Luke 6:45

6:45 The good person out of the good treasury of his ¹  heart ²  produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury ³  produces evil, for his mouth speaks ⁴  from what fills ⁵  his heart.

Deuteronomy 30:6

30:6 The Lord your God will also cleanse ⁶  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ⁷  so that you may love him ⁸  with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

Psalms 51:10

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ⁹ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 31:33

31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹¹  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹²  says the Lord. ¹³  “I will ¹⁴  put my law within them ¹⁵  and write it on their hearts and minds. ¹⁶  I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 32:29

32:29 The Babylonian soldiers ¹⁸  that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 36:26-27

36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ²⁰  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²¹  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ²²  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²³  and carefully observe my regulations. ²⁴ 

Romans 7:18

7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. ²⁵ 

Ephesians 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ²⁶  through faith, ²⁷  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

James 1:16-19

1:16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. ²⁸  1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ²⁹  is from above, coming down ³⁰  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ³¹  1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ³²  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ³³  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ³⁴  a slave ³⁵  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ³⁶  Greetings!

James 2:1-2

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ³⁷  do not show prejudice ³⁸  if you possess faith ³⁹  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴⁰  2:2 For if someone ⁴¹  comes into your assembly ⁴²  wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes,

[6:45]  ¹ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“out of the evil”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[6:45]  ² sn Mention of the heart shows that Jesus is not interested in what is done, but why. Motives are more important than actions for him.

[6:45]  ³ tn The word “treasury” is not repeated in the Greek text at this point, but is implied.

[6:45]  ⁴ sn What one utters from one’s mouth is especially singled out as the example of this principle. James seems to have known this teaching (Jas 1:26; 3:1-12).

[6:45]  ⁵ tn Grk “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

[30:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.

[30:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[30:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[51:10]  ⁹ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[31:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹² tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ¹⁶ tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ¹⁷ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[32:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:29]  ¹⁹ sn Compare Jer 19:13.

[36:26]  ²⁰ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²¹ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ²² tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ²³ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[7:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”

[2:8]  ²⁶ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ²⁷ tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

[1:16]  ²⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[1:17]  ²⁹ tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ³⁰ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ³¹ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).

[1:18]  ³² tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”

[1:19]  ³³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[1:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ³⁵ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ³⁶ tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[2:1]  ³⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ³⁸ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ³⁹ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[2:2]  ⁴¹ tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, “equivalent to τὶς someone.”

[2:2]  ⁴² tn Grk “synagogue.” Usually συναγωγή refers to Jewish places of worship (e.g., Matt 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:15, John 6:59). The word can be used generally to refer to a place of assembly, and here it refers specifically to a Christian assembly (BDAG 963 s.v. 2.b.).