1:5 For to which of the angels did God 3 ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? 4 And in another place 5 he says, 6 “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 7 1:6 But when he again brings 8 his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” 9
1 tn Grk “having become.” This is part of the same sentence that extends from v. 1 through v. 4 in the Greek text.
2 tn Most modern English translations attempt to make the comparison somewhat smoother by treating “name” as if it were the subject of the second element: “as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, CEV). However, the Son is the subject of both the first and second elements: “he became so far better”; “he has inherited a name.” The present translation maintains this parallelism even though it results in a somewhat more awkward rendering.
3 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Grk “I have begotten you.”
5 tn Grk “And again,” quoting another OT passage.
6 tn The words “he says” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to make a complete English sentence. In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but English does not normally employ such long and complex sentences.
7 tn Grk “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.”
5 tn Or “And again when he brings.” The translation adopted in the text looks forward to Christ’s second coming to earth. Some take “again” to introduce the quotation (as in 1:5) and understand this as Christ’s first coming, but this view does not fit well with Heb 2:7. Others understand it as his exaltation/ascension to heaven, but this takes the phrase “into the world” in an unlikely way.
6 sn A quotation combining themes from Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7.