| OLD TESTAMENT | NEW TESTAMENT | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 7 Books | Old Testament History | Wisdom Books | Major Prophets | Minor Prophets | NT History | Epistles of St. Paul | General Writings | |||
| Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuter. Joshua Judges | Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chron. 2 Chron. | Ezra Nehem. Tobit Judith Esther 1 Macc. 2 Macc. | Job Psalms Proverbs Eccles. Songs Wisdom Sirach | Isaiah Jeremiah Lament. Baruch Ezekiel Daniel | Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah | Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi | Matthew Mark Luke John Acts | Romans 1 Corinth. 2 Corinth. Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians | 1 Thess. 2 Thess. 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews | James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation |
| 1 |
1 More firmly, then, than ever must we hold to the truths which have now come to our hearing, and run no risk of drifting away from them. 2 The old law, which only had angels for its spokesmen, was none the less valid; every transgression of it, every refusal to listen to it, incurred just retribution; 3 and what excuse shall we have, if we pay no heed to such a message of salvation as has been given to us? One which was delivered in the first instance by the Lord himself, and has been guaranteed to us by those who heard it from his own lips? 4 One which God himself has attested by signs and portents, manifesting his power so variously, and distributing the gifts of his Holy Spirit wherever he would? | 1 Propterea abundantius oportet observare nos ea quæ audivimus, ne forte pereffluamus. 2 Si enim qui per angelos dictus est sermo, factus est firmus, et omnis prævaricatio, et inobedientia accepit justam mercedis retributionem: 3 quomodo nos effugiemus si tantam neglexerimus salutem? quæ cum initium accepisset enarrari per Dominum ab eis, qui audierunt, in nos confirmata est, 4 contestante Deo signis et portentis, et variis virtutibus, et Spiritus Sancti distributionibus secundum suam voluntatem. |
| 5 |
5 We are speaking of a world that is to come; to whom has God entrusted the ordering of that world? Not to angels. 6 We are assured of that, in a passage where the writer says, What is man, that thou shouldst remember him? What is the son of man, that thou shouldst care for him? 7 Man, whom thou hast made a little lower than the angels, whom thou hast crowned with glory and honour, setting him in authority over the works of thy hands? 8 Thou hast made all things subject at his feet. Observe, he has subjected all things to him, left nothing unsubdued. And what do we see now? Not all things subject to him as yet.[1] 9 But we can see this; we can see one who was made a little lower than the angels, I mean Jesus, crowned, now, with glory and honour because of the death he underwent; in God’s gracious design he was to taste death, and taste it on behalf of all.[2] 10 God is the last end of all things, the first beginning of all things; and it befitted his majesty that, in summoning all those sons of his to glory, he should crown with suffering the life of that Prince who was to lead them into salvation.[3] 11 The Son who sanctifies and the sons who are sanctified have a common origin, all of them; he is not ashamed, then, to own them as his brethren. 12 I will proclaim thy renown, he says, to my brethren; with the church around me I will praise thee;[4] 13 and elsewhere he says, I will put my trust in him, and then, Here stand I, and the children God has given me.[5] 14 And since these children have a common inheritance of flesh and blood, he too shared that inheritance with them. By his death he would depose the prince of death, that is, the devil; 15 he would deliver those multitudes who lived all the while as slaves, made over to the fear of death. 16 After all, he does not make himself the angels’ champion, no sign of that; it is the sons of Abraham that he champions.[6] 17 And so he must needs become altogether like his brethren; he would be a high priest who could feel for us and be our true representative before God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 It is because he himself has been tried by suffering, that he has power to help us in the trials we undergo. | 5 Non enim angelis subjecit Deus orbem terræ futurum, de quo loquimur. 6 Testatus est autem in quodam loco quis, dicens: Quid est homo quod memor es ejus, aut filius hominis quoniam visitas eum? 7 Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis: gloria et honore coronasti eum: et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum. 8 Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus. In eo enim quod omnia ei subjecit, nihil dimisit non subjectum ei. Nunc autem necdum videmus omnia subjecta ei. 9 Eum autem, qui modico quam angeli minoratus est, videmus Jesum propter passionem mortis, gloria et honore coronatum: ut, gratia Dei, pro omnibus gustaret mortem. 10 Decebat enim eum, propter quem omnia, et per quem omnia, qui multos filios in gloriam adduxerat, auctorem salutis eorum per passionem consummare. 11 Qui enim sanctificat, et qui sanctificantur, ex uno omnes. Propter quam causam non confunditur fratres eos vocare, dicens: 12 Nuntiabo nomen tuum fratribus meis: in medio ecclesiæ laudabo te. 13 Et iterum: Ego ero fidens in eum. Et iterum: Ecce ego, et pueri mei, quos dedit mihi Deus. 14 Quia ergo pueri communicaverunt carni, et sanguini, et ipse similiter participavit eisdem: ut per mortem destrueret eum qui habebat mortis imperium, id est, diabolum: 15 et liberaret eos qui timore mortis per totam vitam obnoxii erant servituti. 16 Nusquam enim angelos apprehendit, sed semen Abrahæ apprehendit. 17 Unde debuit per omnia fratribus similari, ut misericors fieret, et fidelis pontifex ad Deum, ut repropitiaret delicta populi. 18 In eo enim, in quo passus est ipse et tentatus, potens est et eis, qui tentantur, auxiliari. |
[1] vv. 6-8: Ps. 8.5-7.
[2] Some interpreters would translate differently: ‘We can see one who was made a little lower than the angels through the death he underwent, crowned, now, with glory and honour’.
[3] ‘In summoning’; the Latin appears to mean ‘when he had summoned’, but this is probably not the sense of the Greek, and indeed it is hard to see how the bestowal of glory on Christians could be represented as earlier in time than the Crucifixion. It seems likely, therefore, that the sense intended by the Latin is, ‘since he had decided to summon a multitude of his sons to glory’.
[4] Ps. 21.23.
[5] Is. 8.17 and 18. ‘And then’ is expressed by the same word as ‘and elsewhere’; but here the Apostle seems to be drawing our attention to the connexion of thought between two consecutive verses of Isaias. That confidence with which the prophet inspires his own disciples is regarded as the type of that faith which our Lord communicates to Christian people.
[6] ‘After all, he does not make himself the angels’ champion’; literally, according to the Latin, ‘he does not anywhere take the angels’, which some have interpreted as meaning, ‘he does not take upon himself the nature of angels’; but this interpretation does not accord well with the Greek.
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd
