Hebrewschapter 4
16 verses · unknown · AD 60 to 69 · The general letters
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
Introduction
unknown, The general letters, Hebrews Overview.
The writer of this sermon carries on the warning he began in the chapter before, and now he turns it toward hope. His hearers knew the story of a generation that died outside the promised land, and they had watched the promise seem to close behind it. He reads their own Scriptures closely to show that God still offers His people a rest. Listen for how he weighs the order of events, who spoke first and who spoke later. Listen also for the turn near the close, from a word that exposes to a priest who understands. The chapter moves the hearer from fear to confidence.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who kept the Sabbath every week and knew the land had been entered centuries earlier
- What
- An argument from Genesis and Psalm 95 that God's rest is still open, followed by a call to draw near to Jesus the great high priest.
- Where
- Written to a community of Jewish believers, most likely in or near Rome, who kept the Sabbath and knew the story of the entry into Canaan.
- When
- Most likely in the 60s AD, while the temple in Jerusalem still stood and its high priest still served there.
- Why
- To keep believers from falling short of God's rest through unbelief, and to give them confidence to seek help from their high priest.
Historical context
Rest in this chapter has three layers a Jewish hearer would track at once: God's own rest on the seventh day of creation, the weekly Sabbath, and the settled life in the land after the wilderness. The sermon argues that the third did not exhaust the promise, because David, writing long after Joshua, was still saying 'today.'
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
There is a name overlap that works in Greek and is invisible in English. Joshua and Jesus are the same name in Greek, so 'if Joshua had given them rest' is a sentence that quietly holds both men.
The image of the word of God as a two-edged blade dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, is butcher's language. Anyone who had watched a sacrifice knew what it looked like when a carcass was opened and laid out, nothing hidden, everything exposed to the priest's eye.
The high priest is introduced here for the first time as the sermon's main subject. In the temple as the hearers knew it, the high priest was an aristocrat, often appointed by Rome or by Herod's family, and generally unapproachable.
Significance
For a people whose national story ran through a failed entry and a later exile, the offer that a rest is still standing open was enormous, the door had not closed on them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The last two verses turn the exposure of the blade into an invitation. The one from whom nothing is hidden is the one they are told to approach boldly, because he has been through weakness himself.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Sabbath Rest Still Stands Open
Hebrews 4:1-2
let us be careful: The promise of entering His rest still stands, and the warning is against falling short of it as the wilderness generation did. Israel heard good news too, but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they heard it without faith.
Hebrews 4:1
"To-day," rightly used, terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is never lost (Re 3:12). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the believer's soul has in Christ. should seem to come short of it--Greek, "to have come short of it"; should be found, when the great trial of all shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of attaining the promise.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hebrews 4:1
“By saying Lest we be disappointed of the promise left us, he intimates that no one comes short of it except he who by rejecting grace has first renounced the promise; for God is so far from repenting to do us good that he ceases not to bestow his gifts except when we despise his calling.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Hebrews 4:1
“Let us therefore fear - Let us be apprehensive that we may possibly fall of that rest. The kind of “fear” which is recommended here is what leads to caution and care. A man who is in danger of losing his life or health should be watchful; a seaman that is in danger of running on a lee-shore should be on his guard. So we who have the offer of heaven, and who yet are in danger of losing it, should take all possible precautions lest we fail of it.”
did not share the faith: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown follow the oldest manuscripts, where the unbelievers stood apart in faith from those who truly heard, such as Caleb and Joshua. John Calvin adds that the word keeps its power whatever men do. It works in a hearer only when faith gives it entrance.
Hebrews 4:2
“For unto us was the Gospel preached - Και γαρ εσμεν ευηγγελισμενοι· For we also have received good tidings as well as they. They had a gracious promise of entering into an earthly rest; we have a gracious promise of entering into a heavenly rest. God gave them every requisite advantage; he has done the same to us. Moses and the elders spoke the word of God plainly and forcibly to them: Christ and his apostles have done the same to us. They might have persevered; so may we: they disbelieved, disobeyed, and fell: and so may we.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:2
“It is such that faith is not to be separated from the word, and that the word separated from faith can confer no good; not indeed that the efficacy or power of the word depends on us; for were the whole world false, he who cannot lie would still never cease to be true, but the word never puts forth its power in us except when faith gives it an entrance.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Hebrews 4:2
“Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [THOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript authority supports a different reading, "unmingled as they were (Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its hearers," that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
swore on oath in My anger: Now we who have believed enter that rest, the present tense marking a rest already begun. The oath of Psalm 95 fell on unbelief, yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world, so the rest stood ready.
