HOLY BIBLE: Hebrews 4 (original) (raw)

1 Φοβηθῶμεν οὖν μήποτε καταλειπομένης ἐπαγγελίας εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ δοκῇ τις ἐξ ὑμῶν ὑστερηκέναι: 2 καὶ γάρ ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοι καθάπερ κἀκεῖνοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ὠφέλησεν ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς ἐκείνους, μὴ συγκεκερασμένους τῇ πίστει τοῖς ἀκούσασιν. 3 εἰσερχόμεθα γὰρ εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν οἱ πιστεύσαντες, καθὼς εἴρηκεν, ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου, καίτοι τῶν ἔργων ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου γενηθέντων. 4 εἴρηκεν γάρ που περὶ τῆς ἑβδόμης οὕτως, καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ: 5 καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάλιν, εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου. 6 ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀπολείπεται τινὰς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς αὐτήν, καὶ οἱ πρότερον εὐαγγελισθέντες οὐκ εἰσῆλθον δι' ἀπείθειαν, 7 πάλιν τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν, σήμερον, ἐν Δαυὶδ λέγων μετὰ τοσοῦτον χρόνον, καθὼς προείρηται, σήμερον ἐὰν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσητε, μὴ σκληρύνητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν. 8 εἰ γὰρ αὐτοὺς Ἰησοῦς κατέπαυσεν, οὐκ ἂν περὶ ἄλλης ἐλάλει μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμέρας. 9 ἄρα ἀπολείπεται σαββατισμὸς τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ: 10 ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς κατέπαυσεν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ὁ θεός.

1 The promise, therefore, still holds good, that we are to attain God’s rest; what we have to be afraid of, is that there may be someone among you who will be found to have missed his chance. 2 The promise has been proclaimed to us, just as it was to them. The message which came to them did them no good, because it was not met by belief in what they heard,[1] 3 and this rest is only to be attained by those who, like ourselves, have learned to believe; that is why he said, I took an oath in my anger, They shall never attain my rest. God’s rest, from what? From labours which were over and done with, as soon as the world was founded;[2] 4 in another passage he has said of the sabbath, God rested on the seventh day from all his labours; 5 and yet in this passage he is still saying, They shall not attain my rest. 6 It is still left for some, then, to attain it, and meanwhile, those to whom the message first came have been excluded by their unbelief. 7 So he fixes another day, To-day, as he calls it; in the person of David, all those long years afterwards, he uses the words I have already quoted, If you hear his voice speaking this day, do not harden your hearts. 8 (Josue cannot have brought them their rest, or God would not still be talking of a fresh To-day, long afterwards.) 9 You see, therefore, that God’s people have a sabbath of rest still in store for them; 10 to attain his rest means resting from human labours, as God did from divine.[3]

1 Timeamus ergo ne forte relicta pollicitatione introëundi in requiem ejus, existimetur aliquis ex vobis deesse. 2 Etenim et nobis nuntiatum est, quemadmodum et illis: sed non profuit illis sermo auditus, non admistus fidei ex iis quæ audierunt. 3 Ingrediemur enim in requiem, qui credidimus: quemadmodum dixit: Sicut juravi in ira mea: Si introibunt in requiem meam: et quidem operibus ab institutione mundi perfectis. 4 Dixit enim in quodam loco de die septima sic: Et requievit Deus die septima ab omnibus operibus suis. 5 Et in isto rursum: Si introibunt in requiem meam. 6 Quoniam ergo superest introire quosdam in illam, et ii, quibus prioribus annuntiatum est, non introierunt propter incredulitatem: 7 iterum terminat diem quemdam, Hodie, in David dicendo, post tantum temporis, sicut supra dictum est: Hodie si vocem ejus audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra. 8 Nam si eis Jesus requiem præstitisset, numquam de alia loqueretur, posthac, die. 9 Itaque relinquitur sabbatismus populo Dei. 10 Qui enim ingressus est in requiem ejus, etiam ipse requievit ab operibus suis, sicut a suis Deus.

[1] ‘In what they heard’; the Greek has, ‘In those who heard it’.

[2] ‘God’s rest, from what? From labours which were over and done with’; literally, ‘the labours having been accomplished’. There has been much dispute over this sentence and the two verses which follow; neither their meaning nor their relevance to the context is clear. The translation here given assumes that the Apostle’s thought is as follows: God himself rested after the Creation, but did not summon any human creatures to share his rest till long afterwards, at the time of the Exodus. That summons having been disregarded, it is not wonderful that he should leave another long interval before repeating it; this time, at the Incarnation.

[3] It is possible to take this sentence differently, as referring to Christ; ‘He who has attained to God’s rest has rested from his labours, as God did from his own’. But it seems doubtful whether this allusion contributes anything to the argument.

[4] ‘God’s word to us’; some have understood this as meaning ‘God’s Word’, that is, Christ.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd