Hebrews 6

¹Therefore, leaving the beginning teaching about Christ, let us be carried forward to maturity, not laying a foundation again of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, ²instruction about washings and the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. ³And this we will do, if God permits.

⁴For it is impossible to renew again to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift and became sharers in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age, ⁶and who fell away, since they are crucifying the Son of God again for themselves and exposing him to public disgrace. ⁷For land that drinks the rain often coming upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives blessing from God. ⁸But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near a curse; its end is burning.

⁹But we are convinced of better things about you, beloved, things that belong to salvation, even though we speak this way. ¹⁰For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name in serving the holy ones and continuing to serve them. ¹¹But we desire each of you to show the same diligence toward the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹²so that you do not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴saying, “I will surely bless you and surely multiply you.” ¹⁵And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. ¹⁶For people swear by someone greater, and an oath gives confirmation that ends every dispute among them. ¹⁷In this way God, wishing to show the heirs of the promise even more clearly that his purpose could not change, intervened with an oath, ¹⁸so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. ¹⁹We have this as an anchor for the soul, secure and firm, entering the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Translation notes 5

6:1–3 — Foundation and maturity. Leaving the beginning teaching means advancing from the foundation, not repudiating it. “Let us be carried forward” preserves the passive form. “Dead works” returns at 9:14; it may describe deeds that bring death or deeds without life, not automatically the works of the Mosaic law. The plural “washings” may include instruction distinguishing ritual washings and baptism. “Baptisms” is another rendering; a single Christian rite is not supplied. The base has “we will do,” where some texts have “let us do.”

6:4–6 — The warning. The sentence describes people who have experienced the listed benefits and fallen away; it does not insert “if” before their falling away or call their experience merely apparent. “Tasted” means experienced, as at 2:9. The final participles can mean “since they are crucifying …” or “while they are crucifying …”; the latter can suggest a temporal qualification. The draft prints the causal reading without resolving the wider theological debate about apostasy and restoration. “Impossible” is not weakened to “difficult.”

6:7–12 — Land and assurance. The same rain leads to contrasting crops. The warning's curse and burning remain alongside the author's confidence and encouragement. “Holy ones” means God's people. The repeated sluggishness connects the exhortation to 5:11; patience and endurance will continue to matter throughout the book.

6:13–18 — Promise and oath. Genesis 22:17 supplies the promise. “Surely bless” and “surely multiply” express the emphatic repeated verbs. The two unchangeable things are most naturally God's promise and his oath. Abraham obtained what was promised in his own experience; the book later distinguishes this from the final fulfillment shared by all God's people.

6:19–20 — Anchor and curtain. The imagery moves from an anchor to entry into the sanctuary behind its curtain. It is hope that is described as entering there, secured by Jesus' prior entry. “Forerunner” emphasizes that his entry is on others' behalf and opens the way for them; it is not replaced with a merely nautical explanation.