15. L'Epure aux Hebreux, I (Paris, 1952), pp. 226-31.

15. L'Epure aux Hebreux, I (Paris, 1952), pp. 226-31.

1. The epistle is a carefully constructed literary work, revealing a concentric symmetry and an elaborate inclusio. Its structure has been studied most thoroughly by A. Vanhoye, La structure litteraire de l'Epitre aux Hebreux (Paris/Bruges, 1976); he includes a critical discussion of earlier analyses. For criticisms of Vanhoye see J. Bligh, "The Structure of Hebrews," Heythrop Journal 5 (1964), pp. 170-77 (cf. his Chiastic Structure of the Epistle to the Hebrews [Oxford, 19681), and J. Swetnam, "Form and Content in Hebrews 1-6," Biblica 53 (1972), pp. 368-85; "Form and Content in Hebrews 7-13," Biblica 55 (1974), pp. 333-48, with Vanhoye's reply, "Discussions sur la structure de I'Epitre aux Hebreux,"Biblica 55 (1974), pp. 349-80. See also B. Lindars, "The Rhetorical Structure of Hebrews," NTS 35 (1989), pp. 382-406.

1. The one other exceptional document in this respect among the NT epistles is I John, which neither begins nor ends like a letter, but is from first to last, like the greater part of Hebrews, a "word of exhortation" (cf. pp. 25, 389).

2. Cf. 13:1 (pp. 367f. with nn. 2-4); 13:22ff. (pp. 390f. with nn. 126-28).

3. It was certainly known to Clement of Rome C. A.D. 96 (see p. 13 with n. 53), and almost as certainly to Hermas, also of Rome, not long afterward (cf. in the light of Heb. 3:12 his warnings against "apostasy from the living God" in Shepherd, Vision 2.3.2; 3.7.2; see also p. 100, n. 61; p. 144, n. 35; p. 148, n. 55; p. 149, n. 58; pp. 262f., nn. 142-46).

4. The earliest occurrence of flpos `Eiaiou5 seems to be at the head of the copy of the epistle on folio 21r of p46, the oldest extant codex of the corpus Paulinum. Clement of Alexandria (c. A.D. 180), in the extract from his Hypotyposes quoted by Eusebius, does not use the precise phrase llp65 `Eft)aiou5, but evidently knew the epistle under this title, since he speaks of it as written "for Hebrews" (` PpaioLS, Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.14.3, 4). Tertullian, in his treatise On Modesty (20), written c. A.D. 220, knows it under the corresponding Latin title ad Hebraeos (cf. pp. 16, 148).

5. It is difficult to accept the suggestion of F. C. Synge that the title means "Against (the) Hebrews" (Hebrews and the Scriptures [London, 1959], p. 44).

6. For the general use of'Ppaior to designate Jewish Christians cf. M. Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins (London, 1961), p. 78; it appears in this sense in the title of the Gospel according to theHebrews and in the Paris magical papyrus 574,11. 3018f., "I adjure you by Jesus the God of the Hebrews."

8. W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), p. 162, suggests that the epistle was intended for a minority of "Hebrews" in this distinctive sense, who formed "a section of the Jewish-Christian Church at Rome." On p. 44 he states that this minority, "in reaction from the larger freedom of the world-mission gospel were asserting principles and counterclaims akin to those of the original `Hebrew' section in the Jerusalem Church." But we have only the scantiest means of knowing what principles and counterclaims were made by the "Hebrews" in the early Jerusalem church; and we do know that Stephen, who was presumably a Hellenist, and Paul, who was born and bred a "Hebrew," found equally bitter hostility among the non-Christian Hellenists of Jerusalem (Acts 6:9; 9:29). In general, however, I am in very great sympathy with W. Manson's thesis (see p. 14).

9. C. Spicq suggests that "To the Hebrews" means "To the pilgrims"-those "passing through" this world; he appeals to the probable kinship between Heb. 'ibri ("Hebrew") and 'abar ("pass through orover"); cf. the LXX translation of "Abram the Hebrew" (Gen. 14:13) as 'APpaµ o nepairlc (see also p. 154 with n. 80, p. 292, n. 80; pp. 298f., nn. 114-23). Cf. E. Kasemann, The Wandering People of God (1938), E.T. (Minneapolis, 1984), p. 240, n. 182 (he cites to the same effect F. M. Schiele, "Harnack's 'Probabilia' concerning the Address and the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews," AJT 9 (1905), pp. 290-308, and V. Monod, De titulo epistulae vulgo ad Hebraeos inscriptae (Montauban, 1910). Compare the title of R. Jewett's commentary on Hebrews: Letter to the Pilgrims (New York, 1981). Spicq points out how this sense of "Hebrew" is exploited by Philo (L'EpItre aux Hebreux, I [Paris, 1952], pp. 243-46). In his later article, "L'Epitre aux Hebreux: Apollos, Jean-Baptiste, les Hellenistes et Qumran," RQ 1 (1958-59), pp. 365-90, he repeats this suggestion (quoting from Jerome, On Jeremiah 1.14: "Hebrew: that is nepaT g, pilgrim and passer through"); he also points out that the designation µLkOXot found in this epistle (e.g., in 3:1) may reflect the Hithpa'el of the verb 'drab (occurring in the sense "associate with" in the OT and the Qumran texts). This might suggest a play on the metathesis 'abar/'crab, but µftoXot might also reflect Heb. hdberim ("associates" in a religious society or hdburah); the thought of this as the word lying behind `Eka-tot in the title of our epistle may commend itself to some (not to me).

7. Cf. Acts 6:1; 2Cor. 11:22; Phil. 3:5. See Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 21988), p. 120.

10. Cf. p. 27, n. 115; p. 225, n. 137 (on 9:19).

11. Cf. J. Moffatt, The Epistle to the Hebrews, ICC (Edinburgh, 1924), p. xvi et passim; H. Windisch, Der Hebraerbrief, HNT (Tubingen, 1931), p. 31 (on 3:12) et passim; also A. C. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age (Edinburgh, 1897), pp. 463-82 (with bibliography on p. 468, n. 3); E. F. Scott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1922); E. Kasemann, The Wandering People of God; G. Vos, The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, 1956); H. Koester, Introduction to the New Testament, II (Philadelphia, 1982), pp. 272-76.

12. The argument that npocrEkI < Oate in 12:18, 22 implies that the readers were "proselytes" from paganism is not sufficiently strong to bear much weight; at most it identifies them as converts to Christianity (cf. p. 355 with nn. 142-44).

13. There is nothing in the argument to suggest that the readers were Gentile Christians exposed to judaizing propaganda like those to whom the Epistle to the Galatians was addressed. The nonmention of circumcision is not surprising in a letter to a Jewish-Christian community, where this would not be the issue it was among Gentile converts in the churches of Galatia or the Lycus valley.

14. K. Bornhauser, Empfanger and Verfasser des Briefes an die Hebraer (Gutersloh, 1932), condensed by C. Sandegren, "The Addressees of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 27 (1955), pp. 221-24.

17. RB 62 (1955), p. 37 (in an article "L'arriere-fond judaique du quatrieme Evangile et la Communaute de l'Alliance," pp. 5-44). Cf. also Y. Yadin, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Epistle to the Hebrews," Scripta Hierosolymitana 4 (1958), pp. 36-55; D. Flusser, "The Dead Sea Sect and Pre-Pauline Christianity," ibid., pp. 215-66; J. Danielou, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Primitive Christianity, E.T. (Baltimore, 1958), pp. 111-14; H. Kosmala, Hebraer-EssenerChristen (Leiden, 1959).

15. L'Epure aux Hebreux, I (Paris, 1952), pp. 226-31.

16. Revue de Qumran 1 (1958-59), p. 390 (cf. p. 4, n. 9).

18. J. W. Bowman, Hebrews, James, 1 & 11 Peter, LBC (London, 1962), pp. 13-16. For a critique of all such views see J. Coppens, Les affinites qumrkniennes de l'EpItre aux Hebreux (Bruges-Paris/Louvain, 1962).

19. G. W. Buchanan, To the Hebrews, AB (Garden City, NY, 1972).

20. Cf. J. Thomas, Le mouvement baptiste en Palestine et Syrie (Gembloux, 1935); M. Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins, pp. 91-101; J. A. T. Robinson, "The Baptism of John and the Qumran Community," Twelve New Testament Studies (London, 1962), pp. 11-27.

22. The Contemplative Life 21-39, 66-90.

21. Ant. 18.19.

25. 10:32.

28. 5:11-14.

29. 2:1-4; 3:12-4:1; 6:4-8; 10:26-39; 12:15-29.

26. 12:4 (cf. pp. 21, 267-70, 342).

27. 6:10; 10:34.

23. See pp. 141f. with no. 20-25 (on Heb. 6:2).

24. Cf. Heb. 2:3f.

32. Cf. G. Salmon, Introduction to the New Testament (London, 1889), pp. 468-73; B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1903), p. xl ("in Jerusalem, or in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem"); W. Leonard, TheAuthorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1939); G. W. Buchanan, To the Hebrews; cf. P. E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, 1977), pp. 18f. ("the probabilities increasingly favor a location somewhere in Palestine"). Spicq (Hebreux, I, p. 239, n. 1) lists many others who opt for a Jerusalem destination.

35. A. A. T. Ehrhardt, The Framework of the New Testament Stories (Manchester, 1964), p. 109; cf. F. Overbeck, Zur Geschichte des Kanons: I. Die Tradition derAlten Kirche uber den Hebraerbrief (Chemnitz, 1880), pp. 3ff.

36. Acts 6:13f.; 7:44-50 (see Acts, NICNT, pp. 126ff., 130ff., 146ff.).

30. So Nicolas of Lyra, d. 1349 (cf. C. Spicq, L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I, p. 234, n. 4).

31. Cf. Acts 8:4; 11:19.

33. Luke the Physician (London, 1908), pp. 301-28.

34. Catholic andApostolic (London, 1931), pp. 81f.

37. Hebreux, I, pp. 247-52. The experiences of 10:32-34 could be placed in the context of the tension between the Jewish and Gentile populations of Caesarea in the decade preceding A.D. 66 (Josephus, War 2.266-70; Ant. 20.173-84). As for Antioch, see V. Burch, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1936), p. 137, for the argument that the allusions to the Maccabaean martyr-cult in 11:35b-38 "are met by a Syrian notice of the cult which is markedly Antiochian in detail."

38. Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (Manchester, 1962), pp. 242-58 (article "The Problem of the Epistle to the Hebrews," reprinted from BJRL 32 [1949], pp. 3-19). The epistle was associated with the Lycus valley by some persons known to Filaster, bishop of Brescia, d. c. 397 (Heresies 89); they identified it with the Laodicean letter of Col. 4:16. According to Filaster, Hebrews was variously attributed to Paul, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, and Luke (J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and toPhilemon [London, 21879], p. 278). Cf. C. P. Anderson, "Hebrews among the Letters of Paul," SR 5 (1975), pp. 258-66.

39. "The Epistle to the Hebrews," Interpretation 5 (1951), pp. 80-91.

40. New and Living Way (London, 1959), p. 19. Cyprus had previously been suggested by E. Riggenbach, Der Brief an die Hebrder, ZK (Leipzig, 1913), pp. xlviff.-a work which Snell characterizes as "much the best commentary on the Epistle known to me" (New and Living Way, p. 22).

41. H. Appel, Der Hebraerbrief.• ein Schreiben des Apollos an Judenchristen der korinthischen Gemeinde (Leipzig, 1918); F. lo Bue, "The Historical Background of the Epistle to the Hebrews," JBL 75 (1958), pp. 52-57; H. W. Montefiore, The Epistle to the Hebrews, HNTC (New York, 1964), pp. 11-16.

42. Cf. Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 237, n. 2, for a list.

43. Einleitung in das Neue Testament, I (Giessen, 1804), pp. 284, 293.

48. The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church (London, 1951), pp. 239f.

49. Not, however, the fact that the Jewish temple of Leontopolis was nearby. K. Wieseler argued that deviations in the description of the cultus in Hebrews from that prescribed in the OT and followed in Jerusalem (e.g., the daily ministration of the high priest, 7:27) reflected the practice at Leontopolis ("Die Leser des Hebraerbriefs and der Tempel zu Leontopolis," Theologische Studien and Kritiken 40 [18671, pp. 665-720). See p. 236, n. 11.

50. Hypotyposes, quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.14.1-4. The identification of Clement's "elder" with Pantaenus was first suggested, it appears, by T. Zahn (Introduction to the New Testament, E.T., II [Edinburgh, 19091, p. 308, n. 5).

44. Historisch-kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Leipzig, 1875), pp. 385ff.

45. Introduction to the New Testament, I (London, 1882), pp. 223ff.

46. Das Judenchristentum im ersten and zweiten Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1908), pp. 93ff.

47. "The Early Christian Church in Egypt," ExT 33 (1921-22), pp. 536-59.

51. Cf. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles (London, 1953), pp. 14-17, 276-79; also C. P. Anderson, "The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Pauline Letter Collection," HTR 59 (1966), pp. 429-38.

52. Some (e.g., E. Nestle, "On the Address of the Epistle to the Hebrews," ExT 10 [ 189899], p. 422; G. Milligan, The Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews [Edinburgh, 1899], p. 50) have linked a Roman destination for the epistle with the presence in Rome of a "synagogue of the Hebrews" (avvay(uyil AipQiwv, CIG 9909); this is a very doubtful link.

53. This is particularly evident in the precis of Heb. 1:3-7 interwoven into the language of 1 Clem. 36:1-5. See D. A. Hagner, The Use of the Old and New Testaments in Clement of Rome, NovTSup 34 (Leiden, 1973), pp. 179-84.

54. The "hypothesis that gives the most reasonable explanation for the largest amount of the data ... is that which postulates that the epistle was written to a group or synagogue of Jewish Christians within the church of Rome in the late 60s" (J. A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament [London, 1976], p. 207). A Roman destination was first suggested by J. J. Wettstein (Novum Testamentum Graece, II [Amsterdam, 1752], p. 386). On Heb. 13:24 see p. 391 below with n. 132.

55. "Probabilia fiber die Adresse and den Verfasser des Hebraerbriefes," ZNW 1(1900), pp. 16-41. A year earlier, T. Zahn had argued that the addressees were Jewish Christians in Rome, one group within the wider city church (INT, E.T., II, pp. 344-51; 358, nn. 5, 6; 359, n. 8). M. A. R. Tuker found support for the Roman association of the epistle in the Canon of the Roman Mass, in the reference to "thy supreme priest Melchizedek" (summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech): in the Roman liturgy, he points out, "and in no other," are such words used. "Moreover, they are recorded in the oldest reference to the Roman Canon, and must take their place by the side of the `Amen' of Justin as root-words of the Liturgy" (from "The Gospel according to Prisca," Nineteenth Century, January 1913, pp. 81f., quoted by A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood [Edinburgh, 19131, p. 6, n. 1). See p. 158 below, n. 11.

56. The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Historical and Theological Reconsideration.

57. T. W. Manson, The Church's Ministry (London, 1948), pp. 13f.; he describes Clement's procedure in this regard as "a retrogression of the worst kind."

58. But even in the east, as late as the beginning of the fourth century, Methodius of Olympus treated Hebrews as anonymous (Symposium 4.1; 5.7).

59. Quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.14.2.

60. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.14.3. Clement's account is followed in a fourth-century preface to the epistle included in most manuscripts of the Vulgate.

61. Against its being a translation from Hebrew (apart from the general consideration that it is not written in translation-Greek) certain specific points tell: thus, not only is the OT quoted in the LXX, but the author argues on the basis of a LXX deviation from the Hebrew text (cf. the use made of Ps. 40:6, "a body hast thou prepared me," in Heb. 10:5ff.); again, the argument of 9:15-20 depends on the double sense "covenant" and "testament" of Gk. SLa9ijxrl and could not have been used with Heb. berit (cf. Calvin, ad loc.).

62. Quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.25.11-14.

63. On Modesty 20 (cf. p. 148 with n. 55). Whether this tradition was well founded or based, e.g., on a collocation of the Av yos tapaxXrjoews of Heb. 13:22 with the utos napaxArjaew5 of Acts 4:36 cannot be ascertained. It has been objected that a man who appears so early in Christian history as Barnabas could not have written in terms of Heb. 2:3b; but he may not have heard Jesus teach. Barnabas was regarded as the author in the later part of the fourth century by Gregory of Elvira (cf. Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 199 with n. 7) and by a host of modern writers (cf. Spicq, ibid., n. 8), including B. Weiss, MK (Gottingen, 1897), G. Salmon (INT, pp. 466-68), F. Blass (Der Brief an die Hebraer [Halle, 1903]), J. V. Bartlet ("Barnabas and his Genuine Epistle," Exp. VI.v [1902], pp. 409-27, vi [1902], pp. 28-30; "The Epistle to the Hebrews as the Work of Barnabas," Exp. VI.viii [1903], pp. 381-96; "More Words on the Epistle to the Hebrews," Exp. VI.xi [1905], pp. 381-96; he later gave up this view in favor of Apollos's authorship), C. R. Gregory (Canon and Text of the New Testament [Edinburgh, 1907], pp. 223f.), E. Riggenbach, ZK (Leipzig, 1913), C. J. Cadoux ("The Early Christian Church in Egypt," ExT 33 [1921-22], pp. 536-59; K. Bornhauser (Empfanger and Verfasser des Hebraerbriefs, pp. 75ff.), H. Strathmann (Der Brief an die Hebraer, NTD [Gottingen, 1937], pp. 64f.), A. Snell (New and Living Way, pp. 17-20), P. E. Hughes (Commentary on Hebrews, pp. 24-29, tentatively). According to F. J. Badcock, "the voice is the voice of Barnabas the Levite, but the hand is the hand of Luke" (The Pauline Epistles and the Epistle to the Hebrews in their Historical Setting [London, 1937], p. 198); cf. p. 367, n. 3.

64. The epistle is not mentioned in the Muratorian Canon, which lists Paul's letters as addressed to seven named churches and three named individuals, thus clearly excluding Hebrews. Cf. also Cyprian (Testimonies 1.20; To Fortunatus 11); Victorinus of Pettau (d. 303), commenting on Rev. 1:11.On Irenaeus cf. C. H. Turner in Novum Testamentum Sancti Irenaei, ed. W. Sanday and C. H. Turner (Oxford, 1923), pp. 226f. Stephen Gobarus (quoted by Photius, Bibliotheca 232) says that Irenaeus denied the Pauline authorship of Hebrews.

65. According to Photius, Bibliotheca 121; cf. R. H. Connolly, "New Attributions to Hippolytus," JTS 46 (1945), pp. 199f.

68. A. Souter, A Study of Ambrosiaster (Cambridge, 1905), pp. 171f.; The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul (Oxford, 1927), pp. 53f. The commentary on Hebrews included in some manuscripts among Ambrosiaster's Pauline commentaries is actually by Alcuin of York (E. Riggenbach, Die dltesten lateinischen Kommentare zum Hebraerbrief [Leipzig, 1907], pp. 18-40). Pelagius regards Hebrews as Pauline, but perhaps not in the same sense as the thirteen epistles which bear Paul's name; he wrote commentaries on them, but not on Hebrews.

66. According to Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.20.3.

67. Hist. Eccl. 6.20.3.

69. Forgiveness of Sins 1.50. While he gives the number of Paul's letters as fourteen (On Christian Learning 2.13), Augustine does not foreclose the question of the authorship of Hebrews. "In his earliest writings (down to 406) he cites the Epistle as Paul's; in the middle period he wavers between Pauline authorship and anonymity; in his old age (409-30) he refers to it always as anonymous" (A. Souter, The Text and Canon of the New Testament [London, 21954], p. 174). Jerome pays lip service to the Pauline authorship, following the Greek-speaking churches, but he knows that many of the Latins have doubts about this, and he distinguishes Hebrews from Paul's letters "to seven churches" (Epistle 53.9). In fact, he says, "it does not matter whose it is, since it is the work of a churchman (ecclesiastici uiri) and honored daily by being read in the churches" (Epistle 129.3).

70. See F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Glasgow, 1988), pp. 208f.

73. On Heb. 13:23.

74. Luther speaks as though others had suggested Apollos before him. In his Lectures on Hebrews, 1517-18 (WA LVIII.iii, p. 5) he still ascribes the epistle conventionally to Paul; but in his Preface to Hebrews, 1522 (WA, Die deutsche Bibel, VII, p. 344), he describes the author as "an excellent man of learning, who had been a disciple of the apostles and learned much from them, and who was very well versed in Scripture." In a sermon on 1 Cor. 3:4ff., in 1537 (WA, XLV, p. 389), he says that Hebrews was certainly the work of Apollos, and expresses the same view in his Commentary on Genesis, 1545 (WA, XLIV, p. 709). See H. Feld, Martin Luthers and Wendelin Steinbachs Vorlesungen fiber den Hebraerbrief (Wiesbaden, 1971), pp. 22-34.

71. Preface to the Epistle to the Hebrews (quoted by Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 198, n. 1).

72. Annotationes in Epistulam Pauli ad Hebraeos ([1516] Paris, 1631), p. 707.

75. H. Alford, The Greek Testament, IV.1 (London, 1859), pp. 58-62; E. Riehm, Der Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefs, II (Basel, 1867), p. 894; E. Reuss, Histoire de la theologie chretienne au siecle apostolique, II (Strasbourg, 31864), pp. 268f.; L 'EpItre aux Hebreux (Paris, 1878), pp. 22f.; A. Hilgenfeld, Historisch-kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testament, pp. 356, 386ff.; A. Klostermann, Zur Theorie der biblischen Weissagung and zur Charakteristik des Hebraerbriefs (Nordlingen, 1889), pp. 47ff.; T. Zahn, INT, II, p. 356; H. Appel, Der Hebraerbrief: Ein Schreiben des Apollos an Judenchristen der korinthischen Gemeinde; J. V. Bartlet, "The Riddle of the Epistle to the Hebrews," Exp. VIII.v (1913), pp. 548-51; "The Epistle to the Hebrews Once More," ExT 34 (1922-23), pp. 58-61; T. W. Manson, Studies in the Gospels and Epistles, pp. 254-58; W. F. Howard, "The Epistle to the Hebrews," Interpretation 5 (1951), pp. 80-91; C. Spicq, Hebreux, I, pp. 207-19; H. W. Montefiore, Hebrews, HNTC, pp. 9-15. See the fuller list in Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 210, n. 2.

76. The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 171f. Cf. the suggested ascriptions to Peter (A. Welch, The Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews [Edinburgh, 1898]), Aristion (J. Chapman, "Aristion, Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews," RBen 17 [1905], pp. 50-62; R. Perdelwitz, "Das literarische Problem des Hebraerbriefs," ZNW 11 [1910], pp. 59-78, 105-23), Philip the evangelist (W. M. Ramsay, Luke the Physician, p. 304), Jude (A. M. Dubarle, "Redacteur et destinataires de l'Epitre aux Hebreux,"RB 48 [1939], pp. 506-29), Silas/Silvanus (E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter [London, 1946], pp. 464-66; T. Hewitt, The Epistle to the Hebrews, TNTC [London, 1960], pp. 26-31), Timothy (J. D. Legg, "Our brother Timothy," EQ 40 [1968], pp. 220-23; see below, p. 390, n. 127, on Heb. 13:23), Epaphras (C. P. Anderson, "Hebrews among the Letters of Paul," SR 5 [1975], pp. 258-66).

77. "Probabilia ... ," ZNW 1 (1900), pp. 32-41 (cf. p. 14, n. 55). Cf. J. R. Harris, Sidelights on New Testament Research (London, 1908), pp. 148-76 (see below, p. 294, n. 92). The one place in the epistle where the requirements of Greek grammatical gender indicate the author's sex uses the masculine: in 11:32 the author says "the time will fail me telling (btr yovpvov)...." Harnack (loc. cit., pp. 26f.) calls this "an indifferent phrase" (meaning, no doubt, that the masculine is purely formal); Harris (Side-lights, p. 175) treats it more seriously: "this masculine participle is the real rock in the track, if we want to refer the Epistle to the Hebrews (or even the eleventh chapter) to Priscilla.... And ... it is only fair to say that the adverse evi dence at this point to the Priscilla hypothesis is very strong: and it would not be proper to cure the text of its difficulty by a conjectural emendation unless the case were already settled by other considerations." For Harris to resist the temptation to emend the text conjecturally argues uncommon self-restraint. See for a more recent presentation R. Hoppin, Priscilla: Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (New York, 1969). A different feminine influence on the epistle has been discerned by J. M. Ford, "The Mother of Jesus and the Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews," Bible Today 82 (1976), pp. 683-94.

78. Acts 18:26.

79. Who, like them, was in Paul's company at Corinth and at Ephesus (Acts 18:5; 19:22; 1 Cor. 16:10, 19).

80. Rom. 16:5 (similarly they accommodated a church in their house at Ephesus during their stay there; cf. 1 Cor. 16:19).

81. "We" much more frequently than "I" (cf. Harnack, "Probabilia... ," ZNW 1, p. 24). One may recall Sidney and Beatrice Webb; when they said, "Our thought is ... ," those who knew them realized that it was Beatrice's thought that was being expressed.

82. For the Western text of Acts 18:26 see Acts, NICNT, p. 358, n. 67.

83. With the exception of Luke, to whom some part in the composition of the epistle has been ascribed since Clement of Alexandria. He has been regarded as author (not simply editor or translator) by Calvin (with Clement of Rome as an alternative), F. Delitzsch (Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, E.T., II [Edinburgh, 1872], pp. 409-17), and others. Stylistically Hebrews is closer to the writings of Luke than to anything else in the NT; but this may be because our author and Luke approximate more closely than other NT writers to the models of literary Hellenistic-our author even more so than Luke. "Hebrews may be more typical of the cultured speech of the educated classes than any of the other documents in the New Testament" (M. E. Thrall, Greek Particles in the New Testament [Leiden, 19621, p. 9). Cf. C. P. M. Jones, "The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Lucan Writings," in Studies in the Gospels, ed. D. E. Nineham (Oxford, 1955), pp. 113-43.

84. Calvin's Commentaries: The Epistle ... to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of Peter, trans. W. B. Johnston (Edinburgh, 1963), p. 1.

85. Ibid.

86. The latest substantial defense of Pauline authorship is by W. Leonard, TheAuthorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews. No weight can be attached to the argument that Hebrews is the Pauline letter referred to in 2 Pet. 3:15, written "to the same Hebrew Christians" (A. Saphir, Expository Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, I [London, 1874], p. 2); 2 Peter was not written especially to "Hebrew Christians," and the reference in 2 Pet. 3:15 is surely to Rom. 2:4. (R. P. C. Hanson, Tradition in the Early Church [London, 1962], p. 189, hazards the guess that 2 Pet. 3:15f. is a reference to such passages as Heb. 5:11-66:10 and 12:4-13; he compares bvovorrra nva of 2 Pet. 3:16 with buoepµrjveurog of Heb. 5:11. Unlike Saphir, he attaches no apostolic authority to 2 Peter.) As for the argument that Hebrews must be Pauline because then the number of Pauline epistles is a multiple of seven (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture [London, 1913], p. 26, also pp. 37ff.), that is a curiosity which has no place in serious Bible study. And to say, as another expositor does, that "the apostolic under-current is apparent to a spiritual mind" (J. N. Darby, Collected Writings [London, 1867-83], XXVII, p. 615), is simply to say that the expositor feels that an apostle was the author, and that anyone who feels otherwise is unspiritual. Contrast A. Vanhoye: "the author of Hebrews ... in no way voices a claim to apostolic authority" (TRE 14 [Berlin, 1985], p. 495, s.v. "Hebraerbrief ').

87. The description of Apollos in Acts 18:24, ERV. Whether ?.6yro5 means "learned" (ERV, ARV mg., NEB mg.) or "eloquent" (AV/KJV, ARV, RSV, NEB) is uncertain; it may mean either, and Apollos may have been both.

88. W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 172. Cf. B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. lxxxix.

89. See pp. 269f. with nn. 176-83.

90. See p. 342 with n. 64 for the sense of thxptc a`4µato5 ("unto blood").

91. T. Zahn, INT, II, E.T., p. 347; to the contrary (and rightly) E. Riggenbach, ZK, pp. 332f.: "In Heb. 10:32-34 there is not the slightest hint of martyr deaths."

92. Jer. 31:31ff. (see pp. 195f.).

93. Josephus (War 6.94) records the cessation of the daily sacrifice on August 5, A.D. 70, with a solemnity which suggests that he saw in this the fulfilment of Dan. 9:27.

94. See p. 99 with n. 57.

95. See p. 17 with n. 69.

96. See p. 13 with n. 51. It occupied various positions in relation to the Pauline epistles. In p46 (the oldest manuscript of the corpus Paulinum) and originally in Syria it comes second, after Romans. It follows 2 Corinthians in the Sahidic Coptic; it follows Galatians in the archetype of B. In the great uncials and at Alexandria generally it comes between Paul's letters to churches and those to individuals. In the west and later in Syria it occupied the position with which we are most familiar, after the thirteen epistles which bear Paul's name; this position reflects the long western hesitation to reckon it as a Pauline epistle. See W. H. P. Hatch, "The Position of Hebrews in the Canon of the New Testament," HTR 29 (1936), pp. 133-51; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London/New York, 1971), pp. 661f.

97. Pantaenus, Clement, Origen, Dionysius, Theognostus, Peter Martyr, Alexander, and Athanasius of Alexandria all attest the unanimous tradition of their church.

100. See p. 100, n. 61; p. 262 with n. 142.

98. Hist. Eccl. 3.3.5 ("the fourteen letters of Paul are obvious and plain").

99. See p. 13, n. 53.

101. See p. 88, n. 86 (with reference there).

102. Justin's calling Christ &arootoxo; (First Apology 12:9; 63:5, 10, 14; cf. Heb. 3:1) and &oxreeevc (Dialogue with Trypho 116:1) might denote dependence on Hebrews, as might also his designation as &oxreoev5 by Ignatius (Philadelphians 9:1, "the high priest who has been entrusted with the holy of holies") and probably by Polycarp (Epistle 12:2, "the eternal high priest").

103. See p. 16, n. 64. Eusebius ascribed to Irenaeus "a little book of various discourses in which he makes mention of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, setting alongside each other certain quotations from them" (Hilt. Eccl. 5.26). Marcion, who also came from Asia Minor, did not include Hebrews in his Apostolikon; quite apart from the question of authorship, the whole content of the epistle would have precluded his accepting it.

104. In The Bible in its Ancient and English Versions, ed. H. W. Robinson (Oxford, 1940), p. 68.

105. Preface to Hebrews (WA, VII, pp. 344f.). "One must not place it in all things on a level with the apostolic epistles," although it contains much good instruction which is to be received "with all honor." Indeed, in commenting on Gen. 14:18-20, he calls Heb. 7:1-4 "the most trustworthy testimony of the Holy Spirit" (WA, XLII, p. 545). In the list of books in his New Testament (1522) Luther numbers the first twenty-three, "the right certain capital books," in serial order, but separates the remaining four-Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation-from them by a space and gives no serial number to these. Tyndale's Cologne quarto (1525) does the same (and indeed this order was followed in successive editions of the English Bible until the Great Bible of 1539 reverted to the familiar order). But there is no particular reason to think that Tyndale shared Luther's deuterocanonical evaluation of Hebrews and the other three books; indeed, in his preface to Hebrews he retains Luther's reference to the "gold, silver, and precious stones" but says nothing of "wood, straw, or hay."

108. Gk. Xoyog (-q;) napaxArjo u5. See p. 389.

109. G. Vermes classes Hebrews and the Zadokite Admonition in the same literary genre (The Dead Sea Scrolls in English [Harmondsworth, 31987], p. 82).

110. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles, p. 286. As an outstanding reason for so describing it Zuntz mentions its repeated use of synkrisis-"a traditional device of encomiastic Greek and Latin rhetoric: the person or object to be praised is placed beside outstanding specimens of a comparable kind and his, or its, superiority (ii tr oXrl) urged.... And so does Hebrews, in contrasting Jesus, and his Church, with angels, Moses, Melchizedek, high-priests, the synagogue, the `heroes of faith,' etc." This a fortiori argument is substantially that used by the rabbis under the designation qal wa-homer ("light and heavy"); cf. 1:4; 3:3; 12:4; also p. 45, n. 6; p. 68, n. 4; p. 344, n. 74.

