Page 28 - Hebrews- Student Textbook

plunge, publicly join the church and move on into the fullness and maturity of the worldwide mission of
the gospel (cf. Matt. 28:19-20; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). Other warnings are addressed directly to the
unbelieving Jews who had heard the gospel and seen its power in the lives of their believing Jewish
friends and co-worshipers, but had refused to personally accept Jesus as the promised Messiah and to
move beyond their rabbinical traditions (cf. chapters 6 and 10).

NASB "pay much closer attention"
NKJV "give the more earnest heed"
NRSV "pay greater attention to"
TEV "hold on all the more firmly to"
NJB "turn our minds more attentively"

This is a strong Greek COMPARATIVE and INFINITIVE which means to give special, complete attention and
care to something or someone (cf. Acts 8:6,10; 16:14). The New Covenant of the Son (the gospel) is both
precious and dangerous! God's truth must be handled appropriately.

"do not drift away from it" Uttly explains that, “This term is used only here in the NT. It literally means
"to flow by" or "slip away." It is used figuratively of a current of wind or water causing someone to be
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carried past a safe anchorage.”
This warning is stated as an AORIST PASSIVE SUBJUNCTIVE FIRST PERSON PLURAL. There is an element of
contingency caused by an unstated outside agent (PASSIVE VOICE) and the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Drifting past
or away from the truth was a real possibility. It is also possible that the metaphor is directed to the
recipients still remaining while the truth moves on. This may be an allusion to Prov. 3:21 in the
Septuagint where the same verb is used.

There are three ways of viewing this warning:

1. As referring to those who refused to respond to the gospel (cf. v. 3)

2. As referring to those who had believed (cf. "we must pay much closer attention to what we
have heard,"v. 1), but not matured

3. as referring to those who had believed and were in danger of not holding on to their original
profession/confession of faith in Christ.

The first would refer to the unbelieving Jews, while the second and third would refer to the believing
Jews. The use of the FIRST PERSON PLURAL seems to mean that the author groups himself with those
addressed and would imply that they were believers or at least in a synagogue where the gospel was
shared (cf. v. 3). However, this same grammatical PLURAL appears in a literary, not literal, usage in 10:26.

2:2 "if" This is a FIRST CLASS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE which is assumed to be true from the author's
perspective or for his literary purposes. It is often translated in English as "since" or "because."

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