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Abraham (Gen. 20:7), to Moses (Deut. 34:10; comp. 18:18), to David (Acts 2:30), and generally to those inspired by God: Ps. 105:15. Compare Acts 3:21 tw'n aJgivwn ajpj aijw'no" aujtou' profhtw'n . Luke 1:70. The prophets, according to a familiar Rabbinic saying, prophesied only of the days of the Messiah ( Sabb. 63 a; Wunsche , Altsyn. Theol. s. 355). Comp. Philo quis rer. div. haer. § 52
(1.510f. M.).
2.
ejpj ejscavtou tw'n hJm. t. ] at the end of these days: Vulg. novissime diebus istis , O.L. in novissimis diebus his.

The phrase is moulded on a LXX rendering of the O. T. phrase : ymiY:h'

tyrIj}a'B] in the latter days ,’ ejpj ejscavtou tw'n hJmerw'n (Gen. 49:1; Num. 24:14;

Jer. 23:20 v. l. ejscavtwn ; 49:39 [25:18]; comp. Deut. 4:30; 31:29), which is used generally of the times of Messiah (Is. 2:2; Dan. 10:14 and notes).

Starting from this general conception Jewish teachers distinguished ‘a

present age,’ ‘this age’ ( hzh : lw[ , oJ aijw;n ou|to", oJ nu'n kairov" ) from ‘that

age,’ ‘the age to come’ ( abh : lw[ , oJ mevllwn aijwvn, oJ aijw;n ejkei'no", oJ aijw;n oJ

ejrcovmeno" ).

Between ‘the present age’ of imperfection and conflict and trial and ‘the age to come’ of the perfect reign of God they placed ‘the days of Messiah,’ which they sometimes reckoned in the former, sometimes in the latter, and sometimes as distinct from both. They were however commonly agreed that the passage from one age to the other would be through a period of intense

sorrow and anguish, ‘the travail-pains’ of the new birth ( jyvmh ylbj , wjdi'ne"

Matt. 24:8).

The apostolic writers, fully conscious of the spiritual crisis through which they were passing, speak of their own time as the ‘last days’ (Acts 2:17; James 5:3: comp. 2 Tim. 3:1); the ‘last hour’ (1 John 2:18); ‘the end of the times’ (1 Pet. 1:20 ejpj ejscavtou tw'n crovnwn : in 2 Pet. 3:3 the true reading is ejpj ejscavtwn tw'n hJm .); ‘the last time’ (Jude 18 ejpj ejscavtou crovnou ).

Thus the full phrase in this place emphasises two distinct thoughts, the thought of the coming close of the existing order ( ejpj ejscavtou at the end ), and also the thought of the contrast between the present and the future order ( tw'n hJmerw'n touvtwn of these days as contrasted with ‘those days’). ejlavlhsen hJmi'n ] spake to us —the members of the Christian Church: Heb. 10:26; 13:1 (so Theophylact: eJnopoiei' kai; ejxisoi' toi'" maqhtai'" kai; aujtou;" kai; eJautovn ). The word was not directly addressed to the writer: 2:3. The mission of Christ is here regarded as complete. It is true in one sense that He told His disciples the full message which He had received (John 15:15), if in another sense He had, when He left them, yet many things to say (16:12). This contrast between the divine, absolute, aspect of Christ's work, and its progressive appropriation by men, occurs throughout Scripture. Compare Col. 3:1 ff., 5.
ejn uiJw'/ ] The absence of the article fixes attention upon the nature and not upon the personality of the Mediator of the new revelation. God spake to us in one who has this character that He is Son. The sense might be given by the rendering in a Son , if the phrase could be limited to this meaning (‘One who is Son’); but ‘a Son’ is ambiguous. See 1:5; 3:6; 5:8; 7:28. Compare John 5:27 note; 10:12; Rom. 1:4.

The absence of the article is made more conspicuous by its


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