Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 3 Nov. 2019
Omitting greyed-out text should bring presentation time down around 45 minutes.
“One of the chief problems with the Hebrew Christians to whom this letter is addressed is that they have set out on the race but, after a good start (10:32-34), are now slackening in the will to persevere: their effort is decreasing (2:1), sin is holding them back (3:17-4:1), they need to recover their intensity of purpose (4:11), to shake off the sluggish mood into which they have fallen (6:11f.), to regain their confidence (10:35, 39) and their competitive spirit (12:12).” ~P. E. Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews
A lot of us, I think, feel worn down:
Some of us have been through protracted illnesses,
some of us have been raising children for years and are flagging in our zeal,
some of us are in the middle of a school semester with the end a little too far away,
some of us have experienced difficult losses and are realizing the losses are just going to keep coming in this life and we’re not sure we can handle any more,
others are feeling emotionally weary from the intensity of work and relationships even when nothing is bad wrong.
How do we keep from tanking into depression in these circumstances? How do we find renewal of enthusiasm? Hebrews 12 tells us how to recover that zeal, and that is by looking out to Jesus and considering Him.
The main verb in chapter 12 verse 1 is “let us run.” This main verb is supported by three participles which describe the circumstances under which we are to run, namely “having such a cloud of witnesses,” “putting away every hindrance and sin,” and, in verse 2 “looking unto Jesus,” but the main verb is “let us run.”
Nowadays, we think of running as recreation that people do for fun, just to get the exercise, but in Bible times, "runners" were usually message-carriers:
We’re carrying the Gospel in the midst of a great “conflict” or “struggle,” that’s going to take endurance, focusing on one single thing, and that is trusting Jesus.
Now, moving from the main verb of “running,” let us turn to consider the three supporting Greek participles that describe what we need to do while we’re running.
Let’s first look at the word “put away/lay aside/throw off.” There is something that must be done before you can run well, and that is to “put away” everything that might slow you down or pull you off course.
The Greek root of this participle is apotithemi,
a verb used to describe taking off an item of clothing and dropping it on the floor,
but when it refers to a person, it means locking them away in a jail.
This is what we must do to encumbering weights and hindering sins.
In the New Testament, this verb is used over and over to describe the sanctification process in which Christians are to take part: (Rom. 13:12, Eph. 4:22-25, Col. 3:8-10, James 1:21, 1 Peter 2:1-2)
I interpreted the Aorist tense of this participle in Hebrews 12:1 Imperatively (“start putting off”) rather than temporally (“after putting off”). Greek grammar could allow either interpretation, but I went with the imperative because of the imperative force of the main verb (“let us run”) and because this laying-aside process takes a lifetime; it is not something you can complete all-at-once just by making one personal commitment to holiness.
As Hebrews 12:14 puts it: “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”
Now, two things in particular are mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 as things which Christians need to get rid of:
The first is called ogkon in Greek.
I translated it “hindrance” along with the NIV, and the NASB translated it “encumbrance,” which might actually be better, but it’s not as common in our parlance.
This Greek word doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Bible, so the classic Greek lexicographers are all over the map on how to translate it: “weight” (Gingrich), “barb” (Liddell-Scott), “protuberance” (Thayer), “bulk” (Moulton-Milligan), “impediment” (Danker)1. But there are common themes to these translations: when you run in a race, you’ll be able to go faster and longer if you aren’t carrying extra weight on you and if you don’t have anything flapping in the breeze. Anything that “sticks out” or adds “weight” has got to go!
When I was in high school, my track team would compete in races against Athens Bible School. Now Athens Bible School was very fundamental, and, God bless ‘em, they wanted their female athletes to look like women and to dress modestly, so the girls on their team ran all their races in calf-length skirts! And they never won. As much as I appreciate their desire for modesty and femininity, they were trying to compete with a lot of extra clothing-weight and bulk that was swishing around as they ran, and it slowed them down. The other runners that did win typically wore very lightweight clothing and shoes – and you want to make sure the shoe laces are tied and not trailing and tripping you up!
