Lange Commentary - Hebrews 11:20 - 11:22

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Lange Commentary - Hebrews 11:20 - 11:22


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

IV

The example of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph

Heb_11:20-22

20By faith [also] Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith 21Jacob, when he was a dying [while when dying], blessed both [each of] the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. 22By faith Joseph, when he died [while dying], made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_11:20. Also.—The position of êáß forbids our regarding the present as the mere appending of a new example of faith from the history of the Patriarchs. Either faith is here designated as of a nature which displays its inward confidence by the utterance of a blessing, and this in relation to a thing in the future; in which case the act of blessing evinces an undoubting faith that the word will be followed by the actual fulfilment (Theodoret, Lün.); or the êáß , with its emphasizing force, introduces the blessing as an act of faith that even determines the future (Del.). In both cases ðåñὶ ìåëë . is dependent on åὐëïã . To connect it with ðßóôåé (Peshito, Sykes) would yield a construction elsewhere without example in the New Testament, and opposed to the absolute use of ðßóôåé elsewhere throughout the chapter.

Heb_11:21. Worshipped, leaning, etc.—In the Heb. text (Gen_47:31) it is said, “he bowed himself upon the head of his couch” (Knobel), or, “he turned himself about upon his bed, turning his face to its head” (Hofm., Del.). At all events, he rendered thanks to God in this way, as the aged David did in a similar case, 1Ki_1:47; while in his discourse with Joseph he had sat upright on his bed. In his weakness, he could neither arise nor prostrate himself. Our author here as elsewhere follows the Sept. with their pointing, äַîַּèֶּä instead of äַîִּèָּç ; and has perhaps designedly brought this passage into connection with the act of blessing recounted Genesis 48, in order to express the devout frame of mind in which this blessing was uttered (Thol.). Perhaps, too, we are to take áὐôïῦ in the sense of the reflexive áὑôïῦ , and to refer the term to the pilgrim-staff of Jacob, Gen_32:10. The reference of this pronoun to Joseph, as well as the supplying of ôῷ ἸùóÞö with ðñïóåêýíçóåí (Chrys., Theodor., Theoph., etc.) is discountenanced by the utter absence of any mention of a staff of honor belonging to Joseph (which indeed Thom. Aqu. regards as symbolical of the cross of Christ, and Joseph as type of the Messiah), as well as by the connection of the passage, which points to no marks of homage which Jacob, in fulfilment of Joseph’s dream, may at last have rendered to him. But the rendering of the Vulg. et adoravit fastigium virgæ ejus, followed by Primas., Œc., Erasm., Calv., Bisp., Reuss, etc., who regard it as indicating the direction of his homage, and as acknowledging in act the future greatness of Ephraim, is grammatically inadmissible; for ἐðß ôé nowhere occurs as expressing the object of ðñïóêõíåῖí .

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Believers care in the best way not only for their own future, but also for that of their children and remote posterity. Therefore they bless them, and God hears their prayer.

2. The blessings pronounced by believers are not mere utterances of pious wishes, but prophecies of the future, and actions which exercise a determining power upon history. Yet they are not sorcerers’ utterances which could exercise a mastery over the will of God, and magically determine the fate of other men. They originate and exert their influence only on the ground and in the power of a human will brought into contact with the will of God. It is God Himself who fills and guides the blessing, heart, hand and lips.

3. Faith strengthens and influences even the weak and dying, so that they look only to God’s promises, wait in blessing and in prayer clear to the end, desire, after their decease, to be gathered to their fathers and brought into the land of promise, and direct toward this all their arrangements.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

They who die in faith think: 1, of the promises which they have inherited; 2, of the prayers with which they are to finish their course; 3, of the benedictions with which they can influence their posterity.—Faith renders men: 1, equally potent in life and joyful in death; 2, equally bold and humble; 3, equally reflective and forecasting.—The best kind of concern for our posterity.

Starke:—As the Patriarchs with great industry transmitted the promises of Christ to their posterity, so should we be zealous to bring the Gospel of Christ to posterity.—The saints frequently do, under the direction and guidance of God, something in which they indeed have a good purpose, but in respect to which God has determined something still higher.—It matters little at the present time where we are buried, provided only that the soul comes into Abraham’s bosom; for the earth is every where the Lord’s. Psa_24:1.

Rieger:—By the early setting in order of his house, Jacob admonishes us of his daily dying, and of the renewed confession of his earthly pilgrimage.

Heubner:—Even in age, and amidst the great infirmities of age, Jacob was strong in his faith in the sure purpose and counsel of God.—The desire of Joseph to have his bones buried with his forefathers, indicates faith in a perpetual communion among believers through the power of God.

Footnotes:

Heb_11:20.—Read after A. D*., 17, 23, 37, Vulg. It., ðßóôåé êáὶ ðåñὶ ôῶí ìåëëüíôùí .