Psalms 51:2

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ¹ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ² 

Psalms 51:7

51:7 Sprinkle me ³  with water ⁴  and I will be pure; ⁵ 

wash me ⁶  and I will be whiter than snow. ⁷ 

Proverbs 30:12

30:12 There is a generation who are pure in their own eyes

and yet are not washed ⁸  from their filthiness. ⁹ 

Isaiah 1:16

1:16 ¹⁰ Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ¹¹ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

Jeremiah 4:14

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ¹² 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

Ezekiel 36:25

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ¹³  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

John 13:10

13:10 Jesus replied, ¹⁴  “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, ¹⁵  but is completely ¹⁶  clean. ¹⁷  And you disciples ¹⁸  are clean, but not every one of you.”

Acts 22:16

22:16 And now what are you waiting for? ¹⁹  Get up, ²⁰  be baptized, and have your sins washed away, ²¹  calling on his name.’ ²² 

Ephesians 5:26

5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her ²³  with the washing of the water by the word,

Titus 3:5

3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Hebrews 10:22

10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ²⁴  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ²⁵  and our bodies washed in pure water.

Hebrews 10:1

Concluding Exposition: Old and New Sacrifices Contrasted

10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. ²⁶ 

Hebrews 3:1

Jesus and Moses

3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, ²⁷  partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, ²⁸ 

Revelation 1:5

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ²⁹  witness, ³⁰  the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free ³¹  from our sins at the cost of ³²  his own blood

Revelation 7:14

7:14 So ³³  I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” ³⁴  Then ³⁵  he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They ³⁶  have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!

[51:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ² sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:7]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ⁵ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁷ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[30:12]  ⁸ tn The verb רָחַץ (rakhats) means “to wash; to wash off; to wash away; to bathe.” It is used of physical washing, ceremonial washings, and hence figuratively of removing sin and guilt through confession (e.g., Isa 1:16). Here the form is the Pual perfect (unless it is a rare old Qal passive, since there is no Piel and no apparent change of meaning from the Qal).

[30:12]  ⁹ sn Filthiness often refers to physical uncleanness, but here it refers to moral defilement. Zech 3:3-4 uses it metaphorically as well for the sin of the nation (e.g., Isa 36:12).

[1:16]  ¹⁰ sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ¹¹ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[4:14]  ¹² tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

[36:25]  ¹³ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[13:10]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[13:10]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “has no need except to wash his feet.”

[13:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “entirely.”

[13:10]  ¹⁷ sn The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. A common understanding is that the “bath” Jesus referred to is the initial cleansing from sin, which necessitates only “lesser, partial” cleansings from sins after conversion. This makes a fine illustration from a homiletic standpoint, but is it the meaning of the passage? This seems highly doubtful. Jesus stated that the disciples were completely clean except for Judas (vv. 10b, 11). What they needed was to have their feet washed by Jesus. In the broader context of the Fourth Gospel, the significance of the foot-washing seems to point not just to an example of humble service (as most understand it), but something more – Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross. If this is correct, then the foot-washing which they needed to undergo represented their acceptance of this act of self-sacrifice on the part of their master. This makes Peter’s initial abhorrence of the act of humiliation by his master all the more significant in context; it also explains Jesus’ seemingly harsh reply to Peter (above, v. 8; compare Matt 16:21-23 where Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”).

[13:10]  ¹⁸ tn The word “disciples” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb. Peter is not the only one Jesus is addressing here.

[22:16]  ¹⁹ tn L&N 67.121 has “to extend time unduly, with the implication of lack of decision – ‘to wait, to delay.’ νῦν τί μέλλεις… ἀναστὰς βάπτισαι ‘what are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized’ Ac 22:16.”

[22:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “getting up.” The participle ἀναστάς (anasta") is an adverbial participle of attendant circumstance and has been translated as a finite verb.

[22:16]  ²¹ sn The expression have your sins washed away means “have your sins purified” (the washing is figurative).

[22:16]  ²² sn The expression calling on his name describes the confession of the believer: Acts 2:17-38, esp. v. 38; Rom 10:12-13; 1 Cor 1:2.

[5:26]  ²³ tn The direct object “her” is implied, but not found in the Greek text. It has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the passage.

[10:22]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ²⁵ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[10:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “those who approach.”

[3:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “of our confession.”

[1:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “Jesus Christ – the faithful one, the witness…” Some take ὁ πιστός (Jo pistos) as a second substantive in relation to ὁ μάρτυς (Jo martus). In the present translation, however, ὁ πιστός was taken as an adjective in attributive position to ὁ μάρτυς. The idea of martyrdom and faithfulness are intimately connected. See BDAG 820 s.v. πιστός 1.a.α: “ὁ μάρτυς μου ὁ πιστός μου Rv 2:13 (μάρτυς 3); in this ‘book of martyrs’ Christ is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς (καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός) 1:5; 3:14; cp. 19:11 (the combination of ἀληθινός and πιστός in the last two passages is like 3 Macc 2:11). Cp. Rv 17:14.”

[1:5]  ³⁰ sn The Greek term translated witness can mean both “witness” and “martyr.”

[1:5]  ³¹ tc The reading “set free” (λύσαντι, lusanti) has better ms support (̹⁸ א A C 1611 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A sy) than its rival, λούσαντι (lousanti, “washed”; found in P 1006 1841 1854 2053 2062 Ï^K lat bo). Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar – a difference of only one letter – which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood” – a thought more tolerable in his mind. Both readings, of course, are true to scripture; the current question is what the author wrote in this verse.

[1:5]  ³² tn The style here is somewhat Semitic, with the use of the ἐν (en) + the dative to mean “at the price of.” The addition of “own” in the English is stylistic and is an attempt to bring out the personal nature of the statement and the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ death – a frequent refrain in the Apocalypse.

[7:14]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the previous question.

[7:14]  ³⁴ tn Though the expression “the answer” is not in the Greek text, it is clearly implied. Direct objects in Greek were frequently omitted when clear from the context.

[7:14]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[7:14]  ³⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.