Should taste death (yevonras Gavdrov). The phrase is found several times in the Gospels, as Matt. xvi. 28; Mk.ix.1; Le ix. 27 5° Se wili62.) (Seo:on L. ix: 273: J. Vili, 52.
* Schmidt, Art. ‘‘Stand doppelter Christi,’’ Herzog, Real Encyc.
+ Findlay, Hxpositor, 3d ser. ix. 229, calls attention to the fact that Hrat~ Twuévoy and écreparwyuevov are in the same tense and grammatical form, indi- cating contemporary rather than successive states. For xdpire cod by the grace of God, some texts read xwpls deo0 apart from God. So Weiss. On this reading interpretations differ, as, apart from divinity : forsaken by God: for all, God only excepted (!),
Cu. II] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 401
The following statement justifies the bold assertion of ver. 9. With a view to the recoil of Jewish readers from the thought of a suffering Messiah (1 Cor. i. 23), the writer will show that Jesus’ suffering and death were according to the divine fitness of things.
10. It became (érperev). Not logical necessity (Sei, ver. 1), nor obligation growing out of circumstances (aperev, ver. 17), but an ¢nner fitness in God’s dealing. Dr. Robertson Smith observes: ‘The whole course of nature and grace must find its explanation in God; and not merely in an abstract divine arbitriwm, but in that which befits the divine nature.”
For whom —by whom (é? é6v—6v 06). For whom, that is, for whose sake all things exist. God is the final cause of all things. This is not = els adrov Ta tavta unto whom are all things, Rom. xi. 86; which signifies that all things have their realisation in God; while this means that all things have their reason in God. By whom, through whose agency, all things came into being. On &a applied to God, see on ch. i. 2. These two emphasise the idea of fitness. It was becoming even to a God who is the beginning and the end of all things.
In bringing many sons unto glory (aroAXods viods eis ddEav ayayovta). Const. bringing with him;* not with captain, which would mean “to perfect the captain, etc., as one who led many sons, etc.”” "Ayarydvra is not to be explained who had brought, or after he had brought, with a reference to the O. T. saints, “after he had brought many O. T. sons of God unto glory”; but rather, bringing as he did, or in bringing, as A. V.+ Many sons, since their leader himself was a son. Unto glory, in accordance with the glory with which he himself had been crowned (ver. 9). The glory is not dis-
* For the construction see Moulton’s Winer, p, 402; and for similar in- stances, L. i. 74; Acts xi. 12; xv. 22; xxv. 27. + The Vulgate has ‘‘qui multos filios in gloriam addugerat.”” For the construction see Burton, New Testament Moods and Tenses, § 149. VOL. IV. —26
402 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Ca. I.
tinguished from the salvation immediately following. For the combination salvation and glory see 2 Tim. ii. 10; Apoc. xix. 1.
To make perfect (reredoat). Lit. to carry to the goal or consummation. The “perfecting” of Jesus corresponds to his being * crowned with glory and honour,” although it is not a mere synonym for that phrase; for the writer conceives the perfecting not as an act but as a process. “To make perfect” does not imply moral imperfection in Jesus, but only the consummation of that human experience of sorrow and pain through which he must pass in order to become the leader of his people’s salvation.
The captain of their salvation (Tov apynyov tijs cwrnpias aétov). Comp. Acts v. 31. “Apynyds captain, quite frequent in LXX and Class. Rev. renders author, which misses the fact that the Son precedes the saved on the path to glory. The idea is rather leader, and is fairly expressed by captain.