Pararrhueo (παραρρυέω) means to flow past or drift away — like a boat that has slipped its mooring and drifts downstream, or water that runs past and is lost. It appears only once in the New Testament, in Hebrews 2:1, as a stern warning: 'we must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.' The word is passive in form — drifting happens not by active rebellion but by inattention.
The danger described by pararrhueo is not apostasy through violent rejection but the quiet, gradual slipping away from truth through neglect. The Hebrews letter is addressed to Jewish Christians tempted to drift back to the Jewish system — not through dramatic defection but through slow erosion of attention. This is perhaps the most common form of spiritual decline: not a sudden abandonment but a gradual drifting, tide by tide.
The Greek tense of pararrhueo in Hebrews 2:1 suggests not a sudden event but a gradual process already in motion. The antidote is 'paying more careful attention' — active, intentional mooring to the Word heard. A boat doesn't drift when it's anchored. The 'hope as an anchor for the soul' of Hebrews 6:19 answers precisely the drift-danger of 2:1. Anchor. Don't drift.