Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 12

“We” links the writer to his readers. He is a competitor in the race as well as they and writes as one who is as much caught up in the contest as they are. The word “cloud” may be used of a mass of clouds in the sky, but it is also used of a throng of people. The witnesses are a vast host.

There is a question whether we should understand “witnesses” (GK 3459) as those who have witnessed to the faith or those who are spectators witnessing the present generation of Christians. Normally the word is used in the former sense, and it is doubtful whether it ever means simply “a spectator.” Still it is difficult to rid the word of this idea in 1 Timothy 6:12 (perhaps also in Heb 10:28), and the imagery of the present passage favors it. The writer pictures athletes in a footrace, running for the winning post and urged on by the crowd. Yet they are “surrounded,” which makes it hard to think of them as looking to the “witnesses”—and all the more so since they are exhorted to keep their eyes on Jesus (v.2). Both ideas may be present. Perhaps we should think of something like a relay race where those who have finished their course and handed in their baton are watching and encouraging their successors.

With the great gallery of witnesses about us, it is important for us to run well. So we are exhorted to “throw off everything that hinders.” “Hinders” (GK 3839) is really a noun that means any kind of weight. It is sometimes used of superfluous bodily weight that the athlete sheds during training. Here, however, it seems to be the race rather than the training that is in view. Athletes carried nothing with them in a race (they ran naked), and the writer is suggesting that the Christian should “travel light.” He is not referring to sin (see the next clause). Some things that are not wrong in themselves hinder us in putting forward our best effort. So the writer tells us to get rid of them.

Christians must also put off every “sin that so easily entangles.” Sin forms a crippling hindrance to good running. We must lay aside all that can hinder us in our race and “run with perseverance.” The author is not thinking of a short, sharp sprint but of a race that requires endurance and persistence—a long-distance race that demands sustained effort by the runner, who keeps on with great determination. That is what the heroes of faith did in their day, and it is that to which we are called.

We are to run this race with no eyes for any one or anything except Jesus. He is the one toward whom we run with undivided attention. The “author and perfecter of [the] faith” may mean that Jesus walked the way of faith first and brought it to completion. Or it may mean that he originated his people’s faith and will bring it to its perfection. Both ideas may be involved, but since it is not easy to think of the faith by which Jesus lived as essentially the same as our own, the emphasis seems to fall on what he does in his followers. As the heroes of faith in ch. 11 are OT characters, the thought is that Jesus led all the people of faith, even from the earliest days.

The expression rendered “for the joy set before him” is problematic. The preposition translated “for” (GK 505) strictly means “in the place of.” Accordingly, the meaning may be that in place of the joy he might have had, Jesus accepted the cross. The “joy” is then the heavenly bliss that the preincarnate Christ surrendered in order to take the way of the Cross. He replaced joy with the Cross. But this preposition sometimes has the meaning “for the sake of,” which is preferable here. With this understanding of the term, Jesus went to the Cross because of the joy it would bring. He looked right through the Cross to the coming joy, the joy of bringing salvation to those whom he loves. For this joy, then, Jesus “endured the cross.” The “cross” is not as common a way of referring to the death of Jesus as we might have expected. This is the one occurrence of the word outside the gospels and Pauline letters. If one “scorns” a thing, one normally has nothing to do with it; but “scorning its shame” means rather that Jesus thought so little of the pain and shame involved that he refused to avoid it; instead, he endured it. Then, having completed his work of redemption, he “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” .

“Consider” (GK 382) is a word used in calculations. The readers are invited to “take account of” Jesus, the one who “endured” [GK 5702] opposition from sinful men.” He was thus in the same kind of position the readers found themselves in, and he served as the example for them. They were not being called upon to put up with something their Master had not first endured. The two verbs “grow weary” (GK 2827) and “lose [GK 1725] heart” are sometimes used of runners who relax and collapse after they have passed the finishing post. The readers were still in the race. They must not give way prematurely, nor allow themselves to faint and collapse through weariness. Once again there is the call to perseverance in the face of hardship.

The “struggle [GK 497, retaining the imagery of athletic games] against sin” does not seem to refer to sin that the readers might be tempted to commit but to the sin of oppressors who were trying to terrorize them into abandoning their faith. Shedding blood does not normally accompany temptation, but it was a very real possibility for those facing persecution. Jesus had been killed, and many of those honored in ch. 11 had likewise been killed for their faithfulness to God. The words “not yet” show that there was real danger and that the readers must be ready for difficult days. But they had not had to die for their faith. They were evidently concerned at the prospect facing them, and he points out that their experience is not nearly so difficult as that of others.

They had forgotten an important point: Scripture links suffering and sonship, as Pr 3:11–12 shows. The address “My son” is normal for a writer of proverbs who assumes a superior but caring position. This author, however, sees a fuller meaning in these words than that, for they are words from God to his people. When God speaks of discipline and rebuke, it is sons whom he addresses. This warning is called “that word of encouragement.” The certainty of suffering encourages believers rather than dismays them because they know that it is God’s discipline for them. It seems not improbable that the words should perhaps be taken as a question: “Have you forgotten?” The word for “discipline” (GK 4082) combines the thoughts of chastening and education. It points to sufferings that teach us something. In v.4 the striving was against sin, but somehow the hand of God was in it, too. No circumstances are beyond God’s control, and there are none he cannot use to carry out his purpose. So believers are not to belittle the significance of their sufferings nor lose heart in the face of God’s correction. God disciplines the people he loves, not those he is indifferent to. The readers should see the sufferings they were experiencing as a sign of God’s love, as Scripture already assured them.

In the ancient world it was universally accepted that bringing up children involved disciplining them. The Roman father possessed absolute authority. When a child was born, he decided whether to keep or discard it. Throughout its life he could punish it as he chose. He could even execute a child and, while this was rarely done, the right to do it was there. Discipline was to be expected.