Jeremiah 6:16

6:16 The Lord said to his people: ¹ 

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. ² 

Ask where the old, reliable paths ³  are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing ⁴  and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

Isaiah 35:8

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ⁵ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ⁶  –

fools ⁷  will not stray into it.

John 14:6

14:6 Jesus replied, ⁸  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. ⁹  No one comes to the Father except through me.

Hebrews 10:20

10:20 by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us ¹⁰  through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ¹¹ 

[6:16]  ¹ tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:16]  ² tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”

[6:16]  ³ tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).

[6:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”

[35:8]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ⁷ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[14:6]  ⁸ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[14:6]  ⁹ tn Or “I am the way, even the truth and the life.”

[10:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “that he inaugurated for us as a fresh and living way,” referring to the entrance mentioned in v. 19.

[10:20]  ¹¹ sn Through his flesh. In a bold shift the writer changes from a spatial phrase (Christ opened the way through the curtain into the inner sanctuary) to an instrumental phrase (he did this through [by means of] his flesh in his sacrifice of himself), associating the two in an allusion to the splitting of the curtain in the temple from top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Just as the curtain was split, so Christ’s body was broken for us, to give us access into God’s presence.