Until now, this section has been mainly a warning. Good News Translation is right to mark the change of mood by putting But even if we speak like this at the beginning of the sentence (contrast with King James Version, which follows the Greek order). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch achieves the same result in a different way: “But for you, dear friends, we are confident, even when we speak so severely.” But even if we speak like this may have to be rendered as “But even if we write to you like this” or “… write to you with words like these.”
On the whole, Hebrews does not seem to be a very personal letter, but these verses contain several signs that the writer cares deeply for his readers: dear friends here, and great desire and each one of you in verse 11. These expressions have all the greater impact because they are unusual in the Greek. Translations should reflect this by using emphatic language. Great desire is even stronger in Greek than in English.
Dear friends may be rendered as “friends whom I truly love,” or even “you who are indeed my friends.”
The passage makes it clear that the writer is distinguishing himself from his readers: we means “I” (so Moffatt, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale).
We feel sure about you may be expressed as “I have confidence in you,” but it is also possible to render this as a negative statement, namely, “I do not worry about you.”
What are the better blessings, literally “the better things”? The text does not say explicitly, and translations vary widely. The possibilities are as follows:
(a) “You are in a better state or situation” than that of the infertile land just mentioned; so perhaps Barclay “you still possess the necessities of salvation”; Translator’s New Testament “You know what is good” (but “You know” is not in the text); and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, rather vaguely, “you are on the good side”; see also New English Bible.
(b) “You will take the better course” (Moffatt; similarly Bible en français courant); Phillips “you … are capable of better things”; Fulfulde “you are on the good way, the way of salvation.”
(c) You have the better blessings (compare blesses in verse 7); similarly Biblia Dios Habla Hoy.
(d) “We have better confidence,” Knox and Luther 1984.
(e) “We are sure that you will be saved,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
(f) “The best is stored away for you: salvation,” Bijbel in Gewone Taal.
Possibilities (a) and (b) are similar, but (b) is more idiomatic, and makes a better link with “your salvation”; (c) introduces a comparison between different blessings which is not found elsewhere in the letter; (d) is not the most natural meaning of the Greek; (e) oversimplifies an admittedly difficult sentence; (f) identifies the “better things” with salvation, which leads to interpreting “better” as “best.” On the whole, (b) seems the best solution; it fits in well with the general movement of the writer’s thought as summarized in the diagram at the beginning of Chapter 6 of this Handbook.
If one adopts the rendering suggested by Good News Translation, the better blessings may be represented by “that better way in which God has blessed you” or “the more important ways in which God has blessed you.”
The final clause that belong to your salvation may be expressed as “this has to do with your being saved” or “this is involved in God saving you.” The clause that belong to your salvation is in apposition with the better blessings. If, on the other hand, one adopts rendering (b), one may translate the second sentence of verse 9 as “we know that you will go that better way which leads to your salvation” or “… which involves God saving you.”
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 .