{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"HEB","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Hebrews","commonName":"Hebrews","introduction":"CANONICITY AND AUTHORSHIP.--CLEMENT OF ROME, at the end of the first century (A.D), copiously uses it, adopting its words just as he does those of the other books of the New Testament; not indeed giving to either the term \"Scripture,\" which he reserves for the Old Testament (the canon of the New Testament not yet having been formally established), but certainly not ranking it below the other New Testament acknowledged Epistles. As our Epistle claims authority on the part of the writer, CLEMENT'S adoption of extracts from it is virtually sanctioning its authority, and this in the apostolic age. JUSTIN MARTYR quotes it as divinely authoritative, to establish the titles \"apostle,\" as well as \"angel,\" as applied to the Son of God. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA refers it expressly to Paul, on the authority of PantÃ&brvbrnus, chief of the Catechetical school in Alexandria, in the middle of the second century, saying, that as Jesus is termed in it the \"apostle\" sent to the Hebrews, Paul, through humility, does not in it call himself apostle of the Hebrews, being apostle to the Gentiles. CLEMENT also says that Paul, as the Hebrews were prejudiced against him, prudently omitted to put forward his name in the beginning; also, that it was originally written in Hebrew for the Hebrews, and that Luke translated it into Greek for the Greeks, whence the style is similar to that of Acts. He, however, quotes frequently the words of the existing Greek Epistle as Paul's words. ORIGEN similarly quotes it as Paul's Epistle. However, in his Homilies, he regards the style as distinct from that of Paul, and as \"more Grecian,\" but the thoughts as the apostle's; adding that the \"ancients who have handed down the tradition of its Pauline authorship, must have had good reason for doing so, though God alone knows the certainty who was the actual writer\" (that is, probably \"transcriber\" of the apostle's thoughts). In the African Church, in the beginning of the third century, TERTULLIAN ascribes it to Barnabas. IRENÆUS, bishop of Lyons, is mentioned in EUSEBIUS, as quoting from this Epistle, though without expressly referring it to Paul. About the same period, Caius, the presbyter, in the Church of Rome, mentions only thirteen Epistles of Paul, whereas, if the Epistle to the Hebrews were included, there would be fourteen. So the canon fragment of the end of the second century, or beginning of the third, published by MURATORI, apparently omits mentioning it. And so the Latin Church did not recognize it as Paul's till a considerable time after the beginning of the third century. Thus, also, NOVATIAN OF ROME, CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE, and VICTORINUS, also of the Latin Church. But in the fourth century, HILARY OF POITIERS (A.D. 368), LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI (A.D. 371), AMBROSE OF MILAN (A.D. 397) and other Latins, quote it as Paul's; and the fifth Council of Carthage (A.D. 419) formally reckons it among his fourteen Epistles.\n\nAs to the similarity of its style to that of Luke's writings, this is due to his having been so long the companion of Paul. CHRYSOSTOM, comparing Luke and Mark, says, \"Each imitated his teacher: Luke imitated Paul flowing along with more than river fulness; but Mark imitated Peter, who studied brevity of style.\" Besides, there is a greater predominance of Jewish feeling and familiarity with the peculiarities of the Jewish schools apparent in this Epistle than in Luke's writings. There is no clear evidence for attributing the authorship to him, or to Apollos, whom ALFORD upholds as the author. The grounds alleged for the latter view are its supposed Alexandrian phraseology and modes of thought. But these are such as any Palestinian Jew might have used; and Paul, from his HebrÃ&brvbro-Hellenistic education at Jerusalem and Tarsus, would be familiar with PHILO'S modes of thought, which are not, as some think, necessarily all derived from his Alexandrian, but also from his Jewish, education. It would be unlikely that the Alexandrian Church should have so undoubtingly asserted the Pauline authorship, if Apollos, their own countryman, had really been the author. The eloquence of its style and rhetoric, a characteristic of Apollos' at Corinth, whereas Paul there spoke in words unadorned by man's wisdom, are doubtless designedly adapted to the minds of those whom Paul in this Epistle addresses. To the Greek Corinthians, who were in danger of idolizing human eloquence and wisdom, he writes in an unadorned style, in order to fix their attention more wholly on the Gospel itself. But the Hebrews were in no such danger. And his HebrÃ&brvbro-Grecian education would enable him to write in a style attractive to the Hebrews at Alexandria, where Greek philosophy had been blended with Judaism. The Septuagint translation framed at Alexandria had formed a connecting link between the latter and the former; and it is remarkable that all the quotations from the Old Testament, excepting two (Heb 10:30; Heb 13:5), are taken from the Septuagint. The fact that the peculiarities of the Septuagint are interwoven into the argument proves that the Greek Epistle is an original, not a translation; had the original been Hebrew, the quotations would have been from the Hebrew Old Testament. The same conclusion follows from the plays on similarly sounding words in the Greek, and alliterations, and rhythmically constructed periods. CALVIN observes, If the Epistle had been written in Hebrew, Heb 9:15-17 would lose all its point, which consists in the play upon the double meaning of the Greek \"diathece,\" a \"covenant,\" or a \"testament,\" whereas the Hebrew \"berith\" means only \"covenant.\"\n\nInternal evidence favors the Pauline authorship. Thus the topic so fully handled in this Epistle, that Christianity is superior to Judaism, inasmuch as the reality exceeds the type which gives place to it, is a favorite one with Paul (compare Co2 3:6-18; Gal 3:23-25; Gal 4:1-9, Gal 4:21-31, wherein the allegorical mode of interpretation appears in its divinely sanctioned application--a mode pushed to an unwarrantable excess in the Alexandrian school). So the Divine Son appears in Heb 1:3, &c., as in other Epistles of Paul (Phi 2:6; Col 1:15-20), as the Image, or manifestation of the Deity. His lowering of Himself for man's sake similarly, compare Heb 2:9, with Co2 8:9; Phi 2:7-8. Also His final exaltation, compare Heb 2:8; Heb 10:13; Heb 12:2, with Co1 15:25, Co1 15:27. The word \"Mediator\" is peculiar to Paul alone, compare Heb 8:6, with Gal 3:19-20. Christ's death is represented as the sacrifice for sin prefigured by the Jewish sacrifices, compare Rom 3:22-26; Co1 5:7, with Heb. 7:1-10:39. The phrase, \"God of Peace,\" is peculiar to Paul, compare Heb 13:20; Rom 15:33; Th1 5:23. Also, compare Heb 2:4, Margin, Co1 12:4. Justification, or \"righteousness by faith.\" appears in Heb 11:7; Heb 10:38, as in Rom 1:17; Rom 4:22; Rom 5:1; Gal 3:11; Phi 3:9. The word of God is the \"sword of the Spirit,\" compare Heb 4:12, with Eph 6:17. Inexperienced Christians are children needing milk, that is, instruction in the elements, whereas riper Christians, as full-grown men, require strong meat, compare Heb 5:12-13; Heb 6:1, with Co1 3:1-2; Co1 14:20 Gal 4:9; Col 3:14. Salvation is represented as a boldness of access to God by Christ, compare Heb 10:19, with Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12. Afflictions are a fight, Heb 10:32; compare Phi 1:30; Col 2:1. The Christian life is a race, Heb 12:1; compare Co1 9:24; Phi 3:12-14. The Jewish ritual is a service, Rom 9:4; compare Heb 9:1, Heb 9:6. Compare \"subject to bondage,\" Heb 2:15, with Gal 5:1. Other characteristics of Paul's style appear in this Epistle; namely, a propensity \"to go off at a word\" and enter on a long parenthesis suggested by that word, a fondness for play upon words of similar sound, and a disposition to repeat some favorite word. Frequent appeals to the Old Testament, and quotations linked by \"and again,\" compare Heb 1:5; Heb 2:12-13, with Rom 15:9-12. Also quotations in a peculiar application, compare Heb 2:8, with Co1 15:27; Eph 1:22. Also the same passage quoted in a form not agreeing with the Septuagint, and with the addition \"saith the Lord,\" not found in the Hebrew, in Heb 10:30; Rom 12:19.