Hebrews 9:10

9:10 They served only for matters of food and drink ¹  and various washings; they are external regulations ²  imposed until the new order came. ³ 

Hebrews 7:16

7:16 who has become a priest not by a legal regulation about physical descent ⁴  but by the power of an indestructible life.

[9:10]  ¹ tn Grk “only for foods and drinks.”

[9:10]  ² tc Most witnesses (D¹ Ï) have “various washings, and external regulations” (βαπτισμοῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν, baptismoi" kai dikaiwmasin), with both nouns in the dative. The translation “washings; they are… regulations” renders βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα (baptismoi", dikaiwmata; found in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א* A I P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sa) in which case δικαιώματα is taken as the nominative subject of the participle ἐπικείμενα (epikeimena). It seems far more likely that scribes would conform δικαιώματα to the immediately preceding datives and join it to them by καί than they would to the following nominative participle. Both on external and internal evidence the text is thus secure as reading βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα.

[9:10]  ³ tn Grk “until the time of setting things right.”

[7:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “a law of a fleshly command.”