Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 25 Aug. 2019
Have you ever heard of Borden dairy products? The Borden family was a wealthy Presbyterian family in Chicago when William was born in 1888.
William got the best education there was at Yale and Princeton, all the while gallivanting around the world, sailing his large private yacht, climbing the Swiss Alps, and playing matches in his backyard tennis court.
His dad died young, so he also shouldered the management of the family business so that it continued to flourish and fill his bank accounts with millions of dollars.
But he was a dedicated Christian, involved in his church, helping the poor at the downtown rescue mission, and growing into the leadership of several Christian institutions, including the China Inland Mission, the National Bible Institute of New York City, YMCA, and the Nile Mission Press. He was also on the board of directors for Moody Bible Institute, where he helped draft their first doctrinal statement.
He was careful not to spend his money frivolously, though. In his twenties, the automobile was becoming widely available, and he struggled with whether or not to buy one. He familiarized himself with all the models, then decided it was an “unjustifiable luxury.” Instead he gave over 70 thousand dollars to Christian work during his three years at seminary. (And when you realize that the dollar has inflated about a thousand percent since then, that was like giving away seven million dollars!)
A devotional book that William carried with him on some of his travels had this phrase underlined: “The supreme human condition of the fullness of the Spirit is a life wholly surrendered to God to do His will.” His biographer commented, “‘To do His will’: nothing greater or more glorious could be desired, and Borden knew of nothing that brought deeper satisfaction. Life was not, to him, a question of ... having this or that; it was simply a question of the will of God – knowing it, doing it, and loving it.” And so when he heard preaching on the Great Commission and when he heard of three million Muslims in the heart of China who had no one to tell them about Jesus, he set his sights to go there.
In September 1912, astonished journalists published articles in the Chicago newspapers about this 24-year-old millionaire getting ordained to be a missionary to China. How could “a man of his age and prospects turn away from all the world had to offer and devote himself to a life of loneliness and hardship in a remote province in China… the darkest and meanest section of the Orient...”? One Chicago daily “nailed” the answer to that question by quoting Isaac Watt’s hymn from a hundred years before, “When I survey the wondrous cross On which the prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride… Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my life, my soul, my all.”
When his friends expressed surprise that he had decided to become a missionary, Borden replied, “You have not seen heathenism.” His friends also tried to get him into a relationship, but he replied, “It would be cruel for a man who is going into one of the most difficult of missionary fields to ask any girl to go with him, because the woman always fares the worst. I have no intention of marrying; it would be wrong to the girl and would hinder my highest efficiency in the field.”
He was very close to his mom, though, and that meant his decision to follow God’s call to Kansu was a sacrifice for her as well. Mrs. Howard Taylor, in her biography on William Borden of Yale, wrote, “From his childhood she had consecrated him to the Lord, and his call to missionary work had come as an answer to her many prayers. Yet, since his father’s death, she had leaned to lean upon him in everything, and the very thought of separation seemed at times unbearable…. His ordination meant... the sacrifice that seemed as if it must cost her very life. And then – there is no explaining it apart from the presence of the Lord Himself – as in that hour she held back nothing, a wonderful peace filled her heart. Physical weakness, even, was replaced by strength, so that she was able to meet all the demands of the dreaded situation when it came, with gladness. For there is a fellowship with Christ which infinitely compensates any cost at which it is won.”
William decided to go as a missionary with the China Inland Mission (which Hudson Taylor had started about 60 years before) because it was more evangelical than the Presbyterian Church mission (he specifically mentioned that he appreciated that they believed in the personal return of Christ).
Just before leaving the American shores, William drew up a will. In it, he bequeathed almost all of his inheritance to gospel ministry, splitting it evenly between evangelism in the United States (particularly in Chicago), and foreign missions (particularly in China). For comparison, J.P. Morgan’s will, drawn up the same week, bequeathed only half as much money to Christian organizations, even though he too claimed Christianity.
So it was in January 1913, that this 25-year-old millionaire-philanthropist moved to Cairo, Egypt, to learn Arabic and study about Islam under some of the best Christian tutors at the time, his last step of preparation for ministering the gospel among Muslims in inland China. Within two weeks of landing in Egypt, Borden organized a door-to-door evangelism campaign to reach every household in Cairo. He even tried to convert students and professors at El Azhar Islamic university. One of his tutors, Dr. Samuel Zwemer, wrote, “Here was a man with the frame of an athlete, the mind of a scholar, the grasp of a theologian as regards God’s truth, and the heart of a little child, full of faith and love...”
