Heb 3:0-4:14 | Geneva | STEP | Wherefore, {1} holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the {a} Apostle and High Priest of our {b} profession, Christ Jesus; (1) Having laid the foundation that is to say, declared and proved both the natures of one Christ, he gives him three offices, that is, the office of a Prophet, King and Priest, and concerning the office of teaching, and governing, compares him with Moses and Joshua from , and with Aaron concerning the priesthood. He proposes that which he intends to speak of, with a grave exhortation, that all our faith may be directed towards Christ, as the only everlasting teacher, governor, and High Priest. (a) The ambassador or messenger, as in he is called the minister of circumcision. (b) Of the doctrine of the gospel which we profess.

Hebrews 3

Wherefore, {1} holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the {a} Apostle and High Priest of our {b} profession, Christ Jesus;

(1) Having laid the foundation that is to say, declared and proved both the natures of one Christ, he gives him three offices, that is, the office of a Prophet, King and Priest, and concerning the office of teaching, and governing, compares him with Moses and Joshua from Heb 3:1-4:14, and with Aaron concerning the priesthood. He proposes that which he intends to speak of, with a grave exhortation, that all our faith may be directed towards Christ, as the only everlasting teacher, governor, and High Priest. (a) The ambassador or messenger, as in Ro 15:8 he is called the minister of circumcision. (b) Of the doctrine of the gospel which we profess. {2} Who was faithful to him that {c} appointed him, {3} as also Moses [was faithful] in all his house.

(2) He confirms his exhortation with two reasons, first of all because Christ Jesus was appointed as such by God: secondly, because he thoroughly executed the offices that his Father commanded him. (c) Apostle and High Priest. (3) Now he comes to the comparison with Moses, and he makes them like one another other in this, that they were both appointed rulers over God's house, and executed faithfully their office: but he later shows that there is great dissimilarity in the same comparison. {4} For this [man] was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

(4) The first comparison: The builder of the house is better than the house itself, therefore Christ is better than Moses. The reason for the conclusion is this: because the builder of the house is God, which cannot be attributed to Moses; and therefore Moses was not the builder, but a part of the house: but Christ as Lord and God, made the house. And {5} Moses verily [was] faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

(5) Another comparison: Moses was a faithful servant in this house, that is, in the Church, serving the Lord that was to come, but Christ rules and governs his house as Lord. But Christ as a son over his own house; {6} whose {d} house are we, if we hold fast the {e} confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

(6) He applies the former doctrine to his purpose, exhorting all men by the words of David to hear the Son speak, and to give full credit to his words, seeing that otherwise they cannot enter into that eternal rest. (d) That is, Christ's. (e) He calls confidence the excellent effect of faith (by which we cry Abba, that is, Father), and to confidence he adds hope. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye {f} will hear his voice,

(f) So that God was to speak once again after Moses. Harden not your hearts, as in the {g} provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

(g) In the day that they troubled the Lord, or struggled with him. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway {h} err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways.

(h) They are brutish and angry. {7} Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

(7) Now consider in the words of David, he shows first by this word "today" that we must not ignore the opportunity while we have it: for that word is not to be limited to David's time, but it encompasses all the time in which God calls us. But exhort one another daily, {i} while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

(i) While today lasts, that is to say, so long as the gospel is offered to us. {8} For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the {k} beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

(8) Now he considers these words, "If you hear his voice" showing that they are spoken and meant of the hearing of faith, opposite which he places hardening through unbelief. (k) That beginning of trust and confidence: in the speech of the Hebrews, he calls "beginning" that which is chiefest. {l} While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

(l) So long as this voice sounds out.

Hebrews 4:1-14

{1} For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being {a} mixed with faith in them that heard [it].

(1) By these words "His voice" he shows that David meant the preaching of Christ, who was then also preached, for Moses and the prophets honoured no one else. (a) He compares the preaching of the gospel to drink, which being drunk, that is to say, heard, profits nothing, unless it is mixed with faith. {2} For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

(2) Lest any man should object, that those words spoke refer to the land of Canaan and doctrine of Moses, and therefore cannot applied to Christ and to eternal life, the apostle shows that there are two types of rest spoken of in the scriptures: one being the seventh day, in which God is said to have rested from all his works, the other is said to be the rest into which Joshua led the people. This rest is not the last rest to which we are called, proven through two reasons. David long after, speaking to the people which were then placed in the land of Canaan, uses these words "Today" and threatens them still that they will not enter into the rest of God if they refuse the voice of God that sounded in their ears. We must say that he meant another time than that of Moses, and another rest than the land of Canaan. That rest is the everlasting rest, in which we begin to live to God, after the race of this life ceases. God rested the seventh day from his works, that is to say, from making the world. Moreover the apostle signifies that the way to this rest, which Moses and the land of Canaan, and all the order of the Law foreshadowed, is revealed in the Gospel only. For if {b} Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

(b) He speaks of Joshua the son of Nun: and as the land of Canaan was a figure of our true rest, so was Joshua a figure of Christ. {c} For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.

(c) As God rested the seventh day, so must we rest from our works, that is, from those things that proceed from our corrupt nature. {3} Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest {d} any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

(3) He returns to an exhortation. (d) Lest any man become a similar example of infidelity. {4} For the {e} word of God [is] {f} quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of {g} soul and {h} spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(4) An amplification taken from the nature of the word of God, so powerful that it enters even to the deepest and most inward and secret parts of the heart, fatally wounding the stubborn, and openly reviving the believers. (e) The doctrine of God which is preached both in the law and in the gospel. (f) He calls the word of God living, because of the effect it has on those to whom it is preached. (g) He calls the seat of emotions "soul". (h) By "spirit" he means the mind. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in {i} his sight: but all things [are] naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

(i) In God's sight. {5} Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us {k} hold fast [our] profession.

(5) Now he compares Christ's priesthood with Aaron's, and declares even in the very beginning the marvellous excellency of this priesthood, calling him the Son of God, and placing him in the seat of God in heaven, plainly and openly contrasting him with Aaron's priests, and the transitory tabernacle. He expands on these comparisons in later passages. (k) And let it not go out of our hands.