TEXT [Commentary]

  C.   Disciplined for Combat (12:1-17)

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.[*] Because of the joy[*] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people;[*] then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

5 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?[*] He said,

“My child,[*] don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline,

and don’t give up when he corrects you.

6 For the LORD disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”[*]

7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9 Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?[*]

10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. 16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. 17 You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

NOTES

12:1 since we are surrounded. Lit., “since we have surrounding us” (my italics). Once again the author characteristically points to what “we have” (kai hēmeis . . . echontes) as Christian believers (see 8:1 and note).

the race God has set before us. The “race” is a contest or competition (agōn [TG73, ZG74]; see BDAG 17) against a definite opponent (see 12:4, “your struggle against sin”; see note).

12:2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. The words “we do this” are not in the original text but are added (legitimately) in the NLT in order to break up a very long sentence. The word order is also different in the original, where, in keeping with his characteristic style (see 2:9; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; 7:22; 12:24; 13:20), the author withholds the name “Jesus” as long as possible for emphasis: thus, “keeping our eyes on the champion who initiates and perfects our faith, Jesus.”

champion who initiates and perfects. Lit., “initiator and perfecter.” The word “initiator” (archēgos [TG747, ZG795]; see note on 2:10) is now given a sequel, “perfecter” (teleiōtēs [TG5051, ZG5460]), or one who brings something to completion. For the translation “champion,” in the sense of one who fights or runs a race on behalf of his people, see Lane 1991:411.

Because of the joy awaiting him. This phrase could also be translated “instead of the joy awaiting him” (see BDAG 87-88; Lane 1991:399; the Greek preposition anti [TG473, ZG505] can mean either “for the sake of” or “instead of”). On this reading, Christ chose the Cross over the prospect of “joy,” just as Moses chose oppression “for the sake of Christ” over “the fleeting pleasures of sin” or “the treasures of Egypt” (see 11:25-26). But more likely, the NLT translation is correct (so Attridge 1989:357; Koester 2001:524); the “joy” awaiting Christ was no transitory pleasure but eternal joy with God. He entered into “joy” not as an alternative to the Cross but as its reward (see 11:26, where Moses also was “looking ahead to his great reward”).

disregarding its shame. The author looks at the Cross not simply as a violent and painful death and not primarily as separation from God but as public humiliation (see Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13). The more traditional rendering “despising the shame” (KJV) is actually no different in meaning, for “despise” was not used to mean “hate” but rather to consider of no consequence and therefore to ignore or disregard.

12:3 all the hostility he endured from sinful people. The NLT, like several other English translations (including the NIV), omits a prepositional phrase found in the original. In some mss the phrase is “against him” (D2 044 1739c 1881 M) or “against himself” (A P). In other mss (including 13 46 א D* 33 1739*) it is “against them” or “against themselves.” The second is the more strongly supported and also the more difficult reading (see Lane 1991:400; also Allen Wikgen in Metzger 1971:675). Consequently, the NLT marginal reading is to be preferred: “Think of how people hurt themselves by opposing him.” In their hostility to Jesus, his tormentors were only harming themselves (cf. 6:6, NIV: “to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God”; see Lane 1991:416).

12:5 And have you forgotten . . . ? The NLT understands these words as a question, yet what immediately precedes is an indicative statement (“you have not yet given”; 12:4), and it is more natural to read this verse (linked to it with a simple “and”) in the same way: “And you have forgotten.”

his children? Both here and in the Proverbs quotation that follows (12:5-6), and in its application (12:7-8), the word for “children” is a word normally translated as “son” or “sons” (huios [TG5207, ZG5626]). The NLT renders it “children” or “my child” (12:6), and rightly so because nothing in the quotation is applicable exclusively to male children (see note on 2:10). Probably the original had the word “sons,” not to indicate masculinity, but because it has a connotation of legal status that the word “child” (teknon [TG5043, ZG5451] or paidion [TG3813, ZG4086]) does not have.