Four months later, William died of cerebral meningitis. “When [his] death was cabled from Egypt… there was scarcely a newspaper in the United States that did not publish some account of [his] life… A Richmond journal … admitted… ‘it is doubtful whether any life of modern times has flung out to the world a more inspiring example.’”1
What led this man to make such sacrifices? It was the same faith which led the Old Testament patriarchs to make sacrifices. Our scripture now is a brief recounting of Abraham and Isaac’s faith in the matter of God’s testing, and it lays before us an even more-inspiring example than that of William Borden, for our consideration:
Let me put two fears to rest right away:
First, Abraham did not kill his son. (Spoiler alert!) That part of the story is not mentioned here in Hebrews, but, in the full account of it, in Gen. 22, God interrupts Abraham and lets him know that this was just a test and then provides a lamb to sacrifice instead of the boy.
A second fear is that this might be an error in the Bible, since it says in Hebrews 11:17 that Abraham offered Isaac, whereas it says in Genesis 22 that Abraham offered a ram instead of Isaac. In the original Greek wording of Hebrews 11:17, the verbs are unusually nuanced to indicate, without actually saying that the act was carried through, that Abraham had truly resolved upon offering his son and actually had begun the process of offering Isaac as a sacrifice2. Thus the accounts of Genesis and Hebrews actually agree.
Once again, our author focuses in on the faith of Abraham being demonstrated in him believing a promise which God had made to him. The promise referenced this time in verse 18 is a quote from Genesis 21:8-13. It highlights the preciousness of this only-begotten son and therefore the high stakes involved in Abraham’s faith: “...Abraam made a great feast the day that his son Isaac was weaned. And Sarrha having seen the son of Agar the Egyptian who was born to Abraam, sporting with Isaac her son, then she said to Abraam, ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not inherit with my son Isaac.’ But the word appeared very hard before Abraam concerning his son. But God said to Abraam, ‘Let it not be hard before thee concerning the child, and concerning the bondwoman; in all things whatsoever Sarrha shall say to thee, hear her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And moreover I will make the son of this bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed.’" (Brenton)
The context then indicates that God was answering the question of whether or not Ishmael should be treated by Abraham as his heir and as the seed-line of the Messiah – the one God promised to Adam and Eve who would crush the head of the serpent and solve the problem of sin. God was telling Abraham that it was Isaac who should be considered Abraham’s heir and to look for the promised Messiah from Isaac’s descendants, not Ishmael's.
Abraham had children by other women without any difficulty, but it was the son promised to barren, 90-year-old Sarah – the son of promise, the one born miraculously by God’s power, the one uniquely born of Abraham and Sarah – who was to get the spotlight, in order that God would be glorified.
But then in the very next chapter – Genesis 22, came the “test”:
God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, not revealing that it was a test until it became evident that Abraham really would have obeyed God even with this most-difficult assignment.
All the same, God reassured Abraham of their relationship throughout the course of this test, calling him by name, acknowledging how much Abraham loved Isaac, and even repeating the familiar command, “Go to a place that I will show you,” which had started Abraham out on this crazy faith venture in the first place.
Don’t overlook Isaac’s faith in all this. He was a big enough boy3 to be able to carry the firewood up the hill – Moriah was perhaps the very hill upon which Jesus bore the beam of His cross. It was not lost on Isaac that they had no sacrificial animal. If Isaac had not also trusted God’s promises and power, it does not seem likely that he would have cooperated with his over-100-year-old father (who was too weak to carry the wood) when it came to getting on the altar and offering his life in response to God’s command.
Can you fathom what it is that Abraham did in obedience to God’s command?
For decades he and Sarah had agonized over not having a child of their own.
For decades God had promised to give them descendants,
and then came a single, solitary child, nothing more.
Only one son to hang all their hopes on; one son given to them by God in a glorious miracle.
The man and the woman of God finally became recipients of the long-awaited promise, they finally were collecting on a hundred years of living in faith;
finally, the family had an heir to carry on the family name, finally, God had placed His hand of blessing upon them,
finally, mankind could know who would carry the people of God forward and be the next-in-line to bear the seed of the coming Messiah.
