Hebrews 8:11

Heb 8:11-12. And they — Who are under this covenant; shall not teach — That is, shall not any more have need to teach; every man his neighbour, &c., saying, Know the Lord — Though in other respects they will have need to teach each other to their lives’ end; yet they shall not need to teach each other the knowledge of the Lord; for this they shall possess; yea, all real Christians, who believe in Jesus as the true Messiah, with a living faith, a faith working by love, shall know me — Even as a pardoning God, (Heb 8:12,) and therefore savingly; from the least to the greatest — From the babe in Christ, the little children spoken of by St. John, whose sins are forgiven them; unto such as are of full age; strong in the Lord, and deeply experienced in his ways. See 1Jn 2:12-14. Or, by the least may be meant the poor and despised, and by the greatest, persons of wealth, authority, and power. In this order, the saving knowledge of God ever did, and ever will proceed; not from the greatest to the least, but from the least to the greatest; from the poor to the rich; from the low to the high; that no flesh may glory in his presence. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness — I will pardon and accept them through my Son, in consequence of their repentance and faith in him; or, I will justify them, and give them peace with myself, and thus will make them wise unto salvation, truly holy and happy. Observe, reader, justification and peace with God is the root of all true knowledge of God and conformity to him. This, therefore, is God’s method; First, a sinner, being brought to true repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is pardoned; then he knows God as gracious and merciful; then God’s laws are written on his heart; he is God’s, and God is his. And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more — Namely, so as to punish them. In the Hebrew of Jeremiah, this passage runs thus; I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more. Probably the apostle translated the prophet’s words freely, to show, that, under the new covenant, every kind of sin is freely forgiven to the truly penitent and believing, which was not the case under the former covenant.

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

Hebrews

‘ALL SHALL KNOW ME’

Heb 8:11

IN former sermons I have tried to bring out the force of the preceding two articles of ‘the New Covenant’ These two were the substitution of inward inclination and impulse for the rigid bonds of an external commandment, and the substitution of a real, spiritual, mutual possession of God and His people for the mere outward relationship that existed between Israel and Jehovah-My text is the third article of the New Covenant, It lays hold, like the other two, of something that characterised the ancient dispensation, declares its imperfection, recognises its prophetic aspect, and asserts that all which the former merely shadowed and foretold is accomplished in Jesus Christ.

In old days there had been some direct communication between God and a chosen few, the spiritual aristocracy of the nation, and they spake the things that they had heard of God to the multitude who had had no such communication. My text says that all this is swept away, and that the prerogative of every Christian man is direct access to, communication with, and instruction from, God Himself. The text has two things in it; the promise, which is the essence of it, and a consequence which is deduced from that promise, and sets forth its results in a graphic manner. ‘They all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest’; that is the real promise. ‘They shall no more teach every man his neighbour saying, ‘Know the

Lord,’ is but a result thereof.

I. Now, I ask you to look with me at what this great promise means.

‘They shall know Me.’ Perhaps I can best explain what I take it to mean by commencing with an analogy or two which may help us to apprehend what is the significance of these words. We all know the difference between hearsay and sight. We may have read books of travel, and tell of some scene of great natural beauty or historic interest, and may think that we understand all about it, but it is always an epoch when our own eyes look for the first time at the snowy summit of an Alp, or for the first time at the Parthenon on its rocky height. We all know the difference between hearsay and experience. We read books of the poets that portray love and sorrow, and the other emotions that make up our throbbing, changeful life; but we need to go through the mill ourselves before we understand what the grip of the iron teeth of the harrow of affliction is, and we need to have had our own hearts dilated By a true and blessed affection, before we know the sweetness of love. Men may tell us about it, but we have to feel it ourselves before we know.

To come still closer to the force of my text, we all know the difference between hearing about a man and making his acquaintance. We may have been told much about him, and be familiar with his character, as we think, but, when we come face to face with him, and actually for ourselves experience the magnetism of his presence, or fall under the direct influence of his character, then we know that our former acquaintance with him, by means of hearsay, was but superficial and shadowy. ‘I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see thee.’ Can you say that? If so, you understand my text - ‘They shall no more teach every man... his brother, saying, Know the Lord, and make acquaintance with Him’ as if He were a stranger - for ‘all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.’ There is all the difference between knowing about God and knowing God; just the difference .that there is between dogma and life, between theology and religion. We may have all articles of the Christian creed clear in our understandings, and may owe our possession of them to other people’s teaching; we may even, in a sense, believe them, and yet they may be absolutely outside of our lives, and it is only when they pass into the very substance of our being, and influence the springs of our conduct - it is only then that we know God.

