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The guilt and punishableness of apostasy stand proportionate to the blessings and obligations of the New Covenant
Heb_12:25-29
[Heb_12:25.— ìὴ ðáñáéôÞóçóèå , lest ye beg off from, decline, refuse; a verbal correspondence with ðáñáéôÞó , Heb_12:19, which it is difficult to reproduce in English.— ôὸí ëáëïῦíôá , him who is speaking, viz., God through Christ, as anciently through Moses.— ðáñáéôçóÜìåíïé , after refusing, or more exactly, when they refused. The Part, is not part of the subject, but is added predicatively to ἑêåῖíïé , or subject.— ôὸí ÷ñçìáôßæïíôá , who was uttering heavenly oracles, declaring the divine will, not speaking as if= ëáëïῦíôá or ëÝãïíôá — ôὸí ἀð ’ ïὐñáíïῦ him (who speaketh) from heaven—again God, speaking through Christ.
Heb_12:26.— íῦí äÝ , seemingly temporal, and in part so, as contrasted with ôüôå ; but in my judgment still more decidedly logical=in the present state of things, as the case actually stands.— ἔôé ἄðáî , yet once, and once only.
Heb_12:27.— ôῶí óáëåõ .of the things which are being shaken.— ὡò ðåðïéçìÝíùí , as having been made.— Ἱíá , I connect not (with Del., Moll, etc.) with ðåðïéçìÝíùí , but with ìåôÜèåóéí , and hence put a comma after ðåðïéç .
Heb_12:28.— âáóéë . ἀóÜëåõôïí , a kingdom not to be shaken—“which cannot be moved,” of E.V., destroys the paronomasia.— ἔ÷ìåí ÷Üñéí , according to Greek usage, not, let us have grace, but, “let us exercise gratitude.”— ìåôὰ åὐëáâåßáò êáὶäÝïõò ; ‘with reverent submission and fear” (Alf.).
Heb_12:29.— êáὶ ãὰñ , for also, not “for even,” which would require ὁ ìÝôåñïò , or a more emphatic position of ἡìῶí .—K.].
Heb_12:26. But now hath he promised.—The subject of ἐðÞããåëôáé is contained in the preceding ïὖ , and the whole sentence has sprung grammatically from blending into one two declarations; for the íῦí . äÝ refers to the time of the incipient fulfilment of that which God has announced, Hag_2:6 ff. ἘðÞããåëôáé is Perf. Pass, in a middle sense, as 4:21.
Heb_12:27. Yet once for all.—The first shaking took place at the giving of the Law (Exo_19:18), where, however, the Sept. translates ëáüò instead of ὄñïò , for which reason our author refers doubtless to Jdg_5:4-5; comp. Psa_68:9; Psa_114:7. A like display of Jehovah’s power is predicted by the prophets for the closing Messianic epoch, Mic_7:15; Habakkuk 3.; Haggai 2. The author follows the defective translation of the Sept. In the original it is said, “Yet one thing; it is a small matter.” This expansion of the time from Hos_1:4 implies, according to Hitz. and Hofm., two things; namely, that the time from the present until the final grand consummation will constitute but one epoch, and that this will be a brief one. Thus the argument from the “yet once for all” ( ἔôé ἅðáî ) is sound as to the matter of fact, although in form it attaches itself to a false rendering.
As having been made, etc.—Alike the expression, ὡò ðåðïéìÝíùí , and the final clause following that, show that the shaking refers not to any convulsion accompanying the entrance of Christianity into the world (Coccei., a Lapid., Böhm., Klee, etc.), but to the final consummation (Theodoret, Theoph., Erasm., Bez., Bl., Thol., etc.). Even at the creation God intended and prepared for the last and now commencing transformation of the changeable into the unchangeable, of what may be shaken into what cannot be shaken (Rom_8:21), or (as is said, Heb_4:4-9), for the sabbatism of the world. On account of this parallel with which Col_1:16; Eph_1:10 substantially coincide, the reference of the final clause with ἵíá to ìåôÜèåóéí (Theod., Œc, Bl., De W., Lün., etc.) is quite improbable, and all the more so in that also the new heaven and the new earth are said to be created and made, Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22. In connecting ἵíá with ὧò ðåðïéçìÝíùí it is better with Grot., Beng., Thol., Hofm., Del., etc., to take ìÝíåéí in its usual signification, which has the authority of Isa_66:21, than in that of waiting for something (Storr, Böhm., etc.), which occurs Act_20:5; Act_20:23, and frequently in the Sept.
