Hebrews 12:8

Heb 12:8. Εἰ δὲ χωρίς ἐστε) If ye are and wish to be, etc.; χωρὶς, without, a melancholy particle.—μέτοχοι, partakers) A favourable word.—πάντες, all) all sons, Heb 12:7: all the witnesses, Heb 12:1.—ἄρα νόθοι ἐστὲ καὶ οὐχʼ υἱοὶ, in that case ye are bastards and not sons) An Enthymeme (covert Syllogism), in which this may be understood: but we do not wish to be bastards but sons; therefore we shall receive the discipline.

Heb 12:8. But sprinkling has a moral power. Dorscheus says: “That sprinkling is not effected in ANY OTHER WAY THAN through the communication of the meritorious power, or rather of the atonement and redemption, of Jesus Christ, which have been acquired or effected by Him.”—Part i., Theol. Zachar., p. 53.

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

Heb_12:8. Εἰ δὲ χωρίς ἐστε παιδείας] If, on the other hand, ye are free from chastisement (have been spared it). Wrongly Theodoret: εἰ τοίνυν καὶ ὑμεῖς τὴν παιδείαν ἐκκλίνετε.

ἧς μέτοχοι γεγόνασιν πάντες] of which all (sc. whom Godlike the saints of the O. T. enumerated chap. 11has really acknowledged as His sons) have become partakers. That the relative clause contains no statement of entirely universal import, applicable also to the relation towards the earthly fathers (Camerarius, Beza, Limborch, al.), but, on the contrary, one affecting exclusively the relation towards God, is clear from the parallel with Heb_12:7, as well as from the perfect γεγόνασιν.

νόθοι] bastards, begotten out of wedlock, for whose weal or woe their father is not wont to be greatly concerned.

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.

if ye be without--excluded from participation in chastisement, and wishing to be so.

all--all sons: all the worthies enumerated in the eleventh chapter: all the witnesses (Heb 12:1).

are--Greek, "have been made."

then are ye bastards--of whom their fathers take no care whether they are educated or not; whereas every right-minded father is concerned for the moral well-being of his legitimate son. "Since then not to be chastised is a mark of bastardy, we ought [not to refuse, but] rejoice in chastisement, as a mark of our genuine sonship" [CHRYSOSTOM].

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 8. Then are ye bastards] This proceeds on the general fact, that bastards are neglected in their manners and education; the fathers of such, feeling little affection for, or obligation to regard, their spurious issue. But all that are legitimate children are partakers of chastisement or discipline; for the original word παιδεια does not imply stripes and punishments, but the whole discipline of a child, both at home and at school.

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

(8) Whereof all are partakers.—Better, whereof all (God’s children) have been made partakers. Were it possible that they have never known this fatherly “chastening,” it must be that they are not sons whom a father acknowledges, and for whose training he has care.

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

8. whereof all are partakers] He speaks of God’s blessed and disciplinary chastisement as a gift in which all His sons have their share.

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.

But if ye be without chastisement,.... Or have no affliction:

whereof all are partakers; that is, all the children of God; they are all alike children; they are all in a state of imperfection, and prone to sin; God has an impartial respect unto them: and though they are not all alike chastened, nor chastened at all times, yet none are exempted from chastisement, but have it in some way or another, and at some time or another.

Then are ye bastards, and not sons; all are not sons that are under a profession of religion; all that are under a profession of religion are not chastised; but then those are not the children of God, but the children of the world, of Satan, and of the antichristian harlot; for though all that are chastised are not children, yet all that are children are chastised: hence we learn, that outward peace and prosperity is not a note of a true church; and that such have reason to distrust their state, who know not what it is to have the chastising rod of God upon them; and that afflictions are rather arguments for than against sonship.

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

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Ver. 8. Then are ye bastards] Qui exclpitur a numero flagellatorum, excipitur a numero filiorum, saith one. He that escapes affliction may well suspect his adoption. I have no stronger argument against the pope’s kingdom, saith Luther, than this, quod sine cruce regnat, that he reigns without the cross. They have no changes, surely they fear not God.

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.

But if ye be without chastisement - If you never meet with anything that is adapted to correct your faults; to subdue your temper; to chide your wanderings, it would prove that you were in the condition of illegitimate children - cast off and disregarded by their father.

Whereof all are partakers - All who are the true children of God.

Then are ye bastards, and not sons - The reference here is to the neglect with which such children are treated, and to the general want of care and discipline over them:

“Lost in the world’s wide range; enjoin’d no aim,

Prescrib’d no duty, and assign’d no name.”

Savage.

