Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

378 Hebrews III. 7-19.
ono who was crucified, the refuse and oflf-scouring of the people,
they had nothing of which to boast but the glory which they hoped
to receive. Since that period the same has been substantially true
of Christians. Hence, it is their duty now, as it was then, to hold
fast the hope in which they glory.
Intermediate Passage of a Hortatory Kind.
(iii. 7-19).
f
In vers. 7-19 follows the exhortation itself, for which we are prepared
by what is said at the end of ver. 6. The particle di6 closely
connects it with ver. 6. Because salvation and sonship are to be
obtained only under the condition mentioned in ver. 6, therefore
must they not be obstinate and disobedient, as the Scripture says,
or the Holy Ghost, through whose impulse it was that the holy men
of God spake. The passage in Ps. xcv. 7-11 is here cited according
to the Sept. The Sept. has given substantially the right rendering.
In it the two names of places "a"*":* and nna are rendered l)y the
appellatives r^apa-LKpaof.io^ and -eipaqiog not improperly, but rather
with happy tact, as, indeed, these names were not properly nomina
propria which belonged to those places before the time of Moses, but
appellative designations of otherwise unknown localities, and designations
which owed their origin and occasion to the actual occurrence
of a temptatiijii and provocation (comp. Ex. xv. 23, xvii. 7).
The words nraj D-^ra-N are refeiTed by the Massorites (doubtless with
reason) to the 10th verse, 'trpK by the LXX. (not so well, although
of course NA-ithout any substantial alteration of the sense) to ";«;,
verse 9.—The meaning of the passage here cited is evident, and
needs no further explanation than is furnished in Ex. xv. and xvii.
The citation, as has been already observed, is connected grammatically
with the end of the Gth verse by means of (5/o, but is
nevertheless so selected as in its entire contents to form an inference
from the whole train of thought vers. 3-G. Not merely from the
statement that without hulding fast the confidence and hope no souship
and participation in the Messianic salvation is possible, but
also from this, that Christ is superior to Moses, it follows, that if
obduracy towards the s'.rrant was already so severely punished,
all the more earnestly should men beware of obduracy towards the
tSon.
The ai'iiifpov idv, in like manner as the sk Dvn of the original text
has the general moaning whicii our author ascribes to it (chieily in
ver. 13 in the words KaO' Ikuotijv I'niEpay, dxpi^ ov tu a'lUfpov KaMlrat).
Even the Psalmist evidently does not indicate any particular day in
the calendar on which the peuple should not be obdurate ; still ho