Hebrews 10:23 (King James Version)
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Hebrews 10:23 (New International Version)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
| Let | us | hold | unswervingly | to | the | hope | we | profess | , | for | he | who | |||||||||||||||
| → | → | κατέχωμεν1 | ἀκλινῆ6 | ►5 | τῆς4 | ἐλπίδος5 | τὴν2 | ὁμολογίαν3 | γὰρ8 | ὁ9 | → | ||||||||||||||||
| katechōmen | aklinē | tēs | elpidos | tēn | homologian | gar | ho |
| promised | is | faithful | . | ||||
| ἐπαγγειλάμενος10 | • | πιστὸς7 | |||||
| epangeilamenos | pistos |
Hebrews 10:23 contains what is widely acknowledged as one of the KJV’s most indisputable translation errors, where “profession of our faith” should read “profession of our hope.”[1] This mistranslation creates a cascading theological problem that undermines the passage’s coherence and doctrinal force.
The Fundamental Error
The Greek word in the manuscript is unambiguously hope (elpis), not faith (pistis)—hope appears in all manuscripts and all editions of the Textus Receptus.[1] Hope and faith are entirely distinct words, making it impossible to argue the translators simply chose “faith” as an acceptable alternative rendering at this point.[1] The Greek word for hope appears 52 other times in the New Testament, and in every instance the KJV translators rendered it as “hope,” not “faith.”[1] This single exception stands as an anomalous intrusion into an otherwise consistent translation pattern.
The Theological Disruption
After faith in the previous verse come hope and love respectively, here and in verse 24, with these three nouns linked in various parts of the New Testament, especially 1 Corinthians 13:13.[2] The KJV’s substitution of “faith” for “hope” fractures this triad, obscuring the theological architecture Paul constructs. The passage should read “the confession of our hope,”[3] emphasizing believers’ public declaration of future expectation grounded in God’s promises.
The Contextual Meaning
The word translated “firmly” is not an adverb but an adjective modifying hope, and hope here probably means the objects of hope rather than a feeling with which we look to the future, so the text probably means “Let us hold on to our confession of (faith in) the unshakable things we hope for.”[2] By substituting “faith,” the KJV obscures this distinction between present trust and future expectation—the believer’s confidence in what God has promised versus confidence in God’s present character.
The Interpretive Consequences
The readers of Hebrews were being tempted to forsake their confession of Jesus Christ by going back to old covenant worship, and the writer did not exhort them to hold on to their salvation because their security was in Christ, but rather invited them to hold fast to “the hope we profess.”[4] The KJV’s rendering weakens this exhortation by replacing eschatological hope with present faith, diminishing the forward-looking dimension essential to the passage’s encouragement during persecution.
[2] Paul Ellingworth and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Letter to the Hebrews, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), 231–232.
[3] Tabletalk Magazine, August 2004: A Defining Era: The History of the Church in the Fourth Century (Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2004), 30.
[4] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2010). [See here.]
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