62:12 and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love. 4
For you repay men for what they do. 5
12:3 But the wise will shine
like the brightness of the heavenly expanse.
And those bringing many to righteousness
will be like the stars forever and ever.
5:11 “Blessed are you when people 6 insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely 7 on account of me. 5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.
6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond 19 the elementary 20 instructions about Christ 21 and move on 22 to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, 28
and a righteous scepter 29 is the scepter of your kingdom.
22:12 (Look! I am coming soon,
and my reward is with me to pay 35 each one according to what he has done!
1 tn Grk “time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light.”
2 tn Or “praise.”
3 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
4 tn Heb “and to you, O Master, [is] loyal love.”
5 tn Heb “for you pay back to a man according to his deed.” Another option is to understand vv. 11b and 12a as the first principle and v. 12b as the second. In this case one might translate, “God has declared one principle, two principles I have heard, namely, that God is strong, and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love, and that you repay men for what they do.”
6 tn Grk “when they insult you.” The third person pronoun (here implied in the verb ὀνειδίσωσιν [ojneidiswsin]) has no specific referent, but refers to people in general.
7 tc Although ψευδόμενοι (yeudomenoi, “bearing witness falsely”) could be a motivated reading, clarifying that the disciples are unjustly persecuted, its lack in only D it sys Tert does not help its case. Since the Western text is known for numerous free alterations, without corroborative evidence the shorter reading must be judged as secondary.
8 tn Grk “And whoever.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
9 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
10 sn An allusion to Pss 28:4; 62:12; cf. Prov 24:12.
11 tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
12 tn Or “will render,” “will recompense.” In this context Paul is setting up a hypothetical situation, not stating that salvation is by works.
13 sn A quotation from Ps 62:12; Prov 24:12; a close approximation to Matt 16:27.
14 tn Or “is not mocked,” “will not be ridiculed” (L&N 33.409). BDAG 660 s.v. μυκτηρίζω has “of God οὐ μ. he is not to be mocked, treated w. contempt, perh. outwitted Gal 6:7.”
15 tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense, referring to both men and women.
16 tn BDAG 915 s.v. σάρξ 2.c.α states: “In Paul’s thought esp., all parts of the body constitute a totality known as σ. or flesh, which is dominated by sin to such a degree that wherever flesh is, all forms of sin are likew. present, and no good thing can live in the σάρξ…Gal 5:13, 24;…Opp. τὸ πνεῦμα…Gal 3:3; 5:16, 17ab; 6:8ab.”
17 tn Or “destruction.”
18 tn See the note on the previous occurrence of the word “flesh” in this verse.
19 tn Grk “Therefore leaving behind.” The implication is not of abandoning this elementary information, but of building on it.
20 tn Or “basic.”
21 tn Grk “the message of the beginning of Christ.”
22 tn Grk “leaving behind…let us move on.”
23 sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.
24 tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”
25 tn Grk “being called by God.”
26 tn Or “to.”
27 tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.
28 tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.
29 tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.
30 tn Grk “her children,” but in this context a reference to this woman’s followers or disciples is more likely meant.
31 tn Grk “I will kill with death.” θάνατος (qanatos) can in particular contexts refer to a manner of death, specifically a contagious disease (see BDAG 443 s.v. 3; L&N 23.158).
32 tn Grk “I will give.” The sense of δίδωμι (didwmi) in this context is more “repay” than “give.”
33 sn This pronoun and the following one are plural in the Greek text.
34 tn Grk “each one of you according to your works.”
35 tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ἀποδοῦναι (apodounai) was used here.