Yohanes 9:40-41

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ¹  who were with him heard this ²  and asked him, ³  “We are not blind too, are we?” ⁴  9:41 Jesus replied, ⁵  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ⁶  but now because you claim that you can see, ⁷  your guilt ⁸  remains.” ⁹ 

Yohanes 9:2

9:2 His disciples asked him, ¹⁰  “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man ¹¹  or his parents?” ¹² 

Kolose 4:3-4

4:3 At the same time pray ¹³  for us too, that ¹⁴  God may open a door for the message ¹⁵  so that we may proclaim ¹⁶  the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ¹⁷  4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ¹⁸ 

Kolose 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Yohanes 2:9-11

2:9 When ¹⁹  the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from ²⁰  (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he ²¹  called the bridegroom 2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ²²  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ²³  wine when the guests ²⁴  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!” 2:11 Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, ²⁵  in Cana ²⁶  of Galilee. In this way he revealed ²⁷  his glory, and his disciples believed in him. ²⁸ 

Wahyu 3:17

3:17 Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, ²⁹  and need nothing,” but ³⁰  do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, ³¹  poor, blind, and naked,

[9:40]  ¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ² tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ³ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ⁴ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).

[9:41]  ⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ⁶ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ⁷ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ⁸ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ⁹ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

[9:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “asked him, saying.”

[9:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “this one.”

[9:2]  ¹² tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”

[9:2]  sn The disciples assumed that sin (regardless of who committed it) was the cause of the man’s blindness. This was a common belief in Judaism; the rabbis used Ezek 18:20 to prove there was no death without sin, and Ps 89:33 to prove there was no punishment without guilt (the Babylonian Talmud, b. Shabbat 55a, although later than the NT, illustrates this). Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.

[4:3]  ¹³ tn Though προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) is an adverbial participle related to the previous imperative, προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite), it is here translated as an independent clause due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[4:3]  ¹⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been rendered as substantival here, indicating the content of the prayer rather than the purpose for it. These two ideas are very similar and difficult to differentiate in this passage, but the conjunction ἵνα following a verb of praying is generally regarded as giving the content of the prayer.

[4:3]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “that God may open for us a door of the word to speak the mystery of Christ.” The construction in Greek is somewhat awkward in this clause. The translation attempts to simplify this structure somewhat and yet communicate exactly what Paul is asking for.

[4:3]  ¹⁶ tn Or “so that we may speak.”

[4:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in prison.”

[4:4]  ¹⁸ tn The phrase begins with the ἵνα (Jina) clause and is subordinate to the imperative προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite) in v. 2. The reference to the idea that Paul must make it known indicates that this clause is probably best viewed as purpose and not content, like the ἵνα of v. 3. It is the second purpose stated in the context; the first is expressed through the infinitive λαλῆσαι (lalhsai) in v. 3. The term “pray” at the beginning of the sentence is intended to pick up the imperative of v. 3.

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and he did not know where it came from.”

[2:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “the head steward”; here the repetition of the phrase is somewhat redundant in English and the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[2:10]  ²² tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

[2:10]  ²³ tn Or “poorer.”

[2:10]  ²⁴ tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ²⁵ tn This sentence in Greek involves an object-complement construction. The force can be either “Jesus did this as,” or possibly “Jesus made this to be.” The latter translation accents not only Jesus’ power but his sovereignty too. Cf. also 4:54 where the same construction occurs.

[2:11]  ²⁶ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[2:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed.”

[2:11]  ²⁸ tn Or “his disciples trusted in him,” or “his disciples put their faith in him.”

[3:17]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and have become rich.” The semantic domains of the two terms for wealth here, πλούσιος (plousios, adjective) and πλουτέω (ploutew, verb) overlap considerably, but are given slightly different English translations for stylistic reasons.

[3:17]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:17]  ³¹ tn All the terms in this series are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.