12:7 God is treating you. Oddly, the Greek word for “treating” (prospheretai [TG4374A, ZG4712]) is a word that elsewhere in Hebrews means “to offer as a sacrifice” (commonly for Jesus’ offering of himself on the cross, and in 11:17 of Abraham’s offering of his only son). This cannot be the meaning here because it is used with the dative case, not the accusative. It simply means “treating” or “dealing with” a person, as occasionally in Hellenistic literature (see BDAG 886).

12:9 the Father of our spirits. That is, our spiritual Father, in contrast to “our earthly fathers” (see Num 16:22; 27:16; “God of the spirits of all mankind,” NIV). Our “spirits” are not something we possess or some part of ourselves (in distinction from our bodies) but simply ourselves in relation to God and the heavenly realm (see also 12:23, “the spirits of the righteous”).

and live forever. Lit., “and live” (“forever” is implied). The reference is to the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, with its accompanying promise that “you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Exod 20:12). When God is our Father, the promise is not just a long life but eternal life.

12:11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening. The principle here is that our present experience involves pain or sorrow, while “joy” comes later. This seems to confirm the notion that the “joy awaiting” Jesus was no temporary respite from suffering but eternal joy in the presence of God (see 12:2 and note).

those who are trained in this way. That is, “those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong” (5:14). It now becomes clear that “discipline” (paideia [TG3809, ZG4082]) from God’s hand is the means by which this “training” toward maturity or “perfection” takes place.

12:16 immoral. The word used (pornos [TG4205, ZG4521]) implies sexual immorality (the feminine pornē [TG4204, ZG4520] was used of “Rahab the prostitute” in 11:31). While the Bible gives only a faint hint of Esau’s immorality (see Gen 26:34-35), he is so described in later Jewish sources (see, for example, Philo Virtues 208, “being intemperate in respect of the pleasures of the belly and of the parts beneath the belly,” Yonge 1993:661; also Jubilees 25:1, 8; 35:14). Hebrews seems to follow such postbiblical traditions. Lane (1991:439, 455) argues that the word should be understood metaphorically as “apostate,” but this appears to lie outside its normal range of meaning (see BDAG 855).

12:17 even though he begged with bitter tears. Lit., “even though he sought it with tears.” But what was “it”? What was Esau seeking? Repentance? Possibly, but the Greek text speaks not simply of “repentance” but of a “place of repentance,” and “place” is masculine, while “it” (autēn [TG846, ZG899]) in Greek is feminine. More likely, what Esau sought and could not obtain was the “blessing” (eulogian [TG2129, ZG2330], feminine) that he had forfeited. While repentance (metanoia [TG3341, ZG3567) is also feminine, “no place of repentance” seems to refer not to Esau’s psychological inability to repent but to his inability to change God’s mind about the blessing.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Building on his preceding comment that the salvation of the faithful in the past “had to do with us” (11:40; see note) and that “they would not reach perfection without us,” the author begins the chapter with another emphatic “we.” Because we have surrounding us “such a huge crowd [lit., “cloud”] of witnesses,” he urges, “let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (12:1). The image of a journey or pilgrimage (see 11:8-10, 13-16, 38) now gives way to that of an athletic contest, specifically a race. The writer imagined himself and his readers running a race in a stadium in the presence of these “witnesses”—not eyewitnesses or spectators looking down from heaven so much as something more like a cheering section. His point is not that they can see us—they would, after all, have to have been “perfected” to do that, and he explicitly said that they have not been (11:39-40). Rather, they are “witnesses to the life of faith” in the sense described in the preceding chapter in that Scripture has “witnessed” or “testified” to their faith (see 11:2, 39), and their faithful lives in turn testify to us, spurring us on to follow in their steps. They cannot see us, but we, in the pages of Scripture, see them.

