁵⁰  in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. ⁵¹ 

Revelation 20:7-9

Satan’s Final Defeat

20:7 Now ⁵²  when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 20:8 and will go out to deceive ⁵³  the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, ⁵⁴  to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. ⁵⁵  20:9 They ⁵⁶  went up ⁵⁷  on the broad plain of the earth ⁵⁸  and encircled ⁵⁹  the camp ⁶⁰  of the saints and the beloved city, but ⁶¹  fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely. ⁶² 

[3:3]  ¹ sn And you must not touch it. The woman adds to God’s prohibition, making it say more than God expressed. G. von Rad observes that it is as though she wanted to set a law for herself by means of this exaggeration (Genesis [OTL], 86).

[3:3]  ² tn The Hebrew construction is פֶּן (pen) with the imperfect tense, which conveys a negative purpose: “lest you die” = “in order that you not die.” By stating the warning in this way, the woman omits the emphatic infinitive used by God (“you shall surely die,” see 2:17).

[3:4]  ³ tn The response of the serpent includes the infinitive absolute with a blatant negation equal to saying: “Not – you will surely die” (לֹא מוֹת תִּמֻתען, lo’ mot tÿmutun). The construction makes this emphatic because normally the negative particle precedes the finite verb. The serpent is a liar, denying that there is a penalty for sin (see John 8:44).

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Or “you will have understanding.” This obviously refers to the acquisition of the “knowledge of good and evil,” as the next statement makes clear.

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “like God, knowing.” It is unclear how the plural participle translated “knowing” is functioning. On the one hand, יֹדְעֵי (yodÿ’e) could be taken as a substantival participle functioning as a predicative adjective in the sentence. In this case one might translate: “You will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil.” On the other hand, it could be taken as an attributive adjective modifying אֱלֹהִים (’elohim). In this case אֱלֹהִים has to be taken as a numerical plural referring to “gods,” “divine beings,” for if the one true God were the intended referent, a singular form of the participle would almost certainly appear as a modifier. Following this line of interpretation, one could translate, “You will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” The following context may favor this translation, for in 3:22 God says to an unidentified group, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” It is probable that God is addressing his heavenly court (see the note on the word “make” in 1:26), the members of which can be called “gods” or “divine beings” from the ancient Israelite perspective. (We know some of these beings as messengers or “angels.”) An examination of parallel constructions shows that a predicative understanding (“you will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil,” cf. NIV, NRSV) is possible, but rare (see Gen 27:23, where “hairy” is predicative, complementing the verb “to be”). The statistical evidence strongly suggests that the participle is attributive, modifying “divine beings” (see Ps 31:12; Isa 1:30; 13:14; 16:2; 29:5; 58:11; Jer 14:9; 20:9; 23:9; 31:12; 48:41; 49:22; Hos 7:11; Amos 4:11). In all of these texts, where a comparative clause and accompanying adjective/participle follow a copulative (“to be”) verb, the adjective/participle is attributive after the noun in the comparative clause.

[3:5]  ⁷ sn You will be like divine beings who know good and evil. The serpent raises doubts about the integrity of God. He implies that the only reason for the prohibition was that God was protecting the divine domain. If the man and woman were to eat, they would enter into that domain. The temptation is to overstep divinely established boundaries. (See D. E. Gowan, When Man Becomes God [PTMS], 25.)

[3:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the woman saw.” The clause can be rendered as a temporal clause subordinate to the following verb in the sequence.

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “that the tree was good for food.” The words “produced fruit that was” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[3:6]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word תַּאֲוָה (ta’avah, translated “attractive” here) actually means “desirable.” This term and the later term נֶחְמָד (nekhmad, “desirable”) are synonyms.

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “that good was the tree for food, and that desirable it was to the eyes, and desirable was the tree to make one wise.” On the connection between moral wisdom and the “knowledge of good and evil,” see the note on the word “evil” in 2:9.

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied (here and also after “ate” at the end of this verse) for stylistic reasons.

[3:6]  ¹² sn This pericope (3:1-7) is a fine example of Hebrew narrative structure. After an introductory disjunctive clause that introduces a new character and sets the stage (3:1), the narrative tension develops through dialogue, culminating in the action of the story. Once the dialogue is over, the action is told in a rapid sequence of verbs – she took, she ate, she gave, and he ate.

[3:1]  ⁹ tn The chapter begins with a disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate) that introduces a new character and a new scene in the story.

[3:1]  ¹⁰ sn Many theologians identify or associate the serpent with Satan. In this view Satan comes in the disguise of a serpent or speaks through a serpent. This explains the serpent’s capacity to speak. While later passages in the Bible may indicate there was a satanic presence behind the serpent (see, for example, Rev 12:9), the immediate context pictures the serpent as simply one of the animals of the field created by God (see vv. 1, 14). An ancient Jewish interpretation explains the reference to the serpent in a literal manner, attributing the capacity to speak to all the animals in the orchard. This text (Jub. 3:28) states, “On that day [the day the man and woman were expelled from the orchard] the mouth of all the beasts and cattle and birds and whatever walked or moved was stopped from speaking because all of them used to speak to one another with one speech and one language [presumed to be Hebrew, see 12:26].” Josephus, Ant. 1.1.4 (1.41) attributes the serpent’s actions to jealousy. He writes that “the serpent, living in the company of Adam and his wife, grew jealous of the blessings which he supposed were destined for them if they obeyed God’s behests, and, believing that disobedience would bring trouble on them, he maliciously persuaded the woman to taste of the tree of wisdom.”

