Passage

Hebrews 3.14

Book: Hebrews · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

12. Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: 13. but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin:

14. for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end:

while it is said, To-day if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16. For who, when they heard, did provoke? nay, did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses? (Hebrews 3:12-16, ASV)

WEB

12. Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; 13. but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:

while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” 16. For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? (Hebrews 3:12-16, WEB)

KJV

12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. (Hebrews 3:12-16, KJV)

YLT

12. See, brethren, lest there shall be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in the falling away from the living God, 13. but exhort ye one another every day, while the To-day is called, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of the sin,

14. for partakers we have become of the Christ, if the beginning of the confidence unto the end we may hold fast,

in its being said, 'To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts, as in the provocation,' 16. for certain having heard did provoke, but not all who did come out of Egypt through Moses; (Hebrews 3:12-16, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the anonymous author of Hebrews. Pauline authorship was doubted in antiquity and Origen concluded that who wrote it, God knows
Audience: Jewish believers under pressure to fall back from Christ into the older covenant observances
Location: unknown; the closing greeting from those of Italy (13:24) points in two directions at once
Time period: most likely before AD 70, since the sacrificial system is discussed as still operating

Theological reading

For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.

The verse is one of the sharpest of the letter's warning passages and it should not be softened. The conditional is real, the tense pairing is deliberate, and the two together are what generate the interpretive dispute.

We are become is perfect: a completed state with continuing effect. If we hold fast is a genuine condition attached to it. The traditional Reformed reading takes perseverance as the evidence of a participation already real, so that failure to hold fast reveals that one never partook rather than that one lost what one had. The Arminian reading takes the condition at face value as a real possibility of forfeiture. Both readings are available from the grammar, and the letter does not adjudicate between them here.

What the verse forbids on any reading is the use of an initial profession as a settled guarantee irrespective of what follows. The author is writing to people considering going back, and he does not comfort them with the durability of a past decision.

The beginning of our confidence (hypostasis) is the same word rendered "substance" at 11:1 and "very image of his substance" at 1:3, and its range from underlying reality to assurance is part of why the letter's vocabulary repays close reading. See Lordship Salvation.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G5287 - hypostasis, hypostasis, Strong's G5287
G2722 - katecho, katecho, Strong's G2722
G5056 - telos, telos, Strong's G5056
G0746 - arche, arche, Strong's G0746
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G1096 - ginomai, ginomai, Strong's G1096

Quoted in

Lexicon:

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.