Hebrews 4:11 - Exposition

Let us therefore do our diligence ( σπουδάσωμεν , so translated in A.V. 2 Timothy 4:9 , 2 Timothy 4:21 ) to enter into that rest, lest any one fall after the same example of disobedience ( ἀπειθείας : not ἀπιστίας , which means "unbelief"). It is a question, though not at all affecting the general sense of the passage, whether ἐν τῷ αὐτῶ ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ should not he translated "fall into tide same example." πίπτειν ἐν has undoubtedly the sense of "to fall into," and is frequently so used in the LXX ., and the subordinate position of πέσῃ in the sentence—between ὑποδείγπατι and τῆς ἀπειθείας —is against its being used absolutely as the emphatic word. If so, the meaning will be "fall into the same exemplar of disobedience," i.e. the kind of disobedience of which that of the Israelites was a sample. This interpretation of the phrase, being that of the Vulgate, is supported by Alford, Davison, Lunemann; though most modern commentators (Bengel, Bleek, De Wette, Tholuck, Delitzsch, Wordsworth), with Chrysostom, take πέσῃ absolutely, as in Romans 11:11 ( ruat, Bengel), and ἐν τῷ αὐτῶ ὑποδείγματι as meaning, "so as to present the same ( i.e. a like) example of disobedience," the ἐν , according to Delitzsch, being the ἐν of state or condition. The warning is next enforced by a vivid representation of the penetrating and resistless power of the "Word of God." The question arises whether "the Word of God" is here to be understood in St. John's sense of the Hypostatic Word, i.e. the Second Person of the holy Trinity, who became incarnate in Christ. It is so understood by the Fathers generally; and the fact of this Epistle being tinged generally with the thought and terminology of Philo (whoso use of the word λόγος , derived from the Platonic philosophy in combination with Jewish theology, seems to anticipate in some degree, however vaguely, the doctrine of St. John) gives some countenance to the view. But against it are the following considerations:—