106. "Apostolical" in authority, not in authorship (see p. 20).

107. E.T. by W. B. Johnston (cf. p. 20, n. 85), p. 1.

111. "Some Obscured Rubrics and Lectionary Allusions in the Psalter," JTS, n.s. 3 (1952), p. 53; The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship (Oxford, 1960), p. 72. If we include the readings for the following sabbaths, we have the inauguration of the "old covenant" (Ex. 24) and the ritual of the red heifer (Num. 19); cf. Heb. 9:19 (pp. 224-26). This whole question has also been examined by C. H. Cave, The Influences of the Lectionary of the Synagogue on the Formation of the Epistle to the Hebrews (M.A. thesis, University of Nottingham, 1960).

112. The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship, p. 100. Cf. G. W. Buchanan, To the Hebrews, AB, p. 1: "The document entitled `To the Hebrews' is a homiletical midrash based on Ps. 110."

113. The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship, p. 72.

114. This has been worked out in detail by K. J. Thomas, The Use of the Septuagint in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Manchester, 1959), and "The Old Testament Citations in Hebrews," NTS 11(1964-65), pp. 303-25, and by J. C. McCullough, Hebrews and the Old Testament (Ph.D. dissertation, Queen's University, Belfast, 1971), and "The Old Testament Quotations in Hebrews," NTS 26 (1979-80), pp. 363-79. See also G. Howard, "Hebrews and the Old Testament Quotations," NovT 10 (1968), pp. 208-16.

115. Cf. 7:5, on the receiving of tithes; 7:27, on the high priest's daily sacrificial duties; 9:4, on the position of the incense-altar and contents of the ark; 9:19, on the institution of the first covenant; 9:21, on the purifying of all the sanctuary vessels with blood; 12:21, on the Sinai theophany (with exposition and notes ad loc. ).

116. Cf. B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 471-97; J. van der Ploeg, "L'exegese de I'Ancien Testament dans I'Epitre aux Hebreux," RB 54 (1947), pp. 187-228; R. A. Stewart, The Old Testament Usage in Philo, Rabbinic Writings and Hebrews (M.Litt. diss., University of Cambridge, 1947); C. Spicq, L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I, pp. 330-50; R. M. Grant, The Letter and the Spirit (London, 1957); F. C. Synge, Hebrews and the Scriptures; M. Barth, "The Old Testament in Hebrews," in Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, ed. W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder (New York, 1962), pp. 53-78; A. T. Hanson, "Christ in the Old Testament according to Hebrews," SE 2 = TU 87 (Berlin, 1964), pp. 303-407; F. Schroger, Der Verfasser des Hebraerbriefs als Schriftausleger (Regensburg, 1968); G. Hughes, Hebrews and Hermeneutics, SNTSM 36 (Cambridge, 1979).

117. Cf. the rdz pesher ("mystery-interpretation") pattern in biblical apocalyptic and in Qumran exegesis, as well as in Mark 4:11f. See F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts (London, 1960), pp. 7-11.

118. C. Spicq, Hebreux, 1, p. 61.

119. Spicq's discussion of the Philonism of Hebrews (Hebreux, I, pp. 39-91) must be corrected by reference to R. Williamson, Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews (Leiden, 1970). See also S. G. Sowers, The Hermeneutics of Philo and Hebrews (Zurich, 1965). Cf. p. 33, n. 134.

121. Philo, Leg. Alleg. 3.79; Heb. 7:2.

122. Cf. S. Kistemaker, The Psalm Citations in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Amsterdam, 1961).

120. Leg. Alleg. 3.82; see p. 158, n. 14.

123. Cf. R. Rendall, "The Method of the Writer to the Hebrews in Using Old Testament Quotations," EQ 27 (1955), pp. 214-20.

124. Cf. E. Riehm, Der Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefs; E. Menegoz, La Theologie de l'Epitre aux Hebreux (Paris, 1894); G. Milligan, The Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1899); H. A. A. Kennedy, The Theology of the Epistles (London, 1919), pp. 182221; R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel in the Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1950); G. Theissen, Untersuchungen zum Hebraerbrief (Gutersloh, 1969); H. Zimmermann, Das Bekenntnis der Hoffnung, BBB 47 (Cologne, 1977).

125. Especially in Revelation, where the garment reaching to the feet and the golden sash around his breast (1:13) are high-priestly vestments. See p. 30, n. 127.

126. Cf. A. J. B. Higgins, "Priest and Messiah," VT 3 (1953), pp. 321-36; "The Priestly Messiah,"NTS 13 (1966-67), pp. 221-39; 0. Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, E.T. (London, 1959), pp. 83-107. The inference from v. 1 to v. 4 of Ps. 110 is not made explicitly (and perhaps not even implied) in the Synoptic Gospels or anywhere else in the NT outside this epistle; our author may well have been the first Christian to make it.

127. C. Spicq finds a Johannine origin for the priestly portrayal of Christ elaborated in Hebrews; cf. his article "L'origine johannique de la conception du Christ-pretre dans l'Epitre aux Hebreux," in Aux sources de la tradition chretienne, M. Goguel FS (Paris, 1950), pp. 258-69; in addition to the "high-priestly" prayer of John 17 he points to the seamless robe of John 19:23 as a high-priestly garment (cf. p. 29, n. 125). See also P. Giles, Jesus, the High Priest (Bognor Regis, 1984), with O. Cullmann, Christology, p. 105, for comments and further bibliography.

128. Cf. Matt. 10:32. In the Gospels the Son of Man acts both as napaxlvrltoS ("advocate") and as xat~yopos ("prosecutor") in the heavenly court; for the latter role see Matt. 10:33; Mark 8:38; Luke 12:9. See on this general subject A. J. B. Higgins, "The OT and some aspects of NT Christology," inPromise and Fulfilment, S. H. Hooke FS (Edinburgh, 1963), pp. 128-41.

129. Cf. C. F. D. Moule, "From Defendant to Judge-and Deliverer," Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas Bulletin 3 (Oxford, 1952), pp. 40-53, reprinted in The Phenomenon of the New Testament, SBT 2.1 (London, 1967), pp. 82-99.

130. Behind the last two clauses lies a unified exegesis of Ps. 110:1 and Isa. 53:12. The affirmations of faith are a reply to the challenge: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" (Rom. 8:33)-the whole passage being an echo of the Servant of Yahweh's challenge in Isa. 50:7-9.

131. T. W. Manson (Ministry and Priesthood [London, 1958], p. 48, n. 16) expresses the view that in this respect the writer of Hebrews was anticipated by Paul in Rom. 3:21-26, and refers to his article "IAAXTHPION, " inJTS 46 (1945), pp. 1-10.

132. T. F. Torrance ("Doctrinal Consensus on Holy Communion," SJT 15 [19621, pp. 421) distinguishes three aspects of the redemption or atonement wrought by Christ which he relates respectively to three Hebrew verbs-pariah, the "dramatic" (i.e., the "Christus Victor") aspect; kipper, the "cultic-forensic" aspect; ga'al, the "incarnational" aspect. In different Prot estant traditions one or another of these aspects is emphasized to a point where insufficient justice is done to the rest. "A new and deeper biblical wholeness" could help to bring them together "through a more adequate doctrine of atonement. It has long been my conviction [he adds] that joint study of the Epistle to the Hebrews would have an immense part to play in such a rapprochement" (p. 9). A few items from the vast literature on priesthood and sacrifice with special relation to his epistle are J. Denney, The Death of Christ (London, 61907), pp. 204-40; A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood; D. K. Burns, "The Epistle to the Hebrews," ExT 47 (1935-36), pp. 184-89; V. Taylor, The Atonement in New Testament Teaching (London, 1940), pp. 147-90; A. M. Stibbs, The Meaning of the Word "Blood " in Scripture (London, 1947), and The Finished Work of Christ (London, 1952); G. J. C. Marchant, "Sacrifice in the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 20 (1948), pp. 196-210; C. F. D. Moule, The Sacrifice of Christ (London, 1956); S. S. Smalley, "The Atonement in the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 33 (1961), pp. 34-43; L. L. Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (Exeter, 31965), pp. 90-111, 121-28, 184-213; The Cross in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1965), pp. 270-308; A. Vanhoye, "L'oblation sacerdotale du Christ daps 1'epitfe aux Hebreux," Didaskalia 14 (1984), pp. 11-29.

133. Cf. 13:20 (p. 388). But see pp. 86f. (on 2:15).

134. It is going too far, however, to say with H. von Soden that "the Philonic logology is the armory for the Christology of the Epistle" (DerBrief an die Hebrder, HCNT, III [Freiburg, 1899], p. 6). He regards our author as the epoch-making man who brought Alexandrianism into the service of Christianity. Cf. J. B. Carpzov, Sacrae exercitationes in epistolam ad Hebraeos ex PhiloneAlexandrino (Amsterdam, 1750); E. Menegoz, Theologie, pp. 197ff.; J. Cabantous, Philon et l'Epitre aux Hebreux (Montauban, 1895); C. Spicq, L 'Epitre aux Hebreux, I, pp. 3991; J. Hering, "Eschatologie biblique et idealisme platonicien," in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology [C. H. Dodd FS], ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 444-63; S. G. Sowers, The Hermeneutics of Philo and Hebrews; R. Williamson, Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews; L. K. K. Dey, The Intermediary World and Patterns of Perfection in Philo and Hebrews, SBLDS 25 (Missoula, MT, 1975).

135. With this is associated the Platonic theory of knowledge as remembrance (av6µvrlaL5); the soul remembers the perfect archetypes which it saw in its earlier existence in the supracelestial realm and recognizes things in this world as imperfect copies of these. Cf. p. 185 with nn. 33-35.

136. 8:5 (p. 184 with nn. 29, 30).

137. Cf. 4:9; 9:27f.; 10:25, 36ff.; 12:26f.; 13:14. See C. K. Barrett, "The Eschatology of the Epistle to the Hebrews," in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube, pp. 363-93; B. Klappert, DieEschatologiedesHebraerbriefs, TEH 156 (Munich, 1969); also P. J. Du Plessis, TEAEIOE : The Idea of Perfection in the New Testament (Kampen, 1959); D. G. Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection, SNTSM 47 (Cambridge, 1982).

1. This is the work cited as Spicq, L'Epitre aux Hebreux (or simply Hebreux) throughout this commentary.

1. Gk. no)xpa iu xai noXvrponw5, lit. "in many parts and in many ways" (NEB "in fragmentary and varied fashion"). The alliteration with initial n is a familiar literary figure.

2. Gk. iv uiCo ("in [one who is] Son," "Son-wise").

3. Gk. 4epwv, "upholding" or "carrying along"; for the latter rendering cf. A. H. McNeile, "The Spiritual Value of the Creation Story," ExT 16 (1904-5), p. 541. The first hand in B (cf also the 4th-cent. Ps.-Serapion) has the scribal error 4avepcuv ("manifesting"). A corrector deleted the superfluous letters av, but a later reader (c. 13th cent.) replaced them and added a note rebuking the corrector: "Most ignorant and wicked man, leave the original (reading) alone; do not change it!"

4. Gk. tw pr#aTL tf buvaµews aitov. In place of ainov, "his" (the reading of K A B Db H* 6 33 etc.), p°G and 1739 (with 0121b and 424**) have &' ainov or &' iaurov, "through himself," which must be construed with the following clause. D* K L with the bulk of later manuscripts and the TR exhibit both readings, avro8 &' Eaurov (hence AV/KJV "upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins"). G. Zuntz (The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], pp. 43-45) submits that &' eauroii is the original reading, aitov being an easy corruption and aitov &' faurov the conflation of the other two; the text would then mean: "Jesus supports the universe by the word of power; through himself he has effected the purification of sins." He finds a further pointer to the original absence of the genitive avtov after trp ei u tr iris huvaµews in the fact that without it the participial phrase ends in the fourth paeonic foot huvaµews, the one meter which Aristotle (Rhetoric 3.8) commends as a clausula in rhetorical prose, and one which is found elsewhere in this epistle (Text, p. 285, where he cites W. B. Sedgwick).

5. Gk. tiuv ayyeXmv. From the fact that iuw is omitted by p46 B and Clement of Rome, G. Zuntz infers that the anarthrous dyyWwv is the true reading (Text, p. 218).

6. Gk. tooouto xpeittwv ... bow ("by so much better ... as") is an example of the rhetorical figure called synkrisis (cf. p. 25, n. 111). See G. Zuntz, Text, p. 286; he refers to F. Focke, "Synkrisis," Hermes 8 (1923), pp. 327ff., especially 335ff. Cf. 3:3; 12:4, and the special uses of the a fortiori argument mentioned on p. 68, n. 4; p. 344, n. 74.

7. Job 26:14.

8. Cf. J. K. S. Reid, The Authority of Scripture (London, 1957), pp. 182-93.

13. Cf. 2 Cor. 1:20.

14. Gk. en' gaxatov tt v figj2 v toitwv, a Septuagintalism, reflecting Heb. behharit hayyamIm ("in the latter end of the days"), which according to the context may mean "hereafter," "ultimately," or "in the end-time." Cf. Gen. 49:1; Num. 24:14; Deut. 4:30; 31:29; Isa. 2:2; Jer. 23:20; 30:24; 48:27; 49:39; Ezek. 38:16; Dan. 10:14; Hos. 3:5; Mic. 4:1. The use of the phrase here implies an inaugurated eschatology. See p. 231 with nn. 160-63 (on 9:26).

9. Cf. Jer. 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7.

10. Ex. 19:19; Deut. 5:22ff.

11. 1 Kings 19:12.

12. Isa. 8:6ff.

15. Cf. the extension of Abraham's promised inheritance in 11:9f., 14-16.

16. Cf. 2:5, rile otxovµevi1v t~v i&J ovaav.

18. See F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1984), pp. 61-65. According to Philo, "the image (cixwv) of God is the Word (>,oyoc) through whom the whole world was constructed" (Special Laws 1.81; cf. Sacrifices ofAbel and Cain 8; Migration ofAbraham 6; Immutability of God 57).

19. The piling up of participial clauses embodying predications about God was characteristic of the liturgical style of the synagogue. Cf. E. Percy, Probleme der Kolosser- and Epheserbriefe (Lund, 1946), pp. 38f.

20. Cf. also Rev. 3:14, where the exalted Christ speaks as "the beginning of the creation of God" (another echo of Prov. 8:22).

21. Cf. J. R. Harris, The Origin of the Prologue to St. John's Gospel (Cambridge, 1917), pp. 57-62.

17. There is ample evidence for this later use of alcov, in singular and plural alike, to denote the world of space; cf. Ex. 15:18, LXX ("The Lord reigns over the world [Pant? rixnv toy at6va] for ever and ever"); Wisdom 13:9; 14:6; 18:4, etc. The rabbis used Heb. 'Slam, Aram. 'alam, in the same sense after the beginning of the Christian era. See H. Sasse in TDNT, I, p. 204 (s.v. ai6v).

22. Both an active sense ("effulgence," "radiance") and a passive sense ("reflection") are attested for bnavyaopa. In later credal language, the Son of God is "light of light" (4xb5 ix $on65), the effulgent light being "of the same substance" (61LoouaLo5) as the source of light. This active sense is more appropriate to the context in Heb. 1:3 (and probably in Wisdom 7:25).

23. The Making of the World 146; Noah's Planting 50; cf. Special Laws 4.123, where he says that what God breathed into the first man (Gen. 2:7) was "an effulgence (anavyaopa) of his blessed, thrice-blessed nature."

24. Gk. Xapaxrlw (from the verb Xapaoaw in the sense "engrave") is used especially of the impression or stamp on coins and seals. Philo uses it repeatedly of the image of God in human beings, stamped by the Logos as by the divine seal (e.g., Noah's Planting 18). See New Docs., IV (1979), § 1.

