QUESTION: Is it perfectly permissible in Heb. 13:20, 21, to so translate the Greek and punctuate it that the meaning will be that the clause "by the blood of the everlasting covenant" modifies "make you perfect," instead of "brought again from the dead"?
ANSWER: The erroneous order of clauses in the Authorized [King James] Version has suggested this question. The order in the Revision is that of the Greek, "Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the everlasting covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ, make you perfect," etc. Hence the suggested change would shock any Greek scholar.
— From Steele's Answers p. 16.
Here is the Greek:
ReplyDelete20 Ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, ὁ ἀναγαγὼν ἐκ νεκρῶν τὸν ποιμένα τῶν προβάτων τὸν μέγαν ἐν αἵματι διαθήκης αἰωνίου, τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν, 21 καταρτίσαι ὑμᾶς ἐν παντὶ ἀγαθῷ εἰς τὸ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ, ποιῶν ἐν ἡμῖν τὸ εὐάρεστον ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας [τῶν αἰώνων], ἀμήν.
The NRSV has:
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.