All this and more was wrapped up in Isaac, the son of promise.
And then God said, “Offer that son as a sacrifice to me.”
God’s command was a sword aimed at the heart of every ambition and dream Abraham had.
It meant the end of his family,
It spelled the end of God’s promises.
It meant that there would be no more seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent.
How on earth did Abraham arrive at such faith that he would be willing to throw away the most important thing in his life? What can we learn from Abraham about how to think with such faith in God?
Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice Isaac was based on two things:
It was based on faith that God would make good on His promise that descendants would come through Isaac.
Since Isaac hadn’t had any children yet, Abraham, in faith, believed that if God wanted Isaac dead, then God would have to bring Isaac back to life in order to make good on those promises to raise up a multitude of descendants through Isaac.
Remember, Abraham told his servants, when he departed to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, “we will return.” Not “I will return,” “We will return” [נּשׁובּה]. Abraham was confident that Isaac would be walking alongside him on the return trip.
Secondly, Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice Isaac was due to his logical conclusion that God was actually able to raise the dead to life.
Once again we see that Biblical faith is not mindless; it is a thinking faith. The Greek word describing Abraham’s thinking is logizomai. It is a faith that reasons logically.4
The Bible, however, does not record anyone rising from the dead before Abraham, so how could Abraham have arrived at the logical conclusion that God could raise the dead if he had never heard of God raising anybody from the dead before? This is amazing faith! The Bible doesn’t tell us how Abraham arrived at this logical conclusion, but it could have been
from the knowledge that God had created human life in the first place, so surely He could also re-create it.
Abraham also knew from God’s word (recorded in Genesis) that God had created a “tree of life” that could give eternal life to humans, so it was logical to conclude that giving life was part of God’s intention and was within His power.
Furthermore, Abraham knew from scripture that God had extended the life of Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil – of which God had said, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” God was not finished with Adam and Eve the day they disobeyed that command, so God gave life to them for a few hundred more years, even after they had brought upon themselves the sentence of death.
Abraham had seen a similar instance of God’s grace of life after the sentence of death in his own life experience with the pagan king Abimelek. In Gen. 20, God had decreed that Abimelek was a “dead man” because of his lustful intentions toward Sarah (Abraham’s wife), and yet, when Abraham prayed for him, God mercifully extended Abimelek’s life.
Add to that the fact that God had waited until Sarah’s womb was dead before bringing Isaac’s life into her womb, so Abraham knew that God could bring life out of what was dead. God had done that kind of thing before when He had killed off the whole world with floodwater in order to bring renewed life through the chosen few on the ark. This pattern of God’s work of introducing life into the midst of death in extraordinary ways could have been discerned by Abraham as a way God glorifies Himself.
But Abraham also had to know that the death of Isaac was no more than what he deserved:
The great Puritan commentator, Matthew Henry wrote, “in being called to offer up his Isaac, he seemed to be called to destroy and cut off his own family, to cancel the promises of God, to prevent the coming of Christ, to destroy the whole world, to sacrifice his own soul and his hopes of salvation, and to cut off the church of God at one blow.”
But that is exactly what the price of sin is! We have all rebelled in our own ways against God, and our sin requires the end of fellowship with God, the end of life, the end of blessing, the end of hope – the same kinds of things which stood at stake as Abraham raised his knife above Isaac on the altar.
Our only hope for the restoration of any of that is for God to intervene and provide His own perfect lamb, which He did for Abraham literally, and which He did for us in Christ.
Then, in a sense/figuratively-speaking/literally “in a parable” Abraham did indeed get Isaac back from the dead5.
At the moment when Abraham was about to plunge the knife into Isaac and set him aflame, the Angel of the LORD – perhaps Jesus Himself – called a halt to the process, affirming Abraham’s faith, and forbidding him to harm Isaac.
God provided a ram (as was proper to offer in burnt offering), to substitute for the man-child on the altar and to point to Jesus, the coming “lamb of God” and “seed of promise” Who would take away the sins of the world and crush the head of the Evil One.
Then God reiterated His promise, "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son... I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (Genesis 22:16-18, NKJV)
Obey God in Biblical faith, even when it seems impractical.
