Luke 2:31-32

2:31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: ¹ 

2:32 a light, ² 

for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory ³  to your people Israel.”

Luke 24:47

24:47 and repentance ⁴  for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed ⁵  in his name to all nations, ⁶  beginning from Jerusalem. ⁷ 

Genesis 12:3

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ⁸ 

but the one who treats you lightly ⁹  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ¹⁰  by your name.”

Psalms 67:1-2

Psalm 67 ¹¹ 

For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.

67:1 May God show us his favor ¹²  and bless us! ¹³ 

May he smile on us! ¹⁴  (Selah)

67:2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;

all nations will know how you deliver your people. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 98:2-3

98:2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver; ¹⁶ 

in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.

98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. ¹⁷ 

All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ¹⁹  of Israel? ²⁰ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ²¹ 

so you can bring ²²  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Isaiah 52:10

52:10 The Lord reveals ²³  his royal power ²⁴ 

in the sight of all the nations;

the entire ²⁵  earth sees

our God deliver. ²⁶ 

Matthew 28:18

28:18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, ²⁷  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Mark 1:15

1:15 He ²⁸  said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God ²⁹  is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

Mark 16:15

16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Romans 15:9-12

15:9 and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. ³⁰  As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.” ³¹  15:10 And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” ³²  15:11 And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.” ³³  15:12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.” ³⁴ 

Ephesians 3:8

3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ³⁵  – this grace was given, ³⁶  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

Colossians 1:23

1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ³⁷  without shifting ³⁸  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

[2:31]  ¹ sn Is the phrase all peoples a reference to Israel alone, or to both Israel and the Gentiles? The following verse makes it clear that all peoples includes Gentiles, another key Lukan emphasis (Luke 24:47; Acts 10:34-43).

[2:32]  ² tn The syntax of this verse is disputed. Most read “light” and “glory” in parallelism, so Jesus is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and is glory to the people for Israel. Others see “light” (1:78-79) as a summary, while “revelation” and “glory” are parallel, so Jesus is light for all, but is revelation for the Gentiles and glory for Israel. Both readings make good sense and either could be correct, but Luke 1:78-79 and Acts 26:22-23 slightly favor this second option.

[2:32]  ³ sn In other words, Jesus is a special cause for praise and honor (“glory”) for the nation.

[24:47]  ⁴ sn This repentance has its roots in declarations of the Old Testament. It is the Hebrew concept of a turning of direction.

[24:47]  ⁵ tn Or “preached,” “announced.”

[24:47]  ⁶ sn To all nations. The same Greek term (τὰ ἔθνη, ta eqnh) may be translated “the Gentiles” or “the nations.” The hope of God in Christ was for all the nations from the beginning.

[24:47]  ⁷ sn Beginning from Jerusalem. See Acts 2, which is where it all starts.

[12:3]  ⁸ tn The Piel cohortative has as its object a Piel participle, masculine plural. Since the Lord binds himself to Abram by covenant, those who enrich Abram in any way share in the blessings.

[12:3]  ⁹ tn In this part of God’s statement there are two significant changes that often go unnoticed. First, the parallel and contrasting participle מְקַלֶּלְךָ (mÿqallelkha) is now singular and not plural. All the versions and a few Masoretic mss read the plural. But if it had been plural, there would be no reason to change it to the singular and alter the parallelism. On the other hand, if it was indeed singular, it is easy to see why the versions would change it to match the first participle. The MT preserves the original reading: “the one who treats you lightly.” The point would be a contrast with the lavish way that God desires to bless many. The second change is in the vocabulary. The English usually says, “I will curse those who curse you.” But there are two different words for curse here. The first is קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light” in the Qal, and in the Piel “to treat lightly, to treat with contempt, to curse.” The second verb is אָרַר (’arar), which means “to banish, to remove from the blessing.” The point is simple: Whoever treats Abram and the covenant with contempt as worthless God will banish from the blessing. It is important also to note that the verb is not a cohortative, but a simple imperfect. Since God is binding himself to Abram, this would then be an obligatory imperfect: “but the one who treats you with contempt I must curse.”

[12:3]  ¹⁰ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings on”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[67:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 67. The psalmist prays for God’s blessing upon his people and urges the nations to praise him for he is the just ruler of the world.

[67:1]  ¹² tn Or “have mercy on us.”

[67:1]  ¹³ tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. Note the jussive form יָאֵר (ya’er) in the next line.

[67:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “may he cause his face to shine with us.”

[67:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to know in the earth your way, among all nations your deliverance.” The infinitive with -לְ (lamed) expresses purpose/result. When God demonstrates his favor to his people, all nations will recognize his character as a God who delivers. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) refers here to God’s characteristic behavior, more specifically, to the way he typically saves his people.

[98:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “makes known his deliverance.”

[98:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

[98:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).

[49:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ²⁰ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ²¹ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ²² tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[52:10]  ²³ tn Heb “lays bare”; NLT “will demonstrate.”

[52:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his holy arm.” This is a metonymy for his power.

[52:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the remote regions,” which here stand for the extremities and everything in between.

[52:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the deliverance of our God.” “God” is a subjective genitive here.

[28:18]  ²⁷ tn Grk “coming, Jesus spoke to them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn, “saying”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[1:15]  ²⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:15]  ²⁹ sn The kingdom of God is a reference to the sovereign activity of God as he rules over his creation and brings his plans to realization.

[15:9]  ³⁰ tn There are two major syntactical alternatives which are both awkward: (1) One could make “glorify” dependent on “Christ has become a minister” and coordinate with “to confirm” and the result would be rendered “Christ has become a minister of circumcision to confirm the promises…and so that the Gentiles might glorify God.” (2) One could make “glorify” dependent on “I tell you” and coordinate with “Christ has become a minister” and the result would be rendered “I tell you that Christ has become a minister of circumcision…and that the Gentiles glorify God.” The second rendering is preferred.

[15:9]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Ps 18:49.

[15:10]  ³² sn A quotation from Deut 32:43.

[15:11]  ³³ sn A quotation from Ps 117:1.

[15:12]  ³⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 11:10.

[3:8]  ³⁵ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

[3:8]  ³⁶ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).

[1:23]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”

[1:23]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.