An exhortation to faithful endurance (1 3) and a reminder that our earthly sufferings are due to the fatherly chastisement of God (4 13). The need of earnest watchfulness (14 17). Magnificent concluding appeal founded on the superiority and grandeur of the New Covenant (18 24), which enhances the gu... [ Continue Reading ]
An exhortation to patient steadfastness 1. _Wherefore_ The Greek word is a very strong particle of inference not found elsewhere in the N. T. except in 1 Thessalonians 4:8. _seeing we also are compassed_ The order of the Greek is "Let us also, seeing we are compassed with so great a cloud of witne... [ Continue Reading ]
_looking unto Jesus_ It is not possible to express in English the thought suggested by the Greek verb _aphorôntes_, which implies that we must "look away (from other things) unto Jesus." It implies "the concentration of the wandering gaze into a single direction." _the author_ The word is the same... [ Continue Reading ]
_consider_ Lit., "compare yourselves with." Contrast the comparative immunity from anguish of your lot with the agony of His (John 15:20). _that endured_ Who hath endured at the hand of sinners such opposition. _such contradiction of sinners against himself_ The Greek word for "contradiction" has... [ Continue Reading ]
Fatherly chastisements should be cheerfully endured 4. _Ye have not yet resisted unto blood_ If this be a metaphor drawn from pugilism, as the last is from "running a race," it means that as yet they have not "had blood drawn." This would not be impossible, for St Paul adopts pugilistic metaphors (1... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye have forgotten_ "Yet ye have utterly forgotten," or possibly the words may be intended interrogatively "Yet have ye utterly forgotten?" _the exhortation_ "the encouragement," or "strengthening consolation." _speaketh_ "discourseth," or "reasoneth" (_dialegetai_). _My son …_ The quotation... [ Continue Reading ]
_for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth_ This blessedness of being "trained by God" ("Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord, and _teachest him_out of thy law," Psalms 94:12) is found in many parts of Scripture. "As many as I love, I test (ἐλέγχω) and train" (_paideuo_), Revelation 3:19; Psa... [ Continue Reading ]
_If ye endure chastening_ The true reading is not _ei_, "if," but _eis_, "unto." "It is for training that ye endure," or better, "Endure ye, for training," i.e. "regard your trials as a part of the moral training designed for you by your Father in Heaven." _what son is he whom the father chasteneth... [ Continue Reading ]
_whereof all are partakers_ He speaks of God's blessed and disciplinary chastisement as a gift in which all His sons have their share.... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto the Father of spirits_ God might be called "the Father of the spirits," as having created Angels and Spirits; but more probably the meaning is "the Father of our spirits," as in Numbers 16:22, "the God of the spirits of all flesh." God made our bodies and our souls, but our spirits are in a ye... [ Continue Reading ]
_after their own pleasure_ Rather, "as seemed good to them." He is contrasting the brief authority of parents, and their liability to error, and even to caprice, with the pure love and eternal justice of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the peaceable fruit of righteousness_ The original is expressed in the emphatic and oratorical style of the writer, "but afterwards it yieldeth a peaceful fruit to those who have been exercised by it (the fruit) of righteousness." He means that though the sterner aspect of training is never pleasur... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ The poetic style, and even the metrical form of diction in these two verses (of which Hebrews 12:13 contains a complete hexameter, καὶ τροχιὰς ὀρθὰς ποιήσατε τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν and half an iambic, ἵνα μὴ τὸ χωλὸν ἐκτραπῇ), reflect the earnestness of the writer, as he gives more and more... [ Continue Reading ]
_lest that which is lame be turned out of the way_ Lit. "that the lame (i.e. lameness) may not be quite out of joint, but may rather be cured." The verb ἐκτραπῇ _may_mean "be turned out of the way," as in 1 Timothy 1:6; 1 Timothy 5:15; 2 Timothy 4:4; but as it is a technical term for "_spraining_,... [ Continue Reading ]
Need of earnest watchfulness 14. _Follow peace with all men_ The word "men" is better omitted, for doubtless the writer is thinking mainly of peace in the bosom of the little Christian community a peace which, even in these early days, was often disturbed by rival egotisms (Romans 14:19; 2 Timothy... [ Continue Reading ]
