TEXT [Commentary]

  VI.   Exhortations to Faithfulness (10:19–13:21)

A.   A Call to Persevere (10:19-39)

19 And so, dear brothers and sisters,[*] we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death,[*] Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

26 Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27 There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. 28 For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. 30 For we know the one who said,

“I will take revenge.

I will pay them back.”[*]

He also said,

“The LORD will judge his own people.”[*]

31 It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.[*] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

37 “For in just a little while,

the Coming One will come and not delay.

38 And my righteous ones will live by faith.[*]

But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”[*]

39 But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

NOTES

10:19 we can boldly. Lit., “having, then, boldness” (parrēsia [TG3954, ZG4244]), in keeping with the author’s custom of beginning major sections with a reference to what “we have” (4:14; 8:1; see Introduction, “Major Themes”).

heaven’s Most Holy Place. Lit., “the holy things” or “the Most Holy Place” (see note on 8:2). By now it is clear that the “Most Holy Place” to which the author is referring is not on earth but in heaven (or rather, is “heaven itself”; 9:24; see note).

10:20 By his death . . . through the curtain. Instead of “his death,” the original text has “his flesh” introduced as an explanatory addition: “Through the curtain—that is, his flesh.” Such interpretive comments introduced by “that is” (tout estin) are characteristic of the author’s style (see 2:14; 7:5; 9:11; 11:16; 13:15). The NLT misses the bold identification of “the curtain” into the “Most Holy Place” (6:19) with the “flesh” of Jesus offered up in death. Yet it captures the point that Jesus’ “flesh” refers not simply to his body but to his body offered up in death (see 10:10). Jesus’ “flesh” no less than his “blood” can represent his death (see John 6:51), and here the two are used together to do exactly that (see 10:19, “because of the blood of Jesus,” and compare the use of the two together in Eph 2:13-14 and John 6:53-56).

10:21 a great High Priest. Lit., “a great Priest” (compare 13:20, “the great Shepherd of the sheep”). The phrases “great High Priest” (4:14), “great Priest,” and “High Priest” seem to be used interchangeably in Hebrews, as in Jewish literature generally (see Koester 2001:282).

who rules over God’s house. This phrase recalls 3:6: “But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house.” It is introduced here to set the stage for a similar exhortation to “hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm” (10:23).

10:22 our guilty consciences have been sprinkled. Lit., “our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience,” echoing the preceding reference to “sincere hearts fully trusting him.”

our bodies . . . washed with pure water. As in 9:19, water has its place along with blood as an agent of purification (see 9:22, where “nearly” everything was purified with blood). Because the washing here is physical—“our bodies” in contrast to “our hearts” or “guilty consciences,” which are cleansed with blood—it is likely that Christian baptism is specifically in view (more so than in 6:2, where Jewish and Christian purification rituals are viewed together; see note).

10:24 to acts of love and good works. Rather, “to an outburst” (eis paroxusmon [TG3948, ZG4237]; cf. the English word “paroxysm”) of love and good works. Negatively this “outburst” would be a provocation or quarrel of some kind (see Acts 15:39), quite inconsistent with “love and good works” (see 1 Cor 13:5 in NASB, which says love “is not provoked”). Yet here it is used positively (see BDAG 780). According to Koester (2001:445), “Hebrews stimulates thought by putting a word with negative connotations to positive use,” much like the expression “random acts of violence” has inspired the idiom “random acts of kindness.” A variant reading in one very ancient ms (46, ek paroxusmou) understands this “outburst” not as the goal but as itself the motivation to care for one another. This shows that one scribe struggled with the author’s choice of words. What we might call today “random acts of kindness” are not random at all but actively encouraged by the believing community.

10:25 let us not neglect our meeting together. As Hebrews was being read aloud in the congregation that received it, these words would have had special relevance, encouraging those assembled to keep coming back to hear God’s word. An anonymous second-century Christian sermon makes the same point at much greater length: “And let us not merely seem to believe and pay attention now, while we are being exhorted by the Elders, but also when we have gone home let us remember the commandments of the Lord, and let us not be dragged aside by worldly lusts, but let us try to come here more frequently, and to make progress in the commands of the Lord; that we may all ‘have the same mind’ and be gathered together unto life” (2 Clement 17.3; LCL 1.157).

encourage one another. The encouragement of which the author speaks here has overtones of warning as well. See note above on 3:13.

