Hebrews 5:7

ὅς, i.e. the Christ.

τῆς σαρκός. The word “flesh” is here used for His Humanity regarded on the side of its weakness and humiliation. Comp. Hebrews 2:14.

αὐτοῦ. Here, as elsewhere, some editions read αὑτοῦ, but according to Bleek and Buttmann αὑτοῦ is never used in the N. T. for ἑαυτοῦ. Winer (p. 189) thinks otherwise.

δεήσεις τε καὶ ἱκετηρίας. The idiosyncrasy of the writer, and perhaps his Alexandrian training, which familiarised him with the style of Philo, made him fond of these sonorous amplifications or full expressions. Δεήσεις, rendered “prayers” in the A. V., is rather “supplications,” i.e. “special prayers” for the supply of needs. Ἱκετηρίας rendered “entreaties” (which is joined with it in Job 41:3, comp. 2Ma 9:18), properly meant olive-boughs held forth to entreat protection. Thus the first word refers to the suppliant, the second implies an approach (ἱκνέομαι) to God. The “supplications and entreaties” referred to are doubtless those in the Agony at Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46), though there may be a reference to the Cross, and some have even supposed that there is an allusion to Psalms 22, 116. See Mark 14:36; John 12:27; Matthew 26:38-42.

σώζειν ἐκ θανάτου. Comp. John 12:27, σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης. The “death” referred to is not bodily death, but deadly anguish. Or if we understand it of death it means the final triumph of death, whereas Christ’s death was the defeat of death.

μετὰ κραυγῆς ἰσχυρᾶς καὶ δακρύων. Though these are not directly mentioned in the scene at Gethsemane they are implied. See John 11:35; John 12:27; Matthew 26:39; Matthew 26:42; Matthew 26:44; Matthew 26:53; Mark 14:36; Luke 19:41.

εἰσακουσθείς. “Being heard” or “hearkened to,” Luke 22:43; John 12:28 (comp. Psalms 22:21; Psalms 22:24).

ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας. “From his godly fear,” or “because of his reverential awe.” The phrase has been explained in different ways. The old Latin renders “exauditus a metu,” and some Latin Fathers and later interpreters explain it to mean “having been freed from the fear of death.” The Greek might perhaps be made to bear this sense, though the mild word used for “fear” is not in favour of it; but the rendering given above, meaning that His prayer was heard because of His awful submission (pro suâ reverentiâ, Vulg.), is the sense in which the words are taken by all the Greek Fathers. Ἀπὸ may certainly mean “because of” as in Luke 19:3, “He could not because of (ἀπὸ) the crowd”; Luke 24:41, “disbelieving because of (ἀπὸ) their joy” (comp. John 21:6; Acts 22:11, &c.). The word rendered “feared” is εὐλάβεια which means “reverent fear,” or “reasonable shrinking,” as opposed to terror and cowardice. The Stoics said that the wise man could thus cautiously shrink (εὐλαβεῖσθαι), but never actually be afraid (φοβεῖσθαι). Other attempts to explain away the passage arise from the Apollinarian tendency to deny Christ’s perfect manhood: but He was “perfectly man” as well as “truly God.” He was not indeed “saved from death,” because He had only prayed that “the cup might pass from Him” if such were His Father’s will (Hebrews 10:7); but he was “saved out of (ἐκ) death” by being immediately strengthened by the Angel of the Agony and by being raised on the third day, so that “He saw no corruption.” For the word εὐλάβεια, “piety” or “reverent awe,” see Hebrews 12:28.