The statement in the text on the con- trary, For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, is full of meaning when it is remembered that Hagar had no connection with Sinai itself, but that she found a home for herself and her children in Arabia.— συστοιχεῖ. The previous clause τὸ yap ... ApaBiq is a parenthesis, ἥτις is therefore the subject of συστοιχεῖ. The Apostle finds in the actual state of Jerusalem and her children the same characteristic feature of slavery as in the covenant of Sinai.
Ver. 26. ἡ ἄνω Ἱερ. The Psalms and
182
Iv.
vv Ἱερουσαλὴμ, δουλεύει yap! μετὰ τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς. 26. ἡ δὲ ἄνω
Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐλευθέρα ἐστὶν, ἥτις ἐστὶ μήτηρ ἡμῶν.
27. γέγραπται
γὰρ, Εὐφράνθητι, στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα: ῥῆξον καὶ βόη- σον, ἡ οὐκ ὠδίνουσα: ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου
μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα. κατὰ ᾿Ισαὰκ ἐπαγγελίας τέκνα ἐσμέν.
28. ἡμεῖς δὲ, ἀδελφοὶ, 20. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ὥσπερ τότε ὁ κατὰ
1 δουλενει yap NABCDFGP;; 8. δε D°EKL.
Prophets attest the enthusiastic devotion of Israelites to the city of Jerusalem. Since the temple of God and the palace of the house of David were within its walls, it was at once the holy city round which clustered the religious feelings of Israel, and the city of the great king, of whom the royal house of David were represen- tatives (cf. Ps. xlviii.). The events of the captivity and restoration associated it still more intimately with the national fortunes and aspirations of Israel. Hence both Isaiah and Ezekiel invested it with ideal glory in their prophetic anticipations of the Messianic om om. Their visions of its future destiny looked forward to its becoming the centre of a world-wide worship: there the great King of all the earth would manifest His presence, and thither would flow all nations, offering their homage and bearing due tribute of gifts and sacrifices. But the Hebrew ideal scarcely rose above imaginations of an earthly city and a temple on the mountains of Israel. It was the function of Christian inspiration to spiritualise this conception, to eliminate its local associa- tion with the typical temple on earth, and to substitute a heavenly for an earthly city. The Apocalypse bears witness to the process of transition. Though it adheres closely to the vision of Ezekiel, and continues to employ material imagery for expressing the dazzling brightness and intense purity of the temple-city, yet the New Jerusalem is now seen com- ing down from heaven to a new earth; in place of earthly light it is illuminated by the light which emanates from the throne of God and of the Lamb; and material images are interpreted as sym- bols of moral beauty and spiritual holi- ness. The Epistle to the Hebrews views the heavenly Jerusalem from another side. Whereas the Apocalypse depicts its buildings, streets and rivers, the Epistle describes the throng of angels, the assembly of the first-born, the spirits of departed saints that are gathered there round the throne of God, and contrasts the awful majesty of the living
God with the material terrors of Sinai. This Epistle presents the contrast be- tween the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem, and between the covenants of Sinai and of Christ in a different aspect. For the Apostle embodies in his conception a purely Greek ideal of a city, the mother and home of freemen. A self-governed body of free citizens, subject to no foreign control, but main- taining justice and order in perfect peace by their own sovereign will, furnishes him with an appropriate type of the heavenly commonwealth, whereof Chris- tians are even now citizens, dwelling in
ace together in the unity of Christian rotherhood, and independent of all restraints of law because they themselves do the will of God from the heart.
The Hebrew form ‘le is naturally preferred to the ο I all these passages, because Jerusalem is ee as an ideal city. The stress