25. It is eixtuv that is rendered "image" in Wisdom 7:26, quoted above ("an image of his goodness"). See Colossians-Philemon-Ephesians, NICNT, pp. 57f.; cf also Heb. 10:1 (pp. 234f.).

26. Gk. irrovraoi5 occurs five times in the NT (the other four being 2 Cor. 9:4; 11:17; Heb. 3:14; 11:1); here it has the meaning "substance" or "real essence" (in contrast to what merely appears to be). See p. 101 with n. 67; cf. T. B. Strong, "The History of the Theological Term `Substance,"'JTS 2 (1901), pp. 224-35, 3 (1902), pp. 22-40.

27. Cf. A. E. Garvie, "Shadow and Substance," ExT 28 (1916-17), p. 398.

28. See p. 44, n. 4. Cf. Zuntz, Text, p. 45, for the view that "his enabling word" is here an expression denoting the Logos.

30. Cf. Heb. 11:3, "the universe has been fashioned by God's utterance"; there as here the Greek noun translated "word" ("utterance") is pip.

31. Gk. xa&apro}rov twv aµaptui)v notrlaaµevos. The absence of a perfect participle active in Latin (except for deponent verbs) has led to the use of the present participle here in the Vulgate as the equivalent of the Greek aorist participle notrlaaµevos (purgationem peccatorum faciens); this rendering, reflected in most translations based on the Vulgate (e.g., R. A. Knox, "making atonement for our sins"), has facilitated the view that during his present heavenly session Christ continues to make purification for sin. Cf. 10:12 (p. 245, n. 67).

32. From the Prayer of Consecration, Book of Common Prayer. If we retain the reading ht' eavrov, "by himself" (cf. p. 44, n. 4), the meaning may be not only that Christ made this purification by his own act, without assistance from others, but also that he made it by means of his own person-i.e., that he presented himself as the purificatory offering (which is, of course, repeatedly emphasized in this epistle). Cf. Zuntz, Text, p. 44.

33. Gk. tits peya?tuairvr1S iv inyrlkoltg (cf. 8:1 for a similar periphrasis with [mya?,woriq). Cf the use of "The Power" (Gk. j Srrvaµts) as a surrogate for the divine name in Mark 14:62.

29. Cf. R. A. Knox's translation: "all creation depends, for its support, on his enabling word."

34. "From henceforth shall the Son of man be seated at the right hand of the power of God" (Luke 22:69). See pp. 63f. below.

35. In Ezekiel's vision of the new commonwealth the Davidic prince has the privilege of sitting in the temple "as prince" (i.e., only as prince, not as priest) "to eat bread before Yahweh" (Ezek. 44:3).

36. "Having become (yev6gv ) so much better," where yrvoµevog may be a simultaneous aorist participle. In Philo the Logos is "the most senior of the angels, as it were an archangel" (Confusion of Tongues 146); the Son in this epistle has an even higher status. See A. Vanhoye, "Christologia a qua initium sumit Epistula ad Hebraeos," Verbum Domini 43 (1965), pp. 3-14, 49-61, 113-23.

37. Cf. v. 5. On the other hand, "the name which is above every name" in Phil. 2:9 is probably "LORD" (in the LXX sense of xupto5 as equivalent of Heb. Yahweh).

38. Gk. xpeirtwv. Cf. 6:9; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6 (bis); 9:23; 10:34; 11:16, 35, 40; 12:24.

39. Cf. T. W. Manson, "The Problem of the Epistle to the Hebrews," Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (Manchester, 1962), pp. 242-58.

40. Ps. 2:7.

43. Ps. 104:4 (LXX 103:4).

44. Gk. ei5 toy aiCOva tov aiiuvos. A few authorities (B 33 latt) omit iov aiwvog.

41. 2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chron. 17:13.

42. Deut. 32:43 LXX.

45. Gk. T% PaatXEiag oov (so the LXX); but p46 X B have ai tov instead of oov ("his kingdom" instead of "your kingdom"), and this is probably the true text here, the majority reading being the result of a very natural assimilation to the LXX.

46. Gk. avoµiav, for which K A 33 and a few other authorities have a&xiav (a variant reading found also in some LXX authorities).

47. Ps. 45:6f. (LXX 44:7f.).

48. Gk. WX tt;, for which K * D* have "you will change" (&?J rt5). Both variants are attested for the LXX, but etkkd rLS has the weight of authority there (cf. the MT), whereas e1„il;er5 has it here.

49. Gk. 6)5 tsuttov. These words are absent from the LXX, but are well attested for the present passage (p46 X A B D* 1739); as a result of assimilation to the LXX they are omitted from K L P with the majority of later manuscripts and the TR; hence they do not appear in the AV/KJV.

52. For work on this subject cf. C. H. Dodd,According to the Scriptures (London, 1952), and The Old Testament in the New (London, 1952); R. V. G. Tasker, The Old Testament in the New Testament (London, 1954); B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961); M. Barth, "The Old Testament in Hebrews," in Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, ed. W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder (New York, 1962), pp. 53-78; A. T. Hanson, The Living Utterances of God (London, 1983). See Introduction, p. 27, n. 116.

50. Ps. 102:25-27 (LXX 101:26-28).

51. Ps. 110:1 (LXX 109:1).

54. Cf. R. Rendall, "The Method of the Writer to the Hebrews in Using Old Testament Quotations," EQ 27 (1955), pp. 214-20.

55. Cf. Gen. 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7 (in most of the places the LXX calls the "sons of God" angels).

56. Dan. 3:25 is not an exception, despite AV/KJV "the Son of God"; the ERV/ARV and the RSV rightly render the Aramaic phrase "a son of the gods" (i.e., a divine being or an angel).

57. E. Voegelin, Order and History, I (Oxford, 1956), p. 306. Cf. A. Bentzen, King and Messiah, E.T. (London, 1955), pp. 16-20; S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh, E.T. (Oxford, 1956), pp. 11, 64, et passim. So far as the form is concerned, we recognize here the language which was widely used in enthronement ceremonies throughout the ancient Near East. Thus Voegelin (Order, p. 305) quotes parallels from the Pyramid texts: "This is my son, my firstborn.... This is my beloved, with whom I have been satisfied" (la-b), and "This is my beloved, my son; I have given the horizons to him, that he may he powerful over them like Harachte" (4a-b). See also J. Dupont, "Filius meus es tu," RSR 35 (1948), pp. 522-43.

58. A. R. Johnson (Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel [Cardiff, 1955], pp. 118-20) finds in the original intention of the second psalm "the thought of the eventual fulfilment of this promise [that David would be made supreme over the kings of the earth] in the person of his descendant and ideal successor upon the throne, the true Messiah of the House of David."

59. Ps. Sol. 17:26.

53. Cf. S. Kistemaker, The Psalm Citations in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Amsterdam, 1961).

60. The following words spoken by the heavenly voice ("my beloved, in whom I am well pleased") echo the language in which the Servant of the Lord is introduced in Isa. 42:1. Jesus understood that his mission as the Messiah and divine Son of Ps. 2:7 was to be fulfilled in terms of the obedient, humble, suffering, and triumphant Servant of the Lord introduced in Isa. 42:1; and his understanding was in conformity with the original intention of the Servant Songs. See pp. 177-79, 217f., 232, 240f.

61. See F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 21988), pp. 259f.

62. See Acts, NICNT, pp. 98f. Cf. the application of the "rod of iron" of Ps. 2:9 to the Messiah in Rev. 12:5; 19:15, and to the Messiah's associates in Rev. 2:27.

63. Cf. Rom. 1:4, where Paul's words "designated Son of God in power ... by the resurrection from the dead" have reference to that "particular event in the history of the Son of God incarnate by which he was instated in a position of sovereignty and invested with power, an event which in respect of investiture with power surpassed everything that could previously be ascribed to him in his incarnate state" (J. Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, I [Grand Rapids, 1959], p. 10). We might also compare the comment on Ps. 2:7 in Midrash Tehillim (so also Midrash Samuel, ch. 19, with the readings of Yalqut Shim `oni 2.620): "Rabbi Huna says in the name of Rabbi Acha: The sufferings are divided into three parts: one for David and the fathers, one for our own generation, and one for King Messiah, as it is written, `He was wounded for our transgressions. . . .' And when the hour comes, the Holy One-blessed be He!-says to them, I must create him a new creation, as it is said, `Today I have begotten you."' The implication here seems to be that Ps. 2:7 refers to the time when the Messiah, after suffering and death, is brought back to the realm of the living.

64. Cf. v. 13 below (pp. 63f.).

65. See pp. 122-26.

66. See also p. 93, n. 15. With this prose narrative are closely associated the poetic oracles of Pss. 89:19-37 (LXX 88:20-38) and 132:11-18 (LXX 131:11-18) as well as 2:7-9. On 2 Sam. 7:14 see also D. J. McCarthy, "2 Samuel 7 and the Structure of the Deuteronomic History,"JBL 84 (1965), pp. 131-38; J. Becker, Messianic Expectations in the Old Testament, E.T. (Philadelphia, 1980).

67. Cf. Acts, NICNT, pp. 147ff., 255f. (on Acts 7:46f.; 13:22f.).

68. Cf. J. M. Allegro, "Further Messianic References in Qumran Literature," JBL 75 (1956), pp. 174-87, especially pp. 176f.; "Fragments of a Qumran Scroll of Eschatological Midrashim," JBL 77 (1958), pp. 350-54; cf. DJD, V (Oxford, 1968), § 174 (pp. 53-57).

69. These words are immediately followed by the quotation and messianic application of Amos 9:11a (cf. Acts 15:16).

70. Heb. semah, the word translated "Branch" in Jet. 23:5; 33:15.

71. Indeed, as soon as he has said (ad loc.) that "such a transposition of naxLv [as is involved in the view that it simply introduces a fresh quotation] is without parallel" he adds a parenthesis calling attention to Wisdom 14:1 where just such a transposition is found (nxovv TLs nhALV orcXk6gzvos does not mean "one preparing to sail again" but, as the ERV and the RSV rightly render, "Again, one preparing to sail").

72. Following upon the n6kty of v. 5b (cf. John 19:37; Rom. 15:1Of.; 1 Cor. 3:20; Heb. 2:13; 4:5; 10:30). We need not think that be (in orav be ndkLv) is strongly adversative; the theme of this quotation is the same as that of the two preceding ones, the supremacy of Christ, but it is carried farther in this quotation by being set over against the inferior role of angels.

73. Quoted of Christ in Rev. 1:5; he is called the "firstborn" also in Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18 (see Colossians-Philemon-Ephesians, NICNT, pp. 58-61, 71f.).

74. The text of Deut. 32:43 known to our author may have varied somewhat from this. But his quotation, as it stands, conforms to 1. 2 of this passage, except that the expression "the sons of God" has been replaced by "all the angels of God" from 1. 4; we can well understand that such a substitution could have been deliberate in this context. A Hebrew manuscript (4QDtq) with the longer text of Deut. 32:43 (previously known only from the LXX) has been identified in the material from Qumran Cave 4; cf. P. W. Skehan, "A Fragment of the `Song of Moses' (Deut. 32) from Qumran," BASOR 136 (December 1954), pp. 12-15; F. M. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids, 31980), pp. 182f.

76. See T. F. Glasson, "'Plurality of Divine Persons' and the Quotations in Hebrews 1.6ff.," NTS 12 (1965-66), pp. 270-72.

77. See J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, II (Garden City, NY, 1985), p. 262. Allusions to this story have been traced in TB Sanhedrin 59b; 2 Enoch 31:3; cf. Ascension of Isaiah 11:23ff., which may be influenced by our present passage. See W. Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis (Gottingen, 1907), pp. 198f.; C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935), pp. 156f.; W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (London, 1948), p. 42.

78. The oixovµevrl into which the firstborn is introduced here is probably the same as the obxovµevrl of 2:5 over which the Son of Man is enthroned; the clause "of which we are speaking" in 2:5 could point back to this prior mention of the oixouµsvrl. So, in Rev. 5:6ff., when the slaughtered Lamb appears before the throne of God to assume his prerogatives as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heavenly beings fall down before him and pay him equal honor with God. If this is our author's meaning, then it could stand even if we followed Westcott in taking naa.Lv closely with eioayayll, for the words would refer to God's bringing his firstborn back from death into the inhabited realm again. As for Westcott's further contention, that otav ... Eioayayp must point to an event in the future, it may be said (i) that this is not the invariable force of otav with the aorist subjunctive (cf. 1 Cor. 15:27, otav be E'unl), and (ii) that even if this is its force here, the futurity may be with respect to the time when Deut. 32:43 was uttered. For the thought of Jesus' presentation to the angels cf. E. Schweizer's remarks on the schema "exaltation, presentation, enthronement," in Lordship and Discipleship, E.T., SBT 28 (London, 1960), pp. 65f.

79. Except that our LXX authorities have nvp p),eyov as the last two words and not nup65 ~koya, as here.

80. Cf. Ps. 148:8. The storm winds and the lightnings correspond to the cherubim and seraphim respectively.

81. H. W. Longfellow, Sandalphon. Cf. the comment on Dan. 7:10 ("a stream of fire ... came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him") in TB Hagigah 14a: "Every day ministering angels are created from the fiery stream, and utter song, and cease to be"; also (and more appositely) the angel's words to Manoah in Yalqut Shim `oni 2.11.3 (almost certainly a reference to Ps. 104:4): "God changes us hour by hour; ... sometimes he makes us fire, and sometimes wind." Cf. also 1QH 1.lOf.: "Thou hast appointed ... the mighty winds according to their laws before they became holy angels."

82. Whatever be said of the force of bi in v. 6, there is no doubt about its strongly adversative force here, where it harks back to thv in v. 7 (xai npos µev ioi)g ayyekovS ... npo5 be toy viov).

83. The reference to the daughter of Tyre with her gift in Ps. 45 (LXX 44):13 has been thought to point to the marriage of Ahab and Jezebel (cf. W. O. E. Oesterley, The Psalms [London, 1953], p. 250); but such a foundation, even when reinforced by a comparison of the "ivory palaces" of Ps. 45:8 (LXX 44:9) with Ahab's "ivory house" mentioned in 1 Kings (LXX 3 Kms.) 22:39, is too slender for such a superstructure.

84. It was certainly on the ground of its attachment to the Davidic monarchy that it was included in the temple collection of the "sons of Korah." In Test. Judah 24:5f. the language of Ps. 45:6 (along with that of Isa. I ~:1 and Zech. 9:9) is used with reference to the coming Messiah of Judah's tribe. The Targum on Ps. 45:2 paraphrases: "You, 0 King Messiah, are fairer than the children of men." And no doubt the application of this psalm to the Davidic Messiah underlies our author's present use of it.

85. J. Paterson, The Praises of Israel (New York, 1950), pp. 26f.

86. Heb. 1:8, ARV mg. (cf. RSV mg., "God is thy throne"), but such an expression would not "be consistent with the religion of the psalmists" (T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms [London, 18881, p. 127).

87. "Your divine throne" is a free rendering of kis'dka 'elohIm, construed as meaning "your throne (is like) God's" (cf. NEB, "Your throne is like God's throne"), after the analogy of Cant. 1:15; 4:1, where 'enayik yonim is to be construed as "your eyes (are like those of) doves" (cf. A. R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship, p. 27; he refers to earlier treatments of the passage by G. R. Driver in The Psalmists, ed. D. C. Simpson [Oxford, 19261, p. 124, and C. R. North, "The Religious Aspects of Hebrew Kingship," ZAW 50 [1932], pp. 29-38). The analogy with the construction in Cant. 1:15; 4:1 is criticized by Cheyne (Psalms, p. 127) as "very harsh"-"would a Hebrew reader," he asks, "have understood the phrase thus? A dove has really eyes, but God has only metaphorically a throne: would the reader have naturally thought of `God's throne'?" See also J. A. Emerton, "The Syntactical Problem of Psalm xlv.7,"JSS 13 (1968), pp. 58-63; L. C. Allen, "Psalm 45:7-8 (6-7) in Old and New Testament Settings," in Christ the Lord ... presented to D. Guthrie, ed. H. H. Rowdon (Leicester, 1982), pp. 220-42.

