2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2:2 For if the message spoken through angels 1 proved to be so firm that every violation 2 or disobedience received its just penalty, 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, 2:4 while God confirmed their witness 3 with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed 4 according to his will.
2:5 For he did not put the world to come, 5 about which we are speaking, 6 under the control of angels. 2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere:
“What is man that you think of him 7 or the son of man that you care for him?
2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.
You crowned him with glory and honor. 8
1 sn The message spoken through angels refers to the OT law, which according to Jewish tradition was mediated to Moses through angels (cf. Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17-18; Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19; and Jub. 1:27, 29; Josephus, Ant. 15.5.3 [15.136]).
2 tn Grk “through angels became valid and every violation.”
3 tn Grk “God bearing witness together” (the phrase “with them” is implied).
4 tn Grk “and distributions of the Holy Spirit.”
5 sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.
6 sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.
7 tn Grk “remember him.”
8 tc Several witnesses, many of them early and important (א A C D* P Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat co), have at the end of v 7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.” Other