I continue my discussion of the textual variants of Hebrews 2:9 and their impact on Christology and soteriology (see Part 1: Hebrews 2:9 Textual Variant: Did Jesus Die “By the Grace of God” or “Apart from God”?).

One of the most interesting—in fact remarkable—variants of Hebrews 2:9 is found in the Syriac translation known as the Peshitta.

According to the majority Peshitta tradition, Jesus is explicitly presented as the God who, out of His own grace, chose to taste death for everyone:

“But we see that he is Yeshua, who became a little lower than the angels for the suffering of his death, and glory and honor are placed upon his head, for God himself, by his grace, tasted death (ܗܘ ܓܝܪ ܒܛܝܒܘܬܗ ܐܠܗܐ … ܛܥܡ ܡܘܬܐ) in the place of every person.”
Hebrews 2:9, Peshitta Holy Bible Translation (HPBT)

“But him who was humbled to be less than the angels, we see to be JESHU himself, for the sake of the passion of his death; and glory and honour set upon his head; for He, God, [Hu ger Aloho] in his grace, for every man hath tasted death!”
Etheridge’s Peschito Syriac NT

“But we see him, who was depressed somewhat lower than the angels, to be this Jesus, because of the passion of his death; and glory and honor are placed on his head; for God himself, in his grace, tasted death for all men.”
Murdock’s Syriac Peshitta NT

However, a minority reading reflected in some later Peshitta witnesses and in George Lamsa’s translation reverses the sense:

“We see that he is Jesus who humbled himself to be a little lower than the angels, through his suffering and his death, but now he is crowned with glory and honor; for he tasted death for the sake of everyone but God.”
George Lamsa Bible (LAMSA)

The world-renowned scholar of Syriac Christianity, Sebastian P. Brock, is worth quoting at length. He explains how these divergent readings arose from the two main Greek textual variants of Heb. 2:9, of which Syriac-speaking Christians were well aware:

Although numerous points in this excerpt call for comment, here we must confine ourselves to a single passage, that concerning Heb. 2:9b. As is well known, the vast majority of Greek manuscripts provides the following text in the second half of Heb. 2:9 (all emphasis mine):

… ὅπως χάριτι θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου,

while the variant χωρὶς θεοῦ, in place of χάριτι θεοῦ, is found only in 0121b, 424^c, 1739*, in the margin of one Vulgate manuscript, and in some Peshitta manuscripts (the other Peshitta manuscripts imply a Greek text reading χάριτι θεός). The reading χωρὶς θεοῦ is definitely older than the Nestorian controversy, seeing that it is already known to several third- and fourth-century writers; a number of modern scholars have argued that it actually represents the original text of the Letter…

Sebastian P. Brock, “Hebrews 2:9b in Syriac Tradition,” Studia Patristica 27 (1983), pp. 237–239

To summarise Brock’s key points: the reading χωρὶς θεοῦ (“apart from/without God”) was known already in the 3rd–4th centuries AD and was later enthusiastically adopted by the Antiochene (so-called “Nestorian”) theologians who insisted on a clear distinction between the divine and human natures of Christ. They did this to safeguard the full immutability and impassibility of the divine nature: God qua God cannot be born, suffer, or die. Hence they rejected the title Theotokos (“God-bearer”) for Mary in favour of Christotokos (“Christ-bearer”).

For the Antiochenes, χωρὶς θεοῦ in Heb. 2:9 was perfect proof-text: Christ died not as God, but only in His humanity, “apart from” (i.e., without involving) the divine nature.

The Alexandrian tradition, by contrast, stressed the inseparable unity of the two natures in the one incarnate Person of the Son. They had no hesitation in saying “God was born,” “God suffered,” and “God died” (always with the crucial qualifier “in the flesh”). It is therefore entirely natural that Syriac Christians who followed Cyril of Alexandria preferred a Peshitta reading that explicitly made God the subject of the verb “tasted death.”

Brock then catalogues the actual variant readings found in extant Peshitta manuscripts (5th–13th centuries) and reaches the following conclusion about the original Peshitta text:

We may accordingly safely conclude that the second hypothesis is to be preferred, and that the original Peshitta version of Heb. 2:9b read
hu ger b-ṭaybuteh alaha hlap kulnaš tˁem mawta,
“for he, in his grace God, tasted death on behalf of everyone.”

Brock, pp. 243–244

Thus, one of the very oldest and most influential translations of the New Testament in the Eastern Christian world—the Syriac Peshitta—originally and unambiguously affirmed that God Himself, in His grace, tasted death for all humanity.

These early versions and the Christological controversies that swirled around this single verse all point in the same direction: from the earliest centuries, Christians across the Roman and Persian empires confessed that Jesus Christ is God in an absolute, essential sense—who then became man for our salvation.

• Biblical Studies
• Christology
• Church History
• New Testament
• Syriac Chrisianity
• Textual Criticism