Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 6:20

The holding-ground of the anchor of hope, the real presence of God, is further described in the words ὅπου πρόδρομος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν εἰσῆλθεν Ἰησοῦς, “whither as forerunner for us entered Jesus”. ὅποι does not occur in N.T. or LXX, ὅπου taking its place, as in English “where” often stands for “whither”; see Matthew 8:19; Luke 9:57; James 3:4. So, too, occasionally, in Attic; examples in Bleek. πρόδρομος as an adjective, “running forward with headlong speed,” see Jebb's note on Soph., Antig., 107; as a substantive “scouts” or “advanced guard” of an army, Herodot., i. 60, and Wis 12:8, ἀπέστειλάς τε προδρόμους τοῦ στρατοπέδου σου σφῆκας. The more general meaning is found in Numbers 13:21, ἡμέραι ἔαρος, πρόδρομοι σταφυλῆς. Isaiah 28:4. The idea may be illustrated by Hebrews 2:10; Colossians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:23. ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν goes better with πρόδρομος which requires further definition than with εἰσῆλθεν, although Bleek, Weiss and others prefer to join it to the verb. Ἰησοῦς, the human name is used, because it is as man and having passed through the whole human experience that Jesus ascends as our forerunner. His superiority to the Levitical priest is disclosed in the word πρόδρομος. When the Levitical High Priest passed within the veil he went as the representative, not as the forerunner of the people. Hence indeed the veil. In Christ the veil is abolished. He enters God's presence as the herald and guarantee of our entrance. The ground of this is given in the concluding clause, κατὰ τὴν τάξιν … αἰῶνα, “having become [becoming] an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek”. Jesus carries our hope with Him to the realities which lie within the veil, because it is as our High Priest who has made atonement for sin that He is now at God's right hand. By His death He secured for us power to enter, to follow where He has gone before. The participle does not determine the precise point at which He became High Priest, before or contemporaneously with His passing through the veil.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 6:20

Old Testament

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