Hebrews 12:14-16 “Pursue Peace & Holiness”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 12 Jan. 2019

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

Intro

    1. The first is gracelesness. I can’t tell you the number of times I have talked to someone who has gotten burned out on church. If you haven’t had a bad church experience yet, you will before it’s all over. Christians can be vicious.

    2. The second problem is that unbelief is rampant – even in the church! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked to a church acquaintance who said, “I just can’t believe in a God that would let my dear relative get sick – or worse, a God who would send anybody to hell, or I can’t believe in a God that is so narrowminded and strict and talking about sin all the time.

    3. The third problem in the church is and carelessness with what is holyone of the biggest manifestations of that being sexual immorality. I have been dumbfounded at how many church folks I have met over the last few decades who are involved in sexual sin – many of whom didn’t even seem to be embarrassed about it.

v.14 Keep chasing down peace with all men, along with the holiness without which nobody will see [a good relationship with] the Lord,

v.15 exercising supervision lest someone be lacking of the grace of God, lest some root of bitterness cause trouble as it grows up – and on account of this many might be defiled,

v.16 lest someone be sexually-immoral or unholy – like Esau, who tendered up his firstborn-privileges in exchange for a single [serving of] food.

Appendix: Greek Text & English Versions of Hebrews 12:11-17A

Greek NT

NAW

KJV

11 πᾶσα δὲ παιδεία πρὸς μὲν τὸ παρὸν οὐ δοκεῖ χαρᾶς εἶναι, ἀλλὰ λύπης, ὕστερον δὲ καρπὸν εἰρηνικὸν 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 τὰς παρειμένας χεῖρας καὶ τὰ παραλελυμένα γόνατα ἀνορθώσατεB,

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 τροχιὰς ὀρθὰς ποιήσατε 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.

14 Εἰρήνην διώκετε μετὰ πάντων, καὶ τὸν ἁγιασμόν, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸν Κύριον,

14 Keep chasing down peace with all men, along with the holiness without which no one will see [a good relationship with] the Lord,

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

15 ἐπισκοποῦντες μήC τις ὑστερῶν ἀπὸ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ, Dμή τις ῥίζα πικρίας ἄνω φύουσα ἐνοχλῇE καὶ διὰ ταύτηςF μιανθῶσι πολλοί,

15 exercising supervision lest someone be lacking of the grace of God, lest some root of bitterness cause trouble as it grows up – and on account of this many might be defiled,

15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

16 μή τις πόρνος ἢ βέβηλος ὡς ᾿Ησαῦ, ὃς ἀντὶG βρώσεως μιᾶς ἀπέδοτοH τὰ πρωτοτόκια I[]αὐτοῦ.

16 lest someone be sexually-immoral or unholy – like Esau, who tendered up his firstborn-privileges in exchange for a single [serving of] food.

16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane [person], as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthrightX.

17 ἴστεJ γὰρ ὅτι καὶ μετέπειταK θέλων κληρονομῆσαι τὴν εὐλογίαν ἀπεδοκιμάσθηL, μετανοίας γὰρ τόπον οὐχ εὗρε, καίπερ μετὰ δακρύων ἐκζητήσαςM αὐτήν.

17 (For indeed y’all should know that afterward when he was wanting to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for he didn’t find a place of repentance, although he sought it out with tears.)

17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.


1The LXX ζήτησον εἰρήνην καὶ δίωξον αὐτήν uses two of the same root words (underlined), although the verb is Aorist and Singular whereas it is Present and plural in Heb. 12:14. The quote in 1 Pet. 3:11 is identical to the LXX of Psalm 33:15 (Eng 34:14) except that the verbs are spelled in 3rd instead of 2nd person.

2Chrysostom commented that pursuing peace is related to the command not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together "For nothing so especially makes persons easily vanquished and subdued in temptations, as isolation." It is also related to Rom 12:18 “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”

3Cf. Louw & Nida semantic domain #34.50 for opsomai “go to see a person on the basis of friendship”

4Chrysostom: “Dost thou see how everywhere he puts the common salvation into the hands of each individual? ‘Exhorting one another daily,’ he says, ‘while it is called To-day.’ (Heb 3:13)”

5Owen took a different view: “it is not necessary to suppose that the application here is the same as in Deuteronomy. What is there applied to an idolater, is here applied to a person disturbing the peace of the Church.” Appendix U2 to Calvin’s commentary on Hebrews.

6John Brown noted in his commentary,“The ‘root of bitterness’ has, as it were, a power of contaminating the plants in [its] neighborhood… A false-hearted professor, introducing false doctrines or sinful practices, is very apt to find followers. ‘Evil communications corrupt good manners;’ and ‘a little leaven,’ when allowed to ferment, will go far to ‘leaven the whole lump.’ ‘Profane and vain babblings increase unto more ungodliness.’”

