Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 6:12 - 6:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_6:12. Further prosecution of πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος ἄχρι τέλους , Heb_6:11.
ἵνα μὴ νωθροὶ γένησθε ] that ye become not sluggish. The γένησθε , pointing to the future, stands in no contradiction with γεγόνατε at v. 11. There, the sluggishness of the intellect was spoken of; here, it is sluggishness in the retaining of the Christian hope. There is therefore no need of the conjecture νόθοι (after Heb_12:8) for νωθροι (Heinrichs).
μιμηταὶ δὲ τῶν διὰ πίστεως καὶ μακροθυμίας κληρονομούντων τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ] but rather imitators of those who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises. Of the two substantives πίστεως καὶ μακροθυμίας , the latter forms the leading idea; comp. Heb_6:15, where only μακροθυμήσας is placed. καί is therefore the more nearly defining “and indeed.” Thus: by faith, and indeed by persevering constancy in the same.
The μακροθυμία , elsewhere usually the divine attribute of long-suffering or forbearance, is likewise predicated of men, Col_1:11; Jam_5:7-8; Jam_5:10; LXX. Isa_57:15 ( ὀλιγοψύχοις διδοὺς μακροθυμίαν ), and frequently, and in the first-named passage combined with ὑπομονή as a synonym.
The ἐπαγγελίαι are those given by God in the time of the Old Covenant, which by means of Christianity attain to their full realization. Comp. Heb_7:6, Heb_8:6, Heb_11:13; Heb_11:17; Heb_11:33; Rom_9:4; Rom_15:8; 2Co_1:20; 2Co_7:1; Gal_3:16. Comp. also the singular ἡ ἐπαγγελία , Heb_9:15, Heb_10:36, Heb_11:39.
κληρονομεῖν τὰς ἐπαγγελίας denotes: to enter into the heritage of these promises, i.e. to attain to the enjoyment or possession of the blessings placed in prospect by them. That in our passage (comp. Heb_9:15, Heb_10:36, Heb_11:39) κληρονομεῖν τὰς ἐπαγγελίας cannot be understood, with Schulz and Bleek, of the mere “receiving of the imparting of the promises as such, apart from their fulfilment,” is shown by the very position of the words, according to which the main force of the statement is contained not in τὰς ἐπαγγελίας , but in κληρονομούντων . Comp. also Heb_6:15, where for the same reason ἐπέτυχεν is placed before the substantive τὰς ἐπαγγελίας . Besides, it is also evident from the fact that in such case there would be nothing in Heb_6:12 to correspond to the conception of the ensuing possession itself, indicated as this is in the ἄχρι τέλους of Heb_6:11.
In connection with τῶν κληρονομούντων almost all expositors, including Böhme, Bleek, de Wette, Tholuck, Bloomfield, Bisping, Delitzsch, Kluge, think of the patriarchs, especially Abraham, and of them either alone or with the inclusion of all believers of the New Covenant. This interpretation, however, to which they were without any necessity led by the consideration of Heb_6:13, is untenable. For, in order to harmonize with it in its first-named form, the writing of κληρονομησάντων would have been necessary,—for which, accordingly, many will have the participle present to be taken; to harmonize with it in its last-named form, the writing of κληρονομησάντων τε καὶ κληρονομούντων would have been required. The characterizing οἱ διὰ πίστεως καὶ μακροθυμίας κληρονομοῦντες τὰς ἐπαγγελίας is, on the contrary, quite a general one, and the participle present marks out that which assuredly takes place, or in accordance with a constant and fixed rule (as a rewarding of the fulfilled preliminary condition of πίστις καὶ μακροθυμία ). The thought is therefore, not that the readers should take the patriarchs as a model, but in general that they should take as such those who manifest persevering constancy in the faith, and, on that very account, beyond doubt attain to the possession of that which is promised.