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 ]