Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 12:2

"looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of [our] faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." — Hebrews 12:2 (ASV)

Looking unto Jesus. As a further inducement to do this, the apostle exhorts us to look to the Savior. We are to look to His holy life; to His patience and perseverance in trials; to what He endured in order to obtain the crown; and to His final success and triumph.

The author and finisher of our faith. The word "our" is not in the original here and obscures the sense. The meaning is, He is the first and the last as an example of faith, or of confidence in God—occupying in this, as in all other things, the preeminence, and being the most complete model that can be placed before us.

The apostle had not enumerated Him among those who had been distinguished for their faith, but he now refers to Him as above them all, as a case that deserved to stand by itself. It is probable that there is a continuance here of the allusion to the Grecian games which the apostle had begun in the previous verse.

The word "author"—archēgon (marginal reading: beginner)—means, properly, the source, or cause of anything; or one who makes a beginning. It is rendered in Acts 3:16 and Acts 5:31, prince; in Hebrews 2:10, captain; and in the passage before us, author. It does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The phrase, "the beginner of faith," or "the leader on of faith," would express the idea.

He is at the head of all those who have provided an example of confidence in God, for He was Himself the most illustrious instance of it. The expression, then, does not properly mean that He produces faith in us, or that we believe because He causes us to believe—whatever may be the truth about that—but that He stands at the head as the most eminent example that can be referred to on the subject of faith.

We are exhorted to look to Him, as if at the Grecian games there was one who stood before the racer who had previously carried away every palm of victory; who had always been triumphant, and with whom there was no one who could be compared. The word finisher—teleiōtēn—corresponds in meaning with the word author.

It means that He is the completer as well as the beginner; the last as well as the first. As there has been no one until now who could be compared with Him, so there will be no one in the future. Compare Revelation 1:8, 11: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last." The word does not mean that He was the "finisher" of faith in the sense that He makes our faith complete, or perfects it—whatever may be true about that—but that He occupies this elevated position of being beyond comparison above all others.

Alike in the commencement and the close, in the beginning of faith and in its ending, He stands preeminent. To this illustrious model we should look—as a racer would on one who had been always so successful that he surpassed all competitors and rivals. If this is the meaning, then it is not properly explained, as it commonly is (see Bloomfield and Stuart, in loc.), by saying that the word here is synonymous with rewarder, and refers to the brabeutēs—or the distributor of the prize. Compare the notes on Colossians 3:15.

There is no instance where the word is used in this sense in the New Testament (compare Passow), nor would such an interpretation present so beautiful and appropriate a thought as the one suggested above.

Who for the joy that was set before Him. That is, who in view of all the honor which He would have at the right hand of God, and the happiness which He would experience from the consciousness that He had redeemed a world, was willing to bear the sorrows connected with the atonement.

Endured the cross. Endured patiently the ignominy and pain connected with the suffering of death on the cross.

Despising the shame. Disregarding the ignominy of such a mode of death. It is difficult for us now to realize the force of the expression, "enduring the shame of the cross," as it was understood in the time of the Savior and the apostles. The views of the world have changed, and it is now difficult to divest the "cross" of the associations of honor and glory which the word suggests, so as to appreciate the ideas which encompassed it then.

There is a degree of dishonor which we attach to the guillotine, but the ignominy of a death on the cross was greater than that; there is disgrace attached to the block, but the ignominy of the cross was greater than that; there is a much deeper infamy attached to the gallows, but the ignominy of the cross was greater than that.

And that word—the cross—which when now proclaimed in the ears of the refined, the intelligent, and even the gay, excites an idea of honor in the ears of the people of Athens, of Corinth, and of Rome, excited deeper disgust than the word gallows does with us, for it was regarded as the appropriate punishment of the most infamous of mankind.

We can now scarcely appreciate these feelings, and of course the declaration that Jesus "endured the cross, despising the shame," does not make the impression on our minds regarding the nature of His sufferings, and the value of His example, which it should do. When we now think of the "cross," it is not of the multitude of slaves, robbers, thieves, and rebels who have died on it, but of the one great victim whose death has ennobled even this instrument of torture and encircled it with a halo of glory.

We have been accustomed to read of it as an imperial standard in war in the days of Constantine, and as the banner under which armies have marched to conquest; it is intermingled with the sweetest poetry; it is a sacred thing in the most magnificent cathedrals; it adorns the altar and is even an object of adoration; it is in the most elegant engravings; it is worn by beauty and piety as an ornament near the heart; it is associated with all that is pure in love, great in self-sacrifice, and holy in religion.

To see the true force of the expression here, therefore, it is necessary to divest ourselves of these ideas of glory which encircle the "cross," and to place ourselves in the times and lands in which, when the most infamous of mankind were stretched upon it, it was regarded for such men as an appropriate mode of punishment. That infamy Jesus was willing to bear; and the strength of His confidence in God, His love for man, and the depth of His humiliation were shown in the readiness and firmness with which He went forward to such a death.

And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Exalted to the highest place of dignity and honor in the universe (see the notes on Mark 6:19 and Ephesians 1:20 and following). The sentiment here is, "Imitate the example of the great Author of our religion. He, in view of the honor and joy before Him, endured the most severe sufferings to which the human frame can be subjected, and the form of death which is regarded as the most shameful. So, amidst all the severe trials to which you are exposed on account of religion, patiently endure all—for the glorious rewards, the happiness, and the triumph of heaven are before you."