Hebrews 6:13

Τῷ γὰρ Ἀβραὰμ.… “For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could sware by none greater, He sware by Himself, saying, etc.” Abraham is introduced because to him was made the fundamental and comprehensive promise (cf. Luke 1:73, and Galatians 3) which involved all that God was ever to bestow. And in Abraham it is seen that the promise is secure, but that only by patient waiting can it be inherited. It is secure because God pledged Himself to perform it. The promise referred to in ἐπαγγειλάμενος seems to be that which was confirmed by an oath, and which is recorded in Genesis 22:16-18, κατʼ ἐμαυτοῦ ὤμοσα κ. τ. λ. But Westcott prefers to consider that previous promises are referred to, as in Genesis 12:3; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:14; Genesis 15:5; Genesis 17:5. The aorist participle ἐπαγγ. admits of either construction. ἐπεὶ κατʼ οὐδενὸς … ὀμνύω followed by κατά as frequently in classics (Arist., Frogs, 94) and LXX, Isaiah 45:23; Amos 4:2; Amos 8:7; Zephaniah 1:5; Matthew 26:63. See references. εἶχε … ὀμόσαι, a classical use of ἔχειν from Homer downwards, “to have means or power to do,” “to be able”. The greater the Being sworn by, the surer the promise. Cf. Longinus, De Subl., c. 16, on swearing by those who died at Marathon. ὤμοσε καθʼ ἑαυτοῦ, how this oath was given, and how the knowledge of it was conveyed to men, this writer does not say. But it was somehow conveyed to the mind of Abraham that the fulfilment of this promise was bound up with the life of God; that it was so implicated with His purposes that God could as soon cease to be, as neglect the fulfilment of it. Lying as it did at the root of all further development, and marking out as it did the true end for which the world exists, it seemed to be bound up with the very being of God. Paul's way of expressing a similar idea is more congruous to our ways of looking at things, cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20. Cf. Philo's discussion in De Leg. Allegor., iii. 72, 3.