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Heb_9:28. Ἅπαξ προσενεχθείς ] once offered (by the suffering of death). Chrysostom: ὑπὸ τίνος προσενεχθείς ; ὑφ ̓ ἑαυτοῦ δηλονότι . Wrongly (comp. ἑαυτόν , Heb_9:25; Heb_9:14) Delitzsch: in connection with the passive προσενεχθείς we have “to think of the violence proceeding from the human and demoniac power, which Christ endured, in order to become the προσφορά for the propitiation of mankind;” Kurtz and Hofmann: ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ is to be supplemented, which, accordingly, is interpreted by Kurtz into the signification of the “sending of the Son into the world, in behoof of the vicarious atoning for sin by means of His sacrificial death;” by Hofmann: into a “being brought to that place where He was to be at the disposal of Him who had ordained Him to be an expiatory sacrifice for sins.” The words ἅπαξ προσενεχθείς correspond to the ἅπαξ ἀποθανεῖν , Heb_9:27, and προσενεχθείς forms a paronomasia with the following ἀνενεγκεῖν : borne as a sacrifice, that He might bear away, dargebracht, um fortzubringen [oblatus ut auferret]. For ἀνενεγκεῖν denotes not the bearing up (and fastening) to the cross (Jac. Cappellus, Calov, Wolf, Bengel, and others, after 1Pe_2:24, where, however, ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον is employed with it), or the substitutionary bearing (Augustine, de pecc. mer. i. 28; Estius, Seb. Schmidt, Böhme, de Wette, Bloomfield, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 544 f.; Alford, Maier, Conybeare, Moll, Kurtz, Ewald, M‘Caul, Hofmann, and others, in accordance with the signification of the verb, Isa_53:12, LXX.: αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκε , an utterance which certainly may have been before the mind of the author at the time of his writing this passage), or the offering up of the sins, as it were, as a sacrifice (Peshito, Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Michaelis); but the expiation of sins, conceived under the form of the result immediately of necessity attaching itself thereto, i.e. the putting away of sins, in such wise that it takes up again the idea expressed by εἰς ἀθέτησιν ἁμαρτίας , Heb_9:26, and becomes identical with ἀφαιρεῖν ἁμαρτίας , Heb_10:4. From a linguistic point of view this interpretation encounters no difficulty (against Delitzsch and others), since the ἀνά in ἀνενεγκεῖν was employed not otherwise than, e.g., very frequently the ἀνά in ἀναιρεῖν . How easily the notion of bearing in φέρειν could pass over into that of bearing away or doing away with, is shown in the kindred verb βαστάζειν , which is unquestionably used, Mat_8:17, Joh_20:15, in the sense of auferre. Comp. also Galen, de compos. medicam. 2 : ψώρας τε θεραπεύει καὶ ὑπώπια βαστάζει .
πολλῶν ] here too, as Heb_2:10 and often (see p. 122), lays stress only on the notion of multitude or plurality, without regard to the question whether this plurality constitutes the totality of mankind or not.
ἐκ δευτέρου ὀφθήσεται ] shall appear the second time before the eyes of men, namely, at His Parousia. According to Bleek, there arises a difficulty from the words, if we explain προσενεχθείς of the death suffered upon earth, and not, with him, of an action accomplished in heaven, only after the resurrection, inasmuch as in the former case Christ already appeared in a visible form the second time after His resurrection. But such difficulty does not at all present itself in connection with that application of προσενεχθείς either. For ἐκ δευτέρου ὀφθήσεται can only be understood of a second appearing in a visible form upon earth; when, however, Christ after His resurrection appeared again to His disciples, He had not yet left the earth; those manifestations of the risen Christ before His ascension belonged consequently to His first visible coming forth upon earth.
χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας ] forms the opposition to εἰς τὸ πολλῶν ἀνενεγκεῖν ἁμαρτίας , is therefore to be interpreted after the analogy of these words. (Erroneously Bleek, according to whom χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας forms the opposition to εἰς ἀθέτησιν ἁμαρτίας διὰ τῆς θυσίας αὐτοῦ πεφανέρωται , Heb_9:26.) Christ has once offered Himself up for the expiation of the sins of men; when He returns to earth the second time, He will not once more have to do with the expiation of human sin, but He will, apart from sin, or free from all relation to sin, appear to bring the σωτηρία to the believers. Free from the guilt and punishment of sin, Christ has already rendered His believers by means of His sacrificial death at His first appearing upon earth. Positively, He will bless them with salvation at His return. To combine χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας with τοῖς ἀπεκδεχομένοις by means of an hyperbaton (so Faber Stapulensis and Grotius) is grammatically impossible. The sense, however, cannot be either, as the Irvingites will, that Christ Himself will be free from sin at His second appearing, in opposition to the lust which they suppose to have attached to Him during His first appearing; for that Christ during this period too, notwithstanding all the temptation to which He was subject, was free from sin, the author certainly distinctly asserts at Heb_4:15. Incorrectly also does Bleek—after the example of Theodore of Mopsuestia ( τὸ γὰρ χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας τοῦτο λέγει , ὅτι μὴ κρατούσης ἔτι τῆς ἁμαρτίας οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς ἔξω παντὸς ἀνθρωπίνου πάθους ὀφθήσεται τότε ) and of Theodoret ( οὐκέτι τῆς ἁμαρτίας κρατούσης , ἀντὶ τοῦ χώραν οὐκέτι ἐχούσης κατὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῆς ἁμαρτίας )—take χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας as equivalent in signification to μὴ οὔσης ἁμαρτίας , so that the sense would be: “at the return of Christ sin will no longer be present, at least in the domain to which the operation of the Redeemer will relate.” Even in a grammatical respect this application of the words is inadmissible, since χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας must stand in relation to the subject in ὀφθήσεται , thus cannot be torn away from this reference by being made equivalent to an independent participial clause. But also the thought thence arising would be encumbered with difficulty, as Bleek himself admits, by the addition of “at least,” etc., although Bleek has sought to justify it. Additional misinterpretations of χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας are met with in other writers. Thus it is supposed to mean: without, again vicariously laden with the sins of men, being made sin (2Co_5:21) for them (Oecumenius, Theophylact, Clarius, Akersloot, Wolf, Carpzov, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Heinrichs, de Wette, Bloomfield, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 545, Obs.; Alford, Maier, Moll, and others), which is already refuted by the erroneousness of explaining the foregoing ἀνενεγκεῖν of the vicarious bearing of sins; without the punishment of sin (Klee, al.); without the sufferings undertaken for sin (Tholuck); sine corporis, peccato obnoxii, mortalitate (Zeger); sine sacrificio pro peccato (Jac. Cappellus, Stuart, M‘Caul, and many); not as a sufferer for the guilt of others, but as the holy judge of the guilt of others (Ebrard, Delitzsch; similarly Stein and others), and so forth, all of which have the plain expression of the language against them.
εἰς σωτηρίαν ] belongs to ὀφθήσεται , not, as it is true, upon the retention of the spurious addition (see the critical remark) διὰ πίστεως , it must be conjoined, to ἀπεκδεχομένοις (so Primasius, Faber Stapulensis, Camerarius, Wolf, Klee, Paulus, Stein). For τοῖς αὐτὸν ἀπεκδεχομένοις contains a non-essential element of the statement, Heb_9:28; εἰς σωτηρίαν , on the other hand, an essential element of the same. εἰς σωτηρίαν , namely, is the positive nearer defining of the negative χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας , and forms consequently, like the latter, an antithesis to εἰς τὸ πολλῶν ἀνενεγκεῖν ἁμαρτίας . The whole clause, however, ἐκ δευτέρου … εἰς σωτηρίαν , corresponds to the second member of the clause, Heb_9:27 : μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο κρίσις .