Mazmur 40:8

40:8 I want to do what pleases you, ¹  my God.

Your law dominates my thoughts.” ² 

Matius 3:15

3:15 So Jesus replied ³  to him, “Let it happen now, ⁴  for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John ⁵  yielded ⁶  to him.

Matius 5:17-20

Fulfillment of the Law and Prophets

5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them. ⁷  5:18 I ⁸  tell you the truth, ⁹  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ¹⁰  will pass from the law until everything takes place. 5:19 So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others ¹¹  to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law ¹²  and the Pharisees, ¹³  you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Roma 3:31

3:31 Do we then nullify ¹⁴  the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead ¹⁵  we uphold the law.

Roma 7:12

7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Roma 8:3-4

8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because ¹⁶  it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Roma 10:4

10:4 For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.

Galatia 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ¹⁷  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ¹⁸ 

Galatia 3:21

3:21 Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? ¹⁹  Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ²⁰ 

Galatia 5:22-23

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ²¹  is love, ²²  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³  5:23 gentleness, and ²⁴  self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Ibrani 8:10

8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put ²⁵  my laws in their minds ²⁶  and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. ²⁷ 

Ibrani 8:1

The High Priest of a Better Covenant

8:1 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: ²⁸  We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ²⁹ 

Yohanes 3:4-5

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ³⁰ 

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³¹  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ³²  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

[40:8]  ¹ tn Or “your will.”

[40:8]  ² tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.

[3:15]  ³ tn Grk “but Jesus, answering, said.” This construction with passive participle and finite verb is pleonastic (redundant) and has been simplified in the translation to “replied to him.”

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Grk “Permit now.”

[3:15]  ⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:15]  ⁶ tn Or “permitted him.”

[5:17]  ⁷ tn Grk “not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Direct objects (“these things,” “them”) were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but have been supplied here to conform to contemporary English style.

[5:18]  ⁸ tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[5:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[5:18]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”

[5:18]  sn The smallest letter refers to the smallest Hebrew letter (yod) and the stroke of a letter to a serif (a hook or projection on a Hebrew letter).

[5:19]  ¹¹ tn Grk “teaches men” ( in a generic sense, people).

[5:20]  ¹² tn Or “that of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[5:20]  ¹³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[3:31]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “render inoperative.”

[3:31]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “but” (Greek ἀλλά, alla).

[8:3]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “in that.”

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ¹⁸ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[3:21]  ¹⁹ tc The reading τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou, “of God”) is well attested in א A C D (F G read θεοῦ without the article) Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co. However, Ì⁴⁶ B d Ambst lack the words. Ì⁴⁶ and B perhaps should not to be given as much weight as they normally are, since the combination of these two witnesses often produces a secondary shorter reading against all others. In addition, one might expect that if the shorter reading were original other variants would have crept into the textual tradition early on. But 104 (a.d. 1087) virtually stands alone with the variant τοῦ Χριστοῦ (tou Cristou, “of Christ”). Nevertheless, if τοῦ θεοῦ were not part of the original text, it is the kind of variant that would be expected to show up early and often, especially in light of Paul’s usage elsewhere (Rom 4:20; 2 Cor 1:20). A slight preference should be given to the τοῦ θεοῦ over the omission. NA²⁷ rightly places the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

[3:21]  ²⁰ tn Or “have been based on the law.”

[5:22]  ²¹ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ²² sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²³ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[5:23]  ²⁴ tn “And” is supplied here as a matter of English style, which normally inserts “and” between the last two elements of a list or series.

[8:10]  ²⁵ tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

[8:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “mind.”

[8:10]  ²⁷ tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.

[8:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the main point of the things being said.”

[8:1]  ²⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1; see Heb 1:3, 13.

[3:4]  ³⁰ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ³² tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:5]  sn Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic statement points to the necessity of being born “from above,” because water and wind/spirit/Spirit come from above. Isaiah 44:3-5 and Ezek 37:9-10 are pertinent examples of water and wind as life-giving symbols of the Spirit of God in his work among people. Both occur in contexts that deal with the future restoration of Israel as a nation prior to the establishment of the messianic kingdom. It is therefore particularly appropriate that Jesus should introduce them in a conversation about entering the kingdom of God. Note that the Greek word πνεύματος is anarthrous (has no article) in v. 5. This does not mean that spirit in the verse should be read as a direct reference to the Holy Spirit, but that both water and wind are figures (based on passages in the OT, which Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel should have known) that represent the regenerating work of the Spirit in the lives of men and women.