complete verse (Hebrews 9:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 9:10:

  • Uma: “For all those customs are customs that concern [lit., strike] our physical bodies only, like for instance customs and taboos about food and drink, and many kinds of religious bathing customs. God gave those customs to his followers so that they could follow them while they waited for the time he made a new promise, but the usefulness of those customs ends there.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “For this is only what they do, they follow commands about eating and drinking and different ways for cleansing the body. But these commands are about the body only and there is only use in them as-long-as God has not yet exchanged them with new commands.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For this way of worshipping God was only by means of commands about customs of eating, drinking, washing and wetting the body in a way commanded by God. They are commands that people carry out only by means of the body and only because they are commanded and not because that’s what’s in their breath. And the value of this way lasted only until the time now when God replaced it with a new way.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because they are based on rules concerning the body only such as what can-be-eaten and can-be-drunk and the proper washing of whatever. It was necessary that these be fulfilled until the new agreement finalized (lit. tied-in-a-knot) by Cristo replaced (them).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Because that work of theirs which was like that, all it applied to(lit. hit) was, things concerning people’s bodies, like food, drink, and cleansing. As for these laws, they were in force(lit.going) as long as God had not yet set up his new initiated-agreement which is much better.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning the words written before, they are about selecting the things which are to be eaten, they tell the people in what way they are to wash in order to be able to worship God. But all these words only had power over what the people did while God had not yet made the new agreement with the people.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Hebrews 9:10

The pronoun they must refer clearly to the offerings and animal sacrifices. It may be important to repeat at least some aspects of the previous statement, for example, “the things offered to God,” to make the meaning clear.

Food and drink are plural in the text: “things to eat and drink,” referring to Old Testament regulations about what might or might not be eaten and drunk. Food, drink may be rendered as “what one should eat and what one should drink” or “what God allows people to eat and drink.”

Various purification ceremonies is literally “baptisms”; see comment on 6.2. Various purification ceremonies may be rendered as “various ways in which people could purify themselves,” “… could become pure,” or “… could get rid of what made them unclean.”

Most translations are based on the same text as the UBS Greek New Testament, in which outward rules includes all the rules to do only with food, drink, and various purification ceremonies. Phillips and Zürcher Bibel follow a less likely text which makes the outward rules another item in the list: “various washings and rules for bodily conduct.” The word for rules is the one used in verse 1. Some translations put outward rules first and give the examples later; for example, Jerusalem Bible “they are rules about the outward life, connected with foods and drinks and washing at various times.” The “rules about the outward life” are contrasted with the heart or “conscience” (verse 9).

The expression outward rules may be almost meaningless if translated literally. It may be possible to speak about “rules about how one performs rituals,” but it may be clearer to translate outward rules as “rules which have nothing to do with one’s heart” or “rules which have nothing to do with the person inside each of us.”

Establish the new order: new order (Revised Standard Version “reformation”) translates a Greek word related to an adjective meaning “straight,” “upright.” In order to give the full meaning of “putting things straight,” Good News Translation fourth edition (like Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Translator’s New Testament) uses the phrase the new order. Jerusalem Bible‘s “until it should be time to reform them,” that is, “the rules about worship,” is too narrow. Barclay‘s “only until the time when by the action of God religion is totally reformed and reconstructed” gives the meaning precisely but is rather long. The text refers to the fulfillment of the Jewish hope for a new world, not a mere improvement of this world.

Good News Bible fourth edition avoids words like “reform” and “reformation” perhaps because in current English they are increasingly used to refer to some superficial improvement in the existing situation. Establish the new order may be expressed in some languages as “make everything new,” “cause everything to be new and different,” or “cause a new way of living to come into existence.”

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 .