¹ Cf. Actes, xxii. 17–21Google Scholar; xxvi. 20. La tradition de l'institution de l'apostolat chez Luc et encore plus chez Jean et Matthieu fonde l' sur Es. xlix. 6 (LXX) qui veut simplement dire ‘des pays lointains’. Cf. Haenchen, E., Die Apostelgeschichte (Göttingen, 1956), p. 115.Google Scholar L'Illyrie, comme l' Espagne, est pour St Paul l'un des .

² Rom. xv. 24.

³ The occurrence of these in Hebrews is as follows: τέλειος (v. 14; ix. II ), τελειóτης(vi. 1), τελειοũν (ii. 10; V. 9; vii. 19, 28; iX. 9; X. I, 14; Xi. 40, xii. 23), τελειωτής (Xii. 2), τελειωσις(Vii. 11).

⁴ The terms with their chief meanings in contemporary literature are as follows: τελειοũν: complete, consummate, perfect, fulfil, die, execute (a document); cf. consecrate, initiate, baptize; τέλειος (persons) mature, of age, perfect; (things) complete, valid, final, perfect; τελειóτης: completeness, perfection; τελειωσις: completion, fulfilment, perfection, consummation, conclusion; τελειωτής: perfector.

⁵ The cultic orientation of the Epistle was emphasized by Olaf Moe in an article ‘Der Gedanke des allgemeinen Priestertums im Hebräerbrief’, Theologische, Zeitschrift, v (1949), 161–9.Google Scholar

¹ Cf. I Cor. ii. 6: σοфιαν δέ λαουũμεν έν τοίς τελειοıς…θεοū σοфιαν έν μνστηρίῳ; Col. i. 28: …νοθετοūντες πάντα άνθρωπον και δıδάσκοντες πάντα άνθρωπον καν δıδάσκοντες τάντα άνςρωπον έν πάση σαση σάфιᾳ, ίνα παραστήσωμεν…τέλεıον έν ; cf. also I Cor. xiii. 12; II Cor. iii. 18; etc.

² There are some twenty instances in the New Testament. It has been suggested that a Stoic usage is reflected in the Philippians and Colossians passages. Moulton and Milligan (Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament…) cite an interesting parallel from Epictetus: λαβὼν…μέτρα και κανóνας εις έπιγνωσıν τ⋯ς άληθειας (Disc. II. xx. 21).

³ There are nine other occurrences in the New Testament. Cf. especially John i. 9, which speaks of the light which lights (ϕωıɛεı) every man; Eph. i. 18, which refers to the ‘eyes of the heart’ as being illuminated; II Tim. i. 10, which speaks of bringing life and immortality to light. Cf. also Clement of Alexandria, Instr. I. 6. 26: ‘Being baptized we are illuminated, illuminated we have become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal.’ E. Käsemann in Das wandernde Gottesvolk (Göttingen, 1939) suggests a gnostic flavour; but if so it is also Iranian and Jewish, as has often been indicated in connexion with Qumran studies. The Hymns speak of the Perfect Light, which the covenanter is enjoined to reflect.

⁴ The expression occurs more frequently in Hebrews than in any other New Testament writing, nine of twenty-nine instances.

⁵ Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics IV. 1021 b.

⁶ For the latter see xii. 23 and xiii. 40; cf. Luke xiii. 32; Wisd. iv. 13. It comes thus to be used of Christian martyrdom: cf. IV Macc. vii. 15, and examples in Moulton and Milligan, op. cit.; also Black, M., An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (2nd ed., Oxford, 1954), pp. 169 f.Google Scholar; Westcott, B. F., The Epistle to the Hebrews (London and New York, 1889), p. 36.Google Scholar

⁷ ii. 1–4; iii. 7–13; IV. 11–13; v. II-vi.12; X. 19–39; xii. 13. Theodore Haering saw the Epistle's organization as a unified alternation of ‘witness and warning’; cf. ‘Gedankengang und Grundgedanken des Hebräerbriefes’, Z.N.T.W. XVIII (1917–1918), 145–64.

¹ See Westcott, , op. cit. pp. 233 ff.Google Scholar; Wolfson, H. A., Philo (Cambridge, Mass., 1947), vols. i and ii, 110–64Google Scholar; Spicq, C., L'Epitre aux Hébreux, 2 vols. (Paris, 1952–1953), vol. ii, 306, n. 5Google Scholar; Michel, O., Der Brief an die Hebräer (11th ed., Göttingen, 1957), pp. 98 f. For different emphases here in recent interpretationGoogle Scholar, cf. Barrett, C. K. in The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology, edited by Davies, W. D. and Daube, D. (Cambridge, 1956), and Johannes Schneider, Der Hebräerbrief (Grand Rapids, 1957)Google Scholar

¹ The sacrificial victim was to be without blemish. In IV Macc., which contains the remarkable passages (vi. 28 f.; xvii. 21 f.) on the martyr's death atoning for the sins of the nation, Eleazar is called ‘immaculate’ (v. 37) and ‘holy’ (vii. 4). We may note here that the immediate background of the New Testament use of τέλεıος is doubtless Jewish rather than mystery religions, and we therefore exclude from consideration this aspect of its possible meaning. This does not exclude the undeniable development whereby such uses of the term as are found in I Cor. ii. 6 and Phil. iii. 15 inevitably suggested ‘mystery’ connotations to Gentiles, which became involved very soon in theological and liturgical expressions of Christian soteriology.