Now, I maintain that this acquaintance with Him is what is meant in our text. It may not include any more intellectual propositions about Him than a man had before he knew Him, but it has turned doctrines into fact, and instead of the mere hearsay and traditional religion, which is the only religion of millions, it has brought the true heart-grasp of Him, which is the only thing worth calling a knowledge of God. For let me remind you that, whilst we may know a science or proposition by the exercise of our understandings in appropriate ways, that is not how we know people. And God is a person, and to know Him does not mean to understand about Him, but to be on speaking terms with Him, to have a familiar acquaintance with Him, to ‘summer and winter’ with Him, and so, by experience, to verify the things that before were mere doctrines. Now, at least the large majority of you call yourselves believers in Christianity. I want you to ask yourselves, and I would ask myself, whether my religion is knowing about God or knowing Him; whether it is all made up of a set of truths which I assent to, mainly because I am not sufficiently interested in them to contradict them, or whether these truths have become the very substance of my life. I do not believe in a religion without a dogma - I was going to say, I believe still less in a dogma without religion; and that is the Christianity of hosts of professing Christians. It is as useless as are the dried seeds that rattle in the withered head of a poppy in the autumn, or as the shrivelled kernel that sounds in the hollowness of a half-empty nut. Remember, dear brethren, that to know God is to become acquainted with Him, and that only on the path of such familiar, friendly, loving intercourse and communion with Him, can men find the confirmation of the truths about Him which make up the eternal revelation of Him in the gospel. ‘We know’ - that is a valid certainty, arising from experience, and it has as good a right to call itself knowledge as have the processes by which men come to be sure about the physical facts of this material universe. Nay! I would even go further, and say that the fact that such a continual stream of witnesses, through all the generations, have been able to say, ‘I have tasted and I have seen that God is good,’ is to be taken into account by all impartial searchers after truth. And if men want to square their creeds with all the facts of humanity, let them not omit, in their consideration of the claims of Christian evidence, this fact, that from generation to generation men have said, and their lives have witnessed to its truths, ‘We know in whom we have believed, and that He is able to keep us. We know that we are of God. Dear brethren! the whole case for Christianity cannot be appreciated from outside. ‘Taste and see.’ My text shows us the more true way. If we will accept that covenant we shall know the Lord in the depths of our hearts.

II. Notice how far this promise extends.

They all, from the least to the greatest, shall know; There is to be no distinction of rank or age, or endowment, which shall result in some of the people of God having a position from which any of the others are altogether shut out.

The writer is, of course, contrasting in his mind, though he does not express the contrast, the condition of things of old, when, as I said, the spiritual aristocracy of the nation received communications which they then imparted to their fellows. In the morning dawn the highest summits catch the rays first, but as the sun rises it floods the lower levels, and at mid-day shines right down into the depths of the cavities. So the world is now flooded with the light of Christ; and all Christian men and women, by virtue of their Christian character, do possess the unction from the Holy One, in which lie the potency and the promise of the knowledge of all things that are needful to be known for life and godliness. This is the true democracy of the gospel-the universal possession of the life of Christ through the Spirit.

Now, if that be so, then it is by no means a truth to be kept simply for the purpose of fighting against ecclesiastical or sacerdotal encroachments and denials of it, but it ought to be taken as the candle of the Lord, by each of us, and in the light of it we ought to search very rigidly, and very often, our own Christian character and experiences. You, dear brethren, with whom I am most closely associated here, you professing Christians of this congregation - do you know anything about that inward knowledge of God which comes from friendship with Him, and speaks irrefragable certainties in the heart which receives it? ‘If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’ If you owe all your knowledge of, and your faith in, the great verities of the gospel, and the loving personality of God, to the mere report of others, if you cannot verify these by your own experience, if you cannot say, ‘Many things I know not; you can easily puzzle me with critical and philosophical subtleties, but this one thing I do know, that whereas I was blind, now I see’ - if you cannot say that, I pray you, bethink yourselves whether your religion is not mainly a form, and how far it has any life in it at all.

But whilst thus the great promise of my text, in its very blessedness and fulness, does carry with it soma solemn suggestions for searching self- examination, it also points in another direction. For consider what it excludes and what it permits, in the way of brotherly help and guidance. It certainly excludes on the one hand, all assumption of authority over the consciences and the understandings of Christian people, on the part either of churches or individuals, and, it makes short work of all claims that there continues a class of persons officially distinguished from their brethren, and having closer access to God than they. The true understanding of these words of my text, the recognition of the universality of the knowledge of God in all Christian people, has great revolutionary work yet to do amongst the churches of Christendom. For I do not know that there are any of them that have sufficiently recognised this principle. Not only in a church whore there is a priesthood and an infallible head of the Church on earth, nor only in churches that are bound by human creeds imposed on them by men, but also in churches like ours, where there is no formal recognition of either of these two errors, the practical contradiction of this article of the New Covenant is apt to creep in. It is a great deal more the fault of the people than of the priest, a great deal more the fault of the congregation than of the pastor, when they are lazily contented to take all their religion at second-hand from him, and to shuffle all the responsibility off their own shoulders on to his. If my text obliges me, and all men who stand in my position, to say with the Apostle, ‘Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy,’ it obliges you, dear brethren, to take nothing from me, or any man, on our bare words, nor to exalt any of us into a position which would contradict the great principle of my text, but yourselves, at first hand, to go to God, and get straight from Him the teaching which He only can give. Dominion and subjection, authority and submission to men, in any part of the church are shut out by such words as these.

