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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3. πῶς ἡμεῖς ἐκφευξόμεθα; The “we” (being expressed in the original) is emphatic—we who are sons, not servants—the compound verb means “how shall we succeed in escaping,” or, “make good our escape”—namely, from similar, but yet more awful punishment (comp. Heb 12:25).
ἀμελήσαντες, “after neglecting,” or “when we have neglected,” not, as in A. V., “if we neglect.”
τηλικαύτης σωτηρίας. The transcendence (Heb 7:25) of the safety provided is a measure of the guilt involved in ceasing to pay any attention to it (Heb 10:29; Joh 12:48). It came from Christ not from Angels; its sanctions are more eternal, its promises more Divine, its whole character more spiritual.
ἥτις ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα λαλεῖσθαι. The definite relative ἥτις “one which” has (as often) a quasi-causal force, “seeing that it, having at the first been spoken.”
διὰ τοῦ κυρίου. The Gospels shew that Jesus was the first preacher of His own Gospel (Mar 1:14). “The Lord,” standing alone, is very rarely, if ever, used as a title for Christ in St Paul. (1Th 4:15; 2Th 2:2; 2Ti 4:18, are, to say the least, indecisive.)
ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων. We did not indeed receive the Gospel at first-hand, but from those who were its appointed witnesses (Luk 24:47-48; Act 1:8; Act 5:32). This verse, as Luther and Calvin so clearly saw, furnishes a decisive proof that St Paul was not the writer of this Epistle. He always insisted on the primary and direct character of the revelation which he had received as his independent Gospel (Gal 1:1; Gal 1:12; Act 22:10; Act 26:16; 1Co 11:23; 1Co 15:3, &c.). To talk of “accommodation” or ἀνακοίνωσις with his readers here is quite beside the mark.
εἰς ἡμᾶς. A sort of constructio praegnans, “was confirmed (so as to reach) to us,” Winer, p. 776.
ἐβεβαιώθη. The “word of this salvation”—the news of this Gospel—was ratified to us (comp. 1Co 1:6), and so it becomes “steadfast” (βέβαιος, Heb 2:2).