Nehemiah 9:13-14

9:13 “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. 9:14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through ¹  Moses your servant.

Psalms 78:68-69

78:68 He chose the tribe of Judah,

and Mount Zion, which he loves.

78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; ² 

as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. ³ 

Psalms 147:19-20

147:19 He proclaims his word to Jacob,

his statutes and regulations to Israel.

147:20 He has not done so with any other nation;

they are not aware of his regulations.

Praise the Lord!

Ezekiel 20:11-12

20:11 I gave them my statutes ⁴  and revealed my regulations to them. The one ⁵  who carries ⁶  them out will live by them! ⁷  20:12 I also gave them my Sabbaths ⁸  as a reminder of our relationship, ⁹  so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them. ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 20:18-20

20:18 “‘But I said to their children ¹¹  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ¹²  nor defile yourselves with their idols. 20:19 I am the Lord your God; follow my statutes, observe my regulations, and carry them out. 20:20 Treat my Sabbaths as holy ¹³  and they will be a reminder of our relationship, ¹⁴  and then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”

Acts 7:38

7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation ¹⁵  in the wilderness ¹⁶  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ¹⁷  and he ¹⁸  received living oracles ¹⁹  to give to you. ²⁰ 

Acts 7:46-47

7:46 He ²¹  found favor ²²  with ²³  God and asked that he could ²⁴  find a dwelling place ²⁵  for the house ²⁶  of Jacob. 7:47 But Solomon built a house ²⁷  for him.

Romans 3:1-2

3:1 Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision? 3:2 Actually, there are many advantages. ²⁸  First of all, ²⁹  the Jews ³⁰  were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³¹ 

Romans 9:4-5

9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ³²  the adoption as sons, ³³  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ³⁴  and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ³⁵  and from them, ³⁶  by human descent, ³⁷  came the Christ, ³⁸  who is God over all, blessed forever! ³⁹  Amen.

[9:14]  ¹ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[78:69]  ² tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.

[78:69]  ³ tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”

[20:11]  ⁴ sn The laws were given at Mount Sinai.

[20:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “the man.”

[20:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “does.”

[20:11]  ⁷ tn The wording and the concept is contained in Lev 18:5 and Deut 30:15-19.

[20:12]  ⁸ sn Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, also stressed the importance of obedience to the Sabbath law (Jer 17).

[20:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “to become a sign between me and them.”

[20:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “set them apart.” The last phrase of verse 12 appears to be a citation of Exod 31:13.

[20:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons,” reflecting the patriarchal idiom of the culture.

[20:18]  ¹² tn Or “standard of justice.” See Ezek 7:27.

[20:20]  ¹³ tn Or “set apart my Sabbaths.”

[20:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and they will become a sign between me and you.”

[7:38]  ¹⁵ tn This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklhsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.

[7:38]  ¹⁶ tn Or “desert.”

[7:38]  ¹⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:38]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

[7:38]  ¹⁹ tn Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.

[7:38]  ²⁰ tc ‡ The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) is read by Ì⁷⁴ א B 36 453 al co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” (TCGNT 307). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.

[7:46]  ²¹ tn Grk “David, who” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

[7:46]  ²² tn Or “grace.”

[7:46]  ²³ tn Grk “before,” “in the presence of.”

[7:46]  ²⁴ tn The words “that he could” are not in the Greek text, but are implied as the (understood) subject of the infinitive εὑρεῖν (Jeurein). This understands David’s request as asking that he might find the dwelling place. The other possibility would be to supply “that God” as the subject of the infinitive: “and asked that God find a dwelling place.” Unfortunately this problem is complicated by the extremely difficult problem with the Greek text in the following phrase (“house of Jacob” vs. “God of Jacob”).

[7:46]  ²⁵ tn On this term see BDAG 929 s.v. σκήνωμα a (Ps 132:5).

[7:46]  ²⁶ tc Some mss read θεῷ (qew, “God”) here, a variant much easier to understand in the context. The reading “God” is supported by א² A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy co. The more difficult οἴκῳ (oikw, “house”) is supported by Ì⁷⁴ א* B D H 049 pc. Thus the second reading is preferred both externally because of better ms evidence and internally because it is hard to see how a copyist finding the reading “God” would change it to “house,” while it is easy to see how (given the LXX of Ps 132:5) a copyist might assimilate the reading and change “house” to “God.” However, some scholars think the reading “house” is so difficult as to be unacceptable. Others (like Lachmann and Hort) resorted to conjectural emendation at this point. Others (Ropes) sought an answer in an underlying Aramaic expression. Not everyone thinks the reading “house” is too difficult to be accepted as original (see Lake and Cadbury). A. F. J. Klijn, “Stephen’s Speech – Acts vii.2-53,” NTS 4 (1957): 25-31, compared the idea of a “house within the house of Israel” with the Manual of Discipline from Qumran, a possible parallel that seems to support the reading “house” as authentic. (For the more detailed discussion from which this note was derived, see TCGNT 308-9.)

[7:47]  ²⁷ sn See 1 Kgs 8:1-21.

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “much in every way.”

[3:2]  ²⁹ tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A D² 33 Ï) have γάρ (gar) after μέν (men), though some significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses lack the conjunction (B D* G Ψ 81 365 1506 2464* pc latt). A few mss have γάρ, but not μέν (6 1739 1881). γάρ was frequently added by scribes as a clarifying conjunction, making it suspect here. NA²⁷ has the γάρ in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “they were.”

[3:2]  ³¹ tn The referent of λόγια (logia, “oracles”) has been variously understood: (1) BDAG 598 s.v. λόγιον takes the term to refer here to “God’s promises to the Jews”; (2) some have taken this to refer more narrowly to the national promises of messianic salvation given to Israel (so S. L. Johnson, Jr., “Studies in Romans: Part VII: The Jews and the Oracles of God,” BSac 130 [1973]: 245); (3) perhaps the most widespread interpretation sees the term as referring to the entire OT generally.

[9:4]  ³² tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:4]  ³³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:4]  ³⁴ tn Or “cultic service.”

[9:5]  ³⁵ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ³⁶ tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ³⁷ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ³⁸ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ³⁹ tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.