FOOTNOTES:

^a The Greek hilasmos occurs only here and in 1 John 4:10. The traditional words are ‘atonement’ and ‘propitiation.’ Literal translations could be something like ‘what seeks favor’ or ‘conciliation.’ The word refers to the sacrificial system in Torah, specifically the offerings made for ‘sin’ or ‘deviation.’ More insight into what ‘atonement sacrifice’ was about can be found in N.T. Wright’s book The Day the Revolution Began. The part of the sacrificial act that was understood to bring attention to the need for reconciliation between God and humanity and humans with each other was not the killing of the lamb or goat—as was the case in animal (and human) sacrifices made to other deities in the Ancient Near East (Baal, Moloch, Mammon, etc.) in order to earn their favor or appease their anger. For the practices taught in Torah, it was understood to be the sprinkling of blood on the altar—butchering the animal was simply the necessary means of obtaining the blood (and meat to feed the priests). The blood symbolized life, and the act of sprinkling blood on the altar represented God covering over the deathly effects of sin with life, through the actions of the priest. A long-winded way to translate this word could be “the act of (or source of) pouring lifeblood over the altar to counteract the deathly effects of sin/deviation.” That action is much like applying a salve to a wound. In fact, the Latin root of the word ‘salve’ is the same as the Latin root for the word ‘salvation.’ A salve is something that saves someone’s body from the deathly effects of an injury or disease by being applied over the affected area of the body. It connects with the meaning of the Greek word ‘sozo’ (‘to save’ or ‘liberate’ or ‘restore’) which has a range of meanings related to healing, protection, liberation, preservation, and rescue. What Jesus accomplishes in his role as the hilasmos is not to appease an angry God but rather to provide life for those who would otherwise experience the deathly effects of harming each other, deviating from the way of life God taught in Torah and that Jesus taught and clarified through his own life and death and resurrection/reawakening.

^b Or ‘understood’

^c Traditionally, ‘his word.’ Literally, logos means something like ‘what is said.’

^d Traditionally, ‘old’ which is correct but in the sense of having been in place a long time, not as in ‘outdated.’

^e Greek logos. Other possible translations here could be ‘conversation’ or ‘discussion’ or ‘what was spoken’ or ‘saying’ or ‘communication.’ See note in 1 John 1:1.

^f Or ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’ or ‘real’

^g Literally, ‘brother’ or ‘sibling’

^h Or ‘stumble.’ It is part of the Path imagery used throughout the scriptures.

ⁱ Traditionally, ‘forgiven.’ This word, aphiemi is also used for ‘divorce’ or ‘send away’ or ‘release’ or ‘let go.’ It has to do with creating distance. It is the same word used in Matthew 6 for ‘releasing claim’ to debt. The word ‘forgive’ works well in the sense of forgiving a debt owed. Note that it is always applied to the thing being forgiven, the debt or the wrongdoing, not to the person. It is significant to notice that the wording here (and everywhere in scripture) is “deviations have been dismissed for you” not “you have been forgiven for your deviations.”

^j The phrases ‘in his name’ and ‘in your name’ and ‘in my name’ and here ‘because of his name’ appear many times. In many places, it has been translated as something along the lines of ‘as his representatives.’ Some places, like here, that way to translate it does not work well. When the phrase ‘in his name’ is describing an action, it works. When an action is being directed toward ‘the name’ or, as here, it is a different phrase ‘because of his name’ the English word ‘name’ has been included. The concept of ‘name’ in scripture is more than the set of sounds or letters used to designate who is being discussed. It refers to their identity, character, and sometimes authority or cause which that person represents or leads. For instance, here, it could be loosely translated to mean something like “because of who he is/his identity/his character/his authority/his way of being.”

