(avg. read time: 12–24 mins.)
5:11 About him/this the word/message has much for us that is also difficult [hapax] to explain, since you have become dullards [only in Hebrews] in hearing.
5:12 For though you ought to be teachers because of age/time, you again have need to be taught some of the fundamental first things of the words/oracles of God, and you have become needy for milk, and not solid food.
5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is inexperienced [hapax] in the word of righteousness/justice, for that one is an infant,
5:14 but solid food is for the mature [complete], who have their faculties/senses [hapax] trained for the purpose of the practice [hapax] of discernment between right and wrong.
6:1 Therefore, leaving behind the first teaching of Christ, let us be brought to maturity, not again laying down a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God,
6:2 instruction about baptisms/washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and everlasting judgment.
6:3 And this we will do if indeed God permits it.
6:4 For it is impossible for those who have been enlightened once, having also tasted of the heavenly gifts, become partakers/participants of the Holy Spirit
6:5 and tasted the goodness of the word of God as well as the power of the coming/approaching age,
6:6 and having fallen away/committed apostasy [hapax], to renew [hapax] them again to repentance, for they would be crucifying [hapax] again to themselves the Son of God and holding him up/exposing him to contempt [hapax].
6:7 For ground that drinks up often the rain that falls on it, and that brings forth/produces useful vegetation [hapax] for those for whom it is also cultivated, receives blessings from God,
6:8 but the type that bears thorns and thistles is worthless and is nearly cursed, the end/goal/destination for which is burning [hapax].
6:9 But we are convinced in your case, beloved, of the better things that also belong to salvation, even though we speak in this way,
6:10 For God is not unjust, he will not neglect your work and the love that you have shown/demonstrated in his name, serving the saints and still serving now.
6:11 Now we desire for each of you to show/demonstrate the same earnestness/diligence with full assurance of hope until the completion/end/finish,
6:12 so that you should not become sluggards/dullards [only in Hebrews], but imitators of those who through faith and forbearance/patience inherit the promises.
6:13 For to Abraham God promised, since he had nothing greater to swear by, “he swore by himself,”
6:14 saying, “I will surely bless you [by blessing] and multiply you [by multiplying],”
6:15 and thus having forbearance/patience he attained the promise.
6:16 For humans swear by what is greater than themselves, and to all of their disputes an oath in confirmation puts an end;
6:17 in this way God willed to show more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeability/immutability of his will he guaranteed [hapax] it by an oath,
6:18 so that by two unchangeable/immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, let us who take refuge have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us;
6:19 this [hope] we have as an anchor of life, both sure and secure/reliable, and one that enters through/into the inner veil/curtain,
6:20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner [hapax] on our behalf, being a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek forever.
As the author says, there is clearly much more to say here—as subsequent teachers have attempted to work out these statements even further—but the author says there is much that is difficult to explain, especially to some of his audience. Presumably due to the problem which served as the occasion for this address, at least some of the people have become dullards in hearing. In some form or fashion, they have ceased to become willing learners and have instead undermined all that they have been taught thus far by acquiescing to whatever force of opposition they face, foregoing the hard work of perseverant obedience as shown by Jesus, and settling for lazy complacency with their environment. At this point, with all that they have consumed and the amount of time they have been given to consume it, they ought to be teachers. Instead, they are hung up at needing instruction in the fundamental first things about the words and oracles of God. They still need the milk of these basic teachings instead of the solid food of advanced instruction received by those who are experienced in the word of righteousness, showing their maturity as followers of Jesus by embodying the perseverant obedience seen in him. Basic to this maturity is the training of the faculties through the practice of discernment between right and wrong.
The unit then continues until 6:12. The author continues to insist that his audience move on from the fundamental first things to maturity. In the process, he describes some of these foundational matters. One aspect is the repentance from dead works. This is indeed the foundational action of the Christian life, the initiation of faithfulness and a life lived in repentance for the Christian. As I have said elsewhere, repentance is the act and process of turning away from the current direction in one’s life, confessing and apologizing for action taken in that direction, and accepting a new direction and agenda for one’s life. Indeed, it signifies that one is accepting a new direction for one’s life that will lead one to overcome the sin repented of. Repentance provides a path to life, namely the life that Christ offers, as it is a turning away from dead works—or the works of death, as one might say—to God’s agenda for life, the agenda that Christ lived out as the perfect human in order to establish the union of God and human.