But brotherly help is not shut out. If a party of men are climbing a hill, and one is in advance of his fellows, when he reaches the summit he may look down and call to those below, and tell them how fair and wide the view is, and beckon them to come and give them a helping hand up. So, because Christian men vary in the extent to which they possess and utilise the one gift of knowledge of God, and some of them are in advance of the others, it is all in accordance with the principle of my text that they that are in advance should help their brethren, and give them a brotherly hand. Not as if my brother’s word can give me the inward knowledge of God, but it may help me to get that knowledge for myself. We - I speak now as a member of the preaching class - we can but do what the friend of the bridegroom does; he brings the bride to her lover, and then he shuts the door and leaves the two to themselves That is all that any of us can do. You must yourself draw the water from the well of salvation. We can only tell you, ‘there is the well, and the water is sweet.’

III. Lastly, the means by which this promise is fulfilled.

I have already pointed out, in previous sermons, that the conception of the gospel as a new covenant was endorsed by Jesus Christ Himself in words which tell us how all these blessings that are set forth in this context are secured and brought to men, when in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, He spoke of ‘the New Covenant in His blood.’ So I set first and foremost, above all other means, this one great truth, that all this inward knowledge of God, which is the prerogative of every Christian man, is made possible and actual for any of us, only by and through the mission, and especially the death, of Jesus Christ our Lord. For therein does He set forth God to be known as nothing else but that supreme suffering and supreme self- surrender upon the Cross, ever can do or has done. We know God as He would have us know Him, only when we see Jesus suffering and dying for us; and then adoringly, as one in the presence of a mystery into which he can but look a little way, Bay that even there and then ‘he that hath seen that Christ hath seen the Father.’

Jesus Christ’s Mood, the seal of the Covenant, is the great means by which this promise is fulfilled, inasmuch u in that death He sweeps away all the hindrances which bar us out from the knowledge of God. The great dark wall of my sin rises between me and my Father. Christ’s blood, like some magic drops upon a fortification, causes all the black barrier to melt away like a cloud; and the access to the throne of God is patent, even for sinful creatures like us. The veil is rent, and by that blood we have access into the holiest of all.

Christ is the source of this knowledge of God, inasmuch, further, as by His mission and death there is given to the whole world, if it will receive it, and to all who exercise faith in His name, the gift of that Divine Spirit who teaches to our inmost spirit the true knowledge of His Son.

And so, dear brethren, since it is in the incarnate and dying Christ that all knowledge of God is brought to men, that all possibility of friendship and communion between men and God is rooted, and that the Divine Spirit who leads us into the deep things of God is granted to each of us, there follows the plain conclusion that the one way by which every man and

woman on earth may find him and herself included within that ‘all, from the least to the greatest,’ is simply trust in Christ Jesus, in whom, in whose life, in whose death, God is made known, our alienation is swept away, and the Spirit of God, the Divine Teacher, is granted to us all.

Only, remember that my text stands in close connection with the preceding articles of this covenant, and that to delight in the law of the Lord is the sure way to know more of the Lord. One act of obedience from the heart will teach us more of God than all the sages can. It is more illuminating simply to do as He willed than to read and think and speculate and study.

‘If any man wills to do His will, he shall know of the teaching.’

And mutual possession of God by us, and of us by God, leads to fuller knowledge. To possess God is to love Him; and ‘he that loveth knoweth God, yea! rather is known of God.’

So, dear brethren, do not be content with traditional religion, with a hearsay Christianity. ‘Acquaint now thyself with Him,’ and be at peace. Oh! there is nothing sweeter to a true preacher of Christ and His salvation than that those to whom he preaches should be able to do without him. It is my business to point you away from myself, however much I prize your love and confidence, as I ought to do; and to beseech you, for your own soul’s sake, that you would by faith in Christ attain that knowledge of the only true God which He is sent to give. Then you will be able to say, ‘Now, we believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:11 All those in the new covenant know the Lord; intimate personal relationship with the Lord is in the very nature of the new covenant.

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

Heb 8:11. Οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν, they shall not teach) A Metonymy of the consequent for the antecedent: i.e. All will be taught by GOD Himself especially the love, which is the sum of the law. The exertions of brethren in teaching are not absolutely denied; for men must first be taught, whilst the covenant itself is being promulgated to them; Act 3:25; Isa 2:3: then the instruction of brethren is plainly no longer necessary, at least to those who attain to the very power of the covenant in the remission of sins, and in the knowledge of the Lord. We have no need to write, nor you to he written to, says Paul, 1Th 4:9; 1Th 5:1. There will be a very full accomplishment of these promises when that which is perfect has come, even eternal life. But on the way to it every man should certainly teach and exhort himself and his brother; Heb 13:22, Jud 1:3. In short, even the doctrine, which is either solid meat or milk for the strong and for the weak, both alike being godly, delights the godly; Heb 5:12-13; Heb 13:7: nay, these very persons now at last, and not till now, fully comprehend doctrine (‘teaching’); 1Co 2:6; 1Co 3:1; and the apostle himself, both here and in the whole of his office, teaches. That precept of highest importance, Know the Lord, is learned from the Lord. One proclaims to another every doctrine (every kind of teaching) that is agreeable to this one, which stands highest: and admonition has the principal place; 2Pe 1:12. In the mean time the doctrine is not difficult and forced, because grace renders all very teachable; for it is no longer the ministry of the letter, but of the spirit; 2Co 3:6, note. Nor does the firmness of believers depend on the authority of human teachers. This is also the reason why the scripture of the New Testament is shorter, and why some things are not so clearly decided. GOD Himself teaches His people.—τὸν ἀδελφὸν, his brother) This implies a closer relation than a neighbour or fellow-citizen.[45]–[46] ἀπὸ μικροῦ, from a little one [the least]) He that is feeble among them shall be as David, Zec 12:8.

