THEME OF THE EPISTLE. —God has given a revelation of salvation in two stages. The first was preparatory and tran- sient, and is completed. The second, the revelation through Jesus Christ, is final. The readers who have accepted this second revelation are warned against returning to the econ- omy of the first.
1. God. Both stages of the revelation were given by God.
At sundry times (vodvpepas). Rend. in many parts. N. T.° °LXX, but vodvpeprjs Wisd. vii. 22. In the first stage of his revelation, God spake, not at once, giving a com- plete revelation of his being and will; but in many separate revelations, each of which set forth only a portion of the truth. The truth as a whole never comes to light in the O. T. It appears fragmentarily, in successive acts, as the periods of the Patriarchs, Moses, the Kingdom, etc. One prophet has one, another another element of the truth to proclaim.
In divers manners (rodvtpo7ra@s). Rend. in many ways. N. T.°. LXX, 4 Mace. iii. 21. This refers to the difference of the various revelations in contents and form. Not the dif- ferent ways in which God imparted his revelations to the prophets, but the different ways in which he spoke by the prophets to the fathers: in one way through Moses, in another through Elijah, in others through Isaiah, Ezekiel, ete. At the founding of the Old Testament kingdom of God, the
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character of the revelation was elementary: later it was of a character to appeal to a more matured spiritual sense, a deeper understanding and a higher conception of the law. The revelation differed according to the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the covenant-people. Comp. Eph. iii. 10, the many-tinted wisdom of God, which is associated with this passage by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. i. 4,27). “ Fitly, therefore, did the apostle call the wisdom of God many- tinted, as showing its power to benefit us in many parts and in many ways.”
Spake (Aadjoas). See on Matt. xxviii. 18. Often in the Epistle of the announcement of the divine will by men, as vii. 14; ix. 19: by angels, as ii. 2: by God himself or Christ, as li. 3; v.53; xii. 25. In Paul, almost always of men: once of Christ, 2 Cor. xiii. 3: once of the Law, personified, Rom. ili. 9.
In time past (7dAav). Better, of old. The time of the Old Testament revelation. It indicates a revelation, not only given, but completed in the past.
Unto the fathers (rois watpdow). Thus absolutely, J. vil. 22; Rom. ix. 5; xv. 8. More commonly with your or our.
By the prophets (ev rots mpodyrais). Rend. “in the prophets,” which does not mean in the collection of prophetie writings, as J. vi. 45; Acts xiii. 40, but rather in the prophets themselves as the vessels of divine inspiration. God spake in them and from them. Thus Philo: “The prophet is an inter- preter, echoing from within (évdo8ev) the sayings of God” (De Praemiis et Poenis, § 9)
2. In these last times (é7’ éoydrou Trav juepav rovrov). Lit. at the last of these days. The exact phrase only here ; but comp. 1 Pet. v. 20 and Jude 18. LXX, én’ éoydrou tov neepav at the last of the days, Num. xxiy. 14; Deut. iv. 30;
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Jer. xxili. 20; xxv. 18; Dan. x. 14. The writer conceives the history of the world in its’relation to divine revelation as falling into two great periods. The first he calls ai judpas atta these days (i. 2), and 6 Karpos o évertnxa@s the present season (ix. 9). The second he describes as xatpds duopPacews the season of reformation (ix. 10), which is 6 xapos 6 wédAX@v the season to come: comp. 7 oixoupévn 7 wéAXovaa the world to come (ii. 5); médAdAwv aiav the age to come (vi. 5); modus FH HédXovea the city to come (xii. 14). The first period is the period of the old covenant; the second that of the new cove- nant. The second period does not begin with Christ’s first appearing. -His appearing and public ministry are at the end of the first period but still within it. The dividing-point between the two periods is the cvvtédeta Tod aidvos the con- summation of the age, mentioned in ix. 26. This does not mean the same thing as at the last of these days (i. 2), which is the end of the first period denoted by these days, but the conclusion of the first and the beginning of the second period, at which Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. This is the end of the xaipos éeveotnews the present season: this is the limit of the validity of the old sacrificial offerings: this is the inauguration of the time of reformation. The phrase ém’ éoyatouv Tov juepov TovTwy therefore signifies, in the last days of the first period, when Christ was speaking on earth, and before his crucifixion, which marked the begin- ning of the second period, the better age of the new covenant.