Hebrews Chapter 10 verse 34 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 34. - For ye had compassion on those who were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession, and an abiding one. For τοῖς δεσμίοις, the Receptus has τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου, which the A.V., so as to avoid the impropriety of expressing sympathy with the bonds themselves, renders "me in my bonds." Even apart from manuscript authority, δεσμίοις is evidently to be preferred, both as suiting the verb συνεπαθήσατε and as being more likely to have been altered to the common Pauline expression, δεσμοῖς μου, than vice versa, especially on the supposition of the writer being St. Paul himself. Thus no evidence as to the authorship of the Epistle is hence deducible. The allusion is to persecutions of Christians, under which the Hebrews addressed had been plundered, and had succored others who were prisoners for the faith, as is intimated also in Hebrews 6:10. More than one such persecution might be in the writer's view, including, perhaps, that after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1; Acts 11:19); that instituted by Herod Agrippa, under which James the elder suffered (Acts 12.); that which led to the martyrdom of James the Just (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 20:09. 1) and others.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(34) For ye had compassion of me in my bonds.--Rather (according to the true reading of the Greek), for ye had sympathy with them that were in bonds (comp. Hebrews 13:3, "Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them"). The change of reading is very important in connection] with the question of authorship. (See the Introduction.)And took joyfully.--Better, and accepted with joy the spoiling of your possessions. In the spirit of Matthew 5:12 (Acts 5:41; 2Corinthians 12:10), they accepted persecution not with "patience and long suffering" only, but "with joy" (Colossians 1:11). The rendering "possessions" is necessary because a similar word ("substance" in the Authorised version) will immediately occur. In the last clause two remarkable changes in the Greek text are made necessary by the testimony of our best authorities. The words "in heaven" must certainly be removed; they are omitted in the oldest MSS., and are evidently an explanatory comment which has found its way into the text. For the reading, "in yourselves," there is hardly any evidence whatever. The MSS. are divided between two readings, "yourselves" and "for yourselves;" the former having also the support of the Latin and Coptic versions. There is little doubt that we must read "yourselves;" and the most probable translation will now be, perceiving that ye have your own selves for a better possession and one that abideth. They had been taught the meaning of the words spoken by Jesus of the man who gains the world and loses himself (Luke 9:25), and of those who win their souls by their endurance (Luke 21:19); so in Hebrews 10:39 the writer speaks of "the gaining of the soul." Thus trained, they could accept with joy the loss of possessions for the sake of Christ, perceiving that in Him they had received themselves as a possession, a better and a lasting possession. (It would be possible to render the clause, "knowing that ye yourselves have a better possession," &c.; but the parallelism of Hebrews 10:39 renders it almost certain that the former view of the words is correct.) . . .