“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (martures), let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance (hypomenē) the race that is set before us — the faith chapter culminates in exhortation: we who live in the age of fulfillment are surrounded (perikeimai) by those faithful dead who watch (witness, martures). Lay aside (apotithemi) encumbrances and the sin that entangles (perisperko), we run the race set before us. The imagery is athletic: weight hinders, sin ensnares, perseverance wins.
Church Fathers on Hebrews 12:1
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore” (he says) “we also being compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” In many places the Scripture derives its consolation in evils from corresponding things. As when the prophet says, “From burning heat, and from storm, and rain.” Isaiah 4:6 This at least he says here also, that the memory of those holy men, reestablishes and recovers the soul which had been weighed down by woes, as a cloud does him who is burnt by the too hot rays [of the…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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