BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/HEB.WNT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 48KB | 919 lines

1:1 God, who in ancient days spoke to our forefathers in many
 distinct messages and by various methods /1 through the
 Prophets,
1:2 has /2 at the end of these days spoken to us /3 through a
 Son, who is the pre-destined Lord of the universe, and through
 whom He made the Ages.
1:3 He brightly reflects God's glory and is the exact
 representation of His /4 being, and upholds the universe by His
 all-powerful word. After securing /5 man's purification from
 sin He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
1:4 having become as far superior to the angels as the Name He
 possesses by inheritance is more excellent than theirs.
1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, <"My Son art
 Thou: I have this day become Thy Father;"> and again, <"I will
 be a Father to Him, and He shall be My Son"?>
1:6 But speaking of the time when He /6 once more brings His
 Firstborn into the world, He says, <"And let all God's angels
 worship Him.">
1:7 Moreover of the angels He says, /7 <"He changes His angels
 into winds, and His ministering servants into a flame of
 fire.">

1:8 But of His Son, He says, <"Thy throne, O God, /1 is for ever
 and for ever, and the sceptre of Thy Kingdom is /2 a sceptre of
 absolute justice.
1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; /3
 therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of
 gladness beyond /4 Thy companions.">
1:10 It is also of His Son that God says, <"Thou, O Lord, in the
 beginning didst lay the foundations of the earth, and the
 heavens are the work of Thy hands.
1:11 The heavens will perish, but Thou remainest; and they will
 all grow old like a garment,
1:12 and, /5 as though they were a mantle Thou wilt roll them
 up; yes, like a garment, and they will undergo change. But Thou
 art the same, and Thy years will never come to an end.">
1:13 To which of the angels has He ever said, <"Sit at My right
 hand till I make Thy foes a footstool for Thy feet"?>
1:14 Are not all angels spirits that serve Him--whom He sends
 out to render service for the benefit of those who, before
 long, will inherit salvation?
2:1 For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the
 things which we have heard, for fear we should /6 drift away
 from them.

2:2 For if the message delivered through angels proved to be
 true, and every transgression and act of disobedience met with
 just retribution,
2:3 how shall *we* escape /1 if we are indifferent to a
 salvation as great as that now offered to us? This, after
 having first of all been announced by the Lord Himself, had its
 truth made sure to us by those who heard Him,
2:4 while God corroborated their testimony by signs and marvels
 and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit
 distributed in accordance with His own will.
2:5 It is not to angels that God has assigned the sovereignty of
 that coming /2 world, of which we speak.
2:6 But, /3 as we know, a writer has solemnly said, <"How poor a
 creature is man, and yet Thou dost remember him, and a son of
 man, and yet Thou dost come to him!
2:7 Thou hast made him only /4 a little inferior to the angels;
 with glory and honour Thou hast crowned him, /5 and hast set
 him to govern the works of Thy hands.
2:8 Thou hast put everything in subjection under his feet."> For
 this subjecting of the universe to man implies the leaving
 nothing not subject to him. But we do not as yet see the
 universe subject to him.
2:9 But Jesus--who was made a little inferior to the angels in
 order that /6 through God's grace He might taste death for
 every human being--we already see wearing a crown of glory and
 honour

/1 because of His having suffered death.
2:10 For it was fitting that He for whom, and through whom, all
 things exist, after He had brought /2 many sons to glory,
 should perfect by suffering the Prince Leader who had saved
 them.
2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those whom He is sanctifying
 have all one Father; and for this reason He is not ashamed to
 speak of them as His brothers;
2:12 as when He says: <"I will proclaim Thy name to My brothers:
 /3 in the midst of the congregation I will hymn Thy praises;">
2:13 and again, <"As for Me, I will be one whose trust reposes
 in God;"> and again, <"Here am I, and here are the children God
 has given Me.">
2:14 Since then the children referred to are all alike sharers
 in /4 perishable human nature, He Himself also, in the same
 way, took on Him a share of it, in order that through death He
 might render powerless him who had authority over death, that
 is, the Devil,
2:15 and might set at liberty all those who through fear of
 death had been subject to lifelong slavery.
2:16 For assuredly it is not to angels that He is continually
 reaching a helping hand, but it is to the descendants of
 Abraham.
2:17 And for this purpose it was necessary that in all respects
 He should be made to resemble His brothers, so that He might
 become a compassionate and faithful High Priest in things
 relating to God, in order to atone for the sins of the people.
2:18 For inasmuch as He has Himself felt the pain of /5
 temptation and trial, He is also able instantly to help those
 who are tempted and tried.

3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, sharers with others in a heavenly
 invitation, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle and High
 Priest whose followers we profess to be.
3:2 How faithful He was to Him who appointed Him, /1 just as
 Moses also was faithful in all God's house!
3:3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than
 Moses, in so far as /2 he who has built a house has higher
 honour than the house itself.
3:4 For every house has had a builder, and the builder of all
 things is God.
3:5 Moreover, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant
 in delivering the message given him to speak;
3:6 but Christ was faithful as a Son having authority over God's
 house, and we are that house, if we hold firm to /3 the End the
 boldness and the /4 hope which we boast of as ours.
3:7 For this reason--as the Holy Spirit warns us, /5 <"To-day,
 if you hear His voice,
3:8 do not harden your hearts as your forefathers did in the
 time of the /6 provocation on the day of the /7 temptation in
 the Desert,
3:9 where your forefathers so sorely tried My patience and saw
 all that I did during forty years.
3:10 Therefore I was greatly grieved with that generation, and I
 said, `They are ever going astray in heart, and have not learnt
 to know My paths.'
3:11 As I swore in My anger, they shall not be admitted to My
 rest" -->
3:12 see to it, brethren, that there is never in any one of
 you--as perhaps there may be--a sinful and unbelieving heart,
 manifesting itself in revolt from the ever-living God.

3:13 On the contrary /1 encourage /2 one another, day after day,
 /3 so long as To-day lasts, so that not one of you may be
 hardened through the deceitful character of /4 sin.
3:14 For we have, all alike, become sharers with Christ, if we
 really hold our first confidence firm to the End;
3:15 seeing that the warning still comes to us, <"To-day, if you
 hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as your forefathers
 did in the time of the provocation.">
3:16 For who were they /5 that heard, and yet provoked God? Was
 it not /6 the whole of the people who had come out of Egypt
 under the leadership of Moses?
3:17 And with whom was God so greatly grieved for forty years?
 Was it not with those who had sinned, and whose /7 dead bodies
 fell in the Desert?
3:18 And to whom did He swear that they should not be admitted
 to His rest, if it was not to those who were disobedient?
3:19 And so we see that it was owing to lack of faith that they
 could not be admitted.
4:1 /8 Therefore let us be on our guard lest perhaps, while He
 still leaves us a promise of being admitted to His rest, some
 one of you should be found to have fallen short of it.
4:2 For /9 Good News has been brought to us as truly as to them;
 but the message they heard failed to benefit them, because they
 were not one in faith with /10