Luke 4:36

4:36 They ¹  were all amazed and began to say ²  to one another, “What’s happening here? ³  For with authority and power ⁴  he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

Jeremiah 23:28-29

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁶  23:29 My message is like a fire that purges dross! ⁷  It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! ⁸  I, the Lord, so affirm it! ⁹ 

Matthew 7:28-29

7:28 When ¹⁰  Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed by his teaching, 7:29 because he taught them like one who had authority, ¹¹  not like their experts in the law. ¹² 

Mark 1:22

1:22 The people there ¹³  were amazed by his teaching, because he taught them like one who had authority, ¹⁴  not like the experts in the law. ¹⁵ 

John 6:63

6:63 The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! ¹⁶  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ¹⁷ 

John 6:1

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

6:1 After this ¹⁸  Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). ¹⁹ 

Colossians 2:4-5

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments ²⁰  that sound reasonable. ²¹  2:5 For though ²²  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ²³  your morale ²⁴  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Colossians 1:24-25

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ²⁵  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²⁶  the word of God,

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²⁷  brothers and sisters ²⁸  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ²⁹  from God our Father! ³⁰ 

Colossians 4:2

Exhortation to Pray for the Success of Paul’s Mission

4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 1:4-5

1:4 since ³¹  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³²  from the hope laid up ³³  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³⁴ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³⁵  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³⁶  from the hope laid up ³⁷  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³⁸ 

Titus 2:15

2:15 So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke ³⁹  that carries full authority. ⁴⁰  Don’t let anyone look down ⁴¹  on you.

Hebrews 4:12-13

4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. 4:13 And no creature is hidden from God, ⁴²  but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.

[4:36]  ¹ tn Grk “And they.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:36]  ² tn This imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

[4:36]  ³ tn Grk “What is this word?” The Greek term λόγος (logos) has a wide range of meaning. Here it seems to mean, “What is this matter?” More idiomatically it would be, “What’s going on here?!”

[4:36]  ⁴ sn The phrase with authority and power is in an emphatic position in the Greek text. Once again the authority of Jesus is the point, but now it is not just his teaching that is emphasized, but his ministry. Jesus combined word and deed into a powerful testimony in Capernaum.

[23:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is not my message like a fire?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer that is made explicit in the translation. The words “that purges dross” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” See preceding note.

[23:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[7:28]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And it happened when.” The introductory phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto, “it happened that”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[7:29]  ¹¹ sn Jesus’ teaching impressed the hearers with the directness of its claim; he taught with authority. A study of Jewish rabbinic interpretation shows that it was typical to cite a list of authorities to make one’s point. Apparently Jesus addressed the issues in terms of his own understanding.

[7:29]  ¹² tn Or “their scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[1:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “They.”

[1:22]  ¹⁴ sn Jesus’ teaching impressed the hearers with the directness of its claim; he taught with authority. A study of Jewish rabbinic interpretation shows that it was typical to cite a list of authorities to make one’s point. Apparently Jesus addressed the issues in terms of his own understanding.

[1:22]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[6:63]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the flesh counts for nothing.”

[6:63]  ¹⁷ tn Or “are spirit-giving and life-producing.”

[6:1]  ¹⁸ tn Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:236) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.

[6:1]  ¹⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.

[2:4]  ²⁰ tn BDAG 812 s.v. πιθανολογία states, “persuasive speech, art of persuasion (so Pla., Theaet. 162e) in an unfavorable sense in its only occurrence in our lit. ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ by specious arguments Col 2:4 (cp. PLips 40 III, 7 διὰ πιθανολογίας).”

[2:4]  ²¹ sn Paul’s point is that even though the arguments seem to make sense (sound reasonable), they are in the end false. Paul is not here arguing against the study of philosophy or serious thinking per se, but is arguing against the uncritical adoption of a philosophy that is at odds with a proper view of Christ and the ethics of the Christian life.

[2:5]  ²² tn The conditional particle εἰ (ei) together with καί (kai) here indicates a first class condition in Greek and carries a concessive force, especially when seen in contrast to the following phrase which begins with ἀλλά (alla).

[2:5]  ²³ tn Grk “rejoicing and seeing.”

[2:5]  ²⁴ tn The Greek word τάξις can mean “order,” “discipline,” or even “unbroken ranks” (REB).

[1:25]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ²⁶ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[1:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ²⁹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ³⁰ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:4]  ³¹ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ³² tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ³³ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ³⁴ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:5]  ³⁶ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ³⁸ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[2:15]  ³⁹ tn Or “reproof,” “censure.” The Greek word ἐλέγχω (elencw) implies exposing someone’s sin in order to bring correction.

[2:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “speak these things and exhort and rebuke with all authority.”

[2:15]  ⁴¹ tn Or “let anyone despise you”; or “let anyone disregard you.”

[4:13]  ⁴² tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.