Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 13:4

Marriage [is] honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

4. Marriage is honourable in all ] More probably this is an exhortation, “Let marriage be held honourable among all,” or rather “in all respects,” as in Heb 13:18. Scripture never gives even the most incidental sanction to the exaltation of celibacy as a superior virtue, or to the disparagement of marriage as an inferior state. Celibacy and marriage stand on an exactly equal level of honour according as God has called us to the one or the other state. The medival glorification of Monachism sprang partly from a religion of exaggerated gloom and terror, and partly from a complete misunderstanding of the sense applied by Jewish writers to the word “Virgins.” Nothing can be clearer than the teaching on this subject alike of the Old (Gen 2:18; Gen 2:24) and of the New Covenant (Mat 19:4-6; Joh 2:1-2; 1Co 7:2). There is no “forbidding to marry” (1Ti 4:1-3) among Evangelists and Apostles. They shared the deep conviction which their nation had founded on Gen 1:27; Gen 2:18-24 and which our Lord had sanctioned (Mat 19:4-6). The warning in this verse is against unchastity. If it be aimed against a tendency to disparage the married state it would shew that the writer is addressing some Hebrews who had adopted in this matter the prejudices of the Essenes (1Ti 4:3). In any case the truth remains “ Honourable is marriage in all;” it is only lawless passions which are “passions of dishonour” (Rom 1:26).

and the bed undefiled ] A warning to Antinomians who made light of unchastity (Act 15:20; 1Th 4:6).

whoremongers ] Christianity introduced a wholly new conception regarding the sin of fornication (Gal 5:19; Gal 5:21; 1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5; Col 3:5-6; Rev 22:15) which, especially in the depraved decadence of Heathenism under the Empire, was hardly regarded as any sin at all. Hence the necessity for constantly raising a warning voice against it (1Th 4:6, &c.).

God will judge ] The more because they often escape altogether the judgment of man (1Sa 2:25; 2Sa 3:39).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Marriage is honorable in all – The object here is to state that honor is to be shown to the marriage relation. It is not to be undervalued by the pretence of the superior purity of a state of celibacy, as if marriage were improper for any class of people or any condition of life; and it should not be dishonored by any violation of the marriage contract. The course of things has shown that there was abundant reason for the apostle to assert with emphasis, that marriage was an honorable condition of life. There has been a constant effort made to show that celibacy was a more holy state; that there was something in marriage that rendered it dishonorable for those who are in the ministry, and for those of either sex who would be eminently pure. This sentiment has been the cause of more abomination in the world than any other single opinion claiming to have a religious sanction. It is one of the supports on which the Papal system rests, and has been one of the principal upholders of all the corruptions in monasteries and nunneries. The apostle asserts, without any restriction or qualification, that marriage is honorable in all; and this proves that it is lawful for the ministers of religion to marry, and that the whole doctrine of the superior purity of a state of celibacy is false; see this subject examined in the notes on 1 Cor. 7.

And the bed undefiled – Fidelity to the marriage vow.

But whore mongers and adulterers God will judge – All licentiousness of life, and all violations of the marriage covenant, will be severely punished by God; see the notes on 1Co 6:9. The sins here referred to prevailed everywhere, and hence, there was the more propriety for the frequent and solemn injunctions to avoid them which we find in the Scriptures.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 13:4

Marriage is honourable

Marriage:

It is not to be denied that marriage hath its proper inconveniences.

There are peculiar cares and hindrances belonging to it. For the new relations that are acquired by it, as those of husband and wife, father and mother, master and mistress, are attended with peculiar crosses and troubles. But then it is to be considered that there is no condition of life whatsoever without inconveniences, and particularly celibacy is a great trouble of itself; it is comfortless and unarmed, exposed to hazards, and beset with dangerous temptations. But the state of wedlock, if it be wisely entered into, hath a natural tendency to a happy way of living, as it is conducing to order and government, to industry and diligence, to frugality, to stability, and to a care for futurity. It is best for the good of mankind, for the uses of human life, for the interest of the universe, and the welfare of Christian societies. But there have been always some in the world that have remonstrated against this state of life, and these are of two sorts–the religious and the witty; that is, those who would be thought to be such. Saturnius, a professed gnostic, held that marriage was of the devil, as Iremeus relates, and most of that sect cried it down as a cursed and diabolical thing. The Marcionites, the Montanists, and the Manicheans declared it to be unlawful. The Hierachites held that marriage excluded from heaven, and they admitted none but single persons into their communion. But here by the way we are to note, that the gnostics and some others, who were very fierce against marrying, practised promiscuous lust. It is an honour then to this state that it is doomed by such. Some make use of the Holy Scripture to patronise this cause; and the chief place which they allege is 1Co 7:1. We are to know, then, that when the apostle lived the times were perilous, and persecution was the allotment of the faithful Christians; and therefore that was an unfit season for embracing a conjugal life. We see then that the authority of the apostle is made use of to no purpose, because it is wholly misunderstood. Of which we cannot but be convinced, when we find in this very chapter a positive license given to the Christians to change their condition, if they saw occasion for it, and were willing to venture on the dangers which attended matrimony. But if thou marry, saith he, thou hast not sinned (verse 28). There is no absolute unlawfulness in doing so. And he condemned those heretics that taught otherwise, forbidding to marry (1Ti 4:3). But the witty people are another sort of men, that affect to rally upon marriage; and that they may have a full shock at it, they except against the other sex itself.

The Jewish Rabbins think themselves great wits in jeering the sex for their restless tongues and false tears, as we frequently find in their writings. Nay, they are so virulent as to publish to the world, that the honestest woman on earth is a witch, and given to enchantment and sorcery. The Arabians vote all married persons to be fools in that proverb of theirs, If all men were wise (that is, if they would abstain from marriage) the world would soon be at an end. Even some men of gravity cannot abstain from inveighing against the sex, as such Cato often said that if the world was without women, the gods would come down and converse with men; but whilst those are here, these will never visit us. Yea, Chrysostom, the celebrated father of the Greek Church, the famous pulpit orator, made a sermon in the dispraise of all women, and tells us that matrimony in its own nature is a sin, only by Divine permission it is excusable. In brief, he is reckoned the wittiest man that is most dexterous in defaming of women, though at the same time he defames himself. Whatever prejudiced, fanciful men may suggest, we are sure the apostle is in the right, and utters an incontestible truth, Marriage is honourable in all. The married state is not only lawful, but noble, appointed by God, and of Divine institution. It was first ordained in Paradise, in the state of innocency (Gen 2:18). This gives repute and authority to wedlock, and renders it commendable. And it hath been always esteemed as such by those who have a reverence for Gods ordinance. It is observable that our Saviour Himself honoured marriage with His first miracle, gracing the solemnity by turning water into wine. Here I may take notice of the high esteem some nations have had of a married life, and how concerned they were that men should not always be single. Among the Lacedemonians there were actions brought against men for not marrying, and for marrying late; and those that lived unmarried were infamous among that people by the law. There were penalties among the Romans inflicted on those that refused to marry after such a term of years, as Tacitus and the Code testify. Every one is bound to embrace matrimony at twenty-five years of age by the Alcoran. The Tartars think this so good and excellent a thing, that they believe their god Matagai hath a wife and children. And if their sons and daughters die before they are at age, they celebrate a marriage between parties thus deceased, that they may be man and wife in the other world. Though this is very gross indeed, and is a sign they are unacquainted with what our Saviour said, In heaven they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; yet it shows what respect and esteem these people have for the state of wedlock, and how congruous it is to the natural reason and sentiments of mankind.

1. Marriage must be with great deliberation. There is no undertaking of mans life that doth more require freedom of thought and choice than this doth. Plato would have no man marry before thirty, nor Aristotle before thirty-five years of age, designing thereby not peremptorily to confine persons to that computation, but to warn them against a precipitant changing of their state, and to put them in mind of acting very cautiously in this affair. Nor should they only weigh and consider the matter themselves, but apply to their friends, but especially their parents, for their advice and counsel.

2. Marry not merely for money or estate. This is the prevailing fault of men, as well as women, they court the estate rather than the person who hath it; they may be said to wed the lands and money, not the possessor. A wife is put to sale, and marriage is a mere bargain.

3. Let not the man marry the woman merely for beauty, or finery, for feature, for dress, which latter is the bodys artificial beauty.

4. Marry not a woman merely on the account of her wit, learning, or parts. Arts and sciences are not the proper talent of that sex.

5. Though you are not to marry merely for money, beauty, or wit, yet never marry one that is poor, or deformed, or a fool. A single life with indigency may be endured, but that and wedlock together are a double misery. If you be not able with your own estate and way of living to maintain a wife, never take one that hath none. Again, choose not one whose deformity is very conspicuous and remarkable, unless some extraordinary qualities and perfections compound for it, lest you should be tempted afterwards to change the object of your sight, and look upon others as more acceptable. Wherefore make choice of one who hath competent comeliness, or who by modesty mends her countenance, and gives it a beauty by blushes. Mate such a one as we know is mistress of those accomplishments and graces which are not liable to be impaired by any accidents whatsoever, that so we may ever find that in her which deserves our love. Lastly, methinks that there should be no need of advising a man or woman not to marry one that is noted for folly and weakness, for this too plainly shows that they themselves are liable to the same imputation.