88. Cf. NEB: "Therefore, 0 God, thy God has set thee above thy fellows, / By anointing with the oil of exultation" (with the alternative rendering in a footnote: "Therefore God who is thy God ...").

89. Cf. "Mighty God" as a title of the coming king in Isa. 9:6. The analogy with similar compound expressions whose first element is El makes it unlikely that 'El gibbor here is simply to be construed as "a god of a hero." See further B. B. Warfield, "The Divine Messiah in the Old Testament," Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia, 1952), pp. 79-126.

90. Ps. 89:14 (LXX 88:15).

91. Messiah's throne, in fact, is God's throne (cf. the variant reading ai tov mentioned on p. 52, n. 45).

92. Cf. also Isa. 9:7; 32:1.

93. "An official anointing (89:21) is not meant here; the phrase is symbolic for 'gladdened thee with prosperity"' (Cheyne, Psalms, p. 127).

94. That is to say, at his baptism (Mark 1:10; cf. Luke 4:18, quoting Isa. 61:1); seeActs, NICNT, pp. 213f.

95. Cf. the expression "the oil of gladness" in Isa. 61:3; the Hebrew is the same as in Ps. 45:7 (semen sa§on).

96. See p. 101, n. 68.

97. Job 38:7.

100. The LXX has treated Heb. 'innah ("he afflicted," "he humbled") as 'anah ("he answered"); the difference is formally one of vocalization.

102. Cf. B. W. Bacon, "Heb. 1:10-12 and the Septuagint Rendering of Ps. 102:23," ZNW 3 (1902), pp. 280-85. Bacon suggested that the Hebrew, as well as the Greek, text of this psalm formed a basis for messianic eschatology, especially its reference to the "shortness" of God's days, i.e., of the period destined to elapse before the consummation of his purpose; he found here the OT background of Matt. 24:22, Mark 13:20, and Ep. Barn. 4:3 ("as Enoch says, 'For to this end the Master has cut short the times and the days, that his Beloved should make haste and come to his inheritance"').

99. Verse 23 in the MT and the LXX.

98. Gk. xu tr (omitted by X * in the LXX text, but restored by Xc.a.)

103. It is unlikely that this passage is primarily responsible for our author's description of the Son in v. 2 as the one through whom God made the universe-a description which probably owes more to Prov. 8:22-31 than to any other OT passage-but it could be taken as corroborative testimony for the identification of Wisdom in Prov. 8:22ff. with the Messiah.

104. While npos tov5 ayyiXouS in v. 7 must be rendered "of (concerning) the angels," that is no reason for not rendering np65 toy uiov in v. 8 "to the Son." Cf. p. 170, n. 64.

105. Cf. the application to Christ of Isa. 45:23 in Phil. 2:1Of. (see p. 50, n. 37), and of Isa. 8:13 ("Yahweh of hosts, him you shall sanctify") in 1 Pet. 3:15 ("sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord").

106. Heb. ne'um yhwh la'doni (LXX einev 6 x1QLos tcu xupuu µou).

107. The installation of Simon as "leader and high priest for ever" in 140 B.C. (1 Macc. 14:41) is certainly not the occasion which stimulated the composition of the psalm (cf. p. 125, n. 35).

108. Cf. A. R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship, pp. 120-22; H. Ringgren, The Messiah in the Old Testament (London, 1956), pp. 13-16.

109. Mark 12:35ff.

110. Cf. Acts 2:33ff., with Acts, NICNT, pp. 66f.

I 11. See p. 50, n. 34; in Mark 14:62 ("you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven") there is a combined allusion to Ps. 110:1 and Dan. 7:13. For the figure of the Son of Man see below, pp. 72-75 (on 2:6ff.).

112. Cf. Acts 7:55f.; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; 1 Pet. 3:22; Rev. 3:21. See J. Danielou, "La session a la droite du Pere," in The Gospels Reconsidered (Oxford, 1960), pp. 68-77; J. Dupont, "`Assis a la droite de Dieu': L'interpretation du Ps 110, 1 dans le Nouveau Testament" (1970), in Nouvelles Etudes sur les Actes des Apotres (Paris, 1984), pp. 210-95; D. M. Hay, Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity (Nashville/New York, 1973); M. Gourgues, A la Droite de Dieu: Resurrection de Jesus et actualisation du Psaume 110 dans le Nouveau Testament (Paris, 1978).

113. See 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:lff.; 10:12f. (pp. 123-33, 155-70, 244-46).

114. Cf. "the seven angels that stand before God" (Rev. 8:2). Their names are given in I Enoch 20:2-8. In Tobit 12:15 Tobias's fellow-traveler introduces himself as "Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One." In Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days, however, "ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him" (Dan. 7:10).

115. John Milton, Sonnet on his Blindness.

116. Gk. ),Eitoupyrxa nveuµata (cf. v. 7, 6 not6iv tong ayye?oug avrov nveuµata, xai tong ?ettoupyoug ainov nup6g 4k6ya). Cf. Philo's reference to "ministering angels" (ayyE?ot ?Ettoupyoi) in Virtues 73. In Test. Levi 3:5 the "archangels"-or "angels of the presence (ng6awnov) of God"-are described as "those who minister (),Ertoupyovvreg) and make propitiation before the Lord for all the sins of ignorance (ayvoLat) of the righteous" (cf. below, 5:2; 9:7). There is no good reason to suppose that the "ministering spirits" here are the vanquished enemies of Ps. 110:1 (cf. I Cor. 15:24ff.), as does 0. Cullmann (Christ and Time, E.T. [London, 19511, p. 196; cf. C. D. Morrison, The Powers that be [London, 1960], pp. 33f.).

117. In the light of ch. 11, we need not exclude from these heirs of salvation several persons in the OT record who received angelic ministry (cf. also 13:2). The fact that angels, though higher than human beings in the order of creation, render service to the heirs of salvation shows how the relation between the two is reversed in the order of grace.

118. Cf. Eph. 6:12; Col. 2:8, 15, 20 (also Rom. 8:38; 1 Cor. 2:8; 15:24).

119. Cf. 9:28, where Christ's second appearing will consummate his people's salvation (p. 233).

1. Gk. µtjnote nagagudWv. For the various meanings of nagappew (lit. "flow past") cf. LSJ, MM, and BAGD.

2. Cf. Num. 15:30, "But the person that does anything with a high hand ... reviles Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from among his people." Gk. µLoOanoboaia ("requital") is found in the NT only in this epistle-here of the penalty for wrongdoing, in 10:36 and 11:26 of the reward for faithfulness (cf. µu(T0anob6trls of God as a "rewarder" in 11:6).

3. John Calvin (Harmony of the Last Four Books of the Pentateuch, E.T., IV [Edinburgh, 1855], p. 381) suggested that the NT references to the angelic administration of the law were based on Deut. 33:2, but the angels' attendance on God at the giving of the law does not make them its administrators or mediators. Parallels which have been adduced from Jewish literature (e.g., Jub. 1:29; Mekhilta on Ex. 20:18; Sifre on Num. 12:5; Pesiqta rabbati 21) refer to the angels' attendance on God, not to their administration of the law. Yet our author, like Paul and Luke, refers to the angelic administration as though it were a commonly accepted tradition. The earliest reference to it outside the NT may be in Josephus, Ant. 15.136, where King Herod says that the Jewish doctrines and laws have been sent by God "through angels" (Sr' dyyel„(ov), but there the ayyEkOL may be human messengers (prophets). See F. F. Bruce, Galatians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids/Exeter, 1982), pp. 176-78; Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1988), p. 153, n. 99. Cf. also the presence of angels in 12:22 (p. 358, n. 155).

4. See 7:21f.; 9:14; 10:28f. C. Spicq (L'Epitre aux Nehreux, I [Paris, 1952], p. 53) adduces parallels from Philo. It is essentially the a minori ad maius argument, which the rabbis described as qal wa-homer ("light and heavy"). See p. 45, n. 6; p. 344, n. 74.

5. Cf. N. B. Stonehouse, The Witness of Luke to Christ (London, 1951), pp. 68-92.

6. Gk. IUVa1 EOL xai tipaar xai orlpEiotg. The same three nouns are used in Acts 2:22 as here, in a different order (cf. Acts, NICNT, p. 63).

7. Gk. nvevµaxo5 aytov REQLoµois. The question arises whether nvevµato5 ayiov is here subjective genitive, in which case 1 Cor. 12:11 would be a ready parallel ("all these are inwrought by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills"), or objective genitive, in which case one might compare Gal. 3:5 ("he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles [bvvaµet5] among you..."). The latter construction is probably the more natural in the present context; the reference then is to God's distribution of spiritual gifts to his people.

8. Gk. 9ixrlutc, not found elsewhere in the NT.

9. Cf. also Acts 8:14-17; 10:44-46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 14:1-33.

12. Gk. Ti totes &v8ewnos. In p46 and a few less important authorities (C* P 104 917 1288 1319 1891 2127 d Vgt01 boh) tic ("who?") is read in place of ti ("what?"). G. Zuntz (The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], pp. 48f.) argues that tic is the original reading here, and that it has been assimilated to LXX ti in the majority of our authorities. He would then trans

10. Cf. W. L. Knox, The Acts of the Apostles (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 62, 89.

11. Ps. 8:4-6 (LXX 8:5-7).

13. The additional clause from Ps. 8:7, "you have set him over the works of your hands," is inserted here in K A C D* P tP 0121b and several minuscules, with the Latin and Coptic versions. It is missing from p46 and B and possibly from Tertullian's biblical text; it is omitted in a number of Peshitta codices and asterisked by the Harclean Syriac; it is marked for deletion by a corrector in D and is lacking in the majority of later Greek MSS. The shorter text is probably the original; the longer text represents a natural assimilation to the LXX. It is unlikely that the omission of the clause has any theological significance, although G. Zuntz (Text, p. 172) suggests that its retention would have been in conflict with our author's argument that "we see not yet all things subjected to him" (v. 8b). But this consideration would have dictated even more imperiously the omission of the following clause of the quotation.

14. In p46 B and a few other authorities "to him" (ai r@) is omitted, probably rightly. Cf. G. Zuntz, Text, pp. 32f.

15. Gk. Xaortr OEO4. But the minuscule 1739 (with 012 lb and 424* *), one Vulgate codex (G) and several Peshitta codices, and many of the Fathers (Origen, Eusebius, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, Jerome, Ambrose, and others) attest the reading Xwotc OEOV ("apart from God"), which is so obviously lectio ardua as to call for consideration. It is easy to see how Xwoic would be changed to XaQLtt here; it is difficult to see how Xaottt could ever have been changed to Xwoic. But if Xwoic OEOV is earlier than Xaoitr OEOV, how can it be accounted for? The best explanation is that a scribe or annotator, reading the words of v. 8, "he left nothing that is not subject to him," remembered Paul's remark on the same words in 1 Cor. 15:27b, "But when it says, `All things are put in subjection,' it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things to him," and added at this place in Hebrews a marginal note to the same effect: "[nothing, that is to say,] apart from God." The marginal note was later written into the text of v. 9, and subsequently changed to the unexceptionable XaortL OEO4. If this was what happened, it must have happened early enough forp46 (c. ,a.D.200) to exhibit the readingXaQLTL OEo9. J. A. Bengel (Gnomon, ad loc.) accepts "apart from God" but construes it in its context with vneo navr65, "for all apart from God." G. Zuntz, Text, p. 34, regards Xwoic OEoV as having the same meaning as b1' eaurov in 1:3; he agrees with A. Harnack (Studien zur Geschichte desNeuen Testaments, I [Berlin/Leipzig, 1931 ], p. 236) that the change to xaQLTL 9EoV was made on dogmatic grounds. See R. V. G. Tasker, "The Text of the `Corpus Paulinum,"' p. 184; he follows Tischendorf in thinking xco tg 9Eoii to be a correction "made in the light of I Cor. 15:27 to exclude God from the inclusiveness implied in vnep navros."

16. LXX iiyye?lwv 6eov at the end of the verse presupposes Heb. bene 'el or bene 'elohim, lit. "sons of God," in place of MT bene Yi.fra'el ("sons of Israel"). Cf. the RSV. Since the publication of the RSV a Hebrew witness to this reading (4QDtq) has been identified among the biblical texts from Cave 4 at Qumran; see P. W. Skehan, "A Fragment of the `Song of Moses' (Deut. 32) from Qumran," BASOR 136 (December 1954), p. 12; "Qumran and the Present State of Old Testament Text Studies: The Masoretic Text," JBL 78 (1959), p. 21.

17. Cf. G. B. Caird, Principalities and Powers (London, 1956), pp. ix, 81, etc.

18. Cf. 1:6 (seep. 58 with n. 78). Here as there oixovµeviq (lit. "inhabited world") is used; here it oixouµevii h kkkouaa is practically synonymous with the gikkwv a6 v of 6:5 (cf. p. 147 with n. 49).

19. Cf. 8:5; 10:1 (pp. 182-84, 234f.).

20. Cf. 9:28 (p. 233).

21. For "somewhere" (Gk. nov) cf. 4:4 (p. 107, n. 22). The sense "I suppose" (attested for nov in Rom. 4:19) is inappropriate here.

22. Gk. Ppaxu a might have temporal force.

23. The LXX here translates Heb. me'elohim by nap' ayyikou5. The question is whether Heb. 'elOhlm here denotes God in the usual OT sense, or is a plural in sense as well as in form, meaning "divine beings" or "angels" (as in Ps. 82:1b, "in the midst of the gods he holds judgment").

24. "At first sight," says H. Ringgren (The Messiah in the Old Testament[ London, 1956], p. 20), "these words seem to refer to man in general or to Adam, but there is reason to believe that they were originally said about the king." The truth of the matter is, as H. L. Ellison has put it: "The real prototype of the king was Adam, God's viceregent, with his dominion over the world" (The Centrality of the Messianic Idea for the Old Testament [London, 1953], p. 14).

25. Cf. Wisdom 9:2, "by thy wisdom [thou] hast formed man, to have dominion over the creatures thou hast made." See J. Jervell, Imago Dei: Gen. 1, 26f. im Spatjudentum, in der Gnosis and in den paulinischen Briefen, FRLANT 76 (Gottingen, 1960).

26. Heb. '6 nog ... ben 'addm (Ps. 8:4); Aram. kebar 'end. (Dan. 7:13).

27. See P. Giles, "The Son of Man in the Epistle to the Hebrews," ExT 86 (1974-75), pp. 328-32, and (more generally on the Son of Man) C. Colpe, TDNT, VIII, pp. 400-477 (s.v. 6 v165 tofi &v6p6nov); T. W. Manson, The Teaching of Jesus (Cambridge, 21935), pp. 211-34; A. J. B. Higgins,Jesus and the Son of Man (London, 1964), and The Son of Man in the Teaching of Jesus, SNTSM 39 (Cambridge, 1980); I. H. Marshall, "The Son of Man in Contemporary Debate," EQ 42 (1970), pp. 67-87, and The Origins of New Testament Christology (Leicester, 1976), pp. 6382; J. Jeremias, New Testament Theology, E.T., I (London, 1971), pp. 257-76; G. Vermes, Jesus the Jew (London, 1973), pp. 160-91, and "'The Son of Man' Debate," JSNT 1 (1978), pp. 1932; C. F. D. Moule, "Neglected Features in the Problem of 'the Son of Man,"' in Neues Testament and Kirche (fur R. Schnackenburg), ed. J. Gnilka (Freiburg, 1974), pp. 413-28, and The Origin of Christology (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 11-22; R. Pesch and R. Schnackenburg (eds.), Jesus and der Menschensohn (fiirA. Vogtle) (Freiburg, 1975); M. Black, "Jesus and the Son of Man," JSNT 1 (1978), pp. 4-18; M. Casey, Son of Man (London, 1979); S. Kim, "The 'Son of Man"' as the Son of God, WUNT 30 (Tubingen, 1983); B. Lindars, Jesus: Son of Man (London, 1983).

28. It may be implicit in the temptation narrative of Mark 1:13; cf. W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (London, 1948), pp. 42f.

