anything consists: the alphabet of a subject.
The word occurs elsewhere in the N.T. of the material elements of the universe: 2 Pet. 3:10, 12; and metaphorically: Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20. tw'n logivwntou' qeou' ] Rom.iii.2. Comp. 1 Pet. 4:11; Acts 7:38. The phrase might refer to the new revelation given by Christ to His apostles (comp. Heb. 1:2); but it seems more natural to refer it to the collected writings of the O. T. which the Hebrew Christians failed to understand and so, through mistaken loyalty to the past, were in danger of apostasy.
For the patristic use of
lovgion
, which is common in LXX. see Euseb.
H.
E.
3.39; 1 Clem. 19, 53; Polyc.
ad Phil.
8.
gegovnate creivan e[conte"
] Vulg.
facti estis quibus lacte opus sit.
The change of expression from
creivan e[cete
is most significant.
Creivan e[cete
describes the simple fact: this phrase points out a fact which is the result of degeneracy. The Hebrews had through their own neglect become young children again. So Chrysostom:
oujk ei\pe creivan e[cete ajlla; gegovnate creivan e[conte"
...,
toutevstin, uJmei'" hjqelhvsate, uJmei'" eJautou;" eij" tou'to katesthvsate, eij" tauvthn th;n creivan
.
gavla
...
sterea; trofhv
]
milk...solid food
...There has been much discussion as to what should be understood by these terms respectively. The early commentators generally supposed that milk, the food of young converts, was the teaching on the Lord's humanity, and His Resurrection and Ascension, while the solid food was the more mysterious teaching on His Godhead. Thus, for example, Primasius: Lac simplicis doctrinae est incarnatio filii Dei, passio, resurrectio illius, ascensio ad caelum: solidus vero cibus perfecti sermonis est mysterium trinitatis, quomodo tres sunt in personis et unum in substantia deitatis.
The true explanation lies in Heb. 6:1 ff. The respective topics of the two stages of teaching are not spoken of as more or less essential or important.
That which corresponds with the milk is in fact the foundation. The milk and solid food are appropriate to different periods of growth. The older Christian ought to be able to assimilate fresh and harder truths.
gavlakto"
...] In Rabbinic language young students were called
sucklings ( twqwnyt ). See Schoettgen on 1 Pet. 2:2. Comp. 1 Cor. 3:2, Is.
28:9.
The image occurs in Philo: De agric. § 2 (1.301 M.) nhpivoi" mevn ejsti gavla trofhv, teleivoi" de; ta; ejk purw'n pevmmata . De leg. Spec. § 36 (2.332 M.). Compare also a remarkable parallel in Arrian: ouj qevlei" h[dh wJ" ta; paidiva ajpogalaktisqh'nai kai; a{ptesqai sterea'" trofh'" ( Dissert. 2.16, 39).
( b ) Each age has its appropriate support (Heb. 5:13, 14). Heb. 5:13 f. The consequences of the fault of the Hebrews are indicated by the statement of a general law. Each age has its proper food. But spiritual maturity comes through discipline and not through years only.
5:13. pa'" ga;r oJ met. gavl. ] The argument would have been clearer if the terms of the sentence had been inverted: For every one that is inexperienced...as you shew yourselves to beis fed with milk... But the writer prefers to suggest the fact that his readers are actually living in the most rudimentary stage of faith, partaking of milk, and so condemning themselves of unfitness for deeper instruction. For every one that partaketh of