The Epistle to the Hebrews; with introduction and notes

Front matter

HAND-BOOKS FOR

I ]E L/i^

AND PRI¥ATE STUDENTS

Chap. III. — The Author Of The Epistle, . , , , 25 Exposition

NOTES ON CHAPS. L-II., •..•». 35

EXTENDED NOTE ON THE SON, • • • » . 73

NOTES ON CHAPS. IIL-IV. I3, ..... 80

EXTENDED NOTE ON THE REST OF GOD, , , , , 97 EXTENDED NOTE ON THE WORD OF GOD, . , , .101

NOTES ON CHAPS. IV. I4-VI., ..... IO4

NOTES ON CHAP, VII., . . . . , . I29 EXTENDED NOTE ON THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST, . , ,146

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII., . . . . , . I55

EXTENDED NOTE ON THE TWO COVENANTS, . . , . I61

EXTENDED NOTE ON DAY OF ATONEMENT, .... 196

EXTENDED NOTE ON PURGE, SANCTIFY, ETC., » , » 203

NOTES ON CHAPS. X. I9-XII., ..... 209

NOTES ON CHAP. XIII., . . . . 1 , 25Q

INTRODUCTION.

Chap. I. The Readers of the Epistle

1. The readers themselves. — In our English Bibles the Epistle has the heading : " Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews ; " and at the end there stands the remark : " Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy." In the best MSS. the heading reads simply, To the Hebrews, and the remark at the end is wanting, or agrees witli the superscription. The heading " To the Hebrews " is the propel heading of the Epistle, and is found from the time that the Epistle is historically mentioned in connection with other New Testament books. It has been supposed that the Epistle was also known under other designations, as, To the Laodiceans, or. To the Alexandrians, but this seems incapable of proof. Though as old as the first historical mention of the Epistle in connection with other New Testament books, the inscription To the Hebrews does not come from the hand of the original writer of the Epistle. It originated, no doubt, in the course of transcription, and whether it rests on tradition or was suggested by the contents of the Epistle cannot be ascertained. Any one reading the Epistle now would stamp it with the same title, apart from all tradition respecting its origin or destination.

The term " Hebrews" is used in a wider and in a narrower sense. In a wider sense, it describes all who were descendants of Abraham, wherever they resided, and whatever language they spoke. In this sense it is equivalent to Israelites and opposed to Gentiles (comp. 2 Cor. xi. 22 ; Pliil. iii. 5). In its narrower sense, it describes Jews living in Palestine and using the native language of that country. In lO

INTRODUCTION.

this sense it is opposed to "Grecians" or Hellenists, that is, foreign Jews, speaking Greek (Acts vi. i, ix. 27). There is nothing to determine in which of these senses the term is used in the superscription to the Epistle. The Alexandrians understood by it Palestinian Jews ; but this is merely their interpretation, and can hardly be assumed to rest on tradition. The phrase "To the Hebrews" might mean of itself that the Epistle was addressed to all Christians of Jewish extraction ; but the local colour of the Epistle is very distinct, and the allusions are of such a kind as to make it certain that the Epistle was addressed to "Hebrews" in a particular locality. No allusion is made in the Epistle to Gentile believers, and this seems to imply that it was written to a community consisting exclusively of Jewish Christians, or one at least in which the Hebrew element very greatly predominated. The Author's view is no doubt that the Hebrews to whom he writes are the true and rightful successors of the Old Testament church ; they are " the People " of God, and they are so as believing Hebrews. But this way of regarding them, even though it be based on principles recognised in other New Testament writings (Rom. xi.), would have had something unnatural in it if they had been a minority in the church or circle of churches to which the letter was addressed. Thus all the information which we gather from the inscription to the Epistle is, that it was addressed to Christian believers of the race of Israel — a conclusion which we could have reached apart from any inscription.

