Psalms 145:16

145:16 You open your hand,

and fill every living thing with the food they desire. ¹ 

Isaiah 45:22

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ² 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

Isaiah 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ³  of Israel? ⁴ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁵ 

so you can bring ⁶  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ⁷  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Luke 7:6-8

7:6 So ⁸  Jesus went with them. When ⁹  he was not far from the house, the centurion ¹⁰  sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, ¹¹  for I am not worthy ¹²  to have you come under my roof. 7:7 That is why ¹³  I did not presume ¹⁴  to come to you. Instead, say the word, and my servant must be healed. ¹⁵  7:8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. ¹⁶  I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, ¹⁷  and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ¹⁸ 

Luke 15:30-32

15:30 But when this son of yours ¹⁹  came back, who has devoured ²⁰  your assets with prostitutes, ²¹  you killed the fattened calf ²²  for him!’ 15:31 Then ²³  the father ²⁴  said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. 15:32 It was appropriate ²⁵  to celebrate and be glad, for your brother ²⁶  was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’” ²⁷ 

Acts 11:17-18

11:17 Therefore if God ²⁸  gave them the same gift ²⁹  as he also gave us after believing ³⁰  in the Lord Jesus Christ, ³¹  who was I to hinder ³²  God?” 11:18 When they heard this, ³³  they ceased their objections ³⁴  and praised ³⁵  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ³⁶  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ³⁷ 

Romans 3:29

3:29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too!

Romans 10:12

10:12 For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him.

Romans 15:8-9

15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised ³⁸  on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ³⁹  15:9 and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. ⁴⁰  As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.” ⁴¹ 

Ephesians 2:12-14

2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ⁴²  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ⁴³  having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ⁴⁴  2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ⁴⁵  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

Ephesians 3:8

3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ⁴⁶  – this grace was given, ⁴⁷  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

[145:16]  ¹ tn Heb “[with what they] desire.”

[45:22]  ² tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

[49:6]  ³ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁴ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ⁵ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[5:45]  ⁷ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

[7:6]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the resultative action.

[7:6]  ⁹ tn The participle ἀπέχοντος (apeconto") has been taken temporally.

[7:6]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the word centurion in 7:2.

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “do not be bothered.”

[7:6]  ¹² sn Note the humility in the centurion’s statement I am not worthy in light of what others think (as v. 4 notes). See Luke 5:8 for a similar example of humility.

[7:7]  ¹³ tn Or “roof; therefore.”

[7:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “I did not consider myself worthy to come to you.” See BDAG 94 s.v. ἀξιόω 1. “Presume” assumes this and expresses the idea in terms of offense.

[7:7]  ¹⁵ tc The aorist imperative ἰαθήτω (iaqhtw, “must be healed”) is found in Ì^75vid B L 1241 sa. Most mss (א A C D W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt bo) have instead a future indicative, ἰαθήσεται (iaqhsetai, “will be healed”). This is most likely an assimilation to Matt 8:8, and thus, as a motivated reading, should be considered secondary. The meaning either way is essentially the same.

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “having soldiers under me.”

[7:8]  ¹⁷ sn I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes. The illustrations highlight the view of authority the soldier sees in the word of one who has authority. Since the centurion was a commander of a hundred soldiers, he understood what it was both to command others and to be obeyed.

[7:8]  ¹⁸ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[15:30]  ¹⁹ sn Note the younger son is not “my brother” but this son of yours (an expression with a distinctly pejorative nuance).

[15:30]  ²⁰ sn This is another graphic description. The younger son’s consumption had been like a glutton. He had both figuratively and literally devoured the assets which were given to him.

[15:30]  ²¹ sn The charge concerning the prostitutes is unproven, but essentially the older brother accuses the father of committing an injustice by rewarding his younger son’s unrighteous behavior.

[15:30]  ²² sn See note on the phrase “fattened calf” in v. 23.

[15:31]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the parable.

[15:31]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:32]  ²⁵ tn Or “necessary.”

[15:32]  ²⁶ sn By referring to him as your brother, the father reminded the older brother that the younger brother was part of the family.

