εἰσερχόμεθα γὰρ … οἱ πιστεύσαντες. “For we who believed” (i.e. we who have accepted the word of hearing) “are entering into that rest.” The present implies a continuous process.

Εἰ εἰσελεύσονται, “They shall not enter,” as in Hebrews 3:11. The argument of the verse is (1) God promised a rest to the Israelites. (2) Most of them failed to enter into it. (3) Yet this rest of God began on the first sabbath of God, and some men were evidently meant to enter into it. (4) Since then the original recipients of the promise had failed to enjoy it through disbelief, the promise was renewed ages afterwards, in Psalms 95. by the word “To-day.” The immense stress of meaning laid on incidental Scriptural expressions was one of the features of Rabbinic as well as of Alexandrian exegesis.

ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. God’s rest had begun since the Creation.

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Old Testament