Hebrews 4:1
God’s Promised Rest
4:1 Therefore we must be wary 1 that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.
Hebrews 4:11
4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.
Hebrews 6:12
6:12 so that you may not be sluggish,
2 but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:19
6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain,
3
Hebrews 9:5
9:5 And above the ark
4 were the cherubim
5 of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Now is not the time to speak of these things in detail.
Hebrews 10:39
10:39 But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls.
6
Hebrews 11:22
11:22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life,
7 mentioned the exodus of the sons of Israel
8 and gave instructions about his burial.
9
Hebrews 11:27
11:27 By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:35
11:35 and women received back their dead raised to life.
10 But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life.
11
Hebrews 11:37
11:37 They were stoned, sawed apart,
12 murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
Hebrews 12:13
12:13 and
make straight paths for your feet,
13 so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but be healed.
Hebrews 12:16
12:16 And see to it that no one becomes
14 an immoral or godless person like Esau, who
sold his own birthright for a single meal.
15
Hebrews 12:24
12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator
16 of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does.
17
1 tn Grk “let us fear.”
2 tn Or “dull.”
3 sn The curtain refers to the veil or drape in the temple that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
4 tn Grk “above it”; in the translation the referent (the ark) has been specified for clarity.
5 sn The cherubim (pl.) were an order of angels mentioned repeatedly in the OT but only here in the NT. They were associated with God’s presence, glory, and holiness. Their images that sat on top of the ark of the covenant are described in Exod 25:18-20.
5 tn Grk “not…of shrinking back to perdition but of faith to the preservation of the soul.”
6 tn Grk “coming to an end,” “dying.”
7 sn Joseph’s prophecy about the exodus of the sons of Israel is found in Gen 50:24.
8 tn Grk “about his bones,” which refers by metonymy to the disposition of his bones, i.e., his burial.
7 tn Grk “received back their dead from resurrection.”
8 tn Grk “to obtain a better resurrection.”
8 tc The reading ἐπρίσθησαν (ejprisqhsan, “they were sawed apart”) is found in some important witnesses (Ì46 [D* twice reads ἐπίρσθησαν, “they were burned”?] pc syp sa Orpt Eus). Other mss have ἐπειράσθησαν (ejpeirasqhsan, “they were tempted”), either before “sawed apart” ([א] L P [048] 33 81 326 1505 pc syh), after “sawed apart” (Ì13vid A D1 Ψ 1739 1881 Ï lat bo Orpt), or altogether in place of “sawed apart” (0150 vgmss Cl). Since the two words ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειράσθησαν are so much alike in sight and sound, and since the position of “they were tempted” varies in the mss, it seems best to say that ἐπειράσθησαν is an accidental corruption of ἐπρίσθησαν or an intentional change to a more common word (the root of ἐπρίσθησαν [πρίζω, prizw] occurs only here in the NT, while the root of ἐπειράσθησαν [πειράζω, peirazw] occurs 38 times). The best reading here seems to be “sawed apart” without any addition before or after. (See TCGNT 603-4, for a discussion of emendations that scholars have proposed for this difficult problem.)
9 sn A quotation from Prov 4:26. The phrase make straight paths for your feet is figurative for “stay on God’s paths.”
10 tn Grk “that there not be any,” continuing from v. 15.
11 sn An allusion to Gen 27:34-41.
11 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
12 sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).