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Heb_12:21. Καί ] is the ordinary conjunctive “and.” It belongs not to οὕτως φοβερὸν ἦν τὸ φανταζόμενον , in such wise that Μωϋσῆς εἶπεν κ . τ . λ . “is added by way of appendix, with an accentuation of the subject which renders any connecting particle unnecessary” (Hofmann), but to Μωϋσῆς εἶπεν , in such wise that οὕτως φοβερὸν ἦν τὸ φανταζόμενον forms an exclamation, inserted parenthetically within the greater parenthesis: and—so terrible was the appearing!
MOSES said, I am sore afraid and tremble. καί cannot be taken, with Jac. Cappellus, Carpzov, Schulz, Knapp, Böhme, Bloomfield, and others, for the enhancing “even.” For, from its position, it can only serve for the connection of the clauses, while for the indication of the sense alleged an additional καί immediately before Μωϋσῆς (or even an αὐτός before the same) would have been required. Yet the right feeling underlies this interpretation: that, regarded as a fact, Heb_12:21 contains an ascending gradation from Heb_12:20, inasmuch as the being seized with fear, which at Heb_12:20 was asserted of the people, is now in like manner predicated of Moses, the leader of the people.
τὸ φανταζόμενον ] equivalent to τὸ φαινόμενον , the appearing, the visible covering in which the invisible God manifested Himself to the Israelites. Theodoret: φανταζόμενον δὲ εἶπεν , ἐπειδὴ οὐκ αὐτὸν ἑώρων τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν ἀλλά τινα φαντασίαν τῆς θείας ἐπιφανείας
The verb φαντάζεσθαι , in the N. T. only here.
ἔκφοβός εἰμι καὶ ἔντρομος ] In the accounts of the promulgation of the law given in the Pentateuch, an expression of this kind on the part of Moses is not met with. According to Zeger, Beza, Estius, Schlichting, Chr. Fr. Schmid [M‘Lean, with hesitation], Heinrichs, Stuart, Stein, and others, the author drew the same from tradition; according to Owen and Calov, he gained the knowledge even from immediate inspiration; while Carpzov will not have an actual utterance of Moses thought of at all, but, on the contrary, takes the formula: “Moses dicit: horreo et tremo,” as of the same meaning with the bare “Moses horret et tremit;” and Calvin has recourse to the not less violent expedient: “Mosem nomine populi sic loquutum, cujus mandata quasi internuntius ad Deum referebat. Fuit igitur haec communis totius populi querimonia; sed Moses inducitur, qui fuit veluti commune et omnium.” Without doubt the words of LXX. Deu_9:19 [cf. Heb_12:15] were present to the mind of the author, where in another connection Moses says: καὶ ἔκφοβός εἰμι . These words he then transferred, by virtue of an inexact reminiscence, to the time of the promulgation of the law.