In the English law, a bastard is termed “nullius filius.” Illegitimate children are usually abandoned by their father. The care of them is left to the mother, and the father endeavors to avoid all responsibility, and usually to be concealed and unknown. His own child he does not wish to recognize; he neither provides for him; nor instructs him; nor governs him; nor disciplines him. A father, who is worthy of the name, will do all these things. So Paul says it is with Christians. God has not cast them off. In every way he evinces toward them the character of a father. And if it should be that they passed along through life without any occurrence that would indicate the paternal care and attention designed to correct their faults, it would show that they never had been his children, but - were cast off and wholly disregarded. This is a beautiful argument; and we should receive every affliction as full proof that we are not forgotten by the High and Holy One who condescends to sustain to us the character, and to evince toward us, in our wanderings, the watchful care of a Father.

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

In these last four verses we may observe as many subjects of consolation under afflictions. God, our Father, is the author of them; the chastisement he inflicts is the proof of his love; it is the sign or mark of our divine adoption; it is a necessary condition of our being adopted.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But if God chasten you not, or if he do, and ye have not grace, or do not rightly endure it, are not managing yourselves well under it, nor are profited by it, when all and every one of his children are partakers of it, then are ye a false and spurious seed, and not God’s genuine offspring,

bastards in his account; and indeed so the most forlorn, wretched persons of all others, left under the power and dominion of sin, hurrying them on to their utter destruction, Joh 8:41. These visible church members have a bastardly disposition, hearts alienated from God and his law, and inclined to the will and works of the flesh, expressing it in their conversation, running into the excess of sin, having no chastening to restrain them, and are deserted by God for it, Isa 1:4-6; Hos 4:14,17.

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

8. Nay, these persecutions are a proof of sonship, and should call forth a filial feeling.

All—The sons, as in the catalogue of chapter 11, and as in the case of we, (Heb_12:1,) and of Jesus, Heb_12:2. Suffering is the necessary condition of divine heroism, the badge of divine sonship, from the highest Son to the humblest.

Bastards—Offspring of the harlot, and not sons of God. Such were the Judaic oppressors; sons of an adulterous Church, and exempt from the hierarchical persecution.

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

Of which all sons are partakers - More or less.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

8. If ye be without chastisement. Instead of that being a fact for congratulation it only shows that God does not regard you as children. You may call yourselves God's children, but you are not true sons.

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.

8. πάντες. He speaks of God’s blessed and disciplinary chastisement as a gift in which all His sons have their share.

ἄρα. See note on Heb 4:9.

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.

8.] Application of the passage of Scripture to the readers.

8.] But if ye are without (separate from, no partakers in) chastisement, of which all (God’s sons: or those above mentioned, ch. 11, which is better, on account of the perfect verb) have been made partakers (μέτοχος, see reff. and note), then ye are (ἄρα, the inferential particle, in late and N. T. Greek, is found at the beginning of a clause: but never in classical Greek. Delitzsch compares two examples, one from Lucian, Jup. Tragœd. § 51, εἰ εἰσὶ βωμοί, εἰσὶ καὶ θεοί· ἀλλὰ μὴν εἰσὶ βωμοί, εἰσὶν ἄρα καὶ θεοί, the other, the well-known “cogito, ergo sum;” which in later and modern Greek is στοχάζομαι, ἄρα εἰμί (εἶμαι). He proceeds to say that Klotz’s view, that ἄρα is not properly syllogistic but only expresses “leviorem et liberiorem quandam ratiocinationem,” is not confirmed by N. T. usage, nor indeed by classical, cf. Plato, Phædo § 26, οὐχ ὁρατόν· ἀειδὲς ἄρα) bastards (νόθος, ὁ μὴ γνήσιος υἱός, ἀλλʼ ἐκ παλλακίδος, Phavorinus. But it is only one side of the similitude which is brought out. So Philo, De Confus. Ling. 28, vol. i. p. 426, speaking of the υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων who built Babel, says that they were τῶν ἐκ πόρνης ἀποκυηθέντων οὐδὲν διαφέροντες. οὓς ὁ νόμος ἐκκλησίας ἀπελήλακε θείας. Chrys. explains it well: ὁρᾷς ὅτι ὥσπερ ἔφθην εἰπών, οὐκ ἔνι μὴ παιδευόμενον εἶναι υἱόν: ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις τῶν νόθων καταφρονοῦσιν οἱ πατέρες, κἂν μηδὲν μανθάνωσι, κἂν μὴ ἔνδοξοι γένωνται, τῶν δὲ γνησίων ἕνεκεν υἱῶν δεδοίκασι μήποτε ῥᾳθυμήσωσι, τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος. εἰ τοίνυν τὸ μὴ παιδεύεσθαι νόθων ἐστί, δεῖ χαίρειν ἐπὶ τῇ παιδείᾳ, εἴγε γνησιότητος τοῦτό ἐστιν), and not sons.

