Genesis 45:5-8

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ¹  for God sent me ²  ahead of you to preserve life! 45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ³  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 45:7 God sent me ⁴  ahead of you to preserve you ⁵  on the earth and to save your lives ⁶  by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ⁷  to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Psalms 76:10

76:10 Certainly ⁸  your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise; ⁹ 

you reveal your anger in full measure. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 105:16-17

105:16 He called down a famine upon the earth;

he cut off all the food supply. ¹¹ 

105:17 He sent a man ahead of them ¹²  –

Joseph was sold as a servant.

Psalms 119:71

119:71 It was good for me to suffer,

so that I might learn your statutes.

Isaiah 10:7

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way, ¹³ 

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. ¹⁴ 

Acts 2:23

2:23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed ¹⁵  by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. ¹⁶ 

Acts 3:13-15

3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ¹⁷  the God of our forefathers, ¹⁸  has glorified ¹⁹  his servant ²⁰  Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected ²¹  in the presence of Pilate after he had decided ²²  to release him. 3:14 But you rejected ²³  the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be released to you. 3:15 You killed ²⁴  the Originator ²⁵  of life, whom God raised ²⁶  from the dead. To this fact we are witnesses! ²⁷ 

Acts 3:26

3:26 God raised up ²⁸  his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning ²⁹  each one of you from your iniquities.” ³⁰ 

Romans 8:28

8:28 And we know that all things work together ³¹  for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

[45:5]  ¹ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

[45:5]  ² sn You sold me here, for God sent me. The tension remains as to how the brothers’ wickedness and God’s intentions work together. Clearly God is able to transform the actions of wickedness to bring about some gracious end. But this is saying more than that; it is saying that from the beginning it was God who sent Joseph here. Although harmonization of these ideas remains humanly impossible, the divine intention is what should be the focus. Only that will enable reconciliation.

[45:6]  ³ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

[45:7]  ⁴ sn God sent me. The repetition of this theme that God sent Joseph is reminiscent of commission narratives in which the leader could announce that God sent him (e.g., Exod 3:15).

[45:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

[45:7]  ⁶ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

[45:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

[76:10]  ⁸ tn Or “for.”

[76:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).

[76:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.

[105:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and every staff of food he broke.” The psalmist refers to the famine that occurred in Joseph’s time (see v. 17 and Gen 41:53-57).

[105:17]  ¹² tn After the reference to the famine in v. 16, v. 17 flashes back to events that preceded the famine (see Gen 37).

[10:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

[10:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

[2:23]  ¹⁵ tn Or “you killed.”

[2:23]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “at the hands of lawless men.” At this point the term ἄνομος (anomo") refers to non-Jews who live outside the Jewish (Mosaic) law, rather than people who broke any or all laws including secular laws. Specifically it is a reference to the Roman soldiers who carried out Jesus’ crucifixion.

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tc ‡ The repetition of ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) before the names of Isaac and Jacob is found in Ì⁷⁴ א C (A D without article) 36 104 1175 pc lat. The omission of the second and third ὁ θεός is supported by B E Ψ 33 1739 Ï pc. The other time that Exod 3:6 is quoted in Acts (7:32) the best witnesses also lack the repeated ὁ θεός, but the three other times this OT passage is quoted in the NT the full form, with the thrice-mentioned θεός, is used (Matt 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37). Scribes would be prone to conform the wording here to the LXX; the longer reading is thus most likely not authentic. NA²⁷ has the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

[3:13]  ¹⁸ tn Or “ancestors”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:13]  ¹⁹ sn Has glorified. Jesus is alive, raised and active, as the healing illustrates so dramatically how God honors him.

[3:13]  ²⁰ sn His servant. The term servant has messianic connotations given the context of the promise, the note of suffering, and the titles and functions noted in vv. 14-15.

[3:13]  ²¹ tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”

[3:13]  ²² tn This genitive absolute construction could be understood as temporal (“when he had decided”) or concessive (“although he had decided”).

[3:14]  ²³ tn Or “denied,” “disowned.”

[3:15]  ²⁴ tn Or “You put to death.”

[3:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “Founder,” “founding Leader.”

[3:15]  ²⁶ sn Whom God raised. God is the main actor here, as he testifies to Jesus and vindicates him.

[3:15]  ²⁷ tn Grk “whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.” The two consecutive relative clauses make for awkward English style, so the second was begun as a new sentence with the words “to this fact” supplied in place of the Greek relative pronoun to make a complete sentence in English.

[3:26]  ²⁸ tn Grk “God raising up his servant, sent him.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Some translations (e.g., NIV, NRSV) render this participle as temporal (“when God raised up his servant”).

[3:26]  ²⁹ sn The picture of turning is again seen as the appropriate response to the message. See v. 19 above. In v. 19 it was “turning to,” here it is “turning away from.” The direction of the two metaphors is important.

[3:26]  ³⁰ tn For the translation of plural πονηρία (ponhria) as “iniquities,” see G. Harder, TDNT 6:565. The plural is important, since for Luke turning to Jesus means turning away from sins, not just the sin of rejecting Jesus.

[8:28]  ³¹ tc ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) is found after the verb συνεργεῖ (sunergei, “work”) in v. 28 by Ì⁴⁶ A B 81 sa; the shorter reading is found in א C D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï latt sy bo. Although the inclusion is supported by a significant early papyrus, the alliance of significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses favors the shorter reading. As well, the longer reading is evidently motivated by a need for clarification. Since ὁ θεός is textually suspect, it is better to read the text without it. This leaves two good translational options: either “he works all things together for good” or “all things work together for good.” In the first instance the subject is embedded in the verb and “God” is clearly implied (as in v. 29). In the second instance, πάντα (panta) becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. In either case, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God” (C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:427).