HEBREWS

This is intended as a new translation of Hebrews, because none other than the King James Version make any attempt to translate the splendid rhetoric of the original; and the Jacobean language of the KJV puts it beyond the appreciation of many people today. My attempt can be rightly judged a failure if it does not reproduce at least some of the elegance of the original or does not accurately make its message clear in modern english.

1

God, who in the past  spoke to us at different times and in different ways by the prophets, has in these final days spoken to us by a son, whom he has made the inheritor of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who, since he is the radiance of God’s splendour and the imprint of his very being, upholding all things by his dynamic word, when he had  made a means of cleansing from sins,  took his seat at the right hand of the majesty above, as superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is of greater distinction than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son; today I have fathered you? And again, I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me? And again, when he brings the first-born into the inhabited world, he says, All God’s angels must worship him. About the angels he says, He makes his messengers into winds and his servants into flames of fire, but of the son he says, Your reign, God, is forever and ever. And a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of your kingdom. For you have loved justice and hated wrong, so God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of his favour above your rivals And, Lord, you laid the earth’s foundation in the beginning, and the heavens are your handiwork. They will waste away, but you will endure; they will all wear out like clothing. You will roll them up like a cloak and like clothing they will be changed; but you are the same and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Surely the angels are all attendant spirits, sent out to give service for those who are going to inherit God’s rescue.

2

So, we must focus our attention all the more on what we have heard, in case we drift away from it; for if the Law announced through angels turned out to be valid, and every sidestep or refusal got its due reward, how shall we escape if we are careless with such a great deliverance? Words spoken by the Lord were its origin, and it was attested to us by those who heard them, with God adding his evidence by signs, wonders and various miracles, along with distributions of the Holy Spirit, as he desired.

For it was not the angels to whom he subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. As Someone Somewhere has testified,

“What is humanity that you remember it

Or a human child that you look after him?

You have made him a little lower than the angels

You have crowned him with splendour and honour,

You have put everything under his feet.”

Now although in subordinating everything to him, he has left nothing outside his control, we do not now see everything subordinated to him; but we do see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with splendour and honour because he suffered death, so that apart from God he might taste death for all people.

And it was appropriate that the One, for whom and through whom all things exist, when he was bringing many children into splendour, should make the pioneer of their rescue perfect through suffering. For the one who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of the one stock, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

I will announce your name to my brothers and sisters.

In the midst of the Assembly, I will sing hymns to you.

and also

I will put my trust in him.

And

Here I am, and the children God has given me.

Now since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself shared equally in them, so that by means of death he might destroy the one who holds the power of death, namely the devil; and set free those who through fear of death had been kept in slavery all their lives.

Certainly, it’s not the angels, but the descendants of Abraham that he takes to himself.

Accordingly, he had to become in every respect like his brothers and sisters, so that he might be a kindly and faithful high priest for them before God, making expiation for the sins of the people.

In fact, because he himself suffered when he was put to the test, he is able to come to the help of those who are being harshly tested.

3

So., holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, fix your minds on Jesus, the envoy and high priest of our shared conviction, who was faithful to the one who commissioned him, just as Moses was faithful, as scripture says, in all his house.But he deserves more glory than Moses since the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself. Every house is built by somebody, but God is the builder of all things. Moses was faithful in God’s household as a servant, as a witness to things that were to be revealed, but Messiah was faithful as a son over his own household; and we are that household if we maintain the boldness and the hope which is our boast.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

Today, if you hear his voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation,

In the day of testing in the desert

When your fathers put me to the test

And saw my answers for forty years.

 I was disgusted with that generation,

And I said, ‘They are always being deceived in their hearts,

And they do not know my paths.

As I swore in my rage,

‘They shall not enter into my rest.’

Look out brothers and sisters, in case there is in any of you a bad and faithless heart, leading you to turn your back on the living God. Rather encourage each other every day, as long as it can be called today, so that none of you are hardened by deceitful sin. For we have become partners in Messiah as long as we keep our original undertaking firm to the end. As it is said,

Today, if you hear his voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the provocation.

For who were those who provoked God when they heard him, if not all those who came out of Egypt through Moses? By whom was he grieved for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not those who were recalcitrant? So, we see that they were unable to enter it because of faithlessness.