29. Cf. E. Lohmeyer, KyriosJesus: Eine Untersuchungzu Phil2,5-11 (Heidelberg, 1928, 21961); E. Kasemann, "A Critical Analysis of Phil. 2:5-11" (1950), E.T. in JTC 5 (1968), pp. 45-88; R. P. Martin, Carmen Christi, SNTSM 4 (Cambridge, 1967); I. H. Marshall, "The Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:5-11," TynB 19 (1968), pp. 104-27; C. F. D. Moule, "Further Reflexions on Philippians 2:5-11," in Apostolic History and the Gospel, ed. W. W. Gasque and R. P. Martin (Exeter/Grand Rapids, 1970), pp. 264-76; J. Murphy-O'Connor, "Christological Anthropology in Phil. 2:6-11," RB 83 (1974), pp. 25-50; M. D. Hooker, "Philippians 2:6-11," in Jesus and Paulus (fur W. G. Kummel), ed. E. E. Ellis and E. Grasser (Gottingen, 1975), pp. 151-64; 0. Hofius, Der Christushymnus Philipper 2, 6-11, WUNT 17 (Tubingen, 1976).

30. Cf. H. L. Ellison, The Centrality of the Messianic Idea, pp. 7-9.

31. Cf. discussions in J. M. Creed, "The Heavenly Man," JTS 26 (1925), pp. 113-36; C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935), pp. 145-69; W. Manson, Jesus the Messiah (London, 1943), pp. 174-90; S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh (Oxford, 1956), pp. 346-450; further bibliography will be found in these publications.

32. From T. Carlyle's translation of Luther's Ein' feste Burg; Luther's wording is: "der rechte Mann / Den Gott selbst hat erkoren."

33. These two OT passages are similarly conjoined by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:25-27. Cf. Heb. 10:13 (p. 246).

34. See p. 70, n. 15.

35. Gk. vfiv hi at the beginning of the sentence is not temporal but logical: "but as it is" (cf. 8:6; 9:26; 11: 16). There is a minor crux interpretum in the sentence: when our author says that "we do not yet see all things subjected to him," does "to him" (Gk. ai t4) mean "to man" or "to Christ"? The crux is only a minor one because in any case Christ is in view as the representative Man. But in the first instance the reference is probably to man (so Westcott, Moffatt; cf. NEB: "But in fact we do not yet see all things in subjection to man"). We do not see man exercising his God-given right as lord of creation, but we do see God's Man invested with universal sovereignty. The writer confesses that it is not easy to recognize in man the being whom the psalmist describes as "crowned with glory and honor" and enjoying dominion over all the works of the Creator's hands. "Man's unfulfilled promise, however, he sees fulfilled in Christ, and for mankind fulfilled through Christ" (A. E. Garvie, "Shadow and Substance," ExT 28 [1916-17], p. 461). For the view that ai. ti w means "to Christ" cf. Spicq, ad loc.: "Jesus is still far from having been accepted and acclaimed as king by all the universe: `unbelieving sinners and demons are not yet subject to him' (St. Thomas). The author must here be expressing the anguish, if not the discouragement, of the despised and persecuted Christians, vainly awaiting God's kingdom on earth (2 Pet. 3:4). The truth is that Christ's militant kingdom is progressive; he must put down his enemies (1:13) before its plenary and triumphant realization." Our author recognizes that, even in exaltation and enthronement, Christ is waiting "till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet" (10:13); this implies that while he is the rightful ruler of all, all do not yet acknowledge his sovereignty. So, while the human race is primarily indicated by avrw, the Son of Man, federal head of that race, cannot be excluded from its scope.

36. Our author does not add, as Paul does, that then the whole creation, which "has been groaning in travail together until now," will be "delivered from its bondage to decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:19-22); this cosmic aspect of the redemptive work of Christ falls outside his theme.

37. "The crowning with glory and honour must, on any natural rendering of the Greek, precede the death" (A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood [Edinburgh, 1913], p. 70). Cf. A. B. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 79-83. The clause onus ... $nep aavr6g yevoi tat 9avatov need not, however, be closely dependent on eotie$avw thvov, but is rather epexegetic of bt6 t6 n69i w tov 9avatou. See n. 43 below.

38. Cf. A. E. Garvie, "Shadow and Substance," p. 549: "He had this foretaste of heaven, however, only to confirm Him in and equip Him for the purpose to surrender the glory and honour He might have claimed as His right, to put Himself in man's place, and to share with man the doom of death, which in no way was His due."

39. Cf. Luke 9:31 (Moses and Elijah conversed with Jesus about his "exodus" which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem), followed by v. 51: "when the days of his being received up were now reaching their fulfilment, he set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem." At the moment of his transfiguration he was "ripe for glory" (A. E. Garvie, "Shadow and Substance," p. 549), but instead of ascendirg from the holy mount to heaven he came down to the plain and set out for Jerusalem.

42. Cf. Westcott, ad loc., for the point that bra with the accusative in the NT expresses "the ground and not the object: because something is, and not in order that something may be realized."

43. "Thus bn(K ... Oavatou explains and expounds this idea of SLa to aa9rlµa (which consists in) tov 9avatou, gathering up the full object and purpose of the experience which has just been predicated of Jesus" (Moffatt, ICC, ad loc.). Cf. also the comments ad loc. of Westcott, Spicq, and Michel.

44. It is because Christ has been exalted as supreme over all that his death is now seen to be effective imisp navr65. So far as the form goes, navt6s might be masculine ("everyone") or neuter ("everything"); but since our author's concern is with Christ's work for humanity, and not with the cosmic implications of his work (cf. p. 75, n. 36), it is more probably to be taken as masculine. Cf. NEB: "so that ... in tasting death he should stand for us all."

40. Epistle of Priesthood, p. 313. Nairne saw a reference here to the crown of thorns.

41. Cf. 12:2 (pp. 337-39).

45. Homilies on Hebrews 4.12.

46. Cf. Chrysostom's further refinement on the use of the verb "taste": "Moreover he rightly said `taste death for every man'; he did not say `die'. For as if he were only tasting it [instead of swallowing the bitter draught, so to speak], when he had spent but a little time therein, he immediately arose." (For the correlative idiom "taste life," in the sense of making but a preliminary trial of it, see New Docs., IV [ 1979], § 12, quoting /G 14.1607.1, of an infant dying before reaching the age of one year.)

49. Gk. ayayovra, to be construed as a simultaneous aorist participle, which, moreover, despite its accusative case (the result of its being conformed to the accusative-and-infinitive construction), is to be taken in sense with a*r6) ("him") and not with apxrlyov ("pioneer"). See Westcott, ad loc.

50. So the RSV renders toy apXrlgov tf1 aanrlpiac avr6uv (NEB "the leader who delivers them"). Cf. Acts 3:15 for the similar title toy . . . &QXTIYOV tq5 i; hr (with Acts, NICNT, p. 82, n. 30, and E. K. Simpson, "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 [1946], pp. 35f.).

51. Ps. 22:22 (LXX 21:23). The LXX is followed except that anayyr) b here takes the place of btrlyrfaoµat as the rendering of Heb. 'asapperdh, "I will declare."

47. Commentary on Hebrews, ad loc.

48. Cf. p. 70, n. 15.

52. Isa. 8:17, last clause (LXX); cf. also Isa. 12:2; 2 Sam. (LXX 2 Kms.) 22:3 // Ps. 18:2 (LXX 17:3).

53. Isa. 8:18a (LXX).

54. Lit. "blood and flesh" (aiµatio5 xai aapx65); for this order cf. Eph. 6:12.

55. Gk. napan?,rloiw5 peteoxev. With napan?<rloiw5 (here only in the NT) cf. napankrjotov in Phil. 2:27 (see New Docs., III [1978], § 57). To press a distinction between µetexw here and xotwovEw in the immediately preceding clause would be precarious: our author insists that Christ partook of flesh and blood in the same way as "the children," so that his humanity is as genuine as theirs (cf. v. 17: "he had to be made like his brothers in all respects"). Such significant distinction as there is between the two forms lies in the tenses: "the children are sharers in (xexotvtuvrlxev, perfect) flesh and blood" in the sense that that is their original and natural state; human beings are per se creatures of flesh and blood. Our Lord, however, existed before his incarnation; "flesh and blood" form no essential part of his eternal being; but at a fixed point in time, by his own choice, "he also himself in like manner partook (µeteaxrv, aorist) of the same" and so began to share fully the nature of those whom he chose thus to redeem.

56. Gk. etLAaIPavEiar, "takes hold." So ERV: "For verily not of angels doth he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham." Cf. NEB: "It is not angels, mark you, that he takes to himself, but the sons of Abraham." E. K. Simpson (Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament [London, 1946], pp. 27-29) protests against weakening the meaning of the verb here to "help" (so ARV, "not to angels doth he give help")-a rendering for which Sir. 4:11 ("Wisdom ... gives help to those who seek her") has been invoked-but that, he says rightly, "can be otherwise construed." He adduces good Hellenistic evidence for the sense "take hold." Cf. its use in Heb. 8:9 (also Matt. 14:31).

57. Gk. ei; to iXaoxeo0at. The renderings of the RSV ("to make expiation for") and the NEB ("to expiate") are justified here because the direct object of the verb is "sins" (aµaptia5). True, if sins need to be expiated, it is because they are sins committed against someone who ought to be propitiated; but in the Greek Bible ixaoxoµat (or el;tA.aoxo att) is not found with the person propitiated as its object. The only other NT occurrence of the verb ikaoxoµat is in Luke 18:13, UduOtltt, "be merciful" (lit. "be propitiated"); but here there is no thought of propitiation in the ordinary sense: the only "propitiation" in view is the tax-collector's penitent prayer. Cf. the substantive D uotrjptov ("place or means of propitiation") in 9:5 (see p. 204) and in Rom. 3:25 (unless in the latter place it is accusative singular masculine of the adjective ixaotrjptog), and the substantive lkaoµo5 ("propitiation") in 1 John 2:2; 4:10. The NT use of these words follows the precedent of the LXX, where (together with other cognates, especially the intensive verb ei;ta,aoxoµat) they are chiefly used as equivalents of the Pi`el conjugation of Heb. k p-r and its derivatives. Whether the etymological force of this Pi`el conjugation is "cover completely" or "wipe out," its cultic use denotes the restoration of a relationship between God and mankind which has been broken by man's sin, the mediator in this work being normally the priest. That this propitiatory work is far from resembling the placating of a vengeful or capricious power is evident from the way in which the OT and the NT alike represent God as taking the initiative in providing the means for restoring the broken relationship between himself and his people: cf. Lev. 17:11, "1 have given it [the sacrificial blood] to you upon the altar to make atonement (lekapper) for your lives"; Rom. 3:25, "whom [i.e., Christ] God put forward as an atonement by his blood, to be received by faith." See S. R. Driver, HDB, IV (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 128-32 (s.v. "Propitiation"); J. Herrmann and F. Biichsel, TDNT, III, pp. 301-23 (s.v. tlaoxo sat); C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks, pp. 82-95; The Epistle to the Romans, MNTC (London, 1932), pp. 54f.; The Johannine Epistles, MNTC (London, 1945), pp. 25-29; T. W. Manson, "IAAF,I'HPION,"JTS 46 (1945), pp. 1-10; E. K. Simpson, Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament, pp. 10-12; R. R. Nicole, "C. H. Dodd and the Doctrine of Propitiation," WTJ 17 (1954-55), pp. 117-57; L. Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London, 31965), pp. 143-213; NBD (Leicester, 21982), pp. 986f. (s.v. "Propitiation"); New Dictionary of Theology (Leicester, 1988), pp. 54-57 (s.v. "Atonement"); N. H. Young, "C. H. Dodd, `Hilaskesthai' and his Critics," EQ 48 (1976), pp. 67-78, with reply by R. R. Nicole, "`Hilaskesthai' Revisited," EQ 49 (1977), pp. 173-77, and again N. H. Young, "`Hilaskesthai' and Related Words in the New Testament," EQ 55 (1983), pp. 169-76. W. M. Ramsay, "The Greek of the Early Church and the Pagan Ritual," ExT 10 (1898-99), pp. 55, 157f., and A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, E.T. (Edinburgh, 1909), pp. 224f., quote as a parallel to the use of tlaoxogat with the direct object aµapuag the inscription CIA 3.74 from Laurium in Attica, set up by Xanthus, a Lycian slave, regarding a sanctuary which he had founded for the Anatolian deity Men Tyrannos: it says of a certain type of offender against this deity, "let him incur a debt of sin (aµaptiav 64(e)t.krw) against Men Tyrannos, which he will by no means be able to expiate (e~et).aoao(Mt)." See New Docs., III (1978), § 6.

58. The preposition hLa is used first with the accusative and then with the genitive, denoting God as "the final Cause and the efficient Cause of all things" (Westcott, ad loc.).

59. Gk. enpenev yap avail. Cf. 7:26, "such a high priest became (rpr Ev) us." Spicq (Hebreux, I, p. 53) notes that the argument about what befits God is otherwise unknown in the Bible, but appears in Greek literature, and notably in Philo (Leg. Alleg. 1.48; Age of the World 41, etc.) and Josephus (AgainstApion 2.168).

60. The word bpXtly6g appears four times in the NT, the other three being in Heb. 12:2 (see pp. 337f.); Acts 3:15; 5:31. Cf. p. 77, n. 50. C. J. A. Hickling suggests that "the pioneer of their salvation" might be taken as "a summary of much of what John [in his Gospel] means by his distinctive use of the Son of Man title" ("John and Hebrews: The Background of Hebrews 2.10-18," NTS 29 [1983], p. 114). See also E. K. Simpson, "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," pp. 35f.; P.-G. Muller, ChristosArchegos (Bern/Frankfurt, 1973); G. Johnston, "Christ as Archegos,"NTS 27 (1980-81), pp. 381-85.

61. "The many sons in being brought to glory are perfected through suffering; and so it is in accord with the divine method of dealing that the pioneer of salvation should pass through the same experience" (A. E. Garvie, "Shadow and Substance," p. 504).

62. See 5:9, 14; 6:1; 7:11,19,28; 9:9, 11; 10:1, 14; 11:40; 12:2,23, with exposition and notes below. Cf. Westcott, Hebrews, pp. 66-68; Spicq, Hebreux, I, pp. 64f. (where Philonic parallels are adduced); P. J. du Plessis, TEAEIO.- The Idea of Perfection in the New Testament (Kampen, 1959), pp. 206-33; A. Wikgren, "Patterns of Perfection in the Epistle to the Hebrews," NTS 6 (1959-60), pp. 159-67; C. E. Carlston, "The Vocabulary of Perfection in Philo and Hebrews," in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology (G. E. Ladd FS), ed. R. A. Guelich (Grand Rapids, 1978), pp. 133-60; L. K. K. Dey, The Intermediary World and Patterns of Perfection in Philo and Hebrews, SBLDS 25 (Missoula, MT, 1975); D. G. Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection, SNTSM 47 (Cambridge, 1982).

63. See 5:7f. (pp. 126-32).

64. The argument here apparently requires the "one" from whom the sanctifier and the sanctified alike have their being to be God-not Abraham (in the sense of v. 16 below) nor yet Adam (cf. 0. Procksch in TDNT, I, p. 112, s.v. ayLa~(u), although it is to Adam that the same phrase el; ev6g refers in Acts 17:26.

65. Cf. also 9:13f.; 10:14, 29; 13:12; see p. 247, n. 73.

66. The exegesis of these three quotations in their present context is greatly indebted to G. Vos, The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, 1956), pp. 60f.

67. Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34.

68. The parting of our Lord's garments among the soldiers appears to have been recognized very early (cf. Mark 15:24) as a fulfilment of Ps. 22:18 (LXX 21:19); in John 19:24 that passage is explicitly quoted as a testimonium of the incident. Cf. C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures (London, 1952), pp. 97f.; B. Lindars, New TestamentApologetic (London, 1961), pp. 88-93.

70. C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures, p. 20. See also E. Schweizer, Lordship and Discipleship, E.T., SBT 28 (London, 1960), pp. 71-75, 88-90.

71. According to the Scriptures, p. 126 et passim. In accordance with this insight, we may recall Calvin's interpretation of the two Isaiah quotations here in association with the "rock" of Isa. 8:14 (a notable testimonium in the NT), and link it with 2 Sam. 22:3, "God, my rock, in

69. Cf. the adaptation of Ps. 22:22 in Odes of Solomon 31:3f.:

See J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, II (Garden City, NY, 1985), p. 762.

