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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 12:18 - 12:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Following this allusion to Esau, and perhaps suggested by it, is a passage setting forth the privileges of the Christian birthright and of Christian citizenship in contrast with those under the old covenant.
The mount that might be touched and that burned with fire (ψηλαφωμένῳ καὶ κεκαυμένῳ πυρὶ)
Ὄρει mount is omitted by the best texts, but should be understood. Ψηλαφᾶν is rare in N.T. and lxx; fairly frequent in Class. Radically, it is akin to ψᾶν, to rub, wipe; hence feeling on the surface, as Gen 27:12, Gen 27:21, Gen 27:22, lxx: a touch which communicates only a superficial effect. It need not imply contact with an object at all, but simply the movement of the hands feeling after something. Hence often of the groping of the blind, as Deu 28:29; Isa 59:10; Job 5:14. Appropriate here as indicating mere superficial contact. The present participle that is being touched, means simply that the mountain was something material and tangible. The A.V. which might be touched, although not literally correct, conveys the true sense.
That burned with fire (κεκαυμένῳ πυρὶ)
See Exo 19:18; Deu 4:11; Deu 5:4; Deu 9:15. The participle is passive, set on fire; kindled with fire: not attributive of πυρὶ, enkindled fire.
Blackness, darkness, tempest (γνόφῳ, ζόφῳ, θυέλλῃ)
Γνόφος (N.T.o) and ζόφος (elsewhere only 2 Peter and Jude) belong to the same family. As distinguished from σκότος darkness that conceals, as opposed to light, these words signify half-darkness, gloom, nebulousness; as the darkness of evening or the gathering gloom of death. It is a darkness which does not entirely conceal color. Thus δνόφος, the earlier and poetic form of γνόφος, is used by Homer of water which appears dark against the underlying rock, or is tinged by mire. Γνόφος and σκότος appear together, Exo 10:22; Exo 14:20; Deu 4:11; Deu 5:22. Γνόφος alone, Exo 20:21. Ζόφος only in the later version of Symmachus. See on Joh 1:5. Θύελλα N.T.o , from θύειν to boil or foam. It is a brief, violent, sudden, destructive blast, sometimes working upward and carrying objects into the upper air; hence found with ἀείρειν to lift and ἀναρπάζειν to snatch up (see Hom. Od. xx. 63). It may also come from above and dash down to the ground (Hom. Il. xii. 253). Sometimes it indicates the mere force of the wind, as ἀνέμοιο θύελλα (Hom. Od. xii. 409; Il. vi. 346).