Yesaya 43:10

43:10 You are my witnesses,” says the Lord,

“my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may consider ¹  and believe in me,

and understand that I am he.

No god was formed before me,

and none will outlive me. ² 

Yesaya 43:12

43:12 I decreed and delivered and proclaimed,

and there was no other god among you.

You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

Ezra 1:2

1:2 “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:

“‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has instructed me to build a temple ³  for him in Jerusalem, ⁴  which is in Judah.

Ezra 8:22

8:22 I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy ⁵  along the way, because we had said to the king, “The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger ⁶  is against everyone who forsakes him.”

Daniel 2:28

2:28 However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, ⁷  and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come. ⁸  The dream and the visions you had while lying on your bed ⁹  are as follows.

Daniel 2:47

2:47 The king replied to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

Daniel 3:16-28

3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, ¹⁰  “We do not need to give you a reply ¹¹  concerning this. 3:17 If ¹²  our God whom we are serving exists, ¹³  he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well. 3:18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ¹⁴  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ¹⁵  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated. 3:20 He ordered strong ¹⁶  soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 3:21 So those men were tied up while still wearing their cloaks, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, ¹⁷  and were thrown into the furnace ¹⁸  of blazing fire. 3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ¹⁹  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ²⁰  by the leaping flames. ²¹  3:23 But those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell into the furnace ²²  of blazing fire while still securely bound. ²³ 

God Delivers His Servants

3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw ²⁴  into ²⁵  the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.” 3:25 He answered, “But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!” ²⁶  3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, ²⁷  “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. ²⁸  3:27 Once the satraps, prefects, governors, and ministers of the king had gathered around, they saw that those men were physically ²⁹  unharmed by the fire. ³⁰  The hair of their heads was not singed, nor were their trousers damaged. Not even the smell of fire was to be found on them!

3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, ³¹  “Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel ³²  and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring ³³  the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than ³⁴  serve or pay homage to any god other than their God!

Daniel 4:25

4:25 You will be driven ³⁵  from human society, ³⁶  and you will live ³⁷  with the wild animals. You will be fed ³⁸  grass like oxen, ³⁹  and you will become damp with the dew of the sky. Seven periods of time will pass by for you, before ⁴⁰  you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.

Daniel 5:23-30

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ⁴¹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ⁴²  your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ⁴³  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ⁴⁴  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ⁴⁵  As for mene ⁴⁶  – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres ⁴⁷  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ⁴⁸  Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ⁴⁹  was killed. ⁵⁰ 

Daniel 6:22

6:22 My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before him. Nor have I done any harm to you, O king.”

Kisah Para Rasul 1:8

1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts ⁵¹  of the earth.”

Kisah Para Rasul 14:15

14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures ⁵²  just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn ⁵³  from these worthless ⁵⁴  things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, ⁵⁵  the sea, and everything that is in them.

Kisah Para Rasul 17:23-31

17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, ⁵⁶  I even found an altar with this inscription: ⁵⁷  ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, ⁵⁸  this I proclaim to you. 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, ⁵⁹  who is ⁶⁰  Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, ⁶¹  17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, ⁶²  because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. ⁶³  17:26 From one man ⁶⁴  he made every nation of the human race ⁶⁵  to inhabit the entire earth, ⁶⁶  determining their set times ⁶⁷  and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, ⁶⁸  17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around ⁶⁹  for him and find him, ⁷⁰  though he is ⁷¹  not far from each one of us. 17:28 For in him we live and move about ⁷²  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ⁷³  17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ⁷⁴  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ⁷⁵  made by human ⁷⁶  skill ⁷⁷  and imagination. ⁷⁸  17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked ⁷⁹  such times of ignorance, ⁸⁰  he now commands all people ⁸¹  everywhere to repent, ⁸²  17:31 because he has set ⁸³  a day on which he is going to judge the world ⁸⁴  in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, ⁸⁵  having provided proof to everyone by raising ⁸⁶  him from the dead.”

Ibrani 12:1

The Lord’s Discipline

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ⁸⁷  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

Ibrani 12:1

The Lord’s Discipline

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ⁸⁸  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

Yohanes 1:2

1:2 The Word ⁸⁹  was with God in the beginning.

[43:10]  ¹ tn Or “know” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[43:10]  ² tn Heb “and after me, there will not be”; NASB “there will be none after Me.”

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “house.” The Hebrew noun בַּיִת (bayit, “house”) is often used in reference to the temple of Yahweh (BDB 108 s.v. 1.a). This is also frequent elsewhere in Ezra and Nehemiah (e.g., Ezra 1:3, 4, 5, 7; 2:68; 3:8, 9, 11, 12; 4:3; 6:22; 7:27; 8:17, 25, 29, 30, 33, 36; 9:9; 10:1, 6, 9).

[1:2]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:22]  ⁵ tn A number of modern translations regard this as a collective singular and translate “from enemies” (also in v. 31).

