express the same Greek word, 'propitiation,' is not found in the O. T. at all. It will help the reader if he note that atonement for,' 'reconciliation for,' 'propitiation for,' are all forms of one and the same Greek word and of one and the same Hebrew word. When followed by the word 'sin' or its equivalent, the Hebrew and Greek mean to make atonement for; when followed by a word describing a person, they mean to pacify or appease, to make propitiation, with special reference to the moral sentiment of justice or right in the person appeased. This double sense pervades all the teaching of both Testaments. Ver. 18. In that he suffered, being tempted, is on the whole the best rendering of the Greek. It may admit of a limited sense, In that wherein He suffered, being tempted,' or, 'having been tempted in what He suffered.' The first sense includes these senses and others too. And the wider the meaning we give the words, the greater the justice that is done by them to the completeness of the fitness of Christ to win our confidence and to help us by His sympathy and grace. It may aid the reader of this Epistle to gather lessons for himself if we note briefly some of the hints which are suggested by these first two chapters-doctrinal, practical, and homiletic. DOCTRINAL HINTS. In this Epistle, as in the Gospel of John, the doctrine is based on the Divine nature of Christ, and on His incarnation. As in the Gospel (i. 1-18) it is said that the Word was God and became flesh, and this double truth pervades the book, so in the Hebrews the Deity and the humanity of the Son form the foundation of the entire treatise, and give strength and consistency to its teaching. The double truth is not worked as a pattern on the surface, it forms part of the texture. In this last dispensation God is said to speak to us in His Son. The Son is the medium of the revelation. As revealer He has as His associates the apostles. But this office of Christ is quite subordinate. His true character is that He is Himself the revelation. To know God and His Son Jesus Christ is eternal life. God in Christ, Christ as God,-redeeming, renewing, sanctifying, -is the saving doctrine of the Gospel. There is a double Trinity in Scripture-the Trinity of the Old Testament: the Trinity of the eternity that precedes the incarnation, wherein Christ shares the glory He had with the Father, wherein He made the worlds; the Trinity of the New Testament, wherein He, as incarnate Son of God, becomes Messianic King, and regains with accumulated honours His original glorythe second founded on the first, revealing it in clearer colours, with greater tenderness, and in closer relation to ourselves; again, perhaps, to become subordinate to the first, when God Himself in His essential nature shall be all in all (chaps. i. and ii.). PRACTICAL HINTS. I. I. God is the chief teacher of the Church, and what He taught of old has still its authority and its lessons even under the Gospel (vers. 5, 8, etc.). I. 2. The author of the Old Testament is also the author of the New. It is God who gives Christ the supremacy. To put Moses or some 'son of David' above Christ is to disobey God. By whom: Christ, then, is a distinct person from the Father, and yet He is Creator of all things. I. 3. As the sun is manifested only by its effulgence, so the Father is revealed to us by Him who is Light of Light, God of God. He who upholds all things is our Redeemer and sacrifice. The atonement of sin is effected not by our doings or sufferings, but by Christ, and was completed by Him before He ascended. 1. 4. Names are qualities and character when God gives them. To give angels the worship that is due to Christ is to frustrate the Divine purpose, and to give to the servant what belongs only to the Son or the Father. 1. 5. In the first age of the Church, Scripture determined what was truth, and that is its province still. II. 2, 3. Not to believe the Gospel is a greater sin than to break the law. . . . When men are warned or exhorted, the first person is more impressive than the second,How shall we escape?' 4. The rejection of the Gospel is rejection of the doctrine which Christ and His apostles preached. Post-apostolic doctrine has no Divine authority. . . . The doctrine is Divine which miracles confirm; the miracles are false when the doctrine they support is not Divine. 11. 6, 7. The Gospel, which is sometimes said to libel human nature,-so darkly does it paint our character,-gives man highest dignities, and raises him to the greatest blessedness. II. 9. Faith is insight, and sees much that to the unbelieving remains unseen. II. II. The poorest, feeblest Christian who is sanctified and believes is recognised by Christ as a' brother.' 11. 13. Christ Himself is a believer, one with us in the covenant of grace. He lived a life of faith even as we. II. 15. There is a natural fear of death in man not always felt, but easily wakened. Christ's death delivers man from the danger of death, and from the fear of it. None but the true Christian is really free. HOMILETIC HINTS. 1. 