[Alford rejects, and I think with entire correctness, the, reference of the final clause to ðåðïéçìÝíùí , and retains the much more rational and entirely unobjectionable view that it is to be connected with ìåôÜèåóéí . The characterization of “the things that are shaken” as “having been made in order that the things which are not shaken may remain,” to wit, by the removal of things which are shaken, is so forced and unnatural that nothing but necessity can justify our adopting this construction. On the other hand, its construction with ìåôÜèåóéí seems to me open to no valid objection whatever. For, in the first place, although there is no strict logical causative connection between the removal of the things that are shaken and the remaining of the things that are not shaken, yet, as a popular form of expression, it is entirely natural. The changeable and temporary is easily conceived as being taken out of the way in order to give permanent place to the immutable and abiding. In the second place, the objection to taking ôῶí ðåðïéçìÝíùí absolutely, as denoting simply things which have been made, i.e., created, drawn from the fact that the abiding and eternal, viz., the new heavens and the new earth are also represented as having been made, rests, I think, upon an entire misconception of the author’s point of view. He says nothing about “a new heaven and a new earth,” and there is no evidence that these specific things are in his mind. It is rather the great heavenly, spiritual elements of the new dispensation, as against the worldly, material, and perishable elements of the old. It is Mt. Zion as opposed to Mt. Sinai; the heavenly Jerusalem as opposed to the literal seat of the Old Theocracy; the heavenly sanctuary as against the earthly—and in short, the whole spiritual system of the New Testament, as against the things that have been made. The term ôῶí ðåðïéçì . is therefore, from the author’s point of view, a precise and admirable characterization of the created and therefore perishable nature of the Old Test, economy.—K.].
Heb_12:28. Therefore since we, etc.— Äéὀ introduces the following exhortation as a logical reference from the preceding verse, the special ground of the exhortation being given in the participial clause (Dan_7:18). The absence of the article with âáóéëåßáí indicates that this clause is not, with Calv., Schlicht., Beng. and others, to be included in the exhortation itself. Nor may we, with Bez., Schlicht., Grot., Bisp., etc., render, “Let us hold fast the grace.” For then the article would be indispensable with ÷Üñéí , and, instead of ἔ÷ùìåí , êáôÝ÷ùìåí would be required (as Heb_3:6; Heb_3:14; Heb_10:23); or êñáôῶìåí , as Heb_4:14.
Heb_12:29. For also our God, etc.—Were the idea intended that our God also, the God of the New Test., as well as the God of the Old, is a consuming fire (Bl., De W., Thol., Bisp.), the reading should be êáὶ ãὰñ ἡìῶí ὁ èåüò . Yet neither again do the position of the words and the connection point to the thought that God is not merely a God of grace, but also of avenging justice (Lün.). The passage merely designs to give, with a reference to Deu_4:24, a feature of the Divine character, and is not intended merely to give prominence to one attribute in comparison with another. Under this view, êáὶ ãÜñ is = etenim, as Luk_1:66; Luk_20:37 (Del., Riehm).
2. Our responsibility is rendered all the greater by the increased elevation and fulness of grace which characterize the revelation of God in the New Testament, a revelation standing related to that of the Old Testament, as heaven to earth.
3. This Christian revelation is at the same time the final and the complete one, so that nothing farther is to be looked for but the last convulsion of all things, which, at the second coming of the Lord, shall transform heaven and earth.
4. At the very creation of the world, God looked forward to, and made arrangements for the eternally abiding and unchangeable kingdom of glory, and to the introduction of that kingdom tend all the revelations, arrangements, and providences of God in the history of the world.
5. This everlasting kingdom shall we Christians as children of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Rom_8:17), receive into possession: for this we owe a debt of gratitude to God, which should evince itself in a service well pleasing to Him, which yields for us the highest gain, and has the richest promise (Psa_50:23.)
6. This filial relation to God must beget neither an unbecoming familiarity, nor a false security, but must inspire a guarded caution and reverence such as belongs to the nature of God in which the fire of holy love consumes all that is unholy, and kindles to a flame all that is susceptible of life.
Starke:—In the duty of serving through the grace of God, of pleasing Him with reverence and fear, lies a beautiful connection of Law and Gospel.—Believers receive the kingdom, not as mere subjects, but as partners in sovereignty, who are jointly exalted to the throne of Christ, (Rev_1:16; Rev_3:21; Rev_5:9 ff.), by virtue of their royal priesthood (1Pe_2:9).—Alas! the world sins against the commands of God as securely as if there were no avenger; nay, it even makes a mock at sin. But God is a consuming fire (Psa_2:11-12).
Rieger:—God is without end in the gift, the Lord Jesus without end in the allotment, and we without end in the reception of the immovable kingdom; and thus we mount above everything which is subject to change.
Heubner:—The glory of Christianity lays us under obligation for the highest gratitude.
Hedinger:—Compulsory love is not the best. But the obligation to be godly is great; of this be not forgetful.
Footnotes:
Heb_12:25.—According to the best authorities we are to read ἐîÝöõãïí ἐðὶ ãῆò ðáñáéôçóÜìåíïé ôὸí ÷ñçìáôßîïíôá , ðïëὺ ìᾶëëïí . So also Sin.
Heb_12:26.—Instead of óåßù read óåßóù , after Sin. A. C., 6, 47, 53.
Heb_12:28.—The lect. rec. ἔ÷ùìåí is supported by A. C. D. L. M., etc. So also the reading ëáôñåýùìåí . Sin. has in both cases the Indic.
Heb_12:28.—Instead of ìåôὰ áἰäïῦò êáὶ åὐëÜâåßáò read ìåôὰ åὐëáâåßáò êáὶ äåïõò , after Sin. A. C. D *., 17, 71, 73, 80, 137.