especially appeals to the apostles who had been long with the Lord; comp. Acts i. 21, x. 41, xiii. 31, note; and he only appeals to the testimony of those apostles in a general way, in order that he may bring the Hebrews to the Lord alone. — sis was, to us) This denotes that age then present. — spsSaiuQq, has been confirmed) not by penalties, but by spiritual gifts. This word corresponds to (S&@aio$, firm, stedfast, ver. 2.
4. 'Suveiripaprvpovvros) A double compound. It is the office of Christ to testify, it belongs to God to super add testimony : and He did so, both when Christ was walking upon the earth, by signs and wonders, and when He was taken up into heaven, by divers miracles, Acts ii. 22, 33. The whole of that testimony refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts ii. 36, x. 36, 42 ; Rom. xiv. 10 ; 1 Cor. xii. 3 ; Phil. ii. 11. If any one should be in clined to refer the divers miracles also to Christ, whilst He was still upon the earth, I have no objection. The parallelism mentioned in the following note, if I am not mistaken, has led me [to refer the divers miracles to the apostles after the ascen sion]. — KotxiXatg, by various or divers) The parallel is f^spiff^oT'g, divisions, distributions [Engl. Vers., gifts'] ; comp. 1 Cor. xii. 11. — Kara ryv avrov d'sXrjffiv, according to His will) most freely, most abundantly, most mercifully, not according to the will (caprice) of them who receive them. Whence it is evident that the gift is quite supernatural, alrov, of God Himself. [tin, LXX., 8eXr}ffi$.
5. Ou 'yap ayysXoig, for not to angels) The ^Etiology [assign ing of a reason ; Append.], referring to ver. 3, where the terms salvation and Lord are skilfully introduced, serves the purpose of beginning a new paragraph. The greater the salvation, and the more glorious the Lord, that are despised, the more aggravated is the oifence of them who despise them. God subjected both angels and all things, not to the angels, of whom nothing was written to that effect [implying any such intention], but to man, or the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. The angels had more to do in the Old Testament ; but in the New Testament, when human nature was exalted by Christ, the angels are our fellow-servants. I ventured to say, more to do ; and it may be also supposed from the antithesis, that greater reverence was due to the angels in the Old Testament than in the New Testa-