1, 2. Revelation progressive and complete. (Trench, Titcomb). The possibility and necessity, the certainty, the characters, the methods, the perfections of Divine revelation (B. W. Williams). Divine revelation variously communicated (Dr. Ryland). The personal ministry of Christ a revela. tion of God (Chandler). The Gospel preached under the Old Testament (Mather). I. 1-4. How the New Testament fulfils the Old (Maurice). I. I-12. The Son, the Creator and Ruler of the worlds (Bishop Hobart). I. 3. Providence (Dr. Collinges). Christ's sufferings the purging of sin (Is. Ambrose). The Feast of the Ascension. 5, 6. Messiah the Son of God. Messiah wor shipped by angels (John Newton). The adoration of Christ vindicated from the charge of idolatry (Pye Smith). The similarity and contrasts of the first and second advents (Auriol). 8. Christ's sceptre on earth a sceptre of uprightness and a source of gladness (J. H. Stewart). 13, 14. The nature and ministry of holy angels (H. Wilkinson, W. H. Mill). Michaelmas (Bishop Bull, Tillotson, Conybeare, Wesley, R. Hall). II. I. The great danger of carelessness in religion (Stillingfleet, Chalmers, Guthrie). 3. The great salvation (Keach, Conant, J. Superville, S. Walker, E. Cooper, Melville, etc.). 4. Miraculous evidence as proof of the truth of the Gospel (Collyer, Maltby, Conybeare, etc.). 5-9. The world to come' subject to Christ (M'Neile). The just prerogative of human nature (Dr. Snape). 8. Missions (R. Wilberforce). Christ for the tempted (H. Alford). Succour in 9, 10. The reasons and end of the sufferings of Christ. Sufferings necessary to perfection (Jones of Nayland). Good Friday (S. Walker, Jay). Christ (rather God) preparing His people for glory (Blunt). Christ made perfect through suffering (Sheppard and Vaughan). 11. The mystery of godliness (Newman). The condescension of Christ (Balmer). 14. The incarnation and its design (Dr. Peddie, Simeon). 14, 15. The fear of death (Saurin, Three Sermons), and deliverance from it (Usher, Bishop Hall, Dr. Bates, P. Norris, Dr. M'Crie). 16. Fallen man redeemed (South, Berriman). Discriminating mercy (Hyatt). 16-18. The merciful High Priest (M'Cheyne). 17. The incarnation of Christ and its purpose. The reconciliation of sinners by the death of Christ (Winchester). 18. Christ's temptations (Girdlestone). Christ's power to succour the tempted (Simeon). CHAPS. J. and II. Christ's divinity and humanity, and the bearing of each on redemption and on human feeling. CHAPTER III. I-IV. 16. The excellency of the Christian Dispensation proved by Christ's superiority to Moses, 1-6.-The duty of Faith and Stedfastness enforced by the example of Israel, 7-19.-Still further enforced, iv. 1-13.-The hopes supplied by contemplation of the Tenderness and Power of Christ, 14-16. I WH 4 b 1 Cor. i. 2; Eph. iv. 1; Phil. iii. 14; 2 Thes. i. 11; 2 Tim. i. 9; 2 Pet. i. 10. HEREFORE, holy brethren, partakers of "the' heavenly a Rom. 17; calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our 2 profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. Rom xv. 8: 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more 4 honour than the house. For every house is builded by some 8 9 5 11 for a ch. ii. 17, iv. 14, V. 5, vi. 20, viii. I, ix. 11, X. 21. c Ver. 5; Num. xii. 7 d Zech. vi. 12 Mat. xvi. 18. e Eph. i. 10, iii. 9; ch. i. 2. f Ver 2. 10 g Ex. xiv. 31; Num. xii. 7; 5 man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his " house, as a servant, testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 but Christ as i a son over his own house; * whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the " 7 hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as "the Holy Ghost saith, 15, 18, 19. "To-day if ye will 13 hear his voice, 15 where, or wherein read, tempted and proved me; Gr. by proving me 17 read this Deut. iii. 24; Josh. i. 2, viii. 31. h Deut. xviii. i Ch. i. 2. k1 Cor. iii. 16 vi. 19; 2 Cor vi. 16; Eph. ii. 21, 22; 1 Tim. ii. 15: 1 Pet. ii. 5. / Ver. 14; Lu. viii. 15; Rom. v. 2; 1 Cor. xi. 2; Col. i. 23: 1 Thes. v. 21; ch. vi II, x. 35. m2 Sam. xxiii. 2; Acts i. 16. n Ver. 15; Ps. XCV. (xciv.) 7-11. o Deut. xxxiii 8; Ex. xvii. I-7: Num. XX. 1-13. And said, They do alway err in their heart; And they have not known my ways: II So 18 I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 take heed, brethren, lest there be in any 19 of you an evil heart 13 of unbelief, in departing 20 from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; " lest any 19 of you be 21 14 hardened through 22 the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made 23 partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our Ver. 6. 15 confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, 24 To-day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 9 Ver. 7. 4, 11, 24, 30; Deut. i. 34. 36, 38. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all Num. xiv. 2, 17 that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, 18 whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that 19 believed not? 25 "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. ข 19 CHAP. IV. I. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any " of you should seem to come 2 short of it. For unto us was the gospel " preached, as well as unto them but the word preached 29 did not profit them, not 3 being mixed with faith in 30 them that heard it. For we wCh. iii. 14. which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,31 from the foundation of the y Gen. 11. 7. 4 world: for he spake3 in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his Gen. 11. 