for everyone partaking of milk is without experience in the Word of Righteousness, for he is an infant. [LITV]
Hebrews 5:13
for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. [ESV]
Hebrews 5:13
For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. [NLT]
Hebrews 5:13
I told you in the last Gem:- If you want something really deep just look at verse 13! Let’s dig down into this verse and set it in context. I told you the expression “the word of righteousness” is unique. The only time it is used in Scripture is in this verse by the writer of Hebrews. In the last Gem I gave you a comparison of this verse across all the versions I have loaded in E-Sword. Subsequently, I have added some more versions, which you will see below. Let’s have a look in detail at this phrase only. Firstly in an interlinearised Greek-English version in the context of the full sentence and then at the phrase itself across the versions I gave you in the last Gem, but arranged in a way which enables us to understand what is going on more easily.
πᾶς γὰρ ὁ μετέχων γάλακτος ἄπειρος λόγου δικαιοσύνης· νήπιος γάρ ἐστιν·
every for one partaking milk {without experience} {the word} {of righteousness} {an infant} for {he is}
There is the full verse in Greek and English for you. Now let’s look at the phrase ‘the word of righteousness’ across the versions and compare them:-
Literally
- the word of righteousness (14) [AFV, AMP, ASV, BBE, ESV, KJV, LSV, NASB, NENT, RSV, RV, TS2009, WEB, YLT]
- in the Word of Righteousness (2) [LITV, MKJV]
- the Word about righteousness (1) [CJB]
- the language of righteousness (1) [Murdock]
- the message of righteousness (1) [NET]
- the teaching about righteousness (2) [NIV, TLV]
- the revelation of righteousness (1) [TPT]
Dynamic Equivalence
- who don’t really know what is right (1) [CEV]
- not able to understand much about living right (1) [ERV]
- the matter of right and wrong (1) [GNB]
- to talk about what is right (1) [GW]
- the difference between right and wrong (2) [ISV, TLB]
- digest the doctrine of righteousness (1) [JB]
- applying the Word of righteousness (1) [JNT]
- in God’s ways (1) [MSG]
- does not know what is right (1) [NEB]
- how to do what is right (1) [NLT]
- to digest what is right (1) [Phillips]
So what are we to make of all that detail? Pay attention to the deTAiLs. Those who have done Deeper Bible with me before will know exactly what I mean when I type deTAiLs. Notice that the versions divide into four camps. No version translates this phrase as ‘a word of righteousness’. All if they approach the phrase literally render it as ‘the word of righteousness’. There are fourteen versions which do that. But then there are two versions which capitalise the Word of Righteousness and one version which capitalises Righteousness. What is going on here?
Notice something else: We have five versions which seek to explain or expand on the concept of ‘word’, interpreting it as “language”, “message”, “teaching” or “revelation”. Following that, we have 12 versions which re-interpret the whole phrase in terms of the application of ‘the word of righteousness’. Each of these versions interpret the phrase in terms of the way we apply the word ‘righteousness’ in our lives.
- “Not really knowing what is right”
- “not really understanding how to live right”
- “not being able to discern the difference between right and wrong” (5)
- “digesting the doctrine” (2)
- “applying the word ‘righteousness’
- “knowing God’s ways, i.e. how and why God works”
Notice also the words which are italicised in the text by some translations. I have talked about this before. Each published translation has different ways of making it clear to you what is going on. In these alternatives before us there are some words; namely the and in which have been italicised. (See the LITV and MKJV versions in the full verse given to you in the previous Gem for examples where ‘in‘ has been italicised). This is to show us the words ‘the‘ and ‘in‘ are not literally in the phrase in focus. You know already from the discussion I led you through, about the anarthrous use of “a Son” in Gem 2026 and 2029. Well here we have another anarthrous use of the noun “word” or “Word”. Take note, we are dealing with the same writer in both instances; a writer very familiar with the Old Testament, Judaism and the system of the Old Testament TANAKH, covenant and sacrifice.
There is just one more feature of this passage to explain and then I will leave you to take it all in. Why the difference between capitalising ‘Word’ or not capitalising ‘word’? Sometimes we capitalise Word of God. We have the Words of God in Hebrews 5:12, for which the TS2009 version has used ‘Words of Elohim’. Why capitalise in this case? It is either to draw attention to the idea that the Word of God stands apart from all other words or to personify the concept of the Word of God. The same thing John did when he wrote “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.
Are you getting the point now?
Not one word in Scripture is ‘a throw-away’.
Dr Basil Brown
Pay attention to EVERY WORD of Scripture.
Dr Basil Brown
Learn to understand the convention your particular Bible uses to indicate a word is not actually in the original Greek text.
Ian
It is now your turn to see if you can put the pieces together to determine what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is doing in this passage.
Ian
A conscience awakened responds to the truth recognising it as the voice of God in knowing what is right and wrong. Is this on the path to righteousness I believe so?
If when we hear His voice, we obey and don’t rebel.