[45] A citizen, he says: for the reading πολίτην is preferred to that of πλησίον on the margin of both Ed., and is translated in the Germ. Vers. by the word Mitbürger.—E. B.

[46] Εἰδήσουσί με, they shall know Me) from the utmost experience of My grace; Jer 9:24.—V. g.

ABD(Δ), and almost all the oldest authorities, read πολίτην. But Vulg. reads, as Rec. Text, πλησίον.—ED.

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

Heb_8:11. The consequence resulting from the διδόναι νόμους εἰς τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν κ.τ.λ., Heb_8:10. Comp. Joe_3:1-2; 1Jn_2:27.

καὶ οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν] and then they shall not instruct (Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 472; Buttmann, Gramm. des neutest. Sprachgebr. p. 183), as regards the sense equivalent to: and then it will not be needful that they instruct each other; the reason for which is stated immediately after, in the on ὅτι πάντες εἰδήσουσίν με κ.τ.λ. On the intensifying οὐ μή, see Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 471 f.

τὸν πολίτην αὐτοῦ] his fellow-citizen. So in the LXX., Cod. Vatic., and most MSS., while Cod. Alex. has in the first member τὸν ἀδελφόν, in the second τὸν πλησίον.

γνῶθι] in the Hebrew the plural: דְּעוּ.

μικροῦ] With the LXX. in most Codd.: μικροῦ αὐτῶν.

ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν] Young and old (כְמִקְּטַנָם וְעַד־גְּדו̇לָם). Comp. Act_8:10; LXX. Jer_6:13; Jon_3:5; Gen_19:11, al.

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.

Second of the "better promises" (Heb 8:6).

they shall not--"they shall not have to teach" [ALFORD].

his neighbour--So Vulgate reads; but the oldest manuscripts have "his (fellow) citizen."

brother--a closer and more endearing relation than fellow citizen.

from the least to the greatest--Greek, "from the little one to the great one." Zac 12:8, "He that is feeble among them shall be as David." Under the old covenant, the priest's lips were to keep knowledge, and at his mouth the people were to seek the law: under the new covenant, the Holy Spirit teaches every believer. Not that the mutual teaching of brethren is excluded while the covenant is being promulgated; but when once the Holy Spirit shall have fully taught all the remission of their sins and inward sanctification, then there shall be no further' need of man teaching his fellow man. Compare Th1 4:9; Th1 5:1, an earnest of that perfect state to come. On the way to that perfect state every man should teach his neighbor. "The teaching is not hard and forced, because grace renders all teachable; for it is not the ministry of the letter, but of the spirit (Co2 3:6). The believer's firmness does not depend on the authority of human teachers. God Himself teaches" [BENGEL]. The New Testament is shorter than the Old Testament, because, instead of the details of an outward letter law, it gives the all-embracing principles of the spiritual law written on the conscience, leading one to spontaneous instinctive obedience in outward details. None save the Lord can teach effectually, "know the Lord."

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

Verse 11. They shall not teach every man his neighbour] Under the old covenant, properly speaking, there was no public instruction; before the erection of synagogues all worship was confined at first to the tabernacle, afterwards to the temple. When synagogues were established they were used principally for the bare reading of the law and the prophets; and scarcely any such thing as a public ministry for the continual instruction of the common people was found in the land till the time of John the Baptist, our Lord, and his apostles. It is true there were prophets who were a sort of general teachers, but neither was their ministry extended through all the people; and there were schools of the prophets and schools of the rabbins, but these were for the instruction of select persons. Hence it was necessary that every man should do what he could, under that dispensation, to instruct his neighbour and brother. But the prophecy here indicates that there should be, under the Gospel dispensation, a profusion of Divine light; and this we find to be the case by the plentiful diffusion of the sacred writings, and by an abundant Gospel ministry: and these blessings are not confined to temples or palaces, but are found in every corner of the land; so that, literally, all the people, from the least to the greatest, know and acknowledge the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Almost every man, at least in this land, has a Bible, and can read it; and there is not a family that has not the opportunity of hearing the Gospel preached, explained, and enforced.

Some have thought that from the least to the greatest is intended to signify the order in which God proceeds with a work of grace; he generally begins with the poor, and through these the great and the high often hear the Gospel of Christ.

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

11. And they shall not teach, etc. We have said that the third point is as it were a part of the second, included in these words, I will put my laws in their mind; for it is the work of the Spirit of God to illuminate our minds, so that we may know what the will of God is, and also to bend our hearts to obedience. For the right knowledge of God is a wisdom which far surpasses the comprehension of man’s understanding; therefore, to attain it no one is able except through the secret revelation of the Spirit. Hence Isaiah, in speaking of the restoration of the Church, says, that all God’s children would be his disciples or scholars. (Isaiah 28:16.) The meaning of our Prophet is the same when he introduces God as saying, They shall know me. For God does not promise what is in our own power, but what he alone can perform for us. In short, these words of the Prophet are the same as though he had said, that our minds are blind and destitute of all right understanding until they are illuminated by the Spirit of God. Thus God is rightly known by those alone to whom he has been pleased by a special favor to reveal himself.

