Hebrews 11:36-38

11:36 And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 11:37 They were stoned, sawed apart, ¹  murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 11:38 (the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth.

Hebrews 11:1

People Commended for Their Faith

11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Hebrews 1:6-8

1:6 But when he again brings ²  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ³  1:7 And he says ⁴  of the angels, “He makes ⁵  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ⁶  1:8 but of ⁷  the Son he says, ⁸ 

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, ⁹ 

and a righteous scepter ¹⁰  is the scepter of your kingdom.

Hebrews 1:2

1:2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, ¹¹  whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. ¹² 

Hebrews 2:9

2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ¹³  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ¹⁴  so that by God’s grace he would experience ¹⁵  death on behalf of everyone.

Revelation 2:10

2:10 Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is about to have some of you thrown ¹⁶  into prison so you may be tested, ¹⁷  and you will experience suffering ¹⁸  for ten days. Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself. ¹⁹ 

[11:37]  ¹ tc The reading ἐπρίσθησαν (ejprisqhsan, “they were sawed apart”) is found in some important witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ [D* twice reads ἐπίρσθησαν, “they were burned”?] pc sy^p sa Or^pt Eus). Other mss have ἐπειράσθησαν (ejpeirasqhsan, “they were tempted”), either before “sawed apart” ([א] L P [048] 33 81 326 1505 pc sy^h), after “sawed apart” (Ì^13vid A D¹ Ψ 1739 1881 Ï lat bo Or^pt), or altogether in place of “sawed apart” (0150 vg^mss Cl). Since the two words ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειράσθησαν are so much alike in sight and sound, and since the position of “they were tempted” varies in the mss, it seems best to say that ἐπειράσθησαν is an accidental corruption of ἐπρίσθησαν or an intentional change to a more common word (the root of ἐπρίσθησαν [πρίζω, prizw] occurs only here in the NT, while the root of ἐπειράσθησαν [πειράζω, peirazw] occurs 38 times). The best reading here seems to be “sawed apart” without any addition before or after. (See TCGNT 603-4, for a discussion of emendations that scholars have proposed for this difficult problem.)

[1:6]  ² tn Or “And again when he brings.” The translation adopted in the text looks forward to Christ’s second coming to earth. Some take “again” to introduce the quotation (as in 1:5) and understand this as Christ’s first coming, but this view does not fit well with Heb 2:7. Others understand it as his exaltation/ascension to heaven, but this takes the phrase “into the world” in an unlikely way.

[1:6]  ³ sn A quotation combining themes from Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7.

[1:7]  ⁴ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Or “to.”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.

[1:2]  ¹¹ tn The Greek puts an emphasis on the quality of God’s final revelation. As such, it is more than an indefinite notion (“a son”) though less than a definite one (“the son”), for this final revelation is not just through any son of God, nor is the emphasis specifically on the person himself. Rather, the focus here is on the nature of the vehicle of God’s revelation: He is no mere spokesman (or prophet) for God, nor is he merely a heavenly messenger (or angel); instead, this final revelation comes through one who is intimately acquainted with the heavenly Father in a way that only a family member could be. There is, however, no exact equivalent in English (“in son” is hardly good English style).

[1:2]  ¹² tn Grk “the ages.” The temporal (ages) came to be used of the spatial (what exists in those time periods). See Heb 11:3 for the same usage.

[2:9]  ¹³ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ¹⁵ 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).

[2:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “is about to throw some of you,” but the force is causative in context.

[2:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “tempted.”

[2:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “experience persecution,” “will be in distress” (see L&N 22.2).

[2:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “crown of life,” with the genitive “of life” (τῆς ζωῆς, th" zwh") functioning in apposition to “crown” (στέφανον, stefanon): “the crown that consists of life.”