Hebrews 6:14

6:11-20 The hope here meant, is a sure looking for good things promised, through those promises, with love, desire, and valuing of them. Hope has its degrees, as faith also. The promise of blessedness God has made to believers, is from God's eternal purpose, settled between the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. These promises of God may safely be depended upon; for here we have two things which cannot change, the counsel and the oath of God, in which it is not possible for God to lie; it would be contrary to his nature as well as to his will. And as He cannot lie; the destruction of the unbeliever, and the salvation of the believer, are alike certain. Here observe, those to whom God has given full security of happiness, have a title to the promises by inheritance. The consolations of God are strong enough to support his people under their heaviest trials. Here is a refuge for all sinners who flee to the mercy of God, through the redemption of Christ, according to the covenant of grace, laying aside all other confidences. We are in this world as a ship at sea, tossed up and down, and in danger of being cast away. We need an anchor to keep us sure and steady. Gospel hope is our anchor in the storms of this world. It is sure and stedfast, or it could not keep us so. The free grace of God, the merits and mediation of Christ, and the powerful influences of his Spirit, are the grounds of this hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Christ is the object and ground of the believer's hope

Surely blessing I will bless thee (εἰ μήν εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω σε). Ει μήν as a formula of swearing N.T.o. In lxx, see Numbers 14:23, Numbers 14:28, Numbers 14:35; Isaiah 45:23; Ezekiel 33:27; Ezekiel 34:8. Blessing I will bless is a Hebraism, emphasizing the idea contained in the verb. Comp. lxx, Genesis 22:17; Numbers 25:10; Deuteronomy 15:4.

Hebrews 6:14 . The oath runs εἰ μὴν εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω σε .… “Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” “Sentences which denote assurance … are in classical Greek introduced by ἦ μήν , which in the Hellenistic and Roman period is sometimes written in the form of εἶ (accent?) μήν ; so in the LXX and in a quotation from it in Hebrews 6:14 ” (Blass, Gram. , p. 260); and cf. Jannaris, Hist. Greek Gram. , 2055. μήν is used to strengthen asseveration, suitably therefore in oaths. On the emphatic participle in imitation of the Hebrew absolute infinitive, see Winer, sec. 45, 8, p. 445. The oath here cited was a promise to bless mankind, a promise that through all history God’s gracious purpose should run; that, let happen what might, God would redeem and bless the world.

Hebrews 6:14 . Ἦ μὴν ) כי , Genesis 22:17 , LXX., κατʼ ἐμαυτοῦ ὤμοσα , λέγει Κύριος , ἦ μὴν εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω σὲ , κ . τ . λ ., “I have sworn by Myself, saith the Lord, that blessing I will bless thee,” etc. So ἦ μὴν , Genesis 42:16 . Devarius, when he had collected examples of the particle ἦ μὴν , infers that this word is used merely by the way of ornament, when it is applied to a promise or an oath: it is quite different in simple affirmations, in which it is necessarily (not merely ornamentally) used. But it may be resolved thus: ᾖ , let there be, whatever shall happen, i.e. occur what may, μὴν , yet this shall be done. Hebrews 6:14

(14) Saying. —The words of the oath itself, “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord” ( Genesis 22:16 ), are not repeated, because they are almost identical with the writer’s own words introducing the citation ( Hebrews 6:13 ). It will be observed that one change is made—in the last word; for in Genesis we read, “I will multiply thy seed. ” The alteration may be made for brevity, as the quotation is abridged; but it will be seen that the effect of it is to direct greater attention to the first words, and to fix the thought on the blessing promised to Abraham himself.

Here is laid down the form and matter of God’s oath: the form, in Genesis 22:16 , is implied in the particle yk in this text well rendered surely, Hebrews 3:11 . The other defective expressions are forms of swearing, as if, except, unless; but here it is positive, surely, or verily, which Christ frequently useth; it is a vehement assertion of what he saith. The whole matter of God’s oath is not repeated, but the substance and comprehensive part of it, which made for the apostle’s purpose here. By blessing, in the Hebrew manner of expressing, is carried the abundance and certainty of all that temporal and spiritual good, which he would convey unto him in and through the blessed and promised Seed, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the multiplicity, abundance, and certainty of the seed natural, and believing, to whom he should be related as a Father through Christ, as is evident, Genesis 22:16-18 ; and all this so uttered, as if God could not express how much he loved him.

Hebrews 6:14 . Εἰ μὴν κ . τ . λ .] Adducing of the declaration, Genesis 22:17 , with the difference, that in the case of the LXX. πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου is in harmony with the original put in place of πληθυνῶ σε . This deviation is not to be explained by the supposition that the author chose σε instead of τὸ σπέρμα σου merely “for brevity’s sake” (Jac. Cappellus), or “in order to present the promise in a form as concentrated as possible” (Delitzsch), or that he cited from memory (Abresch), or that he wished to place in the background all thought of the merely physical descendants of Abraham, and direct the glance of the reader exclusively to the spiritual or heavenly posterity of Abraham, which was appointed to him through Christ (Böhme, Bisping, and others). It has its ground simply in the fact that the author was here occupied exclusively with the person of Abraham himself (Bleek, de Wette, Maier). εἰ μήν ] in place of the Greek ἦ μήν , or of the εἰ μή , formed after the Hebrew אִם־לֹא , is met with elsewhere in the LXX. ( Ezekiel 33:27 ; Ezekiel 34:8 ; Ezekiel 35:6 ; Ezekiel 36:5 , al.), not, indeed, so far as concerns our passage in the Cod. Alex. and Cod. Vatic., but yet in other ancient MSS.; and in any case, our author found it in the copy of the LXX. used by him.

The combination of the participle with the tempus finitum of the same verb ( εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω κ . τ . λ .) is a well-known Grecising of the Hebrew infin. absol., occurring exceedingly often in the LXX., and serving generally—as here—for the augmented and solemn emphasizing of the idea contained in the verb. See Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 332.