16—109.
371
νομῆσαι τὴν εὐλογίαν, ἀπεδοκιμάσθη’ μετανοίας γὰρ τόπον οὐχ] Exod. xix.
εὗρε, καίπερ μετὰ δακρύων ἐκζητήσας αὐτήν.
18. Οὐ γὰρ προσεληλύθατε ψηλαφωμένῳ ὄρει,] καὶ κεκαυμένῳ 22. πυρὶ, καὶ γνόφῳ, καὶ σκότῳ, καὶ θυέλλῃ, το. “Kai σάλπιγγος ἤχῳ, καὶ φωνῇ ῥημάτων, ἧς ot ἀκούσαντες παρῃτήσαντο μὴ προστεθῆναι
10, etc., et XX. 19; Deut. v.
τὴ Exod.xx. 19; Deut. V. 5, 24, et Xviii. 16.
1T.R. DerKL, 37, 116; omit ορει SAC, 17, 47, f, Vulg., Cod., Opt., Syr. Pesch.
Vv. 18-29. In this paragraph we have the climax of the Epistle. Its doctrine and its exhortation alike culminate here. The great aim of the writer has been to persuade the Hebrews to hearken to the word spoken by God in Christ (i. 1, 11. 1-4). This aim he still seeks to attain by bringing before his readers in one closing picture the contrast between the old dispensation and the new. The old was characterised by material, sensible transitory manifestations; the new by what is supersensible and eternally stable. _ The old also rather emphasised the inac- cessible nature of God, His unapproach- able holiness, His awful majesty, and taught men that they could not come near; the new brings men into the very presence of God, and though He be ‘Judge of all’? yet is He surrounded with the spirits of perfected men. But as the writer seeks to quicken his readers to a more zealous faith He shows also the awful consequences of refusing Him that speaketh from heaven. Not the fire and smoke of Sinai threaten now to con- sume the disobedient, but ‘“ our God is a consuming fire”; not a symbolic and material element threatened, but the very Eternal and All-pervading Himself. And, returning to the idea with which he com- menced the Epistle and so making its unity obvious, the writer contrasts the voice that shook the earth with the in- finitely more terrible voice that shakes the heavens also, that terminates time and brings in eternal things.
Ver. 18. Οὐ yap προσεληλύθ- ate... “For ye have not approached,” assigning a further reason for the pre- vious exhortation. Your tathers drew πεατ [ Deut. iv. 11, προσήλθετε καὶ ἔστητε ὑπὸ τὸ ὄρος] to hear God’s word. The word is used in its general sense, and the idea of drawing near as an accepted worshipper is not intended. ψηλα- Φωμένφ... As MS. authority τε- moves ὄρει; the construction is doubtful. The R.V. renders “ the mount that might be touched,” indicating that “ the mount” isnotin the text. This is justified by the antithetic clause, νετ. 22, ἀλλὰ προσε-
ληλύθατε Σιὼν ὄρει, which already was in his mind. Others translate “γε are not come to a palpable and kindled fire,”’ which is grammatically possible, but open to the objection that ‘‘a palpable fire,” a fire that can be touched is pre- cisely what this fire was not, and it is an awkward mode of expressing a ‘‘ material” fire. A third rendering is “Ὑς are not come to that which can be touched and is kindled with fire”’. κεκαυμένῳ πυρὶ, ‘that burned with fire” is in agreement with Deut. iv. 11, τὸ ὄρος ἐκαίετο πυρὶ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ" σκότος, γνόφος, θύελλα ; see also Deut. v. 22, 23, ix. 15; Exod. xix. 18. The “ gloom and mist and tempest (or hurricane) and the blast of trumpet (Exod. xix. 16, φωνὴ τῆς σάλπιγγος ἤχει μέγα) and voice of words ᾿ (Deut. iv. 12, ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐκ μέσον τοῦ πυρὸς φωνὴν ῥημάτων) are enumerated to accentuate the material and terrifying character of the revelation on which the O.T. dis- pensation was founded. The regularly recurrent καὶ gives emphasis to this enumeration; all the features of the manifestation were of the same character. The article is omitted before each par- ticular, because each is introduced not for its own sake but for the general effect. From ἧς to ἔντρομος (ver. 21) describes the terror induced by these manifesta- tions, (1) first in the people (ot axov- σαντες) who begged that not a word more should be added to them (προστε- θῆναι suggested by Deut. v. 25 and xviii, 16, οὐ προσθήσομεν ἀκοῦσαι τὴν φωνὴν Κύριον, “we will not any more hear, etc.,”) for they could not endure that which was being commanded, “If even a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned’’ (Exod. xix. 12, 13); and (2) also in Moses, for, so terrifying was the ap- pearance that Moses said, “1 am ex- tremely afraid (Deut. ix. 9) and tremble’’. (ἔκφοβός εἶμι was uttered by Moses when God’s anger was roused by the people’s idolatry; Stephen (Acts vii. 32) uses ἔντρομος γενόμενος of Moses at the burn- ing bush.)