Hebrews 13:1-6

CONCLUSION OF THE EPISTLEAMoral exhortations of a more general character

Hebrews 13:1-6

1Let brotherly love continue. 2Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and [om. and] them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in 4the body. Marriage is honourable in all [Be marriage held in honor in all things], and the [be its] bed undefiled: but [or for]1 whoremongers and adulterers God will Judges 5:0 Let your conversation [disposition, or mode of life] be without covetousness; and be [being] content with such things as ye have: for he [himself] hath said, I will never 6[by no means] leave thee, nor [will I at all] forsake thee. So that we may boldly [with confidence] say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me [I will not fear; what shall a man do unto me?].

[Hebrews 13:2.—τῆν φιλοξενίαν, hospitality.—διὰ ταύτης, by means of this.—ἔλαθον ξενίσ., escaped notice entertaining=entertained unawares; the Aor. pointing back historically to the time of the event.

Hebrews 13:3.—Is more forcible with the asyndeton of the original; the and is unnecessary and enfeebling.—τῶν κακουχουμένων, those in distress.

Hebrews 13:4.—The Imperat. is (with Moll, Del., Alf., etc.) much better than the Ind. construction of the Eng. ver. We might hesitate to supply the Imperat. rather than the Indic., but we must do so in Hebrews 13:5, and there is no difficulty here, because the imperative idea which belongs to all the preceding clauses, would naturally be transferred to this, in the absence of the verb.—Ἐν πᾶσιν in all things; with persons παρὰ πᾶσιν, would be more natural (Moll, Alf.).

Hebrews 13:5.—ὁ τρόπος, habit, disposition; Moll: Sinnesart; Alf.: mode of life.—ἀρκούμενοι τοῖς παροῦσιν, being contented, with what ye have.—αὑτος γάρ, for he himself.—οὐ μή σε , οὐδ’ οὐ μή σε, etc., much more emphatic than the construction of the Eng. ver., “I will by no means leave thee, nor will I by any means abandon thee.”

Hebrews 13:6.—θαρροῦντας, with confidence.—καὶ οὐ φοβηθήσομαι: Sin. follows Vulg., etc., in omitting καί; Alf., Del., Moll etc., retain it. But all agree in reading the following clause, as an independent question, τί ποιήσ., etc., what will a man do unto me?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Hebrews 13:1. Continue.—The form of the injunction shows that the brotherly love, once so prevalent in the church, i.e., the mutual love of Christians, must, at the time of the composition of our Epistle, have still been active in it, as indicated also at Hebrews 6:10; Hebrews 10:32 ff.; while Hebrews 10:26 shows the necessity of their being exhorted to the practice of this virtue. This brotherly love φιλαδελφία) which, according to 2 Peter 1:7, constitutes a specific form of the broader virtue of ἀγάπη was designated by the Lord Himself as a special characteristic of His disciples (John 13:35. Also Tertullian paints in the liveliest colors its prevalence in the church of his time; and even the scoffer Lucian is obliged to pay an unwilling tribute to its power when he says (de morte Peregrini): “Their principal Law-giver has inspired in them the sentiment that they are all mutually brethren so soon as they had passed over, i.e., had denied the Grecian Gods, and devoted themselves to the worship of that crucified sophist, and were living in accordance with his precepts.” Moreover, Julian (epistle 49) says that “kindness toward strangers (ἡ περὶ τοὺς ξένους φιλανθρωπία) had been a principal means of propagating the ἀθεότης of the Christians.

Hebrews 13:2. Forget not.—Λανθάνω, with the participle, is a familiar Greek construction. The reference is to the experiences of Abraham and Lot (Genesis 18:19). Perhaps also to Matthew 25:44-45. Substantially parallel are Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9. Whether λἔαθον forms a paronomasia with ἔπιλανθάνεσθε (Lun.) is doubtful.

