98. J. Denney, Death of Christ, pp. 227f.

98. J. Denney, Death of Christ, pp. 227f.

87. Gk. np65 tiiv tr1S oapxos xafapotrrra, "for the purification of the flesh." "Flesh" in this epistle denotes the outer and physical element in the human make-up in contrast to one's inner being, or conscience (vv. 9, 14). Cf. the "fleshly ordinances" of v. 9, the "fleshly commandment" of 7:16, and the contrast between "the fathers of our flesh" and "the Father of spirits" in 12:9. Cf. also 1 Pet. 3:21, where baptism is presented not as a "removal of dirt from the body" but as the Godward appeal or response of "a good conscience."

88. Heb. haua't hi; hence the Mishnah repeatedly refers to the me niddah ("water for impurity") as me hatta't ("water of sin offering" or "water for sin"), as in Num. 8:7, MT. The Mishnaic tractate Parah is devoted to this ritual. After A.D. 70 the slaying of the red heifer (which had previously taken place on the Mount of Olives, "outside the camp") was discontinued, and so the water for impurity could not be renewed once the existing stock of ashes was exhausted. According to Mishnah, Parah 3.5, the last priest to kill the red heifer was Ishmael ben Phabi (high priest c. A.D. 58-60). Among the Samaritans it was held that all that was necessary for the ritual was a valid priesthood, not a temple or altar; accordingly the slaying and burning of the red heifer was continued by them until 1348, the ashes of this last burning being preserved until c. 1600 (cf. M. Gaster, Samaritan Traditions and Oral Law [London, 1932], pp. 195f.). It has been suggested that the Qumran community also continued to carry out the ritual in spite of their separation from the temple, since they possessed a legitimate priesthood (cf. J. Bowman, "Did the Qumran Sect burn the Red Heifer?" RQ 1 [1958-59], pp. 73-84). Whether they carried out the ritual or not, they certainly attached high importance to cleansing with me niddah, which nevertheless was of no avail to those whose heart remained impenitent (1 QS 3.4-12). This probably explains Josephus's reference to the "purer lustrations" which the Essenes practiced (Ant. 18.19). (Cf. the account of John's baptism in Josephus,Ant. 18.117, quoted on p. 142, n. 22; see also p. 210, n. 65.) The Epistle of Barnabas (8:1-6) allegorizes the ritual of the red heifer, detail by detail, as a type of the cross and the gospel; cf. G. Allon, "Halakhah in the Epistle of Barnabas," Tarbiz 11 (1939-40), pp. 23ff. (summarized by S. Lowy,JJS 11 [1960], p. 24); R. A. Kraft (ed.), The Didache and Barnabas (New York, 1965), pp. 101-5. See also p. 255.

89. Yad ha-Hazaqah 1, halakhah 4 (quoted in full in F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, E.T., II [Edinburgh, 1872], p. 466). In his Sepher Tohoroth Maimonides expects that the burning of the red heifer will be resumed when Messiah comes, so that water for the removal of impurity can be prepared once more.

90. The isolation of the high priest for seven days preceding the Day of Atonement is laid down in Mishnah Yoma 1.1. According to Maimonides it was on the third and seventh days of this period that he was to be sprinkled; it is a matter of interest in this connection that the Qaraites, having no ashes of a heifer at their disposal, substituted for the sprinkling with me niddah in the situation envisaged by Num. 19 a purificatory bath on the third and seventh days (P. S. Goldberg, Karaite Liturgy [Manchester, 1957], p. 40).

91. "The blood of Christ" in v. 14 means his sacrificial death; "it is hard to envisage a reason for interpreting `the blood' here in a sense other than that given by the words which follow, `a death having taken place"' (L. Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p. 125). J. Behm, TDNT, I, pp. 172-77 (s.v. al#a); A. M. Stibbs, The Meaning of the Word "Blood" in Scripture (London, 1947); F. J. Taylor, A Theological Word Book of the Bible, ed. A. Richardson (London, 1950), pp. 33f. (s.v. "Blood"); L. L. Morris, "The Biblical Use of the Term `Blood, "' JTS n.s. 3 (1952), pp. 216-27; F. Laubach, NIDN7T I, pp. 220-24 (s. v. "Blood"). For the a fortiori argument cf. 2:1-3 (p. 68, n. 4).

92. I. Watts. His designation of Christ as "the heavenly Lamb" in this context is probably due simply to the NT designation of him as the Lamb of God, as in John 1:29 (cf. 1 Pet. 1:19).

93. A. Vanhoye takes the nvevµa auuvtov here to be the spiritual counterpart to the altar fire of the old order ("Esprit eternel et feu du sacrifice en He 9,14," Biblica 64 [1983], pp. 26374; cf. "L'oblation sacerdotale du Christ dans I'epitre aux Hebreux," Didaskalia 14 [1984], pp. 11-30, especially pp. 20-26).

94. Cf. v. 28 (p. 232 with nn. 169-72). The Servant's priestly role appears especially in Isa. 52:15, "so shall he sprinkle many nations" (for a vindication of this rendering cf. E. J. Young, Studies in Isaiah [Grand Rapids, 1954], pp. 199-206; H. L. Ellison, The Servant ofJehovah [London, 1953], pp. 29f.); the allusion may well be to the sprinkling of the water for the removal of impurity (cf. the sprinkling of 10:22; 12:24).

95. J. Denney, The Death of Christ (London, 61907), p. 208. The nvc*a is eternal because divine.

96. These actual words are applied to Christ in 1 Pet. 2:22.

97. Cf. Mark 14:36 ("not what I will, but what thou wilt"); John 17:19 ("for their sake I consecrate myself').

98. J. Denney, Death of Christ, pp. 227f.

99. Cf. p. 139, n. 14.

104. In the ERV this clause is treated as a question: "for doth it ever avail while he that made it liveth?" This construction does best justice to the negative µrl, which is appropriate in a question expecting the answer "No."

105. Gk. eyxExaiVLotar (from eyxawitw, "consecrate," used in the NT only here and in 10:20). See p. 250, n. 85.

106. Gk. naarg ivroArls, for which p46 D* and Chrysostom read marls Iris ivroki g ("all the commandment").

107. Gk. xatd toy vopov, but the article is omitted by K * with the bulk of later manuscripts and the TR. Cf. 10:8 (p. 239, n. 29).

108. The phrase "and the goats" (Gk. xai Iwv Ipay(ov) should probably be omitted with p46 XC K L T 1739, about 30 Byzantine manuscripts, Chrysostom, and the Syriac versions: the addition, if such it be, probably is due to the influence of v. 12 (cf. Zuntz, Text, p. 55). (If, on the other hand, the words are accepted as authentic, their omission from p46 and other authorities could be explained as due to harmonization with Ex. 24:5.)

109. Quoted from Ex. 24:8, where the LXX, following the Hebrew, has ibov ("behold") fortofrzo ("this [is]") and bLEO 'rO ("covenanted") for evEteikato ("commanded"). The initial "this is" may be influenced by the words of institution of the new covenant (cf. Mark 14:24; 1 Cor. 11:25). On the absence of eucharistic reference from Hebrews see pp. 379f.

110. Gk. cXcb6v, "I may almost say" (ERV/ARV), "it might almost be said" (NEB).

100. "Testament" and "covenant" are variant renderings of the one Greek word SraNxrl.

101. Gk. 4epea0ar, lit. "be brought," here probably used in the technical sense "be registered" (so P. Oxy., II [London, 1899], no. 244, 1. 12) or "be produced as evidence" (cf. J. J. Wettstein, ad loc.: "necesse est afferri testimonia de morte testatoris").

103. Gk. pt jnotE, for which t * D* have prl tote ("not then").

102. Gk. ixi vexpois, lit. "over dead people," i.e., "with reference to dead people"; not "over the dead bodies" of the covenant victims, for they could not be classed as SLaOiµevot.

111. "The redemption of the transgressions committed under the first covenant" could have direct relevance only to readers of Israelite birth or adoption, since these transgressions were breaches of the Mosaic law, which was an integral part of the "first covenant." This retrospective validity of the death of Christ is stated in more general terms, which cover Gentiles as well as Jews, in Rom. 3:25 ("whom God set forth as an atonement ... to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins"); cf. Acts 17:30. With "redemption" (&no?vrpwot5) cf. the uncompounded lvrpwot5 in v. 12 (p. 214, n. 84). E. Riggenbach (ZK, ad loc.) quotes Philo, Special Laws 1.215: "through the altar is given absolution (anoAvaets) and complete forgiveness (84eaet5) of all sins and transgressions."

112. To Mark's wording Matt. 26:28 adds "for the forgiveness of sins" (which is in any case implied in the shorter form). See p. 194 with n. 69. Paul's wording, probably preserving the tradition which he had received on becoming a Christian, appears in a document of A.D. 55 (some ten years earlier than Mark) and repeats what had been communicated orally to the Corinthian church five years before. Such variation in wording as is known today between one church tradition and another evidently existed in the first Christian generation.

113. This accounts for all the occurrences of atwvto5 in the epistle with the exception of "eternal judgment" in 6:2 (see p. 143 with n. 33).

114. This difficulty is eased in the NEB by the rendering of the opening words of v. 15: "And therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, or testament, under which...... Moffatt's version makes similar use of two words at the beginning of v. 18; after using "covenant" twice in v. 15, and "will" in vv. 16f., it continues: "Hence even the first covenant of God's will was not inaugurated apart from blood."

115. See F. O. Norton, A Lexicographical and Historical Study of LIAOHKH (Chicago, 1908); consult also MM; BAGD; J. Behm and G. Quell in TDNT, II, pp. 106-34 (s.v. braOrlxrl); J. Guhrt and O. Becker, NIDNTT, I, pp. 365-76 (s. v. "Covenant," etc.); they supply further documentation.

116. "The covenant is a sovereign dispensation of God's grace. It is grace bestowed and a relation established" (J. Murray, The Covenant of Grace [London, 1954], p. 19).

117. Heb. berit of course, is used in the OT of covenants between human beings as well as of covenants between God and human beings; but even "when all the instances of merely human covenants are examined, it would definitely appear that the notion of sworn fidelity is thrust into prominence in these covenants rather than that of mutual contract" (J. Murray, Covenant of Grace, p. 10). See also (in addition to works mentioned on p. 193, n. 62) W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, E.T., I (London, 1961), pp. 36-511; M. G. Kline, By Oath Consigned (Grand Rapids, 1968); L. Perlitt, Bundestheologie im Alten Testament, WMANT 36 (Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1969); G. W. Buchanan, The Consequences of the Covenant, NovTSup 20 (Leiden, 1970); B. Baltzer, The Covenant Formulary, E.T. (Oxford, 1971); D. J. McCarthy, Old Testament Covenant (Oxford, 1972); K. M. Campbell, God's Covenant (Nutley, NJ, 1974); O. P. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Grand Rapids, 1980); W. J. Dumbrell, Covenant and Creation (Exeter, 1984); T. E. McComiskey, The Covenants of Promise (Grand Rapids, 1985); E. W. Nicholson, God and His People: Covenant and Theology in the Old Testament (Oxford, 1986); R. T. Beckwith, "The Unity and Diversity of God's Covenants," TynB 38 (1987), pp. 93-118. Cf. p. 224, n. 132.

118. We may compare (and contrast) the use of the testamentary analogy made in the Valentinian Gospel of Truth (Jung Codex 20:15ff.), in a passage immediately following that quoted on p. 88, n. 86: "As the property of a deceased householder remains concealed so long as his testament has not been opened, so the All remained concealed so long as the Father of the All ... remained invisible. Therefore Jesus appeared and revealed this book; he was nailed to a tree; he affixed the testamentary disposition from the Father to the cross."

119. So E. Riggenbach, "Der Begriff der AIAOHKI-I im Hebraerbrief," in Theologische Studien Theodor Zahn zum 10. Oktober 1908 dargebracht (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 289ff.; cf. A. Deissmann, Paul, E.T. (London, 1926), p. 175 with n. 3; G. D. Kilpatrick, "Ata0ilxrl in Hebrews," ZNW 68 (1977), pp. 263-65.

123. B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1903), pp. 300-304; see the critique of his arguments by G. Vos, "Hebrews, the Epistle of the Diatheke," PTR 13 (1915), pp. 614ff. (cf. p. 171, n. 69). The rendering of "covenant" throughout the passage has been upheld also by E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek (Oxford, 1889), p. 48; G. Milligan, The Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 152f., 166-70 (Milligan later modified his position); A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 140, 364f. See K. M. Campbell, "Covenant or Testament? Heb. 9:16, 17 Reconsidered," EQ 44 (1972), pp. 106-11.

124. The part played by the covenant victim may be responsible for the idiom for covenant-making, found in various languages, which literally means to "cut" or "strike" a covenant-Heb. karat berit (cf. p. 186, n. 40), Gk. opxLa tgtvELv, Lat. foedus ferire. But the subject of these verbs (the 8taCelwv ) is, in the nature of the case, never the covenant victim.

120. Cf. J. B. Payne, The Theology of the Older Testament (Grand Rapids, 1962), pp. 71ff., where "testament" is preferred as the translation of Heb. beril as well as of Gk. bta9ijx1l.

121. Occasionally it may have the sense of "contract" or "compact," a sense more naturally expressed by classical ovvOgxil (a word not found in the NT and but rarely in the LXX). Aristophanes (Birds 439f.) provides a classical instance of SLaOrlxtl used in more or less this sense.

122. Another NT passage where a similar question arises regarding the precise sense of bLaOrjxrl is Gal. 3:15, 17, where the principle that a person's brath xrl, when once it has been validated, cannot be annulled or have a codicil added to it by anyone else, is invoked to prove that God's covenant with Abraham could not be affected by the law, which came four centuries later. Although the question of death does not enter into the immediate argument here, it may be that Gal. 3:15 means that "the will (b&ath xrl) of a human being is irrevocable when once duly executed" (W. M. Ramsay, Historical Commentary on Galatians [London, 18991, p. 349; Ramsay has an extended discussion of the meaning of b&a0rlxrl both here and elsewhere in the Pauline letters, pp. 349-70). In that case there is the same oscillation between general and particular senses of bw xrl as we have here in Hebrews. Cf. H. N. Ridderbos, Galatians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1953), pp. 130-36; F. F. Bruce, Galatians, NIGTC (Exeter/Grand Rapids, 1982), pp. 168-74; R. Y. K. Fung, Galatians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1988), pp. 153-57.

125. Westcott, Hebrews, p. 267.

126. Gk. btaOiµevo5. "Thus o btaOi LEvo5 (Heb. 9:17) signifies the testator, a&aOeroc became the technical term for intestate, and int&a€hjxii stands in Josephus for a codicil" (E. K. Simpson, "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 [1946], p. 189). Cf. the present and aorist indicative of 6tati0FQ0at (the verb of which bta0iµevog is the aorist participle) in Luke 22:29, "I settle (btacLOeµat) on you a kingdom, as my Father settled (bti0ero) on me."

127. Cf. J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, "Lexical Notes from the Papyri," Exp. VIII.vi (1908), p. 563: "We may suppose the author of Heb. using the obsolete, Biblical word, and then dropping into the modern use of it for purposes of illustration."

128. The AV/KJV renders bta9rlxrl by "testament" throughout Heb. 9:15-20 (as in 7:22), and by "covenant" elsewhere in the epistle; the ERV/ARV and the RSV have "covenant" throughout the epistle except in vv. 16 and 17 of this chapter.

129. "Vocabulary of Hebrews," p. 189.

130. The Epistle of Priesthood, p. 365.

131. The Covenant of Grace, p. 30.

132. M. G. Kline (Treaty of the Great King, p. 41), referring to Heb. 9:16f., suggests that if "one might assume that the author's parenthetical allusion in these verses is to the dynastictestamentary aspect of ancient suzerainty covenants and especially of the Old Covenant as exemplified by Deuteronomy, the way would be open to a satisfactory solution," since one of the recurrent themes of the epistle is "dynastic appointment and perpetuity (cf. 1:2ff., 8; 5:6ff.; 6:20ff.), the precise area of covenantal administration for which the merging of the covenantal and the testamentary is attested." In that case Jesus is presented here as "both dying Moses and succeeding Joshua." While the ancient Near Eastern principle of the dynastic covenant is of prime relevance to the Old Testament covenant, and not least to that of Deuteronomy, it is improbable that it would have readily occurred as an analogy to our author's mind in the first century A.D.