2. Their circnmstances. — The Hebrews to whom the Epistle was addressed had not been themselves hearers of the Lord, but had received the gospel from those who heard Him (ii. 3), and who worked many wonders in attestation of their preaching (ii. 4). The church had not apparently been founded by mere believers from Palestine congregating in numbers in the locality, but by some apostolic missionaries, themselves direct hearers of the Lord (ii. 3, xiii. 7 ; comp. x. 32, where their enlightenment is referred to as a distinct historical event). Their conversion to the faith of Christ was a thing that, when the Epistle was written, had long taken place : for, on account of the time, they ought themselves to have been teachers (v. 12) ; those who brought the gospel to them were already dead (xiii. 7) ; and their history had been one of varied vicissitudes, for on

THE HEBREWS AND THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES. 1 1

the back of their first faith they had been subjected to sharp perse* cutions (x. 32), though presumably their later history, until recently (xii. 4, 11-13), had been more peaceful. Their former persecutions, though in the midst of them they had been subjected to great reproach and loss of goods, and even imprisonment in some quarters, had perhaps not gone so far as to carry any of them to the stake (x. 32 with xii. 4, see notes). In the early days of their faith, they had shown much enthusiasm and public spirit, taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and voluntarily sharing the reproaches and sympathizing with the bonds of those who suffered in the Christian cause (x. 33, 34) ; and this spirit of sympathy and love to their suffering brethren, which had been their characteristic always, continued to distinguish them when this Apostle addressed them (comp. " still do minister," vi. 10, with "let brotherly love continue," xiii. i).

Nevertheless, in these later days, a change for the worse had come over them. External circumstances were perhaps beginning again to pr.ess heavily upon them, and their condition of mind was not, as it had been in former times, such as to enable them to bear up successfully against them. Nothing very specific is said in the Epistle to indicate the nature or cause of their trials, but the whole tone of it is hortatory, suitable to persons in the midst of afflictions from without and, on the other hand, the many solemn warnings against unbelief and falling away from the faith of Christ reveal the condition of mind in which they were, and the fears of the Apostle in regard to them. The reproach which they suffered was one no doubt common to the people of God in all ages (xi. 25, 26), but it was something more specific, it was the reproach of Christ, and borne at the hands of their own countrymen (xiii. 13). The Apostle tells them they have need of patience (x. 36) ; he admits that their Christian course is a hard race (xii. i) ; their afflictions are severe, and he endeavours to set them in such a light as will more than reconcile them to them, — they are not accidents, they are the chastisements of a Father, and proof of their true sonship, common to them with all sons, and indeed with the Son Himself (xii. 7-10, xii. 2); he sets before them the example of the great worthies of former days, Abraham (vi. 1 5) and the cloud of witnesses, who patiently endured and are now made perfect (chap, xi.) ; and, above all, he reminds them that they have a

INTRODUCTION.

great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities, and exhorts them to come with confidence to the throne of grace, to obtain help in time of need (iv. 14-16, V. 1-5, xii. 2-4). The passage xii. 4, "Ye have not resisted unto blood," is of somewhat uncertain meaning (see notes), though the natural sense is that they had not yet been persecuted unto death, and, from the Apostle's manner of regarding the community as a moral person having a continuous history (v. 11-14, vi. 10-12, X. 32-37, xiii. 7), this seems to be said of their whole life as a church.

These severe trials their condition of mind unhappily made them ill fitted to meet. Though they had been so long enlightened that they ought to have been themselves teachers, they had again need that some one should teach them the first elements of Christian truth (v. 12) ; they had become children in intelligence, having need of milk, and were incapable of receiving such solid food as this Apostle desired to offer them when he wished to bring the Melchizedek priesthood of the Son before them ; they were growing sluggish, and no more imitators of the faith and patience of those who inherit the promises (vi. 12). This want of interest was leading them to cease to frequent the Christian meetings for mutual confirmation and edifying (x. 2 5). They were casting away their joyful confidence (x. 35). And besides this general coldness that was creeping over them, there were perhaps some symptoms showing themselves of a mistrust of their teachers, and suspicion of their teaching, possibly owing to influences from without (xiii. 17, 18), — to which influences may also have been due a tendency to busy themselves with meats, and to be carried aside by strange teachings, forgetful of the teaching of those who first spoke to them the Word of God (xiii. 7-9). This more negative backsliding seemed to the Apostle, and indeed was, on its other side, something positive. They were in danger of drifting away from the things which had been heard, the revelation of the Son (ii. i). From the particularity of the writer's language, it seems not improbable that he has instances in his eye, — there was need to take heed lest there should be in any one of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God (iii. 12, iv. i) ; lest there should be any root of bitterness among

THE LOCALITY OF THE HEBREWS.

them, or any profane person like Esau, having more respect to worldly advantages and sensual pleasures than the holy blessings of the covenant (xii. i6), and lest by such evil example the community should be defiled (xii. 15). In the light of this state of mind, and of the external circumstances, there seemed to the Apostle, in the whole situation, not only the possibiHty, but the hazard of their falling away altogether from the faith of the gospel.

3. Their locality. — In xiii. 12, it is said that Jesus suffered without the gate, i.e. the gate of Jerusalem. Such an allusion to Jerusalem would be understood by all Hebrews, whether natives of Palestine or born abroad, and cannot be used as evidence in regard to the locality of those here addressed. Beyond the reference in the words, " they of Italy salute you " (xiii. 24), no allusion is made to any locality by name. " They of Italy " means those belonging to Italy, and the words might be said of such persons whether they were, when spoken of, in Italy or out of it. The mention of them of Italy, however, seems to imply one of two things : either the author of the Epistle wrote from Italy, and added to his own the salutations of the Christians there, or he wrote to some locality in Italy, and seni the salutations of some Italian brethren, who were beside him, to the church of their native country. No other reason for such a speciaJ reference to them of Italy suggests itself naturally. The Epistle seems to have been written from or to Italy.

I. An opinion widely received has been, that the Epistle was written from Italy to the church of Jerusalem. This opinion has generally gone along with the view that St. Paul was the writer. The two opinions have no necessary connection, and the question of authorship had better be kept separate. It is difficult to reconcile this opinion, in regard to the destination of the Epistle, with many things said in it. In ii. 3, it is said that the Hebrews owed their knowledge of the great salvation not to the Lord Himself, but to them who heard Him. At whatever date the Epistle was written, there must have been many persons living in the church at Jerusalem who had heard Christ Himself ; and, besides, the church seems everywhere treated as having throughout its history a personal identity. Elsewhere (x. 32), the " enlightenment " of the Hebrews is spoken of as a distinct historical event, and in a manner scarcely

INTRODUCTION.

applicable to the ministry of our Lord. Again, the low condition of Christian knowledge in the community (v. ii) can scarcely be supposed that of the original church at Jerusalem, and the reproach, thai for the time they ought to have been teachers, sounds very strangely if said of a community from which teachers had gone out to all the world. The passage xii. 4, if its meaning be the natural one, supported, too, by x. 32-35, that the church addressed had not yet furnished any martyrs to the cause of Christ, is decisive against the Jerusalem address ; and the passage xiii. 7 does not suggest that the end of the life of the leaders there referred to had been a violent one. If ministering to the saints " were used in the restricted sense, which it sometimes has in the Pauline Epistles, of relieving the poor believers in Jerusalem (Rom. xv. 25 ; i Cor. xvi. i), this would also be decisive against the church at Jerusalem ; but perhaps vi. 10 is to be explained by the more expanded reference x. 32-34; comp. xiii. 1-3. The internal history of the church at Jerusalem is not very well known. It is certainly not improbable that there may have been a more liberal element in it, composed of men in whom the spirit of Stephen was reflected, and among whom his opinions were perpetuated. But this Epistle is not addressed to any section of Hebrews, and the writer at the same time evidently feels that, on the whole, he has his readers on his side. The natural sense of ii. 3 is, that the Author, as well as his readers, had heard the gospel from apostolic missionaries. He may not have been a native of the locality, though it is possible that he was ; he had at least lived for a time in it, and enjoyed a position of consideration in the church, to which he hopes soon to be restored (xiii. 19). It is difficult to suggest any period in the history of the Jerusalem church during which a liberal-minded Hellenist like the Author, who was probably ignorant of Hebrew, and who could in an off-hand way dispose of the whole Old Testament ritual as " standing on meats and drinks and divers washings " (ix. 10) and "useless" (vii. 18), could have stood in such relations to this church, or at which his restoration to it along with Timothy, the devoted attendant of St. Paul, could be looked forward to as an event (xiii. 19, 23). No doubt, in many respects his method of reasoning differs from that of St. Paul, and the manner in which he teaches that Judaism is sublimed and transfigured in Christianity might be

THE LOCALITY OF THE HEBREWS.

