Nehemiah 8:4

8:4 Ezra the scribe stood on a towering wooden platform ¹  constructed for this purpose. Standing near him on his right were Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Masseiah. On his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Nehemiah 8:9

8:9 Then Nehemiah the governor, ²  Ezra the priestly scribe, ³  and the Levites who were imparting understanding to the people said to all of them, ⁴  “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the law.

Nehemiah 8:13

8:13 On the second day of the month the family leaders ⁵  met with ⁶  Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law.

Nehemiah 12:26

12:26 These all served in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priestly scribe. ⁷ 

Nehemiah 12:36

12:36 and his colleagues – Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani – with musical instruments of ⁸  David the man of God. (Ezra the scribe led them.) ⁹ 

Jeremiah 8:8

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ¹⁰  those who teach it ¹¹  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ¹² 

Jeremiah 8:1

8:1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, ¹³  the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves.

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ¹⁴  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

[8:4]  ¹ tn Heb “a tower of wood.”

[8:9]  ² tc The unexpected reference to Nehemiah here has led some scholars to suspect that the phrase “Nehemiah the governor” is a later addition to the text and not original.

[8:9]  ³ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

[8:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “the people.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[8:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[8:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “were gathered to”; NAB, NIV “gathered around”; NRSV “came together to.”

[12:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

[12:36]  ⁸ tn Or “prescribed by” (NIV, NLT); TEV “of the kind played by.” The precise relationship of these musical instruments to David is not clear.

[12:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “was before them.”

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the scribes.”

[8:8]  ¹² tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.

[8:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “At that time.”

[1:20]  ¹⁴ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.