Hebrews 13:20-21 “This Is What God Does”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 29 Mar. 2019

Intro

1. “The God of peace” shares His peace with us.

2. God raises the dead to life (Jesus foremost, and we following)

3. Jesus is our great3 Shepherd

4. God saves by means of the eternal covenant in His blood.

5. God fixes up/perfects7/equips/prepares us for good works.

6. God performs in us what is pleasing to Himself through Jesus.

CONCLUSION:

APPENDIX: Greek Text & English Versions of Hebrews 13:20-25A



Greek NT

NAW

KJV

20 ῾Ο δὲ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, ὁ ἀναγαγὼν ἐκ νεκρῶν τὸν ποιμένα τῶν προβάτων τὸν μέγαν ἐνB αἵματι διαθήκης αἰωνίου, τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦν,

20 Now, may the God of peace, who raised up from among the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by means of the blood of the eternal covenant,

20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21 καταρτίσαιC ὑμᾶς ἐν παντὶ [ἔργῳD] ἀγαθῷ εἰς τὸ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦE, ποιῶν ἐν ἡμῖνF τὸ εὐάρεστον ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ διὰ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν.

21 fix y’all up in every good [work] toward the doing of His will, doing in us what is well-pleas­ing in His presence, through Jesus the Anointed One, to whom be the glory forever and ever, Amen.

21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, work­ing in you that which is well­pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be X glory for ever and ever. Amen.


1Chrysostom painted the following picture of being at peace while active and equipped: “For as a ship sailing with favorable winds is neither to be hindered nor sunk, so long as it enjoys a prosperous and steady breeze, but also causes great admiration according to the march of its progress both to the mariners, and to the passengers, giving rest to the one, and not forcing them to toil on at their oars, and setting the others free from all fear, and giving them the most delightful view of her course; so too a soul strengthened by the Divine Spirit, is far above all the billows of this life, and more strongly than the ship, cuts the way bearing on to Heaven, since it is not sent along by wind, but has all the pure sails filled by the Paraclete Himself: and He casts out of our minds all that is slackened and relaxed.”

2cf. Isa. 26:12, Eph. 6:15, Col. 1:20

3Calvin suggested this meant “chief” although Greek has a different word for that exact denotation. Brown suggested it meant either “chief” or “transcendent personal dignity.”

4This view is supported by Beza, Doddridge, Stuart, and Vincent. Another view was advanced by Jerome, Theodoret, and Calvin that the eternal covenant is about the death of Jesus taken together with His resurrection.

5This view was supported by Scott, Henry, Gill, Brown, and Hughes, the latter of whom supported it with Heb. 2:9.

6“The covenant here referred to is obviously that divine constitution or arrangement by which spiritual and eternal blessings are secured for the guilty and depraved children of men through the mediation of the incarnate Son of God… The blood of this covenant is the blood by the shedding of which this covenant was ratified.” ~J. Brown

7"For that is made perfect which having a beginning is afterwards completed." ~Chrysostom

8“[T]hanks to the mediation of our divine-human High Priest… Jesus Christ… there is a restoration of harmony between man and God… The union of the divine will and the human will is the true harmony of creation. This is by no means the eclipse of the human will but, on the contrary, its fulness and its perfection… The Christian’s service of God… is not passive submission but willing, joyful, and cooperative obedience.” ~P. E. Hughes

9"We hence conclude, that we are by no means fit to do good until we are made or formed for the purpose by God, and that we shall not continue long in doing good unless he strengthens us; for perseverance is his peculiar gift." ~J. Calvin

10αρεστον compare with Heb. 13:21 ευαρεστον

111 Peter 5:10 "...the God of all grace who called y'all into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus will Himself renew [καταρτίσει]... confirm, strengthen, [and] establish [y’all]." (NAW)

12“In His word He has given us a plain, well-accredited revelation of His mind. By the influence of His Spirit, which our depravity renders absolutely necessary, He leads us to understand and believe this revelation.” ~J. Brown

13"God is then only prayed to aright by us, to lead us on to perfection, when we acknowledge his power in the resurrection of Christ, and acknowledge Christ himself as our pastor." ~J. Calvin
"[S]aints need to be strengthened with spiritual strength, to perform good works; for they are weak and feeble, and unable of themselves to do anything spiritually good; without Christ they can do nothing, but through him strengthening them, they can do all things..." ~J. Gill

14"… ‘very agreeable to’ him; it makes men like unto him; hereby they become a suitable habitation for him, and are put into a capacity of serving him; to such he gives more grace..."~ J. Gill

15There is some debate among commentators whether Jesus or the Father is intended as the recipient of this glory.

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 a quote from the Old Testament. Key words are colored consistently across the chart to show correlations.

BAlthough all the standard English versions interpret this as a preposition of means, Moulton’s Grammar, following Calvin, suggested it was merely denoting “accompaniment… ‘with the blood...’”

CThe aorist optative καταρτισαι expresses the notion of wishing, ‘may God … make you complete.”” (Burton, Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek)

DThis word is in the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest of which is the Ephraemi Rescriptus from the 5th Cent­ury), and thus in the traditional Textus Receptus and Patriarchal Greek Orthodox editions of the Greek New Testament (as well as the 3rd Century Sahidic and 5th Century Syriac versions and 5th Century Church fathers Chrysostom and Theo­doret), but is not in the 5th century Vulgate or 3rd Century Boharic versions, and it’s not in the western contempor­ary critical editions of the Greek New Testament (such as Nestle-Aland or the UBS) because it is not found in 6 manu­scripts, two of which are the oldest-known (The Chester-Beatty Papyrus and the Sinaiticus Uncial, dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries respectively. It’s also not in the 6th Century Claramontanus.) Curiously, the 5th Century Alexandrinus manu­script reads “word” instead of “work” here. The difference does not approach anything significant theologically, wheth­er we are equipped with “that which is good” with “good works” or with “good words;” all three can be supported by other scriptures.

ECuriously, all the oldest-known manuscripts spelled this pronoun with a different case ending (P46-accusative; א, A, C -dative), but not even the contemporary critical editions considered that to be accurate.

FThe majority of Greek manuscripts - and thus the Textus Receptus editions - read “to y’all,” whereas contemporary editions - both Western “critical” and Eastern Orthodox read “to us.” The former is supported by 3 of the 8 known manuscripts from the first millennium, the oldest dating to the 5th century (plus the 5th Century Vulgate and church fathers from the 4th and 5th centuries – Gregory Nyssa, Chrysostom, and Theodoret), but the latter is supported by dozens of Greek manuscripts from almost every century since the 3rd (as well as the 3rd century Coptic versions and 5th century Armenian and Georgian versions). Whether the author includes himself or not makes no difference in meaning, for it is not intended exclusively.

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