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Heb_12:9-10, a second argument follows. The readers must not become disheartened at the sufferings imposed upon them. For not only is there to be seen, in the fact of their having to struggle with afflictions, the manifestation that God treats them as His children; it is, moreover, the heavenly Father who visits them with this chastening, and that for the very reason that He has their own highest good in view.
εἶτα ] then, further, deinde. Not to be taken as an interrogative particle, with Alberti, Raphel, Heinrichs, and others. For otherwise the discourse would have proceeded in the second half of the verse with καὶ οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον , instead of the mere οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον . Ingeniously, but without constraining reason, does Reiche (Commentar. crit. p. 121) conjecture εἴ τε instead of εἶτα , while quite unsuitably Hofmann will comprehend εἶτα with the closing words of Heb_12:8.
τοὺς τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν πατέρας ] fathers of our flesh, i.e. our bodily, earthly fathers.
εἴχομεν παιδευτὰς καὶ ἐνετρεπόμεθα ] we had as chasteners, and heeded them, i.e. we gave heed when we had them as chasteners. Inasmuch as the author is addressing grown-up persons, the imperfects characterize the period of the bygone youth (we used to give heed). The combining of ἐντρέπεσθαι , however, with the accusative of the object is in later Greek style the ordinary one. With the earlier authors the genitive is used.
The absolute statement εἶτα … ἐεντρεπόμεθα takes the place of a hypothetical premiss (comp. Heb_10:28 f.; 1Co_7:18; 1Co_7:21, al.), and the whole verse contains an argument a minore ad majus.
οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον ὑποταγησόμεθα τῷ πατρὶ τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ ζήσομεν ;] shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and (i.e. so that we in consequence thereof) live? By ὁ πατὴρ τῶν πνευμάτων naturally God is meant. With Hammond, to think of Christ, is forbidden by the connection (comp. Heb_12:7). To the Father of spirits, i.e. God, who is Father in regard to the higher spiritual domain of life. That God, as the Creator of all things, is the Final Cause also of the bodily life of man, is a fact not excluded by the expression; only that which is the main thing as concerns God’s fatherly relation is here emphasized. ὁ πατὴρ τῶν πνευμάτων does not designate God as Creator of the souls, in the sense of Creatianism as opposed to Traducianism (Calvin, Estius, Justinian, Beza, Jac. Cappellus, Drusius, Carpzov, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 678; Kurtz, al.). Nor as the One who makes provision for our souls (Morus, Dindorf, Kuinoel, Böhme, and others). Just as little is πνεύματα to be understood of the angels (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact: ἢ τῶν ἀσωμάτων δυνάμεων ), or the gifts of the Spirit (Theodoret: πατέρα πνενμάτων τὸν πνευματικὸν πατέρα κέκληκεν ὡς τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων πηγήν . Comp. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and Theophylact). It is possible there was present to the mind of the author the characterization of God, LXX. Num_16:22; Num_27:16, as a θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ πάσης σαρκός .
καὶ ζήσομεν ] Declaration of the result of this obedience, in the form of a parallel arrangement. ζῆν of the enjoyment of the everlasting life of bliss, as Heb_10:38; Rom_8:13, and frequently.