133. Cf. J. S. Candlish, "The Notion of Divine Covenants in the Bible," ExT 4 (189293), pp. 19-23, 65-68, especially the paragraph on p. 21 dealing with brag xrl in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "The death of Christ fulfilled the condition necessary for the bestowal of the forgiveness and renewal promised by God, and so made His disposition of grace effectual and unchangeable."

134. See p. 219, n. 108. Those commentators who take the reference to goats here as original commonly regard "bulls and goats" as a locution of our author's meaning "sacrificial animals" (as in 9:12f.; 10:4). Philo (Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.32) emphasizes the fact that calves, and not lambs or kids, were sacrificed on this occasion, "for these animals are weaker than calves, whereas he seems to make the sacrifice from more powerful animals."

135. The LXX has tooXapta ("young calves") for MT parim ("oxen"). The word used by our author here is µouXot ("calves").

136. It is an undue straining of the language to take aino ie to PtAAiov as dependent on ?l46v ("having taken") and coordinate with to al to ("the blood"); the participle ie links it with wit navra toy Aaov ("and all the people") as part of the object of eppavrtaev ("sprinkled").

137. Possibly a halakhic and haggadic midrash such as G. Allon postulates as underlying the account of the red heifer in Ep. Barn. 7-8 (seep. 216, n. 88). Scarlet wool, which is mentioned here in connection with the ratification of the covenant and in Num. 19:6 in connection with the red heifer, was bound on the head of the scapegoat, according to Mishnah Yoma 4.2; 6.6; Tertullian, Against Marcion 3.7; Against the Jews 14. See p. 207, n. 56.

138. The language of Ps. 51:7, "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean," represents a figurative use of this last ritual-figurative, because no literal sprinkling of me niddah with hyssop could have cleansed the penitent from blood-guiltiness (Ps. 51:14).

139. See p. 26, with nn. 111-12.

140. For the seven days cf. Ex. 29:35f.; Lev. 8:33, 35.

141. Ant. 3.206. Philo (Life of Moses 2.146-52) also associates the consecration of the priests closely with the consecration of the tabernacle and its furniture, but restricts the application of blood to the priests.

142. Cf. p. 215.

143. Gk. aiµaTexxvoia, possibly a coinage of our author's. T. C. G. Thornton ("The Meaning of aiµatexxvoia in Heb. ix.22," JTS n.s. 15 [1964], pp. 63-65) and W. G. Johnsson ("The Cultus of Hebrews in Twentieth-Century Scholarship," ExT 89 [1977-78], pp. 104-8) argue that the word as used here involves not only the shedding but also the application or sprinkling of the blood. See, however, N. H. Young, "Aiµatexxvoia: A Comment," ExT 90 (197879), p. 180. Cf. p. 314, n. 207.

144. This may have been a proverbial expression, to judge by instances in the rabbinical writings; cf. "Does not atonement come through the blood?" (TB Yoma 5a, twice); "Surely atonement can be made only with the blood" (TB Zebahim 6a). These aphorisms are regularly confirmed by the following quotation of Lev. 17:11 ("it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life").

145. Gk. T& ayta, to which a few minuscules (including 69 and 1912), with the Armenian and Sahidic Coptic versions, add uiw ayiwv (yielding the rendering "holy of holies" for "holy place"). See p. 208.

146. Gk. na9Eiv, for which a few minuscules (including 241 and 1908) with the Sahidic version read dno8aveiv ("have died"). Cf. p. 380, n. 77.

147. Gk. Eis aOiTrloty T% aµaptiag (cf. p. 231, nn. 164, 165); Till is omitted by j46 C and the Byzantine text (perhaps rightly, since our author has no objection to the use of alw@Tia without the article); D* (but not d) has the anarthrous plural aµaQTUUV.

148. A few authorities add the gloss Sra niotew5 ("through faith") either before etc awtrlpiav (e.g., 69) or after it (e.g., A P). Cf. 1 Pet. 1:15.

149. Gk. vnob&Lyga, as in 8:5 (cf. p. 183, n. 25).

150. Why the plural, "better sacrifices"? Our author probably uses the generic plural in stating the principle (purification in the heavenly order must be effected by better sacrifices than those required to effect purification in the earthly order); but when he comes to show how this principle was put into practice, he makes it plain that in fact only one such superior sacrifice was ever offered.

151. Gk. La a toupavta, as in 8:5 (the same phrase is repeatedly rendered "the heavenly places" in Ephesians). H. Windisch (DerHebraerbrief HNT [Tubingen, 21931], p. 85) assumes that by the law of correspondence (8:5) the heavenly sanctuary was also defiled by the people's sins; H. Strathmann, however, thinks (Hebraerbrief, NTD [Gottingen, 61953], p. 113) that the point of comparison is simply the general thought of the dedication of the sanctuary by means of a sacrifice (cf. F. Hauck, TDNT, III, p. 426, n. 80, s.v. xaOapos). "The superior new regime requires a likewise superior sacrifice to establish it-the sacrifice of Christ" (N. H. Young, "The Gospel according to Hebrews 9," p. 210).

152. Thus it has been suggested that the cleansing was made necessary by the presence of Satan (Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:3-9) or of other "spiritual hosts of wickedness" (Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:20) in the heavenly sphere (cf., e.g., O. Michel, Der Brief an die Hebraer, MK [Gottingen, 1949], pp. 213f. [following F. Bleek, ad loc. ]; G. H. Lang, The Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1951], pp. 153f.). This, however, imports into our author's argument something which is alien to it, whereas he states repeatedly what it is that actually has been cleansed by the sacrifice of Christ. By the removal of the defilement of sin from the hearts and consciences of the worshipers, the heavenly sphere in which they approach God to worship him is itself cleansed from this defilement. The analogical use of language proper to the earthly sanctuary might give the impression that the heavenly sanctuary itself is envisaged as a locality; but we need not suppose that our author thought of it absolutely in local terms.

153. See the exposition of v. 11 (pp. 212f.), and cf. 12:22f. (pp. 355-60). In 4QFlorilegium, col. 1, 1. 6, God replaces the material sanctuary after its destruction by a "sanctuary of men" (migdas 'adam) who "will offer the works of the law like the smoke of incense" (cf. p. 384 with n. 91). In 1QS 8.5f. the council of the Qumran community is the holy of holies, as the community itself is the holy place (cf. p. 94, n. 18).

154. W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), pp. 140f.

155. As in 8:2 (see p. 182, n. 17) the heavenly tabernacle is etXrl9rv6s. With "made with hands" (XeLponotTnoc) cf. "not made with hands" (ov xELponoulroc) in v. 11 (p. 212 with nn. 7678). See also p. 182, n. 16.

156. The earthly sanctuary and its fittings are here described as avrinuna of the true heavenly sanctuary; 6vritvno5 here has thus much the same meaning asttinoc ("pattern") in 8:5, and might be rendered "counter-pattern" or "corresponding pattern"; in other words, the earthly corresponds to the heavenly as a copy or symbol corresponds to the reality which is copied or symbolized. The only other occurrence of avtitvno5 in the NT is in 1 Pet. 3:21, where it refers to baptism as the Christian "counterpart" to Noah's salvation in the ark. Whereas in Hebrews it is the OT symbol that is called the "antitype," in 1 Peter it is the NT reality. The usage in Hebrews is in line with Philo's use of the word (cf. C. Spicq, L 'Epitre aux Hebreux, I [Paris, 1952], p. 75).

157. For "since the foundation of the world" (ano xcrroxoXfg xooµov) cf. 4:3 (p. 104, n. 8).

158. Gk. vuvi he, ARV "but now," where "now" (as in 8:6) is to be taken in a logical, not a temporal, sense.

159. Here the simple adverb anal; is used, but it has much the same emphatic force as the compound e46nai; in v. 12.

162. 1 Cor. 10:11 (ta T& q uuv alwv(Ov); cf. also Gal. 4:4 (to n),.rlpwµa tov Xpovou).

163. 1 Pet. 1:20, where Christ, "foreknown before the foundation of the world" (np6 xatapok xooµov), was manifested en' eaXatov tthv Xpovwv. The Matthaean references are to the future; the present reference, like the Pauline and Petrine, is to the present order inaugurated by the advent and redemptive work of Christ. Cf. Heb. 1:2 ("at the end of these days"). The plural "ages" here and in 1 Cor. 10:11 may point to the intersection of the two ages when Christ appeared, or it may denote, more generally, "the climax of history" (W. Manson, Hebrews, p. 140). The phrase tp avvrEXEia tCOV atwvwv (v.1. tov atwvo5) appears in Test. Levi 10:2.

164. Gk. a0etrlar5 (see p. 168, n. 56).

165. "Vocabulary of Hebrews," p. 190. "On the whole, then," he says, "the expression ri; a0en oLv aµaptias appears to be equivalent to Diodati's Italian version of it, per annullare it peccato, expressive of the cancelling or elimination of sin, a little more specific, that is to say, than our version, `putting away."'

168. Cf. 10:27, 30; 12:23. According to Sophocles, fragment 64, "life, my child, is the sweetest guerdon of all, for it is not possible for the same people to die twice."

160. Gk. eni avvrE?<Eia twv aituvwv. See H. Sasse, TDNT, I, p. 203 (s.v. auuv).

161. Cf. Matt. 13:39f., 49; 24:3; 28:20 for (il) avvrrXeta (tov) atwvo5.

166. Gk. ,1QELv (see p. 232, n. 169).

167. In 10:5ff. (see pp. 239-43).

169. Gk. aveveyxEiv, aorist infinitive of ava4eperv (which is used in the sense of "offering up" sacrifices in 7:27; 13:15); the same verb is used of Christ's sin-bearing in 1 Pet. 2:24, and in both places may be influenced by the LXX rendering of Isa. 53:12 (apaptia5 noXI.uw avgveyxev). The Hebrew verb there used is naM, which may mean not only "bear" but also "take away"; the latter sense is conveyed in the NT in relation to Christ's redemptive work by Gk. aipELv, as in John 1:29; 1 John 3:5 (see p. 231, n. 166). On aveveyxeiv here as meaning "take upon oneself' see BAGD, s.v. ava0epw (3).

170. Heb. 'asam, "a guilt offering," LXX nepi aµapiiag, for which cf. 10:6, 18; 13:11. See p. 178, n. 93.

171. The Hebrew verb in v. 11 is not naga' (as in v. 12) but sabal, but both are rendered in the LXX by the same Greek verb (see n. 169 above).

172. The influence of the fourth Servant Song on our author's thought and language about the sacrifice of Christ is difficult to ignore: he "read the story of Jesus in the light of Isa. liii" (V. Taylor, Jesus and His Sacrifice [London, 1937], p. 47). See p. 178, n. 93.

173. For this future and final phase of salvation cf. 1:14 and other scriptures mentioned in the exposition ad loc.

174. Although on the Day of Atonement the high priest wore the "holy linen coat" (Lev. 16:4) and not the blue "robe of the ephod" (Ex. 28:31-35) to which the bells and pomegranates were attached.

1. pa6 has the interesting reading xat ti)v ebxova ("and the image") foroim avrrly tilt' ebxova ("not the very image"). This implies for ebxtuv here the sense of a mere copy, something no better than a oxta. But ebxty normally has a more substantial meaning than this, and the construction of the sentence indicates that here it is contrasted with oxta, not practically synonymous with it. Cf. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles (London, 1953), pp. 20-23, where conclusive arguments are given against accepting the reading of p46.

2. X P read "their same sacrifices" (tats a1)raL5 HvaiaLg arrt v).

3. Gk. buvatat (p46 D*•- H K L), for which l A C DI 33 with the Harclean Syriac and other authorities have the plural bvvavrat, whence ERV "they can...." The plural reading makes our author guilty of a hanging nominative at the beginning of the sentence, whereas he is usually careful to observe grammatical accuracy.

4. For TE? uiOaat ("make perfect") D reads xaOapiaat ("cleanse"), probably under the influence of v. 2. True inward cleansing is, of course, part of the perfecting (cf. v. 14).

5. Gk. enei, in the koine sense "for if it were otherwise" (German da sonst); the clause thus introduced is to be read as a question. Failure to recognize this led to early emendations: H* 1739 and some other authorities omit oix ("not"), producing the unexceptionable statement "they would have ceased to be offered"; p'ib 1518 improve the solecistic enei av which results from the omission of,ovx by the elegant emendation enei xav.

6. The order is reversed to tpaywv xai tavpwv in p46 X 69 and a few other authorities, in conformity with 9:13.

7. Cf. Colossians-Philemon-Ephesians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1984), pp. 116f.

8. See p. 234, n. 1.

9. A. E. Garvie, ExT 28 (1916-17), p. 398 (in an article "Shadow and Substance"). C. Spicq (L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I [Paris, 1952], p. 75) makes the point that an artist draws an outline (oxtb) before he produces the finished portrait (elxwv), and that a similar relation exists in our author's mind between the Levitical ceremonial as the preliminary sketch and the highpriestly work of Christ as the completed masterpiece.

10. J. Moffatt (ICC, ad loc.) quotes from Plato, Cratylus 306E, almost the same expression as our author uses here (elxova iwv:rpayµ&twv). According to Philo (Life of Moses 2.51), Moses regarded his laws as "an image most truly corresponding to the constitution of the world" (eµVepeoti6rn1v elxova sr1S 2ov xoaµou toALieiag). Cf. Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 75; H. Willms, EIKQN.• Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchungzum Platonismus, I: Philon vonAlexandria (Munster, 1935). G. Zuntz (Text, p. 22) compares the contrast between elbwkov (a synonym of elxci)v) and axra in lamblichus, who advocates a "turning from the shadows to the images (elbw~a) and the light" (On the General Mathematical Science 6).

11. The similar ritual of the Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Egypt (founded by Onias IV c. 160 B.c.), which survived that at Jerusalem by a year or two (cf. Josephus, War 7.420-36), hardly comes into the picture (seep. 12, n. 49); whatever the Alexandrine affinities of this epistle may be, we may doubt whether the Leontopolis temple had much religious significance for the Alexandrine Jews (Philo, e.g., speaks of going on pilgrimage "to our ancestral temple" [etc to natpcuov iepov] in Jerusalem [On Providence 64]).

12. Had he been writing after A.D. 70 and had he worded his argument precisely in these terms, it could have been said: "Well, they have ceased to be offered"-a superficial objection, no doubt, but even so one to which such a skillful disputant is not likely to have laid himself open.

13. Or, in the shorter reading reproduced in the text of the NEB: "A man who has bathed needs no further washing; he is altogether clean."

14. Cf. 1 Cor. 6:11, "you were washed (Gk. (InEkovaaaOe)...."

15. Gk. av6L11vrloL5. Cf. Num. 5:15, where the ordeal of jealousy involves "a cereal offering of iniquity, bringing iniquity to remembrance" (and Jub. 34:19, where the Day of Atonement is the anniversary of the day on which Joseph was sold by his brothers, and "has been ordained that they should grieve thereon for all their sins, and for all their errors, so that they might cleanse themselves on that day once a year"). On the biblical force of remembrance cf. pp. 19195 (on Heb. 8:12).

18. But mainly retribution (cf. 1 Kings 17:18; Rev. 16:19); pardon is regularly viewed in terms of God's ceasing to remember sins (cf. Ps. 25:7).

