Hebrews 9:8

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Sat Jun 8 11:15:57 EDT 2002


At 12:58 08/06/02, One of the McKays wrote:

>I am puzzled by this phrase in Hebrews 9:8 and particularly the ESV
>translation.
>THN TWN hAGIWN hODON
>is rendered
>ASV, NASB, New Jerusalem Bible the holy place
>KJV, NKJV the holiest of all
>New American Bible, NRSV, RSV the sanctuary
>NIV the Most Holy Place
>
>Is this a plural of majesty [of holiness]?
>
>Has anyone encountered any other translation which renders "holy places?"

Westcott
[ Westcott, B.F. On the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 
1984 repr. ] had to wrestle with this, too -- indeed, some of the versions 
you quote may well have leant on his musings:
<< ' that the way into the Holy Place ' ......It is evident that this 
phrase ' the Holy place ' must include the ' Holy of holies ' ...... even 
if it does not mean this exclusively. Perhaps however a general phrase is 
chosen by the Apostle to include both the scene of worship and the scene of 
the Divine revelation. The people had no way into the Holy place which was 
open to the priests only; the priests had no way into the Holy of holies 
which was open to the High-priest alone >>

Ingenious, but not very convincing, would be my own reaction.

Westcott points towards Mt. 10:5 ( as well as Gn. 3:24 ) for the 
construction hH TWN hAGIWN hODOS, as does Wallace in his " Greek Grammar 
Beyond the Basics " where he lists Hb. 9:8, Mt. 10:5 among his examples of 
what he terms:
<< 11. Genitive of Destination (a. k. a. Direction) or Purpose [destined 
for, toward]
a. Definition
The genitive substantive indicates where the head noun is going (or the 
direction it is "moving" in) or the purpose of its existence. This is a 
somewhat rare category.<<


There is quite a long section on the metaphorical use of hODOS in Mt 10:5 
and Hb. 9:8 in TDNT ( too long, I think, to quote here -- but if you 
haven't access I can send you a Word doc with the Greek fonts embedded; it 
saves transliterating !! ).

Regards
Maurice


Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie






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