Hebrews 13:7

Remember (mnhmoneuete). Present active imperative of mnhmoneuw, old verb to be mindful of (from mnhmwn, mindful) with genitive ( John 15:20 ) or accusative ( Matthew 16:9 ). "Keep in mind." Cf. Hebrews 11:22 . Them that had the rule over you (twn hgoumenwn umwn). Present middle participle of hgeomai with genitive of the person (umwn) as in verses Hebrews 17 24 . The author reminds them of the founders of their church in addition to the long list of heroes in chapter Acts 11:1 . See a like exhortation to respect and follow their leaders in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 . Few lessons are harder for the average Christian to learn, viz., good following. The word of God (ton logon tou qeou). The preaching of these early disciples, apostles, and prophets ( 1 Corinthians 1:17 ). And considering the issue of their life (wn anaqewrounte thn ekbasin th anastroph). No "and" in the Greek, but the relative wn (whose) in the genitive case after anastroph, "considering the issue of whose life." Present active participle of anaqewrew, late compound, to look up a subject, to investigate, to observe accurately, in N.T. only here and Acts 17:23 . Ekbasi is an old word from ekbainw, to go out ( Hebrews 11:15 , here only in N.T.), originally way out ( 1 Corinthians 10:13 ), but here (only other N.T. example) in sense of end or issue as in several papyri examples (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary). Imitate their faith (mimeisqe thn pistin). Present middle imperative of mimeomai, old verb (from mimo, actor, mimic), in N.T. only here, 2 Thessalonians 3:7 2 Thessalonians 3:9 ; 3 John 1:11 . Keep on imitating the faith of the leaders.