For the N. T. Hebrews, one application was to jettison the bulk of Judaism: "Moses's law were a weight and burden, a yoke of bondage, and an intolerable one, and with which many believing Jews were entangled and pressed, and which were a great hinderance in the performance of evangelical worship; wherefore the exhortation to these Hebrews, to lay them aside, was very proper and pertinent, since... there had been a disannulling of them by Christ, because of their weakness and unprofitableness." ~John Gill, AD 1766
The second thing to throw off is “the sin,” which is called in Greek eu-peri-histeton – literally, it does a “good” job of getting “around” you and “staying-put.” Classic Greek lexicographers translate this word “readily-encompassing” (Danker), “easily-besetting” (Liddell-Scott), “ensnaring” (Gingrich), “tightly-controlling” (Louw-Nida) and “dangerous” (Moulton-Milligan).
How easy it is to fall into a sinful mindset! You accept sin in your mind before you act it out with your body.
That sister’s offense that you let fester in your heart,
that niggling thought that God did not treat you as He should have,
that alluring thing which you set your heart on getting -
these things don’t go away and leave you alone. They have to be stripped off through a process of “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5, NKJV). Sinful thoughts have to be cast down, captured, thrown in jail, or you aren’t going to be doing much running in this race.
“‘[W]ell‑standing‑around’ is what presents on every side a fair and plausible appearance. And apostasy might have been so represented; for the Jews could produce many plausible arguments.”~John Owen Nowadays the Secular Humanists are producing the seemingly-plausible arguments against our faith!
It’s interesting that sin is pictured as “all around” in Hebrews 12:1, but so are the witnesses of Christ; they too are “all around us”!
So which are you going to pay attention to, and which are you going to reject? The “sin” of unbelief or the “cloud of witnesses”?
Whichever one you align yourself with will make all the difference.
This brings us around to the next participle in this verse describing another circumstance under which we are to run. Unfortunately, this Greek participle ἔχοντες (translated “having” in the NASB and translated “keeping company with” in my version) is dropped out of the King James, New International, and English Standard versions, so it’s harder to see the structure of this verse in those versions, but you can still get the gist, even though they moved the word translated “surrounding” into a new place in the sentence.
It is curious that believers who have died are described as a “cloud” here.
So how do you “have a cloud of witnesses”? I’ve always thought of it in terms of them being spectators: watching how we are going to live our life, and cheering or boo-ing at what they see. But after thinking about it some more, I’m not sure that’s the meaning here.
I don’t mean to deny that human souls might be able to observe us on earth4; I just think that the emphasis in this passage is on what the saints of old bore witness of in their lifetimes, not on what they’re looking at now.
They all acted in faith, testifying during their life on earth that God is worth trusting, and that the world is not worth having. That’s the “testimony” they bore.
Moses has already been mentioned earlier in Hebrews 3:5, as “bearing witness” of Jesus in this way: “...Moses was faithful in the entirety of his administration as a minister for the purpose of being a witness...” (NAW).
The Apostle Peter also said that Moses talked about Jesus: “Jesus Christ… was preached before… For Moses truly said to the fathers [in Deut. 18:15], 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren...'” (Acts 3:20-23, NKJV, cf. John 5:46)
The bodies of that cloud of witnesses were buried all around Jerusalem, and the memories of each hero’s faith were brought back to the original Hebrew recipients of this letter every time they walked from home to work or to market. The whitewashed, decorated tombs were there along the roads and in the fields to remind them. (Matt. 23:27-29)
This extensive cloud of witnesses bore witness to the centrality of Christ the Messiah in their lifetimes, and it is our calling to walk in those footsteps.
As we read the Bible and study church history, we remind ourselves of the folks in that great cloud of witnesses, and as we exercise the same faith in Christ that they did, we continue to keep them around us instead of having sin and hindrances around us.