\n\nThe supposed Alexandrian (which are rather Philon-like) characteristics of the Epistle are probably due to the fact that the Hebrews were generally then imbued with the Alexandrian modes of thought of Philo, &c., and Paul, without coloring or altering Gospel truth \"to the Jews, became (in style) as a Jew, that he might win the Jews\" (Co1 9:20). This will account for its being recognized as Paul's Epistle in the Alexandrian and Jerusalem churches unanimously, to the Hebrews of whom probably it was addressed. Not one Greek father ascribes the Epistle to any but Paul, whereas in the Western and Latin churches, which it did not reach for some time, it was for long doubted, owing to its anonymous form, and generally less distinctively Pauline style. Their reason for not accepting it as Paul's, or indeed as canonical, for the first three centuries, was negative, insufficient evidence for it, not positive evidence against it. The positive evidence is generally for its Pauline origin. In the Latin churches, owing to their distance from the churches to whom belonged the Hebrews addressed, there was no generally received tradition on the subject. The Epistle was in fact but little known at all, whence we find it is not mentioned at all in the Canon of Muratori. When at last, in the fourth century, the Latins found that it was received as Pauline and canonical on good grounds in the Greek churches, they universally acknowledged it as such.\n\nThe personal notices all favor its Pauline authorship, namely, his intention to visit those addressed, shortly, along with Timothy, styled \"our brother,\" Heb 13:23; his being then in prison, Heb 13:19; his formerly having been imprisoned in Palestine, according to English Version reading, Heb 10:34; the salutations transmitted to them from believers of Italy, Heb 13:24. A reason for not prefixing the name may be the rhetorical character of the Epistle which led the author to waive the usual form of epistolary address.\n\nDESIGN.--His aim is to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, in that it was introduced by one far higher than the angels or Moses, through whom the Jews received the law, and in that its priesthood and sacrifices are far less perfecting as to salvation than those of Christ; that He is the substance of which the former are but the shadow, and that the type necessarily gives place to the antitype; and that now we no longer are kept at a comparative distance as under the law, but have freedom of access through the opened veil, that is, Christ's flesh; hence he warns them of the danger of apostasy, to which Jewish converts were tempted, when they saw Christians persecuted, while Judaism was tolerated by the Roman authorities. He infers the obligations to a life of faith, of which, even in the less perfect Old Testament dispensation, the Jewish history contained bright examples. He concludes in the usual Pauline mode, with practical exhortations and pious prayers for them.\n\nHIS MODE OF ADDRESS is in it hortatory rather than commanding, just as we might have expected from Paul addressing the Jews. He does not write to the rulers of the Jewish Christians, for in fact there was no exclusively Jewish Church; and his Epistle, though primarily addressed to the Palestinian Jews, was intended to include the Hebrews of all adjoining churches. He inculcates obedience and respect in relation to their rulers (Heb 13:7, Heb 13:17, Heb 13:24); a tacit obviating of the objection that he was by writing this Epistle interfering with the prerogative of Peter the apostle of the circumcision, and James the bishop of Jerusalem. Hence arises his gentle and delicate mode of dealing with them (Heb 13:22). So far from being surprised at discrepancy of style between an Epistle to Hebrews and Epistles to Gentile Christians, it is just what we should expect. The Holy Spirit guided him to choose means best suited to the nature of the ends aimed at. WORDSWORTH notices a peculiar Pauline Greek construction, Rom 12:9, literally, \"Let your love be without dissimulation, ye abhorring . . . evil, cleaving to . . . good,\" which is found nowhere else save Heb 13:5, literally, \"Let your conversation be without covetousness, ye being content with,\" &c. (a noun singular feminine nominative absolute, suddenly passing into a participle masculine nominative plural absolute). So in quoting Old Testament Scripture, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes it as a Jew writing to Jews would, \"God spoke to our fathers,\" not, \"it is written.\" So Heb 13:18, \"We trust we have a good conscience\" is an altogether Pauline sentiment (Act 23:1; Act 24:16; Co2 1:12; Co2 4:2; Ti2 1:3). Though he has not prefixed his name, he has given at the close his universal token to identify him, namely, his apostolic salutation, \"Grace be with you all\"; this \"salutation with his own hand\" he declared (Th2 3:17-18) to be \"his token in every Epistle\": so Co1 16:21, Co1 16:23; Col 4:18. The same prayer of greeting closes every one of his Epistles, and is not found in any one of the Epistles of the other apostles written in Paul's lifetime; but it is found in the last book of the New Testament Revelation, and subsequently in the Epistle of CLEMENT OF ROME. This proves that, by whomsoever the body of the Epistle was committed to writing (whether a mere amanuensis writing by dictation, or a companion of Paul by the Spirit's gift of interpreting tongues, Co1 12:10, transfusing Paul's Spirit-taught sentiments into his own Spirit-guided diction), Paul at the close sets his seal to the whole as really his, and sanctioned by him as such. The churches of the East, and Jerusalem, their center, to which quarter it was first sent, received it as Paul's from the earliest times according to Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (A.D. 349). JEROME, though bringing with him from Rome the prejudices of the Latins against the Epistle to the Hebrews, aggravated, doubtless, by its seeming sanction of the Novatian heresy (Heb 6:4-6), was constrained by the force of facts to receive it as Paul's, on the almost unanimous testimony of all Greek Christians from the earliest times; and was probably the main instrument in correcting the past error of Rome in rejecting it. The testimony of the Alexandrian Church is peculiarly valuable, for it was founded by Mark, who was with Paul at Rome in his first confinement, when this Epistle seems to have been written (Col 4:10), and who possibly was the bearer of this Epistle, at the same time visiting Colosse on the way to Jerusalem (where Mark's mother lived), and thence to Alexandria. Moreover, Pe2 3:15-16, written shortly before Peter's death, and like his first Epistle written by him, \"the apostle of the circumcision,\" to the \"Hebrew\" Christians dispersed in the East, says, \"As our beloved brother Paul hath written unto you\" (Pe2 3:15), that is, to the Hebrews; also the words added, \"As also in all his Epistles\" (Pe2 3:16), distinguish the Epistle to the Hebrews from the rest; then he further speaks of it as on a level with \"other Scriptures,\" thus asserting at once its Pauline authorship and divine inspiration. An interesting illustration of the power of Christian faith and love; Peter, who had been openly rebuked by Paul (Gal 2:7-14), fully adopted what Paul wrote; there was no difference in the Gospel of the apostle of the circumcision and that of the apostle of the uncircumcision. It strikingly shows God's sovereignty that He chose as the instrument to confirm the Hebrews, Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles (Rom 11:13); and on the other hand, Peter to open the Gospel door to the Gentiles (Act 10:1, &c.), though being the apostle of the Jews; thus perfect unity reigns amidst the diversity of agencies.