CANONICITY AND AUTHORSHIP.--CLEMENT OF ROME, at the end of the first century (A.D), copiously uses it, adopting its words just as he does those of the other books of the New Testament; not indeed giving to either the term "Scripture," which he reserves for the Old Testament (the canon of the New Testament not yet having been formally established), but certainly not ranking it below the other New Testament acknowledged Epistles. As our Epistle claims authority on the part of the writer, CLEMENT'S adoption of extracts from it is virtually sanctioning its authority, and this in the apostolic age. JUSTIN MARTYR quotes it as divinely authoritative, to establish the titles "apostle," as well as "angel," as applied to the Son of God. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA refers it expressly to Paul, on the authority of Pantænus, chief of the Catechetical school in Alexandria, in the middle of the second century, saying, that as Jesus is termed in it the "apostle" sent to the Hebrews, Paul, through humility, does not in it call himself apostle of the Hebrews, being apostle to the Gentiles. CLEMENT also says that Paul, as the Hebrews were prejudiced against him, prudently omitted to put forward his name in the beginning; also, that it was originally written in Hebrew for the Hebrews, and that Luke translated it into Greek for the Greeks, whence the style is similar to that of Acts. He, however, quotes frequently the words of the existing Greek Epistle as Paul's words. ORIGEN similarly quotes it as Paul's Epistle. However, in his Homilies, he regards the style as distinct from that of Paul, and as "more Grecian," but the thoughts as the apostle's; adding that the "ancients who have handed down the tradition of its Pauline authorship, must have had good reason for doing so, though God alone knows the certainty who was the actual writer" (that is, probably "transcriber" of the apostle's thoughts). In the African Church, in the beginning of the third century, TERTULLIAN ascribes it to Barnabas. IRENÆUS, bishop of Lyons, is mentioned in EUSEBIUS, as quoting from this Epistle, though without expressly referring it to Paul. About the same period, Caius, the presbyter, in the Church of Rome, mentions only thirteen Epistles of Paul, whereas, if the Epistle to the Hebrews were included, there would be fourteen. So the canon fragment of the end of the second century, or beginning of the third, published by M URATORI, apparently omits mentioning it. And so the Latin Church did not recognize it as Paul's till a considerable time after the beginning of the third century. Thus, also, NOVATIAN OF ROME, CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE, and VICTORINUS, also of the Latin Church. But in the fourth century, HILARY OF POITIERS (A.D. 368), LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI (A.D. 371), AMBROSE OF MILAN (A.D. 397) and other Latins, quote it as Paul's; and the fifth Council of Carthage (A.D. 419) formally reckons it among his fourteen Epistles.
As to the similarity of its style to that of Luke's writings, this is due to his having been so long the companion of Paul. CHRYSOSTOM, comparing Luke and Mark, says, "Each imitated his teacher: Luke imitated Paul flowing along with more than river fulness; but Mark imitated Peter, who studied brevity of style." Besides, there is a greater predominance of Jewish feeling and familiarity with the peculiarities of the Jewish schools apparent in this Epistle than in Luke's writings. There is no clear evidence for attributing the authorship to him, or to Apollos, whom ALFORD upholds as the author. The grounds alleged for the latter view are its supposed Alexandrian phraseology and modes of thought. But these are such as any Palestinian Jew might have used; and Paul, from his Hebræo-Hellenistic education at Jerusalem and Tarsus, would be familiar with PHILO'S modes of thought, which are not, as some think, necessarily all derived from his Alexandrian, but also from his Jewish, education. It would be unlikely that the Alexandrian Church should have so undoubtingly asserted the Pauline authorship, if Apollos, their own countryman, had really been the author. The eloquence of its style and rhetoric, a characteristic of Apollos' at Corinth, whereas Paul there spoke in words unadorned by man's wisdom, are doubtless designedly adapted to the minds of those whom Paul in this Epistle addresses. To the Greek Corinthians, who were in danger of idolizing human eloquence and wisdom, he writes in an unadorned style, in order to fix their attention more wholly on the Gospel itself. But the Hebrews were in no such danger. And his Hebræo-Grecian education would enable him to write in a style attractive to the Hebrews at Alexandria, where Greek philosophy had been blended with Judaism. The Septuagint translation framed at Alexandria had formed a connecting link between the latter and the former; and it is remarkable that all the quotations from the Old Testament, excepting two ( Heb 10:30; 13:5), are taken from the Septuagint. The fact that the peculiarities of the Septuagint are interwoven into the argument proves that the Greek Epistle is an original, not a translation; had the original been Hebrew, the quotations would have been from the Hebrew Old Testament. The same conclusion follows from the plays on similarly sounding words in the Greek, and alliterations, and rhythmically constructed periods. CALVIN observes, If the Epistle had been written in Hebrew, Heb 9:15-17 would lose all its point, which consists in the play upon the double meaning of the Greek "diathece," a "covenant," or a "testament," whereas the Hebrew "berith" means only "covenant."
Internal evidence favors the Pauline authorship. Thus the topic so fully handled in this Epistle, that Christianity is superior to Judaism, inasmuch as the reality exceeds the type which gives place to it, is a favorite one with Paul (compare 2Co 3:6-18; Ga 3:23-25; 4:1-9, 21-31, wherein the allegorical mode of interpretation appears in its divinely sanctioned application--a mode pushed to an unwarrantable excess in the Alexandrian school). So the Divine Son appears in Heb 1:3, &c., as in other Epistles of Paul ( Php 2:6; Col 1:15-20), as the Image, or manifestation of the Deity. His lowering of Himself for man's sake similarly, compare Heb 2:9, with 2Co 8:9; Php 2:7, 8. Also His final exaltation, compare Heb 2:8; 10:13; 12:2, with 1Co 15:25, 27. The word "Mediator" is peculiar to Paul alone, compare Heb 8:6, with Ga 3:19, 20. Christ's death is represented as the sacrifice for sin prefigured by the Jewish sacrifices, compare Ro 3:22-26; 1Co 5:7, with Heb 7:1-10:39. The phrase, "God of Peace," is peculiar to Paul, compare Heb 13:20; Ro 15:33; 1Th 5:23. Also, compare Heb 2:4, Margin, 1Co 12:4. Justification, or "righteousness by faith." appears in Heb 11:7; 10:38, as in Ro 1:17; 4:22; 5:1; Ga 3:11; Php 3:9. The word of God is the "sword of the Spirit," compare Heb 4:12, with Eph 6:17. Inexperienced Christians are children needing milk, that is, instruction in the elements, whereas riper Christians, as full-grown men, require strong meat, compare Heb 5:12, 13; 6:1, with 1Co 3:1, 2; 14:20 Ga 4:9; Col 3:14. Salvation is represented as a boldness of access to God by Christ, compare Heb 10:19, with Ro 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12. Afflictions are a fight, Heb 10:32; compare Php 1:30; Col 2:1. The Christian life is a race, Heb 12:1; compare 1Co 9:24; Php 3:12-14. The Jewish ritual is a service, Ro 9:4; compare Heb 9:1, 6. Compare "subject to bondage," Heb 2:15, with Ga 5:1. Other characteristics of Paul's style appear in this Epistle; namely, a propensity "to go off at a word" and enter on a long parenthesis suggested by that word, a fondness for play upon words of similar sound, and a disposition to repeat some favorite word. Frequent appeals to the Old Testament, and quotations linked by "and again," compare Heb 1:5; 2:12, 13, with Ro 15:9-12. Also quotations in a peculiar application, compare Heb 2:8, with 1Co 15:27; Eph 1:22. Also the same passage quoted in a form not agreeing with the Septuagint, and with the addition "saith the Lord," not found in the Hebrew, in Heb 10:30; Ro 12:19.
The supposed Alexandrian (which are rather Philon-like) characteristics of the Epistle are probably due to the fact that the Hebrews were generally then imbued with the Alexandrian modes of thought of Philo, &c., and Paul, without coloring or altering Gospel truth "to the Jews, became (in style) as a Jew, that he might win the Jews" ( 1Co 9:20). This will account for its being recognized as Paul's Epistle in the Alexandrian and Jerusalem churches unanimously, to the Hebrews of whom probably it was addressed. Not one Greek father ascribes the Epistle to any but Paul, whereas in the Western and Latin churches, which it did not reach for some time, it was for long doubted, owing to its anonymous form, and generally less distinctively Pauline style. Their reason for not accepting it as Paul's, or indeed as canonical, for the first three centuries, was negative, insufficient evidence for it, not positive evidence against it. The positive evidence is generally for its Pauline origin. In the Latin churches, owing to their distance from the churches to whom belonged the Hebrews addressed, there was no generally received tradition on the subject. The Epistle was in fact but little known at all, whence we find it is not mentioned at all in the Canon of Muratori. When at last, in the fourth century, the Latins found that it was received as Pauline and canonical on good grounds in the Greek churches, they universally acknowledged it as such.
The personal notices all favor its Pauline authorship, namely, his intention to visit those addressed, shortly, along with Timothy, styled "our brother," Heb 13:23; his being then in prison, Heb 13:19; his formerly having been imprisoned in Palestine, according to English Version reading, Heb 10:34; the salutations transmitted to them from believers of Italy, Heb 13:24. A reason for not prefixing the name may be the rhetorical character of the Epistle which led the author to waive the usual form of epistolary address.
DESIGN.--His aim is to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, in that it was introduced by one far higher than the angels or Moses, through whom the Jews received the law, and in that its priesthood and sacrifices are far less perfecting as to salvation than those of Christ; that He is the substance of which the former are but the shadow, and that the type necessarily gives place to the antitype; and that now we no longer are kept at a comparative distance as under the law, but have freedom of access through the opened veil, that is, Christ's flesh; hence he warns them of the danger of apostasy, to which Jewish converts were tempted, when they saw Christians persecuted, while Judaism was tolerated by the Roman authorities. He infers the obligations to a life of faith, of which, even in the less perfect Old Testament dispensation, the Jewish history contained bright examples. He concludes in the usual Pauline mode, with practical exhortations and pious prayers for them.
HIS MODE OF ADDRESS is in it hortatory rather than commanding, just as we might have expected from Paul addressing the Jews. He does not write to the rulers of the Jewish Christians, for in fact there was no exclusively Jewish Church; and his Epistle, though primarily addressed to the Palestinian Jews, was intended to include the Hebrews of all adjoining churches. He inculcates obedience and respect in relation to their rulers ( Heb 13:7, 17, 24); a tacit obviating of the objection that he was by writing this Epistle interfering with the prerogative of Peter the apostle of the circumcision, and James the bishop of Jerusalem. Hence arises his gentle and delicate mode of dealing with them ( Heb 13:22). So far from being surprised at discrepancy of style between an Epistle to Hebrews and Epistles to Gentile Christians, it is just what we should expect. The Holy Spirit guided him to choose means best suited to the nature of the ends aimed at. WORDSWORTH notices a peculiar Pauline Greek construction, Ro 12:9, literally, "Let your love be without dissimulation, ye abhorring . . . evil, cleaving to . . . good," which is found nowhere else save Heb 13:5, literally, "Let your conversation be without covetousness, ye being content with," &c. (a noun singular feminine nominative absolute, suddenly passing into a participle masculine nominative plural absolute). So in quoting Old Testament Scripture, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes it as a Jew writing to Jews would, "God spoke to our fathers," not, "it is written." So Heb 13:18, "We trust we have a good conscience" is an altogether Pauline sentiment ( Ac 23:1; 24:16; 2Co 1:12; 4:2; 2Ti 1:3). Though he has not prefixed his name, he has given at the close his universal token to identify him, namely, his apostolic salutation, "Grace be with you all"; this "salutation with his own hand" he declared ( 2Th 3:17, 18) to be "his token in every Epistle": so 1Co 16:21, 23; Col 4:18. The same prayer of greeting closes every one of his Epistles, and is not found in any one of the Epistles of the other apostles written in Paul's lifetime; but it is found in the last book of the New Testament Revelation, and subsequently in the Epistle of CLEMENT OF ROME. This proves that, by whomsoever the body of the Epistle was committed to writing (whether a mere amanuensis writing by dictation, or a companion of Paul by the Spirit's gift of interpreting tongues, 1Co 12:10, transfusing Paul's Spirit-taught sentiments into his own Spirit-guided diction), Paul at the close sets his seal to the whole as really his, and sanctioned by him as such. The churches of the East, and Jerusalem, their center, to which quarter it was first sent, received it as Paul's from the earliest times according to Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem ( A.D. 349). JEROME, though bringing with him from Rome the prejudices of the Latins against the Epistle to the Hebrews, aggravated, doubtless, by its seeming sanction of the Novatian heresy ( Heb 6:4-6), was constrained by the force of facts to receive it as Paul's, on the almost unanimous testimony of all Greek Christians from the earliest times; and was probably the main instrument in correcting the past error of Rome in rejecting it. The testimony of the Alexandrian Church is peculiarly valuable, for it was founded by Mark, who was with Paul at Rome in his first confinement, when this Epistle seems to have been written ( Col 4:10), and who possibly was the bearer of this Epistle, at the same time visiting Colosse on the way to Jerusalem (where Mark's mother lived), and thence to Alexandria. Moreover, 2Pe 3:15, 16, written shortly before Peter's death, and like his first Epistle written by him, "the apostle of the circumcision," to the "Hebrew" Christians dispersed in the East, says, "As our beloved brother Paul hath written unto you" ( 2Pe 3:15), that is, to the Hebrews; also the words added, "As also in all his Epistles" ( 2Pe 3:16), distinguish the Epistle to the Hebrews from the rest; then he further speaks of it as on a level with "other Scriptures," thus asserting at once its Pauline authorship and divine inspiration. An interesting illustration of the power of Christian faith and love; Peter, who had been openly rebuked by Paul ( Ga 2:7-14), fully adopted what Paul wrote; there was no difference in the Gospel of the apostle of the circumcision and that of the apostle of the uncircumcision. It strikingly shows God's sovereignty that He chose as the instrument to confirm the Hebrews, Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles ( Ro 11:13); and on the other hand, Peter to open the Gospel door to the Gentiles ( Ac 10:1, &c.), though being the apostle of the Jews; thus perfect unity reigns amidst the diversity of agencies.
Rome, in the person of CLEMENT OF ROME, originally received this Epistle. Then followed a period in which it ceased to be received by the Roman churches. Then, in the fourth century, Rome retracted her error. A plain proof she is not unchangeable or infallible. As far as Rome is concerned, the Epistle to the Hebrews was not only lost for three centuries, but never would have been recovered at all but for the Eastern churches; it is therefore a happy thing for Christendom that Rome is not the Catholic Church.
It plainly was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, which would have been mentioned in the Epistle had that event gone before, compare Heb 13:10; and probably to churches in which the Jewish members were the more numerous, as those in Judea, and perhaps Alexandria. In the latter city were the greatest number of resident Jews next to Jerusalem. In Leontopolis, in Egypt, was another temple, with the arrangements of which, WIESELER thinks the notices in this Epistle more nearly corresponded than with those in Jerusalem. It was from Alexandria that the Epistle appears first to have come to the knowledge of Christendom. Moreover, "the Epistle to the Alexandrians," mentioned in the Canon of Muratori, may possibly be this Epistle to the Hebrews. He addresses the Jews as peculiarly "the people of God" ( Heb 2:17; 4:9; 13:12), "the seed of Abraham," that is, as the primary stock on which Gentile believers are grafted, to which Ro 11:16-24 corresponds; but he urges them to come out of the carnal earthly Jerusalem and to realize their spiritual union to "the heavenly Jerusalem" ( Heb 12:18-23; 13:13).
The use of Greek rather than Hebrew is doubtless due to the Epistle being intended, not merely for the Hebrew, but for the Hellenistic Jew converts, not only in Palestine, but elsewhere; a view confirmed by the use of the Septuagint. BENGEL thinks, probably (compare 2Pe 3:15, 16, explained above), the Jews primarily, though not exclusively, addressed, were those who had left Jerusalem on account of the war and were settled in Asia Minor.
The notion of its having been originally in Hebrew arose probably from its Hebrew tone, method, and topics. It is reckoned among the Epistles, not at first generally acknowledged, along with James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Jude, and Revelation. A beautiful link exists between these Epistles and the universally acknowledged Epistles. Hebrews unites the ordinances of Leviticus with their antitypical Gospel fulfilment. James is the link between the highest doctrines of Christianity and the universal law of moral duty--a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount--harmonizing the decalogue law of Moses, and the revelation to Job and Elias, with the Christian law of liberty. Second Peter links the teaching of Peter with that of Paul. Jude links the earliest unwritten to the latest written Revelation. The two shorter Epistles to John, like Philemon, apply Christianity to the minute details of the Christian life, showing that Christianity can sanctify all earthly relations.
Heb 1:1-14. THE HIGHEST OF ALL REVELATIONS IS GIVEN US NOW IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS, AND WHO, HAVING COMPLETED REDEMPTION, SITS ENTHRONED AT GOD'S RIGHT HAND.
The writer, though not inscribing his name, was well known to those addressed ( Heb 13:19). For proofs of Paul being the author, see my Introduction. In the Pauline method, the statement of subject and the division are put before the discussion; and at the close, the practical follows the doctrinal portion. The ardor of Spirit in this Epistle, as in First John, bursting forth at once into the subject (without prefatory inscription of name and greeting), the more effectively strikes the hearers. The date must have been while the temple was yet standing, before its destruction, A.D. 70; some time before the martyrdom of Peter, who mentions this Epistle of Paul ( 2Pe 3:15, 16); at a time when many of the first hearers of the Lord were dead.
1. at sundry times--Greek, "in many
portions." All was not revealed to each one prophet;
but one received one portion of revelation, and another
another. To Noah the quarter of the world to which Messiah
should belong was revealed; to Abraham, the nation; to
Jacob, the tribe; to David and Isaiah, the family; to
Micah, the town of nativity; to Daniel, the exact time; to
Malachi, the coming of His forerunner, and His second
advent; through Jonah, His burial and resurrection; through
Isaiah and Hosea, His resurrection. Each only knew in part;
but when that which was perfect came in Messiah, that which
was in part was done away (
1Co 13:12).
in divers manners--for example,
internal suggestions, audible voices, the Urim and Thummim,
dreams, and visions. "In one way He was seen by
Abraham, in another by Moses, in another by Elias, and in
another by Micah; Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, beheld
different forms" [THEODORET]. (Compare
Nu 12:6-8). The Old Testament revelations were
fragmentary in substance, and manifold in form; the very
multitude of prophets shows that they prophesied
only in part. In Christ, the revelation of God is
full, not in shifting hues of separated color, but Himself
the pure light, uniting in His one person the whole
spectrum (
Heb 1:3).
spake--the expression usual for a Jew
to employ in addressing Jews. So Matthew, a Jew writing
especially for Jews, quotes Scripture, not by the formula,
"It is written," but "said,"
&c.
in time past--From Malachi, the last
of the Old Testament prophets, for four hundred years,
there had arisen no prophet, in order that the Son might be
the more an object of expectation [B ENGEL]. As God (the
Father) is introduced as having spoken here; so God
the Son,
Heb 2:3; God the Holy Ghost,
Heb 3:7.
the fathers--the Jewish fathers. The
Jews of former days (
1Co 10:1).
by--Greek, "in." A
mortal king speaks by his ambassador, not (as the
King of kings) in his ambassador. The Son is the
last and highest manifestation of God (
Mt 21:34, 37); not merely a measure, as in the
prophets, but the fulness of the Spirit of God dwelling in
Him bodily (
Joh 1:16; 3:34; Col 2:9). Thus he answers the Jewish
objection drawn from their prophets. Jesus is the end of
all prophecy (
Re 19:10), and of the law of Moses (
Joh 1:17; 5:46).
2. in these last days--In the oldest manuscripts the
Greek is. "At the last part of these days."
The Rabbins divided the whole of time into "this
age," or "world," and "the age to
come" (
Heb 2:5; 6:5). The days of Messiah were the transition
period or "last part of these days" (in contrast
to "in times past"), the close of the existing
dispensation, and beginning of the final dispensation of
which Christ's second coming shall be the crowning
consummation.
by his Son--Greek,
"IN (His) Son" (
Joh 14:10). The true "Prophet" of God.
"His majesty is set forth: (1) Absolutely by
the very name "Son," and by three glorious
predicates, "whom He hath appointed," "by
whom He made the worlds," "who sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high;" thus His course is
described from the beginning of all things till he reached
the goal (
Heb 1:2, 3). (2) Relatively, in comparison with
the angels,
Heb 1:4; the confirmation of this follows, and
the very name "Son" is proved at
Heb 1:5; the "heirship,"
Heb 1:6-9; the "making the worlds,"
Heb 1:10-12; the "sitting at the right hand"
of God,
Heb 1:13, 14." His being made heir follows
His sonship, and preceded His making the
worlds (
Pr 8:22, 23; Eph 3:11). As the first begotten,
He is heir of the universe (
Heb 1:6), which He made instrumentally,
Heb 11:3, where "by the Word of God" answers
to "by whom"' (the Son of God) here (
Joh 1:3). Christ was "appointed" (in
God's eternal counsel) to creation as an office; and
the universe so created was assigned to Him as a kingdom.
He is "heir of all things" by right of creation,
and especially by right of redemption. The promise to
Abraham that he should be heir of the world had its
fulfilment, and will have it still more fully, in Christ
(
Ro 4:13; Ga 3:16; 4:7).
worlds--the inferior and the superior
worlds (
Col 1:16). Literally, "ages" with all things
and persons belonging to them; the universe, including all
space and ages of time, and all material and spiritual
existences. The Greek implies, He not only appointed
His Son heir of all things before creation, but He
also (better than "also He") made by Him the
worlds.
3. Who being--by pre-existent and essential being.
brightness of his glory--Greek,
the effulgence of His glory. "Light of (from)
light" [Nicene Creed]. "Who is so
senseless as to doubt concerning the eternal being of the
Son? For when has one seen light without effulgence?"
[ATHANASIUS, Against Arius, Orations, 2]. "The
sun is never seen without effulgence, nor the Father
without the Son" [THEOPHYLACT]. It is because
He is the brightness, &c., and because He
upholds, &c., that He sat down on the right
hand, &c. It was a return to His divine glory (
Joh 6:62; 17:5; compare Wisdom 7:25, 26, where
similar things are said of wisdom).
express image--"impress."
But veiled in the flesh.
The Sun of God in glory beams Too bright for us to scan; But we can face the light that streams For the mild Son of man. ( 2Co 3:18) |
of his person--Greek, "of His substantial
essence"; "hypostasis."
upholding all things--Greek,
"the universe." Compare
Col 1:15, 17, 20, which enumerates the three facts in
the same order as here.
by the word--Therefore the Son of God
is a Person; for He has the word [BENGEL]. His word
is God's word (
Heb 11:3).
of his power--"The word" is
the utterance which comes from His (the Son's) power,
and gives expression to it.
by himself--omitted in the oldest
manuscripts.
purged--Greek, "made
purification of . . . sins," namely, in
His atonement, which graciously covers the guilt of sin.
"Our" is omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Sin
was the great uncleanness in God's sight, of
which He has effected the purgation by His sacrifice
[ALFORD]. Our nature, as guilt-laden, could not, without
our great High Priest's blood of atonement sprinkling
the heavenly mercy seat, come into immediate contact with
God. EBRARD says, "The mediation between man and God,
who was present in the Most Holy Place, was revealed in
three forms: (1) In sacrifices (typical propitiations for
guilt); (2) In the priesthood (the agents of those
sacrifices); (3) In the Levitical laws of purity (Levitical
purity being attained by sacrifice positively, by avoidance
of Levitical pollution negatively, the people being thus
enabled to come into the presence of God without dying,
De 5:26)" (
Le 16:1-34).
sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high--fulfilling
Ps 110:1. This sitting of the Son at God's fight
hand was by the act of the Father (
Heb 8:1; Eph 1:20); it is never used of His
pre-existing state co-equal with the Father, but always of
His exalted state as Son of man after His sufferings, and
as Mediator for man in the presence of God (
Ro 8:34): a relation towards God and us about to come
to an end when its object has been accomplished (
1Co 15:28).
4. Being made . . . better--by His exaltation by
the Father (
Heb 1:3, 13): in contrast to His being "made lower
than the angels" (
Heb 2:9). "Better," that is, superior
to. As "being" (
Heb 1:3) expresses His essential being so "being
made" (
Heb 7:26) marks what He became in His assumed manhood
(
Php 2:6-9). Paul shows that His humbled form (at which
the Jews might stumble) is no objection to His divine
Messiahship. As the law was given by the ministration of
angels and Moses, it was inferior to the Gospel given by
the divine Son, who both is (
Heb 1:4-14) as God, and has been made, as the exalted
Son of man (
Heb 2:5-18), much better than the angels. The
manifestations of God by angels (and even by the angel of
the covenant) at different times in the Old Testament, did
not bring man and God into personal union, as the
manifestation of God in human flesh does.
by inheritance obtained--He always had
the thing itself, namely, Sonship; but
He "obtained by inheritance," according to
the promise of the Father, the name "Son,"
whereby He is made known to men and angels. He is "the
Son of God" is a sense far exalted above that in which
angels are called "sons of God" (
Job 1:6; 38:7). "The fulness of the glory of the
peculiar name "the Son of God," is unattainable
by human speech or thought. All appellations are but
fragments of its glory beams united in it as in a central
sun,
Re 19:12. A name that no than knew but He
Himself."
5. For--substantiating His having "obtained a more
excellent name than the angels."
unto which--A frequent argument in
this Epistle is derived from the silence of
Scripture (
Heb 1:13; Heb 2:16; 7:3, 14) [BENGEL].
this day have I begotten thee-- (
Ps 2:7). Fulfilled at the resurrection of Jesus,
whereby the Father "declared," that is, made
manifest His divine Sonship, heretofore veiled by His
humiliation (
Ac 13:33; Ro 1:4). Christ has a fourfold right to the
title "Son of God"; (1) By generation, as
begotten of God; (2) By commission, as sent by God;
(3) By resurrection, as "the first-begotten of
the dead" (compare
Lu 20:36; Ro 1:4; Re 1:5); (4) By actual
possession, as heir of all [BISHOP PEARSON]. The Psalm
here quoted applied primarily in a less full sense to
Solomon, of whom God promised by Nathan to David. "I
will be his father and he shall be my son." But as the
whole theocracy was of Messianic import, the triumph of
David over Hadadezer and neighboring kings (
2Sa 8:1-18; Ps 2:2, 3, 9-12) is a type of God's
ultimately subduing all enemies under His Son, whom He sets
(Hebrew, "anointed,"
Ps 2:6) on His "holy hill of Zion," as King
of the Jews and of the whole earth. the antitype to
Solomon, son of David. The "I" in Greek is
emphatic; I the Everlasting Father have begotten
Thee this day, that is, on this day, the day of Thy being
manifested as My Son, "the first-begotten of
the dead" (
Col 1:18; Re 1:5). when Thou hast ransomed and opened
heaven to Thy people. He had been always Son, but now first
was manifested as such in His once humbled, now exalted
manhood united to His Godhead. ALFORD refers "this
day" to the eternal generation of the Son: the
day in which the Son was begotten by the Father is an
everlasting to-day: there never was a yesterday or
past time to Him, nor a to-morrow or future time:
"Nothing there is to come, and nothing past, but an
eternal NOW doth ever last" (
Pr 30:4; Joh 10:30, 38; 16:28; 17:8). The communication
of the divine essence in its fulness, involves eternal
generation; for the divine essence has no beginning. But
the context refers to a definite point of time, namely,
that of His having entered on the inheritance (
Heb 1:4). The "bringing the first-begotten into
the world" (
Heb 1:6), is not subsequent, as ALFORD thinks, to
Heb 1:5, but anterior to it (compare
Ac 2:30-35).
6. And--Greek, "But." Not only this proves
His superiority, BUT a more decisive proof is
Ps 97:7, which shows that not only at His resurrection,
but also in prospect of His being brought into the
world (compare
Heb 9:11; 10:5) as man, in His incarnation, nativity
(
Lu 2:9-14), temptation (
Mt 4:10, 11), resurrection (
Mt 28:2), and future second advent in glory, angels
were designed by God to be subject to Him. Compare
1Ti 3:16, "seen of angels"; God manifesting
Messiah as one to be gazed at with adoring love by heavenly
intelligences (
Eph 3:10; 2Th 1:9, 10; 1Pe 3:22). The fullest
realization of His Lordship shall be at His second coming
(
Ps 97:7; 1Co 15:24, 25; Php 2:9). "Worship Him all
ye gods" ("gods," that is, exalted
beings, as angels), refers to God; but it
was universally admitted among the Hebrews that God would
dwell, in a peculiar sense, in Messiah (so as to be in the
Talmud phrase, "capable of being pointed to with the
finger"); and so what was said of God was true of, and
to be fulfilled in, Messiah. KIMCHI says that the
ninety-third through the hundred first Psalms contain in
them the mystery of Messiah. God ruled the theocracy in and
through Him.
the world--subject to Christ (
Heb 2:5). As "the first-begotten" He has the
rights of primogeniture (
Ro 8:29);
Col 1:15, 16, 18). In
De 32:43, the Septuagint has, "Let all the
angels of God worship Him," words not now found in the
Hebrew. This passage of the Septuagint may
have been in Paul's mind as to the form, but the
substance is taken from
Ps 97:7. The type David, in the
Ps 89:27 (quoted in
Heb 1:5), is called "God's first-born,
higher than the kings of the earth"; so the
antitypical first-begotten, the son of David, is to be
worshipped by all inferior lords, such as
angels ("gods,"
Ps 97:7); for He is "King of kings and Lord of
lords" (
Re 19:16). In the Greek, "again" is
transposed; but this does not oblige us, as ALFORD thinks,
to translate, "when He again shall have
introduced," &c., namely, at Christ's
second coming; for there is no previous mention of a
first bringing in; and "again" is often used
in quotations, not to be joined with the verb, but
parenthetically ("that I may again quote
Scripture"). English Version is correct
(compare
Mt 5:33; Greek,
Joh 12:39).
7. of--The Greek is rather, "In reference TO
the angels."
spirits--or "winds": Who
employeth His angels as the winds, His ministers as the
lightnings; or, He maketh His angelic ministers the
directing powers of winds and flames, when these latter are
required to perform His will. "Commissions them to
assume the agency or form of flames for His purposes"
[ALFORD]. English Version, "maketh His angels
spirits," means, He maketh them of a subtle,
incorporeal nature, swift as the wind. So
Ps 18:10, "a cherub . . . the
wings of the wind."
Heb 1:14, "ministering spirits,"
favors English Version here. As "spirits"
implies the wind-like velocity and subtle nature of the
cherubim, so "flame of fire" expresses the
burning devotion and intense all-consuming zeal of the
adoring seraphim (meaning "burning),
Isa 6:1. The translation, "maketh winds His
messengers, and a flame of fire His ministers
(!)," is plainly wrong. In the
Ps 104:3, 4, the subject in each clause comes first,
and the attribute predicated of it second; so the
Greek article here marks "angels" and
"ministers" as the subjects, and
"winds" and "flame of fire,"
predicates, Schemoth Rabba says, "God is called
God of Zebaoth (the heavenly hosts), because He does what
He pleases with His angels. When He pleases, He makes them
to sit (
Jud 6:11); at other times to stand (
Isa 6:2); at times to resemble women (
Zec 5:9); at other times to resemble men (
Ge 18:2); at times He makes them 'spirits'; at
times, fire." "Maketh" implies that, however
exalted, they are but creatures, whereas the Son is the
Creator (
Heb 1:10): not begotten from everlasting, nor to
be worshipped, as the Son (
Re 14:7; 22:8, 9).
8. O God--the Greek has the article to mark emphasis
(
Ps 45:6, 7).
for ever . . .
righteousness--Everlasting duration and
righteousness go together (
Ps 45:2; 89:14).
a sceptre of righteousness--literally,
"a rod of rectitude," or
"straightforwardness." The oldest manuscripts
prefix "and" (compare
Es 4:11).
9. iniquity--"unnrighteousness." Some oldest
manuscripts read, "lawlessness."
therefore--because God loves
righteousness and hates iniquity.
God . . . thy God--JEROME,
AUGUSTINE, and others translate
Ps 45:7, "O God, Thy God, hath anointed
thee," whereby Christ is addressed as God. This is
probably the true translation of the Hebrew there,
and also of the Greek of Hebrews here; for it is
likely the Son is addressed, "O God," as in
Heb 1:8. The anointing here meant is not that at
His baptism, when He solemnly entered on His ministry for
us; but that with the "oil of gladness," or
"exulting joy" (which denotes a triumph,
and follows as the consequence of His manifested love of
righteousness and hatred of iniquity),
wherewith, after His triumphant completion of His work, He
has been anointed by the Father above His fellows (not only
above us, His fellow men, the adopted members of God's
family, whom "He is not ashamed to call His
brethren," but above the angels, fellow partakers in
part with Him, though infinitely His inferiors, in the
glories, holiness, and joys of heaven; "sons of
God," and angel "messengers," though
subordinate to the divine Angel--"Messenger of the
covenant"). Thus He is antitype to Solomon,
"chosen of all David's many sons to sit upon the
throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel," even
as His father David was chosen before all the house of his
father's sons. The image is drawn from the custom of
anointing guests at feasts (
Ps 23:5); or rather of anointing kings: not until His
ascension did He assume the kingdom as Son of man. A
fuller accomplishment is yet to be, when He shall be
VISIBLY the anointed King over the whole earth (set by the
Father) on His holy hill of Zion,
Ps 2:6, 8. So David, His type, was first anointed at
Bethlehem (
1Sa 16:13; Ps 89:20); and yet again at Hebron, first
over Judah (
2Sa 2:4), then over all Israel (
2Sa 5:3); not till the death of Saul did he enter on
his actual kingdom; as it was not till after Christ's
death that the Father set Him at His right hand far above
all principalities (
Eph 1:20, 21). The
forty-fifth Psalm in its first meaning was addressed to
Solomon; but the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to use
language which in its fulness can only apply to the
antitypical Solomon, the true Royal Head of the theocracy.
10. And--In another passage (
Ps 102:25-27) He says.
in the beginning--English
Version,
Ps 102:25, "of old": Hebrew,
"before," "aforetime." The
Septuagint, "in the beginning" (as in
Ge 1:1) answers by contrast to the end implied
in "They shall perish," &c. The Greek
order here (not in the Septuagint) is, "Thou in
the beginning, O Lord," which throws the
"Lord" into emphasis. "Christ is preached
even in passages where many might contend that the Father
was principally intended" [BENGEL].
laid the foundation
of--"firmly founded" is included in the
idea of the Greek.
heavens--plural: not merely one, but
manifold, and including various orders of heavenly
intelligences (
Eph 4:10).
works of thine hands--the heavens, as
a woven veil or curtain spread out.
11. They--The earth and the heavens in their present state
and form "shall perish" (
Heb 12:26, 27; 2Pe 3:13). "Perish" does not
mean annihilation; just as it did not mean so in the
case of "the world that being overflowed with water,
perished" under Noah (
2Pe 3:6). The covenant of the possession of the earth
was renewed with Noah and his seed on the renovated earth.
So it shall be after the perishing by fire (
2Pe 3:12, 13).
remainest--through (so the
Greek) all changes.
as . . . a garment-- (
Isa 51:6).
12. vesture--Greek, "an enwrapping
cloak."
fold them up--So the
Septuagint,
Ps 102:26; but the Hebrew, "change
them." The Spirit, by Paul, treats the Hebrew
of the Old Testament, with independence of handling,
presenting the divine truth in various aspects; sometimes
as here sanctioning the Septuagint (compare
Isa 34:4; Re 6:14); sometimes the Hebrew;
sometimes varying from both.
changed--as one lays aside a garment
to put on another.
thou art the same-- (
Isa 46:4; Mal 3:6). The same in nature, therefore in
covenant faithfulness to Thy people.
shall not fail--Hebrew,
"shall not end." Israel, in the Babylonian
captivity, in the hundred second Psalm, casts her hopes of
deliverance on Messiah, the unchanging covenant God of
Israel.
13. Quotation from Ps 110:1. The image is taken from the custom of conquerors putting the feet on the necks of the conquered ( Jos 10:24, 25).
14. ministering spirits--referring to
Heb 1:7, "spirits . . . ministers."
They are incorporeal spirits, as God is, but
ministering to Him as inferiors.
sent forth--present participle:
"being sent forth" continually, as their
regular service in all ages.
to minister--Greek, "unto
(that is, 'for') ministry."
for them--Greek, "on
account of the." Angels are sent forth on
ministrations to God and Christ, not primarily to men,
though for the good of "those who are about to
inherit salvation" (so the Greek): the elect,
who believe, or shall believe, for whom all things, angels
included, work together for good (
Ro 8:28). Angels' ministrations are not properly
rendered to men, since the latter have no power of
commanding them, though their ministrations to God are
often directed to the good of men. So the superiority of
the Son of God to angels is shown. They "all,"
how ever various their ranks, "minister"; He is
ministered to. They "stand" (
Lu 1:19) before God, or are "sent
forth" to execute the divine commands on behalf of
them whom He pleases to save; He "sits on the
right hand of the Majesty on high" (
Heb 1:3, 13). He rules; they serve.
Heb 2:1-18. DANGER OF NEGLECTING SO GREAT SALVATION, FIRST SPOKEN BY CHRIST; TO WHOM, NOT TO ANGELS, THE NEW DISPENSATION WAS SUBJECTED; THOUGH HE WAS FOR A TIME HUMBLED BELOW THE ANGELS: THIS HUMILIATION TOOK PLACE BY DIVINE NECESSITY FOR OUR SALVATION.
1. Therefore--Because Christ the Mediator of the new
covenant is so far (
Heb 1:5-14) above all angels, the mediators of the old
covenant.
the more earnest--Greek,
"the more abundantly."
heard--spoken by God (
Heb 1:1); and by the Lord (
Heb 2:3).
let them slip--literally "flow
past them" (
Heb 4:1).
2. (Compare
Heb 2:3.) Argument a fortiori.
spoken by angels--the Mosaic law
spoken by the ministration of angels (
De 33:2; Ps 68:17; Ac 7:53; Ga 3:19). When it is said,
Ex 20:1, "God spake," it is meant He spake by
angels as His mouthpiece, or at least angels repeating in
unison with His voice the words of the Decalogue; whereas
the Gospel was first spoken by the Lord alone.
was steadfast--Greek,
"was made steadfast," or
"confirmed": was enforced by penalties on those
violating it.
transgression--by doing evil;
literally, overstepping its bounds: a positive
violation of it.
disobedience--by neglecting to do
good: a negative violation of it.
recompense-- (
De 32:35).
3. we--who have received the message of salvation so
clearly delivered to us (compare
Heb 12:25).
so great salvation--embodied in Jesus,
whose very name means "salvation," including not
only deliverance from foes and from death, and the grant of
temporal blessings (which the law promised to the
obedient), but also grace of the Spirit, forgiveness of
sins, and the promise of heaven, glory, and eternal life
(
Heb 2:10).
which--"inasmuch as it is
a salvation which began," &c.
spoken by the Lord--as the instrument
of proclaiming it. Not as the law, spoken by the
instrumentality of angels (
Heb 2:2). Both law and Gospel came from God; the
difference here referred to lay in the
instrumentality by which each respectively was
promulgated (compare
Heb 2:5). Angels recognize Him as "the Lord"
(
Mt 28:6; Lu 2:11).
confirmed unto us--not by penalties,
as the law was confirmed, but by spiritual gifts (
Heb 2:4).
by them that heard
him--(Compare
Lu 1:2). Though Paul had a special and independent
revelation of Christ (
Ga 1:16, 17, 19), yet he classes himself with those
Jews whom he addresses, "unto us"; for like them
in many particulars (for example, the agony in Gethsemane,
Heb 5:7), he was dependent for autoptic information on
the twelve apostles. So the discourses of Jesus, for
example, the Sermon on the Mount, and the first
proclamation of the Gospel kingdom by the Lord (
Mt 4:17), he could only know by the report of the
Twelve: so the saying, "It is more blessed to give
than to receive" (
Ac 20:35). Paul mentions what they had heard,
rather than what they had seen, conformably with
what he began with,
Heb 1:1, 2, "spake . . . spoken."
Appropriately also in his Epistles to Gentiles, he dwells
on his independent call to the apostleship of the Gentiles;
in his Epistle to the Hebrews, he appeals to the apostles
who had been long with the Lord (compare
Ac 1:21; 10:41): so in his sermon to the Jews in
Antioch of Pisidia (
Ac 13:31); and "he only appeals to the testimony
of these apostles in a general way, in order that he may
bring the Hebrews to the Lord alone" [BENGEL], not to
become partisans of particular apostles, as Peter, the
apostle of the circumcision, and James, the bishop of
Jerusalem. This verse implies that the Hebrews of the
churches of Palestine and Syria (or those of them
dispersed in Asia Minor [BENGEL],
1Pe 1:1, or in Alexandria) were primarily addressed in
this Epistle; for of none so well could it be said, the
Gospel was confirmed to them by the immediate hearers of
the Lord: the past tense, "was confirmed,"
implies some little time had elapsed since this
testification by eye-witnesses.
4. them--rather, "God also [as well as Christ,
Heb 2:3] bearing witness to it," &c., joining
in attestation of it."
signs and wonders--performed by Christ
and His apostles. "Signs" and miracles, or other
facts regarded as proofs of a divine mission;
"wonders" are miracles viewed as prodigies,
causing astonishment (
Ac 2:22, 33); "powers" are miracles viewed as
evidences of superhuman power.
divers miracles--Greek,
"varied (miraculous) powers" (
2Co 12:12) granted to the apostles after the
ascension.
gifts, &c.--Greek,
"distributions." The gift of the Holy Spirit was
given to Christ without measure (
Joh 3:34), but to us it is distributed in various
measures and operations (
Ro 12:3, 6, &c.; 1Co 12:4-11).
according to his own will--God's
free and sovereign will, assigning one gift of the Spirit
to one, another to another (
Ac 5:32; Eph 1:5).
5. For--confirming the assertion,
Heb 2:2, 3, that the new covenant was spoken by One
higher than the mediators of the old covenant, namely,
angels. Translate in the Greek order, to bring out
the proper emphasis, "Not the angels hath He,"
&c.
the world to come--implying, He
has subjected to angels the existing world, the
Old Testament dispensation (then still partly existing as
to its framework),
Heb 2:2, the political kingdom of the earth (
Da 4:13; 10:13, 20, 21; 12:1), and the natural elements
(
Re 9:11; 16:4). and even individuals (
Mt 18:10). "The world to come" is the new
dispensation brought in by Christ, beginning in grace here,
to be completed in glory hereafter. It is called "to
come," or "about to be," as at the time of
its being subjected to Christ by the divine decree, it was
as yet a thing of the future, and is still so to us, in
respect to its full consummation. In respect to the
subjecting of all things to Christ in fulfilment of
Ps 8:1-9, the realization is still "to come."
Regarded from the Old Testament standpoint, which looks
prophetically forward to the New Testament (and the Jewish
priesthood and Old Testament ritual were in force then when
Paul wrote, and continued till their forcible abrogation by
the destruction of Jerusalem), it is "the world to
come"; Paul, as addressing Jews, appropriately calls
it so, according to their conventional way of viewing it.
We, like them, still pray, "Thy kingdom come";
for its manifestation in glory is yet future.
"This world" is used in contrast to express the
present fallen condition of the world (
Eph 2:2). Believers belong not to this present world
course, but by faith rise in spirit to "the world to
come," making it a present, though internal. reality.
Still, in the present world, natural and social, angels are
mediately rulers under God in some sense: not so in the
coming world: man in it, and the Son of man, man's
Head, are to be supreme. Hence greater reverence was paid
to angels by men in the Old Testament than is permitted in
the New Testament. For man's nature is exalted in
Christ now, so that angels are our "fellow
servants" (
Re 22:9). In their ministrations they stand on a
different footing from that on which they stood towards us
in the Old Testament. We are "brethren" of Christ
in a nearness not enjoyed even by angels (
Heb 2:10-12, 16).
