Hebrews 4:1
Φοβηθῶμεν οὖν μήποτε καταλειπομένης ἐπαγγελίας εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ δοκῇ τις ἐξ ὑμῶν ὑστερηκέναι·
Let us fear, therefore, lest a promise being left us to enter into His rest, any of you might seem to fail.
Paraphrase: My friends, think carefully about what I have been saying. It is clear that God has given us an amazing promise that we can enter into His rest, and this promise still stands today. What a disaster it would be for someone to fail to enter God’s rest when this promise has been held out to him all his life long. It’s as if a person should die of hunger with a plate of food standing right in front of him.
Comments:
Φοβηθῶμεν = hortatory subjunctive
καταλειπομένης ἐπαγγελίας = genitive absolute
ὑστερηκέναι = complementary with δοκῇ
Hebrews 4:2
καὶ γάρ ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοι καθάπερ κἀκεῖνοι, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ὠφέλησεν ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς ἐκείνους, μὴ συγκεκερασμένους τῇ πίστει τοῖς ἀκούσασιν.
for even we were gospelized just as they but the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in the ones hearing.
Paraphrase: Now every day, we have the good news of this promise proclaimed to us just as the people of Israel did when they were marching through the wilderness. God promised that we too can enter into His rest regardless of whether we are Jew or Gentile. You might wonder then, why so many of the people of Israel failed to enter the earthly Canaan and thus also failed to reach the heavenly Canaan? It was because they did not have faith in the promise that God gave them. They only saw the obstacles and the giants in the land (Numbers 13:33) and did not have any confidence that God would be able to conquer these enemies.
Comments:
ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοι = periphrastic, cf BBG 30.15.
Hebrews 4:3
εἰσερχόμεθα γὰρ εἰς κατάπαυσιν οἱ πιστεύσαντες, καθὼς εἴρηκεν· Ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου, καίτοι τῶν ἔργων ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου γενηθέντων,
for we who are believing enter into rest even as it says, “As I swore in my wrath; if they will enter into My rest although the works from the foundation of the world were finished.”
Paraphrase: That is why we first need to make this truth crystal clear. Only those who have faith in God’s promise will enter into His rest. We must be clear on this. It’s the same truth which God swore about His own people that anyone who refused to trust His power to keep His promise would never enter into the land of Canaan. (Psalm 95:11) Their problem was not that there was no promise for them. (Hebrews 4:6) On the contrary, God had finished His work of creation long ago; and having completed this work, He entered into His rest. From that time forward, He holds out this promise of entering into His rest to all those who will put their full confidence in Him.
Comments:
Hebrews 4:4
εἴρηκεν γάρ που περὶ τῆς ἑβδόμης οὕτως· Καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ,
For he said somewhere concerning the seventh day in this manner, “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”
Paraphrase: You might ask how we know that God has entered into rest after the six days of creation. Consider what God teaches us in Genesis 2: By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. (Genesis 2:2; cf Exodus 20:11; 31:17.)
Comments:
Hebrews 4:5
καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάλιν· Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου.
And by this again, “If they will enter into My rest.”
Paraphrase: Now let’s return to the text I quoted earlier. “For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways. Therefore, I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest.” (Psalm 95:10-11)
Comments:
Hebrews 4:6
ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀπολείπεται τινὰς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς αὐτήν, καὶ οἱ πρότερον εὐαγγελισθέντες οὐκ εἰσῆλθον δι’ ἀπείθειαν,
Therefore, since to enter into her still remains for some, and the first ones being gospelized did not enter on account of unbelief,
Paraphrase: Now think about this Psalm where David writes about those Israelites who failed to enter into God’s rest. They failed to enter Canaan because of their unbelief; they did not think that God was able to do what He had promised. (Hebrews 11:6) But be sure of this, there are still many people who have yet to enter into God’s rest!
Comments:
Hebrews 4:7
πάλιν τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν, Σήμερον, ἐν Δαυὶδ λέγων μετὰ τοσοῦτον χρόνον, καθὼς προείρηται, Σήμερον ἐὰν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσητε, μὴ σκληρύνητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν·
Again, a certain day He determined, “Today,” through David saying after so great a time even as said before, “Today, if His voice you might hear, do not harden your hearts.”
Paraphrase: How do I know this? Again, look at Psalm 95:
“Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work.” (Psalm 95:6-9)
Notice that God, speaking through David, is still warning people against hardening their heart. This teaches us that the promise of entering into God’s rest was not just made to the people of Israel in the wilderness. No, it was also made to the people who were living when David wrote this Psalm. “Today!” writes the Psalmist, “Do not harden your heart” and this today was thousands of years after God originally gave this promise to His people Israel in the wilderness.
Comments:
Hebrews 4:8
εἰ γὰρ αὐτοὺς Ἰησοῦς κατέπαυσεν, οὐκ ἂν περὶ ἄλλης ἐλάλει μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμέρας.
For if Joshua rested them, then not concerning another day, he was speaking after these days.
Paraphrase: So if David is speaking about this promise of rest and not hardening our hearts against it, then clearly the “rest” which Joshua gave Israel by driving out the Canaanites and giving Israel the land was not the rest about which God was speaking. Possession of the land of Canaan is not the rest which God promises His people.
Comments:
Second class condition. Thus, the protasis is assumed to be false; i.e. Joshua did not give them rest.
Hebrews 4:9
ἄρα ἀπολείπεται σαββατισμὸς τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ·
Therefore, a Sabbath-rest remains to the people of God.
Paraphrase: This rest must be something greater and richer than anything we find in this life. It must be something still future and something which we do not yet fully understand. Let me help you understand something of this rest. Every week, we have a little hint of what this rest will be when we lay aside our normal routine and keep a sabbath. When we come together as God’s people and exalt His Holy Name, then we have a little foretaste of what it means to live in God’s rest. Then we experience in such an unforgettable way His love and tender mercy to us. Now if we have this joy in our sabbatizing now, what will it be when we enter into God’s rest and thus begin the eternal Sabbath?
Comments:
Hebrews 4:10
ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς κατέπαυσεν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ὁ θεός.
For the one entering into His rest even he has rested from His works just as God from His own.
Paraphrase: For those who enter God’s rest are done with all the labor and toil which they had to perform on earth just as we lay aside our work on our sabbath day. Think of all the labor which God’s children lay down when they enter into God’s rest. By faith, they conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:33-38) But everyone of them, trusted the promise of God and thus entered into God’s rest. “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.” God assures His suffering people, “Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10) In a word, God’s children have much tribulation in this world, but Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33) and will surely bring them into God’s perfect rest. (John 10:28)
Comments:
Hebrews 4:11
σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τις ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ τῆς ἀπειθείας.
Hebrews 4:12
Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἐνεργὴς καὶ τομώτερος ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον καὶ διϊκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν, καὶ κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας·
Hebrews 4:13
καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν κτίσις ἀφανὴς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, πάντα δὲ γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ, πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος.
Hebrews 4:14
Ἔχοντες οὖν ἀρχιερέα μέγαν διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς, Ἰησοῦν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, κρατῶμεν τῆς ὁμολογίας·
Hebrews 4:15
οὐ γὰρ ἔχομεν ἀρχιερέα μὴ δυνάμενον συμπαθῆσαι ταῖς ἀσθενείαις ἡμῶν, πεπειρασμένον δὲ κατὰ πάντα καθ’ ὁμοιότητα χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας.
Hebrews 4:16
προσερχώμεθα οὖν μετὰ παρρησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς χάριτος, ἵνα λάβωμεν ἔλεος καὶ χάριν εὕρωμεν εἰς εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν.