What Does Hebrews 10:35 Mean?
Do not throw away, therefore, your open speech, which holds a great giving back of wages.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.THE KEY
The confidence here is an openness you can speak from, and the verse says that this openness carries a great return.
THE MEANING
The confidence you carry is open, speakable assurance, and it has a great return. The verse treats it as a present possession whose worth reaches beyond the moment in which you hold it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that confidence is a disposable mood with no consequence; this verse presents it as a possession with a great return.
THE ROOT
παρρησία
parrēsia
GROWS FROM
ῥη-
rhē-
Speech or utterance; in this word, speech without concealment.
“open speech” in this verse is parrēsia. This word carries the sense of speaking openly, without holding back. Confidence here is more than an inward feeling: it is the freedom to stand and speak without hiding, and that openness is bound to a great return.
ALSO GROWS
rhēma: An utterance or spoken word.
ῥῆμα
This branch makes the speech inside confidence visible: the confidence of the verse has a voice.
parrēsiazomai: To speak openly or boldly.
παρρησιάζομαι
This related verb shows confidence as an act of open speech, not merely a private sense of certainty.
μισθαποδοσία
misthapodosia
GROWS FROM
μισθ-
misth-
Wage or payment; the word combines this with the idea of giving back what is due.
“giving back of wages” in this verse is misthapodosia. The word for recompense carries the concrete sense of payment returned. The verse links open confidence to an outcome it already bears, rather than treating it as empty bravado.
ALSO GROWS
misthos: Wage, payment, or reward.
μισθός
This branch shows the payment sense within the recompense promised here.
misthōtos: A hired worker; one who works for wages.
μισθωτός
This branch keeps the image grounded in wages and payment, clarifying the concrete force of recompense.
ἀποβάλητε
apobalēte
GROWS FROM
βαλλ-
ball-
To throw or cast; the prefix in the verse gives the action the sense of throwing away.
“throw away” in this verse is apobalēte. The image is physical: confidence can be treated as something tossed aside. The verse places that discarded openness beside its great return, making the loss as tangible as the reward.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: To throw or cast.
βάλλω
This is the basic action beneath the phrase: confidence is pictured as something one might physically throw.
ekballō: To cast out or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
This related form sharpens the image of forcefully removing what the verse says not to discard.
THE PATTERN
Scripture links unhidden confidence with standing, speaking, and approaching without retreat.
The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the aligned are bold as a lion.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he is brought into the light, we may have open speech, and not turn our faces away from him at his coming.THE THREAD
Having therefore, brothers, open speech for entering the set-apart places by the blood of Jesus,The Greek word παρρησία (parrēsia, open confidence) translated “boldness” here is the same word translated “confidence” in 10:35. This verse shows what that confidence opens: an entrance into the holiest.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us