20---25.
373
Θεοῦ ζῶντος, Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐπουρανίῳ, καὶ μυριάσιν ἀγγέλων, 234. pLuc.x.20-
Ρ - πανηγύρει καὶ ἐκκλησίᾳ πρωτοτόκων ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπογεγραμμένων,
‘ ~ ~ Ν , καὶ κριτῇ Θεῷ πάντων, καὶ πνεύμασι
4 \ , , , > A ‘ ϱ ε A , 1 καὶ διαθήκης νέας μεσίτῃ ᾿Ιησοῦ, καὶ αἰματι ῥαντισμοῦ κρείττονα
λαλοῦντι παρὰ tov? Αβελ.
λαλοῦντα. εἰ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι οὐκ
25. "Βλέπετε μὴ παραιτήσησθε τὸν ἔφυγον, τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς παραιτη- ,
q Viii. 6, et ix. 15, et x. 22, et χὶ ED Gen. iv. 10; Exod. xxiv. 8; 1 Tim. ii.5;
1 Peter i.
δικαίων τετελειωμένων, 24.
r ii. 3, et x.
, , An A ς σι ς ἈΝ 3 ΕῚ “- σάμενοι χρηματίζοντα, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡμεῖς οἱ τὸν ἀπ᾽ οὐρανῶν᾽ 43
1Τ.Ε. 17, 47; κρειττον SACDKLMP, d, f, Vulg. ?T.R. in SACDKMP, ἆ, f, Vulg.; παρα το in L, b, 106, 108. 3 T.R. ScDcKLM, Thadrt.; εξεφυγον in Ν ΑΟΡ, 17, 57, 118, Chr. 419.
reality, and the Hebrews have been brought near not only to His city with its original inhabitants, but to Himself; and to Himself as allotting without appeal each soul to its destiny. καὶ πνεύ- Page... ‘‘and to spirits of just men made perfect,” “spirits,” as in 1 Pet. iii. το, of those who have departed this life and not yet been clothed with their resurrection body. δικαίων τετε- λειωμένων is largely illustrated by Wetstein who quotes many examples of “justi perfecti’”’ from the Talmud. It is perhaps more relevant to refer to ΧΙ. 4 and to the whole strain of the Epistle whose aim it is to perfect the righteousness of the Hebrews, see chap. vi. Of course Ο.Τ. and N.T. Saints are referred to. But as without us, 2.4., without sharing in our advan- tages, they could not be perfected, xi. 40, there is at once introduced the recent covenant (νέας ‘“‘new in time,” not, as usual, καίνης ‘‘ fresh in quality,”) because the idea first in the writer’s mind is not the opposition to the old but the recent origin of the new. (But cf. Col. iii. 9; 1 Cor. v. 7). It is remarkable that the Mediator of this covenant is here called by his human name “Jesus”. The reason probably is that already there is in the writer’s mind the great instrument of mediation, αἵματι ῥαντισμοῦ, “blood of sprinkling”. In mediating the old covenant Moses, λαβὼν τὸ αἷμα κατεσκέδασε τοῦ λαοῦ, Exod. xxiv. 8. [αἷμα ῥαντισμοῦ, however, does not occur in LXX, though ὕδωρ ῥαντισμοῦ is found four times in Numbers]. But in ix. 19 this writer replaces κατεσκέδασε with the more significant ἐράντισεν ; cf. ix. 13. In x Pet. i. 2 we have ῥαντισμὸν αἵματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The “blood of sprinkling” is therefore the blood by which the new covenant is established, 866 ΧΙ, 20, αἵματι διαθήκης αἰωνίου, this
blood having the power to cleanse the conscience, ix. 14, x. 22. It cleanses be- cause it speaks better than Abel’s, κρεῖτ- τον λαλοῦντι παρὰ τὸν Αβελ for while that of Abel cried for vengeance [Gen. iv. 10, φωνὴ αἵματος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου βοᾷ πρός με ἐκ τῆς γῆς] that of Jesus is a message of salvation, the κρεῖττόν τι of xi. 40. But it may be adverbial. “Πε flagitabat ultionem, hic impetrat remis- sionem ” (Erasmus).
Ver. 25-29. A final appeal. The readers are warned against being deaf to God’s final revelation, for if even the revelation at Sinai could not with impunity be disregarded, much less can the revelation which has reached them and which discloses to them things eternal and God in His essential majesty.
Ver. 25. βλέπετε (in the same sense and in a similar connection in iii. 12) μὴ παραιτήσησθε, “See that you refuse not”—-as those mentioned in νετ. το did —rov λαλοῦντα, “Him that speaketh,” t.e., God as in i. 1 and the close of this verse; “for if those did not escape (punishment) when they refused Him that made to them divine communications on earth, how much less shall we who turn away from Him who does so from heaven”? The argument is the same as in ii. 3. Those who at Sinai begged to be excused from hearing did so in terror of the manifestations of God’s presence. But this is taken both as itself rooted in ignorance of God and aversion, and also as the first manifestation of a refusal to listen which in the history of Israel was often repeated. Punishment followed both in the Sinai generation, iii. 7-19, and in after times. The speaking ἐπὶ γῆς; {.ε., at Sinai (and through the pro- phets? i. 1) is contrasted with speaking ἀπ᾽ οὐρανῶν, which can only mean speak- ing from the midst of and in terms of eternal reality, without those earthly