\n\nRome, in the person of CLEMENT OF ROME, originally received this Epistle. Then followed a period in which it ceased to be received by the Roman churches. Then, in the fourth century, Rome retracted her error. A plain proof she is not unchangeable or infallible. As far as Rome is concerned, the Epistle to the Hebrews was not only lost for three centuries, but never would have been recovered at all but for the Eastern churches; it is therefore a happy thing for Christendom that Rome is not the Catholic Church.\n\nIt plainly was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, which would have been mentioned in the Epistle had that event gone before, compare Heb 13:10; and probably to churches in which the Jewish members were the more numerous, as those in Judea, and perhaps Alexandria. In the latter city were the greatest number of resident Jews next to Jerusalem. In Leontopolis, in Egypt, was another temple, with the arrangements of which, WIESELER thinks the notices in this Epistle more nearly corresponded than with those in Jerusalem. It was from Alexandria that the Epistle appears first to have come to the knowledge of Christendom. Moreover, \"the Epistle to the Alexandrians,\" mentioned in the Canon of Muratori, may possibly be this Epistle to the Hebrews. He addresses the Jews as peculiarly \"the people of God\" (Heb 2:17; Heb 4:9; Heb 13:12), \"the seed of Abraham,\" that is, as the primary stock on which Gentile believers are grafted, to which Rom 11:16-24 corresponds; but he urges them to come out of the carnal earthly Jerusalem and to realize their spiritual union to \"the heavenly Jerusalem\" (Heb 12:18-23; Heb 13:13).\n\nThe use of Greek rather than Hebrew is doubtless due to the Epistle being intended, not merely for the Hebrew, but for the Hellenistic Jew converts, not only in Palestine, but elsewhere; a view confirmed by the use of the Septuagint. BENGEL thinks, probably (compare Pe2 3:15-16, explained above), the Jews primarily, though not exclusively, addressed, were those who had left Jerusalem on account of the war and were settled in Asia Minor.\n\nThe notion of its having been originally in Hebrew arose probably from its Hebrew tone, method, and topics. It is reckoned among the Epistles, not at first generally acknowledged, along with James, Second Peter, Second and Third John, Jude, and Revelation. A beautiful link exists between these Epistles and the universally acknowledged Epistles. Hebrews unites the ordinances of Leviticus with their antitypical Gospel fulfilment. James is the link between the highest doctrines of Christianity and the universal law of moral duty--a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount--harmonizing the decalogue law of Moses, and the revelation to Job and Elias, with the Christian law of liberty. Second Peter links the teaching of Peter with that of Paul. Jude links the earliest unwritten to the latest written Revelation. The two shorter Epistles to John, like Philemon, apply Christianity to the minute details of the Christian life, showing that Christianity can sanctify all earthly relations. \n\n\n\nNext: Hebrews Chapter 1\n\n","order":58,"numberOfChapters":13,"sha256":"e2432a664409bcc0cf92e670c2220bb5fc904394385d617eaafb6c9c5c24b6ca","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":13,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/13.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":13},"totalNumberOfVerses":288},"chapter":{"number":10,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["For--if the law could, by its sacrifices, have perfected the worshippers. \n\nthey--the sacrifices. \n\nonce purged--IF they were once for all cleansed (Heb 7:27). \n\nconscience--\"consciousness of sin\" (Heb 9:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["But--so far from those sacrifices ceasing to be offered (Heb 10:2). \n\nin, &c.--in the fact of their being offered, and in the course of their being offered on the day of atonement. Contrast Heb 10:17. \n\na remembrance--a recalling to mind by the high priest's confession, on the day of atonement, of the sins both of each past year and of all former years, proving that the expiatory sacrifices of former years were not felt by men's consciences to have fully atoned for former sins; in fact, the expiation and remission were only legal and typical (Heb 10:4, Heb 10:11). The Gospel remission, on the contrary, is so complete, that sins are \"remembered no more\" (Heb 10:17) by God. It is unbelief to \"forget\" this once-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of \"former sins\" (Pe2 1:9). The believer, once for all bathed, needs only to \"wash\" his hands and \"feet\" of soils, according as he daily contracts them, in Christ's blood (Joh 13:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["For, &c.--reason why, necessarily, there is a continually recurring \"remembrance of sins\" in the legal sacrifices (Heb 10:3). Typically, \"the blood of bulls,\" &c., sacrificed, had power; but it was only in virtue of the power of the one real antitypical sacrifice of Christ; they had no power in themselves; they were not the instrument of perfect vicarious atonement, but an exhibition of the need of it, suggesting to the faithful Israelite the sure hope of coming redemption, according to God's promise. \n\ntake away--\"take off.\" The Greek, Heb 10:11, is stronger, explaining the weaker word here, \"take away utterly.\" The blood of beasts could not take away the sin of man. A MAN must do that (see on Heb 9:12-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Christ's voluntary self offering, in contrast to those inefficient sacrifices, is shown to fulfill perfectly \"the will of God\" as to our redemption, by completely atoning \"for (our) sins.\" \n\nWherefore--seeing that a nobler than animal sacrifices was needed to \"take away sins.\" \n\nwhen he cometh--Greek, \"coming.\" The time referred to is the period before His entrance into the world, when the inefficiency of animal sacrifices for expiation had been proved [THOLUCK]. Or, the time is that between Jesus' first dawning of reason as a child, and the beginning of His public ministry, during which, being ripened in human resolution, He was intently devoting Himself to the doing of His Father's will [ALFORD]. But the time of \"coming\" is present; not \"when He had come,\" but \"when coming into the world\"; so, in order to accord with ALFORD'S view, \"the world\" must mean His PUBLIC ministry: when coming, or about to come, into public. The Greek verbs are in the past: \"sacrifice . . . Thou didst not wish, but a body Thou didst prepare for Me\"; and, \"Lo, I am come.\" Therefore, in order to harmonize these times, the present coming, or about to come, with the past, \"A body Thou didst prepare for Me,\" we must either explain as ALFORD, or else, if we take the period to be before His actual arrival in the world (the earth) or incarnation, we must explain the past tenses to refer to God's purpose, which speaks of what He designed from eternity as though it were already fulfilled. \"A body Thou didst prepare in Thy eternal counsel.\" This seems to me more likely than explaining \"coming into the world,\" \"coming into public,\" or entering on His public ministry. David, in the fortieth Psalm (here quoted), reviews his past troubles and God's having delivered him from them, and his consequent desire to render willing obedience to God as more acceptable than sacrifices; but the Spirit puts into his mouth language finding its partial application to David, and its full realization only in the divine Son of David. \"The more any son of man approaches the incarnate Son of God in position, or office, or individual spiritual experience, the more directly may his holy breathings in the power of Christ's Spirit be taken as utterances of Christ Himself. Of all men, the prophet-king of Israel resembled and foreshadowed Him the most\" [ALFORD]. \n\na body hast thou prepared me--Greek, \"Thou didst fit for Me a body.