19. Philo (Life of Moses 2.107) says that the sacrifices of the wicked "effect not a remission (lvat5) but a remembrance (vnoµvqa g) of sins" (cf. Planting 108, where the sacrifices of the wicked "do but put God in remembrance of the sins, inadvertent and otherwise, of the various offerers"). Therefore let me eschew wickedness, "for it would be foolish to have the sacrifices effecting remembrance (vnoµvrj(n5) rather than forgetting of sins" (Special Laws 1.215). But those who offer from a pure heart both seek (Life of Moses 2.24) and obtain (Special Laws 1.242) a}lvilmmia of their sins on God's part. Our author, however, says that these sin offerings involve a remembrance of sins irrespective of the character of the offerers.

20. Cf. H. A. Williams, "Unchristian Liturgy," Theology 61 (1958), pp. 401-4.

16. Cf. Deut. 9:7.

17. Cf. Ezek. 23:19.

21. Ps. 51:10, 16f. (LXX 50:12, 18f.); cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 50:8ff. (LXX 49:8ff.); Isa. I:llff.; 66:1ff.; Jet. 7:21ff.; Hos. 6:6; 14:2; Amos 5:21ff.; Mic. 6:6ff.

22. Cf. R. A. Stewart, Rabbinical Theology (Edinburgh, 1961), pp. 120-23.

24. H. L. Ellison, The Centrality of the Messianic Idea for the Old Testament (London, 1953), p. 19.

23. loS 9.4f. There is an echo of Hos. 14:2 here; cf. Heb. 13:15 (p. 384 with n. 91).

25. Cf. A. Biichler, Studies in Sin and Atonement in the Rabbinic Literature of the First Century (Oxford, 1928).

29. Gk. xata voµov (D P and some other MSS, with the TR, read xata toy voµov).

26. Gk. 6 oxavr6lLata (for which p46 and D read the singular o?oxairrgw).

30: X c L 1739 and the TR, with the Latin and Syriac Peshitta, add "0 God" (6 9eoc) from v. 7.

31. For awµato5 ("body") D* reads a`4urto5 ("blood"), in conformity with v. 29.

32. Acts 2:29-31. Cf. Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 21988), pp. 65f.

33. In a form approaching, as usual, the A text, except that he reads 6M6xTloa5 ("thou hadst ... pleasure") for g~rjtrjoa5 (perhaps under the influence of Ps. 51:16 [LXX 50:18]), places the vocative o Oros before to gel iqµa oov instead of after it (the LXX has o Oeoc µou, following the MT, "0 my God"), and omits fPovk>j9i1v ("I have resolved") at the end of his quotation, thus making the infinitive clause tov noLiloar ("to do") a clause of purpose dependent on ijxw ("I have come").

34. As though MT 'oznayim, "ears," were a corruption of 'az gawah, "then a body" (B. Kennicott). Neither can a6µa be satisfactorily explained as due to a corruption in the transmission of the LXX, as though it replaced an earlier wtiia ("ears"), as has been suggested, e.g., by F. Bleek, G. Liinemann, and A. Kuyper. J. Moffatt says: "Whether wtia was corrupted into a6)Ra, or whether the latter was an independent translation, is of no moment" (ICC, ad loc.); true enough, but that it is a corruption is, as F. Delitzsch rightly says (ad loc.), "highly improbable." (Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, with Origen's Quinta and Sexta, and some late LXX editions, read ix ua, by way of conformity to the MT.)

35. There is no ground for relating Ps. 40:6 to the boring of the servant's ear in Ex. 21:6; Deut. 15:17.

36. Cf. H. H. Rowley, "The Meaning of Sacrifice in the Old Testament," in From Moses to Qumran (London, 1963), pp. 67-107.

37. "Every species of sacrifice had its own primary idea. The fundamental idea of the 'olah (b'irnt-offering) was oblatio, or the offering of worship; that of the shelamim (peace-offerings), conciliatio, or the knitting of fellowship; that of the minhah (meal-offering), donatio, or sanctifying consecration; that of the hatta'th (sin-offering), expiatio, or atonement; that of the 'asham (guilt-offering), mulcta (satisfactio), or a compensatory payment. The self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah may be presented under all these points of view. It is the complete antitype, the truth, the object, and the end of all the sacrifices" (F. Delitzsch, The Prophecies of Isaiah, E.T., II [Edinburgh, 1867], pp. 333f., on 'asam in Isa. 53:10). (Cf. n. 42 below.) In Ps. 40:6f. "sin offering" may include the idea of "guilt offering." Cf. also W. O. E. Oesterley, The Psalms (London, 1953), pp. 234f.; he suggests that the thank offering (todah) is not mentioned because it was included under the zebah ("sacrifice"), which comes first of the four. See further R. J. Thompson, Penitence and Sacrifice in Early Israel outside the Levitical Law (Leiden, 1963); R. de Vaux, Studies in Old Testament Sacrifice (Cardiff, 1964).

38. Heb. selamim. In the Levitical legislation zebah (like its cognate verb zabah, "to slaughter in sacrifice") is regularly restricted to peace offerings (under which thank offerings are subsumed).

39. E.g., in its earliest biblical occurrence it is used of Cain's vegetable sacrifice and Abel's animal sacrifice alike (Gen. 4:3ff.). Cf. pp. 281-84 (on 11:4).

40. Lev. 2:lff.

41. In the LXX o?oxavtw us (the word used here), "whole burnt offering," "holocaust," is the commonest equivalent for Heb. 'olah.

42. Heb. hata'ah is a variant of the more common hatta't. When this word is used in the sense of "sin offering," its regular LXX equivalent is the phrase nepi aµaerias (so here). This phrase (for which cf. vv. 8, 18; 13:11; Rom. 8:3), according to E. K. Simpson, "should be read as a single vocable, indeclinable, if you will, for a sin-offering. That is manifest from the LXX usage (Lev. 4:33; 14:19; Num. 8:8, and the o)roxaineuµa xai nepraµaeriaS of Ps. 40:7). We even find the verb nEQLaµaetii;ELv in Aquila and Symmachus, and the latter employs the noun nretaµaerroµo5 of Zechariah's fountain opened for uncleanness" (Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament [London, 1946], p. 29). In Isa. 53:10, where the Servant gives his life as an 'asam, the LXX rendering is nepi aµaetiag (cf. p. 178, n. 93; n. 37 above).

43. J. Denney, The Death of Christ (London, 61907), p. 232. See also C. F. D. Moule, The Sacrifice of Christ (London, 1956); F. M. Young, Sacrifice and the Death of Christ (London, 1975); M. Hengel, TheAtonement, E.T. (London, 1981).

44. Heb. is a "roll" or "scroll"); but LXX iv xE4akLbL Ptokiov (so here) refers strictly to the xeoakig, the knob at the top of the stick around which the scroll was rolled, used here by metonymy for the scroll itself. The genitive PLPkiov may be regarded as genitive of definition, "the book in scroll-form" or "the scroll of writing." It would be going too far to press the etymological sense of Prlkiov and so render the phrase "the scroll of papyrus."

45. Cf. Jer. 31:33, quoted in Heb. 8:10.

46. The suggestion that a heavenly book (cf. Ps. 139:16; Dan. 10:21, etc.) is meant here is unlikely (cf. W. E. Barnes, The Psalms, I [London, 1931 ], p. 204: "The Psalmist's commission is written down in heaven in the book of God, which is pictured as a roll"). Perhaps we should regard the scroll "as an expression of Yahweh's will without specifying its exact nature" (A. A. Anderson, Psalms, NCBC [London, 1972], p. 318).

47. Gk. dvt)tepov, "higher up" in the passage quoted.

48. The Gk. perfect riQ1 xev at the beginning of v. 9 expresses completed action: what the speaker said stands henceforth on permanent record (cf. the use of yiypantaL or r QTITat, "it is written" or "it is said," to introduce a quotation of Scripture, as, e.g., in Luke 4:4, 8, 12). The ordinal numerals "first" (npnnov) and "second" (beinepov) are neuter here; no particular substantive is understood with them. "The first" is the old sacrificial system; "the second" is oui Lord's perfect self-dedication to do the will of God.

49. Gk. iv 6 OrA fait, "by which will," means "by the will of God thus fulfilled b Christ." "Christ's act of obedience is as inclusive [here] as Paul shows it to be when he says in Rom. 5[:19] that a single act of obedience meant a putting right of all mankind, or when he says in II Cor. 5[:14] that if one died for all, then all were dead" (C. F. D. Moule, The Phenomenon of the New Testament, SBT 2.1 [London, 1967], p. 33).

50. J. Denney, Death of Christ, p. 234.

51. Cf. our Lord's words about his "flesh" and his "blood" in John 6:51-58; to "eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood" are two expressions which equally denote his people's appropriation of, and participation in, himself. Similarly in the Eucharist the "body" and the "blood" of Christ are not two complementary parts of his being; in the bread as in the cup it is his whole self that Christ communicates to his people.

52. Gk. egana~, as in 7:27; 9:12 (see p. 175, n. 82); it receives special weight here from its emphatic position at the end of the sentence.

53. It is expressed here in the perfect tense (ilyta(*vot eaµev). Cf. the present ayta~oµevouS in v. 14 (n. 58); perhaps we should contrast the use of the aorist in the case of the apostate in v. 29 (p. 260, n. 129).

54. Some authorities (including A C P 69 104 al syrPe,h hci* * copsa) read "high priest" (aexLEerus).

55. nokXdxt5 ("often") is omitted in the fragmentary seventh-century p7`' (= P. Berl. 6774), which exhibits Heb. 10:10-12, 28-30. See NewDocs., II (1977), § 91 (p. 139).

56. p'3 and the Coptic versions have the singular "sin" (aµaptiav).

57. Gk. etc To btgvexES (as in vv. 1, 14; 7:3; cf. p. 156, n. 7). Here a question of punctuation arises: should the phrase he constructed with the words that precede ("when he had offered ...") or with those that follow ("sat down ...")? It is equally, appropriate with both. In favor of the former alternative it may be said that the phrase would then receive emphasis by coming at the end of a clause, like igana? in v. 10 (cf. n. 53 above); in favor of the latter we may recall the use of this phrase etc To btrwexES in 7:3 as a variant of ei; Toy attuva in Ps. 110 (LXX 109):4. The latter is preferred, e.g., by J. N. Darby (New Translation, ad loc.) and J. Moffatt (New Translation, ad loc.; cf. his note in ICC, p. 140); B. F. Westcott, however, rightly points out that the latter construction "is contrary to the usage of the Epistle; it obscures the idea of the perpetual efficacy of Christ's one sacrifice; it weakens the contrast with EnTTlxev; and it imports a foreign idea into the image of the assumption (ixaOtoev) of royal dignity by Christ" (ad loc.).

58. Gk. ayta~oµevov5 (as in 2:11), for which p46 has the curious variant dvaawtoµivov5, "(those who are) being saved again"-probably due to the misreading of an indistinct exemplar.

59. Gk. aihrl (pt' D* and Vg. read aiirj bE, "But this").

63. Jer. 31:34b, in a telescoped form (cf. 8:12).

64. Gk. a4Eatq, as in 9:22.

67. The Greek aorist participle npoorveyxac ("having offered") in v. 12 is in sharp contrast to the present participle npoqepmv ("offering") in v. 11. But since Latin has no perfect participle active (except in deponent verbs), the Latin version uses the present participle offerens as the rendering of both these forms. The context here really rules out the implication of the Latin present participle; it is a contradiction in terms to say (as R. A. Knox's translation of the Vulgate puts it): "he sits for ever at the right hand of God, offering for our sins a sacrifice that is never repeated" (a footnote in Knox's version points out that the Greek means: "he has taken his seat at the right hand of God after offering a sacrifice"). (The Latin replacement of the Greek aorist indicative exa9Larv by the present sedet does not materially affect the sense.) For a similar difficulty arising from the absence of a perfect participle active in the Latin verb cf. 1:3 (p. 49, n. 31).

65. See pp. 49f., 63f.

66. See p. 177.

68. See p. 244, n. 57.

69. This is the only place in the epistle where this expression appears without periphrasis (cf. its amplifications in 1:3; 5:1; 12:2).

70. Grace Abounding, para. 258.

71. Cf. 2:6ff. (pp. 72-75).

72. A. Harnack, What is Christianity? E.T. (London, 1904), p. 159.

73. As A. B. Davidson says of the present participles aytd%wv and aymt6REVOL in 2:11, "the words are timeless designations of the two parties, taken from the part characteristic of each" (The Epistle to the Hebrews [Edinburgh, 18821, p. 66). "He has perfected" (v. 14) is perfect tense.

74. See D. Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection, SNTSM 47 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 14953. Cf. also A. B. Davidson, Hebrews, pp. 203-9 ("Note on the Words Purge, Sanctify, Make Perfect").

75. Cf. "he says" in 8:8 (p. 187).

76. See A. Vanhoye, "L'oblation sacerdotale du Christ dans I'epitre aux Hebreux," Didaskalia 14 (1984), pp. 27f.

77. Gk. np6oxaro5, etymologically meaning "freshly killed"; the second element in the compound became otiose at an early stage, and the word simply means "new," "fresh," "recent" (cf. such LXX occurrences as Eccl. 1:9; Ps. 80:9 [Eng. 81:9]; and the adverbngoo4cit(O5 ["lately"] in Acts 18:2).

78. Gk. npoarQXth E9a, for which p46* D K P and many other manuscripts have the indicative npooEQX6W0a ("we draw near"). In this hortatory context the subjunctive is required.

79. The ARV, following the punctuation of the TR, puts a heavy stop after "evil conscience," so that the participial construction "having had our hearts sprinkled clean (pepavnoµevot) ..." is attached to what precedes; it should be construed closely with the ).EXoD*vot clause which follows, both clauses being subordinate to "let us approach" (so the AV/KJV, the ERV, the RSV, and the NEB). The participles are in the middle voice, as is appropriate for initiatory cleansing; cf. P&nttoat ... &nokovoar in Acts 22:16 and &3EAovoao9E in 1 Cor. 6:11.

80. "Our" (i1µ w) is supplied in a few authorities (N * with the Latin Vulgate and Syriac Peshitta); in the others it is left to be understood.

81. Gk. et; napo~uoµov, lit. "for provocation"; p46 has ex napol uoµov, which might be rendered "by way of provocation."

82. W. C. van Unnik, "The Christian's Freedom of Speech in the New Testament," BJRL 44 (1961-62), p. 487. Cf. p. 94, n. 20; p. 271, n. 188.

84. Gk. iv T CO a'iµan. ' Irloov, the instrumental use of iv (as in 13:20) being practically indistinguishable from that of Sta in the similar phrase in 9:12.

85. Gk. i vexaivt(jev, "he consecrated or dedicated." See J. Behm, TDNT, III, p. 454 (s.v. iyxatvii;w); also W. Michaelis, TDNT, V, pp. 75-78 (s.v. oboc). "The death of Christ is seen as the new Encaenia or Dedication," says J. A. T. Robinson, adding that two ideas appear to be combined here, the Cross marking the dedication both of the new covenant-for "even the first covenant has not been dedicated (evxExaivLot(i) without blood" (9:18)-and of the new temple (cf. the technical term evxaivLa in John 10:22); "the whole argument of chapters 9 and 10 leads to the climax that Jesus has now `opened' the new sanctuary in the temple of his body" (Twelve New Testament Studies [London, 1962], p. 172). See also O. Hofius, "Inkarnation and Opfertod Jesu nach Hebr 10, 19f.," in Der Ruf Jesu and die Antwort der Gemeinde (J. Jeremias FS), ed. E. Lohse (Gottingen, 1970), pp. 132-41.

86. Cf. Eph. 2:18; also Rom. 5:2; Eph. 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:4f.; 3:18. See N. A. Dahl, "'A New and Living Way'-the Approach to God according to Hebrews 10:19-25," Interpretation 5 (1951), pp. 401-12.

87. With &La tov xatanet6toµato5 here cf. to beinepov xatanetaaµa in 9:3 (and the earlier

83. Gk. napprloiav Eis trly Eioobov twv ayiwv (with the expression cf. 9:8, ti)v uuv ayiwv obov).

88. This is the majority view; however, it has been identified with the outer veil by Jerome and Thomas Aquinas and also by G. Dalman, E. Klostermann, A. H. McNeile, B. T. D. Smith, E. Lohmeyer, etc. (see the list in V. Taylor, The Gospel according to St. Mark [London, 1952], p. 596).

