Matthew 5:17-18

Fulfillment of the Law and Prophets

5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them. ¹  5:18 I ²  tell you the truth, ³  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ⁴  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Malachi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ⁵  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ⁶ 

Luke 24:27

24:27 Then ⁷  beginning with Moses and all the prophets, ⁸  he interpreted to them the things written about ⁹  himself in all the scriptures.

Luke 24:44

Jesus’ Final Commission

24:44 Then ¹⁰  he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me ¹¹  in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms ¹²  must be fulfilled.”

John 5:46-47

5:46 If ¹³  you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 5:47 But if you do not believe what Moses ¹⁴  wrote, how will you believe my words?”

Acts 3:22-24

3:22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must obey ¹⁵  him in everything he tells you. ¹⁶  3:23 Every person ¹⁷  who does not obey that prophet will be destroyed and thus removed ¹⁸  from the people.’ ¹⁹  3:24 And all the prophets, from Samuel and those who followed him, have spoken about and announced ²⁰  these days.

Acts 13:27

13:27 For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize ²¹  him, ²²  and they fulfilled the sayings ²³  of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning ²⁴  him. ²⁵ 

Romans 3:21

3:21 But now ²⁶  apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) ²⁷  has been disclosed –

[5:17]  ¹ tn Grk “not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Direct objects (“these things,” “them”) were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but have been supplied here to conform to contemporary English style.

[5:18]  ² tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[5:18]  ³ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[5:18]  ⁴ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”

[4:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

[4:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.

[24:27]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[24:27]  ⁸ sn The reference to Moses and all the prophets is a way to say the promise of Messiah runs throughout OT scripture from first to last.

[24:27]  ⁹ tn Or “regarding,” “concerning.” “Written” is implied by the mention of the scriptures in context; “said” could also be used here, referring to the original utterances, but by now these things had been committed to writing.

[24:44]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[24:44]  ¹¹ sn Everything written about me. The divine plan, events, and scripture itself are seen here as being one.

[24:44]  ¹² sn For a similar threefold division of the OT scriptures, see the prologue to Sirach, lines 8-10, and from Qumran, the epilogue to 4QMMT, line 10.

[5:46]  ¹³ tn Grk “For if.”

[5:47]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “that one” (“he”); the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:22]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “hear,” but the idea of “hear and obey” or simply “obey” is frequently contained in the Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw; see L&N 36.14) and the following context (v. 23) makes it clear that failure to “obey” the words of this “prophet like Moses” will result in complete destruction.

[3:22]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 18:15. By quoting Deut 18:15 Peter declared that Jesus was the eschatological “prophet like [Moses]” mentioned in that passage, who reveals the plan of God and the way of God.

[3:23]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “every soul” (here “soul” is an idiom for the whole person).

[3:23]  ¹⁸ tn Or “will be completely destroyed.” In Acts 3:23 the verb ἐξολεθρεύω (exoleqreuw) is translated “destroy and remove” by L&N 20.35.

[3:23]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 18:19, also Lev 23:29. The OT context of Lev 23:29 discusses what happened when one failed to honor atonement. One ignored the required sacrifice of God at one’s peril.

[3:24]  ²⁰ tn Or “proclaimed.”

[13:27]  ²¹ tn BDAG 12-13 s.v. ἀγνοέω 1.b gives “not to know w. acc. of pers.” as the meaning here, but “recognize” is a better translation in this context because recognition of the true identity of the one they condemned is the issue. See Acts 2:22-24; 4:26-28.

[13:27]  ²² tn Grk “this one.”

[13:27]  ²³ tn Usually φωνή (fwnh) means “voice,” but BDAG 1071-72 s.v. φωνή 2.c has “Also of sayings in scripture…Ac 13:27.”

[13:27]  ²⁴ tn The participle κρίναντες (krinante") is instrumental here.

[13:27]  ²⁵ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[3:21]  ²⁶ tn Νυνὶ δέ (Nuni de, “But now”) could be understood as either (1) logical or (2) temporal in force, but most recent interpreters take it as temporal, referring to a new phase in salvation history.

[3:21]  ²⁷ tn Grk “being witnessed by the law and the prophets,” a remark which is virtually parenthetical to Paul’s argument.