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Heb_2:4. Συνεπιμαρτυροῦντος τοῦ θεοῦ κ . τ . λ .] in that, with them (the ἀκούσαντες ), God bore testimony in addition, to the same (the salvation, the σωτηρία ), by signs and wonders. The doubly compound word συνεπιμαρτυρεῖν in the N. T. only here. Nor is it found at all in the LXX. With later profane writers, on the other hand, it is not rare. See examples in Bleek, Abth. II. 1 Hälfte, p. 218.
σημεῖα and τέρατα only distinguished in the form of conception as signa and portenta, not different in the notion conveyed by them. Comp. Fritzsche on Rom_15:19 (t. iii. p. 270).
ποικίλαις ] belongs only to δυνάμεσιν . The adjective is not likewise to be referred to μερισμοῖς (Bleek, Maier). For the notion of ποικίλον is again specially brought into prominence in the sequel, in that it forms an element also in the contents of κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ θέλησιν .
The δυνάμεις , however, are not miraculous acts, but the source of the same: miraculous powers.
καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου μερισμοῖς κ . τ . λ .] and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His good pleasure. πνεύματος ἁγίου is genitivus objectiv., not subjectiv. (Cameron and others); and μερισμός , which (Heb_4:12) signifies dividing, denotes here, in accordance with the use of the verb μερίζειν , Heb_7:2, Rom_12:3, 1Co_7:17, 2Co_10:13 : an apportioning or dealing out, distribution.
κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ θέλησιν ] Addition, not to the whole period, Heb_2:4 (Abresch, Böhme), nor to ποικίλαις … μερισμοῖς (Bleek), but only to μερισμοῖς (de Wette, Bisping, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Moll, Kurtz), on which account this is also placed after the genitive πνεύματος ἁγίου . αὐτοῦ relates back to τοῦ θεοῦ , not to πνεύματος ἁγίου (Oecumenius, Carpzov), and the whole addition κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ θέλησιν has the design not only in general of representing the bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit on the part of God as a work of His free grace, but also of pointing to the manifold character of those distributions, inasmuch as, according to God’s free determination of will, the Holy Spirit was communicated in greater fulness to the one than to the other, and of the special gifts of the Spirit to the one was granted this, to the other that. Comp. 1 Corinthians 12.
On the un-Attic θέλησις , comp. Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 7, 353; Pollux, v. 165: βούλησις , ἐπιθυμία , ὄρεξις , ἔρως · ἡ δὲ θέλησις ἰδιωτικόν .