1 Korintus 10:33

10:33 just as I also try to please everyone in all things. I do not seek my own benefit, but the benefit ¹  of many, so that they may be saved.

1 Korintus 12:7

12:7 To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.

1 Korintus 13:3

13:3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, ²  but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

1 Korintus 13:1

The Way of Love

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1 Samuel 12:21

12:21 You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty. ³ 

Yeremia 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ⁴ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ⁵ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ⁶ 

Yeremia 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ⁷  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁸  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁹  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹⁰ 

Matius 16:26

16:26 For what does it benefit a person ¹¹  if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life?

Matius 16:2

16:2 He ¹²  said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’

Titus 2:14

2:14 He ¹³  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ¹⁴  who are eager to do good. ¹⁵ 

Titus 3:8

Summary of the Letter

3:8 This saying ¹⁶  is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, ¹⁷  so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

Ibrani 13:9

13:9 Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. ¹⁸  For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, ¹⁹  which have never benefited those who participated in them.

[10:33]  ¹ tn Although the Greek word translated “benefit” occurs only once in this verse, the Greek article occurs twice. This indicates an implied repetition of the term, which has been included twice in the translation for the sake of clarity and English style.

[13:3]  ² tc The reading καυχήσωμαι (kauchswmai, “I might boast”) is well supported by Ì⁴⁶ א A B 048 33 1739* pc co Hier^mss. The competing reading, καυθήσομαι (kauqhsomai, “I will burn”), is found in C D F G L 81 1175 1881* al latt and a host of patristic writers. From this reading other variants were obviously derived: καυθήσωμαι (kauqhswmai), a future subjunctive (“I might burn”) read by the Byzantine text and a few others (Ψ 1739^c 1881^c Ï); and καυθῇ (kauqh, “it might be burned”) read by 1505 pc. On an external level, the Alexandrian reading is obviously superior, though the Western and Byzantine readings need to be accounted for. (The following discussion is derived largely from TCGNT 497-98). Internally, καυχήσωμαι is superior for the following reasons: (1) Once the Church started suffering persecution and martyrdom by fire, the v.l. naturally arose. Once there, it is difficult to see why any scribe would intentionally change it to καυχήσωμαι. (2) Involving as it does the change of just two letters (χ to θ [c to q], ω to ο [w to o]), this reading could be accomplished without much fanfare. Yet, it appears cumbersome in the context, both because of the passive voice and especially the retention of the first person (“If I give up my body that I may be burned”). A more logical word would have been the third person passive, καυθῇ, as read in 1505 (“If I give up my body that it may be burned”). (3) Although the connection between giving up one’s body and boasting is ambiguous, this very ambiguity has all the earmarks of being from Paul. It may have the force of giving up one’s body into slavery. In any event, it looks to be the harder reading. Incidentally, the Byzantine reading is impossible because the future subjunctive did not occur in Koine Greek. As the reading of the majority of Byzantine minuscules, its roots are clearly post-Koine and as such is a “grammatical monstrosity that cannot be attributed to Paul” (TCGNT 498). Cf. also the notes in BDF §28; MHT 2:219.

[12:21]  ³ tn Or “useless” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “nothing”; NASB “futile”; TEV “are not real.”

[16:19]  ⁴ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  sn The shift here is consistent with the interruptions that have taken place in chapters 14 and 15 and in Jeremiah’s response to God’s condemnation of the people of Judah’s idolatry in chapter 10 (note especially vv. 6-16).

[16:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ⁶ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

[16:19]  sn This passage offers some rather forceful contrasts. The Lord is Jeremiah’s source of strength, security, and protection. The idols are false gods, worthless idols, that can offer no help at all.

[23:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.

[23:32]  ⁹ sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.

[23:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[16:26]  ¹¹ tn Grk “a man,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to refer to both men and women.

[16:2]  ¹² tn Grk “But answering, he said to them.” The construction has been simplified in the translation and δέ (de) has not been translated.

[2:14]  ¹³ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “for good works.”

[3:8]  ¹⁶ sn This saying (Grk “the saying”) refers to the preceding citation (Titus 3:4-7). See 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11 for other occurrences of this phrase.

[3:8]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “concerning these things.”

[13:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “by diverse and strange teachings.”

[13:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “foods,” referring to the meals associated with the OT sacrifices (see the contrast with the next verse; also 9:9-10; 10:1, 4, 11).