{"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":6,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["the doctrine of baptisms--paired with \"laying on of hands,\" as the latter followed on Christian baptism, and answers to the rite of confirmation in Episcopal churches. Jewish believers passed, by an easy transition, from Jewish baptismal purifications (Heb 9:10, \"washings\"), baptism of proselytes, and John's baptism, and legal imposition of hands, to their Christian analogues, baptism, and the subsequent laying on of hands, accompanied by the gift of the Holy Ghost (compare Heb 6:4). Greek, \"baptismoi,\" plural, including Jewish and Christian baptisms, are to be distinguished from baptisma, singular, restricted to Christian baptism. The six particulars here specified had been, as it were, the Christian Catechism of the Old Testament; and such Jews who had begun to recognize Jesus as the Christ immediately on the new light being shed on these fundamental particulars, were accounted as having the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ [BENGEL]. The first and most obvious elementary instruction of Jews would be the teaching them the typical significance of their own ceremonial law in its Christian fulfilment [ALFORD]. \n\nresurrection, &c.--held already by the Jews from the Old Testament: confirmed with clearer light in Christian teaching or \"doctrine.\" \n\neternal judgment--judgment fraught with eternal consequences either of joy or of woe.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["will we do--So some of the oldest manuscripts read; but others, \"Let us do.\" \"This,\" that is, \"Go on unto perfection.\" \n\nif God permit--For even in the case of good resolutions, we cannot carry them into effect, save through God \"working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure\" (Phi 2:13). The \"for\" in Heb 6:4 refers to this: I say, if God permit, for there are cases where God does not permit, for example, \"it is impossible,\" &c. Without God's blessing, the cultivation of the ground does not succeed (Heb 6:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["We must \"go on toward perfection\"; for if we fall away, after having received enlightenment, it will be impossible to renew us again to repentance. \n\nfor those--\"in the case of those.\" \n\nonce enlightened--once for all illuminated by the word of God taught in connection with \"baptism\" (to which, in Heb 6:2, as once for all done,\" once enlightened\" here answers); compare Eph 5:26. This passage probably originated the application of the term \"illumination\" to baptism in subsequent times. Illumination, however, was not supposed to be the inseparable accompaniment of baptism: thus CHRYSOSTOM says, \"Heretics have baptism, not illumination: they are baptized in body, but not enlightened in soul: as Simon Magus was baptized, but not illuminated.\" That \"enlightened\" here means knowledge of the word of truth, appears from comparing the same Greek word \"illuminated,\" Heb 10:32, with Heb 10:26, where \"knowledge of the truth\" answers to it. \n\ntasted of the heavenly gift--tasted for themselves. As \"enlightened\" refers to the sense of sight: so here taste follows. \"The heavenly gift\"; Christ given by the Father and revealed by the enlightening word preached and written: as conferring peace in the remission of sins; and as the Bestower of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Act 8:19-20), \n\nmade partakers of the Holy Ghost--specified as distinct from, though so inseparably connected with, \"enlightened,\" and \"tasted of the heavenly gift,\" Christ, as answering to \"laying on of hands\" after baptism, which was then generally accompanied with the impartation of the Holy Ghost in miraculous gifts.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["tasted the good word of God--distinct from \"tasted OF (genitive) the heavenly gift\"; we do not yet enjoy all the fulness of Christ, but only have a taste OF Him, the heavenly gift now; but believers may taste the whole word (accusative case) of God already, namely, God's \"good word of promise.\" The Old Testament promise of Canaan to Israel typified \"the good word of God's\" promise of the heavenly rest (Heb. 4:1-16). Therefore, there immediately follows the clause, \"the powers of the world to come.\" As \"enlightening\" and \"tasting of the heavenly gift,\" Christ, the Bread of Life, answers to FAITH: so \"made partakers of the Holy Ghost,\" to CHARITY, which is the first-fruit of the Spirit: and \"tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,\" to HOPE. Thus the triad of privileges answers to the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Spirit, in their respective works toward us. \"The world to come,\" is the Christian dispensation, viewed especially in its future glories, though already begun in grace here. The world to come thus stands in contrast to course of this world, altogether disorganized because God is not its spring of action and end. By faith, Christians make the world to come a present reality, though but a foretaste of the perfect future. The powers of this new