Revised Standard Version‘s “But” marks the contrast between warning (verses 26-31) and encouragement. The imperative Remember suggests that the readers are being asked to make some effort to recall earlier times. Many translations have “recall” ( Revised Standard Version) or some equivalent; Barclay says “Cast your minds back.” The closest equivalent of Remember in this type of context may be simply “think about.” But how it was with you may be “what happened to you.” “Former” (Revised Standard Version) simply means “earlier than the present,” hence in the past. In the past may be expressed as “before” or “before now.”

In those days is added in Good News Translation to link the two sentences; it is literally “in which,” implying “days.” A literal rendering of In those days may be too specific; “Then” or “At that time” may be better.

After God’s light had shone on you translates a single word for “having been enlightened.” The passive indicates the action of God, and “enlightened” (Revised Standard Version) refers here, as in 6.4, to a single act, probably becoming a Christian and being baptized. The writer certainly does not mean that the readers were “enlightened” in the past but are now in “darkness.” The meaning in nonfigurative terms is “when you first became Christians,” “when you first came to understand the Good News,” or “when you first believed the Good News.”

The meaning of the last part of the verse is very compressed. Good News Translation uses eleven English words to translate four Greek ones, which are literally “you-endured much struggle of-sufferings.” The picture is that of an athlete engaged in some kind of hard competition, perhaps a race (compare 12.1), or possibly a wrestling match. Who the other competitors are is not stated; the main idea is that of struggle and hardship. This struggle is made necessary by what the readers suffered. Yet despite their suffering, the readers had not given up the struggle or abandoned their faith. You suffered many things may be translated “you suffered much.”

Not defeated expresses negatively what the Greek, followed by Revised Standard Version, states positively by “endured.” The meaning is not simply that the readers suffered without complaint, but as Good News Translation makes clear, that they still survived as Christians when the sufferings had done their worst. 12.4 states that martyrdom had not been involved, so suffered here does not mean “died,” as it does for example in 2.18.

Yet were not defeated by the struggle may be expressed as “but the struggle did not defeat you,” “but even though you struggled, you did not give up,” or “… you continued strong.”

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 Joshua 6.1-20. This verse contains the first reference to faith which does not indicate precisely who has the faith. If the actor is not made explicit, the sentence may seem to say that it is the walls which have faith—an error found in some translations. The implied reference is to the faith or confidence which the people of Israel had, and therefore the first part of verse 30 may be translated as “Because the Israelites trusted God, the walls of Jericho collapsed” or “… the wall of the city of Jericho collapsed.” It is important to avoid the suggestion that the walls had faith!

In the choice of a verb to translate fall down, it is important to make a clear distinction between (1) the falling of an object from one level to another and (2) the collapsing of some object to the level of its base. It is the second meaning which must be employed in this verse.

Translators sometimes create unnecessary problems in dealing with this essentially simple verse. Good News Translation‘s and Revised Standard Version‘s for seven days is quite adequate; the phrase means “over a period of seven days.” It need not mean that the entire seven days were spent in marching round the walls, as Knox suggests; Joshua 6 makes it clear that this did not happen. Unlike Joshua 6, the rest of Hebrews does not say that the Israelites marched around the walls “each day for seven days” (Barclay). Bijbel in Gewone Taal‘s “that happened when they had gone round seven times, once each day” goes beyond the text of Hebrews and actually contradicts Joshua 6.15.

The verb translated marched around can mean either “stood around in a circle” (Revised Standard Version and New English Bible “encircled”; Phillips and Moffatt “surrounded”) or “marched around them,” that is, the walls (common language translations, Barclay, Translator’s New Testament). The first meaning is the more common, but the second is suggested by Joshua 6.

It may be clearer in some languages to speak of the Israelites “marching around Jericho” rather than “marching around the walls.”

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 .

Be careful and do not refuse are closely linked; Phillips “be sure you do not refuse”; similarly New English Bible. Refuse to hear is the immediate meaning in this context of a word which can mean to “reject” someone or something. The author probably did not distinguish sharply between rejecting God or Christ, and rejecting what they say; but the latter is in focus here.

For many languages do not refuse to hear is a double negative, since refuse to hear implies not hearing or not paying attention. Such double negatives must often be translated as positive expressions. If so, do not refuse to hear him who speaks must be rendered as “pay close attention to the one who speaks.”

Those who refused to hear may be expressed idiomatically; for example, “those who stopped their ears,” or “those who put their hands over their ears,” or “those who made themselves deaf to what was said.”

It is uncertain who is meant by the phrases (a) him who speaks, (b) the one who gave the divine message on earth, and (c) the one who speaks from heaven. Gave the divine message renders a single verb, which sometimes means “warns” (Revised Standard Version), but can be used of any divine oracle (see 8.5 and 11.7). Speaks in (c) is implicit; one could equally well understand gave the divine message. (a) and (c) may be God or Christ; (b) may be God or Moses; if (c) is Christ, (b) may also be Christ. Most commentators think of God as the speaker referred to throughout the verse, but verse 19 does not specify that the one who spoke was God, and verse 24 has just mentioned the blood of Jesus as “speaking” (phrase (a) has the same Greek verb). If it is clearer in translation to state who the speaker is, it is probably safest to make it God, at least in (a). The Greek suggests that the speaker is the same throughout. It may be helpful to make some of these identifications explicit in translation. The Translator’s New Testament text, for example, takes him who speaks as Jesus. Barclay and Translator’s New Testament identify the one who gave the divine message on earth as Moses, and Barclay identifies the one who speaks from heaven as Christ but translates “the one who comes from heaven,” recalling 10.37. However, “comes” adds something not in the text.

For most languages the phrase the divine message must be expressed as “the message that comes from God.” But this rendering may cause complications, if God is specifically mentioned as the one who gives this message on earth.

The rest of the verse introduces a “how much more” type of comparison, on which see the comments on 2.1, all the more firmly, and 9.14, and see also Matthew 6.30. This is a negative comparison, implying “How much more shall we not escape?” which Good News Translation rightly simplifies into How much less shall we escape…! In some languages this may cause a problem, since one either escapes or does not. In this case “How much more certain is it that we shall not escape?” is an alternative. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has “All the more shall we be condemned,” avoiding the rhetorical question. Revised Standard Version‘s “if” does not imply any doubt or condition; it means “if, as was the case, they did not escape….” Good News Translation turns this into a separate statement, linked with what follows by then, and meaning “therefore.”

In a high percentage of languages, conditional clauses tend to precede the main clause, and therefore the order of the final sentence may need to be changed; for example, “If we reject the one who speaks from heaven, we certainly shall not escape.” Such a positive statement is often clearer than an exclamation involving some degree of probability (for example, how much less).

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 .