Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin (continued)
HEBREWS: APPENDIX OF ADDITIONAL NOTATIONS
this is the particular and the chief point handled here is evident from the ninth verse, where this doctrine is as it were applied, ``Be ye not carried about,'' etc. Then the meaning of the whole passage may be given thus, --- ``Follow the faith of your departed guides; there is no change in it, Christ is ever the same in his mind, will, and purpose as to the faith: suffer not, therefore, yourselves to be led astray by various and strange doctrines, different from the faith of those who taught you and have attained a happy end.'' Thus the passage appears consistent throughout and suitably connected, ---
7. Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God, and contemplating the end of their life, follow their
8. faith: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, is the same, and 9. will be for ever: Be not carried about by various and strange (new) doctrines; for it is good that the heart should be made firm by grace, not by meats, by which they have not profited who have been so occupied.
If the auxiliary verb be put in at all in the eighth verse, it ought to be put in twice. But the words may be rendered as a nominative case absolute, ``Jesus Christ being the same yesterday, and today, and for ever;'' as though he had said, ``I exhort you to follow their faith, inasmuch as Jesus Christ, our teacher, mediator, and Savior never changes, but is ever the same.''
The MSS. are more in favor {μὴ} {παραφέρεσθε}, ``Be ye not carried away,'' than of {μὴ} {περιφέρεσθε}, ``Be ye not carried about;'' but as the latter verb is used on the same subject in Ephesians 4:14, it is better to adopt it here: the difference indeed is very trifling.
The passage, as thus explained, bears strongly against every innovation in the faith, in the doctrine of the Gospel, Christ its teacher being ever the same. There are to be no strange or new doctrines; for such is the meaning of strange here, that is, what is alien to the Gospel, and therefore new. And what are all the additions which have been made by the fathers, and especially by the Church of Rome, but various doctrines, foreign to the Gospel, which ever continues the same? Their variety is as great as their novelty. Christ was, is, and will ever be the same as teacher, mediator, and Savior; hence the faith, once delivered to the saints, must continue unchangeably the same.
Appendix F3
APPENDIX F 3
Chapter 13:9. For it is a good thing, etc There seems to be some obscurity in the latter part of this verse, and in the following verses. There appears, however, to be an intimation of what the Apostle means in the term ``strange'' or new, as applied to the doctrines here referred to. There was probably an attempt made to unite some parts of the ceremonial law, especially the feasts, with the Gospel. The distinction of meats was not new, but this kind of mixture might have been so termed, that is, a participation in those sacrifices, part of which was allowed to be eaten by those who presented them, Leviticus 7:11-