spiritual world, partly exhibited in outward miracles at that time, and then, as now, especially consisting in the Spirit's inward quickening influences are the earnest of the coming inheritance above, and lead the believer who gives himself up to the Spirit to seek to live as the angels, to sit with Christ in heavenly places, to set the affections on things above, and not on things on earth, and to look for Christ's coming and the full manifestation of the world to come. This \"world to come,\" in its future aspect, thus corresponds to \"resurrection of the dead and eternal life\" (Heb 6:2), the first Christian principles which the Hebrew believers had been taught, by the Christian light being thrown back on their Old Testament for their instruction (see on Heb 6:1-2). \"The world to come,\" which, as to its \"powers,\" exists already in the redeemed, will pass into a fully realized fact at Christ's coming (Col 3:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["If--Greek, \"And (yet) have fallen away\"; compare a less extreme falling or declension, Gal 5:4, \"Ye are fallen from grace.\" Here an entire and wilful apostasy is meant; the Hebrews had not yet so fallen away; but he warns them that such would be the final result of retrogression, if, instead of \"going on to perfection,\" they should need to learn again the first principles of Christianity (Heb 6:1). \n\nto renew them again--They have been \"once\" (Heb 6:4) already renewed, or made anew, and now they need to be \"renewed\" over \"again.\" \n\ncrucify to themselves the Son of God--\"are crucifiying to themselves\" Christ, instead of, like Paul, crucifying the world unto them by the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14). So in Heb 10:29, \"trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith . . . sanctified, an unholy thing.\" \"The Son of God,\" marking His dignity, shows the greatness of their offense. \n\nput him to an open shame--literally, \"make a public example of\" Him, as if He were a malefactor suspended on a tree. What the carnal Israel did outwardly, those who fall away from light do inwardly, they virtually crucify again the Son of God; \"they tear him out of the recesses of their hearts where He had fixed His abode and exhibit Him to the open scoffs of the world as something powerless and common\" [BLEEK in ALFORD]. The Montanists and Novatians used this passage to justify the lasting exclusion from the Church of those who had once lapsed. The Catholic Church always opposed this view, and readmitted the lapsed on their repentance, but did not rebaptize them. This passage implies that persons may be in some sense \"renewed,\" and yet fall away finally; for the words, \"renew again,\" imply that they have been, in some sense, not the full sense, ONCE RENEWED by the Holy Ghost; but certainly not that they are \"the elect,\" for these can never fall away, being chosen unto everlasting life (Joh 10:28). The elect abide in Christ, hear and continuously obey His voice, and do not fall away. He who abides not in Christ, is cast forth as a withered branch; but he who abides in Him becomes more and more free from sin; the wicked one cannot touch him; and he by faith overcomes the world. A temporary faith is possible, without one thereby being constituted one of the elect (Mar 4:16-17). At the same time it does not limit God's grace, as if it were \"impossible\" for God to reclaim even such a hardened rebel so as yet to look on Him whom he has pierced. The impossibility rests in their having known in themselves once the power of Christ's sacrifice, and yet now rejecting it; there cannot possibly be any new means devised for their renewal afresh, and the means provided by God's love they now, after experience of them, deliberately and continuously reject; their conscience being served, and they \"twice dead\" (Jde 1:12), are now past hope, except by a miracle of God's grace. \"It is the curse of evil eternally to propagate evil\" [THOLUCK]. \"He who is led into the whole (?) compass of Christian experiences, may yet cease to abide in them; he who abides not in them, was, at the very time when he had those objective experiences, not subjectively true to them; otherwise there would have been fulfilled in him, \"Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance\" (Mat 13:12), so that he would have abided in them and not have fallen away\" [THOLUCK]. Such a one was never truly a Spirit-led disciple of Christ (Rom 8:14-17). The sin against the Holy Ghost, though somewhat similar, is not identical with this sin; for that sin may be committed by those outside the Church (as in Mat 12:24, Mat 12:31-32); this, only by those inside.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["the earth--rather as Greek (no article), \"land.\" \n\nwhich drinketh in--Greek, \"which has drunk in\"; not merely receiving it on the surface. Answering to those who have enjoyed the privilege of Christian experiences, being in some sense renewed by the Holy Ghost; true alike of those who persevere and those who \"fall away.