Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ²  by whom ³  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Psalms 10:17

10:17 Lord, you have heard ⁴  the request ⁵  of the oppressed;

you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ⁶ 

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ⁷  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ⁸  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ⁹ 

Matthew 10:20

10:20 For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Galatians 4:6

4:6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls ¹⁰  “Abba! ¹¹  Father!”

Ephesians 2:18

2:18 so that ¹²  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹³  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ¹⁴  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Jude 1:20-21

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁵  1:21 maintain ¹⁶  yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating ¹⁷  the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. ¹⁸ 

[8:15]  ¹ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ² tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ³ tn Or “in that.”

[10:17]  ⁴ sn You have heard. The psalmist is confident that God has responded positively to his earlier petitions for divine intervention. The psalmist apparently prayed the words of vv. 16-18 after the reception of an oracle of deliverance (given in response to the confident petition of vv. 12-15) or after the Lord actually delivered him from his enemies.

[10:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “desire.”

[10:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “you make firm their heart, you cause your ear to listen.”

[12:10]  ⁷ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ⁸ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

[4:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “calling.” The participle is neuter indicating that the Spirit is the one who calls.

[4:6]  ¹¹ tn The term “Abba” is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic אַבָּא (’abba’), literally meaning “my father” but taken over simply as “father,” used in prayer and in the family circle, and later taken over by the early Greek-speaking Christians (BDAG 1 s.v. ἀββα).

[2:18]  ¹² tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).

[6:18]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[1:20]  ¹⁵ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[1:21]  ¹⁶ tn Or “keep.”

[1:21]  ¹⁷ tn Or “waiting for.”

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “unto eternal life.”