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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 11:5 - 11:6
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Heb_11:5-6. The example of Enoch. Comp. Gen_5:21-24.
Πρίστει Ἐνὼχ μετετέθη ] By reason of his faith Enoch was caught away; i.e. even during his lifetime was, like Elijah (2 Kings 2.), caught up to God in heaven. Comp. Sir_44:16 : Ἐνὼχ εὐηρέστησε κυρίῳ καὶ μετετέθη ὑπόδειγμα μετανοίας ταῖς γενεαῖς ; ibid. Sir_49:14 : οὐδὲ εἷς ἐκτίσθη οἷος Ἐνὼς τοιοῦτος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς , καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀνελήφθη ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ; Joseph. Antiq. i. 3.Hebrews 4 : ἀνεχώρησε πρὸς τὸ θεῖον .
τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον ] not consecutively [so that], de Wette, Bisping, al., but indication of the design of God: that he should not see or undergo death (comp. Luk_2:26).
καὶ οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο , διότι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεός ] derived verbally from the LXX. of Gen_5:24, as given in the text of the Cod. Alex.
πρὸ γὰρ … γίνεται , Heb_11:6] It is related in the Scripture concerning Enoch that he was acceptable to God. But this presupposes that he had faith. For to obtain God’s approbation without the possession of faith is impossible. Chrysostom: πῶς δὲ πίστει μετετέθη ὁ Ἐνώχ ; ὅτι τῆς μεταθέσεως ἡ εὐαρέστησις αἰτία , τῆς δὲ εὐαρεστήσεως ἡ πίστις .
πρὸ τῆς μεταθέσεως ] may be equally well conjoined with μεμαρτύρηται (Piscator, Owen, Huët, Bleek, de Wette, Conybeare, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Hofmann, al.), or with εὐαρεστηκέναι (Schlichting, Bengel, Maier, and others). In the former case the sense is: before mention is made in the Scripture of his rapture, the testimony is borne to him in the same, that he pleased God.
εὐαρεστηκέναι ] By εὐηρέστησεν the LXX. translate the Hebrew åÇéÄúÀäÇìÌÅêÀ àÆúÎäÈàÁìÉäÄéí : and he walked with God, i.e. in communion with God, as His most devout worshipper.
Heb_11:6 is a truth of wholly universal application, so that only ἐστίν is to be supplemented to ἀδύνατον . With Er. Schmid, Limborch, Wetstein, and Schulz, to regard the first hemistich of the verse: χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι , as a special statement respecting Enoch, is grammatically inadmissible, since in that case χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον ἦν αὐτὸν εὐαρεστῆσαι or χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον αὐτὸν εὐαρεστηκέναι must have been written.
εὐαρεστῆσαι ] sc. τῷ θεῷ , naturally understood from that which precedes and follows. The infin. aorist expresses, as in the case of the immediately succeeding πιστεῦσαι , the pure verbal notion, without regard to the relation of time. See Kühner, II. p. 80.
ὁ προσερχόμενος τῷ θεῷ ] is he who approaches God, sc. to worship Him; comp. Heb_7:25, Heb_10:1. Wrongly; Luther, Calov, Wittich, Rambach, Schulz, Ebrard (transl.): he who (as Enoch) will come (or is to come) to God.
ὅτι ἔστιν ] that he is, or exists. Arbitrarily importing, Jac. Cappellus: “Series sermonis suadet, ut suppleamus ὅτι ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ θεός , i. e. qui accedit ad Deum, credere debet eum esse suum Deum.” But also the complementing the verb by: “that He exists as one to whom man can draw near with confidence, as the truly living, personal, almighty, all-wise, all-beneficent One” (Bleek), is an unjustifiable act of reading into the text. The expression contains only the idea of existence.
καί ] still dependent upon ὅτι .
μισθαποδότης ] recompenser, sc. for the piety manifested in the ἐκζητεῖν αὐτόν (Rom_3:11; Act_15:17).