I mentioned before about reading to my family John Owen’s book, Communion With God. I’ve also been reading a modern missionary biography in the mornings, The Heavenly Man, about a contemporary pastor from China. Brother Yun’s faith is unreal! I heard that some folks watched a movie about the persecuted church last night. Giving our mind these kinds of stories stimulates faith and keeps that cloud of witnesses consciously around us.
So we are to run the race of faith in Jesus, keeping company with those who throughout history have borne witness of Christ, and shucking off hindrances and besetting sin. There is one more thing we must do while running this contest, and that is in verse...
The word translated “looking/fixing eyes on” is ἀφορῶντες literally “seeing away/from,” and this has two applications:
First, it can have a direction-oriented meaning of looking away from an object. Looking away from your distractions and besetting sins, looking away from the discomfort of your present persecution.
I think it also carries a time-oriented meaning of looking away from the present toward the end result. The two other times this word occurs in the Greek Bible, the context is speaking of looking at an outcome instead of at the beginning of a matter.
Don’t look at the ignominy of Jesus’ crucifixion; look at the outcome of His suffering: He is sitting on the throne of God, having accomplished the most amazing feat in history through His suffering!
Look away into the end result of His glory, and you will be able to likewise endure persecution for the sake of the joy set before you!
The present tense of this participle in Greek indicates that we should be looking out toward Jesus “not only at the first moment, but constantly during the whole struggle.” ~Westcott, as quoted in P.E. Hughes commentary.
Notice the parallels between what we are being exhorted to do in verse one, and what Jesus has already done in verses two and three:
We are to run “in/by faith” like the other saints of old, but Jesus is the one who founded and successfully ran this course ahead of us. He is not “running in faith;” He is the “chief and accomplisher of faith” who is now seated at the judges stand, at it were, providing for us as we run what He designed.
Jesus had “joy laid out [προκειμένης] before Him,” and likewise we have a “race-contest laid out [ προκείμενον] before us”
Jesus “despised the shame;” likewise we are to “put away from ourselves every hindrance and sin...”
We are to “run with perseverance/endurance;” this is our calling to follow Jesus who already “persevered/endured through crucifixion... and the opposition of sinners” (v.3). The New King James, New American Standard, and New International Versions did well to translate the same Greek root word across verses 1-2 with the same English word “endurance/endured.”
Jesus did it “for joy” - anticipating the thrill of the glory of being our great high priest in God’s throne-room; likewise, we keep our outlook on Jesus, anticipating God’s promise of something better, namely the prize of having Jesus in heaven.
“'Looking' (he says), that is, that we may learn to run. For as in all arts and games, we impress the art upon our mind by looking to our masters, receiving certain rules through our sight, so here also, if we wish to run, and to learn to run well, let us look to Christ, even to Jesus 'the author and finisher of our faith.' ... He put the Beginning into us [John 15:16], He will also put on the End." ~Chrysostom
Now, how do we “look at Jesus”? Does that mean we need to get a drawing of an artist’s conception of what Jesus looked like and dangle it in front of our face all day? That would be silly - and probably also a violation of the second commandment. Rather, God’s word closely links eyesight with mental thinking. That’s why the parallel verb in v.3 is “consider” ἀναλογίσασθε -literally “logic it up!” And this passage gives us six descriptions to hold before our mind’s eye to help us “look at” and “consider” Him. Let’s examine these six things about Jesus in obedience to this command:
First, Jesus is our archegon/chief leader
Faith does not come naturally; it is “the gift of God” (Eph. 2). “Our faith… is initiated and sustained by Him because He has prayed the Father that we may come to faith (John 17:20f.) and that our faith may not fail (Luke 22:31f.).” ~P. E. Hughes
“...He is the purchaser of the Spirit of faith, the publisher of the rule of faith, the efficient cause of the grace of faith...” ~Matthew Henry
Jesus was introduced by this title archegon back in Heb. 2:10 “For it was appropriate to Him, the chief-leader of their salvation, for whom all things exist and by whom all things exist, to accomplish success through sufferings, having led many children into glory” (NAW)
Arche is the word translated “chief” in the New Testament title for “chief priests,” and here it is combined with the Greek word for “leader.” In Hebrews 2:10, the KJV translated it “captain,” the NAS translated it “author,” the NIV translated it “pioneer,” and the ESV translated it “founder,” but by whatever synonym, Jesus is the divine being for whom the universe exists, who has authored and led the way to salvation, and who has led many children into glory.