Hebrews 4:3
“The eternal rest in heaven. As he said - Clearly showing that there is a farther rest than that which followed the finishing of the creation. Though the works were finished - Before: whence it is plain, God did not speak of resting from them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:3
“Two other oldest manuscripts read, "Let us enter." into rest--Greek, "into the rest" which is promised in the ninety-fifth Psalm. as he said--God's saying that unbelief excludes from entrance implies that belief gains an entrance into the rest. What, however, Paul mainly here dwells on in the quotation is that the promised "rest" has not yet been entered into.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Hebrews 4:3
- QuotingPsalms 95:11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
'They shall not enter into my rest' (the remaining sabbath-rest)
Hebrews 4:4-5
spoken about the seventh day: Two texts stand side by side, Genesis 2:2, And on the seventh day God rested, and Psalm 95, They shall never enter My rest. God entered his rest at creation, and a later generation was still invited into it, so the rest is larger than Canaan.
Hebrews 4:4
“For he spake in a certain place - This certain place or somewhere, που, is probably Gen 2:2; and refers to the completion of the work of creation, and the setting apart the seventh day as a day of rest for man, and a type of everlasting felicity. See the notes on Gen 2:1, etc., and See here Heb 2:6 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:4
God's rest is not a rest necessitated by fatigue, nor consisting in idleness, but is that upholding and governing of which creation was the beginning [ALFORD]. Hence Moses records the end of each of the first six days, but not of the seventh. from all his works--Hebrew, Ge 2:2, "from all His work." God's "work" was one, comprehending, however, many "works."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Hebrews 4:4
- QuotingGenesis 2:2“And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.”
'God did rest the seventh day from all his works' (Sabbath-rest argument via gezerah shavah w/ Ps 95:11)
In They shall never enter My rest, the rest is God's own, the seventh day rest that verse 4 cites from Genesis 2:2. Genesis closes each of the first six days with evening and morning and leaves the seventh open, so that rest still continues.
Hebrews 4:5
Indeed, he says, "the third rest is the kingdom of heaven. And there again, "If they shall enter into my rest." Behold, therefore, two works, the other indeed of which David said: "If they shall enter into my rest."
Oecumenius · written before 550 · The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrewspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:5
“And in this place again,.... In Psa 95:11 he speaks again of another rest distinct from that on the seventh day; which, and not the latter, is what believers under the Gospel dispensation enter into: if they shall enter into my rest: that is, unbelievers shall not enter into it; as the unbelieving Israelites did not enter into the typical rest, so neither shall any unbeliever enter into the Gospel rest, the antitype of the former.”
Hebrews 4:6-7
it remains for some to enter: Since it remains for some to enter His rest, the failure of the first hearers leaves the rest open. God again designated a certain day through David long after Joshua, and that later word shows the rest outlasted Israel's failure.
Hebrews 4:6
“God wishes not His rest to be empty, but furnished with guests (Lu 14:23). they to whom it was first preached entered not--literally, "they who first (in the time of Moses) had the Gospel preached to them," namely, in type, see on Heb 4:2. unbelief--Greek, rather "disobedience" (see on Heb 3:18).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:6
“This is the rest wherewith the Lord Jesus, our Joshua, causes weary souls and awakened consciences to rest, and this is the refreshing. [2.] A rest in glory, the everlasting sabbatism of heaven, which is the repose and perfection of nature and grace too, where the people of God shall enjoy the end of their faith and the object of all their desires.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hebrews 4:6
“It remaineth that some must enter therein - Why our translators put in the word must here I cannot even conjecture.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
God again designated a certain day: John Wesley counts over four hundred years from Moses and Joshua to David, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reckon five hundred years in Canaan. Through David means in the psalm of David. The writer then points back to his citation at 3:7 and 3:15.
