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Heb_12:1. Conclusion from the total contents of chap. 11.
In the animating summons expressed Heb_12:1-2, the addition διʼ ὑπομονῆς , appended to the main verb τρέχωμεν , has the principal stress; comp. Heb_10:36, Heb_11:1. Of the participial clauses, however, the first and third are of the same kind, and are distinguished in equal degree from the second; as accordingly the former are introduced by participles of the present, the latter by a participle of the aorist. The first and third contain a ground of animation to the διʼ ὑπομονῆς τρέχωμεν ; by the second, on the other hand, the historic preliminary condition to the διʼ ὑπομονῆς τρέχειν is stated. The euphonious τοιγαροῦν elsewhere in the N. T. only 1Th_4:8.
καὶ ἡμεῖς ] we also, namely, like the saints of the Old Covenant described chap. 11.
τοσοῦτον ἔχοντες περικείμενον ἡμῖν νέφος μαρτύρων ] since we have so great a cloud of witnesses around us, or: since so great a cloud of witnesses surrounds us. ἔχοντες περικείμενον is intimately connected together, and is a periphrasis of the mere verbal notion, inasmuch as a genitive absolute: τοσούτου περικειμένου ἡμῖν κ . τ . λ ., might have been employed instead. νέφος is a figurative designation (also of frequent occurrence with classical writers) of a densely compact crowd. Theodoret: πλῆθος τοσοῦτον , νέφος μιμούμενον τῇ πυκνότητι . Comp. Hom. Il. 4:274: ἅμα δὲ νέφος εἵπετο πεζῶν , al. Eurip. Hec. 901 f.: τοῖον Ἐλλάνων νέφος ἀμφί σε κρύπτει . Phoeniss. 1328 ff.: πότερʼ ἐμαυτὸν ἢ πόλιν στένω δακρύσας , ἣν πέριξ ἔχει νέφος τοσοῦτον , ὥστε διʼ Ἀχέροντος ἰέναι ; Herod, viii. 109: νέφος τοσοῦτον ἀνθρώπων . Similarly also is the Latin nubes employed. Comp. e.g. Li v. 35. 49: rex contra peditum equitumque nubes jactat.
Those meant by the τοσοῦτον νέφος μαρτύρων are the persons mentioned chap. 11. When, however, these are characterized as a cloud of witnesses, the author does not intend to imply that these witnesses are present as spectators at the contest to be maintained by the readers (Hammond, Calmet, Böhme, Paulus, Klee, Bleek, Stein, de Wette, Stengel, Tholuck, Bloomfield, Bisping, Hofmann), but represents them thereby as persons who have borne testimony for the πίστις which he demands of his readers,[113] and who consequently have become models for imitation to the readers as regards this virtue.
[113] The supposition of Delitzsch, Riehm (Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 757), Alford, Maier, and Moll, that in μαρτύρων , ver. 1, the idea of “spectators” blends with that of “witnesses to the faith,” bears its refutation upon the face of it. For the combining of that which is logically irreconcilable is not exegesis.
To this signification of μαρτύρων points with necessity the whole reasoning immediately foregoing. For as διʼ ὑπομονῆς , Heb_12:1, attaches again the discourse to ὑπομονῆς γὰρ ἔχετε χρείαν κ . τ . λ ., Heb_10:36, so also the contents of chap. 11, which stand in close connection with the latter, are recapitulated by the words: τοσοῦτον ἔχοντες περικείμενον ἡμῖν νέφος μαρτύρων . On account, however, of this close connection of the first participial clause, Heb_12:1, with chap. 11., μαρτύρων cannot be otherwise interpreted than after the analogy of the characterization there made: μαρτυρηθέντες διὰ τῆς πίστεως , Heb_11:39; ἐν ταύτῃ ἐμαρτυρήθησαν , Heb_11:2; διʼ ἧς ἐμαρτυρήθη , Heb_11:4; and μεμαρτύρηται , Heb_11:5, in that only the slight distinction is made, justified in a natural manner by the varying form of designation, that while the persons named were before represented as those to whom a laudatory testimony was given in scripture on account of the πίστις manifested by them, they now appear as those who, by their conduct, have delivered a testimony in favour of their virtue of πίστις , and consequently have become patterns of the same for others. On account of this intimate coherence of the first participial clause, Heb_12:1, with chap. 11, a more nearly-defining addition, τῆς πίστεως to μαρτύρων , was, moreover, superfluous. That, however, μαρτύρων is in reality employed with reference to the πίστις which the author demands of his readers, is further shown by τῆς πίστεως , Heb_12:2, from which it is clearly apparent that the notion πίστις is still before the mind of the writer at Heb_12:2. It is therefore to be supposed that the discourse turns round to the figure of the race—to which, indeed, περικείμενον would already be appropriate, but to which this participle is not at all of necessity to be referred—only with ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι κ . τ . λ .
ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι πάντα ] having put off every hindrance (opposed to the context, Bengel and others: every kind of pride or arrogance; Hofmann: all earthly care and sorrow). The man contending in the race avoided, in order to keep his body light, oppressive clothing and the like. In the application, the clinging of the readers to external Judaism is certainly, in particular, thought of as the hindrance. Yet the expression is quite general, and sin in the strict sense of the term, which is immediately after quite specially emphasized, is likewise included thereunder. For καί is not, with Grotius and others, to be taken explicatively, but further brings into relief, in the form of a parallel classification, a definite species, taken, on account of its special importance, out of the before-named genus.
Sin is termed εὐπερίστατος . This adjective exists only here in the whole range of Greek literature. It is most naturally derived from the middle voice: περιΐστασθαι , to place oneself round, or encompass. The sense is therefore: sin, which easily surrounds us and takes us captive. So the majority. Others derive εὐπερίστατος from the active περιΐστημι , then taking the word either in a passive or active sense. The explanation of Ernesti (ad Hesych. gloss. sacr. p. 140 sq.), that “as περίστατον denotes that which is thronged about by people who come to admire it, and ἀπερίστατος is said of a man about whom others do not stand, thus, who is destitute of friends; so εὐπερίστατος characterizes sin as rich in friends and patrons, as generally esteemed and liked,” has against it the consideration that from εὐπερίστατος , in this acceptation, the idea of that which is public and manifest is inseparable; but this idea is out of keeping with the notion of sin, which is just as often perpetrated in secret as in public. The interpretation: sin, which is easily to be gone round, encircled, or avoided (Chrysostom: ἢ τὴν εὐκόλως περίστασιν δυναμένην παθεῖν λέγει · μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦτο · ῥᾴδιον γάρ , ἐὰν θέλωμεν , περιγενέσθαι [get the better of] τῆς ἁμαρτίας ; Pseudo-Athanasius, de parabol. Script. quaest. 133: εὐπερίστατον εἶπε τὴν ἁμαρτίαν , ἐπειδὰν μόνιμον στάσιν οὐκ ἔχει , ἀλλὰ ταχέως τρέπεται καὶ καταλύεται ; Clericus, Morus, Ewald p. 172), would yield an unsuitable thought, since it could not possibly be the design of the author to represent the power of sin as small. The active explanation: seductive or enticing (Carpzov, Schulz, Stein), has against it the fact that all the other derivatives from ἵστημι , such as στατός , ἄστατος , etc., have an intransitive or passive signification. Others, again, in their explanations of εὐπερίστατος , follow the significations of the substantive περίστασις : sin, which easily plunges us into danger (Er. Schmid, Raphel, Bengel, Storr; comp. already Theophylact: ἢ διʼ ἣν εὐκόλως τις εἰς περιστάσεις ἐμπίπτει · οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω κινδυνῶδες ὡς ἁμαρτία ); which brings with it many hindrances (Kypke, Michaelis, Dindorf, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, Bloomfield); which has circumstantias (surroundings), whereby it commends itself and seduces us (Hammond); quae bonis utitur rebus circumstantibus, i.e. quae habet suisque affert bonam fortunam atque voluptates (Böhme).
The ἁμαρτία is sin in general; not specially: the sin of apostasy from Christianity. On account of ἀποθέμενοι , the ἁμαρτία is thought of as a burden which we bear within us as a propensity, or about us as an encumbering garment.
τρέχειν ἀγῶνα ] to run a race. Comp. Herod. viii. 102; Dion. Hal. vii. 48; Eurip. Orest. 875.
διʼ ὑπομονῆς ] Rom_8:25.