9:15 And so he is the mediator 10 of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, 11 since he died 12 to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.
1 tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”
2 tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”
3 tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).
4 tn Or “partook of” (this is a different word than the one in v. 14a).
5 tn Grk “the same.”
6 tn Or “break the power of,” “reduce to nothing.”
7 tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”
8 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.
10 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
11 tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
12 tn Grk “a death having occurred.”