By saying, From the least to the greatest, he first intimates that God’s grace would be poured on all ranks of men, so that no class would be without it. He, secondly, reminds us that no rude and ignorant men are precluded from this heavenly wisdom, and that the great and the noble cannot attain it by their own acuteness or by the help of learning. Thus God connects the meanest and the lowest with the highest, so that their ignorance is no impediment to the one, nor can the other ascend so high by their own acumen; but the one Spirit is equally the teacher of them all.

Fanatical men take hence the occasion to do away with public preaching, as though it were of no use in Christ’s kingdom; but their madness may be easily exposed. Their objection is this: “After the coming of Christ every one is to teach his neighbor; away then with the external ministry, that a place may be given to the internal inspiration of God.” But they pass by this, that the Prophet does not wholly deny that they would teach one another, but his words are these, They shall not teach, saying, Know the Lord; as though he had said, “Ignorance shall not as heretofore so possess the minds of men as not to know who God is.” But we know that the use of teaching is twofold; first, that they who are wholly ignorant may learn the first elements; and secondly, that those who are initiated may make progress. As then Christians, as long as they live, ought to make progress, it cannot surely be said, that any one is so wise that he needs not to be taught; so that no small part of our wisdom is a teachable spirit. And what is the way of making progress if we desire to be the disciples of Christ? This is shown to us by Paul when he says, that Christ gave pastors and teachers. (Ephesians 4:11.) It hence appears that nothing less was thought of by the Prophet than to rob the Church of such a benefit. His only object was to show that God would make himself known to small and great, according to what was also predicted by Joel 2:28. It ought also in passing to be noticed, that this light of sacred knowledge is promised peculiarly to the Church; hence this passage belongs to none but to the household of faith.

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) His neighbour.—Rather, his fellow-citizen, according to the best reading. The second promise is the universality of the knowledge of God. The divine teaching shall not only be internal, but for this very reason shall extend to all.

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

11. his neighbour] Lit. “his fellow-citizen.”

for all shall know me] The second promise of the New Covenant is that there shall be no appropriation of knowledge; no sacerdotal exclusiveness; no learned caste that shall monopolise the keys of knowledge, and lock out those that desire to enter in. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isa_54:13), and all shall be “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.”

all shall know me] By virtue of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which “teacheth us of all things” (1Jn_2:27).

from the least to the greatest] That is, from the eldest to the youngest (Gen_19:11; Act_8:10, &c.).

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

And they shall not teach every man his neighbour,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "citizen"; that is, fellow citizen; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions: "and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord": this is not to be understood, so as to set aside the external and public ministry of the word, which is a standing ordinance of God under the Gospel dispensation; or even the, private instructions of saints one to another, in Christian conversation, whereby they may build up one another in their most holy faith; but the sense is, that men should not only teach, but the Spirit of God should teach with them, and by them; and it stands opposed to particular and pretended revelations, and especially to magisterial dictates; and denotes the abundance of knowledge that should be in Gospel times, which should not be restrained to particular persons, and sets of men, but should be shared by all believers, more or less:

for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest; from babes to fathers in Christ; not with a natural, but with a spiritual knowledge; not with general knowledge of him, that he is, but with a special knowledge of him, that he is theirs; not with a legal, but with an evangelical knowledge; not with the knowledge of him in, and through the creatures, but in Christ; and that not speculative, but experimental; such as is attended with faith in him, fear of him, love to him, and a cheerful obedience to his will: the knowledge of the Lord, under the New Testament dispensation, is greater than under the former dispensation; the subject matter of it is more distinct; God is more known in the persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit, in the perfections of his nature, in his titles and characters, and in his Son; the manner of it is more clear, open, and perspicuous; the persons to whom it is communicated are more numerous; it is not restrained to Jews, but is given to the Gentiles; and all this owing to a greater effusion of the Spirit; see Jo1 2:27.

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

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Ver. 11. And they shall not teach] The full performance of this promise is reserved to the life to come; when we shall need no ordinances, but shall be all taught of God.

For all shall know me] Not apprehensively only, but effectively, and with a knowledge of acquaintance, as the Church thought she should know him amidst all his austerities, Isa 63:16. "Art not thou our father?"

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.

And they shall not teach every man his neighbor ... - That is, no one shall be under a necessity of imparting instruction to another, or of exhorting him to become acquainted with the Lord. This is designed to set forth another of the advantages which would attend the new dispensation. In the previous verse it had been said that one advantage of that economy would be, that the Law would be written on the heart, and that they who were thus blessed would be regarded as the people of God. Another advantage over the “old” arrangement or covenant is here stated. It is, that the knowledge of the Lord and of the true religion would be deeply engraved on the minds of all, and that there would be no necessity for mutual exhortation and counsel. “They shall have a much more certain and effectual teaching than they can derive from another.” “Doddridge.” This passage does not refer to the fact that the true religion will be universally diffused, but that among those who are interested in the blessings of the new covenant there would be an accurate and just knowledge of the Lord. In some way they would be so taught respecting his character that they would not need the aid to be derived from others. All under that dispensation, or sustaining to him the relation of “a people,” would in fact have a correct knowledge of the Lord. This could not be said of the old dispensation, for.

