When God made his promise to Abraham: virtually all translations expand the text, which is literally “When God promised to Abraham.” God is emphasized in the Greek by being placed at the end of the clause.

Translators in European languages expand the text in three main ways: (a) “made a promise” (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament); (b) made the promise (Good News Bible first through third editions, Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); (c) made his promise (Good News Translation fourth edition, New American Bible, Phillips, Barclay, New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). The writer’s main concern is to stress by every possible means that God’s promise cannot be broken because he confirmed it by an oath. (b) and (c) therefore seem better than (a), and his promise is clearer and more specific than “the promise.”

Made refers to a particular event in time, that is, the event recorded in Genesis 22.16-17.

In a number of languages promise can only be expressed as a verb, not as a noun, and therefore When God made his promise to Abraham may be translated as “When God promised something to Abraham” or “When God declared that he would give something to Abraham.”

A vow: vows and oaths are distinct in the Bible, and neither is to be confused with cursing or general bad language. The equivalent of vow is often “to make a promise by calling God to witness” or “to use strong words in the presence of God.” Obviously this formula cannot be used in this context, since God vows on the basis of his own name. Sometimes the most appropriate equivalent for he made a vow to do what he had promised is “he used strong words when he said he would do what he had promised.” In some instances the only apparent equivalent is “he said that he would most certainly do what he had promised.”

“He had no one greater by whom to swear” (Revised Standard Version) is the word-for-word rendering on which most translations are based, but Moffatt translates “since he could swear by none greater.” No one greater may also mean “nothing greater” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), which is more inclusive, but the personal expression no one is more appropriate here.

Since there was no one greater than himself may be expressed as “Since no one was more powerful than himself.” In some instances greater needs to be expressed in terms of authority, “Since no one has greater authority than God himself.”

The phrase used his own name (literally, “by himself,” Revised Standard Version) is emphasized and is the only part of the quotation on which the author comments. “He swore by himself” (Revised Standard Version) is in fact part of the quotation, but it is not desirable to show this by double quotation marks, since the author makes these words part of his own sentence.

He used his own name when he made his vow may be almost meaningless if translated literally, since “name” may not be a substitute for someone’s personality or reputation. Sometimes he used his own name may be rendered as “he exposed his own reputation” or “he offered himself as a witness.” In some cases the process of vowing on the basis of one’s own self may be rendered as “he declared that he himself would bear all the blame if he did not do what he had promised.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .