Message is better in this context than King James Version‘s and New English Bible‘s “word.” The message given … by the angels is the Law of Moses. Jews believed that the Law had been given by God to Moses through angels. The writer is not referring to an individual word or even to a particular statement, but he is comparing the Old Testament Law and the Christian message. Most modern readers will not know this unless they are Jews, so some translations refer explicitly to the Law: Knox “The old law, which only had angels as its spokesmen” and Translator’s New Testament “the word of the Law, spoken through angels.” If it is necessary to indicate the nature of this message, one can speak of “The message of how we are saved” or “… of how we are to live.”

To our ancestors is not in the Greek, in earlier editions of Good News Translation, or in other common language translations. The writer of Hebrews avoids expressions which suggest that all his readers were Jews, perhaps because they were in fact a mixed community. However, in some languages it may be essential to state to whom the message was proclaimed. Furthermore, in some languages it may be important to change the passive expression The message given to our ancestors by the angels into an active one; for example, “The angels proclaimed the message to our ancestors.” An expression for ancestors is often literally “grandfathers,” but in some instances the reference is primarily one of time, not of family or racial relationship, for example, “those who lived long ago,” though in some cases an idiomatic expression may be employed: “those who are our roots” or “those who traveled here ahead of us.”

True (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “reliable,” Phillips “authentic,” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “came into effect”): some translations link this word with what follows, making explicit a relation of reason and result (see introduction to this section); for example, Jerusalem Bible “so true that every infringement and disobedience brought its proper punishment” and Translator’s New Testament “so binding that anyone who broke it or disobeyed it was duly punished.”

Though many languages speak of true as “that which really is,” the concept of “being true” is more often expressed in terms of that which can be relied upon or trusted. Accordingly, was shown to be true may be expressed as “proved to be what people can trust” or “… what we can trust.”

Follow it and obey it have practically the same meaning, as Good News Translation‘s or suggests. Good News Bible and Revised Standard Version are therefore right to avoid the literal translation “and.” Two equivalent words are used in Greek, perhaps for emphasis. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch combines them: “whoever did not follow it received the deserved punishment.” Quite frequently it is possible to use a figurative meaning of follow in a sense of adhering to or being loyal to a person, but it is difficult to speak of “not following a message.” It is usually possible to say “did not do what they were told,” but this is simply another way of saying “did not obey what they were told.” Therefore in some instances the meaning of follow it and obey it can perhaps best be combined into a single expression, namely, “did not at all do what they were told” or “… what the message said they should do.”

The rare word translated punishment sometimes has the positive meaning “reward” (as in 10.35; 11.26), but the context here demands a negative meaning. (Compare the expression “he got what he deserved,” which may take on positive or negative overtones, depending on the context.) The expression received the punishment is a type of substitute passive, for the subject of such an expression is the goal of the action, while the one who punishes is left implicit. The equivalent may be expressed in some languages as “they were punished” or “God punished them,” and the qualification of the punishment, namely, “what they deserved” may be rendered as “as they should have been” or “as was right because of what they did.”

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 .

The first part of verse 18 must be translated in a way which reflects the rendering of verse 11. But as already noted, it may be necessary to eliminate the rhetorical question and make an emphatic statement; for example, “When God solemnly declared, ‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest,’ he was indeed speaking about those who rebelled” or “… refused to follow him.”

Rebelled translates a different Greek word from the one used in verse 16 (compare verses 8, 15) but one related to that used in 4.6. The meaning in this verse is “disobeyed,” but since a particular act of disobedience is intended, the two Greek words mean much the same. Different terms are used only to give variety.

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 .

Let us go forward! is not in the Greek text, but it is repeated from verse 1 to make it clear what this is what we will do. New English Bible has “Instead, let us advance towards maturity.” As already noted in the discussion of verse 1, the expression Let us go forward cannot always be translated literally, since it may not imply progress. It would be possible to say “Let us become mature Christians” or “Let us become more complete Christians.”

This is what we will do translates a more probable Greek text than the RSV footnote “let us do this.” Other ways of understanding the expression for “this we will do” are grammatically possible: (a) “I may go back and give you elementary teaching some other time, if God allows me to do so”; or (b) “God alone can allow me to introduce you into the deeper mysteries of the faith.” The immediate context makes (a) unlikely, since verse 4 emphasizes the impossibility of beginning all over again. The wider context, especially chapter 7, makes (b) unlikely as well.

