Boaxy ri, “breve quiddam;” Vul., “ paulo minus;” Syr., Sede, “ paululum,” “a little,” or “ paulisper,” “a little Shite: » ‘wy is faqusdy by the LXX. ren- dered wixpov, “parvum,” “ paululum,”—“a little,” intending quantity; sometimes ‘éaivyov, which they refer to number, “a few;” and sometimes Apexv, and then it constantly respects time, “a little while.” So that Bpaxd vt is as much as éxt Bpeerget, that is xpovg ; as in that saying, “O Bios Bouxvs, 4 texyn uxpe,— Life is short,” that is, of short continuance. Whether a little in degree or a short time be here intended we shall afterwards inquire.
Ilap dyyéaous, Syr. N2ND12 ye, “pre angelis,” “ more than angels,” “ above the angels,” “more destitute than the angels ;” Heb., perio, « the angels rf God.” So all old translations render the words. ree to ee it “a Deo,” i the psalm, is needless, groundless, contradictory to the apostle.
Aon nal rip toreQDavacus avrdy, “ glori ia et rhe coronasti eum,” “with glory and honour hast thou crowned him;” Syr., 7272 5°9 SIPS] STL), “ glory and honour hast thou placed on his head ; Ms Heb. yatusn 7 “331, “ thou hast crowned him” (or “ adorned his head”) “ with glory and bea uty,” or “ honour.”
., VOu-a&x 21
322 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IT.
The first word denotes the weight and worth, the latter the beauty and splen- dour of this crown.
Kal xartornous airy eri, “thou hast set him over ;” that is, appointed him to be in authority, as Pharaoh set Joseph over the land of Egypt. Syr., “mnuduxi. « authoritatem,” “potestatem ei tribuisti;’ “thou hast given him power,” or “authority;” made him sultan, or lord. Heb., an foto , “made him lord,” or “ruler,” as Gen. i. 18. So xadiornus ext is used, ‘Acts Vig ‘Lite xil.
‘Yrtrazas vroxarw trav rodoy wvrov, “ hast put,” “put down,” “ subjected all things under his feet.” The words all of them emphatically denote subjection and depression, and as thus conjoined, the most absolute subjection that can be apprehended.
Ver. 7—Thou madest him lower for a little while than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him [gave him authority] over the works. of thy hands: all things hast thou put in subjection under his feet.
Ver. 8.— Ev yap re trordza: aire re rdvra, oddty donne dvurd-
raunrov yov OF olarw dpiwev aura re wedvTe droreraymEVO.
Ver. 8.—For in that he made all things subject unto him, he hath left nothing not put in subjection; but now we see not all things made subject unto him.”
Ver. 9.—Tiv 08 Bpauyd ri rap’ dyyérous jrarrapévoey BAEwomev “Inoody,
die rd rdhdnua rot Savdrov d6F% nal siR eoreQavwméevoy, brwg scpirs cot iaep rauvris yebonras Savérov.
The words of this &¢docrs have most of them been considered in the zpédeoic, and they must have the same sense in both places, or the reasoning of the apostle would be equivocal. For xzpits @zov, some old copies read, ywpis Ozov, “ besides God,” “God excepted.” The Syriac copies also vary. Some read, “ For God himself by his grace tasted death.” Others, “For he, God excepted, tasted death;” which came from xapls ©zov, and shows that variety to be ancient. Hence some have imagined it to be a corruption of the Nestorians, who, dividing the person of Christ, would not grant that God might be said to die, contrary to Acts Xx. 28. Xeapiri Ocod, is “gratia,” “heneficentia,” ““beneficio Dei,” “by the grace,” * goodness,” “ good-will of God,” expressing the first spring and moving cause of the sufferings of Christ. Tevonras eee “should taste of death;” an Hebraism for to die, intimating withal the truth, reality, and kind of his death, which was bitter, and which was called his “cup.” “Yaép xevrés, in the masculine, not neuter gender, for dxep xévrwy, by an enallage of number, that is, viav, of whom he treats; all and every one of the children unto whom he was a captain of salvation.}
Ver. 9.—But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, who for the suffering of death was a little while made lower than the angels, that he by the grace of God might taste of death for all,
1 Vartous Rrapines.—The clause, Karéornous usque cov, verse 7, is omitted by Griesbach, Scholz, and Tischendorf, Knapp, Lachmann, and Hahn enclose it within brackets, as doubtful.
TRANSLATIONS.—Bpayy. “ For a little while.”—Valchkenaer, De Wette, Cony- beare and Howson, Ebrard. “ A little” (in respect of degree).—Stuart, Schole- held, Olshausen, Turner.—ED.
VER. 5-9.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 323
Ver. 5.—The first words of the fifth verse, od yep, “ for,’ declare that the apostle is in the pursuit of his former argument. dp “for,” doth not always intimate the introduction of a reason in the confirmation of what is past, but sometimes a progression unto somewhat else in the like kind with that which precedeth, and so hath not respect unto any especial words or sayings going before, but unto the whole matter in hand, especially that which doth ensue; as “nam” also is used in Latin: “Nam quis te juvenum confidentissime, nostras jussit adire domos.” A new argument, therefore, to the same purpose with that before is intimated by this particle, “for.”
The whole verse contains an assertion laid down in a negative proposition, the assumption of the apostle’s argument, or the proof of it, supposed in a prosyllogism, consisting in the ensuing testimony, with his explication of it. And it is to this purpose: ‘ The world to come is not made subject unto angels; but it was made subject to Jesus: and therefore he is exalted above them.’ This he proves from the testimony of the psalmist, to this purpose, ‘ All things were made subject to man, who for a little while was made lower than the angels; but this man was Jesus.’ And this assumption he proves from the event:—First, On the part of man absolutely con- sidered: ‘ We see that all things are not made subject unto him;’ therefore he cannot be intended. Secondly, On the part of Jesus. ‘ All things in the event agree unto him; first, he was made for a little while lower than the angels, (which he shows the reason of, and thence takes occasion to discourse of his death and sufferings, according to the method before declared;) ‘and then he was crowned with glory and dignity, all things being made subject unto him ;— from all which it appears, that it is he, and not angels, unto whom the world to come is put in subjection.’ This is the series of the apostle’s discourse, wherein are many things difficult and “hard to be understood,” which must be particularly considered.