2 Raja-raja 2:10

2:10 Elijah ¹  replied, “That’s a difficult request! ²  If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”

2 Raja-raja 3:18

3:18 This is an easy task for the Lord; ³  he will also hand Moab over to you.

Yesaya 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ⁴  of Israel? ⁵ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁶ 

so you can bring ⁷  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Markus 9:28-29

9:28 Then, ⁸  after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” 9:29 He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” ⁹ 

Yohanes 14:12

14:12 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁰  the person who believes in me will perform ¹¹  the miraculous deeds ¹²  that I am doing, ¹³  and will perform ¹⁴  greater deeds ¹⁵  than these, because I am going to the Father.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “You have made difficult [your] request.”

[3:18]  ³ tn Heb “and this is easy in the eyes of the Lord.”

[49:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ⁵ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ⁶ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[9:28]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[9:29]  ⁹ tc Most witnesses, even early and excellent ones (Ì^45vid א² A C D L W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat co), have “and fasting” (καὶ νηστείᾳ, kai nhsteia) after “prayer” here. But this seems to be a motivated reading, due to the early church’s emphasis on fasting (TCGNT 85; cf., e.g., 2 Clem. 16:4; Pol. Phil 7:2; Did. 1:3; 7:4). That the most important witnesses (א* B), as well as a few others (0274 2427 k), lack καὶ νηστείᾳ, when a good reason for the omission is difficult to find, argues strongly for the shorter reading.

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[14:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “will do.”

[14:12]  ¹² tn Grk “the works.”

[14:12]  ¹³ tn Or “that I do.”

[14:12]  sn See the note on miraculous deeds in v. 11.

[14:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “will do.”

[14:12]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “greater works.”

[14:12]  sn What are the greater deeds that Jesus speaks of, and how is this related to his going to the Father? It is clear from both John 7:39 and 16:7 that the Holy Spirit will not come until Jesus has departed. After Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit to indwell believers in a permanent relationship, believers would be empowered to perform even greater deeds than those Jesus did during his earthly ministry. When the early chapters of Acts are examined, it is clear that, from a numerical standpoint, the deeds of Peter and the other Apostles surpassed those of Jesus in a single day (the day of Pentecost). On that day more were added to the church than had become followers of Jesus during the entire three years of his earthly ministry. And the message went forth not just in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, but to the farthest parts of the known world. This understanding of what Jesus meant by “greater deeds” is more probable than a reference to “more spectacular miracles.” Certainly miraculous deeds were performed by the apostles as recounted in Acts, but these do not appear to have surpassed the works of Jesus himself in either degree or number.