[15:32]  ²⁷ sn The theme he was lost and is found is repeated from v. 24. The conclusion is open-ended. The reader is left to ponder with the older son (who pictures the scribes and Pharisees) what the response will be. The parable does not reveal the ultimate response of the older brother. Jesus argued that sinners should be pursued and received back warmly when they returned.

[11:17]  ²⁸ tc Codex Bezae (D) and {a few other Western witnesses} here lack ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”), perhaps because these scribes considered the Holy Spirit to be the gift of Christ rather than the gift of God; thus leaving the subject implicit would naturally draw the reader back to v. 16 to see the Lord Jesus as the bestower of the Spirit.

[11:17]  ²⁹ sn That is, the same gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:17]  ³⁰ tn Or “gave us when we believed”; or “gave us after we believed”; or “gave us who believed”; or “gave them when they believed the same gift as he also gave us.” The aorist dative plural participle πιστεύσασιν (pisteusasin) can be understood in several different ways: (1) It could modify ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) or αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”). Proximity (it immediately follows ἡμῖν) would suggest that it belongs with ἡμῖν, so the last option (“gave them when they believed the same gift he also gave us”) is less likely. (2) The participle could be either adverbial or adjectival, modifying ἡμῖν. This decision is primarily a contextual one. The point Peter made is not whether or not the Gentiles believed, since both groups (“us” and “they”) had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The point was whether or not the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed, just as Jewish Christians had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they believed. Translated as an adjectival participle, πιστεύσασιν only affirms the fact of belief, however, and raises somewhat of a theological problem if one realizes, “Would God have given the Gentiles the Spirit if they had not believed?” (In other words, belief in itself is a theological prerequisite for receiving the Spirit. As such, in the case of the Gentiles, it is assumed.) Thus in context it makes more sense to understand the participle πιστεύσασιν as adverbial, related to the time of belief in connection with the giving of the Spirit. (3) The participle πιστεύσασιν as a temporal participle can refer to action antecedent to the action of the main verb ἔδωκεν (edwken) or contemporaneous with it. Logically, at least, the gift of the Spirit followed belief in the case of the original Christians, who had believed before the day of Pentecost. In the case of Cornelius and his household, belief and the reception of the Spirit were virtually simultaneous. One can argue that Peter is “summarizing” the experience of Jewish Christians, and therefore the actions of belief and reception of the Spirit, while historically separate, have been “telescoped” into one (“gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed”), but to be technically accurate the participle πιστεύσασιν should be translated “gave them the same gift as he also gave us after we believed.” A number of these problems can be avoided, however, by using a translation in English that maintains some of the ambiguity of the Greek original. Thus “if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing” is used, where the phrase “after believing” can refer either to “them” or to “us,” or both.

[11:17]  ³¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:17]  ³² tn Or “prevent,” “forbid” (BDAG 580 s.v. κωλύω 1.a). Peter’s point is that he will not stand in the way of God.

[11:18]  ³³ tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.

[11:18]  ³⁵ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ³⁶ sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).

[11:18]  ³⁷ sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.

[15:8]  ³⁸ tn Grk “of the circumcision”; that is, the Jews.

[15:8]  ³⁹ tn Or “to the patriarchs.”

[15:9]  ⁴⁰ tn There are two major syntactical alternatives which are both awkward: (1) One could make “glorify” dependent on “Christ has become a minister” and coordinate with “to confirm” and the result would be rendered “Christ has become a minister of circumcision to confirm the promises…and so that the Gentiles might glorify God.” (2) One could make “glorify” dependent on “I tell you” and coordinate with “Christ has become a minister” and the result would be rendered “I tell you that Christ has become a minister of circumcision…and that the Gentiles glorify God.” The second rendering is preferred.

[15:9]  ⁴¹ sn A quotation from Ps 18:49.

[2:12]  ⁴² tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

[2:12]  ⁴³ tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

[2:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

[2:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “who made the both one.”

[3:8]  ⁴⁶ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

[3:8]  ⁴⁷ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).