NL-Day169 2 Samuel 18-19; Psalm 117; John 1:24-51

2SAMUEL 18-19:
Civil war might have been avoided, but Absalom didn’t choose wisely. And I observe that my being bald has advantages in some situations! But seriously, all of the terrible things that happened here are the consequences of David’s sin.

PSALM 117:
This is a doxology that one day the whole world will sing.

JOHN 1b:
John consciously made an original account, and very consciously left out things that are included in the three Synoptic Gospels. Where he does include things the others wrote about, he includes details that the others didn’t mention. Those stories are made to fit his themes. His gospel is thematically arranged, not chronologically arranged.

In John’s poetic opening to this Gospel, he calls Jesus ‘the Word’. ‘Word’ in Greek (logos) usually means more than just one word. Among its several meanings, in this place its meaning is ‘communication’. Jesus is God’s personal communication or message to the world. And ‘full of grace and truth’ in more traditional translations means that Jesus is all about bringing undeserved kindness (grace) to us and true teachings that are totally worthy of being believed. And this theme is shown again in what Jesus said to Nathanael.

NLT Translation notes:
2Sam 18:22 “Whatever happens,” Ahimaaz said again, “I want to go.” …
23 Joab finally said, “All right, go ahead.” So Ahimaaz took the [flatter//less demanding] route by way of the plain and ran to Mahanaim ahead of the Ethiopian.
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John 1:31 [Before now] I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
33 I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest [upon, He] is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
34 I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is [God’s Chosen One.//the Chosen One of God.]l”
45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very [one/person] Moseso and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
50 Jesus [responded//asked him], “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”
[I don’t think we use ‘asked’ to introduce rhetorical questions in English. And Greek doesn’t use this verb either.]
51 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see [“]heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on[” Me,] the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.
[It is often necessary in other languages to include ‘I/Me’, because in most languages one just doesn’t talk of oneself using the third person, he. This is not grammatical in most languages.]

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.