{"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":4,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["gospel preached . . . unto them--in type: the earthly Canaan, wherein they failed to realize perfect rest, suggesting to them that they should look beyond to the heavenly land of rest, to which faith is the avenue, and from which unbelief excludes, as it did from the earthly Canaan. \n\nthe word preached--literally, \"the word of hearing\": the word heard by them. \n\nnot being mixed with faith in them that heard--So the Syriac and the Old Latin Versions, older than any of our manuscripts, and LUCIFER, read, \"As the world did not unite with the hearers in faith.\" The word heard being the food which, as the bread of life, must pass into flesh and blood through man's appropriating it to himself in faith. Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [THOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript authority supports a different reading, \"unmingled as they were (Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its hearers,\" that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua. So \"hear\" is used for \"obey\" in the context, Heb 4:7, \"To-day, if ye will hear His voice.\" The disobedient, instead of being blended in \"the same body,\" separated themselves as Korah: a tacit reproof to like separatists from the Christian assembling together (Heb 10:25; Jde 1:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["For--justifying his assertion of the need of \"faith,\" Heb 4:2. \n\nwe which have believed--we who at Christ's coming shall be found to have believed. \n\ndo enter--that is, are to enter: so two of the oldest manuscripts and LUCIFER and the old Latin. Two other oldest manuscripts read, \"Let us enter.\" \n\ninto rest--Greek, \"into the rest\" which is promised in the ninety-fifth Psalm. \n\nas he said--God's saying that unbelief excludes from entrance implies that belief gains an entrance into the rest. What, however, Paul mainly here dwells on in the quotation is that the promised \"rest\" has not yet been entered into. At Heb 4:11 he again, as in Heb 3:12-19 already, takes up faith as the indispensable qualification for entering it. \n\nalthough, &c.--Although God had finished His works of creation and entered on His rest from creation long before Moses' time, yet under that leader of Israel another rest was promised, which most fell short of through unbelief; and although the rest in Canaan was subsequently attained under Joshua, yet long after, in David's days, God, in the ninety-fifth Psalm, still speaks of the rest of God as not yet attained. THEREFORE, there must be meant a rest still future, namely, that which \"remaineth for the people of God\" in heaven, Heb 4:3-9, when they shall rest from their works, as God did from His, Heb 4:10. The argument is to show that by \"My rest,\" God means a future rest, not for Himself, but for us. \n\nfinished--Greek, \"brought into existence,\" \"made.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["he spake--God (Gen 2:2). \n\nGod did rest the seventh day--a rest not ending with the seventh day, but beginning then and still continuing, into which believers shall hereafter enter. God's rest is not a rest necessitated by fatigue, nor consisting in idleness, but is that upholding and governing of which creation was the beginning [ALFORD]. Hence Moses records the end of each of the first six days, but not of the seventh. \n\nfrom all his works--Hebrew, Gen 2:2, \"from all His work.\" God's \"work\" was one, comprehending, however, many \"works.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["in this place--In this passage of the Psalm again, it is implied that the rest was even then still future.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["it remaineth--still to be realized. \n\nsome must enter--The denial of entrance to unbelievers is a virtual promise of entrance to those that believe. God wishes not His rest to be empty, but furnished with guests (Luk 14:23). \n\nthey to whom it was first preached entered not--literally, \"they who first (in the time of Moses) had the Gospel preached to them,\" namely, in type, see on Heb 4:2. \n\nunbelief--Greek, rather \"disobedience\" (see on Heb 3:18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Again--Anew the promise recurs. Translate as the Greek order is, \"He limited a certain day, 'To-day.'