The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 311

tents o.s elro.ngers, o.nd the home o.nd city Bnt though such void there is, however to seen o.fo.r off, are o.pt emblems of the be o.ccounted for, there are still, even in the present life o.nd the heo.venly citizenship Pentateuch (as certainly in the Pso.lme and of Chrietia.ne. It mo.y be tba.t this ie all prophets), o?casional glimpses of the hope that is intended in the Epistle, the of im~orto.hty. The mystic tree of life in history being o.llegorized, ee tha.t of Iee.ao the midst of the garden the predicte,l o.nd Ishmael ie in the Epistle to the Ga.la- bruising of the serpent's h~ad the mystery tia.ns. If so, the apparent ottribution of of Enocb's departure from th~ world an,! a heavenly hope to the pntriarche them- notably (ae our Lord himself points' out) selves must be o.ccounted for by e. blending God still calling himself the God of A bra. of the actual history with ite idee.l meo.ning, ham, Isaac, and Jacob after they had been eucli ae we.e observed in the che.pter e.bout long ago gathered to their fathers, are inti- Melchizedek. But it ie difficult to under- mations, even in the Pentateuch, of a belief stand the expreeeione used ae implying no in man's. immortal hopes. An~ it may be more than this. Abre.ho.m ie said to Lave a.dded, with reference to the history imme- himself looked for the "city tha.t ha.th the diately before us, thatJacob's application of foundations," of which God is the Builder- the idea of bis being e." sojonrner "-used by a description which co.nnot but denote the Abraham with reference to the abode in "heavenly Jerusalem," of which the city Palestine---to the whole course of his lifo whose foundations were on the holy hills upon the earth, in itself suggests the meaning below is regarded elsewhere ae but a type atta.ched to such language in the Epist].,. and emblem (cf. eh. xii. 22 ; xiii. 14 ; Gal. Hence no violence is done to the meaning iv. 26; Rev. xxi. 14; also infm, eh. viii. 2, of the history, rather it may be that its where~" (,r11{•v 6 0,3s is said of the heavenly deeper meaning is brought out, if the patri- ta.bernacle). This interpretation is further archs are rego.rded as entertaining a hope of supported by our finding in Philo similar a heavenly inheritance to themselves, an,! views of a heavenly counterpe.rt to Jeru- seeing beyond the earthly types. But even salem as the fine.I object of Isra.el's hope. if we suppose such immortal hopes as having Again, the country desired by the patriarchs been in them o.t the most but vague and is, iu ver. 16, distinctly called e. heavenly dim, still their faith in and longing for a one. Nor is the view at o.11 untenable fulfilment of the promise in any sense was that, notwithstanding the silence of the really a feeling o.nd reaching a.fter the eternal ancient record on the subject, they did reo.lities which the first fnlfilment typified. look forward to a life after death with God, Compare the view taken in eh. iv. of the seeing in the promised earthly inheritance meaning of "God's rest." Delitzsch thus an emblem aud earnest of a heavenly one. enunciates this view of the po.ssage before Well known is Bishop Warburton's argu- us: •• The promise given to the patriarchs ment that a belief in a future state, which was a Divine assurance of a future rest. was so ancient and universal, and so pro- Tho.t rest was connected, in the first instance, minent especio.lly in the religion of Egypt, with the future possession of o.n earthly must almost of necessity have been shared home; but their desire for that home Wll.'l at in by the race of Abro.ho.m, and hence that the same time a longing and a seeking after the silence about it in the Mosaic record Him who ho.d given the promise of it, whose must be due, uot to its absence from the presence and blessing o.lone ma.de it for creed of Israel, but to the peculiar purpose them o.n object of desire, and whose presence of the Mosaic dispensation. Worthy of o.nd blessing, however vouchso.fed, makes attention also are Dean Stanley's words the place of its mo.nifestation to be iudee.d (Leet. vii. on 'Jewish Church ') : "Not from a heo.ven. The shell of their longing might want of religion, but (if one might use the thus be of earth; its kernel was heavenly expression) from excess of religion, was this and Divine, o.nd as such God himself vouch- void left. The future life was not denied so.fed to honour and reward it." or contradicted, but it was overlooked, set From the general mode of life of the patri- aside, overshadowed, by the consciousness of archs the review now passes to particul:ir the living, actual presence of God himself." 1 aots of fo.ith, beginning with Abroham·s 1 One rea.son of the absence from the memoro.ble one, the offering. of Isaac. Mosaic code of the doctrine of e. future state Vars. 17-19.-By faith Abraham, when may have been the corruption of that doctrine, and the superstitions connected first o.t least, to be exclusively directed to a with it, in the populo.r Egyptian religion. sense of their responsibility to a Gou of If in that religion, ds seems to have boon the righteousness during life, lest their hope co.se, there wae e.n elnboro.te system of ritual of future reward should be mixed up with for securing the soul's welfo.re l\fter death, the superstitious conceptions they bad becorue U may ho.vo been good for the Israelites, o.t so familiar with iu Egypt.  THE EPISTLE TO THE HEDREWS. [en. x1. 