9:15 And so he is the mediator 6 of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, 7 since he died 8 to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.
1 tn Or “have fallen away.”
2 tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).
3 tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”
4 tn Grk “the second tent.”
5 tn Or perhaps “the unintentional sins of the people”; Grk “the ignorances of the people.” Cf. BDAG 13 s.v. ἀγνόημα, “sin committed in ignorance/unintentionally.” This term seems to be simply a synonym for “sins” (cf. Heb 5:2) and does not pick up the distinction made in Num 15:22-31 between unwitting sin and “high-handed” sin. The Day of Atonement ritual in Lev 16 covered all the sins of the people, not just the unwitting ones.
6 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
7 tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
8 tn Grk “a death having occurred.”