<- Previous   First   Next ->

object of the removal of the temporal. By this the eternal is shewn as it is. The veils in which it was shrouded are withdrawn.
ta; mh; sal. ] Vulg. quae sunt immobilia ( ajsavleuton Heb. 12:28, immobile ), all that stands undisturbed in the present trial. The ‘shaking’ is looked upon as already taking place.

For meivnh/ see Heb. 10:34; 13:14. The crisis to which the writer of the Epistle looks forward is, speaking generally, the establishment of the ‘heavenly,’ Christian, order when the ‘earthly’ order of the Law was removed. He makes no distinction between the beginning and the consummation of the age then to be inaugurated, between the catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem and the final return of Christ: the whole course of the history of the Christian Church is included in the fact of its first establishment. It is impossible to say how far he anticipated great physical changes to coincide with this event. That which is essential to his view is the inauguration of a new order, answering to the ‘new heavens and the new earth’ (Is. 65:17; Apoc. 21:1).

Signs in nature however did accompany the Birth and Death of Christ. The representation of great spiritual changes under physical imagery occurs elsewhere both in the Old and New Testaments: Is. 65; Matt. 14; 2 Peter 3; Apoc. 20; 21.

Many recent writers have connected pepoihmevnwn with i{na : ‘so made that...,’ ‘made to the end that....’ According to this view the transitory is treated
as the preparation for the continuance of that which abides. The thought itself is important; but it does not seem to lie in the context, which does not deal directly with the purpose of that which passes away.

( b ) Heb. 12:28, 29. The consideration of the position in which the Hebrews were placed issues in a practical appeal.

12:28. dio; ba". ...] Wherefore , seeing that this great catastrophe, this
revelation of the eternal, is imminent,
let us as receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken ...The thought of the ‘kingdom’ lies in the second part of Haggai's prophecy, which the quotation naturally suggested to the readers. The ‘shaking’ of which the prophet spoke, and which was now being fulfilled, was designed to issue in an eternal sovereignty of the house of faith.

The mention of the Divine Kingdom is comparatively rare in the Epistles. In the Gospels and Acts the phrase is always definite, ‘the kingdom,’ ‘the kingdom of heaven,’ ‘the kingdom of God,’ ‘the Father's kingdom’ ( hJ basileiva, hJ b. tw'n oujranw'n, hJ b. tou' qeou', hJ b. tou' patrov" ), and by implication ‘the kingdom of the Son of man’ (comp. Lk. 22:29 dievqetov moi basileivan ). The phrase ‘the kingdom of God’ ( hJ b. tou' q. ) occurs: 2 Thess. 1:5; 1 Cor. 4:20; Rom. 14:17; Col. 4:11: comp. 1 Thess. 2:12. Elsewhere we have ‘the kingdom of Christ and God’ (Eph. 5:5 ejn th'/ b. tou' Cristou' kai; qeou' ); and ‘the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet. 1:11 hJ aijwvnio" b. tou' kurivou hJmw'n kai; swth'ro" jI. Cr. ; comp. 1 Cor. 15:24; Col. 1:13; 2 Tim. 4:1, 18); and ‘the kingdom which was promised’ (James 2:5). In other places the anarthrous form basileiva qeou' is used in the phrase, klhronomei'n b. q. : 1 Cor. 6:9 f.; 15:50; Gal. 5:21, where it is natural that emphasis should be laid on the character of that which men looked to receive.
paralambavnonte" ] receiving from the hands of God as His gift. Believers are already entering upon the kingdom (Heb. 4:3); and this kingdom


<- Previous   First   Next ->