\" Here Paul interrupts the quotation by, \"In (the Psalm of) David saying after so long a time (after five hundred years' possession of Canaan),\" and resumes it by, \"as it has been said before (so the Greek oldest manuscript, before, namely, Heb 3:7, Heb 3:15), To-day if ye hear His voice,\" &c. [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Answer to the objection which might be made to his reasoning, namely, that those brought into Canaan by Joshua (so \"Jesus\" here means, as in Act 7:45) did enter the rest of God. If the rest of God meant Canaan, God would not after their entrance into that land, have spoken (or speak [ALFORD]) of another (future) day of entering the rest.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["therefore--because God \"speaks of another day\" (see on Heb 4:8). \n\nremaineth--still to be realized hereafter by the \"some (who) must enter therein\" (Heb 4:6), that is, \"the people of God,\" the true Israel who shall enter into God's rest (\"My rest,\" Heb 4:3). God's rest was a Sabbatism; so also will ours be. \n\na rest--Greek, \"Sabbatism.\" In time there are many Sabbaths, but then there shall be the enjoyment and keeping of a Sabbath-rest: one perfect and eternal. The \"rest\" in Heb 4:8 is Greek, \"catapausis;\" Hebrew, \"Noah\"; rest from weariness, as the ark rested on Ararat after its tossings to and fro; and as Israel, under Joshua, enjoyed at last rest from war in Canaan. But the \"rest\" in this Heb 4:9 is the nobler and more exalted (Hebrew) \"Sabbath\" rest; literally, \"cessation\": rest from work when finished (Heb 4:4), as God rested (Rev 16:17). The two ideas of \"rest\" combined, give the perfect view of the heavenly Sabbath. Rest from weariness, sorrow, and sin; and rest in the completion of God's new creation (Rev 21:5). The whole renovated creation shall share in it; nothing will there be to break the Sabbath of eternity; and the Triune God shall rejoice in the work of His hands (Zep 3:17). Moses, the representative of the law, could not lead Israel into Canaan: the law leads us to Christ, and there its office ceases, as that of Moses on the borders of Canaan: it is Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest. This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it: so legal sacrifices continued till the great antitypical Sacrifice superseded it, As then the antitypical heavenly Sabbath-rest will not be till Christ, our Gospel Joshua, comes, to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue till then. The Jews call the future rest \"the day which is all Sabbath.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["For--justifying and explaining the word \"rest,\" or \"Sabbatism,\" just used (see on Heb 4:9). \n\nhe that is entered--whosoever once enters. \n\nhis rest--God's rest: the rest prepared by God for His people [ESTIUS]. Rather, \"His rest\": the man's rest: that assigned to him by God as his. The Greek is the same as that for \"his own\" immediately after. \n\nhath ceased--The Greek aorist is used of indefinite time, \"is wont to cease,\" or rather, \"rest\": rests. The past tense implies at the same time the certainty of it, as also that in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ is already given [GROTIUS] (Jer 6:16; Mat 11:28-29). Our highest happiness shall, according to this verse, consist in our being united in one with God, and moulded into conformity with Him as our archetype [CALVIN]. \n\nfrom his own works--even from those that were good and suitable to the time of doing work. Labor was followed by rest even in Paradise (Gen 2:3, Gen 2:15). The work and subsequent rest of God are the archetype to which we should be conformed. The argument is: He who once enters rest, rests from labors; but God's people have not yet rested from them, therefore they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still future. ALFORD translates, \"He that entered into his (or else God's, but rather 'his'; Isa 11:10, 'His rest': 'the joy of the Lord,' Mat 25:21, Mat 25:23) rest (namely, Jesus, our Forerunner, Heb 4:14; Heb 6:20, 'The Son of God that is passed through the heavens': in contrast to Joshua the type, who did not bring God's people into the heavenly rest), he himself (emphatical) rested from his works (Heb 4:4), as God (did) from His own\" (so the Greek, \"works\"). The argument, though generally applying to anyone who has entered his rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the antitypical Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the Ascension, has ceased or rested from His work of the new creation, as God on the seventh day rested from the work of physical creation. Not that He has ceased to carry on the work of redemption, nay, He upholds it by His mediation; but He has ceased from those portions of the work which constitute the foundation; the sacrifice has been once for all accomplished. Compare as to God's creation rest, once for all completed, and rested from, but now still upheld (see on Heb 4:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Let us . . . therefore--Seeing such a promise is before us, which we may, like them, fall short of through unbelief. \n\nlabour--Greek, \"strive diligently.