6. Above all things make choice of a virtuous person, one that fears God, one whose mind is endued with a deep sense of religion, and whose conversation is regular and upright. All the aforesaid qualifications must give place to this, and without this they are mean and inconsiderable, and of no real value.

7. Next to religion good nature is to be prized most. This contains in it a peaceable and quiet temper, a sweet disposition, an obliging and winning carriage, free from all extravagant passion, wrath, and bitterness. Else a man, in a worse sense than the Duke of Venice, marries the Adriatic, is espoused to waves and storms.

8. Be careful to marry one suitable to you; suitable in age, birth, and humour. Such a one will be truly a meet-help.

9. Be well satisfied of one anothers love, chastity, and faithfulness, and increase and nourish them by all means. A wife, as Sir Thomas Overbury rightly saith, is an abbreviature of all the rest of the sex: to her husband she must be (as Eve was) all the world of womankind.

10. Let it never be known which of them is superior. Always divide and share your power.

11. Begin and proceed in the conjugal state with prayer and great devotion, and all acts of religion and piety. (J. Edwards, D. D.)

Marriage honourable

I. DIVINE INSTITUTION IS SUFFICIENT TO RENDER ANY STATE OR CONDITION OF LIFE HONOURABLE.

II. THE MORE USEFUL ANY STATE OF LIFE IS, THE MORE HONOURABLE IT IS. The honour of marriage arises much from its usefulness.

III. THAT WHICH IS HONOURABLE BY DIVINE INSTITUTION, AND USEFUL IN ITS OWN NATURE, MAY BE ABUSED AND RENDERED VILE BY THE MISCARRIAGES OF MEN; as marriage may be.

IV. IT IS A BOLD USURPATION OF AUTHORITY OVER THE CONSCIENCES OF MEN, AND A CONTEMPT OF THE AUTHORITY OF GOD, TO FORBID THAT STATE UNTO ANY, WHICH GOD HATH DECLARED HONOURABLE AMONG ALL.

V. MEANS FOR PURITY AND CHASTITY, NOT ORDAINED, BLESSED, NOR SANCTIFIED UNTO THAT END, WILL PROVE FURTHERANCES OF IMPURITY AND UNCLEANNESS, OR OF WORSE EVILS.

VI. The state of marriage being honourable in the sight of God Himself, IT IS THE DUTY OF THEM THAT ENTER THEREUNTO DULY TO CONSIDER HOW THEY MAY APPROVE THEIR CONSCIENCES UNTO GOD IN WHAT THEY DO.

VII. IN THE STATE OF MARRIAGE THERE IS REQUIRED OF MEN A DUE CONSIDERATION OF THEIR CALL UNTO IT, OF THEIR ENDS IN IT, THAT THEY ARE THOSE OF GODS APPOINTMENT; prayer for, and expectation of His blessing on it; reverence of Him as the great witness of the marriage covenant; with wisdom to undergo the trials and temptations inseparable from this state of life.

VIII. WHATEVER LIGHT THOUGHTS MEN MAY HAVE OF SIN, OF ANY SIN, THE JUDGMENT OF GOD CONCERNING ALL SIN, WHICH IS ACCORDING TO TRUTH, MUST STAND FOR EVER. TO have slight thoughts of sin will prove no relief unto sinners.

IX. FORNICATION AND ADULTERY ARE SINS IN THEIR OWN NATURE, DESERVING ETERNAL DAMNATION. If the due wages of all sin be death, much more is it so of so great abomination.

X. ALL OCCASIONS OF, ALL TEMPTATIONS LEADING UNTO THESE SINS, ARE TO BE AVOIDED, AS WE TAKE CARE OF OUR SOULS. (Joliet Owen, D. D.)

Whoremongers and adulterers

Whoremongers and adulterers

I. WHO ARE COMPREHENDED UNDER THIS CHARACTER. Every person will at once perceive that all who live in common fornication, or who defile the marriage-bed, are evidently comprehended in this description. Let those then tremble, and know that this is their true state and name, who, though they disdain the open and more notorious commerce, yet secretly beguile the innocent and unwary, and become the agents of Satan in the ruin of others. Neither let those deceive themselves who, though they may not traverse the ranges of unbounded lust, yet keep up a cursed league with some particular person with whom they live in a state of fornication or adultery; let them not flatter themselves with an idea that this is a small matter, or shelter themselves under the fashion or the opinion of the times; God is not ruled by caprice or fashion, nor does His eternal standard of rectitude and good vary with human desires or modes of action.

II. THE TESTIMONY OF THE WORD OF GOD AGAINST THIS SIN.

1. God has directly and expressly forbidden it in His Divine law. Thou shalt not commit adultery is the seventh of those commandments which stand in the sacred decalogue, as the injunctions of God to mankind. And that every avenue to this sin may be stopped, and His holy displeasure against it plainly testified, He has again enforced it by taking a part of it into the tenth commandment: Thou shalt not so much as covet thy neighbours wife. Nor is this law any matter of Jewish obligation only, but equally incumbent upon us; for our Lord Himself in Mat 5:1-48. enjoins this command in a very peculiar manner, and through the whole of the New Testament it is abundantly charged and enforced (1Co 6:9; 1Th 4:2-8; Eph 4:19-20; Eph 5:3-5).

2. We may learn Gods hatred and displeasure against these sins from the odious and alarming description given of them in the Scriptures. The author of the Book of Proverbs is peculiarly diligent in endeavouring to lay before the thoughtless sinner the snares and delusive temptations which draw men into these evils, as well as the miserable and fatal consequences which attend them. The sixth and seventh chapters are almost entirely taken up with this subject, and part of the second and ninth is employed to the same purpose. Now we must remember that it is the intention of the sacred writers in setting these things thus before us to imprint the same odious image of them on our hearts, that we may know their nature, and flee their practice. Happy if it might but thus succeed!

3. I shall, in the next place, call your attention to the dreadful threatenings which the Word of God denounces against impure sinners. This sin is declared in the Scriptures as the cause of Gods controversy with nations and with individuals (Hos 4:1-3). And Jeremiah (chap. 5.) represents God as ready to give His people up, and to forbid His prophets to reprove them any more. His mercy and forgiveness seem to put, as it were, to a stand. And in 1Co 3:1-23., when the apostle had represented this sin as a defilement of the body, which is the Temple of God, he adds this awful word, If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is (or ought to be) holy, and not made a nest of unclean lusts. St. John, in the Book of the Revelation, declares the doom of whoremongers to be with the rest of notorious sinners, in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. How impiously bold then are those sinners who dare all these terrors for the gratification of a base lust! To such as have been entangled with this sin, and have a real desire to be delivered from it (as well as to those who are anxious to secure their modesty and virtue), I would suggest a few considerations.

(1) Seek for a spirit of true and hearty repentance for all the uncleanness of which you have been guilty before God; rest not in a mere wishing you had been more wise, or a dislike of your conduct from prudential maxims; but seek to God to give you true repentance by the grace of His Holy Spirit.

(2) Be ever upon your guard against the first appearance of this evil. Keep at a distance from the tempter. If you would be kept from harm, keep out of harms way. And this caution must be observed, not only respecting any particular person, but also the places and other occasions which may tempt you to sin.

(3) Let sinners of this kind think much of death and hell.

(4) Apply daily to the mercy-seat for the Divine aid. In the blood of Christ there is virtue to wash away the foulest guilt; in His grace there is sufficiency of power to subdue the most raging sins. (J. King, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 4. Marriage is honourable in all] Let this state be highly esteemed as one of God’s own instituting, and as highly calculated to produce the best interests of mankind. This may have been said against the opinions of the Essenes, called Therapeutae, who held marriage in little repute, and totally abstained from it themselves as a state of comparative imperfection. At the same time it shows the absurdity of the popish tenet, that marriage in the clergy is both dishonourable and sinful; which is, in fact, in opposition to the apostle, who says marriage is honourable in ALL; and to the institution of God, which evidently designed that every male and female should be united in this holy bond; and to nature, which in every part of the habitable world has produced men and women in due proportion to each other.

The bed undefiled] Every man cleaving to his own wife, and every wife cleaving to her own husband, because God will judge, i.e. punish, all fornicators and adulterers.

