John 5:19

5:19 So Jesus answered them, ¹  “I tell you the solemn truth, ²  the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, ³  but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father ⁴  does, the Son does likewise. ⁵ 

John 5:30

5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ⁶  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ⁷  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ⁸ 

John 6:38

6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

John 11:42

11:42 I knew that you always listen to me, ⁹  but I said this ¹⁰  for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

John 12:49-50

12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, ¹¹  but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me ¹²  what I should say and what I should speak. 12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹³  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ¹⁴ 

Numbers 16:28-30

16:28 Then Moses said, “This is how ¹⁵  you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. ¹⁶  16:29 If these men die a natural death, ¹⁷  or if they share the fate ¹⁸  of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. 16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ¹⁹  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ²⁰  along with all that they have, and they ²¹  go down alive to the grave, ²²  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

Hebrews 2:2-3

2:2 For if the message spoken through angels ²³  proved to be so firm that every violation ²⁴  or disobedience received its just penalty, 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

[5:19]  ¹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[5:19]  ² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:19]  ³ tn Grk “nothing from himself.”

[5:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “that one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:19]  ⁵ sn What works does the Son do likewise? The same that the Father does – and the same that the rabbis recognized as legitimate works of God on the Sabbath (see note on working in v. 17). (1) Jesus grants life (just as the Father grants life) on the Sabbath. But as the Father gives physical life on the Sabbath, so the Son grants spiritual life (John 5:21; note the “greater things” mentioned in v. 20). (2) Jesus judges (determines the destiny of people) on the Sabbath, just as the Father judges those who die on the Sabbath, because the Father has granted authority to the Son to judge (John 5:22-23). But this is not all. Not only has this power been granted to Jesus in the present; it will be his in the future as well. In v. 28 there is a reference not to spiritually dead (only) but also physically dead. At their resurrection they respond to the Son as well.

[5:30]  ⁶ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ⁷ tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ⁸ tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[11:42]  ⁹ tn Grk “that you always hear me.”

[11:42]  ¹⁰ tn The word “this” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[12:49]  ¹¹ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

[12:49]  ¹² tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

[12:50]  ¹³ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

[12:50]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”

[16:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in this.”

[16:28]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text simply has כִּי־לֹא מִלִּבִּי (ki-lo’ millibbi, “for not from my heart”). The heart is the center of the will, the place decisions are made (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament). Moses is saying that the things he has done have not come “from the will of man” so to speak – and certainly not from some secret desire on his part to seize power.

[16:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “if like the death of every man they die.”

[16:29]  ¹⁸ tn The noun is פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah, “appointment, visitation”). The expression refers to a natural death, parallel to the first expression.

[16:30]  ¹⁹ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ²⁰ tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ²¹ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ²² tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.

[2:2]  ²³ sn The message spoken through angels refers to the OT law, which according to Jewish tradition was mediated to Moses through angels (cf. Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17-18; Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19; and Jub. 1:27, 29; Josephus, Ant. 15.5.3 [15.136]).

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “through angels became valid and every violation.”