# Exegesis of Hebrews 6:4-6



## sotzo

What is the correct exegesis of this passage? It appears on the surface to indicate some can lose their salvation.


"4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because*to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."*


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## Casey

PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you a paper I wrote on this topic.


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## Herald

Joel - one popular interpretation is that these individuals were never believers to begin with. They profited by being within the body, but spiritually they were reprobate. Remember what Paul wrote:

[bible]Romans 9:6[/bible]

A Jew could profit by being under the economy of the Law while not having faith. The New Testament church operates in a similar fashion. A person could benefit from the love of the body and become _partakers_ while still being lost. But at what cost? Without faith they sear their conscience to the point where their sin becomes inconsolable, even to the power of the gospel.


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## Iconoclast

*apostates*

In Hebrews 6 if you continue to read down through the chapter,the writer speaks of thorns and briers whose end is to be burned, in verses6-8.
Thorns and briers is a very common OT. figure for apostates among the covenant people,in ezk2, and Isa.
In verse 9 a clear contrast is given with the "but Beloved" we are persuaded better things of you and things which accompany salvation.
This fits with the context of the chapter,and the whole book itself, as in Chapter 2;9-16 The Lord Jesus redeeming the seed of Abraham,while others in chapter 3,10, 12 , fail to enter into the eternal rest


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## MW

This is a section from a paper which examines the warning passages in Hebrews. I apologise the Greek font and footnotes did not carry over.



> The third warning, 5:11-6:12.
> 
> In 4:14-5:10, the second Christological consideration, the Priesthood of Christ, is expounded by the author. This section is primarily concerned with the human, earthly aspect of Christ's priesthood, one which is analogous to Aaron's in certain respects. In 5:10, however, the exalted, eternal nature of His priesthood is introduced when it is identified with the order of Melchizedek; an aspect the writer wishes to say much concerning, but because the readers have become dull of hearing, it is expected that it will be too difficult to bear with. This gives the writer cause to diverge into the third warning, one which is explicit concerning the present status of his readers.
> 
> In 5:11-6:3, the condition of the readers appears to have been a disposition to remain at a point of immaturity. The tendency is to see this disposition as intellectual, a failure to understand deeper truths. F. F. Bruce, however has insightfully written:
> 
> The exposition of the high-priestly service of Christ, with the corollary that the old order of priesthood and sacrifice had been abolished once, for all, might well have been unacceptable; the intellect is not over-ready to entertain an idea that the heart finds unpallatable.
> 
> Thus their inability is not so much with comprehension, but with acceptance. The immaturity is their failure to leave behind the old order with its Aaronic priesthood. Though they had learned enough to be teachers of the word of righteousness, they would appear to have accepted only the basic elements of instruction, and had failed, by practice, to train their faculties to distinguish good and evil.
> 
> The basic elements of instruction are listed in 6:1-2. A Mugridge notes that "the author ... exhorted them to leave the foundation of their faith, which he lists in six terms derived from the Old Testament." It is not an exhaustive list, and it is best understood as referring to that which was spoken by the prophets and which contained the first rudiments of instruction about the Messiah, rather than to that elementary aspect of the message which was spoken in the last days by the Son and his witnesses. The Greek uses baptismwn in order to indicate multiple baptisms/washings (v. 2), and this word is again employed in 9:10 with reference to Old Testament ritual washings. This leads to the conclusion that there is nothing distinctively Christian about these elementary teachings.
> 
> The status of the readers is to be gleaned from verses 4-6 even though the writer turns to indirect speech. Having addressed them with inclusive first person speech, to now refer to "those" (touj+participle) is to deal, not with a separate class of persons, but with a general condition of persons, of whom the readers could be readily associated due to a comparable experience. Noel Weeks argues that verses 4-5 describe "the experience of Israel during the sojourn in the wilderness." While this is quite possible due to the reference in the second warning passage and Paul's similar description in 1 Cor. 10, it is improbable due to the terms used to describe apostasy, terms which cannot be applied to the wilderness community, e.g., crucifying the Son of God. Nevertheless, the imagery of the wilderness apostasy does provide a vivid description of the precarious situation these readers find themselves in.
> 
> They are described, firstly, as a(pac fwtisqentaj (v. 4), which is confirmed in 10:32 as applying to the readers where the expression is used, "the days after which you had been enlightened," (fwtisqentej). "The term denotes 'receiving light' or 'perceiving' in a way that had not been previously possible ... and the passive voice is probably 'theological' or 'divine' (God has given them this light)." Thus, an understanding of the truths of the Christian revelation would appear to be what is intended in this description.
> 
> Secondly, the readers are referred to as having tasted (geusamenouj) the heavenly gift. "The metaphorical use of the verb 'to taste' implies to experience something in a manner that is real and personal." What the heavenly gift is, which they have tasted, is not easy to decide. It is best understood, not in Pauline categories of "eternal life" or "salvation," but in the epistle's own categories of priestly gift (5:1, 8:3). Christ as the heavenly priest, offers himself once-for-all in the heavenly sanctuary. His sacrifice for sins is the heavenly gift which the readers have experienced the quality of.
> The third description regards the readers as having been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. Philip Hughes considers that this was through "the reception of the gifts or impartations of the Holy Spirit mentioned earlier in 2:4" and which "confirmed the truth and power of the gospel when it was proclaimed to those to whom this letter was written." If so, the partaking in the Holy Spirit is not the Pauline concept of the eschatological Spirit who seals the destiny of believers. Rather, it is a participation in the outward and external ministry of the Spirit who confirms the superiority of the final revelation given in Christ: a participation in His "manifestations."
> 
> Finally, the readers are described as having tasted the goodness of the word (r(hma) of God and the powers of the age to come (v. 5). "The term r(hma may refer to an utterance rather than the entire 'Word'," while the powers "were 'signs' that the age to come had already broken in upon the present age." Thus, the writer is referring to both the message and its confirmatory power which the readers had experienced, as in 2:4.
> 
> The question usually raised in relation to these descriptions is, were the readers being referred to as genuine believers? "The question is a moot one because it requires knowledge of the author's view on an issue he does not address." Phenomenologically, the readers are addressed as those who have made a beginning (a)rxh) in the faith. The author entertains a hope that they shall continue in the race, and his exhortations are made to that effect.
> 
> In this warning, the nature of the sin and the threatened punishment is described in graphic terms which impress upon the readers the imminent danger annexed to the condition in which they find themselves. The apostasy (a)posthnai) of the second warning was a deliberate resistance to the overtures of the final revelation which had been spoken by the Son. Here it is recast as a falling away (parapesontaj) which is defined in the context of the tremendous privileges the readers had come to partake of. "It is sin committed, not in ignorance, but in the face of knowledge and even experience of the truth." Hence, it is a crucifying again (a)nastaurontaj). "The compound verb used shows that the writer is thinking of a repetition of the crucifixion." In conjunction with the accompanying participle paradeigmatizontaj (exposing to public humiliation), the picture is one of "departure from faith in the crucified Son of God. This could entail a return to Jewish convictions and practices, as well as the public denial of faith in Christ." Given the readers' dullness and inability to receive instruction concerning the superseding priesthood of Christ, it is the former of these options which would appear to be the particular sin alluded to.
> 
> The punishment for such sin is the impossibility to restore such an one to repentance (metanoian). It is not referring to the remorseful aspect of repentance as grief and hatred of sin, but to the state of having turned from sin to serve the living God, generally what is regarded as conversion. As such, the impossibility is not subjective, as if the apostate has an unwillingness or inability to return. It is objective, so that the apostate could not return even if he were both willing and able. "As the first stone in the foundation was metanoia (ver. 1) so here the first manifestation of renewal is in metanoia. The persons described cannot again be brought to a life-changing repentance." Because the metanoia of verse 1 is thought to be an Old Testament foundation, the sense is that the readers fall away by relying again on the Old Testament sacrifices and priesthood. The repentance, faith, washings &c. of that economy, however, are invalid, having been superseded by a superior economy, which will be discussed in chapters 8-10. Thus, to return to that old economy, is to turn away from the living God, and so to a fearful expectation of judgment.
> 
> The readers, in 6:1. are urged positively to be carried forward to perfection and negatively to not lay again the foundation. The passive ferwmeqa "implies the agency of God and conveys the thought of surrender to God's active influence, rather than personal striving for a goal." What is implied in the passive is explicated in v. 3, where the being carried forward is contingent upon God permitting it. The writer was sure that he could expect better things from his readers, things which accompany salvation. The third warning served to awaken the readers from their dullness, while the subsequent discussion in chapters 7-9 concerning the superior priesthood of Christ, demonstrates his expectation that they were now ready to accept the implication that this meant renouncing the sufficiency of the Aaronic priesthood.