Instead of but, , for, is the reading of AD*, one other, with the Vulgate, Coptic, and one of the Itala; it more forcibly expresses the reason of the prohibition: Let the bed be undefiled, FOR whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Marriage is honourable in all: the next duty charged on the subjects of Christs kingdom, is chastity; the commendation of it is a precept to it. Marriage is that state which God instituted at the beginning, after the creation of Adam and Eve, which was by his law the making of them two to become one flesh, Gen 2:24; confirmed by Christ, Mat 19:5. On this state God, the fountain of all honour, hath stamped his own name and excellence, and hath made it, by an irreversible law, a glorious and honourable state. The connection is present, real, and necessary; God saith it, therefore it is so, and must be so; and this after Gods institution in all its concomitants every where, and in all times; but especially in all persons in the kingdom of Christ, true Christians of all sorts and degrees, of what state or calling soever, qualified for and called to it, whether magistrates, ministers, or church members; God by it preventing sin, preserving holy and pure communion between the married, propagating his church, and accomplishing the number of his chosen by it, Psa 111:3; Mal 2:15; 1Co 7:9; 1Th 4:3,4; 1Pe 3:1,7.

And the bed undefiled; a good, moral use of the marriage bed, the natural and lawful use of the wife by the husband, and of the husband by the wife, according to the law of God; which is so far from being unclean, filthy, and inconsistent with the purity of Christ, as papists, apostates from the faith, assert, 1Ti 4:1-4, that it is holy, pure, and chaste in itself, and a most excellent means of preserving chastity among the subjects of Christs kingdom, 1Th 4:4; Tit 2:5; 1Pe 3:2; by this they are kept in their bodies from being polluted or dishonoured by fornication or adultery. Marriage is thus honourable in all husbands and wives, of what degree or order soever, whilst they are such; and must be undefiled in all, because their bodies are the members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost, 1Co 6:15,17-20.

But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; but God hates unclean societies of all men and women, but especially of Christians; and as he will certainly judge, and inflict eternal punishment upon, all kind of unclean persons, so especially upon whoremongers and adulterers who profess themselves subjects of Christs pure kingdom, 2Pe 2:6; Jud 1:4,7; Re 2:21.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. is,c.Translate, “Let marriage be treated as honorable”:as Heb 13:5 also is anexhortation.

in all“in thecase of all men”: “among all.” “To avoidfornication let EVERY MANhave his own wife” (1Co 7:2).Judaism and Gnosticism combined were soon about to throw discredit onmarriage. The venerable Paphnutius, in the Council of Nice, quotedthis verse for the justification of the married state. If one doesnot himself marry, he should not prevent others from doing so.Others, especially Romanists, translate, “in all things,“as in Heb 13:18. But thewarning being against lasciviousness, the contrast to “whoremongersand adulterers” in the parallel clause, requires the “inall” in this clause to refer to persons.

the bed undefiledTranslate,as Greek requires “undefiled” to be a predicate,not an epithet, “And let the bed be undefiled.”

God will judgeMostwhoremongers escape the notice of human tribunals but God takesparticular cognizance of those whom man does not punish. Gayimmoralities will then be regarded in a very different light fromwhat they are now.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Marriage is honourable in all,…. Some read these words as an exhortation, “let” it “be so”; others as an assertion, it is so. “Marriage” is the union of one man and one woman in wedlock, whereby they become one flesh; it is a joining together of male and female in this relation, and of two only, and of such as are not within the degrees of blood forbid by the law, Le 18:6 and of such as are fit for marriage: and this is “honourable”, as it was instituted by God, and has been honoured with the presence of Christ, Ge 2:22. And it is so in the ends of it, being to procreate children, multiply the earth, build up families, preserve a legitimate offspring, and prevent fornication and all uncleanness; and it is so, when the duties of the relation are performed on both sides: and it is honourable “in all”; in all things, in all respects, upon all accounts; “every way”, as the Arabic version renders it; or as the Ethiopic version, “everywhere”; it has been honourably esteemed of among all nations; it becomes persons of all ranks and degrees, quality, and order; and it is honourable in all that are lawfully married, and do not violate the marriage contract, or defile the marriage bed: hereby are condemned such who despise marriage, that they may give a loose to their wandering and insatiable lusts; and such who, under a pretence of greater sanctity and perfection, reject it as unlawful; and the Papists, who deny it to men employed in sacred work:

and the bed undefiled: the Arabic version reads, “his bed”; and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, “their bed”; the bed of such whose marriage is honourable; which is not polluted by admitting others into it, or by acts of fornication and adultery: “but”, or “for”, as the Alexandrian copy reads,

whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; the former of these may be rendered “fornicators”, as it is by the Vulgate Latin version: fornication is a sin committed by single persons, unmarried ones; and though it was reckoned among the Gentiles a thing indifferent, yet is contrary to the law of God, and is a work of the flesh, and makes unfit for the kingdom of God, and brings down the judgments of God both here and hereafter. And this is in opposition to marriage, which is appointed to prevent it. The sin “adulterers” are guilty of, is a sin committed by persons, who are either one or both in a married state, and so is directly a pollution of the marriage bed: this was punishable with death by the law of God, and light of nature; and though men may make light of it, God will judge and punish such as commit it, both in this life, with diseases, poverty, and disgrace, and in the world to come, at the great day of account; for however secretly it may be committed, God, who is omniscient, sees it, and will bring it into judgment; nor shall any be able to escape the righteous judgment of God, for he is omnipotent, as well as omniscient. The Jews say,

“whoever lies with another man’s wife, shall not escape

, “the judgment”, or damnation of hell t”

t T. Bab. Sota. fol. 4. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let marriage be ( ). No verb in the Greek. The copula can be supplied either (is) or (let be, imperative).

Had in honour (). Old adjective from (honour) as in Ac 5:34. elsewhere in the N.T., means the wedding or wedding feast (Matt 22:29; John 2:1).

Undefiled (). Old compound word (alpha privative and verbal of , to defile), already in Heb 7:26. is a common expression for adultery.

Fornicators (). Unmarried and impure.

Adulterers (). Impure married persons. God will judge both classes whether men do or not.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Marriage is honorable in all (timiov oJ gamov ejn pasin). Gamov everywhere else in N. T. a wedding or wedding feast, often in the plural, as Mt 22:2, 3, 4; Luk 12:36. Timiov honorable or held in honor. Often in N. T. precious, of gold, stones, etc., as 1Co 3:12; Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12 : of life, Act 20:24 : the fruits of the earth, Jas 5:7; the blood of Christ, 1Pe 1:19; the divine promises, 2Pe 1:4. Rend. “let marriage be had in honor.” The statement is hortatory, as suiting the character of the entire context, and especially the gar for; “for whoremongers,” etc. En pasin in all respects, ” as 1Ti 3:11; 2Ti 4:5; Tit 2:9; Col 1:18; Phi 4:12. If as A. V., the more natural expression would be para pasin as Mt 19:26; Act 26:8; Rom 2:13; 2Th 1:6; Jas 1:27. En pasin in all things appears in this chapter, ver. 18. 245 There are many points in which marriage is to be honored besides the avoidance of illicit connections. See on 1Th 4:6.

God will judge [ ] . Note the emphatic position of oJ qeov. He will judge and condemn infractions of the marriage – bond, however social sentiment may condone them.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Marriage is honorable in all,” (timios ho gamos en pasin) “Let marriage be honorable in or among all,” be considered honorable by all people. For it is ordained by God for the physical, emotional, and spiritual good of all, as a basis for the structure of home and family life, Gen 2:18; Gen 2:21; Mal 2:14-15; Mat 19:3-6.

2) “And the bed undefiled,” (kai he koite amiantos) “And let the marriage bed of conjugal relations be considered undefiled,” from the sin of fornication, as the two are one flesh in holy matrimony of the Divine order, 1Co 6:9-10; 1Co 7:9; 1Co 7:18-20. It is in the sanctity of union of matrimony as one that inter-sex conjugal relations are sanctified for the physical, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment of the two and bringing of children into the world, not outside of marriage, Gen 2:24; Gen 3:16.

3) “But whoremongers and adulterers,” (pornos gar kai moichous) “Because fornicators and adulterers; those practicing, indulging in a pattern of Divinely disapproved sex behavior with the opposite sex, male or female, without marriage to them – engaging in sex conjugal conduct of morally and ethically condemned nature, without marriage, are condemned in the practice, Eph 5:5; Col 3:5-6; Rev 22:15.

4) “God will judge,” (krinei ho theos) “The God (of righteousness) will judge; when every work “with every secret thing,” shaII be brought into judgment, Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:13-14; 2Co 5:10-11; Mat 12:36; Rom 2:16; Rom 14:10-12; 1Co 4:5. Men should live in awe, holy respect of the pre-judgment warning, that they shall be judged in the light of their deeds – even every secret thing that shall be brought to light, that men might flee to Jesus as their Saviour and Advocate and Intercessor for their sins!