4

Now since the promise of entering still stands, let’s be on our guard that none of you imagines he has missed it. For a joyful message came to us just as to them – but the word they heard with their ears did not benefit them, because they were not united in faith with those who truly listened. So, we who have faith will enter that rest of which he has spoken in the words, As I swore in my rage, they shall not enter my rest. And yet his days of work were completed in the foundation of the universe. For Somewhere he has said this about the seventh day, And God took his rest on the seventh day from all his works, and then in the scripture already mentioned he says, they shall not enter my rest. So, since it remains for some people to enter it, and since those who formerly received the joyful message did not enter through their recalcitrance, God once more sets a certain day, “Today” saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Now if Joshua, by securing the promised land, had given them rest God would not have spoken later on of another day. Therefore, there still remains a sabbath rest for God’s people. And whoever enters into God’s rest, rests from his own works as God did from his. So, let’s exert ourselves to enter that rest so that no one may fail through the same pattern of recalcitrance.

Indeed, the word of God is alive and at work, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to where soul and spirit, joints and marrow, divide; and capable of judging the devices and intentions of the heart. No creature is veiled from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we are accountable.

Since therefore we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, we should keep a good grip of our shared conviction. For we do not have a high priest unable to sympathise with our weaknesses but one tested in all the ways that we are, but without sin. So let us approach the throne of kindness, in the assurance of free speech, to receive mercy and find goodwill to help in time of need.

5

Every high priest is taken from amongst human beings and appointed to the sphere of things concerning God, offering gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to be patient with thoughtless and wayward people, because he himself is beset with frailty; and for this reason, must offer sacrifice as much for his own sins as for the people’s. No one takes this honour upon himself but only if called by God, as Aaron was. Likewise, Messiah did not seek his own glory in becoming a high priest, but that of the one who said to him, You are my son; today I have fathered you and as he says elsewhere, You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his human body, he made prayers and entreaties, with strong cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his fear. Son as he was, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And when he was perfected, he became the cause of everlasting rescue for all who obey him, the one openly declared by God as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

We have a lot to say about this, but it may be hard to understand for you have become lazy listeners. Although you ought by this time to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic truths of God’s sayings – you need milk and not solid food. All those who live on milk have little experience of the discourse of justice, since they are children. But solid food is for adults who have their senses made fit by constant exercise to discern good and evil.

6

So right! Let’s ditch the elementary teaching about Messiah and advance into adulthood without laying the foundation over again: turning away from dead duties and trust in God; instructions about dippings in water and the placing of hands on people; being raised from death and the judgement of the Age. And we shall do this, God-permitting.

Indeed, it’s impossible that those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become sharers of the Holy Spirit, relished the goodness of God’s word and the powers of the Age to Come, then have fallen away, it’s impossible to bring them to a fresh change of heart, since they are nailing the son of God to the stake again and bringing him into public contempt.

Ground that has drunk the rain that frequently falls on it and produces a crop that is useful to the owners for whom it was grown, gets a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed; it ends up being burned.

Although I speak in this way, my dear ones, in your case I trust in better results including God’s Rescue of you. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love you have shown for his name, by having served and continuing to serve your fellow saints. We want each one of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfilment of your hope until the end, so that you may not become lazy but rather imitate those who through faith and longsuffering are inheriting God’s promises.

Since God had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself when he made the promise to Abraham, saying, I will bless you with my blessing and I will multiply you with my fruitfulness. In this way, through patient endurance, he obtained what was promised. Human beings swear by something greater than themselves; and in all their disputes an oath is a final confirmation. So, when God wanted to show more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, he stepped in with an oath; so that by two unchangeable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge in him, would have strong encouragement to grasp the hope set before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul, safe and immovable, which enters into the inner place behind the veil, where Jesus has gone as our forerunner, becoming a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

7

This Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the most high God met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. Then Abraham dealt out to him a tenth of everything he’d gained. He is firstly, by interpretation of his name, king of justice, and he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. Fatherless, motherless, without ancestors, beginning of days or end of life, in these respects a facsimile of the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. See how great he is, to whom Abraham the Patriarch gave a tenth of the first fruits of battle!