2; 30 rather, because they were not united (mingled) by faith with 31 that rest, even as he hath said 33 hath spoken 34 still remaineth 36 who formerly heard the glad tidings, or the gospel (see ver. 2) or, a long time after, ' To-day' (read, as hath been before said) "To-day if ye will hear his voice, c Ps. XCV. 7; ch. iii. 7. Harden not your hearts. 42 8 For if Jesus" had given them rest, then would he not after9 ward have spoken 2 of another day. There remaineth 3 there10 fore a rest to the people of God. h 53 44 50 52 For he that is entered into from his own works, as 46 God dGen. ii. 2. *Neither. 16. his rest, he also hath ceased II did from his. Let us labour" therefore to enter into that rest, 12 lest any man fall after 8 the same example of unbelief." For the word of God is quick, and powerful," and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the " joints and marrow, and is a 13 discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with 14 whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have "5" a great high priest," that is passed into 56 the heavens, Jesus the Son of 15 God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, 16 yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."9 9 58 57 43 still remaineth or, so as to be in (and form part of) 83 ready judge 87 Gr. sympathize with 52 of both CHAP. III. Having set forth the dignity of the person of Christ and the greatness of His condescension in taking our nature, the author exhorts the Hebrews to an earnest consideration (Gr.) of Jesus, the Apostle and Priest of the new economy, whom they, moreover, had accepted as their Apostle and Priest. The grounds of this exhortation are that Christ was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as was Moses, and that He is as superior to Moses as the son is to a servant, as the founder of an economy is to the economy Itself, to which economy we really belong only if we are stedfast and true (ver. 6). Ver. 1. Holy brethren. No mere complimentary title, but descriptive of the blessed brotherhood to which Christ and all who believe belong. -Partakers of, partners in a 'calling' that comes from heaven and leads to it, besides giving the tastes and spirit appropriate to our destiny (John iii. 31; Matt. iii. 2; Phil. iii. 20), servants, therefore, and workers under a new and divine economy.. -Christ Jesus. The true reading is Jesus simply, with special reference to His human nature and His connection with ourselves (see vi. 20, vii. 22, xi. 4; Ex. iii. 10-15). He was sent from God, as was Moses, and He was Priest also, with Aaron's office and dignity-a ་ i 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. k Ps. xxxiii. 13, 14, xc. 8, cxxxix. 11,12. Job xxvi. 6, Prov. xv. II. "Ch. vii. 26, xxxiv. 21; m Ch. iii. 1. ix. 12, 24. • Ch. x. 23. a. liii. 3: ch. ii. 18. 9 Lu. xxii. 28. r2 Cor. v. 21; ch. vii. 26; 1 Pet. ii. 22; 1 Jo. iii. 5. s Eph. ii. 18, iii. 12; ch. x. 19, 21, 22. thought expanded later (iv. 14, x. 22). This Apostle and Priest the Hebrews had acknowledged as their own (of our profession, or confession rather), and it became them to be faithful as confessors to Him they had in this double office accepted. It is probable that the expression, Apostle and Priest of our confession,' means even more than 'sent by God and accepted by us.' When the high priest went into the holy place on the day of Atonement, he was called the apostle, the messenger of the nation whom he represented, and for whom as priest he pleaded. So Christ has entered into the holy place as our accepted Messenger and Priest. To reject Him now is a double insult. Ver. 2. Who was faithful; rather, consider Him, he being faithful-in that He is faithful. His faithfulness is the quality we are to contemplate, a fresh reason why we should trust Him and be faithful too. The sphere of the service of Moses was a restricted economy-the house of Israel. Christ's is a wider economy, and includes all things. The maker must be greater than the work, and He that made all things must be Divine. Moses was part of the economy, the house in which he served. The economy, moreover, was a rough outline only a shadowy intimation of the higher economy of grace. Christ was faithful over His house as Son-that house His own (see on ver. 6), and the completed universal kingdom to which the old type gave witness. And all this is ours-the house, the kingdom-if we remain faithful and stedfast (1-6). Ver. 3. Builded. The word implies gathering or making the materials, putting them together, and furnishing the whole, even appointing the servants-doing all that is necessary for completing the house' as a home. Even Moses, therefore, is regarded as part of the house which God prepared. Ver. 5. In all his house, i.e. God's house.For a testimony, i.e. his work was preparatory, testifying as He did to things that were afterwards to be revealed (chap. i. 2).-As a servant. The word for servant in this verse, which is often applied in O. T. to Moses, includes all the work that naturally falls to an attendant on another, even what is most confidential. Ver. 6. His own house; rather, perhaps, His, i.e. God's house, the contrast being between a servant in the house' and a son 'over it.' The Greek, however, may mean that while the house is God's, it is also emphatically 'the Son's,' whereas over His (i.e. God's) house means that it is Christ's only by implication, i.e. because He is over the house and is Son.