7although μοιχευσεις "adultery" is the synonym chosen by the LXX for Deut. 5:17 and Ex. 20:13.

8"...the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers..." (NKJV)

9ἀσεβείας – a synonym to βεβήλους

10Chrysostom, a native speaker of Koine Greek did not consider the reference to fornication to refer to Esau, only the reference to being profane. (Calvin, Owen, Westcott, and Bruce agreed, but Aquinas, Delitzsch, Spicq, Philo, and P.E. Hughes disagreed.) Although Esau was a polygamist, the opprobrium recorded in scripture concerning his mar­riages seems to be due to the pagan-ness of his wives, moreso than to sexual immorality. There are Jewish traditions, however, which portrayed Esau as a lusty fornicator (e.g. Jublilees 25), and if, true, are doubly condemning of him.

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 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.)

CMoulton, Grammar of New Testament Greek Vol. I. p.178 In this verse a clause of warning is introduced by  following the participle , “See to it that …” This verb is only to be found here and in Deut. 11:12; 2 Chr. 34:12; Est. 2:11; Prov. 19:23; and 1 Pet. 5:2.

DCompare with the LXX of Deut. 29:17b ... μή τίς ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ῥίζα ἄνω φύουσα ἐν χολῇ καὶ πικρίᾳ

EThis words means “be sick” in all its occurrences in the LXX Old Testament (Gen. 48:1; 1 Sam. 19:14; 30:13; Mal. 1:13), but means “trouble” in all occurrences in the Apocrypha and NT (1 Es. 2:17, 24 Dat. 6:3; Lk. 6:18). P.E. Hughes suggested that enochle might be a corruption of en chole (“in gall,” which is the reading of the Hebrew of Deut. 29:18), and he suggested that enochle was copied from Heb. 12:15 into the Alexandrinus of Deut. 29:18 rather than vice versa.

FGreek manuscripts seem to be almost evenly split on whether this is a simple pronoun “it” (αυτης) or a demonstrative pronoun “this” ταυτης, with a slight majority following the latter, so it is the reading of the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions of the GNT and the reading of the NKJV. Even if you discount all the manuscripts from the second millennium, the oldest-known manuscripts are still pretty evenly split, with only a slight majority following the former, but that is why the contemporary critical editions of the GNT favor the simple pronoun and the NASB and ESV read “it.” (It is curious that the KJV and NIV dropped the word out of their translations!) At any rate, there is no significant difference in meaning. All manuscripts agree that “it/this” is genitive, feminine, and singular, referring to the feminine singular antecedent “root.”

GMoule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek P.71 The preposition  has the meaning of “in exchange for” in this context, with the resultant rendering “he sold his birthright for one meal.”

HThis verb is spelled with one vowel different (απεδετο) in a minority of the Greek manuscripts (15 of them) and in several critical editions, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal, the Nestle-Aland, and United Bible Societies Greek New Testament. The majority spelling which I have preserved, however goes back to some of the oldest-known manuscripts. It makes no difference, however, in meaning since it is merely an alternate spelling.

IFive manuscripts (including the 3 oldest-known, and therefore the contemporary critical editions of the GNT like the UBS) spell this word with an epsilon at the beginning which makes the pronoun reflexive instead of simple. The vast majority of Greek manuscripts (starting with the 6th century Claramontanus) and therefore the traditional editions of the GNT (like the Patriarchal and Textus Receptus) spell it without. The only possible difference in meaning would be to make the word slightly more emphatic, as the NASB rendered it. “his own.” But since the pronoun is already genitive it makes no difference in meaning, and the King James versions which follow the Textus Receptus translated it the same as the NIV and ESV which follow the UBS (“his”). This might be explained by a change in grammar conventions over the centuries.

JMoulton, Grammar of New Testament Greek Vol. I. p.245: According to the form,  may be indicative or imperative. It seems preferable to take this verb as an imperative here (if it is indicative, it is a purely literary word). It only occurs in this form two other places in the Greek Bible: Eph. 5:5 & James 1:19.

KHapex Legomenon. Found three places in the Apocrypha, though: Est. 3:13; Judith 9:5; 3 Mac. 3:24.

LThis word is used several times in Jeremiah (6:30; 7:29; 8:9; 14:19; 38:35) to describe Israel’s rejection of God and God’s rejection of Israel in the Babylonian Captivity.

MHoward, Grammar of New Testament Greek Vol. II P.310: The compound verb  always seems to denote that the seeker finds, or at least exhausts his powers of seeking (as in this verse).

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