Hebrews 11:25

Heb 11:25. Ἑλόμενος) Resolve it into, and he chose; but ἡγησάμενος, because he esteemed, Heb 11:26.—συγκακουχεῖσθαι, to suffer affliction with) The people had been oppressed. The antithesis is ἀπόλαυσιν, enjoyment.—πρόσκαιρον, for a season) It is opposed to faith expecting future things: it is therefore put emphatically before ἔχειν, to have.—ἁμαρτίας, of sin) in which he would have been involved in the court of Egypt, which was given to idolatry. At the same time the concrete, sinners, i.e. Egyptian sinners, is intended by the abstract. The antithesis is τοῦ Θεοῦ, of God.

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

Heb_11:25. Justificatory explanation of the ἠρνήσατο, Heb_11:24 : in that he preferred to suffer evil treatment with the people of God, in place of possessing a temporary sinful enjoyment.

μᾶλλον αἱρεῖσθαι ἤ] in Holy Scripture a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; in profane literature, on the other hand, of very frequent occurrence. Instances in Wetstein.

The compound συγκακουχεῖσθαι only here; the simple form κακουχεῖσθαι alone (Heb_11:37; Heb_13:3) is found elsewhere.

τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ] see at Heb_4:9.

πρόσκαιρον ἀπόλαυσιν] an enjoyment only temporary, of brief duration, sc. of the earthly joys of life. Contrast to the enjoyment of everlasting blessedness.

ἁμαρτίας] not genit. objecti (Theophylact, Schlichting, Stengel, al.), but genit. auct.: Enjoyment, such as (the committing of) sin affords. By ἁμαρτία is meant apostasy from God, by the abandoning of the communion with the people of God.

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.

Such pleasures as he could not enjoy, but he must needs provoke God’s wrath against him.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

He balanced the best of the world with the worst of religion, and decidedly chose the latter. "Choosing" implies a deliberate resolution, not a hasty impulse. He was forty years old, a time when the judgment is matured.

for a season--If the world has "pleasure" (Greek, "enjoyment") to offer, it is but "for a season." If religion bring with it "affliction," it too is but for a season; whereas its "pleasures are for evermore."

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

(25) Choosing.—Better, having chosen. His act was an expression of his deliberate choice. He joined his people because it was “the people of God.” To stand aloof for the sake of ease and pleasure would for him have been apostasy from God (“sin,” comp. Heb_10:26). The faith of Moses had brought “conviction of the things not seen,” which “are eternal *; hence he looked not at “the things seen” which are “for a season” (2Co_4:18, where the same word is used).

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

25. with the people of Cod] Heb_4:9.

the pleasures of sin for a season] The brevity of sinful enjoyment is alluded to in Job_20:5, “The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.” The special sin would have been the very one to which the readers were tempted—apostasy.

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.

By faith he forsook Egypt,.... Either when he fled to Midian; this was before the eating of the passover, and so it stands in its proper order; whereas, his going out of Egypt with the children of Israel was after it, and mentioned in Heb 11:29. The word "forsook" implies fleeing; and then it was when Pharaoh's wrath was kindled against him: but it may be said, that Moses seemed then to be afraid of it, seeing he fled: to which it may be answered, that he showed great courage and intrepidity in slaying the Egyptian; and he took no methods to gain the king's favour, when the thing was known; his fleeing was consistent with courage, and was a point of prudence, and in obedience to the will of God: his departure shows, that he would not desist from the work he was called unto; but that he waited God's time, when he should be again employed; wherefore he endured affliction and meanness in Midian, and waited, patiently, till God should call him again to service: or this is to be understood of the time when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt; when he had many difficulties on the part of that people: they were seated and settled in the land of Egypt; they knew nothing of Canaan, nor of the way to it; and, besides, that was in the possession of others; they were a very morose, impatient, stiffnecked, and an ungovernable people, whom he led into a wilderness, without food or arms; and their number was very large; and he had many difficulties, on the part of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Israelites were in the midst of them; he brought them out from among them, with the spoil of them in their hands; he knew the changeableness and fury of Pharaoh's mind, and yet he led them out, and left Egypt,

not fearing the wrath of the king; of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; though it was as the roaring of a lion: so such as are called by grace, from a state of darkness and bondage, and out of a strange land, forsake this world, and leave their situation in it, their sinful lusts and pleasures, the company of wicked men, and everything that is near and dear, when it is in competition with Christ; not fearing the wrath of any temporal king or prince; nor of Satan, the prince of this world:

for he endured; afflictions, reproach, and menaces, with patience and courage; his mind was not broken with them, nor overborne by them; he expected divine help, and persevered; and so do such, who are called by the grace of God:

as seeing him who is invisible; that is God, as the Syriac version expresses it; who is not to be seen corporeally, though intellectually; not in his essence, though in his works of creation and providence; not immediately, though mediately in and through Christ; not perfectly now, though face to face hereafter. Moses saw him visionally, and symbolically in the bush; he saw him by faith, and with the eyes of his understanding; and so believing in his power, faithfulness, &c. did what he did.