The concomitant of repentance is the second aspect of the foundation: faith in God. There are a few things to note about this foundation. One, as Matthew Easter has been keen to note, God—rather than Jesus per se—is the object of faith in Hebrews.1 The significance of this point will become more apparent in 11:1–12:2, but because Jesus is God’s faithful servant and everything he has done has ultimately been about the reconciliation and union of God and humanity all while pointing humanity to God, the primary object of faith is properly God. Two, as I show in the later passage, this God is the unifier of salvation history, the one who has been the common object of faith for all of that history, while Jesus serves as the climax of that history appointed by the unifier. The points I have made previously about prosopological exegesis in Hebrews show that the author sees Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as unifying salvation history, speaking to or about one another in anticipation of the gospel events. However, it is clear that the emphasis of the author on this point falls on God, with these things about Christ and the Holy Spirit being true in that they share in the one divine identity, but only secondarily insofar as they are distinct from the Father (the typical singular referent of “God”). Three, the use of ἐπὶ in the phrase πίστεως ἐπὶ θεόν is notable (cf. 2:13 with its first citation of Isa 8:17). I have gone over the uses of this preposition in faith phrases in the NT elsewhere. In smooth English translations, it is generally considered acceptable to translate these uses of the preposition as “in”, but that sense, which would be like the preposition ἐν, does not quite convey the significance of this preposition in this type of construction. Depending on how one translates it, it could more accurately—though clunkily—be rendered as “to/toward” or “on/upon”. It is possible that this preposition is used precisely because the author means to convey these multiple senses. On the one hand, faith is directed toward God, as is proper for a term that denotes allegiance. On the other hand, faith has as the basis it rests upon the God who is reliable and faithful. In such cases, faith is only slightly distinguishable from hope, as has been and will be the case at several points in Hebrews.
The second of three pairs of foundational teachings begins with the third item: instruction about baptisms/washings. I do not have as much to say about this at this time. I am not sure why the term is plural and what it refers to. I am inclined to think it is indeed about baptisms—given its fundamental place in instruction of the church—and not ritual washings. Baptism was as foundational a ritual of the Christian faith then as it is today. It signaled incorporation into the community, joining with them in identification with Jesus and participating in his story by re-enacting his death and burial, and subsequently re-enacting his resurrection by rising to walk in newness of life. While Judaism and other religions had washing rituals—Jewish mikveoth in particular were and are important for ritual cleansing—baptism among the Christians is sacramental, participating in a still deeper reality of cleansing. That cleansing is brought by union with Christ and being incorporated in his salvific death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation. Although the author does not dwell on it, this deepening of the reality that was once foreshadowed by washings in the old covenant is emblematic of the relationship of old and new covenants (cf. Exod 29:4; 30:18–21; 40:12, 30–32; Lev 8:6; 11:25, 28, 40; 13:6, 34, 54–58; 14:8–9; 15; 16:26, 28; 17:15–16; Num 19:7–10).
The second half of this pair—and the fourth item of foundational teaching overall—is the laying on of hands. There are some references to this ritual in the NT, mostly in Acts (Acts 6:6; 8:17; 9:12, 17; 13:3; 19:6; 28:8; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6). This ritual could be used for authorization, blessing, and empowerment (Acts 6:6; 13:3). In the case of the Samaritan Christians, they needed Peter and John to come lay their hands on them for them to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17). Interestingly, this is the case for them, but not for the Gentile Christians of Cornelius’s household. Perhaps the laying on of hands was necessary in the former case in order to overcome the stigma of relationship between the first Jewish Christians and the first Samaritan Christians. But that is, of course, speculation. When the Holy Spirit first forges paths open for groups of believers in Acts, he always does it by unusual means. A similar case happens in Ephesus with the disciples who had received the baptism of John (Acts 19:6). Paul must lay hands on them after baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus for them to receive the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands was also done for the sake of healing, as it was famously so for Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:12, 17; cf. 28:8). Similar to the first use of laying on of hands is what is said uniquely about Timothy, that he received some spiritual gift—likely of teaching given the contexts—through prophecy and the laying on of hands (1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6). In any case, it seems that this ritual is taken here as in those contexts as an important act of initiation and enactment or restoration of fellowship.