6. But--It is not to angels the Gospel kingdom is subject,
BUT . . .
one . . . testified--the
usual way of quoting Scripture to readers familiar with it.
Ps 8:5-7 praises Jehovah for exalting MAN, so as to
subject all the works of God on earth to him: this dignity
having been lost by the first Adam, is realized only in
Christ the Son of man, the Representative Man and Head of
our redeemed race. Thus Paul proves that it is to MAN, not
to angels, that God has subjected the "world to
come." In
Heb 2:6-8, MAN is spoken of in general
("him . . . him . . . his); then
at
Heb 2:9, first JESUS is introduced as fulfilling, as
man, all the conditions of the prophecy, and passing
through death Himself; and so consequently bringing us men,
His "brethren," to "glory and
honor."
What, &c.--How insignificant in
himself, yet how exalted by God's grace! (Compare
Ps 144:3). The Hebrew, "Enosh"
and "Ben-Adam," express "man"
and "Son of man" in his weakness: "Son of
man" is here used of any and every child of
man: unlike, seemingly, the lord of creation, such as
he was originally (
Ge 1:1-2:25), and such as he is designed to be (
Ps 8:1-9), and such as he actually is by title and
shall hereafter more fully be in the person of, and in
union with, Jesus, pre-eminently the Son of man (
Heb 2:9).
art mindful--as of one absent.
visitest--lookest after him, as
one present.
7. a little--not as BENGEL, "a little
time."
than the angels--Hebrew,
"than God," "Elohim," that is,
the abstract qualities of God, such as angels
possess in an inferior form; namely, heavenly, spiritual,
incorporeal natures. Man, in his original creation, was set
next beneath them. So the man Jesus, though Lord of angels,
when He emptied Himself of the externals of His Divinity
(see on Php 2:6, 7), was in
His human nature "a little lower than the
angels"; though this is not the primary reference
here, but man in general.
crownedst him with glory and
honour--as the appointed kingly vicegerent of God over this
earth (
Ge 1:1-2:25).
and didst set him over the works of
thy hands--omitted in some of the oldest manuscripts; but
read by others and by oldest versions: so
Ps 8:6, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands."
8. (
1Co 15:27.)
For in that--that is, "For in
that" God saith in the eighth Psalm, "He
put the all things (so the Greek, the all things
just mentioned) in subjection under him (man), He left
nothing . . . As no limitation occurs in the
sacred writing, the "all things" must include
heavenly, as well as earthly things (compare
1Co 3:21, 22).
But now--As things now are, we see not
yet the all things put under man.
9. But--We see not man as yet exercising lordship
over all things, "but rather, Him who was made
a little lower than the angels (compare
Lu 22:43), we behold (by faith: a different
Greek verb from that for 'we see,'
Heb 2:8, which expresses the impression which our eyes
passively receive from objects around us; whereas,
'we behold,' or 'look at,' implies the
direction and intention of one
deliberately regarding something which he tries to see:
so
Heb 3:19; 10:25, Greek), namely, Jesus, on
account of His suffering of death, crowned," &c.
He is already crowned, though unseen by us, save by faith;
hereafter all things shall be subjected to Him visibly and
fully. The ground of His exaltation is "on accoumt of
His having suffered death" (
Heb 2:10; Php 2:8, 9).
that he by the grace of God-- (
Tit 2:11; 3:4). The reading of ORIGEN, "That He
without God" (laying aside His Divinity;
or, for every being save God: or perhaps alluding to
His having been temporarily "forsaken," as the
Sin-bearer, by the Father on the cross), is not supported
by the manuscripts. The "that," &c., is
connected with "crowned with glory," &c.,
thus: His exaltation after sufferings is the
perfecting or consummation of His work (
Heb 2:10) for us: without it His death would have been
ineffectual; with it, and from it, flows the result that
His tasting of death is available for (in behalf of,
for the good of) every man. He is crowned as the
Head in heaven of our common humanity, presenting His blood
as the all-prevailing plea for us. This coronation above
makes His death applicable for every individual
man (observe the singular; not merely "for all
men"),
Heb 4:14; 9:24; 1Jo 2:2. "Taste death"
implies His personal experimental undergoing of death:
death of the body, and death (spiritually) of the soul, in
His being forsaken of the Father. "As a physician
first tastes his medicines to encourage his sick patient to
take them, so Christ, when all men feared death, in order
to persuade them to be bold in meeting it, tasted it
Himself, though He had no need" [CHRYSOSTOM]. (
Heb 2:14, 15).
10. For--giving a reason why "the grace of God"
required that Jesus "should taste death."
it became him--The whole plan was (not
only not derogatory to, but) highly becoming God,
though unbelief considers it a disgrace [BENGEL]. An
answer to the Jews, and Hebrew Christians, whosoever,
through impatience at the delay in the promised advent of
Christ's glory, were in danger of apostasy, stumbling
at Christ crucified. The Jerusalem Christians
especially were liable to this danger. This scheme of
redemption was altogether such a one as harmonizes with the
love, justice, and wisdom of God.
for whom--God the Father (
Ro 11:36; 1Co 8:6; Re 4:11). In
Col 1:16 the same is said of Christ.
all things--Greek,
"the universe of things," "the
all things." He uses for "God," the
periphrasis, "Him for whom . . . by whom are
all things," to mark the becomingness of Christ's
suffering as the way to His being "perfected" as
"Captain of our salvation," seeing that His is
the way that pleased Him whose will and whose glory are
the end of all things, and by whose operation
all things exist.
in bringing--The Greek is past,
"having brought as He did," namely, in His
electing purpose (compare "ye are
sons," namely, in His purpose,
Ga 4:6; Eph 1:4), a purpose which is accomplished in
Jesus being "perfected through sufferings."
many-- (
Mt 20:28). "The Church" (
Heb 2:12), "the general assembly" (
Heb 12:23).
sons--no longer children as
under the Old Testament law, but sons by
adoption.
unto glory--to share Christ's
"glory" (
Heb 2:9; compare
Heb 2:7; Joh 17:10, 22, 24; Ro 8:21). Sonship, holiness
(
Heb 2:11), and glory, are inseparably joined.
"Suffering," "salvation," and
"glory," in Paul's writings, often go
together (
2Ti 2:10). Salvation presupposes
destruction, deliverance from which for us required
Christ's "sufferings."
to make . . .
perfect--"to consummate"; to bring to consummated
glory through sufferings, as the appointed avenue to it.
"He who suffers for another, not only benefits him,
but becomes himself the brighter and more perfect"
[CHRYSOSTOM]. Bringing to the end of troubles, and to the
goal full of glory: a metaphor from the contests in
the public games. Compare "It is finished,"
Lu 24:26; Joh 19:30. I prefer, with CALVIN,
understanding, "to make perfect as a completed
sacrifice": legal and official, not
moral, perfection is meant: "to
consecrate" (so the same Greek is
translated
Heb 7:28; compare Margin) by the finished
expiation of His death, as our perfect High Priest, and so
our "Captain of salvation" (
Lu 13:32). This agrees with
Heb 2:11, "He that sanctifieth," that is,
consecrates them by Himself being made a consecrated
offering for them. So
Heb 10:14, 29; Joh 17:19: by the perfecting of His
consecration for them in His death, He perfects their
consecration, and so throws open access to glory (
Heb 10:19-21; Heb 5:9; 9:9 accord with this
sense).
captain of, &c.--literally,
Prince-leader: as Joshua, not Moses, led the people
into the Holy Land, so will our Joshua, or Jesus, lead us
into the heavenly inheritance (
Ac 13:39). The same Greek is in
Heb 12:2, "Author of our faith."
Ac 3:15, "Prince of life" (
Ac 5:31). Preceding others by His example, as well as
the originator of our salvation.
11. he that sanctifieth--Christ who once for all
consecrates His people to God (
Jude 1, bringing them nigh to Him as the consequence)
and everlasting glory, by having consecrated Himself for
them in His being made "perfect (as their expiatory
sacrifice) through sufferings" (
Heb 2:10; Heb 10:10, 14, 29; Joh 17:17, 19). God in His
electing love, by Christ's finished work,
perfectly sanctifies them to God's service and to
heaven once for all: then they are
progressively sanctified by the transforming Spirit
"Sanctification is glory working in embryo; glory is
sanctification come to the birth, and manifested" [A
LFORD].
they who are sanctified--Greek,
"they that are being sanctified" (compare the use
of "sanctified,"
1Co 7:14).
of one--Father, God: not in the sense
wherein He is Father of all beings, as angels; for
these are excluded by the argument (
Heb 2:16); but as He is Father of His spiritual
human sons, Christ the Head and elder Brother, and His
believing people, the members of the body and family. Thus,
this and the following verses are meant to justify his
having said, "many sons" (
Heb 2:10). "Of one" is not "of one
father Adam," or "Abraham," as BENGEL
and others suppose. For the Saviour's participation in
the lowness of our humanity is not mentioned till
Heb 2:14, and then as a consequence of what precedes.
Moreover, "Sons of God" is, in Scripture
usage, the dignity obtained by our union with Christ; and
our brotherhood with Him flows from God being
His and our Father. Christ's Sonship (by
generation) in relation to God is reflected in the sonship
(by adoption) of His brethren.
he is not ashamed--though being the
Son of God, since they have now by adoption obtained
a like dignity, so that His majesty is not compromised by
brotherhood with them (compare
Heb 11:16). It is a striking feature in Christianity
that it unites such amazing contrasts as "our brother
and our God" [THOLUCK]. "God makes of sons of men
sons of God, because God hath made of the Son of God the
Son of man" [ST. A UGUSTINE on Psalm 2].
12. (
Ps 22:22.) Messiah declares the name of the Father, not
known fully as Christ's Father, and therefore
their Father, till after His crucifixion (
Joh 20:17), among His brethren ("the Church,"
that is, the congregation), that they in turn may praise
Him (
Ps 22:23). At
Ps 22:22, which begins with Christ's cry, "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and details
minutely His sorrows, passes from Christ's sufferings
to His triumph, prefigured by the same in the experience of
David.
will I sing--as leader of the choir
(
Ps 8:2).
13. I will put my trust in him--from the Septuagint,
Isa 8:17, which immediately precedes the next
quotation, "Behold, I and the children," &c.
The only objection is the following words, "and
again," usually introduce a new quotation,
whereas these two are parts of one and the same passage.
However, this objection is not valid, as the two clauses
express distinct ideas; "I will put my trust in
Him" expresses His filial confidence in God as
His Father, to whom He flees from His sufferings, and is
not disappointed; which His believing brethren imitate,
trusting solely in the Father through Christ, and not
in their own merits. "Christ exhibited this
"trust," not for Himself, for He and the Father
are one, but for His own people" (
Heb 2:16). Each fresh aid given Him assured Him, as it
does them, of aid for the future, until the complete
victory was obtained over death and hell
Php 1:16 [BENGEL].
Behold I and the children, &c.--
(
Isa 8:18). "Sons" (
Heb 2:10), "brethren" (
Heb 2:12), and "children," imply His right
and property in them from everlasting. He speaks of them as
"children" of God, though not yet in being, yet
considered as such in His purpose, and presents them
before God the Father, who has given Him them, to be
glorified with Himself. Isaiah (meaning "salvation of
Jehovah") typically represented Messiah, who is at
once Father and Son, Isaiah and Immanuel (
Isa 9:6). He expresses his resolve to rely, he and his
children, not like Ahaz and the Jews on the Assyrian king,
against the confederacy of Pekah of Israel, and Rezin of
Syria, but on Jehovah; and then foretells the deliverance
of Judah by God, in language which finds its antitypical
full realization only in the far greater deliverance
wrought by Messiah. Christ, the antitypical Prophet,
similarly, instead of the human confidences of His age,
Himself, and with Him GOD THE FATHER'S children
(who are therefore His children, and so antitypical
to Isaiah's children, though here regarded as
His "brethren," compare
Isa 9:6; "Father" and "His
seed,"
Isa 53:10) led by Him, trust wholly in God for
salvation. The official words and acts of all the prophets
find their antitype in the Great Prophet (
Re 19:10), just as His kingly office is antitypical to
that of the theocratic kings; and His priestly office to
the types and rites of the Aaronic priesthood.
14. He who has thus been shown to be the "Captain
(Greek, 'Leader') of salvation" to the
"many sons," by trusting and
suffering like them, must therefore become man
like them, in order that His death may be efficacious for
them [A LFORD].
the children--before mentioned (
Heb 2:13); those existing in His eternal purpose,
though not in actual being.
are partakers of--literally,
"have (in His purpose) been partakers" all in
common.
flesh and blood--Greek oldest
manuscripts have "blood and flesh." The inner and
more important element, the blood, as the more
immediate vehicle of the soul, stands before the more
palpable element, the flesh; also, with reference to
Christ's blood-shedding with a view to which He
entered into community with our corporeal life.
"The life of the flesh is in the blood;
it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul"
(
Le 17:11, 14).
also--Greek, "in a
somewhat similar manner"; not altogether in
a like manner. For He, unlike them, was conceived and born
not in sin (
Heb 4:15). But mainly "in like manner"; not
in mere semblance of a body, as the Docetæ
heretics taught.
took part of--participated in. The
forfeited inheritance (according to Jewish law) was
ransomed by the nearest of kin; so Jesus became our nearest
of kin by His assumed humanity, in order to be our
Redeemer.
that through death--which He could not
have undergone as God but only by becoming man. Not by
Almighty power but by His death (so the
Greek) He overcame death. "Jesus suffering death
overcame; Satan wielding death succumbed" [BENGEL]. As
David cut off the head of Goliath with the giant's own
sword wherewith the latter was wont to win his victories.
Coming to redeem mankind, Christ made Himself a sort of
hook to destroy the devil; for in Him there was His
humanity to attract the devourer to Him, His divinity to
pierce him, apparent weakness to provoke, hidden power to
transfix the hungry ravisher. The Latin epigram
says, Mors mortis morti mortem nisi morte tu lisset,
Æternæ vitæ janua clausa
foret. "Had not death by death borne to death the
death of Death, the gate of eternal life would have been
closed".
destroy--literally, "render
powerless"; deprive of all power to hurt His people.
"That thou mightest still the enemy and avenger"
(
Ps 8:2). The same Greek verb is used in
2Ti 1:10, "abolished death." There is no more
death for believers. Christ plants in them an undying seed,
the germ of heavenly immortality, though believers have to
pass through natural death.
power--Satan is "strong" (
Mt 12:29).
of death--implying that death
itself is a power which, though originally foreign
to human nature, now reigns over it (
Ro 5:12; 6:9). The power which death has Satan wields.
The author of sin is the author of its consequences.
Compare "power of the enemy" (
Lu 10:19). Satan has acquired over man (by God's
law,
Ge 2:17; Ro 6:23) the power of death by man's sin,
death being the executioner of sin, and man being
Satan's "lawful captive." Jesus, by
dying, has made the dying His own (
Ro 14:9), and has taken the prey from the mighty.
Death's power was manifest; he who wielded that power,
lurking beneath it, is here expressed, namely, Satan.
Wisdom 2:24, "By the envy of the devil, death entered
into the world."
15. fear of death--even before they had experienced its
actual power.
all their lifetime--Such a life can
hardly be called life.
subject to bondage--literally,
"subjects of bondage"; not merely
liable to it, but enthralled in it (compare
Ro 8:15; Ga 5:1). Contrast with this bondage,
the glory of the "sons" (
Heb 2:10). "Bondage" is defined by Aristotle,
"The living not as one chooses";
"liberty," "the living as one chooses."
Christ by delivering us from the curse of God against our
sin, has taken from death all that made it formidable.
Death, viewed apart from Christ, can only fill with horror,
if the sinner dares to think.
16. For verily--Greek, "For as we all
know"; "For as you will doubtless
grant." Paul probably alludes to
Isa 41:8; Jer 31:32, Septuagint, from which all
Jews would know well that the fact here stated as to
Messiah was what the prophets had led them to expect.
took not on him,
&c.--rather, "It is not angels that He is
helping (the present tense implies duration);
but it is the seed of Abraham that He is
helping." The verb is literally, to help by
taking one by the hand, as in
Heb 8:9, "When I took them by the hand,"
&c. Thus it answers to "succor,"
Heb 2:18, and "deliver,"
Heb 2:15. "Not angels," who have no flesh and
blood, but "the children," who have "flesh
and blood," He takes hold of to help by "Himself
taking part of the same" (
Heb 2:14). Whatever effect Christ's work may have
on angels, He is not taking hold to help them by suffering
in their nature to deliver them from death, as in our
case.
the seed of Abraham--He views
Christ's redemption (in compliment to the Hebrews whom
he is addressing, and as enough for his present purpose)
with reference to Abraham's seed, the Jewish
nation, primarily; not that he excludes the Gentiles
(
Heb 2:9, "for every man"), who, when
believers, are the seed of Abraham spiritually (compare
Heb 2:12; Ps 22:22, 25, 27), but direct reference to
them (such as is in
Ro 4:11, 12, 16; Ga 3:7, 14, 28, 29) would be out of
place in his present argument. It is the same argument for
Jesus being the Christ which Matthew, writing his Gospel
for the Hebrews, uses, tracing the genealogy of Jesus from
Abraham, the father of the Jews, and the one to whom the
promises were given, on which the Jews especially prided
themselves (compare
Ro 9:4, 5).
17. Wherefore--Greek, "Whence." Found in
Paul's speech,
Ac 26:19.
in all things--which are incidental to
manhood, the being born, nourished, growing up, suffering.
Sin is not, in the original constitution of man, a
necessary attendant of manhood, so He had no sin.
it behooved him--by moral necessity,
considering what the justice and love of God required of
Him as Mediator (compare
Heb 5:3), the office which He had voluntarily
undertaken in order to "help" man (
Heb 2:16).
his brethren-- (
Heb 2:11); "the seed of Abraham" (
Heb 2:16), and so also the spiritual seed, His elect
out of all mankind.
be, &c.--rather as Greek,
"that He might become High Priest"; He was
called so, when He was "made perfect by the
things which He suffered" (
Heb 2:10; Heb 5:8-10). He was actually made so,
when He entered within the veil, from which last flows His
ever continuing intercession as Priest for us. The death,
as man, must first be, in order that the bringing in of the
blood into the heavenly Holy Place might follow, in which
consisted the expiation as High Priest.
merciful--to "the
people" deserving wrath by "sins."
Mercy is a prime requisite in a priest, since his
office is to help the wretched and raise the fallen: such
mercy is most likely to be found in one who has a
fellow-feeling with the afflicted, having been so once
Himself (
Heb 4:15); not that the Son of God needed to be taught
by suffering to be merciful, but that in order to save us
He needed to take our manhood with all its sorrows, thereby
qualifying Himself, by experimental suffering with us, to
be our sympathizing High Priest, and assuring us of His
entire fellow-feeling with us in every sorrow. So in the
main CALVIN remarks here.
faithful--true to God (
Heb 3:5, 6) and to man (
Heb 10:23) in the mediatorial office which He has
undertaken.
high priest--which Moses was not,
though "faithful" (
Heb 2:1-18). Nowhere, except in
Ps 110:4; Zec 6:13, and in this Epistle, is Christ
expressly called a priest. In this Epistle alone His
priesthood is professedly discussed; whence it is evident
how necessary is this book of the New Testament. In
Ps 110:1-7, and Zec 6:13, there is added mention of the
kingdom of Christ, which elsewhere is spoken of
without the priesthood, and that frequently. On the
cross, whereon as Priest He offered the sacrifice, He had
the title "King" inscribed over Him
[BENGEL].
to make reconciliation for the
sins--rather as Greek, "to propitiate (in
respect to) the sins"; "to expiate the
sins." Strictly divine justice is
"propitiated"; but God's love is as
much from everlasting as His justice; therefore, lest
Christ's sacrifice, or its typical forerunners, the
legal sacrifices, should be thought to be antecedent to
God's grace and love, neither are said in the Old or
New Testament to have propitiated God; otherwise
Christ's sacrifices might have been thought to have
first induced God to love and pity man, instead of (as the
fact really is) His love having originated
Christ's sacrifice, whereby divine justice and divine
love are harmonized. The sinner is brought by that
sacrifice into God's favor, which by sin he had
forfeited; hence his right prayer is, "God be
propitiated (so the Greek) to me who am a
sinner" (
Lu 18:13). Sins bring death and "the fear of
death" (
Heb 2:15). He had no sin Himself, and "made
reconciliation for the iniquity" of all others (
Da 9:24).
of the people--"the seed of
Abraham" (
Heb 2:16); the literal Israel first, and then (in the
design of God), through Israel, the believing Gentiles, the
spiritual Israel (
1Pe 2:10).
18. For--explanation of how His being made like His
brethren in all things has made Him a merciful and
faithful High Priest for us (
Heb 2:17).
in that--rather as Greek,
"wherein He suffered Himself; having been tempted, He
is able to succor them that are being tempted"
in the same temptation; and as "He was tempted (tried
and afflicted) in all points," He is able (by the
power of sympathy) to succor us in all possible
temptations and trials incidental to man (
Heb 4:16; 5:2). He is the antitypical Solomon, having
for every grain of Abraham's seed (which were to be as
the sand for number), "largeness of heart even as the
sand that is on the seashore" (
1Ki 4:29). "Not only as God He knows our trials,
but also as man He knows them by experimental
feeling."
Heb 3:1-19. THE SON OF GOD GREATER THAN MOSES, WHEREFORE UNBELIEF TOWARDS HIM WILL INCUR A HEAVIER PUNISHMENT THAN BEFELL UNBELIEVING ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS.
As Moses especially was the prophet by whom "God in times past spake to the fathers," being the mediator of the law, Paul deems it necessary now to show that, great as was Moses, the Son of God is greater. EBRARD in ALFORD remarks, The angel of the covenant came in the name of God before Israel; Moses in the name of Israel before God; whereas the high priest came both in the name of God (bearing the name JEHOVAH on his forehead) before Israel, and in the name of Israel (bearing the names of the twelve tribes on his breast) before God ( Ex 28:9-29, 36, 38). Now Christ is above the angels, according to the first and second chapters because (1) as Son of God He is higher; and (2) because manhood, though originally lower than angels, is in Him exalted above them to the lordship of "the world to come," inasmuch as He is at once Messenger of God to men, and also atoning Priest-Representative of men before God ( Heb 2:17, 18). Parallel with this line of argument as to His superiority to angels ( Heb 1:4) runs that which here follows as to His superiority to Moses ( Heb 3:3): (1) because as Son over the house; He is above the servant in the house ( Heb 3:5, 6), just as the angels were shown to be but ministering (serving) spirits ( Heb 1:14), whereas He is the Son ( Heb 3:7, 8); (2) because the bringing of Israel into the promised rest, which was not finished by Moses, is accomplished by Him ( Heb 4:1-11), through His being not merely a leader and lawgiver as Moses, but also a propitiatory High Priest ( Heb 4:14; 5:10).
1. Wherefore--Greek, "Whence," that is,
seeing we have such a sympathizing Helper you ought to
"consider attentively," "contemplate";
fix your eyes and mind on Him with a view to profiting by
the contemplation (
Heb 12:2). The Greek word is often used by Luke,
Paul's companion (
Lu 12:24, 27).
brethren--in Christ, the common bond
of union.
partakers--"of the Holy
Ghost."
heavenly calling--coming to us from
heaven, and leading us to heaven whence it comes.
Php 3:14, "the high calling"; Greek
"the calling above," that is,
heavenly.
the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession--There is but one Greek article to both
nouns, "Him who is at once Apostle and High
Priest"--Apostle, as Ambassador (a higher
designation than "angel"-messenger) sent
by the Father (
Joh 20:21), pleading the cause of God with us; High
Priest, as pleading our cause with God.
Both His Apostleship and High Priesthood are comprehended
in the one title, Mediator [BENGEL]. Though the
title "Apostle" is nowhere else applied to
Christ, it is appropriate here in addressing Hebrews, who
used the term of the delegates sent by the high priest to
collect the temple tribute from Jews resident in foreign
countries, even as Christ was Delegate of the Father to
this world far off from Him (
Mt 21:37). Hence as what applies to Him, applies also
to His people, the Twelve are designated His apostles, even
as He is the Father's (
Joh 20:21). It was desirable to avoid designating Him
here "angel," in order to distinguish His nature
from that of angels mentioned before, though he is
"the Angel of the Covenant." The "legate of
the Church" (Sheliach Tsibbur) offered up the
prayers in the synagogue in the name of all, and for all.
So Jesus, "the Apostle of our profession," is
delegated to intercede for the Church before the
Father. The words "of our profession," mark that
it is not of the legal ritual, but of our Christian faith,
that He is the High Priest. Paul compares Him as an
Apostle to Moses; as High Priest to Aaron. He alone
holds both offices combined, and in a more eminent degree
than either, which those two brothers held apart.
profession--"confession,"
corresponds to God having spoken to us by His Son,
sent as Apostle and High Priest. What God proclaims we
confess.
2. He first notes the feature of resemblance between
Moses and Christ, in order to conciliate the Hebrew
Christians whom He addressed, and who still entertained a
very high opinion of Moses; he afterwards brings forward
Christ's superiority to Moses.
Who was faithful--The Greek
implies also that He still is faithful, namely, as our
mediating High Priest, faithful to the trust God has
assigned Him (
Heb 2:17). So Moses in God's house (
Nu 12:7).
appointed him--"made
Him" HIGH PRIEST; to be supplied from the preceding
context. Greek, "made"; so in
Heb 5:5; 1Sa 12:6, Margin;
Ac 2:36; so the Greek fathers. Not as ALFORD,
with AMBROSE and the Latins, "created
Him," that is, as man, in His incarnation. The
likeness of Moses to Messiah was foretold by Moses himself
(
De 18:15). Other prophets only explained Moses,
who was in this respect superior to them; but Christ was
like Moses, yet superior.
3. For--assigning the reason why they should
"consider" attentively "Christ" (
Heb 3:1), highly as they regard Moses who resembled Him
in faithfulness (
Heb 3:2).
was--Greek, "has
been."
counted worthy of more glory--by God,
when He exalted Him to His own right hand. The Hebrew
Christians admitted the fact (
Heb 1:13).
builded the house--Greek,
"inasmuch as He hath more honor than the house, who
prepared it," or "established
it" [ALFORD]. The Greek verb is used purposely
instead of "builded," in order to mark that the
building meant is not a literal, but a spiritual house: the
Church both of the Old Testament and New Testament; and
that the building of such a house includes all the
preparations of providence and grace needed to furnish
it with "living stones" and fitting
"servants." Thus, as Christ the Founder and
Establisher (in Old Testament as well as the New Testament)
is greater than the house so established, including the
servants, He is greater also than Moses, who was but a
"servant." Moses, as a servant, is a portion of
the house, and less than the house; Christ, as the
Instrumental Creator of all things, must be God, and so
greater than the house of which Moses was but a part.
Glory is the result of honor.
4. Someone must be the establisher of every house; Moses was not the establisher of the house, but a portion of it (but He who established all things, and therefore the spiritual house in question, is God). Christ, as being instrumentally the Establisher of all things, must be the Establisher of the house, and so greater than Moses.
5. faithful in all his house--that is in all GOD'S
house (
Heb 3:4).
servant--not here the Greek for
"slave," but "a ministering attendant";
marking the high office of Moses towards God, though
inferior to Christ, a kind of steward.
for a testimony of, &c.--in order
that he might in his typical institutions give
"testimony" to Israel "of the things"
of the Gospel "which were to be spoken
afterwards" by Christ (
Heb 8:5; 9:8, 23; 10:1).
6. But Christ--was and is faithful (
Heb 3:2).
as a son over his own house--rather,
"over His (GOD'S,
Heb 3:4) house"; and therefore, as the
inference from His being one with God, over His own
house. So
Heb 10:21, "having an High Priest over the house
of God." Christ enters His Father's house
as the Master [OVER it], but Moses as a servant [IN it,
Heb 3:2, 5] [CHRYSOSTOM]. An ambassador in the absence
of the king is very distinguished--in the presence of the
king he falls back into the multitude [BENGEL].
whose house are we--Paul and his
Hebrew readers. One old manuscript, with Vulgate and
LUCIFER, reads, "which house"; but the
weightiest manuscripts support English Version
reading.
the rejoicing--rather, "the
matter of rejoicing."
of the hope--"of our
hope." Since all our good things lie in hopes, we
ought so to hold fast our hopes as already to rejoice, as
though our hopes were realized [CHRYSOSTOM].
firm unto the end--omitted in LUCIFER
and AMBROSE, and in one oldest manuscript, but supported by
most oldest manuscripts.
7-11. Exhortation from
Ps 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose participation
in the spiritual house. Seeing that we are the house of God
if we hold fast our confidence . . . (
Heb 3:6). Jesus is "faithful," be not ye
unfaithful (
Heb 3:2, 12). The sentence beginning with
"wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis
confirming the argument from
Ps 95:7-11, is completed at
Heb 3:12, "Take heed," &c.
Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired
Psalmist; so that the words of the latter are the words of
God Himself.
To-day--at length; in David's day,
as contrasted with the days of Moses in the wilderness, and
the whole time since then, during which they had been
rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the
wilderness (
Heb 3:8). The Psalm, each fresh time when used in
public worship, by "to-day," will mean the
particular day when it was, or is, used.
hear--obediently.
his voice--of grace.
8. Harden not your hearts--This phrase here only is used of
man's own act; usually of God's act
(
Ro 9:18). When man is spoken of as the agent in
hardening, the phrase usually is, "harden his
neck," or "back" (
Ne 9:17).
provocation . . .
temptation--"Massah-meribah," translated in
Margin "tentation . . . chiding,"
or "strife" (
Ex 17:1-7). Both names seem to refer to that one event,
the murmuring of the people against the Lord at Rephidim
for want of water. The first offense especially ought to be
guarded against, and is the most severely reproved, as it
is apt to produce many more.
Nu 20:1-13 and De 33:8 mention a second similar
occasion in the wilderness of Sin, near Kadesh, also called
Meribah.
in the day--Greek,
"according to the day of."
9. When--rather, "Where," namely, in the
wilderness.
your fathers--The authority of the
ancients is not conclusive [BENGEL].
tempted me, proved me--The oldest
manuscripts read, "tempted (Me) in the way of
testing," that is, putting (Me) to the proof
whether I was able and willing to relieve them, not
believing that I am so.
saw my works forty years--They saw,
without being led thereby to repentance, My works of power
partly in affording miraculous help, partly in executing
vengeance, forty years. The "forty years" joined
in the Hebrew and Septuagint, and below,
Heb 3:17, with "I was grieved," is here
joined with "they saw." Both are true; for,
during the same forty years that they were tempting God by
unbelief, notwithstanding their seeing God's miraculous
works, God was being grieved. The lesson intended to be
hinted to the Hebrew Christians is, their
"to-day" is to last only between the first
preaching of the Gospel and Jerusalem's impending
overthrow, namely, FORTY YEARS; exactly the number of years
of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness, until the full
measure of their guilt having been filled up all the rebels
were overthrown.
10. grieved--displeased. Compare "walk contrary,"
Le 26:24, 28.
that
generation--"that" implies alienation and
estrangement. But the oldest manuscripts read,
"this."
said--"grieved," or
"displeased," at their first offense.
Subsequently when they hardened their heart in unbelief
still more, He sware in His wrath (
Heb 3:11); an ascending gradation (compare
Heb 3:17, 18).
and they have not known--Greek,
"But these very persons," &c. They perceived
I was displeased with them, yet they, the same persons, did
not a whit the more wish to know my ways [B ENGEL]; compare
"but they,"
Ps 106:43.
not known my ways--not known
practically and believingly the ways in which I would have
had them go, so as to reach My rest (
Ex 18:20).
11. So--literally, "as."
I sware--BENGEL remarks the oath of
God preceded the forty years.
not--literally, "If they shall
enter . . . (God do so to me and more
also),"
2Sa 3:35. The Greek is the same,
Mr 8:12.
my rest--Canaan, primarily, their rest
after wandering in the wilderness: still, even when in it,
they never fully enjoyed rest; whence it followed
that the threat extended farther than the exclusion of the
unbelieving from the literal land of rest, and that the
rest promised to the believing in its full blessedness was,
and is, yet future:
Ps 25:13; 37:9, 11, 22, 29, and Christ's own
beatitude (
Mt 5:5) all accord with this,
Heb 3:9.
12. Take heed--to be joined with "wherefore,"
Heb 3:7.
lest there be--Greek
(indicative), "lest there shall be"; lest
there be, as I fear there is; implying that it is not
merely a possible contingency, but that there is
ground for thinking it will be so.
in any--"in any one of you."
Not merely ought all in general be on their guard, but they
ought to be so concerned for the safety of each one
member, as not to suffer any one to perish through their
negligence [CALVIN].
heart--The heart is not to be trusted.
Compare
Heb 3:10, "They do always err in their
heart."
unbelief--faithlessness. Christ
is faithful; therefore, saith Paul to the Hebrews,
we ought not to be faithless as our fathers were
under Moses.
departing--apostatizing. The opposite
of "come unto" Him (
Heb 4:16). God punishes such apostates in kind. He
departs from them--the worst of woes.
the living God--real: the distinctive
characteristic of the God of Israel, not like the lifeless
gods of the heathen; therefore One whose threats are awful
realities. To apostatize from Christ is to apostatize from
the living God (
Heb 2:3).
13. one another--Greek, "yourselves"; let
each exhort himself and his neighbor.
daily--Greek, "on each
day," or "day by day."
while it is called To-day--while the
"to-day" lasts (the day of grace,
Lu 4:21, before the coming of the day of glory and
judgment at Christ's coming,
Heb 10:25, 37). To-morrow is the day when idle men
work, and fools repent. To-morrow is Satan's to-day; he
cares not what good resolutions you form, if only you fix
them for to-morrow.
lest . . . of you--The
"you" is emphatic, as distinguished from
"your fathers" (
Heb 3:9). "That from among you no one (so the
Greek order is in some of the oldest manuscripts) be
hardened" (
Heb 3:8).
deceitfulness--causing you to
"err in your heart."
sin--unbelief.
14. For, &c.--enforcing the warning,
Heb 3:12.
partakers of Christ--(Compare
Heb 3:1, 6). So "partakers of the Holy Ghost"
(
Heb 6:4).
hold--Greek, "hold
fast."
the beginning of our confidence--that
is, the confidence (literally, substantial, solid
confidence) of faith which we have begun (
Heb 6:11; 12:2). A Christian so long as he is not
made perfect, considers himself as a beginner
[BENGEL].
unto the end--unto the coming of
Christ (
Heb 12:2).
15. While it is said--connected with Heb 3:13, "exhort one another . . . while it is said, To-day": Heb 3:14, "for we are made partakers," &c., being a parenthesis. "It entirely depends on yourselves that the invitation of the ninety-fifth Psalm be not a mere invitation, but also an actual enjoyment." ALFORD translates, "Since (that is, 'for') it is said," &c., regarding Heb 3:15 as a proof that we must "hold . . . confidence . . . unto the end," in order to be "partakers of Christ."
16. For some--rather interrogatively, "For WHO was it
that, when they had heard (referring to 'if ye will
hear,'
Heb 3:15), did provoke (God)?" The "For"
implies, Ye need to take heed against unbelief: for, was it
not because of unbelief that all our fathers were excluded
(
Eze 2:3)? "Some," and "not all,"
would be a faint way of putting his argument, when his
object is to show the universality of the evil. Not
merely some, but all the Israelites, for the
solitary exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, are hardly to be
taken into account in so general a statement. So
Heb 3:17, 18, are interrogative: (1) the beginning of
the provocation, soon after the departure from Egypt, is
marked in
Heb 3:16; (2) the forty years of it in the wilderness,
Heb 3:17; (3) the denial of entrance into the land of
rest,
Heb 3:18. Compare Note, see on 1Co 10:5, "with the majority
of them God was displeased."
howbeit--"Nay (why need I put the
question?), was it not all that came out of Egypt?"
(
Ex 17:1, 2).
by Moses--by the instrumentality of
Moses as their leader.
17. But--Translate, "Moreover," as it is not in
contrast to
Heb 3:16, but carrying out the same thought.
corpses--literally, "limbs,"
implying that their bodies fell limb from limb.
18. to them that believed not--rather as Greek, "to them that disobeyed." Practical unbelief ( De 1:26).
19. they could not enter--though desiring it.
Heb 4:1-16. THE PROMISE OF GOD'S REST IS FULLY REALIZED THROUGH CHRIST: LET US STRIVE TO OBTAIN IT BY HIM, OUR SYMPATHIZING HIGH PRIEST.
1. Let us . . . fear--not with slavish terror,
but godly "fear and trembling" (
Php 2:12). Since so many have fallen, we have cause to
fear (
Heb 3:17-19).
being left us--still remaining
to us after the others have, by neglect, lost it.
his rest--God's heavenly rest, of
which Canaan is the type. "To-day" still
continues, during which there is the danger of failing to
reach the rest. "To-day," rightly used,
terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is
never lost (
Re 3:12). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the
inward rest which the believer's soul has in
Christ.
should seem to come short of
it--Greek, "to have come short of
it"; should be found, when the great trial of
all shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of
attaining the promise. The word "seem" is a
mitigating mode of expression, though not lessening the
reality. B ENGEL and OWEN take it, Lest there should be any
semblance or appearance of falling short.
2. gospel preached . . . unto them--in type: the
earthly Canaan, wherein they failed to realize perfect
rest, suggesting to them that they should look beyond to
the heavenly land of rest, to which faith is the
avenue, and from which unbelief excludes, as it did
from the earthly Canaan.
the word preached--literally,
"the word of hearing": the word heard by
them.
not being mixed with faith in them
that heard--So the Syriac and the Old Latin
Versions, older than any of our manuscripts, and
LUCIFER, read, "As the world did not unite with the
hearers in faith." The word heard being the food
which, as the bread of life, must pass into flesh and blood
through man's appropriating it to himself in faith.
Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a
bad stomach [T HOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant
manuscript authority supports a different reading,
"unmingled as they were (Greek
accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with
its hearers," that is, with its believing,
obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua. So
"hear" is used for "obey" in the
context,
Heb 4:7, "To-day, if ye will hear His voice."
The disobedient, instead of being blended in "the same
body," separated themselves as Korah: a tacit reproof
to like separatists from the Christian assembling together
(
Heb 10:25; Jude 19).
3. For--justifying his assertion of the need of
"faith,"
Heb 4:2.
we which have believed--we who at
Christ's coming shall be found to have believed.
do enter--that is, are to enter: so
two of the oldest manuscripts and LUCIFER and the old
Latin. Two other oldest manuscripts read, "Let us
enter."
into rest--Greek, "into
the rest" which is promised in the ninety-fifth
Psalm.
as he said--God's saying that
unbelief excludes from entrance implies that
belief gains an entrance into the rest. What, however,
Paul mainly here dwells on in the quotation is that the
promised "rest" has not yet been
entered into. At
Heb 4:11 he again, as in
Heb 3:12-19 already, takes up faith as the
indispensable qualification for entering it.
although, &c.--Although God had
finished His works of creation and entered on His
rest from creation long before Moses' time, yet under
that leader of Israel another rest was promised, which most
fell short of through unbelief; and although the rest in
Canaan was subsequently attained under Joshua, yet long
after, in David's days, God, in the ninety-fifth Psalm,
still speaks of the rest of God as not yet attained.
THEREFORE, there must be meant a rest still future,
namely, that which "remaineth for the people of
God" in heaven,
Heb 4:3-9, when they shall rest from their works, as
God did from His,
Heb 4:10. The argument is to show that by "My
rest," God means a future rest, not for
Himself, but for us.
finished--Greek, "brought
into existence," "made."
4. he spake--God (
Ge 2:2).
God did rest the seventh day--a rest
not ending with the seventh day, but beginning then and
still continuing, into which believers shall hereafter
enter. God's rest is not a rest necessitated by
fatigue, nor consisting in idleness, but is that upholding
and governing of which creation was the beginning [A
LFORD]. Hence Moses records the end of each of the first
six days, but not of the seventh.
from all his works--Hebrew,
Ge 2:2, "from all His work." God's
"work" was one, comprehending, however,
many "works."
5. in this place--In this passage of the Psalm again, it is implied that the rest was even then still future.
6. it remaineth--still to be realized.
some must enter--The denial of
entrance to unbelievers is a virtual promise of entrance to
those that believe. God wishes not His rest to be empty,
but furnished with guests (
Lu 14:23).
they to whom it was first preached
entered not--literally, "they who first (in the time
of Moses) had the Gospel preached to them," namely, in
type, see on Heb 4:2.
unbelief--Greek, rather
"disobedience" (see on Heb
3:18).
7. Again--Anew the promise recurs. Translate as the Greek order is, "He limited a certain day, 'To-day.'" Here Paul interrupts the quotation by, "In (the Psalm of) David saying after so long a time (after five hundred years' possession of Canaan)," and resumes it by, "as it has been said before (so the Greek oldest manuscript, before, namely, Heb 3:7, 15), To-day if ye hear His voice," &c. [ALFORD].
8. Answer to the objection which might be made to his reasoning, namely, that those brought into Canaan by Joshua (so "Jesus" here means, as in Ac 7:45) did enter the rest of God. If the rest of God meant Canaan, God would not after their entrance into that land, have spoken (or speak [ALFORD]) of another (future) day of entering the rest.
9. therefore--because God "speaks of another day"
(see on Heb 4:8).
remaineth--still to be realized
hereafter by the "some (who) must enter therein"
(
Heb 4:6), that is, "the people of God," the
true Israel who shall enter into God's rest
("My rest,"
Heb 4:3). God's rest was a Sabbatism; so also will
ours be.
a rest--Greek,
"Sabbatism." In time there are many Sabbaths, but
then there shall be the enjoyment and keeping of a
Sabbath-rest: one perfect and eternal. The "rest"
in
Heb 4:8 is Greek, "catapausis;"
Hebrew, "Noah"; rest from
weariness, as the ark rested on Ararat after its tossings
to and fro; and as Israel, under Joshua, enjoyed at last
rest from war in Canaan. But the "rest" in this
Heb 4:9 is the nobler and more exalted (Hebrew)
"Sabbath" rest; literally,
"cessation": rest from work when finished
(
Heb 4:4), as God rested (
Re 16:17). The two ideas of "rest" combined,
give the perfect view of the heavenly Sabbath. Rest from
weariness, sorrow, and sin; and rest in the completion of
God's new creation (
Re 21:5). The whole renovated creation shall share in
it; nothing will there be to break the Sabbath of eternity;
and the Triune God shall rejoice in the work of His hands
(
Zep 3:17). Moses, the representative of the law, could
not lead Israel into Canaan: the law leads us to Christ,
and there its office ceases, as that of Moses on the
borders of Canaan: it is Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, who
leads us into the heavenly rest. This verse indirectly
establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the
type continues until the antitype supersedes it: so legal
sacrifices continued till the great antitypical Sacrifice
superseded it, As then the antitypical heavenly
Sabbath-rest will not be till Christ, our Gospel Joshua,
comes, to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath
must continue till then. The Jews call the future rest
"the day which is all Sabbath."
10. For--justifying and explaining the word
"rest," or "Sabbatism," just used (see
on Heb 4:9).
he that is entered--whosoever once
enters.
his rest--God's rest: the
rest prepared by God for His people [ESTIUS].