(1)Their religion consisted much in outward observances.

(2)It was not to such an extent as the new system a dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

(3)There were not as many means as now for learning the true character of God.

(4)The fullest revelations had not been made to them of that character. That was reserved for the coming of the Saviour, and under him it was intended that there should be communicated the full knowledge of the character of God.

Many mss., and those among the best, here have πολίτην politēn - “citizen;” “fellow-citizen,” instead of πλησίον plēsion, “neighbor,” and this is adopted by Griesbach, Tittman, Rosenmuller, Knapp, Stuart, and by many of the fathers. It is also in the version of the Septuagint in the place quoted from Jeremiah. It is not easy to determine the true reading, but the word “neighbor” better agrees with the meaning of the Hebrew - רץ rēà - and there is strong authority from the mss. and the versions for this reading.

And every man his brother - Another form of expression, meaning that there would be no necessity that one should teach another.

Saying, Know the Lord - That is, become acquainted with God; learn his character and his will. The idea is, that the true knowledge of Yahweh would prevail as a characteristic of those times.

For all shall know me - That is, all those referred to; all who are interested in the new covenant, and who are partakers of its blessings. It does not mean that all persons, in all lands, would then know the Lord - though the time will come when that will be true; but the expression is to be limited by the point under discussion. That point is not that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the whole world, but that all who are interested in the new dispensation will have a much more full and clear knowledge of God than was possessed under the old. Of the truth of this no one can doubt. Christians have a much more perfect knowledge of God and of his government than could have been learned merely from the revelations of the Old Testament.

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

They shall not teach, &c. So great shall be the light and grace of the new testament, that it shall not be necessary to inculcate to the faithful the belief and knowledge of the true God, for they shall all know him. (Challoner) --- All shall know me, &c. This seems to signify that by the truths which Christ preached, and which the apostles published to all nations, the faithful in the new law should have a greater knowledge of God, of the true manner of worshipping him, and of heavenly things, and also greater and more abundant graces than they had before Christ’s coming. They shall also serve God with greater fidelity, by considering his mercy in sending them a Redeemer to free them from the slavery of sin and damnation, of which they stood guilty. (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).

And they shall not teach: the subject implied in the plural verb, and by a partitive particle expressed, they, and every man, is in Jeremiah’s text איש a man, even every truly covenanted one who hath the knowledge of the Lord.

And they shall teach no more, in Jer 31:34. A double negative supplieth it in this verse, ου μν denying that weak and fruitless kind of teaching which was under the Mosaical covenant administration, whereby souls were not savingly edified in the knowledge of God, there was imperfection both in their knowledge and teaching, which should not be under the gospel.

Every man his neighbour; such as are nearer to each other in society or commerce, a fellow citizen; or are near by relation, by nature or alliance, by consanguinity or affinity, one near at hand, ignorant of the Lord; and that needs instruction, one capable and possible to be taught.

Saying, Know the Lord: this intimates the manner of teaching denied, a formal, customary way of teaching, saying; it was proverbial with them; and so was the matter of it: Know the Lord; as they used to say: The temple of the Lord, Jer 7:4; The burden of the Lord, Jer 23:34; The day of the Lord, Amo 5:18; or otherwise, not to teach them to know the Lord notionally only, without any influence on their heart, without believing, loving, fearing, or obeying him, 1Jo 2:3,4; or to teach them to know the Lord, as redeeming and delivering of them out of Egypt, or out of the land of the north, that is, bringing them back from their captivity in Babylon, as they were taught, Exo 20:2; Jer 23:7,8; but as delivering them from sin, the curse, wrath, and hell. Or, they shall not teach one another so darkly, slenderly, and imperfectly in the meaning of types, shadows, and ceremonies, that they might know the Lord in truth, and worship him according to his mind; or to take so much pains to instruct them concerning the Lord and his worship, as they took with the Gentiles when they proselyted them.

For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest; for under the gospel administration all the covenanted ones, the infant in the church and the aged, Isa 65:20, all ages in Christ, children, fathers, and young men, as 1Jo 2:12-14, young and old, shall have his laws put into their mind’s, and written on their hearts, the true saving knowledge of him in Christ in the fulness of it, as Isa 11:9; they shall so perfectly know him, as not to depart from him; he shall be theirs and they his by an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; by the plentiful effusion of his Spirit in all the gifts and graces of it through his gospel institutions on them; they shall be so enlightened in gospel truths, that they shall know their duties, and perform them, as if they were immediately enlightened from above, rather than by the common methods of teaching by his word; that they shall not need so much cautioning, threatening, correcting as they did under the law; but shall entirely cleave to him, without a disposition to revolt.

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

11. The universality of this abounding piety comes last and latest—the consummation of the glories of this Messianic dispensation. Holy instruction shall not be given by slow, individual effort; but in masses the light of truth shall be universal as the light of day.

Know the Lord—That is, know Jehovah to be the true God, against all idols and against all atheism; for idolatry and atheism will disappear.

All—Nothing less than all Jews and all Gentiles.

Least… greatest—Without distinction of rank, caste, colour, or nationality.

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

Vers. 11, 12. Knowledge and mercy in the new covenant. "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor," etc.

