Hebrews 12:12-13 “Strengthen the Hands That Are Weak”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 22 Dec. 2019

Omitting greyed-out text should bring presentation time down around 45 minutes.

Intro

v.12 So, “Y’all must start strengthening the drooping hands and the feeble knees,” 13 and y’all must start “making straight paths with your feet” in order that the crippled might not veer away but rather be healed.

v.13 and y’all must start “making straight paths with/for your feet” in order that the crippled might not veer away but rather be healed.

CONCLUSION


This little Babe, so few days old is come to rifle Satan’s fold;

All hell doth at His presence quake, though He himself for cold do shake,

For in this weak unarmed wise, the gates of hell He will surprise…


His camp is pitched in a stall, His bulwark but a broken wall

The crib his trench, haystalks His stakes, of shepherds He His muster makes,

And thus as sure His foe to wound, the angels’ trumps alarum sound.


My soul with Christ join in the fight; stick to the tents that He hath pight;

Within His crib is surest ward, this little Babe will be thy guard;

If thou will foil thy foes with joy, then flit not from this heavenly boy!


APPENDIX: Greek Text & English Versions of Hebrews 12:11-13A

Greek NT

NAW

KJV

11 πᾶσα δὲ παιδεία πρὸς μὲν τὸ παρὸνB οὐ δοκεῖ χαρᾶς εἶναι, ἀλλὰ λύπης, ὕστερον δὲ καρπὸν εἰρηνικὸνC 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.

12 Διὸ τὰςD παρειμένας χεῖρας καὶ τὰ παραλελυ­μένα γόνατα ἀνορθώσατεE,

12 So, “Y’all must start strengthening the drooping hands and the feeble knees,”

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13 καὶ τροχιὰςF ὀρθὰς ποιήσατεG τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν, ἵνα μὴ τὸ χωλὸν ἐκτραπῇ, ἰαθῇ δὲ μᾶλλον.

13 and y’all must start “making straight paths with your feet” in order that the crippled might not veer away but rather be healed.

13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that [which is] lame be turned out [of the way]; but [let] it rather be healed.


1Although the words for “hands” and “knees” are the same, the adjectives and verbs are slightly different. The three verbs in the LXX are παρεκάλεσας...ἐξανέστησας... περιέθηκας, whereas the verb in Heb. 12:12 is ἀνορθώσατε. The adjectives ἀσθενοῦς and ἀδυνατοῦσιν in Job are replaced with the synonyms παρειμένας and παραλελυμένα in Heb.

2SIGHT TO BLIND; HEARING TO DEAF: Mt. 11:5/Lk 7:22, Mt. 15:31, LAME WALK: Acts 3:8, 8:7, 14:10; DUMB SPEAK: Mat. 9:32-33; 12:22; 15:30-31; Mark 7:37; 9:17-25; Luke 1:22; 11:14

3Chrysostom put it this way: “‘Walk straight’ ...speaks with reference to their thoughts; that is to say, not doubting.” cf. Calvin: “The ways of error and sin are called crooked paths: see Proverbs 2:15; Isaiah 59:8. So the way of truth and holiness is compared to a straight line... It is remarkable what the Apostle says in Galatians 2:14, of Peter and those who dissembled with him, that they... ‘did not foot straightly [ouk orthopodousi] according to the truth of the Gospel;’ they deviated from the straight line prescribed by the Gospel.”
cf. John Gill: “to make these paths ‘straight’, is to make the word of God the rule of walking

4Calvin noted that this root is used in the LXX to refer to spiritual waywardness: "How long halt ye [χωλανεῖτε] between two opinions?" (1 Ki. 18:21)

5The lone LXX reference being Amos 5:8 "turning night into day" (which is also the lone active voice spelling of this verb in the entire Greek Bible).

6Marvin Vincent P.E. Hughes, and others make the case that this is medical language for dislocation (cf. Hippocrates De Offic. Med. 14).

7https://creation.com/dino-feathers-south-pole

8cf. Psalm 103:2 and Jeremiah 17:14

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.

BVincent: “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.”

CThis 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.

DWhile I see this article could be construed as “your” (L&N supplement #92.11a, as per the Syriac and NIV), since it is the object of a second person plural imperative verb, I don’t want to force the pronominal meaning because I see no evidence from the context that this strengthening should be limited only to the “you” addressed in Hebrews. I think it would be appropriately applied to strengthening anyone’s weak faith, not merely our own. (The imperative is active voice “y’all must restore,” not middle voice “restore yourself.”)

EThis is a quote from Isaiah 35:3, though clearly not copied from the LXX (which reads ἰσχύσατε χεῖρες ἀνειμέναι καὶ γόνατα παραλελυμένα). Most of the other 16 occurrences of this verb root in the Greek Bible have to do with the establishment of a ruler in a kingdom: 2 Sam. 7:13, 16; 1 Chr. 17:12, 14, 24; 22:10; Ps. 17:36; 19:9; 144:14; 145:8; Prov. 24:, and Acts 15:16. (Jeremiah, however, uses it to refer to the establishment of the created order by God in 10:12 & 40:2, Ezekiel uses it to describe puberty in 16:7; and Luke uses it to describe the healing of the hunchback woman in 13:13.) The two participles (“drooping” and “feeble”) also occur together in Deut. 32:36. (cf. also Zeph. 3:16.)

FThe only other places this word occurs in the Greek Bible are in the early chapters of Proverbs (2:15; 4:11, 26-27; 5:6, 21), where it always refers to the figurative course of a man’s life rather than to the literal “wheel-track” (Vincent) or “running-lane” (Hughes) on the ground.

GFour manuscripts (two of which are among the oldest-known) spell this verb in the Present tense (ποιειτε – which would match Prov. 4 more closely) instead of in the Aorist tense, so the contemporary critical editions of the GNT spell this word in the Present tense. However, just as many of the oldest-known manuscripts spell the word like the vast majority of Greek manuscripts (and the traditional editions of the GNT) do in the Aorist tense. I see no reason to change the traditional reading based on such tenuous evidence. The previous imperative in the preceding verse is Aorist, and the subsequent imperative in the following verse is Present, so context does not seem to demand that it be one way or another. The only difference in meaning would be that if it’s Aorist (as I have kept it), it might imply that the Hebrews had not been making straight paths for their feet and needed to start doing so now, whereas the Present tense might imply that they had been making straight paths and needed to continue doing so. But English does not have such a nuance in its verb aspects, so all the major English translations are the same, whether KJV & NKJ (which follow the traditional GNT) or NASB and NIV (which follow the more recent critical GNT’s). Although somewhat reminiscent of Isaiah 40:3b (which uses the verb ποιεῖτε), not a single other word matches in the LXX. Proverbs 4:26 matches much more closely if you transpose the first two words, use the verb’s present tense (ποίει), remove the definite article before “feet,” and change the plural “your” to singular (σοῖς).

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