UTN uW Translation Notes:

Hebrews 1 General Notes

Structure and Formatting

1. Introduction: God and his Son (1:1–4)2. The Son and the angels (1:5–2:18) * Teaching: The Son is greater than the angels (1:5–14)Some translations set each line of poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to make it easier to read. The ULT does this with the poetry in 1:5, 7–13, which are quotations from books of poetry in the Old Testament.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

God speaking scripture

In this chapter, the author quotes the Old Testament seven times. Each time, he says that God is the one who speaks the words, and God speaks them to or about the Son or the angels. The audience would have recognized that these quotations came from the Old Testament, but the author wished to introduce them as words that God himself said and says. He can do this because he believed that God is the author of the entire Old Testament, since he is the one who spoke through the prophets (See: 1:1). In your translation, you should express these quotations as words that God says. If your readers would not recognize that God is speaking quotations from the Old Testament, you could identify the quotations for your readers in footnotes or in some other way.

Old Testament quotations

When the author quotes from the Old Testament, he uses a Greek translation that is sometimes different than the original Hebrew version that most modern translations use for the Old Testament. This is particularly obvious in 1:6, which quotes from the Greek version of Deuteronomy 32:43. In other places, the author may paraphrase or loosely quote the Old Testament. Since the author chose to use these forms of the quotations, you should represent the words the author uses, not the words that may be found in an Old Testament with which you are familiar. (See: writing-quotations)

The Son and the Father

In this chapter, the author refers to the “Son” and several times speaks of God as “Father.” These are important terms for two persons of the Trinity: God the Father and God the Son. The author uses these terms partly because the Old Testament texts he quotes use them. Also, “Son” and “Father” refer to two people who are closely related but not the same person, so the words provide good language to speak about two persons of the Trinity. If possible, preserve the father and son language in this chapter, but make sure that your translation does not make it sound like the Son did not exist until a certain time or that the Father at some point physically gave birth to the Son. (See: guidelines-sonofgodprinciples)

Angels

The author mentions “angels” many times in this chapter. In his culture, everyone knew about “angels.” They were spiritual beings who could appear in human form. Some people talked about good and evil angels. The author only speaks about the good angels in this chapter. These angels serve and worship God, and they do whatever God tells them to do. Some scholars think that the author is arguing against people who said that Jesus was an angel. More likely, the author wishes to prove that Jesus the Son is God, and he uses the angels to do that. The author thinks that the angels are between humans and God in power and position. If the Son is above the angels, that means he must be God. (See: angel)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Rhetorical questions

The author asks rhetorical questions in 1:5, 13–14. He is not asking these questions because he wants the audience to provide him with information. Rather, he is asking these questions because he wants the audience to think about how they are acting and what they are thinking. The questions encourage them to think along with the author. For ways to translate these questions, look for the notes on each verse that includes these kinds of questions. (See: figs-rquestion)

Parallelisms

In the Old Testament, good poetry often included two parallel lines that expressed one idea in two different ways. When the author quotes the Old Testament, he often includes this kind of parallelism. Since both lines contribute to the meaning of the idea, it is best to preserve the parallelism. If your readers would find it confusing, however, you could combine the two parallel lines into one idea. See the notes on each instance of parallel lines for translation options. (See: figs-parallelism)

Inheriting

In 1:2, 4, 14, the author uses language related to “inheriting” or being an “heir.” In the author’s culture, children often “inherited” property or money when their parents died. In these verses, the author uses the “inheriting” language metaphorically to refer to receiving something from God. In this chapter, the metaphor does not imply that someone must die for the person to “inherit.” If possible, preserve this metaphor, since it is an important concept in Hebrews. See the notes on each verse for translation options. (See: inherit and figs-metaphor)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Descriptions of the Son in 1:3

In 1:3, the author describes the Son as “the brightness of God’s glory” and the “exact representation of God’s being.” Both of these phrases identify the Son as God and as unique. In other words, these phrases are the author’s way of saying that the Son is God, but God is not just the Son. Carefully consider how you translate these phrases, and be sure that your translation makes it clear that the Son is God, but God is not just the Son. The author uses images and metaphors to express the idea, so consider using similar images and metaphors.