\" \n\nthat rest--which is still future and so glorious. Or, in ALFORD'S translation of Heb 4:10, \"That rest into which Christ has entered before\" (Heb 4:14; Heb 6:20). \n\nfall--with the soul, not merely the body, as the rebel Israelites fell (Heb 3:17). \n\nafter the same example--ALFORD translates, \"fall into the same example.\" The less prominent place of the \"fall\" in the Greek favors this. The sense is, \"lest any fall into such disobedience (so the Greek for 'unbelief' means) as they gave a sample of\" [GROTIUS]. The Jews say, \"The parents are a sign (warning) to their sons.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["For--Such diligent striving (Heb 4:11) is incumbent on us FOR we have to do with a God whose \"word\" whereby we shall be judged, is heart-searching, and whose eyes are all-seeing (Heb 4:13). The qualities here attributed to the word of God, and the whole context, show that it is regarded in its JUDICIAL power, whereby it doomed the disobedient Israelites to exclusion from Canaan, and shall exclude unbelieving so-called Christians from the heavenly rest. The written Word of God is not the prominent thought here, though the passage is often quoted as if it were. Still the word of God (the same as that preached, Heb 4:2), used here in the broadest sense, but with special reference to its judicial power, INCLUDES the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit with double edge, one edge for convicting and converting some (Heb 4:2), and the other for condemning and destroying the unbelieving (Heb 4:14). Rev 19:15 similarly represents the Word's judicial power as a sharp sword going out of Christ's mouth to smite the nations. The same word which is saving to the faithful (Heb 4:2) is destroying to the disobedient (Co2 2:15-16). The personal Word, to whom some refer the passage, is not here meant: for He is not the sword, but has the sword. Thus reference to Joshua appropriately follows in Heb 4:8. \n\nquick--Greek, \"living\"; having living power, as \"the rod of the mouth and the breath of the lips\" of \"the living God.\" \n\npowerful--Greek, \"energetic\"; not only living, but energetically efficacious. \n\nsharper--\"more cutting.\" \n\ntwo-edged--sharpened at both edge and back. Compare \"sword of the Spirit . . . word of God\" (Eph 6:17). Its double power seems to be implied by its being \"two-edged.\" \"It judges all that is in the heart, for there it passes through, at once punishing [unbelievers] and searching [both believers and unbelievers]\" [CHRYSOSTOM]. PHILO similarly speaks of \"God passing between the parts of Abraham's sacrifices (Gen 15:17, where, however, it is a 'burning lamp' that passed between the pieces) with His word, which is the cutter of all things: which sword, being sharpened to the utmost keenness, never ceases to divide all sensible things, and even things not perceptible to sense or physically divisible, but perceptible and divisible by the word.\" Paul's early training, both in the Greek schools of Tarsus and the Hebrew schools at Jerusalem, accounts fully for his acquaintance with Philo's modes of thought, which were sure to be current among learned Jews everywhere, though Philo himself belonged to Alexandria, not Jerusalem. Addressing Jews, he by the Spirit sanctions what was true in their current literature, as he similarly did in addressing Gentiles (Act 17:28). \n\npiercing--Greek, \"coming through.\" \n\neven to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit--that is, reaching through even to the separation of the animal soul, the lower part of man's incorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires, which he has in common with the brutes; compare the same Greek, Co1 2:14, \"the natural [animal-souled] man\" (Jde 1:19), from the spirit (the higher part of man, receptive of the Spirit of God, and allying him to heavenly beings). \n\nand of the joints and marrow--rather, \"(reaching even TO) both the joints (so as to divide them) and marrow.\" Christ \"knows what is in man\" (Joh 2:25): so His word reaches as far as to the most intimate and accurate knowledge of man's most hidden parts, feelings, and thoughts, dividing, that is, distinguishing what is spiritual from what is carnal and animal in him, the spirit from the soul: so Pro 20:27. As the knife of the Levitical priest reached to dividing parts, closely united as the joints of the limbs, and penetrated to the innermost parts, as the marrows (the Greek is plural); so the word of God divides the closely joined parts of man's immaterial being, soul and spirit, and penetrates to the innermost parts of the spirit. The clause (reaching even to) \"both the joints and marrow\" is subordinate to the clause, \"even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.