What Does Hebrews 4:4 Mean in the King James?

For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Hebrews 4:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

God’s rest is the stopping that marks completed work.

THE MEANING

Here, God ceases after all his works; the work is complete, and stopping belongs to its shape. The seventh day speaks now of a kind of completion that can be marked by ceasing, rather than endless production.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Stopping does not mean the work has failed or remains unfinished; here it follows the completion of all the work.

THE ROOT

κατέπαυσεν

katépausen

GROWS FROM

⁨παύω⁩ (pauō), stem ⁨παυ⁩

to stop, cease

The Greek verb ⁨καταπαύω⁩ (katapauō, bring to rest or cease) rests on ⁨παύω⁩ (pauō, stop or cease). It renders Genesis’s ⁨וַיִּשְׁבֹּת⁩ (vayishbot, he ceased), from ⁨שבת⁩ (shavat, cease), the root of Sabbath: the verse’s rest carries the idea of cessation.

ALSO GROWS

pauō: cease, stop

παύω

This is the base verb beneath the word for God’s rest, making the stopping audible inside the English word “rest.”

katapausis: rest, cessation

κατάπαυσις

This noun appears again in Hebrews 4:9, where the same root describes a rest that remains for God’s people.

THE PATTERN

Completed work finds its expression in cessation, and that rest is given for human life.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis 2:2 · KJVGod’s work reaches its end, and ceasing marks the seventh day.

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:11 · KJVThe seventh day carries the pattern of completed work followed by rest.

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mark 2:27 · KJVThe Sabbath’s cessation is presented as something made for human life.

THE THREAD

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Hebrews 4:9 · KJV

The Greek word ⁨κατάπαυσις⁩ (katapausis, rest or cessation) shares the root ⁨παύω⁩ (pauō, stop or cease) with ⁨κατέπαυσεν⁩ (katépausen, he rested or ceased) in this verse. The cessation that marks God’s completed work is also described as remaining for God’s people.

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