Literal translations such as Revised Standard Version are ambiguous. If God allows (see 1 Cor 4.19; James 4.15) does not mean “if God lets me go on teaching you,” but “if God allows us to go forward together.” We includes author and readers. If God allows may be rendered as “if God permits this” or “if this is what God wants.”

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 .

Priest is not in the Greek but must be repeated from verse 15. Because of the last clause of verse 16, namely, through the power of a life which has no end, it may be best to translate He was made a priest as “He became a priest.” Otherwise one might wrongly assume that the passive expression would be better rendered as “God made him a priest.”

There is some doubt about the exact meaning of the phrase which Revised Standard Version translates “not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent,” and Good News Translation not by human rules and regulations. The literal translation is “according to a law of a fleshly command.” There are several aspects of the problem. (1) “Law” may also mean “principle,” as in Romans 7.23, but this is not its meaning in the rest of Hebrews 7. (2) What is the relation between “law” and “command”? The most likely meaning seems to be “according to the legal force of a fleshly command”; that is, the individual command is backed by the force of the Law as a whole. (3) “Fleshly” may mean (a) generally “human,” (b) “outward,” “earthly,” or (c) “to do with bodily descent.” Bijbel in Gewone Taal and other common language translations agree with Good News Translation in choosing meaning (a), but the writer would probably not have described the Old Testament Law as “human” in this negative sense. (b) is reflected in Moffatt “external,” Knox “outward,” Phillips “a command imposed from outside,” New English Bible “earth-bound,” and Translator’s New Testament “earthly.” (c) is reflected in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy which has simply “a law which says from which family he must come,” New American Bible “a commandment concerning physical descent,” and Barclay “any regulation based on the rule of physical descent” (compare Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Meaning (c) seems to fit in best with the earlier emphasis in chapter 7 on Abraham’s and Levi’s descendants, and on Melchizedek’s lack of them.

The phrase not by human rules and regulations may be rendered as “he did not become a priest because of rules and regulations about being descended from a particular person” or “… rules and regulations about the family to which he belonged.”

Finally, the expression but through the power of a life which has no end may be rendered as “but he did become a priest because of the power of his life which will never end” or “… which goes on forever.”

The most probable meaning of the verse, therefore, is “He has been made a priest, not by the legal power of a rule which said from which family he must come, but by the power of a life which cannot be destroyed,” or even “… which nothing can destroy.”

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 .

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Phillips start a new paragraph here. The writer has now finished his description of the forms of Old Testament worship and moves on to a Christian interpretation of its inner meaning.

On The Holy Spirit, see comment on 2.4.

The verb which Good News Translation translates clearly teaches (Barclay “makes it clear”) has a general meaning here: “shows” Bible en français courant; “indicates” Revised Standard Version; “signifies” New English Bible; “means” Moffatt; “meant us to see” Knox.

From all these arrangements is simply “this” in the Greek text. The text seems rather to refer to the restrictions on entry into the Most Holy Place, that is, to verse 7 rather than to the whole of verses 1-7. If so, “by this rule” would be a clearer translation.

The meaning of the second half of the verse, that the way into the Most Holy Place…, is not at all clear. It must be understood in the light of verses 11-12. A rather literal translation of this verse would be “By this the Holy Spirit shows that the way of [that is, to or into] the holy (places) has not yet been revealed, as long as the first tent still has (its) standing (or, existence).” The difficulties may be summed up as follows, using the wording of the literal translation:

I. Does “the holy (places)” mean
(a) the earthly sanctuary, as in 8.2; 9.2, or
(b) the heavenly sanctuary, as in 9.12?
Knox‘s translation “the true sanctuary” chooses (b); other translations leave the question open.
II. Does “the holy (places)” mean
(a) the whole sanctuary, as in 8.2,
(b) only the outer part, as in 9.2, or
(c) only the inner part?
Most translations either choose (c), like Good News Translation, or leave the question open; Knox appears to prefer (a).
III. Does “the first tent” mean
(a) the outer part of the earthly sanctuary, as in 9.2, 6, or
(b) the earthly sanctuary as a whole, contrasted with the greater and more perfect tent of verse 11?
(a) is chosen by Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, and Translator’s New Testament; (b) is chosen by New English Bible “earlier tent,” Knox, and probably Phillips. If (a) is chosen, “first” will mean “first in place”; if (b) is chosen, “first” will mean “first in time.”
IV. Does “has (its) standing” mean
(a) continue to exist, or remain in use, or
(b) maintain its status?
Among translations consulted, only Knox chooses (b).