The image of the race is not markedly different from that of the journey, for the object of both is to “get there,” not “get there first.” The best modern analogy is the Boston Marathon, in which (unless you are a world-class runner) the object of running is to finish, not to win. Athletic imagery in Hebrews, as in Paul (1 Cor 9:24-27; 2 Tim 2:5; 4:7-8), is not introduced so that Christian believers will compete with one another. Its purpose rather is to foster “endurance,” to encourage them to persevere to the end and so gain salvation or “perfection.” Yet the “race” is a fierce “contest” (see note on 12:1), with definite obstacles to overcome. These obstacles are not the skill or athleticism of other competitors but the unnecessary baggage we ourselves carry around with us, above all “the sin that so easily trips us up” (12:1). Our “champion” is Jesus, and we look to him because he has been this way before. He is both “initiator” (archēgos [TG747, ZG795]) and “perfecter” (teleiōtēs [TG5051, ZG5460]) of faith (see note on 12:2). According to another New Testament writer, Jesus is “the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End” (Rev 21:6; 22:13), and here in Hebrews he becomes the key to fulfilling the earlier command to “hold the beginning (tēn archēn [TG746, ZG794]) of our confidence stedfast unto the end (mechri telous [TG3360/5056, ZG3588/5465])” (3:14, KJV). As the Beginning and End of our faith, Jesus is the supreme example of faith, the culmination of the list in the preceding chapter. Like the heroes of faith before him (see 11:7, 10, 16, 26-27), he looked beyond the seen to the unseen, disregarding the “shame” of the Cross for the sake of “the joy awaiting him” beyond (see note on 12:2). His faith was vindicated—as the author reminds us, drawing once again on his favorite biblical verse, Psalm 110:1: “Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne” (12:2).

Jesus too faced obstacles in his “race” or “contest”—in his case not the excess baggage of his own sin tripping him up but “the hostility he endured from sinful people” tripping themselves up (see note on 12:3). Hebrews is consistent in its claim that Jesus “faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (4:15). As one who was “holy and blameless, unstained by sin,” he is now “set apart from sinners” and “given the highest place of honor in heaven” (7:26), but it was not always so. In his life on earth, and especially in his Passion, he had to deal with the hostility of sinners, even as we have to deal with sin both in ourselves and in the world in which we live. The metaphor of a race or contest begins to take on the shape of single combat against a relentless opponent—“sin,” understood as faithlessness, the very antithesis of that which bound together all the heroes of faith and heirs to the promise of God in past generations.

The author urges his readers not to “become weary” or “give up” in this continuing struggle, and in doing so he resorts to a little gentle irony. When he reminds them, “you have not yet given your lives” (more literally, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,” 12:4, KJV), he is not referring to actual martyrdom, for the “struggle” or “combat” he has in mind is not against bloody persecution as such but against “sin,” whether in ourselves or others. Not resisting “to the point of shedding your blood” (see NIV) means they have not experienced all-out combat against a dangerous, deadly opponent. While the opponent is sin and not persecution, it may rear its head most savagely in the wake of persecution or social conflicts, when the believer is most tempted to compromise for the sake of personal safety or material benefit. The author’s gentle reminder is that “you haven’t drawn blood yet,” or as the Roman philosopher Seneca so graphically put it, “the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists [for combat] is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent’s fist” (Epistles 13.2; LCL 1.73; see Attridge 1989:360). Today we would say it more concisely: “No pain, no gain.” The author is warning his readers not to feel sorry for themselves, not to “become weary” or “give up” prematurely—or for that matter, ever! (12:3). He drives the point home with a quotation from Proverbs, which he claims they ought to know but have forgotten (see note on 12:5). The quotation is linked to his argument by the words, “my child,” picking up the identification of his readers as God’s “children,” and by the words “don’t give up” (12:5), picking up his own warning not to “become weary” or “give up” (12:3). The quotation (from Prov 3:11-12) declares that the Lord’s “discipline” (paideia [TG3809, ZG4082]; literally, “the training of a child”) is a good thing because it identifies those disciplined as “those he loves” and “accepts as his child[ren]” (12:6).

The author develops the theme at some length (12:7-11), drawing from it the word of encouragement, “God is treating you as his own children” (12:7; see note), and spelling out in detail an analogy between human fathers and God as “the Father of our spirits” (12:9). “Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?” he asks (12:7; a rhetorical question in his day, perhaps, but no longer!), and he continues, “If God doesn’t discipline you . . . you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all” (12:8). Like James (Jas 1:2-4) and Peter (1 Pet 1:6-7), this author knows that suffering, whether because of persecution or not, can play a crucial role in spiritual growth.

