Hebrews 1:12
1:12 and like a robe you will fold them up
and like a garment 1 they will be changed,
but you are the same and your years will never run out.” 2
Hebrews 11:12
11:12 So in fact children 3 were fathered by one man – and this one as good as dead – like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand 4 on the seashore. 5
1 tc The words “like a garment” (ὡς ἱμάτιον, Jw" Jimation) are found in excellent and early mss (Ì46 א A B D* 1739) though absent in a majority of witnesses (D1 Ψ 0243 0278 33 1881 Ï lat sy bo). Although it is possible that longer reading was produced by overzealous scribes who wanted to underscore the frailty of creation, it is much more likely that the shorter reading was produced by scribes who wanted to conform the wording to that of Ps 102:26 (101:27 LXX), which here lacks the second “like a garment.” Both external and internal considerations decidedly favor the longer reading, and point to the author of Hebrews as the one underscoring the difference between the Son and creation.
sn The phrase like a garment here is not part of the original OT text (see tc note above); for this reason it has been printed in normal type.
2 sn A quotation from Ps 102:25-27.
3 tn Grk “these”; in the translation the referent (children) has been specified for clarity.
4 tn Grk a collective “the sand.”
5 sn An allusion to Gen 22:17 (which itself goes back to Gen 15:5).