The perfection of believers is mentioned again in 11:40. In chapter 11, the author commends the persevering faith of the OT saints who believed that God is a rewarder to those who seek him (11:6). However, though they were commended through faith, “they did not obtain the promise” (11:39). This failure to obtain the promise was not because of a lack on their part, nor an injustice on God’s part. Rather, in God’s gracious providence, he “had provided something better for us, that they would not be perfected (τελειωθῶσιν) apart from us” (11:40).
One exegetical question arising from the passage is how to understand the ἵνα clause in verse 40. It could express purpose: God provided something better, so that the OT witnesses would not attain perfection apart from us. Or, as Peterson argues,240 the ἵνα could be epexegetic: God provided something better—that is, that the OT witnesses would not be perfected apart from us. While the latter is possible, it seems to require241 that the comparative κρείττων (“better”) be taken in a way contrary to its primary use in the letter—“as a stylistic device to highlight the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old.”242 It seems best, therefore, to read the ἵνα clause as expressing purpose.
DeSilva contends that this passage (and 12:23, to be considered below) suggests that the perfecting of believers “is not merely a cultic fait accompli in
Hebrews.”243 He observes that “being perfected” (v. 40) is set parallel to “receiving the
240Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection, 156-57, 273 n. 199. Peterson is followed by Lane, Hebrews 9-13, 392-93; O’Brien, Hebrews, 446; and preceded by Riggenbach, die Hebräer, 382.
241As Peterson suggests (Hebrews and Perfection, 273 n. 200).
242Köstenberger, “Comparatives in the Book of Hebrews,” 38 (emphasis in original). The author uses κρείττων to speak of Christ as “better” than the angels because of his atoning sacrifice and session at God’s right hand (1:3-4). He encourages the readers that he is convinced of “better things”
concerning them—things having to do with salvation. He claims Christ’s blood speaks “better” than Abel (12:24). He speaks of a “better hope” (7:19), a “better covenant” (7:22; 8:6), “better promises” (8:6),
“better sacrifices” (9:23), a “better possession” (10:34), a “better country” (11:16), and a “better
resurrection” (11:35)—all of which are a reality because of Christ and his new covenant mediatorial role.
The only occurrence of κρείττων that seems to be used in a more general sense is 7:7, which affirms the maxim, “the lesser is blessed by the greater (κρείττονος).”
243DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude, 202.
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promises” (v. 39)—that is, “arriving at the promised goal for the people of God.”
Abraham and the patriarchs looked for God’s city. Perfection, then, means arriving at and entering the goal God has prepared, the New Jerusalem.244 Thus, on the one hand, deSilva understands perfection as a cleansing and consecration of the believer through Christ’s sacrifice—the “completion of a salvation-historical process” of bringing humanity back to its proper state with God.245 On the other hand, perfection is also something that the readers await: “their actual entrance into the unshakable kingdom.”246 It is in this latter sense that the believer’s perfection is anticipated by Christ’s perfection, which signifies
“his arrival at his heavenly destiny.”247
This understanding of the believer’s perfection in 11:40 is unlikely, however, for three reasons. First, part of the force of deSilva’s argument is to show that the
perfection of believers in 11:40 is parallel to Christ’s perfection. Yet, I have argued above against the heavenly exaltation view of Christ’s perfection—and against deSilva’s
exegesis in particular. A vocational understanding of Christ’s perfection is exegetically preferable.
Second, deSilva’s interpretation would mean the author is using τελειόω in 11:40 in a manner inconsistent with his prior usage, particularly as the concept is developed in chapters 9-10. DeSilva recognizes this and, thus, speaks of two senses in which believers are perfected—one accomplished (cleansing and consecration) and the other yet to come (arrival at the heavenly kingdom). Moreover, he insists that each specific occurrence of the τελ- word group is given coherence by the general sense of “to perfect,” derived from the formal meaning of bringing something to its proper, final state
244 Ibid., 202-03.
245Ibid., 202.
246Ibid., 424.
247Ibid., 199, 203.
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or its appointed goal.248 However, even if these two different senses of believers’
perfection are united by the “general sense” of the word, they are still quite different.