_lest any man fail of the grace of God_ Lit. "whether there be any man who is falling short of," or possibly "falling back from the grace of God." We have already noticed that not improbably the writer has in view some one individual instance of a tendency towards apostasy, which might have a fatal... [ Continue Reading ]
_any fornicator_ The word must be taken in a literal sense, since Esau was not "an idolator." It is true that Esau is not charged with fornication in the Book of Genesis (which only speaks of his heathen marriages, geb 26:34, Genesis 28:8), but the writer is probably alluding to the Jewish Hagadah,... [ Continue Reading ]
_For ye know how that afterward_ The verse runs literally "for ye know that even, afterwards, when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no opportunity for a change of mind though with tears he earnestly sought for it." It is clear at once that if the writer means to say "t... [ Continue Reading ]
The mercy and sublimity of the New Covenant as contrasted with the Old (18 24) enhance the guilt and peril of the backslider (25 29) 18. _For ye are not come_ At the close of his arguments and exhortations the writer condenses the results of his Epistle into a climax of magnificent eloquence and fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_the sound of a trumpet_ Exodus 19:16; Exodus 19:19; Exodus 20:18. _the voice of words_ Deuteronomy 4:12. _intreated_ The verb means literally "to beg off." _that the word should not be spoken to them any more_ Lit. "that no word more should be added to them" (Deuteronomy 5:22-27; Deuteronomy 18:... [ Continue Reading ]
_they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast …_ Rather, "they endured not the injunction, If even a beast …" (Exodus 19:12-13). This injunction seemed to them to indicate an awful terror and sanctity in the environment of the mountain. It filled them with alarm. The Jew... [ Continue Reading ]
_the sight_ "the splendour of the spectacle" (τὸ φανταζόμενον, here only in N.T.). The true punctuation of the verse is And so fearful was the spectacle Moses said … _I exceedingly fear and quake_ No such speech of Moses at Sinai is recorded in the Pentateuch. The writer is either drawing from the J... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto mount Sion_ The true Sion is the anti-type of all the promises with which the name had been connected (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 48:2; Psalms 78:68-69; Psalms 125:1; Joel 2:32; Micah 4:7). Hence the names of Sion and "the heavenly Jerusalem" are given to "the city of the living God" (Galatians 4:26;... [ Continue Reading ]
_to the general assembly_ The word _Pançguris_means a general festive assembly, as in Song of Solomon 6:13 (LXX.). It has been questioned whether both clauses refer to Angels "To myriads of Angels, a Festal Assembly, and Church of Firstborn enrolled in Heaven" or whether two classes of the Blessed a... [ Continue Reading ]
_the mediator of the new covenant_ Rather, "Mediator of a New Covenant." The word for "new" is here νέας ("new in time"), not καινῆς ("fresh in quality"), implying not only that it is "fresh" or "recent," but also young and strong (Matthew 26:27-29; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:22). _that speaketh bette... [ Continue Reading ]
_him that speaketh_ Not Moses, as Chrysostom supposed, but God. The speaker is the same under both dispensations, different as they are. God spoke alike from Sinai and from heaven. The difference of the places whence they spoke involves the whole difference of their tone and revelations. Perhaps the... [ Continue Reading ]
_whose voice then shook the earth_ Exodus 19:18; Judges 5:4; Psalms 114:7. _but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more_ Rather, "again, once for all." The quotation is from Haggai 2:6-7, "yet once, it is a little while" (comp. Hosea 1:4). _but also heaven_ "For the powers of the heavens shall... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this word, Yet once more_ The argument on the phrase "_Again, yet once for all_," and the bringing it into connexion with the former shaking of the earth at Sinai resembles the style of argument on the word "to-day" in Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:9; and on the word "new" in Hebrews 8:13. _the remo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ This splendid strain of comparison and warning ends with a brief and solemn appeal. _let us have grace_ Or "let us feel thankfulness, whereby, &c." _with reverence and godly fear_ Another well-supported reading is μετ' εὐλαβείας (Hebrews 5:7; Hebrews 11:7) καὶ δέους "with godly caution... [ Continue Reading ]
_for our God is a consuming fire_. The reference is to Deuteronomy 4:24, and the special application of the description to one set of circumstances shews that this is not like "God is light" and "God is love" a description of the whole character of God, but an anthropomorphic way of expressing His h... [ Continue Reading ]