◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Haggai 1:15b—2:9 (The promise to restore Judah); Psalm 145:1-5 17-21 (Great is the Lord); or Psalm 98 (Earth sees the victory of God); 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 13-17 (The coming of Christ Jesus); Luke 20:27-38 (Jesus speaks of the resurrection) (New English Translation)

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November 10, 1968

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Haggai 1:15-2:9

¹⁵This took place on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month of King Darius’ second year.^[a]

The Glory to Come

2 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month,^[b] the Lord’s message came through^[c] the prophet Haggai again: ²“Ask the following questions to^[d] Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak,^[e] and the remnant of the people: ³‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple?^[f] How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?’ ⁴Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,” decrees the Lord. “Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And take heart all you citizens of the land,”^[g] decrees the Lord, “and begin to work. For I am with you,” decrees the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ⁵“Do not fear, because I made a promise to your ancestors when they left Egypt, and my Spirit^[h] even now testifies to you.”^[i] ⁶Moreover, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said: “In just a little while^[j] I will once again shake the sky^[k] and the earth, the sea and the dry ground. ⁷I will also shake up all the nations, and they^[l] will offer their treasures;^[m] then I will fill this temple with glory.” So the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said. ⁸“The silver and gold will be mine,” decrees the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ⁹“The future splendor of this temple will be greater than that of former times,”^[n] the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared. “And in this place I will give peace,” decrees the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.^[o]

Footnotes

Haggai 1:15 sn The twenty-fourth day of the sixth month of King Darius’ second year was September 21, 520 b.c., twenty-three days after the original command by Haggai to rebuild (1:1). The text does not state the reason for the delay, but it may have resulted from the pressing need to bring in the late summer harvest.
Haggai 2:1 tn Heb “In the seventh [month], on the twenty-first day of the month.”sn The seventh month was the month Tishri, according to the modern (Julian) calendar October 17, 520 b.c. The twenty-first day of Tishri marked the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:32-34). It also coincided with the date 440 years earlier (960 b.c.) when Solomon finished building his temple (1 Kgs 6:38; 8:2).
Haggai 2:1 tc The MT has בְּיַד (b^eyad, “by the hand of” = “through” [so NAB, NIV, NLT] as in 1:1, 3); the Murabba’at Dead Sea text reads אֶל (ʾel, “to”), perhaps because the following command is given to the prophet.
Haggai 2:2 tn Heb “say to”; NAB “Tell this to.”
Haggai 2:2 tn Many English versions have “Joshua (the) son of Jehozadak the high priest,” but this is subject to misunderstanding. See the note on the name “Jehozadak” at the end of v. 1.
Haggai 2:3 tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”sn Solomon’s temple was demolished in 586 b.c., 66 years prior to Haggai’s time. There surely would have been some older people who remembered the former splendor of that magnificent structure and who lamented the contrast to the small, unimpressive temple they were building (see Ezra 3:8-13).
Haggai 2:4 tn Heb “the people of the land” (עַם הָאָרֶץ, ʿam haʾarets); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.
Haggai 2:5 sn My Spirit. It is theologically anachronistic to understand “Spirit” here in the NT sense as a reference to third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit; nevertheless during this postexilic period the conceptual groundwork was being laid for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit later revealed in the NT.
Haggai 2:5 tc The MT of v. 5 reads “with the word which I cut with you when you went out from Egypt and my Spirit [which] stands in your midst, do not fear.” BHS proposes emending “with the word” to זֹאת הַבְּרִית (zoʾt habb^erit, “this is the covenant”) at the beginning of the verse. The proposed emendation makes excellent sense and is expected with the verb כָּרַת (karat, “cut” or “make” a covenant), but it has no textual support. Most English versions (including the present translation) therefore follow the MT here.
Haggai 2:6 tc The difficult MT reading עוֹד אַחַת מְעַט הִיא (ʿod ʾakhat m^eʿat hiʾ, “yet once, it is little”; cf. NAB “One moment yet, a little while”) appears as “yet once” in the LXX, omitting the last two Hebrew words. However, the point being made is that the anticipated action is imminent; thus the repetition provides emphasis.
Haggai 2:6 tn Or “the heavens.” The same Hebrew word, שָׁמַיִם (shamayim), may be translated “sky” or “heavens” depending on the context. Although many English versions translate the term as “heavens” here, the other three elements present in this context (earth, sea, dry ground) suggest “sky” is in view.
Haggai 2:7 tn Heb “all the nations.”
Haggai 2:7 tn Though the subject here is singular (חֶמְדַּה, khemdah; “desire”), the preceding plural predicate mandates a collective subject, “desired (things)” or, better, an emendation to a plural form, חֲמֻדֹת (khamudot, “desirable [things],” hence “treasures”). Cf. ASV “the precious things”; NASB “the wealth”; NRSV “the treasure.” In the OT context this has no direct reference to the coming of the Messiah.
Haggai 2:9 tn Heb “greater will be the latter splendor of this house than the former”; NAB “greater will be the future glory.”
Haggai 2:9 tn In the Hebrew text there is an implicit play on words in the clause “in this place [i.e., Jerusalem] I will give peace”: in יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (y^erushalayim) there will be שָׁלוֹם (shalom).

