<- Previous   First   Next ->

Theophylact expresses the thought tersely: eja;n qevlwmen maqei'n to; trevcein dij uJpomonh'", pro;" to;n Cristo;n ajforw'men, w{sper oiJ tevcna" manqavnonte" pro;" tou;" didaskavlou" .

In one form or other the hope of the vision of God has been the support of the saints in all ages: Job 19:26 f.; Ps. 17:15.
to;n th'" pivstew" ... jIhsou'n ] Christ in His humanity— Jesus —is ‘the leader and consummator of faith.’ To Him our eyes are to be turned while we look away from every rival attraction. From Him we learn Faith. The ‘faith’ of which the Apostle speaks is faith in its absolute type, of which he has traced the action under the Old Covenant. The particular interpretations, by which it is referred to the faith of each individual Christian, as finding its beginning and final development in Christ; or to the substance of the Christian Creed; are foreign to the whole scope of the passage, which is to shew that in Jesus Christ Himself we have the perfect example—perfect in realisation and in effect—of that faith which we are to imitate, trusting in Him. He too looked through the present and the visible to the future and the unseen. In His human Nature He exhibited Faith in its highest form, from first to last, and placing Himself as it were at the head of the great army of heroes of Faith, He carried faith, the source of their strength, to its most complete perfection and to its loftiest triumph.

This ascription of ‘faith’ to the Lord is of the highest importance for the realisation of His perfect humanity. Comp. Heb. 5:8; 2:13; 3:2; John 5:19; 11:41.

Chrysostom (with the Greek Fathers generally) limits the word to our faith: aujto;" ejn hJmi'n th;n pivstin ejnevqhken, aujto;" th;n ajrch;n devdwken . The Latin Vulgate translation necessarily led the Western Fathers to the same interpretation.
ajrc. kai; teleiwthvn ] Vulg. auctorem et consummatorem (O. L. principem et perfectorem ). As ‘leader’ of Faith, Christ supported unparalleled sufferings in every stage of human life, and as ‘finisher,’ ‘consummator,’ He brought Faith to its sovereign power. The phrase has been compared with the

Rabbinic rmwgw lyjtm . For ajrchgov" see Heb. 2:10 note. Christ is ‘leader’

and not ‘beginner’ only.

The word teleiwthv" is not found elsewhere in the N. T. or in the LXX. or classical writers. It occurs in Greg. Naz. Orat. xl. in bapt. § 44 of the minister who baptizes; and in Methodius de Sim. et Anna 5, of God Who admits those who are initiated into the Christian mysteries.

For the emphatic position of jIhsou'n at the end of the clause compare Heb. 2:9 note.
o}" ajnti; t. pr. ... katafr. ] The nature of Christ's example is indicated.
The joy that was set before Him was accepted as an equivalent (and more than an equivalent) for the sufferings which He endured. The joy was that of the work of redemption accomplished through self-sacrifice. The suffering was that of the cross, a death at once most painful and most humiliating.

For the correspondence between the sufferings and the glory of Christ compare Heb. 2:9; Phil. 2:9 ( diov ); Is. 53:11; and for ajntiv Heb. 12:16; Matt. 17:27; 20:28. Prokeimevnh" points to prokeivmenon ajgw'na (Heb. 12:1). For carav (not a Pauline idea) see John 15:11 note.

Staurov" , which occurs here only in the Epistle, is used without the


<- Previous   First   Next ->