Discovery BoxRevelation 4:11
Context4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
since you created all things,
and because of your will they existed and were created!” 1
Exodus 20:11
Context20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
Nehemiah 9:6
Context9:6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, 2 along with all their multitude of stars, 3 the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
Psalms 33:6
Context33:6 By the Lord’s decree 4 the heavens were made;
by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created. 5
Psalms 95:5
Context95:5 The sea is his, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
Psalms 124:8
Context124:8 Our deliverer is the Lord, 6
the Creator 7 of heaven and earth.
Psalms 146:5-6
Context146:5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful, 8
Proverbs 8:22-31
Context8:22 The Lord created 9 me as the beginning 10 of his works, 11
before his deeds of long ago.
8:23 From eternity I was appointed, 12
from the beginning, from before the world existed. 13
8:24 When there were no deep oceans 14 I was born, 15
when there were no springs overflowing 16 with water;
8:25 before the mountains were set in place –
before the hills – I was born,
8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, 17
or the beginning 18 of the dust of the world.
8:27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he marked out the horizon 19 over the face of the deep,
8:28 when he established the clouds above,
when the fountains of the deep grew strong, 20
8:29 when he gave the sea his decree
that the waters should not pass over his command, 21
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
8:30 then I was 22 beside him as a master craftsman, 23
and I was his delight 24 day by day,
rejoicing before him at all times,
8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, 25
and delighting 26 in its people. 27
Jeremiah 10:10
Context10:10 The Lord is the only true God.
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
When he shows his anger the earth shakes.
None of the nations can stand up to his fury.
Acts 14:15
Context14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures 28 just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn 29 from these worthless 30 things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, 31 the sea, and everything that is in them.
Acts 17:23-25
Context17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, 32 I even found an altar with this inscription: 33 ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, 34 this I proclaim to you. 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, 35 who is 36 Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, 37 17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, 38 because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. 39
[4:11] 1 tc The past tense of “they existed” (ἦσαν, hsan) and the order of the expression “they existed and were created” seems backwards both logically and chronologically. The text as it stands is the more difficult reading and seems to have given rise to codex A omitting the final “they were created,” 2329 replacing “they existed” (ἦσαν) with “have come into being” (ἐγένοντο, egeneto), and 046 adding οὐκ (ouk, “not”) before ἦσαν (“they did not exist, [but were created]”). Several
[9:6] 2 tn Heb “the heavens of the heavens.”
[9:6] 3 tn Heb “all their host.”
[33:6] 5 tn Heb “and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” The words “were created” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons; they are understood by ellipsis (note “were made” in the preceding line). The description is consistent with Gen 1:16, which indicates that God spoke the heavenly luminaries into existence.
[124:8] 6 tn Heb “our help [is] in the name of the
[146:6] 8 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
[8:22] 9 tn There are two roots קָנָה (qanah) in Hebrew, one meaning “to possess,” and the other meaning “to create.” The earlier English versions did not know of the second root, but suspected in certain places that a meaning like that was necessary (e.g., Gen 4:1; 14:19; Deut 32:6). Ugaritic confirmed that it was indeed another root. The older versions have the translation “possess” because otherwise it sounds like God lacked wisdom and therefore created it at the beginning. They wanted to avoid saying that wisdom was not eternal. Arius liked the idea of Christ as the wisdom of God and so chose the translation “create.” Athanasius translated it, “constituted me as the head of creation.” The verb occurs twelve times in Proverbs with the meaning of “to acquire”; but the Greek and the Syriac versions have the meaning “create.” Although the idea is that wisdom existed before creation, the parallel ideas in these verses (“appointed,” “given birth”) argue for the translation of “create” or “establish” (R. N. Whybray, “Proverbs 8:22-31 and Its Supposed Prototypes,” VT 15 [1965]: 504-14; and W. A. Irwin, “Where Will Wisdom Be Found?” JBL 80 [1961]: 133-42).
[8:22] 10 tn Verbs of creation often involve double accusatives; here the double accusative involves the person (i.e., wisdom) and an abstract noun in construct (IBHS 174-75 §10.2.3c).
[8:22] 11 tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB). The word “way” is an idiom (implied comparison) for the actions of God.
[8:23] 12 tn The first parallel verb is נִסַּכְתִּי (nissakhti), “I was appointed.” It is not a common word; it occurs here and in Ps 2:6 for the coronation of the king. It means “installed, set.”
[8:23] 13 tn The verb “existed” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation in the light of the context.
[8:24] 14 sn The summary statements just given are now developed in a lengthy treatment of wisdom as the agent of all creation. This verse singles out “watery deeps” (תְּהֹמוֹת, tÿhomot) in its allusion to creation because the word in Genesis signals the condition of the world at the very beginning, and because in the ancient world this was something no one could control. Chaos was not there first – wisdom was.
[8:24] 15 tn The third parallel verb is חוֹלָלְתִּי (kholalti), “I was given birth.” Some (e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV) translate it “brought forth” – not in the sense of being presented, but in the sense of being “begotten, given birth to.” Here is the strongest support for the translation of קָנָה (qanah) as “created” in v. 22. The verb is not literal; it continues the perspective of the personification.
