13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. 6 Let them do this 7 with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.
1 tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א D2 1881 Ï), read δεσμοῖς μου (desmoi" mou, “my imprisonment”) here, a reading that is probably due to the widespread belief in the early Christian centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews (cf. Phil 1:7; Col 4:18). It may have been generated by the reading δεσμοῖς without the μου (so Ì46 Ψ 104 pc), the force of which is so ambiguous (lit., “you shared the sufferings with the bonds”) as to be virtually nonsensical. Most likely, δεσμοῖς resulted when a scribe made an error in copying δεσμίοις (desmioi"), a reading which makes excellent sense (“[of] those in prison”) and is strongly supported by early and significant witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (A D* H 6 33 81 1739 lat sy co). Thus, δεσμίοις best explains the rise of the other readings on both internal and external grounds and is strongly preferred.
2 tn Grk “you yourselves.”
3 tn Grk “all discipline at the time does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow.”
4 tn Grk “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
5 sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.
7 tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”
8 tn Grk “that they may do this.”