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Heb_6:5. Καὶ καλὸν γευσαμένους θεοῦ ῥῆμα ] and have tasted the refreshing word of God. That the author already makes use afresh in this place of the verb γεύεσθαι , after he has only just before employed it Heb_6:4, Bleek ascribes, not wrongly, to a certain perplexity on the part of the writer about finding for the idea to be expressed another term of the same import. For the supposition of Delitzsch, that the repetition of the same expression is to be explained from the design of bringing out so much the more strongly the reality of the experiences made and of their objects, would be admissible only if the second γευσαμένους , like the first, were placed emphatically at the beginning of its clause, and there were not already another verb inserted between the two γευσαμένους . γεύεσθαι is here, as Joh_2:9, construed with the accusative, which occurs only in the Hellenistic, never with the Greek classic writers. To assume, however, a different signification in the case of the two constructions,
Bengel: “alter (genitivus) partem denotat; nam gustum Christi, doni coelestis, non exhaurimus in hac vita; alter (accusativus) plus dicit, quatenus verbi Dei praedicati gustus totus ad banc vitam pertinet, quanquam eidem verbo futuri virtutes seculi annectuntur;” Bloomfield: “here (Heb_6:4) γεύσασθαι signifies to have experience of a thing, by having received and possessed it; whereas in the clause following it signifies to know a thing by experience of its value and benefit;” Delitzsch (comp. also Moll): “with γευσαμένους τῆς δωρ . τῆς ἐπουρ . is combined the conception that the heavenly gift is destined for all men, and is of inexhaustible fulness of intent; with καλὸν γευσαμένους θεοῦ ῥῆμα , however, the conception that God’s precious word was, as it were, the daily bread of those thus described,”—is already forbidden by the homogeneity of the statements, Heb_6:4 and Heb_6:5.
The expression ῥήματα καλά serves, LXX. Jos_21:45; Jos_23:15, Zec_1:13, for the rendering of the Hebrew äÇãÌÈáÈø äÇèå̇á and ãÌÀáÈøÄéí èå̇áÄéí , and is used of words of consolation and promise spoken by God or the angel of God. In accordance therewith, we shall best also here refer καλὸν θεοῦ ῥῆμα to the gospel, inasmuch as God thereby gives promises, and fulfils the promises given. So Theodoret ( τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν τῶν ἀγαθῶν ), Estius, Schlichting, Grotius, Limborch, Owen, Whitby, Abresch, Böhme, Kuinoel, Klee, de Wette, Stengel, Tholuck, Ebrard, Bloomfield, Bisping, Delitzsch, Maier, Kurtz.
Others, as Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Primasius, Faber Stapulensis, Jac. Cappellus, Piscator, Bengel, Peirce, Heinrichs, Alford, understand the expression of the gospel in general; in connection with which some, as Calvin and Braun, see denoted in καλόν a contrast with the Mosaic law, the characteristic of which was judicial severity. According to Bleek, finally, we have to think of a personified attribute of God; which is supposed to be here mentioned because the gospel, with its consolatory message, is an efflux from the same,—an interpretation, however, which finds no sort of support in the context.
δυνάμεις τε μέλλοντος αἰῶνος ] and powers of the world to come. What is intended is the extraordinary miraculous powers wrought by the Holy Ghost, as these were called forth by the new order of the world founded by Christ. The αἰὼν μέλλων , namely (comp. οἰκουμένη ἡ μέλλουσα , Heb_2:5), is for the author nothing purely future,—so that we have not, with Jac. Cappellus, Schlichting, Böhme, Kurtz, and others, to think of the everlasting life, or of the glory coming in with the Parousia of Christ, of which believers have received a foretaste here upon earth,—but already begins, according to his view, with the appearing of Christ upon earth, in that only its consummation still belongs to the future, namely, the time of Christ’s return.