Passage

Hebrews 10.23

Book: Hebrews · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"21. and having a great priest over the house of God; 22. let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water,"

"23. let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised:"

"24. and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; 25. not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh." (Hebrews 10:21-25, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"21. and having a great priest over God’s house, 22. let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,"

"23. let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful."

"24. Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, 25. not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:21-25, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"21. And having an high priest over the house of God; 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

"23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)"

"24. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:21-25, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"21. and a high priest over the house of God, 22. may we draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having the body bathed with pure water;"

"23. may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope, (for faithful [is] He who did promise),"

"24. and may we consider one another to provoke to love and to good works, 25. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a custom of certain [is], but exhorting, and so much the more as ye see the day coming nigh." (Hebrews 10:21-25, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the author of Hebrews
Audience: Jewish-Christian readers under pressure to retreat from Christian confession back into Second-Temple Judaism
Location: unknown
Time period: composed c. AD 60-70
Narrative context: the climactic triple-exhortation cluster of Hebrews ("let us draw near... let us hold fast... let us consider", 10:22-24) that follows the exposition of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice (10:1-18) and the practical-pastoral application (10:19-21). After 10 chapters establishing Christ's high-priestly work, the author distills the Christian life to three sustained-present-tense actions: drawing near to God, holding fast the confession of hope, and provoking-one-another to love.

Theological reading

Hebrews 10:23 is the third and final Hebrews-deployment of homologia (after 3:1 and 4:14), and it modifies the noun in a distinctive way: it is the confession of our hope (tēn homologian tēs elpidos). The confession is of hope because what is confessed includes future-eschatological content, Christ's eventual return, the resurrection, the consummated kingdom. The verse pairs the exhortation "let us hold fast" (katechōmen) with the warrant "for he is faithful that promised" (pistos gar ho epaggeilamenos). The structure is: God is faithful → therefore the hope is well-grounded → therefore the confession of the hope is worth maintaining without wavering. The verb katechōmen ("let us hold fast") is stronger than the kratōmen of 4:14, emphasizing a tight-down-grip rather than a sustained-hold. The phrase "that it waver not" (aklinē, unbending, immovable) names the trajectory of an unwavering confessional-stance against pressure. The verse together with its 3:1 and 4:14 partners establishes the Hebrews-doctrine that perseverance in the public confession is constitutive of authentic Christian discipleship. The patristic and Reformation traditions read these verses together as the textual warrant for the necessity of confessing-church public-stance and against any privatizing of Christian faith into purely-internal-mystical experience.

Key words

G3669 - homologia, homologia (Strong's G3669), the confession of our hope; the third of three Hebrews-uses (3:1; 4:14; 10:23), modified here as eschatological-hope-confession.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.