Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 10:34

"For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of you possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one." — Hebrews 10:34 (ASV)

This suffering is further explained. “Sometimes... at other times” is often taken to mean that the one group of people had two experiences. But it seems more likely that it means two groups: “Some of you... others of you.” The first group had been subjected to verbal attack (“insult”) and other forms of “persecution” (GK 2568). The readers had been made a public spectacle by being exposed to insult and injury.

The second group had suffered by being associates of the former group. This is explained as sympathizing with prisoners. In the world of the first century the lot of prisoners was difficult. They were to be punished, not pampered. Little provision was made for them, and they were dependent on friends for their supplies. For Christians to visit prisoners was a meritorious act (Matthew 25:36). But there was some risk, for the visitors became identified with the visited. Yet the readers of the letter had not shrunk from this. They had endured being lumped with the prisoners. Precisely which persecution is meant here we have no way of knowing.

In addition to identifying with prisoners, the readers had had the right attitude to property. There is a question whether the word rendered “confiscation” (GK 771) means official action by which the state took over their goods, or whether it points rather to mob violence. On the whole, the latter seems more likely. The readers had taken this in the right spirit. It would not be a surprise if they endured all this with fortitude, but that they accepted it “joyfully” is another thing altogether. So firmly had their interest been fixed on heavenly possessions that they could take the loss of earthly goods with exhilaration.

The reason for their cheerful attitude is unclear; they knew they “themselves had a better and lasting possession” in Christ, or they “had themselves as a better and lasting possession” . Whichever way we take it, the “possession” (GK 5638; the word is singular) was both better and longer lasting. The possession in Christ cannot be stolen; it is an abiding possession.