89. Other portents associated with the temple are recorded for A.D. 30 and other occasions in the forty years preceding its destruction in A.D. 70 in Josephus (War 6.288-309), Tacitus (Kist. 5.13), The Gospel according to the Hebrews (quoted by Jerome, Epistle 120.8.1) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Yoma 6.5.3); it does not appear that the rending of the veil can be identified with any of these. But see H. W. Montefiore, "Josephus and the New Testament," NovT 4 (1960). pp. 139-60, 307-18 (esp. pp. 148-54). The rending of the veil has nothing to do with the legend that the veil bled when Titus slashed it with his sword (TB Gitlin 56b).

90. Cf. C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments (London, 1944), p. 51; G. Lindeskog, Coniectanea Neotestamentica 11 (1947), pp. 132ff.; R. H. Lightfoot, The Gospel Message of St. Mark (Oxford, 1950), pp. 55f.

91. Unless, with K. Holsten, we treat this clause as a gloss added later, but for such a conjecture there is no textual evidence.

92. If they qualify "the veil," the genitiveti1S aapx6; in tour' eotty t% oapxog ainov may be taken either as genitive in apposition with too xatanerao1tatos ("the veil, that is, his flesh") or as genitive in dependence on tov xataneraoµatos ("the veil, that is, [the veil] of his flesh"). If they qualify "new and living way," ti1S aapxo5 can only be taken as genitive in dependence on obov ("new and living way, that is, [the way] of his flesh").

93. So J. Moffatt (ICC, ad loc.): "He allegorizes the veil here as the flesh of Christ; this had to be rent before the blood could be shed, which enabled him to enter and open God's presence for the people." Similarly N. H. Young, "Toro' kSTLV Tf15 aapx65 aiTov (Heb. x.20): Apposition, Dependent or Explicative?" NTS 20 (1973-74), pp. 100-104: "the grammatical grounds for taking Tr1S aapx65 avrov as an appositional explicative to xaTaaetaaµa are coercive"; if some balk at this conclusion, it is mainly because of the "daring, poetical touch" (J. Moffatt), but "provided one is sober in one's exegesis the `poetic touch' makes a sublime addition."

94. The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 211f. Cf. also 0. Michel and C. Spicq, ad loc., and W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), p. 67.

95. The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 322. A. Nairne finds that Westcott's interpretation "does make the whole sentence consistent and is probably right" (The Epistle of Priesthood [Edinburgh, 19131, p. 381). Cf. also H. W. Montefiore, HNTC, ad loc. Westcott indicates that the construction favored by him is that followed by Tyndale ("by the newe and livynge waye, which he hath prepared for vs, through the vayle, that is to saye by his flesshe") and other earlier English versions (cf. Coverdale, Great Bible, Geneva Bible). But their use of "by" before "his flesh" may perhaps not be resumptive of "by" before "the new and living way" but intended rather to indicate that the preposition &6. has a different sense in the phrase "through (or by) his flesh" from that which it has in "through the veil"; cf. A. B. Davidson's remark in the quotation above on the deepening of the meaning of "through."

96. ICC, ad loc.

97. RSV "the priest who is chief among his brethren"; LXX 6 iepev5 6 µeyac ano tmv dbe?6v avtov. In Num. 35:25, 28, we have the simple phrase hakkohen haggadol, LXX o iepev5 o µeyas, lit. "the great priest," ARV "the high priest," as also in Zech. 3:1, 9; 6:11, where Joshua (LXX Jesus) is so designated (cf. p. 109, n. 28; p. 116, n. 68).

98. See p. 94, n. 18.

99. From 4:16.

100. In 7:19 the verb is eyyitw; here and elsewhere in the epistle npoaepxoµaL is the verb used for approaching God.

101. So the AV/KJV, the RSV, and the NEB rightly render na,rlpo4opia here (the n),rlpo~opia of faith here differs but little, if at all, from the tArlpo~opia of hope in 6:11).

102. See p. 248, n. 79.

103. Cf. G. H. Lang, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), p. 167.

104. Cf. also the "water of expiation" (Heb. me hatta't) sprinkled on the Levites in Num. 8:7.

105. Cf. also Ex. 29:4 (cf. 40:12), where the priests at their hallowing are washed at the door of the tent of meeting; Num. 19:7f., where the priest who supervises the burning of the red heifer and the man who burns her must wash their bodies and their clothes. With the wording of this clause ("having had our bodies washed with pure water") A. Nairne (Epistle of Priesthood, p. 381) compares Aeschylus, fragment 32: xa&oi.ot ).ourpoig ex4kouOvog beµag / ei5 $ynxprlµvov `Iµepav a4tx6µrly.

106. Cf. E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter (London, 1946), pp. 204-6.

107. The purificatory "sprinkling" of the heart and conscience "is put first, though the body had also its place and part in the cleansing experience. The xaQbia and the owµa are a full, plastic expression for the entire personality, as the ancients conceived it" (J. Moffatt, ad loc.). The sprinkling (by the blood of Christ, according to 9:14; cf. 12:24) and the washing are both denoted here by means of perfect participles; they are once-for-all and unrepeatable acts with abiding effects.

108. Cf. p. 215, n. 88.

109. 1QS 3.4-9.

110. In the LXX the "clean water" of Ezek. 36:25 is xaOapov iibwp, as here. Cf. also John 3:5, where the new birth e~ vbato5 xai nvevµato5 probably alludes to the water of Ezek. 36:25 and the spirit (wind or breath) of Ezek. 36:26f.; 37:9f. In Mark 1:8 the two are divided: John the Baptist applies the water; the Coming One will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

111. In 4:14 xpatew is the verb used for "holding fast" the confession (as also in 6:18 for laying hold on the Christian hope as an anchor of the soul); here (as in 3:6, 14) the verb is xuteXw.

113. Gk. naeo vaµos, from the verb napol vvw.

1 1 2 . Gk. xaTiX(o lEv T v O[Lo? oy av 2715 EJ.7LLSo; a%?AVTI.

114. "Love ... is not irritable" (RSV). There is one further NT instance of aapoi;~vw in Acts 17:16, where Paul's "spirit was provoked within him" (NEB "exasperated") at the spectacle of so many "idols" in Athens.

115. A. Hamack, Mission and Expansion of Christianity, E.T. (London, 1908), I, pp. 434f. On his last point he quotes in a footnote Tertullian, On Flight in Persecution 3; on the general necessity of Christians' coming together and seeking one another's society he refers to Clement of Rome, Epistle 48:lff.; Didache 4:2; Hermas, Similitude 9.20, 26; Ep. Barn. 4:10; Ignatius, Ephesians 13:1, Polycarp 4:2, Magnesians 4; Justin, FirstApology 67. Cf. Didascalia 13: "When you teach, command and remind the people to be constant in the assembly of the church." M. Dibelius ("Der himmlische Kultus nach dem Hebraerbrief," Theologische Blatter 21 [1942], pp. 2f.) assigns the falling off in attendance at the church's meetings to a waning of early enthusiasm; similarly H. Koster, P. Vielhauer, and W. Marxsen, as cited by H. Feld, Der Hebraerbrief (Darmstadt, 1985), p. 9. In the NT the tendency to withdrawal is especially manifest on the part of those who embraced forms of teaching deviating from what had been taught from the beginning (cf. 1 John 2:19, 24). Cf. Heb. 3:13 (pp. 100f.).

116. Gk. a nm uywy i, appearing once elsewhere in the NT-"our gathering together to him" (2 Thess. 2:1), where, however, the prefix Ent- may have directive force, anticipating np65 ak6v.

117. The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 69.

118. "Scarcely to be differentiated from auvaywyrl" (BAGD, p. 301).

119. W. Manson suggests that the ERV reading of 4:2, "they were not united by faith with them that heard" (see p. 103, n. 4) implies that "the Christian group at Rome whom the author addresses was separating itself off in the matter of `faith' from the true believing body of the Church" (Hebrews, p. 58). This reading of 4:2 might indeed be applicable to the people who are being addressed, but it would scarcely be applicable to Israel in the wilderness, of whom the words are explicitly spoken. Quite apart from that vexed textual crux, we could well visualize the community here addressed as members of a "house church" in Rome which tended to detach itself from the wider fellowship of the city church.

120. Cf. L. Goppelt, "The Existence of the Church in History according to Apostolic and Early Catholic Thought," Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation: Essays in Honor of Otto A. Piper, ed. W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder (New York, 1962), pp. 193-209.

121. How sudden the overt hostility of the imperial power was may be gathered from the language of 1 Peter: in I Pet. 3:13 "who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good?" implies that the situation of Rom. 13:3f., several years earlier, still continues; in 1 Pet. 3:14 suffering for righteousness' sake is a remote possibility, as the use of the optative mood shows ("even if you were to suffer ..."); but in 1 Pet. 4:12-19 the fiery trial is imminent, and suffering as a Christian, enduring reproach for the name of Christ, is no longer a remote possibility but a matter of present and certain expectation.

122. Gk. gyyi~ovaav (cf. p. 254, n. 100).

123. L. Goppelt, "The Existence of the Church... ," p. 199.

124. Gk. nepi aµaptrcav (cf. 5:1, 3), for which p46 D* 81 have nepi aµaptias (cf. v. 6, p. 241, n. 42).

125. Gk. nvpos ~flAo5, lit. "zeal of fire"; the passage is an echo of Isa. 26:11 ("let them see your zeal for the people, ... let fire consume your adversaries"; LXX "zeal shall take an uninstructed people, and fire shall consume the adversaries"). Isa. 26:11 occurs in a judgment context, from which a further quotation is taken in v. 37a (p. 273, n. 197). Cf. 12:29 (pp. 365f.).

126. D* and the Harclean Syriac (Western authorities) add "and tears" (xai baxevwv), perhaps an echo of 12:17.

127. Quotation from Deut. 17:6; 19:15 (cf. Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19). Cf. H. van Vliet, No Single Testimony (Utrecht, 1958).

128. Cf. 9:20 (quotation from Ex. 24:8). The African Old Latin MS r adds "new" to "covenant."

130. Cod. A and a few other authorities add from Rom. 12:19 "says the Lord" (so also the TR and the AV/KJV).'t he quotation from Deut. 32:35 here and in Rom. 12:19 takes a form different from that of the MT ("vengeance is mine, and recompense") and the LXX ("on the day of vengeance I will repay," which suggests that MT li, "mine," was an abbreviation for leyom, "on the day"), but in agreement with that of the Targum of Onqelos (Aramaic: godamay por'an(da wa'dna 'dsallem), and of the Palestinian and Pseudo-Jonathan Targums. Evidently

129. Gk. iv w ilyt6oOrl, omitted in A and some MSS of Chrysostom. See p. 243, n. 53.

131. Deut. 32:36 (cf. also Ps. 135:14, where, however, the LXX [134:14] shows O[XTEC(XL, "pities," as a strong variant for xpivet or xpwrL).

134. Cf. 2:17f.; 4:15f.; 5:2.

135. "The knowledge of the truth" (eniyvwots (ii1S) B),rl9eiag) is a recurring phrase in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Tit. 1:1; cf. 1 Tim. 4:3); similar language occurs in the Johannine writings (cf. John 8:32; 1 John 2:21; 2 John 1). A study of the expression in relation to the thought and vocabulary of Qumran is presented by H. Kosmala inHebrder-EssenerChristen (Leiden, 1959), pp. 135-73; he is, however, certainly at fault in his view that "the knowledge of the truth" in Hebrews "does not yet include faith in Jesus Christ" (p. 137).

132. Num. 15:30 (cf. p. 67, n. 2). For the a fortiori argument see p. 68, n. 4.

133. Gal. 6:1.

136. J. Moffatt (ICC, p. 151); he recalls the Homeric phrase for oath-breaking (xatanatrIv opxta, lit. "to trample oaths underfoot") and more particularly the LXX of Zech. 12:3, where Jerusalem is described as "a stone trampled on (xataaatovµavov) by all the nations; every one who tramples on her (xatanatcuv aingv) will utterly scorn her." But there is no indication that Zech. 12:3 was in our author's mind here, although he uses the same verb natanatecu.

137. Cf. 9:14; 10:10, 14, 19ff. for all that, to our author's mind, is involved in being "sanctified" by the covenant blood of Christ. For his blood as "covenant blood" cf. p. 194 with n. 69; pp. 216-27 with nn. 91-144. The phrase al{►a &aNxr appears in a context of liberation in Zech. 9:11, which, however, is less likely to have influenced the wording of this and similar NT passages than Ex. 24:8 (quoted in Heb. 9:20).

138. Gk. xotv65, "common" and therefore "unholy" (cf. the use of the adjective in Acts 10: 13f., 28, and the derivative verb XOLv0o) in the sense of "defile" in Heb. 9:13, as also in Mark 7:15, 18, 20, 23 and parallels; Acts 21:28).

139. Gk. to nvriµa tf1 xOQito5 i=.VUkiaaS. Cf. "the spirit of grace and of supplication" (nveuµa xaptroS xaL oixnpµov) in Zech. 12:10; here, however, the Spirit is personal as in Heb. 6:4 (one might treat tr15 x6.prto5 as a Semitic adjectival genitive and render "the gracious Spirit"), and Eph. 4:30 suggests itself as a close parallel.

140. The sin which our Lord thus described was a deliberate closing of one's eyes to the light; in the immediate context that sin took the form of seeing the works of mercy and power which he wrought by the Holy Spirit and ascribing them to the activity of Beelzebul. Many have compared the "sin unto death" of 1 John 5:16 (which, however, may be a sin which has resulted in the sinner's bodily death, in which case his friends are not urged to pray for him). As appears from the quotation from the Qumran literature on p. 255 (n. 109), rebellious apostasy was regarded as an unforgivable sin in the Qumran community (cf. also 10S 2.13f.: "his spirit, parched [for lack of truth] and watered [with falsehood] shall be destroyed without pardon").

141. Cf. Deut. 13:8; 19:13, etc.

142. It is going too far, however, to say with E. J. Goodspeed that it was the Epistle to the Hebrews that "had most definitely stirred him [Hernias] to write" (The Apostolic Fathers [London, 1962], p. 97).

143. He warns against them in 12:16; 13:4.

144. It might indeed be supposed that Hermas's thought, that he would be happy if he had a wife comparable to Rhoda for beauty and character (Vision 1.1.2), would not be regarded by any healthy mind as sinful at all, and Hermas himself did not think of it as sinful (perhaps an instance of the "adultery in the heart" mentioned in Matt. 5:28) until it was revealed to him that it was so (Vision 1.1.8; 1.2.4).

147. See p. 148, with n. 55; the whole exposition there of 6:4-8 is relevant to the present discussion.

145. Hermas, Shepherd, Vision 3.5.1ff.; Mandate 4.3.1ff.; Similitude 5.5.3; 5.6.3.

146. Hermas, Shepherd, Vision 2.2.1ff.

148. According to L. Goppelt ("Existence of the Church," p. 201), "the reformation of Luther began at this point; it was Luther who first cracked the basis of the penitential system started by Hermas, namely, the presupposition that baptism is merely a closed historical act and repentance a subsequent act (WA, VI, 529)."

149. Cf. the use of the Song in Rom. 10:19 (quoting v. 21); 1 Cor. 10:20, 22 (echoing vv. 16f.). Other quotations or allusions may be traced in Rom. 15:10 (quoting v. 43); Phil. 2:15 (echoing v. 5); Heb. 1:6 (see p. 57 with nn. 74-76). The Song, with its denunciation of Israel's apostasy, also played an important part in the thinking of the Qumran community; cf. the quotation of v. 28 in CD 5.17.

150. Cf. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 20, 119, 130. See J. R. Harris, "A Factor of Old Testament Influence in the New Testament,"ExT27 (1925-26), pp. 6-11; B. Lindars,New TestamentApologetic (London, 1961), pp. 244f., 258, 274.

