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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 12:2 - 12:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Looking (ἀφορῶντες)
Only here and Phi 2:28. In lxx see 4 Macc. 17:10. Looking away from everything which may distract. Comp. Phi 3:13, Phi 3:14, and ἀπέβλεπεν he had respect, lit. looked away, Heb 11:26. Wetstein cites Arrian, Epictet. ii. 19, 29: εἰς τὸν Θεὸν ἀφορῶντες ἐν παντὶ μικρῷ καὶ μεγάλῳ looking away unto God in everything small and great.
Jesus
Having presented a long catalogue of witnesses under the old covenant, he now presents Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the supreme witness. See Rev 1:5; Rev 3:14; 1Ti 6:13.
The author and finisher of our faith (τὸν τῆς πίστεως ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν)
The A.V. is misleading, and narrows the scope of the passage. For author, rend. leader or captain, and see on Heb 2:10. For finisher, rend. perfecter. For our faith, rend. faith or the faith. Not our Christian faith, but faith absolutely, as exhibited in the whole range of believers from Abel to Christ. Christ cannot be called the author or originator of faith, since the faith here treated existed and worked before Christ. Christ is the leader or captain of faith, in that he is the perfecter of faith. In himself he furnished the perfect development, the supreme example of faith, and in virtue of this he is the leader of the whole believing host in all time. Notice the recurrence of the favorite idea of perfecting. Comp. Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9; Heb 6:1; Heb 7:11, Heb 7:19, Heb 7:28; Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1, Heb 10:14; Heb 11:40. Τελειωτής perfecter, N.T.o, olxx, oClass.
For the joy that was set before him (ἀντὶ τῆς προκειμένης αὐτῷ χαρᾶς)
Ἁντὶ in its usual sense, in exchange for. Προκειμένης lying before, present. The joy was the full, divine beatitude of his preincarnate life in the bosom of the Father; the glory which he had with God before the world was. In exchange for this he accepted the cross and the blame. The contrast is designed between the struggle which, for the present, is alone set before the readers (Heb 12:1), and the joy which was already present to Christ. The heroic character of his faith appears in his renouncing a joy already in possession in exchange for shame and death. The passage thus falls in with Phi 2:6-8.
The cross (σταυρὸν)
Comp. Phi 2:8. olxx. Originally an upright stake or pale. Σταυροῦν to drive down a stake; to crucify. Comp. the use of ξύλον wood or tree for the cross, Act 5:30; Act 10:39; 1Pe 2:24. See on Luk 23:31.
The shame (αἰσχύνης)
Attendant upon a malefactor's death.
Is set down, etc.
See Heb 1:3, Heb 1:13; Heb 8:1; Heb 10:12. Notice the tenses: endured, aorist, completed: hath sat down, perfect, he remains seated and reigning.