[8:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “his strength and his anger.” The expression is a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms).

[2:28]  ⁷ tn Aram “a revealer of mysteries.” The phrase serves as a quasi-title for God in Daniel.

[2:28]  ⁸ tn Aram “in the latter days.”

[2:28]  ⁹ tn Aram “your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed.”

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tc In the MT this word is understood to begin the following address (“answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar’”). However, it seems unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar’s subordinates would address the king in such a familiar way, particularly in light of the danger that they now found themselves in. The present translation implies moving the atnach from “king” to “Nebuchadnezzar.”

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Aram “to return a word to you.”

[3:17]  ¹² tc The ancient versions typically avoid the conditional element of v. 17.

[3:17]  ¹³ tn The Aramaic expression used here is very difficult to interpret. The question concerns the meaning and syntax of אִיתַי (’itay, “is” or “exist”). There are several possibilities. (1) Some interpreters take this word closely with the participle later in the verse יָכִל (yakhil, “able”), understanding the two words to form a periphrastic construction (“if our God is…able”; cf. H. Bauer and P. Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, 365, §111b). But the separation of the two elements from one another is not an argument in favor of this understanding. (2) Other interpreters take the first part of v. 17 to mean “If it is so, then our God will deliver us” (cf. KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB). However, the normal sense of ’itay is existence; on this point see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 45, §95. The present translation maintains the sense of existence for the verb (“If our God…exists”), even though the statement is admittedly difficult to understand in this light. The statement may be an implicit reference back to Nebuchadnezzar’s comment in v. 15, which denies the existence of a god capable of delivering from the king’s power.

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[3:20]  ¹⁶ tn This is sometimes taken as a comparative: “[some of the] strongest.”

[3:21]  ¹⁷ sn There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the specific nature of these items of clothing.

[3:21]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:22]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “caused to go up.”

[3:22]  ²⁰ tn The Aramaic verb is active.

[3:22]  ²¹ tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”

[3:23]  ²² tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:23]  ²³ sn The deuterocanonical writings known as The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three present at this point a confession and petition for God’s forgiveness and a celebration of God’s grace for the three Jewish youths in the fiery furnace. Though not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel, these compositions do appear in the ancient Greek versions.

[3:24]  ²⁴ tn Aram “we threw…bound.”

[3:24]  ²⁵ tn Aram “into the midst of.”

[3:25]  ²⁶ sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”

[3:26]  ²⁷ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:26]  ²⁸ tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:27]  ²⁹ tn Aram “in their bodies.”

[3:27]  ³⁰ tn Aram “the fire did not have power.”

[3:28]  ³¹ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:28]  ³² sn The king identifies the “son of the gods” (v. 25) as an angel. Comparable Hebrew expressions are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for the members of God’s angelic assembly (see Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Pss 29:1; 89:6). An angel later comes to rescue Daniel from the lions (Dan 6:22).

[3:28]  ³³ tn Aram “they changed” or “violated.”

[3:28]  ³⁴ tn Aram “so that they might not.”

[4:25]  ³⁵ tn The Aramaic indefinite active plural is used here like the English passive. So also in v. 28, 29,32.

[4:25]  ³⁶ tn Aram “from mankind.” So also in v. 32.

[4:25]  ³⁷ tn Aram “your dwelling will be.” So also in v. 32.

[4:25]  ³⁸ tn Or perhaps “be made to eat.”

[4:25]  ³⁹ sn Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity has features that are associated with the mental disorder known as boanthropy, in which the person so afflicted imagines himself to be an ox or a similar animal and behaves accordingly.

[4:25]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “until.”

[5:23]  ⁴¹ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ⁴² tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[5:25]  ⁴³ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

[5:25]  ⁴⁴ tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

[5:26]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

[5:26]  ⁴⁶ tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”

[5:28]  ⁴⁷ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

[5:29]  ⁴⁸ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

[5:30]  ⁴⁹ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ⁵⁰ sn The year was 539 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been approximately eighty-one years old. The relevant extra-biblical records describing the fall of Babylon include portions of Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus (cited in Josephus), the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Babylonian Chronicle.

[1:8]  ⁵¹ tn Or “to the ends.”

[14:15]  ⁵² tn Grk “with the same kinds of feelings,” L&N 25.32. BDAG 706 s.v. ὁμοιοπαθής translates the phrase “with the same nature τινί as someone.” In the immediate context, the contrast is between human and divine nature, and the point is that Paul and Barnabas are mere mortals, not gods.

[14:15]  ⁵³ tn Grk “in order that you should turn,” with ἐπιστρέφειν (epistrefein) as an infinitive of purpose, but this is somewhat awkward contemporary English. To translate the infinitive construction “proclaim the good news, that you should turn,” which is much smoother English, could give the impression that the infinitive clause is actually the content of the good news, which it is not. The somewhat less formal “to get you to turn” would work, but might convey to some readers manipulativeness on the part of the apostles. Thus “proclaim the good news, so that you should turn,” is used, to convey that the purpose of the proclamation of good news is the response by the hearers. The emphasis here is like 1 Thess 1:9-10.

