This verse is full of picture language. Here, as in similar passages, the translator needs to ask a number of important questions: (a) How far was each metaphor still “live” for the writer? (b) What is its literal meaning? (c) Does our language use the same metaphor with the same meaning? (d) If not, does it have a different metaphor with the same meaning? (e) If not, how can I translate the metaphor literally?
The brightness of God’s glory was probably a live metaphor for the writer: glory is often associated with light and less often with weight. The word translated brightness may mean either “radiance” (Knox, Phillips, Barclay; compare King James Version “brightness”; Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible “radiant light”; New English Bible “effulgence”; Translator’s New Testament [Translator’s New Testament] “radiates”) or “reflection” (New American Bible; compare Revised Standard Version). Bible en français courant includes both meanings: “He reflects the splendor of the divine glory.” The same word is used in Wisdom 7.26, where the same meanings are also possible (see New English Bible text and note).
In a number of languages it is difficult to speak about “reflecting the brightness of God’s glory.” In the first place “glory” is often related to “wonderfulness” and not to the concept of being “shiny” or of “brightness.” As a result, it is very difficult to use some term which is based upon the concept of light being “reflected.” Therefore, it may be best to translate He reflects the brightness of God’s glory as “He shows how wonderful God is” or “How wonderful God is can be seen in how wonderful he is.”
The original meanings of the Greek word translated exact likeness included “engraving,” “engraved sign,” “imprint,” and “reproduction.” Barclay paraphrases: “He is the exact impression of his being, just as the mark is the exact impression of the seal.” However, by the time this letter was written, the term was becoming a dead metaphor meaning “essential nature” or “characteristic.” The wider context stresses the Son’s unity with God, and the way in which he shares in various aspects of God’s work. Therefore in the first part of verse 3 it is better to stress the idea of the Son’s brightness (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “in the Son of God, the glory of God shines forth”). The idea of a “pale reflection” should in any case be avoided.
Is the exact likeness of God’s own being may be expressed most satisfactorily in a number of languages as “is just like God,” “is the same as God,” “what God is like is what he is like,” or “what is true about God is true about his Son.”
As already noted, verse 3 does not begin a new sentence in Greek. The first part of the verse is literally “who being a brightness of glory and a character of nature his,” “his” referring both to “brightness” and “character.” Most translations begin a new sentence at this point and replace the participle “being” with a verb in the present tense, such as Good News Translation‘s He reflects. This makes the passage easier to read. It also marks more clearly the difference between verses 1-2, which speak about particular acts of God, and verse 3, which describes what the Son is and has done.
The meaning of the Greek word translated sustaining is the common word for “bear” or “carry.” Although it may also mean “bring into being,” none of the translations consulted relate it to God’s act of creation. It is difficult to find a translation which will convey the two ideas of support and movement, that is, of “upholding” and “carrying on or forward.” Barclay‘s expanded translation is better than most: “It is he who sustains all things by the dynamic power of his word.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “through his strong word he holds the universe together.” In some languages two verbs may be needed. The literal “word of power” is a common biblical way of saying “powerful word.” We are not told what kind of a word it is; Jerusalem Bible translates “his powerful command.” “Word” in any case means “message” rather than a single word.
In a number of instances it may be preferable to render the participial phrase sustaining the universe with his powerful word as a separate sentence, but it may be extremely difficult to express in a succinct way the relation between sustaining and his powerful word. In some instances the closest equivalent may be “by his powerful command he causes the universe to function as it does,” “by his powerful words he causes all that exists to continue to exist,” or “… he causes everything to continue to be as it is.”
The second sentence of 1.3 in Good News Translation makes two statements about God’s Son: (a) he made people clean from their sins, and (b) he sat down at the right side of God. Both these statements refer to events which took place at particular points in time, “once and for all,” as the writer will insist later in the letter (7.27; 9.12; 10.10). The Greek text makes the second statement depend on the first, and most translations, including TEV, keep this construction. However, this does not always mean that the second statement, containing the main verb, is the more important. In other words, making men clean from their sins is not just a preliminary to the main event of sitting down at the right side of God. Bijbel in Gewone Taal uses two main verbs linked by “and”: “He cleansed humanity from their sins, and afterward took his place at the right side of God’s majesty in heaven.”
After achieving forgiveness for the sins of mankind: the phrase of mankind is implied, as Revised Standard Version shows. Some ancient manuscripts, followed by King James Version, have “when he had by himself purged sins,” but this is not the best text to be followed. After achieving forgiveness is literally “having made purification.” In Hebrew (compare Job 7.21), Greek, English, and other languages, this is a natural metaphor for dealing with sin. The meaning is “forgave” or “set free from” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Achieving forgiveness for the sins of mankind can be expressed as a causative: “causing people’s sins to be forgiven” or “making it possible for people’s sins to be forgiven.”
In some languages there are two different words which are often translated as “sins,” the first referring to specific events or deeds, and the second referring primarily to the resulting guilt. In such instances it is, of course, this second meaning which is in focus in this expression, since it is not the actual events that are forgiven but the resulting guilt.
Forgiveness is often expressed in rather idiomatic ways: “to blot out,” “to wipe clean,” “to throw behind one’s back,” “to throw away,” or even “to determine to remember no more.”
In some cases it may be necessary to indicate that God is the one who is ultimately the agent for the forgiveness of sins, and thus achieving forgiveness for the sins of mankind may be expressed as “making it possible for God to forgive people’s sins” or “showing how God forgives people’s sins.”
In choosing an expression for he sat down, it is important to use a phrase which would imply sitting down in a position of authority. One would certainly want to avoid an expression which would suggest that Jesus sat down because he was exhausted from having procured the forgiveness of sins.
In many cultures, as in the Bible, the right side is the place of honor. Jesus is equal to God the Father, and so he is (figuratively) close to him, sharing fully in his power (see 1 Kgs 2.19; Acts 2.34; Eph 1.20; and especially Rev 3.21). On the other hand, in some cultures the left side is the place of honor, but it would not be appropriate to change throughout the Bible the metaphorical expressions of “right side” in order to read “left side.” However, it may be necessary to employ some marginal note indicating that from the biblical viewpoint it is the right side which is the place of honor.
God is implied. The Supreme Power is literally “the greatness in the high (places),” a common way for Jews, and therefore Jewish Christians, to speak indirectly about God. This phrase may be expressed as “the one who is powerful above all,” “the one who alone has great power,” or “the one who alone is able to do anything.”
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 .