APPENDIX T 2
Chapter 12:13. And make straight paths, etc. If this be a quotation, and not an appropriation of certain words, it is taken from Proverbs 4:26, where the Hebrew is, “Make direct the path of thy feet;” and the Sept., “Make straight the paths for thy feet,” the very words of this passage. That the verb in Hebrew means to “make direct,” and not to “ponder,” as in our version, is evident from a similar phrase in Psalm 78:50, “He made (or made direct) a way to his anger.” The verb is the same as in Proverbs. The noun means a balance, or rather the beam of a balance, (see Proverbs 16:11,) which is straight, and is used to equalize what is weighed. The verb may therefore include the idea of making straight or of making even. The verse that follows in Proverbs 4:26, favors this idea of a straight path, “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left,” which implies that it is a straight course that is to be taken. See verse 25
“Make direct the path of thy feet,” or “Make straight the paths for thy feet,” evidently means, “Let the path or paths along which you go, be direct or straight.” The ways of error and sin are called crooked paths: see Proverbs 2:15; Isaiah 59:8. So the way of truth and holiness is compared to a straight line, from which we are not to deviate either to the right hand or to the left.
It is remarkable what the Apostle says in Galatians 2:14, of Peter and those who dissembled with him, that they “did not walk uprightly (or literally, did not foot straightly, οὐκ ὀρθοποδοῦσι) according to the truth of the Gospel;” they deviated from the straight line prescribed by the Gospel. The idea, therefore, of removing impediments, of making their paths plain or smooth, as Macknight and others render it, seems not to be here intended; nor does it comport with what follows, “that the lame,” or the feeble, “may not turn aside, but rather be healed,” that is, of his lameness, or his weakness. For were those reputed strong in the faith not to walk straightly, but to turn into the crooked ways of dissimulation, like Peter and others at Antioch, the lame, the weak in faith, would be tempted to do the same, instead of having their lameness healed, or their weakness strengthened by the example of others walking in a straight course.
The idea of dislocation given to ἐκτραπὣ by Schleusner, Macknight, and others, is one invented for the purpose of suiting what they conceived to be the meaning of this passage, which is by no means necessary, and is indeed inappropriate to the context when rightly understood. “That which is lame,” τὸ χωλὸν, is a neuter instead of a masculine, an idiom we often meet with in the New Testament.
Appendix U2
APPENDIX U 2
Chapter 12:15 Lest any root, etc This quotation, made from Deuteronomy 29:18, seems to be an adoption of some words, and nothing more; for it is neither literally the Hebrew nor the Sept. “Root” refers not to a principle in Deuteronomy, but to an individual, to a person given to idolatry. A person also seems to be intended here. The clause in Hebrew is, “Lest there be among you a fruitbearing root, hemlock or wormwood;” and in the Sept., “Lest there be among you a root springing up in gall and bitterness.” As the idea only of a growing bitter or poisonous root is borrowed, it is not necessary to suppose that the application here is the same as in Deuteronomy. What is there applied to an idolater, is here applied to a person disturbing the peace of the Church.
Some understand this passage as referring to defection or apostasy; and therefore render the first clause, “Lest any one recede (or depart) from the grace of God,” that is, the Gospel, or Christian faith. But the words can hardly admit of this meaning. Hence most give this version, “Lest any one fall short of the grace of God.” But what is this “grace of God?” Various answers have been given, — God’s favor to those who cultivate holiness; God’s mercy offered in the Gospel; the promised rest; eternal life. But taking this verse, as we certainly ought, in connection with the preceding, we may justly say, that it is God’s sanctifying grace, or “the holiness “mentioned before; and then, according to the inverted order which we often find in Scripture, the next clause refers to “peace,” “lest any root of bitterness, growing up, should disturb you, and many by it (or by this) be polluted (or infected.)”
Then follow examples of these two evils in the same order: the first, “the fornicator,” is the violator of “holiness,” or is deficient as to this grace of God; and the second, “the profane,” is a disturber of the peace of the Church, as Esau was, of the peace of his own family, being “a root of bitterness.”
But observe, “peace” was to be with “all men;” yet the example as to the disturber of it refers to the peace of the Church; so with respect to “holiness,” what is universal is inculcated; but the example as to the violator of it is particular. For want of seeing this, no doubt some of the fathers regarded “holiness” in the former verse us meaning chastity.
