Verses 39-40 introduce the main theme of chapters 12 and 13. These chapters apply all that has been said to the situation of the readers and make a final appeal to them to stand firm and not abandon their faith. Verse 40 raises a number of related questions.
(a) What is the “something better” (Revised Standard Version)? Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and other translations add plan, which overlaps in meaning with “foreseen” (Revised Standard Version), so Good News Bible rightly uses the verb decided on. Better is a keyword in this letter, which is often concerned with comparisons between the situations before and after the coming of Jesus to earth. It sometimes has the general meaning “greater, more important,” as in 1.4 and 7.7. More often it refers to the “better covenant” (7.22 and 8.6; compare 12.24), or to the “better hope” (7.19), “sacrifices” (9.23), “possessions” (10.34), “country” (11.16), and “resurrection” (11.35), which are associated with this “better covenant” of 7.22 and 8.6. Here the writer is thinking generally of these better gifts. It would therefore be too specific to translate “something better” as “better covenant”; the “something better” is “being made perfect.”
(b) How are these gifts “better”? Better than what? Some people have thought that the religious experience of Christians is “better” than that of people who lived before Christ. This, though perhaps true in itself, does not seem to make the best sense of this verse. What God has “prepared” for us, and in the end for Old Testament believers also (verse 40b), is better than the gifts or blessings which people received in Old Testament times. The new covenant is better than the old because the actual fulfillment of God’s purpose is something greater or better than the promise that it would be fulfilled. In other words, what Christians and Old Testament believers receive through Christ is what Israel was promised in Old Testament times but never received.
(c) By starting a new sentence with His purpose was, Good News Translation makes the text not only clearer but also more precise. God’s deciding on an even better plan for us is only part of the means of achieving His purpose … that only in company with us would they be made perfect. In other words, what happens to us is one condition, but not the only one, for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Verse 40b is logically related to verse 39b rather than to verse 40a. The sequence of thought may be set out as follows:
(a) God promised something to Old Testament believers. (39b)
(b) They did not receive it then. (39b)
(c) God had decided on something better (than promises not yet fulfilled). (40a)
(d) This “something better” is for both Old Testament believers and “us.” (40a, b)
(e) This “something better” is the fulfillment of God’s promises by making them and us perfect together. (40b)
(f) All this is God’s purpose. (40a)
The verse can thus be restructured as follows: “Yet they did not receive what God had promised (or, God did not give to them what he had promised) because God has a better plan not only for them, but also for us.”
Even better recalls verse 16. Plan is implicit. The two statements in verses 39 and 40 are the converse of one another: the “better thing” which the Old Testament heroes longed for is intended for “us” to enjoy “together with them.” Michel writes on this passage: “ ‘something better’ is neither something better than the men of old obtained, nor something better than the Christian community has yet received. ‘Something better’ is much more, absolutely, the expression of what goes beyond earthly well-being.” In other words, the expression is comparative in grammatical form but not in meaning. If so, translators may choose some such absolute expression as “a perfect plan” or “God’s own plan.”
God had decided on an even better plan for us may be rendered as “God decided that he would plan something which would be even better for us.”
In some languages it may be difficult to speak of His purpose, and then immediately after, of the content of what he purposed. This final statement may be rendered as “What God desired was that they should be made perfect, but only in company with us,” “… but only along with us,” or “… only when we also are made perfect.”
On made perfect, see comments on 2.10. This is the writer’s favorite word for describing the final aim or end of salvation. It is generally related to “the Kingdom of God” in Mark and Luke, “the Kingdom of heaven” in Matthew, and “eternal life” in John. Perfect may be expressed as “to be as one should be” or “to be completely what God wants us to be.”
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 .