* Accordingly a variety of readings has been proposed : érupdOnoav, émptic- Gav, éruploOnoav they were burned: érdpOnoav they were pierced: éreipdOncav
they were impaled: érnpwénoay they were mutilated: éomeipdcOnoay they were broken on the wheel: érpdoncav they were sold.
Caan THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 535
They wandered (arAavepevor). Lit. wandering or straying, apart from the homes and the intercourse of men.
Caves of the earth (orrais ris yfs). "Orn only here and Jas. iii. 11. It means a hole; primarily a place through which one can see (é7@7a). In LXX the cleft of the rock in which God placed Moses, Ex. xxxiii. 22: a window, a latticed opening, Eccl. xii. 8: the eye-socket, Zech. xiv. 12: a hole in the wall, Ezek. viii. 7: a hole in a tree, 4 Macc. xiv. 16.
39. Having obtained a good report (uaprupnOdytes). Rend. “ having had witness borne to them.” See on ver. 2.
40. Having provided (apoBreyapdvov). N.T.°.
For us (vepi juov). The better thing is for us. It was not for them: they lived in the assurance of a future time better than their own, and in this assurance of faith, did their work and bore their burden in their own time. It is one of the achievements of faith to be cheerfully willing to be only a stage to some better thing which we cannot share.
That they without us should not be made perfect (iva uy xopis judy tehetwO@ow). Hach successive stage of history gathers up into itself the fruit of preceding stages. This passage teaches the solidarity of humanity in its work as well as in itself. The man of the present requires the work and suffering and achievement of the men of the past to complete him and his work. The future men will, in like manner, require the work and suffering and achievement of the men of to-day to complete them. The whole creation, in all its successive aeons, moves together toward
‘‘ The one far-off, divine event.”’