Hebrews Chapter 12:18-24 | |
18. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, | 18. Non enim accessistis ad montem qui tangatur vel ignem accensum ac turbinem et caliginem et procellam. |
19. And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: | 19. Et tubae sonitum et vocem verborum, quam qui audierant excusarunt, ne illis proponeretur sermo: |
20. (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: | 20. Non enim ferebant quod edicebatur, Etiam si bestia tetigerit montem, lapidabitur aut jaculo configatur; |
21. And so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) | 21. Ac sic terribile erat visum quod apparuit, Moses dixit, Expavefactus sum et tremefactus: |
22. But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, | 22. Sed accessistis ad Sion montem, civitatem Dei viventis, Jerusalem coelestem, |
23. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, | 23. Et ad conventum innumerabilium Angelorum, et ecclesiam primogenitorum, qui scripti sunt in coelis, et judicem omnium Deum, et spiritus justorum consecratorum, |
24. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. | 24. Et Mediatorem Novi Testamenti Iesum, et sanguinem aspersionis, meliora loquentem quam loquebatur sanguis Abel. |
18.
Then let us first remember that the Gospel is here compared with the Law; and secondly, that there are two parts in this comparison, -- that God's glory displays itself more illustriously in the Gospel than in the Law, -- and that his invitation is now full of love, but that formerly there was nothing but the greatest terrors.
Should any one object and say, that the meaning of all these things was spiritual, and that there are at this day external exercises of religion by which we are carried up to heaven: to this I answer, that the Apostle speaks comparatively; and no one can doubt but that the Gospel, contrasted with the Law, excels in what is spiritual, but the Law in earthly symbols.
19.
But by the words the people
22.
23.
24.
1 The connection of this part has been viewed by some to be the following: -- Having exhorted the Hebrews to peace and holiness, and warned them against apostasy and sinful indulgences, the Apostle now enforces his exhortations and warnings by showing the superiority of the Gospel over the Law. This is the view of Doddridge and Stuart. It appears that Scott connected this part with chapter 10:28-31, and that he considered that the object of the apostle was to bring forward an instance, in addition to former ones, of the superiority of the Gospel, in order to show that the neglect of it would involve a greater guilt than that of the Law. And this appears to have been the view of Calvin, which seems to be favored by the concluding part of the chapter. The word ga<r may be rendered "moreover." -- Ed.
2 It has been conjectured that mh< has been omitted before "touched;" for in that case the passage would more exactly correspond with the account given in Exodus, for the people were expressly forbidden to touch the mountain. An omission of this kind was surely not impossible. The phrase as it is hardly admits of a grammatical construction: it has been found necessary to give the sense of an adjective to the participle. There would not be this necessity were the words rendered "To a mount not to be touched and burning with fire, and to," etc. -- Ed.
3 The words used here are not taken literally from the Hebrew nor from the Sept. the four things mentioned in this verse, and the two things mentioned in the following verse, are found in the narrative in Exodus 19 and 20; but not consecutively as here; nor are the same terms used. "Blackness" gno>fw|, should be "a dark or thick cloud," Exodus 19:16. "Tempest," que>llh, is not mentioned in Exodus or in Deuteronomy; but it includes evidently "the thunders and lightnings" mentioned twice at least in Exodus,
4 "The Hebrews," says Grotius, "came in the body to a material mountain, but we in spirit to that which is spiritual."
5 The words at the end of verse 20, "or thrust through with a dart," are not deemed genuine, being not found in the best MSS., and none of any authority containing them. -- Ed.
6 It is supposed by some that the reference here is to what is found in Exodus 19:16, 17. It is said in the former verse that all the people in the camp trembled; and it is concluded that Moses was at the time with them, for it is said in the next verse that he brought them forth out of the camp. But the passage that seems most evidently to intimate what is here said in the 19th verse, where we are told, that when the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder. "Moses spake" and that "God answered him by a voice." Now we are not told what he said, nor what the answer was which God gave. It is however, natural to conclude, that under the circumstances mentioned, Moses expressed his fears, and that God removed them. --Ed.
7 Calvin follows the Vulg. And connects panhgu>rei with "angels." It means a whole or a general assembly, and occurs in the Sept., and stands for
8 To keep this clause distinct from the next but one, "the spirits of just men," etc. has been difficult. The distinction which Calvin seems to make as well as Doddridge, Scott and Stuart, is this, -- that those mentioned here, "the first-born," were the most eminent of the ancients; but that "the spirits of just men" include the godly generally. The people of Israel were called "the first born," Exodus 4:22, because they were God's chosen people. Ephraim is also called, "the first born," Jeremiah 31:9, because of the superiority granted to that tribe; and the Messiah is so called, Psalm 89:27, on account of his eminence. The first born is one possessed of peculiar privileges. The word here seems to designate the saints, believers, Christians, as they are God's chosen people and highly privileged. We hence see the propriety of "the whole assembly," or the whole number of the faithful, composed of Jews or Gentiles. The Apostle says, "We are part of this whole assembly," and in order to point out his meaning more distinctly he calls it "the Church." The reference here seems to be the saints on earth, and at the end of the verse to departed saints. And they are said to be "made perfect," because freed from guilt, sin, and every pollution, having "washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb." -- Ed.
9 See Appendix X 2.
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