Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 6:15
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
15. after he had patiently endured ] Lit., “having patiently endured,” which may mean “by patient endurance.” The participles in this passage are really contemporaneous with the principal verbs.
he obtained the promise ] Gen 15:1; Gen 21:5; Gen 22:17-18; Gen 25:7, &c.; Joh 8:56. There is of course no contradiction to Heb 11:13; Heb 11:39, which refers to a farther future and a wider hope.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And so, after he had patiently endured – After he had waited for a long time. He did not faint or grow weary, but he persevered in a confident expectation of the fulfillment of what God had so solemnly promised.
He obtained the promise – Evidently the promise referred to in the oath – that he would have a numerous posterity. The apostle intimates that he had waited for that a long time; that his faith did not waver, and that in due season the object of his wishes was granted. To see the force of this, we are to remember:
(1)That when he was called by God from Haran, and when the promise of a numerous posterity was made to him, he was seventy-five years old; Gen 12:1-5.
- Twenty-four years elapsed after this, during which he was a sojourner in a strange land, before the manner in which this promise would be fulfilled was made known to him; Gen. 17:1-16.
- It was only when he was an hundred years old, and when he had persevered in the belief of the truth of the promise against all the natural improbabilities of its accomplishment, that he received the pledge of its fulfillment in the birth of his son Isaac; Gen 21:1-5.
- The birth of that son was a pledge that the other blessings implied in the promise would be granted, and in that pledge Abraham may be said to have received the promise.
He did not actually see the numerous posterity of which he was to be the honored ancestor, nor the Messiah who was to descend from him, nor the happy influences which would result to mankind from the fulfillment of the promise. But he saw the certainty that all this would occur; he saw by faith the Messiah in the distance Joh 8:56, and the numerous blessings which would result from his coming. It was a remarkable instance of faith, and one well suited to the purpose of the apostle. It would furnish ample encouragement to the Christians to whom he wrote, to persevere in their course, and to avoid the dangers of apostasy. If Abraham persevered when appearances were so much against the fulfillment of what had been promised, then Christians should persevere under the clearer light and with the more distinct promises of the gospel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 6:15
After he had patiently endured, he obtained
Endurance and reward
I.
ENDURANCE.
1. Trials.
2. The frailties of human nature.
3. The Christian contest.
II. PATIENCE.
1. Gives calmness.
2. Bestows strength.
3. Takes away the bitterness of the endurance.
III. REWARD. Not anything actually tangible–a promise. Not the thing itself, but the shadow of the thing. This is to try our faith. But is not the promise really as sure as the reality? It was to Abraham. For there is no uncertainty with God. (Homilist.)
Patience and the promises
Good old Spurstow says that some Of the promises are like the almond tree–they blossom hastily in the very earliest spring; but, saith he, there are others that resemble the mulberry–they are very slow in putting forth their leaves. Then what is a man to do, if he has a mulberry tree promise which is late in blossoming? Why, he is to wait till it does. If the vision tarry, wait for it till it come, and the appointed time shall surely bring it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Time necessary for development
O impatient ones! Did the leaves say nothing to you as they murmured when you came hither to-day? They were not created this spring, but months ago; and the summer, just begun, will fashion others for another year. At the bottom of every leaf-stem is a cradle, and in it is an infant germ; and the winds will rock it, and the birds will sing to it all summer long; and next season it will unfold. So God is working for you, and carrying forward to the perfect development all the processes of your lives. (H. W. Beecher.)
Patience
Patience is but lying to, and riding out the gale. (H. W.Beecher.)
Pray and stay
Pray and stay are two blessed morn)syllables. (J. Donne.)
