Hebrews 5:14

5:11-14 Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel difficult, and even those who have some faith may be dull hearers, and slow to believe. Much is looked for from those to whom much is given. To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of the gospel. And no tongue can express the satisfaction which the soul receives, from a sense of Divine goodness, grace, and love to it in Christ.

Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (τελείων δέ ἐστιν ἡ στερεὰ τροφή) This rendering is clumsy. Rend. solid food is for full-grown men. For τελείων full-grown, see on 1 Corinthians 2:6. Often by Paul, as here, in contrast with νήπιοι immature Christians. See 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 13:11; Ephesians 4:4. Paul has the verb νηπιάζειν to be a child in 1 Corinthians 14:20. By reason of use (διὰ τὴν ἕξιν) For use rend. habitude. N.T.o. It is the condition produced by past exercise. Not the process as A.V., but the result. Their senses (τὰ αἰσθητήρια) N.T.o. Organs of perception; perceptive faculties of the mind. In lxx see Jeremiah 4:19; 4 Macc. 2:22. Exercised (γεγυμνασμένα) See on 2 Peter 2:14, and see on 1 Timothy 4:7. Good and evil Not moral good and evil, but wholesome and corrupt doctrine. The implication is that the readers' condition is such as to prevent them from making this distinction.

Hebrews 5:14 . τελείων δὲ .… “But solid food is for the mature, those who, by reason of their mental habits, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.” τέλειος commonly opposed in classical and Biblical Greek to νήπιος ; as in Polyb. 5:29, 2, ἐλπίσαντες ὡς παιδίῳ νηπίῳ χρήσασθαι τῷ Φιλίππῳ , εὗρον αὐτὸν τέλειον ἄνδρα . Cf. Ephesians 4:13 ; and Xen., Cyr. , viii. 7, 3. They are here further defined as τῶν … κακοῦ . ἕξις [from ἔχω , as habitus from habeo], a habit of body, or of mind; as in Plato, Laws (p. 666), τὴν ἐμμανῆ ἕξιν τῶν νέων . Also, p. 966, Ἀνδραπόδου γάρ τινα σὺ λέγεις ἕξιν . Aristotle ( Nic. Eth . ii. 5) determines that virtue is neither a δύναμις nor a πάθος , but a ἕξις , a faculty being something natural and innate, while virtue is not. Plutarch ( Moral. , 443), following him, defines ἕξις as ἰσχὺς … ἐξ ἔθους ἐγγινομένη , which resembles Quintilian’s definition (x. 1, 1), “firma quaedam facilitas, quae apud Graecos ἕξις nominatur”. Aristotle ( Categor. , viii. 1) distinguishes ἕξις from διάθεσις , τῷ πολὺ χρονιώτερον εἶναι καὶ μονιμώτερον , but elsewhere he uses the words as equivalents. Longinus (xliv. 4) uses it of faculty. ἕξις , then, is the habitual or normal condition, the disposition or character; and the expression in the text means that the mature, by reason of their maturity or mental habit, have their senses exercised, etc. αἰσθητήρια : “senses”.

Bleek quotes the definition of the Greek lexicographers and of Damascene τὰ ὄργανα ἢ τὰ μέλη διʼ ὧν αἰσθανόμεθα . So Galen in Wetstein, “organs of sense”. Here the reference is to spiritual faculties of perception and taste. γεγυμνασμένα … πρὸς διάκρισιν …, “exercised so as to discriminate between good and evil,” i.e. , between what is wholesome and what is hurtful in teaching. [Wetstein quotes from Galen, De Dignot. Puls. , ὃς μὲν γὰρ τὸ αἰσθητήριον ἔχει γεγυμνασμένον ἱκανῶς οὗτος ἄριστος ἂν εἴη γνώμων .] The child must eat what is given to it; the boy is warned what to eat and what to avoid; as he grows, his senses are exercised by a various experience, so that when he reaches manhood he does not need a nurse or a priest to teach him what is nutritious and what is poisonous. The first evidence of maturity which the writer cites is ability to teach; the second, trained discernment of what is wholesome in doctrine. The one implies the other. Cf. Isaiah 7:16 , πρὶν γνῶναι τὸ παιδίον ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν , and Deuteronomy 1:39 . Chrysostom says οὐ περὶ βίου ὁ λόγος … ἀλλὰ περὶ δογμάτων ὑγιῶν καὶ ὑψηλῶν διεφθαρμένων τε καὶ ταπεινῶν ; the whole passage should be consulted.