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

25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Ver. 25. Choosing rather to suffer] The happiest choice that ever the good man made. It was a heavy charge that Elihu laid upon Job, that he had chosen iniquity rather than affliction, Job 36:21. The Church is said to come from the wilderness (of troubles and miseries), leaning on her beloved, Son 8:5. The good soul will not break the hedge of any commandment to avoid any piece of foul way. Quas non oportet mortes praeeligere? saith Zuinglius. What deaths had we not better choose, what punishment undergo, yea, what hell not suffer, rather than go against our consciences rightly informed by the good word of God?

The pleasures of sin for a season] Job fitly calleth sparks the sons of fire, being engendered by it upon fuel, as pleasures are by our lusts upon the object. But they are not long lived, they are but as sparks, they die as soon as begotten, they perish with the use, Col 2:22. Good God, saith Lysimachus, for how short pleasure how great a kingdom have I lost! May not the voluptuous epicure say so much better? Oh, what madmen are they that bereave themselves of a room in that city of pearl for a few carnal pleasures in this land of Cabul, or of dirt, as Hiram called the cities that Solomon had given him, 1Ki 9:13.

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.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God - With those whom God had chosen to he his people - the Israelites. They were then oppressed and down-trodden; but they were the descendants of Abraham, and were those whom God had designed to be his special people. Moses saw that if he cast in his lot with them, he must expect trials. They were poor, and crushed, and despised - a nation of slaves. If he identified himself with them, his condition would be like theirs - one of great trial; if he sought to elevate and deliver them, such an undertaking could not but be one of great peril and hardship. Trial and danger, want and care would follow from any course which he could adopt, and he knew that an effort to rescue them from bondage must be attended with the sacrifice of all the comforts and honor which he enjoyed at court. Yet he “chose” this. He on the whole preferred it. He left the court, not because he was driven away; not because there was nothing there to gratify ambition or to he a stimulus to avarice; and not on account of harsh treatment - for there is no intimation that he was not treated with all the respect and honor due to his station, his talents, and his learning, but because he deliberately preferred to share the trials and sorrows of the friends of God. So every one who becomes a friend of God and casts in his lot with his people, though he may anticipate that it will be attended with persecution, with poverty, and with scorn, prefers this to all the pleasures of a life of gaiety and sin, and to the most brilliant prospects of wealth and fame which this world can offer.

Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season - We are not to suppose that Moses, even at the court of Pharaoh, was leading a life of vicious indulgence. The idea is, that sins were practiced there such as those in which pleasure is sought, and that if he had remained there it must have been because he loved the pleasures of a sinful court and a sinful life rather than the favour of God. We may learn from this:

(1) That there is a degree of pleasure in sin. It does not deserve to be called happiness, and the apostle does not call it so. It is “pleasure,” excitement, hilarity, merriment, amusement. Happiness is more solid and enduring than “pleasure;” and solid happiness is not found in the ways of sin. But it cannot be denied that there is a degree of pleasure which may be found in amusement; in the excitement of the ball-room; in feasting and revelry; in sensual enjoyments. All which wealth and splendour; music and dancing; sensual gratifications, and the more refined pursuits in the circles of fashion, can furnish, may be found in a life of irreligion; and if disappointment, and envy, and sickness, and mortified pride, and bereavements do not occur, the children of vanity and sin can find no inconsiderable enjoyment in these things. They say they do; and there is no reason to doubt the truth of their own testimony in the case. They call it a “life of pleasure;” and it is not proper to withhold from it the appellation which they choose to give it. It is not the most pure or elevated kind of enjoyment, but it would be unjust to deny that there is any enjoyment in such a course.

(2) It is only “for a season.” It will all soon pass away. Had Moses lived at the court of Pharaoh all his days, it would have been only for a little “season.” These pleasures soon vanish, because:

(a) life itself is short at best, and if a career of “pleasure” is pursued through the whole of the ordinary period allotted to man, it is very brief.

(b) Those who live for pleasure often abridge their own lives. Indulgence brings disease in its train, and the volaries of sensuality usually die young. The art has never been yet discovered of combining intemperance and sensuality with length of days. If a man wishes a reasonable prospect of long life, he must be temperate and virtuous. Indulgence in vice wears out the nervous and muscular system, and destroys the powers of life - just as a machine without balance-wheel or governor would soon tear itself to pieces.

(c) Calamity, disappointment, envy, and rivalship mar such a life of pleasure - and he who enters on it, from causes which he cannot control, finds it very short. And,

(d) compared with eternity, O how brief is the longest life spent in the ways of sin! Soon it must be over - and then the unpardoned sinner enters on an immortal career where pleasure is forever unknown!

