Hebrews 1:11

Heb 1:11. Αὐτοὶ, they) the earth and heaven.—ἀπολοῦνται, shall perish) There is the same word at Luk 5:37; Jas 1:11; 1Pe 1:7; 2Pe 3:6.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_1:11. Αὐτοί] refers back not to earth and heaven, Heb_1:10, taken together (Kuinoel, Stuart, Bloomfield, Delitzsch, Kurtz), but, as is evident from the following πάντες, and in particular from ἑλίξεις, Heb_1:12, only to οἱ οὐρανοί.

ἀπολοῦνται] shall perish. Comp. Isa_34:4; Isa_51:6; Isa_65:17; 2Pe_3:13; Rev_20:11; Rev_21:1.

σὺ δὲ διαμένεις] but Thou abidest for evermore (throughout all duration of time, διά). On account of the environment of futures, and because the future is used here in the Hebrew, Bleek, after the example of Luther, Cornelius a Lapide, Peirce, Bengel, Wetstein, alii, accentuates: διαμενεῖς. So also the Vulgate (permanebis). Hardly in the sense of the author. For, since he employed only the LXX., not the Hebrew original, he surely took σὺ δὲ διαμ. as a parallel member to σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ, Heb_1:12, consequently also construed the former as a present.

ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται] will grow old like a garment, which by long use is worn out and laid aside, to be replaced by a new and better one. Comp. Isa_50:9; Isa_51:6; Sir_14:17.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They--The earth and the heavens in their present state and form "shall perish" (Heb 12:26-27; Pe2 3:13). "Perish" does not mean annihilation; just as it did not mean so in the case of "the world that being overflowed with water, perished" under Noah (Pe2 3:6). The covenant of the possession of the earth was renewed with Noah and his seed on the renovated earth. So it shall be after the perishing by fire (Pe2 3:12-13).

remainest--through (so the Greek) all changes.

as . . . a garment-- (Isa 51:6).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. They shall perish] Permanently fixed as they seem to be, a time shall come when they shall be dissolved, and afterward new heavens and a new earth be formed, in which righteousness alone shall dwell. See 1Pet 3:10-13.

Shall wax old as doth a garment] As a garment by long using becomes unfit to be longer used, so shall all visible things; they shall wear old, and wear out; and hence the necessity of their being renewed. It is remarkable that our word world is a contraction of wear old; a term by which our ancestors expressed the sentiment contained in this verse. That the word was thus compounded, and that it had this sense in our language, may be proved from the most competent and indisputable witnesses. It was formerly written [Anglo-Saxon] weorold, and [Anglo-Saxon] wereld. This etymology is finely alluded to by our excellent poet, Spencer, when describing the primitive age of innocence, succeeded by the age of depravity: -

"The lion there did with the lambe consort,

And eke the dove sat by the faulcon's side;

Ne each of other feared fraude or tort,

But did in safe security abide,

Withouten perill of the stronger pride:

But when the WORLD woxe old, it woxe warre old,

Whereof it hight, and having shortly tride

The trains of wit, in wickednesse woxe bold,

And dared of all sinnes, the secrets to unfold."

Even the heathen poets are full of such allusions. See Horace, Carm. lib. iii., od. 6; Virgil, AEn. viii., ver. 324.

Thou remainest] Instead of διαμενεις, some good MSS. read διαμενεις, the first, without the circumflex, being the present tense of the indicative mood; the latter, with the circumflex, being the future-thou shalt remain. The difference between these two readings is of little importance.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) And they all . . .—Both the earth and the heavens: see Isa_34:4, “The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll;” and Isa_51:6, “The earth shall wax old like a garment.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. They shall perish] Isa_34:4, &c.; 2Pe_3:12; Rev_21:1. remainest] The verb means “abidest through all times.”

as doth a garment] A common Scripture metaphor. Isa_50:9, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall perish,.... That is, the heavens and the earth; not as to the substance of them, but as to the quality of them; the present form and fashion of them shall pass away; the curse will be removed from them, and they will be renewed and purified, but the substance of them will continue; otherwise there would be no place, either for the righteous or the wicked,

But thou remainest; without any change or alteration, neither in his natures, divine or human, as God or man, nor in his office as Mediator; as a priest, he has an unchangeable priesthood, and ever lives to make intercession; as a King, his kingdom is an everlasting one, and of it there will be no end; and as a prophet, he will be the everlasting light, of his people.

