complete verse (Hebrews 12:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 12:27:

  • Uma: “The words that say ‘one more time,’ their meaning: God will shake and destroy this world that he has made, for this world does not last forever. So in the future, he will destroy it all, so that only what cannot be shaken will remain.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “This is the meaning of those words, that the different things that were created will finally be shaken and disappear and/but the things that cannot be shaken those will remain.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the meaning of this is: He will remove everything which can be seen because this will go out of existence. So that the only thing left will be everything that cannot go out of existence.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “What he said that once more he would shake it, it means to say that these-things that were created which can be shaken will cease-to-exist so that only what cannot be shaken will remain.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, (incl.) these words of his, it’s clear that in that day, as for all these things which he says he will cause-to-quake, they will really be removed. For even though God created them, in his determined-plan they will not last-for-ever. He will do this so that what will last/hold-fast in exchange are, the things that have no removeability.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Since this is what the word is that God speaks about what he will do when he again speaks, then it is seen that God will bring to an end the work of what he has made. Whatever remains, not having been shaken, that will be forever.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Hebrews 12:27

Plainly is implied. The word translated show does not by itself suggest supernatural revelation; the writer is simply explaining what he thinks the words “once more” imply. The words “once more” plainly show may be rendered as “Those words ‘once more’ indicate clearly” or “… surely mean.”

The created things may be rendered as “that which has been created” or “what God has created.” The created things will be shaken and removed is literally “(the) removal of things-shaken as having-been-made.” Good News Translation gives the meaning. The word translated removed was adequately translated changed in 7.12, but in the present context that would be too weak. Here the meaning is “set aside,” or “carried away,” or “be replaced by something else.” The text implies that earthly things can be shaken and removed because they are “made”; the same idea was expressed in an Old Testament quotation in 1.10-12. On the other hand, things which belong to heaven, not to the visible world, cannot be shaken (literally, “are not shaken,” but Good News Translation is clearer).

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 .