Let us go forward! is not in the Greek text, but it is repeated from verse 1 to make it clear what this is what we will do. New English Bible has “Instead, let us advance towards maturity.” As already noted in the discussion of verse 1, the expression Let us go forward cannot always be translated literally, since it may not imply progress. It would be possible to say “Let us become mature Christians” or “Let us become more complete Christians.”

This is what we will do translates a more probable Greek text than the RSV footnote “let us do this.” Other ways of understanding the expression for “this we will do” are grammatically possible: (a) “I may go back and give you elementary teaching some other time, if God allows me to do so”; or (b) “God alone can allow me to introduce you into the deeper mysteries of the faith.” The immediate context makes (a) unlikely, since verse 4 emphasizes the impossibility of beginning all over again. The wider context, especially chapter 7, makes (b) unlikely as well.

Literal translations such as Revised Standard Version are ambiguous. If God allows (see 1 Cor 4.19; James 4.15) does not mean “if God lets me go on teaching you,” but “if God allows us to go forward together.” We includes author and readers. If God allows may be rendered as “if God permits this” or “if this is what God wants.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .