Hebrews 5:11

Heb 5:11-14. Of whom, &c. — The apostle here begins an important digression, wherein he reproves, admonishes, and exhorts the believing Hebrews; we — Apostles and other ministers of the word; have many things to say — And things of great importance, in order to your full illumination, and perfect acquaintance, with that Christianity which you profess; and hard to be uttered — Interpreted or explained, as δυσερμηνευτος signifies; though not so much from the subject matter, as because ye are dull of hearing — Careless as to giving attention, slothful in considering, and dull in apprehending the things of God. For when, for the time — Since ye first professed Christianity; ye ought to be teachers — Able to teach others less informed than yourselves; ye have need that one teach you again which be the nature of the first principles of the oracles of God — Accordingly these are enumerated in the first verse of the ensuing chapter. And are become such as have need of milk — The first and plainest doctrines. See on 1Co 3:2. For every one that useth milk — That is, that neither desires nor can digest any thing else; (otherwise strong men use milk, but not that chiefly, much less that only;) is unskilful in the word of righteousness — Makes it appear that he is unacquainted (through want of exercise and experience) with the sublimer truths of the gospel. Such are all they who desire and can digest nothing but the doctrine of justification and imputed righteousness. For he is a babe — See on 1Co 14:20. The apostle compares these Hebrews to babes, not on account of their innocent simplicity and teachableness, qualities which Christ recommended to all his disciples; but on account of their weakness and ignorance; for which, considering the advantages they had so long enjoyed, they were deserving of censure. But strong meat — The sublimer truths relating to a perfect acquaintance with, experience in, and the practice of, the whole gospel, chap. Heb 6:1; belongeth to them that are of full age — Τελειων, the perfect, or perfectly instructed: see on 1Co 2:6, where the same expression seems to be used in the same sense; even those who, by reason of use — Or habit, as εξιν signifies, implying strength of spiritual understanding, arising from maturity of spiritual age; have their senses exercised — Though the word αισθητηρια, here used, properly signifies the outward senses, as the eyes, ears, &c.; yet it is evidently here put for the inward senses, the senses of the mind; to discern both good and evil — Grown Christians, by exercising their spiritual faculties, become able to distinguish truth from error, in the various branches of Christian doctrines, having attained the full assurance of understanding in the mystery of God and of Christ, (Col 2:2,) as also to distinguish duty from sin, or moral and spiritual good from evil.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Parenthetic rebuke for dulness, and liability to apostasy, encouragement, Heb_5:11 to Heb_6:20.

11. Of whom—Our author, after Pauline fashion, suspends his discourse to make a digression, and will return to the point at Heb_7:1. The passage is in Paul’s most severe and magisterial style of rebuke; almost equal to 1Co_4:18-21. He charges the Hebrews with unappreciative slowness and infantile incapacity, (10-14;) he invites them, by God’s permission, with himself, to leave the elements and go on to completeness, (Heb_6:1-3;) warning them, (4-8,) that for those who have heretofore fallen from a high spiritual Christianity, no repentance is possible. Changing, then, to a more cheering tone, he is persuaded that they are not of that apostate class, (9-12,) and lays before them God’s oath-bound assurance that he will save the persevering believer, ending by bringing us back to where he began his admonishing digression, namely, at Melchizedek, 13-20.

Of whom—Concerning whom—namely, Melchizedek; but Melchizedek in his typical relations to Christ.

Hard to be uttered—Rather, difficult for you to interpret when uttered.

Are—Rather, have become; namely, under the influence of your aversion to the suffering Messiah. That error narrowed their views, so that the grand mysteries of the eternal priesthood were excluded. To hitch at a given error is to prevent all progress in truth and to render people dull of hearing: that is, torpid and slow in their receptive powers. The Greek word for dull seems to be compounded of ωθεω, to move, with νη a prefix negative, and, therefore, signifies immobile, unmovable by the stirring truths of religion, and so unready to learn new truths, and to gain new Christian life and activity.

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

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_5:11. Hard to be uttered.—R.V. “hard of interpretation.” But the difficulty was mainly due to the spiritual incapacity of those to whom the epistle was written. Dull of hearing.—Not of listening, but of apprehending.

Heb_5:12. First principles.—Rudiments; lit. “rudiments of the beginning.” Oracles of God.—Not the Old Testament Scriptures, but the truths and doctrines which God has revealed under the gospel. Need of milk.—Farrar says young students or neophytes in the Rabbinic schools were called thînokoth, “sucklings.”

Heb_5:13. Unskilful.—Or, “one who has not that skill or experience in regard to anything which is requisite to a due apprehension and consideration of it.” Word of righteousness—which cultures, builds up, the life of righteousness. Babe.—For Pauline use of this figure see Gal_4:3; 1Co_2:6; Eph_4:13-14; and also 1Co_14:20.

Heb_5:14. Full age.—R.V. “full-grown men.” τέλειον, “grown up”; “matured.” Senses.—Here, spiritual faculties; the internal senses of Christians, αἰσθητήρια. The word is not found anywhere else in the New Testament. Good and evil.—Not mere right and wrong, but the value or worthlessness of the forms and aspects in which the Christian truth might be presented to them by different teachers.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_5:11-14

A Hindrance to Advanced Teachers.—Those under Christian instruction ought to grow stage by stage, so as to be able to receive higher and fuller teachings. They are expected to “grow in grace,” in everything that relates to Christian character; but also to grow “in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,” in the mental apprehension of Divine and eternal things. It is necessary to point out that growth in Christian knowledge is in every way as important, as essential indeed, as growth in Christian grace. So often credit is claimed for keeping to first principles and Christian simplicities; it is a ground of reproach, not of credit. It is like grown men and women reading nothing but the picture-books of their childhood. The Christian teaching properly advances from the simplicities suited to the child-stage of religious life, to the philosophy and theology, and even what may be called “mysticism,” suited to the full-grown stage of religious life. The milk of Christian truth is good, but it is good for babes. He is a poor Christian who keeps always to his milk. He does no honour to the grace that he has received. The hindrance this writer complains of is failure to grow under Christian instructions. But it may be unfolded so as to present its various applications. The hindrance may appear as—

1. Dulness of hearing, as if the ear were stopped up with other, selfish, or worldly interests.

2. Lack of receptivity for truth. There is often great readiness for religious emotions and sensations; and these almost always go with a lack of interest in truth, other than the stock ideas of some sect.

3. Inability to deal with truth. “Senses not exercised to discern between good and evil.” Either stubborn resistance of all truth that sounds new, or fatal readiness to take up with everything new.

4. Clinging to child-simplicities; forgetful that truth cannot be its full, best self for children, because it must be qualified and adapted to them. We think gospel simplicities are the truth; they are but the truth for children. We may be grown, yet only a child in Christ. We may be grown, and a man in Christ.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_5:12. The Scriptures as Oracles of God.—The term “oracles” may give us some right views of the Holy Scriptures, but there is grave danger of its giving us wrong ideas. It certainly will if we fail to see the radical distinctions between the oracles of heathenism and paganism, and the oracles of either the Old or the New Testament religion. Our Scriptures are not like pagan oracles, and the idea of Divine inspiration which is toned by those oracular associations is altogether false and unworthy. λογίων Θεοῦ means, “doctrines,” “communications” of God; and the association of the word “oracle” belongs entirely to our English translation. No precise idea answering to it is found in the Greek word. Farrar thinks that the term is not intended to apply to the Old Testament at all, but belongs only to the Christian principles and doctrines which the writer so evidently has in mind. It seems, however, from allusions in Philo and other writers, that the term “oracles of God” was in those days commonly employed for the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The pagan idea of “oracles” may be wisely contrasted with the idea of Christian teachers who used the term “oracles” of the Scriptures. A pagan oracle was an answer to a question submitted to some god; the answer was a precise sentence, often of an enigmatical character, which could be adapted to the event that might happen, whatever that event might be. The medium used in communicating the answer had no part (or was assumed to have no part) in shaping the answer. Often the oracle only came to a person who was in a state which permitted her taking no intelligent part in the communication she made. So uncertain was the meaning of the messages given that the word “oracle” has come to mean, “a grand sounding utterance which nobody can be ever quite sure that he understands.” It is evident that none of these ideas can be associated with our Scriptures, which are Divine revelations through legend, biography, history, incident, rite, song, proverb, and prophecy, always assuming that the thought God puts into men, but the shaping of the thought is given by the men. Men spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost who was in them.

Heb_5:13. Signs of Unskilfulness in Christian Teachers.—“Unskilful in the word of righteousness.” R.V. “without experience of the word of righteousness.” Two distinct ideas are suggested by these two renderings, and yet the two are so closely associated that they are really but one. The A.V. suggests inefficiency, the R.V. inexperience; but it is at once evident that the inefficiency is the natural and necessary result of the inexperience. Skill comes by practice; and this is as true of Christian teaching as of other things.

I. Skill for teaching comes by personal experience of the truth.—A man can only teach what he himself has tasted and handled and felt of the word of life; and his power in teaching will depend on the measure of his tasting and handling. This especially applies to advanced truths, which can only be wisely dealt with when there is ripe experience.

II. Skill for teaching comes by practice in teaching.—And that will both compel a man, and enable a man, to advance in the range of his teaching subjects. The practised teacher cannot keep in the simplicities.

III. The unskilful teacher is the man who can only keep in the lower range, who satisfies himself with the milk suitable for babes, and will not see that if he would feed grown men he must have strong meat of truth suited for them.

Heb_5:14. Exercising the Moral Discernment.—“Senses exercised to discern good and evil.” We speak of the “moral sense.” The senses of the body are taken to suggest the spiritual faculties (αἰσθητήρια). We have the bodily senses, eye, ear, touch, taste, smell, as faculties and possibilities. The mother anxiously watches her new-born babe, to see if all the sense-possibilities are there. But they have to be developed by exercise, training, and discipline, into actually operative life-forces, which will take the whole body and the whole life into their control. And so with the moral sense, the recognition of distinction between good and evil. We have it as a mere possibility. Let a man have no culture of the moral sense, or let the culture be a mere accident, and you have either a useless or a dangerous man. Every force that bears on the growing child is a force unto the culture of the moral sense. Parenthood is; teacherhood is; friendship is; religion is. And there is, as in all growth, unfolding in detail, differentiation. As in nature there is development in the ear, from a simple box to the complicated human organ, so with the moral sense, through exercise there is unfolding from simple discernment of the distinction between right and wrong to sensitive recognition of the true, the good, the beautiful, as the adapted right.

Soul-food adapted to Age and Capacity.—“But solid food is for full-grown men.” Body-life and soul-life, both depend on nourishment and food. That is the law of all life other than the life of God Himself. Angels live on angels’ food; souls live on appropriate souls’ food; and bodies live by meat and drink and air. Science tells us that bodily life, health, fatness, vigour, directly depend on the character and quantity and appropriateness of the food supplied. Given vitality, and freedom from active disease, and any bodily result that is desired can be obtained by giving flesh-forming or bone-forming or brain-making foods. But our farmers knew this experimentally long ago, though they were ignorant of scientific terms. The results which they can with certainty produce, in relation to beast or bird, can be just as certainly produced in man, so far as he is one of the animals; and medical science in modern times is in part devoted to the discovery of flesh-forming and health-nourishing foods. It is even found that a man’s food must bear a direct relation, in quantity and quality, to the work which he is called to do. This was impressed upon us in a very striking way by the experience of our soldiers during the Crimean war. They were terribly exposed in the muddy trenches during that severe winter, and at first the mortality among them was frightful. But it was observed that the French soldiers, though exposed to the same toils and perils, did not suffer so much; and on inquiry the reason for the difference was found to be this—the French officers increased the quantity and improved the character of the rations when their men had to endure unusual exposure and fatigue, whereas our officers continued the regulation ration under all the circumstances. The mortality was soon checked when food was properly adjusted to work. The health, vigour, and work of our soul’s life just as directly depend upon the food with which it is nourished. Would we get more work out of our souls, we must feed them better. Do we expose our souls to much peril? We must improve and increase their food. The real trouble so often is that we are under soul-fed, injudiciously soul-fed. So often our souls are really half starved; their voice is so weak; it is hardly more than a whisper; the soul-hands are so feeble that they cannot grasp Christian work. Even in the land of spiritual plenty we may fail to grow into strength. Classifications are quite unsatisfactory because they are incomplete, but still they do help to clear apprehensions. We may therefore speak of the soul’s life as being faith and love, and as having for its natural expressions worship and work. Then the soul-food provided must bear, in the most direct and efficient way, on these four things. Here is a sublime but most practical problem for each one of us to solve: What will nourish into the fullest health and strength my soul’s faith and my soul’s love? What will strengthen my soul’s brain and heart for holy worship, for prayer and praise, and my soul’s muscle and nerve for holy work? And as circumstances arise making greater demands on the vigour of our souls, on our faith, our devotion, our love, or our hope, we must see to it that an adequate increase of spiritual food is made. God offered to the wearied Elijah angels’ food a second time, as if one good meal were not enough, using this persuasion, “Arise, and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.” And speaking of the putting-forth of miraculous and unusual spiritual energy, our Lord most impressively said, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Here we all so sadly fail. We keep the soil so poor. We keep the plant indoors, and never let the nourishing rains fall on it. And yet we may be quite sure that there is this absolute law for all body-life and for all soul-life—if more is to be got out of body or out of soul, more and better food must be given to them.

Lost Interest in Higher Christian Truth.—Those who are addressed had lost interest in the deeper truths of Christianity, those truths which alone expressed and explained its proper nature. Their temptation was apparently towards mingling a rudimentary Christian doctrine with the teaching of the synagogue. Yielding to this, they would lose all real knowledge of the very elements of Christian truth, and with this all true knowledge of the Old Testament itself. “Solid food belongs to full-grown men.” If they occupied themselves with the rudiments alone, their spiritual senses could not be trained by use (or habit) in distinguishing between good and evil, truth and falsehood, in the various systems of teaching which men offered as the doctrine of Christ.—W. F. Moulton, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

PART SECOND

Exaltation of Christ as the single Priestly King, the antitype of Melchisedec

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FIRST SECTION

TRANSITION TO THIS DISCUSSION BY MEANS OF CENSURE, WARNING, CONSOLATION, AND EXHORTATION

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I

The readers are still deficient at the time in the right understanding of this typical relation

Heb_5:11-14.

11Of whom [concerning which] we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered 12[to be explained], seeing ye are [have become, γεγόνατε] dull of hearing; for when [while] for [on account of] the time ye ought to be teachers, ye [again] have need that one teach you [again om.] which be [what are] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [solid food]. 13For every one that useth milk is unskilful [inexperienced] in the Word [doctrine] of righteousness, for he is a babe; 14but strong meat [solid food] belongs to those that are of full age [the mature, τελείων], even those [om. even those] who by reason of use [habit, ἕξιν] have their senses exercised [disciplined] to discern [to distinguish] both good and evil.

[Heb_5:11.—περὶ οὖ, concerning whom, referring to Christ, not Melchisedek; or, better, concerning which matter, viz.: Christ’s Melchisedek priesthood.—ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος πολὺς καὶ δυσερμηνευτός, our discourse is extended and hard to be clearly expounded or set forth.—γεγόνατε ye have become, not, are. The difference is important, as marking a lapse from a better spiritual state.

Heb_5:12.—Ὀφείλοντες εἶναι, being bound, or under obligation to be=while ye ought to be—δια τὸν χρόνον, on account of the time, better than Eng. ver., viz.: “for the time,” which is awkward, if not obscure.—πάλιν χρείαν, ye again have need: the πάλιν clearly belongs to ἔχετε, not to the following διδάσκειν. For τινά or τίνα, viz.: “of some one’s teaching you the first principles,” or “of our teaching you what are the first principles,” see exegetical notes.—Καὶ οὐ στερεᾶς, καὶ is omitted by B.2 C. 17, Vulg., Copt., Orig., and by Sin.

Heb_5:13—ἄπειρος λόγου δικ., inexperienced, unskilled in respect of a discourse or doctrine of righteousness, so that he is unable as a νήπιος to enter into and comprehend it.

Heb_5:14.—κιὰ τὴν ἔξιν, on account of habit.—γεγυμνασμένα, disciplined, trained, exercised.—αἰσθητήρια, organs of perception, senses.—διάκρισις, discrimination.—K].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_5:11. Concerning which we have many things, etc.—The περὶ οὖ is not to be referred merely to Melchisedec (Pesh., Calv., and the majority) or to Christ (Œc., Primas.), but to the preceding declaration that Christ is a High-Priest after the order of Melchisedec; and the οὖ is to be taken, either with Lün. as masc., or with Grot., etc., as neut. Erasm. and Luther translate, we might have, instead of have, contrary to the tenor of the following part of the Epistle. [Alford still refers οὖ to Melchisedec. But there is not the slightest ground for supposing that the author felt any difficulty in making clear any facts concerning Melchisedec, upon whom, indeed, he dwells very briefly, and without any seeming consciousness of any thing specially difficult to understand in the accounts concerning him. The difficulties regarding the person of Melchisedec, are the result of a gratuitous misapprehension of the strong statements of the writer. The really difficult topic is either Christ as High-Priest, or as Melchisedec-Priest, or, taking the pronoun as neuter, the topic of Christ’s Melchisedec priesthood.—K.]. Luther also overlooks the γεγόνατε, ye have become. The dulness or spiritual hardness of hearing of the readers is not designated as a natural trait, but as the result of a retrogradation which has no apology in their history and outward condition. Hence, with respect to the topic about to be treated, the author feels a difficulty in finding proper expression for the clear communication of that which, in its subject matter, is so rich and various.

Heb_5:12-14. For when, on account of the time, ye ought, etc.—Instead of becoming capable of teaching, the readers have become in need of learning; and, indeed, to the extent that they have fallen back to that infantile age which requires milk, and have thus fallen into the danger of losing entirely their power of spiritual discrimination. In vv.13 and 14, the author expands the figurative mode of expression which he had employed at the close of Heb_5:12, and at the same time justifies its import. He has the readers in his eye, but the expressions are entirely general. The generality, however, affects only the form. As a matter of fact, the condition of the readers is directly included and characterized. Every one who receives his allotted food in the form of milk, that is, finds himself in the condition of a suckling, is inexperienced, not merely in Christianity (Lün.), or in the specific doctrine of justification by faith (Bl., Thol., Ebr.), or in the doctrine which leads to righteousness (Riehm, De W.), or in righteous, i.e, right-teaching discourse (Del.), so that the capacity of speaking in regard to spiritual things, according to the law and pattern of truth, would be wanting, but in the λόγος δικαιοσύνης of every kind. This has its ground in the nature of a νήπιος (Deu_4:39; Isa_7:16; Jon_4:11). Solid nourishment, on the contrary, corresponds to the nature and the wants of the mature, who possess organs of perception (αἰσθητήρια) for the distinguishing of what is wholesome and what is pernicious, and these, indeed, as disciplined διὰ τὴν ἐξιν. Ἔξις is the habitus, holding, or state acquired by exercise, in its permanent character or result, as skill, readiness, capacity. It is doubtful whether we are to accentuate τίνα or τινά. The latter was preferred among the ancients only by Œc., then by Luth. and Calv.; more recently by Böhme, Bl., Ebr., Lün., Bisp., Alford, etc. But the grammatical construction does not demand this reading; rather the active construction [as of διδάσκειν=that one teach you] apart from the doubtful reading, 1Th_4:9, is frequent also in the classics (Win. p. 303, Madvig. Synt. § 148–50), and the connection rather favors the other form; for the readers are not sunk to such ignorance that somebody would be required to instruct them again, like catechumens, in the very first elements of Christianity; they have rather but an imperfect and dulled apprehension, so that they do not sufficiently distinguish what are essential and incidental matters, what is fundamental, and what is secondary and derived; and they have fallen into danger of forgetting and denying the essential distinction between Christianity and Judaism.

[Alford, ingeniously enough, perhaps, but, I think, with very slight ground of probability, defends τινά, some one, as containing a sort of subtle irony, as if the readers were ignorant of that which any one was competent to explain. Moll argues against this reading on the ground that the readers had not sunk to that degree of ignorance, that they required to be instructed over again like catechumens in the elementary principles of Christianity. Delitzsch regards the τινά, thus accentuated, as simply feeble. This objection need not, indeed, be pressed, and this rendering gives us, perhaps, the easier construction. The other, viz., that preferred by Del., Moll, De Wette, is more difficult, but more forcible: “need of [one’s] teaching you what are the first principles,” etc. In this case we might expect διδάσκεσθαι, being taught, but the harshness of the form would be a sufficient reason for the author’s avoiding it, and preferring the not unallowable active. With this reading, again it is doubtful whether we are to explain τίνα as=ποῖα, of what sort, which it easily may be, or whether, with Moll, we are to regard the writer as declaring that the readers have sunk into a state of incompetency to discern between capital and incidental, between fundamental and secondary truths, and thus render it simply what, which I prefer.—K.].

The λόγΐα are not the words of the Old Testament, or of the prophets (Peirce, Steng., Dav. Schultz, etc.), but the declarations of the Christian revelation, whose fundamental elements constitute the basis of instruction, and at the same time contain its rudimentary principles. The idea of rudiments contained in τὰ στοιχεῖα, is heightened by the addition of τῆς ἀρχῆς (Calv., Lün.).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. What in our condition as Christians we have learned of Christianity, we are not to keep for ourselves; but we are rather to be ready to communicate Christian knowledge and our evangelical experience, and to regard it as belonging to our calling, not merely to render an account of the ground of the hope which is in us, to him who demands it, but to make known the evangelical truth which aids our Christian life, and, so far as is in us, in every direction remove ignorance in spiritual things, and come to the aid of the weak.

2. Among these things to be communicated, there are found those which, on account of the variety of relation in which they stand, or on account of the depth of the thoughts which they express, are hard to be made clear, and can only with pains be brought within our apprehension. This difficulty is, in certain matters, heightened by the condition of the learners, and that even to the degree that the continuous development of the thoughts is obliged to be interrupted.

3. This state of things, however, does not exempt him who is called to make the communication from the duty of seeking in other ways points of contact by which he may promote their fellowship, and may act directly on those who may lag behind. In the place of doctrinal instruction, comes the anxious practical appeal, which awakens the conscience, discloses the inner ground of their sluggishness, and penetrates to the very roots of their spiritual life. The ethical element in teaching has its own intrinsic efficacy.

4. Among those who are left behind are found, along with those of feeble endowments and of imperfect spiritual development, also those who have gone back. These latter can all the less dispense with special moral and religious culture, in that their backslidings have reference not merely to knowledge, but even in this respect have their ground in a decline of spiritual life, and precisely for this reason generate and diffuse not merely defective views and fragmentary knowledge, but a confused conception and a perilous dimness of vision regarding even the fundamental principles of Christian truth.

5. For this reason there is needed by the teacher the gift of the discerning of spirits (1Co_12:10), wisdom even in withholding instruction, and the art of rightly dividing the word (1Ti_1:7; 2Ti_2:2). For this he must himself persevere in the practice and discipline of constant learning and prayer (Jam_1:5); that he may not only use law and Gospel seasonably and in due order, but may also understand how to furnish milk to the children and solid food to the mature (1Co_3:2).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Failure in fidelity begets failure in our experience in spiritual life; and failure in experience produces failure in the understanding of the word of God.—The important matter is, not how long one has been a Christian, but how earnest he has been in his Christian profession.—Without exercise, there is not the needful progress either in Christian knowledge or in Christian life.—There is but one truth for those of riper age, and for the immature; but there are different modes of communicating and of apprehending it.—Inexperience in the doctrine of righteousness is the worst ignorance: a. on account of its origin; b. on account of its consequences.

Starke:—In the knowledge of salvation and of Divine things, we must increase daily, each according to his capacity.—The difficulty of some things in Scripture lies not in the things themselves, but properly in the hearer or reader (2Pe_3:16).—Preachers must sometimes address their hearers even sternly, in order that they may be aroused in their state of ignorance, and out of their sluggishness.—The peculiarity and duty of men in Christ is that they teach and advance others, not only in respect of knowledge, by words, but also in practice, by their edifying example.—Oh! how many children of God continue like children under age in the very rudiments of spiritual life.—Children, so soon as they are capable of learning, must be brought to the blessed knowledge of the Gospel; the more advanced they are in years, so much the more should they be advanced also in knowledge; otherwise their age becomes a reproach to them.—Search, and inquire: what is still wanting to me? Thou wilt find that thou art still deficient in many things. Go on; make progress during thy life in learning and discipline, 1Th_4:1; 1Th_4:10.—Since disciplined spiritual senses are demanded for the discrimination of good and evil, and these are found only with the regenerate, no unconverted man can make the true spiritual distinction between good and evil, although, according to his literal knowledge, he may speak very fluently regarding it.

Rieger:—The more spiritual a thing is in its nature, with the more difficulty does it find an entrance, so long as the unspiritual and ungodly nature which has so deeply penetrated our being, still so greatly preponderates.—He who does not cause every thing to take effect with himself for his strengthening and growth in the inner man, but overloads himself in many things merely with fragmentary knowledge, will at last so entangle himself that he will no longer know anything as he ought to know it.—Milk itself may be gradually transformed into stronger food.—The chief confusion arises from the fact that every one so easily exaggerates that which meets his fancy, and is so sluggish toward that which is fitted to introduce him into the true middle path.

Hahn:—Great truths demand also a certain spiritual age and disciplined senses.—If one does not correctly understand a thing, let him first seek the fault in himself, and administer proper self-rebuke.

Heubner:—the riches of Christianity are inexhaustible; the progress of the learners frequently falls short of our expectation.—The Bible Christianity gives various spiritual nourishment. In the contemplation of Christian knowledge there are different stages of maturity, different powers and susceptibilities. We must strive for the highest reach of Christian maturity and power.

Steinhofer:—If we have trodden the paths of conversion, and, from a general knowledge, have known and apprehended the salvation of Jesus for our fainting soul, and have thus been taught to hold Jesus dearer than all things else, then it becomes preëminently important for daily growth in spiritual life, for a more thorough grounding in our fellowship with Jesus, for daily food for the spirit, that we search more closely and more profoundly into the knowledge of Jesus.

Fricke:—What we have apprehended in faith must be thought through, and lived through, by each one in his own way. Thus we become strong.

Footnotes:

[5]Heb_5:4.—The Art. ὁ before καλούμενος, is to be erased after Sin. A. B. C.* D. E. K., 23, 37, 44.

[6]Heb_5:4.—Instead of καθάπερ, we are to read, with Sin. A. B. D.*, καθώσπερ.

[7]Heb_5:4.—The Art. ὁ before Ἀαρών, is to be expunged after Sin. A. B. C. D. E. K. L.

[8]Heb_5:9.—According to Sin. A. B. C. D. E., 17, 37, the order of the words is as follows: πᾶσιν τοῖς ὑπακούουσιν αὐτῷ.

[9][It seems to me (with De Wette) that a reference of the language to the sufferings and exclamations of Jesus on the cross, would here be inconsistent with the purpose of the writer. He is pointing out how our Lord had learned “obedience by prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save Him from death.” The “obedience” naturally has reference to that which was the object of His crying and supplication, and this is clearly intimated by the expression, “to Him who was able to save Him from death.” The natural implication of this language is, that He prayed to be saved from death. Yet the request was refused Him, and He exercised obedience in submitting resignedly to the will of His Father, and going in obedience to that will to the cross. Thus the prayer of Gethsemane: “If possible, let this cup pass from me,” with the accompanying submission of the whole matter to the will of His Father, and the subsequent obedience in going to the cross, are here clearly portrayed, while “the strong crying,” which is unmentioned in the Gospel, is here added as a natural, and we may add, almost necessary adjunct of the scene; for we could scarcely conceive those agonizing prayers and the bloody sweat, as unaccompanied by the loud outcry here mentioned; and altogether the prayer, the cry, the Sweat, are probably parts of the evangelical tradition regarding that critical scene in the life of our Lord. The death scene on the cross took place when the Son had substantially obeyed; the crisis was over, and Jesus had already accepted His destiny.—K.].

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 2. (Heb 5:11-14; Heb 6:1-20.)

The rejection of rejectors, and the confirmation of faith.

The second section is, as has been already said, a parenthesis to meet the unbelief of the Jews upon a matter so vital to Christianity and so affecting the whole system of Judaism as the replacing of the Levitical by the Melchisedec priesthood. Even to the Jewish Christians, these things were hard sayings; and it may be they had caused, in measure at least, the defection from the faith to which the apostle presently refers. The two parts of his address to them here, however, are very different, and the first part only is warning; the second is pure encouragement -two things that are never far separated in the gracious ways of God. He is the God of all encouragement; and all warnings are but, in effect, to draw us from every false ground of hope, that we may find in Him the fulness of unfailing blessing.

1. The first subsection characterizes Judaism from its divine side, only to insist the more on its essentially introductory nature. It was "the word of the beginning of Christ," very wrongly rendered in the text of both the common and the revised versions as "first principles of the doctrine of Christ." "The first principles of Christ" assuredly we are never called to leave. It is Judaism, which was thus only suited to the state of nonage now passed, and which they must leave to go on to the perfection, or "maturity," of Christianity.

(1) The Hebrew Christians were, in fact, not going on; at least, many were not. For the time they had been learning, they ought to have been able to teach others; but instead of that, they still needed themselves to be taught, and taught the very elements. They still needed milk, and could not digest "solid food." It is not "strong meat," an expression which has been very much abused, as if it were something requiring extra spiritual power to digest it. It is simply that which is suited for people accustomed to be exercised indeed in spiritual things, and thus educated so as to discern between good and evil. How much of right knowledge lies for us in this kind of discernment! "The man has become as one of us, to discern good and evil." To innocence we cannot go back; and though we have got into our present condition by a fall from God, He, in grace, would turn even this into blessing. The world, such as it is, is a place well fitted to produce and to cultivate such moral discernment. If it does not do this, however, it dulls and hardens the soul; and as the Word is that which God would use to form us after His mind, the not going on with it at once tends to increase in us this dullness of soul.

Judaism in some form has been that by which the enemy has sought to corrupt and oppose Christianity from the beginning; and it has, in fact, largely done so. It was a religion given of God, and owned, therefore, by Him at one time; and this can always be pleaded in its behalf by those who have never understood, or cared to understand, its true nature. The law, which God took up because it was already in man’s heart, and to work out his thought to its proper end, to show him the evil and impracticability of it, -this man pleads as God’s revelation! Did not even Christ say: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments"? He did, as He permits souls even now thus to put themselves under the law, in order that they may find by practical experience what they would not learn with God simply by His teaching. We only need to be true ourselves to realize the truth here, and that we are only bidden to put up our ladder to reach heaven with, that we may realize how far above us the stars shine down.

So when He gave "carnal ordinances," with plenty of signs to show their incapacity (for He never left Himself without witness in this way), and that they were only fingers pointing on to that which was to come, there was always opportunity for men to say, "These are the very things themselves." And this is the enormous evil of ritualism in all its forms today, -that it takes these Jewish forms to clothe them in the dress of Christian realities, to which they only pointed, and make that which only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh (as in the case of baptismal water) to cleanse the soul, as water never did, against the standing ordinance of God the Creator. Thus the word of God itself may be abused to seal up men in delusion, and people say, See how Scripture may mislead! But Scripture is given "that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished," and it gives no security to any other than the man of God.

(2) "The word of the beginning of Christ" is now given us in brief in the six doctrines stated, which, if they were the Christian "foundation," would be a Christianity without Christ. The apostle says: "Not laying again a foundation," because he has in view Jews who had accepted the Christian one, and who, if they went back to Judaism, would be laying again what they had given up. But nothing here is distinctly Christian. It is not a question as to the truth or necessity of what is spoken of, but of its being the Christian foundation. Two things come first, which are in fact fundamental: "repentance from dead works and faith in God," but note that it does not say here, in the Lord Jesus. Two doctrines come last, which concern the future: "resurrection of the dead," -not "resurrection from the dead," which is the Christian truth, but simply resurrection of the dead, "and eternal judgment." Between these two pairs we have what may be more questioned, but what goes to the heart of the matter as characterizing Judaism, -"a teaching of baptisms and of laying on of hands." These have been claimed as Christian baptism and confirmation, (something of which Scripture knows nothing whatever) or else baptism and ordination, -almost equally strange associates as a foundation. The truth is of nearer connection with the subject before us than such things would imply. In the first place, it is not baptism, but "baptisms;" and the baptism of the Spirit would surely never be associated with the baptism of water in such a manner. Moreover, Christian baptism is always baptisma, while this is baptismos, -a difference of form which is no doubt connected with the application in each case. Baptismos is the word used for the Jewish purifications, as, plainly, in the case of "divers baptisms" (not "washings") in the ninth chapter of this epistle, verse ten. Moreover, these are really what is referred to, or mainly referred to, here, though we must anticipate somewhat the doctrine of that chapter to make this plain.

The great failure in Judaism, as the apostle shows us there, was its failure really to purify the conscience, so as to set the soul at rest in the presence of God. In the tabernacle of old he says were offered "both gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience." Why? Because they consisted only in "meats and drinks and divers baptisms," or purifications, "carnal ordinances," that is, ordinances which could not in their very nature affect the condition of the soul, but the flesh only. He contrasts them then with that which does purify. "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer, purifying the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh" (here are the divers baptisms, namely of blood and of ashes, ordinances of flesh, purifying only the flesh), "how much rather shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

Thus the sacrificial baptisms were evidently an important part of the Jewish service; while, in connection with these, the laying on of hands would be naturally that which in Israel identified the offerer with the victim, his sacrifice. The two things would thus go together as teaching a most fundamental point for every conscience wounded with the sharp edge of the law, and which would yet convict any earnest soul of the folly of turning back to it as a foundation. In this way, a teaching (not "doctrine") of baptisms is significant. "Doctrine" will not do here, for that would speak rather of what the baptisms themselves would teach; while the point in this case is that what was taught was rather a ritual than a doctrine, (the blood of bulls and goats was sprinkled, the truth as to that in which the real efficacy was unpreached,) and the conscience was not purged.

And yet striking it is to see that just here, for faith indeed, under what was ceremonial, God did hide that which He would fain have the soul discover, -the true way by which the conscience could be purged. But as a ritual, on that very account, it failed altogether, because He would not have any one rest in a ritual; and indeed rest would be impossible in this way before God. Thus we can see clearly where "the word of the beginning of Christ" failed, and that it is of Judaism the apostle is speaking. In it, while sin and judgment were plain things, the remedy for sin was hid under a veil, with all the glory in Moses’ face. Faith might gather comfort, so far as it could penetrate the veil, but could not yet stand in the power of the unveiled truth itself.

The apostle goes on now to show the terrible condition of those who went back to this Jewish system out of the light and blessing of Christianity. It was vain for them to think that they could replace themselves where the saints of old had been. Judaism had passed away for God, and those who went back there would find that they had left the only ground of peace and salvation. It would be even "impossible to renew again to repentance those who, having been once enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers [or miracles] of the world to come, had fallen away." In the Israelitish cities of refuge those who had slain another without intending murder might take refuge from the avenger of blood, and Christ Himself was the true City of Refuge for those who had been partakers in the common guilt of the nation in His death. For such He Himself had pleaded at the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" and Peter, by the Holy Spirit, had, in view of that ignorance, preached repentance to them; but those who now went back open-eyed among His rejecters could no longer plead this. They were crucifying for themselves the Son of God afresh, and there was no city of refuge to open its doors to such. Christ could not be a refuge, as is plain, for those who rejected Him.

The warning here has been a sore perplexity to many who are as far as possible from the condition which is here contemplated. The description of these apostates, solemn as it is, does not speak of them as children of God, as justified by faith, or in any way which would imply such things as these; and the apostle, after describing them, immediately adds, as to those whom he is addressing: "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, even things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." This is the most distinct assurance that he had no thought of one who had known salvation incurring the doom of an apostate.

What he says of them is, first of all, that they had been enlightened: they could plead ignorance, therefore, no longer. Secondly, they had "tasted"; but one may taste and, after all, refuse. Thirdly, they had been "partakers." The word does not mean, necessarily, more than external participation. It is the same word as "companions" or "fellows," which we have had before, -"partakers," or "companions," of the Holy Ghost. That is, they had been brought into that in which the Spirit of God bore witness to Christ and the fruit of His work, and thus had been associated with Him in this witness. "The powers of the age to come" are miracles, the mighty works by which the consequences of sin and the destructive power of Satan will be banished from the earth in the millennial reign. Such power was already being manifested in connection with the testimony of Christ in Israel; but all this goodness of God had been, to those of whom he is speaking, like rain which brought from the ground of their hearts only thorns and briars, thus manifesting it to be worthless and nigh to cursing. Christ having been rejected, God’s last, best gift had only been found in vain.

2. The apostle goes on, however, now, as we have seen, to comfort and encourage those he is addressing. Notice, he is assured of "better things" as to them, -love to Christ’s name proved practically and continuously in ministrations to His saints. God would not be unrighteous, so as to forget these fruits of His grace. Instead of discouraging them, He would have them give diligence so that hope might be in full assurance with them, imitating those "who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Abraham, "the father of all them that believe," the one in whom faith as the way of blessing has been openly inaugurated and proclaimed, naturally becomes here a most instructive example. God’s word was pledged to him in the fullest way, but he had to have long patience. He saw little fulfilment on earth of that which God had promised, for not elsewhere than in God Himself does faith find its true strength and support. Here, indeed, He gave all that could be desired, not His word merely, but His oath -precious and wonderful condescension to human weakness. God will give as ample security Himself as we exact from one another. While faith must be faith, and therefore only in God, yet how tender He is! How well we may trust Him!

Our hope, however, has security of another kind than verbal. It is anchored "within the veil," in heaven itself, into which our Forerunner has entered, Jesus, "made a High Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." The mention of the veil here is supposed by some to contradict the thought of a rent veil in Hebrews; but the veil is never stated to be taken away, for the veil is the flesh of Christ; and the only possibility for such a mistake is in confounding it with the veil of which the apostle speaks in the second epistle to the Corinthians, -that veil which was over the face of Moses, and which is not over the face of Christ. That veil, indeed, has been taken away; but the veil through which we enter into the Holiest has not been taken away, but a way made through it, "a new and living way," as we shall presently more particularly see.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:11–6:20 After beginning to discuss Jesus’ appointment as High Priest (5:1-10), the author confronts his audience with a series of exhortations (5:11–6:20). Such a shift in a sermon or discourse was meant to focus the hearers’ attention.

5:11–6:3 This exhortation deals with the recipients’ spiritual lethargy.

5:11 spiritually dull: The Greek term means “sluggish, dimwitted, negligent, lazy.”

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 5:11. Περὶ οὗ, of whom) οὗ, masc., comp. ὅς, who, Heb 5:7. He now enters upon that very long anticipatory or precautionary[34] preface or preparation, which consists of rebuke, admonition, exhortation, and consolation. The Rhetoricians call it the securing (Captatio) of the kindly feeling of the reader or hearer. The preparation of the heart [of the hearer by the teacher], to which the doctrine is committed, often requires greater exertion than the teaching of the doctrine itself.—πολὺς) רב, much, i.e. too much:[35] comp. ch. Heb 13:22.—ἩΜῖΝ, to us) Paul includes, as usual, Timothy or others: comp. ch. Heb 6:1; Heb 6:3; Heb 6:9; Heb 6:11, Heb 2:5, Heb 13:18.—δυσερμήνευτος, hard to interpret) not from any fault in the writer, but in yourselves.—λέγειν) a correlative to ἈΚΟΑῖς. ΛΈΓΕΙΝ is not redundant, speaking is opposed to writing, as ch. Heb 13:22. Hard to be uttered, harder to be written, and yet the more necessary to be written on that account.—νωθροὶ) ch. Heb 6:12. The root implies ΣΤΈΡΗΣΙΝ ΤΟῦ ΘΕῖΝ, the negation of running[36]) verlegen “to loiter” on the road.—γεγόνατε, ye have become) The state of the Jews needed to be noticed, as well in so far as it was good, as also in so far as it was bad, Heb 5:12, Heb 6:10, Heb 10:25; Heb 10:32-33, Heb 12:4-5; Heb 12:12.

[34] See Append. on προθεραπέια.—ED.

[35] More than it would be expedient now to say.—ED.

[36] An improbable derivation. Rather akin to νωθής and νόθος.—ED.

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

to Heb_6:20

Heb_5:11 to Heb_6:20. The author is on the point of turning to the nearer presentation of the dignity of High Priest after the manner of Melchisedec, which pertains to Christ, and thus of His superiority over the Levitical high priests. But before he passes over to this, he complains in a digression of the low stage of Christian knowledge at which the readers are yet standing, whereas they ought long ago themselves to have been teachers of Christianity; exhorts them to strive after manhood and maturity in Christianity, and with warning admonition points out that those who have already had experience of the rich blessing of Christianity, and nevertheless apostatize from the same, let slip beyond the possibility of recall the Christian salvation; then, however, expresses his confidence that such state of things will not be the case with the readers, who have distinguished themselves, and still do distinguish themselves, by works of Christian love, and indicates that which he desires of them,namely, endurance to the end,while at the same time reminding them of the inviolability of the divine promise and the objective certainty of the Christian hope.

Heb_5:11. Περὶ οὗ] sc. Χριστοῦ ἀρχιερέως κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδέκ. To this total-conception, as is also recognised by Riehm (Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 780), is περὶ οὗ to be referred back. We have to supplement not merely Χριστοῦ (Oecumenius, Primasius, Justinian), because that would be a far too general defining of the object, inasmuch as confessedly the discourse is not first about Christ in the sequel, but everywhere throughout the epistle. But neither is Μελχισεδέκ to be supplied to οὗ (Peshito, Calvin [Piscator hesitates between this and the following application], Owen, Schöttgen, Peirce, Semler, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Bleek, de Wette, Tholuck, Alford, Maier, al.). For even thougha fact to which Bleek appealsthe author, after having concluded the digression (Heb_7:1 f.), begins by characterizing this same Melchisedec, yet this description is subordinated to a higher aim, that of setting forth the high-priestly dignity of Christ; as surely also the reference of Heb_7:1 ff. to the close of the digression (Heb_6:20) clearly shows, since the former is represented by γάρ as only the development now begun of the main consideration: Ἰησοῦς κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδὲκ ἀρχιερεὺς γενόμενος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, taken up anew, Heb_6:20. To take οὗ as a neuter, with Grotius, Cramer, Storr, Abresch, Böhme, Kuinoel, Klee, Stein, Stengel, Bisping, Delitzsch, Kurtz, and others, and to refer it to the high-priesthood of Christ after Melchisedecs manner,according to which οὗ would thus have to be resolved into περὶ τοῦ προσαγορευθῆναι αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀρχιερέα κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδέκ,is possible indeed, but not so natural as when it is taken as a masculine, since the discourse in that which precedes was about the definite person of Christ.

πολὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος] sc. ἐστίν. Wrongly, because otherwise ἂμ εἴη must have been added, and because a detailed development of the subject really follows afterwards; Peshito, Erasmus, Luther, and others: concerning which we should have much to speak.

καί] and indeed.

λέγειν] belongs to δυσερμήνευτος. Heinrichs erroneously joins it with ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος.

Even on account of the connectedness of the λέγειν with δυσερμήνευτος, but also on account of the preceding ἡμῖν, followed by no ὑμῖν, it is inadmissible, with Jac. Cappellus, Grotius, Peirce, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Valckenaer, Kuinoel, and others, to suppose the difficulty of the exposition or rendering intelligible of the λόγος to exist on the part of the readers, and thus to interpret δυσερμήνευτος in the sense of δυσνόητος 2Pe_3:16. On the contrary, as the author has abundant material for discoursing on the subject announced, so is it also difficult for the author to render himself intelligible thereon to the readers. The ground of this difficulty which obtains for him is introduced by the clause with ἐπεί, which on that account is to be referred only to δυσερμήνευτος λέγειν, not at the same time (Hofmann) to πολὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος. For the rest, Storr and Bleek have already rightly remarked, that in the connecting of λόγος with the two predicates πολύς and δυσερμήνευτος a sort of zeugma is contained, inasmuch as λόγος is to be taken in relation to the first predicate actively,[74] in relation to the second passively. On the high-priesthood of Christ after the manner of Melchisedec, the author has much to speak; and truly it is difficult for him to make plain to his readers the contents or subject of his discourse.

γεγόνατε] characterizes the spiritual sluggishness or dulness of the readers not as something which was originally inherent in them, but only as something which afterwards manifested itself in connection with them. Chrysostom: τὸ γὰρ εἰπεῖν ἐπεὶ νωθροὶ γεγόνατε ταῖς ἀκοαῖς δηλοῦντος ἦν, ὅτι πάλαι ὑγίαινον καὶ ἦσαν ἰσχυροί, τῇ προθυμίᾳ ζέοντες, καὶ ὕστερον αὐτοὺς τοῦτο παθεῖν μαρτυρεῖ.

νωθρός] in the N. T. only here and Heb_6:12.

ταῖς ἀκοαῖς] with regard to the hearing, i.e. the spiritual faculty of comprehension. Comp. Philo, Quis rer. divin. haeres. p. 483 (with Mangey, I. p. 474): ἐν ἀψύχοις ἀνδριάσιν, οἷς ὦτα μέν ἐστιν, ἀκοαὶ δὲ οἰκ ἔνεισιν. The plural is used, inasmuch as the discourse is of a multitude of persons. On the dative, instead of which the accusative might have been placed, comp. Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 202.

[74] This is erroneously denied by Delitzsch and Alford. Even the two instances from Dionys. Halicarn., on which Delitzsch relies, plead against him.

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.

Heb 5:11-14 . Complaint of their sluggishness of mind.

Heb 5:11 . περὶ οὗ . “Of whom,” not, as Grotius ( cf. Delitzsch and von Soden) “De quâ,” of which priesthood. It is simplest to refer the relative to the last word Μελχισεδέκ ; possible to refer it to ἀρχιερεὺς … Μελχ . The former seems justified by the manner in which c. vii. resumes οὗτος γὰρ ὁ Μελχ . No doubt the reference is not barely to Melchizedek, but to Melchizedek as type of Christ’s priesthood. Concerning Melchisedek he has much to say πολὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος , not exactly equivalent to ἡμῶν ὁ λόγος , but rather signifying “the exposition which it is incumbent on us to undertake”. [ Cf. Antigone , 748, ὁ γοῦν λόγος σοι πᾶς ὑπὲρ κείνης ὅδε .] The exposition is necessarily of some extent (c. vii.), although of his whole letter he finds it possible to say (Heb 13:22 ) διὰ βραχέων ἐπέστειλα . It is also δυσερμηνευτος “difficult to explain,” “hard to render intelligible.” “ininterpretabilis” (Vulg.); used of dreams in Artemidorus, τοῖς πολλοῖς δυσερμήνευτοι (Wetstein). This difficulty, however, arises not wholly from the nature of the subject, but rather from the unpreparedness of the readers, ἐπεὶ νωθροὶ γεγόνατε ταῖς ἀκοαῖς “seeing that you are become dull of hearing”. νωθρός = νωθής [see Prom. Vinct. , 62] slow, sluggish; used by Dionysius Hal., to denote λίθου φύσιν ἀναίσθητον , ἀκίνητον . But Plato was said to be νωθρός in comparison with Aristotle. Babrius uses the word of the numbed limbs of the sick lion and of the “stupid” hopes of the wolf that heard the nurse threaten to throw the child to the wolves. ταῖς ἀκοαῖς “in your sense of hearing.” Both in classical and biblical Greek ἀκοή has three meanings, “the thing heard,” as in Joh 12:38 ; “the sense of hearing,” as in 1Co 12:17 ; and “the ear,” as in Mar 7:35 , ἠνοίγησαν αὐτοῦ αἱ ἀκοαί ; cf. Plummer on Luke, p. 194. Here the ear stands for intelligent and spiritual reception of truth. γεγόνατε , “ye are become,” and therefore were not always. It is not a natural and inherent and pardonable weakness of understanding he complains of, but a culpable incapacity resulting from past neglect of opportunities.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A digression, until he comes to the beginning of the seventh chapter: wherein he partly holdeth the Hebrews in the diligent consideration of those things which he hath said, and partly prepareth them to the understanding of those things whereof he will speak.

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

Here he digresses to complain of the low spiritual attainments of the Palestinian Christians and to warn them of the danger of falling from light once enjoyed; at the same time encouraging them by God's faithfulness to persevere. At Heb 6:20 he resumes the comparison of Christ to Melchisedec.

hard to be uttered--rather as Greek, "hard of interpretation to speak." Hard for me to state intelligibly to you owing to your dulness about spiritual things. Hence, instead of saying many things, he writes in comparatively few words (Heb 13:22). In the "we," Paul, as usual, includes Timothy with himself in addressing them.

ye are--Greek, "ye have become dull" (the Greek, by derivation, means hard to move): this implies that once, when first "enlightened," they were earnest and zealous, but had become dull. That the Hebrew believers AT JERUSALEM were dull in spiritual things, and legal in spirit, appears from Act 21:20-24, where James and the elders expressly say of the "thousands of Jews which believe," that "they are all zealous of the law"; this was at Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, after which this Epistle seems to have been written (see on Heb 5:12, on "for the time").

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. Of whom we have many things to say] The words περι ου, which we translate of whom, are variously applied:

1. To Melchisedec;

2. To Christ;

3. To the endless priesthood.

Those who understand the place of Melchisedec, suppose that it is in reference to this that the apostle resumes the subject in the seventh chapter, where much more is said on this subject, though not very difficult of comprehension; and indeed it is not to be supposed that the Hebrews could be more capable of understanding the subject when the apostle wrote the seventh chapter than they were when, a few hours before, he had written the fifth. It is more likely, therefore, that the words are to be understood as meaning Jesus, or that endless priesthood, of which he was a little before speaking, and which is a subject that carnal Christians cannot easily comprehend.

Hard to be uttered] δυσερμηνευτος. Difficult to be interpreted, because Melchisedec was a typical person. Or if it refer to the priesthood of Christ, that is still more difficult to be explained, as it implies, not only his being constituted a priest after this typical order, but his paying down the ransom for the sins of the whole world; and his satisfying the Divine justice by this sacrifice, but also thereby opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and giving the whole world an entrance to the holy of holies by his blood.

Dull of hearing.] Νωθροι ταις ακοαις. Your souls do not keep pace with the doctrines and exhortations delivered to you. As νωθρος signifies a person who walks heavily and makes little speed, it is here elegantly applied to those who are called to the Christian race, have the road laid down plain before them, how to proceed specified, and the blessings to be obtained enumerated, and yet make no exertions to get on, but are always learning, and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

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

11. He therefore makes a preface by saying that he had many things to say, but that they were to prepare themselves lest these things should be said in vain. He reminds them that they were hard or difficult things; not indeed to repel them, but to stimulate them to greater attention. For as things that are easily understood render us slothful, so we become more keenly bent on hearing when anything obscure is set before us. He however states that the cause of the difficulty was not in the subject but in themselves. And indeed the Lord speaks to us so clearly and without any obscurity, that his word is rightly called our light; but its brightness become dim through our darkness. This happens partly through our dullness and partly through our sloth; for though we are very dull to understand the truth of God, yet there is to be added to this vice the depravity of our affections, for we apply our minds to vanity rather than to God’s truth. We are also continually impeded either by our perverseness, or by the cares of the world, or by the lusts of our flesh. Of whom does not refer to Christ, but to Melchisedec; yet he is not referred to as a private man, but as the type of Christ, and in a manner personating him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) Of whom.—Or, of which (subject), “Christ made High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Hard to be uttered.—Rather, hard of interpretation, seeing ye have become sluggish in hearing. Their faculty of “hearing” had once been acute, and then few words and little explanation, even on such a subject as this, would have sufficed; now there has come upon them a lack of interest, and with this a want of power.

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

11–14. Complaint that his readers were so slow in their spiritual progress

11. Of whom] i.e. of Melchisedek in his typical character. There is no need to render this “of which matter” or to refer it to Christ. The following argument really centres in the word Melchisedek, and its difficulty was the novel application of the facts of his history to Christ.

hard to be uttered] Rather, “respecting whom what I have to say is long, and hard of interpretation.” The word “being interpreted” (hermçnenomenos, whence comes the word “hermeneutics”) occurs in Heb_7:2.

ye are] Rather, “ye are become,” as in Heb_5:12, Heb_6:12. They were not so sluggish at first, but are become so from indifference and neglect.

dull of hearing] Comp. Mat_13:14-15. Nothros “dull” or “blunted” is the antithesis to ὀξὺς “sharp.”

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.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,.... These Hebrews had had great advantages; they were not only descended from Abraham, and had the law of Moses, and the writings of the Old Testament, but some of them had enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and however of his apostles; and it was now about thirty years from the day of Pentecost, in which the gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed in such an extraordinary manner, and a large number were converted, and a church state settled among them; and therefore considering the length of time, the opportunities and advantages they had enjoyed, it might have been expected, and indeed it is what should have been, that they would have been teachers of others, some in a private, and some in a public way: from whence it may be observed, that to have time for learning, and yet make no proficiency, is an aggravation of dulness; moreover, that men ought to be hearers, and make some good proficiency in hearing, before they are fit to be teachers of others; also, that persons are not only to hear for their own edification, but for the instruction of others, though all hearers are not designed for public teachers; for to be teachers of others, requires a considerable share of knowledge: to which may be added, that the churches of Christ are the proper seminaries of Gospel ministers. But this was so far from being the case of these Hebrews, that the apostle says of them,

ye have need that one teach on again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; by the oracles of God are meant the Scriptures, not the law of Moses only, but all the writings of the Old Testament, which were given by the respiration of God, and are authoritative and infallible; and by the "first principles" of them are intended, either the first promises in them, concerning the Messiah; or the institutions, rites, and ceremonies of the law, which are sometimes called elements, Gal 4:3 where the same word is used as here; and which were the alphabet and rudiments of the Gospel to the Jews: or else the apostle designs the plain doctrines of the Gospel, which were at first preached unto them, in which they needed to be again instructed, as they were at first; so that instead of going forward, they had rather gone back:

and are become such as have need of milk; of the types, shadows, and figures of the law, which were suited to the infant state of the church, who by sensible objects were directed to the view of Gospel grace; or of the plain and easier parts of the Gospel, comparable to milk for their purity, sweetness, nourishing nature, and being easy of digestion:

and not of strong meat: such as the deep things of God, the mysteries of the Gospel; those which are more hard to he understood, received, and digested; such as the doctrines of the Trinity, of God's everlasting love, of eternal election and reprobation, of the person of Christ, the abrogation of the law, &c.

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

11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

Ver. 11. Of whom we have, &c.] The digression here begun holds on to the end of the next chapter.

Hard to be uttered] Gr. Hard to be expounded. But difficulty doth not dishearten, but rather whet on heroic spirits to a more serious search: it doth not weaken, but waken their earnestness; not amate, but animate them.

Seeing ye are dull] Gr. Slow paced and heavy handed, τωθροι, from νε and θεω, curro. Our minds are like narrow mouthed vessels. Our Saviour therefore spake as the people could hear, Mar 4:33, like as Jacob drave as the little ones could go.

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.

Of whom we have many things to say - There are many things which seem strange in regard to him; many things which are hard to be understood. Paul knew that what be had to say of this man as a type of the Redeemer would excite wonder, and that many might be disposed to call it in question. He knew that in order to be understood, what he was about to say required a familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures, and a strong and elevated faith. A young convert; one who had just commenced the Christian life, could hardly expect to be able to understand it. The same thing is true now. One of the first questions which a young convert often asks, is, Who was Melchizedek? And one of the things which most uniformly perplex those who begin to study the Bible, is, the statement which is made about this remarkable man.

Hard to be uttered - Rather, hard to be “interpreted,” or “explained.” So the Greek word means.

Seeing ye are dull of hearing - That is, when they ought to have been acquainted with the higher truths of religion, they had shown that they received them slowly, and were dull of apprehension. On what particular “fact” Paul grounded this charge respecting them is unknown; nor could we know, unless we were better acquainted with the persons to whom he wrote, and their circumstances, than we now are. But he had doubtless in his eye some fact which showed that they were slow to understand the great principles of the gospel.

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

Of whom, i.e. of his high priesthood, according to the order of Melchisedech, we have mighty things to say, and very hard to be expounded or understood by you, at least many of you, who, though you ought to be masters after the gospel hath been so long preached, and even by the apostles of Christ, yet you are weak as to understanding it; (the Greek also signifies slothful and negligent) you stand in need of being taught the first elements and principles of the Christian faith, like children, who are rather to be fed with milk than with more solid meats. How many are there now in the like condition, who are for reading and expounding all the holy Scriptures according to their own way of thinking? (Witham)

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).

The Spirit here digresseth from discoursing further of the priesthood of Christ, that he may fit these Hebrews to apprehend and improve it when he shall return to it, Heb 5:7. He beginneth with a reproof, which takes up the remainder of the chapter, and enters on it artificially from the doctrine delivered of Christ’s priesthood, insinuating the difficulty of its reception by them.

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered: ου, of whom, some would make to refer to Melchisedec, but by what followeth in this and Heb 5:7, it can be spoken of none but of Christ the truth of that type, who was made a High Priest after that order. And of him the apostle was filled by the Spirit with the matter, as Elihu speaks, Job 32:18. Much he had to say of this mystery, which was most excellent and weighty, and which a few words could not express; for it was δυσερμηνευτος, not unutterable in itself, or difficult for him to open and interpret, but for them to understand.

Seeing ye are dull of hearing; because the ears of their mind were not created nor proportioned to it: they were babes and children in understanding; the difficulty was in themselves, not in the word or mystery; their intellective faculty was slow to discern, perceive, and judge of this doctrine, and their hearts were averse to it, being so conceited concerning the Levitical priesthood: such were the apostles at the first, Joh 16:12.

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

Heb_7:1. This is the long admonitory digression (see under ver. 1) felt by the writer to be necessary before his exposition of kata thxin Melcizedek . He is entering on a new theme, higher and less level to the comprehension of his readers than any that has gone before. Even so far, we have seen how their Jewish prejudices had evoked admonitions, frequently interposed in the course of the argument. Much more so now, when it is to be shown how the priesthood of Christ not only fulfils the idea of, but also supersedes, that of the sons of Aaron, being of a different order from theirs. The region of thought to be entered now, being that of the mystery of Christ," transcends more than any that has been so far entered the ordinary conceptions of traditional Judaism. Hence the writer"s shrinking from entering all at once on the subject for fear of not being even understood; hence his earnest warnings to his readers as to the necessity of advancing to the state of full-grown Christians who can discern spiritual things.

Ver. 11-Psalm 110) we have many things to say (the subject itself admits a lengthy exposition) and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become (not, as in A.V, "ye are") dull of hearing, Their dullness is the reason of the logov being dusermhneutov . It was not that the subject was in itself inexplicable, or that the writer was incompetent to explain it; his difficulty was in adapting the interpretation to the capacity of his readers: "Non scribentis, sed vestro vitio" (Bengel). It seems from gegonate ("ye are become"), in this and the following verse, that the Hebrew Christians had even retrograded in spiritual perception. This is easily conceivable. As, through the teaching of St. Paul especially, the tie between Christianity and Judaism became more and more broken, there was likely to be a certain reaction among the Hebrew Christians, who, having gone to a certain extent with the tide of thought, became conscious how far it was carrying them. They would be inclined to cling the more fondly to their old associations from the fear of losing them altogether. Such retrogressions have been observable in other times of upheaval of old ideas.

Vers. 11-14. A sharp reproof for ignorance.

The apostle, having used the expression," after the order of Melchizedek," remembers that his readers will not be likely to understand it without careful explanation. So he pauses in his argument to chide them for their backwardness in religious knowledge.

I THE TRUTHS OF REVELATION ARE PROFOUND AND FARREACHING. The story of God"s love in redemption may, no doubt, be called with propriety "the simple gospel;" but, while it is so, it exhibits at the same time "the manifold wisdom of God." The Bible is not merely a book; it is a literature. It does not simply contain a message of mercy; it is the record of a long and gradually developing process of redeeming grace. It may be studied profoundly from many different standpoints, as e.g. those of history, of dogmatic theology, of morals, of ecclesiology, etc. The Bible deals, too, with all the deepest and most wonderful of themes, such as the human soul, the problem of sin, God, eternity, and immortality. So there is spiritual food in Holy Scripture, at once for the shallowest and the profoundest minds. Revelation supplies not only "milk" for "babes in Christ," i.e. the alphabet and rudiments of religious knowledge, but "solid food" for "full-grown men," i.e. materials for the more recondite study of Christianity as a great and harmonious system of Divine truth.

II CHRISTIANS DIFFER IN THE DEGREE OF THEIR SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. They differ because:

1. Some are "babes." Believers who are young in years, and those of maturer age who have newly come to the knowledge of the truth, require to be fed with the "milk" or simplest elements of religious instruction.

2. Some are full-grown men," who can relish and digest the solid food" of the Word. An advanced Christian who is a diligent student of Scripture will acquire so firm a grasp of truth as to become qualified to act the part of a "teacher" in the Church (ver. 12). His proficiency in knowledge will sharpen his spiritual perceptions, so that he will learn readily to distinguish between good and evil" in doctrine (ver. 14).

3. Some are invalids. The apostle chides his Hebrew readers for having become such, as the result of their disregard of the laws of spiritual health. It was now many years since they had first believed, and by this time they should have been adults in Christian knowledge quick of apprehension in relation to the higher reaches of truth. So far, however, from being able to assimilate the "solid food" of the Word, they had degenerated into spiritual weaklings and invalids. They heard the gospel indolently (ver. 11). The "solid food" which they had once enjoyed now occasioned them the miseries of dyspepsia. They could digest nothing but gospel "milk." In our own time, too, there are many such invalids. What multitudes attend church through the years, and yet never get beyond the attainments of the sabbath school! How many otherwise intelligent men are quite ignorant of the organic structure of the Bible! How many betray an utter want of living interest in the doctrines and truths of the New Testament!

III REASONS WHY THE RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF MANY CHRISTIANS IS SO DEFECTIVE. The Hebrews were "dull of hearing" because they had got divided in heart between Christianity and Judaism, and because they were beset with temptations to apostatize from a faith which had involved them in much trial. Now, our temptations are substantially similar. Our hearts are prone to try to serve both God and mammon; and we are tempted to avoid very intimate acquaintance with a religion faithfulness to which demands from us very serious sacrifices. In addition to these fundamental reasons others may be indicated, as follows:

1. The want of earnest Bible study. The hurry of the age acts on the side of spiritual ignorance. Other studies and pursuits are clamorous in their claims; those e.g. of business, politics, literature, philosophy, science, art. Thus many Christians do not read the Bible systematically, or with sufficient intellectual effort. The larger part of the Old Testament is, to their minds, a kind of desert of Sahara. Perhaps they interest themselves only in isolated texts, apart from the scope of the passage in which these occur.

2. Neglect of parental instruction. Every parent is bound to sow the seeds of Divine truth in the minds and hearts of his children. Where this duty becomes generally neglected the rising generation can only continue one of spiritual infants.

3. Irregularity in attendance upon God"s house. (Heb_10:25) Church-going is not religion, but as it is a divinely appointed ordinance, a man need not expect to grow in grace and in Christian knowledge without it.

4. Unedifying preaching. The consecutive exposition of Scripture from the pulpit, when wisely and skillfully done, trains a people into "experience of the Word of righteousness." The congregation which receives no instruction of this kind may be expected to become "dull of hearing.

5. Misconception of what adequate religious knowledge is. Many good people judge that, having apprehended and embraced the simple gospel," they have finished their spiritual education. They love a few pet texts which express "the rudiments of the first principles" (ver. 12), and are content to leave the rest of the Bible alone. They count it a virtue to relish only evangelistic preaching," and seem even proud of occupying always only the first form in the school of Christ. But the fruit of their neglect of the truth in its higher and deeper and broader aspects becomes apparent in the imperfection of their Christian character, and in their lack of progress towards perfection.

IV THE IMPORTANCE OF AN INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH,

1. Reverence to God requires it. He has not given any portion of his Word in vain. Intelligent Christians dishonor him when they do not "press on unto perfection" as students of the Bible in every department of its glorious design and drift and method.

2. Duty to our own souls requires it. If we would not become spiritual dwarfs, but "full-grown men," we must search the Scriptures." If we would be truly happy and. prosperous, we must "meditate on God"s law day and night.

3. Usefulness to others requires it. Believers who have become established in knowledge and grace are expected to serve the Lord Jesus as "teachers" (ver. 12). A Christian, too, should be "ready always to give answer to every man that asketh him a reason concerning the hope that is in him.

Vers. 11-14. Spiritual obtuseness.

"Of whom we have many things to say," etc. In treating of the analogy between the priesthood of Melchizedek and that of Christ, the writer was hindered by the spiritual obtuseness of his readers. "We have many things to say, and difficult of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing." The writer found it difficult to explain his subject to them, because they were so dull and slow in their apprehension. Notice

I SPIRITUAL OBTUSENESS IS SOMETIMES VERY GREAT. It was so in the case of the persons here addressed, as may be seen by contrasting what they might anti ought to have been and. what they were. They should, have been able to have taught others; they really needed teaching themselves, and that of the most elementary kind. "When ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God." They required instructing again in "the beginnings of the beginning" of Christian doctrine. Moreover, when they should have been men in spiritual intelligence, they were only babes. "And are become such as have need of milk," etc. It is pitiful and painful to reflect upon the prevalence of spiritual obtuseness in our own age. How many Christians are perfectly content and self-satisfied having only the barest rudiments of Scripture truth! Some even pride themselves in holding "the truth," as though they had grasped and mastered all truth; and in their firm adherence to "the simple gospel," as though there were no profundities and sublimities in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We fear that the Bible is far more widely circulated than read, and far more extensively read than studied or understood.

II SPIRITUAL OBTUSENESS IS SOMETIMES SINFUL. We say "sometimes;" for when this dullness of perception or difficulty of apprehension arises from original deficiency of faculty, or from the scarcity of opportunities for progress in acquaintance with Christian truth, no moral blame attaches to it. It is deplorable, but not censurable. To whom only little is given, of him only little will be required. But in the case before us the writer says, "For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers," etc. Let us look at the argument expressed or implied here.

1. Time and opportunities for progress had been given to them. "By reason of the time" since they became Christians they should have made sufficient advancement to have been able to have instructed others. Therefore the time must have been considerable.

2. There should have been a proportion between the opportunities afforded and the progress made. This is clearly implied in the text. It is also righteous and reasonable.

3. The existence of spiritual obtuseness notwithstanding opportunities of progress is morally wrong.

Such spiritual dullness is not a misfortune, but a sin. It is an evidence of opportunities of progress neglected, of responsibilities unacknowledged or unfulfilled, and, it may be, of sins indulged in. Purity of heart and the power of perceiving spiritual truth are closely related. Slowness of spiritual apprehension often arises from the corruption of the heart. The pure heart is quick and true in its perceptions. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God." Worldliness of spirit also dims and diminishes the perceptive powers of the soul. If a man"s eyes are ever fixed upon the earth, how can he see the brilliance and beauty of the starry heavens? If a man"s affections are fixed upon the material and perishable things of this present world, he will gradually lose his power for perceiving the ethereal and perennial beauty of religious truth, or even for perceiving such truth at all.

III SPIRITUAL OBTUSENESS INVOLVES SERIOUS LOSS.

1. Loss to the community. In cases like that mentioned in the text, the obtuse persons ought to be able to teach others, at least the elementary truths of Christianity. Parents should be able to instruct their children; the Christian should be able to help his friend who is seeking for life and truth, etc.

2. Loss to the individual. The man of dull spiritual apprehension loses the fuller and higher teaching. The full beauty of the landscape is not for the man of diseased or impaired physical vision. In like manner the beauty and sublimity of Divine truth and the serene splendors of holiness are invisible to those who are spiritually obtuse. Or, changing the figure, the food of moral manhood is not for them; they are unable to assimilate it, and must needs be limited to the dietary of babyhood. Several practical and profitable reflections arise from our subject.

1. The need of adaptation in Christian teaching. The sacred writings contain "milk for babes," "solid food for full-grown men," and food suited for all the intermediate stages of the Christian life. The wise teacher will endeavor to distribute to each the food suited to his condition.

2. The obligatoriness of progress in Christian discipleship. Infancy has its charms, but not as a permanent state. Infancy must pass on by orderly development into manhood. Continuous spiritual infancy is unnatural and sinful. A permanent milk diet in the spiritual life indicates a stationariness which is unhealthy and culpable. (cf. Eph_4:11-15)

3. In the mature stage of Christian life there is the qualification for the exercise of discrimination in spiritual things. "Full-grown men by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil." Their spiritual faculties are trained and disciplined, and so they are able to distinguish between the true and false, the superior and the inferior, in Christian teaching. Alas, that the people who are least mature are generally the most forward in exercising this critical function!

4. We see why the ministry of the gospel is sometimes comparatively ineffectual. In some instances the smallness of its success is owing to the want of adaptation in the ministry itself; in others, to the sinful and almost insuperable spiritual obtuseness of the hearers thereof. W.J.

Ver. 11-Hebrews 6. The writer has come to the chief illustration of his great theme the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus; but he has hardly entered on this section before he feels himself unable to give full utterance to what he sees of the Redeemer"s greatness, because of the dullness of spiritual perception in his hearers. He fears their religious condition will prevent their following him as he tries to scale the more inaccessible heights, and he cannot restrain an utterance of sorrow, and a solemn warning of the connection between ignorance of these things and apostasy from the Son of God. The subject of the whole parenthesis, therefore, isThe danger of apostasy which lies concealed in the immature apprehension of Christian truth; but of the part, in these verses, the following is the subjectThe evil of inability to apprehend the deeper truths about Christ.

I THE TREASURES OF TRUTH WHICH ARE HIDDEN IN THE LORD JESUS. "Of whom we have many things to say," etc. Why should the writer preface this particular part of his subject with a reference to its difficulty, since no such reference is attached to the equally profound truths of previous chapters? There is no necessity to attach this reference only to what follows; it may look backward as well as forward. The apostle is in the midst of his theme the greatness, the fullness, the preciousness of Christ, which he knows not how to utter and is more likely to feel its difficulty there than at the beginning.

1. The treasures hidden in Christ are, of necessity, infinitely great, because he is the Revelation of the character and will of God. "In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is the perfect expression of God"s love to man. He is the Fountain of all good. He is the embodiment of what the Father desires us to have and be. He is the utterance of what God would say to man. When we think of Christ, therefore, we are but children standing on the shore of an ocean whose further side has never been seen nor reached, and whose depth no human line can fathom.

2. But, in as far as this is revealed through God"s Word, it is intended to be understood. It will require an endless life to understand it perfectly. Growing knowledge resulting in growing gratitude, love, and devotion, this, perpetuated without end, is the bright future before us. But, however much we cannot know in the present, Scripture contains a revelation of such fullness in the Savior as the wisest and best have not yet understood and appreciated; and what is revealed here and now, is obviously intended here and now to be apprehended. We cannot overrate the Savior"s desire to reveal himself, the deep things of his heart, and the best glories of his nature to his beloved, nor the Father"s will that, as far as on earth it can be received, that revelation should be theirs.

II THE HINDRANCES TO OUR POSSESSION OF THESE TREASURES. "How is it that ye do not understand?" Why do we know so little about Christ? Why are the Scriptures to us to a great extent sealed? This passage reveals three reasons for this.

1. Spiritual feebleness. The Hebrews had lost their early religious vigor. "When by reason of the time since ye became Christians ye ought to be," etc. Their condition was one of retrogression. (See what they had been once: "Ye endured a great fight," etc.) They had become vacillating, and ready to return to Judaism. A feeble and deteriorated piety was one reason for their dullness of hearing. That is natural. Christ"s riches are spiritual, and. can only be understood by spiritual perception. Let spiritual power decline, and ability to understand Divine truth declines with it. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;" "The secret of the Lord is with them that feat-him.

2. Intellectual prejudice. They desired to return to Judaism; its ancient glories still fascinated them, and. they were predisposed to accept any teaching aimed to show the untruth of Christianity. That was enough to account for their being dull of hearing. Skepticism is made, more than by anything else, by unwillingness to receive the truth. The mind that allows its personal desires to decide what is truth must become increasingly incapable of discerning truth when it is placed before it. Nothing more surely blinds than prejudice.

3. Sinful inattention. "Every one that partakes of milk i.e. not able to partake of the solid food of Divine truth is without experience i.e. has not made himself acquainted by observation and. study of the Word of righteousness; ... but solid food is for full-grown men, even those who," etc. That is, spiritual discernment, an apprehension of God"s deep things, is the result of use. Inability to understand is the judgment on inattention. Scripture is a sealed, book to the heart that neglects it.

III THE NECESSITY FOR THE REMOVAL OF THESE HINDRANCES OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY IS TO BE ATTAINED.

1. For Christ, as revealed in the Word, is spiritual nourishment. The truth about Christ is "milk" and "strong meat." Christ is the essence of Scripture, and he is "the Bread of life." What nourishing food is to the body, therefore, the Word of God is to the Divine life in man. On participation on it that life depends.

2. There is a distinction drawn here between those truths which merely sustain and those which increase life. What is the "milk"? Those first necessary principles recorded in Heb_6:1, Heb_6:2. There we have the essential life-giving points (not quite such a "simple gospel" as some think!). The doctrines of repentance, faith, the Holy Spirit, Christian service, the resurrection, and the judgment, these are the "milk." What is the "strong meat"? The deeper, fuller truths about Christ set froth here his character, work, relation, grace, Son of God and Son of man, our Prophet, Priest, and King, with the height and depth, and length, and breadth of meaning all this involves.

3. Christian maturity depends on the partaking of truth in these higher forms. They ought to be "babes" no longer, but "strong men;" and how? Let us cease to speak of the first," etc. The method by which this Epistle seeks to arouse a lukewarm and enfeebled Church to higher things is the presentation of these higher truths concerning the surpassing glory of the Son of God. "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge," etc. C.N.

Vers. 11-14. Dullness of spiritual perception.

I THERE IS A REPROOF FOR THESE RELIEVERS BECAUSE THEY CANNOT HEAR, AND THEREFORE CANNOT TEACH, THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL. They had become, through slackness and yielding both to the attractions of the temple-worship and the opposition of their countrymen, unable to hear the weighty truths connected with Melchizedek, the illustrious type of Christ. To be dull of hearing the sweet sounds of joyous nature in spring, or to catch imperfectly the strains of sacred music, would be a loss; but how more serious is the loss of being unable to receive inspired communications respecting Jesus Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega of our faith and hope! The painful result was that they could not teach others, and give a reason for the hope that was in them with meekness and fear" They must, therefore, go back to the Christian alphabet and learn their letters afresh, and begin again their course of discipleship. They needed some one who was advanced in the knowledge of the Savior; but he need not be an apostle, a prophet, or an evangelist. Considering how much the diffusion of the gospel at that time depended upon the living voice, their inability to teach was a loss to themselves and many others.

II THEY ARE REPROVED FOR THE NON-IMPROVEMENT OF LONG-CONTINUED PRIVILEGES. When for the "time," which word signifies a considerable period, during which they had had many who were pastors, and spoke the Word of God. They had had public worship, in which Christ was set forth evidently crucified before them. They had often been invited to the Lord"s Supper, and. had been reminded of his matchless fidelity to their interests, even when his holy soul encountered billows of distress, and deep called unto deep, and the awful sorrows of the cross darkened and crushed him. Miracles had been wrought; prophecies interpreted by their glorious fulfillment; and prayer and praise had diffused a hallowed influence. Notwithstanding the richness of the soil, the regularity of the rains, and the bright shining of the sun, the vineyard produced grapes which were small, acid, and unacceptable. And all these advantages, which were crowned by the willingness and love of the Divine Spirit to encourage and bless them, they were "dull of hearing and could not teach.

III THE REPROOF AFFIRMS THE SERIOUS PERSONAL DISADVANTAGES OF NEGLECT. They are described as babes which need simple nourishment and must be fed with milk, which signifies the rudimentary truths of the gospel. As babes they are unskillful, and cannot speak the Word of righteousness with distinct and powerful utterance; for he who would speak with power must do so from a full mind and a large experience. Such as these believers, who had so unprofitably used the time which had elapsed from their conversion, are only fit for the elementary truths of the gospel, and are consequently unacquainted with the vast and unsearchable treasures of strength laid up in Christ for the comfort and joy of his disciples. The perfect and full-grown men who use their senses and spiritual powers aright are privileged to eat of fat things full of marrow, and. drink wine on the lees well refined." The stronger they are, the more they can enjoy of the rich and solid comforts and supports of Divine grace; and are thereby fitted for the arduous work of professing the gospel, vindicating its claims, and illustrating its power. B.

Vers. 11, 12. A special hindrance to Christian truth.

We have here

I A LARGE TOPIC. Much had to be said in the times of old concerning the scope of the priesthood. Many instructions had to be given as to various offerings and various seasons. And. not one of them was without some reference to the higher and abiding priesthood of Jesus. As the writer of the Epistle thought of all the tabernacle furniture of the holy of holies ark, mercy-seat, lamps, table of shewbread, altar of burnt offering, priestly garments, ephod, breastplate, Urim and Thummim and. considered how all these things shadowed forth some office, some relation, of Jesus, what wonder that he should try to stir up the languid intellect of his readers by announcing how much had to be said! Multum in parvo, it is true, but still multum. And we have to rejoice that as much has to be said, so in the New Testament much is said. No time is spent over useless knowledge and. speculation, things conjectural, things to please; everything is bent to setting forth the large needs of man and the comprehensive fullness of Christ.

II A SPECIAL DIFFICULTY IN DEALING WITH THE TOPIC. Those who are addressed will not give proper attention. We are reminded of the words of Jesus, "He that hath ears... let him hear." Progress in the apprehension of Christian truth, true progress in theology, depends on our own disposition. Great attainments in human sciences are not for all, or even for many. They demand a certain degree of intellectual power, a certain amount of leisure, and perhaps other facilities; so that it is quite certain all men cannot be learned any more than all can be rich. But God has made progress in Christian truth to depend on the state of the heart. He has ordered things so that those who are babes in this world"s knowledge may be as giants in the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned; and if God has given his Holy Spirit that we may be led into all the truth, and if nevertheless we stumble among misapprehensions, then assuredly we are to blame, and especially will blame fall upon us when the element of time is brought into consideration. Here were people who had had gospel truth a long time before them, and yet knew little more than the alphabet. Still learners when they ought to be teachers? What worse reproach could there be seeing how much spiritual ignorance there is in the world, and how much error, and how many there are busy in misleading men? Nor must we omit to notice how this gentle yet searching rebuke of the writer here shows his own advanced attainments. He is writing of things which he well understands, and knows what he means. His topics are not mere trifles. They are very practical, and point forward into the developments and occupations of the future. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Concerning whom - The apostle here begins an important digression, wherein he reproves, admonishes, and exhorts the Hebrews. We - Preachers of the gospel. Have many things to say, and hard to be explained - Though not so much from the subject- matter, as from your slothfulness in considering, and dulness in apprehending, the things of God.

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

A Reproof of Spiritual Ignorance.

v. 11. Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

v. 12. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.

v. 13. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the Word of Righteousness; for he is a babe.

v. 14. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

According to the tendency of the last passage, we might now expect a complete discussion of the high-priesthood of Christ to begin at this point. Instead, however, the sacred writer inserts here a reproof and an exhortation which is calculated to convey to his readers the necessity of giving proper heed to the doctrines included in this letter. The reason for the censure is first given: Concerning whom there is a great deal to say and difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in your sense of hearing. The entire subject which has now been broached, that of Christ’s being a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, is a topic upon which one could write a great deal. The author intends, also, to discuss this important comparison at length, chap. 7, even though, on account of the difficulty of the subject, an explanation could not be given in an offhand manner. And the reason, in this case, is not to be found in the essential, inherent unreasonableness of the teaching, but in the fact that the readers have become sluggish in their hearing and understanding. The censure strikes the fact that the Jewish Christians to whom the letter is addressed had gone backward in knowledge, in the study, the understanding of doctrinal topics. This is the case in many a congregation or community where the Word of God has been preached for some time. There is always danger that men assume the self-satisfied, self-sufficient attitude toward instruction in spiritual matters which resents any implication as to their being in need of such teaching. Wherever this "know-it-all" attitude is assumed, a retrogression in spiritual knowledge and life is bound to follow.

