Roma 2:28-29

2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ¹  by the Spirit ²  and not by the written code. ³  This person’s ⁴  praise is not from people but from God.

Roma 9:4-7

9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ⁵  the adoption as sons, ⁶  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ⁷  and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ⁸  and from them, ⁹  by human descent, ¹⁰  came the Christ, ¹¹  who is God over all, blessed forever! ¹²  Amen.

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, ¹³  9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 135:4

135:4 Indeed, ¹⁵  the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel to be his special possession. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ¹⁷ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ¹⁸ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ¹⁹  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ²⁰ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ²¹ 

they trust in ²²  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Matius 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Matius 8:11-12

8:11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet ²³  with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ²⁴  in the kingdom of heaven, 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ²⁵ 

Yohanes 8:33

8:33 “We are descendants ²⁶  of Abraham,” they replied, ²⁷  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ²⁸  ‘You will become free’?”

Yohanes 8:2

8:2 Early in the morning he came to the temple courts again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach ²⁹  them.

Kolose 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you ³⁰  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

Galatia 2:15

Jews and Gentiles are Justified by Faith

2:15 We are Jews by birth ³¹  and not Gentile sinners, ³² 

Efesus 2:11

New Life Corporately

2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body ³³  by human hands –

Filipi 3:3-7

3:3 For we are the circumcision, ³⁴  the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, ³⁵  exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials ³⁶  3:4 – though mine too are significant. ³⁷  If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, ³⁸  I have more: 3:5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. ³⁹  3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. 3:7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ.

Wahyu 2:9

2:9 ‘I know the distress you are suffering ⁴⁰  and your poverty (but you are rich). I also know ⁴¹  the slander against you ⁴²  by those who call themselves Jews and really are not, but are a synagogue ⁴³  of Satan.

Wahyu 3:1

To the Church in Sardis

3:1 “To ⁴⁴  the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: ⁴⁵ 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ⁴⁶  the one who holds ⁴⁷  the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation ⁴⁸  that you are alive, but ⁴⁹  in reality ⁵⁰  you are dead.

Wahyu 3:9

3:9 Listen! ⁵¹  I am going to make those people from the synagogue ⁵²  of Satan – who say they are Jews yet ⁵³  are not, but are lying – Look, I will make ⁵⁴  them come and bow down ⁵⁵  at your feet and acknowledge ⁵⁶  that I have loved you.

[2:29]  ¹ sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ² tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ³ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ⁴ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.

[9:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:4]  ⁶ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:4]  ⁷ tn Or “cultic service.”

[9:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ¹² tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.

[9:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “For not all those who are from Israel are Israel.”

[9:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.

[9:7]  sn A quotation from Gen 21:12.

[135:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for.”

[135:4]  ¹⁶ sn His special possession. The language echoes Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18. See also Mal 3:17.

[48:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ²² tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[8:11]  ²³ tn Grk “and recline at table,” as 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away. The word “banquet” has been supplied to clarify for the modern reader the festive nature of the imagery. The banquet imagery is a way to describe the fellowship and celebration of being among the people of God at the end.

[8:11]  sn 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away.

[8:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and Isaac and Jacob,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[8:12]  ²⁵ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[8:33]  ²⁶ tn Grk “We are the seed” (an idiom).

[8:33]  ²⁷ tn Grk “They answered to him.”

[8:33]  ²⁸ tn Or “How is it that you say.”

[8:2]  ²⁹ tn An ingressive sense for the imperfect fits well here following the aorist participle.

[1:22]  ³⁰ tc Some of the better representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts have a passive verb here instead of the active ἀποκατήλλαξεν (apokathllaxen, “he has reconciled”): ἀποκατηλλάγητε (apokathllaghte) in (Ì⁴⁶) B, ἀποκατήλλακται [sic] (apokathllaktai) in 33, and ἀποκαταλλαγέντες (apokatallagente") in D* F G. Yet the active verb is strongly supported by א A C D² Ψ 048 075 [0278] 1739 1881 Ï lat sy. Internally, the passive creates an anacoluthon in that it looks back to the accusative ὑμᾶς (Juma", “you”) of v. 21 and leaves the following παραστῆσαι (parasthsai) dangling (“you were reconciled…to present you”). The passive reading is certainly the harder reading. As such, it may well explain the rise of the other readings. At the same time, it is possible that the passive was produced by scribes who wanted some symmetry between the ποτε (pote, “at one time”) of v. 21 and the νυνὶ δέ (nuni de, “but now”) of v. 22: Since a passive periphrastic participle is used in v. 21, there may have a temptation to produce a corresponding passive form in v. 22, handling the ὑμᾶς of v. 21 by way of constructio ad sensum. Since παραστῆσαι occurs ten words later, it may not have been considered in this scribal modification. Further, the Western reading (ἀποκαταλλαγέντες) hardly seems to have arisen from ἀποκατηλλάγητε (contra TCGNT 555). As difficult as this decision is, the preferred reading is the active form because it is superior externally and seems to explain the rise of all forms of the passive readings.

