The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 316

tortured, not aooepting deliveranoe, that cRsoa mny ogo.in have sug~ested aome or they might obtain a better resurreotion. the expressions useri. Tbe mention of 'fhe first pnrt of this verse eviclently refers "mockings" is prominent in the Maccabean to I Kings xvii. 22 ancl 2 Kings iv. 36-the history; "bonda and imprisonments" recoil memore.ble instances in the Olcl Testament Hanani, Micaiah, nod Jeremiah; "they of mothers hoving hod their sons restored were stoned " recalls Zachariah son of to them from deo.tb. The latter part is as Jeboinda (2 Chron. xxiv. 20; cf. Matt. evidently suggested ot lenst by the narra- x.xiii. :{5; Luke xi. 51 ; also Matt. xxiii. 37; tive of 2 Mocc. vii.; where it is recorded Luke xiii. 34). '' They wandered in sheep- bow, under the persecution of Antiocbus skins (µ711'.WTair) and in deserts" peculiarly Epiphanes, seven sons of one mother wore suggests Elijah (his mo.ntlo being called tortured and put to death; how one of them, µ711'."'Tt/S in the LXX., 2 Kings ii. 13, 14), in the midst of his tortures, be.ving deliver- though the Maccobcan heroes also took ance and odvancement offered him if be refuge in "deserts and mountains" (l would forsake the Low of his fathers, cour- Mace. ii.). "Sawn asunder" (denotin"' a 11,geously refused the offer; and bow both mode of executing martyrs of which there they e.nd their mother, who encouraged is no instance in the Old Testament nr them to persevere, reiterated their hope of a Apocrypha) most probably refers to a well- resurrection from the deod. The " better known tradition about Isaiah, who id said resurrecLion" means the resurrection to to have so suffered under Manasseh. Alfor,I eternal life by them looked for, which was thus gives the notices found elsewhere of "better" than the temporary restoration to this tradition: ••Justin Martyr • Trypho,' life in this world gran led to the sons of the § 120; Tertullian, • Cont. Gnost. Scorpiac.,' widow of Zarepho.th ond the Shunammite; 8, and 'De Patient.,' 14 ; Ori gen, • Ep. ad while the article in the Greek before " de- African.;' Lactantius, 'Inst.,' iv. 11 ; Ps.- liverance'' (T~v l,.,roll.tTpwrr,v) may be due Epiphanius, • Vit. Proph.; • Augustine, 'De to the thought of that which is recorded to Civ. Dei,' :xviii. 2-l; Jerome, on Isn. !vii. l." hove been offered to those in the writer's Jerome calls it a "certissima traditio apud immediate view. There is some doubl as to Judieos," 11nd says that this passage in the the exact import of the word frvµ,ravlrr871rrav Epistle was by most referred to the passion of (tro.nslated "tortured"). The usual mean- Isaiah. The tameness and apparent Ullllppro- ing of the Greek word is " to beat," ns a drum priateness of the verb e,r<1pd.rr871rrav (" were is bee.ten, from TrJµ,ravov, a drum or drum- tempted") in ver. 36, in the micLit of an enu- stick : and d,roTVµ..-avl(<1v means "to beat to meration of cruel modes of death, has led to a death." But, inasmuch as the instrument prevalent view that it is a corruption of the of torture to which Eleaze.r (whose martyr- original text. Various conj ectnres have been dom is related in the preceding clmpter of mode, the most tenable being (l) that it is on 2 Maccabees) was brought is called Tel Tuµ• interpolution, arising from the repetition by ,ravov (vi. 19, 28), it has been supposed some copyist of l,rp(u811rrav, which WB.'l after- that the punishment referred to was the wards altered to ;,,,.,p6.rr811rrav: or (2) that it stretching of the victims, in the wny of a is a. substitution for some other word through rack, on a sort of wheel called a tympanum, error in transcription, the most likely con- on which they were then beaten to death, jecture as to the word originally written as Eleaznr was. So Vulgo.te, distenti sunt. being l,rpfirr871rrav or e,rvparr971rrav, equiva- The fact that the seven of 2 Mace. vii. were lent to" were burnt." Either form, especially not so martyred, but by fire and other tortures, the latter, might easily be changed to ,.,,..,. is not inconsistent with this view ; for our pd.rrB.,,rrav: and thus dco.th by fire would have author need not be supposed to confine his been originitlly incluJed in the enumeration, view to them, but uses the word suggested which was likely to b,we been the case, espe- by Eleazar's case. Whatever be the exact cially since it is mentioned promineutly in import of the word, the A.V. (" were tor- the account of the martyrdom of the seven tured ") sufficiently gives the generally in- sons. But, us there is no authority of any tended meaning. manuscript for a different word, this is Vere. 36-38.-And others had trial of mere oonjeoture; though the omission of mookings and soourgings, yea, moreover the word Rltogether in some few manu- of bonds and imprisonment : they were scripts and versions, a.nd variutious of read- stoned, they were sawn asunder, wore ing in others, suggo~t some uncertainty as to tempted, were slain with the sword : they the original text. The worJ ,..-e,p&rr 811aav wandered about in sheepskins and goat- if genuine, may possibly ha.ve been sug- skins ; being destitute, afllioted, tormented gested by alliterution, and by thought of (ro.thor, evil-entreated); (of whom the world the tempt,1tions to Rpostatize prominent in was not worthy:) wandering in deserts, and tho account both of Ele11,2:ur and of thB seYcn mountlWlll, and dens, and the oaves of the sons. e"rth• lll t4is gener11l roview p1utioular , VNij, 3!.l, 'lO,-Alld theoe all, having ob-  THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [cH, .ll. 1-40,