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

Of which all are partakers [ης μετοχοι γεγονασι παντες] . Rend. "of which all have been made partakers." For metocoi partakers see on ch. Heb 3:14. All, that is, all sons of God.

Bastards [νοθοι] . N. T. o. See Wisd. 4 3. They might think that they would not suffer if they were really God 's sons; whereas the reverse is the case. If they did not suffer, they would not be God 's sons.

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

8. καὶ ἐκλέλησθε τῆς παρακλ....} and have ye forgotten the exhortation (Vulg. consolationis).. ἢ Itis doubtful whether the sentence is to bo taken interrogatively or affirmatively (and yé have forgotten). The former intérpretation gives the most forcible sense. The question pleads against the forgetfulness which it implies; and still it is in form leas severe than a statement.

The idea of παράκλησις (a8 of wapdxAnros) goes beyond any single rendering. The divine word, to which appeal is made, is at once an encouragement and a consolation. Sufferings are tempered by the providence of God, and they are a sign of sonship. |

᾿Εκλανθάνεσθαι occurs here only in the Greek Scriptures. Εἰ is in classical writers from Homer downwards.

ἥτις... διαλέγεται] that discourseth with you as sons. The utterance of Scripture is treated as the voice of God conversing with men. Through the written word the Wisdom of God addresses us.

This peculiar use of διαλέγεσθαι does not occur elsewhere in N. T., but the personification in Gal. iii, 8 (προῖδοῦσα ἡ γραφή) is even bolder.

For ἥτις see ii. 3 note.

vié pov...) Prov. ili. 1: £ Oomp. Job v.17. Philo quotes the words de congr. erud. grat.§ 31 (1. §44 M.) οὕτω τοίνυν ἡ ποιὰ κάκωσις (Deut. viii. 2) ὠφέλιμόν ἐστιν.. ἔνθεν δ᾽ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τις τῶν φοιτητῶν Μωῦσέωε, ὄνομα Ἐϊρηνικός,

om. pov Ὦ,". dr. 6. ad. Dy

ὃς πατρίῳ γλώσσῃ Σαλομὼν καλεῖται, φάναι, Παιδείας θεοῦ, υἱέ, μὴ δλιγώρει... οὕτως ἄρα ἡ ἐπίπληξιε καὶ νουθεσία καλὸν νενόμισται, ὥστε δι᾽ αὐτῆς ἡ πρὸς θεὸν ὁμολογία συγγένεια γίγνεται. τί γὰρ

In ἃ remarkablo passage Epictetus claims for man a divine sonship : διατί μὴ εἴπῃ ris αὑτὸν Κόσμιον (a citizen of διατί δὲ φοβηθήσεταί τι τῶν γινομένων ἔχειν καὶ πατέρα καὶ κηδεμόνα οὐκέτι (Diesert. 1. 9, 6 f.).

μὴ ὀλιγώρε!] Vulg. Hebr. dixpn Sy regard not lightly. Do not make it of little account; do not neglect to consider its real scope and end.

The verb ὀλιγωρεῖν does not occur again in the Greek Scriptures. For dxAvov 866 Ὁ. 3.

6. μαστιγοῖ] The Lxx. read 035, which the Masorotic text points 1%? (as a father), as if it were some form from 13 ‘ho was pained.’

(8) Chastisement ts the discipline Of sons (7, 8).

7 ie for chastening ye endure; it ie as with sons God dealeth with you. For what son ie there whom his Sather chasteneth not? * But if ye are without chastening, whereof ali have become partakers, then are ye bastards and not sone.

§ 60 (ii. p. 132 Μ. vlol γνήσιοι).

8. εἰ δὲ χωρίς ἐστε wasdelas...xavres] The ordor of the words throws the emphasis on χωρίς. All truo sons, all who have ever realised this relation, havo been made partakers in chastoning. The reference is apparently to divine sonship and not to human.

Tho use of the compound perfect form μέτοχοι γεγόνασιν (comp. c. iii. 14 note) shews that the chastisement was personally acoepted and perma-

them for a few days, He chastens us Sor our profit that we may receive Of His holiness. 5 AQ chastening for the present scemeth to be not joyous but grievous; but afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit to them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit oS righteousness.

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.