Esau became “a root of bitterness” by being profane; and to be profane in this instance was to despise holy things, to regard them of no value, so as to prefer to them the gratification of the flesh. This was Esau’s profaneness, which led eventually to a dreadful discord in his family; and to shew the evil which follows such profaneness, the Apostle points out the loss he sustained as a warning to others.
Appendix X2
APPENDIX X 2
Chapter 12:1824. In this comparison between the Law and the Gospel, it would no doubt be more consonant to what is said in Exodus and also to the comparison here made, to regard μὴ as a part of the text, though omitted in all the copies already examined. Very seldom indeed is there any sufficient ground for a conjecture of this kind; nor can it be said that there is here an indispensable necessity for it, only that the comparison would be more complete, — “Ye are not come to a mount not to be touched under the peril of destruction; but to a mount to which you have a free access.” So terrible was the delivery of the Law, that to touch the mountain was instant death; to approach Sion is what we are graciously invited to do, it being the city of God, who giveth life.” The participle ζῶν seems to have this meaning here, as there appears no other reason why the word is here applied to God.
In describing the superiority of the Gospel to the Law, the Apostle borrows expressions from the former dispensation; and though Mount Sion and Jerusalem seemed to belong to the Law, yet they are taken here in contrast with Sinai, where the Law was proclaimed. Sion is, indeed, an evangelical term, and the whole ceremonial Law, though added to the Law proclaimed on Mount Sinai, was yet the Gospel typically, and existed in part before the Law was given.
The contrast here is very striking: terror and death were to the Israelites at Sinai; but a free approach and life are to those who come to Sion: there were on Sinai angels, surrounded with fire, darkness, and tempest; but myriads of them, an innumerable host, are now ministering spirits to the inhabitants of Sion: the whole assembly at the foot of Sinai were only the children of Israel; but the assembly in Sion is the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, the saints of God gathered from all nations: God appeared on Sinai as the judge, ruler, and governor of one people; but the God of Sion is the judge and governor of all who come there from all the various nations of the earth: to those at Sinai the state of departed saints was imperfectly known; but to those who are come to Sion their condition is well known, they being a part of that body — the Church — of which Christ is the head: the mediator at Sinai was Moses, a faithful servant, and no more; but the Mediator of the New Covenant, which belongs to Sion, is Jesus, by virtue of whose blood all sins are forgiven, and all pollutions removed — a blood which pleads for mercy and not for vengeance as the blood of Abel. All the parts of the first contrast are not mentioned, but they may easily be gathered from the second.
That the Church on earth is here meant by Sion, seems very clear. The Church is often called the kingdom of heaven, and its subjects are called the citizens of heaven. That angels and saints departed are mentioned as those to whom we are come, is no objection, because everything that belongs to Sion is seen only by faith. Our connection with distant believers, living on the earth, is maintained only by faith, exactly in the same manner as our connection with angels or departed spirits. Whether the angels mentioned here are ministering spirits, or the hosts above who serve God in heaven, it makes no difference, as they are fellowservants and fellowcitizens as it were with all the family on earth. See Colossians 1:16, 17. It is the same company, though one is now on earth and the other in heaven; they will finally be more closely united.
To the notion that some, as Macknight and others, have entertained, that Sion here means the Church in its glorified state after the resurrection, there are insuperable objections: the contrast in that case would not be suitable; for the object of the Apostle is evidently to set forth the excellency of the Gospel dispensation in comparison with that of the Law; no satisfactory difference on such a supposition could be made between the Church of the firstborn and the spirits of just men made perfect; the expression, “the enrolled in heaven,” is more suitably applied to those on earth than to those in glory; and there would be no propriety in that case in mentioning Christ as the Mediator, or that his blood speaks a language different from that of Abel.
Appendix Y2
APPENDIX Y 2
Chapter 12:27 As of things that are made, etc The meaning of ὡς πεποιημένων, as given by Doddridge, Scott, and Stuart, is, that they were things created, and therefore perishable, appointed only for a time. Macknight considered the expression elliptical for things “made with hands;” which denotes what is of an imperfect nature. But the explanation of Schleusner is the most natural and most suitable to the passage. He says that ποιέω means sometimes to accomplish, to finish, to bring to an end. (Romans 4:21; 9:28; Ephesians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:24.) Then the rendering would be, “as of things to be completed,” or brought to an end. They were things to be shaken or changed, as things to be finished or terminated. The corresponding verb in Hebrew, עשה, has evidently this meaning, “all his works which he had made,” (עשה,) or completed, or finished. (Genesis 2:2; see Isaiah 41:4.)