All kinds of need not have a bad sense; see 2.4. It is the word strange which shows that the teachings are dangerous. Strange means “alien to the Gospel,” not merely “odd.” The plural teachings may refer to different kinds of false teaching, and should be kept in translation if possible. All kinds of strange teachings may be most effectively expressed as “all kinds of different teachings” or “all kinds of teachings that are different from the Good News.”
Lead you from the right way means “be carried along” (as in Jude 12), or in this context, more precisely, “be swept away” (Barclay). The rest of the verse shows that the contrast is with “standing firm” rather than “staying on a fixed course” (see New English Bible). The thought, though not the language, is similar to 2.1. In some languages lead you from the right way may be expressed idiomatically as “cause you to go down the wrong road,” or “cause you to be turned aside from the truth,” or “lead you off from the right road.”
The word for good includes the idea of beauty or attractiveness. It has been called “that kind of goodness which is at once seen to be good.” To receive inner strength is literally “for the heart to be strengthened” (see Revised Standard Version). Thus inner is literally “the heart.” It can be understood as “our heart,” as the next verse shows (see Revised Standard Version), but since verse 8 is an imperative, “your heart” fits the context better. A translation may therefore be something like “It is good for you to be strengthened inwardly by God’s grace.” God’s is strongly implied. If “inwardly” is chosen to translate “the heart,” meaning “what is deepest in man” as a whole, then “outwardly” may be used later in the sentence, to point out the contrast.
See comments on grace in 4.16.
Earlier editions of Good News Bible had for our souls after It is good. Good News Translation fourth edition omits these words, probably because soul was thought to be little used outside religious circles, and because the meaning is better conveyed by adding inner before strength.
The statement It is good to receive inner strength from God’s grace may need considerable restructuring. One may need to employ a rendering such as “The fact that our hearts are made strong because of God’s loving kindness to us is good.” It may be important to render the first part of the second sentence in such a way as to anticipate the statement about obeying rules about foods. Therefore one may translate “God’s kindness to us causes our hearts to have strength. This helps us, but obeying rules about food doesn’t help us.”
Most modern translations, like Good News Translation, understand “by foods” to refer to rules about foods, not literally to the strengthening of the body by what is eaten. The phrase right to eat in the next verse confirms that this is correct, as does obey (literally “walk in”) these rules in this verse. Revised Standard Version‘s “by foods” and “their adherents” is unclear. Barclay expresses the meaning strongly with a little expansion, as “The best thing to fortify your souls is the grace of God, not regulations about what we may eat and not eat, which have never been of the slightest use to those who use them as rules of life.” Good News Translation brings out the meaning of by them, which may also mean “in them”: “those who walk in them,” that is, obey these rules, have not been helped by them. The last part of this verse may also be rendered as “to obey rules about what to eat or not to eat doesn’t help them” or “… doesn’t do people any good.”
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 .