An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Vol. III

THE general scope and design of the apostle in this whole epistle hath been before declared, and need not here be repeated. In this first chapter he fixeth and improveth the principal consideration that he intends to insist on throughout the epistle,—to prevail with the Hebrews unto constancy and perseverance in the doctrine of the gospel. And this is taken from the immediate author of it, the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Him, therefore, in this chapter he at large describes; and that two ways,—l. Absolutely, declaring what he is in his person and offices, as also what he hath done for the church; and, 2. Comparatively, with respect unto other ministerial revealers of the mind and will of God, especially insisting on his excellency and pre-eminence above the angels, as we shall see in the explication of the several parts and verses of it.

TloAumepas xal rorurpirws wdAas 6 Osds AaAnoas roils marpdow ey rors Tpoonraig, ex” soyxdrwv ray jwspdv rovrwy eAdAnoev Hus sv Lip, bv ednxs xAnpovomov wdvray, O1 oF xa rods aldvag eroinosy.

Many of these words being variously rendered, their true grammatical sense and importance is to be considered before we open the meaning of the whole, and aim of the apostle in them; in which way we shall also proceed throughout the whole epistle.

Tloavuespas. 22 bob, Syr., “in all parts,” or “by many parts.” Multifariam,” Vulg. Eras., A. Montan., “ diversely.” Multis vicibus,” Beza; which ours render, “at sundry times.” Mefoogeas is * sortior,” “ divido,” * to part,” “ to take part,” “to divide ;” whence is wépos, “the part of any thing ;” and xoAvgepus, “that which consisteth of many parts;” and roavgepas, “ by many parts;” which is also used as tv +@ yépes, for “ alternis yicibus,” “sundry changes,” The

word properly is, “ by many parts,” “ fully,” “ by several parts at several times,” as our translation intimates; yet so that a diversity of parts and degrees, rather than of times and seasons, is intended.

Kal roavrporws. 27 boat, Syr., “in all forms.” “ Multisque madis,” Vulg. Eras., A. Montan., Beza, “ many ways;” or as ours, “ divers manners.”

Tlaaw, OP 72, Syr., “ab initio,” “from the beginning.” “ Olim,” the Latin translation, “of old,” « formerly,” “in times past.” IléAes is “olim,” “ quondam,” “ pridem,” “ jamdudum,” any time past that is opposed r@ dpri, or voy, to that which is present, properly time some good while past, as that was whereof the apostle treats, having ended in Malachi four hundred years before.

Tots rarpeow. JTRS oY, Syr., “ with our fathers,” “to the fathers.”

°Ey roig wpoQyrais. 81322, Syr., “in the prophets.” So all the Latin translations, “in prophetis.”

Er toxarov ray neepav TOUTMY, Dalat NraN yom, Syr., “and in those last days.” “Ultimis diebus hisce,” “ultimis diebus istis,” “in these last days.” ‘“ Novissime diebus istis,” Vulg.,—* last of all inthese days.” Some Greek copies have éx toxérov rav qwepav rovrwy, “in extremo dierum istorum,” “ in the end of these days.” The reason of which variety we shall see afterwards.

’Ey Yid, as before, “in the prophets;” not “by his Son,” but “in the Son,”

~The emphasis of the expression is necessarily to be retained, as the opening of the words will discover.

Tovs aiaves. “ Mundos,’ “secula.” xnbyd, Syr., “the ages,” “ times,” “ worlds.” In the remaining words there is no difficulty, as to the grammatical signification; we shall then read them,!—

1 Various READINGS.—On the authority of manuscripts ABDEJK, most of the versions, and the majority of the fathers, Tischendorf, in his second edition of the New Testament, inserts ¢oxrov in the text. In most critical editions since the time of Bengel, the same reading has been preferred and adopted. Our author himself, to judge from a remark which he makes in the course of exposition, had a decided leaning to it.

Exposition.—II. xa? x. “Of the two modes of interpreting these words, I rather prefer that which separates them, and gives a distinct meaning to each: ‘God, who in ancient times made communications to the fathers by the prophets, in sundry parts and in various ways, has now made a revelation to us by his Son;’ a. é., he has completed the whole revelation which he intends to make under the new dispensation by his Son, his Son only, and not by a long-continued series of prophets, as of old.”—Stwart. ‘They have been considered merely a rhetorical amplification.” —Tholuck. “ Tloavmepas means, not ‘many times,’ but ‘manifoldly, in many parts.’ The antithesis is not that God has spoken often by the prophets, but only once by his Son; . . . ... the opposition is between the distribution of the Old Testament revelation among the prophets, and the undivided fulness of the New Testament revelation by Christ.”—L£brard.

"Ex tox. trav qe. “Under the last period, viz., of the Messiah.”— Stuart. “On the confines of the former period, and of the new everlasting epoch; not within the latter, and also not within the former.”—Tholuck. The end of this time, in reference to the mim adv of the Jews, the period of the world which preceded the coming of Christ, whose work was to form the transition from it to the period terminating in the resurrection.”—Ebrard. ‘The period of the gospel, the last dispensation of God.”—Bloomfield.

*Ey Yi. A specimen of the arbitrary use of the article, for “ Yig is monadie: it designates one individual peculiarly distinguished, and the pronoun evrov is omitted after it; on all which accounts, according to theory, the article should be added.”—Stuart. “‘God spake to us by one who was Son,’ who stood not in the relation of prophet, but in the relation of Son to him. If it were ¢y 7@ Yi@, then Christ would be placed as this individual, in opposition to the individuals of the prophets; but as the article is wanting, it is the species that is placed in opposition to the species, although, of course, Christ is the single indiVer. 1, 2.—By sundry parts, and in divers manners, God having formerly | or, of old] spoken unto the fathers in the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in the Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all, by whom also he made the worlds.