This list shows the need for translations to show clearly which of the various possibilities they have chosen. In case of doubt, an equally clear alternative may be given in a note. In making their choice, translators cannot rely only on the way in which the writer varies from verse to verse. In any case, the expression “has (its) standing” is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. The translator must also take into account the wider context.

The most probable translation of verse 8 would be “The Holy Spirit shows us by this means that the way into the real tent had not yet been opened as long as the old tent still remained in use.”

The Most Holy Place: since “the real tent” (the suggested probable translation of this phrase) is a reference to the Holy Place in heaven, it may be good to make this explicit. Accordingly, one may translate “The Holy Spirit shows us in this way that the entrance into the Holy Room of the heavenly sanctuary had not been opened as long as the tent of the old sanctuary was still in use” or “… was still being used.” It would also be possible to speak of “the sanctuary of the old covenant.” Though these expressions do not reflect precisely the wording of the Greek text, the reference is clear.

In languages in which the passive of has not yet been opened would be unnatural, it may be necessary to use an expression of state, namely, “was not yet open.”

Verses 9-10 involve a slight change in point of view. In this chapter the main contrast is generally between the old covenant and the new. The “new covenant” has been set up by Christ, as the writer will state in verses 11-15. It is effective now (verses 24, 26; compare verse 11). Yet the results of what he has done remain at least partly in the future; they are something to hope for (7.19 and 10.23). In verse 8 the old Temple and all that it stands for are in the past. Yet in verses 9-10 the present time, in which the old sacrifices still have some value as a symbol or illustration, is contrasted with the time when God will establish the new order (verse 10). God and the new order are implied, as Revised Standard Version shows.

The problem for translators is to decide whether or not the writer thinks of the new order as already established. In order to decide this, it is first necessary to discover in what sense the writer thinks of Old Testament forms of worship as still having any value. The key to the problem is given in the middle part of verses 9-10 and is reflected in Knox‘s translation, “that allegory still holds good at the present day.” The “symbolic” value of the Old Testament sacrifices is negative, not positive. What the Old Testament says about worship under the “old covenant” is proof that something more effective was needed. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch understands the new order or “time of reformation” as future for those who shared in Old Testament worship, but present for the writer and his readers: “These rules only had meaning until God set up the new order.” Similarly Phillips, “only intended to be valid until the time when Christ should establish the truth.”

Translators solve this problem in one of two ways, corresponding broadly to the translations will establish and “established,” verse 10. The second translation makes a smoother transition in the immediate context and is rather more likely. See also comments on verse 11. Another possibility is for the new order to be understood as future for those who shared in Old Testament worship, but present for the writer and his readers. So Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “these rules only had meaning until God set up the new order” (similarly Phillips and Jerusalem Bible).

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 .

See Genesis 17.19; 18.11-14; 21.2. There is also a translational difficulty which involves the question of whether Abraham (Good News Translation) or Sarah (Revised Standard Version) is the subject of the sentence.

The text of the UBS Greek New Testament (“D” rating) may be translated rather literally as follows, with implied words in parentheses: “By faith, even though Sarah was barren, (Abraham) received power to beget (children), even though (he was) too old.” This basic text is followed by Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Barclay, and is probably the best available, though it is by no means certain. The same text, slightly modified by marks which would not usually be part of the oldest manuscripts, could mean “By faith (Abraham) also, together with barren Sarah, received power to beget (children), even though (they were) too old.” If this text is chosen, “barren” may be omitted (as in Bijbel in Gewone Taal), following many manuscripts, but it is included in the text of the UBS Greek New Testament. These choices, like Good News Bible, make Abraham the subject of the sentence.

If Sarah is the subject of the sentence, the possibilities are: (a) “By faith, even though Sarah was barren, she received power to conceive (children) even though (she was) too old.” This text is followed by Knox and Translator’s New Testament. (b) “By faith, even Sarah received power to conceive (children), even though (she was) too old.” This text is followed by King James Version, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and many other translations. The main difficulty in taking Sarah as the subject is that “received power to beget” is a more natural meaning of the Greek than “received power to conceive.” In other words, the verb usually has a man as its subject. It is true that the reference to being “too old” applies more naturally to Sarah than to Abraham. In Genesis 18.12-13, Sarah’s age is emphasized, but both are mentioned, and Abraham’s age is certainly mentioned in Genesis 18.12 as well as 21.2. On the whole it seems more likely that the subject is Abraham, and this fits in better with the passage as a whole.

