Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 24 Nov. 2019
Omitting greyed-out text should bring presentation time down around 45 minutes.
I was talking with a guy who did inner-city ministry, and he shared something with me that one of the kids he worked with said, and it has really stuck with me. The kid said, “I wish I had a daddy that would whup me!” Nowadays, that term has to be explained because it sounds bad, but it just meant getting a few swats on the gluteus maximus as discipline for doing something wrong. It seems strange that anybody would want that, but this kid understood something fundamentally true and good about the father-son relationship. “I wish I had a Daddy who could whup me.”
In Hebrews 12:3, we are exhorted to “start thinking logically about [Christ’s] perseverance through the antagonism of sinners… in order that y’all might not continue to be weary, coming undone...”
And in v.6, the logical point was made that children who are loved by their parents get disciplined, so if we run into hardship, it doesn’t prove that God doesn’t love us; it could rather prove the opposite: that He does care about us!
I pointed out in my last sermon that the very choice of this word “discipline” frames our hardships in such a way that it forces us to realize that God has a goal behind the hardships that we encounter.
If we believe this, we can pray, “God thank you for bringing this hardship into my life. I trust that this is exactly what I need to train me to become more like Christ.”
The next logical consideration is that discipline is normative and to be expected if there is a parent-child relationship. We are picking up at verse 8, but it is an extension of the thought introduced in verse 7, so let’s review v.7 along with v.8:
I was recently reading about the plight of children born of North Korean women who were sold as temporary slaves to Chinese men. The Chinese men don’t want the babies; the North Korean women can’t keep them, and neither the Chinese nor the North Korean government will accept them as citizens. An illegitimate child is neglected.
Verse 8 is the converse of the statement in v.7 that sons normally get discipline; here the restatement is in opposite terms: if you’re not getting discipline, then it follows you probably aren’t legitimate, because legitimate children get fatherly training. It’s the legitimate son for whom the inheritance is reserved.
The word “all” in v.8 is limited by its context. It is in parallel with the word “son/sons” which occurs twice in the previous verse and in the predicate nominative at the end of this verse, so its meaning is limited to “all sons,” and should not be construed as some other group of people.
Prov. 13:24 "He that spares the rod hates his son: but he that loves, carefully chastens him."
Deuteronomy 8:5 “And thou shalt know in thine heart, that as if any man should chasten his son, so the Lord thy God will chasten thee." (Brenton)
This word “illegitimate,” however, should rock anybody back on their heels. It indicates that there are folks who claim to have God as their father and yet who aren’t really His children. It indicates that there are folks who are expecting to inherit blessings from God, but who will be ultimately disappointed because they have no right to those blessings because they are not heirs.
At the time of writing, this was the case for many Jews who considered themselves God’s people and yet who rejected God’s Anointed One and therefore turned the tables on themselves, estranging themselves from God. It was those Jews who assumed that they were right with God and who assumed that Christians were illegitimate and who were pressuring Christians to abandon their faith in Jesus.
Matthew 3:7-10 But when he [John the Baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Offspring of vipers, who revealed it to y'all to flee from the impending wrath? Produce fruit therefore in keeping with repentance. And stop thinking about saying among yourselves, 'We have Abraham (for) a father.' For I am saying to you that God is able to raise up out of these rocks children to Abraham. But already the axe is being laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore not producing good fruit is cut out and is thrown into a fire..." (NAW)
John 8:39-48 Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (NKJV, cf. Mat. 8:12, 23:29-34)
Those who are not following Jesus get it backwards. They figure if you are not rich and powerful, you must be on the wrong side of history. This epistle was written to be a ringing rebuttal to that kind of worldly thinking, it’s message here is that,
“To make the discipline of hardship and affliction an excuse for dropping out of the Christian race is to cast doubt on one’s filial relationship to the heavenly Father and on the seriousness of one’s desire to ‘share his holiness.’” ~P. E. Hughes, Hebrews
For, not only is discipline normative for children who are loved, the next logical consideration is that discipline/training yields good benefits, so it’s worth enduring.
Here’s another a fortiori argument, reasoning from what is normative with family relationships to what should be normative in our relationship with God. The verse has two parts which are in parallel to one another:
The subject in both halves of the verse is the first person plural “we.”
