Isaiah 42:7

42:7 to open blind eyes, ¹ 

to release prisoners ²  from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

Isaiah 49:9

49:9 You will say ³  to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

and to those who are in dark dungeons, ⁴  ‘Emerge.’ ⁵ 

They will graze beside the roads;

on all the slopes they will find pasture.

Isaiah 49:24-25

49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,

or captives be rescued from a conqueror? ⁶ 

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

Psalms 102:20

102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,

and to set free those condemned to die, ⁷ 

Jeremiah 34:8

The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves

34:8 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ⁸  with all the people in Jerusalem ⁹  to grant their slaves their freedom.

Zechariah 9:11-12

9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit. 9:12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners, with hope; today I declare that I will return double what was taken from you.

John 8:32-36

8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ¹⁰  8:33 “We are descendants ¹¹  of Abraham,” they replied, ¹²  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ¹³  ‘You will become free’?” 8:34 Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  everyone who practices ¹⁵  sin is a slave ¹⁶  of sin. 8:35 The slave does not remain in the family ¹⁷  forever, but the son remains forever. ¹⁸  8:36 So if the son ¹⁹  sets you free, you will be really free.

Acts 26:18

26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn ²⁰  from darkness to light and from the power ²¹  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ²²  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Romans 6:16-22

6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves ²³  as obedient slaves, ²⁴  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ²⁵  6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ²⁶  from the heart that pattern ²⁷  of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ²⁸  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit ²⁹  did you then reap ³⁰  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ³¹  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ³²  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

Romans 7:23-25

7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be ³³  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ³⁴  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ³⁵  with my flesh I serve ³⁶  the law of sin.

Romans 7:2

7:2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her ³⁷  husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. ³⁸ 

Romans 2:25-26

2:25 For circumcision ³⁹  has its value if you practice the law, but ⁴⁰  if you break the law, ⁴¹  your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys ⁴²  the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

[42:7]  ¹ sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.

[42:7]  ² sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.

[49:9]  ³ tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.

[49:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”

[49:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).

[49:24]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).

[102:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.

[34:8]  ⁸ tn Usually translated “covenant.” See the study note on 11:2 for the rationale for the translation here.

[34:8]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:32]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the truth will release you.” The translation “set you free” or “release you” (unlike the more traditional “make you free”) conveys more the idea that the hearers were currently in a state of slavery from which they needed to be freed. The following context supports precisely this idea.

[8:33]  ¹¹ tn Grk “We are the seed” (an idiom).

[8:33]  ¹² tn Grk “They answered to him.”

[8:33]  ¹³ tn Or “How is it that you say.”

[8:34]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:34]  ¹⁵ tn Or “who commits.” This could simply be translated, “everyone who sins,” but the Greek is more emphatic, using the participle ποιῶν (poiwn) in a construction with πᾶς (pas), a typical Johannine construction. Here repeated, continuous action is in view. The one whose lifestyle is characterized by repeated, continuous sin is a slave to sin. That one is not free; sin has enslaved him. To break free from this bondage requires outside (divine) intervention. Although the statement is true at the general level (the person who continually practices a lifestyle of sin is enslaved to sin) the particular sin of the Jewish authorities, repeatedly emphasized in the Fourth Gospel, is the sin of unbelief. The present tense in this instance looks at the continuing refusal on the part of the Jewish leaders to acknowledge who Jesus is, in spite of mounting evidence.

[8:34]  ¹⁶ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[8:35]  ¹⁷ tn Or “household.” The Greek work οἰκία (oikia) can denote the family as consisting of relatives by both descent and marriage, as well as slaves and servants, living in the same house (more the concept of an “extended family”).

[8:35]  ¹⁸ sn Jesus’ point is that while a slave may be part of a family or household, the slave is not guaranteed a permanent place there, while a son, as a descendant or blood relative, will always be guaranteed a place in the family (remains forever).

[8:36]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Son.” The question is whether “son” is to be understood as a direct reference to Jesus himself, or as an indirect reference (a continuation of the generic illustration begun in the previous verse).

[26:18]  ²⁰ sn To open their eyes so that they turn… Here is Luke’s most comprehensive report of Paul’s divine calling. His role was to call humanity to change their position before God and experience God’s forgiveness as a part of God’s family. The image of turning is a key one in the NT: Luke 1:79; Rom 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8; Col 1:12; 1 Thess 5:5. See also Luke 1:77-79; 3:3; 24:47.

[26:18]  ²¹ tn BDAG 352-53 s.v. ἐξουσία 2 states, “Also of Satan’s power Ac 26:18.” It is also possible to translate this “the domain of Satan” (cf. BDAG 353 s.v. 6)

[26:18]  ²² tn Or “and an inheritance.”

[6:16]  ²³ tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”

[6:16]  ²⁴ tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.

[6:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”

[6:17]  ²⁶ tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

[6:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “type, form.”

[6:19]  ²⁸ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

[6:21]  ²⁹ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:21]  ³⁰ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

[6:22]  ³¹ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

[6:22]  ³² tn Grk “fruit.”

[7:25]  ³³ tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 Ï sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א¹ [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), the reading of NA²⁷. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucaristw tw qew) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א¹ Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 Ï lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.

[7:25]  ³⁴ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[7:25]  ³⁵ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[7:25]  ³⁶ tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.

[7:2]  ³⁷ tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[7:2]  ³⁸ tn Grk “husband.”

[2:25]  ³⁹ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

[2:25]  ⁴⁰ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:26]  ⁴² tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.