They all shall wax old as doth a garment; garments in time wax old, and lose their beauty and usefulness, unless when a miracle is wrought, as in the case of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Now the heavens, and the light thereof, are as a garment and a curtain, Psa 104:2 and these, together with the earth, will in time come to their end of usefulness, in the present form of them; see Isa 51:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

Ver. 11. They shall perish] The visible heavens are defiled with man’s sin, and shall therefore be purged by the last fire, as the vessels that held the sin offering were to pass the fire.

They shall all wax old] {See Trapp on "Rom 8:22"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall perish - That is, the heavens and the earth. They shall pass away; or they shall be destroyed. Probably no more is meant by the phrase here, than that important changes will take place in them, or than that they will change their form. Still it is not possible to foresee what changes may yet take place in the heavenly bodies, or to say that the present universe may not at some period be destroyed, and be succeeded by another creation still more magnificent. He that created the universe by a word, can destroy it by a word and he that formed the present frame of nature can cause it to be succeeded by another not less wonderful and glorious. The Scriptures seem to hold out the idea that the present frame of the universe shall be destroyed; see 2Pe 3:10-13; Mat 24:35. “But thou remainest.” Thou shalt not die or be destroyed. What a sublime thought! The idea is, that though the heavens and earth should suddenly disappear, or though they should gradually wear out and become extinct, yet there is one infinite being who remains unaffected and unchanged.

Nothing can reach or disturb him. All these changes shall take place under his direction, and by his command; see Rev 20:11. Let us not be alarmed then at any revolution. Let us not fear though we should see the heavens rolled up as a scroll, and the stars falling from their places. God, the Creator and the Redeemer, presides over all. He is unchanged. He ever lives; and though the universe should pass away, it will be only at his bidding, and under his direction. “And they all shall wax old.” Shall “grow” or become old. The word “wax” is an Old Saxon word, meaning to grow, or increase, or become. The heavens here are compared to a garment, meaning that as that grows old and decays, so it will be with the heavens and the earth. The language is evidently figurative; and yet who can tell how much literal truth there may be couched under it? Is it absurd to suppose that that sun which daily sends forth so many countless millions of beams of light over the universe, may in a course of ages become diminished in its splendor, and shine with feeble lustre? Can there be constant exhaustion, a constant burning like that, and yet no tendency to decay at some far distant period? Not unless the material for its splendor shall be supplied from the boundless resources of the Great Source of Light - God; and when he shall choose to withhold it, even that glorious sun must be dimmed of its splendor, and shine with enfeebled beams.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They shall perish; the heavens themselves instanced in, as containing the most excellent part of the creation, (such as the Gentile philosophy esteemed incorruptible), are mutable, as by the various changes, not only in the airy part of it, but in the ethereal, doth appear: the glorious lights in it have their spots and rusts, as the sun itself, both increasing and diminishing upon them, and so as to their present, natural frame, are changeable, perishable, and dissolvable, Isa 51:6; Mat 24:35.

But thou remainest; but the Son Jehovah is unchangeable, hath a stedfast being, such as never loseth its state, no term is set for the ending of him. His immutability proves his Deity.

Remainest is an expression of present time, denoting constant abiding. He was before, in, and after all ages immutable, Lam 5:19.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, Heb 13:8.

And they all shall wax old as doth a garment: the antiquation of a garment is a metaphor borrowed, to show the corruptibility of the heavens. A garment wears and decayeth with use in tract of time, it changeth its fashion, is another thing as to its matter and form: so will the heavens, as to their form and face, decay, they are gradually coming to an end as to what they are now, 2Pe 3:7,10.