[14:15]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “useless,” “futile.” The reference is to idols and idolatry, worshiping the creation over the Creator (Rom 1:18-32). See also 1 Kgs 16:2, 13, 26; 2 Kgs 17:15; Jer 2:5; 8:19; 3 Macc 6:11.

[14:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “and the earth, and the sea,” but καί (kai) has not been translated before “the earth” and “the sea” since contemporary English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[17:23]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “your sanctuaries.” L&N 53.54 gives “sanctuary” (place of worship) as an alternate meaning for the word σεβάσματα (sebasmata).

[17:23]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “on which was written,” but since it would have been carved in stone, it is more common to speak of an “inscription” in English. To simplify the English the relative construction with a passive verb (“on which was inscribed”) was translated as a prepositional phrase with a substantive (“inscription”).

[17:23]  ⁵⁸ tn BDAG 13 s.v. ἀγνοέω 1.b has “Abs. ὅ ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε what you worship without knowing it (on the subject matter Maximus Tyr. 11, 5e: all sorts of philosophers ἴσασιν οὐκ ἑκόντες καὶ λέγουσιν ἄκοντες sc. τὸ θεῖον = they know and name God without intending to do so) Ac 17:23.” Paul, in typical Jewish Christian style, informs them of the true God, of whom their idols are an ignorant reflection.

[17:24]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “all the things that are in it.” The speech starts with God as Creator, like 14:15.

[17:24]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “because he is.” The participle ὑπάρχων (Juparcwn) could be either adjectival, modifying οὗτος (Joutos, “who is Lord…”) or adverbial of cause (“because he is Lord…”). Since the participle διδούς (didou") in v. 25 appears to be clearly causal in force, it is preferable to understand ὑπάρχων as adjectival in this context.

[17:24]  ⁶¹ sn On the statement does not live in temples made by human hands compare Acts 7:48. This has implications for idols as well. God cannot be represented by them or, as the following clause also suggests, served by human hands.

[17:25]  ⁶² tn L&N 57.45 has “nor does he need anything more that people can supply by working for him.”

[17:25]  ⁶³ tn Grk “he himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things.”

[17:26]  ⁶⁴ sn The one man refers to Adam (the word “man” is understood).

[17:26]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “mankind.” BDAG 276 s.v. ἔθνος 1 has “every nation of humankind Ac 17:26.”

[17:26]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “to live over all the face of the earth.”

[17:26]  ⁶⁷ tn BDAG 884-85 s.v. προστάσσω has “(οἱ) προστεταγμένοι καιροί (the) fixed times Ac 17:26” here, but since the following phrase is also translated “fixed limits,” this would seem redundant in English, so the word “set” has been used instead.

[17:26]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “the boundaries of their habitation.” L&N 80.5 has “fixed limits of the places where they would live” for this phrase.

[17:27]  ⁶⁹ tn See BDAG 1097-98 s.v. ψηλαφάω, which lists “touch, handle” and “to feel around for, grope for” as possible meanings.

[17:27]  ⁷⁰ sn Perhaps grope around for him and find him. The pagans’ struggle to know God is the point here. Conscience alone is not good enough.

[17:27]  ⁷¹ tn The participle ὑπάρχοντα (Juparconta) has been translated as a concessive adverbial participle.

[17:28]  ⁷² tn According to L&N 15.1, “A strictly literal translation of κινέω in Ac 17:28 might imply merely moving from one place to another. The meaning, however, is generalized movement and activity; therefore, it may be possible to translate κινούμεθα as ‘we come and go’ or ‘we move about’’ or even ‘we do what we do.’”

[17:28]  ⁷³ sn This quotation is from Aratus (ca. 310-245 b.c.), Phaenomena 5. Paul asserted a general relationship and accountability to God for all humanity.

[17:29]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ⁷⁵ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ⁷⁶ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ⁷⁷ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ⁷⁸ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:30]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.”

[17:30]  ⁸⁰ tn Or “times when people did not know.”

[17:30]  ⁸¹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[17:30]  ⁸² sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.

[17:31]  ⁸³ tn Or “fixed.”

[17:31]  ⁸⁴ sn The world refers to the whole inhabited earth.

[17:31]  ⁸⁵ tn Or “appointed.” BDAG 723 s.v. ὁρίζω 2.b has “of persons appoint, designate, declare: God judges the world ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν through a man whom he has appointed Ac 17:31.”

[17:31]  sn A man whom he designated. Jesus is put in the position of eschatological judge. As judge of the living and the dead, he possesses divine authority (Acts 10:42).

[17:31]  ⁸⁶ tn The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") indicates means here.

[12:1]  ⁸⁷ tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

[12:1]  ⁸⁸ tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

[1:2]  ⁸⁹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the Word) has been specified in the translation for clarity.