Jesus said, “Going into all the world, make disciples out of every ethnicity...” (Matt. 28:19, NAW) But the world thought William Borden was crazy to do it.
God says, “Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14 NKJV) The world might frown on that and even make it illegal.
"[W]hatever our Maker commands us should be done – no matter what may be the estimate affixed to it by human laws, and no matter how it may be regarded by the world." ~Albert Barnes, AD 1885
Is there anything that God has commanded that you have been unwilling to do?
Here’s another question: Is there anything precious to you that you have been unwilling to surrender to God and let go of?
About a year before his death, William Borden wrote: “There must be a definite determination to do God’s will – a will to obey. Christ laid down the conditions of discipleship as denying self and following Him, and that is just what is required here. Each one must examine his life and put away all sin, not holding on to anything which the Spirit tells him he should let go… ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ Daily – that is the thing to note. It is not enough to take up the cross once and then lay it down when the burden grows wearisome. The need for daily application of this principle appears in two ways: first, old questions which have been faced and downed as we thought, will come up again; and secondly, there will arise new problems which were not covered by the original act of consecration. Many who have faced the question of life-work, and decided for the foreign field, illustrate this. It was at tremendous cost they made the decision, and possibly there was the thought that afterwards all would be plain sailing. But no: the same old problems had to be fought out, and there were new ones too to face. The principle of Christ’s supremacy could not be lost sight of for a moment. Satan, when defeated, left Christ but for a little season. How much less, when he has been ousted from our lives at some conference or on some mountain-top, will he despair of finding a foothold when we are on the plane of every day living again? Obedience, which is the price of power, must not only be absolute, but daily. Are we paying this part of the price?”
What action is the logical result of what you believe about God? Have you done it yet? Your faith is incomplete without action consistent with what you believe.
James 2:19-24 “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (NKJV)
And when Abraham obeyed God, he did it right away, without taking a long time about it or questioning God about it.
In our Christian understanding of God’s grace, I fear we have become lackadaisical in our responsiveness to God. We think of God’s commands as things we can think about for a while and eventually act upon, knowing God will be patient with us.
But this was not so with Abraham. He had grown up in a pagan culture that understood what peril a human placed himself in if he ever got crosswise with a god. Animists all over the world today still understand how dangerous it is to upset the spirit world. They know that if you don’t do what the spirits say right away, your crops will fail, the rains won’t come, your child will get sick and die – whatever it is, something awful will happen, so they don’t dare take too long in doing what their witchdoctors tell them to do to appease the spirits. Now certainly the one true God is capable of patient lovingkindness, but you have to wonder what message we send to the world when we claim that our God is authoritative over all the spirits, and yet we dare to challenge His authority by obeying Him on our own terms in our own time.
This obedience, however must be based on love, trust and sonship, not on duty, shame and approval-earning. You who are born of the Spirit are, like Isaac, a child of promise, so live as a free person!
Galatians 4:22-31 “For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: "REJOICE, O BARREN, YOU WHO DO NOT BEAR! BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR! FOR THE DESOLATE HAS MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.” (NKJV)
The verb ekomisato is a kind-of specialized Greek verb that carries the implication that what he received was appropriate to the actions he had just done. It also occurs in Hebrews 10:36 “for ya'll have need of endurance in order that, after y'all have done the will of God, y'all may obtain/receive what was promised.” (NAW)
"When we have proved that our mind is made perfect, and have shown that we disregard earthly things, then earthly things also are given to us; but not before; lest being bound to them already, receiving them we should be bound still. Loose thyself from thy slavery first (He says), and then receive, that thou mayest receive no longer as a slave, but as a master. Despise riches, and thou shalt be rich. Despise glory, and thou shalt be glorious. Despise the avenging thyself on thine enemies, and then shalt thou attain it. Despise repose, and then thou shalt receive it that in receiving thou mayest receive not as a prisoner, nor as a slave, but as a freeman." ~John Chrysostom, AD 4006
We, like Abraham, are compelled by God to believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Matthew 19:25 "...the disciples... were utterly astounded, saying, "Who then is able to be saved?" And, after looking at them, Jesus said, "According to humans, this is impossible, but according to God, all things are possible." (NAW)
Our salvation was predicated upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!