151. Paul quotes the words to show that Christians should not avenge themselves, since that would be encroaching upon the province of God. Similarly in the Qumran literature (CD 9.5) the members of the community are instructed to leave vengeance to God, since he "takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he keeps wrath for his enemies" (Nah. 1:2).

152. In the immediate context of this part of the Song the vengeance is evidently directed against Israel's enemies:

But much of the Song is an indictment of Israel's unfaithfulness and a warning of God's ensuing judgment against her; if in the end he crushes her enemies, who were the instruments of his judgment on her, it is for "his own name's sake:

153. G. G. Findlay, Exp. V.ix (1899), p. 91, in reference to 1 John 5:19 (in the article "St. John's Creed," pp. 81-96).

154. Cf. pp. 365f. (on 12:29). With language like this we may compare the "fiery indignation" of v. 27 (cf. p. 260, n. 125). Cf. Deut. 5:26, where the title "the living God" occurs in a context of fiery symbolism: "who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire, as we have, and has still lived?" The same title recurs in the situation which forms the background of Isa. 33:14; Sennacherib's doom is sealed when he sends his minister "to mock the living God" (Isa. 37:4, 17). Cf. our author's other uses of the title in 3:12; 9:14; 12:22.

155. Cf. Isa. 31:9.

157. In addition to the passages mentioned on p. 265, n. 154, cf. Josh. 3:10; 1 Sam. 17:26; Pss. 42:2; 84:2.

158. The Translators to the Reader, compiled by one of their number, Miles Smith, Canon of Hereford (later to be Bishop of Gloucester).

159. Gk. ras nQotepov i ag. A few good minuscules (including 33 69 1739) and the Bohairic Coptic add utubv ("your former days"); X * not only adds i p.6 v but in place of il1EQas exhibits the odd reading 64aptia5 ("your former sins," perhaps through a vague reminiscence of 2 Pet. 1:9).

160. Gk. AeatQLl oµevoL (cf. Paul's use of Oiatpov, "spectacle," in 1 Cor. 4:9); D* and the Sahidic Coptic read ovEL&i;oµevoL ("being reproached") under the influence of ovrLbLoµot5 ("reproaches") in the same clause; cf. the collocation of the same substantive and verb in Rom. 15:3 (quoting Ps. 69:9). The verb 6eaipil;w (here only in the Greek Bible) was not attested elsewhere earlier than Gregory of Nazianzus until it was discovered on a Gerasa inscription of Trajan's principate (A.D. 98-117); cf. A. H. M. Jones, "Inscriptions from Jerash," JRS 18 (1928), pp. 14478, § 14.18.

156. David's words are echoed in Sir. 2:18:

161. Gk. toi5 SeoµioLs (so p13 apparently, with AD 33 and other minuscules, the Latin and Syriac versions), for which p46 T 81 and Origen read toi5 beoµoic ("on the bonds"); attempts to make this latter reading intelligible are found in the Old Latin texts d and e, which read "on their bonds," and in K with the majority of manuscripts and Clement of Alexandria (followed by the TR and the AV), which read toil beoµoic µov ("on my bonds")-a reading which evidently originated in Alexandria under the influence of the belief that the writer was Paul (cf. Col. 4:18b).

162. Gk. eavrov5 (p13 p46 K A 1912 with the Latin versions, Clement, and Origen); the inferior reading eaurois (D K L and many other MSS) is followed by the ARV ("knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession ...").

163. A few authorities (including P 1739 and the Peshitta and Harclean Syriac, followed by the TR) add iv ovpavoic (whence AV/KJV "ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance").

164. This phrase, introducing the quotation which follows, echoes Isa. 26:20 (seep. 273, n. 197).

165. Gk. 6 be bixatoc µov ex niotewc tiloetat. "Here the writer transferred the pronoun µov from after niarewc to after bixatoc-a small alteration of great consequence" (G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles, p. 173). D* and a few other authorities with the Syriac versions and Eusebius restore the LXX B text by transposing µov to follow niorewc, giving the sense "by my faith(fulness)"; p13 with the majority of later MSS and the TR omit µov altogether (under the influence of Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11), whence AV/KJV "Now the just shall live by faith" (see p. 273, n. 196).

167. Lit. "we are not of withdrawing (vnootol,.ilc) unto perdition, but of faith (niotewc) unto the saving (neptnoirlaty, `gaining,' `acquiring') of the soul." The two genitives are descriptive in effect; a class of people is denoted in either case.

168. Gk. Oumo9evmg (cf. p. 145, n. 39).

169. See p. 342 with nn. 62-64.

170. Acts 8:1-3. That believers suffered death, as well as imprisonment and exile, in this persecution is suggested by Paul's words in Acts 26:10 ("when they were put to death" seems to be more than a generalizing plural, and to imply that Stephen was not the only martyr at this time).

175. See p. 21, nn. 90, 91; p. 266, n. 160.

171. Acts 12:2.

172. Josephus,Ant. 20.200.

173. Tacitus, Annals 15.44.6.

174. 1 Clem. 6:2.

176. Dio Cassius, Hist. 60.6: "He did not directly banish them, but forbade them to gather in accordance with their ancestral way of life." See E. M. Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1976), pp. 210-16.

177. Suetonius, Claudius 25.4.

178. See F. F. Bruce, New Testament History (London, 21971), pp. 279-82;Acts, NICNT, pp. 346-48 (on Acts 18:2). If this interpretation is right, the Christians of Rome, being in a minority, would inevitably come off worst in the riots of which Suetonius speaks. Those who were expelled probably began to make their way back on the death of Claudius in A.D. 54.

179. Philo, Flaccus 56.

180. Cf. Josephus, War 2.457-80.

181. Claudius's rescript to the Alexandrians of A.D. 41, preserved in P. Lond. 1912 (editio princeps in H. I. Bell, Jews and Christians in Egypt [London, 1924], pp. 1-37), with its reference to illegal Jewish immigration into Alexandria from Syria or other parts of Egypt, has sometimes been thought to refer to the coming of Christianity to that city; but this is a very precarious interpretation (cf. Bruce, New Testament History, pp. 277f.).

182. Philo, Flaccus 65ff.

185. Cf. Lucian, Death ofPeregrinus 12; Aristides, Apology 15; Tertullian, To the Martyrs lf.; Apology 39; Eusebius, Hist. Ecci. 4.23.10, etc.; A. Harnack, Mission and Expansion of Christianity, I, pp. 162-65, II, p. 117. See p. 372.

183. If the reference is indeed to events at Rome, this might suggest that the author knew of them at first hand (e.g., Priscilla or Aquila) or at second hand (e.g., Apollos). Cf. p. 274, n. 199.

184. Cf. 12:1f.; such metaphors are a commonplace of ancient literature (for their Pauline use cf. 1 Cor. 9:24-27; 2 Tim. 4:7f.).

186. Cf. Acts 5:41; 1 Pet. 4:13.

187. With our author's p anoPaXrrre oVV ti)v napprjaiav vluuv Moffatt (ICC, p. 155) compares Dio Chrysostom's very similar &60LXa µil te),EwS anooa&,1te trly napptlaiav (Oration 34.39); but Dio uses nappijaia here of the Tarsian citizens' right of free speech.

188. W. C. van Unnik, "The Christian's Freedom of Speech in the New Testament," p. 485. Cf. p. 249, n. 82.

189. Gk. LL08an06OOLa (cf. 2:2; 11:26); cf. uo9aR066T 1 , 11:6.

190. Cf. Rabbi Tarphon inPirqeAboth 2.21: "It is not for you to finish the work, neither are you free to desist therefrom; if you have studied much Torah, much reward will be given you, and faithful is your Employer to pay you the reward of your labor; and know that the recompense of reward (Heb. mattan Dakar) for the righteous is for the time to come."

191. Gk. imogov~, cognate with the verb vneru:ivaie ("you endured") in v. 32; but there is probably no deliberate harking back to 6 r as vate. See p. 151, n. 67 (on 6:12).

192. See pp. 258f.

193. Cf. J. H. Eaton, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, TC (London, 1962), pp. 82-84,94-98.

194. The Targum of Jonathan renders the passage: "Behold, the prophecy will be for an appointed time, and its term is fixed; it will not be in vain. If there is a long period of waiting for the event, keep looking out for it; behold, it will come in its appointed time, and will not be late. Behold, the wicked say to themselves, `None of these things is happening'; but the righteous will be established by their truth."

195. Not only is there a different emphasis in the LXX; there are some points of textual divergence from the MT. Heb. `uppelah ("is puffed up," with napffi, "his soul," as subject) is rendered vaoasehArrraL ("draws back"), perhaps because the Vorlage had `ullepah ("faints"), which is actually read in some MSS, and is presupposed by RSV "shall fail" (quoted above). Possibly the verb `apil was confused with its homophone meaning "be neglectful" (cf. Num. 14:44); this confusion may account for Aquila's rendering of the verb by VWXEAevoµaL, "be slug gish." Heb. na jo ("his soul") is read as napsi ("my soul"), while the rendering evboxai ("takes pleasure in") presupposes some such word as rasetah in place of y&erdh ("is upright"; cf. Aquila's rendering 69eia). The B text of the LXX presupposes 'emdnati, "my faith(fulness)," for 'emunatS, "his faith(fulness)." See n. 196 below.

196. The LXX witnesses differ in their placing of the possessive pronoun "my"; the B text reads o bi bixaro5 ex niatEws µou ~1jartal ("but the righteous one will live by my faithfulness"), while the A text and `C' group of MSS attest the reading 6 hi bixat6; you ix niaceuw5 t tlaetM ("but my righteous one will live by faith[fulness]"). (Cod. A itself, indeed, has you in both positions, but this is self-evidently a secondary reading.) Most editors prefer the B reading; it has even been suggested that the A reading has been influenced by the present text of Hebrews (cf. B. Lindars. New TestamentApologetic [London,. 1961], p. 231; see also G. Zuntz, as quoted on p. 267, n. 165). The A reading is strongly defended by T. W. Manson in "The Argument from Prophecy" (JTS 46 [1945], pp. 129-36)-an article to which the exposition above is considerably indebted. "In view of the general sense of the passage as presented in the LXX version," he says (p. 134), "it is not difficult to decide between these alternatives"-the B alternative, "the solid foundation for all the hopes of the righteous man is the faithfulness of God," and the A alternative, "God's righteous one will live by faithfulness." "The leader who plays the coward," he goes on, "eo ipso shows that he is not God's chosen. The genuine choice of God, God's righteous one, will be faithful to his God, his people, and his task, and so he will win life." "My righteous one," that is to say, is the one who "will surely come and not delay." But in Heb. 10:37f. "my righteous one" is not equated with "the coming one."

197. Gk. etL yap uxpov oaov oaov. Isa. 26:20, LXX, has ILLXQ6v oaov oaov for Heb. kime`at rega'. For another echo of Isa. 26 cf. v. 27 above (p. 260, n. 125).

198. Cf. the same construction in 6:14 (p. 153, n. 75).

199. "A fact which becomes the more interesting if, as I think is probable, the author of Hebrews is Apollos, who was a Johannite before he became a Christian" (T. W. Manson, "Argument from Prophecy," p. 134). Cf. p. 270, n. 183.

200. Cf. Article 18 of the Creed of Maimonides: "I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Messiah, and though he tarry, I will wait daily for his coming."

201. Cf. Matt. 24:45ff., where the possibility is envisaged that the same servant may turn out to be either "the faithful and wise servant" who is found doing his duty when his master comes, or "that evil servant" who misconducts himself because his master seems to be so long in coming.

202. Paul omits the possessive pronoun from the clause altogether. It is plain that our author does not take the quotation from Paul. C. H. Dodd suggests that the quotation was current as a testimonium to the coming of Christ in primitive Christian times, and that its use in this way is reflected independently both in Paul's writings and in Hebrews. That it was current as a testimonium even before Paul wrote Galatians is the more likely, he thinks, because Paul's argument is very much ad hominem, and would be all the more effective if it was already common ground between him and his opponents that when the Coming One came, the righteous would live by faith (According to the Scriptures [London, 1952], pp. 50f.). We may compare the exegesis of the same passage in the Qumran commentary on Habakkuk, where the statement "the righteous shall live by his faith" is applied to "all the doers of the law in the house of Judah, whom God will save from the place of judgment because of their toil and their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness" (1QpHab 8.1-3). It is plain that the Teacher of Righteousness "was not only a spiritual leader but a figure of eschatological significance. Acceptance of his teaching, loyally keeping to the path which he marked out for his followers-this was the way to eternal life" (F. F. Bruce, "The Dead Sea Habakkuk Scroll," Annual of Leeds University Oriental Society 1 [ 1958-591, p. 16; cf. Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts [London, 1960], pp. 77, 82f.).

203. "Faith is indeed the primary Christian virtue; but it is so, to our writer, not merely because it enables the believer to make real in himself the righteousness freely offered to him in the grace of the Lord Jesus, a sense which the word has so conspicuously in the Pauline letters and with which there is no reason whatever for thinking that our writer would not be in entire agreement, but also because it sustains and gives substance to hope and demonstrates the reality of the invisible" (R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel in the Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1950], p. 60). Cf. 11:1, with the whole exposition of faith which follows.

206. The phrase etc neptnotgaty Wu'Xflc here is a variant expression for ~ilaetat in the Habakkuk quotation in v. 38.

207. 1 Tim. 6:19.

208. See E. Grasser, Der Glaube im Hebraerbrief (Marburg, 1965).

204. Cf. F. F. Bruce, Epistle to the Romans, TNTC (Leicester, 21985), pp. 159-65.

205. Gk. XTr GEo&e Tag t4rvxas {f i i)v (cf. Eig REQLXOilgGLV iyvxi1g in Heb. 10:39).

1. Gk. vn6oraat5 (ERV/ARV, RSV "assurance").

2. Gk. almve5 (lit. "ages"), as in 1:2 (see p. 47, n. 17).

3. The form of the definition (EOtty be marts ...) is paralleled in Philo; cf. his definition of prayer: "Now prayer is (EoTty bi eN>j) a request for good things from God" (On the Unchangeableness of God 87).

4. See p. 48 with nn. 26, 27.

7. Following Vg. substantia. Cf. the Geneva rendering: "Faith is that which causeth those things to appear in deed which are hoped for."

8. MM, pp. 659f.

11. This "conviction of things not seen" (npayµat(ov eX€yxo5 ov A?<erzoµevwv) embraces things which are invisible because they belong to the spiritual order and things which are invisible because they belong to the future, like the fulfilment of God's promises (cf. F. R. Tennant, "The Central Problems of Faith," ExT32 [1920-21], pp. 561-65).

12. On Dreams 1.68; cf. Planting 20: the human body was made erect so that people could look up to heaven and "apprehend clearly by means of what was visible that which was not visible."

5. See p. 101, with n. 67 (and particularly the work by H. Dorrie cited there).

6. Tyndale, Coverdale, and the Great Bible render it "sure confidence."

9. Cf. Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14.

10. Gk. vnoµovrj (cf. Heb. 10:36).

13. Gk. of npeo01&repor (lit. "the elders"); cf. "the fathers" in 1:1.

14. Cf. also the illustrations of wisdom from early OT narratives in Wisdom 10:1ff., the list in CD 2.16ff. of those who went astray through "guilty inclination and lustful eyes," the lists in 1 Clement of those who suffered through envy and jealousy (4:1ff.), of those who were found faithful, obedient, and hospitable (9:1ff.), of those who sacrificed themselves for the good of others (55:lff.).

15. So in 4 Mace. 16:20ff. the mother of the seven martyr-brothers encourages her sons to faithful endurance by reminding them of Abraham, Daniel, and the three Hebrews; in 4 Macc. 18:11ff. she adds Abel, Isaac, Joseph, and Phinehas as examples for them to follow.

16. Cf. O. Michel, DerBrief an die Hebraer, MK (Gottingen, 1949), pp. 244f.; H. Thyen, Der Stil der jiidisch-hellenistischen Homilie (Gottingen, 1955), pp. 40ff. A question-mark has been placed by H. D. Jocelyn against the whole concept of the Stoic (or "Stoic-Cynic") diatribe ("Horace, Epistles 1," Liverpool Classical Monthly 4.7 [July 1979], pp. 145f.): he suggests that it was invented ex nihilo by H. Usener in 1887.

