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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Hebrews 4:12 - 4:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The word of God (ho logos tou theou). That just quoted about the promise of rest and God’s rest, but true of any real word of God.
Living (zōn). Cf. the Living God (Heb 3:12). In Philo and the Book of Wisdom the Logos of God is personified, but still more in John 1:1-18 where Jesus is pictured as the Logos on a par with God. “Our author is using Philonic language rather than Philonic ideas” (Moffatt). See Joh 6:63 : “The words which I have spoken are spirit and are life.”
Active (energēs). Energetic, powerful (Joh 1:12; Phi 3:21; Col 1:29).
Sharper (tomōteros). Comparative of tomos, cutting (from temnō, to cut), late adjective, here only in the N.T.
Than (huper). Often so after a comparative (Luk 16:8; 2Co 12:13).
Two-edged (distomon). “Two-mouthed” (di-, stoma), double-mouthed like a river (Polybius), branching ways (Sophocles), applied to sword (xiphos) by Homer and Euripides.
Piercing (diiknoumenos). Present middle participle of diikneomai, old verb to go through, here only in N.T.
Even to the dividing (achri merismou). Old word from merizō (meros, part), to partition.
Of soul and spirit (psuchēs kai pneumatos). As in 1Th 5:23; 1Co 15:45, but not an argument for trichotomy. Psychology is constantly changing its terminology.
Of both joints and marrow (harmōn te kai muelōn). From arō, to join, comes harmos, old word, here only in the N.T. Muelos (from muō, to shut), old word, here only in N.T. This surgeon goes into and through the joints and marrow, not cleaving between them.
Quick to discern (kritikos). Verbal adjective in -ikos, from krinō, skilled in judging, as the surgeon has to be and able to decide on the instant what to do. So God’s word like his eye sees the secret lurking doubt and unbelief “of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (enthumēseōn kai ennoiōn kardias). The surgeon carries a bright and powerful light for every dark crevice and a sharp knife for the removal of all the pus revealed by the light. It is a powerful picture here drawn.