Hebrews 13:3. As bound with them—as being yourselves also in the body.—It is neither necessary nor admissible, in order to give to ὡς the same signification in both clauses, to understand, with Böhme, and others, the bound with them, of life and sufferings in the ecclesia pressa, [“travelling too far from the context.”—Alf.], or, with Calvin, and others, to understand the “body” of the church as the body of Christ. We may, with Œc., give ὡς in the first clause, also the causal significance, which it unquestionably has in the second; but his translation, “inasmuch as we are closely connected with them,” merely involves the idea that, by virtue of our membership and communion with our imprisoned brethren, we should feel ourselves under obligation to remember them in loving sympathy. It is more advisable, therefore, to take the first ὡς as a particle of comparison. [“As being your selves also in the body,” i.e., as being yourselves in a body which exposes you to like suffering with them, and might therefore be expected to secure your sympathy for the sufferer.—K.].

Hebrews 13:4. Marriage in all.—In the New Testament γάμος means, elsewhere, the wedding and its celebration; here, as in classical Greek, wedlock. [Alf. takes it here as “wedding,” and renders it “your marriage”]. Ἐν πᾶσιν means not with all nations (Pesh., Beza, Grot., and others, who, with τίμιος, erroneously supply ὅτι); but, “in every respect, in all respects.” Were the injunction intended to be that marriage should be held honorable with all persons. (Luth., etc.), or that no unmarried person should regard it with contempt (Böhme, Schultz, etc.), or that it should be forbidden to no man, the form would probably be παρὰ πᾶσιν.

Hebrews 13:5. He himself has said.—Not Christ (Bez., Böhm., Klee), but God, in the Scripture. These words are found in full, Deuteronomy 31:6; Deuteronomy 31:8, and repeated, 1 Chronicles 28:20. But God is there spoken of in the third person. Individual elements of this consolatory address, representing God as speaking in the first person, are found, Genesis 28:15; Joshua 1:5; Isaiah 41:17. It is found, in precisely the same terms as here, in Philo, Ed. Mang., I. 430. That the author has drawn immediately from Philo, (Bl., De W.), is scarcely to be supposed. We may rather conjecture that the saying had in this form already become a proverb (Beng.), or that it originated in the liturgical and homiletical usage of the Hellenistic Synagogue from the confounding of kindred expressions with the original passage, Deuteronomy 31:6 (Del.). The double negation in the first, and the triple negation in the second member, serve for emphasis. The mention of the persecutions of the church, suggests the trustful declaration cited from Psalms 118:6.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Brotherly love stands preëminent among the distinguishing marks of the children of God (1 John 3:1), and if genuine, never ceases (1 Corinthians 13:8). Its purity, power, and permanence, however, depend upon the nature of our relation to Christ, and with this, upon that of our faith. It can therefore, on the one hand, never dispense with nourishment, culture and discipline; and on the other cannot do without exercise.

2. The practice of hospitality may very easily prove disagreeable; one may exercise it unwillingly, sullenly, and enviously; may limit it by caprice and selfishness; may regard and treat it as a burden and a plague. We must therefore be kindly reminded of this duty, as a duty of love, and learn to give heed to the blessing it brings with it, in order that the offerings which we are required to bring, and the privations which we impose upon ourselves, may not fall too heavily or incite us to self-glorification. And this blessing transcends our knowledge and conception. We may receive into our house messengers of God; nay, may receive Christ Himself, in His humblest servants (Matthew 25:35 ff.).

3. The connection, which, in a two-fold way, we have with sufferers, viz., by spiritual and by natural ties of friendship, must make itself be recognized by compassionate and effective sympathy, in every individual case; and inasmuch as this is deficient, and often inconvenient, we are reminded, on the one hand, of the law in accordance with which, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26); and on the other, of our own liability to suffer, a liability inseparable from our bodily life.

4. The character belonging to marriage, as an ordinance instituted and blessed of God, and the purity which, according to the will of God, befits the marriage bed, and the rites of matrimony, need special attention and care. “The terrible sentence pronounced on fornicators and adulterers is one which pays no heed to the false reasonings and cavilling interpretations, which will plead in excuse for such impurities the fierce lusts of man, the course of the world, and the difficulties of ordinary wedlock. At the judgment of God it will also be made manifest how much power and light the knowledge of God and of our Lord, Jesus Christ, have imparted to each one, by which to escape from this corruption of the world; nay, it will also become manifest that the majority have fallen, not from an irresistible power of their nature, but from lusts wilfully indulged, and nurtured and heightened by the reading of mischievous books, and by profligate intercourse; nay, that frequently they have themselves inflamed, and urged on anew the nature which had been wearied out in the service of sin, and had withdrawn from it with loathing. Then, too, it will become evident what evasions men have resorted to, in order to escape the judgments of men, and why many have so aided others, and how many a one has chosen rather to carry his lusts with him to the bar of God, than to free himself from them upon the dying-bed” (Rieger).

