Genesis 9:2-4

9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. ¹  Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. ²  9:3 You may eat any moving thing that lives. ³  As I gave you ⁴  the green plants, I now give ⁵  you everything.

9:4 But ⁶  you must not eat meat ⁷  with its life (that is, ⁸  its blood) in it. ⁹ 

Job 5:23

5:23 For you will have a pact with the stones ¹⁰  of the field,

and the wild animals ¹¹  will be at peace ¹²  with you.

Psalms 8:4-8

8:4 Of what importance is the human race, ¹³  that you should notice ¹⁴  them?

Of what importance is mankind, ¹⁵  that you should pay attention to them, ¹⁶ 

8:5 and make them a little less than the heavenly beings? ¹⁷ 

You grant mankind ¹⁸  honor and majesty; ¹⁹ 

8:6 you appoint them to rule over your creation; ²⁰ 

you have placed ²¹  everything under their authority, ²² 

8:7 including all the sheep and cattle,

as well as the wild animals, ²³ 

8:8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea

and everything that moves through the currents ²⁴  of the seas.

Psalms 104:20-24

104:20 You make it dark and night comes, ²⁵ 

during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

104:21 The lions roar for prey,

seeking their food from God. ²⁶ 

104:22 When the sun rises, they withdraw

and sleep ²⁷  in their dens.

104:23 Men then go out to do their work,

and labor away until evening. ²⁸ 

104:24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! ²⁹ 

You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; ³⁰ 

the earth is full of the living things you have made.

Ecclesiastes 7:29

7:29 This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright,

but they have sought many evil schemes.

Jeremiah 27:6

27:6 I have at this time placed all these nations of yours under the power ³¹  of my servant, ³²  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made all the wild animals subject to him. ³³ 

Acts 17:20

17:20 For you are bringing some surprising things ³⁴  to our ears, so we want to know what they ³⁵  mean.”

Acts 17:28-29

17:28 For in him we live and move about ³⁶  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ³⁷  17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ³⁸  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ³⁹  made by human ⁴⁰  skill ⁴¹  and imagination. ⁴² 

Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ⁴³  Amphipolis ⁴⁴  and Apollonia, ⁴⁵  they came to Thessalonica, ⁴⁶  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ⁴⁷ 

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ⁴⁸  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ⁴⁹  – a ⁵⁰  faithful minister of Christ on our ⁵¹  behalf –

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ⁵²  brothers and sisters ⁵³  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ⁵⁴  from God our Father! ⁵⁵ 

Colossians 3:18

Exhortation to Households

3:18 Wives, submit to your ⁵⁶  husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Ephesians 4:24

4:24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image ⁵⁷  – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. ⁵⁸ 

Colossians 3:10

3:10 and have been clothed with the new man ⁵⁹  that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.

Hebrews 2:6-9

2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere:

“What is man that you think of him ⁶⁰  or the son of man that you care for him?

2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.

You crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶¹ 

2:8 You put all things under his control.” ⁶² 

For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see all things under his control, ⁶³  2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ⁶⁴  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ⁶⁵  so that by God’s grace he would experience ⁶⁶  death on behalf of everyone.

James 3:7

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ⁶⁷  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ⁶⁸ 

James 3:9

3:9 With it we bless the Lord ⁶⁹  and Father, and with it we curse people ⁷⁰  made in God’s image.

[9:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.

[9:2]  ² tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.

[9:3]  ³ tn Heb “every moving thing that lives for you will be for food.”

[9:3]  ⁴ tn The words “I gave you” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn The perfect verb form describes the action that accompanies the declaration.

[9:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “only.”

[9:4]  ⁷ tn Or “flesh.”

[9:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “its life, its blood.” The second word is in apposition to the first, explaining what is meant by “its life.” Since the blood is equated with life, meat that had the blood in it was not to be eaten.

[9:4]  ⁹ tn The words “in it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your covenant is with the stones of the field.” The line has been variously interpreted and translated. It is omitted in the LXX. It seems to mean there is a deep sympathy between man and nature. Some think it means that the boundaries will not be violated by enemies; Rashi thought it represented some species of beings, like genii of the field, and so read אֲדֹנֵי (’adone, “lords”) for אַבְנֵי (’avne, “stones”). Ball takes the word as בְּנֵי (bÿne, “sons”), as in “sons of the field,” to get the idea that the reference is to the beasts. E. Dhorme (Job, 71) rejects these ideas as too contrived; he says to have a pact with the stones of the field simply means the stones will not come and spoil the ground, making it less fertile.

[5:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”

[5:23]  ¹² tn This is the only occurrence of the Hophal of the verb שָׁלֵם (shalem, “to make or have peace” with someone). Compare Isa 11:6-9 and Ps 91:13. The verb form is the perfect; here it is the perfect consecutive following a noun clause (see GKC 494 §159.g).

[8:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “What is man[kind]?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh, “man”) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race.

[8:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “remember him.”

[8:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.

