364
di Reg.xxi. μῶν καὶ φυλακῆς" 37. “ ἐλιθάσθησαν, ἐπρίσθησαν, ἐπειράσϑησαν,
13;2Reg. , i.8; Matt. ev ili. 4.
φόνῳ μαχαίρας ἀπέϑανον - περιῆλθον ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις
δέρμασιν, ὑστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούµενοι' 38. ὧν οὐκ ἦν
” ε { 3 3 Ψ' , som Ν , ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος: ἐν ἐρημίαις πλανώμενοι καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις
8 ver. 2. καὶ ταῖς ὀπαῖς τῆς γῆς.
39. "Καὶ οὗτοι πάντες μαρτυρηθέντες διὰ
a / 3 3 , δ > » a A ‘ τῆς πίστεως, οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, 40. τοῦ Θεοῦ περὶ
ἡμῶν κρεῖττόν τι προβλεψαμένου, ἵνα μὴ χωρὶς ἡμῶν τελειωθῶσι.
1T.R. in ADcEK d, e, f, vg., Copt., Arm. In other MSS. the order varies. ‘‘ Pos- sibly ἐπειράσθησαν is only a reduplication of ἐπρίσθησαν . . . but it may with at least equal probability be a primitive corruption of some other word” (Hort).
times inflicted on prisoners of war (2 Sam. xii. 31; Amosi. 3, ἔπριζον πρίοσι σιδη- pois). The reference is probably to Isaiah who according to the Ascensto Is. (i. ο, ν. 1) was sawn asunder by Man- asseh with a wooden saw. Cf. Justin, Trypho, 120, (πρίονι ξυλίνῳ ἐπρίσατε) and Charles’ Ascension of Isaiah. Within our own memory some of the followers of the Bab suffered the same death. ἐπει- ράσθησαν, “were tempted”. Alford says, “1 do not see how any appropriate meaning can be given to the mere endur- ing of temptation, placed as it is between being sawn asunder and dying by the sword”. He would therefore either omit the word as a gloss on ἐπρίσθησαν or substitute ἐπρήσθησαν. That is a tempt- ing reading because not only was one of the seven brothers (2 Mac. vi. vii. 5) fried, but those who sought to keep the Sabbath in a cave (2 Mac. vi. 11) were all burned together by order of Philip, Antiochus’ governor in Jerusalem. At the same time, the reading, ‘‘ were tempted” gives quite a good sense, for certainly the most fiendish element in the torture of the seven brothers was the pressure put on each individually to recant. ἐν φόνῳ µαχαίρης ἀπέθανον, ‘died by sword- slaughter,” for ἐν d. pax. see Exod. xvii. 13; Num. xxi. 24, etc.; and for ἀπεθ. ἐν see Jer. xi. 22. xxi.g. Examples of this death abounded in the Maccabean period. περιῆλθον ἐν μηλωταῖς, “they wandered about in sheepskins,’’ (as the mantle of Elijah is called in 2 Kings ii. 8, ἔλαβεν Ἠλιοὺ τὴν μηλωτὴν αὐτοῦ), or even ‘‘in goatskins,” a still rougher material. This dress they wore not as a professional uniform, but because “ desti- tute,” ὑστερούμενοι as in Luke xv. 14. ἤρξατο ὑστερεῖσθαι, Phil. iv. 12 καὶ περισσεύειν καὶ ὑστερεῖσθαι, ““ hard- pressed,” θλιβόμενοι, as in 2 Cor. iv. 8 θλιβόμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, κακουχούμενοι, “maltreated,” see ver.
25. ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος 6 κόσμος, ‘of whom the world was not worthy”. ‘ The world drove them out, thinking them un- worthy to live in it, while in truth it was unworthy to have them living in it” (Davidson). Vaughan aptly compares Acts xxii. 22. After this parenthetical remark the description is closed with another participial clause, ἐπὶ ἐρη- plats πλανώμενοι . . . “ wander- ing over deserts and mountains, and in caves and in the holes of the earth,” veri- fied 1 Kings xviii. 4; 2 Macc. v. 27 where it is related of Judas and nine others, ἀναχωρήσας eis THY ἔρημον, θηρίων τρόπον ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι διέζη. Cf. also 2 Mac. x. 6, ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ ἐν τοῖς σπη- λαίοις θηρίων τρόπον ἦσαν νεμόμενοι. In the Ascensio Isaiae,ii. 7, 12, |saiah and his companions are said to have spent two years among the mountains naked and eating only herbage.
Ver. 39. καὶ οὗτοιπάντες, “ And these all,” that is, those who have been named in this chapter, “although they had witness borne to them through their faith,” as has been recorded (ver. 2-38), ‘« did not receive the promise,” that is, as already said in ver. 13, they only foresaw that it would be fulfilled and died in that faith. But this failure to obtain the ful- filment of the promise was not due to any slackness on the part of God nor to any defect in their faith; there was a good reason for it, and that reason was that “God had in view some better thing for us, that without us they should not be perfected”. The κρεῖττόν τι is that which this Epistle has made it its busi- ness to expound, the perfecting (τελει- ωθῶσιν) of God’speople by full communion with Him mediated by the perfect revela- tion (i. 1) of the Son and His perfect covenant (viii. 7-13), and His better sacri- fice (ix. 23). Απά the perfecting of the people of God under the O.T. is said to have been impossible, not as might have