Malachi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ¹  like a launderer’s soap.

Malachi 4:5

4:5 Look, I will send you Elijah ²  the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

Matthew 16:28

16:28 I tell you the truth, ³  there are some standing here who will not ⁴  experience ⁵  death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” ⁶ 

Matthew 24:3

Signs of the End of the Age

24:3 As ⁷  he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things ⁸  happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:27

24:27 For just like the lightning ⁹  comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

Matthew 24:1

The Destruction of the Temple

24:1 Now ¹⁰  as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. ¹¹ 

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ¹²  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹³  – a ¹⁴  faithful minister of Christ on our ¹⁵  behalf –

Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ¹⁶  even prophesied of them, ¹⁷  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ¹⁸  with thousands and thousands ¹⁹  of his holy ones,

Revelation 1:7

1:7 (Look! He is returning with the clouds, ²⁰ 

and every eye will see him,

even ²¹  those who pierced him, ²² 

and all the tribes ²³  on the earth will mourn because ²⁴  of him.

This will certainly come to pass! ²⁵  Amen.) ²⁶ 

[3:2]  ¹ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[4:5]  ² sn I will send you Elijah the prophet. In light of the ascension of Elijah to heaven without dying (2 Kgs 2:11), Judaism has always awaited his return as an aspect of the messianic age (see, e.g., John 1:19-28). Jesus identified John the Baptist as Elijah, because he came in the “spirit and power” of his prototype Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36).

[16:28]  ³ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[16:28]  ⁴ tn The Greek negative here (οὐ μή, ou mh) is the strongest possible.

[16:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “will not taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[16:28]  ⁶ sn Several suggestions have been made as to the referent for the phrase the Son of Man coming in his kingdom: (1) the transfiguration itself, which immediately follows in the narrative; (2) Jesus’ resurrection and ascension; (3) the coming of the Spirit; (4) Christ’s role in the Church; (5) the destruction of Jerusalem; (6) Jesus’ second coming and the establishment of the kingdom. The reference to six days later in 17:1 seems to indicate that Matthew had the transfiguration in mind insofar as it was a substantial prefiguring of the consummation of the kingdom (although this interpretation is not without its problems). As such, the transfiguration would be a tremendous confirmation to the disciples that even though Jesus had just finished speaking of his death (in vv. 21-23), he was nonetheless the promised Messiah and things were proceeding according to God’s plan.

[24:3]  ⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:3]  ⁸ sn Because the phrase these things is plural, more than the temple’s destruction is in view. The question may presuppose that such a catastrophe signals the end.

[24:27]  ⁹ sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.

[24:1]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[24:1]  ¹¹ sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[1:7]  ¹² tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ¹³ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος 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.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[1:14]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:7]  ²⁰ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) was translated as ascensive.

[1:7]  ²² sn An allusion to Zech 12:10.

[1:7]  ²³ tn In this context, tribes (φυλαί, fulai) could also be translated as “nations” or “peoples” (L&N 11.56).

[1:7]  ²⁴ tn The conjunction ἐπί (epi) is most likely causal here. The people who crucified him are those of every tribe on the earth and they will mourn because he comes as judge.

[1:7]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Yes, Amen.” The expression “This will certainly come to pass” is an attempt to capture the force of the juxtaposition of the Greek ναί (nai) and the Hebrew ἀμήν (amhn). See L&N 69.1.

[1:7]  ²⁶ sn These lines are placed in parentheses because they form an aside to the main argument.