[8:24] 16 tn Heb “made heavy.”
[8:26] 17 tn Heb “open places.”
[8:26] 18 tn Here רֹאשׁ (ro’sh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).
[8:27] 19 sn The infinitive construct בְּחוּקוֹ (bÿkhuqo, “to cut; to engrave; to mark”) and the noun חוּג (khug, “horizon; circle”) form a paronomasia in the line.
[8:28] 20 tn To form a better parallel some commentators read this infinitive בַּעֲזוֹז (ba’azoz), “when [they] grew strong,” as a Piel causative, “when he made firm, fixed fast” (cf. NIV “fixed securely”; NLT “established”). But the following verse (“should not pass over”) implies the meaning “grew strong” here.
[8:30] 22 tn The verb form is a preterite with vav consecutive, although it has not been apocopated. It provides the concluding statement for the temporal clauses as well as the parallel to v. 27.
[8:30] 23 tn Critical to the interpretation of this line is the meaning of אָמוֹן (’amon). Several suggestions have been made: “master craftsman” (cf. ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV), “nursing child” (cf. NCV), “foster father.” R. B. Y. Scott chooses “faithful” – a binding or living link (“Wisdom in Creation: The ‘Amon of Proverbs 8:30,” VT 10 [1960]: 213-23). The image of a child is consistent with the previous figure of being “given birth to” (vv. 24, 25). However, “craftsman” has the most support (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Tg. Prov 8:30, Song 7:1; Jer 52:15; also P. W. Skehan, “Structures in Poems on Wisdom: Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24,” CBQ 41 [1979]: 365-79).
[8:30] 24 tn The word is a plural of intensification for “delight”; it describes wisdom as the object of delight. The LXX has the suffix; the Hebrew does not.
[8:31] 25 tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.
[8:31] 26 tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”
[8:31] 27 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
[14:15] 28 tn Grk “with the same kinds of feelings,” L&N 25.32. BDAG 706 s.v. ὁμοιοπαθής translates the phrase “with the same nature τινί as someone.” In the immediate context, the contrast is between human and divine nature, and the point is that Paul and Barnabas are mere mortals, not gods.
[14:15] 29 tn Grk “in order that you should turn,” with ἐπιστρέφειν (epistrefein) as an infinitive of purpose, but this is somewhat awkward contemporary English. To translate the infinitive construction “proclaim the good news, that you should turn,” which is much smoother English, could give the impression that the infinitive clause is actually the content of the good news, which it is not. The somewhat less formal “to get you to turn” would work, but might convey to some readers manipulativeness on the part of the apostles. Thus “proclaim the good news, so that you should turn,” is used, to convey that the purpose of the proclamation of good news is the response by the hearers. The emphasis here is like 1 Thess 1:9-10.
[14:15] 30 tn Or “useless,” “futile.” The reference is to idols and idolatry, worshiping the creation over the Creator (Rom 1:18-32). See also 1 Kgs 16:2, 13, 26; 2 Kgs 17:15; Jer 2:5; 8:19; 3 Macc 6:11.
[14:15] 31 tn Grk “and the earth, and the sea,” but καί (kai) has not been translated before “the earth” and “the sea” since contemporary English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.
[17:23] 32 tn Or “your sanctuaries.” L&N 53.54 gives “sanctuary” (place of worship) as an alternate meaning for the word σεβάσματα (sebasmata).
[17:23] 33 tn Grk “on which was written,” but since it would have been carved in stone, it is more common to speak of an “inscription” in English. To simplify the English the relative construction with a passive verb (“on which was inscribed”) was translated as a prepositional phrase with a substantive (“inscription”).
[17:23] 34 tn BDAG 13 s.v. ἀγνοέω 1.b has “Abs. ὅ ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε what you worship without knowing it (on the subject matter Maximus Tyr. 11, 5e: all sorts of philosophers ἴσασιν οὐκ ἑκόντες καὶ λέγουσιν ἄκοντες sc. τὸ θεῖον = they know and name God without intending to do so) Ac 17:23.” Paul, in typical Jewish Christian style, informs them of the true God, of whom their idols are an ignorant reflection.
[17:24] 35 tn Grk “all the things that are in it.” The speech starts with God as Creator, like 14:15.
[17:24] 36 tn Or “because he is.” The participle ὑπάρχων (Juparcwn) could be either adjectival, modifying οὗτος (Joutos, “who is Lord…”) or adverbial of cause (“because he is Lord…”). Since the participle διδούς (didou") in v. 25 appears to be clearly causal in force, it is preferable to understand ὑπάρχων as adjectival in this context.
[17:24] 37 sn On the statement does not live in temples made by human hands compare Acts 7:48. This has implications for idols as well. God cannot be represented by them or, as the following clause also suggests, served by human hands.
[17:25] 38 tn L&N 57.45 has “nor does he need anything more that people can supply by working for him.”
[17:25] 39 tn Grk “he himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things.”
