Hebrews 12

Verse 1. Laying aside every weight; [1] that is all that may hinder us when we run in the way of virtue.—To the fight proposed to us. In the Greek it is more clear: let us run the proposed race. He compares the condition of Christians to those who run a race, who fight or strive for a prize in the Olympic games, who strip themselves, and make themselves as light as possible, the better to run and fight. Witham.—This Christian’s life is both a race and a combat. In baptism we enter the lists; therefore we must fight in running to Jesus Christ, for he is the term, the goal, and the prize. To run well, we must be as light and disengaged as possible; and the same if we hope to combat with success. We should look up to the battles fought by our captain, Jesus Christ, and contemplate the glory he now enjoys on that account; for this he means to share with us, if we imitate his virtues: let us then rejoice to suffer with our Captain (αρχηγον) here, and we shall be glorified with him hereafter.

Verse 2. Who having joy [2] proposed to him, underwent the cross. The sense seems to be, who by reason of the joy he had to perform the will of his eternal Father, for which he knew he should be exalted above all creatures, underwent willingly the ignominy and death of the cross. Witham.

Verse 4. You have not yet resisted unto blood. Though you have met with some persecutions, you have not yet shed your blood for his sake who laid down his life, and shed every drop of his blood for you. Witham.

Verse 5. You have forgotten the consolation, and so forth He puts them in mind, that it ought to be a subject of great comfort to them, that God calls them his children, his sons, and treats them as his true and legitimate children, when he admonished them to live under discipline and obedience to him, when, to correct their disobedient and sinful ways, he sends the afflictions and persecutions in this world, which they ought to look upon as marks of his fatherly tenderness; for this is what a prudent kind father does to his legitimate children, of whom he takes the greatest care: and not to use these corrections, is to neglect them, as if they were [3]illegitimate children. We reverence the father of our flesh, (verse 10) our parents in this world, when they instruct and correct us, how much more ought we to obey the Father and Creator of spirits, (that is of our souls) that being truly sanctified by him, we may live and obtain life everlasting. Witham.

Verse 8. In these last four verses we may observe as many subjects of consolation under afflictions. God, our Father, is the author of them; the chastisement he inflicts is the proof of his love; it is the sign or mark of our divine adoption; it is a necessary condition of our being adopted.

Verse 11. It is true all discipline, all corrections, and sufferings in this present life, are disagreeable to our nature, because they bring not joy, but trouble and grief with them; yet afterwards, they who have been exercised with them, will reap the most peaceable fruit of justice, eternal peace and happiness in heaven. Witham.—We must not judge of sufferings by the smart they occasion, but by the fruits of peace, justice, and eternal glory they produce in such as submit to them with patience.

Verse 12–14. Wherefore life up the [4] hands, and so forth Be fervent in piety, walk firmly in the way of virtue, make straight [5] steps, without declining to one side or the other, without halting or going astray, and strive to be healed from your sins by his grace.—Follow and seek peace, as much as lies in you, with all men, and [6]purity of life, without which no man shall see and enjoy God. Witham.

Verse 12–14. Wherefore life up the [4] hands, and so forth Be fervent in piety, walk firmly in the way of virtue, make straight [5] steps, without declining to one side or the other, without halting or going astray, and strive to be healed from your sins by his grace.—Follow and seek peace, as much as lies in you, with all men, and [6]purity of life, without which no man shall see and enjoy God. Witham.

Verse 12–14. Wherefore life up the [4] hands, and so forth Be fervent in piety, walk firmly in the way of virtue, make straight [5] steps, without declining to one side or the other, without halting or going astray, and strive to be healed from your sins by his grace.—Follow and seek peace, as much as lies in you, with all men, and [6]purity of life, without which no man shall see and enjoy God. Witham.

Verse 15. Be wanting to the grace of God, by resisting and abusing his favours, or by falling from the grace of God received.—Lest any root of bitterness, and so forth He means scandalous wicked persons, by whom others are infected, defiled, and corrupted. Witham.