the day of his return is drawing near. For a similar note of urgency, see 3:13: “You must warn each other every day, while it is still ‘today’” (see note). Here, the “day of his return” is literally just “the day,” but readers would know that “the day” was in fact “the Day of the Lord,” bringing either judgment or salvation depending on a person’s faith (see 9:28). As in Paul, (see Rom 13:11-12; 1 Thess 5:5), the “day” probably retains something of its connotation of daytime as opposed to the “night” of the present age. This has one further implication that the NLT does not bring out: The author states that his readers could “see” (blepete [TG991, ZG1063]) the day drawing near, as one sees the dawn coming and as Jesus told his disciples they would “see” the signs of his return (Mark 13:28-29).

10:26 Dear friends. These words are not in the original Greek. In the translation, they have the effect of softening the abrupt, hard words to follow, but the author seems to intend no softening. That comes later (10:32-34).

there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. Lit., “no longer is left a sacrifice for sins.” The words are a grim echo of 10:18; “There is no need to offer any more sacrifices” (lit., “no longer an offering for sin”). The repetition of “no longer” (ouketi [TG3765, ZG4033]) underscores a stark and tragic contrast: In v. 18, no longer is any sacrifice needed; here, no longer is any sacrifice provided.

10:29 which made us holy. More precisely, “by which they were made holy” (my italics). The effect of the translation is that it avoids the notion that those who turned away had actually been “made holy” by Christ’s blood (see 2:11; 10:10, 14). The whole phrase is omitted in one ancient manuscript (A) to avoid the impression that those “made holy” could subsequently fall into condemnation. But the author meant what he wrote. “Made holy” simply indicates that they were set apart as God’s people, a relationship they failed to sustain.

10:30 The LORD will judge his own people. Or simply, “his people.” In Deut 32:36, from where the quotation is taken, these words could also be read, “the LORD will vindicate his people” (NRSV), in contrast to the judgment on his enemies in the preceding verse. But the translation here is correct without question.

10:31 fall into the hands of the living God. For the phrase, “the living God,” see 9:14, where believers are those purified from “sinful deeds” to “worship the living God.” See also 3:13, where the author warned against turning away from God. Here he explored more explicitly the consequences of such apostasy, in that for those who turn away, “the living God” becomes no longer the object of worship but the enemy.

10:32 when you first learned about Christ. Lit., “when you were enlightened” (so NLT mg; as in 6:4, “once enlightened”).

10:34 with those who were thrown into jail. That is, “with the prisoners” (tois desmiois [TG1198, ZG1300]), which is the reading in A D* H 33 1739 it syr cop. But some ancient mss (46 044) have “with the chains” (tois desmois [TG1199, ZG1301]), and still other mss (א D2 1881 M—so TR and KJV) read “with my chains” (tois desmois mou). The second of these is striking in that it identifies the author explicitly as one of those thrown into jail. Traditionally that would have been Paul (see discussion of “Author” in the Introduction), but it could also have been Timothy if he was the author (see 13:23 and Introduction). The most difficult reading, however, is tois desmois (“with the chains,” or “with imprisonments”), a reading which scribes might have tried to make more intelligible by adding either one more letter—an iōta (tois desmiois, “with the prisoners”)—or a possessive pronoun (“my” or, in one or two Latin versions, “their” chains).

10:35 this confident trust. The word is “boldness” (parrēsia [TG3954, ZG4244]), as in 10:19 (see note), framing the whole series of exhortations from that point on.

10:38 And my righteous ones. Lit., “my righteous one.” The NLT uses the plural, possibly to make clear that the reference is to believers, not to Christ, who in some instances could be designated “the Righteous One” (see Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14). Even in the passage being quoted (Hab 2:3-4, LXX), it would have been quite possible to identify “the righteous” with “the Coming One.”

10:39 whose souls will be saved. Lit., “toward gaining the soul,” in the sense of attaining life. The author is not speaking of the soul as something distinct from the body but simply of the final salvation, or vindication, of whole persons (for example, see Mark 8:35-37, NRSV).