Rather, "His rest": the man's
rest: that assigned to him by God as his. The
Greek is the same as that for "his own"
immediately after.
hath ceased--The Greek aorist
is used of indefinite time, "is wont to
cease," or rather, "rest": rests. The
past tense implies at the same time the certainty of
it, as also that in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ
is already given [G ROTIUS] (
Jer 6:16; Mt 11:28, 29). Our highest happiness shall,
according to this verse, consist in our being united in one
with God, and moulded into conformity with Him as our
archetype [CALVIN].
from his own works--even from those
that were good and suitable to the time of doing work.
Labor was followed by rest even in Paradise (
Ge 2:3, 15). The work and subsequent rest of God are
the archetype to which we should be conformed. The argument
is: He who once enters rest, rests from labors; but
God's people have not yet rested from them, therefore
they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still
future. ALFORD translates, "He that entered into his
(or else God's, but rather 'his';
Isa 11:10, 'His rest': 'the joy of the
Lord,'
Mt 25:21, 23) rest (namely, Jesus, our
Forerunner,
Heb 4:14; 6:20, 'The Son of God that is passed
through the heavens': in contrast to Joshua the
type, who did not bring God's people into
the heavenly rest), he himself (emphatical)
rested from his works (
Heb 4:4), as God (did) from His own" (so
the Greek, "works"). The argument, though
generally applying to anyone who has entered his
rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the
antitypical Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the
Ascension, has ceased or rested from His work of the new
creation, as God on the seventh day rested from the work of
physical creation. Not that He has ceased to carry on the
work of redemption, nay, He upholds it by His mediation;
but He has ceased from those portions of the work which
constitute the foundation; the sacrifice has been once for
all accomplished. Compare as to God's creation rest,
once for all completed, and rested from, but now still
upheld (see on Heb 4:4).
11. Let us . . . therefore--Seeing such a promise
is before us, which we may, like them, fall short of
through unbelief.
labour--Greek, "strive
diligently."
that rest--which is still future and
so glorious. Or, in ALFORD'S translation of
Heb 4:10, "That rest into which Christ has
entered before" (
Heb 4:14; Heb 6:20).
fall--with the soul, not merely the
body, as the rebel Israelites fell (
Heb 3:17).
after the same example--ALFORD
translates, "fall into the same example."
The less prominent place of the "fall" in the
Greek favors this. The sense is, "lest any fall
into such disobedience (so the Greek for
'unbelief' means) as they gave a sample of"
[GROTIUS]. The Jews say, "The parents are a sign
(warning) to their sons."
12. For--Such diligent striving (
Heb 4:11) is incumbent on us FOR we have to do with a
God whose "word" whereby we shall be judged, is
heart-searching, and whose eyes are all-seeing (
Heb 4:13). The qualities here attributed to the word
of God, and the whole context, show that it is regarded
in its JUDICIAL power, whereby it doomed the disobedient
Israelites to exclusion from Canaan, and shall exclude
unbelieving so-called Christians from the heavenly rest.
The written Word of God is not the prominent thought here,
though the passage is often quoted as if it were. Still the
word of God (the same as that preached,
Heb 4:2), used here in the broadest sense, but with
special reference to its judicial power, INCLUDES
the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit with double edge,
one edge for convicting and converting some (
Heb 4:2), and the other for condemning and destroying
the unbelieving (
Heb 4:14).
Re 19:15 similarly represents the Word's judicial
power as a sharp sword going out of Christ's mouth to
smite the nations. The same word which is saving to
the faithful (
Heb 4:2) is destroying to the disobedient (
2Co 2:15, 16). The personal Word, to whom some refer
the passage, is not here meant: for He is not the
sword, but has the sword. Thus reference to Joshua
appropriately follows in
Heb 4:8.
quick--Greek,
"living"; having living power, as "the rod
of the mouth and the breath of the lips" of "the
living God."
powerful--Greek,
"energetic"; not only living, but
energetically efficacious.
sharper--"more
cutting."
two-edged--sharpened at both edge and
back. Compare "sword of the Spirit . . .
word of God" (
Eph 6:17). Its double power seems to be implied
by its being "two-edged." "It judges all
that is in the heart, for there it passes through, at once
punishing [unbelievers] and searching [both
believers and unbelievers]" [CHRYSOSTOM]. PHILO
similarly speaks of "God passing between the parts of
Abraham's sacrifices (
Ge 15:17, where, however, it is a 'burning
lamp' that passed between the pieces) with His word,
which is the cutter of all things: which sword, being
sharpened to the utmost keenness, never ceases to divide
all sensible things, and even things not perceptible to
sense or physically divisible, but perceptible and
divisible by the word." Paul's early training,
both in the Greek schools of Tarsus and the Hebrew
schools at Jerusalem, accounts fully for his acquaintance
with Philo's modes of thought, which were sure to be
current among learned Jews everywhere, though Philo himself
belonged to Alexandria, not Jerusalem. Addressing Jews, he
by the Spirit sanctions what was true in their current
literature, as he similarly did in addressing Gentiles (
Ac 17:28).
piercing--Greek, "coming
through."
even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit--that is, reaching through even to the
separation of the animal soul, the lower part of
man's incorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires,
which he has in common with the brutes; compare the same
Greek,
1Co 2:14, "the natural [animal-souled] man"
(
Jude 19), from the spirit (the higher part of man,
receptive of the Spirit of God, and allying him to heavenly
beings).
and of the joints and marrow--rather,
"(reaching even TO) both the joints (so
as to divide them) and marrow." Christ "knows
what is in man" (
Joh 2:25): so His word reaches as far as to the most
intimate and accurate knowledge of man's most hidden
parts, feelings, and thoughts, dividing, that is,
distinguishing what is spiritual from what is
carnal and animal in him, the spirit
from the soul: so
Pr 20:27. As the knife of the Levitical priest reached
to dividing parts, closely united as the joints of
the limbs, and penetrated to the innermost parts, as the
marrows (the Greek is plural); so the
word of God divides the closely joined parts of man's
immaterial being, soul and spirit, and penetrates to the
innermost parts of the spirit. The clause (reaching even
to) "both the joints and marrow" is
subordinate to the clause, "even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit." (In the oldest
manuscripts as in English Version, there is no
"both," as there is in the clause
"both the joints and . . .
which marks the latter to be subordinate). An image
(appropriate in addressing Jews) from the literal dividing
of joints, and penetrating to, so as to open out, the
marrow, by the priest's knife, illustrating the
previously mentioned spiritual "dividing of soul from
spirit," whereby each (soul as well as spirit) is laid
bare and "naked" before God; this view accords
with
Heb 4:13. Evidently "the dividing of the soul from
the spirit" answers to the "joints" which
the sword, when it reaches unto, divides
asunder, as the "spirit" answers to the
innermost "marrow." "Moses forms the soul,
Christ the spirit. The soul draws with it the body; the
spirit draws with it both soul and body." ALFORD'S
interpretation is clumsy, by which he makes the soul
itself, and the spirit itself, to be divided,
instead of the soul from the spirit: so also he
makes not only the joints to be divided asunder, but
the marrow also to be divided (?). The Word's
dividing and far penetrating power has both a punitive and
a healing effect.
discerner of the
thoughts--Greek, "capable of judging the
purposes."
intents--rather,
"conceptions" [CRELLIUS]; "ideas"
[ALFORD]. AS the Greek for "thoughts"
refers to the mind and feelings, so that for
"intents," or rather "mental
conceptions," refers to the intellect.
13. creature--visible or invisible.
in his sight--in God's
sight (
Heb 4:12). "God's wisdom, simply manifold, and
uniformly multiform, with incomprehensible comprehension,
comprehends all things incomprehensible."
opened--literally, "thrown on the
back so as to have the neck laid bare," as a victim
with neck exposed for sacrifice. The Greek perfect
tense implies that this is our continuous state in
relation to God. "Show, O man, shame and
fear towards thy God, for no veil, no twisting,
bending, coloring, or disguise, can cover
unbelief" (Greek, 'disobedience,'
Heb 4:11). Let us, therefore, earnestly labor to enter
the rest lest any fall through practical unbelief (
Heb 4:11).
14. Seeing then--Having, therefore; resuming
Heb 2:17.
great--as being "the Son of God,
higher than the heavens" (
Heb 7:26): the archetype and antitype of the legal high
priest.
passed into the heavens--rather,
"passed through the heavens," namely,
those which come between us and God, the aerial heaven, and
that above the latter containing the heavenly bodies, the
sun, moon, &c. These heavens were the veil which our
High Priest passed through into the heaven of
heavens, the immediate presence of God, just as the
Levitical high priest passed through the veil into the Holy
of Holies. Neither Moses, nor even Joshua, could bring us
into this rest, but Jesus, as our Forerunner, already
spiritually, and hereafter in actual presence, body, soul,
and spirit, brings His people into the heavenly rest.
Jesus--the antitypical Joshua (
Heb 4:8).
hold fast--the opposite of "let
slip" (
Heb 2:1); and "fall away" (
Heb 6:6). As the genitive follows, the
literally, sense is, "Let us take hold of our
profession," that is, of the faith and hope which are
subjects of our profession and confession. The accusative
follows when the sense is "hold fast" [T
ITTMANN].
15. For--the motive to "holding our profession"
(
Heb 4:14), namely the sympathy and help we may expect
from our High Priest. Though "great" (
Heb 4:14), He is not above caring for us; nay, as being
in all points one with us as to manhood, sin only excepted,
He sympathizes with us in every temptation. Though exalted
to the highest heavens, He has changed His place, not His
nature and office in relation to us, His condition, but not
His affection. Compare
Mt 26:38, "watch with me": showing His desire
in the days of His flesh for the sympathy of those whom
He loved: so He now gives His suffering people His
sympathy. Compare Aaron, the type, bearing the names of
the twelve tribes in the breastplate of judgment on his
heart, when he entered into the holy place, for a memorial
before the Lord continually (
Ex 28:29).
cannot be touched with the feeling
of--Greek, "cannot sympathize with our
infirmities": our weaknesses, physical and
moral (not sin, but liability to its assaults). He, though
sinless, can sympathize with us sinners; His understanding
more acutely perceived the forms of temptation than we who
are weak can; His will repelled them as instantaneously as
the fire does the drop of water cast into it. He,
therefore, experimentally knew what power was needed to
overcome temptations. He is capable of sympathizing, for He
was at the same time tempted without sin, and yet truly
tempted [B ENGEL]. In Him alone we have an example suited
to men of every character and under all circumstances. In
sympathy He adapts himself to each, as if He had not merely
taken on Him man's nature in general, but also the
peculiar nature of that single individual.
but--"nay, rather, He was (one)
tempted" [ALFORD].
like as we are--Greek,
"according to (our) similitude."
without sin--Greek,
"choris," "separate from
sin" (
Heb 7:26). If the Greek "aneu"
had been used, sin would have been regarded as the
object absent from Christ the subject; but choris
here implies that Christ, the subject, is regarded
as separated from sin the object [TITTMANN]. Thus,
throughout His temptations in their origin, process, and
result, sin had nothing in Him; He was apart and separate
from it [A LFORD].
16. come--rather as Greek, "approach,"
"draw near."
boldly--Greek, "with
confidence," or "freedom of speech" (
Eph 6:19).
the throne of grace--God's throne
is become to us a throne of grace through the
mediation of our High Priest at God's right hand (
Heb 8:1; 12:2). Pleading our High Priest Jesus'
meritorious death, we shall always find God on a throne
of grace. Contrast Job's complaint (
Job 23:3-8) and Elihu's " IF," &c.
(
Job 33:23-28).
obtain--rather,
"receive."
mercy--"Compassion," by its
derivation (literally, fellow feeling from community
of suffering), corresponds to the character of our
High Priest "touched with the feeling of our
infirmities" (
Heb 4:15).
find grace--corresponding to
"throne of grace." Mercy especially
refers to the remission and removal of sins; grace,
to the saving bestowal of spiritual gifts [E STIUS].
Compare "Come unto Me . . . and I will
give you rest (the rest received on first
believing). Take My yoke on you . . . and ye
shall find rest (the continuing rest and peace
found in daily submitting to Christ's easy yoke;
the former answers to "receive mercy"
here; the latter, to "find grace,"
Mt 11:28, 29).
in time of need--Greek,
"seasonably." Before we are overwhelmed by the
temptation; when we most need it, in temptations and
persecutions; such as is suitable to the time, persons, and
end designed (
Ps 104:27). A supply of grace is in store for believers
against all exigencies; but they are only supplied with it
according as the need arises. Compare "in due
time,"
Ro 5:6. Not, as ALFORD explains, "help in
time," that is, to-day, while it is yet open to
us; the accepted time (
2Co 6:2).
help--Compare
Heb 2:18, "He is able to succor them that
are tempted."
Heb 5:1-14. CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD; NEEDED QUALIFICATIONS; MUST BE A MAN; MUST NOT HAVE ASSUMED THE DIGNITY HIMSELF, BUT HAVE BEEN APPOINTED BY GOD; THEIR LOW SPIRITUAL PERCEPTIONS A BAR TO PAUL'S SAYING ALL HE MIGHT ON CHRIST'S MELCHISEDEC-LIKE PRIESTHOOD.
1. For--substantiating
Heb 4:15.
every--that is, every legitimate high
priest; for instance, the Levitical, as he is addressing
Hebrews, among whom the Levitical priesthood was
established as the legitimate one. Whatever, reasons Paul,
is excellent in the Levitical priests, is also in Christ,
and besides excellencies which are not in the Levitical
priests.
taken from among men--not from among
angels, who could not have a fellow feeling with us men.
This qualification Christ has, as being, like the Levitical
priest, a man (
Heb 2:14, 16). Being "from men," He
can be "for (that is, in behalf of, for the
good of) men."
ordained--Greek,
"constituted," "appointed."
both gifts--to be joined with
"for sins," as "sacrifices" is (the
"both . . . and" requires this);
therefore not the Hebrew, "mincha,"
"unbloody offerings," but animal whole burnt
offerings, spontaneously given.
"Sacrifices" are the animal sacrifices due
according to the legal ordinance [E STIUS].
2. Who can--Greek, "being able"; not
pleasing himself (
Ro 15:3).
have compassion--Greek,
"estimate mildly," "feel leniently," or
"moderately towards"; "to make allowance
for"; not showing stern rigor save to the obstinate
(
Heb 10:28).
ignorant--sins not committed in
resistance of light and knowledge, but as Paul's past
sin (
1Ti 1:13). No sacrifice was appointed for wilful sin
committed with a high hand; for such were to be punished
with death; all other sins, namely, ignorances and errors,
were confessed and expiated with sacrifices by the high
priest.
out of the way--not deliberately and
altogether wilfully erring, but deluded through the fraud
of Satan and their own carnal frailty and
thoughtlessness.
infirmity--moral weakness which is
sinful, and makes men capable of sin, and so requires to be
expiated by sacrifices. This kind of "infirmity"
Christ had not; He had the "infirmity" of body
whereby He was capable of suffering and death.
3. by reason hereof--"on account of this"
infirmity.
he ought . . . also for
himself, to offer for sins--the Levitical priest ought; in
this our High Priest is superior to the Levitical. The
second "for" is a different Greek term
from the first; "in behalf of the people
. . . on account of sins."
4. no man--of any other family but Aaron's, according to the Mosaic law, can take to himself the office of high priest. This verse is quoted by some to prove the need of an apostolic succession of ordination in the Christian ministry; but the reference here is to the priesthood, not the Christian ministry. The analogy in our Christian dispensation would warn ministers, seeing that God has separated them from the congregation of His people to bring them near Himself, and to do the service of His house, and to minister (as He separated the Levites, Korah with his company), that content with this, they should beware of assuming the sacrificial priesthood also, which belongs to Christ alone. The sin of Korah was, not content with the ministry as a Levite, he took the sacerdotal priesthood also. No Christian minister, as such, is ever called Hiereus, that is, sacrificing priest. All Christians, without distinction, whether ministers or people, have a metaphorical, not a literal, priesthood. The sacrifices which they offer are spiritual, not literal, their bodies and the fruit of their lips, praises continually ( Heb 13:15). Christ alone had a proper and true sacrifice to offer. The law sacrifices were typical, not metaphorical, as the Christian's, nor proper and true, as Christ's. In Roman times the Mosaic restriction of the priesthood to Aaron's family was violated.
5. glorified not himself--did not assume the glory of the
priestly office of Himself without the call of God (
Joh 8:54).
but he that said--that is, the Father
glorified Him or appointed Him to the priesthood. This
appointment was involved in, and was the result of, the
Sonship of Christ, which qualified Him for it. None but
the divine Son could have fulfilled such an office (
Heb 10:5-9). The connection of Sonship and
priesthood is typified in the Hebrew title for
priests being given to David's sons (
2Sa 8:18). Christ did not constitute Himself the
Son of God, but was from everlasting the only-begotten
of the Father. On His Sonship depended His
glorification, and His being called of God (
Heb 5:10), as Priest.
6. He is here called simply "Priest"; in Heb 5:5, "High Priest." He is a Priest absolutely, because He stands alone in that character without an equal. He is "High Priest" in respect of the Aaronic type, and also in respect to us, whom He has made priests by throwing open to us access to God [B ENGEL]. "The order of Melchisedec" is explained in Heb 7:15, "the similitude of Melchisedec." The priesthood is similarly combined with His kingly office in Zec 6:13. Melchisedec was at once man, priest, and king. Paul's selecting as the type of Christ one not of the stock of Abraham, on which the Jews prided themselves, is an intimation of Messianic universalism.
7. in the days of his flesh-- (
Heb 2:14; 10:20).
Heb 5:7-10 state summarily the subject about to be
handled more fully in the seventh and eighth
chapters.
when he had offered--rather,
"in that He offered." His crying
and tears were part of the experimental lesson of obedience
which He submitted to learn from the Father (when God was
qualifying Him for the high priesthood). "Who" is
to be construed with "learned obedience" (or
rather as Greek, "His obedience";
"the obedience" which we all know about).
This all shows that "Christ glorified not Himself to
be made an High Priest" (
Heb 5:5), but was appointed thereto by the
Father.
prayers and
supplications--Greek, "both prayers and
supplications." In Gethsemane, where He prayed
thrice, and on the cross, where He cried, My God, my
God . . . probably repeating inwardly all
the twenty-second Psalm. "Prayers" refer to the
mind: "supplications" also to the body (namely,
the suppliant attitude) (
Mt 26:39) [BENGEL].
with strong crying and tears--The
"tears" are an additional fact here communicated
to us by the inspired apostle, not recorded in the Gospels,
though implied.
Mt 26:37, "sorrowful and very heavy."
Mr 14:33; Lu 22:44, "in an agony He prayed more
earnestly . . . His sweat . . . great
drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Ps 22:1 ("roaring . . . cry"),
Ps 22:2, 19, 21, 24; 69:3, 10, "I
wept."
able to save him from death--
Mr 14:36, "All things are possible unto
Thee" (
Joh 12:27). His cry showed His entire participation of
man's infirmity: His reference of His wish to the will
of God, His sinless faith and obedience.
heard in that he feared--There is no
intimation in the twenty-second Psalm, or the Gospels that
Christ prayed to be saved from the mere act of dying. What
He feared was the hiding of the Father's countenance.
His holy filial love must rightly have shrunk from this
strange and bitterest of trials without the imputation of
impatience. To have been passively content at the approach
of such a cloud would have been, not faith, but sin. The
cup of death He prayed to be freed from was, not corporal,
but spiritual death, that is, the (temporary) separation of
His human soul from the light of God's countenance. His
prayer was "heard" in His Father's
strengthening Him so as to hold fast His unwavering faith
under the trial (My God, my God, was still
His filial cry under it, still claiming God as His, though
God hid His face), and soon removing it in answer to His
cry during the darkness on the cross, "My God, my
God," &c. But see below a further explanation of
how He was heard. The Greek literally, is, "Was
heard from His fear," that is, so as to be
saved from His fear. Compare
Ps 22:21, which well accords with this, "Save me
from the lion's mouth (His prayer): thou hast
heard me from the horns of the unicorns." Or
what better accords with the strict meaning of the
Greek noun, "in consequence of His
REVERENTIAL FEAR," that is, in that He shrank
from the horrors of separation from the bright presence
of the Father, yet was reverentially cautious by no
thought or word of impatience to give way to a shadow of
distrust or want of perfect filial love. In the same sense
Heb 12:28 uses the noun, and
Heb 11:7 the verb. ALFORD somewhat similarly
translates, "By reason of His reverent
submission." I prefer "reverent
fear." The word in derivation means the
cautious handling of some precious, yet delicate
vessel, which with ruder handling might easily be broken
[TRENCH]. This fully agrees with Jesus' spirit,
"If it be possible . . . nevertheless not
My will, but Thy will be done"; and with the
context,
Heb 5:5, "Glorified not Himself to be made an High
Priest," implying reverent fear: wherein it
appears He had the requisite for the office specified
Heb 5:4, "No man taketh this honor unto
himself." ALFORD well says, What is true in the
Christian's life, that what we ask from God, though He
may not grant in the form we wish, yet He grants in His
own, and that a better form, does not hold good in
Christ's case; for Christ's real prayer, "not
My will, but Thine be done," in consistency with His
reverent fear towards the Father, was granted in the very
form in which it was expressed, not in another.
8. Though He WAS (so it ought to be translated: a positive admitted fact: not a mere supposition as were would imply) God's divine Son (whence, even in His agony, He so lovingly and often cried, Father, Mt 26:39), yet He learned His (so the Greek) obedience, not from His Sonship, but from His sufferings. As the Son, He was always obedient to the Father's will; but the special obedience needed to qualify Him as our High Priest, He learned experimentally in practical suffering. Compare Php 2:6-8, "equal with God, but . . . took upon Him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death," &c. He was obedient already before His passion, but He stooped to a still more humiliating and trying form of obedience then. The Greek adage is, "Pathemata mathemata," "sufferings, disciplinings." Praying and obeying, as in Christ's case, ought to go hand in hand.
9. made perfect--completed, brought to His goal of learning
and suffering through death (
Heb 2:10) [ALFORD], namely, at His glorious
resurrection and ascension.
author--Greek,
"cause."
eternal salvation--obtained for us in
the short "days of Jesus' flesh" (
Heb 5:7; compare
Heb 5:6, "for ever,"
Isa 45:17).
unto all . . . that obey
him--As Christ obeyed the Father, so must we
obey Him by faith.
10. Greek, rather, "Addressed by God (by the appellation) High Priest." Being formally recognized by God as High Priest at the time of His being "made perfect" ( Heb 5:9). He was High Priest already in the purpose of God before His passion; but after it, when perfected, He was formally addressed so.
11. Here he digresses to complain of the low spiritual
attainments of the Palestinian Christians and to warn them
of the danger of falling from light once enjoyed; at the
same time encouraging them by God's faithfulness to
persevere. At
Heb 6:20 he resumes the comparison of Christ to
Melchisedec.
hard to be uttered--rather as
Greek, "hard of interpretation to
speak." Hard for me to state intelligibly to you owing
to your dulness about spiritual things. Hence, instead of
saying many things, he writes in comparatively
few words (
Heb 13:22). In the "we," Paul, as usual,
includes Timothy with himself in addressing them.
ye are--Greek, "ye have
become dull" (the Greek, by derivation,
means hard to move): this implies that once,
when first "enlightened," they were earnest and
zealous, but had become dull. That the Hebrew
believers AT JERUSALEM were dull in spiritual things, and
legal in spirit, appears from
Ac 21:20-24, where James and the elders expressly say
of the "thousands of Jews which believe," that
"they are all zealous of the law"; this
was at Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, after which this
Epistle seems to have been written (see on Heb 5:12, on "for the time").
12. for the time--considering the long time that you have
been Christians. Therefore this Epistle was not one of
those written early.
which be the first
principles--Greek, "the rudiments of the
beginning of." A Pauline phrase (see on Ga 4:3; Ga
4:9). Ye need not only to be taught the first
elements, but also "which they be."
They are therefore enumerated
Heb 6:1, 2 [BENGEL]. ALFORD translates, "That
someone teach you the rudiments"; but the position
of the Greek, "tina," inclines me
to take it interrogatively, "which," as
English Version, Syriac, Vulgate, &c.
of the oracles of God--namely, of the
Old Testament: instead of seeing Christ as the end of the
Old Testament Scripture, they were relapsing towards
Judaism, so as not only not to be capable of understanding
the typical reference to Christ of such an Old Testament
personage as Melchisedec, but even much more elementary
references.
are become--through indolence.
milk . . . not
. . . strong meat--"Milk" refers to
such fundamental first principles as he enumerates in
Heb 6:1, 2. The solid meat, or food, is
not absolutely necessary for preserving life, but is so for
acquiring greater strength. Especially in the case of the
Hebrews, who were much given to allegorical interpretations
of their law, which they so much venerated, the application
of the Old Testament types, to Christ and His High
Priesthood, was calculated much to strengthen them in the
Christian faith [LIMBORCH].
13. useth--Greek, "partaketh," that is,
taketh as his portion. Even strong men partake of
milk, but do not make milk their chief, much less their
sole, diet.
the word of righteousness--the Gospel
wherein "the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith" (
Ro 1:17), and which is called "the ministration of
righteousness" (
2Co 3:9). This includes the doctrine of
justification and sanctification: the first
principles, as well as the perfection, of the
doctrine of Christ: the nature of the offices and
person of Christ as the true Melchisedec, that is,
"King of righteousness" (compare
Mt 3:15).
14. strong meat--"solid food."
them . . . of full
age--literally, "perfect": akin to
"perfection" (
Heb 6:1).
by reason of use--Greek,
"habit."
senses--organs of sense.
exercised--similarly connected with
"righteousness" in
Heb 12:11.
to discern both good and evil--as a
child no longer an infant (
Isa 7:16): so able to distinguish between sound and
unsound doctrine. The mere child puts into its mouth things
hurtful and things nutritious, without discrimination: but
not so the adult. Paul again alludes to their tendency not
to discriminate, but to be carried about by strange
doctrines, in
Heb 13:9.
Heb 6:1-14. WARNING AGAINST RETROGRADING, WHICH SOON LEADS TO APOSTASY; ENCOURAGEMENT TO STEADFASTNESS FROM GOD'S FAITHFULNESS TO HIS WORD AND OATH.
1. Therefore--Wherefore: seeing that ye ought not now to be
still "babes" (
Heb 5:11-14).
leaving--getting further forward than
the elementary "principles." "As in building
a house one must never leave the foundation: yet to be
always laboring in 'laying the foundation' would be
ridiculous" [CALVIN].
the principles of the
doctrine--Greek, "the word of the
beginning," that is, the discussion of the "first
principles of Christianity (
Heb 5:12).
let us go on--Greek, "let
us be borne forward," or "bear ourselves
forward"; implying active exertion: press on. Paul, in
teaching, here classifies himself with the Hebrew readers,
or (as they ought to be) learners, and says, Let us
together press forward.
perfection--the matured knowledge of
those who are "of full age" (
Heb 5:14) in Christian attainments.
foundation of--that is, consisting
in "repentance."
repentance from dead works--namely,
not springing from the vital principle of faith and
love toward God, and so counted, like their doer,
dead before God. This repentance from dead works
is therefore paired with "faith toward God." The
three pairs of truths enumerated are designedly such as
JEWISH believers might in some degree have known from the
Old Testament, but had been taught more clearly when they
became Christians. This accounts for the omission of
distinct specification of some essential first
principle of Christian truth. Hence, too, he mentions
"faith toward God," and not
explicitly faith toward Christ (though of course
included). Repentance and faith were the first principles
taught under the Gospel.
2. the doctrine of baptisms--paired with "laying on of
hands," as the latter followed on Christian baptism,
and answers to the rite of confirmation in Episcopal
churches. Jewish believers passed, by an easy transition,
from Jewish baptismal purifications (
Heb 9:10, "washings"), baptism of proselytes,
and John's baptism, and legal imposition of hands, to
their Christian analogues, baptism, and the
subsequent laying on of hands, accompanied by the
gift of the Holy Ghost (compare
Heb 6:4). Greek, "baptismoi,"
plural, including Jewish and Christian
baptisms, are to be distinguished from baptisma,
singular, restricted to Christian baptism. The six
particulars here specified had been, as it were, the
Christian Catechism of the Old Testament; and such Jews
who had begun to recognize Jesus as the Christ immediately
on the new light being shed on these fundamental
particulars, were accounted as having the elementary
principles of the doctrine of Christ [B ENGEL]. The
first and most obvious elementary instruction of Jews would
be the teaching them the typical significance of
their own ceremonial law in its Christian fulfilment
[ALFORD].
resurrection, &c.--held already by
the Jews from the Old Testament: confirmed with clearer
light in Christian teaching or
"doctrine."
eternal judgment--judgment fraught
with eternal consequences either of joy or of woe.
3. will we do--So some of the oldest manuscripts read; but
others, "Let us do." "This," that is,
"Go on unto perfection."
if God permit--For even in the case of
good resolutions, we cannot carry them into effect, save
through God "working in us both to will and to do of
His good pleasure" (
Php 2:13). The "for" in
Heb 6:4 refers to this: I say, if God permit,
for there are cases where God does not permit, for
example, "it is impossible," &c. Without
God's blessing, the cultivation of the ground does not
succeed (
Heb 6:7).
4. We must "go on toward perfection"; for if we
fall away, after having received enlightenment, it
will be impossible to renew us again to
repentance.
for those--"in the case of
those."
once enlightened--once for all
illuminated by the word of God taught in connection with
"baptism" (to which, in
Heb 6:2, as once for all done," once
enlightened" here answers); compare
Eph 5:26. This passage probably originated the
application of the term "illumination" to baptism
in subsequent times. Illumination, however, was not
supposed to be the inseparable accompaniment of
baptism: thus CHRYSOSTOM says, "Heretics have
baptism, not illumination: they are baptized in
body, but not enlightened in soul: as Simon Magus was
baptized, but not illuminated." That
"enlightened" here means knowledge of the word
of truth, appears from comparing the same Greek
word "illuminated,"
Heb 10:32, with Heb 10:26, where "knowledge of the
truth" answers to it.
tasted of the heavenly gift--tasted
for themselves. As "enlightened" refers to
the sense of sight: so here taste follows.
"The heavenly gift"; Christ given by the
Father and revealed by the enlightening word preached and
written: as conferring peace in the remission of sins; and
as the Bestower of the gift of the Holy Spirit (
Ac 8:19, 20),
made partakers of the Holy
Ghost--specified as distinct from, though so inseparably
connected with, "enlightened," and "tasted
of the heavenly gift," Christ, as answering to
"laying on of hands" after baptism, which was
then generally accompanied with the impartation of the
Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts.
5. tasted the good word of God--distinct from "tasted OF (genitive) the heavenly gift"; we do not yet enjoy all the fulness of Christ, but only have a taste OF Him, the heavenly gift now; but believers may taste the whole word (accusative case) of God already, namely, God's "good word of promise." The Old Testament promise of Canaan to Israel typified "the good word of God's" promise of the heavenly rest ( Heb 4:1-16). Therefore, there immediately follows the clause, "the powers of the world to come." As "enlightening" and "tasting of the heavenly gift," Christ, the Bread of Life, answers to FAITH: so "made partakers of the Holy Ghost," to CHARITY, which is the first-fruit of the Spirit: and "tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," to HOPE. Thus the triad of privileges answers to the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Spirit, in their respective works toward us. "The world to come," is the Christian dispensation, viewed especially in its future glories, though already begun in grace here. The world to come thus stands in contrast to course of this world, altogether disorganized because God is not its spring of action and end. By faith, Christians make the world to come a present reality, though but a foretaste of the perfect future. The powers of this new spiritual world, partly exhibited in outward miracles at that time, and then, as now, especially consisting in the Spirit's inward quickening influences are the earnest of the coming inheritance above, and lead the believer who gives himself up to the Spirit to seek to live as the angels, to sit with Christ in heavenly places, to set the affections on things above, and not on things on earth, and to look for Christ's coming and the full manifestation of the world to come. This "world to come," in its future aspect, thus corresponds to "resurrection of the dead and eternal life" ( Heb 6:2), the first Christian principles which the Hebrew believers had been taught, by the Christian light being thrown back on their Old Testament for their instruction (see on Heb 6:1,2). "The world to come," which, as to its "powers," exists already in the redeemed, will pass into a fully realized fact at Christ's coming ( Col 3:4).
6. If--Greek, "And (yet) have
fallen away"; compare a less extreme falling or
declension,
Ga 5:4, "Ye are fallen from grace." Here an
entire and wilful apostasy is meant; the Hebrews had not
yet so fallen away; but he warns them that such would be
the final result of retrogression, if, instead of
"going on to perfection," they should need to
learn again the first principles of Christianity (
Heb 6:1).
to renew them again--They have been
"once" (
Heb 6:4) already renewed, or made anew, and now
they need to be "renewed" over
"again."
crucify to themselves the Son of
God--"are crucifiying to themselves"
Christ, instead of, like Paul, crucifying the world unto
them by the cross of Christ (
Ga 6:14). So in
Heb 10:29, "trodden under foot the Son of God, and
counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith
. . . sanctified, an unholy thing."
"The Son of God," marking His dignity, shows the
greatness of their offense.
put him to an open shame--literally,
"make a public example of" Him, as if He were a
malefactor suspended on a tree. What the carnal Israel did
outwardly, those who fall away from light do inwardly, they
virtually crucify again the Son of God; "they tear him
out of the recesses of their hearts where He had fixed His
abode and exhibit Him to the open scoffs of the world as
something powerless and common" [BLEEK in ALFORD]. The
Montanists and Novatians used this passage to justify the
lasting exclusion from the Church of those who had once
lapsed. The Catholic Church always opposed this view, and
readmitted the lapsed on their repentance, but did not
rebaptize them. This passage implies that persons may be in
some sense "renewed," and yet fall away finally;
for the words, "renew again," imply that
they have been, in some sense, not the full
sense, ONCE RENEWED by the Holy Ghost; but certainly
not that they are "the elect," for these can
never fall away, being chosen unto everlasting life (
Joh 10:28). The elect abide in Christ, hear and
continuously obey His voice, and do not fall away. He who
abides not in Christ, is cast forth as a withered branch;
but he who abides in Him becomes more and more free from
sin; the wicked one cannot touch him; and he by faith
overcomes the world. A temporary faith is possible,
without one thereby being constituted one of the elect (
Mr 4:16, 17). At the same time it does not limit
God's grace, as if it were "impossible"
for God to reclaim even such a hardened rebel so as yet
to look on Him whom he has pierced. The impossibility rests
in their having known in themselves once the power of
Christ's sacrifice, and yet now rejecting it; there
cannot possibly be any new means devised for their
renewal afresh, and the means provided by God's love
they now, after experience of them, deliberately and
continuously reject; their conscience being served, and
they "twice dead" (
Jude 12), are now past hope, except by a miracle of
God's grace. "It is the curse of evil eternally to
propagate evil" [THOLUCK]. "He who is led into
the whole (?) compass of Christian experiences, may yet
cease to abide in them; he who abides not in them, was, at
the very time when he had those objective experiences, not
subjectively true to them; otherwise there would
have been fulfilled in him, "Whosoever hath, to him
shall be given, and he shall have more abundance" (
Mt 13:12), so that he would have abided in them and not
have fallen away" [THOLUCK]. Such a one was never
truly a Spirit-led disciple of Christ (
Ro 8:14-17). The sin against the Holy Ghost, though
somewhat similar, is not identical with this sin; for
that sin may be committed by those outside the
Church (as in
Mt 12:24, 31, 32); this, only by those inside.
7. the earth--rather as Greek (no article),
"land."
which drinketh in--Greek,
"which has drunk in"; not merely receiving
it on the surface. Answering to those who have enjoyed the
privilege of Christian experiences, being in some sense
renewed by the Holy Ghost; true alike of those who
persevere and those who "fall away."
the rain that cometh oft upon it--not
merely failing over it, or towards it, but
falling and resting upon it so as to cover it
(the Greek genitive, not the accusative). The
"oft" implies, on God's part, the riches of
His abounding grace ("coming" spontaneously, and
often); and, on the apostate's part, the wilful
perversity whereby he has done continual despite to the
oft-repeated motions of the Spirit. Compare "How
often,"
Mt 23:37. The rain of heaven falls both on the elect
and the apostates.
bringeth forth--as the natural
result of "having drunk in the rain." See
above.
herbs--provender.
meet--fit. Such as the master of the
soil wishes. The opposite of "rejected,"
Heb 6:8.
by whom--rather as Greek,
"for (that is, on account of) whom," namely, the
lords of the soil; not the laborers, as English
Version, namely, God and His Christ (
1Co 3:9). The heart of man is the earth; man is the
dresser; herbs are brought forth meet, not for the dresser,
by whom, but for God, the owner of the soil, for whom it is
dressed. The plural is general, the owners whoever they
may be; here God.
receiveth--"partaketh
of."
blessing--fruitfulness. Contrast
God's curse causing unfruitfulness (
Ge 3:17, 18); also spiritually (
Jer 17:5-8).
from God--Man's use of means is
vain unless God bless (
1Co 3:6, 7).
8. that which--rather as Greek (no article),
"But if it (the 'land,'
Heb 6:7) bear"; not so favorable a word as
"bringeth forth,"
Heb 6:7, said of the good soil.
briers--Greek,
"thistles."
rejected--after having been
tested; so the Greek implies. Reprobate
. . . rejected by the Lord.
nigh unto cursing--on the verge of
being given up to its own barrenness by the just curse of
God. This "nigh" softens the severity of the
previous "It is impossible," &c. (
Heb 6:4, 6). The ground is not yet actually
cursed.
whose--"of which (land)
the end is unto burning," namely, with the consuming
fire of the last judgment; as the land of Sodom was given
to "brimstone, salt, and burning" (
De 29:23); so as to the ungodly (
Mt 3:10, 12; 7:19; 13:30; Joh 15:6; 2Pe 3:10).
Jerusalem, which had so resisted the grace of Christ, was
then nigh unto cursing, and in a few years was burned.
Compare
Mt 22:7, "burned up their city" an
earnest of a like fate to all wilful abusers of God's
grace (
Heb 10:26, 27).
9. beloved--appositely here introduced; LOVE to you prompts
me in the strong warnings I have just given, not that I
entertain unfavorable thoughts of you; nay, I anticipate
better things of you; Greek "the
things which are better"; that ye are not
thorn-bearing, or nigh unto cursing, and doomed
unto burning, but heirs of salvation in
accordance with God's faithfulness (
Heb 6:10).
we are persuaded--on good grounds; the
result of proof. Compare
Ro 15:14, "I myself am persuaded of you, my
brethren, that ye are full of goodness." A
confirmation of the Pauline authorship of this
Epistle.
things that accompany--Greek,
"things that hold by," that is, are close unto
"salvation." Things that are linked unto
salvation (compare
Heb 6:19). In opposition to "nigh unto
cursing."
though--Greek, "if even we
thus speak." "For it is better to make you afraid
with words, that ye may not suffer in fact."
10. not unrighteous--not unfaithful to His own
gracious promise. Not that we have any inherent right to
claim reward; for (1) a servant has no merit, as
he only does that which is his bounden duty; (2) our best
performances bear no proportion to what we leave undone;
(3) all strength comes from God; but God has promised of
His own grace to reward the good works of His people
(already accepted through faith in Christ); it is His
promise, not our merits, which would make it
unrighteous were He not to reward His people's
works. God will be no man's debtor.
your work--your whole Christian life
of active obedience.
labour of love--The oldest manuscripts
omit "labor of," which probably crept in from
1Th 1:3. As "love" occurs here, so
"hope,"
Heb 6:11, "faith,"
Heb 6:12; as in
1Co 13:13: the Pauline triad. By their
love he sharpens their hope and
faith.
ye have showed--(Compare
Heb 10:32-34).
toward his name--Your acts of love
to the saints were done for His name's sake. The
distressed condition of the Palestinian Christians appears
from the collection for them. Though receiving bounty from
other churches, and therefore not able to minister much by
pecuniary help, yet those somewhat better off could
minister to the greatest sufferers in their Church in
various other ways (compare
2Ti 1:18). Paul, as elsewhere, gives them the utmost
credit for their graces, while delicately hinting the need
of perseverance, a lack of which had probably somewhat
begun to show itself.
11. And--Greek, "But."
desire--Greek,
"earnestly desire." The language of
fatherly affection, rather than command.
every one of you--implying that
all in the Palestinian churches had not shown the same
diligence as some of those whom he praises in
Heb 6:10. "He cares alike for great and small, and
overlooks none." "Every one of them," even
those diligent in acts of LOVE (
Heb 6:10), needed to be stimulated to persevere
in the same diligence with a view to the full assurance of
HOPE unto the end. They needed, besides love, patient
perseverance, resting on hope and faith (
Heb 10:36; 13:7). Compare "the full assurance of
faith,"
Heb 10:22; Ro 4:21; 1Th 1:5.
unto the end--the coming of Christ.
12. be not--Greek, "become not." In
Heb 5:11, he said, "Ye have become dull
(Greek, 'slothful') of
hearing"; here he warns them not to become
"slothful absolutely," namely, also in
mind and deed. He will not become slothful who keeps always
the end in view; hope is the means of
ensuring this.
followers--Greek,
"imitators"; so in
Eph 5:1, Greek;
1Co 11:1.
patience--Greek,
"long-suffering endurance." There is the
long-suffering patience, or endurance of
love,
1Co 13:4, and that of faith,
Heb 6:15.
them who . . . inherit the
promises--Greek, "who are
inheriting," &c.; to whom the promises are
their inheritance. Not that they have actually
entered on the perfect inheritance, which
Heb 11:13, 39, 40 explicitly denies; though doubtless
the dead in Christ have, in the disembodied soul, a
foretaste of it; but "them (enumerated in
Heb 11:2-40) who in every age have been, are, or shall
be, inheritors of the promises"; of whom
Abraham is an illustrious example (
Heb 6:13).
13. For--confirming the reasonableness of resting on "the promises" as infallibly sure, resting as they do on God's oath, by the instance of Abraham. "He now gives consolation, by the oath of God's grace, to those whom, in the second, third, and fourth chapters, he had warned by the oath of God's 'wrath.' The oath of wrath did not primarily extend its force beyond the wilderness; but the oath of grace is in force for ever" [BENGEL].
14. multiplying . . . multiply--Hebraism for
superabundantly multiply.
thee--The increase of Abraham's
seed is virtually an increase of himself. The
argument here refers to Abraham himself as an
example; therefore Paul quotes
Ge 22:17, "thee," instead of "thy
seed."
15. so--thus relying on the promise.
16. for confirmation--not to be joined, as English Version, to "an oath"; but to "an end" [ALFORD]. I prefer, "The oath is to them, in respect to confirmation (of one's solemn promise or covenant; as here, God's), an end of all contradiction (so the Greek is translated, Heb 12:3), or "gainsaying." This passage shows: (1) an oath is sanctioned even in the Christian dispensation as lawful; (2) that the limits to its use are, that it only be employed where it can put an end to contradiction in disputes, and for confirmation of a solemn promise.
17. Wherein--that is, Which being the case among
men, God, in accommodation to their manner of confirming
covenants, superadded to His sure word His
oath: the " TWO immutable things" (
Heb 6:18).
willing . . .
counsel--Greek, "willing . . .
will"; words akin. Expressing the utmost benignity
[BENGEL].
more abundantly--than had He not
sworn. His word would have been amply enough; but, to make
assurance doubly sure, He "interposed with an
oath" (so the Greek). Literally, He acted as
Mediator, coming between Himself and us; as if He were
less, while He swears, than Himself by whom He swears (for
the less among men usually swear by the greater). Dost thou
not yet believe, thou that hearest the promise?
[BENGEL].
heirs of promise--not only
Abraham's literal, but also his spiritual, seed (
Ga 3:29).