Rom. 4:24-25 "...Jesus our Lord... was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (ESV)
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 & 17-22 "the gospel... that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He has been raised during the third day according to the scriptures... 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is done in; you are still in your sins... But now, Christ has been raised out of the dead – the firstfruit of the ones who have been sleeping. For since, on account of a man, there is death, also, on account of a man, there is resurrection of dead [men]. For, just as in Adam, all are dying, thus also in the Christ, all will be made alive..." ~NAW
"God is able to raise the dead, to raise dead bodies, and to raise dead souls. The belief of this will carry us through the greatest difficulties and trials that we can meet with. It is our duty to be reasoning down our doubts and fears, by the consideration of the almighty power of God." ~Matthew Henry, AD 1714
Greek NT |
NAW |
KJV |
17 Πίστει προσενήνοχεν ᾿Αβραὰμ τὸν ᾿Ισαὰκ πειραζόμενοςB, καὶC τὸν μονογενῆ προσέφερεν ὁ τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ἀναδεξάμενοςD, |
17 With faith, Abraham, when he was being tested, would have offered up Isaac. The man who had collected on the promises started offering even his only-child, |
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, |
18 πρὸς ὃν ἐλαλήθη ὅτι ἐνE ᾿Ισαὰκ κληθήσεταί σοι σπέρμα, |
18 about whom it had been stated, “It is in Isaac that offspring will be named to you,” |
18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: |
19 λογισάμενος ὅτι καὶ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγείρειν δυνατὸς ὁ Θεός· ὅθενF αὐτὸν καὶG ἐν παραβολῇ ἐκομίσατοH. |
19 after reckoning that God is able to raise up [persons] even from among the dead, from which indeed, in a sense, he did get him back. |
19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. |
1This whole biography is summarized and excerpted from Mrs. Howard Taylor’s book, Borden of Yale ‘09, Published by Moody Press, Chicago, 1923.
2See endnote B for technical details.
3“Josephus says he was twenty five years of age; others say twenty six; some say thirty six: but the more prevailing opinion is, that he was thirty seven years of age; only Aben Ezra makes him to be about thirteen; rejecting the more commonly received account, as well as that he was but five years old, that being an age unfit to carry wood.” ~John Gill, AD 1766
4In 1550, Theodore Beza published Abraham Sacrifiant, a lengthy dramatic poem in French portraying Abraham’s thought process, which might be illuminating to peruse.
5John Gill claimed that a Jew "cannot find fault with the apostle for expressing himself in this manner" because Tzeror Hammor, fol. 58. 2. Pirke Eliezer, c. 31, says, "when he [Isaac] saw the sword over his neck, his breath fled from him, and came to the place of the soul, כאילו היה, "as if he was at the point of giving up the ghost.''
6He continued in explanation: “For as in the case of little children, when the child eagerly desires childish playthings, we hide them from him with much care, as a ball, for instance, and such like things, that he may not be hindered from necessary things; but when he thinks little of them, and no longer longs for them, we give them fearlessly, knowing that henceforth no harm can come to him from them, the desire no longer having strength enough to draw him away from things necessary; so God also, when He sees that we no longer eagerly desire the things of this world, thenceforward permits us to use them. For we possess them as freemen and men, not as children. For [in proof] that if thou despise the avenging thyself on thine enemies, thou wilt then attain it, hear what he says, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink,” and he added, “for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” [Rom. 12:20] And again, that if thou despise riches, thou shalt then obtain them, hear Christ saying, “There is no man which hath left father, or mother, or house, or brethren, who shall not receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” [Matt. 19:29] And that if thou despise glory, thou shalt then attain it, again hear Christ Himself saying, “He that will be first among you, let him be your minister.” (Matt. 20:26) And again, “For whosoever shall humble himself, he shall be exalted.” (Matt. 23:12)
AThe
Greek is the Majority text, edited by myself to follow the majority
of the earliest-known manuscripts only when the early manuscript
evidence is practically unanimous. My original document includes
notes on the NKJV, NASB, NIV, & ESV English translations, but
since they are all copyrighted, I cannot include them in my online
document. Underlined words in English versions indicate a
standalone difference from all other English translations of a
certain word. Strikeout usually indicates that the
English translation is, in my opinion, too far outside the range of
meaning of the original Greek word. The addition of an X indicates a
Greek word left untranslated – or a plural Greek word
translated as an English singular. [Brackets] indicate words added
in English not in the Greek. Key words are colored consistently
across the chart to show correlations.
