Hebrews 10:34

ye had compassion of me in my bonds This reading had more to do than anything else with the common assumption that this Epistle was written by St Paul. The true reading however undoubtedly is not τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου, but τοῖς δεσμίοις, "ye sympathised with the prisoners." The reading of our text was probably introduced from Colossians 4:18; Philippians 1:7, &c. In the first persecutions many confessors were thrown into prison (Acts 26:10), and from the earliest days Christians were famed for their kindness to their brethren who were thus confined. See too Hebrews 13:3. The verb συμπαθεῖν occurs only here and in Hebrews 4:15. St Paul uses συμπάσχειν "to suffer with" in Romans 8:17.

took joyfully the spoiling of your goods Christians were liable to be thus plundered by lawless mobs. Epictetus, by whose time Stoicism had become unconsciously impregnated with Christian feeling, says, "I became poor at thy will, yea and gladly." On the supposition that the letter was addressed to Rome, "the spoiling of goods" has been referred to the edict of Claudius which expelled the Jews (and with them the Christian Jews) from Rome; or to the Neronian persecution. But the supposition is improbable.

knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven The "in heaven" is almost certainly a spurious gloss, and the "in" before "yourselves" should be unquestionably omitted. If the true reading be ἐαυτοῖς, the meaning is "recognising that ye have for yourselves," but if we may accept ἑαυτούς, the reading of א, we have the very beautiful and striking thought, "recognising that ye have yourselves as a better possession and an abiding." He points them to the tranquil self-possession of a holy heart (Luke 9:25; Luke 21:19), the acquisition of our own souls, as a sufficient present consolation for the loss of earthly goods (Hebrews 11:26), independently of the illimitable future hope (Matthew 6:20; Romans 8:18; 1 Peter 1:4-8).