72. Verse 8 (LXX 21:9, practically quoted in Matt. 27:43a).

73. Ps. 22:24 (LXX 21:24), echoed in Heb. 5:7 (see pp. 128f.).

74. The LXX starts a new sentence after "whom God has given me": "And there shall be signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord of hosts...."

75. Isa. 7:3; 8:3.

76. Cf. John 6:37, 39.

77. Cf. Pesiqta rabbati 36 (161 a): when Satan saw the soul of the preexistent Messiah he said, "Truly this is the Messiah, who will plunge me and the angel princes of the nations into Gehinnom, as it is written: `He will swallow up death for ever' [Isa. 25:8]."

78. Cf. Rev. 12:5ff., where the downfall of the dragon is the sequel to the birth and exaltation of the "man child."

79. Cf. I Cor. 15:26, where death is the last of the enemies to be destroyed (xatapyeto(iat) by Christ, in ultimate fulfilment of Ps. 110:1. See p. 246.

80. Since Satan is chief prosecutor in the heavenly court, there is no difficulty in regarding him also as executioner-in-chief. Cf. 1 Cor. 5:5, "deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh."

81. 2 Tim. 1:10, where Christ is said already to have "abolished (xatapye(o) death."

82. Cf. p. 78, n. 56.

83. OT believers, who could not attain perfection except in company with believers of NT times (11:40), are included in this family (cf. B. W. Newton, The Old Testament Saints not to be Excluded from the Church in Glory [London, 1887], pp. 12f.).

84. Christ's passing by angels in order that human beings might be saved may provide a further reason why the inferiority of angels is so much stressed in Heb. 1; human beings who inherit salvation are actually served by angels (1:14). On the Son of God's assimilation to humanity in order to be merciful it has been asked: "is the writer here consciously turning on its head the Platonic notion of oµoiwat; 6ecu (Theaitetos 176B)?" (New Docs., II [19771, § 14.4).

85. Christ is called a "high priest," and not merely a "priest" (as in Ps. 110:4), because our author views his redemptive work as the antitypical fulfilment of the sacrificial ritual of the Day of Atonement, where the high priest in person was required to officiate (Heb. 9:7, 1 1f.).

86. An echo of the words i1.E4lµeav ... xat mo,;65 appears in the Valentinian Gospel of Truth (Jung Codex 20:10): "This is why the merciful one, the faithful one, Jesus, was patient to endure the sufferings until he took that book, for he knows that this death of his means life for many" (cf. W. C. van Unnik in The Jung Codex, ed. F. L. Cross [London, 1955], pp. 108, 110; K. Grobel, The Gospel of Truth [London, 1960], pp. 62f.; G. W. MacRae in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson [Leiden, 1977], p. 39). See pp. 221 f., n. 118.

87. Sota np65 toy 9EOV (cf. 5:1) is translated by T. W. Manson, Ministry and Priesthood: Christ's and Ours (London, 1958), p. 57; he illustrates this use of npos from the formula go-rat aVt4 3Epo5 toy Oc6v ("he will be answerable to God") occurring in an inscription from Western Phrygia, and refers to W. M. Calder, "The Eumeneian Formula," in Anatolian Studies presented to W. H. Buckler (London, 1939), pp. 15-26. A. Nairne renders the phrase "on the Godward side" (The Epistle of Priesthood, p. 45; in his preface he acknowledges indebtedness for this translation to a Cambridge sermon by G. H. Whitaker). Cf. also Josephus, Ant. 9.236: King Jotham was 6oEpi1S thy to np65 tov HEOv, bixato5 & to tQOS to*K, avOputnovc ("pious in matters relating to God, just in matters relating to human beings").

88. See R. A. Stewart, "The Sinless High Priest," NTS 14 (1967-68), pp. 126-35.

89. Cf. his friends' attempts to restrain him (Mark 3:21 [and 31?]) and Peter's well-meant remonstrance (Mark 8:32), in which he recognized another form of the temptation which he faced earlier in the wilderness and later in Gethsemane; hence his rebuke to Peter (Mark 8:33) took the same form as his reply to the tempter in the wilderness (Matt. 4:10).

90. On the general subject see K. G. Kuhn, "Temptation, Sin and Flesh," in The Scrolls and the New Testament, ed. K. Stendahl (London, 1958), pp. 94-113, especially pp. 96, 112.

91. On the presentation of Jesus in these first two chapters see especially the careful exposition by A. Vanhoye, Situation du Christ, LD 58 (Paris, 1969).

1. Gk. ev [olw] uih oixw ainov. The omission of olvw in p" p46 B and the Coptic versions with Cyril and Ambrose may well be original; in that case it has been supplied here in our other authorities on the basis of v. 5 (following the LXX).

2. Cf. Num. 12:7, where LXX mat65 renders Heb. ne'eman ("entrusted").

3. Gk. ovoixog, "whose house." A few MSS (p36 D* 0121b 1739 and the Latin and Coptic versions) have os oixo5, "which house": this reading is preferred by G. Zuntz as being "logically correct" (The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], p. 93).

4. The added words "firm unto the end" (Gk. giXpi tilov5 pepaiav) are attested by K A C D K PIP 0121b 33 81 629 1739 byz lat syrP"h copeo; they are omitted in pt3 p'6 B and the Sahidic (Coptic) and Ethiopic versions with Lucifer and Ambrose (µiXpi ti.ouS is omitted in 1022). They probably represent an insertion from the end of v. 14, as has been held by Mill, Bentley, Riggenbach, Windisch, Moffatt, Zuntz (Text, p. 33), and B. M. Metzger (Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament [London/New York, 1971 ], p. 665); cf. the RSV and the NEB. One would have expected neuter Iioaiov here (in agreement with xaiiXrlµa), and not feminine Pepaiav, which is appropriate in v. 14 (in agreement with napprlaiav).

5. Gk. 66&X4,oi ayLot. Cf. Col. 1:2, &yiolg xal rLotois &S&Xgotg (Colossians-PhilemonEphesians, NICNT [Grand Rapids, 1984], p. 39). Cf. Heb. 6:10 (p. 151 with n. 65).

6. Elsewhere in the NT it is called a "holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9) and an "upward calling" (Phil. 3:14); cf. also Rom. 1:7; 8:28, 30; 1 Pet. 1:15, etc. The church is the community of those whom God has called (Eph. 4:4; Col. 3:15; Heb. 9:15, etc.).

7. Gk. toy &noorolov xat &pX(epea t)5 6µo?oyia5 ilµwv. Philo (Life of Moses 2.2ff.) describes Moses as filling the roles of prophet and high priest, and also of king and legislator. The two possible ways of understanding oµo?.oyia ("confession" either as "that which is confessed" or as "the act of confessing") are indicated respectively by the NEB text ("the Apostle and High Priest of the religion we profess") and margin ("him whom we confess as God's Envoy and High Priest"). The former is preferable; cf. BAGD ("the high priest of whom our confession speaks"). On "apostle and high priest" see also K. H. Rengstorf in TDNT, I (Grand Rapids, 1964), s.v. &nooto?og, pp. 416, 419, 423f. Justin calls Jesus "apostle" in his FirstApology 12.9; 63.5.

8. In Philo, Who Is Heir of Divine Things? 205f., Moses is the primary ?,,6yo5 who stands on the frontier between God and created beings as suppliant (ixetil5) for mortals and ambassa dor (npro currj5) of the Ruler to his subjects, the mean between extremes (taoc T@V axp)v), a surety to both sides (a 4oteporg oµrlpe XaV).

9. Quoted by Philo (Leg. Alleg. 3.103) to emphasize Moses' greatness. Cf. E. J. Young, My Servants the Prophets (Grand Rapids, 1952), pp. 38-55. On Moses as advocate and intercessor, see N. Johansson, Parakletoi (Lund, 1940), pp. 5, 67, 161, quoted by C. K. Barrett, From FirstAdam to Last (London, 1962), p. 61 n. See also A. T. Hanson, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament (London, 1965), pp. 48-57.

10. His position was that denoted by the Hebrew phrase 'aiha-bayit (lit. "over the house," used, e.g., of Shebna in Isa. 22:15), although this phrase is not used in Num. 12:7.

11. Gk. otxo5 (like Heb. bayit) can mean both "house" ("dwelling") and "household" ("family"); it is the latter sense that is uppermost in the present passage (as in Num. 12:7). It must be further noted that "his house" in vv. 2, 5, and 6 means "God's house(hold)"-although in v. 6 the context shows that it is Christ's house(hold) also.

12. So the Targum of Onqelos at Num. 12:7 paraphrases beg ("my house") as 'ammi ("my people"). Cf. n. 15 below. In a comment on Gen. 28:17, Philo (Migration of Abraham 5) equates God's house with the Logos.

13. Gk. 9epanwv (v. 5), as in Num. 12:7 (LXX); Wisdom 10:16 (cf. p. 308, n. 169). As a household servant Moses was a member of the household, and therefore lower in rank than the founder and master of the household. Justin Martyr (FirstApology 20.5) refers to Menander and other writers for the sentiment that the builder (brlµwuwy6g) is greater than what he builds.

14. It is just possible to take the second clause of v. 4 to mean that "he who founded everything" (i.e., Christ, according to 1:2) is God (6 & navra xaiaoxevaaa5 9e65)-in other words, to take it as an assertion of the deity of Christ. But it is simpler to regard the clause as an affirmation that God is the Creator of everything.

15. In a higher sense than that implied by Heb. 'al ha-bayit (see p. 92, n. 10). S. Aalen ("'Reign' and 'House' in the Kingdom of God in the Gospels," NTS 8 [1961-62], pp. 215-40) points out that the Targum on 1 Chron. 17:14 (cf. 2 Sam. 7:16) reads: "I will maintain him [the son of David] faithful in my people and in my holy house for ever." He suggests that this interpretation, as well as Num. 12:7, stands behind our present passage, and finds here the explanation of our author's making both Christ and God builder of the house (vv. 3-4). "The motif of the faithful son who is the builder of God's house and is in God's house is exactly that which we find" in the Targum. Cf. vv. 6, 14 for the identification of the house and people of God; cf. also Heb. 1:5b for the application to Christ of 2 Sam. 7:14//1 Chron. 17:13.

16. In the word "testimony" (µaptvptov) there may be an echo of the repeated references to the axrlvil iov µaprupiov ("tent of testimony") in Num. 12:4f., 10 (cf. Acts 7:44); the typology of the tent is elaborated later in Heb. 9:1-10. Yet, if there is such an echo, it is no more than an echo; it is the prophetic and anticipatory character of Moses' role and ministry that is referred to, with the implication that the fulfilment which has now come in Christ surpasses the work of Moses. This work embraces not only the tent of testimony with its furniture and ritual but everything that was bound up with the wilderness covenant (8:6-13), including the Levitical priesthood (7:11-14).

17. E. L. Allen ("Jesus and Moses in the New Testament," ExT 67 [1955-56], pp. 1046) suggests that our author is here refuting a "new Moses Christology," as he elsewhere refutes an "angel-Christology." It is principally among the Ebionites that a "Moses Christology" is attested (cf. Clem. Recog. 1.36ff., 4.5; Clem. Hom. 3.47ff., 8.5ff.; H.-J. Schoeps, Theologie and Geschichte des Judenchristentums [Tubingen, 1949], pp. 87-98); it goes back to the prophecy about the Prophet like Moses in Deut. 18:15-19. This prophecy, which played an important part in the eschatological thinking of the Samaritans and of the Qumran community, is applied to Christ in several places in the NT (cf. Mark 9:7; John 6:14; 7:20; Acts 3:22f.; 7:37), but does not occupy a central place in NT Christology (cf. O. Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament [London, 1959], pp. 13-50); F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts [London, 19601, pp. 46-50; G. J. Brooke, Exegesis at Qumran (Sheffield, 1985), pp. 167f., 311f.

18. Under Christ, as in the time of Moses, there is but one continuous household of God; it goes back beyond Moses and even Abraham to embrace Abel and Enoch and Noah (11:4ff., 40). So, in Eph. 2:19 Gentile Christians are called "fellow-citizens with the saints [i.e., with Israel, God's holy people], and members of the household of God." The conception of the faithful community as the house of God is paralleled at Qumran; e.g., the inner council or nucleus of the Qumran community is described as "a holy house for Israel, a most holy assembly for Aaron.... a most holy dwelling for Aaron, . . . a house of perfection and truth in Israel" (1QS 8.5-10; cf. p. 193). See A. R. C. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and its Meaning (London, 1966), pp. 214-20.

20. On "boldness" (Gk. napprloia, recurring in 4:16; 10:19, 35) cf. W. C. van Unnik, "De semitische Achtergrond van IIAPPHXIA in het Nieuwe Testament," Mededelingen der koninklijkeNederlandseAkademie van Wetenschappen (Afd. Letterkunde), Nieuwe Reeks, Deel 25 (Amsterdam, 1962); "The Christian's Freedom of Speech in the New Testament," BJRL 44 (1961-62), pp. 466-88.

21. Cf. Rom. 5:2; 8:24f.; Eph. 1:18; Col. 1:23; 1 Pet. 1:13 for the relation between the maintenance of Christian hope and the attainment of final salvation. Rom. 5:2 (xauX6MGa en' ikxibt ...) bears a special resemblance to the wording here (to xavXrlµa r% e)rtriho5).

22. Cf. A. Pott, Das Hoffen im Neuen Testament (Leipzig, 1915), pp. 84-87, for the view that the language here reflects a time when the first enthusiasm was in danger of being quenched. Cf. also 6:11; 10:23.

19. Cf. v. 14; 10:26.

23. The Holy Spirit is viewed as the author of the OT revelation not only in its words, as here (cf. 10:15), but also in its material content such as the plan for the construction of the wilderness tabernacle (9:8).

24. Gk. ei, representing Heb. 'im ("if'), in Ps. 95 (LXX 94):7b, expresses a wish here as certainly as it expresses a strong negative in v. 11 below.

25. X2 DI lY 0121b 1739, with the majority of later MSS, the Latin, Syriac, and Bohairic (Coptic) versions, add 1w after ineipaaav.

28. Gk. iavrp, in place of LXX exeivrl (there is no pronoun here in the MT). Our author perhaps replaced "that" by "this" in order to point the moral more tellingly for the generation which he himself was addressing. Cf. our Lord's repeated references to "this generation" (Matt. 11:16; 12:41f., 45; 23:36; 24:34 and parallels; cf. also Acts 2:40).

29. Gk. Ei eiaele» aovrar, following the LXX, represents an overliteral rendering of the Hebrew idiom 'im yebo'an, rightly translated "They shall not enter." The AV/KJV gives the right rendering here, but in 4:3, 5 follows the Geneva and Bishops' Bibles with the misleading literalism, "if they shall enter into my rest"-the more surprisingly since Tyndale and Coverdale had already given the true idiomatic sense throughout.

31. "When it is said" (ev t4) XeyeoOat) should perhaps be taken as the beginning of a new sentence, as in NEB: "When Scripture says, `Today if you hear his voice, do not grow stubborn as in those days of rebellion,' who, I ask, were those who heard and rebelled?" Here yap intive5 yap (ERV/ARV "For who... ?") is taken as a particle of emphasis.

34. Gk. anELOrjoaoty, for which p46 has amotloaoty ("who did not believe"), probably under the influence of amotia ("unbelief") in v. 19. Cf. similar variants in 4:6, 11; 11:31.

35. Cf. J. R. Harris, "Jesus and the Exodus," in Testimonies, II (Cambridge, 1920), pp. 51-57; H. Sahlin, "The New Exodus of Salvation according to S. Paul," in A. Fridrichsen, etc., The Root of the Vine (London, 1953), pp. 81-95; J. Danielou, From Shadow to Reality, E.T. (London, 1960); R. E. Nixon, The Exodus in the New Testament (London, 1963); A. T. Hanson, Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, pp. 58-65; E. Kasemann, The Wandering People of God, E.T. (Minneapolis, 1984), pp. 68-87. At an earlier time the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile had been portrayed in terms of a new Exodus (cf. Isa. 41:17f.; 42:9; 43:16-21; 52:12).

