The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 243

his people: and there ie no intimation of Mediator, in that it was throuO'h his inco.mo.- two eeneee being intended in the two cases : tion only thBt the "eternal inheritance" indeed, in the passage before ue, tho so.me willed to us by the Father could be trans- sense seems to be distinctly implied, since the mitted in the way of testament. So in effect blood-shedding which inaugurated the old is Cbrysostom explBina. Apposite to this view nt once (in ver. 17) spoken of as answering of the subject are his own words (Luke xxii. to the death which inaugurated the new, ae 29), "And I appoint (6,a-r,Beµ.a,) unto you a though death inaugurated both in the same kingdom, a.s my Father appointed (lheOno) sense. (3) The word, in the sense of co- unto me." Here we have the ea.me verb 11enant (equivalent to the Hebrew berith), is (6,a-r!B,µ.a,) a.a is used in the Epistle. And common in the LXX., expressing an idea though, in the passage from St. Luke, the familiar to Jews and Jewish Christiane, idea of a testamentary appointment is not while testamentary dispositions were, as far necessarily implied, yet it is natnre.lly BB we know, unfamiliar to the Hebrews; o.nd, suggested where Christ is speaking on the though the Roman testamentary lo.w may eve of, and with reference to, his death. have come into uee when the Epistle was There is, however, another view taken (de- written, it is thought unlikely that the cidedly by Whitby, Ebrard, and in the writer, addressing Hebrews, would have re- recent• Speaker's Commentary' J, according ferred to it in illustration of a Divine dis- to which the idea. of a testament does not pensation, or, if he had, have used o. word so come in at all, the word o,aB-f,,c.,, retaining well known to them in its traditional sense. here, as elsewhere, its usual sense of covenant. (4) Christ is co.lied (here as well as in eh. The position is that, though the propositions xii. 24 o.nd :xiii. 20) the Mediator (µ.,11i"T11s) of vers. 16, 17 are not true of all covenants, of the new 61«8-'11<11: but a testament does yet there is a. sense in which they are true not require a Mediator, nor, if it ho.e one, of any covenant between God and man ; can the so.me person be botli mediator o.nd which is the only kind of covenant that tho testator. H, however, the sense of testament writer has in view, or that his readers would should seem inevitable here, we may ex- be led to think of by the previous reference plain as follows. Though the word has been to J er. xxxi., or by the associations of the used so far in o. general sense, yet the writer, word 6,aB-F,1<11 as used in the Old Testament. on the suggestion of 8«v&-rou -yevoµ,vou in The sense in which the propositions are ver. 15, po.sees in thought at ver. 16 to the true of such a covenant is thus expressed by specific sense of testament, as suiting the Ebrard: "Whenever sinful man will enter into case of Christ, the language he uses being a covenant with the holy God, the man must sufficient for carrying his readers with him firstclie--mustfirstatone for his guilt bydeaili in the transition. Further, though the old (or must put in a substitute for himself)." 6,a8-f,,c.,, wo.s not in itself a testament, yet it This principle is exprtissed (it is alleged), not was typical of that which was; its whole only by the sacrifices that inaugurated this ceremonial foreshadowed the future Testa- covenant of the Law, but also wherever '-' tor's death, o.nd so, in a typical sense, it coveno.n t between God and man is spuken of might also itself be co.Bed one. Conse- in the Old Testament ; e.g. in the covenant quently, in ver. 18, the inaugurating sacri- with Abraham (Gen. xv. 8, etc., and Gen. fices of the old dispensation are regarded as :x:xii.). In the case of covenants between representing the death of the testator; for man and mo.n (as between Abraham and they prefigured Christ, through whose death Abimelecb, and between Jacob and Laban) the "eternal inheritance" is bequeathed there was no need of slain victims, whose to man. (In accordance with this view, life had to be gi,en for that of one of the the Vulgate renders 6,a8-f,,c.,, testamentum contracting parties ; but the1"0 is always throughout the Epistle, even when the old expressed such need iu the case of a cove- dispensation is referred to.) As to 6 6,a8{u,- nant between God and man. Further, the vos (translated " the testo.tor ''), it is, accord- expression, 61a8-li,c11 brl ve,cpo'is f3•f3aia, is, ing to this view, ultimo.tely God the Father according to this view, illustrated by Ps. I. in the new 6,aB-'11<11, as well as in the old, 5, whero the LXX. bas -rous 61anO,µ.,vovs though, of course, the Godhead could not -r¾,v 61a81,1<11v au-rou ,1rl Bvuiais (in tl.te Yul- die. But the Father having pluced the gate, qui ordinant testamentum ejus supe-r whole inherite.nce destined for mankind in sacrificiis). The same preposition ,1rl is the hands of Christ as Mediator,in his humnn used in both passages, and ,1rl 8011iais is sup- deoth the testator died. And thus one of posed to express the same idea as ;,.1 ve,cpo,s. the difficulties above mentioned may be met, This passage from the psalm is certainly viz. that of Christ being regarded both as much to the point in support of the view Testator and Mediator. Christ was, 1n fact, before us, serving moreover to meet in some both-Testator, in thnt, being one with degree one principr.l objection to it, viz. God, be bequeathed through his death the that it requires 6 6,aO,µ.uos Lu be understood kingdom appointed unto him by the Father; of the human party to the covenant, and not  234 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [oH, IX, 1-28,