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Heb_10:2. Proof for the κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν ταῖς αὐτ . θυσ . οὐδέποτε δύναται τοὺς προσερχομένους τελειῶσαι in the form of a question: for otherwise would not their presentation have ceased? because the worshippers, so soon as they have once been really purged from sin, have no more consciousness of sins, and thus no more need of an expiatory sacrifice. In connection with the Recepta ἐπεὶ ἂν ἐπαύσαντο , the sense itself would remain unchanged, only the words would then have to be taken as an assertory statement (“for their presentation would have come to an end, because,” etc.); by which, however, the discourse would suffer in point of vivacity (observe also the ἀλλά , Heb_10:3, corresponding to the question of Heb_10:2). But the process is not a natural one, when Beza, edd. 1 and 2, Wetstein, Matthaei, Stein, and others (comp. already Theodoret) will have the proposition of Heb_10:2 regarded as an assertory statement, even with the retention of the οὐκ . They then explain either (and thus ordinarily): for otherwise their presentation would not have ceased, sc. by the coming in of the New Covenant (Beza: alioqui non desiissent offerri; Matthaei: non cessavissent, non sublata essent; comp. Theodoret: Διὰ τοῦτο τέλος ἐκεῖνα λαμβάνει , ὡς οὐ δυνάμενα συνείδησιν καθαρὰν ἀποφῆναι ), or, in that ἐπεὶ … προσφερόμεναι , is closely attached to the main verb of Heb_10:1, and διὰ τὸ μηδεμίαν κ . τ . λ . is regarded as belonging to the whole proposition, Heb_10:1-2 : the law was not able by its sacrifices to lead to perfection, since their presentation was an endless one; because those who are once purified have no longer any consciousness of sins. So Wetstein, who, however, will write—what in that case, no doubt, would be necessary and perfectly justified
οὐκ ἀνεπαύσαντο instead of οὐκ ἂν ἐπαύσαντο (… “quum non cessarent offerri. Ita quidem, ut haec verba, sublata distinctione majori, jungantur iis, quae praecedunt, deinde sequatur totius sententiae confirmatio: quia sacrificantes,” etc.). But against the last-mentioned mode of explanation it is decisive, that the relation of the members of the sentence to each other would become obscure, and the arrangement cumbrous; against the first-mentioned, the presupposition, underlying the ἃς προσφέρουσιν εἰς τὸ διηνεκές , Heb_10:1, as well as the epistle in general (Heb_9:9, al.), that the Jewish sacrificial ritual was still in continuance at the time of our author’s writing.
ἐπαύσαντο προσφερόμεναι ] sc. αἱ θυσίαι . The construction of παύεσθαι , with the participle is the ordinary one, in classic as well as in Hellenistic Greek. Comp. Eph_1:16; Col_1:9; Act_5:42, al.; Hermann, ad Viger. p. 771; Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 323 f.
τοὺς λατρεύοντας ] see at Heb_9:9.