BIt
is my opinion that the perfect tense here and the imperfect tense in
the following verb are employed to indicate volition for an act
which was not actually effected, but was as good as enacted because
it had been resolved upon.
cf. Hanna’s summary of Blass
& Debrunner’s Grammar,
“The
perfect verb προσενηνοχεν
occurs with reference to an Old Testament event and implies that
this event still retains its exemplary meaning [as]
an
abiding example.”
cf. Marvin Vincent’s Word
Studies: “The
meaning is that while
the
trial
is
yet
in
progress,
Abraham hath
already
offered
up
his
son,
before the trial has come to an issue, by the act of his obedient
will, through faith in God.”
cf. A.T. Robertson’s Grammar:
“Προσεφερεν
has the sense of an interrupted imperfect... ‘tried to
offer.’”
cf.
P.E. Hughes Commentary
On The Epistle To The Hebrews:
“[T]he simple imperfect προσεφερεν…
may
be explained as a conative (Hering) or inceptive imperfect –
‘he was on the point of offering up’ (F.F. Bruce) –
or in a somewhat more ‘linear’ sense, ‘he was in
the process of offering up.’”
C“And” (Louw & Nida # 89.92) is the way almost all translations interpret this word, although three more-recent English translations (TNT, NET, TEV) relate it to peirazomenos “tested YET offering” (L&N# 91.12). Fausset interpreted it as the result of the trial (L&N# 89.50a), and Lenski, Myers, and a couple of others interpreted it as introducing an explanatory clause (L&N# 89.106a), but because it stands immediately before ton monogene, a critical mass of commentators (Wesley, Alford, Miller) have interpreted it as ascensive (“even”). SIL’s L&N tagging team for the GNT came down on this latter interpretation, even though they had to add the ascensive meaning of kai to Louw & Nida’s Lexicon (supplemental # 89.93a) around the year 2015, since it didn’t exist in L&N’s original edition.
DThis Aorist middle voice participle is used in only one other place in the Greek Bible: Acts 28:7, speaking of guests being “welcomed.” It’s also in 2 Macc. 6:19 (describing “collecting taxes) & 8:36 describing “going forth.”
EThe SIL Greek New Testament Louw & Nida tagging team agreed on semantic domain #90.6 “by the agency of” here. W.F. Howard’s Grammar of New Testament Greek, however, says it is “causal” (L&N# 89.26 “on account of”). This quote of Genesis 21:12 exactly matches the LXX Greek, but it could also have easily been derived directly from the Hebrew text (כִּ֣י בְיִצְחָ֔ק יִקָּרֵ֥א לְךָ֖ זָֽרַע). It is more Hebraistic than Hellenistic in its grammar (for instance, the Hebrew word order copied directly over into Greek and the Hebrews possessive lamed in “belonging to you” rendered woodenly with the dative case of the second person in Greek “to you/your”.)
FAll the standard English versions treat this as a relative adverb (“from whence”), as I did. P.E. Hughes’ commentary noted that FF. Bruce, Delitzsch, Westcott, Grotius, and Calvin supported this interpretation, while listing Spiq, Teodorico, and Moffat as supporting a causal interpretation (“therefore”). The latter does not make sense to me. Hughes furthermore claimed that hothen was causal in all its other instances in Hebrews, but I beg to differ.
GThe KJV & NASB interpret this conjunction as combinative (“also”) as though the passage included some other person besides Abraham who first received a person back from the dead. The NIV & ESV dropped the conjunction out of their translation as though it had no meaning here. The SIL team that tagged the GNT with Louw & Nida numbers agreed that the meaning here is ascensive (“indeed”), as it stands immediately before en parabola, indicating that in a sense Abraham actually did receive his son back from the dead. (The word “dead” is genitive and plural – literally “of the dead ones.”)
HThis verb was used negatively of criminals getting punishment they deserve (Lev. 20:17, Ps. 36:16LXX/40:15Eng, 2 Cor. 5:10), and positively of Kings taking the spoils or tribute that they won in battle (Ezra 6:5, Matt. 25:27).