Revised Standard Version‘s literal translation “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience…” is misleading if read aloud, since it is usual for a son to learn obedience. Verse 5 makes it clear that “Son” here means God’s Son; that is the translation rightly chosen by Good News Translation. It is possible to link even though he was God’s Son with verse 7, especially if “fear” is understood as “fear of death”; thus “God listened to him, because of the fear which he had although he was God’s Son.” However, Good News Translation‘s interpretation is simpler and more likely to be correct.

Not all languages have the so-called “concessive clause” beginning with a conjunction such as “though” or “although.” Nevertheless, the idea of concession may be expressed by an independent statement followed by some such conjunction as “nevertheless” or “despite that fact.” For example, this verse could be rendered as “He was indeed God’s Son, but nevertheless he learned through his suffering how to be obedient” or “… despite that fact he learned by suffering to be obedient.” In some languages the concept of a concession is expressed only as a kind of adversative relationship; for example, “He was indeed God’s Son; that is true, but he did learn to be obedient by means of his suffering.”

“Learned” and “suffered” render a common play on words in Greek, where the words are similar in sound: emathen and epathen. However, this does not affect the meaning of this verse. If the play on words cannot be reproduced naturally in translation, it does not matter.

Just as call in verse 4 includes the ideas of speaking and summoning, so “obey” in Greek often combines the ideas of listening and responding to a summons or command. The verb translated to be obedient is related to the verb translated heard in verse 7, which also implies a response.

It may be necessary to make somewhat more specific the relationships between learned, sufferings, and obedient; for example, “by means of what Christ suffered he learned how to be obedient,” “… how to obey God,” or “… how to always do what God told him to do.”

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 .