Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 9:18

Hebrews 9:18. Whence neither hath the first covenant been inaugurated (or ratified) without blood. Those verses are specially difficult. The logic of the passage seems to require the rendering now given. It does not follow that because a testator must die before his will can take effect, therefore the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. Αιαθήϰη, moreover, is everywhere else in Scripture ‘covenant,' as it is in the immediate context, and it seems better to keep to that meaning throughout: all the more as the notion of a will, though familiar to Western civilisation, was not familiar in countries where each child's portion was settled by law. There are difficulties, however, on the other side. ‘Covenanting [victim]' is not a known meaning of the word here used. It means generally a covenanting person or a testator. ‘Over the dead' is commonly used also only of dead men. Both difficulties are lessened, however, by the peculiar facts of the case. All solemn covenants under the Law were made valid by the death of a victim which represented the covenanting persons, and pledged them on peril of their lives to faithfulness; and so ‘the covenanting victim' is spoken of under the same name as the covenanting person the one representing the other. If the rendering ‘testament' is preferred, and ‘testator,' it is best to regard Hebrews 9:16-17 as an illustrative argument, a parallel case, suggested partly by the mention of an inheritance and partly by the double meaning of the Greek word (covenant or testament). which is applied to any arrangement or distribution by will, or in any other way.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 9:18

Old Testament

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