independentparticipialrelativepurposecausecomparativecontentconditionalphrase modifierdashed = verbless / suspended
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Fear — the promise of entering still stands 4:1–5
vv. 1–2 — the same good news, the fatal difference: faith
1
Φοβηθῶμεν οὖνindependent — hortatory — the chapter's first 'let us', drawn from 3:7–19
μήποτε καταλειπομένης ἐπαγγελίας εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦparticipial — genitive absolute; μήποτε opens the feared clause and leans on δοκῇ below
δοκῇ τις ἐξ ὑμῶν ὑστερηκέναι·content — the thing feared — the perfect ὑστερηκέναι, a settled shortfall
2
καὶ γάρ ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοιindependent — perfect periphrastic — an abiding evangelized state
καθάπερ κἀκεῖνοι,comparative — elliptical — the wilderness generation, the standing foil
ἀλλ' οὐκ ὠφέλησεν ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς ἐκείνους,independent — same privilege, opposite outcome — ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς, the word that reached the ear
μὴ συγκεκερασμένους τῇ πίστει τοῖς ἀκούσασιν.participial — causal — acc. pl. συγκεκερασμένους read with the text (variant nom. sg. συγκεκερασμένος)
vv. 3–5 — the oath and the seventh day: the rest is real, and barred only to unbelief
3
εἰσερχόμεθα γὰρ εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν οἱ πιστεύσαντες,independent — the positive ground — the fronted present εἰσερχόμεθα, faith the door
καθὼς εἴρηκεν·comparative — the warrant — the perfect of God's still-standing speech
Ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου·content — Ps 95:11 (94:11 LXX) — the oath re-cited from 3:11
Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου,content — the oath's content — Hebraic Εἰ, an emphatic negation, not a condition
καίτοι τῶν ἔργων ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου γενηθέντων.participial — καίτοι + genitive absolute, concessive — the rest has stood ready since creation
4
εἴρηκεν γάρ που περὶ τῆς ἑβδόμης οὕτως·independent — the second witness introduced — που, the reverent vagueness of citation
Καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ·content — Gen 2:2 — God's own Sabbath, the archetype of the κατάπαυσις
5
καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάλιν·independent — elliptical — εἴρηκεν carried over from v. 4; πάλιν, the author's citation formula
Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου.content — Ps 95:11 once more — under the elided verb of saying; rest real, entry forfeited
'Today' renewed — a sabbath-rest remains 4:6–11
vv. 6–8 — since some must enter, God fixes another day: Joshua's rest was not the rest
6
ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀπολείπεται τινὰς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς αὐτήν,cause — causal protasis — leans forward on the apodosis of v. 7; the rest cannot stand empty
καὶ οἱ πρότερον εὐαγγελισθέντες οὐκ εἰσῆλθον δι' ἀπείθειαν,cause — the protasis's second limb — the first hearers shut out by ἀπείθεια (3:18–19)
7
πάλιν τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν, Σήμερον,independent — the apodosis — God re-dates the offer; Σήμερον in apposition names the day
ἐν Δαυὶδ λέγων μετὰ τοσοῦτον χρόνον,participial — the means — God the speaker, David the mouthpiece; the interval clinches the argument
καθὼς προείρηται·comparative — the re-citation formula — the text already adduced at 3:7, 15
Σήμερον ἐὰν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσητε,content — Ps 95:7 — the quoted condition: the day of hearing is now
μὴ σκληρύνητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν.content — Ps 95:8 — the quoted prohibition, the wilderness sin renounced
8
εἰ γὰρ αὐτοὺς Ἰησοῦς κατέπαυσεν,conditional — protasis — second-class, contrary to fact; Ἰησοῦς here is Joshua, the pointed near-miss of the name
οὐκ ἂν περὶ ἄλλης ἐλάλει μετὰ ταῦτα ἡμέρας.independent — apodosis — ἄν + imperfect; the lingering 'Today' proves the conquest was not the rest
vv. 9–11 — the σαββατισμός conclusion, and the charge: strive to enter
9
ἄρα ἀπολείπεται σαββατισμὸς τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ.independent — the crowning inference — σαββατισμός, apparently coined here, ties the rest to God's Sabbath (v. 4)
10
ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς κατέπαυσεν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦcause — the rest defined — to enter is to cease, as the enterer's own Sabbath
ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ὁ θεός.comparative — elliptical — the exact analogy to Gen 2:2: the believer's rest patterned on God's
11
Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν,independent — the exhortation crests — diligence, the paradoxical labor of entering rest
ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τις ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ τῆς ἀπειθείας.purpose — negative purpose — the wilderness ὑπόδειγμα not to be reproduced (3:17)
