1:5 For to which of the angels did God 1 ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? 2 And in another place 3 he says, 4 “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 5
“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
8:11 “And there will be no need at all 18 for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. 19
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 23 we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,
13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. 24 Let them do this 25 with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.
1 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Grk “I have begotten you.”
3 tn Grk “And again,” quoting another OT passage.
4 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.
5 tn Grk “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.”
6 tn Or “partook of” (this is a different word than the one in v. 14a).
7 tn Grk “the same.”
8 tn Or “break the power of,” “reduce to nothing.”
11 tn Grk “because of the time.”
12 tn Grk “the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.”
13 tn Grk “you have come to have a need for.”
14 tc ‡ Most texts, including some early and important ones (א2 A B* D Ψ 0122 0278 1881 Ï sy Cl), have καί (kai, “and”) immediately preceding οὐ (ou, “not”), but other equally significant witnesses (Ì46 א* B2 C 33 81 1739 lat Or Did) lack the conjunction. As it was a natural tendency for scribes to add a coordinating conjunction, the καί appears to be a motivated reading. On balance, it is probably best to regard the shorter reading as authentic. NA27 has καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
16 tn Grk “comes upon.”
21 tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.
22 sn The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.
23 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tc ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autoi"), supported by Ì46 א2 B D2 0278 1739 1881 Ï, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomeno", here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.
26 tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”
27 tn Grk “from the small to the great.”
31 tn Grk “tramples under foot.”
32 tn Grk “regarded as common.”
33 tn Grk “by which he was made holy.”
36 tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”
41 tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”
42 tn Grk “that they may do this.”