Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ² 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ³  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ⁴ 

Disaster will not overtake ⁵  us!”

Matthew 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Luke 3:8

3:8 Therefore produce ⁶  fruit ⁷  that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say ⁸  to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ ⁹  For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ¹⁰ 

John 8:33

8:33 “We are descendants ¹¹  of Abraham,” they replied, ¹²  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ¹³  ‘You will become free’?”

John 8:39

8:39 They answered him, ¹⁴  “Abraham is our father!” ¹⁵  Jesus replied, ¹⁶  “If you are ¹⁷  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ¹⁸  the deeds of Abraham.

Romans 4:12

4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, ¹⁹  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ²⁰ 

Romans 9:7

9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” ²¹ 

Romans 9:1

Israel’s Rejection Considered

9:1 ²² I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ²³  in the Holy Spirit –

Romans 5:3

5:3 Not ²⁴  only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

[3:11]  ¹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ² tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ³ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:8]  ⁶ tn The verb here is ποιέω (poiew; see v. 4).

[3:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit” (so NIV; cf. Matt 3:8 where the singular καρπός is found). Some other translations render the plural καρπούς as “fruits” (e.g., NRSV, NASB, NAB, NKJV).

[3:8]  ⁸ tn In other words, “do not even begin to think this.”

[3:8]  ⁹ sn We have Abraham as our father. John’s warning to the crowds really assumes two things: (1) A number of John’s listeners apparently believed that simply by their physical descent from Abraham, they were certain heirs of the promises made to the patriarch, and (2) God would never judge his covenant people lest he inadvertently place the fulfillment of his promises in jeopardy. In light of this, John tells these people two things: (1) they need to repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance, for only that saves from the coming wrath, and (2) God will raise up “children for Abraham from these stones” if he wants to. Their disobedience will not threaten the realization of God’s sovereign purposes.

[3:8]  ¹⁰ sn The point of the statement God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham is that ancestry or association with a tradition tied to the great founder of the Jewish nation is not an automatic source of salvation.

[8:33]  ¹¹ tn Grk “We are the seed” (an idiom).

[8:33]  ¹² tn Grk “They answered to him.”

[8:33]  ¹³ tn Or “How is it that you say.”

[8:39]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “They answered and said to him.”

[8:39]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Our father is Abraham.”

[8:39]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:39]  ¹⁷ tc Although most mss (C W Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï) have the imperfect ἦτε (hte, “you were”) here, making this sentence a proper second class condition, the harder reading, ἐστε (este, “you are”), is found in the better witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B D L 070 pc lat).

[8:39]  ¹⁸ tc Some important mss (Ì⁶⁶ B* [700]) have the present imperative ποιεῖτε (poieite) here: “If you are Abraham’s children, then do,” while many others (א² C K L N Δ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 565 579 892 pm) add the contingent particle ἄν (an) to ἐποιεῖτε (epoieite) making it a more proper second class condition by Attic standards. The simple ἐποιεῖτε without the ἄν is the hardest reading, and is found in some excellent witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* B² D W Γ Θ 070 0250 1424 pm).

[4:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the father of circumcision.”

[4:12]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the ‘in-uncircumcision faith’ of our father Abraham.”

[9:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.

[9:1]  ²² sn Rom 9:1–11:36. These three chapters are among the most difficult and disputed in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. One area of difficulty is the relationship between Israel and the church, especially concerning the nature and extent of Israel’s election. Many different models have been constructed to express this relationship. For a representative survey, see M. Barth, The People of God (JSNTSup), 22-27. The literary genre of these three chapters has been frequently identified as a diatribe, a philosophical discussion or conversation evolved by the Cynic and Stoic schools of philosophy as a means of popularizing their ideas (E. Käsemann, Romans, 261 and 267). But other recent scholars have challenged the idea that Rom 9–11 is characterized by diatribe. Scholars like R. Scroggs and E. E. Ellis have instead identified the material in question as midrash. For a summary and discussion of the rabbinic connections, see W. R. Stegner, “Romans 9.6-29 – A Midrash,” JSNT 22 (1984): 37-52.

[9:1]  ²³ tn Or “my conscience bears witness to me.”

[5:3]  ²⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.