The living word — nothing hidden 4:12–13
12
Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦindependent — the aphorism opens — Ζῶν fronted, ἐστιν implied; the word that says 'Today' is no dead letter
καὶ ἐνεργὴςphrase modifier — the second predicate — ἐνεργής, at work and effective
καὶ τομώτερος ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομονphrase modifier — comparative ὑπέρ + accusative — keener than any blade
καὶ διϊκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν,participial — the sword-figure pressed to the inmost seam — rhetorical depth, not a dualist anatomy
καὶ κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας·phrase modifier — κριτικός — the cascade's forensic close: the word as discerner of the καρδία (v. 7)
13
καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν κτίσις ἀφανὴς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ,independent — the shift from word to Speaker — nothing ἀφανής to God's sight
πάντα δὲ γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ,independent — the positive counterpart, ἐστιν implied — τετραχηλισμένα, the neck bent back and exposed
πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος.relative — the elliptical close — λόγος now 'account, reckoning', the deliberate echo of v. 12
The great high priest — the throne of grace 4:14–16
14
Ἔχοντες οὖν ἀρχιερέα μέγαν διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς,participial — causal participle leaning forward on κρατῶμεν below — the hinge to the priestly theme
Ἰησοῦν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ,phrase modifier — apposition — the name answering Joshua (v. 8): the greater Ἰησοῦς, priest and Son
κρατῶμεν τῆς ὁμολογίας.independent — the first of the paired exhortations — the present κρατῶμεν, a sustained grip (cf. 10:23)
15
οὐ γὰρ ἔχομεν ἀρχιερέα μὴ δυνάμενον συμπαθῆσαι ταῖς ἀσθενείαις ἡμῶν,cause — the ground, by litotes — 'not unable' = abundantly able to feel with us
πεπειρασμένον δὲ κατὰ πάντα καθ' ὁμοιότητα χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας.participial — the positive of the pair — tested κατὰ πάντα, in our likeness, χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας the sole exception
16
προσερχώμεθα οὖν μετὰ παρρησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς χάριτος,independent — the second exhortation — the cultic προσερχώμεθα; fear (v. 1) resolves into παρρησία
ἵνα λάβωμεν ἔλεοςpurpose — the first benefit — mercy for the failure behind us
καὶ χάριν εὕρωμεν εἰς εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν.purpose — the second, chiastically ordered (λάβωμεν ἔλεος / χάριν εὕρωμεν) — aid at the critical hour
Analysis. Hebrews 4 falls into two unequal halves, and the layout shows the seam. Verses 1–11 are one sustained argument out of Ps 95, carried by flush-left hortatory and inferential main lines — Φοβηθῶμεν (v. 1), the ἄρα verdict (v. 9), Σπουδάσωμεν (v. 11) — while the Psalm's oath is re-quoted three times as content lines hanging under their verbs of saying (εἴρηκεν in v. 3, the elided εἴρηκεν behind v. 5's πάλιν, προείρηται in v. 7), with Gen 2:2 set beside them (v. 4) so that the Psalm's κατάπαυσις is identified with God's own seventh-day rest — hence the coined σαββατισμός of v. 9. Twice the sentence leans forward, protasis-fashion and so without anchors: the double ἐπεὶ οὖν premise of v. 6 hangs above its apodosis (v. 7, πάλιν τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν), and Ἔχοντες οὖν (v. 14) hangs above κρατῶμεν. Verses 12–13 are the living-word aphorism: one verbless main line (Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐστιν implied) with its four predicates cascading beneath the single word λόγος, closing on the personal turn πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος. Choices the layout takes a side on: at v. 2 the accusative plural συγκεκερασμένους is followed (with the chapter text) — 'they were not united by faith with those who heard' — against the well-attested nominative singular συγκεκερασμένος (which would make the word itself unblended with its hearers); the Εἰ of the oath (vv. 3, 5) is rendered as the Hebraic emphatic negative, not a true conditional; the καίτοι genitive absolute (v. 3) is read concessively with the main assertion — the rest has stood ready since creation; Ἰησοῦς in v. 8 is Joshua, the pointed near-miss of the name answered by Ἰησοῦν in v. 14; v. 12's μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος is taken rhetorically — the word cuts to the inmost seam of a person — rather than as a dualist anatomy, and κριτικός is given its full forensic reach, the word as judge of the heart's thoughts, anticipating the ledger-sense of λόγος ('account') in v. 13; at v. 15 κατὰ πάντα καθ' ὁμοιότητα is rendered 'in every way, in our likeness,' with χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας the sole exception.