Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 9:26

ἐπεὶ ἔδει αὐτὸν … “Since in that case he must often have suffered since the creation.” If Christ's one offering of Himself were not eternally efficacious, if it required periodical renewal, then this demanded periodical sacrifice. It was “not without blood” the entrance was made, and if the entrance required repetition, so must the sacrifice be repeated. And as sin prevailed ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, the παθεῖν must also date from the first. The contrast is with the one offering ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ κ. τ. λ. “If his offering of Himself were not independent of time and valid as a single act, if it were valid only for the generation for whom it is immediately made, then in order to benefit men in the past, He must have suffered often, indeed in each generation of the past” (Davidson). νυνὶ δὲ ἅπαξ … “But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested for sin's abolition by His sacrifice”, νυνὶ, “as things are,” in contrast to the case supposed in Hebrews 9:25, the possibility of His repeated entrance and sacrifice. For the word, see Hebrews 8:6. ἅπαξ not πολλάκις, Hebrews 9:25-26; and this, ἐπὶ συντελίᾳ τῶν αἰώνεν [for ἐπὶ in this use see Winer, p. 489] at that period of history in which all that has happened since the foundation of the world (ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου) finds its interpretation and adjustment. If there was to be one sacrifice for all generations, the occurrence of that sacrifice itself marked the period as the consummation. It closes the periods of symbolism, expectation and doubt, suggesting, perhaps, the word πεφανέρωται for Christ's appearance, as that which was dimly foreshadowed, blindly longed for. εἰς ἀθέτησιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας, The object of Christ's appearance, the abolition of sin, made the repetition of His sacrifice unnecessary. In Hebrews 7:18 ἀθέτησις is used of permanent displacement, removal, or setting aside, that is, abolition, τῆς ἁμαρτίας of sin, in its most general and comprehensive sense, all sin. This was the great object of Christ's manifestation, the annulling of sin, its total destruction, the counteraction of all its effects. This was to be accomplished διὰ τῆς θυσίας αὐτοῦ “through His sacrifice,” the simple subjective genitive. The sentence draws attention not to the nature of the sacrifice, but to its three characteristics, that it was made once for tall, in the consummation, for sin's abolition.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Hebrews 9:26

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