Ver. 22. Similarly Joseph when he in his turn came to the close of his life (τελευτῶν, from Gen. 1. 16, καὶ ἐτελεύ- τησεν ᾿Ιωσὴ φ)τηδε mention of the exodus of the children of Israel (‘‘ God wil] surely visit you and will bring you out of this land to the land concerning which God sware to our fathers,” Gen. 1. 24) and gave commandment concerning his bones (“γε shall carry up my bones hence with you,” .Gen. 1. 25. For the fulfilment of the command see Josh. xxiv. 32).
Vv. 23-31. The writer passes from the patriarchal age to the times of Moses and the Judges.
360
μέγας γενόμενος ἠρνήσατο λέγεσθαι υἱὸς θυγατρὸς Φαραὼ, 25.
μᾶλλον ἑλόμενος συγκακουχεῖσθαι τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἢ πρόσκαιρον
t Exod. x.
” ε , > , [ή “ ς ΄ A ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν: 26. μείζονα πλοῦτον ἡγησάμενος τῶν
28, 29, εἰ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ θησαυρῶν τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ: ἀπέβλεπε γὰρ
ΧΙΙ, 31, 3 κ᾿ , t
etc.,et εἰς τὴν μισϑαποδοσίαν. 27.
Xili. 17, a
etc. “θεὶς τὸν θυμὸν τοῦ βασιλέως: u Exod. xii.
3, 21, 22.
First the faith of the parents of Moses (τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ, in Stephanus’ Thesaur, several examples are given of the use of πατέρες for “father and mother,” parents; and consider Eph. vi. 4 and Col. iii. 21) is celebrated. This faith was shown in their concealing Moses for three months after his birth and thus evading the law that male children were to be killed, called in Wisd. xi. 7 νηπιοκτόνον διάταγμα. They did not fear this commandment of the king. It did not weigh against the child’s beauty which betokened that he was destined for something great. Their faith consisted in their confidence that God had in store for so handsome a child an exceptional career and would save him to fulfil his destiny. In Acts vii. 20 Stephen calls him ἀστεῖος τῷ θεῷ, extra- ordinarily beautiful (cf. Jonah iii. 3) or as Philo, De Mos., p. 82, ὄψιν ἀστειοτέραν ἢ κατ᾽ ἰδιώτην, indicating that he had a corresponding destiny. Moses himself when he had grown up (μέγας γενόμενος, as in Exod. 11. 11 paraphrased by Stephen (Acts vii. 23) ὡς δὲ ἐπληροῦτο αὐτῷ τεσσαρακονταετὴς χρόνος.) refused to be called a son of a daughter of Pharaoh. The significance and source of this re- fusal lay in his preferring to suffer ill- usage with God’s people rather than to have a short-lived enjoyment of sin. cuvkak., the simple verb in ver. 37, also xiii. 3; the compound here only. τῷ λαῷ Tov θεοῦ, it was because they were God’s people, not solely because they were of his blood, that Moses threw in his lot with them. It was this which illustrated his faith. He believed that God would fulfil His promise to His people, little likelihood as at present there seemed to be of any great future for his race. On the other hand there was the ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσις, the enjoyment which was within his reach if only he committed the sin of denying his people and renouncing their future as promised by God. For “the enjoyment to be reaped from sin” does not refer to the pleasure of grati- fying sensual appetite and so forth, but
Πίστει κατέλιπεν Αἴγυπτον, μὴ φοβη- τὸν γὰρ ἀόρατον ὡς ὁρῶν ἐκαρτέρησε.
8 un/ , Η . x , A [ 28. “ Πίστει πεποίηκε τὸ πάσχα καὶ τὴν πρόσχυσιν τοῦ αἵματος,
to the satisfaction of a high ambition and the gratification of his finer tastes which he might have had by remaining in the Egyptian court. Very similarly Philo interprets the action of Moses, who, he says, “‘esteemed the good things of those who had adopted him, although more splendid for a season, to be in reality spurious, but those of his natural parents, although for a little while less conspicu- ous, to be true and genuine” (De Mose, p. 86). That which influenced Moses to make this choice was his esti- mate of the comparative value of the outcome of suffering with God’s people and of the happiness offered in Egypt. μείζονα πλοῦτον .. . eis THY μισθαπο- δοσίαν, ‘‘since he considered the re- proach of the. Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he steadily kept in view the reward”. The reproach or obloquy and disgrace, which Moses experienced is called ‘‘ the reproach of the Christ”? because it was on ac- count of his belief in God’s saving pur- pose that he suffered. The expression is interpreted by our Lord’s statement that Abraham saw his day. It does not imply that Moses believed that a per- sonal Christ was to come, but only that God would fulfil that promise which in point of fact was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. The writer uses the expression rather with a view to his readers who were shrinking from the reproach of Christ (xiii. 13), than from the point of view of Moses. Several interpreters (Delitzsch, etc.) suppose that in virtue of the mystical union Christ suffered in his people. But, as Davidson says, “this mystical union cannot be shown to be an idea belonging to the Epistle, nor is this sense pertinent to the connection.” (So Weiss, ‘die vorstellung liegt un- serem Briefe fern”.) Weiss’ own in- terpretation is ingenious: ‘‘ The Ο.Τ. church was created by the pre-existent Messiah to be the people who were destined to introduce through Him per- fect salvation ; therefore each maltreat- ment of this people was contempt of