The two verbs in the first half form a contrast with the two verbs in the second half. In the first half are the imperfect tense verbs “we were having” and “we were chastened,” and in the second half are the future tense verbs “we will submit ourselves” and “we will live.”
The object of both halves of the verse are the same, however: “the Father” (although a second object also appears in the first half identifying our earthly fathers as “trainers/who disciplined/corrected us”)
Yet in the first half, it is literally “the fathers of our flesh” – our natural, earthly fathers whose DNA determined what our flesh and bones would be, and in the second half it is literally “the Father of the spirits” – our heavenly father, God, who is a spirit and who made the eternal spirits/souls of human beings.1
Both fathers have training objectives and use discipline toward those ends – the verb “have a father as a trainer” is parallel to “submit to the father of spirits.”
The second verb pair speaks of the results: We who are adults have seen the results of the training and discipline employed by our earthly fathers: they confronted us when we did wrong or foolish things; they made us feel ashamed for it – sometimes made our backsides smart for it, and we came to our senses and changed our behavior to be more chaste.
The verb describing that in the first half of the verse is ἐνετρεπόμεθα, spelled in the Greek passive voice, so, I think, rather than describing active reverence shown to our fathers despite their discipline, it would be more accurate to say that it describes passively the positive impact their fatherly discipline made on reforming us in the past,
and that fits with the argument being made here, that if the training from our earthly fathers did us good, the training of our heavenly father will also do us good – it will give us life, so “we will live.”
Therefore, the bottom line of this argument is that we should “submit” to our heavenly father’s training and discipline.
Actually, it is framed as a question, “Will we not submit to the father of our spirits?”
The sensible and wise answer is, “No! I will stop being insubmissive and distrusting of Jesus, and in the future, I will submit/be subject to our heavenly Father and believe His Son! This is how I will live!”
Subjection2 denotes “an acquiescence in [God’s] sovereign right to do what He will with us as His own; a renunciation of self-will; an acknowledgment of His righteousness and wisdom in all His dealings with us; a sense of His care and love… lying passive in His hand, and having no will but His.” ~John Owen
This submission should not be confused with non-Christian, man-centered approaches to the problem of suffering, however. Dr. John Brown of Edinborough, in his commentary on Hebrews pointed out two of these false ideas about suffering:
First, submission to divine discipline should not be confused with Stoicism. “Fortitude, and patience, and resignation under affliction are required, but not apathy...” It is right and good to feel impacted by hardships which God imposes on us and to cry out to Him for mercy and to be made right, rather than coolly trying to survive hardship in our own strength and resist allowing ourselves to be impacted by what God wants to use to bring about change in us. We shouldn’t be stoic with God’s training.
Second, submission to discipline should not be confused with Asceticism which seeks out hardship in an attempt to make oneself better, apart from God. “It is not affliction taken by itself… it is affliction understood to be, and treated as, the chastisement of the Lord… Sanctified affliction makes us see things are they really are; leads to serious self-inquiry; prevents us from saying, ‘Peace peace, when there is no peace;’ fixes the mind on the things which concern our everlasting interests, and excites an anxiety to remove everything which interferes with or endangers them.” ~John Brown
God often uses losses in His training: the loss of material possessions in a fire or a theft or a business downturn, the loss of health in a sickness, the loss of abilities due to old age or due to an injury, or the loss loved ones due to death. Usually there is not a one-to-one correlation between these things and a particular sin. It’s not like “I slipped and said a curse word today and now I’m probably going to have a wreck driving home from work as my discipline for it.” More often it’s like the wreck happens and it makes us stop and think about lots of different bad attitudes we’ve had, and we realize God was mighty kind not to make us get in a wreck every day that year! (cf. Leviticus 26:13-45)
The comparison and contrast between the fathers of our flesh and the father of our spirits continues in...
The main verb is the word paideuw/train/discipline/chasten, a form of which has shown up in every verse since verse 5, and there are two subjects: “They” (the plural earthly fathers) and “He” (the singular heavenly Father).
The contrast is between how the two fathers go about training their children.
The training we received from our fathers according to the flesh was:
temporary/for a little while (literally “for a few days”)
and that training/discipline was based on decisions that our earthly fathers made about how to do it – they did what “seemed” best to them, according to human “reckoning.”
On the other hand, God’s training program is described as:
first, literally “bearing together” in appropriateness for our “profit” and “good”
and second, as having the goal of us partaking/sharing in His holiness.
We understand pretty intuitively what is being described concerning the discipline of our earthly parents, but the description of God’s program of training takes some unpacking:
The basis upon which God’s training happens is objectively what will be good for us, rather than subjectively what some human parent thinks is best.
That is a matter of faith to trust that God will not make the errors in judgment that our parents did.
I can remember being punished for things I didn’t do wrong, and I can remember getting punished severely for mere mistakes and, at other times, getting off easy when I had been really rebellious. That’s just going to happen with human parents because, even though parents have eyes in the back of their heads, they don’t know everything.
God, on the other hand, knows everything, inside and out, so He never makes a mistake. No problem will ever escape His notice, and He will never discipline too harshly.
The training He chooses for us –
whether it is an illness that leaves us feeling rotten,
or the stress of having to hear a kid crying all day,
or an impossible-to-please customer,
or an oppressive tax from the government, or a tornado that destroys your house –
whatever it is, it is one of those “all things” that God is “working together for good for those who love Him” (according to Rom. 8:28),
and it is under the control of the: “God [who] is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested above what you are able, but rather He will make together with the test also the way out for the ability to undergo [it].” (1 Cor. 10:13, NAW)
“His object is uniformly their real advantage; and the form, the degree, the duration of the affliction, is all ordered by infinite wisdom so as best to gain this object.” ~John Brown
This is what it means that “the Father of our spirits... [will bring about training] on the basis of bearing together [for our profit and good].”
And our heavenly Father’s goal is for us “to partake in His holiness.”
“The holiness of God consists in His mind and will being in perfect accordance with truth and righteousness. And to become partakers of His holiness,’ is just to have the mind brought to His mind, the will brought to His will: to thin as He thinks – to will as He wills – to find enjoyment in that in which He finds enjoyment.” ~John Brown
"'His holiness...' is of His purity... chastisement is a 'participation of holiness...' when it casts out sloth and evil desire and love of the things of this life, when it helps the soul, when it causes a light esteem of all things here - for affliction [does] this..." ~Chrysostom
“God’s chastisements are appointed to subdue and mortify our flesh, so that we may be renewed for a celestial life.” ~John Calvin
Holiness is essential. “[O]ur author describes God as ‘he who sanctified’ and his redeemed as ‘those who are sanctified’ or set apart for holiness (2:11; cf. 10:10, 14…) and he will soon say (v.14) that apart from holiness no man will see the Lord...” ~P.E. Hughes
This Greek word for “holiness” (ἁγιότητος) occurs nowhere else in the Bible, but there are two Greek synonyms also translated into English as “holiness” which are used in very similar settings and which shed light on this purpose which God has for us:
The first synonym is ὁσιότητι, and it is found in Eph. 4:24 “...put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (NKJV) Here, the holiness is patterned off of God Himself and is related to what is right (righteousness), and it describes the “new person” that God creates you to be, and which you “put on” as a Christian.
The second synonym is ἁγιωσύνη, which is found in 2 Corinthians 6:18-7:1 “‘I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.’ Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (NKJV) Here, the holiness is something which grows and matures toward perfection by means of fearing/respecting/ trusting God and being purified from doing and thinking what is evil, which is also related to righteousness. Another verse which uses this second synonym is:
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness [ἁγιωσύνη] before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." (NKJV) Once again, this is something God works in us, making us to increase and abound in likeness to Him because He is love. It is progressive with a goal to be achieved at Jesus’ second coming, and it is also related to righteousness in terms of blamelessness. We also see righteousness brought up at the end of the next verse in Hebrews 12:
I remember doing weight training for the first time as part of my high school track team workouts. We all ascended to the dingy, unfinished third floor of our school where the football players had set up some old weight machines. Our coach warned us not to do too much with the weights the first day or else we’d get sick, but before the end of the workout, some of us were throwing up. That weight training was no fun for me, but it sure felt good when I got out on the track and won a prize in the mile race! There’s positive training discipline,
but there is negative training discipline too: When my fellow track members got caught stealing food from the school cafeteria, I got called up to the principle’s office just like the rest of the team. I had eaten some of the stolen cookies when they had been shared with me, but I had not known they were stolen. I narrowly escaped getting a whupping that day, but I think some of my other teammates left the principal’s office rubbing their backsides. Negative reinforcement is supposed to hurt; the pain of discipline helps us not to do that wrong thing again.