\" \"In Thy counsels Thou didst determine to make for Me a body, to be given up to death as a sacrificial victim\" [WAHL]. In the Hebrew, Psa 40:6, it is \"mine ears hast thou opened,\" or \"dug.\" Perhaps this alludes to the custom of boring the ear of a slave who volunteers to remain under his master when he might be free. Christ's assuming a human body, in obedience to the Father's will, in order to die the death of a slave (Heb 2:14), was virtually the same act of voluntary submission to service as that of a slave suffering his ear to be bored by his master. His willing obedience to the Father's will is what is dwelt on as giving especial virtue to His sacrifice (Heb 10:7, Heb 10:9-10). The preparing, or fitting of a body for Him, is not with a view to His mere incarnation, but to His expiatory sacrifice (Heb 10:10), as the contrast to \"sacrifice and offering\" requires; compare also Rom 7:4; Eph 2:16; Col 1:22. More probably \"opened mine ears\" means opened mine inward ear, so as to be attentively obedient to what God wills me to do, namely, to assume the body He has prepared for me for my sacrifice, so Job 33:16, Margin; Job 36:10 (doubtless the boring of a slave's \"ear\" was the symbol of such willing obedience); Isa 50:5, \"The Lord God hath opened mine ear,\" that is, made me obediently attentive as a slave to his master. Others somewhat similarly explain, \"Mine ears hast thou digged,\" or \"fashioned,\" not with allusion to Exo 21:6, but to the true office of the ear--a willing, submissive attention to the voice of God (Isa 50:4-5). The forming of the ear implies the preparation of the body, that is, the incarnation; this secondary idea, really in the Hebrew, though less prominent, is the one which Paul uses for his argument. In either explanation the idea of Christ taking on Him the form, and becoming obedient as a servant, is implied. As He assumed a body in which to make His self-sacrifice, so ought we present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["burnt offerings--Greek, \"whole burnt offerings.\" \n\nthou hast had no pleasure--as if these could in themselves atone for sin: God had pleasure in (Greek, \"approved,\" or \"was well pleased with\") them, in so far as they were an act of obedience to His positive command under the Old Testament, but not as having an intrinsic efficacy such as Christ's sacrifice had. Contrast Mat 3:17.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["I come--rather, \"I am come\" (see on Heb 10:5). \"Here we have the creed, as it were, of Jesus: 'I am come to fulfil the law,' Mat 5:17; to preach, Mar 1:38; to call sinners to repentance, Luk 5:32; to send a sword and to set men at variance, Mat 10:34-35; I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me, Joh 6:38-39 (so here, Psa 40:7-8); I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mat 15:24; I am come into this world for judgment, Joh 9:39; I am come that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly, Joh 10:10; to save what had been lost, Mat 18:11; to seek and to save that which was lost, Luk 19:10; compare Ti1 1:15; to save men's lives, Luk 9:56; to send fire on the earth, Luk 12:49; to minister, Mat 20:28; as \"the Light,\" Joh 12:46; to bear witness unto the truth, Joh 18:37. See, reader, that thy Saviour obtain what He aimed at in thy case. Moreover, do thou for thy part say, why thou art come here? Dost thou, then, also, do the will of God? From what time? and in what way?\" [BENGEL]. When the two goats on the day of atonement were presented before the Lord, that goat on which the lot of the Lord should fall was to be offered as a sin offering; and that lot was lifted up on high in the hand of the high priest, and then laid upon the head of the goat which was to die; so the hand of God determined all that was done to Christ. Besides the covenant of God with man through Christ's blood, there was another covenant made by the Father with the Son from eternity. The condition was, \"If He shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed,\" &c. (Isa 53:10). The Son accepted the condition, \"Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God\" [BISHOP PEARSON]. Oblation, intercession, and benediction, are His three priestly offices. \n\nin the volume, &c.--literally, \"the roll\": the parchment manuscript being wrapped around a cylinder headed with knobs. Here, the Scripture \"volume\" meant is the fortieth Psalm. \"By this very passage 'written of Me,' I undertake to do Thy will [namely, that I should die for the sins of the world, in order that all who believe may be saved, not by animal sacrifices, Heb 10:6, but by My death].\" This is the written contract of Messiah (compare Neh 9:38), whereby He engaged to be our surety. So complete is the inspiration of all that is written, so great the authority of the Psalms, that what David says is really what Christ then and there said.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["he--Christ. \n\nSacrifice, &c.--The oldest manuscripts read, \"Sacrifices and offerings\" (plural). This verse combines the two clauses previously quoted distinctly, Heb 10:5-6, in contrast to the sacrifice of Christ with which God was well pleased.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Then said he--\"At that time (namely, when speaking by David's mouth in the fortieth Psalm) He hath said.\" The rejection of the legal sacrifices involves, as its concomitant, the voluntary offer of Jesus to make the self-sacrifice with which God is well pleased (for, indeed, it was God's own \"will\" that He came to do in offering it: so that this sacrifice could not but be well pleasing to God). \n\nI come--\"I am come.\" \n\ntaketh away--\"sets aside the first,\" namely, \"the legal system of sacrifices\" which God wills not. \n\nthe second--\"the will of God\" (Heb 10:7, Heb 10:9) that Christ should redeem us by His self-sacrifice.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["By--Greek, \"In.\" So \"in,\" and \"through,\" occur in the same sentence, Pe1 1:22, \"Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.\" Also, Pe1 1:5, in the Greek. The \"in (fulfilment of) which will\" (compare the use of in, Eph 1:6, \"wherein [in which grace] He hath made us accepted, in the Beloved\"), expresses the originating cause; \"THROUGH the offering . . . of Christ,\" the instrumental or mediatory cause. The whole work of redemption flows from \"the will\" of God the Father, as the First Cause, who decreed redemption from before the foundation of the world. The \"will\" here (boulema) is His absolute sovereign will. His \"good will\" (eudokia) is a particular aspect of it. \n\nare sanctified--once for all, and as our permanent state (so the Greek). It is the finished work of Christ in having sanctified us (that is, having translated us from a state of unholy alienation into a state of consecration to God, having \"no more conscience of sin,\" Heb 10:2) once for all and permanently, not the process of gradual sanctification, which is here referred to. \n\nthe body--\"prepared\" for Him by the Father (Heb 10:5). As the atonement, or reconciliation, is by the blood of Christ (Lev 17:11), so our sanctification (consecration to God, holiness and eternal bliss) is by the body of Christ (Col 1:22). ALFORD quotes the Book of Common Prayer Communion Service, \"that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood.\" \n\nonce for all-- (Heb 7:27; Heb 9:12, Heb 9:26, Heb 9:28; Heb 10:12, Heb 10:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["And--a new point of contrast; the frequent repetition of the sacrifices. \n\npriest--The oldest manuscripts read, \"high priest.