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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 6:6 - 6:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
If they shall fall away (καὶ πααπεσόντας)
Lit. and having fallen away. Comp. πὲσῃ fall, Heb 4:11. Παραπίπτειν, N.T.o. It means to deviate, turn aside. Comp. lxx, Eze 14:13; Eze 15:8.
To renew them again (πὰλιν ἀνακαινίζειν)
The verb N.T.o. Ανακαινοῦν to renew, 2Co 4:16; Col 3:10.
Seeing they crucify to themselves - afresh (ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς)
In the Roman classical use of the word, ἀνά has only the meaning up: to nail up on the cross. Here in the sense of anew, an idea for which classical writers had no occasion in connection with crucifying. Εαυτοῖς for themselves. So that Christ is no more available for them. They declare that Christ's crucifixion has not the meaning or the virtue which they formerly attached to it.
The Son of God
Marking the enormity of the offense.
Put him to an open shame (παραδειγματίζοντας)
N.T.o. Rarely in lxx. Comp. Num 25:4, hang them up. From παρὰ beside, δεικνύναι to show or point out. To put something alongside of a thing by way of commending it to imitation or avoidance. To make an example of; thence to expose to public disgrace. Δεῖγμα example, only Jud 1:7. Δειγματίζειν to make a public show or example, Mat 1:19; Col 2:15. See additional note at the end of this chapter.
Additional Note on Heb 6:4-6.
The passage has created much discussion and much distress, as appearing to teach the impossibility of restoration after a moral and spiritual lapse. It is to be observed:
(1) That the case stated is that of persons who once knew, loved, and believed Christian truth, and who experienced the saving, animating, and enlightening energy of the Holy Spirit, and who lapsed into indifference and unbelief.
(2) The questions whether it is possible for those who have once experienced the power of the gospel to fall away and be lost, and whether, supposing a lapse possible, those who fall away can ever be restored by repentance - do not belong here. The possibility of a fall is clearly assumed.
(3) The sin in the case supposed is the relinquishment of the spiritual gifts and powers accompanying faith in Christ, and rejecting Christ himself.
(4) The significance of this sin lies in the mental and spiritual condition which it betrays. It is the recoil of conviction from Christ and the adoption of the contrary conviction.
(5) The writer does not touch the question of the possibility of God's renewing such to repentance. He merely puts his own hypothetical case, and says that, in the nature of such a case, the ordinary considerations and means which are applied to induce men to embrace the gospel no longer appeal to the subjects supposed. He contemplates nothing beyond such agencies, and asserts that these are powerless because the man has brought himself into a condition where they can no longer exert any power. Whether God will ever reclaim by ways of his own is a point which is not even touched. Destruction of the faculty of spiritual discernment is the natural outcome of deliberate and persistent sin, and the instrument of its punishment. Note, “renew unto repentance.” God promises pardon on penitence, but not penitence on sin. See a powerful passage in Coleridge's Moral and Religious Aphorisms, Amer. ed., Vol. I., p. 191.