Verse 11 sets up a contrast between the way training feels while it’s happening and the way we feel about the results of the training after it is done. It always seems unpleasant – not enjoyable, and yet, God’s discipline always results in a happy and right outcome.
JOY (unfortunately translated “pleasant” by the NIV and copied in the ESV4) has already been portrayed in Hebrews (and elsewhere in Scripture) to be a companion of affliction:
Hebrews 10:34 "for y'all suffered together with my chains also, and y'all accepted the robbery of your possessions with joy, knowing to have for yourselves a possession that is better and lasting... 12:2 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!" (NAW)
James 1:2 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials" (NKJV)
Matthew 5:11-12 "Y'all are being blessed whenever liars reproach you and hunt [you] down and speak every evil against you for my sake. Keep rejoicing and leaping for joy, because your reward is bountiful in heaven..." (NAW, cf. John 16: 19-22)
What is the “Peaceful fruit of righteousness” which training yields/produces/lit. “pays back”?
This adjective form of the word for “peace” only occurs here and in James 3:16-18 “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." (NKJV)
Isaiah 32:17 “The work of the Righteous One will be peace, and the service of the Righteous One quietness and confidence forever.” (NAW)
“The righteousness produced by discipline is that perfect righteousness which, imputed in justification and striven for in the Christian race, is fully imparted when at last the victor stands before his exalted Lord face to face (1 Jn. 3:2); for it is indeed nothing other than the unblemished righteousness of Christ himself.” ~P. E. Hughes
“The ‘fruit of righteousness’ is not some effect of righteousness, but it is righteousness itself considered as the effect of affliction… Righteousness is here… to be understood as just equivalent to a frame of mind and a course of conduct corresponding to what is right… the same thing as becoming ‘partakers of God’s holiness.’” ~John Brown
“[B]y the fruit of righteousness he means the fear of the Lord and a godly and holy life, of which the cross is the teacher. He calls it peaceable, because in adversities we are alarmed and disquieted, being tempted by impatience, which is always noisy and restless; but being chastened, we acknowledge with a resigned mind how profitable did that become to us which before seemed bitter and grievous… We must be made holy, we must be cleansed from pride, worldliness, and self-will, in order that we may do what is right and just, that is, submit to God’s will when he chastises us...” ~J. Calvin
“Affliction produces peace by producing more righteousness; for the fruit of righteousness is peace.” ~Matthew Henry
Exercised/trained by it [the feminine form of “it” in Greek refers back to the word “discipline/ training” at the beginning of the verse which is also feminine). The Greek word γεγυμνασμένοις translated “exercised/trained” paints the picture of an athlete doing exercises and training in a gymnasium. This word occurred a little earlier in Hebrews speaking of much the same thing:
Hebrews 5:14 "but it is to mature ones that the solid food belongs – the ones who, their senses having been exercised [γεγυμνασμένα]5 through their conditioning, possess an ability to distinguish between both what is good and what is bad." (NAW)
You have a “Daddy” who cares enough not to neglect you – He will whup you, but it’s because He loves you.
1 Corinthians 11:32 “But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world." (NAW)
There will be positive training as well as negative discipline. Trusting Jesus will mean moving into some difficult situations.