\" Though he did not in person stand \"daily\" offering sacrifices, he did so by the subordinate priests of whom, as well as of all Israel, he was the representative head. So \"daily\" is applied to the high priests (Heb 7:27). \n\nstandeth--the attitude of one ministering; in contrast to \"sat down on the right hand of God,\" Heb 10:12, said of Christ; the posture of one being ministered to as a king. \n\nwhich--Greek, \"the which,\" that is, of such a kind as. \n\ntake away--utterly; literally, \"strip off all round.\" Legal sacrifices might, in part, produce the sense of forgiveness, yet scarcely even that (see on Heb 10:4); but entirely to strip off one's guilt they never could.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["this man--emphatic (Heb 3:3). \n\nfor ever--joined in English Version with \"offered one sacrifice\"; offered one sacrifice, the efficacy of which endures for ever; literally. \"continuously,\" (compare Heb 10:14). \"The offering of Christ, once for all made, will continue the one and only oblation for ever; no other will supersede it\" [BENGEL]. The mass, which professes to be the frequent repetition of one and the same sacrifice of Christ's body, is hence disproved. For not only is Christ's body one, but also His offering is one, and that inseparable from His suffering (Heb 9:26). The mass would be much the same as the Jewish sacrifices which Paul sets aside as abrogated, for they were anticipations of the one sacrifice, just as Rome makes masses continuations of it, in opposition to Paul's argument. A repetition would imply that the former once-for-all offering of the one sacrifice was imperfect, and so would be dishonoring to it (Heb 10:2, Heb 10:18). Heb 10:14, on the contrary, says, \"He hath PERFECTED FOR EVER them that are sanctified.\" If Christ offered Himself at the last supper, then He offered Himself again on the cross, and there would be two offerings; but Paul says there was only one, once for all. Compare Note, see on Heb 9:26. English Version is favored by the usage in this Epistle, of putting the Greek \"for ever\" after that which it qualifies. Also, \"one sacrifice for ever,\" stands in contrast to \"the same sacrifices oftentimes\" (Heb 10:11). Also, Co1 15:25, Co1 15:28, agrees with Heb 10:12-13, taken as English Version, not joining, as ALFORD does, \"for ever\" with \"sat down,\" for Jesus is to give up the mediatorial throne \"when all things shall be subdued unto Him,\" and not to sit on it for ever.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["expecting--\"waiting.\" Awaiting the execution of His Father's will, that all His foes should be subjected to Him. The Son waits till the Father shall \"send Him forth to triumph over all His foes.\" He is now sitting at rest (Heb 10:12), invisibly reigning, and having His foes virtually, by right of His death, subject to Him. His present sitting on the unseen throne is a necessary preliminary to His coming forth to subject His foes openly. He shall then come forth to a visibly manifested kingdom and conquest over His foes. Thus He fulfils Psa 110:1. This agrees with Co1 15:23-28. He is, by His Spirit and His providence, now subjecting His foes to Him in part (Psa 110:1-7). The subjection of His foes fully shall be at His second advent, and from that time to the general judgment (Rev. 19:1-20:15); then comes the subjection of Himself as Head of the Church to the Father (the mediatorial economy ceasing when its end shall have been accomplished), that God may be all in all. Eastern conquerors used to tread on the necks of the vanquished, as Joshua did to the five kings. So Christ's total and absolute conquest at His coming is symbolized. \n\nbe made his footstool--literally, \"be placed (rendered) footstool of His feet.\" \n\nhis enemies--Satan and Death, whose strength consists in \"sin\"; this being taken away (Heb 10:12), the power of the foes is taken away, and their destruction necessarily follows.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["For--The sacrifice being \"for ever\" in its efficacy (Heb 10:12) needs no renewal. \n\nthem that are sanctified--rather as Greek, \"them that are being sanctified.\" The sanctification (consecration to God) of the elect (Pe1 1:2) believers is perfect in Christ once for all (see on Heb 10:10). (Contrast the law, Heb 7:19; Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1). The development of that sanctification is progressive.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["The Greek, has \"moreover,\" or \"now.\" \n\nis a witness--of the truth which I am setting forth. The Father's witness is given Heb 5:10. The Son's, Heb 10:5. Now is added that of the Holy Spirit, called accordingly \"the Spirit of grace,\" Heb 10:29. The testimony of all Three leads to the same conclusion (Heb 10:18). \n\nfor after that he had said before--The conclusion to the sentence is in Heb 10:17, \"After He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them (with the house of Israel, Heb 8:10; here extended to the spiritual Israel) . . . saith the Lord; I will put (literally, 'giving,' referring to the giving of the law; not now as then, giving into the hands, but giving) My laws into their hearts ('mind,' Heb 8:10) and in their minds ('hearts,' Heb 8:10); I will inscribe (so the Greek) them (here He omits the addition quoted in Heb 8:10-11, I will be to them a God . . . and they shall not teach every man his neighbor . . .), and (that is, after He had said the foregoing, HE THEN ADDS) their sins . . . will I remember no more.\" The great object of the quotation here is to prove that, there being in the Gospel covenant, \"REMISSION of sins\" (Heb 10:17), there is no more need of a sacrifice for sins. The object of the same quotation in Heb 8:8-13 is to show that, there being a \"NEW covenant,\" the old is antiquated.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["where remission of these is--as there is under the Gospel covenant (Heb 10:17). \"Here ends the finale (Heb. 10:1-18) of the great tripartite arrangement (Heb. 7:1-25; 7:26-9:12; 9:13-10:18) of the middle portion of the Epistle. Its great theme was Christ a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. What it is to be a high priest after the order of Melchisedec is set forth, Heb. 7:1-25, as contrasted with the Aaronic order. That Christ, however, as High Priest, is Aaron's antitype in the true holy place, by virtue of His self-sacrifice here on earth, and Mediator of a better covenant, whose essential character the old only typified, we learn, Heb. 7:26-9:12. And that Christ's self-sacrifice, offered through the Eternal Spirit, is of everlasting power, as contrasted with the unavailing cycle of legal offerings, is established in the third part, Heb. 9:13-10:18; the first half of this last portion [Heb. 9:13-28], showing that both our present possession of salvation, and our future completion of it, are as certain to us as that He is with God, ruling as a Priest and reigning as a King, once more to appear, no more as a bearer of our sins, but in glory as a Judge. The second half, Heb. 10:1-18, reiterating the main position of the whole, the High Priesthood of Christ, grounded on His offering of Himself--its kingly character its eternal accomplishment of its end, confirmed by Psalms 40 and 110 and Jeremiah 31\" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle; our duty now while waiting for the Lord's second advent. Resumption and expansion of the exhortation (Heb 4:14-16; compare Heb 10:22-23 here) wherewith he closed the first part of the Epistle, preparatory to his great doctrinal argument, beginning at Heb 7:1. \n\nboldness--\"free confidence,\" grounded on the consciousness that our sins have been forgiven. \n\nto enter--literally, \"as regards the entering.\" \n\nby--Greek, \"in\"; it is in the blood of Jesus that our boldness to enter is grounded. Compare Eph 3:12, \"In whom we have boldness and access with confidence.