6. The context utterly refuseth this gloss. The Son in the pre- ceding words is said to be made heir or lord of all; that is, of all things absolutely and universally, as we have evinced and is con- fessed. Unto that assertion he subjoins a reason of the equity of that transcendent grant made unto him, namely, because “by him all things were made;” whereunto he adds his upholding, ruling, and disposing of them, being so made by him: “He upholdeth all things by the word of his power.” That between the “all things” whereof he is Lord and the “all things” that he upholds there should be an interposition of words of the same importance with them, expressing the reason of them that go afore and the foundation of that, which follows, knitting both parts together, and yet imdeed having a signification in them of things utterly heterogeneous to them, is most unreasonable to imagine.
We have now obtained liberty, by removing the entanglements cast in our way, to proceed to the opening of the genuine sense and importance of these words.
Ar of, “by whom;” not as an instrument, or an inferior, inter- mediate, created cause: for then also must he be created by himself,
seeing all things that were made were made by him, Johni. 3, butas _ God’s own eternal Word, Wisdom, and Power, Prov. viii. 22-24, John
i, 1,—the same individual creating act being the work of Father and Son, whose power and wisdom being one and the same undivided, so also are the works which outwardly proceed from them. And as the joint working of Father and Son doth not infer any other subordination but that of subsistence and order, so the preposition é doth not of itself intimate the subjection of an instrumental cause, being used sometimes to express the work of the Father himself, Gal. i. 1.
“Eo/noe, S12, “created.” So the apostle expresseth that word, Acts xvu. 24, 26; and the LXX. most commonly, as Gen. i. 1, though sometimes they use xr/{#, as our apostle also doth, chap. x. [Col. i. 167] He made, created, produced out of nothing, by the things not seen, chap. xi. 3.
Tods aidvas: aidy, pbiy, So that word is constantly rendered by the Greeks. poy is “to hide,” or to be hid, kept secret, close, undis-
covered. Whence a virgin is called 7222, one not yet come into the —
a , C. e
VER. 1, 2.) EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 75
public state of matrimony; as by the Greeks, on the same account, nardxdeoros, “one shut up,” or a recluse; as the Targumists call a harlot 812 npbs, “a goer abroad,” from that description of her, Prd¥. vii, 11, 12; N3MAa DyD pana oY mI woviend NOIR. —“EHer feet dwell not in her own house: one while she is in the street, another while abroad ;” as the mother of the family is called M2, “the dweller at home,” Ps. Ixviii. 18. Hence 57i¥ signifies the ages of the world in their succession and duration, which are things secret and hidden, What is past is forgotten, what is to come is unknown, and what is present is passing away without much observation. See Kecles, i. 11.
The world, then, that is visible and a spectacle in itself, in respect of its continuance and duration is 075Y,—“a thing hidden.” So that the word denotes the fabric of the world by a metonymy of the adjunct. When the Hebrews would express the world in respect of the substance and matter of the universe, they do it commonly by a distribution of the whole into its most general and comprehensive parts, as “The heavens, earth, and sea,” subjoining, “ all things con- tained in them.” This the Greeks and Latins, from its order, frame, and ornaments, call xéewog and “mundus;” which principally respect that DY NY, that beauty and ornament of the heavens which God made by his Spirit, Job xxvi. 13. And as it is inhabited by the sons of men, they call it °29, that is, oixovwévn; that is, YS 220, Proy. viii. 31, “The world of the earth,’—principally, the habitable parts of the earth. As quickly passing away, they call it 179. And in respect of its successive duration pip ; that is, adv, the word here used.
Ajéves, in the plural number, “the worlds,” so called, chap. xi. 8, by a mere enallage of number, as some suppose, or with respect to the many ages of the world’s duration. But, moreover, the apostle accommodates his expression to the received opinion of the Jews, and their way of expressing themselves about the world. OY de- notes the world as to the subsistence of it and as to its duration. In both these respects the Jews distributed the world into several parts, calling them so many worlds. R. D. Kimchi on Isa. vi. distributes these worlds into three; on the account of which he says, wip, “holy,” was three times repeated by the seraphim. There are, saith he, moby nwby,—“three worlds:” ody som yoyn ody nyowam pYoxdon,— “the wpper world, which is the world of angels and spirits;” oyasiom ovdadin ndy,—‘“the world of the heavens and stars: ” and Ssyn aby,—“this world below.” But in the first respect they generally assign these four:—(1.) dawn pdyn,—“the lower world,” the depressed world, the earth and air in the several regions of it: (2.) pawn obyn,—“the world of angels,” or ministering spirits, whom they suppose to inhabit in high places, where they may super-