Give our greetings to is literally “Greet.” As in verse 18, no one can be sure whether the writer is speaking in his own name alone or on behalf of a group. Here most translations avoid adding either our or “my” to greetings; Barclay and Translator’s New Testament have “my.” Give our greetings to all your leaders may be expressed as “Greet all your leaders with words as coming from us” or “Greet all your leaders as though we were greeting them.”

All God’s people: Revised Standard Version “all the saints” does not mean “all the outstandingly religious members of the church,” but “all the members of the Christian community,” that is, “all who have been set apart as Christians to belong to God in a special way”; see comments on 3.1.

Brothers is not expressed in the Greek text, but it is natural to assume that “those who come from Italy” (Revised Standard Version) are fellow-Christians, as in the previous verse. Jerusalem Bible thinks “saints” is implied, but this view is not shared even by Bible de Jérusalem.

The Greek is literally “those of Italy” or “those from Italy.” (a) “Of Italy” would mean that the writer is in Italy and sends greetings from the church. (b) “From Italy” would mean that the writer is somewhere else and sends greetings from a group of expatriate Italians in the same place. Most translations either leave the matter open (Moffatt “The Italians salute you”) or choose (b), like Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version. Phillips (“The Christians of Italy”) and Jerusalem Bible choose (a). No one really knows whether the writer was in Italy or not.

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 .