John 3:14

3:14 Just as ¹  Moses lifted up the serpent ²  in the wilderness, ³  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ⁴ 

John 8:28

8:28 Then Jesus said, ⁵  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ⁶  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ⁷  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ⁸ 

John 19:17

19:17 and carrying his own cross ⁹  he went out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” ¹⁰  (called in Aramaic ¹¹  Golgotha). ¹² 

Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Disposition of a Criminal’s Remains

21:22 If a person commits a sin punishable by death and is executed, and you hang the corpse ¹³  on a tree, 21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury ¹⁴  him that same day, for the one who is left exposed ¹⁵  on a tree is cursed by God. ¹⁶  You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 18:9

Provision for Prophetism

18:9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

Psalms 22:16-18

22:16 Yes, ¹⁸  wild dogs surround me –

a gang of evil men crowd around me;

like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ¹⁹ 

22:17 I can count ²⁰  all my bones;

my enemies ²¹  are gloating over me in triumph. ²² 

22:18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves;

they are rolling dice ²³  for my garments.

Galatians 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ²⁴  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ²⁵ 

Galatians 3:1

Justification by Law or by Faith?

3:1 You ²⁶  foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell ²⁷  on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed ²⁸  as crucified!

Galatians 2:1

Confirmation from the Jerusalem Apostles

2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem ²⁹  again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too.

Galatians 3:18

3:18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave ³⁰  it to Abraham through the promise.

[3:14]  ¹ tn Grk “And just as.”

[3:14]  ² sn Or the snake, referring to the bronze serpent mentioned in Num 21:9.

[3:14]  ³ sn An allusion to Num 21:5-9.

[3:14]  ⁴ sn So must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is ultimately a prediction of Jesus’ crucifixion. Nicodemus could not have understood this, but John’s readers, the audience to whom the Gospel is addressed, certainly could have (compare the wording of John 12:32). In John, being lifted up refers to one continuous action of ascent, beginning with the cross but ending at the right hand of the Father. Step 1 is Jesus’ death; step 2 is his resurrection; and step 3 is the ascension back to heaven. It is the upward swing of the “pendulum” which began with the incarnation, the descent of the Word become flesh from heaven to earth (cf. Paul in Phil 2:5-11). See also the note on the title Son of Man in 1:51.

[8:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ⁸ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[19:17]  ⁹ tn Or “carrying the cross by himself.”

[19:17]  ¹⁰ sn Jesus was led out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” where he was to be crucified. It is clear from v. 20 that this was outside the city. The Latin word for the Greek κρανίον (kranion) is calvaria. Thus the English word “Calvary” is a transliteration of the Latin rather than a NT place name (cf. Luke 23:33 in the KJV).

[19:17]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in Hebrew.”

[19:17]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[21:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “him.”

[21:23]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”

[21:23]  ¹⁶ sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).

[21:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[22:16]  ¹⁸ tn Or “for.”

[22:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” This reading is often emended because it is grammatically awkward, but perhaps its awkwardness is by rhetorical design. Its broken syntax may be intended to convey the panic and terror felt by the psalmist. The psalmist may envision a lion pinning the hands and feet of its victim to the ground with its paws (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art), or a lion biting the hands and feet. The line has been traditionally translated, “they pierce my hands and feet,” and then taken as foreshadowing the crucifixion of Christ. Though Jesus does appropriate the language of this psalm while on the cross (compare v. 1 with Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34), the NT does not cite this verse in describing the death of Jesus. (It does refer to vv. 7-8 and 18, however. See Matt 27:35, 39, 43; Mark 15:24, 29; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24.) If one were to insist on an emendation of כָּאֲרִי (ka’ariy, “like a lion”) to a verb, the most likely verbal root would be כָּרָה (karah, “dig”; see the LXX). In this context this verb could refer to the gnawing and tearing of wild dogs (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV). The ancient Greek version produced by Symmachus reads “bind” here, perhaps understanding a verbal root כרך, which is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic and means “to encircle, entwine, embrace” (see HALOT 497-98 s.v. כרך and Jastrow 668 s.v. כָּרַךְ). Neither one of these proposed verbs can yield a meaning “bore, pierce.”

[22:17]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 17-18 draw attention to the progressive nature of the action.

[22:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “they.” The masculine form indicates the enemies are in view. The referent (the psalmist’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:17]  ²² tn Heb “they gaze, they look upon me.”

[22:18]  ²³ tn Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.

[3:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[3:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “O” (an interjection used both in address and emotion). In context the following section is highly charged emotionally.

[3:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “deceived”; the verb βασκαίνω (baskainw) can be understood literally here in the sense of bewitching by black magic, but could also be understood figuratively to refer to an act of deception (see L&N 53.98 and 88.159).

[3:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “publicly placarded,” “set forth in a public proclamation” (BDAG 867 s.v. προγράφω 2).

[2:1]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:18]  ³⁰ tn On the translation “graciously gave” for χαρίζομαι (carizomai) see L&N 57.102.