Διὰ τοῦτο : “on this account,” because God has now spoken not through prophets or angels, but through a Son. δεῖ … ἡμᾶς : “we must give more excessive heed”. “Alibi utitur verbo ὀφείλειν _debere_ : hic δεῖ _oportet_. Illud dicit _obligationem_ : hoc, urgens periculum”; Bengel, who also remarks on 1... [ Continue Reading ]
From this proved superiority of the Son to the angels the writer deduces the warning that neglect of the salvation proclaimed by the Lord Himself and attested by God in miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost will incur heavier punishment than that which was inflicted upon those who neglected the word... [ Continue Reading ]
to Hebrews 2:18. _The Son and the Angels_. Hebrews 1:4, although forming part of the sentence 1 3, introduces a subject which continues to be more or less in view throughout chaps 1 and 2. The exaltation of the Mediator to the right hand of Sovereignty is in keeping with His designation as Son, a de... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰ γὰρ ὁ διʼ ἀγγέλων λαληθεὶς λόγος.… An _a fortiori_ argument derived from the notoriously inevitable character of the punishment which overtook those who disregarded the Law. “The word spoken through angels” is the Law, the characteristic and fundamental form under which the old revelation had bee... [ Continue Reading ]
πῶς ἡμεῖς.… “How shall we” to whom God has spoken through the Son, Hebrews 1:2 “escape (ἔνδικον μισθ. prob. in final judgment, as in Hebrews 10:27) if we have neglected (the aorist ἀμελήσαντες suggesting that life is looked at as a whole) so great a salvation?” the salvation which formed the main th... [ Continue Reading ]
Οὐ γὰρ ἀγγέλοις.… “For not to angels”. With γὰρ the writer proceeds to clinch the exhortation contained in Hebrews 2:1-4, by exhibiting the ground of it. Under the old Covenant angels had been God's messengers, but this mode of mediation has passed away. The οἰκουμένη μέλλουσα is not subject to them... [ Continue Reading ]
Having sufficiently brought out the permanence and sovereignty of the Son by contrasting them with the fleeting personality and ministerial function of angels, the author now proceeds to bring the supremacy of the Son into direct relation to the Messianic administration of “the world to come,” the i... [ Continue Reading ]
That God has been mindful of man and visited him is apparent in the three particulars now mentioned. βραχύ τι is “a little,” either in material, or in space, or in time. In 1 Samuel 14:29, ἐγευσάμην βραχύ τι τ. μέλιτος. In Isaiah 57:17, of time, διʼ ἁμαρτίαν βραχύ τι ἐλύπησα αὐτον. So in N.T., of at... [ Continue Reading ]
πάντα ὑπέταξας.… “Thou didst put all things under his feet.” In the psalm “all things” are defined as “all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea”. But to our author the scope of the “all” has... [ Continue Reading ]
The humiliation of the Son justified; “a condensed and pregnant view of the theory of the whole work of Christ, which subsequent Chapter s develop, eludicate, and justify dialectically, in contrast or comparison with the O.T.… The ultimate source of all doubt whether the new dispensation is superior... [ Continue Reading ]
In the eleventh verse the writer proceeds to explain _wherein_ consisted the fittingness (τὸ πρέπον) of perfecting the ἀρχηγόν through sufferings. It lies in the fact that He and those He leads are brothers. In Hebrews 2:11-13 it is shown that this is so, and in the succeeding verses the writer poin... [ Continue Reading ]
In proof that He is not ashamed to take his place among men as a brother three passages are adduced from the O.T. in which this relationship is implied. These passages are so confidently assumed to be Messianic that they are quoted as spoken by Christ Himself, λέγων. The fact that words of Jesus spo... [ Continue Reading ]
The two quotations cited in the thirteenth verse are from Isaiah 8:17-18. There they are continuous, here they are separately introduced, each by the usual καὶ πάλιν, because they serve to bring out two distinct points. In the first, the Messiah utters his trust in God, and thereby illustrates His s... [ Continue Reading ]
This saving brotherhood involved incarnation and death. For, as it has ever been the common lot of the παιδία to live under the conditions imposed by flesh and blood, subject to inevitable dissolution and the shrinkings and weaknesses consequent, He also, this Son of God, Himself (καὶ αὐτὸς) shared... [ Continue Reading ]
ὅθεν [six times in this Epistle; not used by Paul, but _cf._ Acts 26:19] ‘wherefore,' because He makes the seed of Abraham the object of His saving work, ὤφειλεν, “He was under obligation”. ὀφείλω is “used of a necessity imposed either by law and duty, or by reason, or by the times, or by the nature... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ᾧ γὰρ πέπονθεν.… He concludes this part of his argument by explaining the process by which Christ's becoming man has answered the purpose of making Him a merciful and faithful High Priest. The explanation is “non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco”. ἐν ᾧ is by some interpreters resolved into ἐν... [ Continue Reading ]