Hebrews 6:13-15 - Exposition

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so , having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Abraham—the ancestor of the Hebrews, the first recipient of the promises, the father of the faithful—is now appropriately adduced as an example. He ( Genesis 22:16 ), as is the case with you ( Psalms 110:1-7 ), was assured of his inheritance by the Divine oath; and so he obtained it, but only through "faith and patience." You have the like assurance, but attended with the like conditions. And then this Divine oath, the significance of which is set forth in Hebrews 6:16-18 , is made a link of connection between the hortatory section (Heb 5:11-6:20) and the coming argument about Melchizedek. This is one instance of the artistic way in which, throughout the Epistle, the interposed hortatory passages are so turned as to connect the divided sections of the argument. But what is said about Abraham ( Hebrews 6:13 , Hebrews 6:14 , Hebrews 6:15 ) has been variously understood. It is connected with Hebrews 6:12 thus: "Be ye followers of them who inherit the promises through faith and patience: for God, in his promise to Abraham, swore by himself in confirmation of it; and so ( καὶ ὀὔτω ) through patience he obtained the promise. Be it here observed that μακροθυμήσας in Hebrews 6:15 ("having patiently endured," A.V) corresponds with διὰ μακροθυμίας in Hebrews 6:12 , and expresses essentially the same idea. The aorist participle μακροθυμήσας does not in itself imply that the patience was previous to the obtaining; it expresses only that by patiently enduring he obtained. Observe also that καὶ οὔτω (cf. Acts 7:8 ; Acts 27:44 ; Acts 28:14 ) denotes the consequence from what has been previously stated; i.e. that μακροθυμήσας ἐπέτυχε followed from the Divine oath ensuring the fulfillment of the promise. Both his eventually obtaining and his patience in awaiting fulfillment were in consequence of the assuring oath. But then how and when did Abraham himself obtain the promise? Not even the temporal fulfillment in the multiplication of his seed and the inheritance of the Promised Land, much less the spiritual fulfillment in Christ, was during his own life. Both he could but see "afar off. " In respect to the latter it is expressly said ( Hebrews 11:13 , Hebrews 11:39 ) that the patriarchs did not receive the promises— μὴ λαβόντες τὰς ἐπογγελίας : οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν . What, then, is meant by μακροθυμήσας ἐπέτυχε ? Bleek understands the time of the oath ( Genesis 22:1-24 ), when the promise was irrevocably assured, to have been the time of obtaining. But more than this is suggested by the phrase, ἐπέτυχε τῆς ἐπαγγελίας (cf. Hebrews 11:33 ), as well as by καὶ οὔτω , viz. the actual attainment of the blessing assured to him by oath. There are two other ways of explaining:

(1) to identify Abraham with his seed, in whom, though not in his own person, he may be conceived to have obtained,—of which view it may be significant that πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου of the LXX . ( Genesis 22:17 ) is changed in the Epistle to πληθννῶ σε :

(2) to regard Abraham, still alive in the unseen world, as himself enjoying the fulfillment of the ancient promise. So Delitzsch, who, dwelling on the thought that nothing less than the blessing of Abraham extended to the whole world (cf. κληρονόμος τοῦ κόσμου , Romans 4:13 ) can be regarded as complete fulfill-merit, says, "God's oath-sealed word of promise is now fulfilled in Christ, and Abraham, while living on in the unseen world, is conscious of and enjoys that fulfillment, anti so may be said to have "obtained the promise." This view derives some support from Hebrews 11:1-40 , Hebrews 13:1-25 -16, where the longings of the pilgrim patriarchs is so beautifully represented as reaching to a heavenly fulfillment. On the other hand, the aorist ἐπέτυχε is against it, and hence view

(1) may be accepted as a sufficient explanation of the expression (see below, or Hebrews 11:39 ). With regard to the general drift, it is obvious how μακροθυμία , as well as πίστις , in respect to the promise first made to him "in Charran," is strikingly displayed in Abraham's recorded life.