Hebrews 4:11

The exhortation follows naturally, “Let us then earnestly strive to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall in the same example of disobedience”. The example of disobedience was that given by the wilderness generation and they are warned not to fall in the same way. πέσῃ ἐν is commonly construed “fall into,” but it seems preferable to render “fall by” or “in”; πέσῃ being used absolutely as in Romans 14:4, στήκει ἢ πίπτει. Vaughan has “lest anyone fall [by placing his foot] in the mark left by the Exodus generation”. ὑπόδειγμα is condemned by Phrynichus who says: οὐδὲ τοῦτο ὀρθῶς λέγεται · παράδειγμα λέγε. “In Attic ὑποδείκνυμι was never used except in its natural sense of show by implication; but in Herodotus and Xenophon it signifies to mark out, set a pattern.” Rutherford's Phryn., p. 62. Cf. Hebrews 8:5 of this Epistle with John 13:15 for both meanings. It is used in James 5:10 with genitive of the thing to be imitated.

In Hebrews 4:12-13 another reason is added for dealing sincerely and strenuously with God's promises and especially with this offer of rest. ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, “for the word of God is living,” that word of revelation which from the first verse of the Epistle has been in the writer's mind and which he has in chaps, 3, 4 exhibited as a word of promise of entrance into God's rest. Evidently, therefore, ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ is not, as Origen and other interpreters have supposed, the Personal Word incarnate in Christ, but God's offers and promises. Not only is the γάρ, linking this clause to the promise of rest, decisive for this interpretation; but the mention of ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς in Hebrews 4:2 and the prominence given in the context to God's promise make it impossible to think of anything else. To enforce the admonition to believe and obey the word of God, five epithets are added, which, says Westcott, “mark with increasing clearness its power to deal with the individual soul. There is a passage step by step from that which is most general to that which is most personal.” It is, first, ζῶν, “living” or, as A.V. has it, “quick”. Cf. 1 Peter 1:23, ἀναγεγεννημένοι … διὰ λόγου ζῶντος Θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος, and 1 Peter 1:24 τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. The meaning is that the word remains efficacious, valid and operative, as it was when it came from the will of God. “It is living as being instinct with the life of its source” (Delitzsch). It is also ἐνεργὴς, active, effective, still doing the work it was intended to do, cf. Isaiah 55:11. τομώτερος ὐπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον, “sharper than any two-edged sword”. τομ. ὑπὲρ is a more forcible comparative than the genitive; cf. Luke 16:8; 2 Corinthians 12:13. The positive τομός is found in Plato Tim. 61 E. and elsewhere. δίστομος double-mouthed, i.e., double-edged, the sword being considered as a devouring beast, see 2 Samuel 11:25, καταφάγεται ἡ μάχαιρα. A double-edged sword is not only a more formidable weapon than a single-edged, offering less resistance and therefore cutting deeper (see Judges 3:16 where Ehud made for himself μάχαιραν δίστομον a span long, and cf. Eurip., Helena, 983), but it was a common simile for sharpness as in Proverbs 5:4, ἠκονημένον μάλλον μαχαίρας διστόμου, whetted more than a two-edged sword; and Revelation 1:16, ῥομφαία δίστομος ὀξεῖα. The same comparison is used by Isaiah (Isaiah 49:2) and by St. Paul (Ephesians 6:17); but especially in Wis 18:15, “Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven … and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword. This sharpness is illustrated by its action, διϊκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶντε καὶ μυελῶν, an expression which does not mean that the word divides the soul from the spirit, the joints from the marrow, but that it pierces through all that is in man to that which lies deepest in his nature. “It is obvious that the writer does not mean anything very specific by each term of the enumeration, which produces its effect by the rhetorical fullness of the expressions” (Farrar). For the expression cf. Eurip., Hippol., 255 πρὸς ἄκρον μυελὸν ψυχῆς. But it is in the succeeding clause that the significance of his description appears; the word is Κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας “judging the conceptions and ideas of the heart”. The word of God coming to men in the offer of good of the highest kind tests their real desires and inmost intentions. When fellowship with God is made possible through His gracious offer, the