I MAN"S KNOWLEDGE, OF GOD UNDER THE NEW COVENANT. "And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord," etc. We have here:

1. The highest subject of knowledge. "The Lord: all shall know me?" This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God," etc. This knowledge is:

(1) Sublimest in its character. There is no knowledge so exalted as this. Knowledge of astronomy is a high attainment; but it is not to be compared with knowledge of him who made the stars and all worlds, and who sustains them and presides over them.

(2) Widest in its extent. He is infinite, and can never be fully known by man: "The knowledge of God and of Christ," says Dr. Harris, "is the sum of all science; this is the only knowledge that can incorporate and mingle with our being; and all other knowledge is real only so far as it is symbolical of this.

(3) Mightiest in its moral influence. It transforms the character of those who possess it. (cf. 2Co_3:18)

2. The purest source of knowledge. The obligation of men under the old covenant to impart to each other the knowledge of God is implied in the text. This obligation is not abolished under the new covenant; but there is less need for such private instruction because of the frequent public services of qualified ministers of the gospel. Moreover, the text undoubtedly refers to the communication of knowledge by the Holy Spirit. "The agency of the Holy Ghost is assumed under this covenant as "the Spirit of truth," the supreme and most vital Teacher of this true knowledge of God. For the covenant, taken in the large sense of a system of agencies, is definitely and certainly the gospel age as distinguished from the Mosaic; and of this gospel age or dispensation, the gift of the Holy Ghost, to teach, impress, and enforce the true knowledge of God, is the center and the soul, even as Jesus is the center and soul of the Christian economy considered as "the Propitiation for our sins," and our great High Priest before the throne of God. The results as given here come of his teaching and of no other" (H. Cowles, D.D.). This knowledge does not spring from mere human conjecture, or imagination, or investigation, or ratiocination; but from spiritual revelation. "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord." "Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things". (1Jn_2:20, 1Jn_2:27)

1. The clear apprehension of knowledge. Proceeding from so crystalline a source, the stream will be clear. If our mind and heart be free from prejudice, then the instruction concerning God which we receive from the Word and the Spirit will be clear and correct; what we know of him we shall know truly.

2. The wide diffusion of knowledge. "All shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them." Primarily the "all" refers to the "people" (ver. 10) of God: all of them shall know him. But eventually there shall be a universal diffusion of the knowledge of God. This the sacred Scriptures distinctly affirm. (Mat_24:14 Mat_28:19 Luk_24:47 Rev_14:6)

II GOD"S MERCY TO MAN UNDER THE NEW COVENANT. "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins," etc. Under the new covenant God manifests his rich grace in the way in which he forgives sin. We have here:

1. The source of forgiveness. "I will be merciful." Forgiveness does not spring from man"s repentance, but from God"s mercy. Repentance is a condition of forgiveness, but the grace of God is its source. Apart from his grace repentance is impossible unto us. "By grace are ye saved," etc. (cf. Eph_2:7-10)

2. The fullness of forgiveness. He pardons "their iniquities and their sins." He cleanses "from all unrighteousness." "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." None are too numerous, none too aggravated, etc. (cf. Isa_1:18)

3. The irrevocableness of forgiveness. "Their sins will I remember no more." Strictly speaking, the Infinite Mind cannot forget anything. But God forgives so completely that the sins are as it were buried in deep oblivion. His forgiveness is irrevocable. This inspiring truth is repeatedly and impressively expressed in the Bible. (Psa_103:12 Isa_38:17 Isa_43:25 Isa_44:22 Mic_7:19) This rich, abounding mercy is the reason of man"s fuller, clear knowledge of God. There was mercy in the old covenant, but in that it was not pre-eminent as in the new one. The chief feature of that was Law; the chief feature of this is grace. Forgiveness leads to gratitude and love to the Forgiver; and love leads to the clearer, wider knowledge of him. If you would know God truly, intimately, deeply, you must love him. W.J.

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

And they who are under this covenant (though in other respects they will have need to teach each other to their lives' end, yet) shall not need to teach every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me - All real Christians. From the least to the greatest - In this order the saving knowledge of God ever did and ever will proceed; not first to the greatest, and then to the least. But "the Lord shall save the tents," the poorest, "of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David," the royal seed, "and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem," the nobles and the rich citizens, "do not magnify themselves," Zech. xii, 7.

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

Lord

Jehovah. Jer 31:34.

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

These words are not to be understood absolutely, but comparatively: They are a promise that under the new covenant dispensation the Holy Spirit shall be so plentifully poured forth, and the light of the gospel so clearly shine forth that there shall not be such need as under the law, to teach men the knowledge of God, and their duty to him; they shall not need, in such a manner as formerly, to instruct one another in the meaning of the types and shadows of the law: they shall all know me: that is, all ranks and degrees of men, all sorts and conditions of persons, shall own me to be the Lord.

Note here, What abuse is put upon this text by some, who bring it to set aside the necessity of human teaching; for it is by such teaching that God gives men the knowledge of himself.

Learn hence, That there is a duty incumbent on every man to instruct others according to his ability and opportunity, in the knowledge of God.