ADVICE OF THEMISTOCLES

An Athenian who was hesitating whether to give his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with a small fortune, or to a rich man who had no other recommendation, went to consult Themistocles on the subject. “I would bestow my daughter,” said Themistocles, “upon a man without money, rather than upon money without a man.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

4. Marriage is honourable in all, etc. Some think this an exhortation to the married to conduct themselves modestly and in a becoming manner, that the husband should live with his wife temperately and chastely, and not defile the conjugal bed by unbeseeming wantonness. Thus a verb is to be understood in the sense of exhorting, “Let marriage be honorable.” And yet the indicative is would not be unsuitable; for when we hear that marriage is honorable, it ought to come immediately to our minds that we are to conduct ourselves in it honorably and becomingly. Others take the sentence by way of concession in this way, “Though marriage is honorable, it is yet unlawful to commit fornication”; but this sense, as all must see, is rigid. I am inclined to think that the Apostle sets marriage here in opposition to fornication as a remedy for that evil; and the context plainly shows that this was his meaning; for before he threatens that the Lord would punish fornicators, he first states what is the true way of escape, even if we live honourable in a state of marriage.

Let this then be the main point, that fornication will not be unpunished, for God will take vengeance on it. And doubtless as God has blessed the union of man and wife, instituted by himself, it follows that every other union different from this is by him condemned and accursed. He therefore denounces punishment not only on adulterers, but also on fornicators; for both depart from the holy institution of God; nay, they violate and subvert it by a promiscuous intercourse, since there is but one legitimate union, sanctioned by the authority and approval of God. But as promiscuous and vagrant lusts cannot be restrained without the remedy of marriage, he therefore commends it by calling it “honorable”.

What he adds, and the bed undefiled, has been stated, as it seems to me, for this end, that the married might know that everything is not lawful for them, but that the use of the legitimate bed should be moderate, lest anything contrary to modesty and chastity be allowed. (277)

By saying in all men, I understand him to mean, that there is no order of men prohibited from marriage; for what God has allowed to mankind universally, is becoming in all without exception; I mean all who are fit for marriage and feel the need of it.

It was indeed necessary for this subject to have been distinctly and expressly stated, in order to obviate a superstition, the seeds of which Satan was probably even then secretly sowing, even this, — that marriage is a profane thing, or at least far removed from Christian perfection; for those seducing spirits, forbidding marriage, who had been foretold by Paul, soon appeared. That none then might foolishly imagine that marriage is only permitted to the people in general, but that those who are eminent in the Church ought to abstain from it, the Apostle takes away every exception; and he does not teach us that it is conceded as an indulgence, as Jerome sophistically says, but that it is honourable. It is very strange indeed that those who introduced the prohibition of marriage into the world, were not terrified by this so express a declaration; but it was necessary then to give loose reins to Satan, in order to punish the ingratitude of those who refused to hear God.

(277) If the whole verse be rightly considered, the construction of the first part will become evident. Two things are mentioned, “marriage” and “bed” — the conjugal bed. Two characters are afterwards mentioned, “fornicators and adulterers.” The first disregard marriage and the second defile the conjugal bed. Then the first clause speaks of marriage as in itself honorable, in opposition to the dishonor put on it by fornicators, who being unmarried, indulge in illicit intercourse with women; and the second speaks of the conjugal bed as being undefiled, when not contaminated with adultery. This being evidently the meaning, the declarative form seems most suitable. Besides, the particle δὲ, “but” in the second part, as Beza observes, required this construction.

But if γὰρ be the reading, as found in some copies, then the perceptive form seems necessary, though even then the sense would be materially the same, — that marriage ought to be deemed honorable in all, that is in all ranks and orders of men, as Grotius observes, and that the conjugal bed ought to be undefiled. —

“

Let marriage be deemed honorable among all, and the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will condemn fornicator and adulterer.”

Hammond, Macknight, and Stuart adopt the perceptive form; but Beza, Doddridge and Scott, the declarative. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(4) Marriage is honourable in all.Rather, Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. The precept is directed against impurity (Heb. 12:16), and also against the false asceticism of men forbidding to marry (1Ti. 4:3). The laxity of morals among Gentiles (Note on Act. 15:20) and the prevalence of divorce amongst Jews (Mat. 5:32) explain the sudden introduction of such warnings: of these sinners the all-seeing God will be the judge. (Comp. 1Th. 4:6.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. That social life may be peaceful married life must be pure.

Marriage is honourable The verb should, unquestionably, be in the imperative, like the main verbs in the three previous verses and in Heb 13:5. Render it, Let marriage be ( held) among you honourable in all respects, and the marriage bed be undefiled; for (not but) fornicators and adulterers God will judge. The Greek attains a solemn emphasis, unattainable by the English, by closing the sentence with God. The implication is, men may disregard the law of chastity, legislators and judges may set human laws against it; but there is a final judge by whom it will be avenged God.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Let marriage be had in honour among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.’

Thirdly they were all to honour marriage, such marriages being between couples who themselves were pure and had not previously indulged in sex. And even more importantly, marriage was to be honoured by continually restraining from fornication and adultery. They were to be perfect examples of true love. Sexual relations were to be retained for enjoyment within marriage, for God would severely judge those who failed in this respect. This mention of God’s intervention stresses how serious a matter this was seen to be (compare 1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15). Here the love of the brethren has pinpointed the love between a Christian husband and wife.

This was not only giving marriage the Lord’s approval and blessing, but probably had in mind some who thought that abstinence from marriage made them spiritually superior. It should not be so. All were to honour marriage. The honouring of marriage also meant that divorce would be unthinkable, except on the grounds of unfaithfulness. It would be to dishonour God. It may be that some were following the teaching of the Rabbi Hillel which allowed easy divorce. This idea is here rejected. Under God he clearly saw stable marriages as vital in upholding the witness of the church.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Heb 13:4. Marriage is honourable in all, Let marriage be held in esteem by all: thus many critics would render this clause; as the context, in their judgment, shews that the passage is exhortatory. The connection, however, of the latter clause introduced by the particle but, is thought by others to vindicate our version.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 13:4 . Exhortation to chastity in the narrower sense.

] held in estimation, honourable, sc . . Others supplement . So already the Peshito (honoratum est connubium inter omnes), then Beza, Grotius (apud omnes gentes moratas honos est conjugio), M‘Caul, and others. But against this stands the addition: , since the latter could not be asserted as a truth in point of fact. Rather might the indicative rendering thereof be preserved by taking the clauses descriptively : “Marriage honourable in all things,” etc., which then would not be different in sense from the direct requirement that marriage should be honourable. Nevertheless, this mode of interpretation too recently adopted by Delitzsch could only be justified if it were followed by a long series of similar statements; here, on the other hand, where imperatives are placed in close proximity before and after, it is unnatural.

] marriage . In this sense the word occurs frequently with the Greeks. In the N. T. it has everywhere else the signification: wedding, and its celebration .

] is neuter: in all things . The majority take as masculine . There is then found expressed in it the precept, either, as by Luther and others, that marriage should in the estimation of all be held in honour, i.e. not desecrated by adultery; or, as by Bhme, Schulz, and others, that it should not be despised or slighted by any unmarried person (according to Hofmann, by any one, whether he live in wedlock, or he think that he ought for his own part to decline it); or finally, as by Calvin and many, that it is to be denied to no order of men (as later to the Catholic priests). In the two last cases it is generally supposed that the reference is to a definite party of those who, out of ascetic or other interest, looked unfavourably upon the married life. But for all three modes of explanation, would have been more suitably written than ; and a preference for celibacy on the part of born Jews in particular, to whom nevertheless the Epistle to the Hebrews is addressed, is an unexplained presupposition, because one not in accordance with the teaching of history.

] and the marriage bed (against the ordinary usus loquendi , Valckenaer and Schulz: the cohabitation ) be undefiled .

] for fornicators and adulterers will God judge (condemn at the judgment of the world). Comp. 1Co 6:9 f., al . The placed at the close of the sentence is not without emphasis. It reminds that, though such sins of uncleanness remain for the most part unpunished by earthly judges, the higher Judge will one day be mindful of them.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Ver. 4. Marriage is honourable ] And yet say the Rhemists, upon1Co 7:91Co 7:9 , marriage of priests is the worst sort of incontinency. Is not this to play the Antichrist

And the bed undefiled ] Admonemus in ipso etiam matrimonio quandam esse scortationis speciem, siquis pure Dei done pure et sanete non utatur, ad eum finem cuius causa est institutum, saith Beza. The marriage bed, though lawful, may be defiled by excess, &c., and a man may be an adulterer of his own wife.

