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1 Peter 2:11
New English Translation
1 Peter 2:11
New English Translation
11 Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,
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Psalm 97:10
New English Translation
Psalm 97:10
New English Translation
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects[a] the lives of his faithful followers;
he delivers them from the power[b] of the wicked.
Footnotes
- Psalm 97:10 tn The participle may be verbal, though it might also be understood as substantival and appositional to “the Lord.” In this case one could translate, “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, the one who protects the lives…and delivers them.”
- Psalm 97:10 tn Heb “hand.”
Proverbs 4:23-27
New English Translation
Proverbs 4:23-27
New English Translation
23 Guard your heart[a] with all vigilance,[b]
for from it are the sources[c] of life.
24 Remove perverse speech[d] from your mouth;[e]
keep devious talk far from your lips.[f]
25 Let your eyes look directly[g] in front of you
and let your gaze[h] look straight before you.
26 Make the path for your feet[i] level,[j]
so that[k] all your ways may be established.[l]
27 Do not turn[m] to the right or to the left;
turn yourself[n] away from evil.[o]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 4:23 tn Anatomically the Hebrew word לֵב (lev) refers to the “heart.” But abstractly it can refer to one’s inner self, will, understanding, or mind. They did not see the heart and mind in opposition, such that the advice here includes both one’s thinking and feelings.
- Proverbs 4:23 tn Heb “more than any guard.” The preposition מִן (min) has its comparative sense “more than.” The noun מִשְׁמָר (mishmar) refers here to the act of guarding, protection, or vigilance (BDB 1038 s.v. מִשְׁמָר; HALOT 649 s.v. מִשְׁמָר).
- Proverbs 4:23 sn The word תּוֹצְאוֹת (totseʾot, from יָצָא, yatsaʾ) means “outgoings; extremities; sources.” It is used here for starting points, like a fountainhead, and so the translation “sources” works well.
- Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “crookedness.” The noun עִקְּשׁוּת (ʿiqqeshut) refers to what is morally twisted or perverted. Here it refers to things that are said (cf. NAB “dishonest talk”; NRSV “crooked speech”). The term “mouth” functions as a metonymy of cause for perverse speech. Such perverse talking could be subtle or blatant.
- Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “crookedness of mouth.”
- Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “deviousness of lips put far from you.”
- Proverbs 4:25 tn The jussives in this verse are both Hiphil, the first from the verb “to gaze; to look intently [or, carefully],” (נָבַט, navat) and the second from the verb “to be smooth, straight” (יָשָׁר, yashar).
- Proverbs 4:25 tn Heb “your eyelids.” The term “eyelids” is often a poetic synonym for “eye” (it is a metonymy of adjunct, something connected with the eye put for the eye that sees); it may intensify the idea as one might squint to gain a clearer look.
- Proverbs 4:26 tn Heb “path of your foot.”
- Proverbs 4:26 sn The verb is a denominative Piel from the word פֶּלֶס (peles), “balance; scale.” In addition to telling the disciple to keep focused on a righteous life, the sage tells him to keep his path level, which is figurative for living the righteous life.
- Proverbs 4:26 tn Following an imperative, a vav plus imperfect verb can depict purpose or result.
- Proverbs 4:26 tn The Niphal jussive from כּוּן (kun, “to be fixed; to be established; to be steadfast”) continues the idiom of walking and ways for the moral sense in life.
- Proverbs 4:27 sn The two verbs in this verse are from different roots, but nonetheless share the same semantic domain. The first verb is תֵּט (tet), a jussive from נָטָה (natah), which means “to turn aside” (Hiphil); the second verb is the Hiphil imperative of סוּר (sur), which means “to cause to turn to the side” (Hiphil). The disciple is not to leave the path of righteousness, but to stay on the path he must leave evil.
- Proverbs 4:27 tn Heb “your foot” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The term רַגְלְךָ (raglekha, “your foot”) is a synecdoche of part (= foot) for the whole person (= “yourself”).
- Proverbs 4:27 tc The LXX adds, “For the way of the right hand God knows, but those of the left hand are distorted; and he himself will make straight your paths and guide your goings in peace.” The ideas presented here are not out of harmony with Proverbs, but the section clearly shows an expansion by the translator. For a brief discussion of whether this addition is Jewish or early Christian, see C. H. Toy, Proverbs (ICC), 99.
