The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 117

a..-011.,l..-,Ta,, etc. A different view of the need in the New Testament to express drift of the warning in this verse, me.in- " deficiency," or " falling short " ( cf. espe- te.ined very decidedly by Ebre.rd, demands cially in this Epistle, eh. xii. 15): it is attention. It rests on the interpreto.tion of never. elsewhere (though capable of the 6o«ii b<1T•pfr1«va,, which is ta.ken to mean meamng) used to express lateness in time. "should think that he he.s come too le.te," (3) The phrase, 6orcfi tJ<1Ttpfrrceva1, in the i.e. for the promise of the rest, under the sense of" seem to have fallen short" (rather idea that its meaning ha.,l been exhausted than v<1T<pfrur,) is capable of being accounted in the rest of Cana.an. It may be ea.id in for. One explanation of it, adopted by support of this view tha.t such is the most Alford, is indeed hardly tenable. He obvious meaning of the phrase: tha.t 6o«•iv accounts for the past tense by supposing in the New Teste.ment most commonly reference to the final jadgment; taking it mee.ne " think" or " suppose : " that the to mean, "lest any one of you should then prima.ry sense of v<TT<p•iv is tha.t of being appear [i.e. be fonnd] to have fallen short." behindhand, either in place or in time: But the word 601«w, which, however used, and that the perfect vo·nprf«•va, is thns refers, not to what is made evident, but to accounted for, whereas, according to the what ie thought or seems, refuses to be thus nsne.l interpretation, the whole phrBSe is misinterpreted. It is better to take it as a unsuitable: why was not vunpi,<111 written, softening expression. We may suppose that if a mere warning against remissness was the writer (with a delicacy that reminds us intende!l? Further, it me.y be said the.t of St. Paul) was unwilling to imply his own whe.t immediately follows is in favour of expectation of any failure ; and eo he only this view of the purport of the can tion in bide his ree.dere be we.re of so Ii ving as even ver. 1, being e.n evident carrying out of its to present the appearance of it or suggest idea. Thus the verse is supposed to be not the thought of it to others. According to e.t e.ll a continuation of the prerious horte.tory this view, the tense of u<1T<pfr1C<V<ll is in- section, but rather serving as the thesis of telligible, the supposed deficiency spoken of the coming argumentative section, though being previous to its being perceived or sns- pnt in the form of a caution because im- pected. It ie not necessary to supply o.n perfect appreciation of the view to be now understood genitive, such as "the promise," established was at the root of the danger or "tho rest," after v.rnp~1C•va1. It may be of the Hebrew Christians. Some of them used (as elsewhere) absolutely, to express at least did not fully grasp the true deficiency or failure ; i.e. in the conditions character of the gospel as being the fulfil- required for attainment. One view of its ment of the old dispensation, the renlizo.tion meaning is that it has reference to the idea of its types and promises, They were of being behindhand in a race: but thero inclined to rest in the Lnw 118 a revelation is nothing in the context to suggest this to whioh the gospel was only supplemen- fignro. (4) It is not necessary thr\t ver. 1 te.ry, nnd hence to regard the promised should express only the idea. of the following ll\nd, the offer of which was before their argument: it does sufficiently express it iu time, ns the only rest intended: and there- the clause, 1CaTal\E1,roµlv11r, eto.; o.nd it is fore the writer, after adducing the example in the style of this Epistle to connect new of the Israelites under MoRes as a wnrning trains of argument by a co11tinuous chnin agl\inst. remissness, prefaces his exposition of thought with whut has gone beforo (cf. of the true rest of God by a warning against the beginning of eh. ii. and iii.). Though miso.pprehending it. But ngninst this view there is uncertainty as to tbe sequence of of the .meaning of 60,qi {)(rnpf,1C, va, there thought in the severnl clnuses of the follow- nre the following rewmns: (1) The word ing argument (vers. 2-11), its genero.l clriit q,oflfr9wµ•v suggests rather (like /3l\lrr•T•) ie clear. Its lending ideas are these: The I\ warning against conduct thnt might lend invitation to enter God's rest contllined iu to forfeiture than a correction of an in- the psnlm shows tho.t the rest of Cone.no, adequate conception; nod o~v connects tho which, though forfeited under Moses, hnd wnrning with whnt ,ho.a gone before, in long been o.ctua.lly attained under Joshua, which the view of what the true rest ie has was not the finnl rest intended. Whnt, not entered. (2) 'fhough 301C<w is most then, is meant by this remarkable term, frequently need in the New Testament in "my rest," i.e. God's own rest? Our thoughts its sense of "thinldng," "seeming to one's go back to the beginning of the Bible, self," yet it ho.e there, as in Greek generally, where R rest of God himself is spoken of; the sense also of "appearing," "seeming to where he ie said to hnve rested on the others: " and certainly, as far as the word seventh day from o.ll his works. Participa- itself is concerned, may have this sense tion, then, in that heavenly rest-o. truo here. Aleo tho verb u<1T<piiv, though its eabbath rest with God-is what tho term primary idea (as of ilunpos) is thnt of implies. Though this rest began " from •• coming urtcr," is noverthclesa invariably the foundation of tho world," man's destined  108 THE EPISTLE '1'0 THE HEI3HEWS. [cu. 1v. l-1G.