Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
Parallel translations
- WEB For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.
- KJV For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
- NKJV For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
- NASB For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
- NLT You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.
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
By now the readers should be teachers, yet they need to relearn the basics of God's word, requiring milk rather than solid food. Their arrested growth is a serious concern.
Overview
The writer rebukes a regression in spiritual development: time has passed but maturity has not followed. 'Milk' represents elementary teaching, while 'solid food' is the deeper truth of Christ's priesthood. The reproach calls believers to press on toward maturity and to take responsibility for their growth in the faith.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Heb 6:1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God,
- 1 Cor 3:1–3Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
- 1 Pet 2:2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
- Heb 5:13For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness.
- Isa 28:9–10Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
- Col 3:16Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
- Isa 28:13Then the word of the LORD to them will become: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there,” so that they will go stumbling backward and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
- Ezra 7:10For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
- Ps 34:11Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
- 1 Pet 4:11If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
- Matt 17:17“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to Me.”
- Titus 2:3–4Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good.
- Isa 55:1“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!
- Acts 7:38He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
- 2 Sam 16:23Now in those days the advice of Ahithophel was like the consultation of the word of God. Such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice.
- 1 Cor 14:19But in the church, I would rather speak five coherent words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
- Mark 9:19“O unbelieving generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.”
- Rom 3:2Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
- Phil 3:1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
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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.
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Original language
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