to Hebrews 4:13. Chapter s 3 and 4 as far as Hebrews 3:13, form one paragraph. The purpose of the writer in this passage, as in the whole Epistle, is to encourage his readers in their allegiance to Christ and to save them from apostacy by exhibiting Christ as the final mediator. This purpose he has... [ Continue Reading ]
Ὅθεν, “wherefore,” if through Jesus God has spoken His final and saving word (Hebrews 1:1), thus becoming the Apostle of God, and if the high priest I speak of is so sympathetic and faithful that for the sake of cleansing the people He became man and suffered, then “consider, etc.”. The πιστός of He... [ Continue Reading ]
The characteristic, or particular, qualification of Jesus which is to hold their attention is His trustworthiness or fidelity. πιστὸν ὄντα might be rendered “as being faithful”. The fidelity here in view, though indirectly to men and encouraging them to trust, is directly to Him who made Him, _sc_.,... [ Continue Reading ]
πᾶς γὰρ οἶκος … θεός. “For every house _is built_ by someone, but he that built all is God.” Over and above the right conduct of the house there is a builder. No house, no religious system, grows of itself; it has a cause in the will of one who is greater than it. There is a “someone” at the root of... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ Μωϋσῆς.… Another reason for expecting to find fidelity in Jesus and for ascribing to Him greater glory. Moses was faithful as a servant _in_ the house (ἐν), Christ as a Son _over_ (ἐπὶ) his house. θεράπων denotes a free servant in an honourable position and is the word applied to Moses in Number... [ Continue Reading ]
Διὸ, “wherefore,” since it is only by holding fast our confidence to the end, that we continue to be the house of Christ and enjoy His faithful oversight, _cf._ Hebrews 3:14. Διὸ was probably intended to be immediately followed by βλέπετε (Hebrews 3:12) “wherefore take heed,” but a quotation is intr... [ Continue Reading ]
μὴ σκληρύνητε, the prohibitory subjunctive, _v_. Burton, p. 162. “The figure is from the stiffening by cold or disease, of what ought to be supple and pliable” (Vaughan). [The verb occurs first in Hippocrates, _cf. Anz_. 342.] It is ascribed to τὸν τράχηλον (Deuteronomy 10:16), τὸν νῶτον (2 Kings 17... [ Continue Reading ]
οὗ ἐπείρασάν με …, “where your fathers tempted me,” _i.e._, in the wilderness. Others take οὗ as = “with which,” attracted into genitive by πειρασμοῦ. ἐν δοκιμασίᾳ, “in putting me to the proof”. καὶ εἶδον … ἔτη, “and saw my works forty years,” the wonders of mercy and of judgment. In the psalm τεσσ.... [ Continue Reading ]
διὸ προσώχθισα, “wherefore I was greatly displeased”. In the psalm the Hebrew verb means “I loathed,” elsewhere in the LXX it translates verbs meaning “I am disgusted with,” “I spue out,” “I abhor,” _cf._ Leviticus 26:30, [from ὄχθη a bank, as if from a river chafing with its banks; or related to ἄχ... [ Continue Reading ]
ὡς ὤμοσα. “As I sware,” _i.e._, justifying my oath to exclude them from the land. εἰ εἰσελεύσονται, the common form of oath with εἰ which supposes that some such words as “God do so to me and more also” have preceded the “if”. The oath quoted in Psalms 95 is recorded in Numbers 14:21-23. εἰς τὴν κατ... [ Continue Reading ]
Βλέπετε ἀδελφοὶ μή ποτε.… “Take heed lest haply” as in Hebrews 12:25; Colossians 2:8, for the more classical ὁρᾶτε μὴ. It is here followed by a future indicative as sometimes in classics. ἔν τινι ὑμῶν, the individualising, as in Hebrews 3:13 indicates the writer's earnestness, whether, as Bleek supp... [ Continue Reading ]
To avoid this, παρακαλεῖ τε ἑαυτοὺς καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν, “Exhort one another daily”. ἑαυτούς is equivalent to ἀλλήλους, see Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13. ἄχρις οὗ τὸ Σήμερον καλεῖται, “as long as that period endures which can be called ‘to-day' ”. ἄχρις denotes a point up to which something is do... [ Continue Reading ]
μέτοχοι γὰρ.… In Hebrews 3:6 the writer had adduced as the reason of his warning (βλέπετε) that participation in the salvation of Christ depended on continuance in the confident expectation that their heavenly calling would be fulfilled; and so impressed is he with the difficulty of thus continuing... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν τῷ λέγεσθαι.… “While it is said to-day, etc.” The construction of these words is debated. Bleek, Delitzsch, von Soden and others construe them with what follows, beginning at this point a fresh paragraph. The meaning would thus be: “Since it is said, ‘To-day if ye hear his voice, harden not, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
τίνες γὰρ ἀκούσαντες παρεπίκραναν : “For who were they who after hearing provoked?” He proceeds further to enforce his warning that confidence begun is not enough, by showing that they who provoked God and fell in the wilderness had begun a life of faith and begun it well. For the answer to his ques... [ Continue Reading ]
τίσι δὲ προσώχθισε.… “And with whom was He angry forty years?” taking up the next clause of the Psalms 5:10. Again the question is answered by another “Was it not with them that sinned?” [ἁμαρτήσασιν : “This is the only form of the aorist participle in N.T. In the moods the form of ἥμαρτον is always... [ Continue Reading ]
τίσι δὲ ὤμοσε.… “And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that obeyed not?” The real cause of their exclusion from the rest prepared for them was their disobedience. _Cf._ especially the scene recorded in Numbers 14. where Moses declares that as ἀπειθοῦντες Κυρίῳ th... [ Continue Reading ]
They did not believe God could bring them into the promised land in the face of powerful opposition and so they would not attempt its conquest when commanded to go forward. They were rendered weak by their unbelief. This is pointed out in the concluding words καὶ βλέπομεν … where the emphasis is on... [ Continue Reading ]