Hebrews 1:1
God, who aat sundry times and in *divers *manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ Θεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις,
Textual key: no entry
a:
1 Peter 1:10-1:12 10. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
*:
divers-various.
*:
manners-ways.
the apostle designing the conviction of these Hebrews by this discourse, enters on it solemnly, that if a God can awe them, the consideration of Him should gain credit to his doctrine. The God he speaks of is to be apprehended here personally, as well as essentially; God the Father, the one admirable sovereign, immutable Being, the Author of first and second revelation: order is kept here in the subsistence of the relations, as in their works.
πολυμερως, by many parts, turns and changes of time, seasons and opportunities, and by many parcels of revelation. God’s will was discovered by piecemeal, and not all at once. He vouchsafed one promise to Adam, and so gradually opened further to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, pointing out a Christ to come, to come of Abraham’s seed in David’s family: he discovered here a little, and there a little, Isa 28:13.
πολυτροπως, suitable to the manifold wisdom of God, in divers forms and manners, was his revelation to them; sometimes by sensible representations to them waking, as by angels, fire in the bush, the pillar of fire and cloud: terribly, as at Mount Sinai, Heb 12:18-21. Sometimes by dreams and visions, Num 12:6; by Urim and Thummim, by voice from the ark, by types and signs from heaven, by riddles, and dark speeches, and Levitical ceremonies; sometimes by immediate illapses on the soul, powerfully influencing it with a Divine light.
revealed and declared infallibly his mind and will concerning the way of man’s salvation, which his wisdom contrived and his will decreed.
all that time past between Adam and Christ, about 4000 years before.
the holy ancestors of these Hebrews, from Adam, down along the Old Testament church of God: the believers of old, such as are registered, Heb 11:1-40, and all like them to the times of Christ, from Gen 3:15, to that time.
all those holy men to whom and by whom God revealed his will to his church throughout the successive ages of the Old Testament day; such as were but God’s servants, Heb 2:4, and had his will and mind by measure; who as they preached God’s will were God’s mouth, as they wrote it were God’s scribes; as Abel, Enoch, &c. before the flood; Noah before and after; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David. &c.; to these did God infallibly declare it, and they did infallibly deliver it to the church by word and writing; God was by gracious inhabitation in them, in their hearts, tongues, and hands, 2Pe 1:21