Hebrews_10:38

Hebrews 10

Hebrews 10

Chapter of the New Testament

Hebrews 10 is the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author is anonymous, although the internal reference to "our brother Timothy" (Hebrews 13:23) causes a traditional attribution to Paul, but this attribution has been disputed since the second century and there is no decisive evidence for the authorship.[1][2] This chapter contains the exposition about Christ's effective sacrifice and the exhortation to continue in faithfulness and expectancy.[3][4]

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Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 39 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Old Testament references

Epistle to the Hebrews 10:10-12 on the recto side of Papyrus 79 (7th century).

New Testament references

The True Sacrifice (10:1–10)

Attridge sees the final stage of Jeremiah 31 exposition to indicate that "Christ inaugurated the new and interior covenant by an act of conformity to God's will".[9]

Verse 4

For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.[10]

This is one of the four things to be 'impossible' according to this epistle (Hebrews 6:4; 6:18; 10:4; 11:6).[11]

Verse 5

That is why, when Christ[a] came into the world, he said to God,
You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer[12]


Verse 10

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.[13]

It is the will of God that the believers be sanctified (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3) and Christ's act of obedience made God's will his own, because Christ's death conformed to God's will (Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:5–11; 1 Peter 3:17) and Christ's obedience—attested in the Gethsemane story (Matthew 26:42; Luke 22:42) and the fourth gospel (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38–40; 19:30—is decisive for establishing the new covenant.[14]

It is the first time in the epistle that the composite name 'Jesus Christ' appears (cf. Hebrews 13:8).[14]

Summation (10:11–18)

This section weaves together the themes of the previous few chapters.[14]

Verse 14

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.[15]
  • "By one offering": By his one sacrifice Jesus Christ did what the law of Moses, and all its sacrifices, could not do (Hebrews 10:1).[16]
  • "Those who are being sanctified" by God the Father (Jude 1:1) and set apart by him in internal election.[16]

Hold Fast to Faith (10:19–24)

This part contains an exhortation to live as members of the "new covenant" which stresses faith (verse 22), hope (verse 23) and love (verse 24), a traditional triad also seen in 1 Corinthians 13:13.[14]

Warning and Encouragement (10:24–39)

Epistle to the Hebrews 10:28-30 on the verso side of Papyrus 79 (7th century).

Verses 26-31 reference the unforgivable sin according to theologians, such as John Wesley.[17] The encouragement in verse 32-29 balances the threat or warning in verses 24-31.[14]

Verse 37

"For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry."[18]

This verse combines the quote 'a little while' from Isaiah 26:20 with the quote 'will not tarry' from Habakkuk 2:3 in its Greek form, rendering it as a prediction of one 'who is coming' that points to the imminence of Christ's second coming.[14][19]

Verse 38

"Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."[21]

Cited from the LXX version of Habakkuk 2:4 which reads:

If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him, but the righteous one will live by faith.[19]

Here "he shrinks back" is not applied to the "coming one" but to "those who await God's deliverance."[19]

Paul also cites Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 3:11 and Romans 1:17 to contrast "faith" and "works of the law".[22]

Verse 39

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.[23]

This verse contrasts the result of two opposite lines of action: εἰς ἀπώλειαν, eis apōleian ("to perdition/destruction") or εἰς περιποίησιν ψυχῆς, eis peripoiēsin psychēs, ("to the gaining of the soul"; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:9: εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας, eis peripoiēsin sōtērias, "to obtain salvation").[26]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Attridge 2007, p. 1236.
  2. [2]
    deSilva 2005, p. 201.
  3. [3]
    Attridge 2007, pp. 1249–1251.
  4. [4]
    deSilva 2005, p. 203.
  5. [5]
    deSilva 2005, p. 202.
  6. [6]
    Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 838.
  7. [7]
    "Biblical concordances of Hebrews 10 in the 1611 King James Version".
  8. [8]
    Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 840.
  9. [9]
    Attridge 2007, p. 1249.
  10. [10]
    Hebrews 10:4 MEV
  11. [11]
    Attridge 2007, p. 1245.
  12. [12]
    Hebrews 10:5 NLT
  13. [13]
    Hebrews 10:10 NKJV
  14. [14]
    Attridge 2007, p. 1250.
  15. [15]
    Hebrews 10:14 NKJV
  16. [16]
    Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible - Hebrews 10:14
  17. [17]
    "The Sermons of John Wesley - Sermon 86: A Call To Backsliders". Northwest Nazarene University. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  18. [18]
    Hebrews 10:37 NKJV
  19. [19]
    deSilva 2005, p. 238.
  20. [20]
    Note [m] on Hebrews 10:37 in NKJV
  21. [21]
    Hebrews 10:38 NKJV
  22. [22]
    Attridge 2007, p. 1251.
  23. [23]
    Hebrews 10:39 NKJV
  24. [24]
    Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) (1905). Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers. Hebrews 10. London : Cassell and Company, Limited, [1905-1906] Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708. Accessed 28 April 2019.
  25. [25]
    Note [a] on Hebrews 10:39 in NKJV
  26. [26]
    Meyer, Heinrich August Wilhelm (1880). Commentary on the New Testament. Hebrews 10. Translation by Peter Christie from Meyer's sixth edition. Accessed February 14, 2019.

Bibliography

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746-1763).
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