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Greeks, Chapter 10

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1 Once you also desire this faith, then the knowledge of the Father will be received by you.[fn]
2 For God loved men, for whom he made the world, to whom he subjected all things in the earth, to whom he gave reason, to whom mind, whom alone he permitted to look upward to himself, whom he formed in his own image. To them he sent his only begotten Son, to them he has promised the kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved him.[fn]
3 And when you have known him, with what joy do you think you will be filled? Or how will you love him who first so loved you?
4 And when you have loved, you will become an imitator of his kindness. And do not marvel that man can become an imitator of God. He can, God willing.
5 For to be happy, is not to lord it over neighbors, or to wish to have more than the weaker, or to be rich and use violence to the needy; nor can any one in such things be an imitator of God. For these things are outside of his majesty.
6 But he who takes his neighbor's burden on himself; he who, where he is superior, wishes to benefit another who is inferior; he who supplies to others in need those things which he has received from God, becomes as a god to those who receive. This man is the imitator of God.[fn]
7 Then, while on earth, you will see that God governs in heaven. Then you will begin to speak the mysteries of God. Then you will love and marvel at those who are punished because they will not deny God. Then you will condemn the deceit and error of the world, when you have learned to live truly in heaven, when you have come to despise what is here considered death, when you have come to dread what is truly death. For that death is reserved for those who will be condemned to eternal fire, which will punish to the end those delivered to it.[fn]
8 Then you will marvel at those who for righteousness' sake endure the temporal fire, and will call them blessed, when you have known that fire.[fn]

Footnotes

1

Once you also desire this faith, then the knowledge of the Father will be received by you: most modern editors emend this verse, diagnosing a broken sentence. Holmes replaces λάβῃς (*labēs*, 'receive') with κατάλαβε (*katalabe*, 'grasp') — a different verb entirely. The UPDV follows the manuscript reading, which is grammatical as it stands once the Semitic conditional syntax is recognized (Blass-Debrunner-Funk §442.7). See The Epistle to the Greeks for the full textual discussion.

2

kingdom in heaven: this is not equivalent to Matthew's 'kingdom of heaven' (Greek: τῶν οὐρανῶν / *tōn ouranōn*, genitive). Here the author uses a locative construction (ἐν / *en* with the dative), giving the phrase a spatial meaning: the kingdom located in heaven. See Lienhard (1970).

6

becomes as a god: the Greek reads 'becomes a god' — θεὸς γίνεται (*theos ginetai*) — without the word 'as.' The qualifying 'as' is a deliberate addition in this translation.

7

governs: Greek πολιτεύεται (*politeuetai*). This word has three distinct senses in the UPDV: (1) 'citizenship' (Philippians 3:20, Greeks 5:9), (2) 'governs' when the subject is God (here), and (3) 'live as citizens' (Philippians 1:27). See Bitner, review of Jefford (2014).

8

The epistle ends here. Chapters 11-12, which follow in the manuscript, are widely regarded as a later addition by a different author based on differences in style, vocabulary, and theological perspective. See The Epistle to the Greeks for the evidence.

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