6---δ.
τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ παραδειγµατίζοντας.
299:
col Ν ε Len) μὰ 3 8 7. Υη γὰρ ἢ πιουσα τον ἐπ
A , αὐτῆς πολλάκις ἐρχόμενον ὑετὸν, καὶ τίκτουσα βοτάνην εὔθετον
a , aA ἐκείνοις δι οὓς καὶ γεωργεῖται, μεταλαμβάνει εὐλογίας ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ: 8. ἐκφέρουσα δὲ ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβόλους, ἀδόκιμος καὶ κατά-
posing to ignominy or infamy, such as was effected in barbarous times by exposing the quarters of the executed criminal, or leaving him hanging in chains. Archilochus, says Plutarch (Moral., 520), rendered himself in- famous, ἑαυτὸν παρεδειγ., by writing obscene verses. The verb is therefore a strong expression; ‘‘ put Him to open shame”’ excellently renders it. ‘‘ This was the crime the Hebrew Christians were tempted to commit. A fatal step it must be when taken; for men who left the Christian Church and went back to the synagogue became companions of persons who thought they did God service in cursing the name of Jesus” (Bruce).
Vv. 7 and 8 present an analogy in nature to the doom of the apostate.
Ver. 7. γῆ γὰρ ἡ πιοῦσα . . . ὑετόν, ‘For land which drank in the rain that cometh oft upon ἴτ᾽; this whole clause is the subject of vv. 7 and 8; the subject remains the same, the results are different. It might almost be rendered, in order to bring out the emphasis on γῆ» “ For, take the case of land”. Such constructions are well explained by Green (Gram., 34): ‘The anarthrous position of the noun may be regarded as employed to give a prominence to the peculiar meaning of the word without the interference of any other idea, while the words to which the article is prefixed, limit by their fuller and more precise description the general notion of the anarthrous noun, and thereby introduce the determinate idea intended.” The comparison of human culture with agriculture is common. Cf. especially Plut., De Educ. Puer., c. 3; and the remarkable lines of the Hecuba, 590-596. To make the comparison with the persons described in vy. 4, 5 apt, the advantageous conditions of the land are expressed in 4 πιοῦσα κιτλ. The abundant and frequently renewed rain represents the free and reiterated bestowal of spiritual impulse; the enlightenment, the good word of God, the energetic indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which the Hebrews had received and which should have enabled them to bring forth fruit to God. πιοῦσα, as in Anacreon’s
ἡ γῆ μέλαινα πίνει, and Virgil’s (Ecl. iii. 3) ‘‘sat prata biberunt”. Bengel’s note, ‘‘non solum in superficie’’ brings out the meaning. The aorist expressing a completed past contrasts with τίκτουσα and ἐκφέρουσα Continuous presents. καὶ τίκτουσα ... γεωργεῖται, “and pro- duces herbage meet for those on whose account also it is tilled”. This is one of the possible results of the natural ad- vantage. τίκτουσα βοτάνη are found in classic Greek. See examples in Wetstein and Bleek. εὔθετον originally ‘con- veniently situated ”’ and hence ‘‘ suitable” “fit” as in Luke ix. 62. ἐκείνοις follows εὔθετον, not τίκτουσα. The measure ofa field’s value is its satisfying the purpose of those on whose account it is tilled. δι’ οὓς, ‘ for whose sake” or ‘* on whose account,” not, as Calvin, ‘“‘ quorum opera’’; not the labourers, but the owners are intended or those whom the owners mean to supply. καὶ γεωργεῖται, καὶ introduces a consideration which “brings into relief the naturalness of the τίκτειν βοτάνην εὔθετον ἐκείνοις ᾽᾿ (Linemann). Westcott seems to lean to Schlichting’s explanation: ‘ The laborious culture of the soil seems to be contrasted with its spontaneous fruitfulness”. Cf. the “‘justissima tellus” of Vergil, Georg. ii. 460. Land. so responding to the outlay put upon it μεταλαμβάνει εὐλογίας ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ, “‘partakes of a blessing from God”. God’s approval is seen in the more and more abundant yield of the land. The reality here colours the figure.
Ver. 8. ἐκφέρουσα δὲ. . . “but if it brings forth thorns and thistles it is rejected and nigh unto a curse and its end is burning”. The other alternative, which corresponds to the possible state of the Hebrews, is here introduced. With all its advantages, the land may prove disappointing, may not .stand the sole test (ἀδόκιμος) of land, its production of a harvest. ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβ. fre- quently conjoined in LXX, Gen. iii. 17, Hos. x. viii, and expressive of useles¢ and noxious products. [τρίβολος, fre- quently τριβελής, three pointed, ana originally meaning a caltrop]. ἀδόκιμος is used under the influence of the personal reference rather than of the