39. 1 Pet. 1:19. The paschal and baptismal symbolism of I Pet. 1:3-4:11 is unmistakable, although it has been exaggerated in various directions by such writers as R. Perdelwitz, Die Mysterienreligi on en and das Problem des I. Petrusbriefes (Giessen, 1911); B. H. Streeter, The Primitive Church (London, 1929), pp. 115-36; F. L. Cross, I Peter: A Paschal Liturgy (London, 1954).

40. Acts 7:38 (see Acts, NICNT [Grand Rapids, 21988], p. 142); cf. also L. Cerfaux, The Church in the Theology of St. Paul (London, 1959), pp. 100ff.

32. Here the construction of the MT and the LXX is presupposed (cf. n. 27 above).

33. Cf. Num. 12:29, 32.

36. Cf. H. W. Montefiore, "Revolt in the Desert?" NTS 8 (1961-62), pp. 135-41.

37. Luke 9:31 (Gk. e~oiog, ARV "decease").

38. 1 Cor. 5:7b (the same idea underlies the passion narrative of the Fourth Gospel).

46. Jude 5. For "Jesus" the AV/KJV, the ARV, and the ERV/NEB have "the Lord" ([6] xvptog), which is the reading of K C* and the majority of witnesses; but the textual evidence strongly supports the view that the original reading was "Jesus" (so A B with many minuscules and the Latin and Coptic versions. See B. M. Metzger, Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, pp. 725f. It is unlikely that "Jesus" in this place "might be understood as Joshua" (NEB mg.); Joshua played a minor role in the wilderness and became Israel's leader only on the eve of the entry into Canaan (see Heb. 4:8). It is much more probable that Jude's language reflects an identification of Jesus (the pre-incarnate Son of God) with the Rock which supplied Israel's need in the wilderness (so Paul in 1 Cor. 10:4b) or with the Angel of the Divine Presence who guarded and guided them from Egypt to the promised land-the one of whom God said, "My name is in him" (Ex. 23:21), and who was commissioned both to provide protection and to mete out judgment (Ex. 14:19; 23:20ff.; Isa. 63:9; cf. Acts 7:38).

47. Cf. S. Singer, The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (London, 1939), p. 108a.

48. Cf. "The Order for Morning Prayer," in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, where Ps. 95 forms the Invitatory.

41. 1 Cor. 10:1f.

42. 1 Cor. 10:3f.

43. 1 Cor. 10:4b.

44. This is the point of our author's argument in 3:7-4:11; it emerges clearly in 4:lff.

45. 1 Cor. 10:6ff.

49. Cf. W. E. Barnes, The Psalms, WC (London, 1931), pp. 456ff.

50. As is done, e.g., by T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms (London, 1888), pp. 265f. In the Deposited Prayer Book of 1928 the Invitatory consisted of vv. 1-7a only (ending with "Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker"). Contrast the wise words of Leonard Hodgson: "The fact that God has sworn in His wrath that men who do certain things shall not enter into His rest enables the Church to open its worship each day with the words, 'Come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation"' (The Doctrine of the Atonement [London, 19511, p. 60). The unity of Ps. 95 is maintained by A. A. Anderson, Psalms, NCBC (London, 1972), pp. 676-80; he entitles it "No Worship without Obedience."

53. Heb. rib, the root of "Meribah." So again in Num. 20:13.

54. Heb. natah (Pi'el conjugation), the root of "Massah." The same verb is used in Deut. 8:2, where God speaks of leading Israel forty years in the wilderness to "prove" them.

55. See p. 92. Cf. also Deut. 1:26, 34ff.

51. Gk. napauLxpaaµos (cf. the verb napannxQaivw in v. 16, with p. 101, n. 71).

52. Gk. netpaaµos.

56. In Deut. 12:9 Canaan is called "the rest [Heb. menuhah, as in Ps. 95:11] and the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you." The domestic sense of the word appears in Ruth 1:9, "may Yahweh grant that you find rest [Heb. menuhah], each of you in the house of her husband" (similarly in Ruth 3:1, Heb. man6ah).

57. Especially in the Qumran literature; cf. the interval of forty years between the death of the Teacher of Righteousness and "the consuming of all the men of war who returned with the Man of Falsehood" (CD 20.14f., echoing Deut. 2:14-16); the forty years after which the wicked are to be no more (4QpPs. 37, fragment A, 1.6ff.); the forty years' warfare of 10M (further documentation in Y. Yadin, The Scroll of the War ... [Oxford, 1962], p. 37, n. 1). In TB Sanhedrin 99a Eliezer ben Hyrcanus infers from Ps. 95:10 that the days of the Messiah will last forty years.

58. In this connection it is interesting to notice a messianic interpretation of the "Today" of Ps. 95:7b in TB Sanhedrin 98a: when Elijah sends a rabbi to interview the Messiah at the gates of Rome, the rabbi asks the Messiah, "Lord, when are you coming?" and receives the answer "Today." Elijah explains to him that this means "Today, if only you would hear his voice."

59. So in TB Sanhedrin 110b Rabbi Aqiba deduces from Ps. 95:11 (and Num. 14:35) that the generation of Israelites which perished in the wilderness will have no part in the age to come.

60. Their `unbelief' (amvria) involved disloyalty as well as the passive failure to believe. The whole expression (xaQSia novrlpa amoi(a5) bears at least a verbal resemblance to one or two source-passages for the rabbinical doctrine of the "evil inclination" (yeser ha-rd'); cf. the "evil heart" and "evil root" of 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) 3:20-22 (with the "evil root" cf. Heb. 12:15, p. 349), the "grain of evil seed ... sown in Adam's heart from the beginning" of 4 Ezra 4:30, and the "evil thought" of 4 Ezra 7:92.

61. Gk. anoottlvat (whence anootaoia, "apostasy"). Hermas has an echo of this passage in Shepherd, Vision 2.3.2: "you are saved by not having fallen away (anoot~vat) from the living God."

64. Cf. 6:4-6.

65. Cf. 10:24f. (pp. 256-58).

62. Cf. Acts 7:39 (echoing Num. 14:3).

63. Cf. 10:1.

66. Gk. tp anarj t% aµaptiaS (cf. Gen. 3:13; 2 Cor. 11:3).

67. Gk. imooraots, as in 11:1 (a different meaning from that in 1:3). This sense of "confidence," "assurance," "conviction," is readily derivable from the primary sense of "that which underlies" ("ground," "basis"); this confidence rests upon a stable foundation. Cf. H. Dorrie, '-YIIOXTAXIX: Wort- and Bedeutungsgeschichte," Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen, philologisch-historische Masse, 1955, No. 3, pp. 35-92. See pp. 276f., with nn. 4-8.

68. Gk. µetoXoL (for its use in the sense of "business partners" see New Docs., I [ 1976], § 40). Apart from Luke 5:7, where the sons of Zebedee are "partners" in fishing with Simon Peter and his brother (note the alternative use of xotvwvoi in the same sense in Luke 5:10), µetoXoL in the NT is used only in Hebrews, its occurrences being (in addition to the present passage and 1:9) 3:1 ("sharers of a heavenly calling"), 6:4 ("sharers of the Holy Spirit"), and 12:8 ("sharers" in chastening).

69. This involves taking the genitive tov Xptotov here in a different way from the genitive v a ato5 ayiov in 6:4, but the context in either place must determine the precise force of the genitive. For the general idea here cf. Paul's words of encouragement and warning about inheriting the kingdom (e.g., 1 Cor. 6:9f.; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5; cf. Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12).

71. Gk. napenixQavav (for the cognate noun naQatLxQaoµoc cf. vv. 8, 15); this verb napatLxQaaivW, thought by Moffatt to be a Septuagintal coinage (ICC, ad loc.), is used of Israel's

70. Cf. 12: 1 f.

72. "All they that came out (a&vrES of e1;E),96vtES) of Egypt," says our author, leaving out of view for the moment the two exceptions, Caleb and Joshua; contrast Paul in 1 Cot. 10:5, "with the majority of them (iv toi5 nkeioarv autG v) God was displeased."

73. The construction of the MT and the LXX is implied in v. 17; cf. p. 95, n. 27.

74. The juxtaposition of SL' &3LoEiav ("because of unbelief') in v. 19 and tote &nELQijaaanv ("to them that were disobedient") in v. 18 (cf. p. 96, n. 34 for textual variant) emphasizes the close relation in the NT between &3Lotia and &nei6ELa (cf. 6 rtorewov over against 6 be &nEtO6 v in John 3:36).

1. Gk. xataaernoµevjS, here in the sense of being "left open." The promise (enayyEkia) is implied in the warning.

2. Gk. box, , "might be deemed." Cf. NEB: "one or another among you should be found to have missed his chance."

3. Gk. 6 ?,6y05 ii15 axofic. Cf. Rom. 10:16f. The use of axorl in the sense of the gospel message (based on the meaning of the word in Isa. 53:1, LXX) is illustrated by Rom. 10:16f., which the NEB renders: "For Isaiah says, `Lord, who has believed our message?' We conclude that faith is awakened by the message, and the message that awakens it comes through the word of Christ."

4. Gk. µil ovvxrxepaoµevo5 t7) ntotet tots axovoaaw, "it did not meet with faith in the hearers" (RSV). There is a bewildering diversity of readings here: for the masculine singular ovvxsxepaoµevo5, agreeing with ?,oyog (K d, the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, Peshitta, some Sahidic texts, Lucifer, TR), a preponderant weight of authorities has the accusative plural ovvxexepaoµevovg, agreeing with gxeivov5 (p13 p46 A B C D* 0121b and most later MSS, Vulgate MSS, Harclean Syriac, the Bohairic, Armenian, and Ethiopic versions, Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, etc.). The latter reading (now approved by GNT3 and NA26) was adopted by the ERV (not by the ARV): "because they were not united by faith with them that heard" (for a suggested explanation of this wording see p. 258, n. 119). Difficulty in making sense of this reading probably gave rise to the replacement of the active participle axovoauLv by the passive a%OVOeE LV (1912, Theodore of Mopsuestia), which gives the smoother rendering "because they were not united by faith with the things that they heard." The replacement of the dative by the genitive axovoavrwv (D* 104 1611 2005 d, Harclean margin, Lucifer, etc.) yields the sense: ". . . united with the faith of the hearers"; this is intelligible only with the nominative ovvxrxEQaoµevog. We are confronted here, in all probability, with "a variety of ancient conjectures vainly striving to heal a primitive corruption" (G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistle [London, 1953], p. 16)-but "vainly" is perhaps not the right word; whoever thought of healing the corruption by changing -ou5 to -05 may have restored the original text by accident. Cf. B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 21892), pp. 94f., 112f. See also B. M. Metzger, Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London/New York, 1971), p. 665. But the sense is plain enough; the good news had to be appropriated or assimilated by faith if it was to bring any benefit to the hearers.

5. Gk. eioepX6µe9a yap of aeot6oavre5. In place of yap ("for"), ovv (probably in a resumptive sense, "well then") is read by K A C 1739 with a few minuscules and the Bohairic version.

6. Gk. ei5 tqv Xatcuravaw, butttily is omitted by p13 p46 B D* (and this may well be the original reading).

7. Ps. 95:11 (LXX 94:11).

8. Gk. ano xatct oMr xooµou. For the xatapo .ti xooµou cf. 9:26; also Matt. 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24; Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8. The attempt to render it "downfall of the world" and link it with the "catastrophic" interpretation of Gen. 1:2 cannot be sustained. For another usage of xatapolrj see Heb. 11:11.

9. Gen. 2:2. The LXX simply has xat xatenauaev tp tjµepa tp e0b6µin ... ; here our author has inserted 6 OE6g iv after xatenauoev (J. Moffatt, ICC, ad loc., points out that the present form of the quotation corresponds to Philo's in Cain's Posterity 64). The LXX choice of xatanatiw here to render Heb. sabat eases our author's interpretation of the xarQnavotg of Ps. 95:11 in terms of God's cessation from his works of creation. Philo (Leg. Alleg. 1.6, 16) takes xatenauaev in Gen. 2:2 as transitive, "he caused to rest"; similarly Heb. 4:4 could be rendered "God caused (his people) to rest on the seventh day" and the xatanavot5 of Ps. 95:11 would be the rest that God gives; but this is an awkward construction, and does not suit the context.

10. Gk. St' a3Ei0ELav (so A B D with the majority of MSS and the Syriac version); p46 K * and the Latin, Coptic, and Armenian versions read &' 8uLotiav ("because of unbelief'); cf. 3:18f. (p. 96, n. 34; p. 102, n. 74).

13. Gk. oaf@attoµhc, "sabbath-keeping"; this is the earliest attested occurrence of the word in extant Greek literature (it appears some decades later in Plutarch, On Superstition 3.166a, in a list of superstitious practices). The verb oappatiitu, from which it is formed, is used in the LXX with the meaning "keep sabbath"-usually as the rendering of Heb. sabat (Ex. 16:30; Lev. 23:32; 26:35 [ter]; 2 Chron. 36:21 [bis]; 1 Esdras 1:58; 2 Macc. 6:6).

11. Gk. npoeiptltar (B 1739 read the active ngoeiplqxrv, "he has said before").

12. Ps. 95 (LXX 94):7b-8a.

14. Fear of the consequences of apostasy is a recurrent note in this epistle (cf. especially 10:27, 31), but those who have a proper fear of God (12:28f.) need fear none else (13:6).

15. Gk. 1borep1xevaL, "to have fallen short." W. M. Ramsay, "The Greek of the Early Church and the Pagan Ritual," ExT 10 (1898-99), pp. 57f., draws attention to the same form in a Greek inscription from the Middle Maeander valley of Asia Minor (Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I [Oxford, 1895], no. 42), where a man has failed in his duty of attendance at a temple of Apollo (6ta to vo[tEQ 1xev]E xai µt) napayeyov[eve]).

16. Gk. eol zv eiqyyeAroµevor, "we have been evangelized" (cf. v. 6, of npotepov evayye6.wa0evreS, "those who had formerly been evangelized"). The noun nayyixtov is not used in this epistle.

17. A. T. Hanson argues that the gospel which the Israelites received in the wilderness was the identical gospel of Christ received by the recipients of this epistle (Jesus Christ in the Old Testament [London, 1965], pp. 58-65).

18. J. Moffatt (ICC, p. 53) refers to Philo, On the Cherubim 26, and On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 8, for his treatment of the sabbath as the rest of God, but points out rightly that all such speculations as we find in Philo "are remote from our author." On the biblical basis of our author's thought see G. von Rad, "There Remains Still a Rest for the People of God," E.T. in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (Edinburgh, 1966), pp. 94-102.

19. The point of this reply to the charge that Jesus had broken the sabbath by performing an act of healing on that day is this: "You charge me with breaking the sabbath by working on it. But although God's sabbath began after the work of creation was finished, and is still going on, he continues to work-and therefore so do I."

20. Cf. Ep. Barn. 15:4f., 8: "Pay attention, children, to the meaning of the words: 'He finished it in six days.' It means that in 6,000 years the Lord will bring everything to completion. For the `day' with him is a thousand years, of which he himself bears me witness when he says: `Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years.' Therefore, children, in six daysthat is in 6,000 years-everything will be brought to completion. `And he rested the seventh day.' This means: when his Son comes and brings to nought the period of the Lawless One and judges the ungodly and changes the sun and moon and stars, then he will rest properly on the seventh day.... Finally he says to them: `Your new moons and your sabbaths I cannot endure.' See what he means: it is not your present sabbaths that are acceptable, but the sabbath that I have made, in which, when I have put everything to rest, I will make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of a new world." The sabbath of God is here the seventh millennium of the present creation, which is to be followed by the eternal age of the new creation. (Barnabas has confused the issue by superimposing on the Jewish schema of the millennial sabbath or seventh "day" the Christian concept of an eighth millennium corresponding to the resurrection day.)

21. Notably by G. H. Lang, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), pp. 73-80. See p. 352, n. 121.

22. Gk. nov, as in 2:6 (perhaps to be translated not "somewhere" but more generally "as we know" or "to quote familiar words"; cf. Westcott, ad loc.).

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