Isaiah 51:6

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ¹  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ²  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ³  will not disappear. ⁴ 

Isaiah 51:8

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ⁵  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

Isaiah 54:8

54:8 In a burst ⁶  of anger I rejected you ⁷  momentarily,

but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”

says your protector, ⁸  the Lord.

Isaiah 60:19

60:19 The sun will no longer supply light for you by day,

nor will the moon’s brightness shine on you;

the Lord will be your permanent source of light –

the splendor of your God will shine upon you. ⁹ 

Psalms 103:17

103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, ¹⁰ 

and is faithful to their descendants, ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 31:3

31:3 In a far-off land the Lord will manifest himself to them.

He will say to them, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.

That is why I have continued to be faithful to you. ¹² 

John 5:24

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹³  the one who hears ¹⁴  my message ¹⁵  and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, ¹⁶  but has crossed over from death to life.

John 6:40

6:40 For this is the will of my Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up ¹⁷  at the last day.” ¹⁸ 

John 10:28

10:28 I give ¹⁹  them eternal life, and they will never perish; ²⁰  no one will snatch ²¹  them from my hand.

John 10:2

10:2 The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

John 2:13-14

2:13 Now the Jewish feast of Passover ²²  was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²³ 

2:14 ²⁴ He found in the temple courts ²⁵  those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables. ²⁶ 

John 2:16

2:16 To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make ²⁷  my Father’s house a marketplace!” ²⁸ 

Hebrews 5:9

5:9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Hebrews 5:1

5:1 For every high priest is taken from among the people ²⁹  and appointed ³⁰  to represent them before God, ³¹  to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Hebrews 5:11-13

The Need to Move on to Maturity

5:11 On this topic we have much to say ³²  and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish ³³  in hearing. 5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, ³⁴  you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. ³⁵  You have gone back to needing ³⁶  milk, not ³⁷  solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant.

[51:6]  ¹ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ² tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ³ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[51:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”

[54:8]  ⁹ tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”

[54:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”

[54:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[60:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “and your God for your splendor.”

[103:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”

[31:3]  ²¹ tn Or “The people of Israel who survived the onslaughts of Egypt and Amalek found favor in the wilderness as they journeyed to find rest. At that time long ago the Lord manifested himself to them. He said, ‘I have…That is why I have drawn you to myself through my unfailing kindness.’” For the basis for each of these translations see the translator’s note. There is debate whether the reference here is to God’s preservation of Israel during their wandering in the Sinai desert or his promise to protect and preserve them on their return through the Arabian desert on the way back from Assyria and Babylon (see e.g., Isa 42:14-16; 43:16-21; Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8). The only finite verbs in vv. 2-3a before the introduction of the quote are perfects which can denote either a past act or a future act viewed as certain of fulfillment (the prophetic perfect; see GKC 312-13 §106.n and see examples in Jer 11:16; 13:17; 25:14; 28:4). The phrase at the beginning of v. 3 can either refer to temporal (cf. BDB 935 s.v. רָחוֹק 2.b and Isa 22:11) or spatial distance (cf. BDB 935 s.v. רָחוֹק 2.a[2] and Isa 5:29; 59:14). The verb in the final clause in v. 3 can refer to either the continuance of God’s love as in Ps 36:10 (cf. BDB 604 s.v. מָשַׁךְ Qal.5) or drawing someone to him in electing, caring love as in Hos 11:4 (cf. BDB 604 s.v. מָשַׁךְ Qal.1). The translation has opted for the prophetic reference to future deliverance because of the preceding context, the use of מֵרָחוֹק (merakhoq) to refer to the far off land of exile in Jer 30:10; 46:27; 51:50, and the reference to survivors from the sword being called on to remember the Lord in that far off land in 51:50.

[5:24]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:24]  ²⁶ tn Or “obeys.”

[5:24]  ²⁷ tn Or “word.”

[5:24]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and does not come into judgment.”

[6:40]  ²⁹ tn Or “resurrect him,” or “make him live again.”

[6:40]  ³⁰ sn Notice that here the result (having eternal life and being raised up at the last day) is produced by looking on the Son and believing in him. Compare John 6:54 where the same result is produced by eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood. This suggests that the phrase in 6:54 (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood in terms of the phrase here (looks on the Son and believes in him).

[10:28]  ³³ tn Grk “And I give.”

[10:28]  ³⁴ tn Or “will never die” or “will never be lost.”

[10:28]  ³⁵ tn Or “no one will seize.”

[2:13]  ³⁷ tn Grk “the Passover of the Jews.” This is first of at least three (and possibly four) Passovers mentioned in John’s Gospel. If it is assumed that the Passovers appear in the Gospel in their chronological order (and following a date of a.d. 33 for the crucifixion), this would be the Passover of the spring of a.d. 30, the first of Jesus’ public ministry. There is a clear reference to another Passover in 6:4, and another still in 11:55, 12:1, 13:1, 18:28, 39, and 19:14. The latter would be the Passover of a.d. 33. There is a possibility that 5:1 also refers to a Passover, in which case it would be the second of Jesus’ public ministry (a.d. 31), while 6:4 would refer to the third (a.d. 32) and the remaining references would refer to the final Passover at the time of the crucifixion. It is entirely possible, however, that the Passovers occurring in the Fourth Gospel are not intended to be understood as listed in chronological sequence. If the material of the Fourth Gospel originally existed in the form of homilies or sermons by the Apostle John on the life and ministry of Jesus, the present arrangement would not have to be in strict chronological order (it does not explicitly claim to be). In this case the Passover mentioned in 2:13, for example, might actually be later in Jesus’ public ministry than it might at first glance appear. This leads, however, to a discussion of an even greater problem in the passage, the relationship of the temple cleansing in John’s Gospel to the similar account in the synoptic gospels.

