Hebrews 2:1

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 Corinthians 11:10, ὀφείλει notat obligationem: δεῖ necessitatem; illud morale est, hoc quasi physicum; ut in vernaculâ, wir sollen und müssen”. Here then it is the logical necessity that is prominent. περισσοτέρως is to be joined not with δεῖ as in Vulg. (and Bengel), “abundantius oportet observare,” but with προσέχειν. The adverb occurs in Hebrews 13:19 and six times in 2 Cor.; the adj. frequently in N.T. περισσοτέρως [περιττοτέρως] occurs in Diod. Sic., xiii. 108, τὰ περ. εἰργασμένα; also in Athenaeus, v., p. 192 F. κλισμὸς περιτ. κεκόσμηται. The comparative is here used with reference to the greater attention due to the revelation than if it had been delivered by one of less position. Atto Vercell. suggestively, “Quare abundantius … Nonne et illa Dei sunt et ista?” His answer being that those who had been brought up to reverence the O.T. might be apt to despise the new revelation. προσέχειν never in N.T. and only once in LXX (Job 7:17) has the added τὸν νοῦν usual in classics. As προσέχειν is commonly used of bringing a ship to land, this sense may have suggested the παραῤῥυῶμεν. ἡμᾶς, including himself, but meaning to indicate all who in these last days had heard the revelation of Christ. τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσιν : “the things heard,” the great salvation first preached by the Lord, Hebrews 2:3; cf. Acts 8:6; Acts 16:14. He means to disclose the significance of what they have already heard, rather than to bring forward new truth. μὴ ποτε παραῤῥυῶμεν : “lest haply we drift away”. μή ποτε, as Hoogeveen shows, occurs in N.T. as = ne quando and also as = ne forte; but in clauses expressing apprehension, as here, it can always be rendered “lest perchance”. [“In Hellenistic Greek μήποτε in a principal clause means ‘perhaps,' in a dependent clause ‘if perchance,' ‘if possibly,' ” Blass, p. 212.] παραῤῥυῶμεν is 2nd aor. subj. pass. (with neuter meaning) of παραῤῥέω, I flow beside or past; as in Xen., Cyrop., iv. 52, πιεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ παραῤῥέοντος ποταμοῦ. Hence, to slip aside; as in Soph., Philoct., 653, of an arrow slipping from the quiver; in Xen., Anab., iv. 4, of snow slipping off; Ælian, V. H., iii. 30, of a coarse story unseasonably slipping into a discreet conversation; and in medical writers, frequently of food slipping aside into the windpipe. Origen (Contra Celsum, 393) says the multitude need fixed holy days, ἵνα μὴ τέλεον παραῤῥυῇ, “that they may not quite drift away”. See also Proverbs 3:21, υἱὲ, μὴ παραῤῥυῇς, τήρησον δὲ ἐμὴν βουλήν.