Father Boylan’s Commentary on Hebrews 6:7-20

Text in red are my additions. Links are to the English Standard Version.

(Heb 6:7) For a soil which hath drunk in the abundant rain that has fallen on it, and bringeth forth useful produce for those by whom it is tilled, receiveth a blessing from God. (Heb 6:8) But if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is worthless, and is nigh unto a curse and its end is to be burned.

(Heb 6:9) But we are persuaded. Beloved, of better things in your regard; and of things helping towards salvation — even when we speak thus. (Heb 6:10) For God is not unjust so as to forget your works and the love which ye have shown towards His name, when ye ministered, and minister to the saints.

The sense of the comparison is that the readers who have received the rich gifts of God’s grace, receive still greater gifts when they bear a harvest of faith and love. But when, in spite of graces received, they bring forth naught but sin, they are Valueless in God’s sight, and, in the end, God’s curse will fall upon them. (Cf. Genesis 1:11; 3:17f.) The nearness of the curse implies that it is not yet quite at hand. (Cf. Matt. 1:12, 31.)

Note on Heb 6:8. Note that ἀδόκιμος (adokimos = worthless) is a genuinely pauline word.

Note on Heb 6:9. What he has said is Only a warning against what might happen, not a threat of something immediately impending. The writer’s hope in his readers is still strong. It is. based on their generous charity, which shows the genuineness of their faith.

The address ‘Beloved’ is intended to remove the sting of hardness and severity in the preceding.

The ‘better things’ and the ‘things helping to salvation’ refer to the general religious condition of the readers. They are like the fruitful” soil, and they are not nigh unto a curse. The writer is convinced that there is some relation between the, works of men and the grace of God; and that God cannot forget their charity towards the ‘Saints’. The motive ,of’ charity shown towards the Saints must ultimately be the love of God (love of His name). It has been suggested that there might be here some implication of a collection made by. -the readers for the Christians of Jerusalem. , But these were not the only Christians who were called ‘saints’. Cf. Heb 10:32—34.

(Heb 6:11) we desire that each one of you should show the same zeal in regard to the fulness of hope to the end, (Heb 6:12) that ye may not grow dull, but rather be imitators of those who by faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

Those addressed are good in many ways. Yet they need to be more zealous. They are somewhat indifferent, and they are dull in spiritual comprehension. Hence the example of genuinely earnest Christians is held up before them. The readers are exhorted to be as confident in hope as they are zealous and energetic in works of charity. They are exhorted to put unquestioning trust in the promises of God, imitating thus the heroes of faith in the Old Dispensation, and the fervent followers of Christ in the New. They must look beyond the trials of this life to the certain hope of the future, keeping up thus ‘the boasting of their hope’.

(Heb 6:13) For when God gave Abraham a promise, since He could swear by no greater one He sware by Himself, 

There cannot be any ground of fear lest the blessings of the Christian Dispensation should prove unattainable. They can surely be attained by patient fidelity in the things of the Christian life. In this Abraham is an example. He was the first to receive explicitly the promise — the promise which contained in itself all the others. God strengthened His promise by an oath : and as He was Himself supreme above all things, He swore by Himself.

(Heb 6:14) saying: ‘I will surely bless thee, and I will surely multiply thee’. (Heb 6:15) And so he, after patient waiting, attained the promise.

God promised Abraham blessing and increase. Abraham enduring in hope lived to see the promise, in part at least, fulfilled. For the promises made to Abraham see Gen. 12, 2f.; 13:16; 15:5ff.; 17:5ff.; 22:16f. The words of the oath in Gen. 22:16 are not here exactly quoted.

In verse 14 the Latin nisi represents the Greek Εἰ μὴν (ei men = surely), which is frequent in the Septuagint: it is the vulgar form of the classical ἡ μὴν (he men): it would seem as if it were intended to reproduce an ‘im lo of the Hebrew (though this is not in the Masoretic text of Gen. 22:16 f.) — which would correctly introduce an affirmative oath.

(Heb 6:16) For men swear by a greater one, and the oath is to them a surety beyond all contradiction. (Heb 6:17) Hence God, wishing to put before the heirs of the promise still more clearly the unchangeableness of His will, gave guarantee with an oath. (Heb 6:18) So that by two unchangeable things, in which God cannot by any possibility Speak falsely, we have a sure consolation when we have sought refuge in seizing the hope offered (to us): (Heb 6:19) in which we have a sure anchor of the soul which reacheth even behind the veil, (Heb 6:20) whither, as Forerunner Jesus for us hath entered in, having become a High Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

An oath among men has two results, a negative, and a positive. On the one hand it puts an end to all contradiction or gainsaying. On the other hand it confirms that in favour of which it is pronounced. The oath of God referred to here is the same as that in Heb 6:14. The two unchangeable things are the promise and the oath. The will, or plan, of God here spoken of, is the plan to give a blessing to all through the seed of Abraham.

Heb 6:18: ‘When we have sought refuge in seizing etc.’, that is, ‘when we fled for refuge (at the due moment) to take hold of.’ We cast aside, every consideration except that of laying hold of the hope which Jay before us. (Cf. Heb 12:1-2.)

