Romans 8:16

8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ¹  our spirit that we are God’s children.

Isaiah 56:5

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ² 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ³  for them that will remain.

Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ⁴ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ⁵ 

What a joy it would be for me to give ⁶  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ⁷ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ⁸ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 3:1

3:1 “If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,

he may not take her back again. ¹⁰ 

Doing that would utterly defile the land. ¹¹ 

But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ¹² 

So what makes you think you can return to me?” ¹³ 

says the Lord.

Colossians 2:12

2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your ¹⁴  faith in the power ¹⁵  of God who raised him from the dead.

Galatians 4:5-7

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ¹⁶  4:6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls ¹⁷  “Abba! ¹⁸  Father!” 4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are ¹⁹  a son, then you are also an heir through God. ²⁰ 

Ephesians 1:5

1:5 He did this by predestining ²¹  us to adoption as his ²²  sons ²³  through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure ²⁴  of his will –

Ephesians 1:11-14

1:11 In Christ ²⁵  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²⁶  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope ²⁷  on Christ, ²⁸  would be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when ²⁹  you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ ³⁰  – you were marked with the seal ³¹  of the promised Holy Spirit, ³²  1:14 who is the down payment ³³  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ³⁴  to the praise of his glory.

[8:16]  ¹ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[56:5]  ² tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ³ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

[3:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

[3:19]  ⁶ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

[3:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[3:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:1]  ¹² tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”

[3:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.

[2:12]  ¹⁴ tn The article with the genitive modifier τῆς πίστεως (th" pistew") is functioning as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tn The genitive τῆς ἐνεργείας (th" energeia") has been translated as an objective genitive, “faith in the power.”

[4:5]  ¹⁶ 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).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[4:6]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “calling.” The participle is neuter indicating that the Spirit is the one who calls.

[4:6]  ¹⁸ 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).

[4:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and if a son, then also an heir.” The words “you are” have been supplied twice to clarify the statement.

[4:7]  ²⁰ tc The unusual expression διὰ θεοῦ (dia qeou, “through God”) certainly prompted scribes to alter it to more customary or theologically acceptable ones such as διὰ θεόν (dia qeon, “because of God”; F G 1881 pc), διὰ Χριστοῦ (dia Cristou, “through Christ”; 81 630 pc sa), διὰ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (dia Ihsou Cristou, “through Jesus Christ”; 1739^c), θεοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ (“[an heir] of God through Christ”; א² C³ D [P] 0278 [6 326 1505] Ï ar sy), or κληρονόμος μὲν θεοῦ, συγκληρονόμος δὲ Χριστοῦ (klhronomo" men qeou, sugklhronomo" de Cristou, “an heir of God, and fellow-heir with Christ”; Ψ pc [cf. Rom 8:17]). Although it is unusual for Paul to speak of God as an intermediate agent, it is not unprecedented (cf. Gal 1:1; 1 Cor 1:9). Nevertheless, Gal 4:7 is the most direct statement to this effect. Further testimony on behalf of διὰ θεοῦ is to be found in external evidence: The witnesses with this phrase are among the most important in the NT (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B C* 33 1739*^vid lat bo Cl).

[1:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).

[1:5]  ²² tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”

[1:5]  ²³ 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).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…sons.”

[1:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “good pleasure.”

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ²⁶ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

[1:12]  ²⁷ tn Or “who had already hoped.”

[1:12]  ²⁸ tn Or “the Messiah.”

[1:13]  ²⁹ tn Grk “in whom you also, when…” (continuing the sentence from v. 12).

[1:13]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in whom also having believed.” The relative pronoun “whom” has been replaced in the translation with its antecedent (“Christ”) to improve the clarity.

[1:13]  ³¹ tn Or “you were sealed.”

[1:13]  ³² tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:14]  ³³ tn Or “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.”

[1:14]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the possession.”