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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

Psalm 2

Psalm 2^[a]

2 Why^[b] do the nations rebel?^[c]
Why^[d] are the countries^[e] devising^[f] plots that will fail?^[g]
²The kings of the earth^[h] form a united front;^[i]
the rulers collaborate^[j]
against the Lord and his anointed king.^[k]
³They say,^[l] “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us.^[m]
Let’s free ourselves from^[n] their ropes.”
⁴The one enthroned^[o] in heaven laughs in disgust;^[p]
the Lord taunts^[q] them.
⁵Then he angrily speaks to them
and terrifies them in his rage,^[r] saying,^[s]
⁶“I myself^[t] have installed^[u] my king
on Zion, my holy hill.”
⁷The king says,^[v] “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me:^[w]
‘You are my son.^[x] This very day I have become your father.
⁸Ask me,
and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,^[y]
the ends of the earth as your personal property.
⁹You will break them^[z] with an iron scepter;^[aa]
you will smash them like a potter’s jar.’”^[ab]
¹⁰So now, you kings, do what is wise;^[ac]
you rulers of the earth, submit to correction.^[ad]
¹¹Serve^[ae] the Lord in fear.
Repent in terror.^[af]
¹²Give sincere homage.^[ag]
Otherwise he^[ah] will be angry,^[ai]
and you will die because of your behavior,^[aj]
when his anger quickly ignites.^[ak]
How blessed^[al] are all who take shelter in him!^[am]

Footnotes

Psalm 2:1 sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.
Psalm 2:1 tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.
Psalm 2:1 tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.
Psalm 2:1 tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lammah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
Psalm 2:1 tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).
Psalm 2:1 tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).
Psalm 2:1 tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.
Psalm 2:2 sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.
Psalm 2:2 tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.
Psalm 2:2 tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).
Psalm 2:2 tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).
Psalm 2:3 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.
Psalm 2:3 tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.
Psalm 2:3 tn Heb “throw off from us.”
Psalm 2:4 tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12; 123:1).
Psalm 2:4 tn As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter. The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in vv. 4-5 describe the action from the perspective of an eyewitness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.
Psalm 2:4 tn Or “scoffs at”; “derides”; “mocks.”
Psalm 2:5 sn And terrifies them in his rage. This line focuses on the effect that God’s angry response (see previous line) has on the rebellious kings.
Psalm 2:5 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification to indicate that the speaker is the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV).
Psalm 2:6 tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”
Psalm 2:6 tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”
Psalm 2:7 tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.
Psalm 2:7 tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).
Psalm 2:7 sn ‘You are my son.’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
Psalm 2:8 sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.
Psalm 2:9 tc The LXX reads “you will shepherd them.” This reading, quoted in the Greek text of the NT in Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15, assumes a different vocalization of the consonantal Hebrew text and understands the verb as רָעָה (raʿah, “to shepherd”) rather than רָעָע (raʿaʿ, “to break”). But the presence of נָפַץ (nafats, “to smash”) in the next line strongly favors the MT vocalization.
Psalm 2:9 tn The Hebrew term שֵׁבֶט (shevet) can refer to a “staff” or “rod,” but here it probably refers to the Davidic king’s royal scepter, symbolizing his sovereignty.
Psalm 2:9 sn Like a potter’s jar. Before the Davidic king’s awesome power, the rebellious nations are like fragile pottery.
