12. The exhortation is enforced by reference to the char- acter of the revelation which sets forth the rest of God. The message of God which promises the rest and urges to seek it, is no dead, formal precept, but is instinct with living energy.
The word of God (6 Adyos Tod Oeod). That which God speaks through any medium. The primary reference is to God’s declarations concerning his rest. The fathers ex- plained it of the personal Word as in the Fourth Gospel. But in the Epistle there is no approach to any definite use of Adyos with reference to Christ, not even in the description of his relation to God in ch. i, where, if anywhere, it might have been expected. In ch. vi. 5 and xi. 8 we find pjua. Everywhere in the Epistle Christ appears as the Son, not as the Word. In this passage, the following predicates, évepyijs, ToMMTEpos, KpiTLKOs, Would hardly be applied to the Logos, and in ver. 14 he is styled Jesus the Son of God.
Cu. IV.] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 427
Quick and powerful (fav «al évepyns). Note the emphatic position of fav living. Living is the word of God, since it is the word of “the living God” (ch. iii. 12). Living in its essence. For évepyis active, energising, and kindred words, see on J.i.12; Philip. iii. 21; Col.i.29; Philem.6. Mani- festing itself actively in the world and in men’s hearts. Comp. 1 Pet. i. 28.
Sharper than any two-edged sword (rouerepos trép macav pdyatpav Sictouov). Touwtepos sharper from réuvev to cut, N. T.°. °LXX. The word of God has an incisive and pene- trating quality. It lays bare self-delusions and moral soph- isms. For the comparison of the word of God or of men to a sword, see Ps. lvii. 4; lix. 7; lxiv.3; Eph. vi. 17. Philo calls his Logos 0 ropevs the cutter, as cutting chaos into dis- tinct things, and so creating a kosmos. ‘“YLwép than, is liter- ally, above. Ildcav any, is every. Aloropov only here and Apoe. i. 16; ii. 12, lit. two-mouthed. In LXX always of a sword. See Judg. iii. 16; Ps. cxlix.6; Prov. v. 4; Sir. xxi. 8. In Class. of a cave with a twofold mouth (Soph. Philoct. 16); of double-branching roads (Soph. Oed. Col. 900); of rivers with two mouths (Polyb. xxxiv. 10,5). Zréwa mouth, of the edge of a sword, L. xxi. 24; Heb. xi. 34. Often in LXX, as Gen. xxxiv. 26; Josh. x. 28, 33, 35, 37,39; Judg.i. 8. So occasionally in Class., as Homer, Z7. xv. 889. KareoOéew or xatécOew to devour is used of the sword, Deut. xxxii. 42; 2 Sam. ii. 26; Isa. xxxi. 8; Jer. ii. 30, etc. Mdyacpa sword, in Class. a dirk or dagger: rarely, a carving knife ; later, a bent sword or sabre as contrasted with a straight, thrusting sword, &/dos (not in N.T. but occasionally in LXX). ‘Pop- data, L. ii. 835 (see note), elsewhere only in Apocalypse, very often in LXX, is a large broadsword. In LXX of Goliath’s sword, 1 Sam. xvii. 51
Piercing (Suxvovpevos). Lit. coming through. N. T.°.
Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow (dype pepiopod uyfs Kal mvedparos
428 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. IV.
dppav re kal pvehov). Mepiopos dividing, only here and ch. ii. 4, is not to be understood of dividing soul from spirit or joints from marrow. Soul and spirit cannot be said to be separated in any such sense as this, and joints and marrow are not in contact with each other. Mepicpos is the act of division; not the point or line of division. Joints and mar- row are not to be taken in a literal and material sense.* In rendering, construe soul, spirit, joints, marrow, as all depend- ent on dividing. Joints and marrow (appar, uverav, N. T.°) are to be taken figuratively as joints and marrow of soul and spirit. This figurative sense is exemplified in classical usage, as Eurip. Hippol. 255, “to form moderate friendships, and not mpos dxpov pvedov ~uyys to the deep marrow of the soul.” The conception of depth applied to the soul is on the same figurative line. See Aesch. Agam. 778; Eurip. Bacch. 203. Attempts to explain on any psychological basis are futile. The form of expression is poetical, and signifies that the word penetrates to the inmost recesses of our spiritual being as a sword cuts through the joints and marrow of the body. The separation is not of one part from another, but operates in each department of the spiritual nature. The expression is expanded and defined by the next clause.