\" \n\nthe rain that cometh oft upon it--not merely failing over it, or towards it, but falling and resting upon it so as to cover it (the Greek genitive, not the accusative). The \"oft\" implies, on God's part, the riches of His abounding grace (\"coming\" spontaneously, and often); and, on the apostate's part, the wilful perversity whereby he has done continual despite to the oft-repeated motions of the Spirit. Compare \"How often,\" Mat 23:37. The rain of heaven falls both on the elect and the apostates. \n\nbringeth forth--as the natural result of \"having drunk in the rain.\" See above. \n\nherbs--provender. \n\nmeet--fit. Such as the master of the soil wishes. The opposite of \"rejected,\" Heb 6:8. \n\nby whom--rather as Greek, \"for (that is, on account of) whom,\" namely, the lords of the soil; not the laborers, as English Version, namely, God and His Christ (Co1 3:9). The heart of man is the earth; man is the dresser; herbs are brought forth meet, not for the dresser, by whom, but for God, the owner of the soil, for whom it is dressed. The plural is general, the owners whoever they may be; here God. \n\nreceiveth--\"partaketh of.\" \n\nblessing--fruitfulness. Contrast God's curse causing unfruitfulness (Gen 3:17-18); also spiritually (Jer 17:5-8). \n\nfrom God--Man's use of means is vain unless God bless (Co1 3:6-7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["that which--rather as Greek (no article), \"But if it (the 'land,' Heb 6:7) bear\"; not so favorable a word as \"bringeth forth,\" Heb 6:7, said of the good soil. \n\nbriers--Greek, \"thistles.\" \n\nrejected--after having been tested; so the Greek implies. Reprobate . . . rejected by the Lord. \n\nnigh unto cursing--on the verge of being given up to its own barrenness by the just curse of God. This \"nigh\" softens the severity of the previous \"It is impossible,\" &c. (Heb 6:4, Heb 6:6). The ground is not yet actually cursed. \n\nwhose--\"of which (land) the end is unto burning,\" namely, with the consuming fire of the last judgment; as the land of Sodom was given to \"brimstone, salt, and burning\" (Deu 29:23); so as to the ungodly (Mat 3:10, Mat 3:12; Mat 7:19; Mat 13:30; Joh 15:6; Pe2 3:10). Jerusalem, which had so resisted the grace of Christ, was then nigh unto cursing, and in a few years was burned. Compare Mat 22:7, \"burned up their city\" an earnest of a like fate to all wilful abusers of God's grace (Heb 10:26-27).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["beloved--appositely here introduced; LOVE to you prompts me in the strong warnings I have just given, not that I entertain unfavorable thoughts of you; nay, I anticipate better things of you; Greek \"the things which are better\"; that ye are not thorn-bearing, or nigh unto cursing, and doomed unto burning, but heirs of salvation in accordance with God's faithfulness (Heb 6:10). \n\nwe are persuaded--on good grounds; the result of proof. Compare Rom 15:14, \"I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness.\" A confirmation of the Pauline authorship of this Epistle. \n\nthings that accompany--Greek, \"things that hold by,\" that is, are close unto \"salvation.\" Things that are linked unto salvation (compare Heb 6:19). In opposition to \"nigh unto cursing.\" \n\nthough--Greek, \"if even we thus speak.\" \"For it is better to make you afraid with words, that ye may not suffer in fact.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["not unrighteous--not unfaithful to His own gracious promise. Not that we have any inherent right to claim reward; for (1) a servant has no merit, as he only does that which is his bounden duty; (2) our best performances bear no proportion to what we leave undone; (3) all strength comes from God; but God has promised of His own grace to reward the good works of His people (already accepted through faith in Christ); it is His promise, not our merits, which would make it unrighteous were He not to reward His people's works. God will be no man's debtor. \n\nyour work--your whole Christian life of active obedience. \n\nlabour of love--The oldest manuscripts omit \"labor of,\" which probably crept in from Th1 1:3. As \"love\" occurs here, so \"hope,\" Heb 6:11, \"faith,\" Heb 6:12; as in Co1 13:13 : the Pauline triad. By their love he sharpens their hope and faith. \n\nye have showed--(Compare Heb 10:32-34). \n\ntoward his name--Your acts of love to the saints were done for His name's sake. The distressed condition of the Palestinian Christians appears from the collection for them. Though receiving bounty from other churches, and therefore not able to minister much by pecuniary help, yet those somewhat better off could minister to the greatest sufferers in their Church in various other ways (compare Ti2 1:18). Paul, as elsewhere, gives them the utmost credit for their graces, while delicately hinting the need of perseverance, a lack of which had probably somewhat begun to show itself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["And--Greek, \"But.\" \n\ndesire--Greek, \"earnestly desire.\" The language of fatherly affection, rather than command. \n\nevery one of you--implying that all in the Palestinian churches had not shown the same diligence as some of those whom he praises in Heb 6:10. \"He cares alike for great and small, and overlooks none.