COMMENTARY [Text]

This section marks a major division in Hebrews, introduced (like 4:14 and 8:1) by a reminder of what “we have”: boldness to “enter heaven’s Most Holy Place” (10:19) and “a great High Priest who rules over God’s house” (10:21). We have the first (that is, boldness) because we have the second (that is, Christ as our High Priest). Christ’s high priesthood, established in the two preceding sections (4:14–7:28; 8:1–10:18), now becomes the basis for our free access to the “Most Holy Place” in heaven. In this respect the new covenant differs from the old, where only the High Priest was allowed into the inner room of Moses’s Tabernacle, and that only once a year (see 9:7). Here we learn that in “heaven’s Most Holy Place” the old restriction no longer applies.

The author hinted at this good news earlier when he invited us to “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God” (4:16) and when he spoke of our hope as “a strong and trustworthy anchor” leading us “through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary” (6:19). Now that he has fully outlined Christ’s priestly work, he becomes much more explicit: “Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him” (10:22). This is now possible because “Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place” (10:20; cf. 6:19-20), and the author identifies this “curtain” as Jesus’ “flesh” (see note on 10:20), with a wordplay on the preposition “through” (dia [TG1223, ZG1328]). The reader is invited to enter the Most Holy Place “through” the curtain as through a door, as Jesus opened the way to the Most Holy Place “through” (that is, “by means of”) the sacrificial offering of his flesh (see 10:10) on the cross. (For a similar wordplay on Noah’s salvation “through” the waters of the Flood and Christian salvation “through” baptism, see 1 Pet 3:20-21.) Readers familiar with the Gospel tradition will see a parallel here to the Markan account of Jesus’ crucifixion in which, as soon as Jesus “breathed his last” on the cross (Mark 15:37), we learn that “the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38), after which “the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died” and acknowledged him as “the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). Whether or not the author of Hebrews knew of this tradition (or that of John 2:19, where Jesus’ body is itself the temple) is unclear, but in each instance the death of Jesus pierces or tears the curtain separating God from God’s people and invites the reader into God’s “Most Holy Place.”

The purification of our guilty consciences promised earlier through “the blood of Christ” (see 9:14) is now accomplished, and the author allows himself to speak explicitly of Christian baptism (10:22, “our bodies have been washed with pure water”; see note). While Hebrews mingles doctrinal teaching and exhortations to faithfulness and holy living throughout, the latter will be dominant from here on, as in many of Paul’s letters. The keynote of these exhortations will be the familiar Pauline triad of faith, love, and hope (cf. 6:10-12). “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm,” the author begins, “for God can be trusted [lit., “God is faithful”] to keep his promise” (10:23; my italics). “Let us think of ways,” he continues, “to motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (10:24; my italics). Paul listed them as faith, love, and hope (1 Thess 1:3; 5:8), or as “faith, hope, and love” (1 Cor 13:13) with the conclusion “the greatest of these is love.” In Hebrews they come in no particular order and are so intertwined that none is elevated above the others, yet faith (understood as faithfulness) will be the author’s major theme from here on, putting its stamp on the other two. That is, hope in Hebrews is a faithful or persistent hope, and love is a faithful or enduring love. All three reflect and rely on the faithfulness of God (“God can be trusted”; 10:23).

The particular expression of faithful love that the author wants to encourage here is “our meeting together” (tēn episunagōgēn heautōn [TG1997, ZG2191]; 10:25), presumably for worship, teaching, and exhortation, and possibly for eating together as well. This he drives home with yet a third decisive exhortation introduced by “let us”: “And let us not neglect our meeting together . . . but encourage one another” (v. 25). That these meetings were important to this author is not surprising in view of his firm conviction that the living Christ was present when they gathered for worship (see 2:12, “I will praise you among your assembled people”). Such assemblies would have been the very setting in which his sermon would be read aloud to the congregation (see commentary on 2:12). Evidently he had heard reports of some who were in the habit of neglecting this responsibility to meet together. Whether such neglect implied mere laxity or carelessness, an outright split in the congregation (possibly involving a separatist movement of some kind), or a return to the Jewish synagogue is unclear. What is clear is that the author sees it as a serious problem, especially so because “the day” was drawing nearer (see note on 10:25). “The day,” or “Day of the Lord” (see note on 10:25) traditionally meant judgment (9:27; see also 1 Thess 5:2-3). Only by virtue of Christ’s sacrificial death does it become a time of salvation and the object of eager expectation (9:28; also 1 Thess 5:4-11). Those who reject Jesus as their “great High Priest” by abandoning “God’s house,” the community of God’s people (10:21), put themselves in grave danger of facing the day as a day of judgment rather than salvation.

