Psalms 78:34-36

78:34 When he struck them down, ¹  they sought his favor; ² 

they turned back and longed for God.

78:35 They remembered that God was their protector, ³ 

and that the sovereign God was their deliverer. ⁴ 

78:36 But they deceived him with their words, ⁵ 

and lied to him. ⁶ 

Matthew 13:21

13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; ⁷  when ⁸  trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

Luke 18:1

Prayer and the Parable of the Persistent Widow

18:1 Then ⁹  Jesus ¹⁰  told them a parable to show them they should always ¹¹  pray and not lose heart. ¹² 

Acts 10:2

10:2 He ¹³  was a devout, God-fearing man, ¹⁴  as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people ¹⁵  and prayed to God regularly.

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹⁶  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ¹⁷  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:1

6:1 Children, ¹⁸  obey your parents in the Lord ¹⁹  for this is right.

Ephesians 5:17

5:17 For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise ²⁰  by understanding ²¹  what the Lord’s will is.

[78:34]  ¹ tn Or “killed them,” that is, killed large numbers of them.

[78:34]  ² tn Heb “they sought him.”

[78:35]  ³ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[78:35]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [that] God Most High [was] their redeemer.”

[78:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “with their mouth.”

[78:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “and with their tongue they lied to him.”

[13:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “is temporary.”

[13:21]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[18:1]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[18:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “should pray at all times” (L&N 67.88).

[18:1]  ¹² sn This is one of the few parables that comes with an explanation at the start: …they should always pray and not lose heart. It is part of Luke’s goal in encouraging Theophilus (1:4).

[10:2]  ¹³ tn In the Greek text this represents a continuation of the previous sentence. Because of the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[10:2]  ¹⁴ sn The description of Cornelius as a devout, God-fearing man probably means that he belonged to the category called “God-fearers,” Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel and in many cases kept the Mosaic law, but did not take the final step of circumcision necessary to become a proselyte to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 43-44, and Sir 11:17; 27:11; 39:27.

[10:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “gave many gifts to the poor.” This was known as “giving alms,” or acts of mercy (Sir 7:10; BDAG 315-16 s.v. ἐλεημοσύνη).

[6:18]  ¹⁶ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

[6:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[6:1]  ¹⁸ tn The use of the article τά (ta) with τέκνα (tekna) functions in a generic way to distinguish this group from husbands, wives, fathers and slaves and is left, therefore, untranslated. The generic article is used with γύναῖκες (gunaikes) in 5:22, ἄνδρες (andres) in 5:25, δοῦλοι (douloi) in 6:5, and κύριοι (kurioi) in 6:9.

[6:1]  ¹⁹ tc B D* F G as well as a few versional and patristic representatives lack “in the Lord” (ἐν κυρίῳ, en kuriw), while the phrase is well represented in Ì⁴⁶ א A D¹ I^vid Ψ 0278 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï sy co. Scribes may have thought that the phrase could be regarded a qualifier on the kind of parents a child should obey (viz., only Christian parents), and would thus be tempted to delete the phrase to counter such an interpretation. It is unlikely that the phrase would have been added, since the form used to express such sentiment in this Haustafel is ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ/Χριστῷ (Jw" tw kuriw/Cristw, “as to the Lord/Christ”; see 5:22; 6:5). Even though the witnesses for the omission are impressive, it is more likely that the phrase was deleted than added by scribal activity.

[5:17]  ²⁰ tn “become wise by understanding”; Grk “understanding.” The imperative “be wise” is apparently implied by the construction of vv. 15-21. See the following text-critical note for discussion.

[5:17]  ²¹ tc ‡ The best witnesses read the imperative here (so Ì⁴⁶ א A B P 0278 33 81 1739 pc). The participle is found primarily in the Western and Byzantine texttypes (D² Ψ 1881 Ï latt [D* F G are slightly different, but support the participial reading]). But the participle is superior on internal grounds: The structure of v. 17 almost requires an imperative after ἀλλά (alla), for this gives balance to the clause: “Do not become foolish, but understand…” If the participle is original, it may be imperatival (and thus should be translated just like an imperative), but such is quite rare in the NT. More likely, there is an implied imperative as follows: “Do not become foolish, but become wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Either way, the participle is the harder reading and ought therefore to be considered original. It is significant that seeing an implied imperative in this verse affords a certain symmetry to the author’s thought in vv. 15-21: There are three main sections (vv. 15-16, v. 17, vv. 18-21), each of which provides a negative injunction, followed by a positive injunction, followed by a present adverbial participle. If συνίετε (suniete) is original, this symmetry is lost. Thus, even though the external evidence for συνιέντες (sunientes) is not nearly as weighty as for the imperative, both the transcriptional and intrinsic evidence support it.