17. 12:2 (pp. 337f.).

18. Here begins the succession of sentences commencing with motet which "provides the finest example of anaphora in the whole Bible and perhaps in all literature, secular as well" (C. Spicq, L'EpItre aux Hebreux, I [Paris, 1952], p. 362).

19. Gk. voovµev. So in Rom. 1:20 Paul speaks of "the invisible things" of God as "being perceived (voouµeva) through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity." Moffatt (ICC, p. 161) quotes A. T. Goodrick's note on Wisdom 13:4 (where this verb occurs) to the effect that "voriv is in Hellenistic Greek the current word for the apprehension of the divine in nature."

20. See p. 47 with nn. 17, 18.

21. Cf. 0th w in 1:3 (pp. 48f.); note also the quotation from Philo, On Flight and Finding 137, on p. 146, n. 43.

22. Ps. 33:6, 9 (LXX 32:6, 9).

23. "Just as nothing comes into being out of that which has no existence, so nothing is destroyed into that which has no existence" (Philo, The Eternity of the World 5, where Empedocles and Euripides are quoted in this sense). Elsewhere Philo expresses himself more biblically, as when he says that "God, the begetter of all things, not only brought them into sight, but even made things which previously had no existence, being not merely an artificer but the Creator himself" (On Dreams 1.76). Cf. Wisdom 11:17, where the "all-powerful hand" of God "created the world out of formless matter (e~ (*tip$ov U%)." The author of Wisdom might have appealed to tohu wa-bohii in Gen. 1:2 (see n. 24 for the LXX rendering); but the idea of imposing form on preexistent matter is Greek rather than Hebrew in origin. See also R. A. Stewart, "Creation and Matter in the Epistle to the Hebrews," NTS 12 (1965-66), pp. 284-93.

24. He may have thought of the LXX rendering of Gen. 1:2, "the earth was invisible (doparos) and unfurnished" (&xataaxruaoio5), although in the LXX this seems to refer to the condition of the earth after its creation. With his language we may further compare 2 Macc. 7:28, where the mother of the seven martyrs reminds her youngest son how God made the world "out of things that had no existence" (et; ovx ovrwv); 2 Baruch 21:4, "0 thou ... that hast fixed the firmament by the word, ... that hast called from the beginning of the world that which did not yet exist"; 2 Enoch 25:1-4, "I commanded ... that visible things should come down from invisible." Creatio ex nihilo is an inference from Gen. 1: 1-2:4a and not an unambiguous statement of those verses; neither Heb. bard' nor Gk. xrit;w in itself bears this meaning. Indeed, even in the passage now under consideration our author does not in so many words assert creatio ex nihilo, but that is practically what is implied in his denial that the universe was created out of things phenomenal. Cf. A. Ehrhardt, "Creatio ex Nihilo," in The Framework of the New Testament Stories (Manchester, 1964), pp. 200-233 (on p. 216 he compares Jub. 12:4, "the God of heaven ... makes everything on the earth, and created everything by his word"); also The Beginning (Manchester, 1968), pp. 162-68.

25. p13 and possibly p46 omit "to God" (t@ 9etu); the phrase is omitted also by Clement of Alexandria and the Armenian version of Ephrem's commentary (cf. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], p. 33, for an argument that the omission is original).

26. Gk. n)xiova Ouaiav. C. G. Cobet's "brilliant conjecture"-as Professor Zuntz calls it (Text, p. 16)-of HtEIONA for lIAEIONA, i.e., fibiova ("more pleasant") for nlreiova ("more abundant") was accepted by J. M. S. Baljon and F. Blass in their critical editions of the text. The point is, as Zuntz says, that Abel's offerings were "more agreeable" and not "more" in quantity. The corruption of ijbtov into t? ri.ov is established for Demosthenes, Prooemium 23 (as Moffatt points out, ad loc. ); as for the sense, Justin says that God accepts the sacrifices of believing Gentiles more gratefully (ijbtov) than those of the Jews (Dialogue 29), while Josephus uses the cognate verb ij&rat when he describes God as being "more pleased" with Abel's sacrifice than with Cain's (Ant. 1.54). The received reading has been supported by an appeal to Matt. 6:25 with its parallel Luke 12:23, where life is said to be "more" (i)Eiov) than food (cf. R. V. G. Tasker, "The Text of the `Corpus Paulinum,"' NTS 1 [1954-55], p. 183, on the "qualitative rather than quantitative significance" of r riov here), and to Matt. 12:41f. with the parallel Luke 11:31f., where "something more" (n4iov) than Solomon or Jonah is said to be present-the "something more" being presumably the kingdom of God. See J. D. Maynard, "Justin Martyr and the Text of Hebrews xi,4," Exp. VII.vii (1909), pp. 164-71; G. Zuntz, Text, pp. 16, 285.

27. Gk. gaprupoimos €ni Wig &npots airtov tov 9eoii, "God bearing witness by accepting his gifts" (RSV). This reading, which is that of our Byzantine witnesses, is confirmed by pt3* p46 with the Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian versions; it is so plainly the true reading that, if it had disappeared from the textual tradition completely, it would have been an obvious and certain conjectural emendation. The marginal note in the ERV/ARV, "The Greek text in this clause is somewhat uncertain," is due to the fact that the Byzantine reading has opposed to it the authority of K * A D* and a few other witnesses, which exhibit t4 Oeru for tov Orov (either by "mechanical permutation," as Hort says, or under the influence oft@ 9Etu earlier in the verse [cf. n. 25], as Zuntz suggests). Another variant, attested by a corrector of p13 and Clement of Alex andria, is ai,tG tot 9eo6 for avro6 tot 9eo6-also due, in all probability, to "mechanical permutation," although Hort and Moffatt, rather oddly, give it their vote as the true reading. Cf. F. J. A. Hort in Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, II (Cambridge and London, 1882), Appendix, p. 131; G. Zuntz, Text, pp. 33, 51; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London/New York, 1971), pp. 671f.

28. Gk. ].aAE1, for which D with the majority of later manuscripts and the TR reads kaXe itar. If this is intended to be middle voice, it does not alter the sense (cf. AV/KJV "speaketh") but would be a pointless change; probably it was intended to be taken as a passive ("is spoken of"), from an inability to understand how Abel could still be speaking.

29. Gen. 5:24, following the LXX text (see p. 286, n. 52).

30. Gk. toi5 e4r1touaLv ainov LLo9ano6ot1q5 yivetar. The substantive l uoOanoMotgc (here only in the NT) is cognate with µuo8anobooia of 2:2; 10:35; 11:26 (see p. 67, n. 2). For exl rltof)mv j13 and P have the simple verb ~ itoiloty. (Cf. the similar variant in v. 14, p. 297, n. 111.)

31. See p. 240 with n. 36.

32. In Gen. 4:7 the word which the ERV/ARV translates "coucheth" is Heb. robes, which is cognate with Akk. rabisu, the name of a demon. Sin is depicted as a maleficent power lying in wait to pounce upon its prey, but it is powerless against a person of righteous life.

33. Gk. ovx, eav opus npooeveyxpS, op&uS Se µi1 SrelfS, ijµagrcc; Theodotion's Greek version implies that the divine acceptance or nonacceptance of the offering was shown by the falling or withholding of fire (as in the sacrificial ordeal of 1 Kings 18:21-39), since it translates Heb. sa'ah ("had regard") in Gen. 4:4f. by Evrnvptorv ("set on fire"). Another view of the way in which the acceptance or nonacceptance was shown is suggested by S. H. Hooke: "At the time when such rituals were practised only one criterion of success or failure was recognized, namely the pragmatic test of increased fertility or the opposite. The shepherd's flocks increased and multiplied while the unfortunate tiller of the soil saw his crops wither as the heat of the year increased in strength towards the summer" (The Siege Perilous [London, 1956], p. 68).

36. Gen. Rabba 22 (on Gen. 4:3).

37. So, e.g., the seventeenth-century Puritan scholar John Owen says that Abel's faith was "accompanied with a sense of sin and guilt, with his lost condition by the fall, and a trust in the way of redemption and recovery which God had provided. And this he testified in the kind of his sacrifice, which was by death and blood; in the one owning the death which himself by reason of sin was obnoxious unto; in the other the way of atonement, which was to be by blood, the blood of the promised Seed" (Exposition of Hebrews [1668-74], ed. W. H. Goold [Edinburgh, 1855], VII, pp. 24f.). Contrast Calvin's more disciplined exegesis: "Abel's sacrifice was preferred to his brother's for no other reason than that it was sanctified by faith; for surely the fat of brute animals did not smell so sweetly, that it could, by its odour, pacify God. The Scripture indeed shows plainly why God accepted his sacrifice, for Moses' words are these: `God had

34. The Sacrifices ofAbel and Cain 88.

35. Ant. 1.54.

38. The adjective (bixaw5) is absent from the parallel in Luke 11:51.

39. So Josephus says that Abel "had a concern for righteousness" (&xaLoairvr1S enEgkEito) while Cain "was very wicked and has an eye for nothing but gain" (Ant. 1.53). In Wisdom 10:3 Cain is "an unrighteous man" (a&ixo;) who "in anger revolted against wisdom and perished in his fratricidal fury." Tanhuma (Balak 16) gives Abel second place in a list of "seven righteous men who built seven altars, from Adam to Moses." See B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961), pp. 20f.

40. Gk. ineibev 6 OE65 eni ' Aoi. xat eni toi5 b~ otg ainov.

41. Philo, continuing his allegorical interpretation of the story of Cain and Abel as a conflict between self-love and the love of God, paradoxically asserts that while, superficially speaking, Cain "slew him" (6nextervev attov), i.e., his brother, he really "slew himself' (&aextEwev kavrov), and that Abel only seemed to die, since in fact "he is clearly found making use of his voice and crying out what things he has suffered at the hands of a wicked brother-for how could he speak if he no longer existed?" (The Worse Attacks the Better 47f.).

44. In the LXX Enoch is 165 years old at Methuselah's birth and the interval between that event and Enoch's "translation" is correspondingly reduced to 200 years.

46. Gk. ovg rwpiaxero, bEL gte9gxev ainov 6 9E6;, words which our author quotes verbatim. Moffatt (ICC, p. 165) quotes from Epictetus 3.5.5f. an instance of evpiaxea9aL in the sense of "die" ("be found" by death), and suggests the rendering here: "did not die." Josephus (Ant. 1.85) paraphrases "God translated him" by saying that he "withdrew to the divine" (Gk. BvExtprloE nog to 9Eiov)-a phrase which he uses also to describe the mysterious passing of Moses (Ant. 4.326; cf. 3.96; also Philo, Life of Moses 2.288, where Moses' whole being is said to have been transformed "into mind, pure as sunlight," Etc vofiv f?LoELSeotatov). On Enoch cf. 1 Clem. 9:3.

47. Cf. in particular the compilation of Enoch-literature called the First Book of Enoch, extant in toto only in Ethiopic, for about one third of its compass in Greek, and fragmentarily in the original Aramaic. The Aramaic fragments form part of the manuscript discoveries at Qumran; among them all the sections of 1 Enoch are represented except chs. 37-71, the Parables of Enoch. This section, containing the "Son of Man" passages, may thus be later than the others (see p. 286, n. 50). The other sections narrate such things as Enoch's journey through other worlds and his dream-visions of world history from the creation to the author's day. Similar, but later compilations are 2 Enoch ("The Book of the Secrets of Enoch"), composed in Greek but extant only in a Slavonic version, and 3 Enoch, a Hebrew mystical treatise of the fifth or sixth century A.D. originally called (it appears) the "Book of Palaces." Translations of all three Enoch books are presented in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, I (Garden City, NY, 1983), pp. 5-315.

42. Cf. Moffatt (ICC, p. 164). See further on 12:24 (p. 361).

43. Cf. I Chron. 1:3.

45. Gk. eirgpearrpev ... T& 0e6, whence our author says µeµapnipgtai eixipeog4vat tw W).

48. Gk. Evgpeotllaev, as in Gen. 5:22, 24, LXX.

49. "Concerning him it is said that `Enoch pleased God and was not found, for God translated (µetiogmv) him'; for `translation' (µeraOecL5) denotes turning and changing, and that a changing for the better.. ." (On Abraham 17f.). On the same passage Philo elsewhere says: "By `translation' is clearly signified the new home [granted to him `who escaped the insurrections of the body and deserted to the side of the soul'], and by `not found' the solitary life" (On Rewards and Punishments 17). See p. 287, n. 57; p. 288, n. 67.

50. M. Black, "The Son of Man Problem in Recent Research and Debate," BJRL 45 (1962-63), pp. 305-18, suggests that while 1 Enoch 71 belongs to the section called the Parables, which is now commonly given a date in the Christian era (see p. 284, n. 47), this particular chapter may be earlier.

51. Cf. 10:38b.

52. A nice point of interpretation hangs on the question whether the adverbial phrase "before his translation" belongs with "he had given pleasure to God" (so the ARV and the NEB) or with "it has been attested of him" (so the AV/KJV, the ERV, and the RSV). The former construction fits the facts better; Gen. 5:24 (LXX) bears witness that he had pleased God before he was translated, but the witness itself (i.e., the witness of the biblical record) was borne to him after his translation.

53. Similarly of Noah (Gen. 6:9); so also the expression "walk before God" is rendered evapevreiv evavt6ov (evwnaLOV) tov Oeov (xupiou, etc.), "to be well-pleasing before God," of Abraham (Gen. 17:1; 24:40), of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 48:15); of the pious Israelite (Ps. 56:13 [LXX 55:13]; 116:9 [LXX 114:9]).

54. Mic. 6:8.

57. Gen. 6:9 (see p. 286, n. 53). Philo, having mentioned Enoch as the ideal example of repentance (see p. 285, n. 49), goes on to mention Noah as the ideal lover of God (or man loved by God) and lover of virtue (OEO4Llil xai ~L?vapetov); later he praises Noah as a victorious athlete, who won the citation "that he had pleased God" (On Abraham 27, 35). In Jewish lore Noah, like Enoch, was the recipient of divine revelations apocalyptic in character (Jub. 7:20-25); these were embodied in a now lost "Book of Noah," fragments of which have been incorporated in I Enoch. Two accounts of his birth describe him as a wonder-child (1Q Genesis Apocryphon 2.1ff.; 1 Enoch 106:2-18).

58. Gk. xQTs atLo9eis (cf. 8:5; 12:25), regularly of a divine oracle.

59. With nepi tCov oJ& cw P),.enoovwv here cf. npayhatwv. ... o$ pXenoµevwv in v. 1.

55. Gk. npoaeQXeGOaL, as used already in 4:16; 7:25; 10:22.

56. Joseph Hart (1712-68).

60. Gk. 6kaorlOei5, "out of reverent regard (for God's command)" (BAGD, s.v. r afeoµaL). Cf. the cognate substantive e6A.afeta in 5:7; 12:28. See p. 129, n. 61.

61. Cf. Gen. 6:9 (LXX), T6 0E6 Ei r%)iotrjoEv N6 (cf. p. 286, n. 53).

62. Cf. Gen. 6:9, "Noah was ... perfect in his generations" (with 1 Clem. 7:6; 9:4, Nl1w RLQtoS'eVQ&p"I).

65. Cf. 1 Pet. 3:20f.

66. Cf. 2 Pet. 2:5; Josephus, Ant. 1.74; Sibylline Oracles 1.125-282. Genesis Rabba 30.7 (on Gen. 6:9) says of Noah, "God had a herald [karoz] in the generation of the flood."