Heb 6:18-19: Hope in the fulfilment of God’s word is compared with an anchor which reaches over into the unseen world, and unites us firmly with it. That other world is not a mere fancy: it is a reality, since Jesus has entered into it as our, Forerunner. Moreover He helps us to arrive there, acting for” us as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The veil behind which the hope reaches is the veil which . shuts us out from the presence of God — like the veil which hung before, the Most Holy Place. Into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Tabernacle our hope reaches, and thither Jesus helps us to come by offering to God His sacrifice of Himself.

Here we have arrived again at the theme broached in Heb 5:10, — the Melchizedek-like High Priesthood of Jesus. The three following chapters will treat of this theme. The thought of Jesus as Priest is mainly connected with His self-oblation on Calvary. That sacrifice marked the beginning of a new epoch, and it was, therefore, natural that the author should look for a type of Christ’s Priesthood outside, and beyond, the limits of the Aaronite priesthood.

In Heb 4:14-5:10 it was shown that Jesus possesses the qualities of a High Priest, and now the author goes on to show how greatly the Priesthood of Jesus exceeded that of the Jews. It is a new Priesthood, typified and symbolised, not by the Levitical priesthood’ but by that of Melchizedek. The figure of Melchizedek appears here enveloped in mystery.

Father Boylan’s Commentary on Hebrews 4:1-11

Text in red are my additions.

A WARNING NOT TO RISK THE LOSS OF THE HEAVENLY REST

Heb 4:1 LET us fear therefore lest, the promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you should be thought to be wanting.
Heb 4:2 For unto us also it hath been declared in like manner as unto them. But the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith of those things they heard.
Heb 4:3 For we, who have believed, shall enter into rest; as he said: As I have sworn in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest; and this indeed when the works from the foundation of the world were finished.
Heb 4:4 For in a certain place he spoke of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5 And in this place again: If they shall enter into my rest.

As the Israelites of old had received a promise of Rest, which was still unfulfilled, that promise still holds good. Hence the Rest may be forfeited now as then. Let them take care that no one of them hear from the Judge the sentence: ‘Too late!’

The Christians are, as regards the promise of the Rest, in the same position as the ancient Israelites, and what happened of’ old  to the Israelites may happen now to the Christians. To make the promise of the Rest effective the Christian must take it to himself by faith, for without that faith the word of the new preaching may remain as external to the Christians as was the message of the ancient preaching to the Israelites.

Heb 4:3-4 show ‘that the ‘Rest’ still really existed. At the close of the work of creation God entered on His Rest, and since God swore concerning His Rest during the time of the desert wanderings, that Rest must have still existed at that time. It cannot be said that the Israelites failed to enter into the Rest because the latter did not exist: it existed, in fact, from the close of the Creation.

Since, then, those to whom the Rest was offered did not accept it, it remains still accessible, for, as we can infer from His oath, God does not wish to keep His Rest altogether for Himself.

Heb 4:1.  ὑστερηκέναι·(hysterekenai, “be wanting”) means to come too late, or to fall short of — Cf. Heb 12:15. δοκῇ (doke) has here an objective sense — ‘be found to be’ (not ‘think themselves to be’).

Heb 1:2. [In the manuscripts]  there are several readings. The translation here given renders the reading συγκεκερασμένους (synkekerasmenous = “being mixed with” in the above translation, “united” in the link translation). The ‘word’ was not fully assimilated with those who heard it: τῇ πίστει (te pistei = “by faith”–see link) is the instrumental dative. The word would be assimilated by faith (better than “with faith” in the above translation).

Heb 4:6 Seeing then it remaineth that some are to enter into it, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7 Again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David; Today, after so long a time as it is above said: To day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest he would never have afterwards spoken of another day. 

It is clear that the Rest is intended for some at least, and it is also clear that those for whom the Rest was first intended did not enter into it. Hence we find God again, long subsequently to the period of the Exodus, speaking of a new time-limit for entering the Rest, and issuing, as it were, a new invitation to men to enter His Rest. The ‘Today’ of the Psalm passage is spoken of in the Davidic period, which was several centuries later than the Mosaic period. It must, therefore, refer to a date much later than that of the warning given in the desert.

The rest n question could not be merely the occupation of Palestine, for while that occupation was carried out in the time of Josue, the Psalm text shows that long after the time of Josue, the Rest was still spoken of as not yet attained.

Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a day of rest for the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, the same also hath rested from his works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest: lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief.

The Sabbath-rest is kept, then, for the Messianic age. That Sabbath rest is a sharing in the Sabbath-rest of God which began with the close of Creation. Just as God’s Rest followed His labour, so the Sabbath-rest to be reached by Christians can only be secured by labour: it is not, therefore, a privilege belonging inalienably to everyone who has accepted the faith. It is to be noted that in contemporary Jewish theology the Messianic time was usually compared to a Sabbath-rest.

In verse 11 the exhortation of verse 1 is repeated. By disobedience the desert-generation came to destruction. Let not a similar misfortune befall us.

Note how the ‘Rest’ comes to be identified with the σαββατισμὸς (sabbatimos = sabbath in verse 9). The ‘To-day- of verse 7 is, the ‘To-day’ of Ps. 95, and the ‘To-day’ still holds good for the time between David and the present (Christian) period. The reasoning implies the Messianic character of Ps. 95. The ‘Rest’ of the period following the occupation of Palestine, though it was not the genuine ‘Rest’ of God, was symbolical of that ‘Rest’. The true ‘Rest’ is a sharing in the Sabbath of the Creator.