among men, offering a revelation of God and a way of approach to God: the heavenly Tabernacle through which Christ's work is accomplished is the greater and more perfect Tabernacle (Heb. 9:11), the divine archetype of the transitory copy.
Compare Heb. 2:10
teleiw'sai
note. The spiritual maturity of which the apostle speaks is the result of careful exercise. It belongs to those who have their senses their different organs of spiritual perceptiontrained, in virtue of their moral state gained by long experience.
dia; th;n e{xin
]
by reason of, on account of, habit.
Old Lat.
per (propter) habitum.
Vulg.
pro consuetudine.
The state in which they are is the ground and pledge of the discipline of their powers (
dia; th;n e{xin
not
dia; th'" e{xew"
).
{Exi"
(here only in N.T.) expresses not the process but the result, the condition which has been produced by past exercise and not the separate acts following one on another (firma quaedam facilitas quae apud Graecos
e{xi"
vocatur Quint. 10:1, 1). Comp. Ecclus.
Prol.
iJkanh;n e{xin peripoihsavmeno"
(having acquired sufficient experience),
id.
30.14, Judg. 14:9 (Alex.): 1 Sam. 16:7.
ta; aijsqhthvria
] Vulg.
sensus.
Here only in N.T. Comp. Jer. 4:19 (LXX.)
ta; aijsq. th'" kardiva" mou
.
gegumnasmevna
] Comp. Heb. 12:11; 1 Tim. 5:7; 2 Pet. 2:14.
For
gegumn. e[conte"
compare Heb. 12:1,
e[conte" perikeivmenon
.
pro;" diavkrisin k. te kai; k.
] The phrase recalls the language of the O.
T. e.g., Gen. 3:5; Deut. 1:39; Is. 7:16. The discernment of good and evil is here regarded in relation to the proper food of the soul, the discrimination of that which contributes to its due strengthening. The mature Christian has already gained the power which he can at once apply, as the occasion arises. This power comes through the discipline of use which shapes a stable character.
Philo
De migr. Abr.
§ 9 (1.443 M.)
e{tero" nhpivwn kai; e{tero" teleivwn cw'rov" ejstin, oJ me;n ojnomazovmeno" a[skhsi", oJ de; kalouvmeno" sofiva
.
Additional Note on Hebrews 5:1. The prae-Christian Priesthood
I. The Idea of Priesthood
Man is born religious: born to recognise the action of unseen powers about him and to seek for a harmonious relation with them, conceived of personally.
This thought is conveyed in the Mosaic record of Creation, by the statement that it was the purpose of God to make man in His image after His likeness (Gen. 1:27); that is to endow man with faculties by which he might attain to a divine fellowship, and finally share in the divine rest (Heb. 4:9).
Even if man had not sinned he would have needed the discipline of life, supported by divine help, to reach this destiny.
As it is, the consciousness of sin, variously realised, hinders the present approach to God (the unseen power). However the unseen is realised, there is in men a shrinking from it.
Some means of approach to the unseen power therefore must be provided that a harmony may be established; and man naturally looks for