Verse 16. Or profane person, as Esau, who had so little regard for the blessing and inheritance of his father, that he sold his right of first-begotten for one mess of broth, and afterwards found no place for repentance, although with tears he had sought for it; that is, he could not make his father repent or change what he had once done, though he endeavoured with his tears and lamentable outcries. Or if any one will have repentance referred to Esau himself, still the Novatian heretics can have no advantage in favour of their error, when they deny that sinners can repent, because Esau’s tears might only be for a temporal loss, not for God’s sake, nor for the guilt of his sins, so that he wanted the dispositions of a true penitent and of a contrite heart. Witham.—Βεβηλος, profane, like Esau, who for a trifling meal could forfeit his right of primogeniture, and the honour of priesthood thereto attached. Oh, how many give up all right to a heavenly and eternal inheritance for even a mere trifling consideration! And how will they one day, with Esau, regret the same inflexibility on the part of God, their Father!

Verse 17. He found, and so forth That is, he found no way to bring his father to repent, or change his mind, with relation to his having given the blessing to his younger brother, Jacob. Challoner.

Verse 18. For you are not come to a mountain, [7] and so forth That is, to a mountain on earth that can be touched; to wit, to Mount Sinai, where the law was given to Moses, where the mountain seemed all on fire, with dreadful thunder and lightning, whirlwinds, darkness, tempests, sounding of trumpets, voices, and so forth which they who heard excused themselves, begging that Moses only, and not God, might speak to them, for they could not without exceeding consternation think of what was then said; that if any man, or even beast, should touch the mountain, he should be stoned to death. Exodus 19:15. Nay Moses himself, trembling, was frightened. This particular is nowhere mentioned in the Scripture, but the apostle might know it by revelation, or by some tradition among the Jews. Witham.

TR adds “or shot with an arrow”

Verse 22. But you are come to Mount Sion, where not a law of fear, like that of Moses, but a new law of love and mercy hath been given you, preached by our Saviour himself, and by his apostles, testified by the coming of the Holy Ghost, and by the effusion of God’s spirit upon the believers. Here you are called to the city of the living God, (to the Christian Church on earth) and even to the celestial Jerusalem, there to be for ever happy in the company of many millions of Angels; to the church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, (verse 23) to be happy with those who have been chosen by a special mercy of God, and blessed with an endless happiness; to be there in the presence of God, the judge of all men, with all the celestial spirits and souls of the just and perfect in the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ is the mediator of this new testament, the redeemer of mankind by his death on the cross, by the sprinkling and effusion of his blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel: the blood of Abel cried to heaven for vengeance, and the blood of Christ for mercy and pardon. Witham.

Verse 25. Refuse not then to hearken to him; for if the Jews escaped not God’s severe judgments, for being deaf to his admonitions, given by an Angel to Moses on Mount Sinai, and by him to the people, much less shall we escape, if we turn away our minds, and harden our hearts against the instructions of our Redeemer, who came from heaven to speak to us, and teach us the way to our eternal salvation. Witham.

Verse 26. Whose voice then moved the earth, by such signs and prodigies on Mount Sinai: but now he promiseth, saying by the prophet Aggeus: yet once; and I will move not only the earth, but heaven also. These words of the prophet are commonly understood of Christ’s first coming at his incarnation, when at his birth a star appeared, Angels were sent, and sung his praises, when the heavens opened at his baptism, when the earth trembled at his resurrection, when the sun and moon were darkened at his death, and so forth Yet others expound these words of Christ’s coming to redeem mankind, so as to comprehend all the time of the law of grace, and even his second coming to judge all men, at the end of the world, of which may particularly be understood those words, (verse 27) of the translation of the moveable things; that is, of the elements, and of the heavens changed to a more perfect state. See here Saint John Chrysostom Saint Augustine l. 18. de civ. Dei. c. xxxv. p. 517. Nov. Editionis. Witham.

Verse 27. Some refer these words to the tabernacle, to the ark, the altar, and other parts of the Jewish religion; which, as figures were to be altered and to be replaced by the more lasting and more perfect dispensation of the gospel. Estius.