67. "Noah was a righteous (Heb. saddfq, Gk. bixato5) man" (Gen. 6:9); "Noah found grace (Heb. hen, Gk. xaQtc) in the eyes of Yahweh" (Gen. 6:8). Philo points out that Noah is "the first man recorded as righteous in the sacred scriptures" (Preliminary Studies 90); indeed, he gives

64. Cf. Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26f.

68. Gk. xalovµevoc, to which p46 A D* 33 1739 and a few other authorities preface the definite article 6, yielding the sense "he who was called" (instead of "when he was called")the reference would then be to the divine changing of his name from Abram to Abraham (Gen. 17:5). But the reference is certainly not to God's renaming him, but to his first calling him to leave his home and seek the promised land.

69. Gk. xai airtil TdMu orriQa (a circumstantial clause). The construction of aiTil MQQa as though Sarah were the subject of this sentence and not Abraham (see pp. 295f., nn. 96-103), has given rise to a number of early glosses, Schlimmbesserungen ("false improvements"), as G. Zuntz calls them (Text, p. 170). Thus, he says, p46 D* rP with the Latin and Syriac versions add here arEipa, "barren" (which, however, may well be part of the original text), 69 1739 and the Coptic versions read it orriQa ("she who was barren"), P 1912 and some other authorities read areipa otxra ("being barren").

70. Gk. bvvajuv etc xatoo?ijv aneppatoc e?lOev (for the proper sense see pp. 295f. with n. 99). A further Schlimmbesserung is the insertion here of etc to texv&aaL ("so as to give birth") in D* P 69 and a number of other manuscripts with Vg. Cod. L and the Harclean Syriac (texvow occurs nowhere else in the NT).

71. Gk. xat naps xatpov ijXtxia5, "even beyond the season of life." (In a letter of September 15, 1969, commenting on the first edition of this commentary, B. F. C. Atkinson pointed out the parallelism in sense between xai napo xaLQOV ill.txiaS, if referring to Sarah, and what is said of her in Gen. 18:11.) K L P and the bulk of Byzantine witnesses (followed by the TR), construing xai as the conjunction "and," added Etexev after f Xtxias (so AV/KJV, "and was delivered of a child when she was past age").

72. Gk. eyev~ftyav, for which tl 1739, with the bulk of later manuscripts and the TR, read eyevv>jt aav ("were begotten").

73. Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 32:12. p46 D* Yr with the Ethiopic version omit it aapa to XEt7<oc ("which is by the shore"), leaving the shorter phrase tbS it 6W; rfig 9aA.aamlc ("as the sand of the sea").

74.6:13ff. See pp. 151-55.

77. On Abraham 68.

78. Migration ofAbraham 43f. He emphasizes that God said to Abraham, bei~w, "I will show," and not &i.xvvµt, "I am showing."

75. Cf. Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 21988), pp. 133-35.

76. On Abraham 62.

79. So Philo: "he removed the moment he was bidden" (4W tw XE).EtKYNVar µEtaviarato)-although he immediately shows his allegorical understanding of the passage by saying that "his migration was one of soul rather than of body, for heavenly love (ep oc ovpavLo5 ) tamed his desire for mortal things" (On Abraham 66).

80. "Abram the Hebrew" (Gen. 14:13) is rendered in the LXX 'Mpuµ 6 nrpatrls ("Abram the migrant"). Cf. H. Braun, "Der Fahrende," ZTK 48 (1951), pp. 32-38. See also p. 4, n. 9.

82. Gk. napcuxrlaEv, "he lived as a n6porxo5 (sojourner)," or, to give full force to the following preposition Eig, "he migrated to" (not xatwxrlaev, "he settled down"). The verb occurs in one other place in the NT, Luke 24:18, where the two disciples on the Emmaus road ask the unrecognized Jesus: "Are you the only visitor (naporxei5) to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" (Cf. p. 298, n. 114). For napotxo5 cf. Ex. 2:22, where Moses says napotx65 Eiµl ev yll aa.Aotpia (compare di 8lrlotpiav here); also Acts 7:6, 29; Eph. 2:19; 1 Pet. 2:11; for naporxia cf. Acts 13:17; 1 Pet. 1:17. So much did the early Christians pattern themselves on the patriarchs in this respect that the terminology of pilgrimage became part of their habitual language and survived long after its original force had disappeared; it is from Gk. napoLxia, e.g., that we get the word "parish." Cf. p. 299, n. 123.

83. According to the chronology of the received text of Genesis, Abraham's grandsons Esau and Jacob were fifteen years old when he died (cf. Gen. 21:5; 25:7,26), although Abraham's death is recorded before the birth of Esau and Jacob. For ouyxXrlpov6wL ("fellow-heirs") see New Docs., I (1976), § 85; 11(1977), § 75.

84. Cf. v. 13, where Isaac and Jacob are included with Abraham.

81. Gen. 23:6.

85. Gk. Ei ebiXEto yap tqv tov5 0EREa.iou5 exouoav no?.ty (translated literally in ERV/ARV, "he looked for the city which hath the foundations," i.e., the only city with enduring foundations). C. F. D. Moule suggests that our author has in mind Ps. 87 (LXX 86):1, "His foundation (LXX (eaXLot) is in the holy mountains"; he refers to C. Gore's point (in The Reconstruction of Belief [London, 19261, p. 770) that in Gal. 4:26 ("the Jerusalem that is above.... which is our mother") Paul is echoing v. 5 of the same psalm (µilrrlp Fatuv), and compares also Phil. 3:20 (The Birth of the New Testament [London, 31981], p. 60, n. 2).

86. Gk. 115 trXvitrls xai 6tµttoupy65 6 9e65. Elsewhere in the NT (Acts 19:24, 38; Rev. 18:22) texvLTrls means "craftsman" or "artificer"; here it is used of God in much the same sense as the verb xataaxeualw in Heb. 3:4, "the one who built all things is God." In Wisdom 13:1 idolaters are condemned (much as in Rom. 1:19ff.) for failing to "recognize the Artificer (texvuT1qS) while paying heed to his works." As for the other word 811µtoupy65 (lit. "public workman," "constructor"), this is its only NT occurrence. It (or one of its derivatives) is used repeatedly in Philo along with texvitrls (ortexvtreixu) in reference to God as Creator. For example: "Through this power the Father who is Begetter and Artificer (texvtreuoa5) appointed the universe, so that `I am God' is tantamount to `I am Maker and Constructor' (brlµtoupy65)" (On Change of Names 29); "It is said, `Let us make man in our image,' in order that, if the wax receives ... a noble impress, it should appear to be the construction (btlµto»pyrlµa) of him who is the Artificer (texvirrlc) of noble and good things alone" (ibid., 31); "The Artificer (Texvitr1S) ... constructed (Ebtµttovpyet) the world" (Who Is the Heir? 133). Other Philonic references are given by C. Spicy, L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I, p. 44. The Epistle to Diognetus (7:2), perhaps echoing the present passage in Hebrews, describes Jesus as "the very artificer and constructor (texvirtlc xal btlµtovpy65) of the universe, by whom God created the heavens." In gnostic thought 6rlµtoupy65 was used of the divine power who created the material universe, envisaged as an inferior deity to the Supreme God. See G. W. H. Lampe (ed.), A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961-68), p. 342 (s.v. btlµtovgy6g).

87. Leg. Alleg. 3.83.

88. Cf. Philo on Jacob's dream at Bethel (Gen. 28:15); God's promise to bring Jacob back to the promised land may "hint at the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which, leaving its heavenly abode.... entered the body as if it were a foreign land; but the Father who gave it being says that he will not allow it to remain imprisoned for ever, but will take pity on it and loose its chains and conduct it in freedom and security to its mother-city (µtltp6xoxt5)" (On Dreams 1.181).

89. Cf. 12:22 (pp. 356f. with nn. 146-51). New Docs., 11 (1977), § 95, quotes 6 8 Loupyrfoas i& navra of God from P. Berl. 16389 (a 7th-cent. hymn).

90. "There is an instinct of immortality in saintship. He who lives to God knows that he must live for ever.... Canaan could not be the goal of one who walked with God" (C. J. Vaughan, The Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1890], p. 221).

91. The Thirty-Nine Articles: Article VII ("Of the Old Testament").

92. "The mention of Sarah with Abraham is an astonishment to the expositor," says J. R. Harris, who finds her inclusion a possible token of feminine authorship of the epistle (Side-lights on New Testament Research [London, 1908], pp. 154f.). But see 1 Pet. 3:6.

93. Homilies on Hebrews 23.

94. One might ask what the character of Abraham's laughter was when he received the promise of God that Sarah would bear a son (Gen. 17:17); even in the Genesis narrative, however, he is not blamed for laughing, and we may be intended to infer that this laughter was due to his appreciation of the divine absurdity of the situation.

95. Philo, commenting on Sarah's laughter at Isaac's birth, allegorizes the incident in terms of Virtue's giving birth to Happiness (Leg. Alleg. 2.82; cf. Preliminary Studies 1-7).

96. "The Text of the `Corpus Paulinum,"' pp. 182f.

97. "xai a$trj makes a poor connexion (it is typical of `Scholiasten Griechisch'): `likewise' is the only admissible translation. This makes nonsense of the context: who else had been said to have received, through faith, Svvaµty ei5 xat4oAily anepµatos?" (Zuntz, Text, p. 16, n. 4).

98. On this last point reference is made to A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 395. But the quality of Sarah's faith is not in question: she participated fully in Abraham's departure by faith for an unknown destination and in his sojourning by faith in Canaan (vv. 8, 9; cf. Isa. 51:1f.).

99. Gk. ei5 xacaq3okhv anipµatog. The expression "for the conception of seed" would be Etc n .,ppty anipNatog.

100. Of course the Byzantine addition of i✓rexev (see p. 289, n. 71) would compel us to take x -r4oXtj in the sense of "conception"; but it is so clearly a later insertion that there is no question of such compulsion.

101. He mentions Moulton and Milligan's reference to the first-century papyrus attestation of xatapo)ato5 in the sense of "store-place"; but xarapo?,ato5 (sc. t6no5) used thus is "a place where one deposits (xata0a)J L) things."

104. Reading a$tfj Eappa, not airrrl Fappa, with E. Riggenbach, Der Brief an die Hebraer, ZK (Leipzig, 1913), pp. 356ff.; O. Michel, Der Brief an die Hebraer, p. 262; A. Snell, A New and Living Way (London, 1959), pp. 138f. The dative is "dative of accompaniment."

102. Zuntz, Text, pp. 16, 170; F. Field, Notes on the Translation of the New Testament (Cambridge, 1899), p. 232; H. Windisch, Der Hebraerbrief HNT (Tubingen, 1931), p. 101.

103. The words are printed as a parenthesis in GNT3. See M. Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels andActs (Oxford, 31967), pp. 83-89; B. M. Metzger,A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, pp. 672f.

105. This pair of similes appears in classical literature; cf. Plato, Euthydemus 294b; Catullus 7.3-12, 61.206-10.

106. Gk. vevexpcuµevo5. The only other NT occurrence of vexpow is in Col. 3:5, in the sense "put to death" (RSV) or rather "reckon as dead."

107. "In a hopeless situation Abraham hoped in God" (C. K. Barrett, From First Adam to Last [London, 1962], p. 37).

108. Echoing Gen. 15:6, which comes immediately after God's promise that Abraham's offspring would be as numerous as the stars. (Abraham's obedience, faith, and hospitality are celebrated also in 1 Clem. 10:1-7; 31:2.)

109. There is a curious variation in the Greek word rendered "having received": p46 D 1739 with the majority of later MSS and the TR read X46vrE;, K I P 326 and others read xoluaaµevor, while A reads npoobe~aµevor. The original reading is probably xap6vre5 (cf. 9:15); the reading xo4todVfvoi may have been influenced by 10:36; 11:39, and npoa8egaµevot possibly by v. 35. Cf. G. Zuntz, Text, pp. 52f.; F. W. Beare, "The Text of the Epistle to the Hebrews in p46," JBL 63 (1944), p. 394.

110. 1518 with a few MSS and the TR add xat neto9evre5 (whence AV "and were persuaded of them").

111. p46 D* and a few other MSS have the simple verb i;rltovaiv; the majority reading is the compound e'nr2;rlto9OLV (for a similar variation in v. 6 see p. 281, n. 30).

112. p46 K * D* 1739 and a few other authorities read the present µvrlµovevovarv, 33 and a few others read the aorist eµvrlµovevaav, A and the remaining witnesses read the imperfect tµvrlµoveuov. The present tense, as the more difficult reading, is probably to be preferred (cf. Zuntz, Text, p. 119; see also p. 299, n. 120).

113. Here the author departs from his anaphoric use of motet and says xata niotty, simply by way of literary variation. We have had xata niotiv already in v. 7, but in the attributive position (tfc xata niOTLV &xatoativTlc).

114. Gk. ~iVOL xai napenibr)poL. Cf. Gen. 23:4, LXX, where Abraham describes himself as tapoLxo5 xai naperibrWq (MT ger wetS.'ab); Ps. 39:12 (LXX 38:13), where the psalmist says n6,QOLXO5 (MT ger) eyw eiµr ev tp ylj xat napenibtproc (MT tosab); it is probably from this passage that our author derives his Eni till yi15, "in the land" or "on the earth" (cf. Ps. 119 [LXX 118]:19). See p. 292, n. 82; p. 299, n. 123.

115. See p. 153 with n. 76. Cf. the description of Abraham in v. 17 as "the one who had received (avabe~*vo5) the promises" (where the promises themselves, not their fulfilment, should be understood).

116. See n. 114 above.

117. LXX &S napotxw (MT megurai). Cf. p. 292, n. 82.

118. Gk. isp4aviiouoiv, "they make it manifest" (cf. the passive of the same verb, rendered "to appear" in 9:24).

119. What they seek is anatpi5, their native land or hometown (cf. Luke 4:23f.); the fact that they still seek it is proof that they have not found it here.

120. Gk. µvgµovevovaw (see p. 297, n. 112). The verb is used in v. 22 below, where Joseph is said to have "made mention of" or "referred to" Israel's exodus from Egypt, and probably has much the same sense here. We might paraphrase: "In describing themselves as pilgrims and strangers in Canaan the patriarchs show that they are journeying to another country, their true homeland. It is equally clear that they are not referring to the former Mesopotamian home which they had left, for then they could have gone back there." See G. Zuntz, Text, p. 119: "Discussing the quotation in ver. 13, the writer argues: `the reference is not to the country they had left: this interpretation is excluded by the fact that they did not turn about. Their longing in fact is for a better country,' &c."

121. "Who else [other than the `proper' (doreio5) man] would not have felt it burdensome both to leave his own country and to be driven from every civilized community (no)as) into pathless places most difficult for the traveller to penetrate? Who would not have turned right about and retraced his homeward way, paying but little heed to future hopes but making haste to escape the present difficulty, thinking it folly to choose acknowledged ills in hope of good things which he could not see?" (Philo, On Abraham 86).

122. According to Philo (Confusion of Tongues 78-82), the heavenly country is the patriarchs' domicile of origin, and therefore in seeking it they do aim at returning to the place from which they set out.

123. Gk. napoixou5 xai napem8~µov5, as in Gen. 23:4, LXX (cf. p. 292, n. 82, p. 298, n. 114). In Eph. 2:19, "you are no more strangers and sojourners" (Gk. lexai VOL napoLxoL), the words are used in a different setting; there the point is that Gentile believers are no longer aliens but fellow-citizens with the people of God.

124. Gk. nokiteu}►a.

125. See p. 4, n. 9; p. 292, n. 80.

126. Gen. 14:8-16; cf. pp. 156-62 above (on 7:1-4).

127. "God does not need us. Indeed, if He were not God, He would be ashamed of us. We, at any rate, cannot be ashamed of Him" (K. Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, E.T. [Oxford, 1933], p. 35). On the identification (and self-identification) of Yahweh as "God of the fathers" see A. Alt, "The God of the Fathers" (1929), in Essays on Old Testament History and Religion, E.T. (Oxford, 1966), pp. 1-77; B. Gemser, Vragen rondom de Patriarchenreligie (Groningen, 1958); F. M. Cross, Jr., "Yahweh and the God of the Patriarchs," HTR 55 (1962), pp. 225-59; R. de Vaux, "El et Baal, le Dieu des Peres et Yahweh," Ugaritica 6 (1969), pp. 501-17.

