Chapter Three

Exhortation to faith in Christ as greater than Moses (1–6). Warning against unbelief with the words of the Psalm and the lessons of the past (7–19).

Hebrews 3:1. Therefore, holy brothers, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, “Holy brothers, who share in a heavenly calling” (cf. above Heb 2:11; Rom 8:29). — “Of our confession” — that is, of our faith (1 Tim 6:12). — “The Apostle, apostle of our faith, sent from God the Father” — (cf. John 17:3; Gal 4:4 and others). If on the side of God, Christ was the apostle to people — the one who brought God’s grace and truth to people — then on the side of people He was the high priest, the perpetual intercessor before God for humanity. In this way He combined in Himself two roles that in the Old Testament were divided between Moses and Aaron.

Hebrews 3:2. who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all His house. Cf. Num 12:7. — “In all His house” — in the house of God, in the Old Testament Church. Moses was a faithful servant of the Lord not over just a part of His house, fulfilling some particular role in its domain, as Samuel, Elijah, and other prophets did, but the management of the entire house was entrusted to him; in this consists his similarity to Christ.

Hebrews 3:3. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more honor than the house does the one who built it have, By the word “house” here one must understand not only the building but all its furnishings and arrangements — for example, its servants. Therefore the Greek text designates the “arrangement” of this house by the word κατασκευάσας, and not οἰκοδομήσας. Hence the meaning of the verse is as follows: Moses, as a servant, belonged to the Old Testament house; whereas the founder of the Old Testament economy was Christ. But as the founder of a household is greater than one who belongs to that household, so Christ is greater than Moses.

Hebrews 3:4. for every house is built by someone, but the one who built all things is God. The Old Testament Church was customarily called the house of the Lord. Therefore, having assigned to it in Heb 3:4 the new designation of the house of Christ, the apostle explains the correctness of this designation. The meaning of this explanation is as follows: every household has a founder and builder — a man, although God, the Creator of all things, must be recognized as the original cause of every house. So too with regard to the House of Israel or the Old Testament Church: of course, God is the primary cause of it, but this does not exclude Christ from being recognized as its builder (κατασκευάσας), because He, as the Son of God, as the eternal Word, is the One through whom all things were created — consequently, also the Old Testament Church. Under this interpretation, “the one who built” will be the predicate and “God” the subject. Another interpretation, taking “the one who built all things” (ὁ δὲ πάντα κατασκευάσας) as the subject and understanding this to mean Christ, takes “God” as the predicate, with the result that the meaning of the whole phrase becomes: “the One who built all things — namely Christ — is God (and consequently immeasurably higher than Moses).”

Hebrews 3:5. And Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later; The elucidation of Christ’s superiority over Moses continues. Moses, according to Num 12:7, is a servant; Christ is a Son. Moses is in (ἐν) the house, and consequently, as a part, belongs to the house; Christ is over (ἐπί) the house, and consequently is the master of the house, which belongs to Him as a Son. — “To testify to the things that would be spoken later...” — a designation of what Moses’ serving activity consisted in; what is meant here specifically is the proclamation of the Divine Law and the prophetic predictions of Moses.

Hebrews 3:6. but Christ is faithful as a Son over His house; and we are His house, if we hold on firmly to our boldness and the hope of which we boast to the end. “But Christ as a Son over His house” — that is, faithful. — “Over His house...” — ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ. Ἐπί — over — as opposed to ἐν — see comment on Heb 3:5. The Apostle Paul frequently calls the Christian Church the “house of God” (cf. 1 Tim 3:15; 1 Cor 3:9). Here, however, he calls it the house of Christ, because Christ dwells in the hearts of those who believe in Him (cf. Eph 2:20; Rev 3:20) and is the foundation of the whole edifice of the Church. — “Boldness” — παρρησία — the confidence given by Christian hope in Christ. — “The hope of which we boast...” — τὸ καύχημα τῆς ἐλπίδος — the Slavonic more precisely — “the glory of our hope” — the outward joyfulness of Christian hope (cf. 2 Cor 5:12). — “To the end” — that is, to the goal (μέχρι τέλους) — until faith passes into sight and hope into possession.

