Charles Ellicott Commentary Hebrews 12:22

"but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels," — Hebrews 12:22 (ASV)

Unto mount Sion.—Literally (and in these difficult verses it is unusually important to follow the literal rendering of the Greek), You have come to Zion (the) mountain and city of a Living God, a heavenly Jerusalem. The thought of a celestial city which should be the exact counterpart of the earthly Jerusalem is often dwelt upon in Jewish writings; hence the writer is using familiar words, but with a new and spiritual meaning. The same imagery has been employed in Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 11:13–16, for this is the city that hath the foundations, whose Architect and Maker is God. (See also Revelation 21:2 and following; Galatians 4:26.)

This heavenly Jerusalem is Zion, mountain and city of a Living God. Mount Zion is mentioned first, because the contrast with Mount Sinai is throughout present in thought. The name recalls many passages of the Old Testament, especially of the Psalter, as far back as the time when David chose the place for the Ark of the Covenant. Here God desired to dwell (Psalms 68:16); in this holy hill He set His anointed King (Psalms 2:6). (Psalms 48:11; Psalms 78:68; Psalms 110:2; Psalms 132:13.) Zion is not only the mount of God, His dwelling place; it is also the city of God, whose gates the Lord loves (Psalms 87:2). (See Psalms 48:12-13, and others.)

In Hebrews 8:2 we find associated the place of the special manifestation of the glory of God and the resort of His worshipping people; so here the heavenly sanctuary and the city inhabited by the ransomed of the Lord (Isaiah 35:10). In Horeb Israel entreated that they might not hear the voice of the living God (Deuteronomy 5:26). In this spiritual commonwealth we all have drawn nigh to Him.

In the first member of these three verses (Hebrews 12:22–24), therefore, there is very little that is open to question; the difficulties lie in the words which follow, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven. Four or five different arrangements of these words are allowed by the Greek, and every one of these has been adopted and defended by writers of eminence. Here the discussion must be very brief.

On a careful examination of the whole passage, it seems in the highest degree probable that the writer introduces by 'and' each successive member of the sentence, and that groups of words not so introduced serve as appositions, explaining what precedes them. If this is so, the arrangement of the Authorized Version is not tenable. We believe that the choice must lie between two renderings:

1. And to myriads of angels, a festal assembly and congregation of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.
2. And to myriads, a festal assembly of angels and a congregation of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.

In the first of these renderings angels are the subject throughout; in the second, the myriads to whom we have come near are divided into two companies—the festal host of angels, the church of the firstborn. Let us look at the latter interpretation first.

By it the firstborn are sought among men; either those who are already inhabitants of the heavenly world, or men still living upon earth, though enrolled as citizens of heaven (Luke 10:20). Some have understood the words to relate to those who hold precedence, either in rank or in time, among men to whom God has given the name of sons; as, saints of preeminent piety, the noble army of martyrs, the faithful under the Old Covenant, Enoch and Elijah, the Apostles, the first generations of Christians, or the believers of the later as distinguished from those of the earlier dispensation.

A far more probable explanation is that which makes the word here equivalent to heirs of the kingdom, all faithful Christians being ipso facto 'firstborn,' because all are kings (Dr. Lightfoot on Colossians 1:15). See Hebrews 1:6; also, as instances of the figurative use of firstborn in the Old Testament, where the idea of priority of birth is overshadowed by and lost in the idea of pre-eminence,Job 18:13; Isaiah 14:30.

If this is the true interpretation, 1 Peter 2:9 unites the two thoughts which this figure suggests, Ye are . . . a royal priesthood (see above, Hebrews 12:16); and the whole of that verse, especially as compared with Exodus 4:22, well illustrates the position here assigned to the company of the faithful upon earth. The word which we have here rendered congregation, moreover, is that which is regularly applied to the Church of Christ. There is, therefore, very much to be said on behalf of this interpretation, which is in every way attractive.

And yet, full of interest as is such an explanation of the special words, it seems certainly unsuitable to the passage as a whole. It is not easy to believe that the words and to myriads are to be taken by themselves.

It is still more difficult to explain the introduction of the living Church on earth in this position—between angels and the God of all, while the spirits of just men made perfect are mentioned later, in an association from which the Church on earth cannot be severed—with Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant and the blood of sprinkling. For these reasons especially it seems necessary to adopt the first-mentioned arrangement of the words: you have come near . . . to myriads of angels, a festal assembly and congregation of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.

Two passages of the Old Testament seem to have been chiefly in the writer’s mind (Deuteronomy 33:2, and Daniel 7:10); in each of these the Lord appears attended by myriads of angels, who stand before Him and minister to Him (Psalms 103:20).

We who by means of the better hope draw near to God (Hebrews 7:19) are led to this holy hill and city, and through the hosts of ministering spirits into the very presence of the God of all.

The descriptive words which follow are borrowed from the history of Israel. The first (Ezekiel 46:11; Hosea 2:11; Hosea 9:5; Amos 5:21; Isaiah 66:10) is the general and joyous gathering for the feasts of the Lord; the second is the word used throughout for the church in the wilderness, the congregation of Israel.

The latter points to the united body of the servants of God, the former to the joyful gathering for His service. The second word is so commonly used of Israel and of the Christian Church that it has been denied that any other application is ever made; but there is certainly an exception in Psalms 89:7 (a Psalm which, as we have seen, was much in the writer’s thoughts), God is greatly to be feared in the congregation of the saints.

How fitly angels—who in Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7 (Compare to Psalms 29:1, and others), are called sons of God, are here spoken of as firstborn, needs no explanation; they are the enrolled citizens of heaven, whose assembly we are permitted to join (Revelation 5:11).

On verses 22-24:

What it was to which Israel in the time of the Old Covenant drew near, we have now heard. Their drawing near was at the same time a standing afar off; the mount of the revelation might not be approached by them; the voice of God was too terrible to be borne; and yet it was only tangible material nature in which God at once manifested and concealed Himself.

The true and inner communion with God had not yet been revealed: first the Law must lead to the painful consciousness that sin prevents such communion, and intensify the longing that sin may be taken out of the way.

Under the New Covenant, no longer is a tangible mountain the place of a divine revelation made from afar; but heaven is thrown open, and a new super-sensuous world in which God is enthroned is opened to admit us, opened through the Mediator of the New Covenant, accessible in virtue of His atoning blood (Delitzsch).