Sed tamen de baptismo dictum, ne quis iteret, vera ratio persuadet. PRIMASIUS: Quid ergo? exclusa est poenitentia post baptismum et venia delictorum? Absit. Duo siquidem genera sunt poenitentiae, unum quidem ante baptismum, quod et praeparatio baptismi potest appellari... alterum autem genus poenitentiae quo post baptismum delentur peccata quam beatus Apostolus minime excludit.
This specific and outward interpretation of the words is foreign to the scope of the passage, and indeed to the thought of the apostolic age; but none the less it presents in a concrete shape the thought of the Apostle. It brings out plainly that there can be no repetition of the beginning. The forces which in the order of divine providence are fitted to call out faith in the first instance, and to communicate life, are not fitted to recreate it when it has been lost. There can be no second spiritual birth. The powers which are entrusted to the Christian society are inadequate to deal with this last result of sin; but the power of God is not limited. Compare Additional Note on 1 John 5:16.
HERVEIUS (reading
renovari
) emphasises the moral impossibility from the human side with singular power and freshness: Non...Montani vel Novati haeresim hic approbamus qui contendunt non posse renovari per poenitentiam eos qui crucifixere sibimet filium Dei. Sed ideo impossibile esse dicimus ut tales renoventur quia nolunt renovari. Nam si vellent, esset utique possibile. Quod ergo renovari nequeunt non est excusatio infirmitatis eorum sed culpa voluntatis ipsorum qui malunt veteres perdurare quam renovari...sicque fit ut ad poenitentiam redire non valeant....Quales et in
monasteriis hodie sunt nonnulli, habentes quidem speciem pietatis virtutem autem ejus abnegantes, et ideo poenitentiam agere non possunt, quia de solo exteriori habitu gloriantur et sanctos se esse putant quia sanctitatis indumentum portant.
Additional Note on Hebrews 6:12: The Biblical idea of inheritance (
klhronomiva
).
The group of words klhronovmo" (1:2; 6:17; 11:7), klhronomei'n (1:4, 14; 6:12; 12:17), and klhronomiva (11:8) is characteristic of the Epistle. The idea of inheritance which they convey is in some important respects different from that which we associate with the word. This idea finds a clear expression in the LXX. from which it was naturally transferred to the N. T.
The word klhronovmo" is rare in the LXX. It occurs only in Judg. 18:7; 2
Sam. 14:7; Jer. 8:10; Mic. 1:15 (Jer. 49:1 Symm.) as the rendering of vrE/y ,
and in Ecclus. 23:22.
Klhronomei'n and klhronomiva are very frequent. The former word
occurs about 140 times and 100 times as the rendering of vr"y: , H3769, and
18 times as the rendering of lj'n: , H5706.
The latter word occurs more than 180 times and about 145 times as
the representative of hl;j}n" , H5709 and about 17 times as the rendering of
derivatives of vr"y: , H3769.
The fundamental passage which determines the idea is the promise to Abraham Gen. 15:7, 8 dou'naiv soi th;n gh'n tauvthn klhronomh'sai (following