\" It is His having once for all entered as our Forerunner (Heb 6:20) and High Priest (Heb 10:21), making atonement for us with His blood, which is continually there (Heb 12:24) before God, that gives us confident access. No priestly caste now mediates between the sinner and his Judge. We may come boldly with loving confidence, not with slavish fear, directly through Christ, the only mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance or by deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come for himself, and all are accepted when they come by the new and living way opened by Christ. Thus all Christians are, in respect to access directly to God, virtually high priests (Rev 1:6). They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only proper High Priest (Heb 7:25).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["which, &c.--The antecedent in the Greek is \"the entering\"; not as English Version, \"way.\" Translate, \"which (entering) He has consecrated (not as though it were already existing, but has been the first to open, INAUGURATED as a new thing; see on Heb 9:18, where the Greek is the same) for us (as) a new (Greek, 'recent'; recently opened, Rom 16:25-26) and living way\" (not like the lifeless way through the law offering of the blood of dead victims, but real, vital, and of perpetual efficacy, because the living and life-giving Saviour is that way. It is a living hope that we have, producing not dead, but living, works). Christ, the first-fruits of our nature, has ascended, and the rest is sanctified thereby. \"Christ's ascension is our promotion; and whither the glory of the Head hath preceded, thither the hope of the body, too, is called\" [LEO]. \n\nthe veil--As the veil had to be passed through in order to enter the holiest place, so the weak, human suffering flesh (Heb 5:7) of Christ's humanity (which veiled His God head) had to be passed through by Him in entering the heavenly holiest place for us; in putting off His rent flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously rent from top to bottom (Mat 27:51). Not His body, but His weak suffering flesh, was the veil; His body was the temple (Joh 2:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["high priest--As a different Greek term (archiereus) is used always elsewhere in this Epistle for \"high priest,\" translate as Greek here, \"A Great Priest\"; one who is at once King and \"Priest on His throne\" (Zac 6:13); a royal Priest, and a priestly King. \n\nhouse of God--the spiritual house, the Church, made up of believers, whose home is heaven, where Jesus now is (Heb 12:22-23). Thus, by \"the house of God,\" over which Jesus is, heaven is included in meaning, as well as the Church, whose home it is.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["(Heb 4:16; Heb 7:19.) \n\nwith a true heart--without hypocrisy; \"in truth, and with a perfect heart\"; a heart thoroughly imbued with \"the truth\" (Heb 10:26). \n\nfull assurance-- (Heb 6:11); with no doubt as to our acceptance when coming to God by the blood of Christ. As \"faith\" occurs here, so \"hope,\" and \"love,\" Heb 10:23-24. \n\nsprinkled from--that is, sprinkled so as to be cleansed from. \n\nevil conscience--a consciousness of guilt unatoned for, and uncleansed away (Heb 10:2; Heb 9:9). Both the hearts and the bodies are cleansed. The legal purifications were with blood of animal victims and with water, and could only cleanse the flesh (Heb 9:13, Heb 9:21). Christ's blood purifies the heart and conscience. The Aaronic priest, in entering the holy place, washed with water (Heb 9:19) in the brazen laver. Believers, as priests to God, are once for all washed in BODY (as distinguished from \"hearts\") at baptism. As we have an immaterial, and a material nature, the cleansing of both is expressed by \"hearts\" and \"body,\" the inner and the outer man; so the whole man, material and immaterial. The baptism of the body, however, is not the mere putting away of material filth, nor an act operating by intrinsic efficacy, but the sacramental seal, applied to the outer man, of a spiritual washing (Pe1 3:21). \"Body\" (not merely \"flesh,\" the carnal part, as Co2 7:1) includes the whole material man, which needs cleansing, as being redeemed, as well as the soul. The body, once polluted with sin, is washed, so as to be fitted like Christ's holy body, and by His body, to be spiritually a pure and living offering. On the \"pure water,\" the symbol of consecration and sanctification, compare Joh 19:34; Co1 6:11; Jo1 5:6; Eze 36:25. The perfects \"having . . . hearts sprinkled . . . body (the Greek is singular) washed,\" imply a continuing state produced by a once-for-all accomplished act, namely, our justification by faith through Christ's blood, and consecration to God, sealed sacramentally by the baptism of our body.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["(Heb 3:6, Heb 3:14; Heb 4:14.) \n\nprofession--Greek, \"confession.\" \n\nour faith--rather as Greek, \"our hope\"; which is indeed faith exercised as to the future inheritance. Hope rests on faith, and at the same time quickens faith, and is the ground of our bold confession (Pe1 3:15). Hope is similarly (Heb 10:22) connected with purification (Jo1 3:3). \n\nwithout wavering--without declension (Heb 3:14), \"steadfast unto the end.\" \n\nhe--God is faithful to His promises (Heb 6:17-18; Heb 11:11; Heb 12:26, Heb 12:28; Co1 1:9; Co1 10:13; Th1 5:24; Th2 3:3; see also Christ's promise, Joh 12:26); but man is too often unfaithful to his duties.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Here, as elsewhere, hope and love follow faith; the Pauline triad of Christian graces. \n\nconsider--with the mind attentively fixed on \"one another\" (see on Heb 3:1), contemplating with continual consideration the characters and wants of our brethren, so as to render mutual help and counsel. Compare \"consider,\" Psa 41:1, and Heb 12:15, \"(All) looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God.\" \n\nto provoke--Greek, \"with a view to provoking unto love,\" instead of provoking to hatred, as is too often the case.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["assembling of ourselves together--The Greek, \"episunagoge,\" is only found here and Th2 2:1 (the gathering together of the elect to Christ at His coming, Mat 24:31). The assembling or gathering of ourselves for Christian communion in private and public, is an earnest of our being gathered together to Him at His appearing. Union is strength; continual assemblings together beget and foster love, and give good opportunities for \"provoking to good works,\" by \"exhorting one another\" (Heb 3:13). IGNATIUS says, \"When ye frequently, and in numbers meet together, the powers of Satan are overthrown, and his mischief is neutralized by your likemindedness in the faith.\" To neglect such assemblings together might end in apostasy at last. He avoids the Greek term \"sunagoge,\" as suggesting the Jewish synagogue meetings (compare Rev 2:9). \n\nas the manner of some is--\"manner,\" that is, habit, custom. This gentle expression proves he is not here as yet speaking of apostasy. \n\nthe day approaching--This, the shortest designation of the day of the Lord's coming, occurs elsewhere only in Co1 3:13; a confirmation of the Pauline authorship of this Epistle. The Church being in all ages kept uncertain how soon Christ is coming, the day is, and has been, in each age, practically always near; whence, believers have been called on always to be watching for it as nigh at hand. The Hebrews were now living close upon One of those great types and foretastes of it, the destruction of Jerusalem (Mat 24:1-2), \"the bloody and fiery dawn of the great day; that day is the day of days, the ending day of all days, the settling day of all days, the day of the promotion of time into eternity, the day which, for the Church, breaks through and breaks off the night of the present world\" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Compare on this and following verses, Heb 6:4, &c. There the warning was that if there be not diligence in progressing, a falling off will take place, and apostasy may ensue: here it is, that if there be lukewarmness in Christian communion, apostasy may ensue. \n\nif we sin--Greek present participle: if we be found sinning, that is, not isolated acts, but a state of sin [ALFORD]. A violation not only of the law, but of the whole economy of the New Testament (Heb 10:28-29). \n\nwilfully--presumptuously, Greek \"willingly.