Hebrews 10:29

πόσῳ δοκεῖτε χείρονος.… “Of how much sorer punishment, think ye, will he be counted worthy, who, etc.” The argument of Hebrews 2:1-4 and Hebrews 12:25. By the parenthetically interjected δοκεῖτε he appeals to their own sense of proportion and fitness; although the judgment alluded to in ἀξιωθήσεται is not theirs but God's. ὁ … καταπατήσας … The guilt of the apostate which justifies this sorer punishment is detailed in three particulars. He has trampled on the Son of God. The highest of Beings who has deserved best at his hands is spurned with outrageous scorn. καὶ τὸ αἷμα … ἡγιάσθη “and has reckoned the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified, a common thing”. “The blood of the covenant” is the blood of Christ (cf. Hebrews 9:15 ff., Hebrews 13:20); here it is thus designated because repudiation of the covenant is in question. This blood is the purifying agent by which men are fitted for the fellowship and service of God, and so brought within the covenant. Cf. ἡγιάσθη with ἁγιάζει of Hebrews 9:13 and καθαριεῖ of Hebrews 9:14. This sole means of purification, the sanctifying virtue of which the supposed apostate has experienced, he now counts κοινὸν, common or unclean. [The Vulg. has “pollutum,” the Old Latin “communem”. Chrysostom ἀκάθαρτον ἢ τὸ μηδέν πλέον ἔχον τῶν λοιπῶν; and so Kübel, “which has no more worth than the blood of other men”. All these meanings lie close to one another. Cf. Mark 7:2; Acts 10:14. What is “common” is unsanctified, ceremonially unclean.] The third point in the heinousness of the sin of apostasy is τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος ἐνυβρίσας, “and has insulted the spirit of grace”. This seems the direct antithesis to “Moses' law” of Hebrews 10:28. The spirit of grace is the distinctive gift of Christian times, and is not only the Pauline but the universal antithesis to the law. To have blasphemed this gracious Spirit, who brings the assurance of God's presence and pardon, and gifts suited to each believer, is to renounce all part in things spiritual. Cf. Hebrews 6:4; Hebrews 2:4; Ephesians 4:7.