However, your relationship with God will not consist only in discipline; there are many enjoyable things in our relationship with God as our Father,
but when hardships come, accept them as from a Father who loves you and is looking out for your best interest, which is to share in His holiness and eat the fruit of righteousness and peace.
and afterwards, you will be able to say with the Psalmist:“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word… It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:67 &71, KJV)
Greek NT |
NAW |
KJV |
7 εἰςB παιδείαν ὑπομένετε, ὡς υἱοῖς ὑμῖν προσφέρεταιC ὁ Θεός· τίς γὰρ [ἐστιν]D υἱὸς ὃν οὐ παιδεύει πατήρ;E |
7 Keep persev-ering for the purpose of training. It is as to sons that God is being offered to y’all, for what son is there which a father does not train? |
7 If ye endure chastening, God X dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom [the] father chasteneth not? |
8 εἰF δὲ χωρίς ἐστε παιδείας, ἧς μέτοχοι γεγόνασι πάντες, ἄρα νόθοιG ἐστὲ καὶ οὐχ υἱοί. |
8 But if y’all are without [the] training of which all [sons] have become partakers, then y’all are illegitimate and not sons. |
8
But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all |
9 εἶταH τοὺς μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν πατέρας εἴχομενI παιδευτὰς καὶJ ἐνετρεπόμεθα·K οὐ πολλῷL μᾶλλον ὑποταγησόμεθα τῷ πατρὶ τῶν πνευμάτωνM καὶN ζήσομεν; |
9 Furthermore, we have indeed had the fathers of our flesh [as] trainers and we were chastened. Will we not much more submit ourselves to the Father of our spirits and live? |
9
Furthermore X we have had X fathers of our flesh [which]
correct |
10 οἱ μὲν γὰρ πρὸςO ὀλίγας ἡμέρας κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν αὐτοῖς ἐπαίδευον, ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ συμφέρον, εἰςP τὸ μεταλαβεῖν τῆς ἁγιότητοςQ αὐτοῦ. |
10 For, on the one hand, they were training for a few days according to their reckoning, but on the other hand, He [will train] on the basis of what bears together into our partaking of His holiness. |
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their [own] pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. |
11 πᾶσα δὲ παιδεία πρὸς μὲν τὸ παρὸνR οὐ δοκεῖ χαρᾶς εἶναι, ἀλλὰ λύπης, ὕστερον δὲ καρπὸν εἰρηνικὸνS τοῖς δι᾿ αὐτῆς γεγυμνασμένοις ἀποδίδωσι δικαιοσύνης. |
11 So, every training-event for the duration doesn’t seem to be a joy (but rather a grief!), yet afterward, it pays back the peaceful fruit of righteousness to the ones who have been exercised by it. |
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. |
1This
passage has been used to advance traducianism (the view that human
souls come from humans) by Tertullian, Luther, Strong, Hodge, and
Gordon Clark, so Aquinas, Calvin, Henry, Owen, and Delitzsch (and
Hughes) felt the need to defend creationism (the view that each
human soul comes miraculously from God) at this point in their
commentaries. This, in turn, led Bruce, Moffatt (and Hughes) to
assert in their commentaries that the author of Hebrews was not
trying to weigh in on this modern philosophical debate.
“God
is the Father of the body as well as of the soul, and, properly
speaking, he is indeed the only true Father; and that this name is
only as it were by way of concession applied to men, both in regard
of the body and of the soul. As, however, in creating souls, he does
use the instrumentality of men, and as he renews them in a wonderful
manner by the power of the Spirit, he is peculiarly called, by way
of eminence, the Father of spirits.” ~J. Calvin
2Matthew Henry added: “...to be stubborn and discontented under due correction is a double fault; for the correction supposes there has been a fault already committed against the parent’s commanding power, and superadds a further fault against his chastening power.”
3“The A.V., by joining οὐ not to πᾶσα all, and rendering no chastisement, weakens the emphasis on the idea every kind of chastisement." ~Marvin Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament
4As per NIV and ESV, neither of which translated xara as “pleasant” any of the other 58 times it occurs in the N. T.
5But exercise and training can go in the other direction too, for the Apostle Peter described how some folks 2 Peter 2:14 "having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained [γεγυμνασμένην] in covetous practices, and are accursed children." (NKJV)
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.
BThe traditional Greek editions (Textus Receptus from 16th century Europe and Greek Orthodox Church editions from at least 1904 to the present) do not contain the final sigma on this word, changing its meaning from “into” to “if.” The sigma (“into”) is in all 4 known manuscripts from the first millennium (not counting the Chester-Beatty Papyrus which only contains the second half of this verse), and the majority of second millennium manuscripts also have sigma, so it is kept in the contemporary critical editions of the GNT. The preposition here is considered causal “for the purpose of” (L&N#89.57) by grammarians.
