Matthew 16:17

16:17 And Jesus answered him, ¹  “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood ²  did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!

John 1:12-13

1:12 But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name ³  – he has given the right to become God’s children 1:13 – children not born ⁴  by human parents ⁵  or by human desire ⁶  or a husband’s ⁷  decision, ⁸  but by God.

John 6:44-45

6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, ⁹  and I will raise him up at the last day. 6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ ¹⁰  Everyone who hears and learns from the Father ¹¹  comes to me.

Acts 13:39

13:39 and by this one ¹²  everyone who believes is justified ¹³  from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify ¹⁴  you. ¹⁵ 

Acts 14:27

14:27 When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported ¹⁶  all the things God ¹⁷  had done with them, and that he had opened a door ¹⁸  of faith for the Gentiles.

Ephesians 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ¹⁹  through faith, ²⁰  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Colossians 2:12

2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your ²¹  faith in the power ²²  of God who raised him from the dead.

James 1:17-18

1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ²³  is from above, coming down ²⁴  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ²⁵  1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ²⁶  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

[16:17]  ¹ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.

[16:17]  ² tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.

[1:12]  ³ tn On the use of the πιστεύω + εἰς (pisteuw + ei") construction in John: The verb πιστεύω occurs 98 times in John (compared to 11 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark [including the longer ending], and 9 times in Luke). One of the unsolved mysteries is why the corresponding noun form πίστις (pistis) is never used at all. Many have held the noun was in use in some pre-Gnostic sects and this rendered it suspect for John. It might also be that for John, faith was an activity, something that men do (cf. W. Turner, “Believing and Everlasting Life – A Johannine Inquiry,” ExpTim 64 [1952/53]: 50-52). John uses πιστεύω in 4 major ways: (1) of believing facts, reports, etc., 12 times; (2) of believing people (or the scriptures), 19 times; (3) of believing “in” Christ” (πιστεύω + εἰς + acc.), 36 times; (4) used absolutely without any person or object specified, 30 times (the one remaining passage is 2:24, where Jesus refused to “trust” himself to certain individuals). Of these, the most significant is the use of πιστεύω with εἰς + accusative. It is not unlike the Pauline ἐν Χριστῷ (en Cristw) formula. Some have argued that this points to a Hebrew (more likely Aramaic) original behind the Fourth Gospel. But it probably indicates something else, as C. H. Dodd observed: “πιστεύειν with the dative so inevitably connoted simple credence, in the sense of an intellectual judgment, that the moral element of personal trust or reliance inherent in the Hebrew or Aramaic phrase – an element integral to the primitive Christian conception of faith in Christ – needed to be otherwise expressed” (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 183).

[1:13]  ⁴ tn The Greek term translated “born” here also involves conception.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Grk “of blood(s).” The plural αἱμάτων (Jaimatwn) has seemed a problem to many interpreters. At least some sources in antiquity imply that blood was thought of as being important in the development of the fetus during its time in the womb: thus Wis 7:1: “in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of 10 months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.” In John 1:13, the plural αἱμάτων may imply the action of both parents. It may also refer to the “genetic” contribution of both parents, and so be equivalent to “human descent” (see BDAG 26 s.v. αἷμα 1.a). E. C. Hoskyns thinks John could not have used the singular here because Christians are in fact ‘begotten’ by the blood of Christ (The Fourth Gospel, 143), although the context would seem to make it clear that the blood in question is something other than the blood of Christ.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Or “of the will of the flesh.” The phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός (oude ek qelhmato" sarko") is more clearly a reference to sexual desire, but it should be noted that σάρξ (sarx) in John does not convey the evil sense common in Pauline usage. For John it refers to the physical nature in its weakness rather than in its sinfulness. There is no clearer confirmation of this than the immediately following verse, where the λόγος (logos) became σάρξ.

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Or “man’s.”

[1:13]  ⁸ tn The third phrase, οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός (oude ek qelhmato" andros), means much the same as the second one. The word here (ἀνηρ, anhr) is often used for a husband, resulting in the translation “or a husband’s decision,” or more generally, “or of any human volition whatsoever.” L. Morris may be right when he sees here an emphasis directed at the Jewish pride in race and patriarchal ancestry, although such a specific reference is difficult to prove (John [NICNT], 101).

[6:44]  ⁹ tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).

[6:45]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.

[6:45]  ¹¹ tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”

[13:39]  ¹² sn This one refers here to Jesus.

[13:39]  ¹³ tn Or “is freed.” The translation of δικαιωθῆναι (dikaiwqhnai) and δικαιοῦται (dikaioutai) in Acts 13:38-39 is difficult. BDAG 249 s.v. δικαιόω 3 categorizes δικαιωθῆναι in 13:38 (Greek text) under the meaning “make free/pure” but categorizes δικαιοῦται in Acts 13:39 as “be found in the right, be free of charges” (BDAG 249 s.v. δικαιόω 2.b.β). In the interest of consistency both verbs are rendered as “justified” in this translation.

[13:39]  ¹⁴ tn Or “could not free.”

[13:39]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” The passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation, with “by the law of Moses” becoming the subject of the final clause. The words “from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you” are part of v. 38 in the Greek text, but due to English style and word order must be placed in v. 39 in the translation.

[14:27]  ¹⁶ tn Or “announced.”

[14:27]  ¹⁷ sn Note that God is the subject of the activity. The outcome of this mission is seen as a confirmation of the mission to the Gentiles.

[14:27]  ¹⁸ sn On the image of opening, or of the door, see 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3.

[2:8]  ¹⁹ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ²⁰ 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.

[2:12]  ²¹ tn The article with the genitive modifier τῆς πίστεως (th" pistew") is functioning as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[2:12]  ²² tn The genitive τῆς ἐνεργείας (th" energeia") has been translated as an objective genitive, “faith in the power.”

[1:17]  ²³ tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ²⁵ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).

[1:18]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”