Discovery BoxGenesis 4:4
Context4:4 But Abel brought 1 some of the firstborn of his flock – even the fattest 2 of them. And the Lord was pleased with 3 Abel and his offering,
Genesis 12:7-8
Context12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants 4 I will give this land.” So Abram 5 built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel 6 and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. 7
Genesis 13:4
Context13:4 This was the place where he had first built the altar, 8 and there Abram worshiped the Lord. 9
Genesis 22:9
Context22:9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there 10 and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up 11 his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.
Genesis 26:25
Context26:25 Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped 12 the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well. 13
Genesis 33:20
Context33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” 14
Genesis 35:1
Context35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once 15 to Bethel 16 and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 17
Genesis 35:7
Context35:7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel 18 because there God had revealed himself 19 to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
Exodus 20:24-25
Context20:24 ‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, 20 and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, 21 your sheep and your cattle. In every place 22 where I cause my name to be honored 23 I will come to you and I will bless you. 20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it 24 of stones shaped with tools, 25 for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. 26
Exodus 24:4-8
Context24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built 27 an altar at the foot 28 of the mountain and arranged 29 twelve standing stones 30 – according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 24:5 He sent young Israelite men, 31 and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings 32 to the Lord. 24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. 33 24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant 34 and read it aloud 35 to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey 36 all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on 37 the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant 38 that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Romans 12:1
Context12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 39 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 40 – which is your reasonable service.
Hebrews 13:10
Context13:10 We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from.
Hebrews 13:15-16
Context13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. 13:16 And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, 41 for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
Hebrews 13:1
Context13:1 Brotherly love must continue.
Hebrews 2:5
Context2:5 For he did not put the world to come, 42 about which we are speaking, 43 under the control of angels.
Hebrews 2:9
Context2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, 44 now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, 45 so that by God’s grace he would experience 46 death on behalf of everyone.
[4:4] 1 tn Heb “But Abel brought, also he….” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) stresses the contrast between Cain’s offering and Abel’s.
[4:4] 2 tn Two prepositional phrases are used to qualify the kind of sacrifice that Abel brought: “from the firstborn” and “from the fattest of them.” These also could be interpreted as a hendiadys: “from the fattest of the firstborn of the flock.” Another option is to understand the second prepositional phrase as referring to the fat portions of the sacrificial sheep. In this case one may translate, “some of the firstborn of his flock, even some of their fat portions” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).
[4:4] 3 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁעָה (sha’ah) simply means “to gaze at, to have regard for, to look on with favor [or “with devotion”].” The text does not indicate how this was communicated, but it indicates that Cain and Abel knew immediately. Either there was some manifestation of divine pleasure given to Abel and withheld from Cain (fire consuming the sacrifice?), or there was an inner awareness of divine response.
[12:7] 4 tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.
[12:7] 5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
[12:8] 6 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[12:8] 7 tn Heb “he called in the name of the
[13:4] 8 tn Heb “to the place of the altar which he had made there in the beginning” (cf. Gen 12:7-8).
[13:4] 9 tn Heb “he called in the name of the
[22:9] 10 sn Abraham built an altar there. The theme of Abraham’s altar building culminates here. He has been a faithful worshiper. Will he continue to worship when called upon to make such a radical sacrifice?
[22:9] 11 sn Then he tied up. This text has given rise to an important theme in Judaism known as the Aqedah, from the Hebrew word for “binding.” When sacrifices were made in the sanctuary, God remembered the binding of Isaac, for which a substitute was offered. See D. Polish, “The Binding of Isaac,” Jud 6 (1957): 17-21.
[26:25] 12 tn Heb “called in the name of.” The expression refers to worshiping the
[26:25] 13 tn Heb “and they dug there, the servants of Isaac, a well.”
[33:20] 14 tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.
[35:1] 15 tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.
[35:1] 16 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[35:1] 17 sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).
[35:7] 18 sn The name El-Bethel means “God of Bethel.”
[35:7] 19 tn Heb “revealed themselves.” The verb נִגְלוּ (niglu), translated “revealed himself,” is plural, even though one expects the singular form with the plural of majesty. Perhaps אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a numerical plural, referring both to God and the angelic beings that appeared to Jacob. See the note on the word “know” in Gen 3:5.
[20:24] 20 sn The instructions here call for the altar to be made of natural things, not things manufactured or shaped by man. The altar was either to be made of clumps of earth or natural, unhewn rocks.
[20:24] 21 sn The “burnt offering” is the offering prescribed in Lev 1. Everything of this animal went up in smoke as a sweet aroma to God. It signified complete surrender by the worshiper who brought the animal, and complete acceptance by God, thereby making atonement. The “peace offering” is legislated in Lev 3 and 7. This was a communal meal offering to celebrate being at peace with God. It was made usually for thanksgiving, for payment of vows, or as a freewill offering.
[20:24] 22 tn Gesenius lists this as one of the few places where the noun in construct seems to be indefinite in spite of the fact that the genitive has the article. He says בְּכָל־הַמָּקוֹם (bÿkhol-hammaqom) means “in all the place, sc. of the sanctuary, and is a dogmatic correction of “in every place” (כָּל־מָקוֹם, kol-maqom). See GKC 412 §127.e.
[20:24] 23 tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”), but in the Hiphil especially it can mean more than remember or cause to remember (remind) – it has the sense of praise or honor. B. S. Childs says it has a denominative meaning, “to proclaim” (Exodus [OTL], 447). The point of the verse is that God will give Israel reason for praising and honoring him, and in every place that occurs he will make his presence known by blessing them.
[20:25] 24 tn Heb “them” referring to the stones.
[20:25] 25 tn Heb “of hewn stones.” Gesenius classifies this as an adverbial accusative – “you shall not build them (the stones of the altar) as hewn stones.” The remoter accusative is in apposition to the nearer (GKC 372 §117.kk).
[20:25] 26 tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you have defiled it.”
[24:4] 27 tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.
[24:4] 29 tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.
[24:4] 30 tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.
[24:5] 31 tn The construct has “young men of the Israelites,” and so “Israelite” is a genitive that describes them.
[24:5] 32 tn The verbs and their respective accusatives are cognates. First, they offered up burnt offerings (see Lev 1), which is וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת (vayya’alu ’olot); then they sacrificed young bulls as peace sacrifices (Lev 3), which is in Hebrew וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים (vayyizbÿkhu zÿvakhim). In the first case the cognate accusative is the direct object; in the second it is an adverbial accusative of product. See on this covenant ritual H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; E. W. Nicholson, “The Covenant Ritual in Exodus 24:3-8,” VT 32 (1982): 74-86.
[24:6] 33 sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).
[24:7] 34 tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.
[24:7] 35 tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”
[24:7] 36 tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.
[24:8] 37 tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).
[24:8] 38 sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.
[12:1] 39 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
[12:1] 40 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.
[13:16] 41 tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”
[2:5] 42 sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.
[2:5] 43 sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.
[2:9] 44 tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”
[2:9] 45 tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”
[2:9] 46 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).
