550 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XI.
repenting. He found no way to reverse by repentance what he had done. The penalty could not be reversed in the nature of the case. This is clear from Isaac’s words, Gen. xxvii. 33.
Sought it carefully (éx&nrjcas). See on 1 Pet. i. 10. Comp. Heb. xi. 6. See also on questionings, 1 Tim. i. 4.
18. Following this allusion to Esau, and perhaps suggested by it, isa passage setting forth the privileges of the Christian birthright and of Christian citizenship in contrast with those under the old covenant.
The mount that might be touched and that burned with fire (rnrAadapero Kal Kexavpéve rupt). “Oper mount is omitted by the best texts, but should be understood.* WyAadayv is rare in N.T. and LXX; fairly frequent in Class. Radically, it is akin to Wav to rub, wipe; hence feeling on the surface, as Gen. xxvii. 12, 21, 22, LXX: a touch which communicates only a superficial effect. It need not imply contact with an object at all, but simply the movement of the hands feeling after something. Hence often of the groping of the blind, as Deut. xxviii. 29; Isa. lix. 10; Jobv.14. Appropriate here as indicating mere superficial contact. The present participle that is being touched, means simply that the mountain was something material and tangible. The A. V. which might be touched, although not literally correct, conveys the true sense.
That burned with fire (cexavyévm wupi). See Ex. xix. 18; Deut. iv. 11; v. 4; ix.15. The participle is passive, set on fire; kindled with fire: not attributive of supi, enkindled fire.
* This is preferable to the Vulg. adopted by Westcott, ad tractabilem et accensibilem ignem ‘to a palpable and kindled fire,” thus making yn\agwpevy qualify rvpi. It destroys the antithesis clearly intended between the material Mount Sinai and the spiritual, heavenly Mount Zion, and leads us to expect as the antithesis of material fire, some other kind of fire. The other render-
ing is required by Zidv épe, ver. 22. Moreover, Ynadwuéry as an epithet of rvpi is unnatural.
Cu. XI] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 551
Blackness, darkness, tempest (yvedo, Sédo, OudrAxn). Tvogos (N. T.°) and Godos (elsewhere only 2 Peter and Jude) belong to the same family: As distinguished from oxéros darkness that conceals, as opposed to light, these words signify half-darkness, gloom, nebulousness ; as the darkness of evening or the gathering gloom of death. It is a darkness which does not entirely conceal colour. Thus dvddos, the earlier and poetic form of yvddos, is used by Homer of water which appears dark against the underlying rock, or is tinged by mire. Tvddos and oxéros appear together, Ex. x. 22; xiv. 20; Deut. iv. 11; v. 22. Tvedos alone, Ex. xx. 21. Zoos only in the later version of Symmachus. See on J. i. 5. OverrAa N. T.°, from Ove to boil or foam. It is a brief, violent, sudden, destructive blast, sometimes working upward and carrying objects into the upper air; hence found with delpey to lift and avaprafew to snatch up (see Hom. Od. xx. 68). It may also come from above and dash down to the ground (Hom. J1/. xii. 253). Sometimes it indicates the mere force of the wind, as avéuoto OveAXa (Hom. Od. xii. 409; I7. vi. 346).
19. Sound of atrumpet(cddrmiyyos ny@). See Ex. xix. 16, 19; xx.18. "Hyos a noise, almost entirely in Luke and Acts. See L. iv. 87; Acts ii. 2; comp. LXX, 1 Sam. xiv. 19. Of the roar of the waves, L. xxi. 25; comp. LXX, Ps. lxiv. 7; Ixxvi. 17. A rumour or report, see on L. iv. 87, and comp. LXX, 1 Sam. iv. 16; Ps. ix. 6. It does not occur in the O.T. narrative of the giving of the law, where we have ¢davy voice; see LXX, Ex. xix. 13, 16,19; xx. 18. For dav cad- muyyos voice of a trumpet in N. T., see Apoc. i. 10; iv. 1; viii. 18. ZddAmceyé is a war-trumpet.