In Hebrews 2:10, Jesus was called “the archegon of salvation;” in Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is called “the archegon... of faith.” As such, He is the example for us to follow in regards to faith (1 Peter 2:21). Is Jesus the leader you are following? How would others recognize that Jesus is the one you are following?
The second word that helps us to “look at” and “consider” Jesus is τελειωτὴν/accomplisher/finisher/perfecter of the faith.
"'[H]e endured the cross' ... seems to refer to the first word, 'leader;' and His 'sitting down at God’s right hand' appears to be explanatory of His being the consummator of the faith." ~John Owen
“...He is the fulfiller and the fulfilling of all scripture-promises and prophecies” ~M.Henry
John Brown noted that this word was commonly used in Greek sporting events for the official who would judge the competitors and hand prizes to the winners. This would fit with Jesus’ words in Revelation 2:10 “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.”
The Greek word for “the” in the phrase “the faith” is interpreted by most English versions5 as a possessive pronoun “our,” as in “our faith.” Either way is legitimate grammatically.
The third phrase “who, for the joy laid out before Him, persevered through crucifixion/endured [the] cross”
“[T]he anticipated glories of that state to which Jesus was to be raised on His finishing the work given Him to do, animated Him to a persevering performance of the duties… The record of the labours, and sufferings, and triumphs of Old Testament believers, may and ought to be a source of instruction, motive, and encouragement to you amid your difficulties and trials; but the record of the unparalleled labours, and sufferings, and glories of your Lord and Saviour is the grand source of instruction, motive, and encouragement.” ~John Brown of Edinburgh
Matt. 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples, "If someone wants to come [along] behind me, he must renounce allegiance to himself and take up his cross and keep following me." (NAW) But we do this because He also said, “I give eternal life...” (John 10:28)
The fourth phrase is that Jesus “despised/scorned shame”
This is the only time that this word for “shame” is associated with the cross6, but crucifixion was indeed considered shameful. No Roman citizen was allowed to be crucified; only outsiders to the Roman empire could be treated that degradingly. (Hughes)
Throughout its use in scripture, “shame” describes being embarrassed by other people or it describes aligning with God’s hatred of sin. Both meanings fit here,
for Christ knew how evil all sin is, and never gave in to it during His life on earth, so He aligned Himself with God’s hatred for sin,
but Jesus nevertheless “became sin for us,” knowing the hatred God would pour out on Him for it, and, in so doing, Jesus also exposed Himself to the shaming tactics of humans, as unbelievers mistreated and mocked Him in that humble state.
Hebrews 2:11 already described how Jesus “despised the shame”: “...both the One who makes holy and the ones who are being made holy are all of one kind, on account of which He is not ashamed to call them brothers,” and Hebrews 11:16 “...God is not ashamed of them – God [is not ashamed] to be called upon by them, He even prepared a city for them!" (NAW)
Likewise, we are called upon not to be ashamed, both by not engaging in shameful deeds – particularly sexual sins, but also by continuing to trust Jesus even when people make fun of you for it.
2 Cor. 4:2 “[W]e have renounced the hidden things of shame”
1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
1 Peter 4:16 “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.”
Rom. 1:16 “For I am not ashamed [ἐπαισχύνομαι] of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,”
2 Tim. 1:8 “Therefore do not be ashamed [ἐπαισχύνομαι] of the testimony of our Lord...” (NKJV)
The fifth description of Jesus is that He “has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne”
The Greek Perfect tense indicates that He sat down in the past and is still sitting there.
