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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 6:20 - 6:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
20. ὅπου πρόδρομος … εἰσῆλθεν. Lit., “where a forerunner entered … Jesus”; or better “where, as a forerunner” (or harbinger), “Jesus entered.” I see no reason to depart from the normal force of the aorist by rendering it (as in the A.V.) “is entered,” which would rather require the perfect εἰσελήλυθεν. The aorist calls attention to the single act, and is therefore, here, a vivid picture.
ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, “on our behalf.” This explains the introduction of the remark. Christ’s Ascension is a pledge that our Hope will be fulfilled. He is gone to prepare a place for us (Joh 14:2-3). His entrance into the region behind the veil proves the reality of the hidden kingdom of glory into which our Hope has cast its anchor (Ahlfeld). This is evidently a prominent thought with the writer (Heb 4:14, Heb 9:24).
κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδέκ. Melchisedek resembled Christ in his twofold τάξις of kingly rank, and priestly office. By repeating this quotation, as a sort of refrain, the writer once more resumes the allusion of Heb 5:10, and brings us face to face with the argument to which he evidently attached extreme importance as the central topic of his epistle. In the dissertation which follows there is nothing which less resembles St Paul’s manner of “going off at a word” (as in Eph 5:12-15, &c.). The warning and exhortation which ends at this verse, so far from being “a sudden transition” (or “a digression”) “by which he is carried from the main stream of his argument,” belongs essentially to his whole design. The disquisition on Melchisedek—for which he has prepared the way by previous allusions and with the utmost deliberation—is prefaced by the same kind of solemn strain as those which we find in Heb 2:1-3, Heb 3:12-14, Heb 12:15-17. So far from being “hurried aside by the violence of his feelings” into these appeals, they are strictly subordinated to his immediate design, and inwoven into the plan of the Epistle with consummate skill. “Hurry” and “vehemence” may often describe the intensity and impetuosity of St Paul’s fervent style which was the natural outcome of his impassioned nature; but faultless rhetoric, sustained dignity, perfect smoothness and elaborate eloquence are the very different characteristics of the manner of this writer.
γενόμενος, “haviny become,” as the result of His earthly life.
εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. The words come emphatically at the end, and as Dr Kay says strike the keynote of the next chapter (Heb 7:3; Heb 7:16-17; Heb 7:21; Heb 7:24-25; Heb 7:28). St Luke in the same way begins his Gospel and ends his Acts of the Apostles with a sonorous antispastus ( ἐπειδήπερ) and epitrite ( ἀκωλύτως).