² Cf. the extensive discussion by Flew, R. N., The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology (Oxford, 1934); see also Spicq, op. cit. ii, 214–25; Windisch, op. cit. pp. 52–6; Westcott, op. cit. pp. 167–9. Paul grapples with the problem in Rom. viii; cf. II Cor. v. 4–5; Col. iii. 14; I John i. 6–16; ii. 4–6; iii. 5–10.Google Scholar

³ The Qumran usage would tend to confirm suggestions that τíλεıς, δικαıος and όσıς are associated in meaning; cf. Heb. xii. 13; Matt. v. 48; xix. 21, and the Hebrew םימת, םת and םלשׁ (e.g. Gen. vi. 9; Deut. xviii. 13; Ecclus xliv. 17). See O. Michel, ‘Die Lehre von der christlichen Vollkommenheit nach der Anschauung des Hebräerbriefes’, Theologisches Studien and Kritiken, cvi (1934–5), 333–50.

¹ Cf. the use of άνάπανσıς in Wis. iv. 7; Clement of Alexandria, Instr. 1, vi. 29.

¹ Cf. v. 8 f.; vii. 28.

² Op. cit. II, 36.

³ E.g. vii. 26: άρχıερεúς…óσıος, άκακος, άμ⋯αντος.

⁴ A list of the will be found in Wickham, E. C., The Epistle to the Hebrews (Westminster Commentaries, London, 1910), Appendix I. Cf. also Spicq, op. cit. 1, ch. i. References are found to his birth, temptation, teachings, faith, encountered opposition, suffering, crucifixion, death, resurrection and/or exaltation, and possibly to the transfiguration and the Last Supper.Google Scholar

⁵ Here he is identified with mankind as a leader with his people or brothers, as a priest with his congregation, as a proto-martyr with fellow-martyrs.

⁶ ii. 10; xii. 2. In the New Testament otherwise only in Acts iii. 15 and v. 31. Cf. I Mace. x. 47, and, for common usage, Moulton and Milligan, op. cit. p. 81; Spicq, op. cit. pp. 39 ff.; James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (I.C.C., Edinburgh, 1924), pp. 31 f.

⁷ This appears to be hapax legomenon.

⁸ Cf. especially Rom. viii. 29 (πρωτóτοκος έν πολλοίς άδελфοίς), although perhaps Col. i. 15 (πρωτóτοκος πάσης κτ⋯σεως) is closer to the thought of Hebrews here. Cf. the rabbinic interpretation of Jer. xxxi. 9, making ‘Ephraim my first-born’ a reference to the messiah (Pesiqtha Rabbathi 34, 159r). In Philo προτóγονος νιóς is used of the Logos in De agricult. 12. But in Heb. xii. 23 the glorified saints constitute an έκκλησ⋯α πρωτοτóκων.

⁹ The only occurrence in the New Testament. But in Christian usage it became the title for John the Baptist.

¹⁰ Five of the six New Testament occurrences are in Hebrews. The other is in Luke v. 7. The term is frequent in the papyri and ostraca where joint participation in the functions of an office is involved, as, e.g. in that of tax collection. In Hebrews the noun is actually used of the believer's participation in Christ (i. 19; iii, 1, 14), but in ii. 14 the verb is used of the relationship of Jesus to the saints. Cf. participation in the holy spirit (vi. 4), and in the divine nature (II Pet. i. 4). A striking parallel is cited by Moulton and Milligan, op. cit. from a papyrus of the third century A.D.: πρóθεν μéν θνητή, νũν δέ θε⋯ν μέτοχος.

¹ So Moe, op. cit.; cf. Frederick Torm, ‘Om τελεıοũν i Hebraeerbrevet’, Svensk Exegetisk Arsbok, v (1940), 116–25; J. Kögel, ‘Der Begriff τελεıũν in Hebräerbrief…’, Theologische Studien Martin Kähler (Leipzig, 1905), pp. 35–68.

² Cf. Grant, F. C., An Introduction to New Testament Thought (Nashville and New York, 1950), p. 36. sGoogle Scholar

³ Cf. Kögcl, , op. cit.Google Scholar

¹ Cf. Exod. xii. 5, where the offering lamb is םימת (LXX, τέλεıον).

² Cf. Deut. xviii, 13 (LXX): τέλεıος έση έναντιον κοριαν τοũ θεοũ σον. But even to God the term ‘perfection’ may strictly be applied as structure rather than process.