Matthew 26:52-54

26:52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! ¹  For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword. 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions ²  of angels right now? 26:54 How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?”

John 18:36

18:36 Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being ³  handed over ⁴  to the Jewish authorities. ⁵  But as it is, ⁶  my kingdom is not from here.”

John 18:2

18:2 (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, knew the place too, because Jesus had met there many times ⁷  with his disciples.) ⁸ 

Colossians 1:3-4

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁹  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 since ¹⁰  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 6:11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes ¹¹  of the devil. 6:12 For our struggle ¹²  is not against flesh and blood, ¹³  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ¹⁴  against the spiritual forces ¹⁵  of evil in the heavens. ¹⁶  6:13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground ¹⁷  on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 6:14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening ¹⁸  the belt of truth around your waist, ¹⁹  by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 6:15 by fitting your ²⁰  feet with the preparation that comes from the good news ²¹  of peace, ²²  6:16 and in all of this, ²³  by taking up the shield ²⁴  of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ²⁵  and the sword ²⁶  of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ²⁷  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ²⁸  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:1

6:1 Children, ²⁹  obey your parents in the Lord ³⁰  for this is right.

Ephesians 5:8

5:8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are ³¹  light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light –

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ³²  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 5:9

5:9 for the fruit of the light ³³  consists in ³⁴  all goodness, righteousness, and truth –

[26:52]  ¹ tn The translation “put your sword back in its place” for this phrase is given in L&N 85.52.

[26:53]  ² sn A legion was a Roman army unit of about 6,000 soldiers, so twelve legions would be 72,000.

[18:36]  ³ tn Grk “so that I may not be.”

[18:36]  ⁴ tn Or “delivered over.”

[18:36]  ⁵ tn Or “the Jewish leaders”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, especially members of the Sanhedrin. See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 12. In the translation “authorities” was preferred over “leaders” for stylistic reasons.

[18:36]  ⁶ tn Grk “now.”

[18:2]  ⁷ tn Or “often.”

[18:2]  ⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[1:3]  ⁹ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[1:4]  ¹⁰ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[6:11]  ¹¹ tn Or “craftiness.” See BDAG 625 s.v. μεθοδεία.

[6:12]  ¹² tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”

[6:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “blood and flesh.”

[6:12]  ¹⁴ tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.

[6:12]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.

[6:12]  ¹⁶ sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.

[6:13]  ¹⁷ tn The term ἀνθίστημι (anqisthmi) carries the idea of resisting or opposing something or someone (BDAG 80 s.v.). In Eph 6:13, when used in combination with στῆναι (sthnai; cf. also στῆτε [sthte] in v. 14) and in a context of battle imagery, it seems to have the idea of resisting, standing firm, and being able to stand your ground.

[6:14]  ¹⁸ sn The four participles fastening… putting on…fitting…taking up… indicate the means by which believers can take their stand against the devil and his schemes. The imperative take in v. 17 communicates another means by which to accomplish the standing, i.e., by the word of God.

[6:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “girding your waist with truth.” In this entire section the author is painting a metaphor for his readers based on the attire of a Roman soldier prepared for battle and its similarity to the Christian prepared to do battle against spiritually evil forces. Behind the expression “with truth” is probably the genitive idea “belt of truth.” Since this is an appositional genitive (i.e., belt which is truth), the author simply left unsaid the idea of the belt and mentioned only his real focus, namely, the truth. (The analogy would have been completely understandable to his 1st century readers.) The idea of the belt is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense in English.

[6:15]  ²⁰ tn The definite article τοῖς (tois) was taken as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “your,” since it refers to a part of the physical body.

[6:15]  ²¹ tn Grk “gospel.” However, this is not a technical term here.

[6:15]  ²² tn Grk “in preparation of the gospel of peace.” The genitive τοῦ εὐαγγελίου (tou euangeliou) was taken as a genitive of source, i.e., “that comes from….”

[6:16]  ²³ tn Grk “in everything.”

[6:16]  ²⁴ sn The Greek word translated shield (θυρεός, qureos) refers to the Roman soldier’s large rectangular wooden shield, called in Latin scutum, about 4 ft (1.2 m) high, covered with leather on the outside. Before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers wet the leather covering with water to extinguish the arrows. The Roman legionaries could close ranks with these shields, the first row holding theirs edge to edge in front, and the rows behind holding the shields above their heads. In this formation they were practically invulnerable to arrows, rocks, and even spears.

[6:17]  ²⁵ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ²⁶ sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

[6:18]  ²⁷ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

[6:18]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[6:1]  ²⁹ tn The use of the article τά (ta) with τέκνα (tekna) functions in a generic way to distinguish this group from husbands, wives, fathers and slaves and is left, therefore, untranslated. The generic article is used with γύναῖκες (gunaikes) in 5:22, ἄνδρες (andres) in 5:25, δοῦλοι (douloi) in 6:5, and κύριοι (kurioi) in 6:9.

[6:1]  ³⁰ tc B D* F G as well as a few versional and patristic representatives lack “in the Lord” (ἐν κυρίῳ, en kuriw), while the phrase is well represented in Ì⁴⁶ א A D¹ I^vid Ψ 0278 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï sy co. Scribes may have thought that the phrase could be regarded a qualifier on the kind of parents a child should obey (viz., only Christian parents), and would thus be tempted to delete the phrase to counter such an interpretation. It is unlikely that the phrase would have been added, since the form used to express such sentiment in this Haustafel is ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ/Χριστῷ (Jw" tw kuriw/Cristw, “as to the Lord/Christ”; see 5:22; 6:5). Even though the witnesses for the omission are impressive, it is more likely that the phrase was deleted than added by scribal activity.

[5:8]  ³¹ tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.

[5:1]  ³² tn Or “become.”

[5:9]  ³³ tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁶ D² Ψ Ï) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (fwtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously original (UBS⁴ gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D² often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), Ì⁴⁶ gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both Ì⁴⁹ and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs) – a practice found even in the earliest mss – πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (Ì⁴⁹ א A B D* F G P 33 81 1739 1881 2464 pc latt co); it is rather doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be original, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.

[5:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”