The last pair of teachings are eschatological in nature, as is shown by their very pairing. The first half of this pair—and the fifth item of foundational teaching overall—is the resurrection of the dead. I have attempted to show to this point where resurrection—Jesus’s own and the general resurrection at the eschaton—is assumed even when it is not stated. Indeed, this reference in 6:2 is one of the few direct references to the resurrection throughout the entire book. But then again, the same could be said for most of these foundational teachings. Repentance is never referenced before this, and the author will mention it once more in an upcoming verse as a cipher for the Christian life as well as one other time in reference to a past story. While faith is obviously an important topic for the author, 6:1 is the only instance in which the noun πίστις has an explicit object. Otherwise, much like I suggest for resurrection, the author is able to assume that the audience knows the object of faith without him having to state it explicitly. The only other reference to washing in the book concerns the ritual cleansing of the priests who enter the earthly tabernacle. This is the only reference to laying on of hands and it does not seem to play a larger role in the text, except insofar as it is associated with initiation, healing, authorization, and possibly the Holy Spirit. I will address everlasting judgment below, but suffice it to say for now that though it is not a major theme of this text, it is featured in several verses and it serves as an important support for more prominent themes. At the same time, in no case afterwards does he refer to this judgment as “everlasting”, as it is simply referred to as something that is yet to come. Resurrection likewise plays an implicit role most of the time in Hebrews as part of the framework of Jesus’s story and of the eschatology that shapes Hebrews as a whole. And again, though it is never stated, there is an important connection between Jesus’s own resurrection and the resurrection of the faithful that underlies much of the ethical instruction. I have hinted at some of the instances where this could be seen, but for more expositions of those cases, see here and here.
The final item of foundational teaching is everlasting judgment, one of the eschatological complements to the resurrection of the dead (cf. John 5:25–29; Acts 17:31; 24:15; Rom 14:7–12; 2 Cor 5:1–10; Rev 20:1–6, 11–15). Indeed, after Dan 12:2–3, many texts would show a perspective in which resurrection is necessary for the consummate execution of God’s justice on the world (2 Macc 7:29–38; 1 En. 50–51; 91:10–19; Sib. Or. 2.214–251; 4.179–192; Apocr. Ezek. frag. 1; 4 Ezra 7:32–44; 2 Bar. 50:2–4; T. Benj. 10:6–11; L.A.B. 3:10; 25:7; also see here). This is another aspect of eschatology that I will continue to note over the course of this book (4:12; 9:27–28; 10:27–30; 12:23; 13:4). What is important to note for now is that this foundational teaching serves as a key support for the author’s exhortation to be faithfully perseverant as the everlasting judgment presents the final occasion at which the consequences of one’s decisions will result in either vindication of the life lived by enabling it to go on forever, or condemnation of the life lived by handing it over to the destruction that rebellion against God entails.
The author says that he and his audience will move on from laying these foundations once again if indeed God permits it. To do otherwise risks the commission of apostasy if these foundational teachings are ultimately rejected in favor of whatever external pressures are exerting themselves on the believers. And as the author describes the condition of apostasy, he is also by extension describing characteristics of the Christian life. First, Christians have been enlightened. This is a common feature of apocalyptic and eschatologically oriented texts, especially among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that describes the audience/assembly or the people of God in general as having—or as ones who will have—particular knowledge, wisdom, or insight revealed to them by virtue of their faithfulness to the God who reveals (1 En. 17–18; 37:2–4; 61:13; 82; 105:1 4 Ezra 13:52–56; 2 Bar. 38; 44:14; 48:24; T. Lev. 13:2, 7–9; 14:4; 1QS II, 3; III, 1–2; IV, 4, 6, 22; V, 11–12, 23; VII, 1–4; VIII, 9, 16; IX, 13, 17–19; XI, 15–19; 1QHa V, 2–3, 6; VI, 25–26; VII, 8, 24; X, 9–10, 13–14, 18; XI, 22–23; XII, 27; XIII, 11–12, 26; XVI, 23–24; XVIII, 28–30; XIX, 16–17; XX, 11–13, 32–33; XXI (top), 4–5, 8; XXIV (bottom), 5; XXVI (top), 14–15; CD-A II, 3–4, 14–16; III, 13–16; VI, 2–3; XV, 13–15; XIII, 7–8; CD-B XX, 4–5; 4QBera/4Q286 Frag. 1 II, 6–7; Frag. 2, 5–6; 4QMystb/4Q300 Frag. 1 II, 2–5; Frag. 3, 2–3; Frag. 5; Frag. 8, 6; 4QMystc?