Matthew 9:15

9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ²  is with them, can they? But the days ³  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ⁴  and then they will fast.

Acts 13:3

13:3 Then, after they had fasted ⁵  and ⁶  prayed and placed their hands ⁷  on them, they sent them off.

Acts 14:23

14:23 When they had appointed elders ⁸  for them in the various churches, ⁹  with prayer and fasting ¹⁰  they entrusted them to the protection ¹¹  of the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 14:1

Paul and Barnabas at Iconium

14:1 The same thing happened in Iconium ¹²  when Paul and Barnabas ¹³  went into the Jewish synagogue ¹⁴  and spoke in such a way that a large group ¹⁵  of both Jews and Greeks believed.

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ¹⁶  from the hope laid up ¹⁷  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ¹⁸ 

[9:15]  ¹ tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).

[9:15]  ² sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).

[9:15]  ³ tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ⁴ sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn The three aorist participles νηστεύσαντες (nhsteusante"), προσευξάμενοι (proseuxamenoi), and ἐπιθέντες (epiqente") are translated as temporal participles. Although they could indicate contemporaneous time when used with an aorist main verb, logically here they are antecedent. On fasting and prayer, see Matt 6:5, 16; Luke 2:37; 5:33; Acts 14:23.

[13:3]  ⁶ tn Normally English style, which uses a coordinating conjunction between only the last two elements of a series of three or more, would call for omission of “and” here. However, since the terms “fasting and prayer” are something of a unit, often linked together, the conjunction has been retained here.

[13:3]  ⁷ sn The placing of hands on Barnabas and Saul (traditionally known as “the laying on of hands”) refers to an act picturing the commission of God and the church for the task at hand.

[14:23]  ⁸ sn Appointed elders. See Acts 20:17.

[14:23]  ⁹ tn The preposition κατά (kata) is used here in a distributive sense; see BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.1.d.

[14:23]  ¹⁰ tn Literally with a finite verb (προσευξάμενοι, proseuxamenoi) rather than a noun, “praying with fasting,” but the combination “prayer and fasting” is so familiar in English that it is preferable to use it here.

[14:23]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “entrust someone to the care or protection of someone” for this phrase. The reference to persecution or suffering in the context (v. 22) suggests “protection” is a better translation here. This looks at God’s ultimate care for the church.

[14:1]  ¹² sn Iconium. See the note in 13:51.

[14:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “they”; the referents (Paul and Barnabas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:1]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[14:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “that a large crowd.”

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ¹⁷ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ¹⁸ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.