Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

Hebrews XII. 4. 561
SECTION FIFTH.
FOURTH MOTIVE.
THE BLESSING OF CHASTISEMENT.
(xii. 4—17.)
Affliction and persecution have a twofold character ; on the
one hand, they may be regarded as trials of faith, as trials shewing
how much of the new man there is in the Christian, and how strong
that new man is ; on the other hand, however, they are also chastisements
and means of purification, which serve entirely to destroy the
old man—the latter, indeed, only when the trial of faith is overcome,
when there is an invigorated new man already present, who
by bearing those trials, acquires neio strength and gains thereby new
conquests over the old Adam. From this point of view, the author
regards the threatening persecutions in this fifth section. He shews
that that suffering has, at the same time, the quality of a means of
purification and discipline, but shews also that it only then becomes
a TTatdeia when the Christian bears it in faith (ver. 4-11). He then
(in ver. 12-17) repeats the old exhortations (chap. x. 19-25, comp.
chap. xii. 1-3), so, however, as that he gives prominence to certain
special points.
Ver. 4 forms the transition. The words Trpbg rrjv ajxapriav are dependent
on avTayuiVL^ojievoi,, not on dvriKariorriTe, as the latter is already
determined by the accompanying expression {j-^xP'-^ alixarog,
while the former would otherwise stand quite alone, and be an aimless
repetition of the idea already implied in dvTCKarEaTijTe. We
have, therefore, to render thus : You have not yet in the struggle
with sin resisted even to blood.—First of all, the question presents
itself what is meant here by sin, whether the sin of the readers which
was spoken of in ver. 1—in which case, the author in ver. 4 imputes
it as B,fault to the readers that they were remiss in the internal struggle
for sanctification, and the expression unto blood must be understood
figuratively = ^'
you have not yet striven to the uttermost against
your sins." Or, whether the objective power of sin is here meant,
—sin as the enmity of the world against the gospel and its professors,—consequently,
the contradiction of sinners mentioned in ver. 3
—in which case ver. 4 contains a simple statement of the fact, and the
expression unto blood can be taken in the proper sense r= " you have
not yet needed to resist unto blood in the contest witji sinners."
The words do not determine which of these interpretations is the
right one. The former would certainly also be suitable to the context.
The author would, in this case, set over against the exhortation,
given in ver. 1, to cast away all sin from them, the statement by
way of reproof, that the readers had as yet not rightly done this.
Vol.—VI. 36