Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 6:7

Hebrews 6:7-8 present an analogy in nature to the doom of the apostate.

Hebrews 6:7. γῆ γὰρ ἡ πιοῦσα … ὑετόν, “For land which drank in the rain that cometh oft upon it”; this whole clause is the subject of Hebrews 6:7-8; the subject remains the same, the results are different. It might almost be rendered, in order to bring out the emphasis on γῆ, “For, take the case of land”. Such constructions are well explained by Green (Gram., 34): “The anarthrous position of the noun may be regarded as employed to give a prominence to the peculiar meaning of the word without the interference of any other idea, while the words to which the article is prefixed, limit by their fuller and more precise description the general notion of the anarthrous noun, and thereby introduce the determinate idea intended.” The comparison of human culture with agriculture is common. Cf. especially Plut., De Educ. Puer., c. 3; and the remarkable lines of the Hecuba, 590 596. To make the comparison with the persons described in Hebrews 6:4-5 apt, the advantageous conditions of the land are expressed in ἡ πιοῦσα κ. τ. λ. The abundant and frequently renewed rain represents the free and reiterated bestowal of spiritual impulse; the enlightenment, the good word of God, the energetic indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which the Hebrews had received and which should have enabled them to bring forth fruit to God. πιοῦσα, as in Anacreon's ἡ γῆ μέλαινα πίνει, and Virgil's (Ecclesiastes 3:3) “sat prata biberunt”. Bengel's note, “non solum in superficie” brings out the meaning. The aorist expressing a completed past contrasts with τίκτουσα and ἐκφέρουσα continuous presents. καὶ τίκτουσα … γεωργεῖται, “and produces herbage meet for those on whose account also it is tilled”. This is one of the possible results of the natural advantage. τίκτουσα βοτάνη are found in classic Greek. See examples in Wetstein and Bleek. εὔθετον originally “conveniently situated” and hence “suitable” “fit” as in Luke 9:62. ἐκείνοις follows εὔθετον, not τίκτουσα. The measure of a field's value is its satisfying the purpose of those on whose account it is titled. διʼ οὓς, “for whose sake” or “on whose account,” not, as Calvin, “quorum opera”; not the labourers, but the owners are intended or those whom the owners mean to supply. καὶ γεωργεῖται, καὶ introduces a consideration which “brings into relief the naturalness of the τίκτειν βοτάνην εὔθετον ἐκείνοις ” (Lünemann). Westcott seems to lean to Schlichting's explanation: “The laborious culture of the soil seems to be contrasted with its spontaneous fruitfulness”. Cf. the “justissima tellus” of Vergil, Georg. ii. 460. Land so responding to the outlay put upon it μεταλαμβάνει εὐλογίας ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ, “partakes of a blessing from God”. God's approval is seen in the more and more abundant yield of the land. The reality here colours the figure.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 6:7

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