Patience
The husbandman is fain to have much patience, before he have his corn into the barn: with great toil he ploughs his ground, harrows it, casts his seed into the earth; he knows not whether he shall see it any more, but rests patiently in Gods providence. The merchant is fain to have much patience, before he can mount up to any wealth: many a storm he endures on the sea, often in danger of his life. The clothier must have much patience, in buying of his wool, is making of it out, in selling of his cloth, he is fain to stand to many casualties; yet hope of a convenient gain in the end, makes him with cheerfulness to pass through them all. They do it for earthly things, that are h re to-day and gone to-morrow; and shall not we be patient for heavenly treasures, for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, but is eternal in the heavens? Be patient a while: pass through poverty, sickness, malevolent tongues, and all other calamities in this life, that we may at length be taken up into that place, where we shall have need of patience no more; for all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. (W. Johns, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. He obtained the promise.] Isaac was supernaturally born; and in his birth God began to fulfil the promise: while he lived, he saw a provision made for the multiplication of his seed; and, having continued steadfast in the faith, he received the end of all the promises in the enjoyment of an eternal glory. And the inference from this is: If we believe and prove faithful unto death, we shall also inherit the promises; and this is what is implied in the apostle’s exhortation, Heb 6:12: Be not slothful, but followers of them, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And so, after he had patiently endured: Abrahams carriage was suitable to this sworn promise, his soul did patiently wait for it full thirty years, enduring and suffering many temptations about it; yet he overcame all, and continued firm in the covenant to the end; his faith extended his soul in a patient expectation of its accomplishment, without doubting or murmuring, knowing God would fulfil it in the best time: he was a long-breathed believer, Joh 8:56; Rom 4:20,21; Jas 1:2,3.
He obtained the promise; he did not fall short of any piece of the promise, but fully possessed it at last, both in Isaac, the type of the blessed Seed, and the Messiah himself, as to all the spiritual and eternal good promised in him and by him in the heavenly Canaan, Mat 22:32.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. sothus relying on thepromise.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And so, after he had patiently endured,…. He waited long for a son, from whom the Messiah was to spring, after he had had the promise of one; and he endured many afflictions with patience, in his journeys from place to place, throughout his life to the end:
he obtained the promise; he was greatly blessed in temporal things; he lived to see the son of the promise, and his sons; he saw the day of Christ by faith, and now inherits the heavenly glory, which is the thing chiefly designed.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Having patiently endured (). First aorist active participle of (, , long spirit) illustrating of verse 12.
He obtained (). Second aorist (effective) active indicative of , old verb with genitive. God was true to his word and Abraham was faithful.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
After he had patiently endured [] . Pointing back to makroqumia long – suffering, ver. 12.
He obtained [] . The compounded preposition ejpi has the force of upon : to light or hit upon. The verb indicates that Abraham did not personally receive the entire fulfillment of the promise, but only the germ of its fulfillment. It was partially fulfilled in the birth of Isaac. See Rom 4:18.
The security of the divine promise illustrated by the analogy of human practice.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1)“And so, after he had patiently endured,” (kai houtos makrothumesas) “And so being (existing) a long suffering person; Until he was an hundred years of age, after serving God in patient endurance, as Noah had done while the ark was preparing, Heb 11:7-12.
2) “He obtained the promise,” (epeteuchen tes epangelias) “He obtained the promise,” or the pledge, the Son by Sara, Gen 21:1-5; Gen 21:12. Abraham did not stagger at obeying God in offering his son Isaac upon the altar. In God’s preservation of Isaac three things happened: a) Abraham stood the test of absolute obedience and surrender to God, and b) God verified his integrity in providing a substitutionary sacrifice for both Abraham and his son Isaac, and c) God preserved Abraham’s seed thru Isaac, Gen 21:12; Rom 9:7-8; Heb 11:17-19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) And so, after he had patiently endured.Better, and thus (thus being in possession of the promise and the oath of God), having patiently waited (Heb. 6:12) he obtained the promisethe promised gift. Though some portions of the promise received a partial accomplishment during Abrahams life, it is not this that the writer has in view. (See Heb. 6:12, and Heb. 11:13.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. He had patiently endured The endurance was from him, the assurance of reward from God. Obtained the (fulfilment of the) promise Namely, in the birth of Isaac. In Isaac, the Messiah and all the blessings the Messiah includes, were respectively embodied, as the oak in the acorn.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.’
And as a result of His promises Abraham patiently endured, and through faith obtained the promise, an example to us all. So that we who are in Abraham should also patiently endure in order to obtain the promise (compare Heb 6:11-12).
‘He obtained the promise.’ He was promised numerous seed, but for a long period in his life no child was born to Sara, until at last hope grew dim and he resorted to a number of expedients. But his faith was at last rewarded and Sara bore a son. He obtained the promise, for in Isaac lay the whole future. Isaac was the guarantee of the countless seed that would look back to Abraham as their father. As a result of that remarkable birth Abraham then knew that all the other promises would be fulfilled. Thus did he have assurance that the One Who would finally bring all things together under God would also be born (Joh 8:56). He saw Jesus’ day and was glad.