18. immutable--Translate, as in
Heb 6:17, "unchangeable."
impossible . . . to
lie--"ever to lie"; this is the force of
the Greek aorist [ALFORD]. His not being able to
deny Himself is a proof, not of weakness, but of strength
incomparable.
consolation--under doubts and fears,
and so "encouragement," literally,
"exhortation."
fled for refuge--as if from a
shipwreck; or, as one fleeing to one of the six cities of
refuge. Kadesh, that is, holy, implies the holiness
of Jesus, our Refuge. Shechem, that is, shoulder,
the government is upon his shoulder (
Isa 9:6). Hebron, that is, fellowship, believers
are called into the fellowship of Christ. Bezer, that is,
a fortress, Christ is so to all who trust in Him.
Ramoth, that is, high, for Him hath God exalted with
His right hand (
Ac 5:31). Golan, that is, joy, for in Him all
the saints are justified and shall glory.
lay hold upon the hope--that is, the
object of our hope, as upon a preservative from
sinking.
set before us--as a prize for which we
strive; a new image, namely, the race course (
Heb 12:1, 2).
19. Hope is found represented on coins by an
anchor.
sure and steadfast--sure in
respect to us: steadfast, or "firm"
[ALFORD], in itself. Not such an anchor as
will not keep the vessel from tossing, or an anchor unsound
or too light [T HEOPHYLACT].
which entereth into that--that is the
place
within the veil--two images
beautifully combined: (1) The soul is the
ship: the world the sea: the bliss
beyond the world, the distant coast; the
hope resting on faith, the anchor which prevents
the vessel being tossed to and fro; the encouraging
consolation through the promise and oath
of God, the cable connecting the ship and anchor. (2) The
world is the fore-court: heaven, the Holy of Holies;
Christ, the High Priest going before us, so as to enable
us, after Him, and through Him, to enter within the veil.
ESTIUS explains, As the anchor does not stay in the waters,
but enters the ground hidden beneath the waters, and
fastens itself in it, so hope, our anchor of the soul, is
not satisfied with merely coming to the vestibule, that is,
is not content with merely earthly and visible goods, but
penetrates even to those which are within the veil, namely,
to the Holy of Holies, where it lays hold on God Himself,
and heavenly goods, and fastens on them. "Hope,
entering within heaven, hath made us already to be in the
things promised to us, even while we are still below, and
have not yet received them; such strength hope has, as to
make those that are earthly to become heavenly."
"The soul clings, as one in fear of shipwreck to an
anchor, and sees not whither the cable of the anchor
runs--where it is fastened: but she knows that it is
fastened behind the veil which hides the future
glory."
veil--Greek,
"catapetasma": the second veil
which shut in the Holiest Place. The outer veil was called
by a distinct Greek term, calumma: "the
second (that is, the inner) veil."
20. The absence of the Greek article requires ALFORD'S translation, "Where. As forerunner for us (that is, in our behalf), entered Jesus" [and is now: this last clause is implied in the 'where' of the Greek, which implies being IN a place: 'whither' is understood to 'entered,' taken out of 'where'; whither Jesus entered, and where He is now]. The "for us" implies that it was not for Himself, as God, He needed to enter there, but as our High Priest, representing and introducing us, His followers, opening the way to us, by His intercession with the Father, as the Aaronic high priest entered the Holiest Place once a year to make propitiation for the people. The first-fruits of our nature are ascended, and so the rest is sanctified. Christ's ascension is our promotion: and whither the glory of the Head has preceded, thither the hope of the body, too, is called. We ought to keep festal day, since Christ has taken up and set in the heavens the first-fruit of our lump, that is, the human flesh [C HRYSOSTOM]. As John Baptist was Christ's forerunner on earth, so Christ is ours in heaven.
Heb 7:1-28. CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC SUPERIOR TO AARON'S.
1. this Melchisedec-- (
Heb 6:20; Ps 110:4). The verb does not come till
Heb 7:3, "abideth."
king . . . priest--Christ
unites these offices in their highest sense, and so
restores the patriarchal union of these offices.
Salem--Jerusalem, that is, seeing
peace; others make Salem distinct, and to be that
mentioned (
Ge 33:18; Joh 3:23).
the most high God--called also
"Possessor of heaven and earth" (
Ge 14:19, 22). This title of God, "the Most
High," handed down by tradition from the primitive
revelation, appears in the Phœnician god
"Elion," that is, Most High. It is used to
imply that the God whom Melchisedec served is THE TRUE GOD,
and not one of the gods of the nations around. So it is
used in the only other cases in which it is found in the
New Testament, namely in the address of the demoniac, and
the divining damsel constrained to confess that her own
gods were false, and God the only true God.
who met Abraham--in company with the
king of Sodom (
Ge 14:17, 18).
slaughter--perhaps defeat, as
ALFORD translates. So
Ge 14:17 (compare
Ge 14:15) may be translated. Arioch, king of Ellasar,
lived and reigned after the disaster [BENGEL]. However, if
Chedorlaomer and Amraphel and Tidal were slain, though
Arioch survived, "slaughter of the kings"
would be correct.
blessed him--As priest he first
blessed Abraham on God's part; next he blessed God on
Abraham's part: a reciprocal blessing. Not a mere wish,
but an authoritative and efficacious intercession as a
priest. The Most High God's prerogative as
"Possessor of heaven and earth," is made over to
Abraham; and Abraham's glory, from his victory over the
foe, is made over to God. A blessed exchange for Abraham
(
Ge 14:19, 20).
2. gave--Greek, "apportioned"; assigned as
his portion.
tenth . . . of all--namely,
the booty taken. The tithes given are closely associated
with the priesthood: the mediating priest received them as
a pledge of the giver's whole property being God's;
and as he conveyed God's gifts to man (
Heb 7:1, "blessed him"), so also man's
gifts to God. Melchisedec is a sample of how God preserves,
amidst general apostasy, an elect remnant. The meeting of
Melchisedec and Abraham is the connecting link between to
two dispensations, the patriarchal, represented by
Melchisedec, who seems to have been specially
consecrated by God as a KING-PRIEST, the highest form
of that primitive system in which each father of a
household was priest in it, and the Levitical, represented
by Abraham, in which the priesthood was to be limited to
one family of one tribe and one nation. The Levitical was
parenthetical, and severed the kingdom and priesthood; the
patriarchal was the true forerunner of Christ's, which,
like Melchisedec's, unites the kingship and
priesthood, and is not derived from other man, or
transmitted to other man; but derived from God, and is
transmitted in God to a never-ending perpetuity.
Melchisedec's priesthood continueth in Christ for ever.
For other points of superiority, see
Heb 7:16-21. Melchisedec must have had some special
consecration above the other patriarchs, as Abraham, who
also exercised the priesthood; else Abraham would not have
paid tithe to him as to a superior. His peculiar function
seems to have been, by God's special call,
KING-priest whereas no other
"patriarch-priest" was also a God-consecrated
king.
first being--Paul begins the mystical
explanation of the historical fact (allegorical
explanations being familiar to JEWS), by mentioning the
significancy of the name.
righteousness--not merely righteous:
so Christ. Hebrew "Malchi" means
king: "Tzedek,"
righteousness.
King of Salem--not only his own name,
but that of the city which he ruled, had a typical
significance, namely, peace. Christ is the true
Prince of peace. The peace which He brings is
the fruit of righteousness.
3. Without father, &c.--explained by "without
genealogy" (so the Greek is for "without
descent); compare
Heb 7:6, that is, his genealogy is not known,
whereas a Levitical priest could not dispense with the
proof of his descent.
having neither beginning of days nor
end of life--namely, history not having recorded his
beginning nor end, as it has the beginning and end of
Aaron. The Greek idiom expressed by "without
father," &c., one whose parentage was humble or
unknown. "Days" mean his time of
discharging his function. So the eternity spoken of
in
Ps 110:4 is that of the priestly office
chiefly.
made like--It is not said that he was
asbsolutely "like." Made like, namely, in
the particulars here specified. Nothing is said in Genesis
of the end of his priesthood, or of his having had in his
priesthood either predecessor or successor, which, in a
typical point of view, represents Christ's eternal
priesthood, without beginning or end. Aaron's
end is recorded; Melchisedec's not: typically
significant. "The Son of God" is not said to be
made like unto Melchisedec, but Melchisedec to be
"made like the Son of God." When ALFORD denies
that Melchisedec was made like the Son of God in respect
of his priesthood, on the ground that Melchisedec was
prior in time to our Lord, he forgets that
Christ's eternal priesthood was an archetypal reality
in God's purpose from everlasting, to which
Melchisedec's priesthood was "made like" in
due time. The Son of God is the more ancient, and is the
archetype: compare
Heb 8:5, where the heavenly things are represented as
the primary archetype of the Levitical ordinances.
The epithets, "without father," &c.
"beginning of days, "nor end," "abideth
continually," belong to Melchisedec only in respect
to his priesthood, and in so far as he is the type
of the Son of God, and are strictly true of Him alone.
Melchisedec was, in his priesthood, "made like"
Christ, as far as the imperfect type could represent the
lineaments of the perfect archetype. "The portrait of
a living man can be seen on the canvas, yet the man is very
different from his picture." There is nothing in the
account,
Ge 14:18-20, to mark Melchisedec as a superhuman being:
he is classed with the other kings in the chapter as a
living historic personage: not as ORIGEN thought, an angel;
nor as the Jews thought, Shem, son of Noah; nor as CALMET,
Enoch; nor as the Melchisedekites, that he was the Holy
Ghost; nor as others, the Divine Word. He was probably of
Shemitic, not Canaanite origin: the last independent
representative of the original Shemitic population, which
had been vanquished by the Canaanites, Ham's
descendants. The greatness of Abraham then lay in hopes; of
Melchisedec, in present possession. Melchisedec was the
highest and last representative of the Noahic covenant, as
Christ was the highest and ever enduring representative of
the Abrahamic. Melchisedec, like Christ, unites in himself
the kingly and priestly offices, which Abraham does
not. ALFORD thinks the epithets are, in some sense,
strictly true of Melchisedec himself; not merely in
the typical sense given above; but that he had not, as
mortal men have, a beginning or end of life (?). A very
improbable theory, and only to be resorted to in the last
extremity, which has no place here. With Melchisedec, whose
priesthood probably lasted a long period, the priesthood
and worship of the true God in Canaan ceased. He was first
and last king-priest there, till Christ, the
antitype; and therefore his priesthood is said to last for
ever, because it both lasts a long time, and lasts as long
as the nature of the thing itself (namely, his life, and
the continuance of God's worship in Canaan) admits. If
Melchisedec were high priest for ever in a literal sense,
then Christ and he would now still be high priests, and we
should have two instead of one (!). THOLUCK remarks,
"Melchisedec remains in so far as the type
remains in the antitype, in so far as his priesthood
remains in Christ." The father and
mother of Melchisedec, as also his children, are not
descended from Levi, as the Levitical priests (
Heb 7:6) were required to be, and are not even
mentioned by Moses. The wife of Aaron, Elisheba, the
mother from whom the Levitical priests spring, is
mentioned: as also Sarah, the original mother of the Jewish
nation itself. As man, Christ had no father; as God,
no mother.
4. consider--not merely see, but weigh with
attentive contemplation, the fact.
even--"to whom (as his superior)
Abraham even paid tithe (went so far as to pay
tithe) of (consisting of, literally, 'from') the
best of the spoils (literally, 'the top of the
heap"; whether of corn, the first-fruits of which,
taken from the top, used to be consecrated to God; or of
spoils, from the top of which the general used to take some
portion for consecration to God, or for his own use)."
He paid "tithes of ALL," and those tithes were
taken out of the topmost and best portion of the whole
spoils.
the patriarch--in the Greek
emphatically standing at the end of the whole sentence: And
this payer of tithe being no less a personage than
"the patriarch," the first forefather and head of
our Jewish race and nation See on Heb
7:3, on Melchisedec's superiority as specially
consecrated king-priest, above the other
patriarch-priests.
5. sons of Levi--namely, those alone who belonged to the
family of Aaron, to whom the priesthood was restricted.
Tithes originally paid to the whole tribe of Levi, became
at length attached to the priesthood.
according to the law--sanctioned by
Jehovah (
Heb 9:19).
of their brethren--with whom, in point
of natural descent, they are on a level.
though, &c.--Though thus on a
level by common descent from Abraham, they yet pay tithe to
the Levites, whose brethren they are. Now the Levites are
subordinate to the priests; and these again to Abraham,
their common progenitor; and Abraham to Melchisedec.
"How great" (
Heb 7:4) then, must this Melchisedec be in respect to
his priesthood, as compared with the Levitical, though the
latter received tithes! and now unspeakably great must
"the Son of God" be, to whom, as the sacerdotal
archetype (in God's purpose), Melchisedec was made
like! Thus compare the "consider,"
Heb 7:4, in the case of Melchisedec, the type, with the
"consider" (Greek, "contemplate
attentively," see on Heb 3:1, a
stronger word than here) in the case of Christ, the
archetype.
6. he whose descent is not counted from them--not from
"the sons of Levi," as those "who receive
the priesthood." This verse explains "without
descent" (Greek, "genealogy" in both
verses,
Heb 7:3). He who needs not, as the Levitical priests,
to be able to trace his genealogy back to Levi.
received--Greek,
"hath received tithes."
blessed--Greek,
"hath blessed." The perfect tense implies
that the significance of the fact endures to the present
time.
him that had--"the possessor of
the promises," Abraham's peculiar distinction and
designation. Paul exalts Abraham in order still more to
exalt Melchisedec. When Christ is the subject, the singular
"promise" is used. "The promises" in
the plural, refer to God's promise of greatness to
himself and his seed, and of the possession of Canaan,
twice repeated before the blessing of Melchisedec. As the
priests, though above the people (
Heb 7:7) whom it was their duty to "bless,"
were yet subordinate to Abraham; and as Abraham was
subordinate to Melchisedec, who blessed him, Melchisedec
must be much above the Levitical priests.
7. The principle that the blesser is superior to him whom he blesses, holds good only in a blessing given with divine authority; not merely a prayerful wish, but one that is divinely efficient in working its purport, as that of the patriarchs on their children: so Christ's blessing, Lu 24:51; Ac 3:26.
8. Second point of superiority: Melchisedec's is an
enduring, the Levitical a transitory,
priesthood. As the law was a parenthesis between
Abraham's dispensation of promise of grace, and its
enduring fulfilment at Christ's coming (
Ro 5:20, Greek, "The law entered as
something adscititious and by the way"): so the
Levitical priesthood was parenthetical and temporary,
between Melchisedec's typically enduring priesthood,
and its antitypical realization in our ever continuing High
Priest, Christ.
here--in the Levitical
priesthood.
there--in the priesthood after the
order of Melchisedec. In order to bring out the typical
parallel more strongly, Paul substitutes, "He of whom
it is witnessed that he liveth," for the more
untypical, "He who is made like to Him that
liveth." Melchisedec "liveth" merely in his
official capacity, his priesthood being continued in
Christ. Christ, on the other hand, is, in His own
person, "ever living after the power of an endless
life" (
Heb 7:16, 25). Melchisedec's death not being
recorded, is expressed by the positive term
"liveth," for the sake of bringing into
prominence the antitype, Christ, of whom alone it is
strictly and perfectly true, "that He liveth."
9. as I may so say--to preclude what he is about to say
being taken in the mere literal sense; I may say
that, virtually, Levi, in the person of his father
Abraham, acknowledged Melchisedec's superiority, and
paid tithes to him.
who receiveth tithes--(Compare
Heb 7:5).
in Abraham--Greek, "by
means of (by the hand of) Abraham"; through Abraham.
"Paid tithes," literally, "hath been
tithed," that is, been taken tithes of.
10. in the loins of his father--that is, forefather Abraham. Christ did not, in this sense, pay tithes in Abraham, for He never was in the loins of an earthly father [A LFORD]. Though, in respect to His mother, He was "of the fruit of (David's, and so of) Abraham's loins," yet, being supernaturally, without human father, conceived, as He is above the natural law of birth, so is he above the law of tithes. Only those born in the natural way, and so in sin, being under the curse, needed to pay tithe to the priest, that he might make propitiation for their sin. Not so Christ, who derived only His flesh, not also the taint of the flesh, from Abraham. BENGEL remarks, The blessings which Abraham had before meeting Melchisedec were the general promises, and the special one of a natural seed, and so of Levi; but the promises under which Christ was comprehended, and the faith for which Abraham was so commended, followed after Abraham's meeting Melchisedec, and being blessed by him: to which fact. Ge 15:1, "After these things," calls our attention. This explains why Christ, the supernatural seed, is not included as paying tithes through Abraham to Melchisedec.
11. perfection--absolute: "the bringing of man to his
highest state, namely, that of salvation and
sanctification."
under it--The reading in the oldest
manuscripts is, "Upon it (that is, on the
ground of it as the basis, the priest having to administer
the law,
Mal 2:7: it being presupposed) the people (
Heb 9:19, 'all the people') have
received the law (the Greek is perfect, not
aorist tense; implying the people were still observing the
law)."
what further need-- (
Heb 8:7). For God does nothing needless.
another--rather as Greek,
"that a different priest (one of a different
order) should arise (anew,
Heb 7:15).
not be called--Greek, "not
be said (to be) after the order of Aaron," that
is, that, when spoken of in the
Ps 110:4, "He is not said to be (as we should
expect, if the Aaronic priesthood was perfect) after the
order of Aaron."
12. For--the reason why Paul presses the words "after the order of Melchisedec" in Ps 110:4, namely, because these presuppose a change or transference of the priesthood, and this carries with it a change also of the law (which is inseparably bound up with the priesthood, both stand and fall together, Heb 7:11). This is his answer to those who might object, What need was there of a new covenant?
13. Confirming the truth that a change is made of the
law (
Heb 7:12), by another fact showing the distinctness of
the new priesthood from the Aaronic.
these things-- (
Ps 110:4).
pertaineth--Greek, "hath
partaken of" (the perfect tense implies the
continuance still of His manhood).
another--"a different
tribe" from that of Levi.
14. evident--literally, "manifest before the
eyes" as a thing indisputable; a proof that whatever
difficulties may now appear, then Jesus Christ's
genealogy labored under none.
our Lord--the only place where this
now common title occurs without "Jesus," or
"Christ," except
2Pe 3:15.
sprang--as a plant, and a
branch.
Judah--
Ge 49:10; Lu 1:27, 39 (Hebron of Judah, where LIGHTFOOT
thinks Jesus was conceived)
Lu 2:4, 5; Re 5:5.
of which tribe . . .
priesthood--"in respect to which tribe Moses
spake nothing concerning priests" (so the oldest
manuscripts read, nothing to imply that priests were to be
taken from it).
15. Another proof that the law, or economy, is changed,
namely, forasmuch as Christ is appointed Priest, "not
according to the law of a carnal (that is, a mere
outward) commandment," but "according to the
power of an indissoluble (so the Greek)
life." The hundred tenth Psalm appoints Him "for
ever" (
Heb 7:17). The Levitical law required a definite
carnal descent. In contrast stands "the
power"; Christ's spiritual, inward, living power
of overcoming death. Not agreeably to a statute is
Christ appointed, but according to an inward living
power.
it--the change of the law or economy,
the statement (
Heb 7:12, 18).
far more--Greek, "more
abundantly."
for that--"seeing that,"
literally, "if"; so
Ro 5:10.
after the similitude of
Melchisedec--answering to "after the order of
Melchisedec" (
Heb 5:10). The "order" cannot mean a
series of priests, for Melchisedec neither received his
priesthood from, nor transmitted it to, any other mere man;
it must mean "answering to the office of
Melchisedec." Christ's priesthood is similar to
Melchisedec's in that it is "for ever" (
Heb 7:16, 17).
another--rather as Greek,
"a different."
16. carnal . . . endless--mutually contrasted. As "form" and "power" are opposed, 2Ti 3:5; so here "the law" and "power," compare Ro 8:3, "The law was weak through the flesh"; and Heb 7:18, "weakness." "The law" is here not the law in general, but the statute as to the priesthood. "Carnal," as being only outward and temporary, is contrasted with "endless," or, as Greek, "indissoluble." Commandments is contrasted with "life." The law can give a commandment, but it cannot give life ( Heb 7:19). But our High Priest's inherent "power," now in heaven, has in Him "life for ever"; Heb 9:14, "through the eternal Spirit"; Heb 7:25, "able . . . ever liveth" ( Joh 5:26). It is in the power of His resurrection life, not of His earthly life, that Christ officiates as a Priest.
17. For--proving His life to be "endless" or indissoluble ( Heb 7:16). The emphasis is on "for ever." The oldest manuscripts read, "He is testified of, that Thou art," &c.
18. there is--Greek, "there takes place,"
according to
Ps 110:4.
disannuling--a repealing.
of the commandment--ordaining the
Levitical priesthood. And, as the Levitical priesthood and
the law are inseparably joined, since the former is
repealed, the latter is so also (see on
Heb 7:11).
going before--the legal ordinance
introducing and giving place to the Christian, the
antitypical and permanent end of the former.
weakness and unprofitableness--The
opposite of "power" (
Heb 7:16).
19. For, &c.--justifying his calling the law
weak and unprofitable (
Heb 7:18). The law could not bring men to: true
justification or sanctification before God, which is the
"perfection" that we all need in order to be
accepted of Him, and which we have in Christ.
nothing--not merely "no
one," but "nothing." The law brought nothing
to its perfected end; everything in it was introductory to
its antitype in the Christian economy, which realizes the
perfection contemplated; compare
"unprofitableness,"
Heb 7:18.
did--rather connect with
Heb 7:18, thus, "There takes place (by virtue of
Ps 110:4) a repealing of the commandment (on the one
hand), but (on the other) a bringing in afterwards
(the Greek expresses that there is a bringing in of
something over and above the law; a
superinducing, or accession of something new,
namely, something better than the good things which the
pre-existing law promised [WAHL]) of a better hope,"
not one weak and unprofitable, but, as elsewhere the
Christian dispensation is called, "everlasting,"
"true," "the second," "more
excellent," "different," "living,"
"new," "to come," "perfect."
Compare
Heb 8:6, bringing us near to God, now in spirit,
hereafter both in spirit and in body.
we draw nigh unto God--the sure token
of "perfection." Weakness is the opposite
of this filial confidence of access. The access through the
legal sacrifices was only symbolical and through the medium
of a priest; that through Christ is immediate, perfect, and
spiritual.
20. Another proof of the superiority of Christ's
Melchisedec-like priesthood; the oath of God gave a solemn
weight to it which was not in the law-priesthood, which was
not so confirmed.
he was made priest--rather
supply from
Heb 7:22, which completes the sentence begun in this
verse,
Heb 7:21 being a parenthesis, "inasmuch as not
without an oath He was made surety of the testament
(for, &c.), of so much better a testament hath Jesus
been made the surety."
21. Translate in the Greek order, "For they
indeed (the existing legal priests) without the (solemn)
promise on oath (so the Greek [TITTMANN]) are
made priests."
by him--God.
unto him--the Lord, the Son of God (
Ps 110:1).
not repent--never change His
purpose.
after the order of
Melchisedec--omitted in some oldest manuscripts, contained
in others.
22. surety--ensuring in His own person the certainty of the
covenant to us. This He did by becoming responsible for our
guilt, by sealing the covenant with His blood, and by being
openly acknowledged as our triumphant Saviour by the
Father, who raised Him from the dead. Thus He is at once
God's surety for man, and man's surety for God, and
so Mediator between God and man (
Heb 8:6).
better--
Heb 8:6; 13:20, "everlasting."
testament--sometimes translated,
"covenant." The Greek term implies that it
is appointed by God, and comprises the relations and
bearings partly of a covenant, partly of a
testament: (1) the appointment made without the
concurrence of a second party, of somewhat concerning that
second party; a last will or testament, so in
Heb 9:16, 17; (2) a mutual agreement in which both
parties consent.
23. Another proof of superiority; the Levitical priests
were many, as death caused the need of continually new ones
being appointed in succession. Christ dies not, and so hath
a priesthood which passes not from one to another.
were--Greek, "are
made."
many--one after another; opposed to
His "unchangeable (that does not pass from one
to another) priesthood" (
Heb 7:24).
not suffered to
continue--Greek, "hindered from
permanently continuing," namely, in the
priesthood.
24. he--emphatic; Greek, "Himself." So in
Ps 110:4, "THOU art a priest";
singular, not priests, "many."
continueth--Greek, simple verb,
not the compound as in
Heb 7:23. "Remaineth," namely, in
life.
unchangeable--Greek, "hath
His priesthood unchangeable"; not passing from one
to another, intransmissible. Therefore no earthly
so-called apostolic succession of priests are His
vicegerents. The Jewish priests had successors in
office, because "they could not continue by reason of
death." But this Man, because He liveth ever, hath no
successor in office, not even Peter (
1Pe 5:1).
25. Wherefore--Greek, "Whence"; inasmuch
as "He remaineth for ever."
also--as a natural consequence flowing
from the last, at the same time a new and higher
thing [ALFORD].
save--His very name JESUS (
Heb 7:22) meaning Saviour.
to the uttermost--altogether,
perfectly, so that nothing should be wanting afterwards for
ever [TITTMANN]. It means "in any wise,"
"utterly," in
Lu 13:11.
come unto God--by faith.
by him--through Him as their
mediating Priest, instead of through the Levitical
priests.
seeing he ever liveth--resuming
"He continueth ever,"
Heb 7:24; therefore "He is able to the
uttermost"; He is not, like the Levitical priest,
prevented by death, for "He ever liveth"
(
Heb 7:23).
to make intercession--There was but
the one offering on earth once for all. But the
intercession for us in the heavens (
Heb 7:26) is ever continuing, whence the result
follows, that we can never be separated from the love of
God in Christ. He intercedes only for those who come
unto God through Him, not for the unbelieving world (
Joh 17:9). As samples of His intercession, compare the
prophetical descriptions in the Old Testament.
"By an humble omnipotency (for it was by His
humiliation that He obtained all power), or
omnipotent humility, appearing in the presence, and
presenting His postulations at the throne of God"
[BISHOP P EARSON]. He was not only the offering, but the
priest who offered it. Therefore, He has become not only a
sacrifice, but an intercessor; His intercession being
founded on His voluntary offering of Himself without spot
to God. We are not only then in virtue of His sacrifice
forgiven, but in virtue of the intercession admitted to
favor and grace [ARCHBISHOP MAGEE].
26. such--as is above described. The oldest manuscripts
read, "also." "For to US (as sinners;
emphatical) there was also becoming (besides the other
excellencies of our High Priest) such an High
Priest."
holy--"pious" (a distinct
Greek word from that for holy, which latter
implies consecration) towards God; perfectly
answering God's will in reverent piety (
Ps 16:10).
harmless--literally, "free from
evil" and guile, in relation to Himself.
undefiled--not defiled by stain
contracted from others, in relation to men.
Temptation, to which He was exposed, left no trace of evil
in Him.
separate--rather,
"separated from sinners," namely, in His
heavenly state as our High Priest above, after He had been
parted from the earth, as the Levitical high priest
was separated from the people in the sanctuary (whence he
was not to go out),
Le 21:12. Though justifying through faith the ungodly,
He hath no contact with them as such. He is lifted
above our sinful community, being "made higher than
the heavens," at the same time that He makes believers
as such (not as sinners), "to sit together
(with Him) in heavenly places" (
Eph 2:6). Just as Moses on the mount was
separated from and above the people, and alone with God.
This proves Jesus is GOD. "Though innumerable lies
have been forged against the venerable Jesus, none dared to
charge Him with any intemperance" [ORIGEN].
made--Jesus was higher before (
Joh 17:5), and as the God-MAN was made so
by the Father after His humiliation (compare
Heb 1:4).
higher than the heavens--for "He
passed through [so the Greek] the
heavens" (
Heb 4:14).
27. daily--"day by day." The priests daily
offered sacrifices (
Heb 9:6; 10:11; Ex 29:38-42). The high priests took
part in these daily-offered sacrifices only on festival
days; but as they represented the whole priesthood, the
daily offerings are here attributed to them; their
exclusive function was to offer the atonement "once
every year" (
Heb 9:7), and "year by year continually" (
Heb 10:1). The "daily" strictly belongs to
Christ, not to the high priests, "who needeth
not daily, as those high priests (year by year, and
their subordinate priests daily), to offer,"
&c.
offer up--The Greek term is
peculiarly used of sacrifices for sin. The high
priest's double offering on the day of atonement, the
bullock for himself, and the goat for the people's
sins, had its counterpart in the TWO lambs offered daily by
the ordinary priests.
this he did--not "died first for
His own sins and then the people's," but for
the people's only. The negation is twofold: He
needeth not to offer (1) daily; nor (2) to offer for His
own sins also; for He offered Himself a spotless sacrifice
(
Heb 7:26; Heb 4:15). The sinless alone could offer for
the sinful.
once--rather as Greek,
"once for all." The sufficiency of the one
sacrifice to atone for all sins for ever,
resulted from its absolute spotlessness.
28. For--reason for the difference stated in
Heb 7:27, between His one sacrifice and their oft
repeated sacrifices, namely, because of His entire freedom
from the sinful infirmity to which they are subject.
He needed not, as they, to offer F OR HIS OWN SIN;
and being now exempt from death and "perfected for
evermore," He needs not to REPEAT His
sacrifice.
the word--"the word"
confirmed by "the oath."
which--which oath was after the
law, namely, in
Ps 110:4, abrogating the preceding
law-priesthood.
the Son--contrasted with
"men."
consecrated--Greek, "made
perfect" once for all, as in
Heb 2:10; 5:9; see on Heb 2:10;
Heb 5:9. Opposed to "having
infirmity." Consecrated as a perfected priest
by His perfected sacrifice, and consequent anointing and
exaltation to the right hand of the Father.
Heb 8:1-13. CHRIST, THE HIGH PRIEST IN THE TRUE SANCTUARY, SUPERSEDING THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD; THE NEW RENDERS OBSOLETE THE OLD COVENANT.
1. the sum--rather, "the principal point"; for
the participle is present, not past, which would be
required if the meaning were "the sum." "The
chief point in (or, 'in the case'; so the
Greek,
Heb 9:10, 15, 17) the things which we are
speaking," literally, "which are being
spoken."
such--so transcendently pre-eminent,
namely in this respect, that "He is set on the right
hand of," &c. Infinitely above all other priests
in this one grand respect, He exercises His priesthood IN
HEAVEN, not in the earthly "holiest place"
(
Heb 10:12). The Levitical high priests, even when they
entered the Holiest Place once a year, only STOOD for a
brief space before the symbol of God's throne; but
Jesus SITS on the throne of the Divine Majesty in
the heaven itself, and this for ever (
Heb 10:11, 12).
2. minister--The Greek term implies priestly
ministry in the temple.
the sanctuary--Greek, "the
holy places"; the Holy of Holies. Here the heavenly
sanctuary is meant.
the true--the archetypal and
antitypical, as contrasted with the typical and symbolical
(
Heb 9:24). Greek "alethinos"
(used here) is opposed to that which does not fulfil its
idea, as for instance, a type;
"alethes," to that which is untrue and
unreal, as a lie. The measure of alethes is reality;
that of alethinos, ideality. In alethes the
idea corresponds to the thing; in alethinos, the
thing to the idea [KALMIS in ALFORD].
tabernacle-- (
Heb 9:11). His body. Through His glorified body
as the tabernacle, Christ passes into the heavenly
"Holy of Holies," the immediate immaterial
presence of God, where He intercedes for us. This
tabernacle in which God dwells, is where God in Christ
meets us who are "members of His body, of His flesh,
and of His bones." This tabernacle answers to the
heavenly Jerusalem, where God's visible presence
is to be manifested to His perfected saints and angels, who
are united in Christ the Head; in contradistinction to His
personal invisible presence in the Holy of Holies
unapproachable save to Christ.
Joh 1:14, "Word . . . dwelt among
us," Greek, "tabernacled."
pitched--Greek,
"fixed" firmly.
not man--as Moses (
Heb 8:5).
3. For--assigning his reason for calling him "minister
of the sanctuary" (
Heb 8:2).
somewhat--He does not offer again His
once for all completed sacrifice. But as the high
priest did not enter the Holy Place without
blood, so Christ has entered the heavenly Holy Place
with His own blood. That "blood of
sprinkling" is in heaven. And is thence made effectual
to sprinkle believers as the end of their election (
1Pe 1:2). The term "consecrate" as a priest,
is literally, to fill the hand, implying that an
offering is given into the hands of the priest, which it is
his duty to present to God. If a man be a priest, he must
have some gift in his hands to offer. Therefore, Christ, as
a priest, has His blood as His oblation to offer before
God.
4. Implying that Christ's priestly office is exercised
in heaven, not in earth; in the power of His resurrection
life, not of His earthly life.
For--The oldest manuscripts read,
"accordingly then."
if, &c.--"if He were on
earth, He would not even (so the Greek) be a
priest" (compare
Heb 7:13, 14); therefore, certainly, He could not
exercise the high priestly function in the earthly Holy of
Holies.
seeing that, &c.--"since
there are" already, and exist now (the temple service
not yet being set aside, as it was on the destruction of
Jerusalem), "those (the oldest manuscripts omit
'priests') who offer the (appointed) gifts
according to (the) law." Therefore, His
sacerdotal "ministry" must be
"in the heavens," not on earth (
Heb 8:1). "If His priesthood terminated on the
earth, He would not even be a priest at all" [BENGEL].
I conceive that the denial here of Christ's priesthood
on earth does not extend to the sacrifice on the
cross which He offered as a priest on earth; but
applies only to the crowning work of His priesthood, the
bringing of the blood into the Holy of Holies, which
He could not have done in the earthly Holy of
Holies, as not being an Aaronic priest. The place
(the heavenly Holy of Holies) was as essential to the
atonement being made as the oblation (the blood).
The body was burnt without the gate; but the sanctification
was effected by the presentation of the blood within the
sanctuary by the high priest. If on earth, He would not be
a priest in the sense of the law of Moses
("according to the law" is emphatic).
5. Who--namely, the priests.
serve unto the example--not
"after the example," as BENGEL explains.
But as in
Heb 13:10, "serve the tabernacle," that is,
do it service: so "serve (the tabernacle which is but)
the outline and shadow." The Greek for
"example" is here taken for the sketch,
copy, or suggestive representation of the
heavenly sanctuary, which is the antitypical reality and
primary archetype. "The mount" answers to
heaven,
Heb 12:22.
admonished--The Greek
especially applies to divine responses and
commands.
to make--"perfectly": so the
Greek.
See--Take heed, accurately observing
the pattern, that so thou mayest make, &c.
saith he--God.
the pattern--an accurate
representation, presented in vision to Moses, of the
heavenly real sanctuary. Thus the earthly tabernacle was
copy of a copy; but the latter accurately representing the
grand archetypical original in heaven (
Ex 25:40).
6. now--not time; but "as it is."
more excellent ministry--than any
earthly ministry.
by how much--in proportion as.
mediator--coming between us and God,
to carry into effect God's covenant with us. "The
messenger (angel) of the covenant."
which--Greek, "one
which" [ALFORD]: inasmuch as being one
which.
established--Greek,
"enacted as a law." So
Ro 3:27, "law of faith"; and
Ro 8:2; 9:31, apply "law" to the Gospel
covenant. It is implied hereby, the Gospel is founded on
the law, in the spirit and essence of the latter.
upon--resting upon.
better promises--enumerated
Heb 8:10, 11. The Old Testament promises were mainly of
earthly, the New Testament promises, of heavenly blessings:
the exact fulfilment of the earthly promises was a pledge
of the fulfilment of the heavenly. "Like a physician
who prescribes a certain diet to a patient, and then when
the patient is beginning to recover, changes the diet,
permitting what he had before forbidden; or as a teacher
gives his pupil an elementary lesson at first; preparatory
to leading him to a higher stage": so Rabbi Albo in
his Ikkarim. Compare
Jer 7:21, 22, which shows that God's original
design in the old covenant ritual system was, that it
should be pedagogical, as a schoolmaster leading and
preparing men for Christ.
7. Same reasoning as in
Heb 7:11.
faultless--perfect in all its parts,
so as not to be found fault with as wanting anything
which ought to be there: answering all the purposes of a
law. The law in its morality was blameless
(Greek, "amomos"); but in saving
us it was defective, and so not faultless
(Greek, "amemptos").
should no place have been sought--as
it has to be now; and as it is sought in the prophecy (
Heb 8:8-11). The old covenant would have anticipated
all man's wants, so as to give no occasion for
seeking something more perfectly adequate. Compare on
the phrase "place . . . sought,"
Heb 12:17.
8. finding fault with them--the people of the old covenant,
who were not made "faultless" by it (
Heb 8:7); and whose disregard of God's
covenant made Him to "regard them
not" (
Heb 8:9). The law is not in itself blamed, but
the people who had not observed it.
he saith-- (
Jer 31:31-34; compare
Eze 11:19; 36:25-27). At Rama, the headquarters of
Nebuzar-adan, whither the captives of Jerusalem had been
led, Jeremiah uttered this prophecy of Israel's
restoration under another David, whereby Rachel, wailing
for her lost children, shall be comforted; literally in
part fulfilled at the restoration under Zerubbabel, and
more fully to be hereafter at Israel's return to their
own land; spiritually fulfilled in the Gospel covenant,
whereby God forgives absolutely His people's sins, and
writes His law by His Spirit on the hearts of believers,
the true Israel. "This prophecy forms the third part
of the third trilogy of the three great trilogies into
which Jeremiah's prophecies may be divided: Jeremiah
21-25, against the shepherds of the people; Jeremiah 26-29,
against the false prophets; Jeremiah 30 and 31, the book of
restoration" [DELITZSCH in A LFORD].
Behold, the days come--the frequent
formula introducing a Messianic prophecy.
make--Greek,
"perfect"; "consummate." A suitable
expression as to the new covenant, which perfected what the
old could not (compare end of
Heb 8:9, with end of
Heb 8:10).
Israel . . .
Judah--Therefore, the ten tribes, as well as Judah, share
in the new covenant. As both shared the exile, so both
shall share the literal and spiritual restoration.
9. Not according to, &c.--very different from, and far
superior to, the old covenant, which only "worked
wrath" (
Ro 4:15) through man's "not regarding"
it. The new covenant enables us to obey by the Spirit's
inward impulse producing love because of the forgiveness of
our sins.
made with--rather as Greek,
"made to": the Israelites being only recipients,
not coagents [ALFORD] with God.
I took them by the hand--as a father
takes his child by the hand to support and guide his steps.
"There are three periods: (1) that of the promise; (2)
that of the pedagogical instruction; (3) that of
fulfilment" [BENGEL]. The second, that of the
pedagogical pupilage, began at the exodus from Egypt.
I regarded them not--English
Version,
Jer 31:32, translates, "Although I was an
husband unto them." Paul's translation here is
supported by the Septuagint, Syriac, and GESENIUS,
and accords with the kindred Arabic. The Hebrews
regarded not God, so God, in righteous retribution,
regarded them not. On "continued not in my
covenant," Schelling observes: The law was in fact the
mere ideal of a religious constitution: in
practice, the Jews were throughout, before the
captivity, more or less polytheists, except in the time of
David, and the first years of Solomon (the type of
Messiah's reign). Even after the return from Babylon,
idolatry was succeeded by what was not much better,
formalism and hypocrisy (
Mt 12:43). The law was (1) a typical picture, tracing
out the features of the glorious Gospel to be revealed; (2)
it had a delegated virtue from the Gospel, which ceased,
therefore, when the Gospel came.
10. make with--Greek, "make
unto."
Israel--comprising the before
disunited (
Heb 8:8) ten tribes' kingdom, and that of Judah.
They are united in the spiritual Israel, the elect Church,
now: they shall be so in the literal restored kingdom of
Israel to come.
I will put--literally, "(I)
giving." This is the first of the "better
promises" (
Heb 8:6).
mind--their intelligent faculty.
in, &c.--rather, " ON their
hearts." Not on tables of stone as the law (
2Co 3:3).
write--Greek,
"inscribe."
and I will be to them a God,
&c.--fulfilled first in the outward kingdom of God.
Next, in the inward Gospel kingdom. Thirdly, in the kingdom
at once outward and inward, the spiritual being manifested
outwardly (
Re 21:3). Compare a similar progression as to the
priesthood (1)
Ex 19:6; (2)
1Pe 2:5; (3)
Isa 61:6; Re 1:6. This progressive advance of the
significance of the Old Testament institutions, &c.,
says THOLUCK, shows the transparency and prophetic
character which runs throughout the whole.
11. Second of the "better promises" (
Heb 8:6).
they shall not--"they shall not
have to teach" [ALFORD].
his neighbour--So Vulgate
reads; but the oldest manuscripts have "his (fellow)
citizen."
brother--a closer and more endearing
relation than fellow citizen.
from the least to the
greatest--Greek, "from the little one to the
great one."
Zec 12:8, "He that is feeble among them shall be
as David." Under the old covenant, the priest's
lips were to keep knowledge, and at his mouth the people
were to seek the law: under the new covenant, the Holy
Spirit teaches every believer. Not that the mutual teaching
of brethren is excluded while the covenant is being
promulgated; but when once the Holy Spirit shall have fully
taught all the remission of their sins and inward
sanctification, then there shall be no further' need of
man teaching his fellow man. Compare
1Th 4:9; 5:1, an earnest of that perfect state to come.
On the way to that perfect state every man should teach his
neighbor. "The teaching is not hard and forced,
because grace renders all teachable; for it is not the
ministry of the letter, but of the spirit (
2Co 3:6). The believer's firmness does not depend
on the authority of human teachers. God Himself
teaches" [BENGEL]. The New Testament is shorter than
the Old Testament, because, instead of the details
of an outward letter law, it gives the all-embracing
principles of the spiritual law written on the
conscience, leading one to spontaneous instinctive
obedience in outward details. None save the Lord can teach
effectually, "know the Lord."
12. For, &c.--the third of "the better
promises" (
Heb 8:6). The forgiveness of sins is, and will
be, the root of this new state of inward grace and
knowledge of the Lord. Sin being abolished, sinners obtain
grace.
I will be merciful--Greek,
"propitious"; the Hebrew,
"salach," is always used of God only in
relation to men.
and their iniquities--not found in
Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and one oldest Greek
manuscript; but most oldest manuscripts have the words
(compare
Heb 10:17).
remember no more--Contrast the law,
Heb 10:3.
13. he--God.
made . . . old--"hath
(at the time of speaking the prophecy) antiquated the first
covenant." From the time of God's mention of a NEW
covenant (since God's words are all realities) the
first covenant might be regarded as ever dwindling away,
until its complete abolition on the actual introduction of
the Gospel. Both covenants cannot exist side by side. Mark
how verbal inspiration is proved in Paul's argument
turning wholly on the one word "NEW" (covenant),
occurring but once in the Old Testament.
that which decayeth--Greek,
"that which is being antiquated," namely, at the
time when Jeremiah spake. For in Paul's time, according
to his view, the new had absolutely set aside the old
covenant. The Greek for (Kaine) New
(Testament) implies that it is of a different kind
and supersedes the old: not merely recent
(Greek, "nea"). Compare
Ho 3:4, 5.
Heb 9:1-28. INFERIORITY OF THE OLD TO THE NEW COVENANT IN THE MEANS OF ACCESS TO GOD: THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS OF NO REAL AVAIL: THE BLOOD OF CHRIST ALL-SUFFICIENT TO PURGE AWAY SIN, WHENCE FLOWS OUR HOPE OF HIS APPEARING AGAIN FOR OUR PERFECT SALVATION.
