Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 10:37 - 10:38
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_10:37-38. Ground of encouragement to the ὑπομονή , of which the readers stood in need, expressed with a free application of the words of Hab_2:3-4, according to the LXX. Continuance is necessary for the readers, and that continuance, indeed, only for a short time, since the return of Christ is to be looked for within a very short space of time, and then to those who have persevered in the faith everlasting life will be the portion conferred; the apostates, on the other hand, shall be overtaken by destruction.
The words ἔτι γὰρ μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον are not a constituent part of the citation, but proceed from the author himself.
μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον ] is found Isa_26:20, and signifies literally: a little, how much, how much! i.e. a very, very little, or a very short time. μικρόν (Joh_14:19; Joh_16:16 ff.) is nominative,—not accusative to the question when, as is supposed by Bleek (but only in his larger Comm.; otherwise in his later Vorlesungen, p. 417), Bisping, Alford, and Hofmann, as also Meyer on Joh_13:33,—and nothing more than ἐστίν is to be supplemented to the same (see Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 544). The reduplication of the ὅσον , however, serves for the significant strengthening of the notion. To be compared Aristoph. Vesp. 213: τί οὐκ ἀπεκοιμήθημεν ὅσον ὅσον στίλην ; Arrian, Indic. xxix. 15: ὀλίγοι δὲ αὐτῶν σπείρουσιν ὅσον ὅσον τῆς χώρης . See Hermann, ad Viger. 726.
ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἥξει καὶ οὐ χρονιεῖ ] and then He that cometh will come, and will not delay.
LXX. l.c. Heb_10:3 : διότι ἔτι ὅρασις εἰς καιρὸν καὶ ἀνατελεῖ εἰς πέρας καὶ οὐκ εἰς κενόν · ἐὰν ὑστερήσῃ , ὑπόμεινον αὐτόν , ὅτι ἐρχόμενος ἥξει καὶ οὐ μὴ χρονίσῃ . In the sense of the prophet, the discourse is of the certain fulfilment of the prophecy regarding the overthrow of the Chaldees. The LXX., however, wrongly translated the words, and as the ἐρχόμενος looked upon either God or the Messiah, of whom also the later Jewish theologians interpreted the passage (see Wetstein ad loc.). Of the Messiah the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews also understands the expression, and therefore adds the article ὁ to ἐρχόμενος . In like manner ὁ ἐρχόμενος appears, Mat_11:3, Luk_7:19, as a current appellation of the Messiah (based upon Dan_7:13; Zec_9:9; Mal_3:1; Psa_40:8 [7], Psa_118:26). Only in the instances mentioned the first appearing of the Messiah upon earth is intended, whereas in our passage (as also very frequently by ἔρχεσθαι elsewhere in the N. T., e.g. 1Co_11:26; Act_1:11; Mat_16:27-28; Joh_21:22-23) the return of Christ, as of the Messiah crucified upon earth and exalted to heaven, for the consummation of the kingdom of God, is that which is referred to. Arbitrarily Carpzov, Heinrichs, Bloomfield, Ebrard, and others: a coming for the destruction of Jerusalem, is here to be thought of.