Hebrews 6:4

First, the description here given of those who have entered upon the Christian life is parallel to the description given in Hebrews 6:1-2 of elementary Christian teaching; although the parallel is not carried out in detail. The picture, though highly coloured, is somewhat vague in outline. “The writer's purpose is not to give information to us, but to awaken in the breasts of his first readers sacred memories, and breed godly sorrow over a dead past. Hence he expresses himself in emotional terms such as might be used by recent converts rather than in the colder but more exact style of the historian” (Bruce). ἀδύνατον γὰρ : The γὰρ does not refer to the immediately preceding clause (Delitzsch) but points directly to τοῦτο ποιήσομεν and through these words to ἐπὶ τὴν τελ. φερώμεθα, the sense being “Let us go on to perfection and not attempt to lay again a foundation, for this would be vain, seeing that those who have once begun and found entrance to the Christian life, but have fallen away, cannot be renewed again to repentance, cannot make a second beginning. τοὺς ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας, “those who were once enlightened”. τοὺς includes all the participles down to παραπεσόντας, which therefore describe one class of persons; and it is governed by ἀνακαινίζειν. ἅπαξ : “once for all” semel (not πότε = quondam) may be taken as remotely modifying the three following participles as well as φωτισθ. Its force is that “once” must be enough; no πάλιν can find place; and it refers back to πάλιν of Hebrews 6:1, and forward to πάλιν of Hebrews 6:6. φωτισθέντας is used in this absolute way in Hebrews 10:32 where a comparison with Hebrews 10:26 indicates that it is equivalent to τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας. Cf. also 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Ephesians 1:18. The source of the enlightenment is τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, the result is repentance and faith, Hebrews 6:1. Hatch refers to this passage in support of his contention that the language and imagery of the N.T. are influenced by the Greek mysteries (Hibbert Lect., pp. 295 6). “So early as the time of Justin Martyr we find a name given to baptism which comes straight from the Greek mysteries the name ‘enlightenment' (φωτισμός, φωτίζεσθαι). It came to be the constant technical term.” But as Anrich shows (Das antike Mysterienwesen, p. 125) φωτισμός was not one of the technical terms of the mysteries [“Der Ausdruck φωτισμός begegnet in der Mysterienterminologie nie und nirgends”.] The word is of frequent occurrence in the LXX, see esp. Hosea 10:12. φωτίσατε ἑαυτοὺς φῶς γνώσεως [“Ausdruck und Vorstellung sind alttestamentlich”]. Of course it is the fact that φωτισμός was used by Justin and subsequent fathers to denote baptism (vide Suicer, s.v.), and several interpret the word here in that sense. So the Syrian versions; Theodoret and Theophylact translate by βάπτισμα and λουτρόυ. For the use made of this translation in the Montanist and Novatian controversies see the Church Histories, and Tertullian's De Pudic., c. xx. The translation is, however, an anachronism. [In this connection, the whole of c. vi. of Clement's Paedag. may with advantage be read. ἐωτίσθημεν · τὸ δʼ ἐστιν ἐπιγνῶναι τὸν Θεόν.… Βαπτιζόμενοι φωτιζόμεθα · φωτιζόμενοι υἱοποιούμεθα · υἱοποιούμενοι τελειούμεθα.]

γευσαμένους τε f1τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου, “and tasted the heavenly gift”. γευσαμ. here as elsewhere, to know experimentally; cf. Hebrews 2:9; Matthew 16:28. The heavenly gift, or the gift that comes to us from heaven and partakes of the nature of its source, is according to Chrys. and Œcum: “The forgiveness of sins”; and so, many moderns, Davidson, Weiss, etc.; others with a slight difference refer it to the result of forgiveness “pacem conscientiae quae consequitur peccatorum remissionem” (Grotius). Some finding that δωρεά is more than once (Acts 2:38; Acts 10:45) used of the Holy Spirit, conclude that this is here the meaning (Owen, von Soden, etc.); while Bengel is not alone in rendering, “Dei filius, ut exprimitur (Hebrews 6:6.) Christus, qui per fidem, nec non in sacra ipsius Coena gustatur”. Bleek, considering that this expression is closely joined to the preceding by τε, concludes that what is meant is the gift of enlightenment, or, as Tholuck says, “the δωρεά is just the Christian φῶς objectively taken”. The objection to the first of these interpretations, which has much in its favour, is that it is too restricted: the last is right in emphasising the close connection with φωτισθ., for what is meant apparently is the whole gift of redemption, the new creation, the fulness of life eternal freely bestowed, and made known as freely bestowed, to the “enlightened”. Cf. Romans 5:15; 2 Corinthians 9:15. καὶ μετόχους γενηθέντας Πνεύματος Ἁγίου, “and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost”; a strong expression intended to bring out, as Westcott remarks, “the fact of a personal character gained; and that gained in a vital development”. The bestowal of the Spirit is the invariable response to faith. The believer is πνευματικός. In chap. Hebrews 10:29, when the same class of persons is described, one element of their guilt is stated to be their doing despite to the Spirit of grace. Grotius and others refer the words to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; rather it is the distinctive source of Christian life that is meant. It is customary to find a parallel between the two clauses of Hebrews 6:2, βαπτ. διδ. ἐπιθέσ. τε χειρῶν and the two clauses of this verse γευσαμ. και μετόχους. There are, however, objections to this idea.