\" \"Every one of them,\" even those diligent in acts of LOVE (Heb 6:10), needed to be stimulated to persevere in the same diligence with a view to the full assurance of HOPE unto the end. They needed, besides love, patient perseverance, resting on hope and faith (Heb 10:36; Heb 13:7). Compare \"the full assurance of faith,\" Heb 10:22; Rom 4:21; Th1 1:5. \n\nunto the end--the coming of Christ.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["be not--Greek, \"become not.\" In Heb 5:11, he said, \"Ye have become dull (Greek, 'slothful') of hearing\"; here he warns them not to become \"slothful absolutely,\" namely, also in mind and deed. He will not become slothful who keeps always the end in view; hope is the means of ensuring this. \n\nfollowers--Greek, \"imitators\"; so in Eph 5:1, Greek; Co1 11:1. \n\npatience--Greek, \"long-suffering endurance.\" There is the long-suffering patience, or endurance of love, Co1 13:4, and that of faith, Heb 6:15. \n\nthem who . . . inherit the promises--Greek, \"who are inheriting,\" &c.; to whom the promises are their inheritance. Not that they have actually entered on the perfect inheritance, which Heb 11:13, Heb 11:39-40 explicitly denies; though doubtless the dead in Christ have, in the disembodied soul, a foretaste of it; but \"them (enumerated in Heb. 11:2-40) who in every age have been, are, or shall be, inheritors of the promises\"; of whom Abraham is an illustrious example (Heb 6:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["For--confirming the reasonableness of resting on \"the promises\" as infallibly sure, resting as they do on God's oath, by the instance of Abraham. \"He now gives consolation, by the oath of God's grace, to those whom, in the second, third, and fourth chapters, he had warned by the oath of God's 'wrath.' The oath of wrath did not primarily extend its force beyond the wilderness; but the oath of grace is in force for ever\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["multiplying . . . multiply--Hebraism for superabundantly multiply. \n\nthee--The increase of Abraham's seed is virtually an increase of himself. The argument here refers to Abraham himself as an example; therefore Paul quotes Gen 22:17, \"thee,\" instead of \"thy seed.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["so--thus relying on the promise.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["for confirmation--not to be joined, as English Version, to \"an oath\"; but to \"an end\" [ALFORD]. I prefer, \"The oath is to them, in respect to confirmation (of one's solemn promise or covenant; as here, God's), an end of all contradiction (so the Greek is translated, Heb 12:3), or \"gainsaying.\" This passage shows: (1) an oath is sanctioned even in the Christian dispensation as lawful; (2) that the limits to its use are, that it only be employed where it can put an end to contradiction in disputes, and for confirmation of a solemn promise.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Wherein--that is, Which being the case among men, God, in accommodation to their manner of confirming covenants, superadded to His sure word His oath: the \"TWO immutable things\" (Heb 6:18). \n\nwilling . . . counsel--Greek, \"willing . . . will\"; words akin. Expressing the utmost benignity [BENGEL]. \n\nmore abundantly--than had He not sworn. His word would have been amply enough; but, to make assurance doubly sure, He \"interposed with an oath\" (so the Greek). Literally, He acted as Mediator, coming between Himself and us; as if He were less, while He swears, than Himself by whom He swears (for the less among men usually swear by the greater). Dost thou not yet believe, thou that hearest the promise? [BENGEL]. \n\nheirs of promise--not only Abraham's literal, but also his spiritual, seed (Gal 3:29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["immutable--Translate, as in Heb 6:17, \"unchangeable.\" \n\nimpossible . . . to lie--\"ever to lie\"; this is the force of the Greek aorist [ALFORD]. His not being able to deny Himself is a proof, not of weakness, but of strength incomparable. \n\nconsolation--under doubts and fears, and so \"encouragement,\" literally, \"exhortation.\" \n\nfled for refuge--as if from a shipwreck; or, as one fleeing to one of the six cities of refuge. Kadesh, that is, holy, implies the holiness of Jesus, our Refuge. Shechem, that is, shoulder, the government is upon his shoulder (Isa 9:6). Hebron, that is, fellowship, believers are called into the fellowship of Christ. Bezer, that is, a fortress, Christ is so to all who trust in Him. Ramoth, that is, high, for Him hath God exalted with His right hand (Act 5:31). Golan, that is, joy, for in Him all the saints are justified and shall glory. \n\nlay hold upon the hope--that is, the object of our hope, as upon a preservative from sinking. \n\nset before us--as a prize for which we strive; a new image, namely, the race course (Heb 12:1-2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Hope is found represented on coins by an anchor. \n\nsure and steadfast--sure in respect to us: steadfast, or \"firm\" [ALFORD], in itself. Not such an anchor as will not keep the vessel from tossing, or an anchor unsound or too light [THEOPHYLACT]. \n\nwhich entereth into that--that is the place \n\nwithin the veil--two images beautifully combined: (1) The soul is the ship: the world the sea: the bliss beyond the world, the distant coast; the hope resting on faith, the anchor which prevents the vessel being tossed to and fro; the encouraging consolation through the promise and oath of God, the cable connecting the ship and anchor. (2) The world is the fore-court: heaven, the Holy of Holies; Christ, the High Priest going before us, so as to enable us, after Him, and through Him, to enter within the veil. ESTIUS explains, As the anchor does not stay in the waters, but enters the ground hidden beneath the waters, and fastens itself in it, so hope, our anchor of the soul, is not satisfied with merely coming to the vestibule, that is, is not content with merely earthly and visible goods, but penetrates even to those which are within the veil, namely, to the Holy of Holies, where it lays hold on God Himself, and heavenly goods, and fastens on them. \"Hope, entering within heaven, hath made us already to be in the things promised to us, even while we are still below, and have not yet received them; such strength hope has, as to make those that are earthly to become heavenly.\" \"The soul clings, as one in fear of shipwreck to an anchor, and sees not whither the cable of the anchor runs--where it is fastened: but she knows that it is fastened behind the veil which hides the future glory.\" \n\nveil--Greek, \"catapetasma\": the second veil which shut in the Holiest Place. The outer veil was called by a distinct Greek term, calumma: \"the second (that is, the inner) veil.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["The absence of the Greek article requires ALFORD'S translation, \"Where. As forerunner for us (that is, in our behalf), entered Jesus\" [and is now: this last clause is implied in the 'where' of the Greek, which implies being IN a place: 'whither' is understood to 'entered,' taken out of 'where'; whither Jesus entered, and where He is now]. The \"for us\" implies that it was not for Himself, as God, He needed to enter there, but as our High Priest, representing and introducing us, His followers, opening the way to us, by His intercession with the Father, as the Aaronic high priest entered the Holiest Place once a year to make propitiation for the people. The first-fruits of our nature are ascended, and so the rest is sanctified. Christ's ascension is our promotion: and whither the glory of the Head has preceded, thither the hope of the body, too, is called. We ought to keep festal day, since Christ has taken up and set in the heavens the first-fruit of our lump, that is, the human flesh [CHRYSOSTOM]. As John Baptist was Christ's forerunner on earth, so Christ is ours in heaven.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hebrews Chapter 7\n\n"]}],"introduction":"WARNING AGAINST RETROGRADING, WHICH SOON LEADS TO APOSTASY; ENCOURAGEMENT TO STEADFASTNESS FROM GOD'S FAITHFULNESS TO HIS WORD AND OATH. (Heb 6:1-14)\n\nTherefore--Wherefore: seeing that ye ought not now to be still \"babes\" (Heb 5:11-14). \n\nleaving--getting further forward than the elementary \"principles.\" \"As in building a house one must never leave the foundation: yet to be always laboring in 'laying the foundation' would be ridiculous\" [CALVIN]. \n\nthe principles of the doctrine--Greek, \"the word of the beginning,\" that is, the discussion of the \"first principles of Christianity (Heb 5:12). \n\nlet us go on--Greek, \"let us be borne forward,\" or \"bear ourselves forward\"; implying active exertion: press on. Paul, in teaching, here classifies himself with the Hebrew readers, or (as they ought to be) learners, and says, Let us together press forward. \n\nperfection--the matured knowledge of those who are \"of full age\" (Heb 5:14) in Christian attainments. \n\nfoundation of--that is, consisting in \"repentance.\" \n\nrepentance from dead works--namely, not springing from the vital principle of faith and love toward God, and so counted, like their doer, dead before God. This repentance from dead works is therefore paired with \"faith toward God.\" The three pairs of truths enumerated are designedly such as JEWISH believers might in some degree have known from the Old Testament, but had been taught more clearly when they became Christians. This accounts for the omission of distinct specification of some essential first principle of Christian truth. Hence, too, he mentions \"faith toward God,\" and not explicitly faith toward Christ (though of course included). Repentance and faith were the first principles taught under the Gospel.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/6.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":6},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/7.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":7},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HEB/5.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HEB","chapter":5},"numberOfVerses":19}