Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
CHAPTER 2
ings of spiritual life. For there is also in part a contrast between the vices which he enumerates and the sincere milk of the word; as though he had said, ``Malice and hypocrisy belong to those who are habituated to the corruptions of the world; they have imbibed these vices: what pertains to infancy is sincere simplicity, free from all guile. Men, when grown up, become imbued with envy, they learn to slander one another, they are taught the arts of mischief; in short, they become hardened in every kind of evil: infants, owing to their age, do not yet know what it is to envy, to do mischief, or the like things.'' He then compares the vices, in which the oldness of the flesh indulges, to strong food; and milk is called that way of living suitable to innocent nature and simple infancy.
1. All malice There is not here a complete enumeration of all those things which we ought to lay aside; but when the Apostles speak of the old man, they lay down as examples some of those vices which mark his whole character.
says Paul, ``are the works of the flesh, which are these,'' (Galatians 5:19;) and yet he does not enumerate them all; but in those few things, as in a mirror, we may see that immense mass of filth which proceeds from our flesh. So also in other passages, where he refers to the new life, he touches only on a few things, by which we may understand the whole character.
What, then, he says amounts to this, --- ``Having laid aside the works of your former life, such as malice, deceit, dissimulations, envyings, and other things of this kind, devote yourselves to things of an opposite character, cultivate kindness, honesty,'' etc. He, in short, urges this, that new morals ought to follow a new life.
2. The sincere milk of the word This passage is commonly explained according to the rendering of Erasmus, ``Milk not for the body but for the soul;'' as though the Apostle reminded us by this expression that he spoke metaphorically. I rather think that this passage agrees with that saying of Paul,
ye not children in understanding, but in malice.'' (1 Corinthians 14:20.)
That no one might think that infancy, void of understanding and full of fatuity, was commended by him, he in due time meets this objection; so he bids them to desire milk free from guile, and yet mixed with right understanding. We now see for what purpose he joins these two words, rational and guileless, ({λογικὸν} {καὶ} {ἄδολος}.) For simplicity and quickness of understanding are two things apparently opposite; but they ought to be mixed together, lest simplicity should become insipid, and lest malicious craftiness should creep in for want of understanding. This mingling, well regulated, is according, to what Christ says,
ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.'' (Matthew 10:16.)
And thus is solved the question which might have been otherwise raised. 359
359Our version here seems to convey the most suitable meaning, by taking {λογικὸν} for {τοῦ} {λόγου}; see similar instances in ver. 13 and 1 Peter 3:7. It is the wordy milk, or milk made up of