Efesus 5:9

5:9 for the fruit of the light ¹  consists in ²  all goodness, righteousness, and truth –

Kolose 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ³  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ⁴  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Ibrani 12:11

12:11 Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. ⁵  But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness ⁶  for those trained by it.

Yakobus 3:18

3:18 And the fruit that consists of righteousness ⁷  is planted ⁸  in peace among ⁹  those who make peace.

[5:9]  ¹ tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁶ D² Ψ Ï) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (fwtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously original (UBS⁴ gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D² often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), Ì⁴⁶ gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both Ì⁴⁹ and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs) – a practice found even in the earliest mss – πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (Ì⁴⁹ א A B D* F G P 33 81 1739 1881 2464 pc latt co); it is rather doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be original, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.

[5:9]  ² tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”

[1:6]  ³ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ⁴ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[12:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “all discipline at the time does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow.”

[12:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “the fruit of righteousness,” meaning righteous living as a fruit, as the thing produced.

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Grk “is sown.”

[3:18]  ⁹ tn Or “for,” or possibly “by.”