This condition is pictured by the inspired writer: For, indeed, though on account of the length of time you should be teachers, you have need again of having someone to teach you the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God, and you have become as having need of milk and not of solid food. If one considered the length of time since the Gospel had first been preached in Judea, more than a generation before this, and the many opportunities which the Jewish Christians had had to become familiar with all the branches of Gospel teaching, it was by no means an unreasonable expectation that they should all have had the ability to teach others, to impart to them the wonderful truths of the Word of God, both the simple doctrines and those that required some measure of spiritual understanding. But the writer is obliged to censure his readers because it had become necessary once more to teach them the very rudiments of the Christian doctrine, the fundamental facts, whose knowledge was expected of the catechumens when being received into the Church. Then, as now, the central doctrines of Christianity constituted the basis of instruction and were expected to be mastered by the applicants for membership in the congregation. Therefore it was a disgrace, indeed, that these Jewish Christians, who should have been veterans in Christian knowledge, lacked the understanding demanded of the novices. They were, in the matter of spiritual knowledge, like infants unable to partake of solid food, dependent entirely upon milk. See 1Co 3:2. "Instead of becoming adults, able to stand on their own feet, select and digest their own food, they had fallen into spiritual dotage, and entered a second childhood, and could receive only the simplest nourishment. " (Dods.) Mature Christians should be able to understand also the more advanced and complicated doctrines of the Christian faith, and to consider them with benefit to their faith.

The language of the sacred writer is not lacking in clearness at this point: For every one that still partakes of milk is inexperienced in the Word of Righteousness, for he is a babe. So long as a person is obliged, for want of a more thorough understanding, to rely upon the simplest exposition of the fundamental truths of Christianity as his sole diet, he is a spiritual babe and infant. He has no conception of the wonderful scope, of the manifold beauties contained in the Word of Righteousness, the Gospel, which teaches the righteousness that is accepted by God, being that righteousness of Christ which is imputed to men by God through faith. With the proper detailed study of the Word, a person will enter deeply and ever more deeply into the mysteries of God and constantly receive new nourishment for his faith.

Of this the inspired author says in conclusion: But solid food is for the mature, those who, by reason of their mental exercise, have their intellectual abilities exercised to discern good and evil. Christians that have reached some degree of spiritual maturity have done so by virtue of the habit which they have developed by constant exercise in the Word of God, the result finally being that their intellectual faculties, controlled by their faith and love in Christ, grasp the distinction between good and evil readily, between things that are beneficial and such as are harmful for their spiritual life. Their perception is so sharpened, their taste is so developed that the wholesome and the hurtful are readily discerned. Note: All Christians have the opportunity of growing in spiritual knowledge. If they actually study the Word of God day after day, if they take every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ, then there will soon be evidence of maturity in the understanding of all the Scriptural doctrines, and a proper discrimination between the wholesome and the morbid and hurtful in doctrine and life. The censure probably applies just as sharply today as it ever did, and our humble acknowledgment of that fact may pave the way for needed improvement.

Summary

The inspired author shows that Christ has the necessary qualifications to be our High Priest, and that a perfect salvation was earned by virtue of His obedience; he inserts a sharp reproof on account of the spiritual immaturity of his readers.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, of which priesthood of Christ, as compared with Melchizedek, we have much to say, which is not easy to make intelligible by words, to those that are ignorant and dull of understanding.

Learn hence, 1. That all Scripture truths are not equally easy to be understood, but require a peculiar diligence in our attendance upon them, that they may be understood.

Learn, 2. That it is the incapacity of hearers, through dullness and slothfulness, and want of preparatory knowledge, which makes Scripture teaching no more and no better understood. All our miscarriages under the Word, are to be resolved into our own sloth, negligence, and depraved affections; We have many things to say, but ye are dull of hearing.

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

ARGUMENT 4

SPIRITUAL INFANCY AND ADULTAGE.

11. It is difficult so to expound Christian perfection to the unsanctified as to enable them intelligently to apprehend it. Here the Holy Ghost certifies that these Palestinian Christians were “dull of hearing.” The Greek means spiritual stupidity and indifference, soul paralysis setting down on them.

12. This verse certifies that they were not simply babies, but old babies. It is believed that this letter was short time he fore the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, which took place forty years after the crucifixion of our Savior. Hence these Palestinian Christians had been converted ten to thirty years. Of course, some of them had been sanctified, but the multitude to whom He now appeals had not received this indispensable grace. This undue and unnatural prolongation of spiritual babyhood had culminated in miserable dwarfage. Babyhood is all right in its time, but if perpetuated it runs into dwarfhood and soon spiritual death supervenes. The Holy Ghost says they had need of milk instead of solid food, because old as they were they had never yet cut their teeth. This is the great trouble with the churches at the present day. They ‘re filled up with toothless babies and dwarfs, incompetent to mastcate the beefsteak, loaf-bread, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates and melons of full salvation. If the preacher don’t reach out the suckling-bottle he will soon find himself bewildered and dumbfounded amid the crying babies and muttering, whining dwarfs. Now remember that every unsanctified soul is a babe or dwarf. You know babies have to be humored, petted, caressed and candied to keep them quiet. No wonder we have a squally time in the churches when so many pastors, presiding elders, doctors of divinity and official boards, as well as the rank and file of the membership, are babies and dwarfs. No wonder there is no harmony among them. They can’t even agree in their opposition to holiness, but they divide up into all sorts of silly heresies, creeds and dogmas, scarcely any two agreeing. Not so with spiritual men and women. In our holiness meetings all creeds, nationalities, sectarianisms, and sectionalisms are completely lost sight of.

13. “For every one that taketh milk is unskillful, in the word of righteousness, because he is a babe.” No wonder our Savior positively forbade His own disciples to go and preach the Gospel till they received the sanctifying baptism of Pentecostal fire. They were still in spiritual babyhood. Hence their dissensions, ambition, cowardice, and doubt. All this was consumed by the Pentecostal fire, and never afterwards seen. Jesus knew that they were “unskillful in the word of righteousness” so long as they remained in babyhood, and consequently incompetent to expound the Scriptures. So long as the Church retained the sanctified experience pursuant to the commandment of her Lord, she was without a faction or schism. The six thousand schisms now lacerating the visible Church are all the fruits of her apostasy into spiritual babyhood and dwarfhood. An army of babies will never conquer the world. The holiness people this day have more missionaries in the heathen field, penniless and unsalaried, than all the rich sectarian churches with their millions of money. Bishop Taylor has twelve hundred, Hudson Taylor eight hundred. A. B. Simpson four hundred, and General Booth several thousand. The problem is forever settled. The sanctified people have to fulfill the commission, carry the Gospel to all nations, evangelize the world, and bring on the millennium.

14. “Solid food belongs to the perfect, who have their senses thoroughly disciplined by exercise unto the discernment both of the good and the evil.” You see from this Scripture that the great and glorious doctrines of Christian perfection are denominated solid food, in contradistinction to the rudimentary truths of the Gospel appertaining to the conviction of sinners and the regeneration of penitents, which are here denominated “milk.” Precisely as the human body has five physical senses — i.e., sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch — even so the human spirit has these same five senses. Though a dead man has eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and nerves, he neither sees hears, smells, tastes, nor touches. Even so the dead human spirit is incapable of sensation till quickened into life by the Holy Spirit. These spiritual senses receive vitality in regeneration, but complete recuperation from torpitude, paralysis and all sorts of spiritual ailments, disabilities and incapacities in entire sanctification. The blessed grace of full salvation matriculates you into the school of Christ, i.e., God’s gymnasium, where all your spiritual senses receive not only complete restitution, but grand, glorious and wonderful development, qualifying them for the most adroit and acute detection of every evil approach, thus effectually and triumphantly fortifying us against all the temptation superinduced b the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Greek word here means gymnasium. John Wesley had but three institutions, i.e., the class- meeting, for the conversion of penitents; the holiness band, for the sanctification of Christians; and the select societies for the, culture of the sanctified, He understood the Lord’s gymnasium. Oh, that his Gospel sons could only inherit his sanctifigumption! Babies are so deficient in sensical discrimination as to need constant attention to keep them from eating dirt and all sorts of filth. We see the churches full of poor spiritual babies, eating and drinking Satan’s poison so indiscriminately as to blot out the distinction between them and the devil’s people. Even preachers, in the stupidity of spiritual babyhood, use filthy, poisonous and expensive tobacco, ruining the youth by their example. We see church members decked with jewelry and arrayed in all the phantasmagoria of the world’s foolish and costly styles, fashions, jewelry, and all sorts of needless and injurious ornamentation, like babies fond of showy toys. There is but one possible remedy for this lamentable heathen disgrace and shame, which hangs like a nightmare of paralysis of the Church. It is Satan’s vampire sucking out her heart’s blood. The remedy is plain simple, unmistakable, and positively revealed in this Scripture. It is none other than Christian perfection.

1. “Therefore having left the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried unto perfection.” The Greek word pheroo, translated “go on” in this verse, has no such meaning in the dictionary. It is a great pity that King James’ translators ever rendered it “go on.” In the first place, because it does not mean “go on,” and they had no right so to render it. In the second place, because it has helped the devil to slow down the Church to a miserable standstill and freeze preachers and people into icebergs. You must remember that King James’ version was made by forty-seven Episcopalians in 1611. At that time the Church was wrapped in the fogs of Romanism and superstition, just emerging out of the dark ages. In as much brighter day, John Wesley preached ten years before his soul was converted. While none of the translators had the experience of sanctification, it is very doubtful if half of them were clear in their justification. The Bible is an experimental book. Scholarship alone qualifies no man to translate nor preach it, since we only see clearly what we experience in our hearts. These translators were experimentally ignorant of sanctification. Consequently, they lamentably emasculated that doctrine in their translation. Notwithstanding all this, entire sanctification is by far the strongest and most prominent doctrine in the English Bible. Yet it is one hundred per cent. stronger in the inspired original which the Holy Ghost revealed and which I have used extensively the last twenty-five years, and from which I give you all of these expositions. Unconverted preachers take all conversion out of the Bible. Unsanctified preachers take sanctification out of it. Men in all ages have labored to bring the Bible down to their experiences, instead of seeking the grace of God to lift their experiences up to the Bible. So these translators, like the unsanctified clergy at the present day, believed in reaching it at the end of life, after long and gradual approach. They were “going on.” So they exhorted all of us to “go on,” though the Bible flatly contradicts it. The word pheroometha here used by the Holy Ghost has no meaning but to carry or to bear. It is in the present tense and imperative mood, and reads, “Let us be carried to perfection,” i.e., the Omnipotent Savior is standing by our side ready and anxious for the job of our perfection. We have nothing to do but give up our own ways and fall into His arms, and let Him carry us into the glorious experience of Christian perfection.

“In the twinkling of an eye Jesus’ blood can Sanctify.”

From the time of your conversion the Omnipotent Jesus has been standing by you, longing for the delicious privilege of your perfection. Led astray by false guides, telling you that you have to “go on,” till you die, you have grieved the Holy Spirit all these years. Therefore I pray you wait not a moment, but glorify your Omnipotent Sanctifier this moment standing by you and saying, “Let us now be carried to perfection.” It is a lamentable fact that men have been preaching perfection by growth ever since the Constantinian apostasy fifteen hundred years ago. You know the Epistle to Hebrews is all on Christian perfection, and the word “growth” does not occur in it. Away with your nonsensical twaddle. The Bible is its own expositor. How is this perfection wrought?

“And the God of peace, who raised up from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the sheep, make you perfect through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” (Heb 13:20-21)

This is the key which unlocks the mystery and settles the question forever. So you see our author explains himself. This is a perfection wrought by the cleansing blood of Jesus, and not by growth nor good works, as Satan would have you believe, so you may forfeit the blessing and land in hell. The devil’s climateric hobby in all ages and with all souls has been procrastination. The Bible is a now book. It offers present salvation to all penitent sinners and present perfection to all consecrated Christians. Postponement and gradualism are the devil’s greased planks on which to slide people down to hell. There are only two spiritual attitudes mentioned by the Holy Ghost in this grand argument, and these are infancy and perfection. Hence we have a beautiful and glorious antithesis, homogenous and co-extensive. While the Spirit constantly uses natural analogies in the elucidation of His glorious. truth, pursuant to a familiar rule in rhetoric we must not press a metaphor too far. Is there not a gradualism in the natural birth? Whereas in the English Testament “begotten” and “born” both occur, corresponding with the kingdom of nature, in the inspired Greek we only have the one word gennaoo, translated “begotten” in some passages and “born” in others. This settles the fact that in the language of the Holy Ghost “begotten” and “born” are precisely synonymous. Hence the very moment the Holy Ghost begets a soul, that soul is born of God. You must not judge God like a man. The gradualism in the plan of salvation is all on the human side. When God works, a sentence is as good as a century. The effect of the gradualistic theologies preached from the pulpits is to take God out of the Church and run the people into infidelity. When you eliminate the instantaneous interventions, you eliminate God and leave the people nothing but a pitiful humanism which you falsely call “Gospel.” When you fail to preach to sinners the instantaneous salvation by the Holy Ghost and to Christians instantaneous and entire sanctification wrought by the Holy Ghost through the cleansing blood of Jesus, you had better evacuate the pulpit and go to hoeing potatoes. “Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works.”... This clause reveals the indisputable fact that the second work of grace is God’s key to hold the first. So if you do not let Jesus carry you into perfection, you will grieve the Holy Ghost, backslide and fall again into the snare of the devil, so you will have all your first works to do again, i.e., get reclaimed, or make your bed in a backslider’s hell.

3-8. This sentence, containing five verses, has served as an alarm bell to the backsliders of all ages. We here have conspicuously set forth the mournful alternative of Christian perfection, i.e., apostasy and damnation. Not only does the Holy Ghost positively so reveal, but He confirms it by a plain and forcible illustration deduced from the material world, just as the perfected Christian is symbolized by the fertile, well-watered field, adorned with perennial flowers and burdened with all the luxuriant fruits of human industry, while the burning waste of the tropical desert equally vividly symbolizes the appalling doom of the poor backslider, collapsed into hopeless condemnation, through his unfortunate neglect of perfection, having finally grieved away the Holy Sanctifier and made his bed in a burning hell.