129. It is probably on a passage like this or v. 10 or 13:14 (see p. 382) that Hermas depends when he tells how the angel said to him: "You know that you, the servants of God, live

128. See the note on Esau, describedper contra as a "profane person" (12:16f.), on p. 351.

130. With the "heavenly" (inoup6vto5) homeland prepared by God for the patriarchs Moffatt (ICC, p. 176) compares 2 Macc. 3:39, where God is described as the one whose dwelling is "heavenly" (inoupavLoS). It is to God's own dwelling, indeed, that men and women of faith are admitted as free burgesses, just as it has been emphasized earlier (3:11-19; 4:3-11) that it is God's own "rest" that may be attained by faith and forfeited by unbelief.

131. Cf. B. W. Newton's retort to those who pressed an unscriptural distinction between the people of God in OT days and those of the present age: "Are we to say that Abraham hath `THE promises,' and yet that the chiefest results of those promises he hath not? Are we to say that Abraham belongs to that heavenly city whose maker and builder is God, ... and yet that he hath not the blessings which pertain to that city?" (The Old Testament Saints not to be Excluded from the Church in Glory [London, 1887], p. 14).

132. Gk. niotel npoaevrjvoXEv ' Akaaµ toy ' Iaaax nerpai oµevo5. 116 with a few later authorities omits' Mpaaµ. The perfect tense npoaev>jvoXev may denote the completeness of the sacrifice as far as Abraham's resolution was concerned; cf. n. 134 below. The participle neLQcd; Levo5 echoes ineipai;ev of Gen. 22:1 (LXX); cf. also Sir. 44:20, iv 31erpaap4 e$pe9ii nLot65 (p. 290).

133. Gk. &va&~dWvo5. The only other occurrence of &va&XoµaL in the NT is Acts 28:7, where Publius, chief man of Malta, "received" Paul, Luke, and their companions.

134. Here, by contrast with the preceding clause (cf. n. 132 above) the imperfect tense npoaepepev is used, indicating that, as far as outward action was concerned, the sacrifice of Isaac was not completed, since in the event his life was not taken; one might render the verb here: "was on the point of offering up."

135. Gk. Loy µovoyevfl, corresponding to Heb. yahid in Gen. 22:2 (so Aquila's version and Josephus, Ant. 1.222). The LXX renders yahid here by &yamlt65, "beloved," while Symmachus renders by µovo5, "only." The Hebrew adjective combines the two ideas (adding to its proper force "only" that of yadid, "beloved"); hence Philo speaks of Isaac (in his allegorizing way) as "the beloved and only (&yamrrov xal µovov) trueborn offspring of the soul" (On the Unchangeableness of God 4). There are three instances of povoyevr15 in reference to an only child in Luke (7:12; 8:42; 9:38); its best-known NT usage, however, is its application to Christ, the Son of God, in the Johannine writings (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), where it is practically synonymous with ayanrlsos in Mark 1:11; 9:7 (and parallels) and ex?rX yµevo5 in Luke 9:35. Cf. also the Parable of the Vineyard, where the proprietor "had still one other, a beloved son" (Mark 12:6), and Paul's echo of Gen. 22:12 in Rom. 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son" (where Gk.16to5 represents Heb. yahid, as also, probably, in Acts 20:28, where God purchased the church "with the blood of his own," i.e., "of his only-begotten").

136. Gen. 21:12.

137. Gk. iyeiQEw, for which a few authorities (A P etc.) have iyEipaL, the aorist infinitive, as though the reference was to Abraham's faith that God could raise Isaac; the present infinitive implies Abraham's faith that God could raise the dead.

138. Gk. xai, omitted by N K L P etc., followed by the TR (cf. the AV/KJV); omitted also by the Syriac and Coptic versions.

141. Heb. 'agedat yishaq, from Gen. 22:9.

142. In the Additional Service for the Jewish New Year these words occur: "Remember unto us, 0 Lord our God, the covenant and the loving-kindness and the oath which thou swarest unto Abraham our father on Mount Moriah; and may the binding with which Abraham our father bound his son Isaac on the altar appear before thee, how he overbore his compassion in order to perform thy will with a perfect heart." Cf. also the prayer in Leviticus Rabba 29.8: "If the sons of Isaac walk in rebellion and wicked works, remember the binding of their father Isaac, and leave the throne of judgment and sit on the throne of mercy" (this example is selected by C. K. Barrett, From First Adam to Last, pp. 27f., from the collection of relevant passages in N. Johansson, Parakletoi [Lund, 1940], pp. 168ff.); cf. also H. Riesenfeld, Jesus transfigure (Uppsala, 1947), pp. 87ff.; H.-J. Schoeps, Aus friihchristlicher Zeit (Tubingen, 1950), pp. 229-38; 1. Maybaum, The Sacrifice of Isaac (London, 1959); L. Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London, 1965), pp. 139f.; The Cross in the New Testament (Exeter, 1965), p. 39, n. 62, p. 138, n. 67; N. A. Dahl, "The Atonement-An Adequate Reward for the Akedah (Ro 8:32)?" in Neotestamentica et Semitica: Studies in honour of M. Black (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 15-29; and especially J. Swetnam, Jesus and Isaac: A Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Light of the Agedah, AnBib 94 (Rome, 1981).

143. Rom. 8:32 (05 ye tov £Siou uiov ovx e~euaato) echoes Gen. 22:16 (LXX, oix e$eioc) rov uio6 aou tov etyamrrov). H.-J. Schoeps, not too convincingly, finds other traces of the Binding of Isaac in Pauline soteriology (Paul, E.T. [London, 1961], pp. 141-49). John 8:56 possibly alludes to a phase of the story (cf. p. 305 with n. 152).

139. Gen. 47:31 (LXX); cf. p. 306.

140. Gk. e~ohos.

144. Gen. 15:6 (quoted also by Paul in Gal. 3:6; Rom. 4:3). The counting of Abraham's faith to him for righteousness preceded the sacrifice of Isaac by many years, but his sacrifice of Isaac showed how implicit was his faith in God's promise (of Gen. 15:5) and in God's power to fulfil his promise, come what might.

145. A reference to Isa. 41:8, "Abraham my friend"; cf. 2 Chron. 20:7, "Abraham thy friend."

146. "With ten trials our father Abraham was tried, and he stood firm in them all, to make known how great was our father Abraham's love" (PirgeAboth 5:4). The ten are enumerated one by one in Pirge de-Rabbi Eliezer 26-30 and in the Jewish morning service for the second day of the New Year; the Binding of Isaac is the tenth and greatest of them. In Jub. 17:16-18:16 God's command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is the result of a challenge presented to him by Mastema, the prince of evil, just as the trials of Job were the result of a challenge presented to him by Satan.

147. This point is made also by Philo in his account of the incident (On Abraham 16777): "mastered by his love for God, he mightily overcame all the names and loving tokens of kinship" (170).

148. Seep. 301, n. 135.

149. Cf. S. Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, E.T. (Oxford, 1939); E. Wellisch, Isaac and Oedipus (London, 1954).

150. Cf. Philo, On Abraham 175, where Abraham's reply to Isaac in Gen. 22:8 is expanded by the words: "but know that to God all things are possible, including those that are impossible and impracticable for human beings."

151. Gk. iv napoo)fi. The sacrifice of Isaac was early treated by Christians as a detailed parable of the sacrifice of Christ. "Our Lord ... was himself going to offer the vessel of the spirit as a sacrifice for our sins, for the fulfilment of the type established in Isaac, who was offered upon the altar" (Ep. Barn. 7:3). According to Irenaeus (Heresies 4.5.4) and many later writers, Isaac carrying the wood is a type of Christ carrying the cross. More generally, Genesis Rabba 56.4 (on Gen. 22:6) compares Isaac's carrying the wood to "one carrying the cross on his shoulder."

152. Alternatively, these words may refer to Abraham's reply to Isaac: "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering" (Gen. 22:8). Since this is the only statement which Abraham is recorded in canonical Scripture as having made to Isaac (apart from "Here am I, my son" in the preceding verse), this is presumably the statement referred to in the Testament of Levi (18:6), where it is said of the priest of the new age: "The heavens shall be opened, and from the temple of glory shall come upon him sanctification, with the Father's voice as from Abraham to Isaac." Cf. M. Black, "The Messiah in the Testament of Levi XVIII," ExT 60 (1948-49), pp. 321f.

153. Cf. 4 Macc. 13:12 ("Isaac endured to be slain for the sake of piety"). Josephus, after the long and tasteless speech which he puts into Abraham's mouth at this moment, tells how Isaac made answer in terms of exemplary duty, and "rushed to the altar to be slain" (Ant. 1.232). Similarly Clement of Rome: "Isaac, knowing with confidence what was about to be, was gladly brought as a sacrifice" (1 Clem. 31:3). Several writers underline the reality of Isaac's cooperation by emphasizing that he was a grown man at the time-23 years old, according to Jubilees (cf. 16:12 with 17:15); 25, according to Josephus (Ant. 1.227); 37, according to Seder `Glam. His age is not recorded in Genesis, but the impression is given that he was but a boy.

156. Gen. 48:14, 19.

154. Cf. Gen. 27:27-29, 39f.; cf. p. 351 (on 12:17).

155. Gen. 26:2ff.

157. Gk. xai npoarxv"arv ' IopahX Eni to axpov ttlS 64hou airzov.

158. Cf. 1 Kings (LXX 3 Kms.) 1:47, where King David "bowed himself upon the bed" (miskab); here the LXX renders exit tr)v xoitgv aurov.

159. In Gen. 48:2; 49:13, where the context makes the meaning unambiguous, the LXX renders mittah by xhivi1 ("bed"). Gen. 47:31 is the first occurrence of mittdh in the MT (matteh has been used in Gen. 38:18, 25). See J. Barr, "St. Jerome and the Sounds of Hebrew," JSS 12 (1967), pp. 31f.

160. Vg. adorauitfastigium uirgae eius; whence Rheims-Challoner, "adored the top of his rod." In Gen. 47:31 Jerome translates from the Hebrew: adorauit Israel Deum, conuersus ad lectuli caput. He was probably not responsible for the Vulgate translation of Hebrews. R. A. Knox renders the present clause "made reverence to the top of Joseph's staff' (Joseph's staff, not Jacob's; in classical Latin eius, "his," refers to someone other than the subject of the sentence). Knox explains in a footnote that the staff or sceptre was a symbol of the tribe (Heb. matteh, like sebet, doing duty for both "staff" and "tribe").

161. Ps. 105:17-19; cf. Wisdom 10:13f.; 1 Macc. 2:53; 4 Macc. 18:11.

162. E.g., Philo, On Joseph; Josephus,Ant. 2.9ff.; and such pseudepigrapha as the Testament of Joseph and Joseph andAseneth (also Qur'an, Sura 12). Indeed, we might carry the bibliography down to our own day to include Thomas Mann's cycle of Joseph books.

163. Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32.

164. M. Wilcox, "The Bones of Joseph: Hebrews 11:22," in Scripture: Meaning and Method. Essays presented to A. T. Hanson, ed. B. P. Thompson (Hull, 1987), pp. 114-30 (p. 126).

165. Gk. btataytw (here only in the NT), for which A and a few other MSS have the synonymous b6yµw. This verse is followed in D* 1827 and many Latin MSS by the insertion: "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, slew (avei)rev) the Egyptian when he saw the oppression (xaravo6v ti)v taneivwaty) of his brethren." This incident is recorded in Ex. 2:11f., and is referred to by Stephen in Acts 7:23-25 (cf. Acts, NICNT, pp. 139f.). The insertion here is quite without authority.

166. Gk. nenou 1xev, ERV/ARV mg. "he instituted"; NEB "he celebrated." A. Nairne explains the perfect tense as meaning: "he has left us the institution of the Passover" (The Epistle of Priesthood, p. 400).

167. A non-Vulgate Latin insertion at this point reads: "By faith they spoiled the Egyptians at their departure" (so the 9th-cent. CodexHarleianus) or "By faith they spoiled the Egyptians because they believed they would not return to Egypt" (so the 8th- or 9th-cent. commentator Sedulius Scotus).

168. Josephus (Ant. 2.230f.) enlarges on Moses' outstanding wisdom and exceptional beauty of stature, and (Ant. 2.238ff.) describes a victorious expedition which he led against the Ethiopians as Egyptian commander-in-chief. Philo (Life of Moses 1.20ff.) credits him with proficiency in arithmetic, geometry, poetry, music, philosophy, astrology, and all branches of education. Eupolemus, a Hellenistic Jewish writer, makes him the inventor of the alphabet, which the Phoenicians acquired from him, and the Greeks from them; Artabanus, another Hellenistic Jew, says that Egypt owed her civilization to him; others of the same school put Homer and Plato in his debt for whatever of truth and goodness their writings contain. See Justin, First Apology 59f.; Eusebius, Preparation 7.14; 9.26f.; 13.12. See also I. Abrahams, M. Greenberg, and others, Encyclopaedia Judaica, XII (Jerusalem, 1971), cols. 371-411 (s. v. "Moses"). For his reputation in the non-Jewish world see J. G. Gager, Moses in Greco-Roman Paganism, SBLMS 16 (Nashville/New York, 1972).

169. Cf. Wisdom 10:16, where Wisdom is said to have inspired him: "she entered the soul of a servant (9epan(ov, as in Heb. 3:5) of the Lord, and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs." (For "wonders and signs" see p. 69 with n. 6.) See also the encomium of Moses in Ben Sira's "Praise of the Elders" (Sir. 45:1-5).

170. Gk. natepe5 (lit. "fathers").

171. In Ex. 2:2b, LXX, the verbs are plural: ibovrrS & aino aoteiov, faxenaaav aino µijvag tpeis.

172. Philo, Life of Moses 1.9. Philo says that their nerve failed after three months and they wished that they had exposed the child at birth.

173. Ant. 2.218.

174. Gk. aotriog, from Ex. 2:2, LXX (Heb. tob, "good"). Stephen (Acts 7:20) says the child was 8otetog t@ 9ECU ("exceedingly beautiful," lit. "beautiful to God"); Philo, using the same adjective, describes him (Life of Moses 1.9) as of a "more beautiful appearance than ordinary (oVty ... aOTELotepav i xat' i&Wt7lV)."

175. Calvin (ad loc.) says that it was not the external beauty of the child that moved them, since faith, like God himself, does not look on the outward appearance but on the heart (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7); rather "there was some mark, as it were, of future excellency imprinted on the child, which gave promise of something out of the ordinary." We may compare the descriptions of Noah's beauty at his birth (cf. p. 287, n. 57).

176. Ant. 2.210-16; cf. also Mekhilta, tractate Shirata 2, where the revelation is given to Amram not in a dream but by his daughter Miriam in her role as a prophetess (cf. Ex. 15:20).

177. Gk. µeyas yevoµevog, LXX, as also here. An anticipation of Moses' adult renunciation of royal status in Egypt appears in Josephus's tale of the infant Moses throwing Pharaoh's crown to the ground and standing on it (Ant. 2.233f.; cf. Mekhilta and Tanhuma for variants of the tale).

178. We have no means of identifying this princess. One tradition, found in Jub. 47:5 and Josephus (Ant. 2.224f.), calls her Tharmuth or Thermuthis (a daughter of Rameses II, c. 1290-1224 B.C.); another, attested by Artabanus (Eusebius, Preparation 9.27), calls her Merris (cf. Meri, a daughter of Rameses II by his Hittite wife, who was, however, in all probability younger than Moses himself). Some writers of more recent times have toyed with the improbable idea that she might have been Hatshepsut (c. 1500 B.C.), princess and queen-regnant of the Eighteenth Dynasty, daughter of Tuthmosis I (so J. Feather, "The Princess who rescued Moses: who was she?"ExT43 [1931-32], pp. 423-25). That her father was an early king of the Nineteenth Dynasty (c. 1300 B.C.) is probable; more than that cannot be said.

↑ Back to top