^k Traditionally, ‘evil,’ but it doesn’t mean ‘wickedness’ but rather ‘evil’ in the sense of ‘hardship,’ along the lines of the outdated phrase from 2 Samuel 19:7 in the King James Version here: “that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now.” It means more or less ‘in bad condition’ or perhaps ‘in rough shape.’ Definitions in the Cambridge Greek Lexicon (2021) are 1) “enduring toil or suffering,” 2) “bad in quality or condition,” 3) “morally bad,” 4) (with connotations of political or social disapproval) worthless. When it is being used as a substantive adjective (like here), it seems to be sometimes the recipient and sometimes the cause (perhaps the conduit or more than one) of harm and hardship.

^l This word paidion is different than the word in verse 12, teknon. This word is more specific to babies and small children, whereas teknon could be children or offspring of any age.

^m The Greek for ‘love’ here is agapao (noun: agape), the same that is used for the ‘love of God’ both in reference to loving God and the love that God shows for people. It is not explicitly about emotion but about a commitment for pursuing the benefit of whatever is loved. The type of love that is characterized by a social and emotional bond, like the love between family members and close friends is phileo (noun: philia), and the love that is associated with romance and sexual desire is eramai (noun: eros), which never appears in the Bible.

ⁿ See Matthew 6:19-24. This phrase was used by Jesus and other teachers of the period to refer to greed.

^o The word here for ‘living’ or ‘life’ is bios. It is used much less often than zoe and psuche. Much teaching has claimed that major distinctions exist between those three words, which could be true in how they are used by an individual writer or community of people conversing about shared ideas; however, from the standpoint of definition, they overlap and are used in nearly interchangeable ways throughout the ancient Greek speaking world. If there is a difference, the context seems to suggest a focus on physical life, the life energy that animates the body rather than the spirit or self of a person, but that is based on contextual cues and not on the definition itself. There are a variety of possible definitions used in many places. Life, life force, and contents of someone’s life are possible definitions, as well as resources that sustain life (livelihood) and way of life. The last one is what is being used in the English translation here.

^p Traditionally, ‘antichrist’ which is just taking the Greek letters of antichristos and transferring them to English. The preposition/prefix anti- can mean ‘in comparison with’ or ‘in place of/instead of’ or ‘as a reaction to.’ The word ‘christ’ has been applied to Jesus in a special way, but it meant being ‘anointed’ which was a ceremonial acknowledgment of being appointed for a role, usually of king, sometimes of priest or prophet.

^q Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

^r Greek, chrisma, means the act of anointing or smearing with oil. More particularly, it is an action that designates the recipient, whether an item or a person or a community, as being designated for a divinely appointed role.

^s Literally, christos (‘Christ’) means ‘anointed one,’ the one designated as the divinely appointed king (or sometimes prophet or priest)

^t Literally, ‘the promise that he promised’

^u There are a number of ways this could be translated, and it’s one where it’s impossible for the translator’s bias not to show up. Traditionally, this is ‘eternal life’ or ‘everlasting life.’ ‘Everlasting’ is probably better between the two. It’s an adjective from the word for an ‘eon’ or an ‘age.’ It’s definition is ‘lasting a really long time’ without specifying the precise amount. It’s possible it’s talking about a conscious afterlife, but if we’re thinking in terms of Hebrew culture and thought, going to Heaven when you die wasn’t really a thing, or at least was still a new idea during the time of Jesus, having been influenced by Greek philosophy. In the days of Abraham and other Hebrew Bible figures, the way one’s life continued was in the legacy one left through family relationships and the impact one had on the world. See Deuteronomy 6:1-5, particularly verse 2 “to prolong your days,” and Deuteronomy 30:1-20, especially 15-20, which includes “To love the Lord your God, to heed His voice, and to cling to Him, for He is your life and your length of days to dwell on the soil which the LORD your God sword to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them” (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 2019).

^v Most literally, ‘anointing’ means having oil smeared on (as in, ‘ointment’). It is used with more specific meaning in the Bible to designate those who have been called to a specific purpose or role.

^w Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

^x Literally, ‘does/makes justness’