1:79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 1
to guide our feet into the way 2 of peace.”
1 sn On the phrases who sit in darkness…and…death see Isa 9:1-2; 42:7; 49:9-10.
2 tn Or “the path.”
3 tn Grk “I tell you truly” (λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ἀληθῶς, legw de Jumin alhqw").
4 tn The Greek negative here (οὐ μή, ou mh) is the strongest possible.
5 tn Grk “will not taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).
6 sn The meaning of the statement that some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God is clear at one level, harder at another. Jesus predicts some will experience the kingdom before they die. When does this happen? (1) An initial fulfillment is the next event, the transfiguration. (2) It is also possible in Luke’s understanding that all but Judas experience the initial fulfillment of the coming of God’s presence and rule in the work of Acts 2. In either case, the “kingdom of God” referred to here would be the initial rather than the final phase.
7 sn To confess Christ might well mean rejection by one’s own family, even by parents.
8 tn Grk “and brothers and relatives,” but καί (kai) has not been translated twice here since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.