1. Then verily--Greek, "Accordingly then."
Resuming the subject from
Heb 8:5. In accordance with the command given to Moses,
"the first covenant had," &c.
had--not "has," for as a
covenant it no longer existed, though its rites were
observed till the destruction of Jerusalem.
ordinances--of divine right and
institution.
service--worship.
a worldly sanctuary--Greek,
"its (literally, 'the') sanctuary
worldly," mundane; consisting of the elements of the
visible world. Contrasted with the heavenly
sanctuary. Compare
Heb 9:11, 12, "not of this building,"
Heb 9:24. Material, outward, perishing (however
precious its materials were), and also defective
religiously. In
Heb 9:2-5, "the worldly sanctuary" is
discussed; in
Heb 9:6, &c., the "ordinances of
worship." The outer tabernacle the Jews believed,
signified this world; the Holy of Holies,
heaven. JOSEPHUS calls the outer, divided into two
parts, "a secular and common place," answering to
"the earth and sea"; and the inner holiest place,
the third part, appropriated to God and not accessible to
men.
2. Defining "the worldly tabernacle."
a tabernacle--"the
tabernacle."
made--built and furnished.
the first--the anterior
tabernacle.
candlestick . . .
table--typifying light and life (
Ex 25:31-39). The candlestick consisted of a shaft and
six branches of gold, seven in all, the bowls made like
almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch. It was
carried in Vespasian's triumph, and the figure is to be
seen on Titus' arch at Rome. The table of
shittim wood, covered with gold, was for the showbread (
Ex 25:23-30).
showbread--literally, "the
setting forth of the loaves," that is, the loaves set
forth: "the show of the bread" [A LFORD]. In the
outer holy place: so the Eucharist continues until our
entrance into the heavenly Holy of Holies (
1Co 11:26).
which, &c.--"which
(tabernacle) is called the holy place," as
distinguished from "the Holy of Holies."
3. And--Greek, "But."
after--behind; within.
second veil--There were two veils or
curtains, one before the Holy of Holies
(catapetasma), here alluded to, the other before the
tabernacle door (calumma).
called--as opposed to "the
true."
4. golden censer--The Greek, must not be translated
"altar of incense," for it was not in
"the holiest" place "after the second
veil," but in "the holy place"; but as in
2Ch 26:19, and Eze 8:11, "censer": so
Vulgate and Syriac. This GOLDEN censer was only
used on the day of atonement (other kinds of censers on
other days), and is therefore associated with the
holiest place, as being taken into it on that
anniversary by the high priest. The expression "which
had," does not mean that the golden censer was
deposited there, for in that case the high priest would
have had to go in and bring it out before burning incense
in it; but that the golden censer was one of the articles
belonging to, and used for, the yearly service in
the holiest place. He virtually supposes (without
specifying) the existence of the "altar of
incense" in the anterior holy place, by mentioning
the golden censer filled with incense from it: the
incense answers to the prayers of the saints; and
the altar though outside the holiest place, is connected
with it (standing close by the second veil, directly
before the ark of the covenant), even as we find an
antitypical altar in heaven. The rending of the veil by
Christ has brought the antitypes to the altar, candlestick,
and showbread of the anterior holy place into the holiest
place, heaven. In
1Ki 6:22, Hebrew, "the altar"
is said to belong to the oracle, or holiest place
(compare
Ex 30:6).
ark--of shittim wood, that is, acacia.
Not in the second temple, but in its stead was a stone
basement (called "the stone of foundation"),
three fingers high.
pot--"golden," added in the
Septuagint, and sanctioned by Paul.
manna--an omer, each man's daily
portion. In
1Ki 8:9; 2Ch 5:10, it is said there was nothing in the
ark of Solomon's temple save the two stone tables of
the law put in by Moses. But the expression that there was
nothing THEN therein save the two tables, leaves the
inference to be drawn that formerly there were the other
things mentioned by the Rabbis and by Paul here, the pot of
manna (the memorial of God's providential care of
Israel) and the rod of Aaron, the memorial of the lawful
priesthood (
Nu 17:3, 5, 7, 10). The expressions "before the
Lord" (
Ex 16:32), and "before the testimony" (
Nu 17:10) thus mean, "IN the ark."
"In," however, may be used here (as the
corresponding Hebrew word) as to things attached
to the ark as appendages, as the book of the law was
put "in the side of the ark," and
so the golden jewels offered by the Philistines (
1Sa 6:8).
tables of the covenant-- (
De 9:9; 10:2).
5. over it--over "the ark of the covenant."
cherubim--representing the ruling
powers by which God acts in the moral and natural world.
(See on Eze 1:6; Eze 10:1). Hence sometimes they
answer to the ministering angels; but mostly to the elect
redeemed, by whom God shall hereafter rule the world and
set forth His manifold wisdom: redeemed humanity, combining
in, and with itself, the highest forms of subordinate
creaturely life; not angels. They stand on the mercy seat,
and on that ground become the habitation of God,
from which His glory is to shine upon the world. They
expressly say,
Re 5:8-10, "Thou hast redeemed us."
They are there distinguished from the angels, and
associated with the elders. They were of one piece with the
mercy seat, even as the Church is one with Christ: their
sole standing is on the blood-sprinkled mercy seat; they
gaze down at it as the redeemed shall for ever; they are
"the habitation of God through the Spirit."
of glory--The cherubim were
bearers of the divine glory, whence, perhaps,
they derive their name. The Shekinah, or cloud of
glory, in which Jehovah appeared between the cherubim
over the mercy seat, the lid of the ark, is doubtless the
reference. THOLUCK thinks the twelve loaves of the
showbread represent the twelve tribes of the nation,
presented as a community before God consecrated to Him
(just as in the Lord's Supper believers, the spiritual
Israel, all partaking of the one bread, and becoming one
bread and one body, present themselves before the Lord as
consecrated to Him,
1Co 10:16, 17); the oil and light, the pure knowledge
of the Lord, in which the covenant people are to shine (the
seven (lights), implying perfection); the ark of the
covenant, the symbol of God's kingdom in the old
covenant, and representing God dwelling among His own; the
ten commandments in the ark, the law as the basis of union
between God and man; the mercy seat covering the law and
sprinkled with the blood of atonement for the collective
sin of the people, God's mercy [in Christ] stronger
than the law; the cherubim, the personified [redeemed]
creation, looking down on the mercy seat, where God's
mercy, and God's law, are set forth as the basis of
creation.
mercy seat--Greek, "the
propitiatory": the golden cover of the ark, on which
was sprinkled the blood of the propitiatory sacrifice on
the day of atonement; the footstool of Jehovah, the meeting
place of Him and His people.
we cannot--conveniently: besides what
met the eye in the sanctuary, there were spiritual
realities symbolized which it would take too long to
discuss in detail, our chief subject at present being the
priesthood and the sacrifices.
"Which" refers not merely to the cherubim, but to
all the contents of the sanctuary enumerated in
Heb 9:2-5.
6. The use made of the sanctuary so furnished by the high
priest on the anniversary of atonement.
ordained--arranged.
always--twice at the least every day,
for the morning and evening care of the lamps, and offering
of incense (
Ex 30:7, 8).
went--Greek, "enter":
present tense.
7. once every year--the tenth day of the seventh month. He
entered within the veil on that day twice at least.
Thus "once" means here on the one occasion
only. The two, or possibly more, entrances on that one
day were regarded as parts of the one whole.
not without blood-- (
Heb 8:3).
offered--Greek,
"offers."
errors--Greek,
"ignorances": "inadvertent errors."
They might have known, as the law was clearly promulged,
and they were bound to study it; so that their
ignorance was culpable (compare
Ac 3:17; Eph 4:18; 1Pe 1:14). Though one's
ignorance may mitigate one's punishment (
Lu 12:48), it does not wholly exempt from punishment.
8. The Holy Ghost--Moses himself did not comprehend the
typical meaning (
1Pe 1:11, 12).
signifying--by the typical exclusion
of all from the holiest, save the high priest once a
year.
the holiest of all--heaven, the
antitype.
the first tabernacle--the anterior
tabernacle, representative of the whole Levitical system.
While it (the first tabernacle, and that which
represents the Levitical system) as yet "has
a standing" (so the Greek, that is,
"has continuance": "lasts"), the way
to heaven (the antitypical "holiest place")
is not yet made manifest (compare
Heb 10:19, 20). The Old Testament economy is
represented by the holy place, the New Testament economy by
the Holy of Holies. Redemption, by Christ, has opened the
Holy of Holies (access to heaven by faith now,
Heb 4:16; 7:19, 25; 10:19, 22; by sight
hereafter,
Isa 33:24; Re 11:19; 21:2, 3) to all mankind. The
Greek for "not yet" (me po) refers to
the mind of the Spirit: the Spirit intimating that men
should not think the way was yet opened [TITTMANN].
The Greek negative, "ou po," would
deny the fact objectively; "me po"
denies the thing subjectively.
9. Which--"The which," namely, anterior
tabernacle: "as being that which was"
[ALFORD].
figure--Greek,
"parable": a parabolic setting forth of the
character of the Old Testament.
for--"in reference to the
existing time." The time of the
temple-worship really belonged to the Old Testament,
but continued still in Paul's time and that of his
Hebrew readers. "The time of reformation" (
Heb 9:10) stands in contrast to this, "the
existing time"; though, in reality, "the time of
reformation," the New Testament time, was now
present and existing. So "the age to
come," is the phrase applied to the Gospel,
because it was present only to believers, and its
fulness even to them is still to come. Compare
Heb 9:11, "good things to come."
in which--tabernacle, not
time, according to the reading of the oldest
manuscripts. Or translate, "according to which"
parabolic representation, or figure.
were--Greek,
"are."
gifts--unbloody oblations.
could not--Greek,
"cannot": are not able.
him that did the service--any
worshipper. The Greek is
"latreuein," serve God, which is
all men's duty; not "leitourgein," to
serve in a ministerial office.
make . . .
perfect--perfectly remove the sense of guilt, and sanctify
inwardly through love.
as pertaining to the
conscience--"in respect to the (moral-religious)
consciousness." They can only reach as far as the
outward flesh (compare "carnal
ordinances,"
Heb 9:10, 13, 14).
10. Which--sacrifices.
stood--consisted in [ALFORD];
or, "have attached to them" only things which
appertain to the use of foods, &c. The rites of meats,
&c., go side by side with the sacrifices
[THOLUCK and W AHL]; compare
Col 2:16.
drinks-- (
Le 10:9; 11:4). Usage subsequently to the law added
many observances as to meats and drinks.
washings-- (
Ex 29:4).
and carnal ordinances--One oldest
manuscript, Syriac and Coptic, omit
"and." "Carnal ordinances" stand in
apposition to "sacrifices" (
Heb 9:9). Carnal (outward, affecting only the
flesh) is opposed to spiritual. Contrast
"flesh" with "conscience" (
Heb 9:13, 14).
imposed--as a burden (
Ac 15:10, 28) continually pressing heavy.
until the time of
reformation--Greek, "the season of
rectification," when the reality should supersede
the type (
Heb 8:8-12). Compare "better,"
Heb 9:23.
11. But--in contrast to "could not make
. . . perfect" (
Heb 9:9).
Christ--The Messiah, of whom all the
prophets foretold; not "Jesus" here. From whom
the "reformation" (
Heb 9:10), or rectification, emanates, which
frees from the yoke of carnal ordinances, and which is
being realized gradually now, and shall be perfectly in the
consummation of "the age (world) to come."
"Christ . . . High Priest," exactly
answers to
Le 4:5, "the priest that is anointed."
being come an, &c.--rather,
"having come forward (compare
Heb 10:7, a different Greek word, picturesquely
presenting Him before us) as High Priest." The
Levitical priests must therefore retire. Just as on the day
of atonement, no work was done, no sacrifice was offered,
or priest was allowed to be in the tabernacle while the
high priest went into the holiest place to make atonement
(
Le 16:17, 29). So not our righteousness, nor any other
priest's sacrifice, but Christ alone atones; and as the
high priest before offering incense had on common garments
of a priest, but after it wore his holy garments of
"glory and beauty" (
Ex 28:2, 40) in entering the holiest, so Christ entered
the heavenly holiest in His glorified body.
good things to come--Greek,
"the good things to come,"
Heb 10:1; "better promises," (
Heb 8:6; the "eternal inheritance,"
Heb 9:15; 1Pe 1:4; the "things hoped for,"
Heb 11:1).
by a . . .
tabernacle--joined with "He entered." Translate,
"Through the . . . tabernacle"
(of which we know) [ALFORD]. As the Jewish high priest
passed through the anterior tabernacle into the
holiest place, so Christ passed through heaven into
the inner abode of the unseen and unapproachable God. Thus,
"the tabernacle" here is the heavens
through which He passed (see on Heb
4:14). But "the tabernacle" is also the
glorified body of Christ (see on Heb
8:2), "not of this building" (not of the mere
natural "creation, but of the spiritual and
heavenly, the new creation"), the Head of the
mystical body, the Church. Through this glorified
body He passes into the heavenly holiest place (
Heb 9:24), the immaterial, unapproachable presence of
God, where He intercedes for us. His glorified body,
as the meeting place of God and all Christ's redeemed,
and the angels, answers to the heavens through which
He passed, and passes. His body is opposed to the
tabernacle, as His blood to the blood of goats,
&c.
greater--as contrasted with the small
dimensions of the earthly anterior tabernacle.
more perfect--effective in giving
pardon, peace, sanctification, and access to closest
communion with God (compare
Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1).
not made with hands--but by the Lord
Himself (
Heb 8:2).
12. Neither--"Nor yet."
by--"through"; as the means
of His approach.
goats . . . calves--not a
bullock, such as the Levitical high priest offered for
himself, and a goat for the people, on the day of atonement
(
Le 16:6, 15), year by year, whence the plural is
used, goats . . . calves. Besides the goat
offered for the people the blood of which was sprinkled
before the mercy seat, the high priest led forth a second
goat, namely, the scapegoat; over it he confessed the
people's sins, putting them on the head of the goat,
which was sent as the sin-bearer into the wilderness out of
sight, implying that the atonement effected by the goat sin
offering (of which the ceremony of the scapegoat is a part,
and not distinct from the sin offering) consisted in the
transfer of the people's sins on the goat, and their
consequent removal out of sight. The translation of sins on
the victim usual in other expiatory sacrifices being
omitted in the case of the slain goat, but employed in the
case of the goat sent away, proved the two goats were
regarded as one offering [A RCHBISHOP MAGEE]. Christ's
death is symbolized by the slain goat; His resurrection to
life by the living goat sent away. Modern Jews substitute
in some places a cock for the goat as an expiation,
the sins of the offerers being transferred to the entrails,
and exposed on the housetop for the birds to carry out of
sight, as the scapegoat did; the Hebrew for
"man" and "cock" being similar,
gebher [BUXTORF].
by--"through," as the means
of His entrance; the key unlocking the heavenly Holy of
Holies to Him. The Greek is forcible, "through
THE blood of His own" (compare
Heb 9:23).
once--"once for all."
having obtained--having thereby
obtained; literally, "found for Himself," as a
thing of insuperable difficulty to all save Divine
Omnipotence, self-devoting zeal, and love, to find. The
access of Christ to the Father was arduous (
Heb 5:7). None before had trodden the path.
eternal--The entrance of our Redeemer,
once for all, into the heavenly holiest place,
secures eternal redemption to us; whereas the Jewish
high priest's entrance was repeated year by year, and
the effect temporary and partial, "On
redemption," compare
Mt 20:28; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; 1Ti 2:5; Tit 2:14; 1Pe
1:19.
Heb 9:13-28. PROOF OF AND ENLARGEMENT ON, THE "ETERNAL REDEMPTION" MENTIONED IN Heb 9:12.
For His blood, offered by Himself, purifies not only outwardly, as the Levitical sacrifices on the day of atonement, but inwardly unto the service of the living God ( Heb 9:13, 14). His death is the inaugurating act of the new covenant, and of the heavenly sanctuary ( Heb 9:15-23). His entrance into the true Holy of Holies is the consummation of His once-for-all-offered sacrifice of atonement ( Heb 9:24, 26); henceforth, His reappearance alone remains to complete our redemption ( Heb 9:27, 28).
13. if--as we know is the case; so the Greek
indicative means. Argument from the less to the greater. If
the blood of mere brutes could purify in any, however small
a degree, how much more shall inward purification, and
complete and eternal salvation, be wrought by the blood of
Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead?
ashes of an heifer-- (
Nu 19:16-18). The type is full of comfort for us. The
water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer,
was the provision for removing ceremonial defilement
whenever incurred by contact with the dead. As she
was slain without the camp, so Christ (compare
Heb 13:11; Nu 19:3, 4). The ashes were laid by for
constant use; so the continually cleansing effects of
Christ's blood, once for all shed. In our wilderness
journey we are continually contracting defilement by
contact with the spiritually dead, and with dead works, and
need therefore continual application to the antitypical
life-giving cleansing blood of Christ, whereby we are
afresh restored to peace and living communion with God in
the heavenly holy place.
the unclean--Greek, "those
defiled" on any particular occasion.
purifying--Greek,
"purity."
the flesh--Their effect in themselves
extended no further. The law had a carnal and a spiritual
aspect; carnal, as an instrument of the Hebrew
polity, God, their King, accepting, in minor offenses,
expiatory victims instead of the sinner, otherwise doomed
to death; spiritual, as the shadow of good things to
come (
Heb 10:1). The spiritual Israelite derived, in
partaking of these legal rights, spiritual blessings not
flowing from them, but from the great antitype. Ceremonial
sacrifices released from temporal penalties and
ceremonial disqualifications; Christ's sacrifice
releases from everlasting penalties (
Heb 9:12), and moral impurities on the
conscience disqualifying from access to God (
Heb 9:14). The purification of the flesh (the mere
outward man) was by "sprinkling"; the
washing followed by inseparable connection (
Nu 19:19). So justification is followed by
renewing.
14. offered himself--The voluntary nature of the offering
gives it especial efficacy. He "through the eternal
Spirit," that is, His divine Spirit (
Ro 1:4, in contrast to His "flesh,"
Heb 9:3; His Godhead,
1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 3:18), "His inner personality"
[ALFORD], which gave a free consent to the act, offered
Himself. The animals offered had no spirit or will
to consent in the act of sacrifice; they were offered
according to the law; they had a life neither enduring,
nor of any intrinsic efficacy. But He from eternity, with
His divine and everlasting Spirit, concurred with
the Father's will of redemption by Him. His offering
began on the altar of the cross, and was completed in His
entering the holiest place with His blood. The
eternity and infinitude of His divine Spirit (compare
Heb 7:16) gives eternal ("eternal
redemption,"
Heb 9:12, also compare
Heb 9:15) and infinite merit to His offering, so that
not even the infinite justice of God has any exception to
take against it. It was "through His most burning
love, flowing from His eternal Spirit," that He
offered Himself [OECOLAMPADIUS].
without spot--The animal victims had
to be without outward blemish; Christ on the cross
was a victim inwardly and essentially
stainless (
1Pe 1:19).
purge--purify from fear, guilt,
alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of dead
works (
Heb 9:22, 23).
your--The oldest manuscripts read
"our." The Vulgate, however, supports
English Version reading.
conscience--moral religious
consciousness.
dead works--All works done in the
natural state, which is a state of sin, are dead;
for they come not from living faith in, and love to,
"the living God" (
Heb 11:6). As contact with a dead body defiled
ceremonially (compare the allusion, "ashes of an
heifer,"
Heb 9:13), so dead works defile the inner consciousness
spiritually.
to serve--so as to serve. The
ceremonially unclean could not serve God in the
outward communion of His people; so the unrenewed cannot
serve God in spiritual communion. Man's works before
justification, however lifelike they look, are dead, and
cannot therefore be accepted before the living God. To have
offered a dead animal to God would have been an insult
(compare
Mal 1:8); much more for a man not justified by
Christ's blood to offer dead works. But those purified
by Christ's blood in living faith do serve (
Ro 12:1), and shall more fully serve God (
Re 22:3).
living God--therefore requiring living
spiritual service (
Joh 4:24).
15. for this cause--Because of the all-cleansing power of
His blood, this fits Him to be Mediator (
Heb 8:6, ensuring to both parties, God and us, the
ratification) of the new covenant, which secures both
forgiveness for the sins not covered by the former
imperfect covenant or testament, and also an eternal
inheritance to the called.
by means of death--rather, as
Greek, "death having taken place." At the
moment that His death took place, the necessary effect is,
"the called receive the (fulfilment of the)
promise" (so
Lu 24:49 uses "promise";
Heb 6:15; Ac 1:4); that moment divides the Old from the
New Testament. The "called" are the elect
"heirs," "partakers of the heavenly
calling" (
Heb 3:1).
redemption of . . .
transgressions . . . under . . . first
testament--the transgressions of all men from Adam
to Christ, first against the primitive revelation, then
against the revelations to the patriarchs, then against the
law given to Israel, the representative people of the
world. The "first testament" thus includes the
whole period from Adam to Christ, and not merely that of
the covenant with Israel, which was a concentrated
representation of the covenant made with (or the
first testament given to) mankind by sacrifice,
down from the fall to redemption. Before the inheritance
by the New Testament (for here the idea of the
"INHERITANCE," following as the result of
Christ's "death," being introduced, requires
the Greek to be translated "testament," as
it was before covenant) could come in, there must be
redemption of (that is, deliverance from the
penalties incurred by) the transgressions committed
under the first testament, for the propitiatory
sacrifices under the first testament reached only as far as
removing outward ceremonial defilement. But in order to
obtain the inheritance which is a reality, there must be a
real propitiation, since God could not enter into covenant
relation with us so long as past sins were unexpiated;
Ro 3:24, 25, "a propitiation . . . His
righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past."
might--Greek, "may
receive," which previously they could not (
Heb 11:39, 40).
the promise--to Abraham.
16. A general axiomatic truth; it is "a
testament"; not the testament. The testator
must die before his testament takes effect (
Heb 9:17). This is a common meaning of the Greek
noun diathece. So in
Lu 22:29, "I appoint (by testamentary disposition;
the cognate Greek verb diatithemai) unto you
a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me." The
need of death before the testamentary appointment takes
effect, holds good in Christ's relation as MAN to us;
Of course not in God's relation to Christ.
be--literally, be borne":
"be involved in the case"; be inferred; or
else, "be brought forward in court," so as to
give effect to the will. This sense (testament) of
the Greek "diathece" here does not
exclude its other secondary senses in the other passages of
the New Testament: (1) a covenant between two
parties; (2) an arrangement, or disposition, made by God
alone in relation to us. Thus,
Mt 26:28 may be translated, "Blood of the
covenant"; for a testament does not require
blood shedding. Compare
Ex 24:8 (covenant), which Christ quotes, though
it is probable He included in a sense
"testament" also under the Greek word
diathece (comprehending both meanings,
"covenant" and "testament"), as this
designation strictly and properly applies to the new
dispensation, and is rightly applicable to the old also,
not in itself, but when viewed as typifying the new, which
is properly a testament. Moses (
Ex 24:8) speaks of the same thing as [Christ and] Paul.
Moses, by the term "covenant," does not mean
aught save one concerning giving the heavenly
inheritance typified by Canaan after the death of the
Testator, which he represented by the sprinkling of
blood. And Paul, by the term "testament," does
not mean aught save one having conditions attached
to it, one which is at the same time a covenant
[POLI, Synopsis]; the conditions are fulfilled by
Christ, not by us, except that we must believe, but
even this God works in His people. T HOLUCK explains, as
elsewhere, "covenant . . . covenant
. . . mediating victim"; the
masculine is used of the victim personified, and
regarded as mediator of the covenant; especially as in the
new covenant a MAN (Christ) took the place of the victim.
The covenanting parties used to pass between the divided
parts of the sacrificed animals; but, without reference to
this rite, the need of a sacrifice for establishing
a covenant sufficiently explains this verse. Others, also,
explaining the Greek as "covenant,"
consider that the death of the sacrificial victim
represented in all covenants the death of both parties as
unalterably bound to the covenant. So in the
redemption-covenant, the death of Jesus symbolized the
death of God (?) in the person of the mediating victim, and
the death of man in the same. But the expression is not
"there must be the death of both parties making
the covenant," but singular, "of
Him who made (aorist, past time; not 'of Him
making') the testament." Also, it is
"death," not "sacrifice" or
"slaying." Plainly, the death is supposed to be
past (aorist, "made"); and the fact of the
death is brought (Greek) before court to give
effect to the will. These requisites of a will, or
testament, concur here: (1) a testator; (2) heirs; (3)
goods; (4) the death of the testator; (5) the fact of the
death brought forward in court. In
Mt 26:28 two other requisites appear: witnesses,
the disciples; and a seal, the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, the sign of His blood wherewith
the testament is primarily sealed. It is true the
heir is ordinarily the successor of him who dies
and so ceases to have the possession. But in this case
Christ comes to life again, and is Himself (including all
that He hath), in the power of His now endless life, His
people's inheritance; in His being Heir (
Heb 1:2), they are heirs.
17. after--literally, "over," as we say
"upon the death of the testators"; not as
THOLUCK, "on the condition that slain sacrifices be
there," which the Greek hardly sanctions.
otherwise--"seeing that it is
never availing" [ALFORD]. BENGEL and LACHMANN read
with an interrogation, "Since, is it ever in force
(surely not) while the testator liveth?"
18. Whereupon--rather, "Whence."
dedicated--"inaugurated."
The Old Testament strictly and formally began on that day
of inauguration. "Where the disposition, or
arrangement, is ratified by the blood of another,
namely, of animals, which cannot make a covenant,
much less make a testament, it is not strictly a
testament, where it is ratified by the death of him
that makes the arrangement, it is strictly, Greek
'diathece,' Hebrew
'berith,' taken in a wider sense, a
testament" [BENGEL]; thus, in
Heb 9:18, referring to the old dispensation, we may
translate, "the first (covenant)": or
better, retain "the first (testament),"
not that the old dispensation, regarded by itself,
is a testament, but it is so when regarded as the
typical representative of the new, which is strictly
a Testament.
19. For--confirming the general truth,
Heb 9:16.
spoken . . . according to
the law--strictly adhering to every direction of "the
law of commandments contained in ordinances" (
Eph 2:15). Compare
Ex 24:3, "Moses told the people all the words
of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the
people answered with one voice," &c.
the blood of calves--Greek,
"the calves," namely, those sacrificed by the
"young men" whom he sent to do so (
Ex 24:5). The "peace offerings" there
mentioned were "of oxen"
(Septuagint, "little calves"), and the
"burnt offerings" were probably (though this is
not specified), as on the day of atonement, goats.
The law in Exodus sanctioned formally many sacrificial
practices in use by tradition, from the primitive
revelation long before.
with water--prescribed, though not in
the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, yet in other
purifications; for example, of the leper, and the water of
separation which contained the ashes of the red
heifer.
scarlet wool, and hyssop--ordinarily
used for purification. Scarlet or crimson,
resembling blood: it was thought to be a peculiarly deep,
fast dye, whence it typified sin (see on Isa 1:18). So Jesus wore a scarlet
robe, the emblem of the deep-dyed sins He bore on
Him, though He had none in Him. Wool was used as
imbibing and retaining water; the hyssop, as a bushy, tufty
plant (wrapt round with the scarlet wool), was used for
sprinkling it. The wool was also a symbol of purity (
Isa 1:18). The Hyssopus officinalis grows on
walls, with small lancet-formed woolly leaves, an inch
long, with blue and white flowers, and a knotty stalk about
a foot high.
sprinkled . . . the
book--namely, out of which he had read "every
precept": the book of the testament or covenant. This
sprinkling of the book is not mentioned in the
twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus. Hence BENGEL translates,
"And (having taken) the book itself (so
Ex 24:7), he both sprinkled all the people, and (
Heb 9:21) moreover sprinkled the tabernacle." But
the Greek supports English Version. Paul, by
inspiration, supplies the particular specified here, not in
Ex 24:7. The sprinkling of the roll (so the
Greek for "book") of the covenant, or
testament, as well as of the people, implies that neither
can the law be fulfilled, nor the people be purged
from their sins, save by the sprinkling of the blood of
Christ (
1Pe 1:2). Compare
Heb 9:23, which shows that there is something
antitypical to the Bible in heaven itself (compare
Re 20:12). The Greek, "itself,"
distinguishes the book itself from the
"precepts" in it which he "spake."
20.
Ex 24:8, "Behold the blood of the covenant,
which the Lord has made with you concerning all
these words." The change is here made to accord with
Christ's inauguration of the new testament, or
covenant, as recorded in
Lu 22:20, "This cup (is) the new Testament in My
blood, which is shed for you": the only Gospel in
which the "is" has to be supplied. Luke was
Paul's companion, which accounts for the
correspondence, as here too "is" has to be
supplied.
testament--(See on
Heb 9:16, 17). The Greek
"diathece" means both
"testament" and "covenant": the term
"covenant" better suits the old dispensation,
though the idea testament is included, for the old
was one in its typical relation to the new dispensation, to
which the term "testament" is better suited.
Christ has sealed the testament with His blood, of
which the Lord's Supper is the sacramental sign. The
testator was represented by the animals slain in the old
dispensation. In both dispensations the inheritance was
bequeathed: in the new by One who has come in person and
died; in the old by the same one, only typically and
ceremonially present. See ALFORD'S excellent
Note.
enjoined unto you--commissioned
me to ratify in relation to you. In the old
dispensation the condition to be fulfilled on the
people's part is implied in the words,
Ex 24:8, "(Lord made with you) concerning all
these words." But here Paul omits this clause, as
he includes the fulfilment of this condition of obedience
to "all these words" in the new covenant, as part
of God's promise, in
Heb 8:8, 10, 12, whereby Christ fulfils all for our
justification, and will enable us by putting His Spirit in
us to fulfil all in our now progressive, and finally
complete, sanctification.
21. Greek, "And, moreover, in like manner." The sprinkling of the tabernacle with blood is added by inspiration here to the account in Ex 30:25-30; 40:9, 10, which mentions only Moses' anointing the tabernacle and its vessels. In Le 8:10, 15, 30, the sprinkling of blood upon Aaron and his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the altar, is mentioned as well as the anointing, so that we might naturally infer, as JOSEPHUS has distinctly stated, that the tabernacle and its vessels were sprinkled with blood as well as being anointed: Le 16:16, 20, 33, virtually sanctions this inference. The tabernacle and its contents needed purification ( 2Ch 29:21).
22. almost--to be joined with "all things,"
namely almost all things under the old dispensation.
The exceptions to all things being purified by blood
are,
Ex 19:10; Le 15:5, &c.; 16:26, 28; 22:6; Nu
31:22-24.
without--Greek, "apart
from."
shedding of blood--shed in the
slaughter of the victim, and poured out at the altar
subsequently. The pouring out of the blood on the
altar is the main part of the sacrifice (
Le 17:11), and it could not have place apart from the
previous shedding of the blood in the slaying. Paul
has, perhaps, in mind here,
Lu 22:20, "This cup is the new testament in my
blood, which is shed for you."
is--Greek, "takes
place": comes to pass.
remission--of sins: a favorite
expression of Luke, Paul's companion. Properly used of
remitting a debt (
Mt 6:12; 18:27, 32); our sins are debts. On the truth
here, compare
Le 5:11-13, an exception because of poverty, confirming
the general rule.
23. patterns--"the suggestive representations";
the typical copies (see on Heb
8:5).
things in the heavens--the heavenly
tabernacle and the things therein.
purified with these--with the blood of
bulls and goats.
heavenly things themselves--the
archetypes. Man's sin had introduced an element of
disorder into the relations of God and His holy angels in
respect to man. The purification removes this
element of disorder and changes God's wrath against man
in heaven (designed to be the place of God's revealing
His grace to men and angels) into a smile of
reconciliation. Compare "peace in heaven" (
Lu 19:38). "The uncreated heaven of God, though in
itself untroubled light, yet needed a purification in so
far as the light of love was obscured by the fire of wrath
against sinful man" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD]. Contrast
Re 12:7-10. Christ's atonement had the effect also
of casting Satan out of heaven (
Lu 10:18; Joh 12:31, compare
Heb 2:14). Christ's body, the true tabernacle (see
on Heb 8:2; Heb
9:11), as bearing our imputed sin (
2Co 5:21), was consecrated (
Joh 17:17, 19) and purified by the shedding of His
blood to be the meeting place of God and man.
sacrifices--The plural is used in
expressing the general proposition, though strictly
referring to the one sacrifice of Christ once for
all. Paul implies that His one sacrifice, by its matchless
excellency, is equivalent to the Levitical many sacrifices.
It, though but one, is manifold in its effects and
applicability to many.
24. Resumption more fully of the thought, "He entered
in once into the holy place,"
Heb 9:12. He has in
Heb 9:13, 14, expanded the words "by his own
blood,"
Heb 9:12; and in
Heb 9:15-23, he has enlarged on "an High Priest of
good things to come."
not . . . into
. . . holy places made with hands--as was the
Holy of Holies in the earthly tabernacle (see on Heb 9:11).
figures--copies "of the
true" holiest place, heaven, the original archetype
(
Heb 8:5).
into heaven itself--the immediate
presence of the invisible God beyond all the created
heavens, through which latter Jesus passed (see on
Heb 4:14; 1Ti 6:16).
now--ever since His ascension in the
present economy (compare
Heb 9:26).
to appear--To PRESENT HIMSELF;
Greek, "to be made to appear." Mere man may
have a vision through a medium, or veil, as Moses had (
Ex 33:18, 20-23). Christ alone beholds the Father
without a veil, and is His perfect image. Through seeing
HIM only can we see the Father.
in the presence of God--Greek,
"to the face of God." The saints shall
hereafter see God's face in Christ (
Re 22:4): the earnest of which is now given (
2Co 3:18). Aaron, the Levitical high priest for
the people, stood before the ark and only saw the
cloud, the symbol of God's glory (
Ex 28:30).
for us--in our behalf as our Advocate
and Intercessor (
Heb 7:25; Ro 8:34; 1Jo 2:1). "It is enough that
Jesus should show Himself for us to the Father: the
sight of Jesus satisfied God in our behalf. He brings
before the face of God no offering which has exhausted
itself, and, as only sufficing for a time, needs renewal;
but He himself is in person, by virtue of the eternal
Spirit, that is, the imperishable life of His person, now
and for ever freed from death, our eternally present
offering before God" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].
25. As in
Heb 9:24, Paul said, it was not into the typical, but
the true sanctuary, that Christ is entered; so now he says,
that His sacrifice needs not, as the Levitical sacrifices
did, to be repeated. Construe, "Nor yet did He
enter for this purpose that He may offer Himself
often," that is, "present Himself in the
presence of God, as the high priest does (Paul uses the
present tense, as the legal service was then
existing), year by year, on the day of atonement, entering
the Holy of Holies.
with--literally, "in."
blood of others--not his own,
as Christ did.
26. then--in that case.
must . . . have
suffered--rather as Greek, "It would have been
necessary for Him often to suffer." In order to
"offer" (
Heb 9:25), or present Himself often before God in the
heavenly holiest place, like the legal high priests making
fresh renewals of this high priestly function. He would
have had, and would have often to suffer. His
oblation of Himself before God was once for all (that
is, the bringing in of His blood into the heavenly Holy of
Holies), and therefore the preliminary suffering was
once for all.
since the foundation of the world--The
continued sins of men, from their first creation, would
entail a continual suffering on earth, and consequent
oblation of His blood in the heavenly holiest place,
since the foundation of the world, if the one oblation
"in the fulness of time" were not sufficient.
PHILO [The Creation of the World, p. 637], shows
that the high priest of the Hebrews offered sacrifices for
the whole human race. "If there had been greater
efficacy in the repetition of the oblation, Christ
necessarily would not have been so long promised, but would
have been sent immediately after the foundation of the
world to suffer, and offer Himself at successive
periods" [GROTIUS].
now--as the case is,
once--for all; without need of
renewal. Rome's fiction of an UNBLOODY sacrifice in the
mass, contradicts her assertion that the blood of
Christ is present in the wine; and also confutes her
assertion that the mass is propitiatory; for, if
unbloody, it cannot be propitiatory; for
without shedding of blood there is no remission (
Heb 9:22). Moreover, the expression "once"
for all here, and in
Heb 9:28, and Heb 10:10, 12, proves the falsity of her
view that there is a continually repeated offering of
Christ in the Eucharist or mass. The offering of Christ was
a thing once done that it might be thought of for ever
(compare Note, see on Heb
10:12).
in the end of the world--Greek,
"at the consummation of the ages"; the winding up
of all the previous ages from the foundation of the world;
to be followed by a new age (
Heb 1:1, 2). The last age, beyond which no further age
is to be expected before Christ's speedy second coming,
which is the complement of the first coming; literally,
"the ends of the ages";
Mt 28:20 is literally, "the consummation of the
age," or world (singular; not as here,
plural, ages). Compare "the fulness of
times,"
Eph 1:10.
appeared--Greek, "been
manifested" on earth (
1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 1:20). English Version has
confounded three distinct Greek verbs, by
translating all alike,
Heb 9:24, 26, 28, "appear." But, in
Heb 9:24, it is "to present Himself," namely,
before God in the heavenly sanctuary; in
Heb 9:26, "been manifested" on earth:
in
Heb 9:28, "shall be seen" by all, and
especially believers.
put away--abolish; doing away
sin's power as well by delivering men from its guilt
and penalty, so that it should be powerless to condemn men,
as also from its yoke, so that they shall at last sin no
more.
sin--singular number; all the sins of
men of every age are regarded as one mass laid on
Christ. He hath not only droned for all actual sins,
but destroyed sin itself.
Joh 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin (not merely the sins: singular, not
plural) of the world."
by the sacrifice of
himself--Greek, "by (through) His own
sacrifice"; not by "blood of others"
(
Heb 9:25). ALFORD loses this contrast in translating,
"by His sacrifice."
27. as--inasmuch as.
it is appointed--Greek,
"it is laid up (as our appointed lot),"
Col 1:5. The word "appointed" (so
Hebrew "seth" means) in the case of
man, answers to "anointed" in the case of Jesus;
therefore "the Christ," that is, the
anointed, is the title here given designedly. He is the
representative man; and there is a strict correspondence
between the history of man and that of the Son of
man. The two most solemn facts of our being are here
connected with the two most gracious truths of our
dispensation, our death and judgment answering in
parallelism to Christ's first coming to die for us, and
His second coming to consummate our salvation.
once--and no more.
after this the judgment--namely, at
Christ's appearing, to which, in
Heb 9:28, "judgment" in this verse is
parallel. Not, "after this comes the heavenly
glory." The intermediate state is a state of joyous,
or else agonizing and fearful, expectation of
"judgment"; after the judgment comes the full and
final state of joy, or else woe.
28. Christ--Greek, "THE Christ"; the
representative MAN; representing all men, as the first Adam
did.
once offered--not "often,"
Heb 9:25; just as "men," of whom He is the
representative Head, are appointed by God once to
die. He did not need to die again and again for each
individual, or each successive generation of men, for He
represents all men of every age, and therefore
needed to die but once for all, so as to exhaust the
penalty of death incurred by all. He was offered by the
Father, His own "eternal Spirit" (
Heb 9:14) concurring; as Abraham spared not Isaac, but
offered him, the son himself unresistingly submitting to
the father's will (
Ge 22:1-24).
to bear the sins--referring to
Isa 53:12, "He bare the sins of many,"
namely, on Himself; so "bear" means,
Le 24:15; Nu 5:31; 14:34. The Greek is literally
"to bear up" (
1Pe 2:24). "Our sins were laid on Him. When,
therefore, He was lifted up on the cross, He bare up our
sins along with Him" [BENGEL].
many--not opposed to all, but
to few. He, the One, was offered for many;
and that once for all (compare
Mt 20:28).
look for him--with waiting
expectation even unto the end (so the Greek). It
is translated "wait for" in
Ro 8:19, 23; 1Co 1:7, which see.
appear--rather, as Greek,
"be seen." No longer in the alien "form of a
servant," but in His own proper glory.
without sin--apart from, separate
from, sin. Not bearing the sin of many on Him as at
His first coming (even then there was no sin in
Him). That sin has been at His first coming once for all
taken away, so as to need no repetition of His sin offering
of Himself (
Heb 9:26). At His second coming He shall have no more
to do with sin.
unto salvation--to bring in completed
salvation; redeeming then the body which is as yet subject
to the bondage of corruption. Hence, in
Php 3:20 he says, "we look for THE SAVIOUR."
Note, Christ's prophetical office, as the
divine Teacher, was especially exercised during His
earthly ministry; His priestly is now from His first
to His second coming; His kingly office shall be
fully manifested at, and after, His second coming.
Heb 10:1-39. CONCLUSION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. THE YEARLY RECURRING LAW SACRIFICES CANNOT PERFECT THE WORSHIPPER, BUT CHRIST'S ONCE-FOR-ALL OFFERING CAN.
Instead of the daily ministry of the Levitical priests, Christ's service is perfected by the one sacrifice, whence He now sits on the right hand of God as a Priest-King, until all His foes shall be subdued unto Him. Thus the new covenant ( Heb 8:8-12) is inaugurated, whereby the law is written on the heart, so that an offering for sin is needed no more. Wherefore we ought to draw near the Holiest in firm faith and love; fearful of the awful results of apostasy; looking for the recompense to be given at Christ's coming.
1. Previously the oneness of Christ's offering
was shown; now is shown its perfection as contrasted with
the law sacrifices.
having--inasmuch as it has but
"the shadow, not the very image," that is, not
the exact likeness, reality, and full revelation, such as
the Gospel has. The "image" here means the
archetype (compare
Heb 9:24), the original, solid image [BENGEL] realizing
to us those heavenly verities, of which the law furnished
but a shadowy outline before. Compare
2Co 3:13, 14, 18; the Gospel is the very setting forth
by the Word and Spirit of the heavenly realities
themselves, out of which it (the Gospel) is constructed. So
ALFORD. As Christ is "the express image
(Greek, 'impress') of the Father's
person" (
Heb 1:3), so the Gospel is the heavenly verities
themselves manifested by revelation--the heavenly
very archetype, of which the law was drawn as a
sketch, or outline copy (
Heb 8:5). The law was a continual process of acted
prophecy, proving the divine design that its counterparts
should come; and proving the truth of those counterparts
when they came. Thus the imperfect and continued expiatory
sacrifices before Christ foretend, and now prove, the
reality of, Christ's one perfect antitypical
expiation.
good things to come-- (
Heb 9:11); belonging to "the world (age) to
come." Good things in part made present by
faith to the believer, and to be fully realized hereafter
in actual and perfect enjoyment. Lessing says, "As
Christ's Church on earth is a prediction of the economy
of the future life, so the Old Testament economy is a
prediction of the Christian Church." In relation to
the temporal good things of the law, the spiritual and
eternal good things of the Gospel are "good things
to come."
Col 2:17 calls legal ordinances "the shadow,"
and Christ "the body."
never--at any time (
Heb 10:11).
with those sacrifices--rather,
"with the same sacrifices.
year by year--This clause in the
Greek refers to the whole sentence, not merely to the
words "which they the priests offered"
(Greek, "offer"). Thus the sense is, not
as English Version, but, the law year by year, by
the repetition of the same sacrifices, testifies its
inability to perfect the worshippers; namely, on the
YEARLY day of atonement. The
"daily" sacrifices are referred to,
Heb 10:11.
continually--Greek,
"continuously," implying that they offer a
toilsome and ineffectual "continuous"
round of the "same" atonement-sacrifices
recurring "year by year."
comers thereunto--those so coming
unto God, namely, the worshippers (the whole people)
coming to God in the person of their representative, the
high priest.
perfect--fully meet man's needs as
to justification and sanctification (see on Heb 9:9).
2. For--if the law could, by its sacrifices, have perfected
the worshippers.
they--the sacrifices.
once purged--IF they were once for
all cleansed (
Heb 7:27).
conscience--"consciousness
of sin" (
Heb 9:9).
