Isaiah 60:1-3

Zion’s Future Splendor

60:1 “Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!

The splendor ¹  of the Lord shines on you!

60:2 For, look, darkness covers the earth

and deep darkness covers ²  the nations,

but the Lord shines on you;

his splendor ³  appears over you.

60:3 Nations come to your light,

kings to your bright light.

Matthew 5:15

5:15 People ⁴  do not light a lamp and put it under a basket ⁵  but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Luke 8:16

Showing the Light

8:16 “No one lights ⁶  a lamp ⁷  and then covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand so that those who come in can see the light. ⁸ 

Luke 11:33

Internal Light

11:33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a hidden place ⁹  or under a basket, ¹⁰  but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light.

Luke 11:1

Instructions on Prayer

11:1 Now ¹¹  Jesus ¹²  was praying in a certain place. When ¹³  he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John ¹⁴  taught ¹⁵  his disciples.”

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ¹⁶  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹⁷  – a ¹⁸  faithful minister of Christ on our ¹⁹  behalf –

Ephesians 5:3-15

5:3 But ²⁰  among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, ²¹  or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. ²²  5:4 Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. 5:5 For you can be confident of this one thing: ²³  that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Live in the Light

5:6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. ²⁴  5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, ²⁵  5:8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are ²⁶  light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – 5:9 for the fruit of the light ²⁷  consists in ²⁸  all goodness, righteousness, and truth – 5:10 trying to learn ²⁹  what is pleasing to the Lord. 5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather ³⁰  expose them. ³¹  5:12 For the things they do ³²  in secret are shameful even to mention. 5:13 But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. 5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ³³ 

“Awake, ³⁴  O sleeper! ³⁵ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ³⁶ 

Live Wisely

5:15 Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise,

Philippians 2:15-16

2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world ³⁷  2:16 by holding on to ³⁸  the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

[60:1]  ¹ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions).

[60:2]  ² tn The verb “covers” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[60:2]  ³ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions); TEV “the brightness of his presence.”

[5:15]  ⁴ tn Grk “Nor do they light.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[5:15]  ⁵ tn Or “a bowl”; this refers to any container for dry material of about eight liters (two gallons) capacity. It could be translated “basket, box, bowl” (L&N 6.151).

[8:16]  ⁶ tn The participle ἅψας ({aya") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[8:16]  ⁷ sn This is probably an ancient oil burning lamp or perhaps a candlestick. Jesus is comparing revelation to light, particularly the revelation of his ministry; see 1:78-79.

[8:16]  ⁸ tn Or “its light,” if the Greek article is translated as a possessive pronoun (for such usage, cf. ExSyn 215).

[11:33]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “in a cellar” (L&N 28.78). The point is that the light of Jesus’ teaching has been put in public view.

[11:33]  ¹⁰ tc The phrase “or under a basket” is lacking in some important and early mss (Ì^45,75 L Γ Ξ 070 ˹ 700* 1241 2542 pc sy^s sa). It is hard to decide in this case, since the inclusion of “or under a basket” is widely attested by some early and decent witnesses, as well as the overwhelming majority of mss (א A B C D W Θ Ψ Ë¹³ Ï latt). The parallel passage in Luke 8:16 does not include “under a basket.” If the phrase “under a basket” were added as a harmonization with Mark 4:21 and Matt 5:15, it is perhaps surprising that scribes did not add the phrase at Luke 8:16 as well. It seems somewhat more likely that a scribe copying Luke would be inclined to harmonize 11:33 with 8:16 by omitting the phrase here. Thus, the words “or under a basket” seem to have the marks of authenticity.

[11:1]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[11:1]  ¹² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:1]  ¹³ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[11:1]  ¹⁴ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[11:1]  ¹⁵ sn It was not unusual for Jewish groups to have their own prayer as a way of expressing corporate identity. Judaism had the Eighteen Benedictions and apparently John the Baptist had a prayer for his disciples as well.

[1:7]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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.

[5:3]  ²⁰ tn The term “But” translates the δέ (de) in a contrastive way in light of the perfect obedience of Jesus in vv. 1-2 and the vices mentioned in v. 3.

[5:3]  ²¹ tn Grk “all impurity.”

[5:3]  ²² tn Grk “just as is fitting for saints.” The καθώς (kaqws) was rendered with “as” and the sense is causal, i.e., “for” or “because.” The negative particle “not” (“for these are not proper for the saints”) in this clause was supplied in English so as to make the sense very clear, i.e., that these vices are not befitting of those who name the name of Christ.

[5:5]  ²³ tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prwton ginwskonte").

[5:6]  ²⁴ sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.

[5:7]  ²⁵ tn The genitive αὐτῶν (autwn) has been translated as a genitive of association because of its use with συμμέτοχοι (summetocoi) – a verb which implies association in the σύν- (sun-) prefix.

[5:8]  ²⁶ tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.

[5:9]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”

[5:10]  ²⁹ tn BDAG 255 s.v. δοκιμάζω 1 translates δοκιμάζοντες (dokimazonte") in Eph 5:10 as “try to learn.”

[5:11]  ³⁰ tn The Greek conjunction καὶ (kai) seems to be functioning here ascensively, (i.e., “even”), but is difficult to render in this context using good English. It may read something like: “but rather even expose them!”

[5:11]  ³¹ tn Grk “rather even expose.”

[5:12]  ³² tn The participle τὰ…γινόμενα (ta…ginomena) usually refers to “things happening” or “things which are,” but with the following genitive phrase ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν (Jup’ autwn), which indicates agency, the idea seems to be “things being done.” This passive construction was translated as an active one to simplify the English style.

[5:14]  ³³ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ³⁵ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ³⁶ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.

[2:15]  ³⁷ tn Or “as stars in the universe.”

[2:16]  ³⁸ tn Or “holding out, holding forth.”