Hebrews 4:7
“Translate as the Greek order is, "He limited a certain day, 'To-day.'" Here Paul interrupts the quotation by, "In (the Psalm of) David saying after so long a time (after five hundred years' possession of Canaan)," and resumes it by, "as it has been said before (so the Greek oldest manuscript, before, namely, Heb 3:7, 15), To-day if ye hear His voice," &c. [ALFORD].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:7
“After so long a time - It was above four hundred years from the time of Moses and Joshua to David. As it was said before - St. Paul here refers to the text he had just cited.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Hebrews 4:7
“Again, he limiteth - He designates, or definitely mentions. The word rendered “limiteth” - ὁρίζει horizei - means to “bound,” to set a boundary - as of a field or farm; and then to determine or fix definitely, to designate, appoint. Here it means, that he specifies particularly, or mentions expressly. A certain day - A particular time; he mentions today particularly. That is, in the time of David, he uses the word “today,” as if time was “then” an offer of rest, and as if it were then possible to enter into it.”
if Joshua had given them rest: For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. The Greek name Iesous is both Joshua and Jesus. Canaan was a real rest and a picture of the fuller rest that Jesus gives.
Hebrews 4:8
"I shall give you another testimony, my friends," said I, "from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun).
Justin Martyr · written before 165 · Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter LXIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:8
“For if Jesus had given them rest,.... That is, Joshua; for Hosheah, Joshua, and Jesus, are one and the same name; or Jesus himself, as two of Stephens's copies read; and so Joshua is called Jesus by the Septuagint interpreters on Exo 17:10 and other places where he is mentioned; and also, by Josephus (h), and Philo (i) the Jew.”
Hebrews 4:8
“Answer to the objection which might be made to his reasoning, namely, that those brought into Canaan by Joshua (so "Jesus" here means, as in Ac 7:45) did enter the rest of God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hebrews 4:9-10
There remains, then, a Sabbath rest: The Greek behind a Sabbath rest is sabbatismos, a Sabbath keeping, a word coined for this point. The rest has God's pattern, whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Faith rests in a finished work.
Hebrews 4:9
“There remaineth, therefore, a rest - This is the conclusion to which the apostle comes. The meaning is this, that according to the Scriptures there is “now” a promise of rest made to the people of God. It did not pertain merely to those who were called to go to the promised land, nor to those who lived in the time of David, but it is “still” true that the promise of rest pertains to “all” the people of God of every generation.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:9
“This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it: so legal sacrifices continued till the great antitypical Sacrifice superseded it, As then the antitypical heavenly Sabbath-rest will not be till Christ, our Gospel Joshua, comes, to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue till then.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
also rests from his own work: Alford, cited by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, sees Jesus in this verse. He entered his rest at the ascension and rested from the work of the new creation, as God rested after the first creation. His sacrifice was finished once for all.
Hebrews 4:10
“For he that is entered into his rest - The man who has believed in Christ Jesus has entered into his rest; the state of happiness which he has provided, and which is the forerunner of eternal glory. Hath ceased from his own works - No longer depends on the observance of Mosaic rites and ceremonies for his justification and final happiness. He rests from all these works of the law as fully as God has rested from his works of creation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Word That Cuts to Joint and Marrow
make every effort to enter: The call to make every effort to enter that rest aims the effort at the disobedience that kept Israel out. The warning example is the wilderness generation, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:11
“Let us therefore labour - Let us earnestly strive. Since there is a rest whose attainment is worth all our efforts; since so many have failed of reaching it by their unbelief, and since there is so much danger that we may fail of it also, let us give all diligence that we may enter into it. Heaven is never obtained but by diligence; and no one enters there who does not earnestly desire it, and who does not make a sincere effort to reach it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:11
“The end proposed--rest spiritual and eternal, the rest of grace here and glory hereafter--in Christ on earth, with Christ in heaven. The way to this end prescribed--labour, diligent labour; this is the only way to rest; those who will not work now shall not rest hereafter.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hebrews 4:12-13
the word of God is living: and active, and it cuts to the innermost part of a person, dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. The warning rests on God's own sight, since everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Hebrews 4:12
And Scripture calls by the name of "sword" the Word which has the power of trying and of discerning thoughts and which "extends even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow." … Every soul at the time of the passion was subjected to a sort of test, as it were, according to the words of the Lord, who said, "You will all fall away because of me."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · LETTER 260patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:12