\" (In the oldest manuscripts as in English Version, there is no \"both,\" as there is in the clause \"both the joints and . . . which marks the latter to be subordinate). An image (appropriate in addressing Jews) from the literal dividing of joints, and penetrating to, so as to open out, the marrow, by the priest's knife, illustrating the previously mentioned spiritual \"dividing of soul from spirit,\" whereby each (soul as well as spirit) is laid bare and \"naked\" before God; this view accords with Heb 4:13. Evidently \"the dividing of the soul from the spirit\" answers to the \"joints\" which the sword, when it reaches unto, divides asunder, as the \"spirit\" answers to the innermost \"marrow.\" \"Moses forms the soul, Christ the spirit. The soul draws with it the body; the spirit draws with it both soul and body.\" ALFORD'S interpretation is clumsy, by which he makes the soul itself, and the spirit itself, to be divided, instead of the soul from the spirit: so also he makes not only the joints to be divided asunder, but the marrow also to be divided (?). The Word's dividing and far penetrating power has both a punitive and a healing effect. \n\ndiscerner of the thoughts--Greek, \"capable of judging the purposes.\" \n\nintents--rather, \"conceptions\" [CRELLIUS]; \"ideas\" [ALFORD]. AS the Greek for \"thoughts\" refers to the mind and feelings, so that for \"intents,\" or rather \"mental conceptions,\" refers to the intellect.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["creature--visible or invisible. \n\nin his sight--in God's sight (Heb 4:12). \"God's wisdom, simply manifold, and uniformly multiform, with incomprehensible comprehension, comprehends all things incomprehensible.\" \n\nopened--literally, \"thrown on the back so as to have the neck laid bare,\" as a victim with neck exposed for sacrifice. The Greek perfect tense implies that this is our continuous state in relation to God. \"Show, O man, shame and fear towards thy God, for no veil, no twisting, bending, coloring, or disguise, can cover unbelief\" (Greek, 'disobedience,' Heb 4:11). Let us, therefore, earnestly labor to enter the rest lest any fall through practical unbelief (Heb 4:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Seeing then--Having, therefore; resuming Heb 2:17. \n\ngreat--as being \"the Son of God, higher than the heavens\" (Heb 7:26): the archetype and antitype of the legal high priest. \n\npassed into the heavens--rather, \"passed through the heavens,\" namely, those which come between us and God, the aerial heaven, and that above the latter containing the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, &c. These heavens were the veil which our High Priest passed through into the heaven of heavens, the immediate presence of God, just as the Levitical high priest passed through the veil into the Holy of Holies. Neither Moses, nor even Joshua, could bring us into this rest, but Jesus, as our Forerunner, already spiritually, and hereafter in actual presence, body, soul, and spirit, brings His people into the heavenly rest. \n\nJesus--the antitypical Joshua (Heb 4:8). \n\nhold fast--the opposite of \"let slip\" (Heb 2:1); and \"fall away\" (Heb 6:6). As the genitive follows, the literally, sense is, \"Let us take hold of our profession,\" that is, of the faith and hope which are subjects of our profession and confession. The accusative follows when the sense is \"hold fast\" [TITTMANN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["For--the motive to \"holding our profession\" (Heb 4:14), namely the sympathy and help we may expect from our High Priest. Though \"great\" (Heb 4:14), He is not above caring for us; nay, as being in all points one with us as to manhood, sin only excepted, He sympathizes with us in every temptation. Though exalted to the highest heavens, He has changed His place, not His nature and office in relation to us, His condition, but not His affection. Compare Mat 26:38, \"watch with me\": showing His desire in the days of His flesh for the sympathy of those whom He loved: so He now gives His suffering people His sympathy. Compare Aaron, the type, bearing the names of the twelve tribes in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when he entered into the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually (Exo 28:29). \n\ncannot be touched with the feeling of--Greek, \"cannot sympathize with our infirmities\": our