Genesis 28:3-4

28:3 May the sovereign God ¹  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ²  Then you will become ³  a large nation. ⁴  28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ⁵  so that you may possess the land ⁶  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ⁷ 

John 10:10

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill ⁸  and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ⁹ 

John 10:28-29

10:28 I give ¹⁰  them eternal life, and they will never perish; ¹¹  no one will snatch ¹²  them from my hand. 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, ¹³  and no one can snatch ¹⁴  them from my Father’s hand.

Romans 5:20-21

5:20 Now the law came in ¹⁵  so that the transgression ¹⁶  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 11:29

11:29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Ephesians 1:3

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

1:3 Blessed ¹⁷  is ¹⁸  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed ¹⁹  us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Hebrews 11:20

11:20 By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future.

[28:3]  ¹ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ² tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[28:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ⁶ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[10:10]  ⁸ tn That is, “to slaughter” (in reference to animals).

[10:10]  ⁹ tn That is, more than one would normally expect or anticipate.

[10:28]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And I give.”

[10:28]  ¹¹ tn Or “will never die” or “will never be lost.”

[10:28]  ¹² tn Or “no one will seize.”

[10:29]  ¹³ tn Or “is superior to all.”

[10:29]  ¹⁴ tn Or “no one can seize.”

[5:20]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “trespass.”

[1:3]  ¹⁷ sn Eph 1:3-14 comprises one long sentence in Greek, with three major sections. Each section ends with a note of praise for God (vv. 6, 12, 14), focusing on a different member of the Trinity. After an opening summary of all the saints’ spiritual blessings (v. 3), the first section (vv. 4-6) offers up praise that the Father has chosen us in eternity past; the second section (vv. 7-12) offers up praise that the Son has redeemed us in the historical past (i.e., at the cross); the third section (vv. 13-14) offers up praise that the Holy Spirit has sealed us in our personal past, at the point of conversion.

[1:3]  ¹⁸ tn There is no verb in the Greek text; either the optative (“be”) or the indicative (“is”) can be supplied. The meaning of the term εὐλογητός (euloghtos), the author’s intention at this point in the epistle, and the literary genre of this material must all come into play to determine which is the preferred nuance. εὐλογητός as an adjective can mean either that one is praised or that one is blessed, that is, in a place of favor and benefit. The meaning “blessed” would be more naturally paired with an indicative verb here and would suggest that blessedness is an intrinsic part of God’s character. The meaning “praised” would be more naturally paired with an optative verb here and would suggest that God ought to be praised. Pauline style in the epistles generally moves from statements to obligations, expressing the reality first and then the believer’s necessary response, which would favor the indicative. However, many scholars regard Eph 1:3-14 as a berakah psalm (cf. A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 10-11). Rooted in the OT and Jewish worship, berakah psalms were songs of praise in which the worshiper gave praise to God; this would favor the optative (although not all scholars are agreed on this genre classification here; see H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 153-59, for discussion and an alternate conclusion). When considered as a whole, although a decision is difficult, the indicative seems to fit all the factors better. The author seems to be pointing to who God is and what he has done for believers in this section; the indicative more naturally fits that emphasis. Cf. also 2 Cor 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3.

[1:3]  ¹⁹ tn Or “enriched,” “conferred blessing.”