Passage

Hebrews 6.18

Book: Hebrews · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

16. For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. 17. Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

18. that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us:

which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil; 20. whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:16-20, ASV)

WEB

16. For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. 17. In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

18. that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; 20. where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:16-20, WEB)

KJV

16. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: ^{confirmed: Gr. interposed himself by}

18. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 6:16-20, KJV)

YLT

16. for men indeed do swear by the greater, and an end of all controversy to them for confirmation [is] the oath, 17. in which God, more abundantly willing to shew to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, did interpose by an oath,

18. that through two immutable things, in which [it is] impossible for God to lie, a strong comfort we may have who did flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before [us],

which we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and entering into that within the vail, 20. whither a forerunner for us did enter, Jesus, after the order of Melchisedek chief priest having become, to the age. (Hebrews 6:16-20, 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

That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement.

The two immutable things are the promise and the oath of verses 13 to 17, where God, having no one greater to swear by, swore by himself in the promise to Abraham. The author's reasoning is that God accommodated human practice: an oath among men ends disputes, so God added one, not because his word needed reinforcement but because the heirs needed assurance.

Impossible for God to lie is a strong statement and it repays precision. The impossibility is not a restriction imposed on God from outside; it follows from his nature, as Titus 1:2 puts it, God who cannot lie. This belongs with the classical account in which God's inability to do certain things is a perfection rather than a limit, since lying would be a defect of veracity and not an exercise of power. The same structure answers the popular puzzle about whether omnipotence includes doing evil. See Divine Simplicity.

The pastoral direction is the point. The verse is not offered as a metaphysical proposition but as ground for the strong encouragement of people tempted to give up, and the image that follows in verse 19 is an anchor of the soul entering within the veil, which ties the assurance to the priestly argument the letter is building.

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.

No Strong's-tagged lexicon entry is curated for the key terms of this verse; the lexicon covers roughly 100 contested terms, not every word. See Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

H1285 - berith, via Hebrews 6.13-18

Guides:

Ris3n Arguments, via Hebrews 6.13-18

Passages:

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.