John 1:17

1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but ¹  grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

John 5:45

5:45 “Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. ² 

John 9:28-29

9:28 They ³  heaped insults ⁴  on him, saying, ⁵  “You are his disciple! ⁶  We are disciples of Moses! 9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses! We do not know where this man ⁷  comes from!”

Exodus 24:2-3

24:2 Moses alone may come ⁸  near the Lord, but the others ⁹  must not come near, ¹⁰  nor may the people go up with him.”

24:3 Moses came ¹¹  and told the people all the Lord’s words ¹²  and all the decisions. All the people answered together, ¹³  “We are willing to do ¹⁴  all the words that the Lord has said,”

Deuteronomy 33:4

33:4 Moses delivered to us a law, ¹⁵ 

an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.

Deuteronomy 1:17

1:17 They ¹⁶  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ¹⁷  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

Acts 7:38

7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation ¹⁸  in the wilderness ¹⁹  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ²⁰  and he ²¹  received living oracles ²²  to give to you. ²³ 

Galatians 3:19

3:19 Why then was the law given? ²⁴  It was added ²⁵  because of transgressions, ²⁶  until the arrival of the descendant ²⁷  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ²⁸  through angels by an intermediary. ²⁹ 

Hebrews 3:3-5

3:3 For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s ³⁰  house ³¹  as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken.

[1:17]  ¹ tn “But” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the implied contrast between the Mosaic law and grace through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 seems to indicate clearly that the Old Covenant (Sinai) was being contrasted with the New. In Jewish sources the Law was regarded as a gift from God (Josephus, Ant. 3.8.10 [3.223]; Pirqe Avot 1.1; Sifre Deut 31:4 §305). Further information can be found in T. F. Glasson, Moses in the Fourth Gospel (SBT).

[5:45]  ² sn The final condemnation will come from Moses himself – again ironic, since Moses is the very one the Jewish authorities have trusted in (placed your hope). This is again ironic if it is occurring at Pentecost, which at this time was being celebrated as the occasion of the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. There is evidence that some Jews of the 1st century looked on Moses as their intercessor at the final judgment (see W. A. Meeks, The Prophet King [NovTSup], 161). This would mean the statement Moses, in whom you have placed your hope should be taken literally and relates directly to Jesus’ statements about the final judgment in John 5:28-29.

[9:28]  ³ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[9:28]  ⁴ tn The Greek word means “to insult strongly” or “slander.”

[9:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “and said.”

[9:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “You are that one’s disciple.”

[9:29]  ⁴ tn Grk “where this one.”

[24:2]  ⁵ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ⁷ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.

[24:3]  ⁶ sn The general consensus among commentators is that this refers to Moses’ coming from the mountain after he made the ascent in 20:21. Here he came and told them the laws (written in 20:22-23:33), and of the call to come up to Yahweh.

[24:3]  ⁷ sn The Decalogue may not be included here because the people had heard those commands themselves earlier.

[24:3]  ⁸ tn The text simply has “one voice” (קוֹל אֶחָד, qol ’ekhad); this is an adverbial accusative of manner, telling how the people answered – “in one voice,” or unanimously (see GKC 375 §118.q).

[24:3]  ⁹ tn The verb is the imperfect tense (נַעֲשֶׂה, na’aseh), although the form could be classified as a cohortative. If the latter, they would be saying that they are resolved to do what God said. If it is an imperfect, then the desiderative would make the most sense: “we are willing to do.” They are not presumptuously saying they are going to do all these things.

[33:4]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) here should be understood more broadly as instruction.

[1:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “you,” and throughout the verse (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[1:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “the small,” but referring to social status, not physical stature.

[7:38]  ⁹ tn This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklhsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.

[7:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “desert.”

[7:38]  ¹¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:38]  ¹² tn Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

[7:38]  ¹³ tn Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.

[7:38]  ¹⁴ tc ‡ The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) is read by Ì⁷⁴ א B 36 453 al co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” (TCGNT 307). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Why then the law?”

[3:19]  ¹¹ tc For προσετέθη (proseteqh) several Western mss have ἐτέθη (eteqh, “it was established”; so D* F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec). The net effect of this reading, in conjunction with the largely Western reading of πράξεων (praxewn) for παραβάσεων (parabasewn), seems to be a very positive assessment of the law. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting this reading: (1) externally, it is provincial and relatively late; (2) internally: (a) transcriptionally, there seems to be a much higher transcriptional probability that a scribe would try to smooth over Paul’s harsh saying here about the law than vice versa; (b) intrinsically: [1] Paul has already argued that the law came after the promise (vv. 15-18), indicating, more than likely, its temporary nature; [2] the verb “was added” in v. 19 (προσετέθη) is different from the verb in v. 15 (ἐπιδιατάσσεται, epidiatassetai); virtually all exegetes recognize this as an intentional linguistic shift on Paul’s part in order not to contradict his statement in v. 15; [3] the temper of 3:1–4:7 is decidedly against a positive statement about the Torah’s role in Heilsgeschichte.

[3:19]  ¹² tc παραδόσεων (paradosewn; “traditions, commandments”) is read by D*, while the vast majority of witnesses read παραβάσεων (parabasewn, “transgressions”). D’s reading makes little sense in this context. πράξεων (praxewn, “of deeds”) replaces παραβάσεων in Ì⁴⁶ F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec. The wording is best taken as going with νόμος (nomo"; “Why then the law of deeds?”), as is evident by the consistent punctuation in the later witnesses. But such an expression is unpauline and superfluous; it was almost certainly added by some early scribe(s) to soften the blow of Paul’s statement.

[3:19]  ¹³ tn Grk “the seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “was ordered.” L&N 31.22 has “was put into effect” here.

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Many modern translations (NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this word (μεσίτης, mesith"; here and in v. 20) as “mediator,” but this conveys a wrong impression in contemporary English. If this is referring to Moses, he certainly did not “mediate” between God and Israel but was an intermediary on God’s behalf. Moses was not a mediator, for example, who worked for compromise between opposing parties. He instead was God’s representative to his people who enabled them to have a relationship, but entirely on God’s terms.

[3:5]  ¹¹ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:5]  ¹² sn A quotation from Num 12:7.