Hebrews 9:28

οὕτως. The comparison extends to both terms, the once dying and the judgment. [Cf. Kübel, “die Korrespondenz ist nicht bloss die der gleichen Menschennatur, sondern das, dass mit dem Tod das, was das Leben bedeutet, abgeschlossen, fertigist”]. The results of the life are settled. And in Christ's case the result is that He appears the second time without sin unto salvation, the sin having been destroyed by His death, ἅπαξ προσενεχθεὶς corresponds to ἅπαξ ἀποθανεῖν of Hebrews 9:27. The passive is used to be more in keeping with the universal law expressed in ἀπόκειται of Hebrews 9:27. Though the “offering” as we have seen includes both the death and the entrance into the Holiest with the blood, it is the death which is here prominent. εἰς τὸ πολλῶν ἀνενεγκεῖν ἁμαρτίας, “to bear the sins of many”. Westcott says, “the burden which Christ took upon Him and bore to the cross was ‘the sins of many' not, primarily, or separately from the sins, the punishment of sins.” But in what intelligible sense can sins be borne but by bearing their punishment? In Numbers 14:33, e.g., it is said “your sins shall be fed in the wilderness forty years καὶ ἀνοίσουσι τὴν πορνείαν ὑμῶν, where the same verb is used as here to express the idea of suffering punishment for the sins of others, πολλῶν, although it was the death of but one, cf. Romans 5:12-21, but probably only a reminiscence of Isaiah 58:12. αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκε. ἐκ δευτέρου … a second time He shall appear, ὀφθήσεται, visible to the eye. The word is probably used because appropriate to the appearances after the resurrection, cf. Luke 24:34; Acts 9:17; Acts 13:31; 1 Corinthians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Corinthians 5:8 where ὤφθη is regularly used. But on this “second” appearance His object is different. He will come not εἰς τὸ πολ. ἀνεν. ἁμαρτίας, but χωρὶς ἁμ. εἰς σωτηρίαν irrespective of sin, not to be a sin offering but to make those who wait for Him partakers of the great salvation, Hebrews 2:3, cf. Hebrews 10:37-39; and Hebrews 9:12. τοῖς αὐτὸν ἀπεκδεχομένοις “There may be an illusion to the reappearance of the High Priest after the solemn ceremonial in the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement to the anxiously waiting people” (Vaughan). Cf. Luke 1:21. The word is used in 1 Corinthians 1:7 and Philippians 3:20 of the expectation of the second advent, and in 2 Timothy 4:8 is varied by the beautiful expression “they that have loved His appearing”.