\" After receiving \"full knowledge (so the Greek, compare Ti1 2:4) of the truth,\" by having been \"enlightened,\" and by having \"tasted\" a certain measure even of grace of \"the Holy Ghost\" (the Spirit of truth, Joh 14:17; and \"the Spirit of grace,\" Heb 10:29): to fall away (as \"sin\" here means, Heb 3:12, Heb 3:17; compare Heb 6:6) and apostatize (Heb 3:12) to Judaism or infidelity, is not a sin of ignorance, or error (\"out of the way,\" the result) of infirmity, but a deliberate sinning against the Spirit (Heb 10:29; Heb 5:2): such sinning, where a consciousness of Gospel obligations not only was, but is present: a sinning presumptuously and preseveringly against Christ's redemption for us, and the Spirit of grace in us. \"He only who stands high can fall low. A lively reference in the soul to what is good is necessary in order to be thoroughly wicked; hence, man can be more reprobate than the beasts, and the apostate angels than apostate man\" [THOLUCK]. \n\nremaineth no more sacrifice--For there is but ONE Sacrifice that can atone for sin; they, after having fully known that sacrifice, deliberately reject it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["a certain--an extraordinary and indescribable. The indefiniteness, as of something peculiar of its kind, makes the description the more terrible (compare Greek, Jam 1:18). \n\nlooking for--\"expectation\": a later sense of the Greek. ALFORD strangely translates, as the Greek usually means elsewhere, \"reception.\" The transition is easy from \"giving a reception to\" something or someone, to \"looking for.\" Contrast the \"expecting\" (the very same Greek as here), Heb 10:13, which refutes ALFORD. \n\nfiery indignation--literally, \"zeal of fire.\" Fire is personified: glow or ardor of fire, that is, of Him who is \"a consuming fire.\" \n\ndevour--continually.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Compare Heb 2:2-3; Heb 12:25. \n\ndespised--\"set at naught\" [ALFORD]: utterly and heinously violated, not merely some minor detail, but the whole law and covenant; for example, by idolatry (Deu 17:2-7). So here apostasy answers to such an utter violation of the old covenant. \n\ndied--Greek, \"dies\": the normal punishment of such transgression, then still in force. \n\nwithout mercy--literally, \"mercies\": removal out of the pale of mitigation, or a respite of his doom. \n\nunder--on the evidence of.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["sorer--Greek, \"worse,\" namely, \"punishment\" (literally, \"vengeance\") than any mere temporal punishment of the body. \n\nsuppose ye--an appeal to the Hebrews' reason and conscience. \n\nthought worthy--by God at the judgment. \n\ntrodden under foot the Son of God--by \"wilful\" apostasy. So he treads under foot God Himself who \"glorified His Son as an high priest\" (Heb 5:5; Heb 6:6). \n\nan unholy thing--literally, \"common,\" as opposed to \"sanctified.\" No better than the blood of a common man, thus involving the consequence that Christ, in claiming to be God, was guilty of blasphemy, and so deserved to die! \n\nwherewith he was sanctified--for Christ died even for him. \"Sanctified,\" in the fullest sense, belongs only to the saved elect. But in some sense it belongs also to those who have gone a far way in Christian experience, and yet fall away at last. The higher such a one's past Christian experiences, the deeper his fall. \n\ndone despite unto--by repelling in fact: as \"blasphemy\" is despite in words (Mar 3:29). \"Of the Jews who became Christians and relapsed to Judaism, we find from the history of Uriel Acosta, that they required a blasphemy against Christ. 'They applied to Him epithets used against Molech the adulterous branch,' &c.\" [THOLUCK]. \n\nthe Spirit of grace--the Spirit that confers grace. \"He who does not accept the benefit, insults Him who confers it. He hath made thee a son: wilt thou become a slave? He has come to take up His abode with thee; but thou art introducing evil into thyself\" [CHRYSOSTOM]. \"It is the curse of evil eternally to propagate evil: so, for him who profanes the Christ without him, and blasphemes the Christ within him, there is subjectively no renewal of a change of mind (Heb 6:6), and objectively no new sacrifice for sins\" (Heb 10:26) [THOLUCK].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["him--God, who enters no empty threats. \n\nVengeance belongeth unto me--Greek, \"To Me belongeth vengeance\": exactly according with Paul's quotation, Rom 12:19, of the same text. \n\nLord shall judge his people--in grace, or else anger, according as each deserves: here, \"judge,\" so as to punish the reprobate apostate; there, \"judge,\" so as to interpose in behalf of, and save His people (Deu 32:36).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["fearful . . . to fall into the hands--It is good like David to fall into the hands of God, rather than man, when one does so with filial faith in his father's love, though God chastises him. \"It is fearful\" to fall into His hands as a reprobate and presumptuous sinner doomed to His just vengeance as Judge (Heb 10:27). \n\nliving God--therefore able to punish for ever (Mat 10:28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["As previously he has warned them by the awful end of apostates, so here he stirs them up by the remembrance of their own former faith, patience, and self-sacrificing love. So Rev 2:3-4. \n\ncall to remembrance--habitually: so the present tense means. \n\nilluminated--\"enlightened\": come to \"the knowledge of the truth\" (Heb 10:26) in connection with baptism (see on Heb 6:4). In spiritual baptism, Christ, who is \"the Light,\" is put on. \"On the one hand, we are not to sever the sign and the grace signified where the sacrifice truly answers its designs; on the other, the glass is not to be mistaken for the liquor, nor the sheath for the sword\" [BENGEL]. \n\nfight of--that is, consisting of afflictions.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["The persecutions here referred to seem to have been endured by the Hebrew Christians at their first conversion, not only in Palestine, but also in Rome and elsewhere, the Jews in every city inciting the populace and the Roman authorities against Christians. \n\ngazing-stock--as in a theater (so the Greek): often used as the place of punishment in the presence of the assembled multitudes. Act 19:29; Co1 4:9, \"Made a theatrical spectacle to the world.\" \n\nye became--of your own accord: attesting your Christian sympathy with your suffering brethren. \n\ncompanions of--sharers in affliction with.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["ye had compassion on me in my bonds--The oldest manuscripts and versions omit \"me,\" and read, \"Ye both sympathized with those in bonds (answering to the last clause of Heb 10:33; compare Heb 13:3, Heb 13:23; Heb 6:10), and accepted (so the Greek is translated in Heb 11:35) with joy (Jam 1:2; joy in tribulations, as exercising faith and other graces, Rom 5:3; and the pledge of the coming glory, Mat 5:12) the plundering of your (own) goods (answering to the first clause of Heb 10:33).\" \n\nin yourselves--The oldest manuscripts omit \"in\": translate, \"knowing that ye have for (or 'to') yourselves.\" \n\nbetter--a heavenly (Heb 11:16). \n\nenduring--not liable to spoiling. \n\nsubstance--possession: peculiarly our own, if we will not cast away our birthright.