Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 6:7 - 6:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_6:7-8. Confirmation of the ἀδύνατον κ . τ . λ . on its objective side; since in connection with so great culpability and such ingratitude the divine punishment cannot fail to ensue. This thought is rendered manifest by means of a similitude. The common subject for Heb_6:7 and Heb_6:8 is not merely γῆ , but γῆ ἡ πιοῦσα τὸν ἐπʼ αὐτῆς ἐρχόμενον πολλάκις ὑετόν taken together. For the intention of the author is to point to the diversity of result arising from equally favourable preliminary conditions. The main point of the similitude, however, lies in Heb_6:8, while Heb_6:7 serves only by way of preparation, and as a means of bringing out into bolder relief the following opposition.
γῆ γὰρ ἡ πιοῦσα … ὑετόν ] for the field which has drunk in the rain frequently coming down upon it. Figure of the men before described, who ofttimes have experienced God’s gracious benefits, and have received the same into themselves.
The participle aorist πιοῦσα is chosen, while then participles present ( τίκτουσα , ἐκφέρουσα ) follow, because the fact already historically completed is to be emphasized, from which, then, two different effects are developed for the time present.
A πίνειν , τίκτειν , etc., is ascribed to the γῆ , because this, as in general is very frequently the case, is personified as a part of the life-displaying, assiduously productive nature.
ἐπʼ αὐτῆς ] The construction of ἐπί with the genitive, after a verb of motion, is distinguished from the more usual one with the accusative, in this respect, that the former includes in itself at the same time the notion of tarrying. Comp. Winer, Gramm. 7 Aufl. p. 352.
καὶ τίκτουσα ] In place of this, merely τίκτουσα or τίκτουσα μέν would have been more correctly written. Καί , however, does not stand in the sense of “also” (Hofmann), but is the ordinary “and.”
Βοτάνη ] in the N. T. only here, employed by the LXX. as a rendering of ãÌÆùÑÆà (Gen_1:11-12), òÅùÒÌÆá (Exo_9:22; Exo_10:12; Exo_10:15), and çÈöÄéø (Job_8:12), denotes, according to its derivation from βόσκω , originally herbage or pasturage, but then also every kind of vegetation or produce of the field.
εὔθετος ] well-placed, fit, profitable. Comp. Luk_9:62; Luk_14:35.
ἐκείνοις ] may be referred to εὔθετον (Böhme and the majority), but it also admits of being referred to τίκτουσα (Bleek, Alford, Hofmann).
διʼ οὕς ] for whose sake. Grammatically false, the Vulgate, Zeger, and others: a quibus; Calvin: quorum opera; Erasmus, Vatablus, Heinrichs, and others: per quos; Luther: for those who till it; Schulz: for those who labour on it; Wieseler (Comm. üb. d. Br. P. an die Gal., Gött. 1859, p. 111): at whose command and disposal.
καὶ γεωργεῖται ] it also (or even) is cultivated, brings into relief the naturalness of the τίκτειν βοτάνην εὔθετον ἐκείνοις , in that the ἐκεῖνοι are the proprietors of the land, to whom the cultivation and produce of the same pertains. Incorrectly Schlichting (as likewise Böhme, Kuinoel, Hofmann): Ait autem “et colitur,” ut ad imbrium irrigationem etiam terrae istius diligentem accedere culturam ostendat. In the application of the figure, the ἐκεῖνοι , διʼ οὓς καὶ γεωργεῖται are God and Christ; not God alone (Schlichting, Grotius, Cramer, de Wette, Tholuck, Alford), since in this way justice is not done to the plural.
μεταλαμβάνει εὐλογίας ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ] receives part in the blessing at the hand of God, namely, in that its fruitfulness is progressively augmented. Comp. Mat_13:12; Joh_15:2. Too weak, Grotius, Wittich: it is praised or commended by God.
ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ] from God (as the bestower), is best connected with μεταλαμβάνει , not with εὐλογίας .