Hebrews 8:8

8:8 But ¹  showing its fault, ²  God ³  says to them, ⁴ 

“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Hebrews 8:11

8:11 “And there will be no need at all ⁵  for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. ⁶ 

Hebrews 9:15

9:15 And so he is the mediator ⁷  of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, ⁸  since he died ⁹  to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 11:13

11:13 These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, ¹⁰  but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners ¹¹  on the earth.

[8:8]  ¹ tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.

[8:8]  ² sn The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.

[8:8]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ⁴ tc ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autoi"), supported by Ì⁴⁶ א² B D² 0278 1739 1881 Ï, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomeno", here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.

[8:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”

[8:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “from the small to the great.”

[9:15]  ⁹ 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.

[9:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

[9:15]  ¹¹ tn Grk “a death having occurred.”

[11:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “the promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.

[11:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or “sojourners.”