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2. εἰ γάρ. An argument a minori ad majus, of which indeed the whole Epistle is a specimen. It was the commonest form assumed by the Rabbinic interpretation of Scripture and was the first of the seven exegetic rules of Hillel, who called it “light and heavy.”
ὁ διʼ ἀγγέλων λαληθεὶς λόγος. The “by” is not ὑπὸ but διά, i.e. “by means of,” “through the instrumentality of.” The presence of Angels at Sinai is but slightly alluded to in the O. T. in Deu 33:2; Psa 68:17; but these allusions had been greatly expanded, and were prominently dwelt upon in Rabbinic teaching—the Talmud, Targums, Midrashim, &c.—until, at last, we find in the tract Maccoth that God was only supposed to have uttered the First Commandment, while all the rest of the Law was delivered by Angels. This notion was at least as old as Josephus, who makes Herod say that the Jews “had learned of God through Angels” the most sacred part of their laws (Jos. Antt. xv. 5, § 3). The Alexandrian theology especially, impressed with the truth that “no man hath seen God at any time” (comp. Exo 33:20), eagerly seized on the allusions to Angels as proving that every theophany was only indirect, and that God could only be seen through the medium of Angelic appearances. Hence the Jews frequently referred to Psa 104:4, and regarded the fire, and smoke, and storm of Sinai as being Angelic vehicles of the Divine manifestation. And besides this, their boast of the Angelic ministry of the Law was founded on the allusions to the “Angel of the Presence” (Exo 32:34; Exo 33:14; Jos 5:14; Isa 63:9). In the N. T. the only two other passages which allude to the work of Angels in delivering the Law are Act 7:53; Gal 3:19 (see my Life of St Paul, II. 149). Clearly the Hebrew Christians had to be delivered from the notion that Christ, by being “made under the Law,” had subjected Himself to the loftier position of the Angels who had ministered the Law.
ἐγένετο βέβαιος, “became” or “proved” steadfast. The Law was no brutum fulmen; no inoperative dead-letter, but effective to vindicate its own majesty, and punish its own violation. Philo uses the very same word (βέβαια) of the institutions of Moses; but the difference of standpoint between him and the writer is illustrated by the fact that Philo also calls them ἀσάλευτα, “not to be shaken,” which this writer would not have done (Heb 12:27).
πᾶσα παράβασις καὶ παρακοή, i.e. all sins against it, whether of commission or of omission. παράβασις is “transgression”; παρακοὴ is “mishearing” and neglect (Mat 18:17; Rom 5:19).
ἔνδικον. This form of the word occurs only here and in Rom 3:8.
μισθαποδοσίαν. The word μισθός, “wage” or “pay”—which is used of punishment as well as of reward—would have expressed the same thought; but the writer likes the more sonorous μισθαποδοσία (from μισθὸς and ἀποδοῦναι) (Heb 10:35, Heb 11:26). This remorseless self-vindication by the Law (“without mercy”), the certainty that it could not be broken with impunity, is alluded to in Heb 10:28. The Israelites found even in the wilderness (Lev 10:1-2; Num 15:32-36; Deu 4:3, &c.), that such stern warnings as that of Num 15:30—threatening excision to offenders—were terribly real, and applied alike to individuals and to the nation.