As I’ve mentioned before, this “sitting down” is not to rest but rather to begin reigning as king and priest, and this image occurs throughout the book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the radiance of His glory and the stamp of His substance and carrying all things by the word of His power, having made purification from our sins with His own self, He sat down/took office at the right hand of the Greatest One in the heights”
Hebrews 8:1 “...we have such a high priest who took office at the right hand of the throne of the Greatest One in the heavens..."
Hebrews 10:12 “...this Man, after offering one sacrifice for sins took office in perpetuity at God's right hand." (NAW)
Astonishingly, we will be invited to do this too with Jesus! Revelation 3:21 "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." (NKJV)
The sixth description of Jesus is in verse 3: He “persevered through such antagonism/endured such hostility/opposition under the agency of sinners toward Himself”
The word antilogi- is usually used in the Greek Bible to indicate a formal legal challenge or accusation in court, so this may point us to consider more specifically the legal opposition launched against Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees who formed the Sanhedrin court that condemned Him to death.
The concluding command is to “consider/think logically”
There is a contrast in the Greek wording between the sinners who are “against” Christ who are called ἀντιλογί- and the faithful who are exhorted to “consider” ἀναλογί- literally to “think logically upward” about Christ.
What are we to “consider”? How he endured perseveringly, intent on the one goal of the joy set before Him of getting the Christian church as His bride.
To reach that goal, Jesus lived for years as a fugitive with people out to kill Him. “[W]hen He was teaching what pertained to Truth He was called 'a deceiver' [Matt 27:63, John 7:12], and when He cast out devils, was said to 'have a devil' [John 8:48, 10:20], and when He was overthrowing all that was opposed [to God], was called a sorcerer [Matt 12:24]." Then there was the arrest and unjust trial and beating and whipping and mocking and hanging to death on the cross.
"These things let us take into our mind, beloved, let us consider them, let us hold them in remembrance, and then we shall never faint, though we be wronged, though we be plundered, though we suffer innumerable evils. Let it be granted us to be approved in Heaven, and all things [are] endurable..." ~Chrysostom
"[I]f the Son of God, whom it behaves all to adore, willingly underwent such severe conflicts, who of us should dare to refuse to submit with Him to the same? ... "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign together." (Rom. 8:17) ~Calvin
The reason why we must start thinking logically about Jesus and His suffering is “so that y’all might not continue to be weary, fainting/discouraged/literally “losing it” in your souls
the Greek word is the word for “souls” rather than “mind” or “heart” but the NAS, NIV, and ESV translate this phrase more loosely into contemporary English as “lose heart”
Perhaps an allusion (with change of person) to Job’s despair in the midst of suffering: Job 10:1 κάμνων τῇ ψυχῇ μου…
Galatians 6:8-9 “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (NKJV)
“Let your afflictions but rouse into more energetic vigour all the principles of Christian obedience… To faint and be weary, is just the reverse of persevering labour and suffering for the name of Christ.. If [we] ‘become weary and faint in [our] minds’ it is because [we] do not ‘consider Him.’ If [we] neglect our duty, it is because [we] forget [our] Savior…. All our comfort, all our holiness, depends on this.” ~John Brown
Deuteronomy 20:1-4 "And if thou shouldest go forth to war against thine enemies, and shouldest see horse, and rider, and a people more numerous than thyself; thou shalt not be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall come to pass whenever thou shalt draw nigh to battle, that the priest shall draw nigh and speak to the people, and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel; ye are going this day to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint, fear not, neither be confounded, neither turn aside from their face. For it is the Lord your God who advances with you, to fight with you against your enemies, and to save you.’" (Brenton)
