The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 120

then would I flee away, and be o.t rest I" sense of "to fall into," o.nd is frequently so Mo.ny siure Job have felt something of his used in the LXX., and the subordinate longing to be where "the wicked cease from position of wl<r(I in the sentence-between troubling, and the weary are at rest." Is ,l,ro5,/1',ran and -rijr cl.1rnll,Cas--is against its there to be no satisfaction ever of this deep being used absolutely as the omphatio word. human era.ring? Holy Scripture meet.s it If so, the meaning will be " fall into the as it meets all others. It spoke of a rest of same euniplar of disobedience," i.e. the God above creation from the beginning of kind of disobedience of which that of the time ; it intimated man's part and interest Israelites was a sample. This interpre- in it by the weekly sabbath which he was to tation of the phrase, being the.t of the keep with God. But this was, after all, but Vulgo.te, is supported by Alford, Davison, a symbol and earnest of something unat• Lunemann ; though most modern commen- tained. At length a fuller realization of tators (Bengel, Bleek, De Wette, Tholuck, the longed-for rest W88 held out to the Delitzsch, Wordsworth), with Chrysostom, chosen people, and the promised land was take wfrp absolutely, as in Rom. xi. 11 pictured beforehand in the colours of o.n (ruat, Bengel), and iv -rqi a~-rw {nra6,l,,µa-r, earthly Paradise. Forfeited, when first o.s meaning, "so as to present the same (i.e. offered, through the people's umvorthiness a like) example of disobedience," the lv, (representing by an historical parable the according to Delitzsch, being the lv of stato bar to man's entrance into the eternal rest), or condition. The warning is next enforced it was attained at last. But the true rest by a vivid rcprosentation of the penetratin~ still came not. Canaan, like the sabbath, a.nd resistless power of the " Word of God." proved bnt a symbol of something unat- The question arises whether" tbe Word of tained. Yet the old longing for rest went God" is here to be understood in St. John's on, e.nd inspired men went on proclaiming it sense of the Hypostatic Word, i.e. the Second as attainable and still to come. The irre• Person of the holy Trinity, who became pressible craving, the suggestive symbols, in~ate in Christ. It is so understood the proplietic anticipations, are all fulfilled by the Fathers generally ; and the fact of in Christ. He, when he had passed with us this Epistle being tinged genero.lly with the through this earthly scene of labour, en- thought o.nd terminology of Philo (whose tered, with our nature, into that eternal rest use of the word 71.&,,or, derived from tho of God, to prepare a place for us, having by Platonic philosophy in combination with his atonement removed the bar to human .Jewish theology, seems to anticipate in somo entrance. Through our faith in him we are degree, however ve.guely, the doct1ine of assured that our deep-seated craving for St. John) gives some countenance to the satisfaction unattained as yet, which we view. But against it are the following ex press by the term "rest," is a true in ward considerations :-(1) Christ ie not elsewhere prophecy, and tbe.t, though wefiud it not here, in this Epistle designated a~ "the WORD" we may through him, if we are faithful, but as" the SoN." His eterne.l relation to the confidently. expect it there, where "beyond Father, though otherwise plo.inly intimated, these voices there is peace." is not expressed by this term, as it was by St. John. (2) The description of the Word, There now follows (vers. 11-14) e. as "sharper than any two-edged sword," is r,,newal of the warning of eh. iii. 7-iv. 1, not euitablo to the Hypostatio Word him- urged now with increased force in view self, but rather to tho utterance of his of the danger of slighting such a reve- power. Thus in Rev. i. 16, "the Son of lation as the gospel has been shown to be; me.n," and in Rev. xix. 15, "he whoso no.mo is called the Word of God," has 11 "she.rp after which (ver. 14, etc.) come words of two-edged sword proceeding out of his encouragement, based on the view, now a mouth." The sword is not himself, but tho.t second time arrived at, of Christ being our which "co.me forth out of his mouth." Cf. great High Priest. And thus the expo• Isa. xi. 4, "He shall smite the earth with eition of his priesthood, which follows in the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he sle.y the wiokeil ; " of. eh. v., is led up to. also Eph. vi. l 7, "The eword of the Spirit, Ver. 11.-Let 1111 therefore do our diligence which is the Word of God." Hence, not- (u:n-ouMu..,µ,v, eo translated in A.V. 2 Tim. withstanding the prevailing view of the iv. 9, 21) to enter into that rest, lest any one Fa.there, it seems best to understand the term fall after the same example of disobedience here ue meaning generally the Diviuo utter• (a:n-<1B,ias: not a:n-,cr-rlas, which means "un- ance, without definite reference to the Hypo• Ldief"). It is a question, though not at sto.tio Word. It wae the Word of God, in all affecting the general sense of the passage. tnis sense, that deuo.rred the e.ncient Israel- whether •• T'f au-rw 11:n-ood-yµan 1dcrp bhould ites from their rest, a.nd doomed them in the not be lranslated "foll into tho St1me wilderness; it is the same Word which still example." ninuv iv has uudoubted-ly tho more, as being uttrred 1n the SoY, ie !!O OIL IV, 1-16,] THE EPIS'l'LE TO THE HEBREWS. 111