Vincent Word Studies - Hebrews 4:12 - 4:12

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Vincent Word Studies - Hebrews 4:12 - 4:12


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The exhortation is enforced by reference to the character of the revelation which sets forth the rest of God. The message of God which promises the rest and urges to seek it, is no dead, formal precept, but is instinct with living energy.

The word of God (ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ)

That which God speaks through any medium. The primary reference is to God's declarations concerning his rest. The fathers explained it of the personal Word as in the Fourth Gospel. But in the Epistle there is no approach to any definite use of λόγος with reference to Christ, not even in the description of his relation to God in Heb 1:1-14, where, if anywhere, it might have been expected. In Heb 6:5 and Heb 11:3 we find ῥῆμα. Everywhere in the Epistle Christ appears as the Son, not as the Word. In this passage, the following predicates, ἐνεργὴς, τομώτερος, κριτικὸς, would hardly be applied to the Logos, and in Heb 4:14 he is styled Jesus the Son of God.

Quick and powerful (ζῶν καὶ ἐνεργὴς)

Note the emphatic position of ζῶν living. Living is the word of God, since it is the word of “the living God” (Heb 3:12). Living in its essence. For ἐνεργὴς active, energizing, and kindred words, see on Joh 1:12; see on Phi 3:21; see on Col 1:29; see on Phm 1:6. Manifesting itself actively in the world and in men's hearts. Comp. 1Pe 1:23.

Sharper than any two-edged sword (τομώτερος ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον)

Τομώτερος sharper from τέμνειν to cut, N.T.o. olxx. The word of God has an incisive and penetrating quality. It lays bare self-delusions and moral sophisms. For the comparison of the word of God or of men to a sword, see Psa 57:4; Psa 59:7; Psa 64:3; Eph 6:17. Philo calls his Logos ὁ τομεύς the cutter, as cutting chaos into distinct things, and so creating a kosmos. Ὑπὲρ than, is literally, above. Πᾶσαν any, is every. Δίσμοτον only here and Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12, lit. two-mouthed. In lxx always of a sword. See Jdg 3:16; Psa 149:6; Pro 5:4; Sir. 21:3. In Class. of a cave with a twofold mouth (Soph. Philoct. 16); of double-branching roads (Soph. Oed. Col. 900); of rivers with two mouths (Polyb. xxxiv. 10, 5). Στόμα mouth, of the edge of a sword, Luk 21:24; Heb 11:34. Often in lxx, as Gen 34:26; Jos 10:28, Jos 10:33, Jos 10:35, Jos 10:37, Jos 10:39; Jdg 1:8. So occasionally in Class., as Homer, Il. xv. 389. Κατεσθίειν or κατέσθειν to devour is used of the sword, Deu 32:42; 2Sa 2:26; Isa 31:8; Jer 2:30, etc. Μάχαιρα sword, in Class. a dirk or dagger: rarely, a carving knife; later, a bent sword or sabre as contrasted with a straight, thrusting sword, ξίφος (not in N.T. but occasionally in lxx). Ῥομφαία, Luk 2:35 (see note), elsewhere only in Revelation, very often in lxx, is a large broadsword. In lxx of Goliath's sword, 1Sa 17:51

Piercing (διΐκνούμενος)

Lit. coming through. N.T.o.

Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow (ἄρχι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν)

Μερισμὸς dividing, only here and Heb 2:4, is not to be understood of dividing soul from spirit or joints from marrow. Soul and spirit cannot be said to be separated in any such sense as this, and joints and marrow are not in contact with each other. Μερισμὸς is the act of division; not the point or line of division. Joints and marrow are not to be taken in a literal and material sense. In rendering, construe soul, spirit, joints, marrow, as all dependent on dividing. Joints and marrow (ἁρμῶν, μυελῶν, N.T.o ) are to be taken figuratively as joints and marrow of soul and spirit. This figurative sense is exemplified in classical usage, as Eurip. Hippol. 255, “to form moderate friendships, and not πρὸς ἄρκον μυελὸν ψυχῆς to the deep marrow of the soul.” The conception of depth applied to the soul is on the same figurative line. See Aesch. Agam. 778; Eurip. Bacch. 203. Attempts to explain on any psychological basis are futile. The form of expression is poetical, and signifies that the word penetrates to the inmost recesses of our spiritual being as a sword cuts through the joints and marrow of the body. The separation is not of one part from another, but operates in each department of the spiritual nature. The expression is expanded and defined by the next clause.

A discerner (κριτικὸς)

N.T.o. olxx. The word carries on the thought of dividing. From κρίνειν to divide or separate, which runs into the sense of judge, the usual meaning in N.T., judgment involving the sifting out and analysis of evidence. In κριτικὸς the ideas of discrimination and judgment are blended. Vulg. discretor.

Of the thoughts and intents of the heart (ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας)

The A.V. is loose and inaccurate. Ἐνθύμησις rare in N.T. See Mat 9:4; Act 17:29. Comp. ἐνθυμεῖσθαι, Mat 1:20; Mat 9:4. In every instance, both of the noun and of the verb, the sense is pondering or thinking out. Rend. the reflections. Ἔννοια only here and 1Pe 4:1. It is the definite conception which follows ἐνθύμησις Rend. conceptions.