/4Q301 Frags. 1—2; 4; 4QMMT C 28–29; MasShirShabb/Mas1k I, 2, 5–6; MasShirShaba/4Q400 Frag. 1 I, 4–6, 11; Frag. 2, 8–9; 4QShirShabbd/4Q403 Frag. 1 I, 36–37, 39, 42; II, 2, 19–20, 27; 4QShirShabbf/4Q405 Frag. 13, 5; Frag. 17, 3; Frag. 19, 4; Frags. 20 II—22, 4, 7; Frag. 23 I, 8; II, 12–13; 4QComposition concerning Divine Providence/4Q413 Frags. 1–2, 1–2, 4; 4QInstructionb/4Q416 Frag. 2 III, 12–14; 4QInstructionc/4Q417 Frag. 1; Frag. 2 I, 8, 10–14, 18, 20, 25; 4QInstructiond/4Q418 Frag. 55, 5–6, 9; 69 II, 2, 10–12; Frag. 81, 15, 17, 20; Frag. 88, 6; Frag. 102, 3; Frags. 122 II + 126 II, 5; Frag. 123 II, 4–5; 4QIncantation/4Q444 Frag. 1, 1, 3; 4QShirb/4Q511 Frag. 1, 7; Frag. 2 I, 7; Frag. 10, 2–3; Frag. 18 II, 6, 8; Frags. 28+29, 3; Frags. 48, 49+51, 1; 4QBéat/4Q525 Frag. 1; Frags. 2 II+3; Frag. 2 III; Frag. 5, 9–13; Frag. 6 II, 2–3; Frag. 14 II, 18–19; Frag. 16, 3; Frag. 23, 4–6; 4QNoah ar/4Q534 I, 6–8; 11Psa/11Q5 Ps 154:5–8, 14–17/Syriac Psalm II, 3–6, 12–15). The content of this enlightenment is understood as being shared with the audience, and in general it seems to refer to the knowledge of God uniquely available to those who are committed to the new covenant, who are faithful to God by means of Jesus Christ. Second, the Christians have tasted of the heavenly gifts. Such gifts include the aforementioned enlightenment, the life of the age to come, and, greatest of all, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Third, Christians are partakers of the Holy Spirit. This language is reminiscent of 3:14, where the object of partaking or sphere of participation is Christ. This Holy Spirit helps them to understand the Scriptures in prosopological fashion (3:7), helps them to see the old covenant as preparing for the climax of the new covenant (9:6–12), provides them with gifts distributed according to the will of God (2:4), and is the one who unites Jesus with the Christians as the one who was at work with Christ and as the one who constitutes the new covenant community (9:14; 10:15–17, 29). On this last point in particular, the book of Hebrews is in line with OT and Second Temple Jewish writings in identifying the presence and partaking of the Holy Spirit as an eschatological reality (Isa 11:1–10; 32:15–20; 42:1–4; 44:1–5; 48:16; 59:21; 61; Ezek 36:25–27; 37:1–14; Joel 2:28–32; T.Lev. 18:11; T.Jud. 24:2; Pss. Sol. 17:37; 1QS III, 6–8; IV, 21; VIII, 16; IX, 3–4; 1QSb/1Q28b II, 24; 4QShirShabbd/4Q403 Frag. 1 II, 1; 4QMessianic Apocalypse/4Q521 Frags. 2 II, 6; cf. Luke 4:16–21; 24:45–49; John 1:32–33; 3:3–8, 34; 4:23–24; 5:38; 6:56, 63; 7:39; 14:16–18, 23–24, 26; 15:1–11, 16, 26; 16:7–11, 13; 20:22; Acts 1:4–5; 2:14–39; Rom 7:6; 8:1–11; 15:12–13; 2 Cor 3; Gal 3:2–5, 14; 4:4–6, 23–29; 5:16–26; Eph 1:13–14; Titus 3:3–7). Fourth, Christians have tasted the good word of God as well as the power of the coming age. That is to say, they have personally experienced the gospel—the most common referent for the phrase “word of God”—and the concomitant power of the kingdom it proclaims (chiefly by proclaiming its King). This statement further reiterates the eschatological character of the gospel, the Church, and the Christian life. It also conveys a sense of inaugurated eschatology, since the Christian has already tasted the power of the age that is yet to come. Fifth, as indicated already, the author describes the Christian life as one of repentance. Repentance is not a one-time act after all, but the dedication to a new way of life. The author shows as much when he says it is impossible for one who has committed apostasy to be renewed once more to repentance (i.e., to be restored to Christian life).