Hebrews 5:14 . Τελείων , of them that are perfect ) τελειότητα , perfection , ch. Hebrews 6:1 , is the conjugate term. Τέλειοι καὶ μανθάνοντες are opposed to each other, 1 Chronicles 25:8 , מבין עם־תלמיד .— ἔστιν , is [belongeth to]) They who are perfect both desire and take solid meat.— διὰ ) by reason of.— τὴν ἕξιν , habitual strength of understanding[37] [‘ use ’]) The LXX. use this word, Jdg 14:9 ; 1 Samuel 16:7 ; Daniel 7:15 ; and also Wis 13:14 . It is said of a whole, in which the parts have themselves and are had in turn, hold and are held in turn; and here it denotes the strength of the faculty of perception (discernment) arising from the maturity of the spiritual age: not habit acquired by practice , διὰ τὴν ἕξιν , because they are possessed of more habitual strength of understanding. Exercise follows habit (habitual faculty); and strength makes a man put his faculty in exercise with alacrity, dexterity, profit, without affectation or the perverse imitation of others.— τὰ αἰσθητήρια ) properly the organs of the senses , for example, the tongue, the organ of tasting: comp. αἰσθήσει , in perception, sense , Php 1:9 , note. [37] Latin habitum , Th. habeo: as ἕξις from ἕχω .—ED. —————

14 . belongeth to them that are of full age ] The solid food of more advanced instruction pertains to the mature or “perfect.” by reason of use ] “Because of their habit,” i.e. from being habituated to it. This is the only place in the N.T. where this important word ἕξις habitus occurs. their senses ] Their spiritual faculties ( αἰσθητήρια . It does not occur elsewhere in the N.T.) exercised ] Trained, or disciplined by spiritual practice. to discern both good and evil ] Lit., “ the discrimination of good and evil.” By “good and evil” is not meant “right and wrong” because there is no question here of moral distinctions; but excellence and inferiority in matters of instruction. To the natural man the things of the spirit are foolishness; it is only the spiritual man who can “distinguish between things that differ” and so “discriminate the transcendent” ( 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 ; Romans 2:18 ; Php 1:9-10 ). The phrase “to know good and evil” is borrowed from Hebrew ( Genesis 2:17 , &c), and is used to describe the first dawn of intelligence ( Isaiah 7:15-16 ).

(14) Strong meat. —“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.

14. strong meat—"solid food." them … of full age—literally, "perfect": akin to "perfection" (Heb 6:1). by reason of use—Greek, "habit." senses—organs of sense. exercised—similarly connected with "righteousness" in Heb 12:11. to discern both good and evil—as a child no longer an infant (Isa 7:16): so able to distinguish between sound and unsound doctrine. The mere child puts into its mouth things hurtful and things nutritious, without discrimination: but not so the adult. Paul again alludes to their tendency not to discriminate, but to be carried about by strange doctrines, in Heb 13:9.

Verse 14. - But solid food is for them that are of full age ( τελείων , equivalent to "perfect;" but in the sense of maturity of age or growth, in contrast with νήπιοι ; as in 1 Corinthians 14:20 ; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:6 ; Ephesians 4:13 ; Philippians 3:15 ), those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Here the comparison is carried out with peculiar aptness. Τὰ αἰσθητήρια in the illustration are the organs of sense. In the infant the digestive organs, in the first place, exercised in the beginning on milk, acquire through that exercise the power of assimilating more solid and more complex food, while at the same time its sensitive organs generally, also through exercise, become consciously discriminative of "good and evil" (cf. Isaiah 7:15, 16 , where "to know to refuse the evil and choose the good" denotes, as if proverbially, the age after early childhood). So, in the spiritual sphere, the mental faculties, exercised at first on simple truths, should acquire by practice the power of apprehending and distinguishing' between higher and more recondite ones. It was because the Hebrew Christians had failed thus to bring out their faculties that they were open to the charge of being still in a state of infancy. Hebrews 5:14

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age; but those great, deep, and high mysteries of the gospel concerning Christ’s natures, their hypostatical union, his offices, his actual fulfilling all his types in the Old Testament both personal and mystical, with the prophecies of his gospel church state, and his mediatory kingdom, &c., these are the strong meat and food of grown Christians, who have reached some maturity in the knowledge of these gospel mysteries, and are of a full age in understanding, 1 Corinthians 2:6 1 Corinthians 14:20 Philippians 3:15 ; reaching on to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ in knowledge and grace, Ephesians 4:13 . Even those who by reason of use; even those who dia thn ezin, by a gracious habit of wisdom and knowledge infused and perfected by long study, practice, and exercise of themselves in the word of righteousness, by which they are able to apprehend and improve the highest doctrines of the mystery of Christ. Have their senses: ta aisyhthria are, strictly, organs or instruments of sense, as the eye, the tongue, and the hand, by a metonymy, express seeing, tasting, and feeling; and so is by analogy applied to the inward senses and faculties of the soul, whereby they discern and relish gospel doctrines. Exercised: gegumnasmena strictly notes such an exercise as wrestlers use for a victory with all their might and strength, being trained up to it by long exercise.

The spiritual organs or faculties of Christians are well instructed, practised, made apt and ready, as the external ones are, for their proper work. To discern both good and evil: prov diakrisin, for the discerning and differencing things, so as the mind discerns what doctrine is true and what is false by the word of righteousness, and the will chooseth what is good and refuseth what is evil, the affections love good and hate evil. As the senses external can by exercise discern what food is gustful, pleasing, and wholesome for the person, and what is nauseous and unwholesome; so the grown Christian is improved by the exercise of his spiritual senses, that can by his enlightened mind discern higher gospel doctrines, and by his renewed will relish the sublimer mysteries of Christ as they are revealed to him. Such the Christian Hebrews ought to have been, so able proficients in the school of Christ.