9:15 And so he is the mediator 15 of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, 16 since he died 17 to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant. 9:16 For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be proven. 18 9:17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it carries no force while the one who made it is alive. 9:18 So even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. 19 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20 and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” 20
13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 tn The words “he took” are not in the Greek text at this point, but are an understood repetition from v. 19.
2 tn The phrase “after they had eaten” translates the temporal infinitive construction μετὰ τὸ δειπνῆσαι (meta to deipnhsai), where the verb δειπνέω (deipnew) means “to eat a meal” or “to have a meal.”
3 sn Jesus’ death established the forgiveness promised in the new covenant of Jer 31:31. Jesus is reinterpreting the symbolism of the Passover meal, indicating the presence of a new era.
4 tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
5 tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.
6 tn Grk “were seeking how.”
7 tn The Greek verb here means “to get rid of by execution” (BDAG 64 s.v. ἀναιρέω 2; cf. also L&N 20.71, which states, “to get rid of someone by execution, often with legal or quasi-legal procedures”).
8 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn The suggestion here is that Jesus was too popular to openly arrest him. The verb were trying is imperfect. It suggests, in this context, that they were always considering the opportunities.
10 tc The words ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας (epi tou" Juiou" th" apeiqeia", “on the sons of disobedience”) are lacking in Ì46 B b sa, but are found in א A C D F G H I Ψ 075 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy bo. The words are omitted by several English translations (NASB, NIV, ESV, TNIV). This textual problem is quite difficult to resolve. On the one hand, the parallel account in Eph 5:6 has these words, thus providing scribes a motive for adding them here. On the other hand, the reading without the words may be too hard: The ἐν οἷς (en |oi") of v. 7 seems to have no antecedent without υἱούς already in the text, although it could possibly be construed as neuter referring to the vice list in v. 5. Further, although the witness of B is especially important, there are other places in which B and Ì46 share errant readings of omission. Nevertheless, the strength of the internal evidence against the longer reading is at least sufficient to cause doubt here. The decision to retain the words in the text is less than certain.
11 tn BDAG 365 s.v. ἐπί 7 suggests “to all these” as a translation for ἐπὶ πᾶσιν δὲ τούτοις (epi pasin de toutoi").
12 tn The term “virtues” is not in the Greek text, but is included in the translation to specify the antecedent and to make clear the sense of the pronoun “these.”
13 tn The verb “add,” though not in the Greek text, is implied, picking up the initial imperative “clothe yourselves.”
14 tn The genitive τῆς τελειότητος (th" teleiothto") has been translated as an attributive genitive, “the perfect bond.”
15 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.
16 tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
17 tn Grk “a death having occurred.”
18 tn Grk “there is a necessity for the death of the one who made it to be proven.”
19 sn The Greek text reinforces this by negating the opposite (“not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood”), but this double negation is not used in contemporary English.
20 tn Grk “which God commanded for you (or in your case).”