ἀπαράβατος

From the study of Hebrews 7:24

Range of meaning

The word combines the negative a- with parabainō, "to step aside, to pass over, to transgress". In Greek writing of the period it is used of things that cannot be broken, set aside or overstepped: fate, laws, agreements, fixed judgments. So it means inviolable, unalterable, permanent, binding. A second sense is sometimes proposed from the word's parts: "not passing over [to someone else]", that is, non-transferable, without a successor. That sense is hard to find in other writings, but it suits this context very well.

Against the English

KJV has "unchangeable". NIV and BSB have "permanent". ESV, NASB and NRSV have "holds … permanently". YLT has "not transient". Older commentators and some margins give "untransferable" or "that does not pass to another". To a modern ear, "unchangeable" suggests the nature of the priesthood never changes. "Permanent" and "inviolable" put the stress on its duration and security.

How it drifted

KJV's "unchangeable" is a fair rendering of "inviolable, unalterable". In modern English, though, "unchangeable" tends to suggest that the office has a fixed character or content. The point here is that it never lapses and is never handed on.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is not found in the Greek Old Testament, and this is its only use in the New Testament. Stoic writers such as Epictetus, along with Plutarch, use it of fixed fate or of rules that must not be broken. Josephus uses it of laws that must not be transgressed. Moulton–Milligan cite papyri where it describes binding, inviolable arrangements. Moulton–Milligan and BDAG both note that "non-transferable" has little or no support in other writings. Chrysostom (Homilies on Hebrews 13) explains it with adiadochos, "without a successor", which shows that early Greek readers heard the succession idea in it.