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew word עָרוּם (’arum) basically means “clever.” This idea then polarizes into the nuances “cunning” (in a negative sense, see Job 5:12; 15:5), and “prudent” in a positive sense (Prov 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12). This same polarization of meaning can be detected in related words derived from the same root (see Exod 21:14; Josh 9:4; 1 Sam 23:22; Job 5:13; Ps 83:3). The negative nuance obviously applies in Gen 3, where the snake attempts to talk the woman into disobeying God by using half-truths and lies.

[3:1]  ¹² tn Heb “animals of the field.”

[3:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “Indeed that God said.” The beginning of the quotation is elliptical and therefore difficult to translate. One must supply a phrase like “is it true”: “Indeed, [is it true] that God said.”

[3:1]  ¹⁴ sn God. The serpent does not use the expression “Yahweh God” [Lord God] because there is no covenant relationship involved between God and the serpent. He only speaks of “God.” In the process the serpent draws the woman into his manner of speech so that she too only speaks of “God.”

[3:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you must not eat from all the tree[s] of the orchard.” After the negated prohibitive verb, מִכֹּל (mikkol, “from all”) has the meaning “from any.” Note the construction in Lev 18:26, where the statement “you must not do from all these abominable things” means “you must not do any of these abominable things.” See Lev 22:25 and Deut 28:14 as well.

[22:1]  ¹¹ sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.

[22:1]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:1]  ¹³ sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “spoken.”

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[4:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

[4:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ²¹ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ²² tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

[4:6]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[4:1]  ²³ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[2:10]  ²⁵ tn Grk “is about to throw some of you,” but the force is causative in context.

[2:10]  ²⁶ tn Or “tempted.”

[2:10]  ²⁷ tn Or “experience persecution,” “will be in distress” (see L&N 22.2).

[2:10]  ²⁸ tn Grk “crown of life,” with the genitive “of life” (τῆς ζωῆς, th" zwh") functioning in apposition to “crown” (στέφανον, stefanon): “the crown that consists of life.”

[9:11]  ²⁷ sn Both the Hebrew Abaddon and the Greek Apollyon mean “Destroyer.”

[13:6]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the permission granted to the beast.

[13:6]  ³⁰ tn Grk “he” (or “it”); the referent (the beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:6]  ³¹ tc The reading “and his dwelling place” does not occur in codex C, but its omission is probably due to scribal oversight since the phrase has the same ending as the phrase before it, i.e., they both end in “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou). This is similar to the mistake this scribe made in 12:14 with the omission of the reading “and half a time” (καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ, kai {hmisu kairou).

[13:7]  ³¹ tn Grk “and it was given to him to go to war.” Here the passive construction has been simplified, the referent (the beast) has been specified for clarity, and καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[13:7]  ³² tc Many mss omit the phrase “it was given to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Ì⁴⁷ A C 2053 Ï^A sa). It is, however, found in Ì^115vid א 051 1006 (1611) 1841 (1854) 2329 2344 2351 (Ï^K) lat sy^ph,(h) bo. Although the ms evidence is somewhat in favor of the shorter reading, the support of ̹¹⁵ (a recently-discovered ms) for the longer reading balances things out. Normally, the shorter reading should be given preference. However, in an instance in which homoioteleuton could play a role, caution must be exercised. In this passage, accidental omission is quite likely. That this could have happened seems apparent from the two occurrences of the identical phrase “and it was given to him” (καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ, kai edoqh autw) in v. 7. The scribe’s eye skipped over the first καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ and went to the second, hence creating an accidental omission of eleven words.

[13:7]  ³³ tn For the translation “ruling authority” for ἐξουσία (exousia) see L&N 37.35.

[13:7]  ³⁴ tn Grk “and people,” but καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following term since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[13:8]  ³³ tn Grk “it”; the referent (the beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:8]  ³⁴ tn The prepositional phrase “since the foundation of the world” is traditionally translated as a modifier of the immediately preceding phrase in the Greek text, “the Lamb who was killed” (so also G. B. Caird, Revelation [HNTC], 168), but it is more likely that the phrase “since the foundation of the world” modifies the verb “written” (as translated above). Confirmation of this can be found in Rev 17:8 where the phrase “written in the book of life since the foundation of the world” occurs with no ambiguity.

[13:8]  ³⁵ tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.”

[20:7]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[20:8]  ³⁷ tn Or “mislead.”

[20:8]  ³⁸ sn The battle with Gog and Magog is described in the OT in Ezek 38:1-39:20.

[20:8]  ³⁹ tn Grk “of whom the number of them [is] like the sand of the sea” (an allusion to Isa 10:22).

[20:9]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:9]  ⁴⁰ tn The shift here to past tense reflects the Greek text.

[20:9]  ⁴¹ tn On the phrase “broad plain of the earth” BDAG 823 s.v. πλάτος states, “τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς Rv 20:9 comes fr. the OT (Da 12:2 LXX. Cp. Hab 1:6; Sir 1:3), but the sense is not clear: breadth = the broad plain of the earth is perh. meant to provide room for the countless enemies of God vs. 8, but the ‘going up’ is better suited to Satan (vs. 7) who has recently been freed, and who comes up again fr. the abyss (vs. 3).” The referent here thus appears to be a plain large enough to accommodate the numberless hoards that have drawn up for battle against the Lord Christ and his saints.

[20:9]  ⁴² tn Or “surrounded.”

[20:9]  ⁴³ tn On the term παρεμβολή (parembolh) BDAG 775 s.v. states, “Mostly used as a military t.t.…so always in our lit.…1. a (fortified) camp…ἡ παρεμβολὴ τῶν ἁγίων Rv 20:9 is also to be understood fr. the OT use of the word.”

[20:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[20:9]  ⁴⁵ tn See L&N 20.45 for the translation of κατεσθίω (katesqiw) as “to destroy utterly, to consume completely.”