Passage Resources Hebrew/Greek Your Content
Previous Next
Add parallel Print Page Options

Hebrews 4:14-16
New English Translation

Jesus Our Compassionate High Priest

14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 4:16 tn Grk “for timely help.”
Next
Hebrews 3
Hebrews 5
Next
Previous Next

Hebrews 5:1-10
New English Translation

5 For every high priest is taken from among the people[a] and appointed[b] to represent them before God,[c] to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness, 3 and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. 4 And no one assumes this honor[d] on his own initiative,[e] but only when called to it by God,[f] as in fact Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming high priest, but the one who glorified him was God,[g] who said to him, “You are my Son! Today I have fathered you,”[h] 6 as also in another place God[i] says, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”[j] 7 During his earthly life[k] Christ[l] offered[m] both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered.[n] 9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 and he was designated[o] by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.[p]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 5:1 tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anthrōpōn) has been translated “people.”
  2. Hebrews 5:1 tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”
  3. Hebrews 5:1 tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”
  4. Hebrews 5:4 sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.
  5. Hebrews 5:4 tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”
  6. Hebrews 5:4 tn Grk “being called by God.”
  7. Hebrews 5:5 tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  8. Hebrews 5:5 tn Grk “I have begotten you”; see Heb 1:5.sn A quotation from Ps 2:7.
  9. Hebrews 5:6 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  10. Hebrews 5:6 sn A quotation from Ps 110:4.
  11. Hebrews 5:7 tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”
  12. Hebrews 5:7 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  13. Hebrews 5:7 tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.
  14. Hebrews 5:8 sn There is a wordplay in the Greek text between the verbs “learned” (ἔμαθεν, emathen) and “suffered” (ἔπαθεν, epathen).
  15. Hebrews 5:10 tn Grk “having been designated,” continuing the thought of Heb 5:9.
  16. Hebrews 5:10 sn The phrase in the order of Melchizedek picks up the quotation from Ps 110:4 in Heb 5:6.
Next
Hebrews 4
Hebrews 6
Next
Previous Next

Hebrews 7:26-8:13
New English Translation

26 For it is indeed fitting for us to have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need to do every day what those priests do, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this in offering himself once for all. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men subject to weakness,[a] but the word of solemn affirmation that came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever.

The High Priest of a Better Covenant

8 Now the main point of what we are saying is this:[b] We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,[c] 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So this one too had to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer[d] the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 The place where they serve is[e] a sketch[f] and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, “See that you make everything according to the design[g] shown to you on the mountain.”[h] 6 But[i] now Jesus[j] has obtained a superior ministry, since[k] the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted[l] on better promises.[m]

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one.[n] 8 But[o] showing its fault,[p] God[q] says to them,[r]

“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.
9 “It will not be like the covenant[s] that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.
10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put[t] my laws in their minds[u] and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.[v]
11 “And there will be no need at all[w] 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.[x]
12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”[y]

13 When he speaks of a new covenant,[z] he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear.[aa]

Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 7:28 sn See Heb 5:2 where this concept was introduced.
  2. Hebrews 8:1 tn Grk “the main point of the things being said.”
  3. Hebrews 8:1 sn An allusion to Ps 110:1; see Heb 1:3, 13.
  4. Hebrews 8:4 tn Grk “there are those who offer.”
  5. Hebrews 8:5 tn Grk “who serve in,” referring to the Levitical priests, but focusing on the provisional and typological nature of the tabernacle in which they served.
  6. Hebrews 8:5 tn Or “prototype,” “outline.” The Greek word ὑπόδειγμα (hupodeigma) does not mean “copy,” as it is often translated; it means “something to be copied,” a basis for imitation. BDAG 1037 s.v. 2 lists both Heb 8:5 and 9:23 under the second category of usage, “an indication of someth. that appears at a subsequent time,” emphasizing the temporal progression between the earthly and heavenly sanctuaries.sn There are two main options for understanding the conceptual background of the heavenly sanctuary imagery. The first is to understand the imagery to be functioning on a vertical plane. This background is Hellenistic, philosophical, and spatial in orientation and sees the earthly sanctuary as a copy of the heavenly reality. The other option is to see the imagery functioning on a horizontal plane. This background is Jewish, eschatological, and temporal and sees the heavenly sanctuary as the fulfillment and true form of the earthly sanctuary which preceded it. The second option is preferred, both for lexical reasons (see tn above) and because it fits the Jewish context of the book (although many scholars prefer to emphasize the relationship the book has to Hellenistic thought).
  7. Hebrews 8:5 tn The word τύπος (tupos) here has the meaning “an archetype serving as a model, type, pattern, model” (BDAG 1020 s.v. 6.a). This is in keeping with the horizontal imagery accepted for this verse (see sn on “sketch” earlier in the verse). Here Moses was shown the future heavenly sanctuary which, though it did not yet exist, became the outline for the earthly sanctuary.
  8. Hebrews 8:5 sn A quotation from Exod 25:40.
  9. Hebrews 8:6 sn The Greek text indicates a contrast between vv. 4-5 and v. 6 that is difficult to render in English: Jesus’ status in the old order of priests (vv. 4-5) versus his superior ministry (v. 6).
  10. Hebrews 8:6 tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (Jesus) has been specified for clarity.
  11. Hebrews 8:6 tn Grk “to the degree that.”
  12. Hebrews 8:6 tn Grk “which is enacted.”
  13. Hebrews 8:6 sn This linkage of the change in priesthood with a change in the law or the covenant goes back to Heb 7:12, 22 and is picked up again in Heb 9:6-15 and 10:1-18.
  14. Hebrews 8:7 tn Grk “no occasion for a second one would have been sought.”
  15. Hebrews 8:8 tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.
  16. Hebrews 8:8 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.
  17. Hebrews 8:8 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  18. Hebrews 8:8 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 [memphomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autois), supported by P46 א2 B D2 0278 1739 1881 M, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memphomenos, 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.
  19. Hebrews 8:9 tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.
  20. Hebrews 8:10 tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”
  21. Hebrews 8:10 tn Grk “mind.”
  22. Hebrews 8:10 tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.
  23. Hebrews 8:11 tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”
  24. Hebrews 8:11 tn Grk “from the small to the great.”
  25. Hebrews 8:12 sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.
  26. Hebrews 8:13 tn Grk “when he says, ‘new,’” (referring to the covenant).
  27. Hebrews 8:13 tn Grk “near to disappearing.”
Next
Hebrews 6
Hebrews 9
Next
dropdown
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.