Hebrews 12:22

The Christian standing and attainment are now described in contrast with the Jewish. Ye are brought into the fellowship of eternal realities. ἀλλά προσεληλύθατε, “but ye have drawn near” (already you have entered into your eternal relation to the unseen) to Σιὼν ὄρει, “in the twenty-three passages in the LXX where the two words are combined the order is uniformly ὄρος Σιὼν and not Σιὼν ὄρος. Evidently here the ‘ Zion mountain ' is mentally contrasted with another, the ‘ Sinai mountain '. And thus the omission of ὄρει in the revised text of Hebrews 12:18 is virtually supplied” (Vaughan). The ideal Zion is the place of God's manifestation of His presence (Psalms 9:11; Psalms 76:2) but also of His people's abode (Psalms 146:10; Isaiah 1:27 and passim). It is therefore impossible to find another particular of the enumeration in πόλει θεοῦ ζῶντος Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐπουρανίῳ, as if the former were “the transcendent sphere of God's existence where He is manifested only to Himself,” and the latter “the place where His people gather and where He is manifested to them”. (Cf. Isaiah 60:14, κληθήσῃ πόλις Κυρίου, Σιών); the mount and the city are viewed together as the meeting-place of God and His people, where the “living God” manifests fully His eternal fulness and sufficiency. It is “the heavenly Jerusalem” (cf. Galatians 4:26, ἡ ἄνω Ἱερουσαλήμ and Revelation 21:2, ἡ πόλις ἡ μέλλουσα [καὶ μένουσα], Hebrews 13:14) as being not the earthly and made with hands but the ultimate reality [cf. the beautiful description in Philo, De Som., ii. 38, and the Republic, ix. p. 592, where after declaring that no such city as he has been describing exists on earth Plato goes on to say, Ἀλλʼ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἴσως παράδειγμα ἀνάκειται τῷ βουλομένῳ ὁρᾶν καὶ ὁρῶντι ἑαυτὸν κατοικίζειν. Also the fine passage in Seneca, De Otio, chap. 31, on the two Republics.] καὶ μυριάσιν ἀγγέλων, and to myriads of angels, the usual accompaniment of God's glory and ministers of His will, as in Deuteronomy 32:2; Revelation 5:11; and Daniel 7:10, μύριαι μυριάδες παρειστήκεισαν αὐτῷ. The construction of the following words is much debated. (1) πανηγύρει καὶ ἐκκλησ. may be construed in apposition with μυρ. ἀγγέλων, to myriads of angels, a festal gathering and assembly of the first-born enrolled in heaven; or, (2) a new particular may be introduced with καὶ ἐκκλησ.; or, (3) a new particular may be introduced with πανηγύρει, “to myriads of angels, to a festal gathernig and assembly of the first-born.” On the whole, the first seems preferable. For although angels are not elsewhere called the “first-born” of God, they are called “sons of God” (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7; Genesis 6:2; Genesis 6:4; Psalms 89:6) and the designation is here appropriate to denote those who are the pristine inhabitants of heaven. Cf. the first choir of Angelicals in the “Dream of Gerontius,” who sing:

“To us His elder race He gave

To battle and to win,

Without the chastisement of pain,

Without the soil of sin”;

and Augustine in De Civ. Dei, x. 7, “cum angelis sumus una civitas Dei … cujus pars in nobis peregrinatur, pars in illis opitulatur”. πανήγυρις, meaning a festal gathering of the whole people, and ἐκκλησία meaning the assembly of all enrolled citizens, seem much more applicable to angels. They are enrolled as citizens (ἀπογεγ. see the Fayûm and Oxyrhynchus Papyri, passim) in heaven, and welcome the younger sons now introduced. The myriads of angels which on Sinai had made their presence known in thunders and smoke and tempest, terrifying the people, appear now in the familiar form of a well-ordered community in the peaceable guise of citizens rejoicing over additions to their ranks (Luke 15:10). καὶ κριτῇ θεῷ πάντων, “and to a Judge who is God of all,” and by whose judgment you must therefore stand or fall (cf. Hebrews 10:27; Hebrews 10:30-31). Among the realities to which they had been introduced this could not be omitted. He who is God of all living is the ultimate reality, and the Hebrews have been brought near not only to His city with its original inhabitants, but to Himself; and to Himself as allotting without appeal each soul to its destiny. καὶ πνεύμασι … “and to spirits of just men made perfect,” “spirits,” as in 1 Peter 3:19, of those who have departed this life and not yet been clothed with their resurrection body. δικαίων τετελειωμένων is largely illustrated by Wetstein who quotes many examples of “justi perfecti” from the Talmud. It is perhaps more relevant to refer to Hebrews 11:4 and to the whole strain of the Epistle whose aim it is to perfect the righteousness of the Hebrews, see chap. 6. Of course O.T. and N.T. saints are referred to. But as without us, i.e., without sharing in our advantages, they could not be perfected, Hebrews 11:40, there is at once introduced the recent covenant (νέας “new in time,” not, as usual, καίνης “fresh in quality,”) because the idea first in the writer's mind is not the opposition to the old but the recent origin of the new. (But cf. Colossians 3:9; 1 Corinthians 5:7). It is remarkable that the Mediator of this covenant is here called by his human name “Jesus”. The reason probably is that already there is in the writer's mind the great instrument of mediation, αἵματι ῥαντισμοῦ, “blood of sprinkling”. In mediating the old covenant Moses, λαβὼν τὸ αἶμα κατεσκέδασε τοῦ λαοῦ, Exodus 24:8. [αἷμα ῥαντισμοῦ, however, does not occur in LXX, though ὕδωρ ῥαντισμοῦ is found four times in Numbers]. But in Hebrews 9:19 this writer replaces κατεσκέδασε with the more significant ἐράντισεν; cf. Hebrews 9:13. In 1 Peter 1:2 we have ῥαντισμὸν αἵματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The “blood of sprinkling” is therefore the blood by which the new covenant is established, see Hebrews 13:20, αἵματι διαθήκης αἰωνίου, this blood having the power to cleanse the conscience, Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:22. It cleanses because it speaks better than Abel's, κρεῖττον λαλοῦντι παρὰ τὸν Ἄβελ for while that of Abel cried for vengeance [Genesis 4:10, φωνὴ αἵματος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου βοᾷ πρός με ἐκ τῆς γῆς] that of Jesus is a message of salvation, the κρεῖττόν τι of Hebrews 11:40. But it may be adverbial. “Ille flagitabat ultionem, hic impetrat remissionem” (Erasmus).