And yet his final inheriting of the promise awaits the future. He has obtained it in faith but not in final fulfilment. That is yet to come, and we have our full part in it (Heb 11:39-40).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 6:15 . ] and in this way, i.e. since God on His part had in such manner afforded documentary evidence for the solemnity of His resolve. belongs to . The combining of it with , as is done by Stein, Tholuck, [79] and Bisping, and consequently taking the participle as an epexegesis of , is inadmissible, because in that case the of Abraham in particular must have been spoken of immediately before. The opinion of Delitzsch, however, who is followed by Maier, that “the combination of the two combinations” is “the right one,” refutes itself, since it requires that which is logically impossible.
] because he showed [or: had shown ] persevering stedfastness ( sc . in the faith, comp. Heb 6:12 ), in particular by the fact that he had just now been so ready at God’s behest to sacrifice his son Isaac, although this soon appeared to afford the only hold for the realization of the divine promise.
] he obtained the promise, i.e. the thing promised, inasmuch, namely, as not only Isaac was given back alive to Abraham, but he further lived to see the time when two sons were born to Isaac (comp. Gen 21:5 ; Gen 25:7 ; Gen 25:26 ), and thus the divine promise was fulfilled in its earlier stage. Not a fulfilment, which Abraham first witnessed in the life beyond the grave (Maier, Hofmann), is intended. Nor have we here to take , with Bleek, in the active sense [the giving of a promise], and to refer it to the Messianic salvation placed in prospect. For, apart from the consideration that in this case would, in relation to , Heb 6:13 , indicate no advance, the emphatically preposed can be understood only of the obtaining possession of the promised object itself. The promise repeated to Abraham, Gen 22:17-18 , presented itself under a two fold point of view. His seed was to be multiplied, and in his seed were all nations of the earth to be blessed. Only the first of these in its earlier stage could Abraham, from the nature of the case, live to see; the fulfilment of the latter was attached to the appearing of Christ upon earth, which was to be looked for in the distant future. The first-named reference obtains Heb 6:15 . The last-named mode of contemplating the subject underlies the , Heb 6:17 . That, too, which we read Heb 11:13 ; Heb 11:39 , is spoken from the last-named point of view, on which account there is not to be found in these passages a contradiction of ours.
[79] Who unaccountably advances, as an argument in support, the supposition that “then a parallel arises between the Christians, who, according to vv. 17, 18, are, on the ground of the divine oath, to hold fast the hope, and Abraham, who likewise did so.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Ver. 15. After he had patiently endured ] Waited many years for an Isaac, and yet longer for eternal life. “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,” saith dying Jacob, Gen 49:18 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 .] and thus ( belongs to , not to , as Tholuck, and Hofm. Enst. p. 311, for then some particular instance or kind of patience would be most naturally pointed out. It then signifies, when he had received this promise being in this state of dependence on the divine promise: see below, and reff.) having endured with patience (viz. in his waiting so long for God’s promise to be fulfilled in having, when it was partially fulfilled, again shewn noble endurance in the will of God by offering up Isaac), he obtained the promise (i. e. not as Bleek, he had made to him the promise above related: this would nearly stultify the sentence, which proceeds on the faithfulness of God, confirming his promise with an oath by Himself, and the faith and endurance of Abraham, waiting for that promise to be fulfilled: but as Ln., he obtained, got fulfilled to him , the promise, the thing promised, to wit, the birth of Isaac, as the commencement of the fulfilment as much of it as he could see. And thus Abraham became a . That there is here no inconsistency with ch. Heb 11:39 , see shewn there. is always used of the actual getting in possession: , Thuc. iii. 3: , Xen. c. 2. 3: , ib. 12. 20: al. in Bleek. And the above is the explanation, I believe, of every expositor ancient and modern, except Schulz and Bleek. Ebrard indeed varies thus far, as to understand of Abraham’s final and heavenly enjoyment of the fulfilment of the Messianic promises: but I believe the aorist will be generally considered to preclude this).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Heb 6:15 . “and thus having patiently waited he [Abraham] obtained the promise”. , in these circumstances; that is, thus upheld by a promise and an oath. The oath warned him of trial. It would not have been given had the promise been a trifling one or had it been destined for immediate fulfilment. f1 , having long kept up his courage and his hope. Delay followed delay; disappointment followed disappointment. He was driven out of the promised land, and a barren wife mocked the hope of the promised seed, but he waited expectant, and at length , for although it was true of him, as of all O.T. saints, that he did not obtain the promise, [ , Heb 11:13 ; , Heb 11:39 ], but could only wave his hand to it and salute it at a distance, yet the initial fulfilment he did see and was compensated for all his waiting by seeing the beginnings of that great history which ran on to the consummate performance of the promise in Christ. Bleek and Rendall understand by “obtained from God a promise of future blessing,” and not the thing itself. But in this case would be irrelevant. He had not to wait for the promise, but for its fulfilment.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
after he had = having. obtained. Greek. epitunchano. See Rom 11:7.
