Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 4 Study # 8
March 24, 2019
Humble, Texas
<120>
1769 Translation:
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in [his] goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [branches], be graffed into their own olive tree?
1901 ASV Translation:
22 Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree?
- I. Paul's Conditional Clause.
- A. It is classed by both Dana and Mantey and A.T. Robertson as a "third class" condition.
- 1. The form of this condition is ean plus the subjunctive mood of a verb.
- 2. The significance of the form is (according to Dana and Mantey) "the more probable" development; i.e., "an assumption that the condition will be fulfilled".
- a. It is not "certain", but it anticipates with a degree of hopefulness.
- b. Hebrews 6:9 identifies wherein lies the ambiguity: if "salvation" has actually occurred, then there will be certain accompaniments.
- 1) The author confesses that he has used certain "noises" (laleo) of truth that are extremely threatening, but he actually does not expect the threatening things to come to pass because he does not actually think his readers are in the condition that he has described (though they have proven to be "childish" and "dull of hearing": Hebrews 5:11-13).
- 2) He then goes on to indicate that one of the "things that accompany salvation" is "inheritance of the promises through faith and patience" (6:12). The "through" is a "dia plus a genitive" and indicates "agency" (Robertson) so that both "faith" as well as "patience" ("enduring faith") are in the mix. This is not an unusual idea in Hebrews as 10:38-39 declares: a "drawing back" results in "perdition", but that is not the expectation of the writer regarding his readers, having taken a more "charitable" view of them that is possibly erroneous.
- B. The nature of the "condition".
- 1. The "condition" that must be met is "continuing in the goodness".
- a. This is the "persevering" aspect of "salvation-faith".
- b. The verb indicating "continuance" is epimeno and it is an intensified form of meno which signals "a remaining in". The person who "remains in" a house does not come out of it. A person who "remains in" an attitude of "fear" does not overcome it.
- c. The context identifies the issue in which a person must "remain": God's "goodness". Intense "remaining" is a focused attitude regarding both what the "goodness" of God is and the attitude that brought one into it.
- 1) The "goodness" in the text is God's grafting of a branch into the tree so that it can participate in the fatness of the tree (or allowing a branch to remain in the tree, needing no grafting because it is already there).
- 2) The "attitude" to which the "goodness" brought a person is identified clearly in Romans 2:4 as "repentance" (as the Bible defines it, not men's typical "snatch and grab" way of simply assigning a meaning by assumption, going on etymology rather than text and context).
- 2. The "nature" of this condition is given as a complete aversion to "boasting" and "highmindedness" (those attitudes eliminate "repentance" as an abiding place).
- II. Paul's Declaration of What Happens to Those Who Fail to Meet the Condition.
- A. The summons to "behold the kindness and severity of God" includes the alternative issue of "severity".
- 1. The word chosen by Paul is not found in any other New Testament document, but it is used twice in this one verse.
- 2. The "definition" of this term is given in the text as "you shall be cut off". It is used in eleven texts of the New Testament and its meaning is given as "cut down" (as a tree is cut off from its roots) and "amputate" (as a hand is cut off from the arm that bears it). It's translation as "severity" comes from this basic idea of "sever". Its significance is "an elimination of the connection of a connected entity so that it not only cannot receive from its 'root', but also shrivels and dies because it has been severed from its source of life". Boiled down to the final reality, it is "Death" for eternity.
- 3. Because the "kindness" results in "connection unto Life", the "severity" results in "amputation unto Death".
- a. "Connection unto Life" does not require "justification" or "salvation" as both of those concepts are indicated in the Scriptures as outcomes of a faith that endures (thus signifying a time between "beginning" and "sufficient maturation to make endurance a reality").
- b. "Amputation unto Death" is the outcome of a "faith-fizzel" caused by "persecutions and afflictions" that produce a rejection of "enduring faith" (Luke 8:13, where the "problem" is identified as "having no root", which, taking Romans 15:12 into consideration, means "no trust in Jesus as 'the Root'").
- B. Paul definitively says "otherwise, you also shall be cut off".
- 1. The "you" is a "singular, second person, pronoun"; indicating a particular person.
- a. The "particular person" is the one settling into both "boastfulness" and "highmindedness".
- b. The issue is the question, "Which attitude ("faith" or "boastfulness") will endure?" Paul is pointing to a reality wherein an attitude takes up a place at the roots of a life so as to be firmly "foundational". Will that "foundation" be "the kindness of God unto repentance", or "the boastfulness of man unto rejection"?
- 2. This "you" does, however, also include a "group-you" as in "Gentiles who settle into the attitude of superiority over others, in general, and Jews, in particular". This was the Jewish "settlement" that got them "cut off" and God is no respecter of persons; anyone who "settles" into this arrogance will be cut off.