Mazmur 16:3

16:3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land,

and the leading officials I admired so much ¹  –

Mazmur 101:6

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ² 

and allow them to live with me. ³ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ⁴ 

Mazmur 119:63

119:63 I am a friend to all your loyal followers, ⁵ 

and to those who keep your precepts.

Matius 12:49-50

12:49 And pointing ⁶  toward his disciples he said, “Here ⁷  are my mother and my brothers! 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ⁸  my brother and sister and mother.”

Matius 12:1

Lord of the Sabbath

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His ⁹  disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat ¹⁰  and eat them.

Yohanes 3:14

3:14 Just as ¹¹  Moses lifted up the serpent ¹²  in the wilderness, ¹³  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁴ 

[16:3]  ¹ tn Heb “regarding the holy ones who [are] in the land, they; and the mighty [ones] in [whom is/was] all my desire.” The difficult syntax makes the meaning of the verse uncertain. The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s angelic assembly (see Ps 89:5, 7), but the qualifying clause “who are in the land” suggests that here it refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3).

[101:6]  ² tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[119:63]  ⁵ tn Heb “to all who fear you.”

[12:49]  ⁶ tn Grk “extending his hand.”

[12:49]  ⁷ tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”

[12:50]  ⁸ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “heads of grain.” While the generic term στάχυς (stacus) can refer to the cluster of seeds at the top of grain such as barley or wheat, in the NT the term is restricted to wheat (L&N 3.40; BDAG 941 s.v. 1).

[3:14]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And just as.”

[3:14]  ¹² sn Or the snake, referring to the bronze serpent mentioned in Num 21:9.

[3:14]  ¹³ sn An allusion to Num 21:5-9.

[3:14]  ¹⁴ sn So must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is ultimately a prediction of Jesus’ crucifixion. Nicodemus could not have understood this, but John’s readers, the audience to whom the Gospel is addressed, certainly could have (compare the wording of John 12:32). In John, being lifted up refers to one continuous action of ascent, beginning with the cross but ending at the right hand of the Father. Step 1 is Jesus’ death; step 2 is his resurrection; and step 3 is the ascension back to heaven. It is the upward swing of the “pendulum” which began with the incarnation, the descent of the Word become flesh from heaven to earth (cf. Paul in Phil 2:5-11). See also the note on the title Son of Man in 1:51.