Isaiah 40:11

40:11 Like a shepherd he tends his flock;

he gathers up the lambs with his arm;

he carries them close to his heart; ¹ 

he leads the ewes along.

Isaiah 40:1

The Lord Returns to Jerusalem

40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”

says your ²  God.

Colossians 1:4-7

1:4 since ³  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ⁴  from the hope laid up ⁵  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁶  1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ⁷  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ⁸  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ⁹  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹⁰  – a ¹¹  faithful minister of Christ on our ¹²  behalf –

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹³  brothers and sisters ¹⁴  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁵  from God our Father! ¹⁶ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Galatians 5:22-23

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ¹⁸  is love, ¹⁹  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²⁰  5:23 gentleness, and ²¹  self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Ephesians 5:9

5:9 for the fruit of the light ²²  consists in ²³  all goodness, righteousness, and truth –

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ²⁴  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 2:7

2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages ²⁵  the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward ²⁶  us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ²⁷  you formerly lived ²⁸  according to this world’s present path, ²⁹  according to the ruler of the kingdom ³⁰  of the air, the ruler of ³¹  the spirit ³²  that is now energizing ³³  the sons of disobedience, ³⁴ 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ³⁵  dead ³⁶  in your transgressions and sins,

Titus 3:2

3:2 They must not slander ³⁷  anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people.

[40:11]  ¹ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[40:1]  ² tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.

[1:4]  ³ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ⁵ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ⁶ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ⁸ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:7]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹⁶ 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.

[1:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[5:22]  ¹⁸ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ¹⁹ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²⁰ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[5:23]  ²¹ tn “And” is supplied here as a matter of English style, which normally inserts “and” between the last two elements of a list or series.

[5:9]  ²² tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁶ D² Ψ Ï) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (fwtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously original (UBS⁴ gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D² often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), Ì⁴⁶ gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both Ì⁴⁹ and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs) – a practice found even in the earliest mss – πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (Ì⁴⁹ א A B D* F G P 33 81 1739 1881 2464 pc latt co); it is rather doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be original, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.

[5:9]  ²³ tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”

[5:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “become.”

[2:7]  ²⁵ tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”

[2:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “upon.”

[2:2]  ²⁷ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ²⁹ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ³² sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ³³ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ³⁴ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[2:1]  ³⁵ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ³⁶ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

[3:2]  ³⁷ tn Or “discredit,” “damage the reputation of.”