1-·-l.O, - - - -- - -------------------------------- he wu tried, offered up (literally, hath offered the question remain ■ of the exo.ot drill of up, denoting an a0001nplished I\Dt of whioh this expression, ,., 'ira.pa./Jo1'.p, It surely is, the eignifice.nce continues) haao: and he that, though Ieae.o did not really die, but that had reoeived (re.ther, aMept.ed, implying only the ram in bis stend, yet the tronsao- hie own e.BBent and belief) the promise■ tion repTesented to Abmham an actual offered up his only begotten son, he to winning of his son from the dead; be did eo whom it 'W'IL8 ll&i.d, That in laaao ■hall thy win him in the way of an acted porablo, ■eed be oalled : aooounting that God is able which confirmed his faith in God's power to raise up, even from the dead ; from to raise the dea.d o.s much 118 i£ tb.e lad had whenoe al■o he reoeived him in a figure. died. l<'or such use of the preposition a, 'l'he above rendering ve.ries slightly from we may compare l Cor. xiii. 12, /JAt'lf"oµ•" the A.V. in vere. 18, 19. For, in ver. 18, .,.po• li,' ltr&rrpou ,., ..;,,c.,,µa-r,, which may mean 'bv ii! more na.ture.lly connected with the (notwithstanding the different view of it immedie.te antecedent, ~ <iva6,!&µ,vo<, than given doubtfully by tho distinguished oom- with µoJ'O')'•vii : and, in ver. 19, thoro is no mentator on the Epistle in the • Spenkcr'd need to supply "him" after ,.,,,,p,iv: the Commentary'), "We see, not actually, Greek soem, obviously to express belief in hut in the way of an enigmatioal represen- God's general power to re.ise from the dee.d, tation, as through a mirror." The above not his power in that inste.nee only. The seems a more nature.I meaning of the pbmse, offering of Isaac (specially instanced also ,., ..-apa/Jo1'.fi, than that of the oommentators by St. Jamee, ii. 21), stn.nds out o.s the who interpret it " in such sort as to be 0, crowning instance of Abrahe.m's faith. The par11blo or type of something else to come," very son, so long expected, and at length, viz. of the death and resurrection of Christ. as it were, superne.ture.lly given,-he in It does not, of course, follow that the trans- whose single life was bound up all hope of action was not typical of Christ, or that the fulfilment of the promise, was to be sacri- writer does not so regard it; we are only con- ficed after all, and 110 seemingly all hope sidering what hie language in itself implies. cut off. Yet Abraham is represented as Rendered literally, and with retention of not hesitating for a moment to do in simple the order of the words, the sentence runs : faith what seemed God's will, and still not "From whence [i.e. from the dead) him [i.e. wavering in his hope of a falfilment some- Isaac, aol-r&v being slightly emphatic, as is how. Such faith is here regarded as vir- shown by its position in thesentence,equiva- tually faith in God'• power even to raise the lent to iUum, not eum; and this suitably after dead. (For a simile.r new of Abraham's the general proposition preceding) he did too faith as representing "the hope and resur• in a parable win [ <JCO}Litra.-ro, equivalent to si/,i. rection of the dead," comp. Rom. iv. 17, 24.) acquiaivit ; cf. ver. 39, oriJC 4JCo/dtravro -ri/11 The expression, "In Isae.0 shall thy seed be ;,,,.an~>..!a:v)." With regard to what ·we mO:y called" (literally, "In Isaac shall be called call the moral aspect of this peculiar trial of to tliee R aeed "), quoted from Gen. x:ri. 12, Abraham's faith, a few words may be said, means, nut that tb.e 86ed should be called since a difficulty naturally suggests itself on after the name of lsaac, but that the seed the subject. How, it may be asked, is it to be called Abraham's should be in Isaac, consistent with our ideas of Divine righteous- i.e. his issue. The concluding phrase, ness, that even readiness to slay his son " Wb.ence also he received him in a figure" should be required of Abraham as a duty:? (literally, " in a parable," ,., ,rr,.pa./Jo1'.ii), haa How are we to account for this apparent been variously interpreted. Notwitfuita.nd- B&Ilctio12 of the principle of human sacrifices? ing the authority of numy modem commen- To the latter question we may reply, in the t.at.ors, we may certainly reject the view of fl.ret place, that the narrative in Genesis, wa.paJJo>.:fi carrying here tbe sense borne by taken as a whole, affords no such so.notion, ilia verb -ra.pa.fJ/uv..•rrBa.,, that of venturing but very much the contrary. All we are or exposing one's self to risk, or that of told is that the great patriarch, in the course the adverb ,ra.pa/Jo>.,,,,, unexpectedly. Even of his religious tra.imng, was once divinely if the noun ,ra.pa/Jo"11 could be shown b_y led to suppose such a sacrifice to be required o.ny instance to bear such senses, its ord1- of him. 'fhe offering of sons was not un- 1Jary 1180 in the New Testament as well as usual in the ancient races among whom in the LXX. must surely be understood Abraham lived; and, however shocking such here, It expresses (under the idea of com- a practice might be, and however condemned parison, or setting one thing by the .side of in later Scripture, it was due, we may say, e.nother) an illustration, represente.twn, or to the perversion only of a true instinct of figure of BOruetbing. Its use in this sense in humanity-that which suggests the need of tlu, Guspds is familiar to us all; elsewhere some great atonement, and the claim of the in the New 'l'estament it occurs only in this Giver of all to our best and dearest, if Epistle, eh. ix. 9, where the "fi.rt1t te.ber- demanded from us. That Abraham should 1111,Cle" ii spoken of e.s e. wa.pa/301'.~. l::,tiU, be even diviuely led to suppose for a time cm. ::u. 1-40.J 'l'llE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.