promise. i.e. Isaac (the Land is still future); Gen 18:10, Gen 18:14; Gen 21:3. Gal 1:4, Gal 1:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] and thus ( belongs to , not to , as Tholuck, and Hofm. Enst. p. 311, for then some particular instance or kind of patience would be most naturally pointed out. It then signifies, when he had received this promise-being in this state of dependence on the divine promise: see below, and reff.) having endured with patience (viz. in his waiting so long for Gods promise to be fulfilled-in having, when it was partially fulfilled, again shewn noble endurance in the will of God by offering up Isaac), he obtained the promise (i. e. not as Bleek, he had made to him the promise above related: this would nearly stultify the sentence, which proceeds on the faithfulness of God, confirming his promise with an oath by Himself, and the faith and endurance of Abraham, waiting for that promise to be fulfilled: but as Ln., he obtained, got fulfilled to him, the promise, the thing promised, to wit, the birth of Isaac, as the commencement of the fulfilment-as much of it as he could see. And thus Abraham became a . That there is here no inconsistency with ch. Heb 11:39, see shewn there. is always used of the actual getting in possession: , Thuc. iii. 3: , Xen. c. 2. 3: , ib. 12. 20: al. in Bleek. And the above is the explanation, I believe, of every expositor ancient and modern, except Schulz and Bleek. Ebrard indeed varies thus far, as to understand of Abrahams final and heavenly enjoyment of the fulfilment of the Messianic promises: but I believe the aorist will be generally considered to preclude this).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 6:15. , after he had patiently endured) This is evident from the life of Abraham.- , he obtained the promise) he got what was promised; Heb 6:14.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Heb 6:12, Gen 12:2, Gen 12:3, Gen 15:2-6, Gen 17:16, Gen 17:17, Gen 21:2-7, Exo 1:7, Hab 2:2, Hab 2:3, Rom 4:17-25
Reciprocal: Luk 21:19 – General Rom 2:7 – patient Rom 8:25 – with patience Rom 12:12 – patient 1Th 1:3 – and patience 2Th 1:4 – your patience 2Ti 2:3 – endure Heb 10:36 – ye have Heb 11:27 – endured Heb 12:1 – with patience Jam 1:12 – the man Jam 5:7 – Be patient 2Pe 1:6 – patience Rev 2:3 – hast patience
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Heb 6:15. He finally obtained that son as a reward for his patience (Gen 21:1).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 6:15. And so, in this way, having patiently waited, believing and expecting the blessing amid all the trials and delays he was subjected to, he obtained what had been promised,not so much the birth of Isaac (Alford), who was born before the oath, nor yet the restoration of Isaac from the dead (De Wette), a result that needed no waiting. The promise was really fulfilled in Abrahams becoming through Isaac the father of the people of promise, and then of many nations under the Gospel through Him who was the seed (Gal 3:16), and so of all who are through faith children of Abraham. This is the promise which, in the widest sense, Abraham has obtained. During his earthly life the fulfilment was very partial. At the exodus the seed are expressly said to have been as the stars for multitude (Deu 1:10); but the blessing of the nations was still to come. Nineteen hundred years later appeared the great Deliverer, whose day Abraham also saw, and now His kingdom is supreme, and Abraham has lone since obtained it all. This wide meaning of the promise is not properly a spiritualizing of the Old Testament; it is the true meaning on which St. Paul again and again insists (Gal 3:7; Rom 4:11). No trial of faith under any dispensation has been severer than Abrahams, and no reward more blessed or more complete. The lesson to Israel, whether literal or spiritual, is decisive and clear.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 15
He obtained the promise; that is, it was fulfilled in his posterity, according to the design of God.