Romans 1:20

1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people ¹  are without excuse.

Psalms 19:1-6

Psalm 19 ² 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; ³ 

the sky displays his handiwork. ⁴ 

19:2 Day after day it speaks out; ⁵ 

night after night it reveals his greatness. ⁶ 

19:3 There is no actual speech or word,

nor is its ⁷  voice literally heard.

19:4 Yet its voice ⁸  echoes ⁹  throughout the earth;

its ¹⁰  words carry ¹¹  to the distant horizon. ¹² 

In the sky ¹³  he has pitched a tent for the sun. ¹⁴ 

19:5 Like a bridegroom it emerges ¹⁵  from its chamber; ¹⁶ 

like a strong man it enjoys ¹⁷  running its course. ¹⁸ 

19:6 It emerges from the distant horizon, ¹⁹ 

and goes from one end of the sky to the other; ²⁰ 

nothing can escape ²¹  its heat.

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ²² 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ²³ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ²⁴ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Jeremiah 10:10-13

10:10 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.

10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:

‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.

They will disappear ²⁵  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ²⁶ 

10:12 The Lord is the one who ²⁷  by his power made the earth.

He is the one who by his wisdom established the world.

And by his understanding he spread out the skies.

10:13 When his voice thunders, ²⁸  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ²⁹ 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ³⁰ 

Acts 14:16

14:16 In ³¹  past ³²  generations he allowed all the nations ³³  to go their own ways,

Acts 17:23-30

17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, ³⁴  I even found an altar with this inscription: ³⁵  ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, ³⁶  this I proclaim to you. 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, ³⁷  who is ³⁸  Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, ³⁹  17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, ⁴⁰  because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. ⁴¹  17:26 From one man ⁴²  he made every nation of the human race ⁴³  to inhabit the entire earth, ⁴⁴  determining their set times ⁴⁵  and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, ⁴⁶  17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around ⁴⁷  for him and find him, ⁴⁸  though he is ⁴⁹  not far from each one of us. 17:28 For in him we live and move about ⁵⁰  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ⁵¹  17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ⁵²  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ⁵³  made by human ⁵⁴  skill ⁵⁵  and imagination. ⁵⁶  17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ⁵⁷  such times of ignorance, ⁵⁸  he now commands all people ⁵⁹  everywhere to repent, ⁶⁰ 

[1:20]  ¹ tn Grk “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:1]  ² sn Psalm 19. The psalmist praises God for his self-revelation in the heavens and in the Mosaic law. The psalmist concludes with a prayer, asking the Lord to keep him from sinning and to approve of his thoughts and words.

[19:1]  ³ sn God’s glory refers here to his royal majesty and power.

[19:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the work of his hands the sky declares.” The participles emphasize the ongoing testimony of the heavens/sky.

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “it gushes forth a word.” The “sky” (see v. 1b) is the subject of the verb. Though not literally speaking (see v. 3), it clearly reveals God’s royal majesty. The sun’s splendor and its movement across the sky is in view (see vv. 4-6).

[19:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “it [i.e., the sky] declares knowledge,” i.e., knowledge about God’s royal majesty and power (see v. 1). This apparently refers to the splendor and movements of the stars. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 2, like the participles in the preceding verse, combine with the temporal phrases (“day after day” and “night after night”) to emphasize the ongoing testimony of the sky.

[19:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “their.” The antecedent of the plural pronoun is “heavens” (v. 1).

[19:4]  ⁸ tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.

[19:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”

[19:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).

[19:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.

[19:4]  ¹² tn Heb “to the end of the world.”

[19:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).

[19:4]  ¹⁴ sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.

[19:5]  ¹⁵ tn The participle expresses the repeated or regular nature of the action.

[19:5]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun חֻפָּה (khufah, “chamber”) occurs elsewhere only in Isa 4:5 and Joel 2:16 (where it refers to the bedroom of a bride and groom).

[19:5]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the regularity of the action.

[19:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[on] a path.”

[19:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the end of the heavens [is] its going forth.”

[19:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and its circuit [is] to their ends.”

[19:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “is hidden from.”

[40:26]  ²² tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ²³ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[10:11]  ²⁵ tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[10:11]  ²⁶ tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the Lord and idols in vv. 2-16. Holladay shows that the passage is a very carefully constructed chiasm (see accompanying study note) which argues that “these” at the end is the subject of the verb “will disappear” not the attributive adjective modifying heaven. He also makes a very good case that the verse is poetry and not prose as it is rendered in the majority of modern English versions.

[10:12]  ²⁷ tn The words “The Lord is” are not in the text. They are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation here because of the possible confusion of who the subject is due to the parenthetical address to the people of Israel in v. 11. The first two verbs are participles and should not merely be translated as the narrative past. They are predicate nominatives of an implied copula intending to contrast the Lord as the one who made the earth with the idols which did not.

[10:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

[10:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

[10:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”

[14:16]  ³¹ tn Grk “them, who in.” The relative pronoun (“who”) was replaced by the pronoun “he” (“In past generations he”) and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek and the awkwardness of two relative clauses (“who made the heaven” and “who in past generations”) following one another.

[14:16]  ³² tn On this term see BDAG 780 s.v. παροίχομαι. The word is a NT hapax legomenon.

[14:16]  ³³ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (in Greek the word for “nation” and “Gentile” is the same). The plural here alludes to the variety of false religions in the pagan world.

[17:23]  ³⁴ tn Or “your sanctuaries.” L&N 53.54 gives “sanctuary” (place of worship) as an alternate meaning for the word σεβάσματα (sebasmata).

[17:23]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ tn Grk “all the things that are in it.” The speech starts with God as Creator, like 14:15.

[17:24]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn L&N 57.45 has “nor does he need anything more that people can supply by working for him.”

[17:25]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “he himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things.”

[17:26]  ⁴² sn The one man refers to Adam (the word “man” is understood).

[17:26]  ⁴³ tn Or “mankind.” BDAG 276 s.v. ἔθνος 1 has “every nation of humankind Ac 17:26.”

[17:26]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “to live over all the face of the earth.”

[17:26]  ⁴⁵ tn BDAG 884-85 s.v. προστάσσω has “(οἱ) προστεταγμένοι καιροί (the) fixed times Ac 17:26” here, but since the following phrase is also translated “fixed limits,” this would seem redundant in English, so the word “set” has been used instead.

[17:26]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “the boundaries of their habitation.” L&N 80.5 has “fixed limits of the places where they would live” for this phrase.

[17:27]  ⁴⁷ tn See BDAG 1097-98 s.v. ψηλαφάω, which lists “touch, handle” and “to feel around for, grope for” as possible meanings.

[17:27]  ⁴⁸ sn Perhaps grope around for him and find him. The pagans’ struggle to know God is the point here. Conscience alone is not good enough.

[17:27]  ⁴⁹ tn The participle ὑπάρχοντα (Juparconta) has been translated as a concessive adverbial participle.

[17:28]  ⁵⁰ tn According to L&N 15.1, “A strictly literal translation of κινέω in Ac 17:28 might imply merely moving from one place to another. The meaning, however, is generalized movement and activity; therefore, it may be possible to translate κινούμεθα as ‘we come and go’ or ‘we move about’’ or even ‘we do what we do.’”

[17:28]  ⁵¹ sn This quotation is from Aratus (ca. 310-245 b.c.), Phaenomena 5. Paul asserted a general relationship and accountability to God for all humanity.

[17:29]  ⁵² tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ⁵³ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:30]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ⁵⁹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ⁶⁰ sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.