Psalm 145:1-5

Psalm 145^[a]

A psalm of praise; by David.

145 I will extol you, my God, O King.
I will praise your name continually.^[b]
²Every day I will praise you.
I will praise your name continually.^[c]
³The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise.
No one can fathom his greatness.^[d]
⁴One generation will praise your deeds to another,
and tell about your mighty acts.^[e]
⁵I will focus on your honor and majestic splendor,
and your amazing deeds.^[f]

Psalm 145:17-21

¹⁷The Lord is just in all his actions,^[a]
and exhibits love in all he does.^[b]
¹⁸The Lord is near all who cry out to him,
all who cry out to him sincerely.^[c]
¹⁹He satisfies the desire^[d] of his loyal followers;^[e]
he hears their cry for help and delivers them.
²⁰The Lord protects all those who love him,
but he destroys all the wicked.
²¹My mouth will praise the Lord.^[f]
Let all who live^[g] praise his holy name forever.

Psalm 98

Psalm 98^[a]

A psalm.

98 Sing to the Lord a new song,^[b]
for he performs^[c] amazing deeds.
His right hand and his mighty arm
accomplish deliverance.^[d]
²The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver;^[e]
in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.
³He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel.^[f]
All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us.^[g]
⁴Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth.
Break out in a joyful shout and sing!
⁵Sing to the Lord accompanied by a harp,
accompanied by a harp and the sound of music.
⁶With trumpets and the blaring of the ram’s horn,
shout out praises before the king, the Lord.
⁷Let the sea and everything in it shout,
along with the world and those who live in it.
⁸Let the rivers clap their hands!
Let the mountains sing in unison
⁹before the Lord.
For he comes to judge the earth.
He judges the world fairly,^[h]
and the nations in a just manner.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5

The Day of the Lord

2 Now regarding the arrival^[a] of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him,^[b] we ask you, brothers and sisters,^[c] ²not to be easily^[d] shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us,^[e] to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. ³Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes^[f] and the man of lawlessness^[g] is revealed, the son of destruction.^[h] ⁴He^[i] opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat^[j] in God’s temple, displaying himself as God.^[k] ⁵Surely you recall^[l] that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you.

Footnotes

2 Thessalonians 2:1 tn Or perhaps “return” (cf. CEV).
2 Thessalonians 2:1 tn Grk “our gathering with him.”
2 Thessalonians 2:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:3.
2 Thessalonians 2:2 tn Or “quickly, soon.”
2 Thessalonians 2:2 tn Grk “as through us.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3 tn Grk “for unless the rebellion comes first.” The clause about “the day” is understood from v. 2.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 tc Most mss (A D F G Ψ 1175 1241 1505 M al lat sy) read ἁμαρτίας (hamartias, “of sin”) here, but several significant mss (א B 0278 6 81 1739 1881 2464 al co) read ἀνομίας (anomias, “of lawlessness”). Although external support for ἁμαρτίας is broader, the generally earlier and better witnesses are on the side of ἀνομίας. Internally, since ἁμαρτία (hamartia, “sin”) occurs nearly ten times as often as ἀνομία (anomia, “lawlessness”) in the corpus Paulinum, scribes would be expected to change the text to the more familiar term. At the same time, the mention of ἀνομία in v. 7 and ὁ ἄνομος (ho anomos, “the lawless one”) in v. 8, both of which look back to v. 3, may have prompted scribes to change the text toward ἀνομίας. The internal evidence is thus fairly evenly balanced. Although a decision is difficult, ἀνομίας has slightly greater probability of authenticity than ἁμαρτίας.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 tn Or “the one destined for destruction.”
2 Thessalonians 2:4 tn Grk “the one who opposes,” describing the figure in v. 3. A new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the personal pronoun (“he”) and translating the participle ἀντικείμενος (antikeimenos) as a finite verb.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 sn Allusions to Isa 14:13-14; Dan 11:36; Ezek 28:2-9 respectively.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 tn Grk “that he is God.”
2 Thessalonians 2:5 tn Grk “You do remember, don’t you?”