9. The fire-baptized author of this wonderful epistle, so transcendently climateric on Christian perfection, winds up this smashing argument, deduced from infancy and adultage in the spiritual kingdom, by bringing in a beautiful suaviter in modo, softly and sweetly cadencing his alarming fortiter in re. “But, beloved, we are persuaded concerning you, better things even appertaining to salvation, if indeed we do thus speak.”

10. The encouraging phenomena among the Palestinian Christians are mentioned in this verse, especially their generous philanthropy and hospitality to the saints. You remember (Acts 2 :) how they even sold their possessions to support the converts of Pentecost from foreign lands and perpetuate that wonderful revival. This was doubtless somewhat facilitated by the confiscation which followed their profession of Christianity. The forfeiture of this beautiful and amiable grace of hospitality out of the Church at the present day, is among the saddest omens of the fatal apostasy into which she is everywhere plunging by the rejection of holiness.

11, 12. “But we desire each one of you to manifest the same zeal unto the full assurance of hope unto perfection, in order that you may not be stupid, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and long- suffering.” These verses explain themselves, i.e., that every one of us ought to press directly on after conversion, seeking perfection with the same diligence with which we sought justification, till we find it. The Methodist General Conference of 1832 substantially reiterated this wonderful Scripture in their encyclical to the entire membership, importunately pleading with them and admonishing them not to stop with justification, but press right on to sanctification, with the same zeal, energy and perseverance with which they had sought pardon. Oh, that the conferences of the present day would emulate the heroic orthodoxy of their predecessors.

13. God in His condescending mercy has certainly exhausted Omnipotence to disencumber us of doubt; since we ‘re bound to be saved by faith, if saved at all, to interfere with our free agency would dehumanize us. Therefore, God has not only given us His Word confirmatory of the momentous problem of holiness, but has swept all possible cavil from the field by the annexation of His oath.

“The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, to grant unto us being delivered out of the hand of our enemies to serve Him in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days.” (Luk 1:73; Luk 1:75)

The enemies spoken of in this Scripture are the spiritual foes, i.e., evil tempers, passions, appetites, and all the members of Adam the first, which constitute the body of inbred sin, and survive in the heart of the regenerate, till destroyed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Rom 6:6. You see from this Scripture that the man who does not believe in the glorious possibility of entire sanctification in this life, not only accuses God of falsification but actually arraigns Him for perjury. God have mercy on him! He would certainly better never have been born.

14. This is God’s wonderful promise of blessings, paradoxically multiplied on the sanctified. The dogma of the popular pulpits that sanctification is the ultimatum of all progress is radically heretical. Instead of constituting the ultimatum. it is really the substratum of a grand and glorious Christian experience, destined to brighten, broaden. deepen and tower through this life, take new impetus when this mortal puts on immortality, accumulating fresh luster through the flight of eternal ages. Therefore, entire sanctification introduces you into a land of showers, sunshine, flowers never fading and fruits never failing, where you will grow in grace infinitely more rapidly than ever before.

15-18. The two immutable things here spoken of are, God’s Word and His oath. Well does the author say that it is impossible for God to lie. The slightest falsification would be irreconcilably incompatible with the Divine attributes. Now, in addition to His infallible Word, He has added the solemnities of His oath, culminating in the a fortiori argument, logically unanswerable.

19, 20. These two verses present a most beautiful and instructive metaphor, in which the ocean is the world; the ship, the human soul floating in it. While the ocean is racked with storms, plowed with tempests, swept by hurricanes and lashed with cyclones, a thousand perils threatening the ship. Fortunately, she has cast out her great iron anchor, whose herculean flukes have caught fast hold of the eternal strata of the massive mountain. Despite the rage of the storm, the anchor not only holds secure but draws the ship safe into her moorings. In a similar manner the soul of the Christian, floating in this wicked and perilous world, beleaguered on all sides with diabolical foes, has cast the anchor of Hope through the vail of mortality out on the heavenly shore, where it has caught fast hold of Jesus, the impregnable Rock of Ages, who will never let go the anchor, but certainly draw the soul through the vail and laud it safe amid shouts of saints and angels in the glory land.

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

11–14. Of whom we have many things to say. Of Christ in his priesthood. Hard to be uttered. Hard to be expressed so that you will understand. The priesthood of Christ, after the order of Melchizedek, opens up some difficult questions. Seeing ye are dull of hearing. Of slow understanding.

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.

11–14. COMPLAINT THAT HIS READERS WERE SO SLOW IN THEIR SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

11. Περὶ οὖ, i.e. about Melchisedek in his typical character. There is no need to render this “of which matter” or to refer οὖ to Christ.

πολὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος καὶ δυσερμήνευτος. “Respecting whom what I have to say is long, and hard of interpretation.” The word ἑρμηνευόμενος (whence comes the word “hermeneutics”) occurs in Heb 7:2, and is like δυσνόητος in 2Pe 3:16.

γεγόνατε, “ye are become,” as in Heb 5:12, Heb 6:12. They were not so sluggish at first, but are become so from indifference and neglect.

νωθροί. Comp. Mat 13:14-15. Νωθρὸς “dull” or “blunted” is the antithesis to ὀξὺς “sharp.”

ταῖς ἀκοαῖς. The plur. is used because he is addressing many. Ἀκοὴ means “mental hearing.” Thus Philo says οἶς ὦτα μέν ἐστιν ἀκοαὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔνεισιν.

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.

11-6:20.] Digression, before entering on the comparison of Christ with Melchisedek, complaining of the low state of spiritual attainment of the readers (11-14): warning them of the necessity of progress and the peril of falling back (6:1-8): but at the same time encouraging them by God’s faithfulness in bearing in mind their previous labour of love, and in His promises generally, to persevere in faith and patience to the end (6:9-20).

11.] Concerning whom (i. e. Melchisedek, as Syr. (which expresses Melchisedek after the relative), Calv., a-Lap., al., Bleek, De W., Tholuck, al.: not as Œc., Prim., al., and Lünem., Christ, of whom such an expression as this would hardly here be used, seeing that the whole Epistle hitherto has been concerning Him: nor is οὗ neuter, as Schlichting, Grot., Storr, Kuinoel, al.: and more recently, Delitzsch (περὶ τοῦ εἶναι χριστὸν ἀρχ. κατὰ τ. ταξ. Μ.): for the Writer returns to Melchisedek, ch. 7:1) our discourse (that which we have to say. The plural pronoun, not with any definite reference to Timothy or other companions of the Writer, nor intended to include the readers, which is here impossible: but as in some other places of the Epistle, see reff., merely indicating the Writer himself, as so frequently in the Epistles of St. Paul) is (not, as Erasm., Luther, a-Lap., al., “would be:” for we may safely say that in that case εἴη or ἂν εἴη would be supplied, as in the passage of Lysias cited below, and Dion. Hal. i. 23, περὶ ὧν πολὺς ἂν εἴη λόγος, εἰ βουλοίμην τὴν ἀκρίβειαν γράφειν) much, and difficult of interpretation to speak (the connexion of δυσερμήνευτος with λέγειν is somewhat dubious. Who is the ἑρμηνευτής? the Writer, so that it should be difficult for him to explain what he has to say to his readers, or the readers, so that it should be difficult for them to understand it for themselves? This latter alternative is taken by Grot. (“quem si eloquerer, ægre intelligeretis”), Jac. Cappel., Peirce, Valcknaer, al. But surely this would be inadmissible as matter of construction, and would require ἐν τῷ λέγειν or ἐν τῷ λέγεσθαι. And in consequence, some who take this view connect λέγειν with λόγος, πολ. ἡμ. ὁ λ. κ. δυσερμ. λέγειν, referring, as Wetst., to Lysias adv. Pancleon. p. 167. 25, ὅσα μὲν οὖν αὐτόθι ἐῤῥήθη, πολὺς ἂν εἴη μοι λόγος διηγεῖσθαι. But, as Bleek has noticed, there is this difference between the passages: that in ours, the adjectives are almost necessarily predicates, whereas in Lysias they are epithets: and, in consequence, here the verb must depend on δυσερμήνευτος. We are driven then to the other alternative, of making the Writer the subject to be supplied: so Chrys. (ὅταν γάρ τις πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἔχῃ μὴ παρακολου· θοῦντας, μηδὲ τὰ λεγόμενα νοοῦντας, ἑρμηνεῦσαι καλῶς αὐτοῖς οὐ δύναται), and Thl. (διὰ τὴν ὑμετέραν οὖν νωθρείαν, φησί, δυσερμήνευτός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος ὁ περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἐστιν ὁ χριστὸς ἀρχιερεὺς κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδέκ, καὶ διότι οὐ συνίετε ὑμεῖς, διὰ τοῦτο ἐγὼ καλῶς ἑρμηνεῦσαι οὐ δύναμαι), Erasm. (“sed omnia perdifficile fuerit enarrare vobis, eo quod” &c.), Schlichting (“sermo difficilis ad eloquendum sic ut facile ab audientibus percipi et intelligi queat”), al.: Bleek, De W., Lünem., al. Then the infin. follows, as ὅπως ἂν ὦσιν (οἱ λόγοι) ὡς πιθανώτατοι λέγειν, Plato, Gorg. p. 479 gσῆμα ταυρόπουν ὁρᾶν, Eur. Iph. Aul. 275: Γαλάτεια … λευκοτέρα πακτᾶς ποτιδεῖν, Theocr. xi. 20: and as in our phrase ‘beautiful to look upon,’ ‘hard to work upon,’ &c. Bleek (after Storr) and Lünemann have supposed that a kind of zeugma is necessary to connect λόγος with both predicates, πολύς regarding more the discourse itself and the explanation of the subject given by the Writer,—δυσερμήνευτος, the contents of the λόγος, as thus explained. But it does not seem to me that such a supposition is needed: our λόγος, that which we have to say, is both πολύς, abundant in quantity, and δυσερμήνευτος, difficult to state perspicuously to you, in quality. And so also Delitzsch), since (probably renders a reason only for the δυσερμήνευτος λέγειν, not belonging also to πολύς) ye are become (not, “are,” as E. V., Luther (not De W.), al. Chrys. says well, δηλοῦντος ἦν, ὅτι πάλαι ὑγίαινον καὶ ἦσαν ἰσχυροί, τῇ προθυμίᾳ ζέοντες, καὶ ὕστερον αὐτοὺς τοῦτο παθεῖν μαρτυρεῖ) dull (νωθρός, a lengthened and later form of νωθής. It is found as early as Plato, Theætet. p. 144 b, but more commonly in the later writers, Aristid., Plut., Polyb., al. See Elsn. and Wetst. Bleek thinks the most probable formation of it is from the negative νη and ὠθέω, as νωδός toothless, νώδυνος painless, νώνυμος nameless, νήπιος from ἔπω, = ‘in-fans.’ Thus the two words mean, ‘difficult to move:’ so ὄνος νωθής, II. β. 559: ὄνων νωθρὸν δέμας, Oppian, Halieut. iii. 140. And so likewise as applied to the soul, Plut. Lycurg. 51 e: νωθρᾶς.… κ. πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἀφιλοτίμου ψυχῆς σημεῖον: and to the senses, Heliodor. v. 10, ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὐκ ᾐσθόμην.… τάχα μέν που καὶ διʼ ἡλικίαν νωθρότερος ὢν τὴν ἀκοήν· νόσος γὰρ ἄλλων τε καὶ ὤτων τὸ γῆρας. See many more examples in Bleek and Wetst.) in your hearing (more usually the accus., as in the last citation: but frequently in the (local or referential) dative, as e. g. 1Co 14:20, μὴ παιδία γίνεσθε ταϊς φρεσίν, ἀλλὰ τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε. See examples in Winer, edn. 6, § 31. 6. ἀκοή is used in good Greek writers of the ear, with however this distinction, that it is of the ear with reference to the act of hearing, not merely as a member of the body. Philo draws the distinction, in ref. It is related to οὖς as ὄψις to ὀφθαλμός: cf. Xen. Mem. i. 4. 11, καὶ ὄψιν κ. ἀκοὴν κ. στόμα ἐνεποίησαν: Herod. i. 38, διεφθαρμένος τὴν ἀκοήν: and other examples in Bleek. The plur. here denotes not only the plurality of persons addressed, but also, as in ref. Mark, the double organ of hearing in each person).

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

From this point the comparison of Christ with Melchisedec would naturally be developed; but the author digresses into a complaint of the imperfect spiritual attainment of his readers, and a remonstrance and admonition extending to the end of ch. 6.

Of whom [περι ου] . Rend. concerning which. Not Melchisedec, but the topic that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchisedec, a topic to which great importance is attached. Can it be imagined that the discussion of such a topic would appeal to a Gentile audience as a reason for not relapsing into paganism?

We have many things to say [πολυς ημιν ο λογος] . Lit. the discourse is abundant unto us. We refers to the writer himself.

Hard to be uttered [δυσερμηνευτος λεγειν] . Lit. hard of interpretation to speak. The A. V. entirely misses the idea of interpretation. Rev. better, hard of interpretation. Dusermhneutov N. T. o. o LXX o Class.

Ye are dull of hearing [νωθροι γεγονατε ταις ακοαις] . Rend. ye have grown dull in your hearing. For ajkoh hearing see on 2Ti 4:3. The verb implies a deterioration on the hearers' part. Nwqroi only here and ch. 6 12. From nh not and wjqein to push. Hence slow, sluggish. 189 Mostly in later Greek, although Plato uses it much in the same sense as here. "When they have to face study they are stupid [νωθροι] and cannot remember." Theaet. 144 B. In LXX, Pro 22:29; Sir. 4 29; 11 12. Sometimes = low, mean, obscure. So in Proverbs, but in Sirach slack, slow.

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