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On Hebrews 6:6—Can the
Fallen be Restored?
The
ISV has translated Hebrews 6:6 as follows:
and who have
fallen away, as long as they continue to crucify to themselves the Son of
God and to expose him to public ridicule.
Does this
mean that apostates can return as long as they are gone? How do you prove
this translation?
The
reader did not make clear what he meant by the phrase "as long as they are
gone". We assume he meant to ask us if the passage teaches that those who fall
away can return to repentance. Our "short" answer is that the passage
teaches that such return to repentance is impossible, provided the
individual referred to remains in a state of crucifying to themselves the
Son of God and exposing him to public ridicule. But once the person stops
doing those two things, restoration to repentance then occurs.
Furthermore, we assume
the question "How do you prove this translation?" means that the reader is
asking us what grammatical evidence in the text led us to translate the
passage the way we did.
By way
of overview, we remind our readers that the policy of our Committee on
Translation is to render ambiguities in the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic text
as ambiguities in the English. Having said this, we make the following
grammatical observations regarding the passage in question:
Hebrews
6:6 is part of a longer sentence that begins in verse 4 of chapter six of
the letter to the Hebrews. The longer sentence consists of a string of
participles that modify the adjective "impossible", adunaton, in
verse 4, of which parapesontas (fallen away) is only one component,
but which it and the other participles contained in verses 4-5 are described
as leading to an impossibility (adunaton, the first word in verse 4)
of being renewed (or restored) to repentance (anakainizein eis metanoian).
This
impossibility is modified, however, by two participles: the two-fold
continuous actions of anastaurountas (crucifying) and
paradeigmatizontas (publicly ridiculing).
The
state of impossibility continues, according to the grammar, during the
continuous states of crucifying to themselves and publicly ridiculing. Both
of these participles are present active, which means that they are informing
all of the activities of the other participles that occur in verses 4-5, all
of which are aorist (thus connoting completed activities or simple historic
events) except for the participle that describes the coming (mellontos)
age. The verb "coming" is a present participle.
To sum
up, the impossibility continues during the present state of crucifying and
the present state of ridiculing. The grammar of the passage connotes that
the main verb of the sentence (i.e., the verb "to be") and its descriptive
aorist participles that modify it in verses 4-5 are all limited and defined
by the present tense of the participles in verse six. That is, the actions
described by the aorist participles occur during the time of the crucifying
to themselves and the public ridiculing.
After
the person stops these two actions, at which time these behaviors become
past tense activities as soon as they are ceased, the impossibility of
renewal or restoration no longer applies, since they no longer are present
tense activities relating to the word "impossible".
By the
way, the impossibility referred to is an impossibility to restore
repentance, not to restore salvation, and the restoration of the repentance
is connoted by the verbs as occurring only during the time of the various
verbs described by the two present participles.
Once
these two present actions cease, the impossibility is removed. If the
impossibility were described by the author as being permanent, the two
present tense participles would have to have been described with aorist
participles.
But the
author uses the present tense, thus giving hope to those who might otherwise
be hopeless. If the author had used aorist participles, for the verbs
"crucify" and "ridicule", anybody who fell away for a season could never be
renewed to repentance.
Then,
if he had written "salvation" instead of "repentance", once somebody
committed the sins noted in verse 4-6, he would lose his salvation. But the
text of Hebrews mentions neither of these hypothetical situations.
Thus,
for example, neither permanent loss of repentance (let along any loss of
salvation, for that matter) is mentioned in this verse.
In early September 2008, the ISV Foundaiton received an email from an ISV
reader about this article that we've posted, above. The email contained the
following statement:
I would like to
send you this rather long note to let you know that God is working through
your ministry. I was an apostate, and my (& others) ignorant and uneducated
out of context glance at Hebrews 6 made me feel as if I committed the
unforgivable sin.
Although
ministers and others did counsel me on the matter, it was your website's
detailed explanation and detailed breakdown that clearly demonstrated that
Hebrews 6:4-6 is not an infinite impossibility to return to repentance, but
an impossibility during such a time when one is presently ridiculing Jesus,
and currently condoning his crucifixion.
I now see the
context of the chapter was in reference to evangelism (& basic foundations).
How can someone
repent or feel sorrow being in that current state of mind, since they
already knew the word of God so well? There is a reason why the Hebrew
writer made sure the actions relating to the impossibility to REPENT were
attributed to their current/present tense state of mind. The ISV has also
made it clear that the issue was in reference to repentance, which is the
ability to feel regret or sorrow, and not in any reference to salvation.
Some have
related this to 2 Peter 2:20, this may be true, but they do not seem to
emphasize the words "and are overcome".
For example, if
a fighter gets knocked out in a fight, he was beaten and was overcame by his
opponent and can't comeback to win that match, it is past tense. But if a
fighter gets knocked down in every round, and came back in the final round
to win the fight, he was not overcome in defeat, he found a way to come back
and win.
In like manner,
for sin to overcome an individual means the sinner was overcome by his sin
and did not find a way back to repentance, it is self explanatory. If one
repents and lives for Jesus, one was not overcome by sin. The Peter
explanation simply describes two examples of those on the way to hell, just
that one knew better and was "overcome" by the sin, compared to the one who
didn't know better to begin with. One who repents and turns his life over to
Jesus is not overcome by sin (see Gal 6:1 for proof), sin was defeated by
the blood of Jesus, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and
will forgive us our sins and purify us from ALL unrighteousness" (1 John
1:9).
I won't get into
how God brought me back, but the enemy wanted to jump in and say to me, I
was finished. Satan used scripture against Jesus in the wilderness, how much
more will he use it against anyone wanting to live for Jesus or wishing to
return to him as in such an example of finding again that one lost sheep, or
the Prodigal Son?
There also
seemed to be a general consensus from other sources that in the context of
Hebrews, that in order to return to Judaism, one had to make some sort of
public affirmation or ritual to confirm the crucifixion, this is why
understanding the Jewish context of the letter is so important. It was about
the pressure of returning to Judaism. The letter may be a response to
specific questions asked, and we do not have the details of that. So it's
important to remember that one should not just pull a scripture of it's
context and make an absolute or dogmatic statement in regard to it. One must
know that entire context and it's past present and future tense pertaining
to it.
I also looked at
the ISV panel of contributing scholars. God bless these people who work for
the Lord. The ISV is not alone in it's correct wording of Hebrews 6:6, the
Amplified Bible comes to the same conclusion. But the ISV will be the best
bible the world has ever known because of it's literal-idiomatic
translation. I just received my hard cover copy ISV NT yesterday!
If anyone wants
to return to the Lord, as in the parable of the lost sheep and the Prodigal
Son, the Lord awaits you with opens arms.
"[My] brethren,
if anyone among you STRAYS from the Truth and falls into error and another
[person] brings HIM BACK [to God] Let the [latter] one be sure that whoever
turns a sinner from his evil course will save [that one's] soul from death
and will cover a multitude of sins [a] procure the pardon of the many sins
committed by the convert]. "
James 5:19-20
"BRETHREN, IF
any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of ANY sort, you who are
spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set
him right and restore and reinstate him". Gal 6:1
Hebrews 6:6 was
threatening to bring my life to an end, I was praying from 4:00 am for God
and the Holy Spirit to help me. Yes, the Lord has answered me and it is
proof that the Holy Spirit is working through this ministry.
God bless you.
Paul C
Providence, RI
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