(3) In view of all the “pleasures” which sin can furnish, and in view of the most brilliant prospects which this world can hold out, religion enables man to pursue a different path. They who become the friends of God are willing to give up all those fair and glittering anticipations, and to submit to whatever trials may be incident to a life of self-denying piety. Religion, with all its privations and sacrifices, is preferred, nor is there ever occasion to regret the choice. Moses deliberately made that choice; nor in all the trials which succeeded it - in all the cares incident to his great office in conducting the children of Israel to the promised land - in all their ingratitude and rebellion - is there the least evidence that he ever once wished himself back again that he might enjoy “the pleasures of sin” in Egypt.

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

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God: the same faith influenced his will, the cause of his former renunciation; for being in the present fruition of all court favours, and under the offers of all worldly delights by Egypt, and of all worldly discontents by God, faith determined his choice, made him a fellow sufferer in all the oppressions, afflictions, persecutions of his natural brethren the people of God, the most privileged society in the world for hope, as the most exercised by trials for God’s sake: he knew there would be eternal rest and glory into which they would issue him, besides glorious effects they would have on his soul while he was enduring them; and that they were but passing, and would quickly have an end, Rom 8:18; 2Co 4:17,18.

Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: the same faith made him to reject the enticing pleasures of sin, which could not be avoided by his continuance in Pharaoh’s court, either in dissembling himself to be no Israelite, professing himself to be an Egyptian, taking part with them in their cruel carriage to his brethren, living after their vicious course in all manner of voluptuousness; and the pleasures which he was to enjoy were sinful, transitory, and momentaneous, neither satisfying nor enduring, and must be attended with a sting in the end of them, even eternal anguish and torment, whereas his afflictions would end in eternal joys and pleasures, Mar 9:43,44,47; Lu 16:25.

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

25. Choosing—Our author expresses Moses’s choice in very New Testament terms; designedly, for it is as an example to his Hebrew fellow-Christians that he pictures the great founder of Hebraism. These, too, had to desert the popular and government favour, to suffer rather than enjoy for a season. In choosing Christian faith rather than Judaism, they are the true followers of Moses.

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

sin

Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The common lot and usual condition of God’s people in this world; it is an afflicted state and condition.

2. That wicked men oft-times enjoy pleasures in the ways of sin, whilst good men meet with much affliction in the work of holiness.

3. That notwithstanding this, all wise and good men do rather choose afflicted godliness, than pleasant and prosperous wickedness.

4. That a spiritual eye can see an excellency in the people of God, when in the lowest suffering condition; will join itself unto them, and appear with them, and for them, though it be with great loss, and much hazard. Moses here chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the short sinful pleasures of Pharaoh’s court.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. Choosing rather. There were honor, wealth and pleasure in the palace, but affliction with the enslaved nation. He chose the latter by faith. For a season. The pleasures of sin are transient.

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.

25. τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ. Heb 4:9.

πρόσκαιρον. The brevity of sinful enjoyment is alluded to in Job 20:5, “The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.” The special sin would have been the very one to which the readers were tempted—apostasy.

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.

25.] choosing rather (μᾶλλον αἱρεῖσθαι with an accus. of a noun or an infin. of a verb, is very common in the best Greek. Wetst. has accumulated two whole columns of examples) to suffer affliction with (reff.) the people of God, than to possess a temporary enjoyment of sin (is ἁμαρτίας gen. objective, of the thing enjoyed (as usually, see examples in Bleek) or gen. subjective, of the thing to which the enjoyment belongs? Delitzsch maintains the latter (so also Bleek), resting on the nature of the contrast: participation of the lot of God’s people being set against the enjoyment of sin: so that the lot of God’s people is parallel with ἁμαρτία, the latter signifying apostasy from God and his people. But surely the antithesis is a false one. It is κακουχία on the one hand, which is opposed to ἔχειν ἀπόλαυσιν ἁμαρτίας on the other: the possession of affliction (with God’s people), to the possession of the enjoyment of sin. Thus we have αἱ τῶν ἀφροδισίων ἀπολαύσεις, Xen. Hier. i. 26: σίτων καὶ ποτῶν ἀπόλαυσις, id. Mem. ii. i. 33 al. And I do not see how the other view accords with the anarthrous ἀπόλαυσιν),

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

To suffer affliction with [συνκακουχεισθαι] . N. T. o, o LXX, o Class. The verb kakoucein to treat ill, ver. 37; ch. 13 3; LXX, 1Ki 2:26; 1Ki 11:39. Rend. "to be evil entreated."

Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season [η προσκαιρον εχειν αμαρτιας απολαυσιν] . Lit. than to have temporary enjoyment of sin. The emphasis is first on temporary and then on sin. For ajpolausiv enjoyment, see on 1Ti 6:17. Proskairov for a season, temporary, rare in N. T. o LXX Once in Paul, see 2Co 4:18.

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

25. μᾶλλον ἑλόμενοε... ἀπόλαυσιν) choosing rather to be evil entreated... than to have enjoyment of sin for a season. Vulg. magis eligens adfligi... quam temporalis peccati habere jucunditatem. Moses was called to - devote himself to his people. He know the source of the call: to have disobeyed it therefore by seeking to

πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν,

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.