παραρρέω

From the study of Hebrews 2:1

Range of meaning

Literally 'to flow beside or past'. It is used of water flowing by, of something slipping away or falling off, of something slipping from the mind, and in a moral sense of a person drifting or straying from a course. It occurs only here in the New Testament.

Against the English

'Drift away' (BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV) catches the gradual, unpowered movement. 'Glide aside' (YLT) is literal. The KJV's 'let them slip' makes the message the thing that slips and us the ones who let it go. In the Greek it is we who drift, and the verb takes no object.

How it drifted

The KJV followed the earlier English tradition (Tyndale, Geneva) in reading the verb as if it took an object, adding '[them]' in italics. That turns a warning about where we end up into a warning about forgetting.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint at Prov 3:21 uses the same form: 'My son, do not drift away (μὴ παραρρυῇς), but keep my counsel and understanding.' This is the closest parallel: a teacher warning a student not to slip away from wisdom he has received. Isa 44:4 has 'water flowing by' (παραρρέον ὕδωρ). Later Greek writers use it of things slipping away, such as attention, or a ring sliding off a finger, an example cited in the lexicons.