Concluding Exhortations to Love (1); Hospitality (2); Kindness to Prisoners and the Suffering (3); Purity of Life (4); Contentment (5); Trustfulness (6); Submission to Pastoral Authority (7, 8); Steadfastness and Spirituality (9); The Altar, the Sacrifice, and the Sacrifices of the Christian (10 16)... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let brotherly love continue_ Not only was "brotherly love" (_Philadelphia_) a new and hitherto almost undreamed of virtue but it was peculiarly necessary among the members of a bitterly-persecuted sect. Hence all the Apostles lay constant stress upon it (Romans 12:10; 1Th 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John... [ Continue Reading ]
_to entertain strangers_ The hospitality of Christians (what Julian calls ἡ περὶ ξένους φιλανθρωπία) was naturally exercised chiefly towards the brethren. The absence of places of public entertainment except in the larger towns, and the constant interchange of letters and messages between Christian... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember them that are in bonds_ Comp. Colossians 4:18. _as bound with them_ Lit., "as having been bound with them." In the perfectness of sympathy _their_bonds are your bonds (1 Corinthians 12:26), for you and they alike are Christ's Slaves (1 Corinthians 7:22) and Christ's Captives (2 Corinthian... [ Continue Reading ]
_Marriage is honourable in all_ More probably this is an exhortation, "Let marriage be held honourable among all," or rather "in all respects," as in Hebrews 13:18. Scripture never gives even the most incidental sanction to the exaltation of celibacy as a superior virtue, or to the disparagement of... [ Continue Reading ]
_your conversation_ The word here used is not the one generally rendered by "conversation" in the N.T. (_anastrophç_as in Hebrews 13:7, "general walk" Galatians 1:13; Ephesians 2:3, or ("citizenship" _politeuma_, as in Philippians 1:27; Philippians 3:20), but "turn of mind" (_tropos_). _without cove... [ Continue Reading ]
_we may boldly say_ Rather, "we boldly say." _The Lord is my helper_ Psalms 118:6. _I will not fear what man_ Rather, "I will not fear. What shall man do unto me?... [ Continue Reading ]
_them which have the rule over you, who have spoken_ Rather, "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... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus Christ the same_ Rather, "is the same" (comp. Hebrews 1:12). The collocation "Jesus Christ" is in this Epistle only found elsewhere in Hebrews 13:21 and Hebrews 10:10. He commonly says "Jesus" in the true reading (Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 6:20, &c.) or "Christ" (Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not carried about_ Lit. "With teachings various and strange be ye not swept away." From the allusion to various kinds of food which immediately follows we infer that these "teachings" were not like the Gnostic speculations against which St Paul and St John had to raise a warning voice (Ephesians... [ Continue Reading ]
The One Sacrifice of the Christian, and the sacrifices which he must offer 10. _We have an altar_ These seven verses form a little episode of argument in the midst of moral exhortations. They revert once more to the main subject of the Epistle the contrast between the two dispensations. The connecti... [ Continue Reading ]
_are burnt without the camp_ Of the sin-offerings the Priests could not, as in the case of other offerings, eat the entire flesh, or the breast and shoulder, or all except the fat (Numbers 6:20; Leviticus 6:26, &c.). The word for "burn" (_saraph_) means "entirely to get rid of," and is not the word... [ Continue Reading ]
_that he might sanctify the people with his own blood_ Lit. "through," or "by means of His own blood." The thought is the same as that of Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people." This sanctification or purifying conse... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let us go forth therefore unto him_ Let us go forth out of the city and camp of Judaism (Revelation 11:8) to the true and eternal Tabernacle (Exodus 33:7-8) where He now is (Hebrews 12:2). Some have imagined that the writer conveys a hint to the Christians in Jerusalem that it is time for them to l... [ Continue Reading ]
_one to come_ Rather, "the city which is to be" (Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 11:16). Our earthly city here may be destroyed, and we may be driven from it, or leave it of our own accord; this is nothing, for our real citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).... [ Continue Reading ]
_the sacrifice of praise_ A thanksgiving (Jeremiah 17:26; Leviticus 7:12), not in the form of an offering, but something which shall "please the Lord better than a bullock which hath horns and hoofs" (Psalms 69:31). _continually_ Even the Rabbis held that the sacrifice of praise would outlast anima... [ Continue Reading ]
_to communicate_ To share your goods with others (Romans 15:26). The substantive from this verb is rendered "distribution" in 2 Corinthians 9:13. _with such sacrifices_ The verse is meant to remind them that sacrifices of well-doing and the free sharing of their goods are even more necessary than v... [ Continue Reading ]
_them that have the rule over you_ See Hebrews 13:7. The repetition on the injunction perhaps indicates a tendency to self-assertion and spurious independence among them. "Bishops" in the modern sense did not as yet exist, but in the importance here attached to due subordination to ecclesiastical au... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pray for us_ A frequent and natural request in Christian correspondence (1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Romans 15:30; Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:3). The "us" probably means "me and those with me," shewing that the name of the writer was well known to those addressed. _we trust_ Rathe... [ Continue Reading ]
_that I may be restored to you the sooner_ So St Paul in Philemon 1:22. We are unable to conjecture the circumstances which for the present prevented the writer from visiting them. It is clear from the word "restored" that he must once have lived among them.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the God of peace_. The phrase is frequent in St Paul (1Th 5:23 : 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Romans 15:33; Romans 16:20; Philippians 4:9). _that brought again from the dead_ Among many allusions to the Ascension and Glorification of Christ this is the only direct allusion in the Epistle to His Resurrecti... [ Continue Reading ]
_make you perfect_ Not the verb so often used to express "perfecting" but another verb "may He fit" or "stablish" or "equip you." _to do his will, working in you …_ In the Greek there is a play on the words "to _do_His will, _doing_in you." There is a similar play on words in Philippians 2:13. _to... [ Continue Reading ]
_suffer the word of exhortation_ "Bear with the word of my exhortation." Comp. Acts 13:15. This is a courteous apology for the tone of severity and authority which he has assumed. _for_ "for indeed," as in Hebrews 12:29. _I have written a letter_ This is the only place in the N. T. (except Acts 15... [ Continue Reading ]
_Know ye_ Or perhaps "_Ye know_," or "know." _is set at liberty_ The word probably means (as in Acts 3:13; Acts 4:21) "has been set free from prison." It is intrinsically likely that Timothy at once obeyed the earnest and repeated entreaty of St Paul, shortly before his martyrdom, to come to him at... [ Continue Reading ]
_Salute all them that have the rule over you_ This salutation to _all_their spiritual leaders implies the condition of Churches, which was normal at that period namely, little communities, sometimes composed separately of Jews and Gentiles, who in default of one large central building, met for worsh... [ Continue Reading ]
_Grace be with you all. Amen_ This is one of the shorter forms of final conclusion found in Col 4:18; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 3:15. The superscription "Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy" is wholly without authority, though found in K and some versions. It contradicts the ob... [ Continue Reading ]