Isaiah 54:15

54:15 If anyone dares to ¹  challenge you, it will not be my doing!

Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. ² 

Psalms 2:1-6

Psalm 2 ³ 

2:1 Why ⁴  do the nations rebel? ⁵ 

Why ⁶  are the countries ⁷  devising ⁸  plots that will fail? ⁹ 

2:2 The kings of the earth ¹⁰  form a united front; ¹¹ 

the rulers collaborate ¹² 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ¹³ 

2:3 They say, ¹⁴  “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! ¹⁵ 

Let’s free ourselves from ¹⁶  their ropes!”

2:4 The one enthroned ¹⁷  in heaven laughs in disgust; ¹⁸ 

the Lord taunts ¹⁹  them.

2:5 Then he angrily speaks to them

and terrifies them in his rage, ²⁰  saying, ²¹ 

2:6 “I myself ²²  have installed ²³  my king

on Zion, my holy hill.”

Ezekiel 38:9-10

38:9 You will advance; ²⁴  you will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the earth, you, all your troops, and the many other peoples with you.

38:10 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, ²⁵  and you will devise an evil plan.

Matthew 16:18

16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades ²⁶  will not overpower it.

John 10:28-30

10:28 I give ²⁷  them eternal life, and they will never perish; ²⁸  no one will snatch ²⁹  them from my hand. 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, ³⁰  and no one can snatch ³¹  them from my Father’s hand. 10:30 The Father and I ³²  are one.” ³³ 

Romans 8:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Holy Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ³⁴ 

Romans 8:28-39

8:28 And we know that all things work together ³⁵  for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son ³⁶  would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁷  8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 8:32 Indeed, he who ³⁸  did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? ³⁹  It is God who justifies. 8:34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ ⁴⁰  is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ⁴¹  8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ⁴²  8:37 No, in all these things we have complete victory ⁴³  through him ⁴⁴  who loved us! 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, ⁴⁵  nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[54:15]  ¹ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb here for emphasis.

[54:15]  ² tn Heb “will fall over you.” The expression נָפַל עַל (nafal ’al) can mean “attack,” but here it means “fall over to,” i.e., “surrender to.”

[2:1]  ³ sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.

[2:1]  ⁴ tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.

[2:1]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.

[2:1]  ⁶ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:1]  ⁷ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

[2:1]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  ¹² tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[2:3]  ¹⁴ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.

[2:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.

[2:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “throw off from us.”

[2:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12; 123:1).

[2:4]  ¹⁸ tn As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter. The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in vv. 4-5 describe the action from the perspective of an eyewitness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

[2:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”

[2:5]  ²⁰ sn And terrifies them in his rage. This line focuses on the effect that God’s angry response (see previous line) has on the rebellious kings.

[2:5]  ²¹ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification to indicate that the speaker is the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV).

[2:6]  ²² tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”

[2:6]  ²³ tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”

[38:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “go up.”

[38:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “words will go up upon your heart.”

[16:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “and the power of death” (taking the reference to the gates of Hades as a metonymy).

[10:28]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And I give.”

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

[10:28]  ²⁹ tn Or “no one will seize.”

[10:29]  ³⁰ tn Or “is superior to all.”

[10:29]  ³¹ tn Or “no one can seize.”

[10:30]  ³² tn Grk “I and the Father.” The order has been reversed to reflect English style.

[10:30]  ³³ tn The phrase ἕν ἐσμεν ({en esmen) is a significant assertion with trinitarian implications. ἕν is neuter, not masculine, so the assertion is not that Jesus and the Father are one person, but one “thing.” Identity of the two persons is not what is asserted, but essential unity (unity of essence).

[8:1]  ³⁴ tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D¹ Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א² D² 33^vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.

[8:28]  ³⁵ 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).

[8:29]  ³⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God’s Son) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:29]  ³⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[8:32]  ³⁸ tn Grk “[he] who.” The relative clause continues the question of v. 31 in a way that is awkward in English. The force of v. 32 is thus: “who indeed did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – How will he not also with him give us all things?”

[8:33]  ³⁹ sn An allusion to Isa 50:8 where the reference is singular; Paul applies this to all believers (“God’s elect” is plural here).

[8:34]  ⁴⁰ tc ‡ A number of significant and early witnesses, along with several others (Ì^46vid א A C F G L Ψ 6 33 81 104 365 1505 al lat bo), read ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsous, “Jesus”) after Χριστός (Cristos, “Christ”) in v. 34. But the shorter reading is not unrepresented (B D 0289 1739 1881 Ï sa). Once ᾿Ιησοῦς got into the text, what scribe would omit it? Although the external evidence is on the side of the longer reading, internally such an expansion seems suspect. The shorter reading is thus preferred. NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[8:35]  ⁴¹ tn Here “sword” is a metonymy that includes both threats of violence and acts of violence, even including death (although death is not necessarily the only thing in view here).

[8:36]  ⁴² sn A quotation from Ps 44:22.

[8:37]  ⁴³ tn BDAG 1034 s.v. ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form of νικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”

[8:37]  ⁴⁴ tn Here the referent could be either God or Christ, but in v. 39 it is God’s love that is mentioned.

[8:38]  ⁴⁵ tn BDAG 138 s.v. ἀρχή 6 takes this term as a reference to angelic or transcendent powers (as opposed to merely human rulers). To clarify this, the adjective “heavenly” has been supplied in the translation. Some interpreters see this as a reference to fallen angels or demonic powers, and this view is reflected in some recent translations (NIV, NLT).