But, Lord, pity us we have more, that mutually teach one another sin, folly vanity, yea villainy of all sorts, than the knowledge of God, and the duty we owe unto him! This is not what God here promiseth, believers in a way of grace, but what he hath given up careless unbelieving professors to, in a way of vengeance.

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

11. They shall not teach every man his neighbor. Under the old covenant children were born into covenant relation. As they grew up they had to be taught of the Lord, or they would never know him. As a matter of fact, many did not learn to know him. But under the new covenant all must learn to know God and the Son whom he hath sent before they can enter the covenant. Every one must enter by faith in Christ, repentance of sin, and surrender to the will of God. Hence all members of the new covenant know God, from the least to the greatest.

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.

General Information:

This continues the quotation from the prophet Jeremiah.

They will not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord.'

This direct quotation can be stated as an indirect quotation. AT: "They will not need to teach their neighbors or brothers to know me" (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)

neighbor ... brother

Both of these refer to fellow Israelites. (See: Doublet)

Know the Lord ... will all know me

"Know" here stands for acknowledge. (See: Metonymy)

toward their evil deeds

This stands for the people who committed these evil deeds. AT: "to those who did evil deeds" (See: Metonymy)

their sins I will not remember any longer

Here "remember" stands for "think about." (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

teach

neighbor

brother

know

lord

mercy

righteous

sin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11. οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν. Dawes’s canon that only the second aor. subj. act. and mid. is used after οὐ μὴ is at any rate inapplicable to the N.T. (see Rev 18:14), nor does Hermann’s canon on the difference of meaning between οὐ μὴ with the fut. and with the aor. subj. remain valid in Hellenistic Greek. See Winer, pp. 635, 636.

τὸν πολίτην αὐτοῦ. Lit., “his fellow-citizen.” The repetition ἕκαστος … καὶ ἕκαστος is a sort of echo of the Hebrew idiom “the man to his brother,” Winer, p. 217.

πάντες. The second promise of the New Covenant is that there shall be no appropriation of knowledge; no sacerdotal exclusiveness; no learned caste that shall monopolise the keys of knowledge, and lock out those that desire to enter in. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isa 54:13), and all shall be “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.”

εἰδήσουσιν. This form of the future εἰδήσω from εἰδέω is Ionic and extremely rare. It is found in Isocrates, but does not occur elsewhere in the LXX. or N.T.: see Veitch, Greek Verbs, p. 187.

εἰδήσουσίν με. By virtue of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which “teaches us of all things” (1Jn 2:27).

ἀπὸ μικροῦ κ.τ.λ. That is, from the eldest to the youngest (Gen 19:11; Act 8:10, &c.).

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

11.] Second of the κρείττονες ἐπαγγελίαι—universal spread of the knowledge of God: following on the other, that God would put His laws in their minds and write them in their hearts. And they shall not have to teach (see var. readd., which give the later usage of οὐ μή with the indic. fut.) every man his (fellow-) citizen (אֶת רֵעֵהוּ. LXX-A ἀδελφόν: Bא, as text. The LXX have several times rendered רֵעֵהוּ by πολίτης, see reff.), and every man his brother (LXX-A πλησίον), saying Know (Heb. דְּעוּ, plural: “Know ye”) the Lord: because all shall know (εἰδήσω is properly an Ionic future of εἴδω, but used, at least in its aoristic form εἴδησα, by the Attics also, e. g. Aristot. de Anima i. 2 (so Lobeck: but I cannot find it). See Lobeck, Phryn. p. 743, where more examples are given, but none of the Attic use of εἰδήσω: nor does this fut. seem to occur elsewhere either in the LXX or N. T.) me, from the small (one) (the Heb. bears out the rec. here (which agrees with LXX-Bא) in expressing the αὐτῶν: לְמִקְּטַנָּם וְעַד־נְּדוֹלָם. The formula is found generally without the pronoun, as in reff. and Gen 19:11: 1Ki 5:9; 30:2, 19: 4 Kings 23:2; 25:26, &c.: but with it in Jer 6:13: Jon 3:5) even to the great (one) of them (that is, “they shall be all taught of God,” as cited by our Lord in Joh 6:45, from Isa 54:13, as written ἐν τοῖς προφήταις, alluding to such passages as this and Joe 2:28, Joe 2:29. See also 1Jn 2:20, 1Jn 2:27, and notes there. Under the old covenant, the priests’ lips were to keep knowledge, and they were to teach the people God’s ways: under the New, there is no more need for the believer to have recourse to man for teaching in the knowledge of God, for the Holy Spirit, which is given to all that ask, reveals the things of Christ to each, according to the measure of his spiritual attainment and strength of faith. And the inner reason of this now follows, making, formally, the third of these better promises, but in fact bound up with, and the condition of, the last mentioned):

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

His neighbor [τον πολιτην] . Lit. his citizen : his fellow - citizen. 205 Know the Lord [γνωθι τον κυριον] . As if commending God to the knowledge of one who is ignorant of him.

All shall know [παντες ειδησουσιν] . Observe the two words for know : gnwqi of the recognition of a stranger; eijdhsousin of an absolute acquaintance as of one born under God 's covenant.

From the least to the greatest [απο μικρου εως μεγαλου αυτων] . Lit. from the little unto the great of them. This knowledge of God will be without distinction of age or station.

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