3. But--so far from those sacrifices ceasing to be
offered (
Heb 10:2).
in, &c.--in the fact of their
being offered, and in the course of their being offered on
the day of atonement. Contrast
Heb 10:17.
a remembrance--a recalling to mind by
the high priest's confession, on the day of atonement,
of the sins both of each past year and of all former years,
proving that the expiatory sacrifices of former years were
not felt by men's consciences to have fully atoned for
former sins; in fact, the expiation and remission were only
legal and typical (
Heb 10:4, 11). The Gospel remission, on the contrary,
is so complete, that sins are "remembered no
more" (
Heb 10:17) by God. It is unbelief to "forget"
this once-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of
"former sins" (
2Pe 1:9). The believer, once for all bathed,
needs only to "wash" his hands and
"feet" of soils, according as he daily contracts
them, in Christ's blood (
Joh 13:10).
4. For, &c.--reason why, necessarily, there is a
continually recurring "remembrance of sins" in
the legal sacrifices (
Heb 10:3). Typically, "the blood of
bulls," &c., sacrificed, had power; but it was
only in virtue of the power of the one real antitypical
sacrifice of Christ; they had no power in
themselves; they were not the instrument of perfect
vicarious atonement, but an exhibition of the need of it,
suggesting to the faithful Israelite the sure hope of
coming redemption, according to God's promise.
take away--"take
off." The Greek,
Heb 10:11, is stronger, explaining the weaker word
here, "take away utterly." The blood of
beasts could not take away the sin of man. A MAN
must do that (see on Heb 9:12-14).
5. Christ's voluntary self offering, in contrast to
those inefficient sacrifices, is shown to fulfill perfectly
"the will of God" as to our redemption, by
completely atoning "for (our) sins."
Wherefore--seeing that a nobler than
animal sacrifices was needed to "take away
sins."
when he cometh--Greek,
"coming." The time referred to is the period
before His entrance into the world, when the
inefficiency of animal sacrifices for expiation had been
proved [T HOLUCK]. Or, the time is that between Jesus'
first dawning of reason as a child, and the beginning of
His public ministry, during which, being ripened in human
resolution, He was intently devoting Himself to the doing
of His Father's will [A LFORD]. But the time of
"coming" is present; not "when He had
come," but "when coming into the
world"; so, in order to accord with ALFORD'S view,
"the world" must mean His PUBLIC ministry: when
coming, or about to come, into public. The
Greek verbs are in the past: "sacrifice
. . . Thou didst not wish, but a body Thou
didst prepare for Me"; and, "Lo, I am
come." Therefore, in order to harmonize these
times, the present coming, or about to come, with
the past, "A body Thou didst prepare for
Me," we must either explain as A LFORD, or else, if we
take the period to be before His actual arrival in
the world (the earth) or incarnation, we must
explain the past tenses to refer to God's
purpose, which speaks of what He designed from eternity
as though it were already fulfilled. "A body Thou
didst prepare in Thy eternal counsel." This seems to
me more likely than explaining "coming into the
world," "coming into public," or
entering on His public ministry. David, in the fortieth
Psalm (here quoted), reviews his past troubles and
God's having delivered him from them, and his
consequent desire to render willing obedience to God as
more acceptable than sacrifices; but the Spirit puts into
his mouth language finding its partial application to
David, and its full realization only in the divine Son of
David. "The more any son of man approaches the
incarnate Son of God in position, or office, or individual
spiritual experience, the more directly may his holy
breathings in the power of Christ's Spirit be taken as
utterances of Christ Himself. Of all men, the prophet-king
of Israel resembled and foreshadowed Him the most" [A
LFORD].
a body hast thou prepared
me--Greek, "Thou didst fit for Me a
body." "In Thy counsels Thou didst determine
to make for Me a body, to be given up to death as a
sacrificial victim" [WAHL]. In the Hebrew,
Ps 40:6, it is "mine ears hast thou opened,"
or "dug." Perhaps this alludes to the custom of
boring the ear of a slave who volunteers to remain under
his master when he might be free. Christ's assuming
a human body, in obedience to the Father's will,
in order to die the death of a slave (
Heb 2:14), was virtually the same act of voluntary
submission to service as that of a slave suffering his ear
to be bored by his master. His willing obedience to the
Father's will is what is dwelt on as giving
especial virtue to His sacrifice (
Heb 10:7, 9, 10). The preparing, or fitting
of a body for Him, is not with a view to His mere
incarnation, but to His expiatory sacrifice (
Heb 10:10), as the contrast to "sacrifice
and offering" requires; compare also
Ro 7:4; Eph 2:16; Col 1:22. More probably "opened
mine ears" means opened mine inward ear, so as
to be attentively obedient to what God wills me to do,
namely, to assume the body He has prepared for me for my
sacrifice, so
Job 33:16, Margin;
Job 36:10 (doubtless the boring of a slave's
"ear" was the symbol of such willing
obedience);
Isa 50:5, "The Lord God hath opened mine
ear," that is, made me obediently attentive as
a slave to his master. Others somewhat similarly explain,
"Mine ears hast thou digged," or
"fashioned," not with allusion to
Ex 21:6, but to the true office of the ear--a willing,
submissive attention to the voice of God (
Isa 50:4, 5). The forming of the ear implies the
preparation of the body, that is, the incarnation; this
secondary idea, really in the Hebrew, though less
prominent, is the one which Paul uses for his argument. In
either explanation the idea of Christ taking on Him the
form, and becoming obedient as a servant, is
implied. As He assumed a body in which to make His
self-sacrifice, so ought we present our bodies a
living sacrifice (
Ro 12:1).
6. burnt offerings--Greek, "whole burnt
offerings."
thou hast had no pleasure--as if these
could in themselves atone for sin: God had pleasure in
(Greek, "approved," or "was well
pleased with") them, in so far as they were an act
of obedience to His positive command under the Old
Testament, but not as having an intrinsic efficacy such as
Christ's sacrifice had. Contrast
Mt 3:17.
7. I come--rather, "I am come" (see on Heb 10:5). "Here we have the creed, as
it were, of Jesus: 'I am come to fulfil the
law,'
Mt 5:17; to preach,
Mr 1:38; to call sinners to repentance,
Lu 5:32; to send a sword and to set men at variance,
Mt 10:34, 35; I came down from heaven to do the will of
Him that sent me,
Joh 6:38, 39 (so here,
Ps 40:7, 8); I am sent to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel,
Mt 15:24; I am come into this world for judgment,
Joh 9:39; I am come that they might have life, and
might have it more abundantly,
Joh 10:10; to save what had been lost,
Mt 18:11; to seek and to save that which was lost,
Lu 19:10; compare
1Ti 1:15; to save men's lives,
Lu 9:56; to send fire on the earth,
Lu 12:49; to minister,
Mt 20:28; as "the Light,"
Joh 12:46; to bear witness unto the truth,
Joh 18:37. See, reader, that thy Saviour obtain what He
aimed at in thy case. Moreover, do thou for thy part say,
why thou art come here? Dost thou, then, also, do the will
of God? From what time? and in what way?" [BENGEL].
When the two goats on the day of atonement were presented
before the Lord, that goat on which the lot of the Lord
should fall was to be offered as a sin offering; and that
lot was lifted up on high in the hand of the high priest,
and then laid upon the head of the goat which was to die;
so the hand of God determined all that was
done to Christ. Besides the covenant of God with man
through Christ's blood, there was another covenant made
by the Father with the Son from eternity. The condition
was, "If He shall make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed," &c. (
Isa 53:10). The Son accepted the condition, "Lo, I
come to do Thy will, O God" [BISHOP PEARSON].
Oblation, intercession, and benediction, are His three
priestly offices.
in the volume, &c.--literally,
"the roll": the parchment manuscript being
wrapped around a cylinder headed with knobs. Here, the
Scripture "volume" meant is the fortieth Psalm.
"By this very passage 'written of Me,' I
undertake to do Thy will [namely, that I should die for the
sins of the world, in order that all who believe may be
saved, not by animal sacrifices,
Heb 10:6, but by My death]." This is the written
contract of Messiah (compare
Ne 9:38), whereby He engaged to be our surety. So
complete is the inspiration of all that is written, so
great the authority of the Psalms, that what David says is
really what Christ then and there said.
8. he--Christ.
Sacrifice, &c.--The oldest
manuscripts read, "Sacrifices and
offerings" (plural). This verse combines the two
clauses previously quoted distinctly,
Heb 10:5, 6, in contrast to the sacrifice of Christ
with which God was well pleased.
9. Then said he--"At that time (namely, when speaking
by David's mouth in the fortieth Psalm) He hath
said." The rejection of the legal sacrifices involves,
as its concomitant, the voluntary offer of Jesus to make
the self-sacrifice with which God is well pleased (for,
indeed, it was God's own "will" that He
came to do in offering it: so that this
sacrifice could not but be well pleasing to God).
I come--"I am come."
taketh away--"sets aside the
first," namely, "the legal system of
sacrifices" which God wills not.
the second--"the will of
God" (
Heb 10:7, 9) that Christ should redeem us by His
self-sacrifice.
10. By--Greek, "In." So "in,"
and "through," occur in the same sentence,
1Pe 1:22, "Ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit." Also,
1Pe 1:5, in the Greek. The "in
(fulfilment of) which will" (compare the use of
in,
Eph 1:6, "wherein [in which grace] He hath made us
accepted, in the Beloved"), expresses the
originating cause; "THROUGH the offering
. . . of Christ," the instrumental or
mediatory cause. The whole work of redemption flows
from "the will" of God the Father, as the First
Cause, who decreed redemption from before the foundation of
the world. The "will" here (boulema) is
His absolute sovereign will. His "good
will" (eudokia) is a particular aspect of
it.
are sanctified--once for all, and as
our permanent state (so the Greek). It is the
finished work of Christ in having sanctified us (that is,
having translated us from a state of unholy alienation into
a state of consecration to God, having "no more
conscience of sin,"
Heb 10:2) once for all and permanently, not the process
of gradual sanctification, which is here referred to.
the body--"prepared" for Him
by the Father (
Heb 10:5). As the atonement, or reconciliation, is by
the blood of Christ (
Le 17:11), so our sanctification (consecration
to God, holiness and eternal bliss) is by the body
of Christ (
Col 1:22). ALFORD quotes the Book of Common Prayer
Communion Service, "that our sinful bodies may be
made clean by His body, and our souls washed through
His most precious blood."
once for all-- (
Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26, 28; 10:12, 14).
11. And--a new point of contrast; the frequent repetition
of the sacrifices.
priest--The oldest manuscripts read,
"high priest." Though he did not in person stand
"daily" offering sacrifices, he did so by the
subordinate priests of whom, as well as of all Israel, he
was the representative head. So "daily" is
applied to the high priests (
Heb 7:27).
standeth--the attitude of one
ministering; in contrast to "sat down on the
right hand of God,"
Heb 10:12, said of Christ; the posture of one being
ministered to as a king.
which--Greek, "the
which," that is, of such a kind as.
take away--utterly; literally,
"strip off all round." Legal sacrifices might,
in part, produce the sense of forgiveness, yet
scarcely even that (see on Heb
10:4); but entirely to strip off one's guilt
they never could.
12. this man--emphatic (
Heb 3:3).
for ever--joined in English
Version with "offered one sacrifice"; offered
one sacrifice, the efficacy of which endures for ever;
literally. "continuously," (compare
Heb 10:14). "The offering of Christ, once for all
made, will continue the one and only oblation for ever; no
other will supersede it" [BENGEL]. The mass, which
professes to be the frequent repetition of one and the same
sacrifice of Christ's body, is hence disproved. For not
only is Christ's body one, but also His offering is
one, and that inseparable from His suffering (
Heb 9:26). The mass would be much the same as the
Jewish sacrifices which Paul sets aside as abrogated, for
they were anticipations of the one sacrifice, just as Rome
makes masses continuations of it, in opposition to
Paul's argument. A repetition would imply that the
former once-for-all offering of the one sacrifice was
imperfect, and so would be dishonoring to it (
Heb 10:2, 18).
Heb 10:14, on the contrary, says, "He hath
PERFECTED FOR EVER them that are sanctified." If
Christ offered Himself at the last supper, then He offered
Himself again on the cross, and there would be two
offerings; but Paul says there was only one, once for
all. Compare Note, see on Heb
9:26. English Version is favored by the usage in
this Epistle, of putting the Greek "for
ever" after that which it qualifies. Also, "one
sacrifice for ever," stands in contrast to "the
same sacrifices oftentimes" (
Heb 10:11). Also,
1Co 15:25, 28, agrees with
Heb 10:12, 13, taken as English Version, not
joining, as ALFORD does, "for ever" with
"sat down," for Jesus is to give up the
mediatorial throne "when all things shall be subdued
unto Him," and not to sit on it for ever.
13. expecting--"waiting." Awaiting the
execution of His Father's will, that all His foes
should be subjected to Him. The Son waits till the
Father shall "send Him forth to triumph over all His
foes." He is now sitting at rest (
Heb 10:12), invisibly reigning, and having His foes
virtually, by right of His death, subject to Him. His
present sitting on the unseen throne is a necessary
preliminary to His coming forth to subject His foes openly.
He shall then come forth to a visibly manifested kingdom
and conquest over His foes. Thus He fulfils
Ps 110:1. This agrees with
1Co 15:23-28. He is, by His Spirit and His providence,
now subjecting His foes to Him in part (
Ps 110:1-7). The subjection of His foes fully
shall be at His second advent, and from that time to the
general judgment (
Re 19:1-20:15); then comes the subjection of Himself as
Head of the Church to the Father (the mediatorial economy
ceasing when its end shall have been accomplished), that
God may be all in all. Eastern conquerors used to tread on
the necks of the vanquished, as Joshua did to the five
kings. So Christ's total and absolute conquest at His
coming is symbolized.
be made his footstool--literally,
"be placed (rendered) footstool of His
feet."
his enemies--Satan and Death, whose
strength consists in "sin"; this being taken away
(
Heb 10:12), the power of the foes is taken away, and
their destruction necessarily follows.
14. For--The sacrifice being "for ever" in its
efficacy (
Heb 10:12) needs no renewal.
them that are sanctified--rather as
Greek, "them that are being
sanctified." The sanctification (consecration to God)
of the elect (
1Pe 1:2) believers is perfect in Christ once for all
(see on Heb 10:10). (Contrast the
law,
Heb 7:19; 9:9; 10:1). The development of that
sanctification is progressive.
15. The Greek, has "moreover," or
"now."
is a witness--of the truth which I am
setting forth. The Father's witness is given
Heb 5:10. The Son's,
Heb 10:5. Now is added that of the Holy Spirit, called
accordingly "the Spirit of grace,"
Heb 10:29. The testimony of all Three leads to the same
conclusion (
Heb 10:18).
for after that he had said before--The
conclusion to the sentence is in
Heb 10:17, "After He had said before, This
is the covenant that I will make with them (with the
house of Israel,
Heb 8:10; here extended to the spiritual Israel)
. . . saith the Lord; I will put (literally,
'giving,' referring to the giving of the
law; not now as then, giving into the hands, but
giving) My laws into their hearts ('mind,'
Heb 8:10) and in their minds ('hearts,'
Heb 8:10); I will inscribe (so the Greek)
them (here He omits the addition quoted in
Heb 8:10, 11, I will be to them a God
. . . and they shall not teach every man his
neighbor . . .), and (that is, after He
had said the foregoing, HE THEN ADDS) their sins
. . . will I remember no more." The great
object of the quotation here is to prove that, there being
in the Gospel covenant, "REMISSION of
sins" (
Heb 10:17), there is no more need of a sacrifice for
sins. The object of the same quotation in
Heb 8:8-13 is to show that, there being a "NEW
covenant," the old is antiquated.
18. where remission of these is--as there is under the Gospel covenant ( Heb 10:17). "Here ends the finale ( Heb 10:1-18) of the great tripartite arrangement ( Heb 7:1-25; 7:26-9:12; 9:13-10:18) of the middle portion of the Epistle. Its great theme was Christ a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. What it is to be a high priest after the order of Melchisedec is set forth, Heb 7:1-25, as contrasted with the Aaronic order. That Christ, however, as High Priest, is Aaron's antitype in the true holy place, by virtue of His self-sacrifice here on earth, and Mediator of a better covenant, whose essential character the old only typified, we learn, Heb 7:26-9:12. And that Christ's self-sacrifice, offered through the Eternal Spirit, is of everlasting power, as contrasted with the unavailing cycle of legal offerings, is established in the third part, Heb 9:13-10:18; the first half of this last portion [ Heb 9:13-28], showing that both our present possession of salvation, and our future completion of it, are as certain to us as that He is with God, ruling as a Priest and reigning as a King, once more to appear, no more as a bearer of our sins, but in glory as a Judge. The second half, Heb 10:1-18, reiterating the main position of the whole, the High Priesthood of Christ, grounded on His offering of Himself--its kingly character its eternal accomplishment of its end, confirmed by Psalms 40 and 110 and Jeremiah 31" [DELITZSCH in A LFORD].
19. Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle;
our duty now while waiting for the Lord's second
advent. Resumption and expansion of the exhortation (
Heb 4:14-16; compare
Heb 10:22, 23 here) wherewith he closed the first part
of the Epistle, preparatory to his great doctrinal
argument, beginning at
Heb 7:1.
boldness--"free confidence,"
grounded on the consciousness that our sins have been
forgiven.
to enter--literally, "as regards
the entering."
by--Greek, "in"; it
is in the blood of Jesus that our boldness to enter
is grounded. Compare
Eph 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and
access with confidence." It is His having once for all
entered as our Forerunner (
Heb 6:20) and High Priest (
Heb 10:21), making atonement for us with His blood,
which is continually there (
Heb 12:24) before God, that gives us confident access.
No priestly caste now mediates between the sinner and his
Judge. We may come boldly with loving confidence,
not with slavish fear, directly through Christ, the only
mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God
than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance
or by deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come
for himself, and all are accepted when they come by the new
and living way opened by Christ. Thus all Christians are,
in respect to access directly to God, virtually high
priests (
Re 1:6). They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only
proper High Priest (
Heb 7:25).
20. which, &c.--The antecedent in the Greek is
"the entering"; not as English Version,
"way." Translate, "which (entering) He has
consecrated (not as though it were already existing, but
has been the first to open, INAUGURATED as a new
thing; see on Heb 9:18, where
the Greek is the same) for us (as) a new (Greek,
'recent'; recently opened,
Ro 16:25, 26) and living way" (not like the
lifeless way through the law offering of the blood of
dead victims, but real, vital, and of perpetual
efficacy, because the living and life-giving
Saviour is that way. It is a living hope that
we have, producing not dead, but living,
works). Christ, the first-fruits of our nature, has
ascended, and the rest is sanctified thereby.
"Christ's ascension is our promotion; and whither
the glory of the Head hath preceded, thither the hope of
the body, too, is called" [LEO].
the veil--As the veil had to be
passed through in order to enter the holiest place,
so the weak, human suffering flesh (
Heb 5:7) of Christ's humanity (which veiled His God
head) had to be passed through by Him in entering the
heavenly holiest place for us; in putting off His rent
flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously
rent from top to bottom (
Mt 27:51). Not His body, but His weak suffering
flesh, was the veil; His body was the temple (
Joh 2:19).
21. high priest--As a different Greek term
(archiereus) is used always elsewhere in this
Epistle for "high priest," translate as
Greek here, "A Great Priest"; one who
is at once King and "Priest on His throne" (
Zec 6:13); a royal Priest, and a priestly King.
house of God--the spiritual house, the
Church, made up of believers, whose home is
heaven, where Jesus now is (
Heb 12:22, 23). Thus, by "the house of God,"
over which Jesus is, heaven is included in meaning,
as well as the Church, whose home it is.
22. (
Heb 4:16; 7:19.)
with a true heart--without hypocrisy;
"in truth, and with a perfect heart"; a heart
thoroughly imbued with "the truth" (
Heb 10:26).
full assurance-- (
Heb 6:11); with no doubt as to our acceptance when
coming to God by the blood of Christ. As "faith"
occurs here, so "hope," and
"love,"
Heb 10:23, 24.
sprinkled from--that is, sprinkled
so as to be cleansed from.
evil conscience--a consciousness of
guilt unatoned for, and uncleansed away (
Heb 10:2; Heb 9:9). Both the hearts and the
bodies are cleansed. The legal purifications were with
blood of animal victims and with water, and could only
cleanse the flesh (
Heb 9:13, 21). Christ's blood purifies the
heart and conscience. The Aaronic priest, in entering
the holy place, washed with water (
Heb 9:19) in the brazen laver. Believers, as priests to
God, are once for all washed in BODY (as distinguished from
"hearts") at baptism. As we have an immaterial,
and a material nature, the cleansing of both is expressed
by "hearts" and "body," the inner and
the outer man; so the whole man, material and immaterial.
The baptism of the body, however, is not the mere putting
away of material filth, nor an act operating by intrinsic
efficacy, but the sacramental seal, applied to the outer
man, of a spiritual washing (
1Pe 3:21). "Body" (not merely
"flesh," the carnal part, as
2Co 7:1) includes the whole material man, which
needs cleansing, as being redeemed, as well as the soul.
The body, once polluted with sin, is washed, so as to be
fitted like Christ's holy body, and by His body, to be
spiritually a pure and living offering. On the "pure
water," the symbol of consecration and sanctification,
compare
Joh 19:34; 1Co 6:11; 1Jo 5:6; Eze 36:25. The perfects
"having . . . hearts sprinkled
. . . body (the Greek is singular)
washed," imply a continuing state produced by a
once-for-all accomplished act, namely, our justification by
faith through Christ's blood, and consecration to God,
sealed sacramentally by the baptism of our body.
23. (
Heb 3:6, 14; 4:14.)
profession--Greek,
"confession."
our faith--rather as Greek,
"our hope"; which is indeed faith
exercised as to the future inheritance. Hope rests
on faith, and at the same time quickens faith, and
is the ground of our bold confession (
1Pe 3:15). Hope is similarly (
Heb 10:22) connected with purification (
1Jo 3:3).
without wavering--without declension
(
Heb 3:14), "steadfast unto the end."
he--God is faithful to His promises
(
Heb 6:17, 18; 11:11; 12:26, 28; 1Co 1:9; 10:13; 1Th 5:24;
2Th 3:3; see also Christ's promise,
Joh 12:26); but man is too often unfaithful to his
duties.
24. Here, as elsewhere, hope and love follow
faith; the Pauline triad of Christian graces.
consider--with the mind attentively
fixed on "one another" (see on
Heb 3:1), contemplating with continual consideration
the characters and wants of our brethren, so as to render
mutual help and counsel. Compare "consider,"
Ps 41:1, and Heb 12:15, "(All) looking diligently
lest any fail of the grace of God."
to provoke--Greek,
"with a view to provoking unto love,"
instead of provoking to hatred, as is too often the case.
25. assembling of ourselves together--The Greek,
"episunagoge," is only found here and
2Th 2:1 (the gathering together of the elect to Christ
at His coming,
Mt 24:31). The assembling or gathering of ourselves for
Christian communion in private and public, is an earnest of
our being gathered together to Him at His appearing. Union
is strength; continual assemblings together beget and
foster love, and give good opportunities for
"provoking to good works," by "exhorting one
another" (
Heb 3:13). IGNATIUS says, "When ye frequently, and
in numbers meet together, the powers of Satan are
overthrown, and his mischief is neutralized by your
likemindedness in the faith." To neglect such
assemblings together might end in apostasy at last. He
avoids the Greek term "sunagoge,"
as suggesting the Jewish synagogue meetings (compare
Re 2:9).
as the manner of some
is--"manner," that is, habit, custom. This gentle
expression proves he is not here as yet speaking of
apostasy.
the day approaching--This, the
shortest designation of the day of the Lord's coming,
occurs elsewhere only in
1Co 3:13; a confirmation of the Pauline authorship of
this Epistle. The Church being in all ages kept
uncertain how soon Christ is coming, the day is, and
has been, in each age, practically always near; whence,
believers have been called on always to be watching for it
as nigh at hand. The Hebrews were now living close upon One
of those great types and foretastes of it, the destruction
of Jerusalem (
Mt 24:1, 2), "the bloody and fiery dawn of the
great day; that day is the day of days, the ending day of
all days, the settling day of all days, the day of the
promotion of time into eternity, the day which, for the
Church, breaks through and breaks off the night of the
present world" [D ELITZSCH in ALFORD].
26. Compare on this and following verses,
Heb 6:4, &c. There the warning was that if there be
not diligence in progressing, a falling off will take
place, and apostasy may ensue: here it is, that if there be
lukewarmness in Christian communion, apostasy may
ensue.
if we sin--Greek present
participle: if we be found sinning, that is, not
isolated acts, but a state of sin [ALFORD]. A
violation not only of the law, but of the whole
economy of the New Testament (
Heb 10:28, 29).
wilfully--presumptuously, Greek
"willingly." After receiving "full knowledge
(so the Greek, compare
1Ti 2:4) of the truth," by having been
"enlightened," and by having "tasted" a
certain measure even of grace of "the Holy Ghost"
(the Spirit of truth,
Joh 14:17; and "the Spirit of grace,"
Heb 10:29): to fall away (as "sin"
here means,
Heb 3:12, 17; compare
Heb 6:6) and apostatize (
Heb 3:12) to Judaism or infidelity, is not a sin of
ignorance, or error ("out of the way,"
the result) of infirmity, but a deliberate sinning
against the Spirit (
Heb 10:29; Heb 5:2): such sinning, where a
consciousness of Gospel obligations not only was, but is
present: a sinning presumptuously and preseveringly against
Christ's redemption for us, and the Spirit of
grace in us. "He only who stands high can fall
low. A lively reference in the soul to what is good is
necessary in order to be thoroughly wicked; hence, man can
be more reprobate than the beasts, and the apostate angels
than apostate man" [THOLUCK].
remaineth no more sacrifice--For there
is but ONE Sacrifice that can atone for sin; they, after
having fully known that sacrifice, deliberately reject it.
27. a certain--an extraordinary and indescribable. The
indefiniteness, as of something peculiar of its
kind, makes the description the more terrible (compare
Greek,
Jas 1:18).
looking for--"expectation":
a later sense of the Greek. ALFORD strangely
translates, as the Greek usually means elsewhere,
"reception." The transition is easy from
"giving a reception to" something or someone, to
"looking for." Contrast the "expecting"
(the very same Greek as here),
Heb 10:13, which refutes ALFORD.
fiery indignation--literally,
"zeal of fire." Fire is personified: glow or
ardor of fire, that is, of Him who is "a consuming
fire."
devour--continually.
28. Compare
Heb 2:2, 3; 12:25.
despised--"set at naught"
[ALFORD]: utterly and heinously violated, not merely some
minor detail, but the whole law and covenant; for
example, by idolatry (
De 17:2-7). So here apostasy answers to such an
utter violation of the old covenant.
died--Greek, "dies":
the normal punishment of such transgression, then still in
force.
without mercy--literally,
"mercies": removal out of the pale of mitigation,
or a respite of his doom.
under--on the evidence of.
29. sorer--Greek, "worse," namely,
"punishment" (literally, "vengeance")
than any mere temporal punishment of the body.
suppose ye--an appeal to the
Hebrews' reason and conscience.
thought worthy--by God at the
judgment.
trodden under foot the Son of God--by
"wilful" apostasy. So he treads under foot God
Himself who "glorified His Son as an high
priest" (
Heb 5:5; 6:6).
an unholy thing--literally,
"common," as opposed to "sanctified."
No better than the blood of a common man, thus involving
the consequence that Christ, in claiming to be God, was
guilty of blasphemy, and so deserved to die!
wherewith he was sanctified--for
Christ died even for him. "Sanctified," in the
fullest sense, belongs only to the saved elect. But in some
sense it belongs also to those who have gone a far way in
Christian experience, and yet fall away at last. The higher
such a one's past Christian experiences, the deeper his
fall.
done despite unto--by repelling in
fact: as "blasphemy" is despite in
words (
Mr 3:29). "Of the Jews who became Christians and
relapsed to Judaism, we find from the history of Uriel
Acosta, that they required a blasphemy against Christ.
'They applied to Him epithets used against Molech the
adulterous branch,' &c." [THOLUCK].
the Spirit of grace--the Spirit that
confers grace. "He who does not accept the benefit,
insults Him who confers it. He hath made thee a son: wilt
thou become a slave? He has come to take up His abode with
thee; but thou art introducing evil into thyself" [C
HRYSOSTOM]. "It is the curse of evil eternally to
propagate evil: so, for him who profanes the Christ
without him, and blasphemes the Christ within
him, there is subjectively no renewal of a change of
mind (
Heb 6:6), and objectively no new sacrifice for
sins" (
Heb 10:26) [THOLUCK].
30. him--God, who enters no empty threats.
Vengeance belongeth unto
me--Greek, "To Me belongeth vengeance":
exactly according with Paul's quotation,
Ro 12:19, of the same text.
Lord shall judge his people--in grace,
or else anger, according as each deserves: here,
"judge," so as to punish the reprobate apostate;
there, "judge," so as to interpose in behalf of,
and save His people (
De 32:36).
31. fearful . . . to fall into the hands--It is
good like David to fall into the hands of God,
rather than man, when one does so with filial faith
in his father's love, though God chastises him.
"It is fearful" to fall into His hands as a
reprobate and presumptuous sinner doomed to His just
vengeance as Judge (
Heb 10:27).
living God--therefore able to punish
for ever (
Mt 10:28).
32. As previously he has warned them by the awful end of
apostates, so here he stirs them up by the remembrance of
their own former faith, patience, and self-sacrificing
love. So
Re 2:3, 4.
call to remembrance--habitually: so
the present tense means.
illuminated--"enlightened":
come to "the knowledge of the truth" (
Heb 10:26) in connection with baptism (see on Heb 6:4). In spiritual baptism, Christ, who
is "the Light," is put on. "On the one hand,
we are not to sever the sign and the grace signified where
the sacrifice truly answers its designs; on the other, the
glass is not to be mistaken for the liquor, nor the sheath
for the sword" [B ENGEL].
fight of--that is, consisting
of afflictions.
33. The persecutions here referred to seem to have been
endured by the Hebrew Christians at their first conversion,
not only in Palestine, but also in Rome and elsewhere, the
Jews in every city inciting the populace and the Roman
authorities against Christians.
gazing-stock--as in a theater
(so the Greek): often used as the place of
punishment in the presence of the assembled multitudes.
Ac 19:29; 1Co 4:9, "Made a theatrical
spectacle to the world."
ye became--of your own accord:
attesting your Christian sympathy with your suffering
brethren.
companions of--sharers in affliction
with.
34. ye had compassion on me in my bonds--The oldest
manuscripts and versions omit "me," and read,
"Ye both sympathized with those in bonds
(answering to the last clause of
Heb 10:33; compare
Heb 13:3, 23; 6:10), and accepted (so the Greek
is translated in
Heb 11:35) with joy (
Jas 1:2; joy in tribulations, as exercising
faith and other graces,
Ro 5:3; and the pledge of the coming glory,
Mt 5:12) the plundering of your (own) goods (answering
to the first clause of
Heb 10:33)."
in yourselves--The oldest manuscripts
omit "in": translate, "knowing that ye have
for (or 'to')
yourselves."
better--a heavenly (
Heb 11:16).
enduring--not liable to
spoiling.
substance--possession: peculiarly our
own, if we will not cast away our birthright.
35-37. Consequent exhortation to confidence and endurance,
as Christ is soon coming.
Cast not away--implying that they now
have "confidence," and that it will not withdraw
of itself, unless they "cast it away" wilfully
(compare
Heb 3:14).
which--Greek, "the
which": inasmuch as being such as.
hath--present tense: it is as certain
as if you had it in your hand (
Heb 10:37). It hath in reversion.
recompense of reward--of grace not of
debt: a reward of a kind which no mercenary self-seeker
would seek: holiness will be its own reward; self-devoting
unselfishness for Christ's sake will be its own rich
recompense (see on Heb 2:2; Heb 11:26).
36. patience--Greek, "waiting endurance,"
or "enduring perseverance": the kindred
Greek verb in the Septuagint,
Hab 2:3, is translated, "wait for it"
(compare
Jas 5:7).
after ye have done the will of
God--"that whereas ye have done the will of God"
hitherto (
Heb 10:32-35), ye may now show also patient,
persevering endurance, and so "receive the
promise," that is, the promised reward: eternal life
and bliss commensurate with our work of faith and love (
Heb 6:10-12). We must not only do, but also
suffer (
1Pe 4:19). God first uses the active talents of
His servants; then polishes the other side of the stone,
making the passive graces shine, patience,
meekness, &c. It may be also translated, "That
ye may do the will of God, and receive," &c.
[ALFORD]: "patience" itself is a further and a
persevering doing of "God's will"; otherwise
it would be profitless and no real grace (
Mt 7:21). We should look, not merely for individual
bliss now and at death, but for the great and general
consummation of bliss of all saints, both in body and soul.
37, 38. Encouragement to patient endurance by consideration
of the shortness of the time till Christ shall come, and
God's rejection of him that draws back, taken from
Hab 2:3, 4.
a little while-- (
Joh 16:16).
he that shall come--literally,
"the Comer." In Habakkuk, it is the vision
that is said to be about to come. Christ, being the
grand and ultimate subject of all prophetical vision, is
here made by Paul, under inspiration, the subject of the
Spirit's prophecy by Habakkuk, in its final and
exhaustive fulfilment.
38. just--The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read,
"my just man." God is the speaker:
"He who is just in My sight." BENGEL translates,
"The just shall live by my faith":
answering to the Hebrew,
Hab 2:4; literally, "the just shall live by the
faith of Him," namely, Christ, the final
subject of "the vision," who "will not
lie," that is, disappoint. Here not merely the first
beginning, as in
Ga 3:11, but the continuance, of the spiritual
life of the justified man is referred to, as opposed to
declension and apostasy. As the justified man receives his
first spiritual life by faith, so it is by faith
that he shall continue to live (
Lu 4:4). The faith meant here is that fully
developed living trust in the unseen (
Heb 11:1) Saviour, which can keep men steadfast amidst
persecutions and temptations (
Heb 10:34-36).
but--Greek,
"and."
if any man draw back--So the
Greek admits: though it might also be translated, as
ALFORD approves, "if he (the just man) draw
back." Even so, it would not disprove the final
perseverance of saints. For "the just man" in
this latter clause would mean one seemingly, and in part
really, though not savingly, "just" or
justified: as in
Eze 18:24, 26. In the Hebrew, this latter half
of the verse stands first, and is, "Behold, his soul
which is lifted up, is not upright in him." Habakkuk
states the cause of drawing back: a soul lifted
up, and in self-inflated unbelief setting itself up
against God. Paul, by the Spirit, states the effect,
it draws back. Also, what in Habakkuk is, "His
soul is not upright in him," is in Paul, "My soul
shall have no pleasure in him." Habakkuk states the
cause, Paul the effect: He who is not right in his
own soul, does not stand right with God; God has no
pleasure in him. B ENGEL translates Habakkuk, "His
soul is not upright in respect to him," namely,
Christ, the subject of "the vision," that is,
Christ has no pleasure in him (compare
Heb 12:25). Every flower in spring is not a fruit in
autumn.
39. A Pauline elegant turning-off from denunciatory
warnings to charitable hopes of his readers (
Ro 8:12).
saving of the soul--literally,
"acquisition (or obtaining) of the soul."
The kindred Greek verb is applied to Christ's
acquiring the Church as the purchase of His
blood (
Ac 20:28). If we acquire or obtain our
soul's salvation, it is through Him who has obtained it
for us by His bloodshedding. "The unbelieving man
loses his soul: for not being God's, neither is he
his own [compare
Mt 16:26, with Lu 9:25]: faith saves the soul by
linking it to God" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].
Heb 11:1-40. DEFINITION OF THE FAITH JUST SPOKEN OF ( Heb 10:39): EXAMPLES FROM THE OLD COVENANT FOR OUR PERSEVERANCE IN FAITH.
1. Description of the great things which
faith (in its widest sense: not here restricted to
faith in the Gospel sense) does for us. Not a full
definition of faith in its whole nature, but a
description of its great characteristics in relation to the
subject of Paul's exhortation here, namely, to
perseverance.
substance, &c.--It substantiates
promises of God which we hope for, as future in fulfilment,
making them present realities to us. However, the
Greek is translated in
Heb 3:14, "confidence"; and it also here may
mean "sure confidence." So ALFORD translates.
THOMAS MAGISTER supports English Version, "The
whole thing that follows is virtually contained in the
first principle; now the first commencement of the
things hoped for is in us through the assent of faith,
which virtually contains all the things hoped for."
Compare Note, see on Heb 6:5,
"tasted . . . powers of the world to
come." Through faith, the future object of Christian
hope, in its beginning, is already present. True
faith infers the reality of the objects believed in and
honed for (
Heb 11:6). HUGO DE ST. VICTOR distinguished
faith from hope. By faith alone we are
sure of eternal things that they ARE: but by hope we
are confident that WE SHALL HAVE them. All hope presupposes
faith (
Ro 8:25).
evidence--"demonstration":
convincing proof to the believer: the soul thereby seeing
what the eye cannot see.
things not seen--the whole invisible
and spiritual world: not things future and things pleasant,
as the "things hoped for," but also the past and
present, and those the reverse of pleasant. "Eternal
life is promised to us, but it is when we are dead: we are
told of a blessed resurrection, but meanwhile we moulder in
the dust; we are declared to be justified, and sin dwells
in us; we hear that we are blessed, meantime we are
overwhelmed in endless miseries: we are promised abundance
of all goods, but we still endure hunger and thirst; God
declares He will immediately come to our help, but He seems
deaf to our cries. What should we do if we had not faith
and hope to lean on, and if our mind did not emerge amidst
the darkness above the world by the shining of the Word and
Spirit of God?" [CALVIN]. Faith is an assent unto
truths credible upon the testimony of God (not on the
reasonableness of the thing revealed, though by this we
may judge as to whether it be what it professes, a genuine
revelation), delivered unto us in the writings of the
apostles and prophets. Thus Christ's ascension is the
cause, and His absence the crown, of our faith: because He
ascended, we the more believe, and because we believe in
Him who hath ascended, our faith is the more accepted [B
ISHOP PEARSON]. Faith believes what it sees not; for if
thou seest there is no faith; the Lord has gone away so as
not to be seen: He is hidden that He may be believed; the
yearning desire by faith after Him who is unseen is the
preparation of a heavenly mansion for us; when He shall be
seen it shall be given to us as the reward of faith
[AUGUSTINE]. As Revelation deals with spiritual and
invisible things exclusively, faith is the faculty needed
by us, since it is the evidence of things not seen. By
faith we venture our eternal interests on the bare word of
God, and this is altogether reasonable.
2. For--So high a description of faith is not undeserved;
for . . . [ALFORD].
by it--Greek, "in
it": in respect to . . . in the matter
of," it, "or, as Greek more emphatically,
"this."
the elders--as though still living and
giving their powerful testimony to the reasonableness and
excellence of faith (
Heb 12:1). Not merely the ancients, as though
they were people solely of the past; nay, they belong to
the one and the same blessed family as ourselves (
Heb 11:39, 40). "The elders," whom we
all revere so highly. "Paul shows how we ought to seek
in all its fulness, under the veil of history, the
essential substance of the doctrine sometimes briefly
indicated" [BENGEL]. "The elders," as
"the fathers," is a title of honor given on the
ground of their bright faith and practice.
obtained a good report--Greek,
"were testified of," namely, favorably (compare
Heb 7:8). It is a phrase of Luke, Paul's companion.
Not only men, but God, gave testimony to their faith (
Heb 11:4, 5, 39). Thus they being testified of
themselves have become "witnesses" to all others
(
Heb 12:1). The earlier elders had their patience
exercised for a long period of life: those later, in
sharper afflictions. Many things which they hoped for and
did not see, subsequently came to pass and were
conspicuously seen, the event confirming faith [BENGEL].
3. we understand--We perceive with our spiritual
intelligence the fact of the world's creation by God,
though we see neither Him nor the act of creation as
described in
Ge 1:1-31. The natural world could not, without
revelation, teach us this truth, though it confirms the
truth when apprehended by faith (
Ro 1:20). Adam is passed over in silence here as to his
faith, perhaps as being the first who fell and brought sin
on us all; though it does not follow that he did not repent
and believe the promise.
worlds--literally, "ages";
all that exists in time and space, visible and invisible,
present and eternal.
framed--"fitly formed and
consolidated"; including the creation of the single
parts and the harmonious organization of the whole, and the
continual providence which maintains the whole throughout
all ages. As creation is the foundation and a specimen of
the whole divine economy, so faith in creation is the
foundation and a specimen of all faith [BENGEL].
by the word of God--not here, the
personal word (Greek, "logos,"
Joh 1:1) but the spoken word (Greek,
"rhema"); though by the instrumentality of
the personal word (
Heb 1:2).
not made, &c.--Translate as
Greek, "so that not out of things which appear
hath that which is seen been made"; not as in the case
of all things which we see reproduced from previously
existing and visible materials, as, for instance, the plant
from the seed, the animal from the parent, &c., has the
visible world sprung into being from apparent materials. So
also it is implied in the first clause of the verse that
the invisible spiritual worlds were framed not from
previously existing materials. BENGEL explains it by
distinguishing "appear," that is, begin to be
seen (namely, at creation), from that which is
seen as already in existence, not merely
beginning to be seen; so that the things seen were not
made of the things which appear," that is, which
begin to be seen by us in the act of creation. We were
not spectators of creation; it is by faith we perceive it.
4. more excellent sacrifice--because offered in
faith. Now faith must have some revelation of
God on which it fastens. The revelation in this case
was doubtless God's command to sacrifice animals
("the firstlings of the flock") in token of the
forfeiture of men's life by sin, and as a type of the
promised bruiser of the serpent's head (
Ge 3:15), the one coming sacrifice: this command is
implied in God's having made coats of skin for Adam and
Eve (
Ge 3:21): for these skins must have been taken from
animals slain in sacrifice: inasmuch as it was not
for food they were slain, animal food not being
permitted till after the flood; nor for mere
clothing, as, were it so, clothes might have been made
of the fleeces without the needless cruelty of killing the
animal; but a coat of skin put on Adam from a sacrificed
animal typified the covering or atonement (the
Hebrew for atone means to cover)
resulting from Christ's sacrifice. The Greek is
more literally rendered [KENNICOTT] by W YCLIFFE, "a
much more sacrifice"; and by Queen
Elizabeth's version "a greater sacrifice." A
fuller, more ample sacrifice, that which partook more
largely and essentially of the true nature and virtue of
sacrifice [ARCHBISHOP M AGEE]. It was not any intrinsic
merit in "the firstling of the flock" above
"the fruit of the ground." It was God's
appointment that gave it all its excellency as a sacrifice;
if it had not been so, it would have been a presumptuous
act of will-worship (
Col 2:23), and taking of a life which man had no right
over before the flood (
Ge 9:1-6). The sacrifice seems to have been a
holocaust, and the sign of the divine acceptance of it was
probably the consumption of it by fire from heaven (
Ge 15:17). Hence, "to accept" a burnt
sacrifice is in Hebrew "to turn it to
ashes" (
Ps 20:3, Margin). A flame seems to have issued
from the Shekinah, or flaming cherubim, east of Eden
("the presence of the Lord,"
Ge 4:16), where the first sacrifices were offered.
Cain, in unbelieving self-righteousness, presented merely a
thank offering, not like Abel feeling his need of
the propitiatory sacrifice appointed on account of sin. God
"had respect (first) unto Abel, and (then) to his
offering" (
Ge 4:4). Faith causes the believer's person to be
accepted, and then his offering. Even an animal sacrifice,
though of God's appointment, would not have been
accepted, had it not been offered in faith.
he obtained witness--God by
fire attesting His acceptance of him as "righteous by
faith."
his gifts--the common term for
sacrifices, implying that they must be freely
given.
by it--by faith exhibited in his
animal sacrifice.
dead, yet speaketh--His blood
crying front the ground to God, shows how precious,
because of his "faith," he was still in God's
sight, even when dead. So he becomes a witness to us of the
blessed effects of faith.
