Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 6

The writer links himself with his readers in his exhortation to leave elementary things behind and go forward. He sees “repentance from acts that lead to death” as basic. “Repentance” (GK 3567) was the first thing required in the preaching of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles; and it remains basic. Repentance is “from dead works,” a phrase that has been understood to mean legalistic adherence to Jewish ways (works that could never bring life) or genuinely evil actions (actions that belong to death and not life). The latter seems preferable. Linked with this is the positive attitude of “faith in God.” Faith matters immensely to the author . As used here it means more than a conviction that there is a God; it means trusting in that God in a personal relationship. And it is not so different from faith in Christ as some suggest, because it is basic Christian teaching that God was in Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19).

“Instruction” is in apposition to “foundation” and introduces a fresh group of subjects. “Baptisms” is a word usually used of purification ceremonies other than Christian baptism (9:10; Mark 7:4), and it is plural (which would be unusual for baptism). Thus it is likely that the word refers to something other than Christian baptism. There were such purification ceremonies, or lustrations, in the Jewish religion as in most other religions of the day. Sometimes there was confusion over ritual washings (Jn 3:25ff.; Acts 19:1–5). It would thus be one of the elementary items of instruction that converts be taught the right approach to the various “baptisms” they would encounter. The “laying on of hands” was a widespread practice in antiquity. Among Christians, hands were laid on new converts (Acts 8:17), on Timothy by the presbyterate (1 Timothy 4:14), and on Timothy by Paul (2 Timothy 1:6). This action was sometimes associated with commissioning for ministry and sometimes with the beginnings of Christian service. It seems to have been connected with the gift of the Spirit at least on some occasions (e. g., Acts 8:17–19). It is Christian beginnings, perhaps with the thought of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, that are in mind here. “The resurrection of the dead... and eternal judgment” were topics that went together and were important for Jews and Christians alike. They form a reminder that this life is not everything. We are responsible people, and one day we shall rise from the dead and give account of ourselves to God. This must have been of importance to new converts in a time when many people thought of death as the end of everything.

This verse expresses not only a resolute determination to go ahead on these lines but also a recognition that it is only with the help of God that this can be done. We should take these words as coming out of the author’s realization that without divine aid the plan he was suggesting was impossible.

This verse indicates the reasonableness of what follows: Had his readers really fallen away, there would be no point in talking to them. The word “enlightened” (GK 5894) affirms that those who are admitted to the Christian faith are brought to that light that is “the light of the world” (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Peter 1:19). To abandon the Gospel would be to sin against the light they had received. “The heavenly gift” is not closely defined. The thought is of God’s good gift, and we cannot be more precise than this. The Holy Spirit is active among all believers and for that matter to some extent beyond the church, in his work of “common grace.” It is clear that some activity of the Spirit is in mind. Yet once more our author does not define it closely.

The people in question have “tasted the goodness of the word of God.” While some limit this to the Gospel, there seems to be no need to do this. Any word that God has spoken is a good gift to people, and those the writer has in mind here have come to hear something of God’s word to the human race. They have also experienced something of “the powers of the coming age.” The “age to come” is normally the Messianic Age; powers proper to the coming Messianic Age are in some sense realized now for God’s people. “Powers” (GK 1539) indicates that that age puts at people’s disposal powers they do not have of themselves.