The argument is from the lesser to the greater. Building on the biblical command to “honor your father and mother” so as to “live a long, full life” (Exod 20:12), the author asks, “Shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?” (12:9; see note). Then he contrasts “our earthly fathers,” who disciplined us for a few years the best they knew how, with God, whose “discipline is always good for us” and whose purpose is “that we might share in his holiness” (12:10). The writer recognizes that our human fathers are not infallible any more than we ourselves are, and he acknowledges that no discipline—whether at their hands or God’s—is “enjoyable while it is happening” (12:11). On the contrary, he admits, “It’s painful!” Only “afterward” does it yield “a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way” (12:11).

With this, the author adds one last appeal not to grow “weary” or “give up” (see 12:3), again with perhaps just a touch of the teasing irony we saw earlier when he reminded them that they had not yet “drawn blood” (see 12:4). “So take a new grip with your tired hands,” he urges, “and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong” (12:12-13). It sounds like a biblical quotation, and it almost is. Parts of it loosely paraphrase Isaiah 35:3 (“Strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees”) and Proverbs 4:26 (“Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path”), but in its present form it appears to be either the author’s own composition or a citation from a source unknown to us. It seems to presuppose an audience complaining of “tired hands” and “weak knees,” and the author, taking them at their word, gently reminds them to “get a grip” (almost literally), stop whining, and get on with the task at hand—the ongoing “struggle against sin” (see 12:4).

If there is irony in the author’s words, it quickly disappears as he becomes deadly serious, yet disarmingly simple and straightforward: “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord” (12:14). “Peace” and “holiness” echo the two major goals of God’s “discipline” of his “children” in the preceding paragraph: first, a “share in his holiness” (12:10), and second, “a peaceful harvest of right living” (12:11). “Holiness” characterizes a person’s relationship to God—a “vertical” relationship if you will, to the one above, whom we worship. “Peace” and “right living” (or “justice”) have to do with a person’s relationships and responsibilities to other human beings—the “horizontal” dimension of our lives. Here (in 12:14) the author draws the two together: “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life.” With this, he completes a kind of “chiasm,” that is, an A B B’ A’ pattern in which two terms (in this instance, two ideals or virtues) are introduced, and then repeated in reverse order:

A. holiness (12:10)

B. peace (12:11)

B´. peace (12:14a)

A´. holiness (12:14b)

The effect of such a literary device is to bind the two ideals of “peace” (eirēnē [TG1515, ZG1645]) and “holiness” (hagiasmos [TG38, ZG40]) inextricably together. Neither is possible without the other. “Work at” is literally “pursue,” implying that these are the twin goals of the “race God has set before us” (see 12:1). “Peace” is “with everyone,” not just fellow believers (see Rom 12:18), even though the author will shortly spell out once more the responsibilities of believers to care for each other (12:15).

Because “pursuing” peace may have been a familiar notion to the readers (see Ps 34:14; Rom 14:19; 2 Tim 2:22; 1 Pet 3:11) but “pursuing” holiness not as much so, the author adds a caution: “For those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” Earlier, he had spoken of believers as God’s children, made holy by the suffering and death of Jesus (see note on 2:11) and brought into “glory” or “salvation” (2:10). In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God” (Matt 5:8), and in John he prayed for his disciples to be made holy (John 17:17, 19) so that they would finally be able to see his glory (John 17:24). And again in 1 John, the holy will see Christ in glory: “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). It is not clear in this verse whether “the Lord” whom the unholy will not see is God or Jesus. Probably the author has in mind that second appearance of Jesus when “he will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (9:28; see notes). Only those “made holy,” he implies, are “eagerly waiting,” and only they will see God in the face of Jesus.

The caution that “those who are not holy will not see the Lord” (12:14) expands into a warning. “Living at peace with everyone” is not enough. In particular, believers must also “look after each other” (12:15), a theme the author has stressed before (3:12-13; 10:24-25) and one to which he will return in more detail (see 13:1-17). His concern is not merely with the community as a whole but with every individual member “so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God” (12:15). He wants “no poisonous root of bitterness” (see Deut 29:18) to grow up among them, “corrupting many” (or, for that matter, “any”), and he wants to make sure “that no one is immoral or godless like Esau” (12:16).