(ess offensive than the doctrine that the Law was a mere side institution, brought in that sin might abound, and not strictly in the line of salvation at all (Rom. v. 20 ; Gal. iii. 19). Nevertheless, he disposes of Moses and the " custom.s " no less effectively than St. Paul does ; and though he may be rather to be named a successor of Stephen than a follower of St. Paul, Acts vii. and xxi. alike show what such teaching had to look for at Jerusalem.

The positive arguments in favour of Jerusalem are of little weight. It is thought that only there, or in the neighbourhood, could a community consisting exclusively of Jewish believers have been found. It is not necessary to suppose that the church consisted exclusively of Hebrews. The Author regards Hebrews as truly the church, not as a matter of numbers, but on principle ; and probably in many churches at this time Jews were in the majority. Further, it is supposed that only in Jerusalem could the people be devoted to the practice of the Temple rites as those addressed are supposed to be. But proof, or even probability, that those addressed were engaged in the practice of the Temple worship, is altogether wanting. The Epistle contains no allusion to the Temple, nor to the service as actually practised there. Its references to the Mosaic ritual are purely ideal and theoretical, and based on the Law in the Pentateuch. It refers to the ark, the pot of manna, and other things that never existed in the second Temple. The mode of reasoning adopted would have been as valid after the destruction of the Temple as during its existence ; and in point of fact the same mode of reference is found in Jewish writings long after the Temple and the service there had come to an end. It is possible that the persons addressed had a theoretical interest in the Temple services and the customs. These were the national worship, and all members of the nation, wherever they might be scattered abroad, partook in them in sympathy and heart, regarding them as the symbol and guarantee of their national and religious unity. At all events, nothing in the Epistle indicates a closer connection of the Hebrews with them than this feehng, common to Hebrews in general. The passage, xiii. 7-13, is of doubtful meaning. But no interpretation of it favours Jerusalem. If the " divers and strange teachings " there mentioned refer to the " meats " of sacrificial offerings, it is scarcely possible that such language could be used i6

INTRODUCTION.

of practices to which the Hel»rews had been addicted all their lives ; and if the reference be to ascetic tendencies, it is scarcely in Jerusalem, but elsewhere, that we are to seek the original home of such errors.

2. Failing Jerusalem, it has been thought that Eome answered the conditions of the problem better than any other locality, and the Epistle is now considered by many eminent writers to have been addressed to the Jewish portion of the Roman church, or to the Roman church in general, which was probably largely composed of Hebrews, {a) In this way the salutation of ''them of Italy " is satisfactorily explained —they were Italians present with the writer in soma place out of Italy, {b) The Epistle was very early known at Rome, being largely made use of by Clement of Rome before the end of the first century, {c) The interest of the church in Timothy is readily understood, {d) The Author's presumed famiHarity with the Epistle to the Romans is easily explained (see on x. 30). {e) The allusion to meats (xiii. 7) indicates an ascetic tendency such as is exposed in Rom. xiv., and the divers and strange teachings (xiii. 9) are such as were to be expected in a city which was the intellectual centre of the world, and, naturally, a hotbed of speculations and heresies, and from which in fact proceeded many strange opinions fcvhich distracted the early church, and fill some of the most interesting pages of her history. And (/) it is known that at an early period, about the year 50, the Jews, that is, probably the Christian Jews, were expelled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius, a fact which might explain the allusion to loss of goods and the like (x. 32).

