Matthew 5:11-12

5:11 “Blessed are you when people ¹  insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely ²  on account of me. 5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.

Acts 20:24

20:24 But I do not consider my life ³  worth anything ⁴  to myself, so that ⁵  I may finish my task ⁶  and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news ⁷  of God’s grace.

Acts 20:2

20:2 After he had gone through those regions ⁸  and spoken many words of encouragement ⁹  to the believers there, ¹⁰  he came to Greece, ¹¹ 

Colossians 4:17-18

4:17 And tell Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you received in the Lord.”

4:18 I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ¹²  Remember my chains. ¹³  Grace be with you. ¹⁴ 

Hebrews 11:25-26

11:25 choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. 11:26 He regarded abuse suffered for Christ ¹⁵  to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on ¹⁶  the reward.

Hebrews 11:35

11:35 and women received back their dead raised to life. ¹⁷  But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. ¹⁸ 

Hebrews 11:1

People Commended for Their Faith

11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Hebrews 1:6-7

1:6 But when he again brings ¹⁹  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ²⁰  1:7 And he says ²¹  of the angels, “He makes ²²  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ²³ 

[5:11]  ¹ tn Grk “when they insult you.” The third person pronoun (here implied in the verb ὀνειδίσωσιν [ojneidiswsin]) has no specific referent, but refers to people in general.

[5:11]  ² tc Although ψευδόμενοι (yeudomenoi, “bearing witness falsely”) could be a motivated reading, clarifying that the disciples are unjustly persecuted, its lack in only D it sy^s Tert does not help its case. Since the Western text is known for numerous free alterations, without corroborative evidence the shorter reading must be judged as secondary.

[20:24]  ³ tn Grk “soul.”

[20:24]  ⁴ tn Or “I do not consider my life worth a single word.” According to BDAG 599 s.v. λόγος 1.a.α, “In the textually uncertain pass. Ac 20:24 the text as it stands in N., οὐδενὸς λόγου (v.l. λόγον) ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν, may well mean: I do not consider my life worth a single word (cp. λόγου ἄξιον [ἄξιος 1a] and our ‘worth mention’).”

[20:24]  ⁵ tn BDAG 1106 s.v. ὡς 9 describes this use as “a final particle, expressing intention/purpose, with a view to, in order to.”

[20:24]  ⁶ tn Grk “course.” See L&N 42.26, “(a figurative extension of meaning of δρόμος ‘race’) a task or function involving continuity, serious, effort, and possibly obligation – ‘task, mission’…Ac 20:24.” On this Pauline theme see also Phil 1:19-26; Col 1:24; 2 Tim 4:6-7.

[20:24]  ⁷ tn Or “to the gospel.”

[20:2]  ⁸ tn BDAG 633 s.v. μέρος 1.b.γ gives the meanings “the parts (of a geographical area), region, district,” but the use of “district” in this context probably implies too much specificity.

[20:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “and encouraging them with many words.” The participle παρακαλέσας (parakalesa", “encouraging”) has been translated by the phrase “spoken…words of encouragement” because the formal equivalent is awkward in contemporary English.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “[to] them”; the referent (the believers there) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:2]  ¹¹ tn In popular usage the term translated “Greece” here could also refer to the Roman province officially known as Achaia (BDAG 318 s.v. ῾Ελλάς).

[4:18]  ¹² tn Grk “the greeting by my hand, of Paul.”

[4:18]  ¹³ tn Or “my imprisonment.”

[4:18]  ¹⁴ tc Most witnesses, including a few important ones (א² D Ψ 075 0278 Ï lat sy), conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the external evidence for the omission is quite compelling (א* A B C F G 048 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa). The strongly preferred reading is therefore the omission of ἀμήν.

[11:26]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the abuse [or ‘reproach’] of Christ.”

[11:26]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “he was looking away to.”

[11:35]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “received back their dead from resurrection.”

[11:35]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “to obtain a better resurrection.”

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “And again when he brings.” The translation adopted in the text looks forward to Christ’s second coming to earth. Some take “again” to introduce the quotation (as in 1:5) and understand this as Christ’s first coming, but this view does not fit well with Heb 2:7. Others understand it as his exaltation/ascension to heaven, but this takes the phrase “into the world” in an unlikely way.

[1:6]  ²⁰ sn A quotation combining themes from Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7.

[1:7]  ²¹ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ²² tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ²³ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.