weaknesses, physical and moral (not sin, but liability to its assaults). He, though sinless, can sympathize with us sinners; His understanding more acutely perceived the forms of temptation than we who are weak can; His will repelled them as instantaneously as the fire does the drop of water cast into it. He, therefore, experimentally knew what power was needed to overcome temptations. He is capable of sympathizing, for He was at the same time tempted without sin, and yet truly tempted [BENGEL]. In Him alone we have an example suited to men of every character and under all circumstances. In sympathy He adapts himself to each, as if He had not merely taken on Him man's nature in general, but also the peculiar nature of that single individual. \n\nbut--\"nay, rather, He was (one) tempted\" [ALFORD]. \n\nlike as we are--Greek, \"according to (our) similitude.\" \n\nwithout sin--Greek, \"choris,\" \"separate from sin\" (Heb 7:26). If the Greek \"aneu\" had been used, sin would have been regarded as the object absent from Christ the subject; but choris here implies that Christ, the subject, is regarded as separated from sin the object [TITTMANN]. Thus, throughout His temptations in their origin, process, and result, sin had nothing in Him; He was apart and separate from it [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["come--rather as Greek, \"approach,\" \"draw near.\" \n\nboldly--Greek, \"with confidence,\" or \"freedom of speech\" (Eph 6:19). \n\nthe throne of grace--God's throne is become to us a throne of grace through the mediation of our High Priest at God's right hand (Heb 8:1; Heb 12:2). Pleading our High Priest Jesus' meritorious death, we shall always find God on a throne of grace. Contrast Job's complaint (Job 23:3-8) and Elihu's \" IF,\" &c. (Job 33:23-28). \n\nobtain--rather, \"receive.\" \n\nmercy--\"Compassion,\" by its derivation (literally, fellow feeling from community of suffering), corresponds to the character of our High Priest \"touched with the feeling of our infirmities\" (Heb 4:15). \n\nfind grace--corresponding to \"throne of grace.\" Mercy especially refers to the remission and removal of sins; grace, to the saving bestowal of spiritual gifts [ESTIUS]. Compare \"Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest (the rest received on first believing). Take My yoke on you . . . and ye shall find rest (the continuing rest and peace found in daily submitting to Christ's easy yoke; the former answers to \"receive mercy\" here; the latter, to \"find grace,\" Mat 11:28-29). \n\nin time of need--Greek, \"seasonably.\" Before we are overwhelmed by the temptation; when we most need it, in temptations and persecutions; such as is suitable to the time, persons, and end designed (Psa 104:27). A supply of grace is in store for believers against all exigencies; but they are only supplied with it according as the need arises. Compare \"in due time,\" Rom 5:6. Not, as ALFORD explains, \"help in time,\" that is, to-day, while it is yet open to us; the accepted time (Co2 6:2). \n\nhelp--Compare Heb 2:18, \"He is able to succor them that are tempted.\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hebrews Chapter 5\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE PROMISE OF GOD'S REST IS FULLY REALIZED THROUGH CHRIST: LET US STRIVE TO OBTAIN IT BY HIM, OUR SYMPATHIZING HIGH PRIEST. (Heb. 4:1-16)\n\nLet us . . . fear--not with slavish terror, but godly \"fear and trembling\" (Phi 2:12). Since so many have fallen, we have cause to fear (Heb 3:17-19). \n\nbeing left us--still remaining to us after the others have, by neglect, lost it. \n\nhis rest--God's heavenly rest, of which Canaan is the type. \"To-day\" still continues, during which there is the danger of failing to reach the rest. \"To-day,\" rightly used, terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is never lost (Rev 3:12). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the believer's soul has in Christ. \n\nshould seem to come short of it--Greek, \"to have come short of it\"; should be found, when the great trial of all shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of attaining the promise. The word \"seem\" is a mitigating mode of expression, though not lessening the reality. BENGEL and OWEN take it, Lest there should be any semblance or appearance of falling short.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/4.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":4},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/5.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":5},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/3.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":3},"numberOfVerses":15}