-Whose house (i.e. God's, or by emphasis or by implication Christ's) are we, i.e. (as the absence of the article shows) of whose house-part, not all of it-are we provided, if so be that (a strong particle) we hold fast the confidence as shown in speech and acts (not 'boldness,' which is too much a description of outward manner or profession only); and the ground, the matter of exultation (blended joy and boasting) which hope supplies. As the blessings are even still largely future, hope even more than faith is the requisite grace. Ver. 7. Wherefore. Since it is only the giving up of your hope that can rob you of this blessedness, .. beware of unbelief (a connection that unites the 'wherefore' with verse 12); or lest you harden your hearts (a connection that unites the 'wherefore' with verse 8). The former explanation gives a good sense, and the length of the parenthesis is no objection (see Heb. vii. 20-22, xii. 18-24, where we have similar examples); but perhaps the second explanation is simpler, and commends itself to Delitzsch and others. It is also adopted in the Authorised Version.-As the Holy Ghost saith. The quotation is from the ninety-fifth Psalm, which in the Hebrew has no author's name, but in the Greek Version is ascribed to David, as it is in Heb. iv. 7.-If ye will hear quite misleads; if ye hear (literally, if you shall have heard).-To-day equals, with the whole phrase, whenever He speaks, whenever you hear His voice. Ver. 8. As in the day of provocation; like as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. These clauses probably refer to two distinct occasions. The two words which are here translated 'provocation' and 'temptation' are in the Hebrew proper names, Meribah' (strife) and 'Massah' (temptation). On the first occasion (Ex. xvii. 1-7) the place is said to have been called Massah and Meribah, which the LXX. renders temptation' and 'provocation.' The second similar temptation occurred towards the close of the forty years, and is recorded in Num. xx. 1-13. Their wanderings began and ended in tempting and proving God; forty years long did their unbelief last. Not for single acts were they finally condemned, but for settled habits and a fixed character. Ver. 9. When; rather 'where,' a common meaning of the Greek word.-Tempted me, proved me. The true reading is, 'tempted me in' (or by) 'proving' [me]. Strong passion is some excuse for sin. When men tempt God to try how far they may go, and how much He will bear, there is a shamelessness in their state of heart that is without excuse.--And saw my works. Either the punishment God inflicted, which failed to lead them to repentance (as the word is used in Ps. lxiv. 10; Isa. v. 12), or my mighty works, punishment in part, but chiefly mercy, and disregarding both they became the more guilty. Ver. 10. I was grieved is somewhat feeble; displeased, offended, deeply pained, is nearer the thought. The word means properly what is a burden, physical or mental, 'grieved' being etymologically good (comp. 'it lay heavy on Him'). In some forms of the word it means what presses into the flesh and inflicts wounds.-That generation is the common Greek text, and it is the reading of the LXX. This generation is the reading of the revised text. The Hebrew is simply with the generation.' The author has no doubt purposely inserted 'this' to show that he regards the passage as applying to the Jewish people generally, the living race of his time, as the word 'always' is added to the Hebrew in the following clause, being found, however, also in the LXX., and implied in the present tense of the verb in this place.-Have not known, or did not know. The Greek may describe a historical fact that preceded the erring in their hearts, or it may sum up their character, as in the Authorised Version: they have not known or understood the true nature and blessedness of the ways in which I would have had them to go (see Ex. xviii. 20). Ver. 11. So; rather as,' though without much difference in meaning: the acts corresponded to the punishment is the meaning of as;' the punishment corresponded to the acts is the meaning of so. The former is the common meaning of the Greek. Ver. 12. Lest there be. The peculiar expression of the original implies that the writer's fear lest there should be, is blended with the feeling that there will somehow be, an evil heart of unbelief. His interest in them, and what he knows of their tendencies, make his fear preponderate, and it is only kindness to them to tell them what he fears.-An evil heart of unbelief is not a heart made evil by unbelief, but a heart of which the essence is that it does not believe. The two qualities, evil and unbelief, are closely connected, and each produces the other.-In departing; literally, 'in apostatizing.'-From the living God; not the idols of the heathen, but the God of Israel, who is known emphatically by this name (Isa. xxxvii. 4), and who is now the God of the Christian Church, its Defender and Judge (see Heb. ix. 14, x. 31, xi. 22). Ver. 13. Exhort one another. The verb is very frequent in the Acts and in Paul's Epistles, and occurs four times in this Epistle. Both here and in Heb. xiii. 16 (where it is said in the Autho |