Ver. 14. The oath runs εἰ μὴν εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω σε. . . - ‘Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multi- plying I will multiply thee.” ‘Sen- tences which denote assurance . . . are in classical Greek introduced by 7 μήν, which in the Hellenistic and Roman period is sometimes written in the form of εἶ (accent ?) µήν: so in the LXX and in a quotation from it in Heb. vi. 14” (Blass, Gram., p. 260); and cf. Jannaris, Hist. Greek Gram., 2055. μήν is used to strengthen asseveration, suitably therefore in oaths. On the emphatic participle in imitation of the Hebrew absolute infinitive, see Winer, sec. 45, 8, p. 445. The oath here cited was a promise to bless mankind, a promise that through all history God’s gracious purpose should run; that, let happen what might, God would redeem and bless the world.
Ver. 15. καὶ οὕτω μακροθυμήσας .. ‘and thus having patiently waited he
μακροθυμήσας ἐπέτυχε τῆς ἐπαγγελίας.
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16. “ ἄνθρωποι μὲν 1 γὰρ e Exod. xxii. 11.
A “ ’ > , ‘ , > a , η 3 κατὰ τοῦ μείζονος ὀμνύουσι, καὶ πάσης αὐτοῖς ἀντιλογίας πέρας εἰς βεβαίωσιν 6 ὅρκος: 17. ἐν ᾧ περισσότερον βουλόμενος ὁ Θεὸς ἐπι-
δεῖξαι τοῖς κληρονόμοις τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τὸ ἀμετάθετον τῆς βουλῆς
1 Omit μὲν with SABD*E*P, 47, ἃ, 6, f, vg. ; T.R. in CDcE**KL, al pler, Cop.,
Aeth., Chr., Thdrt.
[Abraham] obtained the promise”. οὕτω, in these circumstances; that is, thus upheld by a promise and an oath. The oath warned him of trial. It would not have been given had the promise been a trifling one or had it been destined for immediate fulfilment. μακροθυμήσας, having long kept up his courage and his hope. Delay followed delay ; disappoint- ment followed disappointment. He was driven out of the promised land, and a barren wife mocked the hope of the promised seed, but he waited expectant, and at length ἐπέτυχε τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, for although it was true of him, as of all Ο.Τ. saints, that he did not obtain the promise, [μὴ λαβόντες τὰς ἐπα- γγελίας, xi. 13; οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, xi. 39], but could only wave his hand to it and salute it at a distance, yet the initial fulfilment he did see and was compensated for all his waiting by seeing the beginnings of that great history which ran on to the ‘consummate performance of the promise in Christ. Bleek and Rendall understand by ἐπέτυχε . . . “obtained from God a promise of future blessing,” and not the thingitself. But in this case μακροθυμή- σας would be irrelevant. He had not to wait for the promise, but for its tulfil- ment. :
Ver. 16. ἄνθρωποι yap, κ.τ.λ. “ For men swear by the greater.’”’ The pro- cedure of God in confirming His promise by an oath is justified by human custom, and the confident hope which God’s oath warrants is justified by the fact that even a human oath ends debate. ἄνθρωποι refers back to 6 Θεός of ver. 13 and forward to ver. 17. τοῦ μείζονος, him who is greater than the persons taking the oath, the idea of an oath being that a higher authority is appealed to, one of inviolable truth and power to enforce it. καὶ πάσης αὐτοῖς . .. ‘and of all gainsaying among them an oath is an end for confirmation”’. ‘ The oath has two results negative and positive ; it finally stops all contradiction; and it establishes that which it attests ” (Westcott). On βεβαίωσις as a technical
term, see Deissmann, Bibl. Studies, Ῥ. 104. ἀντιλογία is rendered by “strife”? in A.V., and by ‘‘ dispute” in R.V.; and this meaning is found in Exod. xviii. 16; Deut. xix. 17 ot δύο ἄνθρωποι οἷς ἐστιν αὐτοῖς ἡ ἀντιλογία. But in the other instances of its use in N.T., Heb. vii. 7, xii. 3; Jud. xi., it has the meaning of ‘‘ contradiction ’” or “‘ gainsaying”. So also in Polybius XXVili. 7, 4: πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἀντιλογίαν ἀνίσταντο πολλοί. It is this sense which suits the context here, as it is not a strife between God and man which is in question. Besides, eis βεβαίωσιν is more congruous with this meaning. The meaning is that when one man disputes the assertion of another, an oath puts an end to the contradiction and serves for confir- mation. So Davidson, Westcott, Weiss, etc. πάσης is added not to indicate the universal deference paid to the oath (Bleek), but the completeness of its effect ; no room is left for contradiction. ὁ ὅρκος the generic article, best trans- laed “an oath’’. πέρας an end or limit, asin Ps. cxix.,96, πάσης συντελείας εἶδον πέρας; and Ps. cxlv. 3 τῆς pey- αλωσύνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστι πέρας. εἰς βεβαίωσιν almost in the technical sense of a guarantee. See Deissmann’s inter-