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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 12:12 - 12:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
12. διό. The poetic style, and even the metrical form of diction, in these two verses (of which Heb 12:13 contains a complete hexameter,
καὶ τροχιὰς ὀρθὰς ποιήσατε τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν
and half an iambic,
ἵνα μὴ τὸ χωλὸν ἐκτραπῇ),
reflect the earnestness of the writer, as he gives more and more elaboration to his sentences in approaching the climax of his appeal. It is most unlikely that they are quotations from Hellenistic poets, for the first agrees closely with Pro 4:26 (LXX.). On these accidentally metrical expressions see my Early Days of Christianity, I. 464, II. 14.
τὰς παρειμένας χεῖρας κ.τ.λ. Lit., “straighten out the relaxed hands and the palsied knees.” Make one effort to invigorate the flaccid muscles which should be so tense in the struggle in which you are engaged. The writer is thinking of Deu 32:36; Isa 35:3; Sir 25:23, and perhaps of the metaphors of the race and the fight which he has just used.