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Consequent exhortation to confidence and endurance, as Christ is soon coming. \n\nCast not away--implying that they now have \"confidence,\" and that it will not withdraw of itself, unless they \"cast it away\" wilfully (compare Heb 3:14). \n\nwhich--Greek, \"the which\": inasmuch as being such as. \n\nhath--present tense: it is as certain as if you had it in your hand (Heb 10:37). It hath in reversion. \n\nrecompense of reward--of grace not of debt: a reward of a kind which no mercenary self-seeker would seek: holiness will be its own reward; self-devoting unselfishness for Christ's sake will be its own rich recompense (see on Heb 2:2; Heb 11:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["patience--Greek, \"waiting endurance,\" or \"enduring perseverance\": the kindred Greek verb in the Septuagint, Hab 2:3, is translated, \"wait for it\" (compare Jam 5:7). \n\nafter ye have done the will of God--\"that whereas ye have done the will of God\" hitherto (Heb 10:32-35), ye may now show also patient, persevering endurance, and so \"receive the promise,\" that is, the promised reward: eternal life and bliss commensurate with our work of faith and love (Heb 6:10-12). We must not only do, but also suffer (Pe1 4:19). God first uses the active talents of His servants; then polishes the other side of the stone, making the passive graces shine, patience, meekness, &c. It may be also translated, \"That ye may do the will of God, and receive,\" &c. [ALFORD]: \"patience\" itself is a further and a persevering doing of \"God's will\"; otherwise it would be profitless and no real grace (Mat 7:21). We should look, not merely for individual bliss now and at death, but for the great and general consummation of bliss of all saints, both in body and soul.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["Encouragement to patient endurance by consideration of the shortness of the time till Christ shall come, and God's rejection of him that draws back, taken from Hab 2:3-4. \n\na little while-- (Joh 16:16). \n\nhe that shall come--literally, \"the Comer.\" In Habakkuk, it is the vision that is said to be about to come. Christ, being the grand and ultimate subject of all prophetical vision, is here made by Paul, under inspiration, the subject of the Spirit's prophecy by Habakkuk, in its final and exhaustive fulfilment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["just--The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, \"my just man.\" God is the speaker: \"He who is just in My sight.\" BENGEL translates, \"The just shall live by my faith\": answering to the Hebrew, Hab 2:4; literally, \"the just shall live by the faith of Him,\" namely, Christ, the final subject of \"the vision,\" who \"will not lie,\" that is, disappoint. Here not merely the first beginning, as in Gal 3:11, but the continuance, of the spiritual life of the justified man is referred to, as opposed to declension and apostasy. As the justified man receives his first spiritual life by faith, so it is by faith that he shall continue to live (Luk 4:4). The faith meant here is that fully developed living trust in the unseen (Heb 11:1) Saviour, which can keep men steadfast amidst persecutions and temptations (Heb 10:34-36). \n\nbut--Greek, \"and.\" \n\nif any man draw back--So the Greek admits: though it might also be translated, as ALFORD approves, \"if he (the just man) draw back.\" Even so, it would not disprove the final perseverance of saints. For \"the just man\" in this latter clause would mean one seemingly, and in part really, though not savingly, \"just\" or justified: as in Eze 18:24, Eze 18:26. In the Hebrew, this latter half of the verse stands first, and is, \"Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him.\" Habakkuk states the cause of drawing back: a soul lifted up, and in self-inflated unbelief setting itself up against God. Paul, by the Spirit, states the effect, it draws back. Also, what in Habakkuk is, \"His soul is not upright in him,\" is in Paul, \"My soul shall have no pleasure in him.\" Habakkuk states the cause, Paul the effect: He who is not right in his own soul, does not stand right with God; God has no pleasure in him. BENGEL translates Habakkuk, \"His soul is not upright in respect to him,\" namely, Christ, the subject of \"the vision,\" that is, Christ has no pleasure in him (compare Heb 12:25). Every flower in spring is not a fruit in autumn.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["A Pauline elegant turning-off from denunciatory warnings to charitable hopes of his readers (Rom 8:12). \n\nsaving of the soul--literally, \"acquisition (or obtaining) of the soul.\" The kindred Greek verb is applied to Christ's acquiring the Church as the purchase of His blood (Act 20:28). If we acquire or obtain our soul's salvation, it is through Him who has obtained it for us by His bloodshedding. \"The unbelieving man loses his soul: for not being God's, neither is he his own [compare Mat 16:26, with Luk 9:25]: faith saves the soul by linking it to God\" [DELITZSCH in ALFORD].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hebrews Chapter 11\n\n"]}],"introduction":"CONCLUSION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. THE YEARLY RECURRING LAW SACRIFICES CANNOT PERFECT THE WORSHIPPER, BUT CHRIST'S ONCE-FOR-ALL OFFERING CAN. (Heb. 10:1-39)\n\nPreviously the oneness of Christ's offering was shown; now is shown its perfection as contrasted with the law sacrifices. \n\nhaving--inasmuch as it has but \"the shadow, not the very image,\" that is, not the exact likeness, reality, and full revelation, such as the Gospel has. The \"image\" here means the archetype (compare Heb 9:24), the original, solid image [BENGEL] realizing to us those heavenly verities, of which the law furnished but a shadowy outline before. Compare Co2 3:13-14, Co2 3:18; the Gospel is the very setting forth by the Word and Spirit of the heavenly realities themselves, out of which it (the Gospel) is constructed. So ALFORD. As Christ is \"the express image (Greek, 'impress') of the Father's person\" (Heb 1:3), so the Gospel is the heavenly verities themselves manifested by revelation--the heavenly very archetype, of which the law was drawn as a sketch, or outline copy (Heb 8:5). The law was a continual process of acted prophecy, proving the divine design that its counterparts should come; and proving the truth of those counterparts when they came. Thus the imperfect and continued expiatory sacrifices before Christ foretend, and now prove, the reality of, Christ's one perfect antitypical expiation. \n\ngood things to come-- (Heb 9:11); belonging to \"the world (age) to come.\" Good things in part made present by faith to the believer, and to be fully realized hereafter in actual and perfect enjoyment. Lessing says, \"As Christ's Church on earth is a prediction of the economy of the future life, so the Old Testament economy is a prediction of the Christian Church.\" In relation to the temporal good things of the law, the spiritual and eternal good things of the Gospel are \"good things to come.\" Col 2:17 calls legal ordinances \"the shadow,\" and Christ \"the body.\" \n\nnever--at any time (Heb 10:11). \n\nwith those sacrifices--rather, \"with the same sacrifices. \n\nyear by year--This clause in the Greek refers to the whole sentence, not merely to the words \"which they the priests offered\" (Greek, \"offer\"). Thus the sense is, not as English Version, but, the law year by year, by the repetition of the same sacrifices, testifies its inability to perfect the worshippers; namely, on the YEARLY day of atonement. The \"daily\" sacrifices are referred to, Heb 10:11. \n\ncontinually--Greek, \"continuously,\" implying that they offer a toilsome and ineffectual \"continuous\" round of the \"same\" atonement-sacrifices recurring \"year by year.\" \n\ncomers thereunto--those so coming unto God, namely, the worshippers (the whole people) coming to God in the person of their representative, the high priest. \n\nperfect--fully meet man's needs as to justification and sanctification (see on Heb 9:9).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/10.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":10},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/11.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":11},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/9.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":9},"numberOfVerses":36}