The reason why the author of Hebrews claims that this is impossible is because apostates take the position of those who were rebellious in the wilderness between the exodus and the entrance to the promised land (as set up in ch. 4). The Church is now in a similar state between the new exodus and new covenant brought about by Christ and the new creation that presents a cosmic-scale version of the promised land, and thus apostates would truly be the equivalent of the rebellious who were not allowed into the promised land. But the author also further specifies that it is impossible for apostates to be renewed because they would essentially need to crucify the Son of God all over again, exposing him again to contempt. And if there is one thing—though there are really multiple things—that the author of Hebrews insists upon, it is the finality of the Christ event climaxing in the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation. People who reject all of these foundational teachings are compared to ground that drinks up the rain that falls on it and yet produces only thorns and thistles, making it worthless, nearly cursed, destined only for the end of burning. After all, these apostates were/are people on whom the frequent watering of the gospel and associated teachings produced no good effect and in fact only exposed the life-denying quality of the person. Since they denied the life that they received through the gospel and there is no life available by any other means, the only alternative is destruction. The other type of soil, which actually comes first in the author’s comparison, responds as it should to rain by producing useful vegetation for those for whom it is cultivated. The gospel of God’s faithful love is to produce faithful love in those who receive it. For that reason, and for reasons of his personal knowledge of his audience, the author insists that he expects better fates for his audience than for the apostates. They have not reached that point in their own lives, but he still must warn them about the consequence of the very real possibility that they could depart from the way of God. God is not an unjust judge, so they must be warned of this danger lest they fall on the wrong side during the final judgment, but they should also be assured that he will not neglect at the final judgment their labor and the love that they have demonstrated in his name through service to their fellow saints. With the view of this goal in mind, the author encourages them to keep doing what they are doing with the assurance of hope until they reach said goal. If they become sluggards, they risk becoming apostates. But if they become imitators of the faithful and forbearing, they too shall inherit the promises of God.
As his example, he offers Abraham, the grand patriarch of the covenant community to whom God first made such promises for his family. To him God promised, swearing by himself, that he would surely bless Abraham by blessing him and multiply him by multiplying his seed. This is slightly altered from the LXX of Gen 22:17 as the initial conjunction is altered, even if it would probably have been read the same, and the last part is made a simple second person pronoun than a direct reference to Abraham’s seed. This promise was given at the time when Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, the child of promise, in faithfulness to the command of God. He had been (generally) forbearing up to that point, having waited eleven years between the initial promise and having his first child and then waiting an additional fourteen years before Isaac was born (when Abraham was already seventy-five to begin with). Yet, he would need to wait even longer for his descendants through Isaac to multiply (Isaac was sixty before his twin sons were born) and he would not live to see how numerous his descendants would become or how God would bless them. Still, he attained the promise because of his patience, especially at the decisive moment in Gen 22. And while Abraham is the example and the author will return to other examples later, the ultimate point in this unit is the faithful love of God. While humans swear by what is greater than themselves to end disputes, God swore by himself—who is unchanging and perfectly faithful by nature rather than merely by accumulated decisions—to show to those who would be heirs to Abraham’s promise that his will and purpose is unchanging. God’s immutability is thus seen as essential to the unity of salvation history and to the claim that the gospel is the fruition of God’s long-established promises. Because God is unchanging, the heirs of the promise can be confident that God will bring the promise to pass and herein we see one of the bases for resurrection belief. At some point in the history of Israel—depending on how one dates the OT sources—it became clear to some people that God did not merely make grand promises associated with the return from exile or the exaltation of Israel that he would fulfill for descendants. After all, such a situation ultimately leaves out the people to whom the promises were made, regardless of whether they were faithful or not. The expectation of the resurrection of the dead solved this problem as the resurrection would be God’s way of restoring the original recipients of the promises to life in order that they would personally experience God’s everlasting faithfulness. By this means, both the original recipients of the promise and their distant descendants who live at the time of fruition can testify to the unchangeability of God and God’s will and how truthful God is, for it is impossible that God should lie even when making these unfathomable promises, such as he made to Abraham. Because God is unerringly and inexorably faithful by nature, those who take refuge in him have a strong encouragement to hope in him and to walk the path he sets before them, knowing that this path will lead to the fulfillment of God’s promises. (It is points like these that make me want to research the possible functions of immutability and impassibility in the NT or the Bible as a whole. Contrary to the trend among post-WW2 theologians, I am inclined to think that the Early Church Fathers were on to something with these doctrines.) Because the unchangeable God has made these promises, the hope that they have in him—the hope that his great eschatological promises will come to pass—serves as an anchor of life in the midst of the pressing forces of chaos around them. It is sure and secure, a firm foundation. Indeed, it is a hope they have because of Jesus, hence the author describes the hope as being where Jesus is, so that it has entered through the inner veil to the Holy of Holies, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on behalf of his people. This is of course a function of being the high priest, but this image also serves a larger theological-ethical purpose. Followers of Jesus have been incorporated into his narrative, walking along his path, sharing in his death, resurrection, and exaltation when they experience their own. Because Jesus has already run this path on behalf of others, believers can be assured about its goal. And it is assured by the one who lives forever as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Matthew C. Easter, “Faith in the God Who Resurrects: The Theocentric Faith of Hebrews,” NTS 63 (2017): 76–91.