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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 3:2 - 3:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Who was faithful (πιστὸν ὄντα)
Rend. “is faithful.” A general designation of inherent character. He is faithful as he ever was.
To him that appointed him (τῷ ποιήσαντι αὐτὸν)
Constituted him apostle and high priest. Some render created, referring to Christ's humanity or to his eternal generation. So the Old Latin, creatori suo; but this does not suit the context. Ποιεῖν often in Class. in the sense of institute, as sacrifices, funerals, assemblies, etc., and in the middle voice of adoption as a son. See 1Sa 12:6; Mar 3:14; Act 2:36.
As also Moses (ὡς καὶ Μωυσῆς)
The highest example of human fidelity known to the readers.
In all his house (ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ)
Const. with was faithful. Jesus was faithful even as Moses was faithful.
The subject of the high-priesthood of Christ, introduced in this verse, is not carried out in detail by showing the superiority of Jesus to earthly high priests. This is reserved for chs. 5-7. Instead, the writer proceeds to show that Christ is superior to Moses, as he has already shown his superiority to angels. He will thus have shown Christ's superiority to both the agencies by which the old covenant was mediated. The subject is a delicate one to treat for Jewish readers to whom Moses was the object of the deepest veneration; but the treatment displays tact by placing Moses in the foreground beside Christ as an example of fidelity to his commission. Justice is thus done to the familiar historical record, and to God's own testimony, Num 12:7. The general sense of the comparison is that Moses was as faithful as any servant in a house can be, while Christ was not a servant in the house, but a son, and displayed his fidelity in that capacity.