11. In order to bring many sons unto glory, Christ assumes to them the relation of brother.
He that sanctifieth (0 dyidfwv). Sanctification is the path to glorification. Comp. Heb. x. 14.
Of one (¢& évds). Probably God, although the phrase may signify of one piece, or of one whole. Jesus and his people alike have God for their father. Therefore they are breth- ren, and Christ, notwithstanding his superior dignity, is not ashamed te vall them by that name.
12. This acknowledgment as brethren the writer repre- sents as prophetically announced by Messiah in Ps. xxii. 22. The Psalm is the utterance of a sufferer crying to God for help in the midst of enemies. The Psalmist declares that God has answered his prayer, and that he will give public thanks therefor.
Cu. II] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 403
Unto my brethren (rots adergois wov). His brethren in the worshipping assembly. This is applied by our writer to the human brotherhood at large, and Christ is represented as identifying himself with them in thanksgiving.
Will | sing praise unto thee (iurjcw ce). Rarein N. T. Matt. xxvi. 830; Mk. xiv. 26; Acts xvi. 25. Lit. hymn thee. Often in the Greek liturgies.
13. | will put my trust, etc. Isa. viii. 17,18. The pas- sage occurs in an invective against the people’s folly in trust- ing to any help but God’s during the Syro-Israelitish war under Ahaz. The prophet is commanded to denounce those who trusted to soothsayers and not to God, and to bind and seal God’s testimony to the righteous party who maintained their confidence in him —a party comprising the disciples of Isaiah, and in whom lies the prophet’s hope for the future of Israel. Isaiah declares his own faith in God, and announces: that he and his children have been appointed as living sym- bols of the divine will, so that there is no need of applying to necromancers. The names of the children are Shear-jashub a remnant shall return, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz haste-spoil- hurry-prey. These names will teach Israel that Assyria will spoil Damascus and Samaria ; and that, in the midst of foreign invasion, God will still be with Judah, and will make a nation of the remnant which the war shall leave. The prophet and. his children are thus omens of the nation’s fortunes. The children were babes at this time, and “the only unity which
existed among them was that which exists between every father and his children, and that which resulted from their belonging to the same prophetic household and all bearing symbolic names (without knowledge of the fact on the part of the children).” * Our writer ignores the historical sense of the words, takes a part of a sentence and puts a messianic meaning into it, inferring from it the oneness of Jesus and his people, and the necessity of his assuming their nature in order to be one with them. He treats the two parts of the
* Professor Toy, Quotations in the New Testament.
404 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Ca. IL.
passage separately, emphasising in the first part Messiah’s trust in God in common with his human brethren, and insert- ing éyw I into the LXX text in order to call special attention to the speaker as Messiah. In the second part, he expresses the readiness of himself and his children to carry out God’s will.
14. The children (7a maida). Children of men, the sub- jects of Christ’s redemption.
Are partakers of flesh and blood (kexowarnkey atparos kal oapkes). For xexowavncey see on Rom. xii. 13. For flesh and blood the correct text reads blood and flesh. In rabbinical writers a standing phrase for human nature in contrast with God.
Likewise (wapamAnolws). Rend. in like manner. N.T.°. Expressing general similarity. He took his place alongside (rapa) and near (wdyowds): near by.
Took part (uerécyev). The verb only in Hebrews and Paul. The distinction between it and cexorvdynxev were par- takers is correctly stated by Westcott; the latter marking the characteristic sharing of the common fleshly nature as it pertains to the human race at large, and the former signify- ing the unique fact of the incarnation as a voluntary accept- ance of humanity.