Aside from the generation that fell in the desert (3:7–4:11), Esau is the single example of unbelief, one named individual standing over against all the faithful, named and unnamed, in the preceding chapter. Esau has often been cited by interpreters—most conspicuously by John Bunyan in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners—as the classic example of the apostasy described earlier in Hebrews 6:4-8 and 10:26-31. Bunyan grouped the three texts together as “the only sentences that would keep me out of Heaven,” adding that “I could hardly forbear at some times, but to wish them out of the book” (Bunyan 1987a:54). The Esau text, in fact, loomed even above the others for him and led him straight to the other two. Yet it is doubtful that Esau is being presented here as an example of “apostasy.” There is no evidence that the author views Esau as “once enlightened” or as having “experienced the good things of heaven,” “tasted . . . the power of the age to come” (6:4-5), “received a full knowledge of the truth,” or been “made holy” by the “blood of the covenant” (10:26, 29). On the contrary, to this author Esau is simply an “immoral” and “godless” man (12:16), an example not of apostasy but simply of unredeemed human nature—not “falling from grace” but “fail[ing] to receive the grace of God” (12:15) in the first place. Paul had said that before Jacob and Esau “were born or had done anything good or bad,” their mother was told, “the older will serve the younger,” as it was written, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau” (Rom 9:11-13; see Gen 25:23; Mal 1:2-3). Hebrews itself has mentioned Isaac’s “blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau” (starting with the younger; 11:20), and continuing with further mention of Jacob (11:21) but not of Esau. Here the writer focuses instead on the occasion when Esau showed himself immoral and godless by trading away his status as “firstborn son” for the sake of “a single meal” (12:16; see Gen 25:29-34). Then, ignoring the deception carried out by Rebecca and Jacob (Gen 27:5-29), he concludes that when Esau “wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears” (12:17).

Still, it is unwise to read too much into these few words. The author is doing little more than retelling the biblical story (see Gen 27:30-38), which he assumes his readers already know. What Esau “wanted” was not repentance but his father’s “blessing,” just as in Genesis (see note on 12:17). It is idle to debate whether or not he was psychologically capable of true repentance. His tears suggest that he did “repent,” so far as anyone can, but his repentance could not change God’s mind or regain the blessing, which had already been given to his brother Jacob. It would in any event have been his first repentance, or change of mind, not a second repentance after enlightenment and apostasy (as in 6:6). The point of Esau’s story is not so much his repentance or lack thereof, as his choice of the seen over the unseen, of temporary desires (“a single meal”) over his eternal destiny (“his birthright as the firstborn son”). In this respect, he is (as in Paul) the “unchosen,” the exact opposite of Moses, who renounced temporal things (“the fleeting pleasures of sin” and “the treasures of Egypt”) in favor of “the one who is invisible” (11:25-27), and indeed the opposite of everyone in chapter 11 who exercised “faith.” Esau fits Paul’s description of those whose “god is their appetite,” who “brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth” (Phil 3:19). He is, in short, the author’s prime example of a “godless,” “secular,” or “worldly” man (bebēlos [TG952, ZG1013]; 12:16), not a likely candidate to be numbered among “God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven” (see 12:23).

At the same time, the author knows very well that Esau did receive a blessing (11:20), even if not the blessing he wanted that went with his birthright as the firstborn. The purpose here is not to make a final judgment about Esau’s salvation but simply to show that Esau, unlike the faithful of chapter 11, is not an example to be followed. His wrong choice of “a single meal” over the promises of God cost him dearly, and the author does not want his audience to repeat Esau’s mistake. We have been warned already about preoccupation with “food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies” (9:10), and that subject will come up again in more detail, though still rather mysteriously (see 13:9-13). The author’s overarching concern is “that none of you fails to receive the grace of God” (12:15), and he worries that by following Esau’s example some of us might do exactly that.