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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 12:13 - 12:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Make straight paths for your feet (τροχιὰς ὀρθὰς ποιεῖτε τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν)
After the lxx of Pro 4:26. The corresponding Hebrew means to tear, to cut into: hence to cut through as a path; to make firm or plain. Ὁρθός N.T. Only here and Act 14:10; commonly straight or upright, but also right, safe, happy. Comp. Pro 8:6; Pro 15:14; Pro 21:8. here, not in the sense of straight as distinguished from crooked, but more generally, right, plain, by implication even or smooth. Τροχιά N.T.o is literally a wheel-track (τροχός a wheel). Very rare in profane Greek. Τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν “for your feet,” not with. That is, exert yourselves to make the course clear for yourselves and your fellow Christians, so that there be no stumbling and laming.
That which is lame (τὸ χωλὸν)
Χωλός lame, halting, only in Synoptic Gospels and Acts. Mostly in the literal sense. Proverbial in Isa 33:23. Metaphorically here, and partly Mat 18:8; Mar 9:45. The verb χωλαίνειν to be lame or to make lame (not in N.T.) is used metaphorically in lxx, Psa 18:45; 1Ki 18:21, where the A.V. “how long halt ye between two opinions” is ἕως πότε ὐμεῖς χωλανεῖτε ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις how long do ye go lame on both your hams? Τὸ χωλὸν here signifies the lame part or limb.
Be turned out of the way (ἐκτραπῇ)
Rend. “be put out of joint.” The A.V. is according to the more usual meaning of the verb, which, in N.T., is confined, with this exception, to the Pastoral Epistles. See 1Ti 1:6; 1Ti 5:15; 2Ti 4:4. lxx only Amo 5:8. But it is also used by medical writers in the passive, with the meaning to be wrenched or dislocated. There is nothing strange in the use of this word in a medical sense by our writer, whose work bears the stamp of Alexandria. The Greeks received their knowledge of surgery from the Egyptians, and mural paintings and documents, and even hieroglyphic symbols, prove that that people had attained remarkable proficiency in the science. Herodotus (ch. iii. 131) mentions a medical school at Cyrene in Africa, and says that the pupils of that school were regarded as the second best physicians in all Greece. At the time of Galen (163 a.d.) the medical school of Alexandria was the most famous in the world, and Galen himself studied there. Celsus (first half of the first century a.d.), in the 7th book of his treatise De Artibius, treats of surgical operations according to the views of the Alexandrian schools. The commonly accepted rendering of the A.V., besides giving a conception which is very tame, presents two incongruities: the association of going astray with lameness, and of healing with straying. The other rendering gives a lively and consistent image. Make the paths smooth and even, so that the lame limb be not dislocated by stones or pitfalls. Do everything to avoid aggravating the weakness of a fellow-Christian. Rather try to heal it. Τὸ χωλὸν may refer either to an individual or to a section of the church which is weak and vacillating.