inmost heart of man is sifted; and it is infallibly discovered and determined whether he truly loves the good and seeks it, or shrinks from accepting it as his eternal heritage. The terms in which this is conveyed find a striking analogy in Philo (Quis. Rer. Div. Haer., p. 491) where he speaks of God by His Word “cutting asunder the constituent parts of all bodies and objects that seem to be coherent and united. Which [the word] being whetted to the keenest possible edge, never ceases to pierce all sensible objects, and when it has passed through them to the things that are called atoms and indivisible, then again this cutting instrument begins to divide those things which are contemplated by reason into untold and indescribable portions.” Cf. p. 506. In addition to this (καὶ), the inward operation of the word finds its counterpart in the searching, inevitable inquisition of God Himself with whom we have to do. “No created thing is hidden before Him (God) but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” τετραχηλισμένα has created difficulty. τραχηλίζω is a word of the games, meaning “to bend back the neck” and so “to overcome”. In this sense of overmastering it was in very common use. In Philo, e.g., men are spoken of as f1τετραχηλισμένοι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις. This meaning, however, gives a poor sense in our passage where it is followed by τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς. Chrysostom says the word is derived from the skinning of animals, and Theophylact, enlarging upon this interpretation, explains that when the victims had their throats cut, the skin was dragged off from the neck downwards exposing the carcase. No confirmation of this use of the word is given. Perizonius in a note on Ælian, Var., Hist., xii. 58, refers to Suetonius, Vitell., 17, where Vitellius is described as being dragged into the forum, half-naked, with his hands tied behind his back, a rope round his neck and his dress torn; and we are further told that they dragged back his head by his hair, and even pricked him under the chin with the point of a sword as they are wont to do to criminals, that he might let his face be seen and not hang his head. [So, too, Elsner, who refers to Perizonius and agrees that the word means resupïnata, manifesta, eorum quasi cervice ac facie reflexa, atque adeo intuentium oculis exposita, genere loquendi ab iis petito, quorum capita reclinantur, ne intuentium oculos fugiant et lateant; quod hominibus qui ad supplicium ducebantur, usu olim accidebat.” Cf. “Sic fatus galeam laeva tenet, atque reflexa Cervice orantis capulo tenus applicat ensem.” Virgil, Æn. x. 535.] Certainly this bending back of the head to expose the face gives an excellent and relevant sense here. The reason for thus emphasising the penetrating and inscrutable gaze of God is given in the description appended in the relative clause; it is He πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος, which, so far as the mere words go, might mean “of whom we speak” (cf. Hebrews 1:7 and Hebrews 5:11), but which obviously must here be rendered, as in A.V., “with whom we have to do,” or “with whom is our reckoning,” cf. Hebrews 13:17.

From Hebrews 4:14 to Hebrews 10:15 the writer treats of the Priesthood of the Son. The first paragraph extends from Hebrews 4:14 to Hebrews 5:10, and in this it is shown that Jesus has the qualifications of a priest, a call from God, and the sympathy which makes intercession hearty and real. The writer's purpose is to encourage his readers to use the intercession of Christ with confidence, notwithstanding their sense of sinfulness. And he does so by reminding them that all High priests are appointed for the very purpose of offering sacrifice for sin, and that this office has not been assumed by them at their own instance but at the call of God. It is because God desires that sinful men be brought near to Him that priests hold office. And those are called to office, who by virtue of their own experience are prepared to enter into cordial sympathy with the sinner and heartily seek to intercede for him. All this holds true of Christ. He is Priest in obedience to God's call. The office, as He had to fill it, involved much that was repugnant. With strong crying and tears He shrank from the death that was necessary to the fulfilment of His function. But His godly caution prompted as His ultimate prayer, that the will of the Father and not His own might be done. Thus by the things He suffered He learned obedience, and being thus perfected became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him, greeted and proclaimed High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.