Obs. VI. The nature of our redemption, the way of its procure- ment, with the duties required of us with respect thereunto, are greatly to be considered by us.
VERSES 13, 14.
~ There is in these verses an argument and comparison. But the
comparison is such, as that the ground of it is laid in the relation of the comparates the one unto the other; namely, that the one was the type and the other the antitype, otherwise the argument will not hold. For although it follows, that he who can do the greater can do the less, whereon an argument will hold “ & majoriad minus;” yet it doth not absolutely do so, that if that which is less can do that which is less, then that which is greater can do that which is greater; which would be the force of the argument if there were nothing but a naked comparison in it: but it necessarily follows hereon, if that which is less, in that less thing which it doth or did, was therein a type of that which was greater, in that greater thing which it was to effect. And this was the case in the thing here proposed by the apostle. The words are,—
Ver. 13, 14.— Ei yap 7) aia ratpay nal rpdyur, xual omodds dupc- Aews payriLovom rods xexoiapévous, ayer pos THY FNS Cupnos nabapérnrar wow marhrov rd alua rod Xprorod, bo dic Tvedmuros aiwviou saurby wpoor- yeyney Huuoy TH Oew, xadupse? chy cuvetdnow judy (Kmav) dard venpav epywy, sig rh Aarpedew Oem Cover,
The words have no difficulty in them as to their grammatical sense; nor is there any considerable variation in the rendering of them in the old translations.
286 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IX.
Only the Syriac retains 82327, that is, wésxwv, from ver. 12, instead of ravpav here used. And both that and the Vulgar place rpawv here before rapa», as in the fore- going verse, contrary unto all copies of the original, as to the order of the words, For Ivetearos aiwviov the Vulgar reads Ilveduaros aylov, “ per Spiritum sanc- tum.” The Syriac follows the original, noybs sm537, “ by the eternal Spirit.” Ty cvveldnow gov. The original copies vary, some reading yuay, “ our,” but most sway, “your ;” which our translators follow.*
Ver. 13, 14.—For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanc- tifieth unto the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your con- science from dead works, to serve the living God!”
The words are argumentative, in the form of a hypothetical syl- logism; wherein the assumption of the proposition is supposed, as proved before. That which is to be confirmed is what was asserted in the words foregoing; namely, “That the Lord Jesus Christ by his blood hath obtained for us eternal redemption.” This the causal redditive conjunction, “ for,’ doth manifest ; whereunto the note of a supposition, “if,” 1s premised as a note of a hypothetical argumentation.
There are two parts of this confirmation: 1. A most full declara- tion of the way and means whereby he obtained that redemption ; it was by the “offering himself through the eternal Spirit without spot unto God.” 2. By comparing this way of it with the typical sacrifices and ordinances of God. For arguing “ad homines,’— that is, unto the satisfaction and conviction of the Hebrews,—the apostle makes use of their concessions to confirm his own assertions. And his argument consists of two parts: 1. A concession of their efficacy unto their proper end. 2. An inference from thence unto the greater and more noble efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, taken partly from the relation of type and antitype that was between them, but principally from the different nature of the things themselves,
Tp.
Ei.
1 Various READING.—It seems now agreed that the reading Ivetparos aiaviov is to be preferred to the reading Ilvevwaros eyiov; the authority for the latter being D, Copt., Basm., Vulg., Slav., and Lat. p, £, and Chrysostom ; that for the former being a, B, Peschito, Philoxen., Armen., Ambrose, Theodoret, and Theophylact.
Exposition.—Different views have been taken of the import of ryetmearos ;— Beza, Ernesti, Cappell, Outrein, Wolf, Cramer, Carpzoff, Morus, Schulz, and others, referring it to the divine natwre of Christ ; Grotius, Limborch, Heinrichs, Schleusner, Rosenmiiller, Koppe, Jaspis, and others, referring it to endless or immortal life ; Doederlein, Storr, and others, to the exalted and glorified person or condition of Christ ; Winzer, Kuinoel, Moses Stuart (see his “ Excursus”), under- standing by the phrase, divine influence; Bleek, Tholuck, and others, the Holy — Spirit ; Ebrard, the disposition of mind, rendering the act not mechanical com- pliance with a ritual but moral in its character, and eternal as done in the eternal spirit of absolute love.—Ep. }
VER. 13, 14.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 287
To make evident the force of his argument in general, we must observe, 1. That what he had proved before he takes here for granted, on the one side and the other. And this was, that all the Levitical services and ordinances were in themselves carnal, and had carnal ends assigned unto them, and had only an obscure representation of things spiritual and eternal; and on the other side, that the tabernacle, office, and sacrifice of Christ were spiritual, and had their effects in eternal things. 2. That those other carnal, earthly things were types and resemblances, in God’s appointment of them, of those which are spiritual and eternal.