[8:4]  ¹⁶ tn The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and you make him lack a little from [the] gods [or “God”].” The Piel form of חָסַר (khasar, “to decrease, to be devoid”) is used only here and in Eccl 4:8, where it means “to deprive, to cause to be lacking.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive either carries on the characteristic nuance of the imperfect in v. 5b or indicates a consequence (“so that you make him…”) of the preceding statement (see GKC 328 §111.m). Some prefer to make this an independent clause and translate it as a new sentence, “You made him….” In this case the statement might refer specifically to the creation of the first human couple, Adam and Eve (cf. Gen 1:26-27). The psalmist does appear to allude to Gen 1:26-27, where mankind is created in the image of God and his angelic assembly (note “let us make man in our image” in Gen 1:26). However, the psalmist’s statement need not be limited in its focus to that historical event, for all mankind shares the image imparted to the first human couple. Consequently the psalmist can speak in general terms of the exalted nature of mankind. The referent of אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God” or “the heavenly beings”) is unclear. Some understand this as a reference to God alone, but the allusion to Gen 1:26-27 suggests a broader referent, including God and the other heavenly beings (known in other texts as “angels”). The term אֱלֹהִים is also used in this way in Gen 3:5, where the serpent says to the woman, “you will be like the heavenly beings who know good and evil.” (Note Gen 3:22, where God says, “the man has become like one of us.”) Also אֱלֹהִים may refer to the members of the heavenly assembly in Ps 82:1, 6. The LXX (the ancient Greek translation of the OT) reads “angels” in Ps 8:5 (this is the source of the quotation of Ps 8:5 in Heb 2:7).

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you crown him [with].” The imperfect verbal forms in this and the next line describe God’s characteristic activity.

[8:5]  ¹⁹ sn Honor and majesty. These terms allude to mankind’s royal status as God’s vice-regents (cf. v. 6 and Gen 1:26-30).

[8:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “you cause [i.e., “permit, allow”] him to rule over the works of your hands.”

[8:6]  ²¹ tn The perfect verbal form probably has a present perfect nuance here. It refers to the continuing effects of God’s original mandate (see Gen 1:26-30).

[8:6]  ²² tn Heb “under his feet.”

[8:7]  ²³ tn Heb “and also the beasts of the field.”

[8:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “paths.”

[104:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”

[104:21]  ²⁶ sn The lions’ roaring is viewed as a request for food from God.

[104:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “lie down.”

[104:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “man goes out to his work, and to his labor until evening.”

[104:24]  ²⁹ tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.

[104:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”

[27:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “have given…into the hand of.”

[27:6]  ³² sn See the study note on 25:9 for the significance of the application of this term to Nebuchadnezzar.

[27:6]  ³³ tn Heb “I have given…to him to serve him.” The verb “give” in this syntactical situation is functioning like the Hiphil stem, i.e., as a causative. See Dan 1:9 for parallel usage. For the usage of “serve” meaning “be subject to” compare 2 Sam 22:44 and BDB 713 s.v. עָבַד 3.

[17:20]  ³⁴ tn BDAG 684 s.v. ξενίζω 2 translates the substantival participle ξενίζοντα (xenizonta) as “astonishing things Ac 17:20.”

[17:20]  ³⁵ tn Grk “these things”; but since the referent (“surprising things”) is so close, the repetition of “these things” sounds redundant in English, so the pronoun “they” was substituted in the translation.

[17:28]  ³⁶ tn According to L&N 15.1, “A strictly literal translation of κινέω in Ac 17:28 might imply merely moving from one place to another. The meaning, however, is generalized movement and activity; therefore, it may be possible to translate κινούμεθα as ‘we come and go’ or ‘we move about’’ or even ‘we do what we do.’”

[17:28]  ³⁷ sn This quotation is from Aratus (ca. 310-245 b.c.), Phaenomena 5. Paul asserted a general relationship and accountability to God for all humanity.

[17:29]  ³⁸ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ³⁹ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ⁴¹ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ⁴² tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:1]  ⁴³ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ⁴⁴ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ⁴⁵ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ⁴⁶ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ⁴⁷ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[1:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ⁴⁹ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ⁵⁰ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ⁵¹ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[1:2]  ⁵² 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]  ⁵³ 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]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ⁵⁵ 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.

[3:18]  ⁵⁶ tn The article τοῖς (tois) with ἀνδράσιν (andrasin, “husbands”) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (“your”); see ExSyn 215.

[4:24]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “in God’s likeness.” Grk “according to God.” The preposition κατά used here denotes a measure of similarity or equality (BDAG 513 s.v. B.5.b.α).

[4:24]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “in righteousness and holiness which is based on truth” or “originated from truth.”

[3:10]  ⁵⁹ sn Put off all such things. The commands in vv. 8-9 are based on two reasons given in vv. 9-10 – reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (v. 9) and “have been clothed” (v. 10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion – they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. 1:4). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of v. 10 indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Rom 13:14).

[2:6]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “remember him.”

[2:7]  ⁶¹ tc Several witnesses, many of them early and important (א A C D* P Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat co), have at the end of v 7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.” Other mss, not quite as impressive in weight, lack the words (Ì⁴⁶ B D² Ï). In spite of the impressive external evidence for the longer reading, it is most likely a scribal addition to conform the text of Hebrews to Ps 8:6 (8:7 LXX). Conformity of a NT quotation of the OT to the LXX was a routine scribal activity, and can hardly be in doubt here as to the cause of the longer reading.

[2:8]  ⁶² tn Grk “you subjected all things under his feet.”

[2:8]  ⁶³ sn The expression all things under his control occurs three times in 2:8. The latter two occurrences are not exactly identical to the Greek text of Ps 8:6 quoted at the beginning of the verse, but have been adapted by the writer of Hebrews to fit his argument.

[2:9]  ⁶⁴ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[3:7]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “the human species.”

[3:9]  ⁶⁹ tc Most later mss (Ï), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (qeon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (̲⁰ א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.

[3:9]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.