The danger is promptly spelled out in no uncertain terms. The comparatively mild warning of verse 25 gives way to a far more severe one in verses 26-31, recalling the equally grim warnings of 6:4-8. Earlier, the author said that under the old covenant blood was offered for sins committed “in ignorance” (see note on 9:7), possibly with the implication that Christ, by contrast, died to take away all sins. But now that the former sins had been taken away “once for all time” (9:26, 28), what about sins committed after a person has received baptism and a full “knowledge of the truth” (10:26)? Here, it seems, the ancient distinction between sins committed “in ignorance” and “deliberate” (hekousiōs [TG1596, ZG1731]) sins takes effect once more (see Num 15:22-31, LXX, where the negative form akousiōs is used repeatedly for “unintentional,” in contrast to “deliberate” or “highhanded” sins). The NLT reinforces this by translating the present tense as “continue sinning,” pointing to a fixed attitude of mind and heart, but the emphasis is not so much on the sin’s continuation as on its deliberate or brazenly defiant quality. Because of the “once-for-all” character of Christ’s sacrifice (see 9:23–10:18), there is no further provision for forgiveness beyond what he has already provided. There is, in short, “no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins” (10:26; see note).

This tells us that the “deliberate” or “brazenly defiant” sin the author has in mind is the rejection of the sacrifice itself. He speaks of it as “trampl[ing] on the Son of God,” treating “the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy,” and “insult[ing] and disdain[ing] the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us” (10:29). Since God provided an offering and that offering is disdained or repudiated, there is nothing more that God can, or will, do. The very finality which guarantees assurance to those who trust in Christ’s sacrifice seals forever the fate of those who reject it. This was implied already in 6:4-8 in the phrases “once enlightened” (6:4) and “once again” (6:6), but it becomes more explicit now that the author has thoroughly demonstrated the unique and unrepeatable character of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

It is difficult to say more about the nature of the apostasy described in the two passages. It is not surprising that both emphasize the title “Son of God,” whether it is a matter of nailing him to the cross a second time (6:6) or trampling him under foot (10:29). From the very beginning this author has presented Jesus repeatedly and unequivocally as God’s Son (see 1:2, 5, 8; 3:6; 4:14; 5:5, 8; 7:3, 28). Both passages also mention the role of the Spirit in Christian experience (6:4; 10:29). But now the author adds a reference to disdaining “the blood of the covenant, which made us holy” (10:29), because by this time he has explained just how “the blood of the covenant” (that is, the new covenant) made us holy in a way that the blood of bulls and goats could never do (see 9:13-14; 10:10, 14). He imagines here a scenario in which some will deny the truths he has set forth, whether in their beliefs or (perhaps more likely) in their lives, by turning their backs on the Christian community to which they belonged and scorning the message of salvation they once embraced (see 2:1-4). Whether he knows of specific instances in which this has happened is uncertain. Earlier he told his readers that “even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you” (6:9), and we have no evidence that he has changed his mind on that score. But he is concerned about “some” who tended to “neglect our meeting together” (10:25) and wanted to make sure (to quote a later pronouncement) that “no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many” (12:15). If this should happen, he compares those to whom it happens with those in Israel who “refused to obey the law of Moses” and were “put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (see Deut 17:2-6), pronouncing the apostates from Christ “much worse” (10:28-29).

Instead of “eagerly waiting” for the “salvation” Christ will bring at his second coming (see 9:28), such people face “the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies” (10:27). That terrible, or “fearful,” prospect is echoed in the conclusion: “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31). The living God is the God whom “we know” (10:30), and consequently we should know what God has said: “I will take revenge; I will pay them back” (see Deut 32:35), with its corollary, “the LORD will give justice to his people” (Deut 32:36). These quotations echo Paul, who warns his readers, “Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God” (Rom 12:19). Paul’s interpretation presupposes that God protects and vindicates his people by taking vengeance on their enemies (see 10:30 and note). Here, however, the corollary is stated differently: “The LORD will judge his own people,” changing the application dramatically. God’s own people are not exempt from the justice, even the vengeance, of God, as Israel’s experience in the desert made clear long ago (see 3:7-19). Paul’s warnings to Timothy, “The LORD knows those who are his” and “All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil” (2 Tim 2:19), also stand as reminders that belonging to “God’s house” (10:21) or God’s “people” (10:30) is no guarantee of final salvation.