Some of these considerations are not without weight ; others have very little force. Even if the reference in xiii. 7, etc., were to ascetic tendencies, which is far from certain, the Epistle to the Colossians, and the whole history of the age, show that such moral developments were to be found in many places. The most that can be said is, that they were found in Rome also.

On the other hand, there are difficulties not easy to surmount in the way of the Roman theory. The church at Rome was probably founded, not by the preaching of any apostolic man, but by the congregating there of believers from Palestine and other parts of the world (Acts ii. 10). The Hebrews, on the contrary, were evangelized by hearers of the Lord, amidst many signs and wonders and

THE LOCALITY OF THE tlEBREWS.

gifts of the Holy Ghost (ii. 3, 4 ; comp. Acts viii. 6, xiv. 3). Elsewhere, X. 32, their enlightenment is referred to as a distinct historical event ; and these two things together naturally suggest that the Hebrews received the gospel from some apostolic men in the course of a special missionary tour. Further, the Epistle must have been written sometime, and it is usually thought only a very few years, after the Neronic persecution (a.d. 64 and after). Close upon their enlightenment the Hebrews sustained a great conflict of sufferings (x. 32). These are referred to in the Epistle distantly as the " former days." The reference can scarcely be to the persecutions of Nero. On the other hand, if Roman Christians are addressed, it is impossible that all reference to these persecutions should be awanting. We can find a way out of this difficulty only by desperate shifts. We must suppose that the afflictions alluded to in x. 32 are the Neronic persecutions ; then, that the Author assumed that these followed close upon the conversion of the Roman church, which he must have regarded as a definite historical occurrence, and due to the preaching of the Apostle Paul and perhaps Peter ; and finally, that the Epistle was not written for a very considerable number of years after this period. The date of the Epistle is no doubt uncertain. But if the Author made the above assumptions, he must have read history in a strange way ; and if, as is supposed, he was familiar with St. Paul's Epistle to 'che Romans, he must have perused the work of his master with very little attention, especially that part of it where he mentions members of the Roman church who were of note among the apostles, and in Christ before him (xvi. 7). Neither are the terms of x. 32 adequate to describe the ferocious cruelties of the Neronic persecution ; and, as has been said, the passage xiii. 7 does not imply death by violent means, comp. on xii. 4. Again, it is difficult to find in history a time at which the Roman church, the most lively and vigorous of the churches, could be described in the terms employed in V. II. St. Paul, writing to the Romans, says, "Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. i. 8; comp. xvi. 19), while this Author says, " Ye are become dull of hearing, and have need of milk " — faith, as the whole Epistle shows, is just what he regards the Hebrews as lacking in. Once more, the Roman Judaism, as we know it from the Epistle to the Romans, was of the usual Pharisaic

B t8

INTRODUCTION.

type. It is possible indeed that St. Paul the Pharisee found Pharisaic Judaism everywhere, as he conceived it under that aspect, and that this Author, the Hellenist, contemplated Judaism under another aspect, a Judaism with an allegorical tendency, which resolved the " customs " into ideas and principles, and was not bound fast to external practice. But while there may be truth in this, it is plain that the Author assumes that his readers will go along with him in most of his opinions, and that the type of Judaism exhibited in the Epistle is real.

3. Others have thought of Alexandria. Naturally Alexandria, as the centre of Hellenistic Judaism, offers what answers to the conditions of the problem in general. But no particular trait in the Epistle seems to point to Alexandria. The elaborate attempts that have been made to show that the Author was unacquainted with the details of the Temple service at Jerusalem, and that his references agree with the practice of the Jewish Temple at Leontopolis in Egypt, hardly deserve mention. Though the Epistle was early known and highly valued among the Alexandrians, no trace of the opinion appears that Ihey were the recipients of it. On the contrary, the prevailing tradition in Alexandria, connected with the belief of its Pauline authorship, was that the Epistle was addressed to the Hebrews of Palestine.

