The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 14

Still, though" the.t do.y" W(IS in tho future, of all things; not, os in the A.V., "h(lth np- the fil'st coming of Christ hnd been ns it pointed." The verb is in the aorist, nnd were, its dnwn, signifyiug its npproe.ch e.nd here the indefinite sense of the aorist propnring believers for meeting it. "The should be preserved. "Convenicnter etatim clndcness we.a pnssing e.way; the true light sub Filii nomen memore.tur haireditas" we.a nlrendy shining" (1 John ii. 8). Hence (Bengel). Two questions arise. (1) Was it the apostolic writers sometimes speak o.e in. respect of his eternal Divinity, or of his if nlrendy in the " coming a~a ; " o.s being mnnifestation in time, that the Son was ap- e.Ireo.dy citizens of heaven (Phil. iii. 20); as pointed " Heir of all things " ? (2) When it alrendy "made to sit with Christ in the God to be conceived as so appointing him? Jwnvenly places'' (Eph. i. 6); ho.ving already i.e. What is the time, if any, to be assigned to "tasted the powers of the age to come" (eh. the indefinite aorist? In answer to question vi. 5). lo a certain sense they felt them- (1) the second alternative is to be pre- selves in the new order of things, though, ferred. For (a) his eternal pre-existence strictly speaking, they still regarded their he.a not yet been touched npon: it is intro- own age as but the end of the old one, duced, as it were parenthetico.lly, in tho irradiated by the light of the new. To next and following clauses. (b)Thongh the understand fully their language on the term SON is legitimately uaed in theology to subject, we should remember that they sup- denote the eternal relation to the Father posed the second advent to be more im- expressed by the A,ryos of St. John, yet its miueut than it was. St. Paul, at one time application in this Epistle and in the New certainly, thou~ht that it might be before Testament generally (exceptin~, per haps, the his own clee.th (2 Cor. v. 4; 1 These. iv. 15). µ.ovo-y•vhs vios peculiar to St. John, on Thus they might naturally speak of their which see Bull, 'Juel. Eccl. Oath.,' v. 4, own time as the conclusion of the former etc.), is to the Word me.de flesh, to the SoN age, though regarding the second advent as manifested in the Christ. And hence it as the commencement of the new one. But is to him as such that we may conclude the the prolongation of" the end of these days,'' heirship to be here assigned. (c) This is unforeseen by them, does not affect the the view carried out in. the sequel of the essence of their teaching on the subject. Epistle, where the SON is represented a.s In the Divine counsels " one day is a.a a attaining the universal dominion assigned to thousand years, and a thousand years as him after, and in consequence of, his human ono day." Rath spoken unto us (more obedience. '1.'he conoluaion of the exordium properly, spake tom) in his Son.. "His" is in itself expresses this ; for it is not till after here properly supplied to give the meaning he hnd me.de purifico.tion of sins that he is of iv vicp. The rendering, a SON, which said to hnve " sat down," eto.; i.e. entered seems to have the advantage of literolism, on. his inheritnnce ; having become (-y.vo• would be misleading if it suggested the idea µ.<vos, not &v) "so much better," etc. This of one among many sons, or a. sou in the is the view of Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the so.me sense in which others ore sons. For Fe.them generally (cf. the oognnte passage, though the designation, "son of God," is Phil. ii. 9). (2) It seems best to refer the undoubtedly ueed in subordinate senses- aorist (8711<<, not to any defi.Q.ite time, aa o.pplied e.g. to Adam, to nngels, to good that of the prophetic utterances afterwarda men, to Christia.us-yet who.t follows in the cited, or that of the nctunl ex11Ito.tion of Epistle fixes its peculio.r manning here. Christ, but indefinitely to the otemnl coun- The enti,e drift of the earlier part of the sels, which were indeed deolnred and ful- Epistle is to show that the iden involved in filled in time, but were themselves lv the word '' Son," as applied to the l\'1e8sioh a.pxfi. A similnr use of the aorist, coupled in prophecy, is tho.t of a relation to God far with other e.orists pointing to events in time, above tho.t of the nngels or of Moses, and is found in Rom. viii. 29, 30. What this altogether unique in its ohare.cter. This heirship of all things implies will appear in idea must have been in the writer's mind the sequel. By whom also he made the when he selected the phruses of his exor- worlds. Interposed clause to complete tha dium. Nor is the article required for the true conception. of the SoN; showing who eenee intended. Its omission, in fnct, bringe and what he was originally and essentially it out. 'E11 T,i v/~ would have drawn especial through whom God '' spake" in time, and attention to "the personage in whom God who, as SoN, inherited. Here certainly, and spake; l11 v/,i does eo rather to the mode of the in the expressions which follow, we have the spenking-it is equivalent to "in one who same doctrine ns that of the A&-yos of St. was SoN." SoN-revelntion (as afterwards John. And the testimony of the New expl~ined), is contrasted with previous pro- Testament to the pre-existence and deity of ph~t10 revelations ( cf. for omission of the Christ is the more striking from our finding article before v/b,, eh. iii. 6; v. 8 ; vii. 28). the so.me essential idea under different Whom ho appointed (or, constilltted) h@ir forma of expression, 1md in writings differ•  THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [on. 1. 1-H.