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respects it is not unlike that of the Book of Wisdom, but it is nowhere marred by the restless striving after effect which not unfrequently injures the beauty of that masterpiece of Alexandrine Greek. The calculated force of the periods is sharply distinguished from the impetuous eloquence of St Paul. The author is never carried away by his thoughts. He has seen and measured all that he desires to convey to his readers before he begins to write. In writing he has, like an artist, simply to give life to the model which he has already completely fashioned. This is true even of the noblest rhetorical passages, such as ch.
11. Each element, which seems at first sight to offer itself spontaneously, will be found to have been carefully adjusted to its place, and to offer in subtle details results of deep thought, so expressed as to leave the simplicity and freshness of the whole perfectly unimpaired. For this reason there is perhaps no Book of Scripture in which the student may hope more confidently to enter into the mind of the author if he yields himself with absolute trust to his words. No Book represents with equal clearness the mature conclusions of human reflection.


The contrast of the Style of the Epistle to that of St Paul may be noticed in the passages which are quoted as echoes of St Paul's language:

Heb. 2:10. Comp. Rom. 11:36.

5:2.

Rom. 4:19.

The richer fulness of expression is seen in corresponding phrases: e.g., Col. 3:1, compared with Heb. 12:2 (note).

The writer does not use St Paul's rhetorical forms tiv ou\n ; tiv gavr ; ajllj ejrei' ti" ..., mh; gevnoito, a[ra ou\n, oujk oi[date (Credner Einl.
S. 547). On the other hand we notice the peculiar phrases, wJ" e[po" eijpei'n, eij" to; dihnekev", e[laqon xenivsante" , and the particle o{qen .

Seyffarth has rightly called attention to the relative frequency of the use of participial constructions in the Epistle: Octogies atque quater in...epistola habes participia activa, centies et septies participia passiva et media, atque septies genitivos absolutos...In epistola...ad Romanos multum prolixiori nonagies reperi constructionem quam dicunt participialem activam, duodequadragesies tantum constructionem participialem passivam atque mediam, nec tamen ullibi genitivos absolutos. Decies tantum Paulus apostolus, quantum vidi, in omnibus epistolis suis utitur genitivis absolutis plerumque contra regulas a grammaticis scriptas...( de ep. ad Heb. indole § 36).

Heb. 3:6. Comp. Rom.

Heb. 11:12. Comp.


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