Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 13:7

τῶν ἡγουμένων … οἵτινες. “Your leaders, who spoke to you”; for, as the next clause shews, these spiritual leaders were dead. At this time the ecclesiastical organisation was still unfixed. The vague term “leaders” (found also in Acts 15:22), like the phrase “those set over you” (προϊστάμενοι, 1 Thessalonians 5:12) means “bishops” and “presbyters,” the two terms being, in the Apostolic age, practically identical. In later ecclesiastical Greek this word (ἡγούμενοι) was used for “abbots.”

ὧν�.τ.λ. In the emphatic order of the original, “and earnestly contemplating the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith.”

τὴν ἔκβασιν. Not the ordinary word for “end” (τέλος) but the very unusual word ἔκβασιν, “outcome.” This word in the N.T. is found only in 1 Corinthians 10:13, where it is rendered “escape.” In Wis 2:17 we find, “Let us see if his words be true, and let us see what shall happen at his end” (ἐν ἐκβάσει). It here seems to mean death, but not necessarily a death by martyrdom. It merely means “imitate them, by being faithful unto death.” The words ἔξοδος “departure” (Luke 9:31; 2 Peter 1:15) and ἄφιξις (Acts 20:29) are similar euphemisms for death.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 13:7

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