Genesis 14:22

14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand ¹  to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow ² 

Genesis 24:3

24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise ³  by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire ⁴  a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.

Mark 6:23

6:23 He swore to her, ⁵  “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” ⁶ 

Hebrews 6:16

6:16 For people ⁷  swear by something greater than themselves, ⁸  and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. ⁹ 

[14:22]  ¹ tn Abram takes an oath, raising his hand as a solemn gesture. The translation understands the perfect tense as having an instantaneous nuance: “Here and now I raise my hand.”

[14:22]  ² tn The words “and vow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[24:3]  ³ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.

[24:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “because you must not take.”

[6:23]  ⁵ tc ‡ The witnesses here support several different readings: αὐτῇ πολλά (auth polla, “to her insistently”) is found in D Θ 565 700 it; πολλά is the reading of Ì^45vid 28; both words are lacking in L pc; and א A B C^2vid ˹³ 33 2427 Ï lat have just αὐτῇ. The best candidates for authenticity, on external grounds, are αὐτῇ πολλά and αὐτῇ. So the issue revolves around whether πολλά is part of the text. On the one hand, πολλά used adverbially is a distinctive Markanism (10 of the 16 NT instances are found in Mark; of the other Gospels, Matthew alone adds a single example [Matt 9:14]). It could be argued that such an unremarkable term would go unnoticed by the scribes, and consequently would not have been inserted in imitation of Mark’s style observed elsewhere. On the other hand, the largest cluster of instances of an adverbial πολλά are in Mark 5-6, with the most recent example coming just three verses earlier (Mark 5:23, 38, 43; 6:20). Scribes may well have imitated the usage so recently and so frequently seen. Further, the best Alexandrian witnesses, as well as good representatives of the Western and Byzantines texts, lack πολλά. On the whole, though a decision is difficult, it is probably best to read the text without πολλά. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[6:23]  ⁶ sn The expression up to half my kingdom is a proverbial comment meaning “great wealth.”

[6:16]  ⁷ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, and is thus translated “people.”

[6:16]  ⁸ tn Grk “by something greater”; the rest of the comparison (“than themselves”) is implied.

[6:16]  ⁹ tn Grk “the oath for confirmation is an end of all dispute.”