Psalms 51:2-3

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ¹ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ² 

51:3 For I am aware of ³  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ⁴ 

Psalms 51:7

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 79:9

79:9 Help us, O God, our deliverer!

For the sake of your glorious reputation, ¹⁰  rescue us!

Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation! ¹¹ 

Isaiah 1:18-19

1:18 ¹² Come, let’s consider your options,” ¹³  says the Lord.

“Though your sins have stained you like the color red,

you can become ¹⁴  white like snow;

though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,

you can become ¹⁵  white like wool. ¹⁶ 

1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, ¹⁷ 

then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

Isaiah 6:7

6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” ¹⁸ 

Zechariah 13:1

The Refinement of Judah

13:1 “In that day there will be a fountain opened up for the dynasty ¹⁹  of David and the people of Jerusalem ²⁰  to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ²¹ 

John 1:29

1:29 On the next day John ²²  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God ²³  who takes away the sin of the world!

Hebrews 9:14

9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our ²⁴  consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Hebrews 9:1

The Arrangement and Ritual of the Earthly Sanctuary

9:1 Now the first covenant, ²⁵  in fact, had regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.

Hebrews 1:7-9

1:7 And he says ²⁶  of the angels, “He makes ²⁷  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ²⁸  1:8 but of ²⁹  the Son he says, ³⁰ 

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, ³¹ 

and a righteous scepter ³²  is the scepter of your kingdom.

1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions ³³  with the oil of rejoicing.” ³⁴ 

Revelation 1:5

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ³⁵  witness, ³⁶  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 ³⁷  from our sins at the cost of ³⁸  his own blood

[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.

[51:3]  ³ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[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).

[79:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “the glory of your name.” Here and in the following line “name” stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[79:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “your name.”

[1:18]  ⁹ sn The Lord concludes his case against Israel by offering them the opportunity to be forgiven and by setting before them the alternatives of renewed blessing (as a reward for repentance) and final judgment (as punishment for persistence in sin).

[1:18]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally, “let us reason together,” but the context suggests a judicial nuance. The Lord is giving the nation its options for the future.

[1:18]  ¹¹ tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ¹² tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “though your sins are like red, they will become white like snow; though they are red like scarlet, they will be like wool.” The point is not that the sins will be covered up, though still retained. The metaphorical language must be allowed some flexibility and should not be pressed into a rigid literalistic mold. The people’s sins will be removed and replaced by ethical purity. The sins that are now as obvious as the color red will be washed away and the ones who are sinful will be transformed.

[1:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”

[6:7]  ¹³ tn Or “ritually cleansed,” or “atoned for” (NIV).

[13:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “house” (so NIV, NRSV), referring to dynastic descendants.

[13:1]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for sin and for impurity.” The purpose implied here has been stated explicitly in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ¹⁸ sn Gen 22:8 is an important passage in the background of the title Lamb of God as applied to Jesus. In Jewish thought this was held to be a supremely important sacrifice. G. Vermès stated: “For the Palestinian Jew, all lamb sacrifice, and especially the Passover lamb and the Tamid offering, was a memorial of the Akedah with its effects of deliverance, forgiveness of sin and messianic salvation” (Scripture and Tradition in Judaism [StPB], 225).

[9:14]  ¹⁹ tc The reading adopted by the translation is attested by many authorities (A D* K P 365 1739* al). But many others (א D² 0278 33 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa) read “your” instead of “our.” The diversity of evidence makes this a difficult case to decide from external evidence alone. The first and second person pronouns differ by only one letter in Greek, as in English, also making this problem difficult to decide based on internal evidence and transcriptional probability. In the context, the author’s description of sacrificial activities seems to invite the reader to compare his own possible participation in OT liturgy as over against the completed work of Christ, so the second person pronoun “your” might make more sense. On the other hand, TCGNT 599 argues that “our” is preferable because the author of Hebrews uses direct address (i.e., the second person) only in the hortatory sections. What is more, the author seems to prefer the first person in explanatory remarks or when giving the logical grounds for an assertion (cf. Heb 4:15; 7:14). It is hard to reach a definitive conclusion in this case, but the data lean slightly in favor of the first person pronoun.

[9:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “the first” (referring to the covenant described in Heb 8:7, 13). In the translation the referent (covenant) has been specified for clarity.

[1:7]  ²³ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ²⁴ tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.

[1:8]  ²⁵ tn Or “to.”

[1:8]  ²⁶ tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.

[1:8]  ²⁷ tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.

[1:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.

[1:9]  ²⁷ sn God…has anointed you over your companions. God’s anointing gives the son a superior position and authority over his fellows.

[1:9]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 45:6-7.

[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.