God will judge ] The Anabaptists of Germany inferred from hence that therefore men ought not to punish adulterers; for God reserved them to his own judgment. (Joh. Manl. loc. com.) Two of them, Monetarius and Hetserus, were notorious whoremongers; being a pair of such preachers, as Zedekiah and Ahab were, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives and spake lies in God’s name, &c., Jer 29:22-23 . But what a bold man was Latimer, bishop of Worcester, who presented to Henry VIII, for a new year’s gift, a New Testament with a napkin, having this posie about it, “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

4 .] Exhortation to chastity . Let your marriage ( , elsewhere in N. T. in the sense of a wedding , here has its ordinary Greek meaning) be (held) in honour in all things (see below) and your marriage bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God shall judge . There are several debateable matters in this verse. First, is it a command or an assertion? The latter view is taken in Syr. “Honourable is marriage among all, and their bed is undefiled:” Beza, Grot., our E. V., al. And so Chrys. ( ; , , ), c., Thdrt. (apparently). But against this is the following clause, : for it is impossible to keep to the same rendering in this case: cf. Syr. above: the E. V. has evaded this difficulty by rendering, “and the bed undefiled,” leaving it, as its guide Beza does, uncertain whether “undefiled” is an epithet, as usually taken by English readers, or a predicate, as the Greek absolutely requires. For had the meaning been, “Marriage is honourable among all, and the (an) undefiled bed,” certainly the article could not have stood before without standing also before : it must have been or . So that the indicative supplement, , must be dismissed, as inconsistent with the requirements of the latter clause; and, I might add, with the context: in which, besides that the whole is of a hortatory character, the very same collocation of words immediately follows in , where no one suggests as our supplement. The imperative view has accordingly been taken by very many Commentators: as e. g. by Thl. (see below), and the great mass of moderns. Delitzsch holds that no supplement is wanted, the clause being an exclamation carrying with it a hortatory force. But surely this is equivalent to supplying . The next question respects , whether it is to be taken as masculine, ‘among all men,’ or as neuter, ‘in all things.’ The doubt was felt as early as Thl., who thus expresses it: , , , . , , , , , . The masculine is taken by Erasmus, Cajetan, Luther, Calvin, Beza, and most Commentators, especially Protestants, and in later times by Schulz, Bhme, De Wette, Wahl, Kuinoel, Tholuck. And it is variously interpreted: either, . as by Luther, that all should keep marriage in honour, by not violating it; . as by Bhme, Schulz, al., that the unmarried should not despise it, but it should be held in honour by all; or, . as Calvin, al., that it is allowed to all conditions of men, not denied to any, as e. g. it is to the Romish priesthood. But it is altogether against the masculine sense, 1. that would not be the natural expression for it, but : cf. Mat 19:26 (bis), and [77] : Act 26:8 ; Rom 2:13 ; 2Th 1:6 ; Jas 1:27 ( ): and, 2. that our Writer uses in this very chapter for ‘in all things,’ Heb 13:18 . See also reff., and Col 1:18 ; Phi 4:12 . So that the neuter view is to be preferred: and so c., Corn. a-Lap., Calmet, the R.-Cath. expositors generally, Bleek, De Wette, Lnem., Delitzsch, al. For the phrase , Wetst. quotes from Plutarch de Fluviis, p. 18, , . The latter clause carries with it the anticipation of condemnation in . Man may, or may not, punish them: one thing is sure: they shall come into judgment, and if so into condemnation, when God shall judge all.

[77] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 13:4 . . “Is or to be supplied?” Probably the former, as in Heb 13:5 , “Let marriage be held in honour among all”. As a natural result of holding marriage in honour, its ideal sanctity will be violated neither by the married nor by the unmarried. Therefore the links the two clauses closely together and has some inferential force, “and thus let the bed be undefiled” [ occurs in Plutarch to denote the violation of conjugal relations. Used with in Eze 18:6 ; Eze 23:17 ]. The next clause shows in what sense the words are to be taken. William Penn’s saying must also be kept in view: “If a man pays his tailor but debauches his wife, is he a current moralist?” For marriage as a preventative against vice, cf. 1Co 7 and 1Th 4:4 . Weiss gathers from the insertion of this injunction that the writer is not guided in his choice of precepts by the condition of those to whom he is writing but by “theoretical reflection”. But in the face of Heb 12:16 , this seems an unwarranted inference. . Fornicators may escape human condemnation, but God (in emphatic position) will judge them.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Marriage. This is not a statement of fact, but an exhortation, “Let marriage be”, &c.

undefiled. Greek. amiantos. See Heb 7:26.

whoremongers = fornicators, as Heb 12:16.

God. App-98.

judge. Greek. krino. App-122. punish (Figure of speech Metonymy of cause. App-6).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

4.] Exhortation to chastity. Let your marriage (, elsewhere in N. T. in the sense of a wedding, here has its ordinary Greek meaning) be (held) in honour in all things (see below) and your marriage bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God shall judge. There are several debateable matters in this verse. First, is it a command or an assertion? The latter view is taken in Syr. Honourable is marriage among all, and their bed is undefiled: Beza, Grot., our E. V., al. And so Chrys. ( ; , , ), c., Thdrt. (apparently). But against this is the following clause, : for it is impossible to keep to the same rendering in this case: cf. Syr. above: the E. V. has evaded this difficulty by rendering, and the bed undefiled, leaving it, as its guide Beza does, uncertain whether undefiled is an epithet, as usually taken by English readers, or a predicate, as the Greek absolutely requires. For had the meaning been, Marriage is honourable among all, and the (an) undefiled bed, certainly the article could not have stood before without standing also before : it must have been or . So that the indicative supplement, , must be dismissed, as inconsistent with the requirements of the latter clause; and, I might add, with the context: in which, besides that the whole is of a hortatory character, the very same collocation of words immediately follows in , where no one suggests as our supplement. The imperative view has accordingly been taken by very many Commentators: as e. g. by Thl. (see below), and the great mass of moderns. Delitzsch holds that no supplement is wanted, the clause being an exclamation carrying with it a hortatory force. But surely this is equivalent to supplying . The next question respects , whether it is to be taken as masculine, among all men, or as neuter, in all things. The doubt was felt as early as Thl., who thus expresses it: , , , . , , , , , . The masculine is taken by Erasmus, Cajetan, Luther, Calvin, Beza, and most Commentators, especially Protestants, and in later times by Schulz, Bhme, De Wette, Wahl, Kuinoel, Tholuck. And it is variously interpreted: either, . as by Luther, that all should keep marriage in honour, by not violating it; . as by Bhme, Schulz, al., that the unmarried should not despise it, but it should be held in honour by all; or, . as Calvin, al., that it is allowed to all conditions of men, not denied to any, as e. g. it is to the Romish priesthood. But it is altogether against the masculine sense, 1. that would not be the natural expression for it, but : cf. Mat 19:26 (bis), and [77]: Act 26:8; Rom 2:13; 2Th 1:6; Jam 1:27 ( ): and, 2. that our Writer uses in this very chapter for in all things, Heb 13:18. See also reff., and Col 1:18; Php 4:12. So that the neuter view is to be preferred: and so c., Corn. a-Lap., Calmet, the R.-Cath. expositors generally, Bleek, De Wette, Lnem., Delitzsch, al. For the phrase , Wetst. quotes from Plutarch de Fluviis, p. 18, , . The latter clause carries with it the anticipation of condemnation in . Man may, or may not, punish them: one thing is sure: they shall come into judgment, and if so into condemnation, when God shall judge all.

[77] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 13:4. ) viz. , comp. Heb 13:5, i.e. let it be honoured. It is an antithesis to whoremongers. He exhorts the unmarried, who are in great danger of falling into fornication, to marry, acknowledging it as something precious [so often means], and worthily to use the good which it confers: comp. 1Th 4:4.-) marriage.- ) in all. There is obviously greater danger of fornication than of adultery; comp. 1Co 7:2, , every one [To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife]; and all ought to value marriage highly, so that if a man does not enter into that state himself, he should not prevent others from doing so, 1Ti 4:3.- ) the bed, the couch, the state and use of marriage. Marriage-the bed-whoremongers-adulterers: a Chiasmus.-, undefiled) Supply again, let-be. An antithesis to adulterers.- , GOD will judge) By far the greatest number of whoremongers and adulterers escape the notice of human tribunals. As such intrigues are not made known in the way in which they formerly were, Num 5:20-21, a great number, although their conduct is well known, yet escape civil punishment and ecclesiastical discipline, or are made to feel it very slightly. [Sometimes, indeed, judges themselves are whoremongers and adulterers, men that are placed in the highest ecclesiastical and political offices: and therefore they know how to take measures for their own impunity; but they also take measures for the impunity of others like themselves, when the case admits of it (or when a case occurs). Very many acts of this sort remain entirely concealed in the world, or are extenuated by various devices, or are upheld by violence.-V. g.] God will judge: [A thing dreadful to be spoken! ch. Heb 10:30-31.-V. g.]-He most of all punishes them, whom man does not punish. Comp. 2Sa 3:39. The apostle speaks of the judgment as near. [At that greatest of all days, what deeds, I pray you, will be brought to light! Then indeed execrable crimes will no longer be reckoned as a mark of polished manners.-V. g.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

, .

, conjugium, connubium; marriage, wedlock, the state of it.

. Syr., in omnibus. Bez., inter quosvis, inter omnes;so is commonly used for inter.

, thorus, cubile. Syr., , et cubile eorum, and their bed. For so it reads this sentence, Marriage is honorable in all, and their bed , is pure, undefiled: which, as I judge, well determines the reading and sense of the words.

