Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulated?

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dougknighton
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Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulated?

Post by dougknighton »

Hebrews 10:24 καὶ κατανοῶμεν ἀλλήλους εἰς παροξυσμὸν ἀγάπης καὶ καλῶν ἔργων,

I was discussing this text recently with a friend and we disagreed about how to construe it. We saw two possibilities:
1) The exhortation aims to move one person to think about how to stimulate someone else to change (the rendering of standard English translations): Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.
2) The exhortation aims to move the subject to think about other people in order to stimulate change in himself: Let us consider one another unto/until [we who are considering] are stimulated to love and good works.

The second construal seems quite plausible given:
a. ἀλλήλους is the direct object of the verb rather than the adverbial clause conveyed in the standard English renderings
b. the prepositional phrase "εἰς παροξυσμὸν ..." indicates a certain end state will result from the verbal action, either as a goal (unto/in order that) or as a result (until).

There are hermeneutical and pyschological arguments which strongly support construal #2, but I'm curious to know if there are language based reasons which prevent it or which drive the standard rendering.
cwconrad
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Re: Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulate?

Post by cwconrad »

dougknighton wrote:Hebrews 10:24 καὶ κατανοῶμεν ἀλλήλους εἰς παροξυσμὸν ἀγάπης καὶ καλῶν ἔργων,

I was discussing this text recently with a friend and we disagreed about how to construe it. We saw two possibilities:
1) The exhortation aims to move one person to think about how to stimulate someone else to change (the rendering of standard English translations): Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.
2) The exhortation aims to move the subject to think about other people in order to stimulate change in himself: Let us consider one another unto/until [we who are considering] are stimulated to love and good works.

The second construal seems quite plausible given:
a. ἀλλήλους is the direct object of the verb rather than the adverbial clause conveyed in the standard English renderings
b. the prepositional phrase "εἰς παροξυσμὸν ..." indicates a certain end state will result from the verbal action, either as a goal (unto/in order that) or as a result (until).

There are hermeneutical and pyschological arguments which strongly support construal #2, but I'm curious to know if there are language based reasons which prevent it or which drive the standard rendering.
I'm more inclined to think here that ἀλλήλους is a proleptic object of an implicit verb in παροξυσμὸν, so that the sense is: "Let us give thought to how we can stimulate each other to love and good works."
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulate?

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

The vast weight of the history of interpretation is on side A. For example, Jerome writes:
et consideremus invicem in provocationem caritatis, et bonorum operum...
Jerome uses the adverb "invicem," mutually," "Let us mutually take consideration for the encouragement of of love and good works."

Chrysostom also seems to take it this way (sorry, couldn't find a copyable version of the Greek text):
What is, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together? 1 Corinthians 7:29 He knew that much strength arises from being together and assembling together. For where two or three (it is said) are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them Matthew 18:20; and again, That they may be One, as we also are John 17:11; and, They had all one heart and [one] soul. Acts 4:32 And not this only, but also because love is increased by the gathering [of ourselves] together; and love being increased, of necessity the things of God must follow also. And earnest prayer (it is said) was made by the people. Acts 12:5 As the manner of some is. Here he not only exhorted, but also blamed [them].

And let us consider one another, he says, to provoke unto love and to good works. He knew that this also arises from gathering together. For as iron sharpens iron Proverbs 17:17, so also association increases love. For if a stone rubbed against a stone sends forth fire, how much more soul mingled with soul! But not unto emulation (he says) but unto the sharpening of love. What is unto the sharpening of love? Unto the loving and being loved more. And of good works; that so they might acquire zeal. For if doing has greater force for instruction than speaking, you also have in your number many teachers, who effect this by their deeds.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulate?

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

2) The exhortation aims to move the subject to think about other people in order to stimulate change in himself: Let us consider one another unto/until [we who are considering] are stimulated to love and good works.

The second construal seems quite plausible given:
a. ἀλλήλους is the direct object of the verb rather than the adverbial clause conveyed in the standard English renderings
b. the prepositional phrase "εἰς παροξυσμὸν ..." indicates a certain end state will result from the verbal action, either as a goal (unto/in order that) or as a result (until).

There are hermeneutical and pyschological arguments which strongly support construal #2, but I'm curious to know if there are language based reasons which prevent it or which drive the standard rendering.

The text itself is somewhat ambiguous. The eight English commentaries I consulted were depressingly uniform. I didn't find anyone promoting exactly what you have proposed. But Gottlieb Lunemann (Meyer's Exegetical Handbook) and Henry Alford seem to go something less than halfway by making ἀλλήλους explicitly the object of the verb.
Gottlieb Lunemann

καὶ κατανοῶμεν ἀλλήλους] and let us direct our view to each other (comp. Hebrews 3:1), so that we may endeavour to emulate the good and salutary which we discover in our neighbour, and, on the other hand, to put away the bad and hurtful in ourselves and him. For limiting the expression, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Michaelis, ad Pierc., Bleek, and others, to the first-named particular, no reason exists; since the positive εἰς παροξυσμὸν κ.τ.λ. is yet followed by the negative μὴ ἐγκαταλείποντες κ.τ.λ.
Henry Alford

24.] ... On the connexion, see above: we are still dependent on ἔχοντες οὖν above) let us consider one another (all of us have all in continual remembrance, bearing one another’s characters and wants and weaknesses in mind. This is far better than the merely one-sided explanation given by Chrys., Thl. (τουτέστιν, ἐπισκοπῶμεν εἴ τις ἐνάρετος, ἵνα τοῦτον μιμώμεθα· οὐχ ἵνα φθονῶμεν, ἀλλʼ ἵνα παροξυνώμεθα μᾶλλον εἰς τὸ τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνῳ καλὰ ἔργα ποιεῖν), Thdrt., Primas., Michaelis, Bleek (who endeavours to unite both views): κατανοεῖν has already been noticed, ch. 3:1) with a view to provocation (usually we have παροξυσμός in a bad sense, as our word provocation: so in reff. The verb is sometimes used in the classics in a good sense: e. g. Xen. Mem. iii. 3. 13, φιλοτιμίᾳ, ἥπερ μάλιστα παροξύνει πρὸς τὰ καλὰ καὶ ἔντιμα: Œcon. 13. 9, αἱ φιλότιμοι τῶν φύσεων καὶ τῷ ἐπαίνῳ παροξύνονται: Thuc. vi. 88, παρελθὼν δὲ ὁ Ἀλκιβιάδης παρώξυνέ τε τοὺς Λακεδ. κ. ἐξώρμησε, λέγων τοιάδε. And thus the subst. must be taken here: “provocatio amoris et bonorum operum, cui,” says Bengel, “contraria provocatio odii”) of (tending to produce: or we may say that it is a παροξυσμὸς ἀγάπης, the love itself being thereby excited) love and good work
C. Stirling Bartholomew
dougknighton
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Re: Hebrews 10:24 Who is being stimulated?

Post by dougknighton »

Thanks for your responses. ... My friend was arguing that this verse commands us to be “cattle prods” in the lives of others. But I find it difficult to be eager to get together (vs. 25a) with others if I know they all will be trying to think of ways to prod me to do better. Pretty intimidating. I suspect I’d be more encouraged (vs. 25b) if I knew the others in the group were thinking about me (and each other "mutually") how to be more loving themselves. Hence my interest in finding out if my construal of the text might hold water. Again, thanks for your assistance.
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