Hebrews 6

So let us leave behind the first, basic teachings about Christ and go on toward full growth. We do not need to lay the foundation over again: turning away from dead works, and trusting God,

1Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

NoteKJV "perfection" translates a word meaning completeness or full growth, the condition of a grown adult as against a child. It does not mean moral flawlessness. "Dead works" is this letter's phrase for deeds that do not lead to life; the writer never spells out exactly which deeds he has in mind, and readers have long disagreed about whether he means sins or religious observances.

2and teaching about washings, the laying on of hands, the raising of the dead back to life, and God's final judgment.

2Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Note"Baptisms" is plural here, and the Greek word is the ordinary one for ritual washings rather than the usual word for Christian baptism. Judaism in this period practiced many such washings, and a new convert would have needed them sorted out. "Laying on of hands" was the gesture of placing hands on someone's head: used to bless, to set a person apart for a task, to identify an animal with the offerer at a sacrifice, and in early Christian practice at healings and at the giving of the Spirit.

3And this is what we will do, if God allows it.

3And this will we do, if God permit.

4It is impossible to bring back again to repentance those who were once given light, who have tasted the gift that comes from heaven, and who have shared in the Holy Spirit,

4For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

Note"Holy Ghost" is not a different being from the Holy Spirit; in 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit. "Enlightened" means given light, an early Christian way of speaking about coming to know the message.

5and who have tasted how good God's word is, and have tasted the powers of the age that is coming,

5And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Note"The world to come" renders a Greek word meaning an age, a stretch of time, not a place. Jewish thought of the period divided history into the present age and the age to come, and "the powers" of that coming age means its forces already at work now.

6if they then fall away. They cannot be brought back, because they are nailing the Son of God to the cross all over again for themselves, and holding him up to public shame.

6If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

NoteCrucifixion was a public execution designed to humiliate: the victim hung exposed, naked, beside a road, for as long as it took to die. The verb behind "put him to an open shame" means to hold someone up to exactly that kind of public disgrace.

7Land that drinks in the rain that keeps falling on it, and that grows plants useful to the people who work it, receives a blessing from God.

7For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

NoteThree words have shifted since 1611. "Herbs" means plants or crops in general, not seasonings. "Meet" means suitable or useful. "Dressed" means farmed, tended, worked, as a field is dressed rather than a person.

8But land that grows thorns and prickly weeds is worthless, and it is close to being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

8But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Note"Nigh unto cursing" means close to being cursed. Burning off a field that had gone over to thorns was ordinary farming practice in the region, a way of clearing ground that had stopped paying for the labor put into it.

9But dear friends, even though we speak this way, we are sure of better things for you, things that go together with being saved.

9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Note"We are persuaded" in 1611 English means we are convinced, a settled conclusion rather than the result of someone talking us into it.

10God is not unfair. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for his name by serving his holy people, as you are still doing.

10For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Note"Saints" in the KJV does not mean a special class of exceptionally holy people. It translates a word meaning those set apart, and it is used throughout the New Testament for the ordinary members of a congregation. "Ministered" means served, and in this period usually meant practical help: food, money, lodging, care for prisoners. "Shewed" is the old spelling of showed.

11And we want every one of you to keep showing that same care right to the end, so that your hope is completely sure.

11And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

Note"Hope" in this letter means confident expectation of something regarded as certain but not yet in hand. It does not carry the modern sense of wishing for something that may or may not happen.

12Then you will not be lazy. Instead you will follow the example of those who, through faith and patient waiting, receive what God promised.

12That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Note"Followers" in 1611 English means imitators, people who copy someone's example, not supporters or adherents. "Slothful" means sluggish, slow to move.

13When God made his promise to Abraham, he swore by himself, because there was no one greater for him to swear by.

13For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

NoteThe quotation is from Genesis 22:16 and 17. An oath worked by naming someone greater than yourself as witness and guarantor, so that breaking your word meant answering to that greater party. The argument here is that God, having no greater party available, named himself.

14He said, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely give you many descendants."

14Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

Note"Blessing I will bless" and "multiplying I will multiply" look strange in English because the KJV reproduces a Hebrew construction word for word: the verb is doubled to intensify it. The sense is "I will certainly bless you" and "I will certainly multiply you." To multiply someone, in this idiom, is to give them many descendants.

15And so Abraham waited patiently, and then he received what was promised.

15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Note"Obtained the promise" means received the thing promised, not received the words of the promise. The same phrase in verse 12 is rendered "inherit the promises."

16People swear by someone greater than themselves. Such an oath settles the matter and puts an end to all argument.

16For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

NoteIn the ancient world an oath was a legal instrument, not just strong language. Where a dispute could not be settled by evidence or witnesses, a sworn oath closed it; that is what "an end of all strife" means here.

17So God wanted to show the people who would receive the promise, even more clearly, that his purpose cannot change. He guaranteed it with an oath.

17Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

Note"Counsel" means settled plan or purpose, not advice. "Immutability" means the quality of not changing. "Heirs of promise" are those in line to receive what was promised, the word carrying the ordinary legal sense of an heir.

18So there are two things that cannot change, and God cannot lie about either one. Because of them we have strong encouragement, we who have run to him for safety to take hold of the hope set in front of us.

18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

NoteThe "two immutable things" are the promise itself and the oath that backs it, named in the two verses just before. "Fled for refuge to lay hold upon" pictures someone running to a place of asylum and seizing hold of it: in Israelite practice, a person who had killed someone accidentally could run to one of the designated cities of refuge, and a fugitive could grasp the horns of the altar and claim protection there. "Consolation" in 1611 is stronger than the modern word, closer to encouragement or bracing support than to sympathy.

19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and steady. It reaches inside, past the curtain, into the inner room.

19Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

NoteThe veil was the heavy curtain in the tabernacle, and later the temple, that closed off the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, from the rest of the sanctuary. Only the high priest passed through it, and only once a year. "Stedfast" is the old spelling of steadfast.

20Jesus went in there ahead of us, for us. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchisedec.

20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Note"Forerunner" translates a Greek word for a scout or advance runner who goes ahead of a party, and whose arrival means the rest are on their way. A high priest was the one chief priest who alone entered the Most Holy Place, once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Melchisedec, spelled Melchizedek elsewhere, appears in Genesis 14: king of Salem and priest of God Most High, he meets Abraham with bread and wine and receives a tenth of the spoil. Psalm 110:4 then speaks of a priest "for ever after the order of Melchisedec," and "after the order of" means belonging to that line or kind of priesthood rather than to the priesthood of Aaron. This letter takes the comparison up in detail in chapter 7.