. Vulg., fornicatores; Bez., scortatores; which we render whoremongers, not amiss. The difference between them and we shall see.

. Syr., , judicat; judicaturus est, judicabit, damnabit, Bez; Arab., Marriage is every way honorable, and the bed thereof is pure.

Heb 13:4. Marriage [is] honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

There is a double difficulty in the translation of the words of the first proposition, arising from a double defect in the original. The first is of the verb substantive, or the copula of the proposition; which some supply by , is; others by , let it be, or be accounted. The other is from the defect of the noun substantive, which , all, refers unto: some supply men, in all sorts of men; others, things, or every manner of way. For the first, the most of late incline to make it preceptive, and not indicative; Let it be, let it be so esteemed. We follow Beza, and render it indicatively; it is, Marriage is honorable.

The sole reason used by any for the former interpretation is, that the duties mentioned both before and after are expressed preceptively, by way of command, in words imperative, and there is no reason why this should be inserted in another form. The Vulgar supplies not the defect in the original: and our Rhemists render the words from thence, Marriage honorable in all; but in their annotations contend for the preceptive sense, Let marriage be honorable in all; hoping thereby to shield their tyrannical law of celibate from the sword of this divine testimony, but in vain. Neither is the reason which others plead of any force for this exposition. For the other duties mentioned are such as were never by any called in question, as unto their nature, whether they were universally good or no; nor ever were like so to be. There was no need, therefore, to declare their nature, but only to enjoin their practice. But it was otherwise in the case of marriage, for there always had been, and there were then, not a few, both of the Jews (as the Essenes) and of the Gentiles, who had unworthy thoughts of marriage, beneath its dignity, and such as exposed it to contempt. Besides, the Holy Ghost foresaw, and accordingly foretold, that in the succeeding ages of the church there would arise a sort of men that should make laws prohibiting marriage unto some, 1Ti 4:3; wherefore it was necessary that the apostle, designing to give unto the Hebrews a charge of chastity and purity of life, should give a just commendation of the means that God had ordained for the preservation of them. And the following words, wherein the bed undefiled is entitled unto the same honor with marriage, can have no just sense without a relation to the verb in the present tense, as it is accordingly expressed in the Syriac translation.

The truth is, the apostle opposeth this blessed declaration of the truth unto some principles and practices that were then current and prevalent in the world. And these were, that marriage was at least burdensome and a kind of bondage unto some men, especially a hinderance unto them that were contemplative; and that fornication at least was a thing indifferent, which men might allow themselves in, though adultery was to be condemned. In opposition unto these cursed principles and practices, the apostle, designing to commend and enjoin chastity unto all professors of the gospel, declares on the one side, the honorable state of matrimony, namely, from divine institution; and on the other, the wickedness of that lasciviousness wherein they allowed themselves, with the certainty of divine vengeance which would befall them who continued therein. There was just reason, therefore, why the apostle should insinuate the prescription of the duty intended by a declaration of the honor of that state which God hath appointed for the preservation of men and women in chastity.

And this leads us unto the supply of the other defect, in all. The preposition , applied unto persons, is constantly used in the New Testament for inter or among: among all, that is, all sorts of persons; or as Beza, inter quosvis. And it will be granted, that if the words be taken indicatively, this must be the sense of them. And persons are here to be taken restricively, for those who duly enter into that state. The apostle doth not assert that marriage; was a thing in good reputation among all men, Jews and Gentiles; for as with some it was, so with others it was not: but he declares that marriage is honorable in all sorts of persons, who are lawfully called thereunto, and do enter into it according to the law of God and righteous laws among men. For by a defect herein it may be rendered highly dishonorable in and unto men, as will appear in the ensuing exposition of the words.

From a prescription of duties towards others, the apostle proceeds to give directions unto those wherein our own persons and walking are concerned. And he doth it in a prohibition of the two radical, comprehensive lusts of corrupted nature, namely, uncleanness and covetousness; the first respecting the persons of men in a peculiar manner, the other their conversation. The first, in all the acts of it, is distinguished from all other sins, in that they are immediately against a mans self, in his own person: Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth (which is perpetrated in external acts) is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body, 1Co 6:18. And the other influenceth and corrupts all duties of life whatever.

His manner of the injunction of the first duty in this verse is peculiar, for the reasons before mentioned. And it consists of two parts:

1. A commendation of the remedy of the evil prohibited, which is marriage;

2. A condemnation of the sins prohibited, with a denunciation of divine judgments against them.

And he takes this way of insinuating the necessity of the duty prescribed,

1. Because the remedy was by some despised; and by others, who were called unto the use of it, neglected.

2. Because the sins prohibited were thought by many not so highly criminal; and if they were, yet usually were shaded in secrecy from punishment among men. Without the removal of these prejudices, his exhortation could not obtain its due force in the minds of them concerned.

In the First place, we have a proposal,

1. Of a state of life; that is, Marriage.

2. Of the duties of that state; The bed undefiled. And of them both it is affirmed, that they are honorable.

1. The first is marriage. It is that which is lawful and according to the mind of God which is intended; for there may be marriages, or such conjunctions for the ends of marriage between men and women, so called, that are highly dishonorable. It must be marriage of two individual persons, and no more, according to the law of creation and divine institution (polygamy was never honorable); marriage not of persons within the degrees of consanguinity laid under divine prohibition (incest being no less dishonorable than adultery); marriage in a concurrence of all necessary circumstances both of mind and body in them that are to be married,

such are, power over their own persons, freedom in choice or consent, personal mutual vow or contract, natural meetness for the duties of marriage, freedom from guilt as to the persons intended, and the like. Wherefore, taking marriage for a conjunction of a man and woman, by mutual consent, for all the ends of human life, and it cannot be absolutely pronounced honorable; for there may be many things in such a conjunction rendering it sinful and vile. But that marriage is so, which, on the ground and warranty of divine institution, is a lawful conjunction of one man and one woman, by their just and full consent, into an indissoluble union (whereby they become one flesh), for the procreation of children, and mutual assistance in all things, divine and human.

As the apostle speaks of this marriage in general, as unto its nature and use, so he hath an especial respect unto it in this place as it is the means appointed and sanctified of God for the avoiding and preventing of the sins of fornication and adultery, and all other lusts of uncleanness, which without it the generality of mankind would have rushed into like the beasts of the field.

And this marriage he affirms to be honorable. It is so on many accounts, and so it is to be esteemed. It is so,

(1.) From the consideration of the Author of it, him by whom it was originally appointed; which is God himself, Gen 2:18; Gen 2:23-24, Mat 19:5; and all his works are honorable and glorious, Psa 111:3.

(2.) From the manner of its institution, being expressed as a peculiar effect of divine wisdom and counsel for the good of man, Gen 2:18, And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him. Greater honor could not be put on this institution and state of life.

(3.) From the time and place of its institution. It is co-equal with mankind; for although Adam was created in single life, yet he was married in the instant of the production of Eve. Upon the first sight of her he said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, Gen 2:23 : which she complying with, was the formal cause of their matrimony. And it was in paradise, whilst man and woman were in the state of innocency and beauty: so foolish is the law in the church of Rome prohibiting marriage unto their ecclesiastics, on pretense of an unsuitableness in it unto their holiness; as though they were more pure than our first parents in paradise, where they entered into their married estate.

(4.) From the many tokens or pledges of divine favor, communicating honor unto it. God first married and blessed Adam and Eve himself, Gen 2:22-23. He gave laws for the regulation of it, Gen 2:24; Mat 19:5. He had especial respect unto it in the decalogue; yea, all the commands of the second table arise from and have respect unto this institution. He by his law excluded from all administration of office in the congregation those that were not born in lawful wedlock, Deu 23:2, etc. And the Lord Christ approved of all these things by his presence at a lawful marriage, and a feast thereon, Joh 2:1-11.

(5.) It is so from the use and benefit of it. The writings of all sorts of wise men, philosophers, lawyers, and Christian divines, have elegantly expressed these things. I shall only say, that as the legitimate and orderly continuation of the race of mankind depends hereon, and proceeds from it, so whatever is of virtue, honor, comeliness or order, amongst men; whatever is praiseworthy and useful in all societies, economical, ecclesiastical, or political, it depends hereon, and hath regard hereunto. To all unto whom children are dear, relations useful, inheritances valuable, and acceptation of God in the works of nature preferred before sordid uncleanness and eternal ruin; this state is, and ought to be, accounted honorable to them.

The apostle adds, that it is thus honorable in all; that is, amongst all sorts of persons that are called thereunto. There is no sort, order, or degree of men, by reason of any calling, work, or employment, but that marriage is an honorable state in them, and unto them, when they are lawfully called thereunto.This is the plain sense of the words, as both their signification and occasion in this place do manifest. Some had rather it should be, in all things, or every manner of way; or in all ages, at all times; none of which do here suit the mind of the apostle. For whereas his design is to give direction for chastity and universal purity of life, with the avoiding of all sorts and degrees of uncleanness, and whereas the proneness unto such sins is common unto all, (though cured in some by especial gift,) he declares that the remedy is equally provided for all who are called thereunto, 1Co 7:9, as not having received the gift of continency, at least as unto inward purity of mind, without the use of this remedy. However, if it should be rendered in all things, or every manner of way, the popish celibate can never be secured from this divine testimony against it. For if it be not lawful to call that, common which God hath declared clean, is it lawful for them to esteem and call that so vile as to be unmeet for some order or sort of men among them, which God hath declared to be honorable in all things, or every manner of way? The reader may, if it be needful, consult the writings of our divines against the Papists, for the confirmation of this exposition. I shall only say, that their impiety in their law imposing the necessity of single life on all their ecclesiastics, wherein they have usurped divine authority over the consciences of men, hath often been openly pursued by divine vengeance, in giving it up to be an occasion of the multiplication of such horrid uncleannesses as have been scandalous unto Christian religion, and ruinous to the souls of millions, In other persons they make matrimony a sacrament; which, according to their opinion, conferreth grace, though well they know not what: but it is evident, that this law of forbidding it unto their clergy, hath deprived them of that common gift of continence which other men, by an ordinary endeavor, may preserve or attain unto. But it belongs not unto my present purpose to insist on these things. And we may observe,

Obs. 1. That divine institution is sufficient to reader any state or condition of life honorable.

Obs. 2. The more useful any state of life is, the more honorable it is. The honor of marriage ariseth much from its usefulness.

Obs. 3. That which is honorable by divine institution, and useful in its own nature, may be abused and rendered vile by the miscarriages of men; as marriage may be.

Obs. 4. It is a bold usurpation of authority over the consciences of men, and a contempt of the authority of God, to forbid that state unto any which God hath declared honorable among all.

Obs. 5. Means for purity and chastity not ordained, blessed, nor sanctified unto that end, will prove furtherances of impurity and uncleanness, or worse evils.

Obs. 6. The state of marriage being honorable in the sight of God himself, it is the duty of them that enter thereinto duly to consider how they may approve their consciences unto God in what they do. And,

Obs. 7. A due consideration of their call unto it, of their ends in it, that they are those of Gods appointment, prayer for, and expectation of his blessing on it, reverence of him as the great witness of the marriage covenant, with wisdom to undergo the trials and temptations inseparable from this state of life, are required hereunto.

2. Unto the state of marriage the apostle adds the consideration of the duties of it, in that expression, The bed undefiled. The word is three times used by our apostle; once for the conception of seed in the marriage-bed, Rom 9:10; once for excess in lustful pleasures, Rom 13:13, where we render it chambering; and here for the place of marriage duties, torus, lectum, cubile. Its commendation here is, that it is undefiled. And two things are intended herein.

(1.) An opposition unto the defiled beds of whoremongers and adulterers, from the honorable state of marriage. The bed of marriage is pure and undefiled, even in the duties of it.

(2.) The preservation of marriage duties within their due bounds; which the apostle giveth directions about, 1Th 4:3-7; 1Co 7:2-5. For there may be many pollutions of the marriage bed, not meet here to be mentioned; and there are some dilated on in the popish casuists, which are not fit to be named among Christians, nor could have been believed, had they not divulged them from their pretended penitents. But that which we are here taught is, that,

Obs. 8. Conjugal duties, regulated by the bounds assigned unto them by natural light, with the general rules of Scripture, and subservient unto the due ends of marriage, are honorable, giving no cause of pollution or shame.

From this state and use of marriage, the means appointed of God for the preservation of the purity and chastity of our persons, the argument is cogent unto diligence in our duty therein, and the aggravation great of the contrary sins. For whereas God hath provided such a way and means, for the satisfaction of natural inclination, the procreation of children, and comfort of life in mutual society, as are honorable, and as such approved by himself, so as no way to defile the body or mind, or to leave any trouble on the conscience; who can express the detestable wickedness that is in the forsaking of them, in a contempt of the authority and wisdom of God, by mens seeking the satisfaction of their lusts in ways prohibited of God, injurious to others, debasing and defiling to themselves, disturbing the whole order of nature, and drowning themselves in everlasting perdition, which the apostle declares in the next words?

Secondly, Having confirmed the exhortation unto personal purity or holiness, and chastity, included in the words, from the commendation of the state and duties whereby they may be preserved, with assurance of divine acceptation therein, he further presseth it by declaration of the contrary state and opposite vices of those who, despising this only remedy of all uncleanness, or not confining themselves thereunto, do seek the satisfaction of their lusts in ways irregular and prohibited.

This opposition of the two states and acts is declared in the particle , but: So it is with marriage and its duties; but as unto others, it is not so with them.And,

1. He declares who are the persons that transgress the rule prescribed, who are of two sorts,

(1.) Whoremongers;

(2.) Adulterers.

2. He declares their state with respect to God, and what will be their end; God will judge or condemn them.

1. The distinction between whoremongers, or fornicators, and adulterers, is allowed by all to be between single persons, and those that are both or one of them in a married state. The sin of the first is fornication; of the other, adultery. And although and may sometimes be used to denote any kind of uncleanness in general, and so to comprise adultery also; yet wherever these words are put together, as they are often, they are so to be distinguished, as the one of them to signify fornication, and the other adultery, Mat 15:19; Mar 7:21; Gal 5:19. And for the most part, when and are used alone, they denote precisely the sin of unmarried persons, or at least where the woman is so: that we call fornication, Heb 11:31; Jas 2:25; Act 15:20; 1Co 6:18; Eph 5:3; Col 3:5; 1Th 4:3. Wherefore , which we render here whoremongers, as distinguished from adulterers, are persons who in single or an unmarried state of life do know one another carnally, whether it be by single acts or a frequent repetition of them, by the means of cohabitation, without a marriage vow or covenant between them.

Some have fallen into that impudence in our days, as to countenance themselves with the opinion and practices of some of the heathen, who thought that this sin of fornication was no sin, or a matter not much to be regarded. But as it is contrary unto the law of creation, and consequently the light of nature, being a filthy spring of other evils innumerable; so it is expressly condemned in the Scripture, as Deu 23:17, 1Co 6:18, Col 3:5, and in the other places before cited. And this one place, where it is said to render men obnoxious to eternal damnation, is enough to determine this case in the minds of men not flagitiously wicked. And shall we suppose, that that religion which condemneth the inward lust of the heart after a woman, without any outward act, as a sin worthy of judgment, doth give countenance, or doth not most severely condemn, the actual abomination of fornication?

But whatever may be the judgment of any men, or whatever they may pretend so to be, (for I am persuaded that no man can so far debauch his conscience, and obliterate all impressions of Scripture light, as really to think fornication to be no sin, who thinks there is any such thing as sin at all,) yet the practice of multitudes in all manner of licentiousness this way at present among us, can never sufficiently be bewailed. And it is to be feared, that if magistrates, and those who are the public ministers in the nation, do not take more care than hitherto hath been used, for the reproof, restraint, and suppressing of this raging abomination, divine judgments on the whole nation on the account of it will speedily satisfy mens scruples whether it be a sin or no.

For adulterers, who are mentioned in the next place, there is no question amongst any about the heinousness of their sin; and the common interest of mankind keeps up a detestation of it. But it is here, together with fornication, reserved in a peculiar manner unto divine vengeance:

(1.) Because for the most part it is kept secret, and so free from human cognizance; and,

(2.) Because, although the divine law made it capital, or punishable by death, as did also some laws among the heathens themselves, yet for the most part it ever did, and doth still, pass in the world under a less severe animadversion and punishment. But,

2. Whatever such persons think of themselves, or whatever others think of them, or however they deal with them, God will judge and condemn them.

God will judge, or damnabit; he will condemn, he will damn them. It is the final judgment of the last day that is intended; they shall not be acquitted, they shall not be absolved, they shall be eternally damned. And there is included herein,

Obs. 9. Whatever light thoughts men may have of sin, of any sin, the judgment of God concerning all sin, which is according to truth, must stand forever. To have slight thoughts of sin, will prove no relief unto sinners.

Obs. 10. Fornication and adultery are sins in their own nature deserving eternal damnation. If the due wages of all sin be death, much more is it so of so great abominations.

Obs. 11. Men living and dying impenitently in these sins shall eternally perish; or, a habitual course in them is utterly inconsistent with any spark of saving grace. See 1Co 6:9-10; Eph 5:5; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15. And there is an emphasis in the expression, God will judge; wherein we may see,

(1.) That the especial aggravation of these sins doth expose men unto a sore condemnation in a peculiar manner, 1Co 3:17; 1Co 6:16-19.

(2.) All occasions of, all temptations leading unto these sins, are to be avoided, as we take care of our souls.