Even those who are faithful are not yet fully “saved” in the sense in which many modern Christians like to use the word. They have been “made holy,” even “perfected” (see 10:1, 14; 11:40; 12:23); they fervently await “salvation” (9:28) and will one day inherit it (1:14), but it is not yet theirs. Like Christian at the end of Part I of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, they are shown “a way to Hell, even from the Gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction” (Bunyan 1987b:163). Full salvation stands at the end, not the beginning, of their journey, and not just faith but faithfulness is required to reach it. It depends, the author believes, on “our meeting together” to “encourage one another” (10:25). This corresponds to what he said before: “You must warn each other every day . . . so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, . . . we will share in all that belongs to Christ” (3:13-14). Christian believers cannot do it alone but only in community.

To drive home the point, the author reminds his audience of their own history (10:32-34): “Think back on those early days,” he begins, “when you first learned about Christ.” They persevered in the face of suffering not just as individuals but as a community. Some were “exposed to public ridicule and were beaten,” and those who were not persecuted helped others who were suffering such things (10:33). They were not all “thrown into jail,” but they all “suffered along with” those who were, and they all seem to have suffered the confiscation of their property. When “all you owned was taken from you,” he reminds them, “you accepted it with joy.” And he tells them why: “You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever” (10:34). The expression anticipates the language he will use in the next chapter in describing the biblical heroes of faith, like Abraham “looking forward to a city with eternal foundations” (11:10), or the patriarchs “looking forward to a country they can call their own,” or “a better place, a heavenly homeland” (11:14-16), or Moses “looking ahead to his great reward” (11:26).

The author’s words of praise here, even though coming right on the heels of some of the most terrible warnings in the New Testament, place his readers in a noble company. Just as in chapter 6, his confidence is that they “will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance” (6:12, following similarly on the grim warnings of 6:4-8). But in neither place do they imply that the warnings are merely hypothetical, only that, as he said earlier, “We are confident that you are meant for better things” (6:9). In a sense, the whole of chapter 11 unpacks the “faith and endurance” that the audience is called to emulate, but first the author adds yet another warning not to “throw away this confident trust in the Lord” (10:35) and a reminder that “patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised” (10:36). Having accented repeatedly what “we have” (4:14; 8:1; 10:19), he urges them to hold on for dear life to what they have as they wait for “the great reward it brings you” (10:35), the realization of God’s promises.

The author cites yet another Scripture, one that Paul used to good advantage in both Galatians (Gal 3:11) and Romans (Rom 1:17). The passage is Habakkuk 2:3-4, and in contrast to Paul in those two instances, the writer of Hebrews does not confine himself to the line “the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God” (Hab 2:4) but quotes the wider context (10:37-38). As in other citations, he builds on the Greek text of the Old Testament rather than the Hebrew. Taking the prophet’s words as words from God, he makes them his own, with no introductory formula such as “he says” or “the Holy Spirit says” (3:7) or “someone said somewhere” (2:6; see note). In Habakkuk, the prophet was waiting for a vision to be fulfilled. “If it seems slow,” the text says, “wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed” (Hab 2:3). In the Greek translation that is used here, the “vision” is personalized as a “coming one” (erchomenos [TG2064, ZG2262]), which the author of Hebrews understands specifically as “the Coming One” (ho erchomenos)—that is, the returning Christ (see 9:28). The Septuagint reading suggests that God will take no pleasure in the coming one if he turns away, but Hebrews reverses the order of two clauses so that the distinction is made between those who turn away and “my righteous ones” (lit., “my righteous one”; see note) who “live by faith” (10:38).

This is consistent with the stern warnings we have just heard in verses 26-31, but the author’s conclusion is also fully in keeping with his earlier confidence that “you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation” (6:9). The way he puts it here is that “we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction” but on the contrary “faithful ones, whose souls will be saved” (10:39). The words “turn away” (hupostolēs [TG5289, ZG5714], “of turning away” or “turning back”) and “faithful ones” (pisteōs [TG4102, ZG4411], “of faith”) are picked up directly from the preceding quotation (“by faith” and “anyone who turns away”; 10:38) so as to form the heart of the interpretation of the Habakkuk text. The righteous live and have always lived “by faith,” and the author will show, by example after example, how that has been the case throughout biblical history. In a sense, the whole chapter that follows is one long exposition of the simple words of Habakkuk, “And my righteous ones will live by faith.”