Upon the whole, while nothing approaching to certainty can be reached, some community of the Dispersion in the East, — not, however, Jerusalem, nor any church in its immediate neighbourhood, — ivith a Hellenistic type of Judaism, best suits the circumstances of the case. The imprisonment of Timothy (xiii. 23) would probably be in Rome, or somewhere in Italy, and the letter was probably addressed from that country, whither the Author had gone, either on a missionary enterprise or on some other call, and where he was waiting to be joined by Timothy when he wrote it. This might account for the letter being so early known in Rome, and for the consistent denial there of its Pauline authorship.

Chap. II. The Epistle Itself

1. Occasion of the Epistle. — The condition of the Hebrews has already been described generally in chap. i. sect. 2. This condi-

OCCASION OF THE EPISTLE.

tion was the occasion of writing the Epistle. There is difficulty in finding anything much more definite than is there said.

The Epistle does not fit itself into the frame of the Pauline controversies with the Judaizers in the Christian church. Its subject is not a question of a gospel free of ceremonies as against a gospel encumbered by them. The Author's position toward the Law is without doubt identical with that of St. Paul, although he possibly reached that position by a different road. The ceremonial observances are in his view in themselves worthless (vii. 18, x. 1-4) ; they were meant to be nothing more than temporary (ix. 8-10, viii. 13) ; and God Himself in Old Testament Scripture has abrogated them (vii. 18, x. 9) ; and the believing Hebrews are exhorted to sever all connection with their countrymen still practising them (xiii. 13). It seems not improbable even that the missionaries who evangelized the Hebrews had preached this free gospel (xiii. 7-10), and that the gospel had been accepted from them by the Hebrews in this sense, although perhaps without perfect comprehension of the bearing of such principles upon the Old Testament ritual ; for the Author's object is not to secure an advance on their part from a position hitherto occupied to a higher, but to lead them back to a former position from which they had fallen, or at least to confirm them in a position from which they were in danger of falling. This danger, however, was not merely that of falling from a free gospel down to one encumbered with ceremonies. It was not a movement from a higher position to a lower, but still within the Christian church, that was threatened ; it was a movement towards something outside Christianity. The danger was that of renouncing the faith of Christ altogether. This is evident from the language employed (notes on vi. 7, 8). No doubt St. Paul, when writing to Gentiles, uses very strong language regarding the ceremonies of the Law, calling the receiving of them a falling from grace, and the preaching of them another gospel (Gal. v. 4, i. 6) ; yet this relentless exposure, from the point of view of principle, of acts of the true meaning of which those who practised them were unconscious, and who still adhered to the Christian church, is very different from the description given in this Epistle of the conscious indignities to the Christian faith and the Son of God, which the Apostle dreads on tbs part of those to whom he refers (comp. iii. 12, vi. 6 x. 26-29).

so

INTRODUCTION.

If, as is usually supposed, the danger which the Apostle sought to avert was a relapse of the Hebrews into Judaism, whether this was a Judaism that still held fast to the hope of Israel, though not according to knowledge, a thing with which St. Paul was able to sympathize (Rom. X. 2 ; Acts xxiii. 6-9), or rather a Judaism like that of the Sadducean high priest who crucified the Son of God (John xix. 15 ; Heb. vi. 6, x. 29), perhaps no special occurrence or circumstance calling forth the Epistle need be sought. The depressed condition of the Hebrew Christians in general, the overbearing attitude of their countrymen, the imposing memories of the national religion, the long delay of Christ's coming, and the imperfect understanding on the part of the Hebrews of the meaning of the Christian atonement, — these were all constant forces which circumstances of no great importance in themselves might at any moment aggravate so as to render the situation perilous. On the other hand, the free views of this Apostle are not views which he has been led now only to form, oi which he expresses now for the first time. And yet in some sense he belonged to the community of the Hebrews, and they sympathized in general with his teaching. It is, therefore, not impossible that in the passage xiii. 7-10, so important and yet so difficult to estimate, we have a hint of the occasion that called forth the Epistle, though everywhere else the immediate motive of it is kept in the background. Chap. xiii. indicates throughout a certain strain in the relations of the Hebrews to their teachers and to the writer. And this may have been due to external influences (xiii. 9). These influences, however, were but a single force among many, all bearing in the same direction ; and this may account for the somewhat oblique manner in which they are referred to.