Greek NT |
NAW |
KJV |
12:1 ΤοιγαροῦνB καὶ ἡμεῖς, τοσοῦτον ἔχοντες περικείμενονC ἡμῖν νέφοςD μαρτύρων, ὄγκονE ἀποθέμενοιF πάντα καὶ τὴν εὐπερίστατονG ἁμαρτίαν, δι᾿ ὑπομονῆς τρέχωμεν τὸν προκείμενονH ἡμῖν ἀγῶνα, |
1 As for us, for this very reason, having company with such an extensive cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also keep running with perseverance the contest being laid out before us, starting to put away from ourselves every hindrance and sin that hangs around closely, |
1
Wherefore |
2 ἀφορῶντεςI εἰς τὸν τῆς πίστεως ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν ᾿Ιησοῦν, ὃς ἀντὶJ τῆς προκειμένης αὐτῷ χαρᾶς ὑπέμεινε σταυρὸν, αἰσχύνης καταφρονήσας, ἐν δεξιᾷ τε τοῦ θρόνου τοῦ Θεοῦ κεκάθικενK. |
2 looking out toward Jesus, the chief leader and accomplisher of the faith, who, for the joy laid out before Him, persevered through crucifixion, having despised what is shameful, He has taken office at the right hand of the very throne of God! |
2
Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher
of our
faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured [the]
cross, despising [the]
shame, [and]
|
3 ἀναλογίσασθεL γὰρ τὸν τοιαύτην ὑπο-μεμενηκότα ὑπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν εἰς εαὐτὸνM ἀντι-λογίαν, ἵνα μὴ κάμητε ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶνN ἐκλυόμενοιO. |
3 Indeed, y’all must start thinking logically about the One who persevered through such antagonism under the agency of sinners toward Himself, in order that y’all might not continue to be weary, fainting in your souls. |
3
For consider him that endured
such contradiction
of sinners against himself,
lest ye |
1P.E. Hughes noted other interpretations of “excessive body weight” or of “pride” (as found in the Sahidic version), but he preferred Delitzch’s conclusion: “ευπερίστατον ‘αμαρτιαν … as more precisely defining the vague ογκον παντα.”
2Job 7:9 “As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up." (NKJV)
3Job 22:14 “A cloud is his hiding-place, and he shall not be seen; and he passes through the circle of heaven…. 26:9 He keeps back the face of his throne, stretching out his cloud upon it…. 40:1 And the Lord yet again answered and spoke to Job out of the cloud, saying..." (cf, 31:8 and Psalm 104:3, Brenton)
4Matt. 18:10, Luke 15:10, 1 Cor. 4:9 & 11:10, 1Tim. 5:21, 1Pet. 1:12, 2 Peter 2:11, cf. 1Sam. 28:15, Mark 9:4
5John Brown of Edinborough advanced yet another interpretation in his commentary on Hebrews that “the faith here is a general name for ‘the faithful,’ or believers; just as the circumcision is for the circumcised, the uncircumcision for the uncircumcised, the captivity for the captives...”
6αἰσχύνη Lk. 14:9; 2 Cor. 4:2; Phil. 3:19; Heb. 12:2; Jude 1:13; Rev. 3:18
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. {Pointed Braces} indicate words added
in Greek to the original. Key words are colored consistently across
the chart to show correlations.
BThis emphatic compound is only here and 1 Thess. 4:8 in the NT (plus 11 more in the Septuagint O.T.).
CPresent Passive Accusative Neuter Singular Participle. KJV, NIV, and ESV make the Dative (masculine) Plural “us” the subject, but the Accusative Neuter Singular “cloud” is a much better match, so I think the NASB translated this verb more correctly. (cf. 5:2 Christ “surrounded” with human weakness)
DLone use in the N.T., but occurs 25 times in the OT wisdom books, particularly Job. Vincent commented: “Νέφος... means a great mass of cloud covering the entire visible space of the heavens, and therefore without definite form, or a single large mass in which definite outlines are not emphasized or distinguished. It thus differs from νεφέλη, which is a detached and sharply outlined cloud.”
