Hebrews 5:13,14 - Solid food for the mature

5:13

Now I like the NIV, but at times I get a bit fed up with it. The NIV says “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness”. ESV says “for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child”. The ESV is closer to the original Greek. Now what does “word of righteousness” mean? Is it referring specifically to the Bible’s teaching on righteousness, which is how the NIV has taken it, or is it referring to the Bible in general? The NIV has made a judgement here, and we need to be aware when we are reading translations that they will do this from time to time, and that is why it is good to read more than one trnaslation. The ESV, NASB, KJV will not do this very often, the NIV a little more often, the NLT significantly more often, and the Message will do this all of the time and is not to be trusted! Here the NLT says “For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right”. Now I also quite like the NLT, but here we see that it has further interpreted the meaning of the text, and not particularly well in my opinion.

Anyway, the text would seem to imply that an initial gospel presentation does not go into enormous depth about righteousness and justification, but that after responding to the initial message one should expect Christians to deepen their understanding of these things.

5:14

Part of the purpose of studying the word is not to make us puffed up, but so that we can distinguish good from evil. Given the context of Hebrews, here the writer is thinking primarily of being able to recognise what is truly of the gospel and what is not. So worshipping angels is out, the Jewish system of sacrifices and priests is out. We need to train ourselves, discipline is an essential part of the Christian life.