1 Corinthians 15:34
New English Translation
1 Corinthians 15:34
New English Translation
34 Sober up as you should, and stop sinning! For some have no knowledge of God—I say this to your shame!
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Ephesians 4:25-5:20
New English Translation
Ephesians 4:25-5:20
New English Translation
25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,[a] because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin;[b] do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.[c] 27 Do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. 29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need,[d] that it would give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice.[e] 32 Instead,[f] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
Live in Love
5 Therefore, be[g] imitators of God as dearly loved children 2 and live[h] in love, just as Christ also loved us[i] and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering[j] to God. 3 But[k] among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind,[l] or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints.[m] 4 Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting—all of which are out of character—but rather thanksgiving. 5 For you can be confident of this one thing:[n] that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Live in the Light
6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.[o] 7 Therefore do not be sharers with them,[p] 8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are[q] light in the Lord. Live[r] like children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light[s] consists in[t] all goodness, righteousness, and truth— 10 trying to learn[u] what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather[v] expose them.[w] 12 For the things they do[x] in secret are shameful even to mention. 13 But all things being exposed by the light are made visible. 14 For everything made visible is light, and for this reason it says:[y]
Live Wisely
15 Therefore consider carefully how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise[ac] by understanding[ad] what the Lord’s will is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, which[ae] is debauchery,[af] but be filled by the Spirit,[ag] 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music[ah] in[ai] your hearts to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for all things[aj] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Footnotes
- Ephesians 4:25 sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.
- Ephesians 4:26 sn A quotation from Ps 4:4. Although several translations render the phrase Be angry and do not sin as “If you are angry, do not sin” such is unlikely on a grammatical, lexical, and historical level (see D. B. Wallace, “᾿Οργίζεσθε in Ephesians 4:26: Command or Condition?” CTR 3 [1989]: 352-72). The idea of vv. 26-27 is as follows: Christians are to exercise a righteous indignation over sin in the midst of the believing community (v. 26a; note that v. 25 is restricting the discussion to those in the body of Christ). When other believers sin, such people should be gently and quickly confronted (v. 26b), for if the body of Christ does not address sin in its midst, the devil gains a foothold (v. 27). “Entirely opposite of the ‘introspective conscience’ view, this text seems to be a shorthand expression for church discipline, suggesting that there is a biblical warrant for δικαία ὀργή [dikaia orgē] (as the Greeks put it)—righteous indignation” (ExSyn 492).
- Ephesians 4:26 tn The word παροργισμός (parorgismos), typically translated “anger” in most versions is used almost exclusively of the source of anger rather than the results in Greek literature (thus, it refers to an external cause or provocation rather than an internal reaction). The notion of “cause of your anger” is both lexically and historically justified. The apparently proverbial nature of the statement (“Do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger”) finds several remarkable parallels in Pss. Sol. 8:8-9: “(8) God laid bare their sins in the full light of day; All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God. (9) In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger” (R. H. Charles’ translation). Not only is παροργισμός used, but righteous indignation against God’s own people and the laying bare of their sins in broad daylight are also seen.
- Ephesians 4:29 tn Grk “but if something good for the building up of the need.” The final genitive τῆς χρείας (tēs chreias) may refer to “the need of the moment” or it may refer to the need of a particular person or group of people as the next phrase “give grace to those who hear” indicates.
- Ephesians 4:31 tn Grk “with all malice.” This final phrase provides a cumulative point of focus for this list and presents a summary vice encompassing all the others. The translation attempts to make this nuance clear.
- Ephesians 4:32 tc ‡ Although most witnesses have either δέ (de; P49 א A D2 Ψ 33 1505 1739mg 2464 M lat) or οὖν (oun; D* F G 1175) here, a few significant mss lack a conjunction (P46 B 0278 6 1739* 1881). If either conjunction were originally in the text, it is difficult to explain how the asyndetic construction could have arisen (although the dropping of δέ could have occurred via homoioteleuton). Further, although Hellenistic Greek rarely joined sentences without a conjunction, such does occur in the corpus Paulinum on occasion, especially to underscore a somber point. “Instead” has been supplied in the translation because of stylistic requirements, not textual basis. NA28 places δέ in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
- Ephesians 5:1 tn Or “become.”
- Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripateō) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).
- Ephesians 5:2 tc A number of significant witnesses have ὑμᾶς (humas, “you”; e.g., א*,2b A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally valuable witnesses read ἡμᾶς (hēmas, “us”; P46 א2a D F G Ψ 0278 33 1505 1739 1881 2464 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (humin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being authentic.
- Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosphoran kai thusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (eis osmēn euōdias, “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”
- Ephesians 5:3 tn The term “But” translates the δέ (de) in a contrastive way in light of the perfect obedience of Jesus in vv. 1-2 and the vices mentioned in v. 3.
- Ephesians 5:3 tn Grk “all impurity.”
- Ephesians 5:3 tn Grk “just as is fitting for saints.” The καθώς (kathōs) was rendered with “as” and the sense is causal, i.e., “for” or “because.” The negative particle “not” (“for these are not proper for the saints”) in this clause was supplied in English so as to make the sense very clear, i.e., that these vices are not befitting of those who name the name of Christ.
- Ephesians 5:5 tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prōton ginōskontes).
- Ephesians 5:6 sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.
- Ephesians 5:7 tn The genitive αὐτῶν (autōn) has been translated as a genitive of association because of its use with συμμέτοχοι (summetochoi)—a verb which implies association in the σύν- (sun-) prefix.
- Ephesians 5:8 tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.
- Ephesians 5:8 tn Grk “Walk,” a common biblical idiom for one’s conduct of life.
- Ephesians 5:9 tc Several mss (P46 D2 Ψ 1175* 1505 M) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (phōtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously the reading of the initial text (UBS5 gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D2 often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), P46 gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both P49 and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs)—a practice found even in the earliest mss—πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (P49 א A B D* F G P 33 81 1175c 1739 1881 2464 latt co). It is thus doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be autographic, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.
- Ephesians 5:9 tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”
- Ephesians 5:10 tn BDAG 255 s.v. δοκιμάζω 1 translates δοκιμάζοντες (dokimazontes) in Eph 5:10 as “try to learn.”
- Ephesians 5:11 tn The Greek conjunction καὶ (kai) seems to be functioning here ascensively, (i.e., “even”), but is difficult to render in this context using good English. It may read something like: “but rather even expose them!”
- Ephesians 5:11 tn Grk “rather even expose.”
- Ephesians 5:12 tn The participle τὰ…γινόμενα (ta…ginomena) usually refers to “things happening” or “things which are,” but with the following genitive phrase ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν (hup’ autōn), which indicates agency, the idea seems to be “things being done.” This passive construction was translated as an active one to simplify the English style.
- Ephesians 5:14 sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.
- Ephesians 5:14 tn Grk “Rise up.”
- Ephesians 5:14 tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (ho katheudōn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. To reflect this, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”
- Ephesians 5:14 sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19; 51:17; 52:1; and 60:1.
- Ephesians 5:17 tn “become wise by understanding”; Grk “understanding.” The imperative “be wise” is apparently implied by the construction of vv. 15-21. See the following text-critical note for discussion.
- Ephesians 5:17 tc ‡ The best witnesses read the imperative here (so P46 א A B P 0278 33 81 1739 pc). The participle is found primarily in the Western and Byzantine families (D2 Ψ 1175 1505 1881 2464 M latt [D* F G are slightly different, but support the participial reading]). But the participle is superior on internal grounds: The structure of v. 17 almost requires an imperative after ἀλλά (alla), for this gives balance to the clause: “Do not become foolish, but understand…” If the participle is authentic, it may be imperatival (and thus should be translated just like an imperative), but such is quite rare in the NT. More likely, there is an implied imperative as follows: “Do not become foolish, but become wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Either way, the participle is the harder reading and ought to be considered original. It is significant that seeing an implied imperative in this verse affords a certain symmetry to the author’s thought in vv. 15-21: There are three main sections (vv. 15-16, v. 17, vv. 18-21), each of which provides a negative injunction, followed by a positive injunction, followed by a present adverbial participle. If συνίετε (suniete) is original, this symmetry is lost. Thus, even though the external evidence for συνιέντες (sunientes) is not nearly as weighty as for the imperative, both the transcriptional and intrinsic evidence support it.
- Ephesians 5:18 tn Grk “in which.”
- Ephesians 5:18 tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.
- Ephesians 5:18 tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”
- Ephesians 5:19 tn See BDAG 1096 s.v. ψάλλω.
- Ephesians 5:19 tn Or “with.”
- Ephesians 5:20 tn Grk “for all.” The form “all” can be either neuter or masculine, and an alternative view is “for all” referring to people. The context could suggest believers (“one another” in v. 19). In other places this Greek phrase occurs in the NT, it refers to people (1 Tim 2:6; 2 Cor 5:14-15).
James 1:21
New English Translation
James 1:21
New English Translation
21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly[a] welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.
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- James 1:21 tn Or “with meekness.”
New English Translation (NET)
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