Hebrews 3:7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, “Therefore” — a connecting particle with the following exhortatory call — see (Heb 3:12). The remaining words of Heb 3:7-11 form, as it were, an introductory clause grounding the necessity of the exhortation being made. — “As the Holy Spirit says” — as the chief Author of Scripture, which has significance for all times (Heb 4:12). The citation is borrowed from Ps 94:7-11, having undergone some modification — namely, in the psalm we read: “Oh, if only you would listen to His voice today: do not harden...” and so on. Thus, in the psalm the words “do not harden” and so on are cited as words of God’s voice, which one must obey. In the apostle, however, the words “do not harden,” it appears, are cited only as an exhortatory saying of the Psalmist to obey other words of God, reproduced from Heb 3:9 directly in the voice of God. What these other words are is shown by the addition of “today,” interpreted in application to the present time of the New Testament revelation (cf. Heb 3:15 and Heb 4:7). However, it seems that the apostle also does not deprive the expression “do not harden” of the significance of God’s words, if one separates this expression from what precedes it not by a comma but by a colon, reading it thus: “today, when you hear His voice: do not harden... and so on. Take heed, lest... you turn away” (Heb 3:12) and so on.

Hebrews 3:8. “do not harden your hearts, as in the time of rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, Reference is to the story told in Exod 17:1-7.

Hebrews 3:9. “where your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my works for forty years. “To test” God — πειράζειν — to show arrogant confidence, provoking God’s power and goodness to a miracle when the matter could have been managed without one. — “To try” — δοκιμάζειν — to show distrust and demand confirmations for faith when such are already fully sufficient for it. Both have at their root a lack of living faith — not through any fault on God’s side, but through the hardness of the person, for which he is therefore punished: — “They saw my works — that is, the punishing Divine actions — for forty years...”

Hebrews 3:10. “Therefore I was angry with that generation and said: they always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways; “My ways.” In Holy Scripture the ways of God are spoken of in two relations: either they are the ways by which God Himself acts — that is, the works of God’s greatness, righteousness, and goodness (Ps 24:10). Or they are the ways by which He leads people. In the latter meaning they are mentioned in the present case.

Hebrews 3:11. “so I swore in my anger: ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ On God’s oaths (cf. Num 14:21 and following; Num 32:10 and following; Deut 1:34 and others). — “My rest” — the peace and secure possession of the Promised Land; cf. Deut 12:9. In the figurative sense — rest in God, granted to us through Christ.

Hebrews 3:12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil and unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. The apostle exhorts and warns against “unbelief” and the source of unbelief — an “evil heart.” The latter is first, because an evil heart, corrupted by sin, is the chief cause and source of unbelief (cf. Rom 1:21). Unbelief brings with it, as its further consequence, complete “falling away from the living God.” The designation of God as “living” means here, first, that His word, spoken previously, never loses its force and at any time is ready to bring its threats to fulfillment; and second, by the designation “living” it is made clear that falling away from this God is equivalent to death and complete destruction, for outside God there can be nothing living and good.

Hebrews 3:13. But encourage one another every day, as long as it can be said “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is powerful through its seductive pleasantness, and resistance to it will require not only the personal efforts of each person toward vigilance and caution, but also common solidarity in the struggle against it, which is why it is proposed to “encourage” one another, to comfort one another (παρακαλεῖτε ἑαυτούς), “as long as it can be said: today” — that is, as long as the time of grace continues.

Hebrews 3:14. For we have become partakers of Christ, if only we hold the beginning of our life firm to the end, “The beginning of our life...” — Greek: τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως — Slavonic: “начаток состава” — that is, the beginning of union with Him, the begun union, the life in Him begun in us and ours in Him.

Hebrews 3:15. as it is said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the time of rebellion. Hebrews 3:16. For some of those who heard rebelled; but not all who came out of Egypt with Moses. Hebrews 3:17. With whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bones fell in the wilderness? Hebrews 3:18. And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, if not to those who were disobedient? Hebrews 3:19. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. “As long as it can be said...” — a more expansive definition of the preceding expression “to the end.” However, another interpretation of the following verses is possible — one that seems more consonant with the apostle’s thought. It must be noted that “as long as” in v. 15 has, in the Greek text, a different expression than “as long as” in Heb 3:13: there (in v. 13) we read ἄχρις οὗ (Slavonic «дондеже»), while here (v. 15) — ἐν τῷ (Slavonic «внегда»). Furthermore, γάρ in verse 16 apparently relates not only to the preceding τινες but to this entire series of verses beginning with verse 15; therefore the apostle’s thought receives the following shade: “See to it lest... any of you turn away...” (Heb 3:12), for (γάρ) or: for even at that time (ἐν τῷ) when the cited words were spoken (v. 15), some... rebelled (v. 16). Yet “not all” (cf. Num 14:28-30). — “Whose bones fell” — instead of: who died. The expression reproduces the above-cited passage from the book of Numbers. Having proved from the history of the Hebrew people that unbelief served as the cause of the ruin of many in the wilderness and did not permit them to reach rest in the Promised Land, the apostle in the following discussions (Heb 4) strives to show that the same fate threatens for our unbelief as well.