CRobinson tagged this verb passive, A.T. Robertson tagged is as middle “bearing oneself towards.” Active forms also occur in Hebrews, so deponency seems to be ruled out.
DThis verb of being is missing in the three oldest-known manuscripts (again, not counting P46), as well as in 3 later manuscripts, but is written in the vast majority of manuscripts dating back as far as the 6th century. Since verbs of being are so frequently not written out but assumed, this makes no difference in meaning.
ETurner’s Grammar p.174: Notice the anarthrous construction with ΄υιος… πατηρ (and it is not ‘ο πατηρ, “his father”), “a father” (cf. Blass & Debrunner p.257[3]); “what son is there whom his father, as a father, does not chasten?”).
FThis is a First class conditional structure. Grammarians see this as an indication that author assumes the condition to be true, but the context here does not seem to support that connotation.
GP.E. Hughes quotes Spicq saying, “Νοθοι must be taken in its ancient juridicial sense, as strictly opposed to γνησιοι. Legi-timate children alone had the right of inheriting their fathers’ property, whereas the νοθος could never be επικληρος nor even participate with the paternal family in the acts of public worship (‘ιερα), for the reason that he had never been presented to the members of the φρατρια and had not been inscribed in the register of citizens (cf. Απογεγραμμενων, v.23).”
HVincent: “Everywhere else in N.T. this particle marks a succession of time or incident (Mk. 4:17 & 8:25; Lk. 8:12; 1Cor 15:5 & 7). Here it introduces a new phase of the subject under discussion.”
IBoth “fathers” and “trainers” are accusative nouns which appear to be the object of this verb, so I think it could be translated “we have had our disciplinarian fathers.” For this reason, I do not see this verb “had” as being an auxillary to another verb, as some English versions render it. The concept of subjection is explicit in the parallel phrase later in this verse, which is why the Louw & Nida tagging team chose the supplemental #37.4a, not in the original lexicon.
JTurner’s Grammar noted that the kai here combined with the imperfect verb expresses a “further result.” ~Hanna
KThe Greek word is passive, and literally means to “be turned inward.” I found no evidence of it being a deponent to be translated actively, but I could also find no translator or commentator (not even the Greek-speaking Chrysostom) who interpreted it passively, so I may be mistaken on a passive interpretation. The root has to do with turning from shame to honor. Cf. Matt. 21:37, Isa. 54:4; Ezek. 36:32; 1 Cor. 4:14; 2 Thess. 3:14. William Hendriksen, in his Bible commentary on Mt. 21 suggested that it could be translated, “turn themselves about, being ashamed...” A. T. Robertson, “It is the picture of turning with respect when one worthy of it appears.”
LThe five oldest-known manuscripts read nominative case (πολυ), but the Textus Receptus and the Greek Orthodox editions follow the overall majority of manuscripts which read dative (πολλω), but it doesn’t really change the meaning. I suspect there was a drift in grammar conventions over time.
MThis appears to be an adaptation to the context of fatherhood of the Septuagint phrase, “God of the spirits [of men],” found in Num. 16:22, 27:16, & Rev. 22:6.
NCalvin suggested that this conjunction be a purposive “that you will live,” and the team that tagged the GNT with Louw & Nida numbers chose the resultative “so you will live” (89.50a).
OPros oligas appears in two other places in the N.T. (1Tim. 4:8 & James 4:14), but neither with “days” as here.
PJohn Brown suggested that this preposition be rendered “‘till,” in parallel with the clause “for a few days.”
QHapex Legomenon (but shows up in 2 Macc. 15:2). Seems to be synonymous with ἁγιωσύνη (2 Cor. 7:1, 1 Thess. 3:13) and ὁσιότητι (Eph. 4:24).
RVincent: “Not merely during the present, but for the present regarded as the time in which its application is necessary and salutary. Μὲν indicates that the suffering present is to be offset by a fruitful future - but (δὲ) afterward.”
SThis adjectival form of the word for “peace” only occurs in the N.T. here and in James 3:17. Vincent noted that its use in the Septuagint was in relation to “men, the heart, especially of words and sacrifices.” The phrase “pay back fruit” only occurs here and Rev. 22:2.