[2:13]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:14]  ⁴¹ sn John 2:14-22. Does John’s account of the temple cleansing describe the same event as the synoptic gospels describe, or a separate event? The other accounts of the cleansing of the temple are Matt 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; and Luke 19:45-46. None are as long as the Johannine account. The fullest of the synoptic accounts is Mark’s. John’s account differs from Mark’s in the mention of sheep and oxen, the mention of the whip of cords, the Greek word κερματιστῆς (kermatisths) for money changer (the synoptics use κολλυβιστῆς [kollubisths], which John mentions in 2:15), the scattering of the coins (2:15), and the command by Jesus, “Take these things away from here!” The word for overturned in John is ἀναστρεφω (anastrefw), while Matthew and Mark use καταστρεφω (katastrefw; Luke does not mention the moneychangers at all). The synoptics all mention that Jesus quoted Isa 56:7 followed by Jer 7:11. John mentions no citation of scripture at all, but says that later the disciples remembered Ps 69:9. John does not mention, as does Mark, Jesus’ prohibition on carrying things through the temple (i.e., using it for a shortcut). But the most important difference is one of time: In John the cleansing appears as the first great public act of Jesus’ ministry, while in the synoptics it is virtually the last. The most common solution of the problem, which has been endlessly discussed among NT scholars, is to say there was only one cleansing, and that it took place, as the synoptics record it, at the end of Jesus’ ministry. In the synoptics it appears to be the event that finalized the opposition of the high priest, and precipitated the arrest of Jesus. According to this view, John’s placing of the event at the opening of Jesus’ ministry is due to his general approach; it was fitting ‘theologically’ for Jesus to open his ministry this way, so this is the way John records it. Some have overstated the case for one cleansing and John’s placing of it at the opening of Jesus’ public ministry, however. For example W. Barclay stated: “John, as someone has said, is more interested in the truth than in the facts. He was not interested to tell men when Jesus cleansed the Temple; he was supremely interested in telling men that Jesus did cleanse the Temple” (John [DSBS], 94). But this is not the impression one gets by a reading of John’s Gospel: The evangelist seems to go out of his way to give details and facts, including notes of time and place. To argue as Barclay does that John is interested in truth apart from the facts is to set up a false dichotomy. Why should one have to assume, in any case, that there could have been only one cleansing of the temple? This account in John is found in a large section of nonsynoptic material. Apart from the work of John the Baptist – and even this is markedly different from the references in the synoptics – nothing else in the first five chapters of John’s Gospel is found in any of the synoptics. It is certainly not impossible that John took one isolated episode from the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly ministry and inserted it into his own narrative in a place which seemed appropriate according to his purposes. But in view of the differences between John and the synoptics, in both wording and content, as well as setting and time, it is at least possible that the event in question actually occurred twice (unless one begins with the presupposition that the Fourth Gospel is nonhistorical anyway). In support of two separate cleansings of the temple, it has been suggested that Jesus’ actions on this occasion were not permanent in their result, and after (probably) 3 years the status quo in the temple courts had returned to normal. And at this time early in Jesus’ ministry, he was virtually unknown. Such an action as he took on this occasion would have created a stir, and evoked the response John records in 2:18-22, but that is probably about all, especially if Jesus’ actions met with approval among part of the populace. But later in Jesus’ ministry, when he was well-known, and vigorously opposed by the high-priestly party in Jerusalem, his actions might have brought forth another, harsher response. It thus appears possible to argue for two separate cleansings of the temple as well as a single one relocated by John to suit his own purposes. Which then is more probable? On the whole, more has been made of the differences between John’s account and the synoptic accounts than perhaps should have been. After all, the synoptic accounts also differ considerably from one another, yet few scholars would be willing to posit four cleansings of the temple as an explanation for this. While it is certainly possible that the author did not intend by his positioning of the temple cleansing to correct the synoptics’ timing of the event, but to highlight its significance for the course of Jesus’ ministry, it still appears somewhat more probable that John has placed the event he records in the approximate period of Jesus’ public ministry in which it did occur, that is, within the first year or so of Jesus’ public ministry. The statement of the Jewish authorities recorded by the author (this temple has been under construction for forty-six years) would tend to support an earlier rather than a later date for the temple cleansing described by John, since 46 years from the beginning of construction on Herod’s temple in ca. 19 b.c. (the date varies somewhat in different sources) would be around a.d. 27. This is not conclusive proof, however.

[2:14]  ⁴² tn Grk “in the temple.”

[2:14]  ⁴³ tn Grk “the money changers sitting”; the words “at tables” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[2:16]  ⁴⁵ tn Or (perhaps) “Stop making.”

[2:16]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “a house of merchants” (an allusion to Zech 14:21).

[5:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated “people.”

[5:1]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”

[5:1]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”

[5:11]  ⁵³ tn Grk “concerning which the message for us is great.”

[5:11]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “dull.”

[5:12]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “because of the time.”

[5:12]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.”

[5:12]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “you have come to have a need for.”

[5:12]  ⁶⁰ tc ‡ Most texts, including some early and important ones (א² A B* D Ψ 0122 0278 1881 Ï sy Cl), have καί (kai, “and”) immediately preceding οὐ (ou, “not”), but other equally significant witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א* B² C 33 81 1739 lat Or Did) lack the conjunction. As it was a natural tendency for scribes to add a coordinating conjunction, the καί appears to be a motivated reading. On balance, it is probably best to regard the shorter reading as authentic. NA²⁷ has καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.