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such as were fragmentary, prospective, typical, required to be fulfilled by Christ's Presence (Matt. 5:18). In revelation and in the record of revelation all parts have a divine work but not the same work nor (as we speak) an equal work.

1 God having of old time spoken to the fathers in the prophets in many parts and in many modes 2 spake to us at the end of these days in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.

Hebrews 1:1. The order of the first words in the original text, by which the two adverbs ( polumerw'" kai; polutrovpw" ) come first, to which nothing afterwards directly answers ( Having in many parts and in many modes of old time spoken ...), serves at once to fix attention on the variety and therefore on the imperfection of the earlier revelations, and also to keep a perfect correspondence in the members which follow ( pavlai, ejpj ejscavtou tw'n hJmerw'n touvtwn lalhvsa", ejlavlhsen toi'" patravsin, hJmi'n ejn toi'" profhvtai", ejn uiJw'/ ).

At the same time the two main divisions of the revelation are connected as forming one great whole: God having spoken...spake ...( oJ qeo;" lalhvsa" ... ejlavlhsen ). It is not simply that the Author of the earlier revelation is affirmed to have been also the Author of the later ( God who spake...spake ... oJ toi'" patravsin lalhvsa" qeo;" ejlavlhsen or God spake...and spake ...); but the earlier revelation is treated as the preparation for, the foundation of, the latter ( God having spoken...spake ...). polumerw'" kai; polutrovpw" ] in many parts and in many manners , Vulg. multifariam multisque modis. Syr. Psh. in all parts and in all manners (Syr. Hcl. in many parts ...).

The variety of the former revelation extended both to its substance and to its form. The great drama of Israel's discipline was divided into separate acts; and in each act different modes were employed by God for bringing home to His people various aspects of truth. Thus the ‘many parts’ of the preparatory training for Christianity may be symbolised (though they are not absolutely coincident with them) by the periods of the patriarchs, of Moses, of the theocracy, of the kingdom, of the captivity, of the hierarchy, as Israel was enabled to assimilate the lessons provided providentially in the national life of Egypt, Canaan, Persia, Greece. And the many ‘modes’ of revelation are shadowed forth in the enactment of typical ordinances, in declarations of ‘the word of the Lord,’ in symbolic actions, in interpretations of the circumstances of national prosperity and distress. And further it must be noticed that the modes in which God spoke in the prophets to the people were largely influenced by the modes in which God spoke to the prophets themselves ‘face to face,’ by visions, by Urim and Thummim (comp. Num. 12:6, 8). These corresponded in the divine order with the characters of the messengers themselves which became part of their message.

The general sense is well given by Theodoret: to; mevntoi polumerw'" ta;" pantodapa;" oijkonomiva" shmaivnei, to; de; polutrovpw" tw'n qeivwn ojptasiw'n to; diavforon, a[llw" ga;r w[fqh tw'/ jAbraa;m kai; a[llw" tw'/ Mwu>sh'/ ... to; mevntoi polumerw'" kai; e{teron aijnivttetai o{ti tw'n profhtw'n e{kasto" merikhvn tina oijkonomivan ejneceirivzeto, oJ de; touvtwn qeov", oJ despovth" levgw Cristov", ouj mivan tina; wj/konovmhse creivan, ajlla; to; pa'n ejnanqrwphvsa" katwvrqwse .

The adverbs are not rare in late Greek: for polumerw'" see Plut. 2.537


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