“It is powerful to batter down Satan's kingdom, and to set up the kingdom of Christ upon the ruins thereof. (3.) It is sharper than any two-edged sword; it cuts both ways; it is the sword of the Spirit, Eph. vi. It is the two-edged sword that cometh out of the mouth of Christ, Rev. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful - Commentators are greatly divided concerning the meaning of the phrase Ὁ λογος τον Θεου, the word of God; some supposing the whole of Divine revelation to be intended; others, the doctrine of the Gospel faithfully preached; others, the mind of God or the Divine intellect; and others, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is thus denominated in Joh 1:1, etc., and Rev 19:13; the only places in which he is thus incontestably characterized in the New Testament. The disputed text, 1Jn 5:7, I leave at present out of the question.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hebrews 4:12
“Re 19:15 similarly represents the Word's judicial power as a sharp sword going out of Christ's mouth to smite the nations. The same word which is saving to the faithful (Heb 4:2) is destroying to the disobedient (2Co 2:15, 16). The personal Word, to whom some refer the passage, is not here meant: for He is not the sword, but has the sword.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
uncovered and exposed: John Wesley hears the law's sacrifices in the word exposed. The victim was flayed and cleft through the neck and backbone, so all within lay open to view. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the Greek perfect tense marks this as the constant state of every creature before God.
Hebrews 4:13
“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight - There is no being who is not wholly known to God. All his thoughts, feelings, plans, are distinctly understood. Of the truth of this there can be no doubt. The “design” of the remark here is, to guard those to whom the apostle was writing from self-deception - since they could conceal nothing from God. All things are naked - Exposed; uncovered.”
3 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:13
“But all things are naked and opened - Plainly alluding to the sacrifices under the law which were first flayed, and then (as the Greek word literally means) cleft asunder through the neck and backbone; so that everything both without and within was exposed to open view.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Hebrews 4:13
“The Greek perfect tense implies that this is our continuous state in relation to God. "Show, O man, shame and fear towards thy God, for no veil, no twisting, bending, coloring, or disguise, can cover unbelief" (Greek, 'disobedience,' Heb 4:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hebrews 4:13
“None of the creatures can be concealed from Christ; none of the creatures of God, for Christ is the Creator of them all; and there are none of the motions and workings of our heads and hearts (which may be called creatures of our own) but what are open and manifest to him with whom we have to do as the object of our worship, and the high priest of our profession.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace
we have a great high priest: Comfort follows the warning, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Jesus names his humanity and Son of God his deity, both needed for the priesthood of chapter 7.
Hebrews 4:14
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest - It is contended, and very properly, that the particle ουν, which we translate seeing, as if what followed was an immediate inference from what the apostle had been speaking, should be translated now; for the apostle, though he had before mentioned Christ as the High Priest of our profession, Heb 3:1, and as the High Priest who made reconciliation for the sins of the people, Heb 2:17, does not attempt to prove this in any of the preceding chapters, but now enters upon that point, and discusses it at great…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:14
“Let us never deny him, never be ashamed of him before men. Let us hold fast the enlightening doctrines of Christianity in our heads, the enlivening principles of it in our hearts, the open profession of it in our lips, and our practical and universal subjection to it in our lives. We ought to be possessed of the doctrines, principles, and practice, of the Christian life.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hebrews 4:14
“Jesus--the antitypical Joshua (Heb 4:8). hold fast--the opposite of "let slip" (Heb 2:1); and "fall away" (Heb 6:6). As the genitive follows, the literally, sense is, "Let us take hold of our profession," that is, of the faith and hope which are subjects of our profession and confession.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsExodus 28:2
Hebrews 4:15-16
sympathize with our weaknesses: This high priest can sympathize with our weaknesses, since he was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. Because of him the reader may approach the throne of grace with confidence and find mercy and help.
Hebrews 4:15
“He sympathizes with us even in our innocent infirmities, wants, weaknesses, miseries, dangers. Yet without sin - And, therefore, is indisputably able to preserve us from it in all our temptations.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hebrews 4:15
“BELOVED, we have a High Priest. All that Israel had under the Law we still retain, only we have the substance of which they had only the shadow. "We have an Altar, of which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." We have a Sacrifice, which, being once offered, forever avails. We have "One greater than the temple," and He is to us the Mercy Seat and the High Priest. Take it for granted that all the blessings of the Law remain under the Gospel.”
