Psalms 51:6-7

51:6 Look, ¹  you desire ²  integrity in the inner man; ³ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ⁴ 

51:7 Sprinkle me ⁵  with water ⁶  and I will be pure; ⁷ 

wash me ⁸  and I will be whiter than snow. ⁹ 

Psalms 51:10

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ¹⁰ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 4:11

4:11 “At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem ¹²  will be told,

‘A scorching wind will sweep down

from the hilltops in the desert on ¹³  my dear people. ¹⁴ 

It will not be a gentle breeze

for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 18:31

18:31 Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ¹⁶  Why should you die, O house of Israel?

Ezekiel 36:25-27

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ¹⁷  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ¹⁸  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ¹⁹  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ²⁰  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²¹  and carefully observe my regulations. ²² 

Matthew 12:33

Trees and Their Fruit

12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad ²³  and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.

Matthew 23:25-26

23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law ²⁴  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, ²⁵  so that the outside may become clean too!

Luke 11:39-40

11:39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean ²⁶  the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ²⁷  11:40 You fools! ²⁸  Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside as well? ²⁹ 

Acts 15:9

15:9 and he made no distinction ³⁰  between them and us, cleansing ³¹  their hearts by faith.

Acts 15:2

15:2 When Paul and Barnabas had a major argument and debate ³²  with them, the church ³³  appointed Paul and Barnabas and some others from among them to go up to meet with ³⁴  the apostles and elders in Jerusalem ³⁵  about this point of disagreement. ³⁶ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you ³⁹  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁴⁰  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 3:3

3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

[51:6]  ¹ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ² tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ³ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[51:7]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁹ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[51:10]  ¹⁰ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[4:11]  ¹² tn Heb “this people and Jerusalem.”

[4:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “A scorching wind from the hilltops in the desert toward…”

[4:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” The term “daughter of” is appositional to “my people” and is supplied in the translation as a term of sympathy and endearment. Compare the common expression “daughter of Zion.”

[4:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “not for winnowing and not for cleansing.” The words “It will not be a gentle breeze” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation here for clarification.

[18:31]  ¹⁶ sn In Ezek 11:19, 36:26 the new heart and new spirit are promised as future blessings.

[36:25]  ¹⁷ 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.

[36:26]  ¹⁸ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ¹⁹ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ²⁰ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ²² tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[12:33]  ²³ tn Grk “rotten.” The word σαπρός, modifying both “tree” and “fruit,” can also mean “diseased” (L&N 65.28).

[23:25]  ²⁴ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:26]  ²⁵ tc A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 ˹³ 33 Ï lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai th" paroyido") after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ Ë¹ 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ekto", “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (viz., B* ˹³ al) hints that their archetype lacked the words (TCGNT 50). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtwn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.

[11:39]  ²⁶ sn The allusion to washing (clean the outside of the cup) shows Jesus knew what they were thinking and deliberately set up a contrast that charged them with hypocrisy and majoring on minors.

[11:39]  ²⁷ tn Or “and evil.”

[11:40]  ²⁸ sn You fools is a rebuke which in the OT refers to someone who is blind to God (Ps 14:1, 53:1; 92:6; Prov 6:12).

[11:40]  ²⁹ tn The question includes a Greek particle, οὐ (ou), that expects a positive reply. God, the maker of both, is concerned for what is both inside and outside.

[15:9]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 231 s.v. διακρίνω 1.b lists this passage under the meaning “to conclude that there is a difference, make a distinction, differentiate.”

[15:9]  ³¹ tn Or “purifying.”

[15:2]  ³² tn Grk “no little argument and debate” (an idiom).

[15:2]  ³³ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the church, or the rest of the believers at Antioch) has been specified to avoid confusion with the Judaizers mentioned in the preceding clause.

[15:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “go up to,” but in this context a meeting is implied.

[15:2]  ³⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:2]  ³⁶ tn Or “point of controversy.” It is unclear whether this event parallels Gal 2:1-10 or that Gal 2 fits with Acts 11:30. More than likely Gal 2:1-10 is to be related to Acts 11:30.

[1:1]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ³⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:22]  ³⁹ tc Some of the better representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts have a passive verb here instead of the active ἀποκατήλλαξεν (apokathllaxen, “he has reconciled”): ἀποκατηλλάγητε (apokathllaghte) in (Ì⁴⁶) B, ἀποκατήλλακται [sic] (apokathllaktai) in 33, and ἀποκαταλλαγέντες (apokatallagente") in D* F G. Yet the active verb is strongly supported by א A C D² Ψ 048 075 [0278] 1739 1881 Ï lat sy. Internally, the passive creates an anacoluthon in that it looks back to the accusative ὑμᾶς (Juma", “you”) of v. 21 and leaves the following παραστῆσαι (parasthsai) dangling (“you were reconciled…to present you”). The passive reading is certainly the harder reading. As such, it may well explain the rise of the other readings. At the same time, it is possible that the passive was produced by scribes who wanted some symmetry between the ποτε (pote, “at one time”) of v. 21 and the νυνὶ δέ (nuni de, “but now”) of v. 22: Since a passive periphrastic participle is used in v. 21, there may have a temptation to produce a corresponding passive form in v. 22, handling the ὑμᾶς of v. 21 by way of constructio ad sensum. Since παραστῆσαι occurs ten words later, it may not have been considered in this scribal modification. Further, the Western reading (ἀποκαταλλαγέντες) hardly seems to have arisen from ἀποκατηλλάγητε (contra TCGNT 555). As difficult as this decision is, the preferred reading is the active form because it is superior externally and seems to explain the rise of all forms of the passive readings.

[1:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.