What Does Hebrews 4:10 Mean?

For the one who has entered into his settling has himself also settled from his own works, as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:10 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

THE KEY

The Greek word-family behind “rest” and “ceased” links entering rest with stopping from work.

THE MEANING

When a person enters God’s rest, that person also ceases from their own works, as God ceased from his. Rest is both a state entered and a stopping from work.

THE ROOT

κατάπαυσιν

katapausin

GROWS FROM

παυ

pau

to stop or cease

The Greek noun for “rest” and the verb translated “ceased” belong to the ⁨καταπαύω⁩ word-family, built on ⁨παυ⁩, “stop.” English gives them different forms, while Greek connects the rest a person enters with the stopping of their own work, as God stopped from his.

ALSO GROWS

pauō: to stop or cease

παύω

This verb carries the stopping sense at the root of the passage’s rest and cessation words.

katapauō: to bring to rest or cause to cease

καταπαύω

This compound verb underlies the passage’s “ceased” and links that action to the rest being entered.

katapausis: rest or cessation

κατάπαυσις

This noun names the rest the verse says a person enters.

THE PATTERN

God’s rest is marked by work ending and is offered as a state people can enter.

And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis 2:2 · SDVGod’s rest follows the ending of his work, echoing the cessation named in Hebrews.

Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 · SDVRest is offered to those bearing labor, as something they can receive.

Therefore a Sabbath settling remains for the people of God.

Hebrews 4:9 · SDVThe rest described here remains open for people to enter.

THE THREAD

For he said somewhere concerning the seventh day in this way, "And God settled on the seventh day from all his works."

Hebrews 4:4 · SDV

The Greek verb translated “did rest” here is from the same word-family as “hath ceased” in Hebrews 4:10. The text links a person’s stopping from work directly to God’s own stopping.

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