Psalm 2:10 sn The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings.
Psalm 2:10 tn The Niphal has here a tolerative nuance; the kings are urged to submit themselves to the advice being offered.
Psalm 2:11 tn The Hebrew verb translated “serve” refers here to submitting to the Lord’s sovereignty as expressed through the rule of the Davidic king. Such “service” would involve maintaining allegiance to the Davidic king by paying tribute on a regular basis.
Psalm 2:11 tn Traditionally, “rejoice with trembling” (KJV). The verb גִּיל (gil) normally means “rejoice,” but this meaning does not fit well here in conjunction with “in trembling.” Some try to understand “trembling” (and the parallel יִרְאָה, yirʾah, “fear”) in the sense of “reverential awe” and then take the verbs “serve” and “rejoice” in the sense of “worship” (cf. NASB). But רְעָדָה (r^eʿadah, “trembling”) and its related terms consistently refer to utter terror and fear (see Exod 15:15; Job 4:14; Pss 48:6; 55:5; 104:32; Isa 33:14; Dan 10:11) or at least great emotional distress (Ezra 10:9). It seems more likely here that גִּיל carries its polarized meaning “mourn, lament,” as in Hos 10:5. “Mourn, lament” would then be metonymic in this context for “repent” (referring to one’s rebellious ways). On the meaning of the verb in Hos 10:5, see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 556-57.
Psalm 2:12 tn Traditionally, “kiss the son” (KJV). But בַּר (bar) is the Aramaic word for “son,” not the Hebrew. For this reason many regard the reading as suspect. Some propose emendations of vv. 11b-12a. One of the more popular proposals is to read בִּרְעָדָה נַשְּׁקוּ לְרַגְלָיו (birʿadah nash^equ l^eraglayv, “in trembling kiss his feet”). It makes better sense to understand בַּר (bar) as an adjective meaning “pure” (see Pss 24:4; 73:1 and BDB 141 s.v. בַּר 3) functioning here in an adverbial sense. If read this way, then the syntactical structure of exhortation (imperative followed by adverbial modifier) corresponds to the two preceding lines (see v. 11). The verb נָשַׁק (nashaq, “kiss”) refers metonymically to showing homage (see 1 Sam 10:1; Hos 13:2). The exhortation in v. 12a advocates a genuine expression of allegiance and warns against insincerity. When swearing allegiance, vassal kings would sometimes do so insincerely, with the intent of rebelling when the time was right. The so-called “Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon” also warn against such an attitude. In this treaty the vassal is told: “If you, as you stand on the soil where this oath [is sworn], swear the oath with your words and lips [only], do not swear with your entire heart, do not transmit it to your sons who will live after this treaty, if you take this curse upon yourselves but do not plan to keep the treaty of Esarhaddon…may your sons and grandsons because of this fear in the future” (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 2:62).
Psalm 2:12 tn Throughout the translation of this verse the third person masculine pronouns refer to the Lord (cf. v. 11).
Psalm 2:12 tn The implied subject of the verb is the Lord, mentioned in v. 11. Elsewhere the subject of this verb is consistently the Lord, suggesting it may be a technical term for divine anger. Anger is here used metonymically for judgment, as the following statement makes clear. A Moabite cognate occurs in the Mesha inscription, where it is used of the Moabite god Chemosh’s anger at his people (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 1:209).
Psalm 2:12 tn Heb “and you will perish [in the] way.” The Hebrew word דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to their rebellious behavior (not to a pathway, as often understood). It functions syntactically as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb “perish.”
Psalm 2:12 tn Or “burns.” The Lord’s anger is compared here to fire, the most destructive force known in ancient Israel.
Psalm 2:12 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; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
Psalm 2:12 sn Who take shelter in him. “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 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

Jeremiah 18:12-23

¹²But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say!^[a] We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’”^[b]

¹³Therefore, the Lord says,

“Ask the people of other nations
whether they have heard of anything like this.
Israel should have been like a virgin,
but she has done something utterly revolting!
¹⁴Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon?
Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow?^[c]
¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten me
and offered sacrifices to worthless idols.
This makes them stumble along in the way they live
and leave the old reliable path of their fathers.^[d]
They have left them to walk in bypaths,
in roads that are not smooth and level.^[e]
¹⁶So their land will become an object of horror.^[f]
People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.
All who pass that way will be filled with horror
and will shake their heads in derision.^[g]
¹⁷I will scatter them before their enemies
like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.
I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them^[h]
when disaster strikes them.”

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

¹⁸Then some people^[i] said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah!^[j] There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word.^[k] Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him!^[l] Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

¹⁹Then I said,^[m]

“Lord, pay attention to me.
Listen to what my enemies are saying.^[n]
²⁰Should good be paid back with evil?
Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me.^[o]
Just remember how I stood before you
pleading on their behalf^[p]
to keep you from venting your anger on them.^[q]
²¹So let their children die of starvation.
Let them be cut down by the sword.^[r]
Let their wives lose their husbands and children.
Let the older men die of disease^[s]
and the younger men die by the sword in battle.
²²Let cries of terror be heard in their houses
when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them.^[t]
For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden traps for me to step into.
²³But you, Lord, know
all their plots to kill me.
Do not pardon their crimes!
Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them.^[u]
Let them be brought down in defeat before you.
Deal with them while you are still angry!^[v]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 18:12 tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.
Jeremiah 18:12 tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”sn This has been the consistent pattern of their behavior. See 7:24; 9:13; 13:10; 16:12.
Jeremiah 18:14 tn The precise translation of this verse is somewhat uncertain. Two phrases in this verse are the primary cause of discussion and the source of numerous emendations, none of which has gained consensus. The phrase that is rendered here “rocky slopes” is in Hebrew צוּר שָׂדַי (tsur saday), which would normally mean something like “rocky crag of the field” (see BDB 961 s.v. שָׂדַי 1.g). Numerous emendations have been proposed, most of which are listed in the footnotes of J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 436. The present translation has chosen to follow the proposal of several scholars that the word here is related to the Akkadian word shadu, meaning mountain. The other difficulty is the word translated “cease,” which in the MT is literally “be uprooted” (יִנָּתְשׁוּ, yinnat^eshu). The word is usually emended to read יִנָּשְׁתוּ (yinnash^etu, “are dried up”) as a case of transposed letters (cf., e.g., BDB 684 s.v. נָתַשׁ Niph). This is probably a case of an error in hearing, and the word נָטַשׁ (natash), which is often parallel to עָזַב (ʿazav), translated here “vanish,” should be read in the sense that it has in 1 Sam 10:2. If one reads “are plucked up” and understands it figuratively of ceasing (“are dried” or “cease”), the sense is the same. For the sense of “distant” for the word זָרִים (zarim), see 2 Kgs 19:24.sn Israel’s actions are contrary to nature. See the same kind of argumentation in Jer 2:11 and 8:7.
Jeremiah 18:15 sn Heb “the ancient path.” This has already been referred to in Jer 6:16. There is another “old way,” but it is the path trod by the wicked (cf. Job 22:15).
Jeremiah 18:15 sn Heb “ways that are not built up.” This refers to the built-up highways. See Isa 40:4 for the figure. The terms “way,” “by-paths,” and “roads” are, of course, being used here in the sense of moral behavior or action.
Jeremiah 18:16 tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this word suggests that the reaction is in view here, not its cause. So does “be filled with horror,” which translates an etymologically related verb.
Jeremiah 18:16 tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”sn The actions of “shaking of the head” and “hissing” were obviously gestures of scorn and derision. See Lam 2:15-16.
Jeremiah 18:17 tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads, “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”sn To “turn the back” is universally recognized as a symbol of rejection. The turning of the face toward one is the subject of the beautiful Aaronic blessing in Num 6:24-26.
Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18, where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “For instruction will not perish from priest, nor counsel from wise man, nor word from prophet.”sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.
Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
Jeremiah 18:19 tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from describing the peoples’ plots to imploring God to deal with the plotters.
Jeremiah 18:19 tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”sn Jeremiah’s prayers against the unjust treatment of his enemies here and elsewhere (see 11:18-20; 12:1-4; 15:15-18; 17:14-18) have many elements of prayers by the innocent in the book of Psalms: an invocation of the Lord as just judge, a lament about unjust attacks, an appeal to innocence, and a cry for vindication that often calls for the Lord to pay back in kind those who unjustly attack the petitioner. See for examples Pss 5, 7, 17, and 54, among many others.
Jeremiah 18:20 tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.
Jeremiah 18:20 tn Heb “to speak good concerning them,” which goes back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.
Jeremiah 18:20 tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”sn See Jer 14:7-9, 19-21 and 15:1-4 for the idea.
Jeremiah 18:21 tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5 and Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages shows that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.
Jeremiah 18:21 tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease, which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.
Jeremiah 18:22 tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them,” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.
Jeremiah 18:23 sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure that looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished and a book of life for those who are to live, see, e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Pss 51:1 (51:3 HT); and 69:28 (69:29 HT).
Jeremiah 18:23 tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”

1 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Conduct in God’s Church

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions^[a] to you ¹⁵in case I am delayed, to let you know how people ought to conduct themselves^[b] in the household of God, because it is^[c] the church of the living God, the support and bulwark of the truth. ¹⁶And we all agree,^[d] our religion contains amazing revelation:^[e]

He^[f] was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,^[g]
seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times

4 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves^[h] with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings,^[i] ²influenced by the hypocrisy of liars^[j] whose consciences are seared.^[k] ³They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴For every creation of God is good and no food^[l] is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. ⁵For it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