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Call to Stand Firm

¹³But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters^[a] loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning^[b] for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. ¹⁴He called you to this salvation^[c] through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.^[d] ¹⁵Therefore, brothers and sisters,^[e] stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.^[f] ¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you^[g] in every good thing you do or say.^[h]

Luke 20:27-38

Marriage and the Resurrection

²⁷Now some Sadducees^[a] (who contend that there is no resurrection)^[b] came to him. ²⁸They asked him,^[c] “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man^[d] must marry^[e] the widow and father children^[f] for his brother.^[g] ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman^[h] and died without children. ³⁰The second^[i] ³¹and then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children. ³²Finally the woman died too. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?^[j] For all seven had married her.”^[k]

³⁴So^[l] Jesus said to them, “The people of this age^[m] marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those who are regarded as worthy to share in^[n] that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.^[o] ³⁶In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels^[p] and are sons of God, since they are^[q] sons^[r] of the resurrection. ³⁷But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised^[s] in the passage about the bush,^[t] where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.^[u] ³⁸Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living,^[v] for all live before him.”^[w]

Footnotes

Luke 20:27 sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). They also did not believe in resurrection or in angels, an important detail in v. 36. See also Matt 3:7; 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-8.
Luke 20:27 sn This remark is best regarded as a parenthetical note by the author.
Luke 20:28 tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
Luke 20:28 tn Grk “his brother,” but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).
Luke 20:28 tn The use of ἵνα (hina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).
Luke 20:28 tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for procreating children (L&N 23.59).
Luke 20:28 sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. Because the OT quotation does not include “a wife” as the object of the verb, it has been left as normal type. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.
Luke 20:29 tn Grk “took a wife” (an idiom for marrying a woman).
Luke 20:30 tc Most mss (A W Θ Ψ ƒ^1,13 33 M lat) have the words, “took the wife and this one died childless” after “the second.” But this looks like a clarifying addition, assimilating the text to Mark 12:21. In light of the early and diverse witnesses that lack the expression (א B D L 0266 892 1241 co), the shorter reading should be considered authentic.
Luke 20:33 sn The point is a dilemma. In a world arguing a person should have one spouse, whose wife will she be in the afterlife? The question was designed to show that (in the opinion of the Sadducees) resurrection leads to a major problem.
Luke 20:33 tn Grk “For the seven had her as wife.”
Luke 20:34 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ response is a result of their framing of the question.
Luke 20:34 tn Grk “sons of this age” (an idiom, see L&N 11.16). The following clause which refers to being “given in marriage” suggests both men and women are included in this phrase.
Luke 20:35 tn Grk “to attain to.”
Luke 20:35 sn Life in the age to come is different than life here (they neither marry nor are given in marriage). This means Jesus’ questioners had made a false assumption that life was the same both now and in the age to come.
Luke 20:36 sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).
Luke 20:36 tn Grk “sons of God, being.” The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle here.
Luke 20:36 tn Or “people.” The noun υἱός (huios) followed by the genitive of class or kind (“sons of…”) denotes a person of a class or kind, specified by the following genitive construction. This Semitic idiom is frequent in the NT (L&N 9.4).
Luke 20:37 tn Grk “But that the dead are raised even Moses revealed.”
Luke 20:37 sn See Exod 3:6. Jesus used a common form of rabbinic citation here to refer to the passage in question.
Luke 20:37 sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.
Luke 20:38 sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.
Luke 20:38 tn On this syntax, see BDF §192. The point is that all live “to” God or “before” God.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Glory to Come

Footnotes

Psalm 145[a]

A psalm of praise; by David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 98[a]

A psalm.

Footnotes

The Day of the Lord

Footnotes

Call to Stand Firm

Footnotes

Marriage and the Resurrection

Footnotes

Psalm 145^[a]

Psalm 98^[a]