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Heb_6:4. Γάρ ] goes back to the last main utterance,—thus to τοῦτο ποιήσωμεν , Heb_6:3, and by means thereof to ἐπὶ τὴν τελειότητα φερώμεθα , Heb_6:1, not to μὴ πάλιν θεμέλιον καταβαλλόμενοι , Heb_6:1 (Whitby, de Wette, Bloomfield, Conybeare), nor yet to ἐάνπερ ἐπιτρέπῃ ὁ θεός , Heb_6:3 (Piscator, Abresch, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Hofmann, Woerner), still less, at the same time, to ἐάνπερ ἐπιτρέπῃ ὁ θεός and μὴ πάλιν θεμέλ . καταβ . (Schlichting).
ἀδύνατον ] it is impossible. The import of the expression is absolute; and to weaken it into “difficile est” (so, after the example of the Latin translation in D and E: Ribera, Corn, a Lapide, Clericus, Limborch, Storr, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, and others), according to which we should have to suppose a rhetorical exaggeration, is an act of caprice. Nor are we justified in seeking to obtain a softening of the declaration, as is done by Er. Schmid, Clericus, Limborch, Schöttgen, Bengel, Cramer, Baumgarten, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Bloomfield (comp. already Ambrose, de Poenit. ii. 3), by urging the force of the infin. active ἀνακαινίζειν as pointing to human activity, and thus, with a reference to Mat_19:26, making the impossibility to exist only on the part of men, not on the part of God. For only the impossibility of the ἀνακαινίζειν in itself is accentuated, without respect to the person by whom it must otherwise be effected. Instead of the infinitive active, therefore, the infinitive passive ἀνακαινίζεσθαι might have been chosen by the author without affecting the sense.
τοὺς ἅπαξ … αἰῶνος , Heb_6:5] characterizing of such as have not only become Christians, but also have already experienced the plenitude of blessing conferred upon Christians.
τοὺς ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας ] those who were, once illumined (Heb_10:32), i.e. had already, through the preaching of the gospel, been made participants of the light of the knowledge (sc. of Christianity as the perfect religion). As regards the thought, the same thing is said by μετὰ τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας , Heb_10:26.
ἅπαξ belongs, as to φωτισθέντας , so also to the three following participles (against Hofmann), and finds its opposition in πάλιν , Heb_6:6. It does not signify “plene” or “perfecte” (Wolf), nor does it denote an act which admits of no repetition (Delitzsch); contains, however, the implication, that the once ought to have sufficed and satisfied. Comp. [Heb_9:26] Heb_10:2; Jud_1:3.
φωτίζειν τινά , of the spiritual enlightenment effected by teaching, is purely Hellenistic. Comp. Eph_3:9; Joh_1:9; LXX. Ps. 118:130; 2Ki_12:2; 2Ki_17:27, al.
γευσαμένους τε τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου ] and have tasted the heavenly gift. γεύεσθαί τινος , to taste or receive a savour of a thing, figurative indication of perception by one’s own experience. See on Heb_2:9. The construction of the verb with the genitive (instead of being with the accusative, as Heb_6:5) does not justify us, with many strict Reformed expositors, in finding a mere “gustare extremis labris” in the expression. Besides, such an interpretation would be in conflict with the design of the writer, since it cannot be within his intention to represent the culpability of the persons in question as small; he must, on the contrary, aim at bringing out the same in all its magnitude.
By δωρεὰ ἐπουράνιος , Primasius, Haymo, Estius, Michaelis, Semler, and others understand the Lord’s Supper; Owen, Calmet, Ernesti, Whitby, M‘Lean, Bloomfield, the Holy Ghost (against which the following special mention of the same is decisive); Klee, regeneration in general, in contradistinction from the special communication of the Spirit in baptism; M‘Caul, “the persuasion of the eternal life, the χάρισμα τοῦ θεοῦ , Rom_6:23;” Hofmann, righteousness; Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Faber Stapulensis, Erasmus, Paraphrase; Cameron, Hammond, Rambach, Ebrard, Maier, the forgiveness of sins; Justinian, Schlichting, Grotius, the peace of mind arising from forgiveness; Pareus, faith; Seb. Schmidt, Dorscheus, Peirce, Bengel, Carpzov, Cramer, Bisping, and others, Christ; Morus, Heinrichs, Böhme, Kuinoel, Stuart, Stengel, and others, the Christian religion or the gospel; Abresch, Bleek, the enlightenment imparted to men through the preaching of the gospel, or the heavenly light itself, which effects the enlightenment, and by means thereof communicates itself to men. Inasmuch as τε points to a close connection between the second clause and the first, and the emphasis rests upon the foregoing γευσαμένους , ἡ δωρεά is at any rate to be taken quite generally. Most naturally, therefore, shall we think in general of the gift of grace, i.e. of the abundant grace of Christianity. It is called heavenly, inasmuch as Christ was sent forth from heaven in order to communicate it, and heaven is the scene of its full realization.
καὶ μετόχους γενηθέντας πνεύματος ἁγίου ] and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. The consequence and seal of the gift of grace just mentioned.