Good News Translation is so clear as to need little further comment. Good News Bible third edition was even simpler in style: “it has to be proved that the man who made it has died.” “Man” is generally avoided in Good News Translation fourth edition in places where both men and women are meant.

In a number of languages there is no term for will in the sense of a document which specifies who is to receive various parts of a dead person’s property or estate. It may therefore be necessary to use some descriptive phrase; for example, “a paper which tells who will get a dead person’s property” or “… who will receive the things that a dead person has left.”

It is necessary to prove may be expressed as “one must show” or “it is necessary to know.”

The person who made it must be expressed in some languages as “the person who wrote it,” “the person who caused it to be written,” or “the person who said it.”

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 .