XII. τ. "ΤΟΙΓΑΡΟΥΝ καὶ ἡμεῖς τοσοῦτον ἔχοντες περικείμενον αχ. 36; ἡμῖν νέφος μαρτύρων, ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι πάντα καὶ τὴν εὐπερίστατον
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om. vi. 4, et xii. 12; 1 Cor. ix. 24; 2
Cor. vii. 1; Eph. iv. 22; Phil. iii. 13, 14; Col. iii. 8; x Peter ii, I, et iv. 2.
been expected “ apart from the Son,” but χωρὶς ἡμῶν, because the writer has in view the history of the Church, the rela- tion of the people of God in former times to the same people in Messianic times. CHAPTER XI].—Ver. 1. Τοιγαροῦν kal ἡμεῖς. . . . ‘ Wherefore, as we have so great a cloud of witnesses encompas- sing us, let us likewise lay aside every encumbrance and sin that clings so close and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to the leader and perfecter of faith, even Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured a cross despising shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” τοι- γαροῦν, ‘wherefore then” more formal and emphatic than the usual, διὰ τοῦτο, διὸ, ὅθεν, οὖν. καὶ ἡμεῖς, we in our turn, we as well as they, and with the added advantage of having so many testimonies to the good results of faith. νέφος used frequently in Homer and else- where, as ‘‘nubes” in Latin and ‘* cloud” in English to suggest a vast multitude. μαρτύρων, ‘‘ witnesses,” persons who by their actions have testified to the worth of faith. The cloud of witnesses are those named and suggested in chap. xi.; per- sons whose lives witnessed to the work and triumph of faith, and whose faith was witnessed to by Scripture, cf. xi. 2, 4, 5. This cloud is περικείμενον, be- cause, as the writer has just shown, look where they will into their history his Hebrew readers see such examples of faith. Itis impossible to take μάρτυρες as equivalent to θεαταί. If the idea of ‘spectator’ is present at all, which is very doubtful, it is only introduced by the words τρέχωμεν . . . ἀγῶνα. The idea is not that they are running in presence of spectators and must there- fore run well; but that their people’s history being filled with examples of much-enduring but triumphant faith, they also must approve their lineage by show- ing a like persistence of faith, ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι πάντα, ὄγκος, a mass or weight or burden (= φόρτος), hence a swelling or superfluous flesh [cf. es- pecially Longinus, iii. 9, κακοὶ δὲ ὄγκοι καὶ ἐπὶ σωμάτων καὶ λόγων. and from Hippocrates in Wetstein, καὶ γὰρ δρόμοι ταχεῖς, καὶ γυμνάσια τοιαῦτα, σαρκῶν ὄγκον καθαίρει.] The allusion therefore
is to the training preparatory to a race by which an encumbering superfluity of flesh is reduced. The Christian runner must rid himself even of innocent things | which might retard him. And all that / does not help, hinders. It is by runnins he learns what these things are. 80. long as he stands he does not feel that they are burdensome and ee | καὶ τὴν εὐπερίστατον apap- τίαν. Of the difficult word εὐπερ. Chrysostom gives two interpretations; ‘which is easily avoided,” and “ which easily encompasses or surrounds us”. In the sense of “avoid” the verb περι- Ἰστάσθαι occurs in 2 Tim. ii. 16 and Tit. 11. 9, but it is scarcely credible that in the present context such an epithet could be applied to sin. The second interpre- tation has been generally accepted [* cir- cumstans nos peccatum ” (Vulg.); ‘‘ qui nous enveloppe si aisément”; ‘die Stunde, die immer zur Hand ist” (Weiz- sdcker)]. This meaning suits the con- text and the action enjoined in ἄπο- θέμενοι, suggesting, as it does, the trail- ing garment that encumbers the runner. The article τὴν does not point to some particular sin, but to that which char- acterises all sin, the tenacity with which it clings toaman. We might suppose from the word itself that it alluded to sin aS an enemy encompassing from well- chosen points of vantage, but this does not suit the figure of the race nor the ἀποθέμενοι. [Porphyry, de Abstin., says γυμνοὶ δὲ καὶ ἀχίτωνες ἐπὶ τὸ στάδιον ἀναβαίνωμεν ἐπὶ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς Ὀλύμπια ἀγωνισόμενοι. ““ἴ: cursores vestimenta non solum abjiciunt, nudique currunt, verum etiam crebris exercitationibus, ne corpus nimis obesum et ineptum red- datur, efficiunt: ita et vos omnia im- pedimenta in studio virtutis, et tarditatem vestram crebris meditationibus vincite ” (Wetstein).] δι ὑπομονῆς, after the nega-y tive preparation comes the positive de- mand for endurance, cf. x. 36. τρέχωμεν + +. ἀγῶνα, asin Herod. viii. 102, πολ- λοὺς ἀγῶνας Spapdovrar of Ἕλληνες. προκείμενον, [frequent with ἀγών, as in Arrian’s Efict., ili. 25, οὐ γὰρ ὑπὲρ πάλης kal παγκρατίου 6 ἀγὼν πρόκειται. Cf. Orestes of Eurip., 845, and Ignatius to Eph., c. 17. τοῦ προκειμένου ζῆν.] appointed, lying before us as our destined