5. Faith was the ground of his pleasing God;
and his pleasing God was the ground of his
translation.
translated-- (
Ge 5:22, 24). Implying a sudden removal (the
same Greek as in
Ga 1:6) from mortality without death to immortality:
such a CHANGE as shall pass over the living at Christ's
coming (
1Co 15:51, 52).
had this testimony--namely of
Scripture; the Greek perfect implies that this
testimony continues still: "he has been
testified of."
pleased God--The Scripture testimony
virtually expresses that he pleased God, namely,
"Enoch walked with God." The Septuagint
translates the Hebrew for "walked with
God,"
Ge 6:9, pleased God.
6. without--Greek, "apart from
faith": if one be destitute of faith (compare
Ro 14:23).
to please--Translate, as ALFORD does,
the Greek aorist, "It is impossible to please
God at all" (
Ro 8:8). Natural amiabilities and "works done
before the grace of Christ are not pleasant to God,
forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; yea,
rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed them
to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of
sin" [Article XIII, Book of Common Prayer].
Works not rooted in God are splendid sins
[AUGUSTINE].
he that cometh to God--as a worshipper
(
Heb 7:19).
must believe--once for all:
Greek aorist tense.
that God is--is the true self-existing
Jehovah (as contrasted with all so-called gods, not gods,
Ga 4:8), the source of all being, though he sees Him
not (
Heb 11:1) as being "invisible" (
Heb 11:27). So Enoch; this passage implies that he had
not been favored with visible appearances of God,
yet he believed in God's being, and in
God's moral government, as the Rewarder of His
diligent worshippers, in opposition to antediluvian
skepticism. Also Moses was not so favored before he left
Egypt the first time (
Heb 11:27); still he believed.
and . . . is--a different
Greek verb from the former "is."
Translate, "is eventually"; proves to be;
literally, "becomes."
rewarder--renderer of reward [ALFORD].
So God proved to be to Enoch. The reward is God
Himself diligently "sought" and "walked
with" in partial communion here, and to be fully
enjoyed hereafter. Compare
Ge 15:1, "I am thy exceeding great
reward."
of them--and them only.
diligently seek--Greek,
"seek out" God. Compare "seek
early,"
Pr 8:17. Not only "ask" and "seek,"
but "knock,"
Mt 7:7; compare
Heb 11:12; Lu 13:24, "Strive" as in an agony
of contest.
7. warned of God--The same Greek,
Heb 8:5, "admonished of God."
moved with fear--not mere slavish
fear, but as in
Heb 5:7; see on Heb 5:7;
Greek, "reverential fear": opposed to the
world's sneering disbelief of the revelation, and
self-deceiving security. Join "by faith" with
"prepared an ark" (
1Pe 3:20).
by the which--faith.
condemned the world--For since he
believed and was saved, so might they have believed and
been saved, so that their condemnation by God is by his
case shown to be just.
righteousness which is by
faith--Greek, "according to faith." A
Pauline thought. Noah is first called "righteous"
in
Ge 6:9. Christ calls Abel so,
Mt 23:35. Compare as to Noah's righteousness,
Eze 14:14, 20; 2Pe 2:5, "a preacher of
righteousness." Paul here makes faith the
principle and ground of his righteousness.
heir--the consequence of sonship which
flows from faith.
8. From the antediluvian saints he passes to the patriarchs
of Israel, to whom "the promises" belonged.
called--by God (
Ge 12:1). The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate
read, "He that was called Abraham," his name
being changed from Abram to Abraham, on the occasion of
God's making with him and his seed a covenant sealed by
circumcision, many years after his call out of Ur. "By
faith, he who was (afterwards) called Abraham (father of
nations,
Ge 17:5, in order to become which was the design of
God's bringing him out of Ur) obeyed (the command of
God: to be understood in this reading), so as to go
out," &c.
which he should after receive--He had
not fully received even this promise when he went out, for
it was not explicitly given him till he had reached
Canaan (
Ge 12:1, 6, 7). When the promise of the land was given
him the Canaanite was still in the land, and himself a
stranger; it is in the new heaven and new earth that he
shall receive his personal inheritance promised him; so
believers sojourn on earth as strangers, while the ungodly
and Satan lord it over the earth; but at Christ's
coming that same earth which was the scene of the
believer's conflict shall be the inheritance of Christ
and His saints.
9. sojourned--as a "stranger and pilgrim."
in--Greek, "into,"
that is, he went into it and sojourned there.
as in a strange country--a country
not belonging to him, but to others (so the
Greek),
Ac 7:5, 6.
dwelling in tabernacles--tents:
as strangers and sojourners do: moving from
place to place, as having no fixed possession of their own.
In contrast to the abiding "city" (
Heb 11:10).
with--Their kind of dwelling being the
same is a proof that their faith was the same. They all
alike were content to wait for their good things hereafter
(
Lu 16:25). Jacob was fifteen years old at the death of
Abraham.
heirs with him of the same
promise--Isaac did not inherit it from Abraham, nor Jacob
from Isaac, but they all inherited it from God directly as
"fellow heirs." In
Heb 6:12, 15, 17, "the promise" means the
thing promised as a thing in part already
attained; but in this chapter "the promise"
is of something still future. However, see on Heb 6:12.
10. looked for--Greek, "he was expecting";
waiting for with eager expectation (
Ro 8:19).
a city--Greek, "the
city," already alluded to. Worldly Enoch, son of the
murderer Cain, was the first to build his city here: the
godly patriarchs waited for their city hereafter (
Heb 11:16; 12:22; 13:14).
foundations--Greek,
"the foundations" which the tents
had not, nor even men's present cities have.
whose builder and maker--Greek,
"designer [
Eph 1:4, 11] and master-builder," or executor
of the design. The city is worthy of its Framer and
Builder (compare
Heb 11:16; Heb 8:2). Compare Note, see on Heb 9:12, on "found."
11. also Sara herself--though being the weaker vessel, and
though at first she doubted.
was delivered of a child--omitted in
the oldest manuscripts: then translate, "and that when
she was past age" (
Ro 4:19).
she judged him faithful who had
promised--after she had ceased to doubt, being instructed
by the angel that it was no jest, but a matter in serious
earnest.
12. as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no
longer having, as in youth, energetic vital powers.
stars . . . sand-- (
Ge 22:17).
13-16. Summary of the characteristic excellencies of the
patriarchs' faith
died in faith--died as
believers, waiting for, not actually seeing as
yet their good things promised to them. They were true to
this principle of faith even unto, and especially
in, their dying hour (compare
Heb 11:20).
These all--beginning with
"Abraham" (
Heb 11:8), to whom the promises were made (
Ga 3:16), and who is alluded to in the end of
Heb 11:13 and in
Heb 11:15 [BENGEL and ALFORD]. But the "ALL"
can hardly but include Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Now as these
did not receive the promise of entering literal Canaan,
some other promise made in the first ages, and often
repeated, must be that meant, namely, the promise of a
coming Redeemer made to Adam, namely, "the seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus the
promises cannot have been merely temporal, for Abel and
Enoch mentioned here received no temporal promise [A
RCHBISHOP MAGEE]. This promise of eternal redemption is the
inner essence of the promises made to Abraham (
Ga 3:16).
not having received--It was this that
constituted their "faith." If they had
"received" THE THING PROMISED (so "the
promises" here mean: the plural is used because of the
frequent renewal of the promise to the patriarchs:
Heb 11:17 says he did receive the
promises, but not the thing promised), it would
have been sight, not faith.
seen them afar off-- (
Joh 8:56). Christ, as the Word, was preached to the Old
Testament believers, and so became the seed of life to
their souls, as He is to ours.
and were persuaded of them--The oldest
manuscripts omit this clause.
embraced them--as though they were not
"afar off," but within reach, so as to draw them
to themselves and clasp them in their embrace. TRENCH
denies that the Old Testament believers embraced
them, for they only saw them afar off: he
translates, "saluted them," as the homeward-bound
mariner, recognizing from afar the well-known promontories
of his native land. ALFORD translates, "greeted
them." Jacob's exclamation, "I have waited
for Thy salvation, O Lord" (
Ge 49:18) is such a greeting of salvation from
afar [DELITZSCH].
confessed . . . were
strangers--so Abraham to the children of Heth (
Ge 23:4); and Jacob to Pharaoh (
Ge 47:9; Ps 119:19). Worldly men hold fast the world;
believers sit loose to it. Citizens of the world do
not confess themselves "strangers on the
earth."
pilgrims--Greek,
"temporary (literally, 'by the way')
sojourners."
on the earth--contrasted with "an
heavenly" (
Heb 11:16): "our citizenship is in
heaven" (Greek:
Heb 10:34; Ps 119:54; Php 3:20). "Whosoever
professes that he has a Father in heaven, confesses himself
a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an ardent
longing, like that of a child living among strangers, in
want and grief, far from his fatherland" [LUTHER].
"Like ships in seas while in, above the
world."
14. For--proof that "faith" (
Heb 11:13) was their actuating principle.
declare plainly--make it plainly
evident.
seek--Greek, "seek
after"; implying the direction towards which their
desires ever tend.
a country--rather as Greek,
"a fatherland." In confessing themselves
strangers here, they evidently imply that they regard
not this as their home or fatherland, but seek after
another and a better.
15. As Abraham, had he desired to leave his pilgrim life in Canaan, and resume his former fixed habitation in Ur, among the carnal and worldly, had in his long life ample opportunities to have done so; and so spiritually, as to all believers who came out from the world to become God's people, they might, if they had been so minded, have easily gone back.
16. Proving the truth that the old fathers did not, as some
assert, "look only for transitory promises"
[Article VII, Book of Common Prayer].
now--as the case is.
is not ashamed--Greek, "Is
not ashamed of them." Not merely once did God call
himself their God, but He is NOW not ashamed to have
Himself called so, they being alive and abiding with
Him where He is. For, by the law, God cannot come into
contact with anything dead. None remained dead in
Christ's presence (
Lu 20:37, 38). He who is Lord and Maker of heaven and
earth, and all things therein, when asked, What is Thy
name? said, omitting all His other titles, "I am the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob" [THEODORET]. Not only is He not ashamed,
but glories in the name and relation to His people. The
"wherefore" does not mean that God's good
pleasure is the meritorious, but the gracious,
consequence of their obedience (that obedience being the
result of His Spirit's work in them in the first
instance). He first so "called" Himself, then
they so called Him.
for--proof of His being
"their God," namely, "He hath
prepared (in His eternal counsels,
Mt 20:23; 25:34, and by the progressive acts of
redemption,
Joh 14:2) for them a city," the city in which He
Himself reigns, so that their yearning desires shall
not be disappointed (
Heb 11:14, 16).
a city--on its garniture by God
(compare
Re 21:10-27).
17. offered up--literally, "hath offered up," as
if the work and its praise were yet enduring [ALFORD]. As
far as His intention was concerned, he did sacrifice Isaac;
and in actual fact "he offered him," as far as
the presentation of him on the altar as an offering to God
is concerned.
tried--Greek,
"tempted," as in
Ge 22:1. Put to the proof of his faith. Not that
God "tempts" to sin, but God
"tempts" in the sense of proving or
trying (
Jas 1:13-15).
and--and so.
he that had received--rather as
Greek, "accepted," that is, welcomed
and embraced by faith, not merely "had the
promises," as in
Heb 7:6. This added to the difficulty in the way of his
faith, that it was in Isaac's posterity the promises
were to be fulfilled; how then could they be fulfilled if
Isaac were sacrificed?
offered up--rather as Greek,
"was offering up"; he was in the act of
offering.
his only-begotten son--Compare
Ge 22:2, "Take now thy son, thine only son."
EUSEBIUS [The Preparation of the Gospel, 1.10, and
4.16], has preserved a fragment of a Greek
translation of Sanchoniatho, which mentions a mystical
sacrifice of the Phœnicians, wherein a prince in
royal robes was the offerer, and his only son was to be the
victim: this evidently was a tradition derived from
Abraham's offering, and handed down through Esau or
Edom, Isaac's son. Isaac was Abraham's
"only-begotten son" in respect of Sarah and the
promises: he sent away his other sons, by other wives (
Ge 25:6). Abraham is a type of the Father not sparing
His only-begotten Son to fulfil the divine purpose of love.
God nowhere in the Mosaic law allowed human sacrifices,
though He claimed the first-born of Israel as His.
18. Of whom--rather as Greek "He
(Abraham, not Isaac) TO whom it was said"
[ALFORD]. BENGEL supports English Version. So
Heb 1:7 uses the same Greek preposition,
"unto," for "in respect to," or
"of." This verse gives a definition of the
"only-begotten Son" (
Heb 11:17).
in Isaac shall thy seed be called--
(
Ge 21:12). The posterity of Isaac alone shall be
accounted as the seed of Abraham, which is the heir of the
promises (
Ro 9:7).
19. Faith answered the objections which reason brought
against God's command to Abraham to offer Isaac, by
suggesting that what God had promised He both could and
would perform, however impossible the performance might
seem (
Ro 4:20, 21).
able to raise him--rather, in
general, "able to raise from the dead." Compare
Ro 4:17, "God who quickeneth the dead." The
quickening of Sarah's dead womb suggested the thought
of God's power to raise even the dead, though no
instance of it had as yet occurred.
he received him--"received him
back" [ALFORD].
in a figure--Greek, "in a
parable." A LFORD explains, "Received him back,
risen from that death which he had undergone in, under,
the figure of the ram." I prefer with BISHOP
PEARSON, ESTIUS, and GREGORY OF N YSSA, understanding the
figure to be the representation which the whole
scene gave to Abraham of Christ in His death (typified by
Isaac's offering in intention, and the ram's actual
substitution answering to Christ's vicarious death),
and in His resurrection (typified by Abraham's
receiving him back alive from the jaws of death, compare
2Co 1:9, 10); just as on the day of atonement the slain
goat and the scapegoat together formed one joint rite
representing Christ's death and resurrection. It was
then that Abraham saw Christ's day (
Joh 8:56): accounting God was able to raise even from
the dead: from which state of the dead he received him back
as a type of the resurrection in Christ.
20. Jacob is put before Esau, as heir of the chief, namely,
the spiritual blessing.
concerning things to
come--Greek, "even concerning things to
come": not only concerning things present. Isaac,
by faith, assigned to his sons things future, as if
they were present.
21. both the sons--Greek, "each of the
sons" (
Ge 47:29; 48:8-20). He knew not Joseph's sons, and
could not distinguish them by sight, yet he did
distinguish them by faith, transposing his hands
intentionally, so as to lay his right hand on the younger,
Ephraim, whose posterity was to be greater than that of
Manasseh: he also adopted these grandchildren as his own
sons, after having transferred the right of primogeniture
to Joseph (
Ge 48:22).
and worshipped--This did not take
place in immediate connection with the foregoing, but
before it, when Jacob made Joseph swear that he would bury
him with his fathers in Canaan, not in Egypt. The assurance
that Joseph would do so filled him with pious gratitude to
God, which he expressed by raising himself on his bed to an
attitude of worship. His faith, as Joseph's (
Heb 11:22), consisted in his so confidentially
anticipating the fulfilment of God's promise of Canaan
to his descendants, as to desire to be buried there as his
proper possession.
leaning upon the top of his
staff--
Ge 47:31, Hebrew and English Version,
"upon the bed's head." The Septuagint
translates as Paul here. JEROME justly reprobates the
notion of modern Rome, that Jacob worshipped the top of
Joseph's staff, having on it an image of
Joseph's power, to which Jacob bowed in recognition of
the future sovereignty of his son's tribe, the father
bowing to the son! The Hebrew, as translated in
English Version, sets it aside: the bed is
alluded to afterwards (
Ge 48:2; 49:33), and it is likely that Jacob turned
himself in his bed so as to have his face toward the
pillow,
Isa 38:2 (there were no bedsteads in the East).
Paul by adopting the Septuagint version, brings out,
under the Spirit, an additional fact, namely, that
the aged patriarch used his own (not Joseph's)
staff to lean on in worshipping on his bed. The
staff, too, was the emblem of his pilgrim state
here on his way to his heavenly city (
Heb 11:13, 14), wherein God had so wonderfully
supported him.
Ge 32:10, "With my staff I passed over
Jordan, and now I am become," &c. (compare
Ex 12:11; Mr 6:8). In
1Ki 1:47, the same thing is said of David's
"bowing on his bed," an act of adoring
thanksgiving to God for God's favor to his son before
death. He omits the more leading blessing of the twelve
sons of Jacob; because "he plucks only the flowers
which stand by his way, and leaves the whole meadow full to
his readers" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].
22. when he died--"when dying."
the departing--"the exodus"
(
Ge 50:24, 25). Joseph's eminent position in Egypt
did not make him regard it as his home: in faith he looked
to God's promise of Canaan being fulfilled and desired
that his bones should rest there: testifying thus: (1) that
he had no doubt of his posterity obtaining the promised
land: and (2) that he believed in the resurrection of the
body, and the enjoyment in it of the heavenly Canaan. His
wish was fulfilled (
Jos 24:32; Ac 4:16).
23. parents--So the Septuagint has the plural,
namely, Amram and Jochebed (
Nu 26:59); but in
Ex 2:2, the mother alone is mentioned; but doubtless
Amram sanctioned all she did, and secrecy. being their
object, he did not appear prominent in what was done.
a proper child--Greek, "a
comely child."
Ac 7:20, "exceeding fair," Greek,
"fair to God." The "faith" of his
parents in saving the child must have had some divine
revelation to rest on (probably at the time of his birth),
which marked their "exceeding fair" babe as one
whom God designed to do a great work by. His beauty
was probably "the sign" appointed by God to
assure their faith.
the king's commandment--to slay
all the males (
Ex 1:22).
24. So far from faith being opposed to Moses,
he was an eminent example of it [BENGEL].
refused--in believing self-denial,
when he might possibly have succeeded at last to the throne
of Egypt. Thermutis, Pharaoh's daughter, according to
the tradition which Paul under the Spirit sanctions,
adopted him, as JOSEPHUS says, with the consent of the
king. JOSEPHUS states that when a child, he threw on the
ground the diadem put on him in jest, a presage of his
subsequent formal rejection of Thermutis' adoption of
him. Faith made him to prefer the adoption of the King of
kings, unseen, and so to choose (
Heb 11:25, 26) things, the very last which flesh and
blood relish.
25. He balanced the best of the world with the worst of
religion, and decidedly chose the latter.
"Choosing" implies a deliberate resolution, not a
hasty impulse. He was forty years old, a time when the
judgment is matured.
for a season--If the world has
"pleasure" (Greek, "enjoyment")
to offer, it is but "for a season." If religion
bring with it "affliction," it too is but for a
season; whereas its "pleasures are for evermore."
26. Esteeming--Inasmuch as he esteemed.
the reproach of Christ--that is, the
reproach which falls on the Church, and which Christ
regards as His own reproach, He being the Head, and the
Church (both of the Old and New Testament) His body. Israel
typified Christ; Israel's sufferings were Christ's
sufferings (compare
2Co 1:5; Col 1:24). As uncircumcision was Egypt's
reproach, so circumcision was the badge of
Israel's expectation of Christ, which Moses especially
cherished, and which the Gentiles reproached Israel on
account of. Christ's people's reproach will ere
long be their great glory.
had respect unto,
&c.--Greek, "turning his eyes away
from other considerations, he fixed them on the
(eternal) recompense" (
Heb 11:39, 40).
27. not fearing the wrath of the king--But in
Ex 2:14 it is said, "Moses feared, and fled from
the face of Pharaoh." He was afraid, and fled
from the danger where no duty called him to stay (to have
stayed without call of duty would have been to tempt
Providence, and to sacrifice his hope of being
Israel's future deliverer according to the divine
intimations; his great aim, see on
Heb 11:23). He did not fear the king so as to
neglect his duty and not return when God called him. It was
in spite of the king's prohibition he left
Egypt, not fearing the consequences which were likely
to overtake him if he should be caught, after having, in
defiance of the king, left Egypt. If he had stayed and
resumed his position as adopted son of Pharaoh's
daughter, his slaughter of the Egyptian would doubtless
have been connived at; but his resolution to take his
portion with oppressed Israel, which he could not have done
had he stayed, was the motive of his flight, and
constituted the "faith" of this act, according to
the express statement here. The exodus of Moses with Israel
cannot be meant here, for it was made, not in defiance, but
by the desire, of the king. Besides, the chronological
order would be broken thus, the next particular specified
here, namely, the institution of the Passover,
having taken place before the exodus. Besides, it is
Moses' personal history and faith which are here
described. The faith of the people (" THEY
passed") is not introduced till
Heb 11:29.
endured--steadfast in faith amidst
trials. He had fled, not so much from fear of
Pharaoh, as from a revulsion of feeling in finding
God's people insensible to their high destiny, and from
disappointment at not having been able to inspire them with
those hopes for which he had sacrificed all his earthly
prospects. This accounts for his strange reluctance and
despondency when commissioned by God to go and arouse the
people (
Ex 3:15; 4:1, 10-12).
seeing him . . .
invisible--as though he had not to do with men, but only
with God, ever before his eyes by faith, though
invisible to the bodily eye (
Ro 1:20; 1Ti 1:17; 6:16). Hence he feared not the wrath
of visible man; the characteristic of faith
(
Heb 11:1; Lu 12:4, 5).
28. kept--Greek, "hath kept," the
Passover being, in Paul's day, still observed. His
faith here was his belief in the invisible God's
promise that the destroying angel should pass over,
and not touch the inmates of the blood-sprinkled
houses (
Ex 12:23). "He acquiesced in the bare word of God
where the thing itself was not apparent"
[CALVIN].
the first-born--Greek neuter;
both of man and beast.
29. they--Moses and Israel.
Red Sea--called so from its red
seaweed, or rather from Edom (meaning "red"),
whose country adjoined it.
which . . . assaying to
do--Greek, "of which (Red Sea) the Egyptians
having made experiment." Rashness and
presumption mistaken by many for faith; with
similar rash presumption many rush into eternity. The same
thing when done by the believer, and when done by the
unbeliever, is not the same thing [BENGEL]. What was
faith in Israel, was presumption in the
Egyptians.
were drowned--Greek, "were
swallowed up," or "engulfed." They sank in
the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. Compare
Ex 15:12, "the earth swallowed them."
30. The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for
ten thousand years, cannot throw down walls, but
faith can do all things [CHRYSOSTOM].
seven days--whereas sieges often
lasted for years.
31. Rahab showed her "faith" in her confession,
Jos 2:9, 11, "I know that Jehovah hath given you
the land; Jehovah your God, is God in heaven above, and in
earth beneath."
the harlot--Her former life adds to
the marvel of her repentance, faith, and preservation (
Mt 21:31, 32).
believed not--Greek, "were
disobedient," namely, to the will of God manifested by
the miracles wrought in behalf of Israel (
Jos 2:8-11).
received--in her house (
Jos 2:1, 4, 6).
with peace--peaceably; so that they
had nothing to fear in her house. Thus Paul, quoting the
same examples (
Heb 11:17, 31) for the power of faith, as James
(
Jas 2:21, 25; see on Jas
2:21; Jas 2:25) does
for justification by works evidentially, shows that
in maintaining justification by faith alone, he means not a
dead faith, but "faith which worketh by
love" (
Ga 5:6).
32. the time--suitable for the length of an Epistle. He
accumulates collectively some out of many examples of
faith.
Gideon--put before Barak, not
chronologically, but as being more celebrated. Just as
Samson for the same reason is put before Jephthæ. The
mention of Jephthæ as an example of
"faith," makes it unlikely he sacrificed the
life of his daughter for a rash vow. David, the warrior
king and prophet, forms the transition from warrior chiefs
to the "prophets," of whom "Samuel" is
mentioned as the first.
33. subdued kingdoms--as David did (
2Sa 8:1, &c.); so also Gideon subdued Midian (
Jud 7:1-25).
wrought righteousness--as Samuel did
(
1Sa 8:9; 12:3-23; 15:33); and David (
2Sa 8:15).
obtained promises--as "the
prophets" (
Heb 11:32) did; for through them the promises were
given (compare
Da 9:21) [BENGEL]. Rather, "obtained the
fulfilment of promises," which had been previously
the object of their faith (
Jos 21:45; 1Ki 8:56). Indeed, Gideon, Barak, &c.,
also obtained the things which God promised. Not
"the promises," which are still future (
Heb 11:13, 39).
stopped the mouths of lions--Note the
words, "because he believed in his God."
Also Samson (
Jud 14:6), David (
1Sa 17:34-37), Benaiah (
2Sa 23:20).
34. Quenched the violence of fire-- (
Da 3:27). Not merely "quenched the fire," but
"quenched the power (so the Greek) of the
fire."
Da 3:19-30 and 6:12-23 record the last miracles of the
Old Testament. So the martyrs of the Reformation, though
not escaping the fire, were delivered from its
having power really or lastingly to hurt them.
escaped . . . sword--So
Jephthah (
Jud 12:3); and so David escaped Saul's sword (
1Sa 18:11; 19:10, 12); Elijah (
1Ki 19:1, &c.; 2Ki 6:14).
out of weakness . . . made
strong--Samson (
Jud 16:28; 15:19). Hezekiah (
Isa 37:1-38:22). MILTON says of the martyrs, "They
shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of
weakness."
valiant in fight--Barak (
Jud 4:14, 15). And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias,
Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who delivered the Jews from
their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria.
armies--literally, "camps"
referring to
Jud 7:21. But the reference may be to the Maccabees
having put to flight the Syrians and other foes.
35. Women received their dead raised--as the widow of
Zarephath (
1Ki 17:17-24). The Shunammite (
2Ki 4:17-35). The two oldest manuscripts read.
"They received women of aliens by raising their
dead."
1Ki 17:24 shows that the raising of the widow's son
by Elijah led her to the faith, so that he thus took
her into fellowship, an alien though she was.
Christ, in
Lu 4:26, makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah
was sent to an alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus
Paul may quote this as an instance of Elijah's faith,
that at God's command he went to a Gentile city of
Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there, as the
fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but
received her as a convert into the family of God, as
Vulgate reads. Still, English Version may be
the right reading.
and--Greek, "but"; in
contrast to those raised again to life.
tortured--"broken on the
wheel." Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18, end; 2
Maccabees 19:20,30). The sufferer was stretched on an
instrument like a drumhead and scourged to death.
not accepting deliverance--when
offered to them. So the seven brothers, 2 Maccabees 7:9,
11, 14, 29, 36; and Eleazar, 2 Maccabees 6:21, 28,
30, "Though I might have been delivered from
death, I endure these severe pains, being
beaten."
a better resurrection--than that of
the women's children "raised to life again";
or, than the resurrection which their foes could give them
by delivering them from death (
Da 12:2; Lu 20:35; Php 3:11). The fourth of the
brethren (referring to
Da 12:2) said to King Antiochus, "To be put to
death by men, is to be chosen to look onward for the hopes
which are of God, to be raised up again by Him; but for
thee there is no resurrection to life." The writer of
Second Maccabees expressly disclaims inspiration,
which prevents our mistaking Paul's allusion here to it
as if it sanctioned the Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting
Daniel, he quotes a book claiming inspiration, and
so tacitly sanctions that claim.
36. others--of a different class of confessors for
the truth (the Greek is different from that for
"others,"
Heb 11:35, alloi, heteroi).
trial--testing their
faith.
imprisonment--as Hanani (
2Ch 16:10), imprisoned by Asa. Micaiah, the son of
Imlah, by Ahab (
1Ki 22:26, 27).
37. stoned--as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (
2Ch 24:20-22; Mt 23:35).
sawn asunder--as Isaiah was said to
have been by Manasseh; but see my Introduction to
Isaiah.
tempted--by their foes, in the
midst of their tortures, to renounce their faith; the most
bitter aggravation of them. Or else, by those of their
own household, as Job was [ESTIUS]; or by the fiery
darts of Satan, as Jesus was in His last trials [GLASSIUS].
Probably it included all three; they were tempted in
every possible way, by friends and foes, by human and
satanic agents, by caresses and afflictions, by words and
deeds, to forsake God, but in vain, through the power of
faith.
sword--literally, "they died in
the murder of the sword." In
Heb 11:34 the contrary is given as an effect of
faith, "they escaped the edge of the sword."
Both alike are marvellous effects of faith. In both
accomplishes great things and suffers great things, without
counting it suffering [CHRYSOSTOM]. Urijah was so slain by
Jehoiakim (
Jer 26:23); and the prophets in Israel (
1Ki 19:10).
in sheepskins--as Elijah (
1Ki 19:13, Septuagint). They were white;
as the "goat-skins" were black (compare
Zec 13:4).
tormented--Greek, "in evil
state."
38. Of whom the world was not worthy--So far from their
being unworthy of living in the world, as their exile in
deserts, &c., might seem to imply, "the world was
not worthy of them." The world, in shutting them out,
shut out from itself a source of blessing; such as Joseph
proved to Potiphar (
Ge 39:5), and Jacob to Laban (
Ge 30:27). In condemning them, the world condemned
itself.
caves--literally, "chinks."
Palestine, from its hilly character, abounds in
fissures and caves, affording shelter to the
persecuted, as the fifty hid by Obadiah (
1Ki 18:4, 13) and Elijah (
1Ki 19:8, 13); and Mattathias and his sons (1
Maccabees 2:28, 29); and Judas Maccabeus (2
Maccabees 5:27).
39. having obtained a good report--Greek, "being borne witness of." Though they were so, yet "they received not the promise," that is, the final completion of "salvation" promised at Christ's coming again ( Heb 9:28); "the eternal inheritance" ( Heb 9:15). Abraham did obtain the very thing promised ( Heb 6:15) in part, namely, blessedness in soul after death, by virtue of faith in Christ about to come. The full blessedness of body and soul shall not be till the full number of the elect shall be accomplished, and all together, no one preceding the other, shall enter on the full glory and bliss. Moreover, in another point of view, "It is probable that some accumulation of blessedness was added to holy souls, when Christ came and fulfilled all things even as at His burial many rose from the dead, who doubtless ascended to heaven with Him" [FLACIUS in BENGEL]. (Compare Note, see on Eph 4:8). The perfecting of believers in title, and in respect to conscience, took place once for all, at the death of Christ, by virtue of His being made by death perfect as Saviour. Their perfecting in soul at, and ever after Christ's death, took place, and takes place at their death. But the universal and final perfecting will not take place till Christ's coming.
40. provided--with divine forethought from eternity
(compare
Ge 22:8, 14).
some better thing for us-- (
Heb 7:19); than they had here. They had not in this
world, "apart from us" (so the Greek is
for "without us," that is, they had to wait for
us for), the clear revelation of the promised salvation
actually accomplished, as we now have it in Christ; in
their state, beyond the grave their souls also seem
to have attained an increase of heavenly bliss on
the death and ascension of Christ; and they shall not
attain the full and final glory in body and soul
(the regeneration of the creature), until the full number
of the elect (including us with them) is completed. The
Fathers, C HRYSOSTOM, &c., restricted the meaning of
Heb 11:39, 40 to this last truth, and I incline to this
view. "The connection is, You, Hebrews, may far more
easily exercise patience than Old Testament believers; for
they had much longer to wait, and are still waiting until
the elect are all gathered in; you, on the contrary, have
not to wait for them" [ESTIUS]. I think his object in
these verses (
Heb 11:39, 40) is to warn Hebrew Christians against
their tendency to relapse into Judaism. "Though
the Old Testament worthies attained such eminence by faith,
they are not above us in privileges, but the reverse."
It is not we who are perfected with them, but
rather they with us. They waited for His
coming; we enjoy Him as having come (
Heb 1:1; 2:3). Christ's death, the means of
perfecting what the Jewish law could not
perfect, was reserved for our time. Compare
Heb 12:2, "perfecter (Greek) of our
faith." Now that Christ is come, they in soul share
our blessedness, being "the spirits of the just made
perfect" (
Heb 12:23); so ALFORD; however, see on Heb 12:23.
Heb 9:12 shows that the blood of Christ, brought into
the heavenly holy place by Him, first opened an entrance
into heaven (compare
Joh 3:13). Still, the fathers were in blessedness by
faith in the Saviour to come, at death (
Heb 6:15; Lu 16:22).
Heb 12:1-29. EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW THE WITNESSES OF FAITH JUST MENTIONED: NOT TO FAINT IN TRIALS: TO REMOVE ALL BITTER ROOTS OF SIN: FOR WE ARE UNDER, NOT A LAW OF TERROR, BUT THE GOSPEL OF GRACE, TO DESPISE WHICH WILL BRING THE HEAVIER PENALTIES, IN PROPORTION TO OUR GREATER PRIVILEGES.
1. we also--as well as those recounted in
Heb 12:11.
are compassed about--Greek,
"have so great a cloud (a numberless multitude
above us, like a cloud, 'holy and pellucid,'
[CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA]) of witnesses surrounding us."
The image is from a "race," an image common even
in Palestine from the time of the Greco-Macedonian empire,
which introduced such Greek usages as national
games. The "witnesses" answer to the spectators
pressing round to see the competitors in their contest for
the prize (
Php 3:14). Those "witnessed of"
(Greek,
Heb 11:5, 39) become in their turn
"witnesses" in a twofold way: (1) attesting by
their own case the faithfulness of God to His people
[ALFORD] (
Heb 6:12), some of them martyrs in the modern
sense; (2) witnessing our struggle of faith; however, this
second sense of "witnesses," though agreeing with
the image here if it is to be pressed, is not
positively, unequivocally, and directly
sustained by Scripture. It gives vividness to the image; as
the crowd of spectators gave additional spirit to the
combatants, so the cloud of witnesses who have
themselves been in the same contest, ought to increase our
earnestness, testifying, as they do, to God's
faithfulness.
weight--As corporeal unwieldiness was,
through a disciplinary diet, laid aside by candidates for
the prize in racing; so carnal and worldly lusts, and all,
whether from without or within, that would impede the
heavenly runner, are the spiritual weight to be laid
aside. "Encumbrance," all superfluous
weight; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life, and even harmless and otherwise useful
things which would positively retard us (
Mr 10:50, the blind man casting away his garment
to come to Jesus;
Mr 9:42-48; compare
Eph 4:22; Col 3:9, 10).
the sin which doth so easily beset
us--Greek, "sin which easily stands around
us"; so LUTHER, "which always so clings to
us": "sinful propensity always surrounding us,
ever present and ready" [WAHL]. It is not primarily
"the sin," &c., but sin in
general, with, however, special reference to
"apostasy," against which he had already warned
them, as one to which they might gradually be
seduced; the besetting sin of the Hebrews, UNBELIEF.
with patience--Greek, "in
persevering endurance" (
Heb 10:36). On "run" compare
1Co 9:24, 25.
2. Looking unto--literally, "Looking from afar"
(see on Heb 11:26); fixing the eyes
upon Jesus seated on the throne of God.
author--"Prince-leader." The
same Greek is translated, "Captain (of
salvation),"
Heb 2:10; "Prince (of life),"
Ac 3:15. Going before us as the Originator of our
faith, and the Leader whose matchless example we are to
follow always. In this He is distinguished from all those
examples of faith in
Heb 11:2-40. (Compare
1Co 11:1). On His "faith" compare
Heb 2:13; 3:12. Believers have ever looked to Him (
Heb 11:26; 13:8).
finisher--Greek,
"Perfecter," referring to
Heb 11:40.
of our faith--rather as Greek,
"of the faith," including both His faith
(as exhibited in what follows) and our faith. He fulfilled
the ideal of faith Himself, and so, both as a vicarious
offering and an example, He is the object of our
faith.
for the joy . . . set before
him--namely, of presently after sitting down at the
right hand of the throne of God; including besides His
own personal joy, the joy of sitting there as a Prince and
Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins. The
coming joy disarmed of its sting the present pain.
cross . . . shame--the great
stumbling-block to the Hebrews. "Despised," that
is, disregarded.
3. For--justifying his exhortation, "Looking unto
Jesus."
consider--by way of comparison with
yourselves, so the Greek.
contradiction--unbelief, and every
kind of opposition (
Ac 28:19).
sinners--Sin assails us. Not
sin, but sinners, contradicted Christ
[BENGEL].
be wearied and faint--Greek,
"lest ye weary fainting." Compare
Isa 49:4, 5, as a specimen of Jesus not being
wearied out by the contradiction and strange
unbelief of those among whom He labored, preaching
as never man did, and exhibiting miracles wrought by His
inherent power, as none else could do.
4. not yet resisted unto blood--image from pugilism,
as he previously had the image of a race, both being
taken from the great national Greek games. Ye have suffered
the loss of goods, and been a gazing-stock by
reproaches and afflictions; ye have not shed your blood
(see on Heb 13:7). "The athlete
who hath seen his own blood, and who, though cast
down by his opponent, does not let his spirits be cast
down, who as often as he hath fallen hath risen the more
determined, goes down to the encounter with great
hope" [SENECA].
against sin--Sin is personified
as an adversary; sin, whether within you, leading you to
spare your blood, or in our adversaries, leading
them to shed it, if they cannot through your
faithfulness even unto blood, induce you to apostatize.
5. forgotten--"utterly," so the Greek.
Compare
Heb 12:15-17, in which he implies how utterly
some of them had forgotten God's word. His
exhortation ought to have more effect on you than the
cheers and exhortations of the spectators have on the
competitors striving in the games.
which--Greek, "the
which," of which the following is a specimen
[ALFORD].
speaketh unto you--as in a
dialogue or discourse, so the Greek,
implying God's loving condescension (compare
Isa 1:18).
despise not--literally, "Do not
hold of little account." Betraying a
contumacious spirit of unbelief (
Heb 3:12), as "faint" implies a broken-down,
weak, and desponding spirit. "Chastening"
is to be borne with "subjection" (
Heb 12:9); "rebuke" (more severe than
chastening) is to be borne with endurance (
Heb 12:7). "Some in adversity kick against
God's will, others despond; neither is to be done by
the Christian, who is peculiarly the child of God. To him
such adverse things occur only by the decree of God, and
that designed in kindness, namely, to remove the
defilements adhering to the believer, and to exercise his
patience" [G ROTIUS].
6. (
Re 3:19.)
and--Greek, "yea
and," "and moreover"; bringing out an
additional circumstance.
scourgeth--which draws forth
"blood" (
Heb 12:4).
receiveth--accepts. Takes to Himself
as a son "in whom He delighteth" (
Pr 3:12).
7. In
Heb 12:7, 8 the need of "chastening" or
"discipline" is inculcated; in
Heb 12:9, the duty of those to whom it is
administered.
If--The oldest manuscripts read,
"With a view to chastening (that is, since God's
chastisement is with a view to your chastening, that is,
disciplinary amelioration) endure patiently"; so
Vulgate. ALFORD translates it as indicative, not so
well, "It is for chastisement that ye are
enduring."
dealeth with you--"beareth
Himself toward you" in the very act of
chastening.
what son is he--"What son is
there" even in ordinary life? Much more God as to His
sons (
Isa 48:10; Ac 14:22). The most eminent of God's
saints were the most afflicted. God leads them by a way
they know not (
Isa 42:16). We too much look at each trial by itself,
instead of taking it in connection with the whole plan of
our salvation, as if a traveller were to complain of the
steepness and roughness of one turn in the path, without
considering that it led him into green pastures, on the
direct road to the city of habitation. The New Testament
alone uses the Greek term for education
(paideia), to express "discipline" or
correction, as of a child by a wise father.
8. if ye be without--excluded from participation in
chastisement, and wishing to be so.
all--all sons: all the worthies
enumerated in the eleventh chapter: all the
witnesses (
Heb 12:1).
are--Greek, "have been
made."
then are ye bastards--of whom their
fathers take no care whether they are educated or not;
whereas every right-minded father is concerned for the
moral well-being of his legitimate son. "Since then
not to be chastised is a mark of bastardy, we ought [not to
refuse, but] rejoice in chastisement, as a mark of our
genuine sonship" [CHRYSOSTOM].
9. fathers . . . which corrected us--rather as
Greek, "We had the fathers of our flesh as
correctors."
subjection--See the punishment of
insubordination,
De 21:18.
Father of spirits--contrasted with
"the fathers of our flesh." "Generation by
men is carnal, by God is spiritual" [BENGEL]. As
"Father of spirits," He is both the Originator,
and the Providential and Gracious Sustainer, at once of
animal and spiritual life. Compare "and LIVE,"
namely, spiritually; also
Heb 12:10, "that we might be partakers of His
holiness" (
2Pe 1:4). God is a spirit Himself, and the Creator of
spirits like Himself, in contrast to men who are flesh, and
the progenitors of flesh (
Joh 3:6). Jesus our pattern "learned
obedience" experimentally by suffering (
Heb 5:8).
and live--and so, thereby live
spiritually and eternally.
10. Showing wherein the chastisement of our heavenly Father
is preferable to that of earthly fathers.
for a few days--that is, with a
view to our well-being in the few days of our
earthly life: so the Greek.
after their own
pleasure--Greek, "according to what seemed fit
to themselves." Their rule of chastening is what may
seem fit to their own often erring judgment, temper, or
caprice. The two defects of human education are: (1) the
prevalence in it of a view to the interests of our
short earthly term of days; (2) the absence in
parents of the unerring wisdom of our heavenly Father.
"They err much at one time in severity, at another in
indulgence [
1Sa 3:13; Eph 6:4], and do not so much chasten as THINK
they chasten" [BENGEL].
that we might be partakers of his
holiness--becoming holy as He is holy (
Joh 15:2). To become holy like God is tantamount
to being educated for passing eternity with God (
Heb 12:14; 2Pe 1:4). So this "partaking of
God's holiness" stands in contrast to the
"few days" of this life, with a view to which
earthly fathers generally educate their sons.
11. joyous . . . grievous--Greek,
"matter of joy . . . matter of grief."
The objection that chastening is grievous is here
anticipated and answered. It only seems so to those being
chastened, whose judgments are confused by the present
pain. Its ultimate fruit amply compensates for any
temporary pam. The real object of the fathers in chastening
is not that they find pleasure in the children's pain.
Gratified wishes, our Father knows, would often be our real
curses.
fruit of
righteousness--righteousness (in practice, springing
from faith) is the fruit which chastening, the tree
yields (
Php 1:11). "Peaceable" (compare
Isa 32:17): in contrast to the ordeal of conflict by
which it has been won. "Fruit of righteousness to be
enjoyed in peace after the conflict" [THOLUCK]. As the
olive garland, the emblem of peace as well as
victory, was put on the victor's brow in the
games.
exercised thereby--as athletes
exercised in training for a contest. Chastisement is
the exercise to give experience, and make the
spiritual combatant irresistibly victorious (
Ro 5:3). "Oh, happy the servant for whose
improvement his Lord is earnest, with whom he deigns to be
angry, whom He does not deceive by dissembling
admonition" (withholding admonition, and so leading
the man to think he needs it not)! [TERTULLIAN,
Patience, 11]. Observe the "afterwards";
that is the time often when God works.
12. He addresses them as runners in a race, and pugilists,
and warriors [CHRYSOSTOM]. The "wherefore" is
resumed from
Heb 12:1.
lift up--In
Isa 35:3, from which Paul here quotes, it is,
"Strengthen ye the weak hands." The
hand is the symbol of one's strength. A LFORD
translates, "Put straight again the relaxed
hands." English Version expresses the sense
well.
feeble--literally,
"paralyzed"; a word used only by Luke,
Paul's companion, in the New Testament. The
exhortation has three parts: the first relates to
ourselves,
Heb 12:12, 13; the second, to others,
Heb 12:14, "peace with all men"; the third,
to God, "holiness, without which," &c.
The first is referred to in
Heb 12:15, "test any man fail of the grace of
God"; the second in the words, "lest any root of
bitterness," &c.; the third in
Heb 12:16, "Lest there be any fornicator or
profane person," &c. This threefold relation often
occurs in Paul's Epistles. Compare Note,
see on Tit 2:12,
"soberly, righteously, and godly." The
Greek active verb, not the middle or reflexive,
requires the sense to be, Lift up not only your own
hands and knees, but also those of your brethren
(compare
Heb 12:15; Isa 35:4).
