1. Ho\\)[Mtpuc, xal Ko\vrpoKuc) GOD spoke #o\vpspS>s, in many portions. The creation was revealed in the time of Adam ; the last judgment in the time of Enoch ; and so from time to time knowledge was given more fully unfolded. He also spoke ieo\\irf>faus, in divers modes of revelation, in dreams and visions.
Therefore vroXvpspug refers to the matter, ^oXurpoVwg to the form. In both there is an antithesis to one total and most perfect communication of GOD to us in Jesus Christ. The very multi tude of prophets shows, that they " prophesied in part ;" there fore, says he, you ought not to be frightened at the novelty of Christianity. — TaXa/, in time past) For a very considerable space of time there had arisen no prophets, in order that the Son might be the more an object of expectation. \J\Ialachi, the last of the prophets of the Old Testament, prophesied at the inter val of some ages before the birth of Christ. — V. g.] — 6 &tbg, God) The apostle treats of GOD in this passage ; of Christy ch. ii. 3 ; of the Holy Ghost, ch. iii. 7. — XaX^ag, having spoken) A Synecdoche1 for every sort of communication, as Ps. ii. 5. So "ill pv/*a, a ivord, is used in a wide sense. — sv, in) [Not as Engl. Yers. by] Therefore God Himself wras in the prophets, as also especially in the Son. A mortal king speaks by his ambassador, not, however, in his ambassador. If the apostle had not used the sv, in, with a view to what follows, in order that it might apply to the Son, he would doubtless have put dia rZ>v Kpopyruv, by the prophets. For this reason it is not inconsistent to urge the use of the ev, in. — sv ro?s vpotpqraig, in the prophets) Artemonius, Part I., cap. 43, contends that Luke wrote ev rote, ayysXoig ; for he is of opinion, that Luke wrote this epistle, p. 98 ; and this opinion is not inconsistent with Clem. Alex, adumbr. on 1 Pet. v. 13, where Luke is said to have translated the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, although we have proved above that it was written in Greek by Paul himself. All the copies2 have sv ro?$ ffpocpqrais ; and the epistle, showing the excellence of Christ by using so many comparisons, certainly prefers Him to the pro phets also, and to them all : Matt. xi. 13, xii. 41 ; John viii. 53. But it prefers Him to the prophets, if not in this passage, then nowhere else ; and here, indeed, it touches upon it, as it were by the way, at the very beginning, as this comparison is immediately after swallowed up by others more illustrious. In the mean time, this mention of the prophets summarily, made at the very
1 A part for the whole. See Append.
2 The original word, momimenta, does not only refer to the MS. copies of this Epistle, but to any writing in after times, in which this passage may be quoted.— TR.