John 9:4

9:4 We must perform the deeds ¹  of the one who sent me ²  as long as ³  it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work.

John 14:10

14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? ⁴  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, ⁵  but the Father residing in me performs ⁶  his miraculous deeds. ⁷ 

Genesis 2:1-2

2:1 The heavens and the earth ⁸  were completed with everything that was in them. ⁹  2:2 By ¹⁰  the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, ¹¹  and he ceased ¹²  on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.

Psalms 65:6

65:6 You created the mountains by your power, ¹³ 

and demonstrated your strength. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹⁵ 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ¹⁶ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ¹⁷ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Matthew 10:29

10:29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? ¹⁸  Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. ¹⁹ 

Acts 14:17

14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ²⁰  by giving you rain from heaven ²¹  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ²²  with food and your hearts with joy.” ²³ 

Acts 17:28

17:28 For in him we live and move about ²⁴  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ²⁵ 

Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ²⁶  Amphipolis ²⁷  and Apollonia, ²⁸  they came to Thessalonica, ²⁹  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ³⁰ 

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ³¹  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ³²  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ³³  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

Hebrews 1:3

1:3 The Son is ³⁴  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ³⁵  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ³⁶ 

[9:4]  ¹ tn Grk “We must work the works.”

[9:4]  ² tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).

[9:4]  ³ tn Or “while.”

[14:10]  ⁴ tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.

[14:10]  ⁵ tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”

[14:10]  ⁶ tn Or “does.”

[14:10]  ⁷ tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”

[2:1]  ⁸ tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “and all the host of them.” Here the “host” refers to all the entities and creatures that God created to populate the world.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “on/in the seventh day.”

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his work which he did [or “made”].”

[2:2]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term שָׁבַּת (shabbat) can be translated “to rest” (“and he rested”) but it basically means “to cease.” This is not a rest from exhaustion; it is the cessation of the work of creation.

[65:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”

[65:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”

[40:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ¹⁶ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[10:29]  ¹⁸ sn The penny refers to an assarion, a small Roman copper coin. One of them was worth one-sixteenth of a denarius or less than a half hour’s average wage. Sparrows were the cheapest items sold in the market. God knows about even the most financially insignificant things; see Isa 49:15.

[10:29]  ¹⁹ tn Or “to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father.”

[14:17]  ²⁰ tn The participle ἀγαθουργῶν (agaqourgwn) is regarded as indicating means here, parallel to the following participles διδούς (didou") and ἐμπιπλῶν (empiplwn). This is the easiest way to understand the Greek structure. Semantically, the first participle is a general statement, followed by two participles giving specific examples of doing good.

[14:17]  ²¹ tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[14:17]  ²² tn Grk “satisfying [filling] your hearts with food and joy.” This is an idiomatic expression; it strikes the English reader as strange to speak of “filling one’s heart with food.” Thus the additional direct object “you” has been supplied, separating the two expressions somewhat: “satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.”

[14:17]  ²³ sn God’s general sovereignty and gracious care in the creation are the way Paul introduces the theme of the goodness of God. He was trying to establish monotheism here. It is an OT theme (Gen 8:22; Ps 4:7; 145:15-16; 147:8-9; Isa 25:6; Jer 5:24) which also appears in the NT (Luke 12:22-34).

[17:28]  ²⁴ tn According to L&N 15.1, “A strictly literal translation of κινέω in Ac 17:28 might imply merely moving from one place to another. The meaning, however, is generalized movement and activity; therefore, it may be possible to translate κινούμεθα as ‘we come and go’ or ‘we move about’’ or even ‘we do what we do.’”

[17:28]  ²⁵ sn This quotation is from Aratus (ca. 310-245 b.c.), Phaenomena 5. Paul asserted a general relationship and accountability to God for all humanity.

[17:1]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ²⁷ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ²⁸ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ²⁹ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ³⁰ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[1:6]  ³¹ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ³² tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:16]  ³³ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.

[1:3]  ³⁴ tn Grk “who being…and sustaining.” Heb 1:1-4 form one skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments to correspond to contemporary English usage, which does not allow for sentences of this length and complexity.

[1:3]  ³⁵ tn Grk “by the word of his power.”

[1:3]  ³⁶ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1, quoted often in Hebrews.