(3.) Although the state of men may be changed, and divine wrath due to these sins may be finally escaped by repentance, yet it may be observed, that of all sorts of sinners, those who are habitually given up unto these lusts of the flesh, are the most rarely called, and brought to effectual repentance. Yet,

(4.) Many of those persons, by reason of their convictions, received in the light of a natural conscience, do live in a kind of seeming repentance, whereby they relieve themselves after some acts of uncleanness, until by the power of their lust they are hurried again into them. But I must not here further discourse these things.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

Marriage: Gen 1:27, Gen 1:28, Gen 2:21, Gen 2:24, Lev 21:13-15, 2Ki 22:14, Pro 5:15-23, Isa 8:3, 1Co 7:2-16, 1Co 9:5, 1Ti 3:2, 1Ti 3:4, 1Ti 3:12, 1Ti 5:14, Tit 1:6

and the bed: Heb 12:16, 1Co 6:9, Gal 5:19, Gal 5:21, Eph 5:5, Col 3:5, Col 3:6, Rev 22:15

God: Psa 50:16-22, Mal 3:5, 1Co 5:13, 2Co 5:10

Reciprocal: Gen 2:22 – brought Gen 12:15 – taken Gen 12:17 – General Gen 20:7 – surely Gen 20:9 – a great Gen 34:7 – thing Gen 39:9 – how then Exo 20:14 – General Lev 15:18 – unclean Lev 15:24 – General Lev 18:20 – General Num 5:16 – set her Num 5:18 – the priest Deu 22:22 – General Rth 4:10 – ye are witnesses 2Sa 11:27 – displeased Job 31:2 – General Job 31:12 – General Psa 50:18 – hast been partaker Pro 5:11 – thou Pro 5:22 – sins Pro 6:32 – destroyeth Jer 5:7 – they then Jer 23:10 – full Eze 18:6 – neither hath defiled Eze 22:11 – committed Mat 8:14 – wife’s Mat 19:6 – God Mar 10:11 – Whosoever Luk 20:34 – marry Joh 2:1 – a marriage Joh 2:2 – the marriage Joh 4:18 – is not Act 15:20 – fornication 1Co 6:18 – Flee 1Co 7:28 – thou hast 1Co 7:38 – doeth well 1Co 16:14 – General 2Co 12:21 – uncleanness Eph 5:3 – fornication 1Th 4:3 – that 1Th 4:4 – honour 1Ti 1:10 – whoremongers 1Ti 4:3 – Forbidding 2Pe 2:10 – that Rev 2:14 – to commit Rev 21:8 – and the

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Heb 13:4. Marriage is honorable because it is the Lord’s arrangement for the perpetuation of the race, hence the marriage bed should be regarded as undefiled. As an inducement for man to cooperate with God in this plan, He has made the intimate relation a pleasurable one. All good things may be abused, hence there are people who use this relationship for the one purpose only. Such people should remember the case of Onan in Gen 38:8-10 and beware. The fact of having contracted legal marriage does not justify Christians in counteracting God’s original purpose for the insti- tution. Whoremongers refers especially to men who are immoral and adulterers to either sex.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 13:4-5. The writer now speaks of two relations of life which are often placed side by side in Pauls Epistlesmarriage and the purity which belongs to it, and covetousness, or the love of money (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5). The abrupt form of the sentences and the curt energy of the admonitions are intensely Pauline.

Let marriage be held in honour in all, and the bed be undefiled. Whether these words are affirmative (marriage is honourable), as the A. V. and Delitzsch hold, or hortative (let it be held), has been much discussed. But the question is now settled. The words stand in the midst of exhortations. The next verse is equally without a verb, and is yet translated as an exhortation. And moreover, the reading in the next clause is for and not but, enforcing not a statement, but a command. In all persons, of whatever rank, degree, or profession; or in all respectsa rebuke of the false science which was already spreading in the Church (1Ti 4:13). It may be better to be single, if Gods adjustment of gifts and tastes makes single life no serious burden (1 Corinthians 7), and if Christ is thereby better served. But all who marry in the Lord assume an honourable place. Only, where Christians have entered into that state, the bed must be undefiled by adulterous intercourse, or by lascivious sensuality. Those who dishonour the relation in either way, God will judge.

Let your lifea word which describes the turn of a mans thoughts and actionsbe free from covetousness (the love of money), [and be] content with (finding your sufficiency in) such things as you have. They needed the warning: For as men decline in grace, they grow in selfishness. The mischievous influence of this deceitful vice is strikingly described in 1Ti 6:9-10, where the love of money (the same word) is said to be a root of all kinds of evil, drowning men in perdition, or piercing them through with many sorrows. One guard against this evil is that we be content with what we have; but the security against it is the Divine promise.

For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Five negations, I will never, no never, no never forsake, give strength to the assurance. The words are taken from three passages (see marginal references) spoken to various Hebrew saints, and forming part of the general promise of the Gospel given to each believer. Our God is the God of salvations (Psa 68:20), not one, but many, and delivers us from want as well as from sin. He spared not His Son, and freely gives with Him all things.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle having, in the former verses, directed Christians to their duty on towards another, in this and the following verses, he directs them to perform their duty towards themselves; and because the two radical comprehensive lusts of corrupted nature are uncleanness and covetousness, he therefore commends unto their care and practice those two great duties of chastity and contention, the former in this, the latter in the next verse.

Now here observe, That to prevent the former sin, the ravings of unbridled lust our apostle prescribes the remedy which God appoints, marriage; that is, the conjunction of two individual persons that have freedom in choice and consent, and have power over themselves, not being within the degrees of affinity or consanguinity prohibited, between whom there results such an indissoluble union, that thereby they become one flesh; such marriage he affirms to be honourable, and to be so esteemed in regard to its Author, God himself, Gen 2:18 in regard of the place, paradise; in regard of the time, in man’s innocency: in regard of the end and usefulness of it, the continuation of the race of mankind; thus it it honourable, and ought to be had in honour.

The apostle adds, that is is thus Honourable in all; that is, amongst all orders, ranks, and degrees of men, that are called thereunto; the remedy is equally provided by God for all; and therefore the church of Rome to deny it to their clergy, is to usurp authority over the consciences of men, and to judge themselves too pure for an institution of their Maker, which our first parents in innocency did not think themselves too pure for.

Learn hence, 1. That divine institution is sufficient to render any state or condition of life honourable, and consequently the state of marriage.

2. That which is honourable by divine institution, may be rendered abominable by the miscarriages of men.

3. That it is an horrid contempt of the authority of God and a bold usurpation over the consciences of men, to forbid the state of marriage unto any, which God has made honourable among all.

Next to the state of marriage, the apostle adds the duty of that state, the bed undefiled, in opposition to the defiled bed of whoremongers and adulterers, and the preservation of marriage duties within their due bounds.

Having exhorted to conjugal purity and chastity in the former part of the verse, he adds a very cogent reason and forcible motive to it in the latter words, because whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; that is, all persons who in a single state of life do know on another carnally, without a marriage-vow or covenant between them; if both parties be single, their filthiness is called fornication; if either of them be married, adultery; neither of them shall escape the judgment of God; that is, temporal punishment in this life, and eternal damnation in the next.

Learn hence, That whatever light thought men have of the sin of uncleanness, yet we are assured it doth in its own nature deserve eternal condemnation, and such as live and die impenitently in it, shall certainly perish for it; and if so, then all occassions of, and all temptations leading to those sins, are to be avoided, as we love our souls; for of all sinners, those who have habitually given up themselves to the lust of the flesh, are most rarely and difficultly brought to repentance.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Heb 13:4. Marriage is honourable in, or for, all sorts of persons, clergy as well as laity, though the Romanists teach otherwise; and the bed undefiled Consistent with the highest purity. For who can imagine that God would make any thing morally evil absolutely necessary for the support of the human race in future generations? But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge That is, punish, and frequently does so in a very awful manner, even in the present world; though they frequently escape punishment from men. The distinction between these two characters, whoremongers and adulterers, is well known to be this: that the former are single persons who have unlawful converse with one another, and the latter are those who are both, or at least one of them, in a married state. The sin of the first is fornication, of the other adultery; although the word , fornication, may sometimes be used to denote any uncleanness, and so to comprise adultery also.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

13:4 {2} Marriage [is] honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

(2) He commends chaste matrimony in all sorts of men, and threatens utter destruction from God against whoremongers and adulterers.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Christians also need to maintain a high regard for marriage and to remain sexually pure. God’s judgment will follow the sexually impure (cf. Heb 12:29). Under the Old Covenant the Israelites were to punish fornicators and adulterers, but under the New Covenant God does it.

"How does God judge fornicators and adulterers? Sometimes they are judged in their own bodies (Rom 1:24-27). Certainly they will be judged at the final judgment (Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15). Believers who commit these sins certainly may be forgiven, but they will lose rewards in heaven (Eph 5:5 ff). David was forgiven, but he suffered the consequences of his adultery for years to come; and he suffered in the hardest way: through his own children." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:327.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)