Footnotes

1 Timothy 3:14 tn Grk “these things.” sn These instructions refer to the instructions about local church life, given in 1 Tim 2:1-3:13.
1 Timothy 3:15 tn Grk “how it is necessary to behave.”
1 Timothy 3:15 tn Grk “which is” (but the relative clause shows the reason for such conduct).
1 Timothy 3:16 tn Grk “confessedly, admittedly, most certainly.”
1 Timothy 3:16 tn Grk “great is the mystery of [our] religion,” or “great is the mystery of godliness.” The word “mystery” denotes a secret previously hidden in God, but now revealed and made widely known (cf. Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:7; 4:1; Eph 1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 6:19; Col 1:26-27; 4:3). “Religion” (εὐσέβεια, eusebeia) is a word used frequently in the pastorals with a range of meanings: (1) a certain attitude toward God—“devotion, reverence”; (2) the conduct that befits that attitude—“godliness, piety”; and (3) the whole system of belief and approach to God that forms the basis for such attitude and conduct—“religion, creed.” See BDAG 412-13 s.v.; 2 Tim 3:5; 4 Macc 9:6-7, 29-30; 15:1-3; 17:7. So the following creedal statements are illustrations of the great truths that the church is charged with protecting (v. 15).
1 Timothy 3:16 tc The Byzantine text along with a few other witnesses (א³ A^c C² D² Ψ [88] 1241 1505 1739 1881 M al vg^ms) read θεός (theos, “God”) for ὅς (hos, “who”). Most significant among these witnesses is 1739; the second correctors of some of the other mss tend to conform to the medieval standard, the Byzantine text, and add no independent voice to the textual problem. At least two mss have ὁ θεός (69 88), a reading that is a correction on the anarthrous θεός. On the other side, the masculine relative pronoun ὅς is strongly supported by א* A* C* F G 33 365 1175 Did Epiph. Significantly, D* and virtually the entire Latin tradition read the neuter relative pronoun, ὅ (ho, “which”), a reading that indirectly supports ὅς since it could not easily have been generated if θεός had been in the text. Thus, externally, there is no question as to what should be considered the Ausgangstext: The Alexandrian and Western traditions are decidedly in favor of ὅς. Internally, the evidence is even stronger. What scribe would change θεός to ὅς intentionally? “Who” is not only a theologically pale reading by comparison; it also is much harder (since the relative pronoun has no obvious antecedent, probably the reason for the neuter pronoun of the Western tradition). Intrinsically, the rest of 3:16, beginning with ὅς, appears to form a hymn with six strophes. As such, it is a text that is seemingly incorporated into the letter without syntactical connection. Hence, not only should we not look for an antecedent for ὅς (as is often done by commentators), but the relative pronoun thus is not too hard a reading (or impossible, as Dean Burgon believed). Once the genre is taken into account, the relative pronoun fits neatly into the author’s style (cf. also Col 1:15; Phil 2:6 for other places in which the relative pronoun begins a hymn, as was often the case in poetry of the day). On the other hand, with θεός written as a nomen sacrum, it would have looked very much like the relative pronoun: q-=s vs. os. Thus, it may have been easy to confuse one for the other. This, of course, does not solve which direction the scribes would go, although given their generally high Christology and the bland and ambiguous relative pronoun, it is doubtful that they would have replaced θεός with ὅς. How then should we account for θεός? It appears that sometime after the 2nd century the θεός reading came into existence, either via confusion with ὅς or as an intentional alteration to magnify Christ and clear up the syntax at the same time. Once it got in, this theologically rich reading was easily able to influence all the rest of the mss it came in contact with (including mss already written, such as א A C D). That this reading did not arise until after the 2nd century is evident from the Western reading, ὅ. The neuter relative pronoun is certainly a “correction” of ὅς, conforming the gender to that of the neuter μυστήριον (mustērion, “mystery”). What is significant in this reading is (1) since virtually all the Western witnesses have either the masculine or neuter relative pronoun, the θεός reading was apparently unknown to them in the 2nd century (when the “Western” text seems to have originated, though its place of origination was most likely in the east); they thus supply strong indirect evidence of ὅς outside of Egypt in the 2nd century; (2) even 2nd century scribes were liable to misunderstand the genre, feeling compelled to alter the masculine relative pronoun because it appeared to them to be too harsh. The evidence, therefore, for ὅς is quite compelling, both externally and internally. As TCGNT 574 notes, “no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century (Ψ) supports θεός; all ancient versions presuppose ὅς or ὅ; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading θεός.” Thus, the cries of certain groups that θεός has to be original must be seen as special pleading. To argue that heretics tampered with the text here is self-defeating, for most of the Western fathers who quoted the verse with the relative pronoun were quite orthodox, strongly affirming the deity of Christ. They would have dearly loved such a reading as θεός. Further, had heretics introduced a variant to θεός, a far more natural choice would have been Χριστός (Christos, “Christ”) or κύριος (kurios, “Lord”), since the text is self-evidently about Christ, but it is not self-evidently a proclamation of his deity. (See ExSyn 341-42, for a summary discussion on this issue and additional bibliographic references.)tn Grk “who.”sn This 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.
1 Timothy 3:16 tn Or “in spirit.”
1 Timothy 4:1 tn Or “desert the faith by occupying themselves.”
1 Timothy 4:1 tn Grk “teachings of demons” (speaking of the source of these doctrines).
1 Timothy 4:2 tn Grk “in the hypocrisy of liars.”
1 Timothy 4:2 tn Or “branded.” The Greek verb καυστηριάζω (kaustēriazō) can be used to refer either to the cause (“brand”) or the effect (“seared”).sn Consciences are seared. The precise meaning of this phrase is somewhat debated. Three primary interpretations are (1) the consciences of these false teachers are “branded” with Satan’s mark to indicate ownership, (2) their consciences are “branded” with a penal mark to show they are lawbreakers, or (3) their consciences have been “seared” (i.e., totally burnt and desensitized) so that they are unable to notice the difference between right and wrong. See G. W. Knight, Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC), 189.
1 Timothy 4:4 tn Grk “nothing.”

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 2[a]

Footnotes

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

Footnotes

Conduct in God’s Church

Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times

Footnotes

Psalm 2^[a]