Hebrews 2:9 — by the grace of God, or apart from God?
Hebrews 2:9 has “apart from God” in one reading and “by the grace of God” in the other. The APB prints the former, while the apparatus sets it against the widely attested alternative.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
The available committee record says “no rationale note matches this crux” and gives the pericope audit verdict as 'clean'. The APB text at Hebrews 2:9 reads “apart from God he might taste death on behalf of everyone.” No rationale for that wording is supplied in the record here.
The case for each reading.
If “apart from God”
Reading A, χωρὶς θεοῦ, is printed by the SBL Greek New Testament (Holmes). The apparatus gives the contrast compactly: “χωρὶς Holmes ] χάριτι WH Treg NA28 RP.” Origen and early citations reports both readings in his day and knows “apart from God” in many copies. That report gives this wording an early citation history, even though the packet says its physical evidence is now reduced to a few late witnesses. The APB likewise renders the clause “apart from God he might taste death on behalf of everyone.” The case for A therefore rests on the Holmes edition, Origen’s report, and the distinctive force of the phrase itself.
If “by the grace of God”
Reading B, χάριτι θεοῦ, is the reading of NA28. Its support is broad in the materials supplied: WH, Tregelles, NA28, and the Byzantine text all read grace, and the packet summarizes the manuscript picture as nearly every manuscript reading “grace.” The apparatus again places this reading opposite Holmes: “χωρὶς Holmes ] χάριτι WH Treg NA28 RP.” The phrase “by the grace of God” directly describes the manner or basis named in the clause. The case for B rests on that extensive manuscript support and on its presence across the listed editions and Byzantine text, rather than on the smaller surviving physical support described for A.
The packet leaves a real question about how the early citation report, the surviving physical evidence, and the broad manuscript support should be weighed. The wording changes whether the clause says “apart from God” or “by the grace of God.” No doctrine can be settled from this variant alone; doctrines rest on many passages.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.