Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 7:22

διαθήκη in classical Greek means a disposition (διατίθημι) of one's goods by will; frequent in the orators and sometimes as in Aristoph., Birds, 439, a covenant. In the LXX it occurs nearly 280 times and in all but four passages it is the translation of בְּרִיח “covenant”. (See Hatch, Essays in Bibl. Greek, 47.) It is used indifferently of agreements between men and of contracts or engagements between God and man. See Introduction and on Hebrews 9:16 and Thayer s.v. Of this “better covenant” Jesus “has become and is” [γέγονεν] ἔγγυος “surety”. ἔγγυος is explained in the Greek commentators by ἐγγυητής, which is the commoner of the two forms, at least in later Greek. ἔγγυος occurs several times in the fragments from the second century B.C. given in Grenfell and Hunt's Greek Papyri, series ii.; also in the fragments from first century A.D. given in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. It is not the exact equivalent of μεσίτης (found in a similar connection Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24) which is a more comprehensive term. It has been questioned why in this place ἔγγυος is used, and Peirce answers: “I am apt to think he was led to this by his having just before used the word ἐγγίζομεν, and that he did it for the sake of the paronomasia”. And Bruce says: “There is literary felicity in the use of the word as playfully alluding to the foregoing word ἐγγίζομεν. There is more than literary felicity, for the two words probably have the same root, so that we might render ἔγγυος., the one who insures permanently near relations with God.” More likely he chose the word because his purpose was not to exhibit Jesus as negotiating the covenant, but especially as securing that it should achieve its end. It has been debated whether it is meant that Jesus was surety for men to God, as was held by both Lutheran and Reformed writers, or with others (Grotius, Peirce, etc.), that He was surety for God to men [“His being a surety relates to His acting in the behalf of God towards us and to His assuring us of the divine favour, and to His bestowing the benefits promised by God” (Peirce)] or, with Limborch, Baumgarten and Schmid (see Bleek) that he was surety for both parties. There is no reason to suppose that the writer particularised in any of these directions. He merely wished to express the thought that by the appointment of Jesus to the priestoood, the covenant based upon this priesthood was secured against all failure of any of the ends for which it was established.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 7:22

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