Hebrews 2:9, by the grace of God, or apart from God?
Hebrews 2:9 has both readings: most manuscripts say by the grace of God; the SBL Greek New Testament and the APB print apart from God or without God.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads χάριτι. The copies also carry the omission [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default on external evidence.”
“The base text reads χωρὶς. The copies also carry χάριτι [greek majuscule; greek papyrus; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Both readers preferred the other wording, but the first reader's confidence was under the committee's floor of 0.8, so the base text stands.”
The committee’s decision retained χωρὶς, and the APB prints “so that without God he might taste death for everyone.” The textual note states: “The base text reads χωρὶς.” GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) served as the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) served as the second translator. Both translators preferred the other wording, but the first translator’s confidence fell below the committee’s threshold of 0.8. The note therefore concludes: “so the base text stands.”
The argument for each reading
If “apart from God”
The case for χωρὶς θεοῦ, without God, rests on early citation evidence and its survival as a minority reading. Origen reports both readings and knows apart from God in many copies. His testimony gives this wording a wider historical presence than the few late witnesses that now preserve it physically might suggest. The SBL Greek New Testament (Holmes) prints this reading alone among modern editions.
This wording places without God directly beside Jesus tasting death for everyone. It raises a question about how that death relates to God which the phrase by God’s grace does not raise in the same way. Origen’s report supports taking the reading seriously, though it does not resolve the difference between its reported circulation and its limited surviving manuscript support.
If “by the grace of God”
The case for χάριτι θεοῦ, by God’s grace, rests on its broad manuscript support. Nearly every manuscript reads grace. Nestle-Aland 28 prints it, as do WH, Tregelles, and the Byzantine text. That agreement gives this reading substantial external support across the named editions and textual traditions.
With this wording, the sentence explicitly connects Jesus tasting death for everyone with God’s grace. The phrase identifies grace as part of the explanation for his death. The breadth of support is the central strength of this case. Origen’s knowledge of both readings still leaves a historical question: grace was widely transmitted, while apart from God also circulated in copies he knew. The manuscript majority does not make that competing testimony disappear.
The uncertainty concerns how to weigh the broad manuscript support for grace against Origen’s report of apart from God in many copies and its limited physical survival. The meaning of without God also needs interpretation; the wording alone does not settle the nature of Jesus’ relation to God in death. Both readings retain Jesus tasting death for everyone. His suffering, glory, and honor remain in the sentence, and the following verse still connects salvation with sufferings.
Related entries
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 from the sources linked above.