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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 12:15 - 12:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
15. ὑστερῶν κ.τ.λ. Lit., “whether there be any man who is falling short of” or possibly “falling back from the grace of God.” We have already noticed that not improbably the writer has in view some one individual instance of a tendency towards apostasy, which might have a fatal influence upon other weary or wavering brethren (comp. Heb 3:12). For ὑστερεῖν ἀπὸ we find ἐκκλίνειν ἀπὸ in Num 22:32.
ἐνοχλῇ. The words “root of bitterness” are a reference to Deu 29:18, “a root that beareth gall and wormwood,” or, as in the margin, “a poisonful herb.” Here the LXX. in the Vatican MS. has ἐν χολῇ “in gall,” for ἐνοχλῇ, “should trouble you.” But the Alexandrian MS., which the writer habitually follows in his quotations, has ἐνοχλῇ. Some have supposed that there is a curious allusion to this verse and to the reading “in gall” in the apparent reference to this Epistle by the Muratorian Canon as “the Epistle to the Alexandrians current under the name of Paul, but forged in the interests of Marcion’s heresy,” which adds that “gall ought not to be mixed with honey.” The allusion is, however, very doubtful.
οἱ πολλοί. “The many.” Comp. 1Co 5:6 (“a little leaven”); 1Co 15:33 (“evil communications”); Gal 5:9.