What Does Hebrews 10:17 Mean?

(17) Every reader must feel that as these verses stand in the Authorised version the sense is imperfect. The words “after He hath said before” (Hebrews 10:15) imply “then He saith,” or similar words, at some point in the verses which follow. Our translators did not attempt to complete the sense; for the marginal note (“some copies have, *Then he saith, And their”*) found in ordinary editions was added at a later date.[12] By many commentators it is believed that the words “saith the Lord” (Hebrews 10:16) are intended as the completion of the sentence, so that no supplement is needed. This is, we think, very improbable. As it is the last part of the quotation that is taken up here, it is at the beginning of this verse that the explanatory words must come in: “*Then He saith, *And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” This we have seen to be the crowning promise of the new covenant of which Jesus is the Mediator. When these words were first quoted (Hebrews 8:12), some important points in the argument were still untouched. Now the firm basis of the promise has been shown, for the covenant has been ratified by the death of Christ, and the blessings He has won for men are eternal (Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 9:12). [12] From Dr. Scrivener’s “Cambridge Paragraph Bible*”* (p. xxxii.) we learn that the note was added by Dr. Paris in the Cambridge Bible of 1762. Dr. Scrivener adds: “probably from the Philoxenian Syriac version, then just becoming know.”