Luke 1:35

1:35 The angel replied, ¹  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow ²  you. Therefore the child ³  to be born ⁴  will be holy; ⁵  he will be called the Son of God.

Luke 11:13

11:13 If you then, although you are ⁶  evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit ⁷  to those who ask him!”

Job 14:4

14:4 Who can make ⁸  a clean thing come from an unclean? ⁹ 

No one!

Job 15:14-16

15:14 What is man that he should be pure,

or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

15:15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, ¹⁰ 

if even the heavens ¹¹  are not pure in his eyes,

15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, ¹² 

who drinks in evil like water! ¹³ 

Job 25:4

25:4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure? ¹⁴ 

Job 25:1

Bildad’s Third Speech ¹⁵ 

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

Job 3:16

3:16 Or why ¹⁶  was ¹⁷  I not buried ¹⁸ 

like a stillborn infant, ¹⁹ 

like infants ²⁰  who have never seen the light? ²¹ 

Hebrews 7:26

7:26 For it is indeed fitting for us to have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

James 1:17

1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ²²  is from above, coming down ²³  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ²⁴ 

[1:35]  ¹ tn Grk “And the angel said to her.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. The pronoun αὐτῇ (auth, “to her”) has not been included in the translation since it is redundant in contemporary English.

[1:35]  ² sn The phrase will overshadow is a reference to God’s glorious presence at work (Exod 40:34-35; Ps 91:4).

[1:35]  ³ tn Or “the one born holy will be called the Son of God.” The wording of this phrase depends on whether the adjective is a predicate adjective, as in the text, or is an adjective modifying the participle serving as the subject. The absence of an article with the adjective speaks for a predicate position. Other less appealing options supply a verb for “holy”; thus “the one who is born will be holy”; or argue that both “holy” and “Son of God” are predicates, so “The one who is born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

[1:35]  ⁴ tc A few mss (C* Θ Ë¹ 33 pc) add “by you” here. This looks like a scribal addition to bring symmetry to the first three clauses of the angel’s message (note the second person pronoun in the previous two clauses), and is too poorly supported to be seriously considered as authentic.

[1:35]  ⁵ tn Or “Therefore the holy child to be born will be called the Son of God.” There are two ways to understand the Greek phrase τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον (to gennwmenon {agion) here. First, τὸ γεννώμενον could be considered a substantival participle with ἅγιον as an adjective in the second predicate position, thus making a complete sentence; this interpretation is reflected in the translation above. Second, τὸ ἅγιον could be considered a substantival adjective with γεννώμενον acting as an adjectival participle, thus making the phrase the subject of the verb κληθήσεται (klhqhsetai); this interpretation is reflected in the alternative reading. Treating the participle γεννώμενον as adjectival is a bit unnatural for the very reason that it forces one to understand ἅγιον as substantival; this introduces a new idea in the text with ἅγιον when an already new topic is being introduced with γεννώμενον. Semantically this would overload the new subject introduced at this point. For this reason the first interpretation is preferred.

[11:13]  ⁶ tn The participle ὑπάρχοντες (Juparconte") has been translated as a concessive participle.

[11:13]  ⁷ sn The provision of the Holy Spirit is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. Some apply it to the general provision of the Spirit, but this would seem to look only at one request in a context that speaks of repeated asking. The teaching as a whole stresses not that God gives everything his children want, but that God gives the good that they need. The parallel account in Matthew (7:11) refers to good things where Luke mentions the Holy Spirit.

[14:4]  ⁸ tn The expression is מִי־יִתֵּן (mi-yitten, “who will give”; see GKC 477 §151.b). Some commentators (H. H. Rowley and A. B. Davidson) wish to take this as the optative formula: “O that a clean might come out of an unclean!” But that does not fit the verse very well, and still requires the addition of a verb. The exclamation here simply implies something impossible – man is unable to attain purity.

[14:4]  ⁹ sn The point being made is that the entire human race is contaminated by sin, and therefore cannot produce something pure. In this context, since man is born of woman, it is saying that the woman and the man who is brought forth from her are impure. See Ps 51:5; Isa 6:5; and Gen 6:5.

[15:15]  ¹⁰ tn Eliphaz here reiterates the point made in Job 4:18.

[15:15]  ¹¹ sn The question here is whether the reference is to material “heavens” (as in Exod 24:10 and Job 25:5), or to heavenly beings. The latter seems preferable in this context.

[15:16]  ¹² tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).

[15:16]  ¹³ sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.

[25:4]  ¹⁴ sn Bildad here does not come up with new expressions; rather, he simply uses what Eliphaz had said (see Job 4:17-19 and 15:14-16).

[25:1]  ¹⁵ sn The third speech of Bildad takes up Job 25, a short section of six verses. It is followed by two speeches from Job; and Zophar does not return with his third. Does this mean that the friends have run out of arguments, and that Job is just getting going? Many scholars note that in chs. 26 and 27 there is material that does not fit Job’s argument. Many have rearranged the material to show that there was a complete cycle of three speeches. In that light, 26:5-14 is viewed as part of Bildad’s speech. Some, however, take Bildad’s speech to be only ch. 25, and make 26:5-14 an interpolated hymn. For all the arguments and suggestions, one should see the introductions and the commentaries.

[3:16]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

[3:16]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

[3:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

[3:16]  ¹⁹ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

[3:16]  ²⁰ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

[3:16]  ²¹ tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.

[1:17]  ²² tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ²³ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ²⁴ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).