EHapex Legomenon. “weight” (Gingrich), “barb” (Liddell-Scott), “protuberance” (Thayer), “bulk” (Moulton-Milligan), “impediment” (Danker)
F“an indirect middle, ‘laying aside from yourselves...’” ~attributed by Hanna to A.T. Robertson’s Grammar
GHapex Legomenon translated “readily-encompasing” (Danker), “easily-besetting” (Liddell-Scott), “easily-distressing/dangerous” (Moulton-Milligan), “easily-ensnaring” (Gingrich), “tightly-controlling” (Louw-Nida) Gill noted: "[S]ome reference may be had to Lamentations 1:14 where the church says, that her transgressions... ישתרגו, 'wreathed themselves', or wrapped themselves about her."
Hcf. Hebrews 6:18 "...we have escaped to grab the hope which is being set forth" (NAW)
IOnly two other occurrences of this word in the Greek Bible: Jonah 4:5 and Phil. 2:23, both of which indicate looking at an outcome. Also in the Maccabees to indicate looking in a different direction 3 Ma. 6:8; 4 Ma. 17:10, and looking at an outcome 4 Ma 17:23. cf. Hebrews 11:26 “[experiencing] the insulting of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking off to [ἀπέβλεπεν εἰς] the payback” (NAW)
JA minority of commentators (Syriac Peshitta, Gregory Nazianzus, Calvin, Vincent, Delitzsch, Turner, etc.) who interpret this preposition in the substitutionary sense (“instead of”) rather than in the volative sense (“for the goal of”), but I side with the latter.
KThe Textus Receptus reads Aorist Tense [εκαθισεν], but there’s only one Greek manuscript which reads that way (the Chester-Beatty Papyrus, which is the oldest-known); all the other Greek manuscripts, however read Perfect tense. Not a theological difference, though. He “sat” (Aorist Tense – NIV) and still “is seated” (Present Tense Passive – ESV), both of which match “he has sat” (Perfect tense – KJV, NASB).
LThis verb only occurs one other place in the Greek Bible, and that is Isaiah 44:19 (“And one has not considered in his mind, nor known in his understanding, that he has burnt up half of it in the fire, and baked loaves on the coals thereof and has roasted and eaten flesh, and of the rest of it he has made an abomination, and they worship it”). The three oldest-known Greek manuscripts all spell this verb in the infinitive rather than in the imperative, making it a reason for “fixing our eyes on Jesus” instead of a separate injunctive, but the encouragement to “consider Him” is still present either way, so it doesn’t make a difference essentially.
MTraditional Greek New Testaments follow the majority of Greek manuscripts without an epsilon to the front of this word, giving it a more straightforward meaning of “him,” but 4 of the 5 oldest-known Greek manuscripts read with the epsilon which, which doesn’t change the basic meaning, but does gives the word a more reflexive or emphatic shade of meaning “himself.” Some manuscripts also add a plural genitive ending to this word, changing the referent from Christ to sinners, indicating that it is to their own harm that sinners antagonize Christ, but that doesn’t seem to fit the context as well.
NPerhaps an allusion (with change of person) to Job’s despair in the midst of suffering: Job 10:1 κάμνων τῇ ψυχῇ μου… The only other instances of this verb in the Greek Bible are: Job 17:2 (perhaps a mistranslation) & James 5:15, where it stands in parallel with ἀσθενεῖ “sick/weak/infirm.” Apocryphal Greek sources describe this verb as battle-wearyness (4 Macc. 3:8), the infirmity of old age (4 Macc. 7:13 & Wis. 4:16), and the weariness of painstaking labor (Wisdom 15:9).
OThree (P45, P13, D06) out of the five oldest-known Greek manuscripts spell this participle in the perfect tense considering it as something happening earlier than the present and continuing in the present, which doesn’t really change the gist. It is also curious that no papyrus contains the 2nd person pronoun which modifies this word (again, this doesn’t change the meaning).