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Critical Notes 117

A NOTE ON HEBREWS 12:2

In Heb 12:1-3 the anonymous author concludes an impressive list of Israel's exemplars of faith with an exhortation to the readers to run their own race of faith withendurance, surrounded by the great "cloud of witnesses" enumerated in chap. 11. Whileengaged in this contest, however, they are to look to Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of faith." The latter phrase is a translation of . Thefirst term of this dual description is variously understood as "ruler," "prince," "beginner," "originator," or "founder." It is well-attested in Biblical Greek, occurring twice inHebrews (also 2:10), twice in Acts (3:15; 5:31), and over thirty times in the variousmanuscripts of the Septuagint. Classical references are likewise numerous. The samecannot be said for . The standard lexicons and theological dictionaries eitherassert that Heb 12:2 is the first occurrence of the word or imply as much by the absenceof other references. 1 The commentaries concur, including the recent quartet of criticaltreatments by Harold W. Attridge, Paul Ellingworth, William L. Lane, and Hans-Friedrich Weiss. 2 Sample comments: "unknown from other literature of the period" and"not attested in Greek literature prior to Hebrews." 3 Even Wettstein's NovumTestamen-tum, with its massive collection of philological parallels, passes over the expression. Ithas been suggested that the author coined the word. 4

But a parallel has been overlooked. The rhetor and historian Dionysius of Halicar-nassus, writing in Rome in the late first century BCE, uses the word. Several of Diony-sius's essays deal with rhetorical theory and the styles of individual orators such asLysias, Isocrates, and Demosthenes. In a separate essay he treats the life and style of Dinarchus, the last of the so-called Attic orators. 5 In the opening lines of this essay he

justifies his treatment of a lesser orator. The text and Usher's translation follow:

1BAGD lists no other references, calling the word a hapax legpmenon (p. 810). G. Dellingsays: "Thus far the only instances are Christian] (from Hb.l2:2 on)" (", etc.," TDNT 8. 86).LSJ cites no other text (p. 1770). H. Balz and G. Schneider claim that is "attested only inChristian writings" (Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993]3. 346).

2 Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989); Paul Elling worth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993); William L. Lane, Hebrews IS, 9-13 (Waco: Word, 1991); Hans-Friedrich Wei, Der Brief an die Hebrer (Gttingen: Van-denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991).

3 Lane, Hebrews, 411, and Attridge, Hebrews, 356 n. 53, respectively.4 Ellingworth, Hebrews, 640; James MofFatt, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh: Clark,

1979) 196; J. H. Moulton and W. F. Howard, Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh:Clark, 1920) 2.365.5 Dionysius's essay "On Dinarchus" appears in the second Loeb volume of The Critical

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118 Journal of Biblical Literature

, , ,

,...I said nothing about the orator Dinarchus in my writings on the ancient

orators because he was neither the inventor of an individual style, as wereLysias, Isocrates and Isaeus, nor the perfecter of styles which others hadinvented, as I judge Demosthenes, Aeschines and Hyperides to have been.

Dionysius contrasts two different groups of orators: those who invented or devisedan original style of speaking and those who perfected or refined the styles invented by others. The contrasting Greek words are and . The significance of thelatter term in Dionysius is clear. is one who perfects, refines, or brings to

full flower that which is (in this case) the original work of others. The work of both "pioneers and perfecters" is commended by Dionysius, briefly and indirectly in the excerptabove, at greater length in the writings to which he refers. His discussion of Dinarchusrequires comment precisely because the latter is neither pioneer nor perfecter, but ableimitator.

How does this single, non-Christian parallel contribute to the understanding of Heb 12:2? Most obviously, it indicates that the author of Hebrews did not coin the term,or at least was not the first to use it. It also attests to a very "ordinary" meaning for -, one without mystic or cultic significance. There is, then, no need in Heb 12:2 toresort to the translation "consecrator" or "mystagogue," a rendering suggested by M.Dibelius. 6 Words constructed on the - root may have served as technical terms for the mystery cults, but they simultaneously enjoyed quite ordinary usage. 7

More importantly, the antithesis by which this parallel clarifies the meaning of is quite similar to that of Heb 12:2. Although is not identical to , the word with which the author of Hebrews pairs , it is a near synonym.Diodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Dionysius uses the words in a pleonastic doublet

when he remarks that people offer their first sacrifices to Zeus and Hera because thesegods are the originators () and inventors () of all things (5.73.2). ThusHebrews' antithesis of / differs only slightly from Dionysius's antithesis of /. Another author who presents a more complex but still pertinent parallel is Polybius. He notes that the Achaean League of 280 BCE had Aratus as itsfounder () and guide (), Philopoemen as its champion ()and perfecter () and Lycortas as its securer () (2.40.2). The firsttwo phases of this tripartite division approximate the antitheses in Heb 12:2 and Dionysius.

These two parallelsDionysius On Dinarchus 1 and Polybius 2.40.2illustratethe fairly commonplace experience that in human affairs (e.g., rhetoric and politics) one

6 M. Dibelius, "Der himmlische Kultus nach dem Hebrerbrief," in Botschaft und Geschichte

(Tbingen: Mohr, 1956) 2. 171.7 The discovery of this lexical parallel demonstrates the wisdom of W. Bauer's observation(BAGD, xix): "The fact that the advances in our knowledge have freed one after another of these

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Critical Notes 119

person or group often originates a style, institution, and so on, and then others refineand perfect it The distinction of Heb 12-2 then seems to be that both terms, in an overarching expression, are applied to a single person, Jesus 8 He, according to the author, isboth the originator and consummator of faith H e is the "prototype," bu t not one to be

transcended by subsequent improvements, for he is also faith's paragon

l l l l C l a i r m o n t R dN . Clayton Croy

Decatur, GA 30030

8Cf Aelius Ansdes's description of Zeus as "founder and fulfiller of all things" ( . . ) at the very end of the oration On Zeus

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