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Heb_3:6. Χριστὸς δέ ὡς υἱός ] Christ, on the other hand, in His capacity as Son, sc. πιστός ἐστιν . Upon this supplement depends ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ (comp. Mat_25:21; Mat_25:23); and as υἱός forms an ascent from the preceding θεράπων , so does ἐπί form an ascent from the preceding ἐν . Erasmus, Paraphr.; Vatablus, Piscator, Grotius, Delitzsch, Moll, and others supply to Χριστὸς δὲ … αὐτοῦ simply ἐστίν , whereby, however, the relation of just proportion between Heb_3:5 and Heb_3:6 is destroyed. The opening words of Heb_3:5, moreover,—inasmuch as they attach themselves not only to Heb_3:3, but also again to Heb_3:2,—manifestly point to the fact that the author will indicate not the mere difference between Christ and Moses, but their difference within the quality common to both. Yet others, as Bleek, de Wette, and Bisping, supply a double πιστός ἐστιν , the first after Χριστὸς δέ , the second after αὐτοῦ ; since, as the Vulgate, Beza, Estius, Grotius, Owen, Er. Schmid, Calov, Wolf, Carpzov, Cramer, Baumgarten, Gabler, Valckenaer, Böhme, Kuinoel, Klee, Tholuck, and others, they refer αὐτοῦ back to υἱός : Christ, however, is faithful, as a son is faithful over his house. But a satisfactory ground for taking οἶκος αὐτοῦ , Heb_3:6, otherwise than the same expression Heb_3:5, is not to be found. The house of God, or the divine kingdom, is for Moses and Christ the common sphere of operation; only by the position which the two occupy towards this house, are they distinguished the one from the other.
As αὐτοῦ , Heb_3:6, so is the relative οὗ , with which the author prepares the way for a transition to the paraenesis, not to be referred to Christ (Oecumenius, Jac. Cappellus, Piscator, Owen, Whitby, Bleek, de Wette, Bisping, Woerner, al.), but to God (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Calvin, Stengel, Stuart, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Moll, Kurtz, Hofmann, and others); although as regards the matter itself even the former reference would not be incorrect, since the house of God, Heb_3:2, is likewise characterized as the house of Christ, Heb_3:3.
The article before οἶκος was not imperatively required, although the whole Christian community forms a single indivisible house of God, since the notion of the word was one sufficiently well known, and, moreover, adequately defined by that which precedes.
The absolute declaration: οὗ οἶκός ἐσμεν ἡμεῖς , on the import of which 1Co_3:9; 1Co_3:16, 2Co_6:16, Eph_2:20 ff., 1Ti_3:15, 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_4:17, is to be compared,[57] and which is taken in a strangely perverted way by Ebrard (p. 137) and Delitzsch as the logical antithesis to ΕἸς ΜΑΡΤΎΡΙΟΝ ΤῶΝ ΛΑΛΗΘΗΣΟΜΈΝΩΝ , Heb_3:5, the author limits by a condition.
The fuller ἘΆΝΠΕΡ is foreign to the epistles of Paul.
ΤῊΝ ΠΑῤῬΗΣΊΑΝ ] not the bold confession (Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, Hammond, Limborch, Whitby, Heinrichs, and others), to which βεβαίαν κατάσχωμεν would not be fitting, but cheerful confidence as a disposition. Comp. Heb_4:16, Heb_10:19; Heb_10:35. τὴν παῤῥησίαν , to which Τῆς ἘΛΠΊΔΟς [58] belongs in like manner as to τὸ καύχημα (against Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 739), is the main idea, whereas καὶ τὸ καύχημα adds only an explicative subsidiary factor. That is manifest from the feminine βεβαίαν (which Stengel wonderfully refers back, in a constructio ad sensum, to ἐλπίδος ). Instances of the agreement of the adjective in point of gender with the remoter substantive, in cases where this forms the principal idea, occur also with the classics. Comp. Hom. Il. xv. 344: τάφρῳ καὶ σκολόπεσσιν ἐνιπλήξαντες ὀρυκτῇ ; Hesiod. Theogon. 972 f.: ὃς εἶσʼ ἐπὶ γῆν τε , καὶ εὐρέα νῶτα θαλάσσης , πᾶσαν ; Xenophon, Anab. 1:5, 6 : ὁ δὲ σύγλος δύναται ἑπτὰ ὀβολοὺς καὶ ἡμιοβόλιον Ἀττικούς ; Thucydides, 8:63: πυθόμενος τὰ περὶ τὴν ναυμαχίαν καὶ τὸν Στρομβιχίδην καὶ τὰς ναῦς ἀπεληλυθότα . See Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 431.
The ἐλπίς is the Christians’ hope of the consummation of the kingdom of God, and the glorification of the Christians bound up therewith. Comp. Rom_5:2, also Heb_6:11; Heb_6:18; Heb_7:19; Heb_10:23.
καύχημα , however, is not here either equivalent to καύχησις (Bleek, de Wette, Tholuck, Stengel, Bisping, Maier, and others), any more than 2Co_5:12; 2Co_9:3, which have been unwarrantably appealed to (see Meyer ad loc.), but denotes the subject of the boasting. Sense: provided we shall have maintained the Christians’ hope as a cheerful confidence and subject of boasting firm unto the end.
μέχρι τέλους ] not: until the death of each individual (Schlichting, Grotius, Kuinoel); not: “until the final decision of the readers in favour of going over to Christianity” (!Ebrard), but as Heb_3:14; Heb_6:11, 1Co_1:8, al., unto the end of the present order of the world, intervening with the coming again of Christ, and thought of as in the near future (comp. Heb_10:25; Heb_10:37), at which time faith shall pass over into sight, hope into possession.
[57] Philo, too, often employs the same figure, applying it to the human soul. Comp. de Somn. p. 587 E (ed. Mangey, I. p. 643): σπούδασον οὖν , ὦ ψυχή , θεοῦ οἶκος γενέσθαι , ἱερὸν ἅγιον κ . τ . λ .—De resip. Noë, p. 282 E (ed. Mangey, I. p. 402): τίς γὰρ οἶκος παρὰ γενέσει δύναιτʼ ἂν ἀξιοπρεπέστερος εὑρεθῆναι θεῷ πλὴν ψυχῆς τελείως κεκαθαρμένης καὶ μόνον τὸ καλὸν ἡγουμένης ἀγαθόν ; … κατοικεῖν δὲ λέγεται ἐν οἴκῳ ὁ θεὸς οὐχ ὡς ἐν τόπῳ ( περιέχει γὰρ τὰ πάντα πρὸς μηδενὸς περιεχόμενος ), ἀλλʼ ὡς πρόνοιαν καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν ἐκείνου τοῦ χωρίου διαφερόντως ποιούμενος · παντὶ γὰρ τῷ δεσπόζοντι οἰκίας ἡ ταύτης κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον ἀνῆπται φροντίς .
[58] Both words are found combined in Josephus likewise, Antiq. xvi. 3. 3 : καὶ δεινὸς ὢν τὸν τρόπον Ἀντίπατρος , ἐπειδὴ παῤῥησίας τινὸς τῆς οὐ πρότερον οὔσης ἐλπίδος ἀντεποιήσατο , μίαν ἔσχεν ὑπόθεσιν κακοῦν τοὺς ἀδελφούς , κ . τ . λ .