What version of the Bible are you using for Hebrews 4?

by Rob
(Blair, NE)

I don't see the word later in reference to rest in any the versions I have. I do have a NIV which says when God spoke later, but nothing in reference to a later rest. How are you coming up with this and teaching this?

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What version of the Bible are you using for Hebrews 4?

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Oct 30, 2011

Any Version Interpreted
by: Paul Pavao (webmaster)

I'm never sure whether I'm dealing with an honest question or with a person who's just being quarrelsome. I'm going to answer as though this is an honest question, not an introduction to a picky dispute about words.

Hebrews 4:8-9 doesn't use the word later, but it's not questionable that he is talking about a later rest.

KJV:

For if Jesus [meaning Joshua, the son of Nun] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

NASB:

For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

NIV:

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God

Luther's Bible:

Denn so Josua hätte sie zur Ruhe gebracht, würde er nicht hernach von einem andern Tage gesagt haben. Darum ist noch eine Ruhe vorhanden dem Volke Gottes.

Sorry, couldn't resist that last one. I can read German well enough to read the Bible usually. "Hernach" means something like later. "Thereafter" might be better.

Hebrews 4:8-9 says that there was a rest remaining for God's people even after Joshua brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan. Since it is "remaining," and we are currently to labor to enter into it, I spoke of it as a later rest. It is "after" Joshua's rest.

I don't think that interpretation is questionable. In fact it's the whole point of chapter four, where he is continuing his exposition of Ps. 95:7-11, quoted in chapter three.

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