That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, Heb 8:13; so these heavens do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. They shall perish—They shall change from one form or system to another, the old form disappearing. Compare Isa_34:4; Isa_5:6; Isa_6:11; 2Pe_3:12-13; Rev_20:11. Science assumes matter to be indestructible; higher truth holds it to be in itself phenomenal, and indestructible only as it is sustained by underlying divine power.

Thou remainest—The Greek word expressively means, thou art permanent through; that is, through all the changes of phenomena and systems.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. “These will perish,” i.e. they will cease to exist in their present form; they will undergo revolutions, transformations and renovations. “All these will grow old like a garment.” The earth is rapidly wearing out and washing away into the sea, and losing its pristine fertility, significant of the fact that we are fast approaching the end of the present order of things.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. They shall perish. All created things shall grow old and pass away.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

11. αὐτοὶ ἀπολοῦνται. Isa 34:4, &c.; 2Pe 3:12; Rev 21:1.

διαμένεις, “abidest through all times.” This, and not the future διαμενεῖς, is the right reading, for it is parallel to σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ. Διαμένειν means to abide through all changes.

ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον. ὡς ἱμάτιον is a common Scripture metaphor. Isa 50:9, &c.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11.] They (seems most naturally to refer to οί οὐρανοί immediately preceding. There is no reason in the Psalm why the pronoun should not represent both antecedents, the heavens and the earth. Here, however, the subsequent context seems to determine the application to be only to the heavens: for to them only can be referred the following image, ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτούς) shall perish (as far as concerns their present state, cf. ἀλλαγήσονται below. ἐδήλωσε καὶ τῆς κτίσεως τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολὴν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ γεννησομένην, αὐτοῦ δὲ τὸ ἄναρχον καὶ ἀνώλεθρον. Thdrt. On this change, see the opinions of the Fathers in Suicer, vol. ii. pp. 151-2, 365, and 520 b), but thou remainest (Bleek prefers the fut. διαμενεῖς, see var. readd., on the ground of the verbs being all future in the Heb. text. But perhaps the consideration alleged by Lünemann, that the Writer, using only the LXX, seems to place σὺ δὲ διαμένεις and σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ as parallel clauses, is of more weight than the other. De Wette, on the Ps., renders the Hebrew verbs present: Dieselben vergehen, doch du bestehest. διαμένω, as in reff. and Ps. 118:90, ἐθεμελίωσας τὴν γῆν καὶ διαμένει. The preposition gives the sense of endurance through all changes): and they all shall wax old as a garment (see besides reff. Isa 51:6, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσεται: ib. 50:9; and Sir. 14:17, πᾶσα σὰρξ ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιοῦται), and as a mantle (περιβόλαιον (reff.) is a word of unusual occurrence, found principally in the later classics; but also in Eurip. Herc. Fur. 549, θανάτου περιβόλαιʼ ἀνήμμεθα, and 1269, σαρκὸς περιβόλαια ἡβῶντα. It, as περιβολή, Gen 49:11, signifies any enveloping, enwrapping garment) shalt thou fold them up (the Heb. here and apparently some copies of the LXX have the same verb as below: תַּחֲלִיפֵם וִיַחֲלֹפוּ,—ἀλλάξεις αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται,—“thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.” See also var. readd. here. LXX-A (not F.), with which Bא agree, reads as our text: and there can be little doubt that the Writer of this Epistle followed that text as usual. Grot. thinks ἑλίξεις has come into the Greek text from ref. Isa., ἑλιγήσεται ὁ οὐρανὸς ὡς βιβλίον. See also ref. Rev.), and they shall be changed (viz. as a mantle is folded up to be put away when a fresh one is about to be put on. Bleek quotes, as illustrating the idea, Philo de Profug. § 20, vol. i. p. 562, ἐνδύεται δὲ ὁ μὲν πρεσβύτατος τοῦ ὄντος λόγος ὡς ἐσθῆτα τὸν κόσμον· γῆν γὰρ καὶ ὓδωρ καὶ ἀέρα καὶ πῦρ κ. τὰ ἐκ τούτων ἐπαμπίσχεται): but Thou art the same (Heb. וְאַתָּה הוּא, “and Thou art He:” viz. He, which Thou hast ever been: cf. Isa 46:4 Heb. and E. V. Bleek compares Philo, de Profug. § 11, p. 554: ἥλιος γὰρ οὐκ ἀλλαττόμενος ὁ αὐτός ἐστιν ἀεὶ κ.τ.λ.), and thy years shall not fail (Heb., “Thy years end not,” are never completed: so LXX render the same verb תָּמַם by ἐκλείπειν, Ps. 103:35: 1Ki 16:11:4 Kings 7:13, &c.). The account to be given of Psa 102 seems to be as follows: according to its title it is “a prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.” It was probably written during the Babylonian exile (cf. vv. 14, 15) by one who “waited for the consolation of Israel.” That consolation was to be found only in Israel’s covenant God, and the Messiah Israel’s deliverer. And the trust of Israel in this her Deliverer was ever directed to the comfort of her sons under the immediate trouble of the time, be that what it might. As generations went on, more and more was revealed of the Messiah’s office and work, and the hearts of God’s people entered deeper and deeper into the consolation to be derived from the hope of His coming. Here then we have this sorrowing one casting himself on the mercy of the great Deliverer, and extolling His faithfulness and firmness over, and as distinguished from, all the works of His hands. To apply then these words to the Redeemer, is to use them in their sense of strictest propriety. See Delitzsch’s note, where the whole matter is discussed.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They [αυτοι] . The heavens : not heaven and earth.

