Psalms 68:7

68:7 O God, when you lead your people into battle, ¹ 

when you march through the desert, ²  (Selah)

Psalms 68:17

68:17 God has countless chariots;

they number in the thousands. ³ 

The Lord comes from Sinai in holy splendor. ⁴ 

Daniel 7:9

7:9 “While I was watching,

thrones were set up,

and the Ancient of Days ⁵  took his seat.

His attire was white like snow;

the hair of his head was like lamb’s ⁶  wool.

His throne was ablaze with fire

and its wheels were all aflame. ⁷ 

Acts 7:53

7:53 You ⁸  received the law by decrees given by angels, ⁹  but you did not obey ¹⁰  it.” ¹¹ 

Galatians 3:19

3:19 Why then was the law given? ¹²  It was added ¹³  because of transgressions, ¹⁴  until the arrival of the descendant ¹⁵  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ¹⁶  through angels by an intermediary. ¹⁷ 

Galatians 3:2

3:2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law ¹⁸  or by believing what you heard? ¹⁹ 

Galatians 1:7

1:7 not that there really is another gospel, ²⁰  but ²¹  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ²²  to distort the gospel of Christ.

Hebrews 2:2

2:2 For if the message spoken through angels ²³  proved to be so firm that every violation ²⁴  or disobedience received its just penalty,

Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ²⁵  even prophesied of them, ²⁶  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ²⁷  with thousands and thousands ²⁸  of his holy ones,

Revelation 5:11

5:11 Then ²⁹  I looked and heard the voice of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. Their ³⁰  number was ten thousand times ten thousand ³¹  – thousands times thousands –

[68:7]  ¹ tn Heb “when you go out before your people.” The Hebrew idiom “go out before” is used here in a militaristic sense of leading troops into battle (see Judg 4:14; 9:39; 2 Sam 5:24).

[68:7]  ² sn When you march through the desert. Some interpreters think that v. 7 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt and its subsequent travels in the desert. Another option is that v. 7, like v. 8, echoes Judg 5:4, which describes how the God of Sinai marched across the desert regions to do battle with Sisera and his Canaanite army.

[68:17]  ³ tn Heb “thousands of [?].” The meaning of the word שִׁנְאָן (shin’an), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Perhaps the form should be emended to שַׁאֲנָן (sha’anan, “at ease”) and be translated here “held in reserve.”

[68:17]  ⁴ tc The MT reads, “the Lord [is] among them, Sinai, in holiness,” which is syntactically difficult. The present translation assumes an emendation to אֲדֹנָי בָּא מִסִּינַי (’adonay ba’ missinay; see BHS note b-b and Deut 33:2).

[7:9]  ⁵ tn Or “the Ancient One” (NAB, NRSV, NLT), although the traditional expression has been retained in the present translation because it is familiar to many readers. Cf. TEV “One who had been living for ever”; CEV “the Eternal God.”

[7:9]  ⁶ tn Traditionally the Aramaic word נְקֵא (nÿqe’) has been rendered “pure,” but here it more likely means “of a lamb.” Cf. the Syriac neqya’ (“a sheep, ewe”). On this word see further, M. Sokoloff, “’amar neqe’, ‘Lamb’s Wool’ (Dan 7:9),” JBL 95 (1976): 277-79.

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Aram “a flaming fire.”

[7:53]  ⁸ tn Grk “whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, who received the law” The two consecutive relative clauses make for awkward English style, so the second was begun as a new sentence with the pronoun “You” supplied in place of the Greek relative pronoun to make a complete sentence in English.

[7:53]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “as ordained by angels,” but εἰς (eis) with the accusative here should be understood as instrumental (a substitute for ἐν [en]); so BDAG 291 s.v. εἰς 9, BDF §206. Thus the phrase literally means “received the law by the decrees [orders] of angels” with the genitive understood as a subjective genitive, that is, the angels gave the decrees.

[7:53]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

[7:53]  ¹¹ tn Or “did not obey it.”

[3:19]  ¹² tn Grk “Why then the law?”

[3:19]  ¹³ tc For προσετέθη (proseteqh) several Western mss have ἐτέθη (eteqh, “it was established”; so D* F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec). The net effect of this reading, in conjunction with the largely Western reading of πράξεων (praxewn) for παραβάσεων (parabasewn), seems to be a very positive assessment of the law. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting this reading: (1) externally, it is provincial and relatively late; (2) internally: (a) transcriptionally, there seems to be a much higher transcriptional probability that a scribe would try to smooth over Paul’s harsh saying here about the law than vice versa; (b) intrinsically: [1] Paul has already argued that the law came after the promise (vv. 15-18), indicating, more than likely, its temporary nature; [2] the verb “was added” in v. 19 (προσετέθη) is different from the verb in v. 15 (ἐπιδιατάσσεται, epidiatassetai); virtually all exegetes recognize this as an intentional linguistic shift on Paul’s part in order not to contradict his statement in v. 15; [3] the temper of 3:1–4:7 is decidedly against a positive statement about the Torah’s role in Heilsgeschichte.

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tc παραδόσεων (paradosewn; “traditions, commandments”) is read by D*, while the vast majority of witnesses read παραβάσεων (parabasewn, “transgressions”). D’s reading makes little sense in this context. πράξεων (praxewn, “of deeds”) replaces παραβάσεων in Ì⁴⁶ F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec. The wording is best taken as going with νόμος (nomo"; “Why then the law of deeds?”), as is evident by the consistent punctuation in the later witnesses. But such an expression is unpauline and superfluous; it was almost certainly added by some early scribe(s) to soften the blow of Paul’s statement.

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[3:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “was ordered.” L&N 31.22 has “was put into effect” here.

[3:19]  ¹⁷ tn Many modern translations (NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this word (μεσίτης, mesith"; here and in v. 20) as “mediator,” but this conveys a wrong impression in contemporary English. If this is referring to Moses, he certainly did not “mediate” between God and Israel but was an intermediary on God’s behalf. Moses was not a mediator, for example, who worked for compromise between opposing parties. He instead was God’s representative to his people who enabled them to have a relationship, but entirely on God’s terms.

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “by [the] works of [the] law,” a reference to observing the Mosaic law.

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “by [the] hearing of faith.”

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “which is not another,” but this could be misunderstood to mean “which is not really different.” In fact, as Paul goes on to make clear, there is no other gospel than the one he preaches.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “except.”

[1:7]  ²² tn Or “trying.”

[2:2]  ²³ sn The message spoken through angels refers to the OT law, which according to Jewish tradition was mediated to Moses through angels (cf. Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17-18; Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19; and Jub. 1:27, 29; Josephus, Ant. 15.5.3 [15.136]).

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “through angels became valid and every violation.”

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[5:11]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[5:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “elders, and the number of them was.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[5:11]  ³¹ tn Or “myriads of myriads.” Although μυριάς (murias) literally means “10,000,” the point of the combination here may simply be to indicate an incalculably huge number. See L&N 60.9.