tivsin de; pro"
.]
And with whom...?
In this place the writer gives the connexion of
tess. e[th
which is found in the Hebrew. From the beginning of the wanderings to the end (Ex. 17:7; Num. 20:13), the people sinned in like ways. In this verse and in the next (
ajpeiqhvsasin
) the reference is not to the general character of the people, but to the critical acts which revealed it.
aJmarthvsasin
] This is the only form of the aor. partic. in N. T. In the moods the form of
h{marton
is always used except Matt. 18:15 || Lk. 17:4
(
aJmarthvsh/
); Rom. 6:15.
ta; kw'la
] The word is borrowed from the LXX. (Num. 14:29). It seems best to take the clause
w|n...ejrhvmw/
, as a subsidiary element in the description and not as an independent statement.
Heb. 3:18.
tivsin de; w[mosen mh; eijsel.
] The change of subject is unusual (He sware that they... and not He sware that He...).
toi'" ajpeiqhvsasin
]
to them that disobeyed, that were disobedient.
Vulg.
qui increduli
(O. L.
contumaces
)
fuerunt.
Unbelief passed into action. Comp. Heb. 11:31; 4:6, 11; Rom. 11:30, 32, contrast Heb. 3:20, 23.
3:19.
kai; blevpomen
...]
And we see
...The conjunction introduces the general conclusion: And so on a review of the record (or of the argument) we see...
Blevpomen
may mean We see in the familiar record of the Pentateuch, or, We see in the details just set forth. The two interpretations really pass one into the other.
oujk hjdunhvqhsan
] Their exclusion from Canaan was not only a fact
(
oujk eijsh'lqon
), but a moral necessity.
dij ajpistivan
] The failure of the first generation of redeemed Jews, who corresponded in position with the first generation of Christians, is traced back to its source. The faith which they had at the beginning failed them. They fell into unbelief; and unbelief issued in its practical consequences, disobedience, open sin. For the general relation of unbelief and disobedience see Rom. 2:8 (
toi'" ajpeiqou'sin
); 3:3 (
hJ ajpistiva
); Acts 14:2 (
oiJ ajpeiqhvsante" jIoudai'oi
); 19:9 (
hjpeivqoun
); 28:24 (
hjpivstoun
). Compare John 3:36 (
oJ pisteuvwn, oJ ajpeiqw'n
).
Additional Note on Hebrews 3:7. The application to Christ of words spoken in the O. T. of the Lord.
We have already seen that words originally applied to the Lord in the
O. T. are used of Christ by the writer of the Epistle (1:6, 10 f. note). The principle involved in this application of scriptural language was of great importance in the historical development of the doctrine of the Person of Christ.
Three main types of national expectation appear to have prevailed among the Jews at the time of the Advent, the expectation of a Davidic King, of a day of the Lord, of a Divine King and Judge. Each expectation was connected with the thought of a passage from this age of trial and suffering to the future age of triumph and joy, through a crisis of travail-pains (see Heb. 1:2 note). The ground of the different hopes lay in the Scriptures, and it does not seem that they were united in any one consistent view. We read the
O. T. in the light of the N. T., and it becomes difficult for us to appreciate the manifoldness of the aspects of the Divine Redemption which were offered