◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / 1 Kings 19:4-8 (Elijah given bread for his journey); Psalm 34:1-8 (Taste and see); Ephesians 4:25—5:2 (Put away evil live in love); John 6:35 41-51 (Christ the bread of life) (New English Translation)

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August 12, 2018

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

1 Kings 19:4-8

⁴while he went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He went and sat down under a shrub^[a] and asked the Lord to take his life:^[b] “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.”^[c] ⁵He stretched out^[d] and fell asleep under the shrub. Suddenly an angelic messenger^[e] touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶He looked and right there by his head was a cake baking on hot coals and a jug of water. He ate and drank and then slept some more.^[f] ⁷The angel of the Lord came back again, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, for otherwise you won’t be able to make the journey.”^[g] ⁸So he got up and ate and drank. That meal gave him the strength to travel forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Psalm 34:1-8

Psalm 34^[a]

By David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away.^[b]

34 I will praise^[c] the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him.^[d]
²I will boast^[e] in the Lord;
let the oppressed hear and rejoice.^[f]
³Magnify the Lord with me.
Let us praise^[g] his name together.
⁴I sought the Lord’s help^[h] and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
⁵Look to him and be radiant;
do not let your faces be ashamed.^[i]
⁶This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;
he saved him^[j] from all his troubles.
⁷The angel of the Lord camps around
the Lord’s^[k] loyal followers^[l] and delivers them.^[m]
⁸Taste^[n] and see that the Lord is good.
How blessed^[o] is the one^[p] who takes shelter in him.^[q]

Footnotes

Psalm 34:1 sn Psalm 34. In this song of thanksgiving the psalmist praises God for delivering him from distress. He encourages others to be loyal to the Lord, tells them how to please God, and assures them that the Lord protects his servants. The psalm is an acrostic; vv. 1-21 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (Verse 6 begins with the letter he (ה) and v. 7 with the letter zayin (ז). The letter vav (ו), which comes between ה and ז, seems to be omitted, although it does appear at the beginning of v. 6b. The final verse of the psalm, which begins with the letter pe (פ), is outside the acrostic scheme.
Psalm 34:1 tn Heb “By David, when he changed his sense before Abimelech and he drove him away and he went.”sn Pretended to be insane. The psalm heading appears to refer to the account in 1 Sam 21:10-15 which tells how David, fearful that King Achish of Gath might kill him, pretended to be insane in hopes that the king would simply send him away. The psalm heading names the king Abimelech, not Achish, suggesting that the tradition is confused on this point. However, perhaps “Abimelech” was a royal title, rather than a proper name. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 278.
Psalm 34:1 tn Heb “bless.”
Psalm 34:1 tn Heb “continually [will] his praise [be] in my mouth.”
Psalm 34:2 tn Heb “my soul will boast”; or better, “let my soul boast.” Following the cohortative form in v. 1, it is likely that the prefixed verbal form here is jussive.
Psalm 34:2 tn The two prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best taken as jussives, for the psalmist is calling his audience to worship (see v. 3).
Psalm 34:3 tn Or “exalt.”
Psalm 34:4 tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”
Psalm 34:5 tc The translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “they looked to him and were radiant; let their faces not be ashamed.” The MT reads the first verb as a perfect (הִבִּיטוּ, hibbitu), which would be past time, while the LXX (supported by Aquila, the Syriac, Jerome, and some medieval Hebrew mss) reads an imperative (הַבִּיטוּ, habbitu). The MT reads the second verb as a vav plus perfect, while the LXX reads it as an imperative, again a difference of the initial vowel. The third verb is a jussive preceded by אַל (ʾal), which supports reading the first two as imperatives. The second masculine plural pronoun (“your faces”) of the LXX and the Syriac, matches this understanding of the preceding verbs. The MT reading (“their faces”) is consistent with its view of the previous verbs. The reading adopted here interprets the verse as interrupting a testimony given to the congregation with an admonition based on that testimony.
Psalm 34:6 tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.
Psalm 34:7 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 34:7 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
Psalm 34:7 tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the same generalizing force as the active participle in the first line. See GKC 329 §111.u.
Psalm 34:8 tn This verb is normally used of tasting food, as in eating a little bit of food (1 Sam 14:43; Jonah 3:7) or evaluating it (Job 12:11; 34:3). The two references to the physical senses stand for invitation and realization. Even a small or beginning experience of God reveals that he is good.
Psalm 34:8 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
Psalm 34:8 tn Heb “man.” The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.”
Psalm 34:8 tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

²⁵Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,^[a] because we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin;^[b] do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.^[c] ²⁷Do not give the devil an opportunity. ²⁸The 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. ²⁹You 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. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice.^[e] ³²Instead,^[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 ²and live^[h] in love, just as Christ also loved us^[i] and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering^[j] to God.

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 1739^mg 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 א^2a 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.”

John 6:35

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.^[a]

John 6:41-51

⁴¹Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus^[a] began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” ⁴²and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus replied,^[b] “Do not complain about me to one another.^[c] ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,^[d] and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’^[e] Everyone who hears and learns from the Father^[f] comes to me. ⁴⁶(Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he^[g] has seen the Father.)^[h] ⁴⁷I tell you the solemn truth,^[i] the one who believes^[j] has eternal life.^[k] ⁴⁸I am the bread of life.^[l] ⁴⁹Your ancestors^[m] ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This^[n] is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person^[o] may eat from it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread^[p] that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Footnotes

John 6:41 tn Grk “Then the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). Likewise, the designation “Judeans” does not fit here because the location is Galilee rather than Judea.
John 6:43 tn Grk “answered and said to them.”
John 6:43 tn Or “Do not grumble among yourselves.” The words “about me” are supplied to clarify the translation “complain to one another” (otherwise the Jewish opponents could be understood to be complaining about one another, rather than complaining to one another about Jesus).
John 6:44 tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).sn The Father who sent me draws him. The author never specifically explains what this “drawing” consists of. It is evidently some kind of attraction; whether it is binding and irresistible or not is not mentioned. But there does seem to be a parallel with 6:65, where Jesus says that no one is able to come to him unless the Father has allowed it. This apparently parallels the use of Isaiah by John to reflect the spiritual blindness of the Jewish leaders (see the quotations from Isaiah in John 9:41 and 12:39-40).
John 6:45 sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.
John 6:45 tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”
John 6:46 tn Grk “this one.”
John 6:46 sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Although some would attribute these words to Jesus himself, the switch from first person in Jesus’ preceding and following remarks to third person in v. 46 suggests that the author has added a clarifying comment here.
John 6:47 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
John 6:47 tc Most witnesses (A C² D Ψ ƒ^1,13 33 M lat and other versions) have “in me” (εἰς ἐμέ, eis eme) here, while the Sinaitic and Curetonian Syriac versions read “in God.” These clarifying readings are predictable variants, being motivated by the scribal tendency toward greater explicitness. That the earliest and best witnesses (P^66,75vid א B C* L T W Θ 892) lack any object is solid testimony to the shorter text’s authenticity.
John 6:47 tn Cf. John 6:40.
John 6:48 tn That is, “the bread that produces (eternal) life.”
John 6:49 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
John 6:50 tn Or “Here.”
John 6:50 tn Grk “someone” (τις, tis).
John 6:51 tn Grk “And the bread.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

Psalm 34[a]

By David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away.[b]

Footnotes

Live in Love

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 34^[a]

By David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away.^[b]