The brightness, shining, ray, beam, ris d0Zns, “of glory.” Some look on this expression as a Hebraism, éravyacwa ra d6Ens, “ the beam of glory,” for ZydoZov aruvyacuo, “a glorious beam; but this will not answer the design of the apostle, as we shall see afterwards.
Our translators have supplied “his,” “ the brightness of his glory,” by repeat- ing avrov from the end of the sentence; perhaps, as we shall find, not altogether necessarily,—in which case alone such supplements unto the text are allowed in translations.
Kal xapoxryp,—* character.” “ Imago,” “ forma,” ‘ figura,” “ expressa forma,” “figura expressa,” N25, Syr.;—“the character,” “ image,” ‘ form,” “firure,” “express form,” “express figure :” so variously is the word rendered by translators, with little difference. It is nowhere used in the New Testa- ment but only in this place. In other authors it hath many significations. Sometimes they use it properly and naturally; sometimes metaphorically and artificially, as when it denotes several forms of speech or orations. Properly, from xapacow or yapetrw, to engrave with a tool or style, is yzpayue and yxepexrnp; which is firstly and properly the note or mark cut by a tool or instru- ment into wood, or any other subject capable of such impression, or the stamp and sign that is left in the coining of money. The mark or scar also left by a wound is by the LXX. termed xapaxrap, Lev. xiii. 28. It is in general an ex- press representation of another thing, communicated unto it by an impression of its likeness upon it, opposed unto that which is umbratile and imaginary.
Tis trocrécsws avrov,— substantiz,” “ subsistentie,” “ persone.” Syr., ADAMS, “substantia ejus ;’—“hypostasis,” “substance,” * subsistence,” “person.” The word is four times used in the New Testament,—thrice in this epistle, in this place, and chap. iii. 14, and chap. xi. 1, as also 2 Cor. ix. 4,—everywhere in a different sense; so that the mere use of it in one place will afford no light unto the meaning of it in another, but it must be taken from the context and subject treated of. The composition of the word would denote “substantia,” but so as ‘to differ from and to add something unto odo/a, “substance,” or being; which in ‘the divine nature can be nothing but a special manner of subsistence. But the controversy that hath been about the precise signification of these words we shall ~ not here enter into the discussion of.
py, “agens,” “ regens,” “ moderans;”—* acting,” “ disposing,” “ruling,” “governing.” Also “ portans,” “ bajulans,” “ sustinens;”—“ bearing,” “ support- ing,” “carrying,” “upholding.” Which of these senses is peculiarly intended we shall afterwards inquire into.
TO panwar rng duvaemens avrov,—* by the werd of his power,” “ by his power- ful word.” Syr., n> ey 8272,“ by the power of his word,” changing the order of the words, but not the meaning of them: “By the power of his word,” or, “the word of his power;” that is, his powerful word. Avrod; some would read it avrov, and refer it unto the Father,—* By the powerful word of him;” that is,.
86 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. L
of the Father, by whose power, they say, the Son disposed of all things. But all copies with accents have eerod constantly, none ewrov, nor will the disposition of the words bear that reference.
Av’ éavrov,—* by himself,” in his own person.” —
Kedapioucv sroimoemevos,—* purgationem faciens,” “ purgatione factd;”— “having purged,” “ cleansed,” “ expiated” or “ purified” (us from) “our sins.” “ Having made a purgation or purification of our sins.”
"Exabicev. Keio is used both neutrally and actively, answering to 30%, both in Kal and Hiphil, signifying “to sit down,” and “to cause to sit down.” Chrysostom seems to have understood the word in the latter sense, referring it to God the Father causing the Son to sit down. But it is hard to find any antecedent word whereby it should be regulated, but only os, “ who,” in the beginning of the verse,—that is, he himself; and, as Erasmus observes, yevd- “vos, in the following words, will not grammatically admit of this construction ; for if éx&ioe be to be understood actively and transitively, it must have been yevowevov. And the apostle clears the neutral sense of the word, chap, viii. 1. It is well, then, rendered by our translators, “ he sat,” or “ sat down,”
"Ey dig. Ps. ox. 1,727 29. LXX., xddov éx deksdv, in the plural num- ber. So is the same thing expressed, Acts vii. 55; and by Mark, dv de&sois, chap, xvi. 5. Our apostle constantly keepeth the singular number, with é», chap. i. 13, viii. 1, xii. 2. The same thing in both expressions is intended; only that of é deEsav, or év de&sois, in the plural number, is more eminently destructive of the folly of the Anthropomorphites; for they cannot hence pre- tend that God hath a right hand, unless they will grant that he hath many, which were not only to turn the glory of the invisible God into the likeness of a man, but of a monster. And Austin well observes that in the psalm where that expression is first used, “ Sit on my right hand,” it is added, 4227-72 8, “'The Lord on thy right hand,”—at the right hand of him who sat on his right hand; which removes all carnal apprehensions from the meaning of the words,