It was faith that made Abraham able to become a father may be rendered as “Because Abraham trusted God, he was able to have a son,” “… was able to have a son born to him,” or “… was able to cause his wife to bear him a son.”

It may be better to render even though he was too old as “even though he was very old indeed.” If one renders the statement he was too old, it may be necessary to indicate a complement; for example, “too old to have a son” or “too old for a person to have a son born to him.”

Early in the verse there is a word which King James Version translates “also,” but Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version omit, though it is implied in Good News Bible‘s even. King James Version‘s “also” is most unlikely to be correct. In the Greek, “even Sarah herself” is emphasized.

Good News Translation and other translations restructure the text so as to bring the two “even though” clauses together (“even though barren” and “even though too old”), producing a smoothly flowing sentence.

Some translations omit could not have children (“barren”), perhaps for stylistic reasons, because of partial repetition with too old. However, the two expressions do not mean the same, and in fact Sarah was barren before she was old.

The last sentence in Good News Translation is much simpler than the rest of the verse. He trusted does not refer directly to Abraham’s attitude of faith, but means “He considered God faithful” or “… to be trusted.” God is implied, as Revised Standard Version shows. He trusted God to keep his promise may be rendered as “He was sure God would do what he had promised” or “He was certain that God could be trusted and therefore would do what he had promised.”

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 .

The writer now moves on to speak of human fathers in verses 9-10, coming back to the main theme in verse 11. Verses 9-10 consist of two “how much more” comparisons, as, for example, in 9.14.

Revised Standard Version‘s “Besides this” marks the transition; New English Bible and Barclay use “Again”; Phillips has “After all”; other common language translations and Translator’s New Testament omit it. Human fathers or “earthly fathers” (Revised Standard Version) gives the meaning of King James Version and Moffatt‘s literal “fathers of our flesh.” On “flesh,” see comments on 2.14. There is a clear contrast with God as spiritual Father, so human or its equivalent should not be omitted, as Phillips does.

It may be possible to render In the case of our human fathers as “Think about our human fathers.” But in some languages it may seem strange to talk about “human fathers.” One can talk about “our fathers here on earth,” but it may be more satisfactory to say “Consider what our own fathers did to us; they punished us and we honored them” or “… respected them.”

Respected translates a word which includes also the meaning of submit. Two different words are used, more for the sake of variety than to express different ideas. However, the word for submit is stronger.

Our spiritual Father is also the translation of New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and Translator’s New Testament. Barclay has “a spiritual Father”; Bible en français courant and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy use “our heavenly Father”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “our divine Father”; Bijbel in Gewone Taal translates “God who is our Father in a higher sense.” The phrase is literally “the Father of spirits,” as in Revised Standard Version. “Our” is expressed in the previous phrase, literally “fathers of our flesh,” meaning human fathers, and is probably implied in “the Father of spirits” also, as reflected in Good News Translation and also Moffatt, “Father of our spirits.” Translators should make sure that the difference between father and Father is clear even when the passage is read aloud. The simplest way of doing this is by using adjectives such as “human” and “spiritual.” It may be difficult in translation to speak of our spiritual Father, since this might turn out to mean nothing more than “our Father who is a spirit.” In that case “our Father in heaven” or even “God who is our Father in heaven” may be used instead.

How much more…!: it may be convenient to use an emphatic statement rather than an exclamation, since the exclamation suggests a comparison which may require expansion. Accordingly, the first part of the second sentence of this verse may be rendered as “Therefore we should certainly submit to the punishment that our Father in heaven gives us” or “… causes us to experience.”

And live implies “and therefore live”; New English Bible “and so attain life”; Knox and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “and draw life from him”; Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “have life.” Phillips (similarly Barclay) has “and learn how to live,” which fits in well with the idea of bringing up children. However, the writer may be thinking of Exodus 20.12, which says that you may live a long time in the land; therefore he may be concerned, not only with the initial training of children, but with a whole way of life which God can bless with prosperity. Alternatively, the meaning may be that if the readers do what the writer recommends, they will survive the final test and receive the gift of eternal life. Verses 10 and 11b suggest that the writer is more concerned about a good relationship with God than with rules of behavior.

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 .