5. Pleasure and licentiousness lead not only to extravagance, but also to discontentment, thence to covetousness, and finally, not unfrequently to miserly niggardliness. Yet even apart from this, an insatiable and covetous habit of feeling and action stands in direct antagonism to the Christian temper and conduct (Matthew 6:19-34; Colossians 3:5; Philippians 4:11-12; 1 Timothy 6:6), and plunges one into severe temptations and great dangers (1 Timothy 6:9 ff). An effective weapon against this, as against the fear of human wickedness and violence, is the use of the word of God, by which confidence in the living God, who has promised that He will withdraw from us neither His presence, nor His help, is awakened and nourished.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

What most hinders, and what most promotes the exercise of Christian love.—We have in suffering and assaults, not merely the sympathy of the brethren, but also the comfort of the word of God, and the help of the Lord.—Faith, the mother of all virtues.—The characteristics of true Christianity.—How, while living in the world and in the flesh, we conquer world and flesh.—We are either judged or saved of God; there is no alternative.

Starke:—Love is a cardinal virtue, which embraces in itself all others (Romans 13:10), and is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, in which faith becomes active (Galatians 5:6).—Brotherly love must not be love in words, but must evince itself in act, especially toward those who are, for the sake of the Gospel, imprisoned, or otherwise suffering persecution, so that we may extend to them counsel, aid and refreshment (1 John 3:18).—It is a gracious provision of God that although the ungodly would gladly see all the righteous destroyed at once, or at least oppressed, still sufferings pass but gradually from one to another, in order that those who as yet have been spared, may be able to receive and succor the oppressed (Revelation 12:12).—He who is prudent will let the consideration of the righteous judgment of God hold him back from sin (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).—Sin, the sin of fornication and adultery, cannot be too sharply rebuked before the world. Hence God has pledged Himself to punish them.—The little which a righteous man hath, is better than the great possessions of the ungodly.—A Christian must faithfully apply to himself what he reads in the Holy Scriptures, according to the, exigencies of the case.—Human weakness fears before men, as if they could disturb its pleasant repose and satisfaction. But comfort! who shall be able to harm those whom God has taken into His protection? (Romans 8:31; 1 Peter 3:14).

Rieger:—It belongs to the nature and power of faith to receive promptly and interpret for itself every word of God, but along with this to set to its seal, that God is true. He who makes God alone his goal, has in God a rich consolation.—This is the holiest feature of the book of the Psalms that in it the Divine promises are placed before us, transformed already into pure nourishment for faith, and into living power.

Hahn:—A guest has frequently an invisible companion, and thus the cost of his entertainment is richly repaid.—Worldlings leave one another in the lurch; but believers all stand firm for a man.—Brotherly love has two hinderances, the unchaste flesh, and avarice.—God makes a marvellous distribution of suffering; one suffers early, another late. Thus what has no yet arrived, may still come. Hence, both in prayer and in benefactions remember the miserable.—Man is always anxious lest his supplies may fail; but God is good for all our deficiencies.

Schleiermacher:—On Christian hospitality. (Sermons on the Christian household).

Heubner:—The dearer to us is our faith, the dearer to us are our kinsmen in the faith.—In Christianity purity has a religious ground.—Confidence in God is the best preservative against anxious care for food, and makes us free from the fear of men.

Hedinger:—Love has extraordinary impulses; the best love gladly entertains guests. Whom? Those who are unable to render any temporal recompense.

Footnotes:

Hebrews 13:4; Hebrews 13:4.—The particle δέ is found in C. D***. J. K.; on the contrary, γάρ in Sin. A. D*. M. The Pesh. follows the former reading; the It. and Vulg. the latter. [Tisch., Del., Moll retain δέ. Alf. substitutes γάρ.—K.].