Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my c…
Romans 5:5-10 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 8:28-39 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Hebrews 9:7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the p…
Leviticus 16:2 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mer…
Leviticus 16:15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he d…
Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Hebrews 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hebrews 6:9–end
The apostle, having applied himself to the fears of the Hebrews, in order to excite their diligence and prevent their apostasy, now proceeds to apply himself to their hopes, and candidly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would persevere; and proposes to them the great encouragements they had in the way of their duty.
I. He freely and openly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would endure to the end: But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, Heb 6:9. Observe, 1. There are things that accompany salvation, things that are never separated from salvation, things that show the person to be in a state of salvation, and will issue in eternal sal…
Hope is found represented on coins by an anchor.
sure and steadfast--sure in respect to us: steadfast, or "firm" [ALFORD], in itself. Not such an anchor as will not keep the vessel from tossing, or an anchor unsound or too light [THEOPHYLACT].
which entereth into that--that is the place
within the veil--two images beautifully combined: (1) The soul is the ship: the world the sea: the bliss beyond the world, the distant coast; the hope resting on faith, the anchor which prevents the vessel being tossed to and fro; the encouraging consolation through the promise and oath of God, the cable connecting the ship and anchor. (2) The world is the fore-court: heaven, the Holy of Holies; Christ,…
Which hope we have as an anchor - The apostle here changes the allusion; he represents the state of the followers of God in this lower world as resembling that of a vessel striving to perform her voyage through a troublesome, tempestuous, dangerous sea. At last she gets near the port; but the tempest continues, the water is shallow, broken, and dangerous, and she cannot get in: in order to prevent her being driven to sea again she heaves out her sheet anchor, which she has been able to get within the pier head by means of her boat, though she could not herself get in; then, swinging at the length of her cable, she rides out the storm in confidence, knowing that her anchor is sound, the groun…
The Church Fathers
By "curtain" he referred to heaven: the Lord promised to give the kingdom of heaven to those believing in him.
"we have as an anchor," which stabilizes the wavering ships, and hope makes those who are shaken by temptations brave, committed, and patient. "safe and committed." Not simply an anchor, but also safe and secure. For there is an anchor that does not keep the ship unshaken when it is smaller than it ought to be. "which enters." In order that, he says, while we are still here, hope may enter into the kingdom of heaven, that is, so that we may already be in our hopes. See what hope does. It anticipates what is to come. "enters into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain." The inner part of the curtain is called heaven.
Keep fast hold upon the hope that Christ cannot lie, according to Paul's counsel to us, "To lay hold of the hope which is promised to us; which we have as an anchor fixed in our soul that it may not be moved." For as the anchor which is cast down into the sea by its weight holdeth fast and restraineth the ship in the waves that it may not wander and drift away out of its proper course, so also is the hope which is promised to us in heaven, and which is the hidden anchor which is set above us, and is sunk and hidden from us in the heaven of heavens; let us make fast our minds to it, and let us fasten the ship of our soul thereto that it may not shift about and be disturbed by the storms and waves of the world which beat upon it, and drift out of its proper course. In spite of the things which thou hearest abide thou in thy simplicity, and let not those who speak against thee change thee and make thee to become like unto them.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Anchor — From Acts 27:29, 30, 40, it would appear that the Roman vessels carried several anchors, which were attached to the stern as well as to the prow. The Roman anchor, like the modern one, had two teeth…
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Anchor · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Assurance · Ma — Ma
Hope · 1:5,23,27; — 1:5,23,27;
Ship · An anchor — An anchor
Tabernacle · Illustrative: (The holy of holies,) of heaven — Illustrative: (The holy of holies,) of heaven
Vail · . — .
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,.... This world is as a sea; the church in it, and so every believer, is as a ship; the port that is bound unto is heaven; Christ is the pilot, and hope is the anchor: an anchor is cast on a bottom, out of sight; and when the ship is in a calm, or in danger of a rock, or near the shore; but is of no service without a cable: and when cast aright, keeps the ship steady: so hope is cast on Christ; whence he is often called hope itself, because he is the ground and foundation of it, and who is at present unseen to bodily eyes; and the anchor of hope without the cable of faith is of little service; but being cast aright on Christ, keeps the soul steady…
Hebrews 6:16-20
16. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
16. Nam homines quidem per eum jurant qui major est, et omnis ipsis controversiae finis est jusjurandum in confirmationem.
17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
17. In quo Deus volens uberius ostendere haeridibus promissionis immutabilem consilii sui firmitudinem, interposuit jusjurandum;
18. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
18. Ut per…
Christian hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. In the first century, an anchor was an image of stability and safety. • through the curtain: A curtain separated the outer room of the sanctuary, into which only priests could go, from the inner room, the Most Holy Place (Exod 25:10-40). Only the high priest could go into the Most Holy Place, and only once per year on the Day of Atonement (Exod 29; Lev 16:1-25). Because of Jesus’ extraordinary high priesthood, he has already gone in there for us into the presence of God as our eternal High Priest, and he leads us in with him (Heb 10:19-23). • the order of Melchizedek: This phrase introduces the discussion in 7:1-28.
