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You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Hebrews 12:4 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;
  • KJV Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
  • BSB In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
  • NASB You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
  • NLT After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

In their struggle against sin, the readers had not yet resisted to the point of shedding their blood. Their trials, though real, had not reached martyrdom.

Overview

The author reminds his readers that, unlike many before them and unlike Christ, they had not yet suffered to the point of death in their fight against sin and opposition. This puts their hardships in perspective and prepares them for the teaching on God's loving discipline that follows. The struggle against sin is real, but it is not beyond what God enables them to bear.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 10

  • 1 Cor 10:13No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
  • Rev 2:13“I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
  • Heb 10:32–34But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings;
  • 2 Tim 4:6–7For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come.
  • Heb 12:2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
  • Rev 12:11They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.
  • Matt 24:9Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.
  • Rev 6:9–11When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.
  • Rev 18:24In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
  • Rev 17:6I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hebrews videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hebrews 12:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on HebrewsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.

How Hebrews 12:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.