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## thekingsknight

Here's Spurgeon's take.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0075.htm


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## eternallifeinchrist

Very interesting. I usually hang onto verse nine when I start reading that passage without really thinking about it. Scared for a second! The other insights are new to me. Nice.


Iconoclast said:


> In Hebrews 6 if you continue to read down through the chapter,the writer speaks of thorns and briers whose end is to be burned, in verses6-8.
> Thorns and briers is a very common OT. figure for apostates among the covenant people,in ezk2, and Isa.
> In verse 9 a clear contrast is given with the "but Beloved" we are persuaded better things of you and things which accompany salvation.
> This fits with the context of the chapter,and the whole book itself, as in Chapter 2;9-16 The Lord Jesus redeeming the seed of Abraham,while others in chapter 3,10, 12 , fail to enter into the eternal rest


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## Iconoclast

*apostates*

Yes Amanda, consider Isa.5:1-6Isaiah 5
1Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 

2And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 

3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 

4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 

5And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 

6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it the clouds/no rain Deut 32:2 jude 12
This I believe finds the Nt answer in MT21:33-44

HERE ARE A COUPLE OF OTHERS; Isa 7:23-25
Isa 9:18
Then again in Isa 10:17-23 thorns and briers in verse 17, the apostates . In contrast to a saved remnant who returns in vs 20-22, quoted by Paul in Romans 9:27***
Again in Ezk.2:3-10 here is vs 6-86And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. 

7And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious. 

8But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.


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