Hebrews 12:3,4

‘For consider him who has endured such gainsaying of sinners against themselves (or ‘against himself' - see note below), that you wax not weary, fainting in your souls. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.'

Indeed we must firstly constantly fix our minds on Him both as He was in His manhood, and as He now is as our great High Priest Who makes intercession for us (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 5:9; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:13). We must remember how He suffered. We must follow in His steps.

We must consider how He was constantly beset around, how He was constantly attacked and criticised, how He was constantly accused of inconstancy, of how He was constantly faulted for not being religious enough, of how He was charged with failing in His duty, with blaspheming God, with failing to accept the latest findings of modern thought, even though, unlike Him, those who spoke against Him were sinners themselves. For this last fact did not cause them to withhold anything from the attack. Indeed the more they gained the uneasy feeling that they might be wrong, the more fierce their attacks on Him became.

And we must consider His perseverance and constancy even in the face of His last days when all Hell was thrown at Him, when His suffering and humiliation was such as no man had ever known or could know (for we must remember to Whom it happened). And we must remember all this lest we become weary and faint in our inner hearts because of the pressures that will come upon us too, lest we begin to grow faint within the depths of our very being. Remembering what He suffered and was willing to suffer, yes, voluntarily came to suffer, will help us to remain constant there too.

For we must recognise that most of us have as yet, unlike many of those heroes of the past, and unlike Jesus Himself, not had to face the ultimate sacrifice. We have not yet had to ‘resist unto blood', facing torture and severe beatings and death, in our striving against the sinfulness of the world, and against our own sin. We have still not had to pay the ultimate price. We have therefore, in view of our light afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:17), no real excuse for not going on.

Some, however, see ‘resisted unto blood' as simply meaning ‘resisted hard', and see it as a rebuke for half-heartedness. There may here be a reference to boxing at the games, where boxers wore studded leather on arms and hands which resulted in plenty of blood and gore and where to carry on fighting required extremes of effort and courage. But whichever way it is they are being reminded how much more others have suffered than they have.

‘Against Himself.' This rendering fits the context, and firmly plants the ‘contra-speaking of sinners' as being against Him. However, in spite of this, ‘against themselves' is almost certainly the correct reading. The idea then is that in opposing Jesus and speaking against Him they were acting in all their folly against themselves and unconsciously doing themselves great harm (see Mark 3:22). Compare where the idea is used at a critical time in Israel's history in Numbers 16:38 LXX (in LXX see Numbers 17:3) where those who sinned against themselves by their own actions are spoken of. Thus by their very opposition to Christ they were destroying themselves.

Note On ‘Against Himself (or ‘themselves').'

The strongest manuscript evidence is in fact undoubtedly for ‘against themselves'. This is supported by p13, p46, Aleph, D2, Alephc, and 33, with B being a non-witness as not containing this section of Hebrews. These are both widespread and ancient witnesses, coming mainly from around 3rd and 4th century AD. Indeed of the most ancient and valued manuscripts only A (5th century AD) and D2c support ‘against Himself', the latter a correction.

Admittedly the readings are slightly varied, either eautous (Aleph, D2) or autous (p13, p46, Alephc, 33). But this must be seen as strong evidence and it is certainly the more difficult reading (and therefore more likely to be original). And the variations are slight and may simply reflect style. ‘Against Himself' (eauton/auton) is found in A D2c P K L. Apart from A (fifth century AD) and possibly D2correction these are lesser manuscripts. They just do not compare. And it is interesting that they follow both the variations in the earlier manuscripts, with them having become singular. Furthermore it is hard to see how at least two scribes could have altered ‘Himself' to ‘themselves', producing the more difficult reading, whereas it is easy to see why two such scribes should have removed a difficulty, and honoured Jesus at the same time, by altering from ‘themselves' to ‘Himself'. On those two criteria, therefore, ‘themselves' wins hands down.

RV, consistently with the principles of textual criticism, translates ‘themselves', with ‘Himself' in the margin, but ASV and RSV (which surprisingly in my copy shows no alternative rendering in spite of the powerful evidence) opt for ‘Himself', undoubtedly because it fits the context so much better, even though there is no manuscript evidence for it before 5th century AD.

End of Note.