[1:22]  tn The direct object is omitted in the Greek text, but it is clear from context that “you” (ὑμᾶς, Jumas) is implied.

[2:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “by nature.”

[2:15]  ³² tn Grk “and not sinners from among the Gentiles.”

[2:11]  ³³ tn Grk “in the flesh.”

[3:3]  ³⁴ tn There is a significant wordplay here in the Greek text. In v. 2 a rare, strong word is used to describe those who were pro-circumcision (κατατομή, katatomh, “mutilation”; see BDAG 528 s.v.), while in v. 3 the normal word for circumcision is used (περιτομή, peritomh; see BDAG 807 s.v.). Both have τομή (the feminine form of the adjective τομός [tomo"], meaning “cutting, sharp”) as their root; the direction of the action of the former is down or off (from κατά, kata), hence the implication of mutilation or emasculation, while the direction of the action of the latter is around (from περί, peri). The similarity in sound yet wide divergence of meaning between the two words highlights in no uncertain terms the differences between Paul and his opponents.

[3:3]  ³⁵ tc The verb λατρεύω (latreuw; here the participial form, λατρεύοντες [latreuonte"]) either takes a dative direct object or no object at all, bearing virtually a technical nuance of “worshiping God” (see BDAG 587 s.v.). In this text, πνεύματι (pneumati) takes an instrumental force (“by the Spirit”) rather than functioning as object of λατρεύοντες. However, the word after πνεύματι is in question, no doubt because of the collocation with λατρεύοντες. Most witnesses, including some of the earliest and best representatives of the Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine texts (א* A B C D² F G 0278^vid 33 1739 1881 Ï co Ambr), read θεοῦ (qeou; thus, “worship by the Spirit of God”). But several other important witnesses (א² D* P Ψ 075 365 1175 lat sy Chr) have the dative θεῷ (qew) here (“worship God by the Spirit”). Ì⁴⁶ is virtually alone in its omission of the divine name, probably due to an unintentional oversight. The dative θεῷ was most likely a scribal emendation intended to give the participle its proper object, and thus avoid confusion about the force of πνεύματι. Although the Church came to embrace the full deity of the Spirit, the NT does not seem to speak of worshiping the Spirit explicitly. The reading θεῷ thus appears to be a clarifying reading. On external and internal grounds, then, θεοῦ is the preferred reading.

[3:3]  ³⁶ tn Grk “have no confidence in the flesh.”

[3:4]  ³⁷ tn Grk “though I have reason for confidence even in the flesh.”

[3:4]  ³⁸ tn Grk “flesh.”

[3:5]  ³⁹ sn A Pharisee was a member of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.

[2:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “know your suffering.” This could refer to suffering or distress caused by persecution (see L&N 22.2).

[2:9]  ⁴¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of this Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the phrase “I also know” to link this English sentence back to “I know” at the beginning of the verse.

[2:9]  ⁴² tn The words “against you” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[2:9]  ⁴³ sn A synagogue was a place for Jewish prayer and worship, with recognized leadership (e.g., Mt 4:23, Mk 1:21, Lk 4:15, Jn 6:59).

[3:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated due to differences between Greek and English style.

[3:1]  ⁴⁵ tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[3:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” See the note on the phrase “this is the solemn pronouncement of” in 2:1.

[3:1]  sn The expression This is the solemn pronouncement of reflects an OT idiom. See the note on this phrase in 2:1.

[3:1]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “who has” (cf. 1:16).

[3:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “a name.”

[3:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:1]  ⁵⁰ tn The prepositional phrase “in reality” is supplied in the translation to make explicit the idea that their being alive was only an illusion.

[3:9]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “behold” (L&N 91.13).

[3:9]  ⁵² sn See the note on synagogue in 2:9.

[3:9]  ⁵³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to indicate the contrast between what these people claimed and what they were.

[3:9]  ⁵⁴ tn The verb here is ποιέω (poiew), but in this context it has virtually the same meaning as δίδωμι (didwmi) used at the beginning of the verse. Stylistic variation like this is typical of Johannine literature.

[3:9]  ⁵⁵ tn The verb here is προσκυνήσουσιν (proskunhsousin), normally used to refer to worship.

[3:9]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “and know,” “and recognize.”