Gwen Frangs / Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary / 5 August 2024
Hebrews 9:14 is translated in English Bibles as saying:
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[a] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:14 ESV
The word ‘through’ is a translation of the Greek word ‘διά’.
However, the Greek word ‘διά’ is also frequently translated as ‘because’. The Strong’s Concordance shows the breakdown of how many meanings have been attributed to this word:
account (4), after (2), afterward (1), always* (2), because (111), between* (1), briefly* (1), charge* (1), constantly (1), continually* (6), during (1), forever* (1), gives (1), means (3), over (1), presence (1), reason (40), sake (41), sakes (5), since (1), so then* (1), so* (1), therefore* (16), this reason* (1), this* (1), though (1), through (225), through the agency (1), through* (1), view (2), way (3), what (1), why (3), why* (27).
https://biblehub.com/greek/1223.htm
You see from this breakdown that the most frequent translation of ‘διά’ is ‘through’. The word has been translated as ‘through’ 225 times. However, one can also see that the word has been translated as ‘because’ 111 times.
In fact, in the very next verse, Hebrews 9:15, ‘διά’ is translated as ‘because’.
It seems strange that the author of Hebrews would use one meaning of ‘διά’ in Hebrews 9:14 and a different meaning of ‘διά’ in Hebrews 9:15.
Let us take a look at what happens to Hebrews 9:14 if, instead of translating ‘διά’ as ‘through’, we translated ‘διά’ as ‘because’. The verse will now read as follows:
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who because the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[a] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
By translating the word ‘διά’ as ‘because’ instead of as ‘through’, the possibility arises that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is calling Christ ‘the eternal Spirit.’ This translation of Hebrews 9:14 lines up with the teaching of the apostle Paul who, in his second letter to the Corinthians, wrote:
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NIV