13. Quoted from
Pr 4:26, Septuagint, "Make straight paths
for thy feet."
straight--that is, leading by a
straight road to joy and grace (
Heb 12:1, 2, 15). Cease to "halt" between
Judaism and Christianity [BENGEL].
paths--literally, "wheel
tracks." Let your walk be so firm and so unanimous in
the right direction that a plain track and
"highway" may be thereby established for those
who accompany and follow you, to perceive and walk in (
Isa 35:8) [ALFORD].
that which is lame--those "weak
in the faith" (
Ro 14:1), having still Judaizing prejudices.
be turned out of the way-- (
Pr 4:27); and, so missing the way, lose the prize of
"the race" (
Heb 12:1).
rather he healed--Proper exercise of
itself contributes to health; the habit of walking straight
onward in the right way tends to healing.
14. follow peace with all men--with the brethren especially
(
Ro 14:19), that so the "lame" among them be
not "turned out of the way" (
Heb 12:13), and that no one of them "fail of the
grace of God" (
Heb 12:15).
holiness--a distinct Greek word
from God's "holiness" (
Heb 12:10). Translate here "sanctification."
His is absolute holiness: our part is to put on His
holiness, becoming "holy as He is holy," by
sanctification. While "following peace with all
men," we are not so to seek to please them, as to make
God's will and our sanctification a secondary object;
this latter must be our first aim. (
Ga 1:10).
without which--Greek,
"apart from which."
no man shall see the Lord--no man
as a son; in heavenly glory (
Re 22:3, 4). In the East, none but the greatest
favorites are admitted to the honor of seeing the king
(compare
2Sa 14:24). The Lord being pure and holy, none but the
pure and holy shall see Him (
Mt 5:8). Without holiness in them, they could not enjoy
Him who is holiness itself (
Zec 14:20). The connection of purity with
seeing the Lord, appears in
1Jo 3:2, 3; Eph 5:5. Contrast
Heb 12:16 (compare
1Th 4:3). In
Mt 24:30; Re 1:7, it is said that all shall see the
Lord; but, that shall be as a Judge, not as their
lasting portion and God, which is meant here. The
Greek verb does not denote the mere action of seeing,
but the seer's state of mind to which the object is
presented: so in
Mt 5:8 they shall truly comprehend God
[TITTMANN]. None but the holy could appreciate the
holy God, none else therefore shall abide in His presence.
"The bad shall only see Him in His form as Son of
man [compare
Re 1:13, with Re 1:7; and Mt 24:30; Ac 1:11; 17:31];
still it will be in the glory in which He shall judge, not
in the lowliness in which He was judged. His form as
God, wherein He is equal to the Father, without doubt
the ungodly shall not see; for it is only 'the pure in
heart who shall see God'" [A UGUSTINE]. "He
shall come to judge, who stood before a judge. He shall
come in the form in which He was judged, that they may see
Him whom they pierced: He who was before hidden shall come
manifested in power: He, as Judge, shall condemn the real
culprits, who was Himself falsely made a culprit."
15. lest any . . . fall--Greek, "lest
any (namely, through sloth in running)
failing," or "falling short of the
grace of God . . . trouble you." The
image is taken from a company of travellers, one of whom
lags behind, and so never reaches the end of the long and
laborious journey [CHRYSOSTOM].
root of bitterness--not merely a
"bitter root," which might possibly bring
forth sweet fruits; this, a root whose essence is
"bitterness," never could. Paul here
refers to
De 29:18, "Lest there should be among you a root
that beareth gall and wormwood" (compare
Ac 8:23). Root of bitterness comprehends every
person (compare
Heb 12:16) and every principle of doctrine or
practice so radically corrupt as to spread corruption all
around. The only safety is in rooting out such a root of
bitterness.
many--rather, "the
many," that is, the whole congregation. So long as it
is hidden under the earth it cannot be remedied, but when
it "springs up," it must be dealt with boldly.
Still remember the caution (
Mt 13:26-30) as to rooting out persons. No such
danger can arise in rooting out bad principles.
16. fornicator-- (
Heb 13:4; 1Co 10:8).
or profane--Fornication is
nearly akin to gluttony, Esau's sin. He
profanely cast away his spiritual privilege for the
gratification of his palate.
Ge 25:34 graphically portrays him. An example well
fitted to strike needful horror into the Hebrews, whosoever
of them, like Esau, were only sons of Isaac according to
the flesh [BENGEL].
for one morsel--The smallness of the
inducement only aggravates the guilt of casting away
eternity for such a trifle, so far is it from being a claim
for mercy (compare
Ge 3:6). One single act has often the greatest
power either for good or for evil. So in the cases of
Reuben and Saul, for evil (
Ge 49:4; 1Ch 5:1; 1Sa 13:12-14); and, on the other
hand, for good, Abraham and Phinehas (
Ge 12:1, &c.; Ge 15:5, 6; Nu 25:6-15).
his birthright--Greek,
"his own (so the oldest manuscripts read, intensifying
the suicidal folly and sin of the act) rights of
primogeniture," involving the high spiritual privilege
of being ancestor of the promised seed, and heir of the
promises in Him. The Hebrews whom Paul addressed, had, as
Christians, the spiritual rights of primogeniture (compare
Heb 12:23): he intimates that they must exercise holy
self-control, if they wish not, like Esau, to forfeit them.
17. afterwards--Greek, "even
afterward." He despised his birthright, accordingly
also he was despised and rejected when he wished to
have the blessing. As in the believer's case, so in the
unbeliever's, there is an "afterwards"
coming, when the believer shall look on his past griefs,
and the unbeliever on his past joys, in a very different
light from that in which they were respectively viewed at
the time. Compare "Nevertheless afterward,"
&c.
Heb 12:11, with the "afterward" here.
when he would--when he wished
to have. "He that will not when he may, when he will,
shall have nay" (
Pr 1:24-30; Lu 13:34, 35; 19:42).
he was rejected--not as to every
blessing, but only that which would have followed the
primogeniture.
he found no place of repentance--The
cause is here put for the effect,
"repentance" for the object which Esau aimed at
in his so-called repentance, namely, the change
of his father's determination to give the chief
blessing to Jacob. Had he sought real repentance
with tears he would have found it (
Mt 7:7). But he did not find it because this was not
what he sought. What proves his tears were not those
of one seeking true repentance is, immediately after he was
foiled in his desire, he resolved to murder Jacob! He shed
tears, not for his sin, but for his suffering the penalty
of his sin. His were tears of vain regret and remorse, not
of repentance. "Before, he might have had the blessing
without tears; afterwards, no matter how many tears he
shed, he was rejected. Let us use the time" (
Lu 18:27)! [BENGEL]. ALFORD explains
"repentance" here, a chance, by repenting, to
repair (that is, to regain the lost blessing). I agree
with him that the translation, instead of
"repentance," "no place for changing
HIS FATHER'S mind," is forced; though
doubtless this is what was the true aim of the
"repentance" which he sought. The language is
framed to apply to profane despisers who wilfully
cast away grace and seek repentance (that is, not
real; but escape from the penalty of their sin), but
in vain. Compare "afterward,"
Mt 25:11, 12. Tears are no proof of real repentance (
1Sa 24:16, 17; contrast
Ps 56:8).
it--the blessing, which was the
real object of Esau, though ostensibly seeking
"repentance."
18. For--The fact that we are not under the law, but under
a higher, and that the last dispensation, the Gospel, with
its glorious privileges, is the reason why especially the
Hebrew Christians should "look diligently,"
&c. (
Heb 12:15, 16).
are not come--Greek, "have
not come near to." Alluding to
De 4:11, "Ye came near and stood under the
mountain; and the mountain burned with fire . . .
with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness." "In
your coming near unto God, it has not been to,"
&c.
the mount--The oldest manuscripts and
Vulgate omit "the mount." But still,
"the mount" must be supplied from
Heb 12:22.
that might be touched--palpable and
material. Not that any save Moses was allowed to touch it
(
Ex 19:12, 13). The Hebrews drew near to the material
Mount Sinai with material bodies; we, to the spiritual
mount in the spirit. The "darkness" was that
formed by the clouds hanging round the mount; the
"tempest" accompanied the thunder.
19. trumpet--to rouse attention, and herald God's
approach (
Ex 19:16).
entreated that the word should not be
spoken--literally, "that speech should not be added to
them"; not that they refused to hear the word of God,
but they wished that God should not Himself speak, but
employ Moses as His mediating spokesman. "The voice of
words" was the Decalogue, spoken by God Himself, a
voice issuing forth, without any form being seen:
after which "He added no more" (
De 5:22).
20. that which was commanded--"the interdict"
[TITTMANN]. A stern interdictory mandate is
meant.
And--rather, "Even if a beast
(much more a man) touch," &c.
or thrust through with a dart--omitted
in the oldest manuscripts. The full interdict in
Ex 19:12, 13 is abbreviated here; the beast alone,
being put for "whether man or beast"; the
stoning, which applies to the human offender,
alone being specified, the beast's punishment, namely,
the being thrust through with a dart, being left to
be understood.
21. the sight--the vision of God's
majesty.
quake--Greek, "I am in
trembling"; "fear" affected his mind:
"trembling," his body. Moses is not recorded in
Exodus to have used these words. But Paul, by inspiration,
supplies (compare
Ac 20:35; 2Ti 3:8) this detail. We read in
De 9:19, Septuagint, of similar words used by
Moses after breaking the two tables, through fear of
God's anger at the people's sin in making the
golden calves. He doubtless similarly "feared" in
hearing the ten commandments spoken by the voice of
Jehovah.
22. are come--Greek, "have come near unto"
(compare
De 4:11). Not merely, ye shall come, but, ye
have already come.
Mount Sion--antitypical Sion, the
heavenly Jerusalem, of which the spiritual invisible Church
(of which the first foundation was laid in literal Zion,
Joh 12:15; 1Pe 2:6) is now the earnest; and of which
the restored literal Jerusalem hereafter shall be the
earthly representative, to be succeeded by the everlasting
and "new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven" (
Re 21:2-27; compare
Heb 11:10).
22, 23. to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church--The city of God having been mentioned, the mention of its citizens follows. Believers being like the angels ( Job 1:6; 38:7), "sons of God," are so their "equals" ( Lu 20:36); and being reconciled through Christ, are adopted into God's great and blessed family. For the full completion of this we pray ( Mt 6:10). English Version arrangement is opposed: (1) by "and" always beginning each new member of the whole sentence; (2) "general assembly and Church," form a kind of tautology; (3) "general assembly," or rather, "festal full assembly," "the jubilant full company" (such as were the Olympic games, celebrated with joyous singing, dancing, &c.), applies better to the angels above, ever hymning God's praises, than to the Church, of which a considerable part is now militant on earth. Translate therefore, "to myriads (ten thousands, compare De 33:2; Ps 68:17; Da 7:10; Jude 14; namely), the full festal assembly of angels, and the Church of the first-born." Angels and saints together constitute the ten thousands. Compare "all angels, all nations" Mt 25:31, 32. Messiah is pre-eminently "the First-born," or "First-begotten" ( Heb 1:6), and all believers become so by adoption. Compare the type, Nu 3:12, 45, 50; 1Pe 1:18. As the kingly and priestly succession was in the first-born, and as Israel was God's "first-born" ( Ex 4:22; compare Ex 13:2), and a "kingdom of priests" to God ( Ex 19:6), so believers ( Re 1:6).
23. written in heaven--enrolled as citizens there.
All those who at the coming of "God the Judge of
all" (which clause therefore naturally follows), shall
be found "written in heaven," that is, in the
Lamb's book of life (
Re 21:27). Though still fighting the good fight on
earth, still, in respect to your destiny, and present life
of faith which substantiates things hoped for, ye
are already members of the heavenly citizenship.
"We are one citizenship with angels; to which it is
said in the psalm, Glorious things are spoken of thee,
thou city of God" [AUGUSTINE]. I think A LFORD
wrong in restricting "the Church of the
first-born written in heaven," to those militant on
earth; it is rather, all those who at the
Judge's coming shall be found written in heaven
(the true patent of heavenly nobility; contrast
"written in the earth,"
Jer 17:13, and Esau's profane sale of his
birthright,
Heb 12:16); these all, from the beginning to the end of
the world, forming one Church to which every
believer is already come. The first-born of Israel
were "written" in a roll (
Nu 3:40).
the spirits of just men made
perfect--at the resurrection, when the "JUDGE"
shall appear, and believers' bliss shall be consummated
by the union of the glorified body with the
spirit; the great hope of the New Testament (
Ro 8:20-23; 1Th 4:16). The place of this clause
after "the JUDGE OF ALL," is my objection to
BENGEL and ALFORD'S explanation, the souls of the just
in their separate state perfected. Compare
Notes, see on Heb 11:39, 40, to
which he refers here, and which I think confirms my view;
those heretofore spirits, but now to be perfected by
being clothed upon with the body. Still the phrase,
"spirits of just men made perfect," not
merely "just men made perfect," may favor the
reference to the happy spirits in their separate state. The
Greek is not "the perfected
spirits," but "the spirits of the
perfected just." In no other passage are the
just said to be perfected before the
resurrection, and the completion of the full number of the
elect (
Re 6:11); I think, therefore, "spirits of the
just," may here be used to express the just whose
predominant element in their perfected state shall be
spirit. So spirit and spirits are used of
a man or men in the body, under the influence of
the spirit, the opposite of flesh (
Joh 3:6). The resurrection bodies of the saints shall
be bodies in which the spirit shall
altogether preponderate over the animal soul (see on
1Co 15:44).
24. new--not the usual term (kaine) applied to the
Christian covenant (
Heb 9:15), which would mean new as different
from, and superseding the old; but Greek,
"nea," "recent," "lately
established," having the "freshness of
youth," as opposed to age. The mention of Jesus,
the Perfecter of our faith (
Heb 12:2), and Himself perfected through sufferings and
death, in His resurrection and ascension (
Heb 2:10; 5:9), is naturally suggested by the mention
of "the just made perfect" at their
resurrection (compare
Heb 7:22). Paul uses "Jesus," dwelling here
on Him as the Person realized as our loving friend, not
merely in His official character as the
Christ.
and to the blood of sprinkling--here
enumerated as distinct from "Jesus." BENGEL
reasonably argues as follows: His blood was entirely
"poured out" of His body by the various ways in
which it was shed, His bloody sweat, the crown of thorns,
the scourging, the nails, and after death the spear, just
as the blood was entirely poured out and extravasated from
the animal sacrifices of the law. It was
incorruptible (
1Pe 1:18, 19). No Scripture states it was again put
into the Lord's body. At His ascension, as our great
High Priest, He entered the heavenly holiest place "BY
His own blood" (not after shedding His blood,
nor with the blood in His body, but), carrying it
separately from his body (compare the type,
Heb 9:7, 12, 25; 13:11). Paul does not say, by the
efficacy of His blood, but, "by His own proper
blood" (
Heb 9:12); not MATERIAL blood, but "the blood of
Him who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself
without spot unto God" (
Heb 9:14). So in
Heb 10:29, the Son of God and the blood of
the covenant wherewith he (the professor) was
sanctified, are mentioned separately. Also in
Heb 13:12, 20; also compare
Heb 10:19, with Heb 10:21. So in the Lord's Supper
(
1Co 10:16; 11:24-26), the body and blood
are separately represented. The blood itself, therefore,
continues still in heaven before God, the perpetual ransom
price of "the eternal covenant" (
Heb 13:20). Once for all Christ sprinkled the blood
peculiarly for us at His ascension (
Heb 9:12). But it is called "the blood of
sprinkling," on account also of its continued use in
heaven, and in the consciences of the saints on earth (
Heb 9:14; 10:22; Isa 52:15). This sprinkling is
analogous to the sprinkled blood of the Passover. Compare
Re 5:6, "In the midst of the throne, a Lamb as
it had been slain." His glorified body does not
require meat, nor the circulation of the blood. His blood
introduced into heaven took away the dragon's right to
accuse. Thus Rome's theory of concomitancy of
the blood with the body, the excuse for giving only the
bread to the laity, falls to the ground. The mention of
"the blood of sprinkling" naturally follows the
mention of the "covenant," which could not be
consecrated without blood (
Heb 9:18, 22).
speaketh better things than that of
Abel--namely, than the sprinkling (the best manuscripts
read the article masculine, which refers to
"sprinkling," not to "blood," which
last is neuter) of blood by Abel in his sacrifice spake.
This comparison between two things of the same kind
(namely, Christ's sacrifice, and Abel's sacrifice)
is more natural, than between two things different in kind
and in results (namely, Christ's sacrifice, and
Abel's own blood [ALFORD], which was not a
sacrifice at all); compare
Heb 11:4; Ge 4:4. This accords with the whole tenor of
the Epistle, and of this passage in particular (
Heb 12:18-22), which is to show the superiority of
Christ's sacrifice and the new covenant, to the Old
Testament sacrifices (of which Abel's is the first
recorded; it, moreover, was testified to by God as
acceptable to Him above Cain's), compare
Heb 9:1-10:39. The word "better" implies
superiority to something that is good: but Abel's own
blood was not at all good for the purpose for which
Christ's blood was efficacious; nay, it cried for
vengeance. So A RCHBISHOP MAGEE, H AMMOND, and KNATCHBULL.
B ENGEL takes "the blood of Abel" as put for
all the blood shed on earth crying for vengeance, and
greatly increasing the other cries raised by sin in the
world; counteracted by the blood of Christ calmly speaking
in heaven for us, and from heaven to us. I prefer
MAGEE'S view. Be this as it may, to deny that
Christ's atonement is truly a propitiation, overthrows
Christ's priesthood, makes the sacrifices of Moses'
law an unmeaning mummery, and represents Cain's
sacrifice as good as that of Abel.
25. refuse not--through unbelief.
him that speaketh--God in Christ. As
the blood of sprinkling is represented as
speaking to God for us,
Heb 12:24; so here God is represented as speaking to us
(
Heb 1:1, 2). His word now is the prelude of the last
"shaking" of all things (
Heb 12:27). The same word which is heard in the Gospel
from heaven, will shake heaven and earth (
Heb 12:26).
who refused him--Greek,
"refusing as they did." Their seemingly
submissive entreaty that the word should not be spoken to
them by God any more (
Heb 12:19), covered over refractory hearts, as their
subsequent deeds showed (
Heb 3:16).
that spake--revealing with oracular
warnings His divine will: so the Greek.
if we turn away--Greek,
"we who turn away." The word implies greater
refractoriness than "refused," or
"declined."
him that speaketh from heaven--God, by
His Son in the Gospel, speaking from His heavenly throne.
Hence, in Christ's preaching frequent mention is made
of "the kingdom of the heavens"
(Greek,
Mt 3:2). In the giving of the law God spake on earth
(namely, Mount Sinai) by angels (
Heb 2:2; compare
Heb 1:2). In
Ex 20:22, when God says, "I talked with you
from heaven," this passage in Hebrews shows that
not the highest heavens, but the visible heavens, the
clouds and darkness, are meant, out of which God by angels
proclaimed the law on Sinai.
26. then shook--when He gave the law on Sinai.
now--under the Gospel.
promised--The announcement of His
coming to break up the present order of things, is to the
ungodly a terror, to the godly a promise, the fulfilment of
which they look for with joyful hope.
Yet once more--Compare Notes,
see on Hag 2:6; Hag 2:21, 22, both of which
passages are condensed into one here. The shaking began at
the first coming of Messiah; it will be completed at His
second coming, prodigies in the world of nature
accompanying the overthrow of all kingdoms that oppose
Messiah. The Hebrew is literally, "it is yet
one little," that is, a single brief space till the
series of movements begins ending in the advent of Messiah.
Not merely the earth, as at the establishment of the
Sinaitic covenant, but heaven also is to be shaken. The two
advents of Messiah are regarded as one, the complete
shaking belonging to the second advent, of which the
presage was given in the shakings at the first advent: the
convulsions connected with the overthrow of Jerusalem
shadowing forth those about to be at the overthrow of all
the God-opposed kingdoms by the coming Messiah.
27. this word, Yet once more--So Paul, by the
Spirit, sanctions the Septuagint rendering of
Hag 2:6, giving an additional feature to the prophecy
in the Hebrew, as rendered in English
Version, not merely that it shall be in a little
while, but that it is to be "once
more" as the final act. The stress of his argument is
on the "ONCE." Once for all; once and for
ever. "In saying 'once more,' the Spirit
implies that something has already passed, and something
else shall be which is to remain, and is no more to be
changed to something else; for the once is
exclusive, that is, not many times"
[ESTIUS].
those things that are shaken--the
heaven and the earth. As the shaking is to be total,
so shall the removal be, making way for the better things
that are unremovable. Compare the Jewish economy (the type
of the whole present order of things) giving way to the new
and abiding covenant: the forerunner of the everlasting
state of bliss.
as of things . . .
made--namely, of this present visible creation:
compare
2Co 5:1; Heb 9:11, "made with hands
. . . of this creation," that is, things so
made at creation that they would not remain of
themselves, but be removed. The new abiding heaven and
earth are also made by God, but they are of a higher
nature than the material creation, being made to partake of
the divine nature of Him who is not made: so in this
relation, as one with the uncreated God, they are regarded
as not of the same class as the things made. The
things made in the former sense do not
remain; the things of the new heaven and earth, like
the uncreated God, "shall REMAIN before God" (
Isa 66:22). The Spirit, the seed of the new and
heavenly being, not only of the believer's soul, but
also of the future body, is an uncreated and
immortal principle.
28. receiving--as we do, in prospect and sure hope, also in
the possession of the Spirit the first-fruits. This is our
privilege as Christians.
let us have grace--"let us have
thankfulness" [ALFORD after CHRYSOSTOM]. But (1) this
translation is according to classical Greek, not
Paul's phraseology for "to be thankful." (2)
"To God" would have been in that case added. (3)
"Whereby we may serve God," suits the English
Version "grace" (that is Gospel grace, the
work of the Spirit, producing faith exhibited in serving
God), but does not suit "thankfulness."
acceptably--Greek,
"well-pleasingly."
reverence and godly fear--The oldest
manuscripts read, "reverent caution and fear."
Reverent caution (same Greek as in
Heb 5:7; see on Heb 5:7) lest we
should offend God, who is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. Fear lest we should bring destruction on
ourselves.
29. Greek, "For even": "for
also"; introducing an additional solemn
incentive to diligence. Quoted from
De 4:24.
our God--in whom we hope, is
also to be feared. He is love (
1Jo 4:8, 16); yet there is another side of His
character; God has wrath against sin (
Heb 10:27, 31).
Heb 13:1-25. EXHORTATION TO VARIOUS GRACES, ESPECIALLY CONSTANCY IN FAITH, FOLLOWING JESUS AMIDST REPROACHES. CONCLUSION, WITH PIECES OF INTELLIGENCE AND SALUTATIONS.
1. brotherly love--a distinct special manifestation of
"charity" or "love" (
2Pe 1:7). The Church of Jerusalem, to which in part
this Epistle was addressed, was distinguished by this
grace, we know from Acts (compare
Heb 6:10; 10:32-34; 12:12, 13).
continue--Charity will itself
continue. See that it continue with you.
7. Two manifestations of "brotherly love,"
hospitality and care for those in bonds.
Be not forgetful--implying it was a
duty which they all recognized, but which they might forget
to act on (
Heb 13:3, 7, 16). The enemies of Christianity
themselves have noticed the practice of this virtue among
Christians [JULIAN, Epistles, 49].
entertained angels unawares--Abraham
and Lot did so (
Ge 18:2; 19:1). To obviate the natural distrust felt of
strangers, Paul says, an unknown guest may be better than
he looks: he may be unexpectedly found to be as much a
messenger of God for good, as the angels (whose name
means messenger) are; nay more, if a Christian, he
represents Christ Himself. There is a play on the same
Greek word, Be not forgetful and unaware;
let not the duty of hospitality to strangers
escape you; for, by entertaining strangers, it has
escaped the entertainers that they were entertaining
angels. Not unconscious and forgetful of the duty, they
have unconsciously brought on themselves the blessing.
3. Remember--in prayers and acts of kindness.
bound with them--by virtue of the
unity of the members in the body under one Head, Christ (
1Co 12:26).
suffer adversity--Greek,
"are in evil state."
being yourselves also in the body--and
so liable to the adversities incident to the natural body,
which ought to dispose you the more to sympathize with
them, not knowing how soon your own turn of suffering may
come. "One experiences adversity almost his whole
life, as Jacob; another in youth, as Joseph; another in
manhood, as Job; another in old age" [BENGEL].
4. is, &c.--Translate, "Let marriage be
treated as honorable": as
Heb 13:5 also is an exhortation.
in all--"in the case of all
men": "among all." "To avoid
fornication let EVERY MAN have his own wife" (
1Co 7:2). Judaism and Gnosticism combined were soon
about to throw discredit on marriage. The venerable
Paphnutius, in the Council of Nice, quoted this verse for
the justification of the married state. If one does not
himself marry, he should not prevent others from doing so.
Others, especially Romanists, translate, "in all
things," as in
Heb 13:18. But the warning being against
lasciviousness, the contrast to "whoremongers
and adulterers" in the parallel clause,
requires the "in all" in this clause to refer to
persons.
the bed undefiled--Translate, as
Greek requires "undefiled" to be a
predicate, not an epithet, "And let the bed
be undefiled."
God will judge--Most whoremongers
escape the notice of human tribunals; but God takes
particular cognizance of those whom man does not punish.
Gay immoralities will then be regarded in a very different
light from what they are now.
5. conversation--"manner of life." The love of
filthy lust and the love of filthy lucre follow one another
as closely akin, both alienating the heart from the Creator
to the creature.
such things as ye have--literally,
"present things" (
Php 4:11).
I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee--A promise tantamount to this was given to Jacob (
Ge 28:15), to Israel (
De 31:6, 8), to Joshua (
Jos 1:5), to Solomon (
1Ch 28:20). It is therefore like a divine adage. What
was said to them, extends also to us. He will neither
withdraw His presence ("never leave thee")
nor His help ("nor forsake thee") [B
ENGEL].
6. may--rather as Greek, expressing confidence actually realized, "So that we boldly (confidently) say" ( Ps 56:4, 11; 118:6). Punctuate as both the Hebrew and the Greek require, "And (so) I will not fear: what (then) shall man do unto me?"
7. Remember--so as to imitate: not to invoke in
prayer, as Rome teaches.
have the rule--rather, "who have
had the rule over you": your spiritual
leaders.
who--Greek, "the
which": such persons as.
have spoken unto
you--"spake" (so the Greek aorist means)
during their lifetime. This Epistle was among those written
later, when many of the heads of the Jerusalem Church had
passed away.
whose faith--even unto death: probably
death by martyrdom, as in the case of the instances of
faith in
Heb 11:35. Stephen, James the brother of our Lord and
bishop of Jerusalem, as well as James the brother of John
(
Ac 12:2), in the Palestinian Church, which Paul
addresses, suffered martyrdom.
considering--Greek,
"looking up to," "diligently contemplating
all over," as an artist would a model.
the end--the termination, at death.
The Greek, is used of decease (
Lu 9:31; 2Pe 1:15).
of their conversation--"manner of
life": "religious walk" (
Ga 1:13; Eph 4:22; 1Ti 4:12; Jas 3:13).
Considering how they manifested the soundness of their
faith by their holy walk, which they maintained even
to the end of that walk (their death by martyrdom).
8. This verse is not, as some read it, in apposition with "the end of their conversation" ( Heb 13:7), but forms the transition. "Jesus Christ, yesterday and to-day (is) the same, and (shall be the same) unto the ages (that is, unto all ages)." The Jesus Christ (the full name being given, to mark with affectionate solemnity both His person and His office) who supported your spiritual rulers through life even unto their end "yesterday" (in times past), being at once "the Author and the Finisher of their faith" ( Heb 12:2), remains still the same Jesus Christ "to-day," ready to help you also, if like them you walk by "faith" in Him. Compare "this same Jesus," Ac 1:11. He who yesterday (proverbial for the past time) suffered and died, is to-day in glory ( Re 1:18). "As night comes between yesterday and to-day, and yet night itself is swallowed up by yesterday and to-day, so the "suffering" did not so interrupt the glory of Jesus Christ which was of yesterday, and that which is to-day, as not to continue to be the same. He is the same yesterday, before He came into the world, and to-day, in heaven. Yesterday in the time of our predecessors, and to-day in our age" [B ENGEL]. So the doctrine is the same, not variable: this verse thus forms the transition between Heb 13:7 and Heb 13:9. He is always "the same" ( Heb 1:12). The same in the Old and in the New Testament.
9. about--rather, as oldest manuscripts read, "carried
aside"; namely, compare
Eph 4:14.
divers--differing from the one faith
in the one and the same Jesus Christ, as taught by them who
had the rule over you (
Heb 13:7).
strange--foreign to the truth.
doctrines--"teachings."
established with grace; not with
meats--not with observances of Jewish distinctions between
clean and unclean meats, to which ascetic Judaizers added
in Christian times the rejection of some meats, and the use
of others: noticed also by Paul in
1Co 8:8, 13; 6:13; Ro 14:17, an exact parallel to this
verse: these are some of the "divers and strange
doctrines" of the previous sentence. Christ's body
offered once for all for us, is our true spiritual
"meat" to "eat" (
Heb 13:10), "the stay and the staff of bread"
(
Isa 3:1), the mean of all "grace."
which have not profited--Greek,
"in which they who walked were not profited";
namely, in respect to justification, perfect cleansing of
the conscience, and sanctification. Compare on
"walked,"
Ac 21:21; namely, with superstitious scrupulosity, as
though the worship of God in itself consisted in such legal
observances.
10. Christianity and Judaism are so totally distinct, that
"they who serve the (Jewish) tabernacle," have no
right to eat our spiritual Gospel meat, namely, the Jewish
priests, and those who follow their guidance in serving the
ceremonial ordinance. He says, "serve the
tabernacle," not "serve IN the
tabernacle." Contrast with this servile worship
ours.
an altar--the cross of Christ, whereon
His body was offered. The Lord's table represents this
altar, the cross; as the bread and wine represent the
sacrifice offered on it. Our meat, which we by faith
spiritually eat, is the flesh of Christ, in contrast to the
typical ceremonial meats. The two cannot be combined (
Ga 5:2). That not a literal eating of the sacrifice of
Christ is meant in the Lord's Supper, but a spiritual
is meant, appears from comparing
Heb 13:9 with Heb 13:10, "with GRACE, NOT with
MEATS."
11, 12. For just as "the bodies of those beasts whose
blood is brought into the sanctuary by . . . are
burned without the camp," so "Jesus also that
. . . suffered without the gate" of
ceremonial Judaism, of which His crucifixion outside the
gate of Jerusalem is a type.
for--reason why they who serve the
tabernacle, are excluded from share in Christ; because His
sacrifice is not like one of those sacrifices in which they
had a share but answers to one which was "wholly
burned" outside (the Greek is "burnt
completely," "consumed by burning"), and
which consequently they could not eat of.
Le 6:30, gives the general rule, "No sin offering
whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of
the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place,
shall be eaten; it shall be burnt in the fire." The
sin offerings are twofold: the outward, whose blood
was sprinkled on the outward altar, and of whose bodies the
priests might eat; and the inward, the
reverse.
the sanctuary--here the Holy of
Holies, into which the blood of the sin offering was
brought on the day of atonement.
without the camp--in which were the
tabernacle and Levitical priests and legal worshippers,
during Israel's journey through the wilderness;
replaced afterwards by Jerusalem (containing the temple),
outside of whose walls Jesus was crucified.
12. Wherefore Jesus--In order that the Antitype might
fulfil the type.
sanctify--Though not brought into the
temple "sanctuary" (
Heb 13:11) His blood has been brought into the heavenly
sanctuary, and "sanctifies the people" (
Heb 2:11, 17), by cleansing them from sin, and
consecrating them to God.
his own--not blood of animals.
without the gate--of Jerusalem; as if
unworthy of the society of the covenant-people. The fiery
ordeal of His suffering on the cross, answers to the
burning of the victims; thereby His mere fleshly
life was completely destroyed, as their bodies were; the
second part of His offering was His carrying His blood into
the heavenly holiest before God at His ascension, that it
should be a perpetual atonement for the world's sin.
13. therefore--This "therefore" breathes the
deliberate fortitude of believers [BENGEL].
without the camp--"outside the
legal polity" [THEODORET] of Judaism (compare
Heb 13:11) "Faith considers Jerusalem itself as a
camp, not a city" [BENGEL]. He contrasts
with the Jews, who serve an earthly sanctuary, the
Christians to whom the altar in heaven stands open, while
it is closed against the Jews. As Jesus suffered without
the gate, so spiritually must those who desire to belong to
Him, withdraw from the earthly Jerusalem and its sanctuary,
as from this world in general. There is a reference to
Ex 33:7, when the tabernacle was moved without the
camp, which had become polluted by the people's
idolatry of the golden calves; so that "every one who
sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the
congregation (as Moses called the tabernacle outside
the camp), which was without the camp"; a lively type
of what the Hebrews should do, namely, come out of the
carnal worship of the earthly Jerusalem to worship God in
Christ in spirit, and of what we all ought to do, namely,
come out from all carnalism, worldly formalism, and mere
sensuous worship, and know Jesus in His spiritual power
apart from worldliness, seeing that "we have no
continuing city" (
Heb 13:14).
bearing--as Simon of Cyrene did.
his reproach--the reproach which He
bare, and which all His people bear with Him.
14. here--on earth. Those Hebrews who clung to the earthly
sanctuary are representatives of all who cling to this
earth. The earthly Jerusalem proved to be no "abiding
city," having been destroyed shortly after this
Epistle was written, and with it fell the Jewish civil and
religious polity; a type of the whole of our present
earthly order of things soon to perish.
one to come-- (
Heb 2:5; 11:10, 14, 16; 12:22; Php 3:20).
15. As the "altar" was mentioned in
Heb 13:10, so the "sacrifices" here (compare
1Pe 2:5, namely, praise and doing good,
Heb 13:16). Compare
Ps 119:108; Ro 12:1.
By him--as the Mediator of our prayers
and praises (
Joh 14:13, 14); not by Jewish observances (
Ps 50:14, 23; 69:30, 31; 107:22; 116:17). It was an old
saying of the rabbis, "At a future time all sacrifices
shall cease, but praises shall not cease."
of praise--for salvation.
continually--not merely at fixed
seasons, as those on which the legal sacrifices were
offered, but throughout all our lives.
fruit of our lips-- (
Isa 57:19; Ho 14:2).
giving thanks--Greek,
"confessing." B ENGEL remarks that the
Hebrew, "todah," is beautifully
emphatic. It literally means "acknowledgment" or
"confession." In praising a creature, we may
easily exceed the truth; but in praising God we have only
to go on confessing what He really is to us. Hence
it is impossible to exceed the truth, and here is
genuine praise.
16. But--But the sacrifice of praise with the lips (
Heb 13:15) is not enough; there must be also doing
good (beneficence) and communicating (that is,
imparting a share of your means,
Ga 6:6) to the needy.
with such--and not mere ritualistic
sacrifices.
17. Obey them that have the rule over you--(Compare
Heb 13:7, 24). This threefold mention of the
rulers is peculiar to this Epistle. In other Epistles
Paul includes the rulers in his exhortations. But
here the address is limited to the general body of the
Church, in contrast to the rulers to whom they
are charged to yield reverent submission. Now this is just
what might be expected when the apostle of the Gentiles was
writing to the Palestine Christians, among whom James and
the eleven apostles had exercised a more immediate
authority. It was important he should not seem to set
himself in opposition to their guides, but rather
strengthen their hands; he claims no authority directly or
indirectly over these rulers themselves [BIRKS].
"Remember" your deceased rulers (
Heb 13:7). "Obey" your living rulers; nay,
more, not only obey in cases where no sacrifice of
self is required, and where you are persuaded they
are right (so the Greek, for "obey"), but
"submit yourselves" as a matter of dutiful
yielding, when your judgment and natural will
incline you in an opposite direction.
they--on their part; so the
Greek. As they do their part, so do you yours. So Paul
exhorts,
1Th 5:12, 13.
watch--"are vigilant"
(Greek).
for--Greek, "in behalf
of."
must give account--The strongest
stimulus to watchfulness (
Mr 13:34-37). CHRYSOSTOM was deeply struck with these
words, as he tells us [On the Priesthood, 6],
"The fear of this threat continually agitates my
soul."
do it--"watch for your soul's
eternal salvation." It is a perilous responsibility
for a man to have to give account for others' deeds,
who is not sufficient for his own [ESTIUS, from AQUINAS]. I
wonder whether it be possible that any of the rulers should
be saved [C HRYSOSTOM]. Compare Paul's address to the
elders,
Ac 20:28; 1Co 4:1-5, where also he connects
ministers' responsibility with the account to be
hereafter given (compare
1Pe 5:4).
with joy--at your obedience;
anticipating, too, that you shall be their "joy"
in the day of giving account (
Php 4:1).
not with grief--at your disobedience;
apprehending also that in the day of account you may be
among the lost, instead of being their crown of rejoicing.
In giving account, the stewards are liable to blame if
aught be lost to the Master. "Mitigate their toil by
every office of attention and respect, that with alacrity,
rather than with grief, they may fulfil their duty, arduous
enough in itself, even though no unpleasantness be added on
your part" [GROTIUS].
that--Grief in your pastors is
unprofitable for you, for it weakens their spiritual
power; nay, more, "the groans (so the
Greek for 'grief') of other creatures are
heard; how much more of pastors!" [BENGEL]. So God
will be provoked to avenge on you their
"groaning" (Greek). If they must render
God an account of their negligence, so must you for your
ingratitude to them [GROTIUS].
18. Pray for us--Paul usually requests the Church's
intercessions for him in closing his Epistles, just as he
begins with assuring them of his having them at heart in
his prayers (but in this Epistle not till
Heb 13:20, 21),
Ro 15:30. "Us," includes both himself and his
companions; he passes to himself alone,
Heb 13:19.
we trust we have a good conscience--in
spite of your former jealousies, and the charges of my
Jewish enemies at Jerusalem, which have been the occasion
of my imprisonment at Rome. In refutation of the Jews'
aspersions, he asserts in the same language as here his own
conscientiousness before God and man,
Ac 23:1-3; 24:16, 20, 21 (wherein he virtually implies
that his reply to Ananias was not sinful impatience; for,
indeed, it was a prophecy which he was inspired at the
moment to utter, and which was fulfilled soon after).
we trust--Greek, "we are
persuaded," in the oldest manuscripts. Good conscience
produces confidence, where the Holy Spirit rules the
conscience (
Ro 9:1).
honestly--"in a good
way." The same Greek word as "good
conscience." Literally, "rightly,"
"becomingly."
19. the rather--Greek, "I the more
abundantly beseech you."
to do this--to pray for me.
that I may be restored to you-- (
Phm 22). It is here first in the letter he mentions
himself, in a way so unobtrusive, as not to prejudice his
Hebrew readers against him, which would have been the
result had he commenced this as his other Epistles, with
authoritatively announcing his name and apostolic
commission.
20. Concluding prayer.
God of peace--So Paul,
Ro 15:33; 16:20; 2Co 13:11; Php 4:9; 1Th 5:23; 2Th
3:16. The Judaizing of the Hebrews was calculated to
sow seeds of discord among them, of disobedience to their
pastors (
Heb 13:17), and of alienation towards Paul. The God
of peace by giving unity of true doctrine, will unite
them in mutual love.
brought again from the
dead--Greek, "brought up," &c.: God
brought the Shepherd; the Shepherd shall bring the flock.
Here only in the Epistle he mentions the resurrection. He
would not conclude without mentioning 'the connecting
link between the two truths mainly discussed; the one
perfect sacrifice and the continual priestly
intercession--the depth of His humiliation and the
height of His glory--the "altar" of the cross and
the ascension to the heavenly Holy of Holies.
Lord Jesus--the title marking His
person and His Lordship over us. But
Heb 13:21, "through Jesus Christ." His
office, as the Anointed of the Spirit, making
Him the medium of communicating the Spirit to us, the holy
unction flowing down from the Head on the members (compare
Ac 2:36).
great-- (
Heb 4:14).
shepherd of the sheep--A title
familiar to his Hebrew readers, from their Old Testament
(
Isa 63:11; Septuagint): primarily Moses,
antitypically Christ: already compared together,
Heb 3:2-7. The transition is natural from their earthly
pastors (
Heb 13:17), to the Chief Pastor, as in
1Pe 5:1-4. Compare
Eze 34:23 and Jesus' own words,
Joh 10:2, 11, 14.
through the blood--Greek,
"in," in virtue of the blood (
Heb 2:9); it was because of His bloody death for us,
that the Father raised and crowned Him with glory. The
"blood" was the seal of the everlasting covenant
entered into between the Father and Son; in virtue of
the Son's blood, first Christ was raised, then
Christ's people shall be so (
Zec 9:11, seemingly referred to here;
Ac 20:28).
everlasting--The
everlastingness of the covenant necessitated the
resurrection. This clause, "the blood of the
everlasting covenant," is a summary retrospect of the
Epistle (compare
Heb 9:12).
21. Make you perfect--properly said of healing a rent;
join you together in perfect harmony [BENGEL].
to do his will, working in you-- (
Heb 10:36); rather as Greek, "doing
in you." Whatever good we do, God does
in us.
well-pleasing in his sight-- (
Isa 53:10; Eph 5:10).
through Jesus Christ--"God
doing (working) in you that . . . through
Jesus Christ" (
Php 1:11).
to whom--to Christ. He closes as he
began (
Heb 1:1-14), with giving glory to Christ.
22. suffer the word--The Hebrews not being the section of
the Church assigned to Paul (but the Gentiles), he uses
gentle entreaty, rather than authoritative command.
few words--compared with what might be
said on so important a subject. Few, in an Epistle
which is more of a treatise than an Epistle (compare
1Pe 5:12). On the seeming inconsistency with
Ga 6:11, compare Note, see on Ga 6:11.
23. our brother Timothy--So Paul,
1Co 4:17; 2Co 1:1; Col 1:1; 1Th 3:2.
is set at liberty--from prison. So
Aristarchus was imprisoned with Paul. BIRKS translates,
"dismissed," "sent away," namely, on a
mission to Greece, as Paul promised (
Php 2:19). However, some kind of previous
detention is implied before his being let go to
Philippi. Paul, though now at large, was still in
Italy, whence he sends the salutations of Italian
Christians (
Heb 13:24), waiting for Timothy to join him, so as to
start for Jerusalem: we know from
1Ti 1:3, he and Timothy were together at Ephesus after
his departing from Italy eastward. He probably left Timothy
there and went to Philippi as he had promised. Paul implies
that if Timothy shall not come shortly, he will
start on his journey to the Hebrews at once.
24. all--The Scriptures are intended for all, young
and old, not merely for ministers. Compare the different
classes addressed, "wives,"
Eph 5:22; little children,
1Jo 2:18; "all,"
1Pe 3:8; 5:5. He says here "all," for the
Hebrews whom he addresses were not all in one place, though
the Jerusalem Hebrews are chiefly addressed.
They of Italy--not merely the brethren
at Rome, but of other places in Italy.
25. Paul's characteristic salutation in every one of his other thirteen Epistles, as he says himself, 1Co 16:21, 23; Col 4:18; 2Th 3:17. It is found in no Epistle written by any other apostle in Paul's lifetime. It is used in Re 22:21, written subsequently, and in CLEMENT OF ROME. Being known to be his badge, it is not used by others in his lifetime. The Greek here is, "The grace (namely, of our Lord Jesus Christ) be with you all."