Remainest [διαμενεις] . Note the present tense : not shalt remain. Permanency is the characteristic of God in the absolute and eternal present.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. αὐτοί] The heavens are taken an representing the whole visible universe.

drodvveras} The idea, as it is afterwards developed (xii. 26 ff), is of change, transfiguration, and not of annihilation: Ia li 6, 16; lxv. 17; Ixvi, 22; 2 Pot. ili. 13; Apoc xx. 11. δημιονργίας guléaro, τὴν μετασχημάτισιν τοῦ κόσμου, ἀλλαγήσονται γὰρ πάντα ἀπὸ τῆς φθορᾶς εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν.

διαμένει] Latt. permanedis (δια- - μενεῖ) The present is more expressive. The compound marks continuance throughout some period or crisis suggested by the context: Luke i

Esech. xxvii. 7. Comp. 1 Cor. xi. 15. Al€as}] Tho substitution of this word for thenatural rendering ἀλλάξεις may have been due to a reference to Is. xxxiv. 4 dAcyjcerat ὁ οὐρανὸς ds βιβλίον. In tho original tho verb is

repeated (35°!) ὈΒῬΠΡΝ.

ὁ avrés] The original is simply ‘Thou art Ie.’ Comp. Is. xli. 4; xliii. 10; xlvi. 4; xviii. 12; Deut. xxxii. 39 (ἐγώ elps).

Sco ch. xiii. 8 note.

(4) 13,14. The superior dignity of the Son as seated in Royal Majesty assured of triumph (‘having made purification...He sat down...’).

Tho comparison of the Son with angels is completed by the development of the idea contained in the fact of the Session of the Son at the right hand of the Father. This idea is conveyed by tho opening words of Ps. cx. and is spread throughout the New Testament: Matt. xxii. 23 ff. and parallels; Acts ii. 34 f. See also c. x. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 25; 1 Pot. iii. 22. The

Psalm (cx.) is quoted again coc. v. 6; vil. 17, 21.

13 But of which of the angels hath

He said at any time

Sit on My right hand,

Until I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet?

uAre they not all ministering spirits sent forth unto service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation ἢ .

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.