Hebrews 4:15
“If the Greek "aneu" had been used, sin would have been regarded as the object absent from Christ the subject; but choris here implies that Christ, the subject, is regarded as separated from sin the object [TITTMANN]. Thus, throughout His temptations in their origin, process, and result, sin had nothing in Him; He was apart and separate from it [ALFORD].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
grace to help us in our time of need: Estius, cited by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, applies mercy to the forgiveness and removal of sins and grace to the gift of spiritual strength. The Greek for time of need means seasonably. Help comes as each trial arrives, before it overwhelms the believer.
Hebrews 4:16
“THESE words are found embedded in that gracious verse, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”; they are a gem in a golden setting. True prayer is an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the throne of God. It is not the utterance of words, it is not alone the feeling of desires, but it is the advance of the desires to God, the spiritual approach of our nature towards the Lord our God.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace - The allusion to the high priest, and his office on the day of atonement, is here kept up. The approach mentioned here is to the כפרת kapporeth, ἱλαστηριον, the propitiatory or mercy-seat. This was the covering of the ark of the testimony or covenant, at each end of which was a cherub, and between them the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Majesty, which appeared to, and conversed with, the high priest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A declaration that the privileges of the gospel exceed those of the Jewish church, the cause of the Hebrews' failure, the privileges of believers and the misery of unbelief, and a conclusion of powerful arguments to diligence, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two Scriptures read together | Verses 3 to 5 set Psalm 95:11 beside Genesis 2:2. The psalm speaks of God's rest, and Genesis shows that His rest began on the seventh day and still stands. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown name Genesis 2:2 as the source of verse 4 and read the rest of God as one that began then and still continues.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, on Hebrews 4:3 to 5. | Hebrews 4:3, Hebrews 4:4, Hebrews 4:5 |
| The rest named again and again | The word rest stands nine times in the Berean text of verses 1 to 11, with rested at verse 4 and rests at verse 10. At verse 9 the writer uses a Sabbath rest, and Theophylact of Ohrid explains the name. Believers rest from their works as God rested from His after the creation and called that day the Sabbath.Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Hebrews, on Hebrews 4:10. | Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:9, Hebrews 4:10, Hebrews 4:11 |
| Four calls with let us | The chapter presses its hearers four times with let us, at verses 1, 11, 14 and 16. The first two warn them to take care and make every effort to enter the rest. The last two call them to hold firmly to what they profess and to approach the throne of grace. The count is taken from the Berean text of the chapter.This site's count of the Berean text, The Berean Standard Bible text of Hebrews 4 in the store. | Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:11, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 4:16 |
Where the chapter stands in the letter
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verses 1 to 11 finish the warning from Psalm 95 that began at 3:7. Verses 12 and 13 close it with a picture of God's word as a sword that lays the heart open. Verses 14 to 16 turn to Jesus the great high priest, and they introduce the long teaching on His priesthood that runs to 10:18. Matthew Henry closes his reading of the chapter on the arguments to diligence drawn from God's word and from Christ's priesthood (Complete Commentary, on Hebrews 4).
Who speaks
The writer speaks throughout and counts himself among the hearers with the word us. God is the speaker of the psalm and of the oath in verses 3, 5 and 7, and verse 7 names David as the one through whom He spoke.
The debated reading: the rest that remains
The fathers and later readers asked whether the rest is present, future or both. Charles Spurgeon preached verse 3 as a present rest, since believers already enter it in this life (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon 3169). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the Sabbath rest of verse 9 as one perfect and eternal rest still ahead, of which the weekly Sabbath is a pledge (Commentary Critical and Explanatory, on Hebrews 4:9). Cosmas Indicopleustes held the rest of verse 11 to be the rest of heaven, from which no one will be moved (Christian Topography 7).
What the chapter hands forward
The high priest of verse 14 is taken up at once in chapter 5, which sets out what a high priest is. The confidence of verse 16 returns at 10:19 to 22, where the way into the sanctuary stands open.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, on Hebrews 4, the chapter summary and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Hebrews, on Hebrews 4:6.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Calvin; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews; John Wesley and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.