Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 2:2:
Uma: “For the Law of the Lord delivered by the lips of angels to our grandparents long ago did not change, and people who didn’t follow or believe it got a punishment according to their behavior.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The law, that is the message that the angels brought to our (incl.) ancestors in old times, is known to be really, really true and whoever did not follow or did not believe that message was punished accordingly (lit. matching him).” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For as for the Law which was given long ago by God by means of His angels, we know that anyone who disobeyed it, he was punished by God according to his disobedience.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because it was mandatory that people obey the law that God passed to the angels back then, and even anyone who broke it, he underwent the punishment he deserved.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Those laws of God that he caused the angels to speak back in the past, it has really been comprehended that (they are) no joking matter. For isn’t it so that whoever opposed these (laws) by not obeying, punishment was really the reward they received, for that was fitting for doing like that?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “After all, the word which was spoken by God’s angels in the past time happened just like what the word said would happen. The people who did not pay attention to that word and rejected it were those who met up with punishment as their payment for being rejectors.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Bender / Belt (2025, p. 2f.) report about the translation of “angel” in Cherokee: “In John, the concept of angel is translated using a descriptive neologism rather than a semantic extension, suggesting the lack of a ready parallel. The plural is dmikahnawadidohi, ‘the law-givers’ or ‘those who go around looking after the medicine.’ Cherokee speakers argue that the Cherokee word for ‘law,’ dikahnawadvsdi, expresses the intent to maintain social, physical, and spiritual health and has at its core the word for ‘medicine,’ mwoli, which encompasses all aspects of social and spiritual well-being, including balance and order (Altman and Belt 2009), much more than the English word. Thus, the Cherokee word for ‘angel’ represents a new perspective on this category of spiritual beings named in the Bible. It does not derive from the concept of messenger present in both its Greek (angelos) and Hebrew (malak) antecedents perhaps because the Cherokee word for ‘messenger,’ atsinvsidasdi, is widely used to translate the foreign lexeme ‘servant.'”
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kotoba (みことば) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses.
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 .
Hebrews 2:2a–3b is one long sentence. In many languages it may be necessary to divide the sentence into two or more sentences. See the General Comment on 2:2–3 at the end of 2:3b for examples.
In 2:2–3 the author used a certain type of logical reasoning. First, he used an example about Moses’ Law that everyone already accepted. Then he gave a similar example about Jesus’ message that was based on more powerful reasons. He did this to convince his readers that it was even more important to pay attention to the message of Jesus than to the law of Moses.
2:2a
For: The conjunction For introduces a reason for what the author said in 2:1. The author explained why we must pay more attention to the message from God’s Son than to the message from angels. Connect this reason to 2:1 in a natural way in your language.
if: The word if introduces a clause that tells two facts about the angels’ message. This type of clause indicates that the facts in it are true. Both the author and the readers already knew these facts, and the author used those facts as the basis and support for what he said in 2:3. Here is another way to translate this basis and introduce the conclusion:
⌊ We know that⌋the message that angels brought was valid. ⌊We also know that⌋ every violation or disobedience of it was justly punished. So…
See the General Comment on 2:2–3 at the end of 2:3b for examples of ways to translate the basis and conclusion in these verses.
the message spoken by angels: The phrase the message refers here to God’s Law (literally “word”) that was spoken by angels. It contrasts with what was spoken by the Lord (2:3). The Scriptures suggest that God used angels to give his law to Moses, and then Moses gave the law to the Israelites.
God’s law consisted of many laws (which are written in Genesis-Deuteronomy). The word message does not refer to only one particular law. It also does not refer to the type of message that is a short statement or request.
Some other ways to translate the phrase are:
God’s word spoken through angels (Revised English Bible) -or-
those laws of God that he caused the angels to speak -or-
the laws/words that God gave ⌊people⌋ through the angels
spoken: The verb spoken is passive. In some languages it is more natural to use an active verb. For example:
the message which angels spoke/gave…
angels: The word angels occurred in 1:4. You should translate it in the same way here.
was binding: The word binding means “legally binding, firm, and in force.” It indicates here that those who received the law had to obey it. The context implies that God would enforce the law. Other ways to translate the word in this context are:
proved to be so firm that… (NET Bible) -or-
it was not possible to ignore/change that law -or-
it was required/necessary that people obey that law
The author will use the word again in 3:6, 3:14, 6:19, and 9:17.
2:2b
The clause in 2:2b is the second part of the condition that began in 2:2a.
and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment: This clause indicates that everyone who broke the law or disobeyed it was justly punished. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate explicitly that 2:2b is also part of the condition that began in 2:2a. For example:
and if anyone broke ⌊that law⌋ or disobeyed it, that person was justly punished -or-
and since everyone breaking that law received/suffered the proper penalty
In the law God specified the proper punishment for various offenses. The leaders and the whole community of Israel were responsible to ensure that the people were punished in those ways.
In some languages it may be necessary to indicate who punished the people. If that is true in your language, you may supply “God” as the subject or you may use an indefinite subject. For example:
⌊ God/They⌋justly punished everyone who violated or disobeyed it.
every transgression and disobedience: The words transgression and disobedience have a similar meaning. In some languages it is helpful to translate this meaning with one phrase. For example:
all who did not do what the law told them to do
every transgression: The word transgression refers to doing something that God forbids in the law or not doing something that he commands. This word is used again in 9:15, as well as in other places in the NT. Some other ways to translate every transgression are:
every time a person did not follow/obey it -or-
whenever anyone broke it
For more information, see “transgression” under sin, other words to compare in Key Biblical Terms.
disobedience: The word disobedience refers to a refusal to listen and obey. The implied object is the message, which was the law that the angels brought. Some other ways to translate it are:
did not…obey it (Good News Translation) -or-
rejected it
its just punishment: The phrase its just punishment implies that in the law there was a proper punishment for each disobedience. The law specified the particular punishment that a person should receive for various disobedient actions. The word just means “right, fair, deserved.” A just punishment was a fair or right punishment.
Other ways to translate this meaning are:
and whenever a person disobeyed any of the laws, he was punished in a fair way
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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