Given the prior articulation of the perfection of believers in connection with Christ’s new covenant sacrifice (as well as the unlikelihood that Christ’s perfection refers to his
heavenly exaltation), to argue for a different sense of perfection in 11:40 would seem to require a greater weight of evidence than an alleged parallel expression.249
Third, even if receiving the promise in verse 39 is taken as parallel to being perfected in verse 40, one need not conclude that perfection in 11:40 solely means entry into the heavenly city. As Peterson maintains, “the promise of 11:39 refers to the
eschatological salvation as a whole.”250 In other words, the consummation and
fulfillment of God’s promises must not be divorced from what has already been achieved by Christ’s high priestly work. Perfection in Hebrews is clearly eschatological. But given
“its close association with the fulfillment of Jer. 31:31-4,” Peterson is right to see perfection terminology used by the author “to stress the realised aspect of man’s salvation.”251 This perfecting work of Christ secures a present relationship with God in fulfillment of the new covenant promises, and the Christian’s experience of God “is the earnest of his ultimate transfer to the actual presence of God, in the heavenly city.”252 Therefore, one need not dichotomize two different senses in which believers are perfected. According to Hebrews 9:15, Christ’s death as mediator of a new covenant
248Ibid., 203.
249Scholer, who articulates a view of Christ’s perfection similar to deSilva’s, argues for a single, consistent view of believer’s perfection—that is, that it refers to “the present access to God’s heavenly sanctuary which they already enjoy” (Proleptic Priests, 200). Though Scholer interprets
perfection language elsewhere by considering parallel expressions, he apparently did not feel compelled to use this method in 11:40—a fact that deSilva finds surprising (Perseverance in Gratitude, 203 n. 59).
250Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection, 157 (emphasis in original).
251 Ibid., 273 n. 202.
252Ibid., 157 (emphasis in original).
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clearly relates to the fulfillment of the promise by making it possible for those who are called to receive “the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Thus, the perfection that Christ has accomplished by his sacrifice (10:14) can be understood to include glorification, as part of the salvation already achieved for believers. The OT saints did not receive the promised eternal inheritance (11:39) because it was not obtainable until the sacrifice of Christ.253
In light of this great “cloud of witnesses” of chapter 11 who have born testimony by their faithful endurance and trust in God, the author exhorts his readers to cast off encumbering sin and “run the race” set before them (12:1). In doing so, they are to fix their eyes on Jesus, “the founder254 and perfecter” (ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν) of faith (12:2). Though several translations (e.g., RSV, NKJV, ESV) render it “our faith,” no Greek pronoun is present, and the interpretation is unlikely. The author is not speaking of the faith of individual believers, much less “faith” as a creed. Rather, it is faith as
demonstrated by the “cloud of witnesses” of chapter 11—faith “in its absolute type, of which he has traced the action under the Old Covenant.”255 Jesus is both the founder and
“perfecter” (τελειωτὴν) of faith. The use of the noun τελειωτής is unattested elsewhere in the Greek Bible. According to N. Clayton Croy, the only contemporary occurrence is found in the late-first-century B.C. writing of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Dionysius writes that the Attic orator Dinarchus “was neither the ‘inventor’ (εὑρετής) of a style of rhetoric, nor the ‘perfecter’ (τελειωτής) of styles invented by others.”256 The construction
253Ibid., 158.
254On translating ἀρχηγόν, see the discussion above regarding the term’s occurrence in 2:10 under the vocational view of Christ’s perfection.
255Westcott, Hebrews, 397.
256See N. Clayton Croy, Endurance in Suffering: Hebrews 12:1-13 in Its Rhetorical, Religious, and Philosophical Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 175-76. The occurrence was apparently overlooked until Croy published his “A Note on Hebrews 12:2,” Journal of Biblical Literature 114 (1995): 117-19.
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is parallel to that in Hebrews. Hebrews, of course, uses ἀρχηγός,but it is similar to εὑρετής. In Hebrews, though, both terms apply to Jesus. He is both the founder and perfecter of faith.
As the “founder/pioneer/originator,” it is not that he was the first to exercise faith. Rather, “he is the first person to have obtained faith’s ultimate goal, the inheritance of the divine promise, which the ancients only saw from afar.”257 “For the joy set before him,” Jesus endured the cross and despised its shame, with the result that he “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2). Through this process of suffering, Jesus was himself perfected (2:10; 5:8-9). Through his singular sacrificial death and glorification at God’s right hand, he has also perfected believers (10:10-14) and
inaugurated a new and living way to God (10:19-20). Therefore, he is also the “perfecter”
of faith. Though he is a model of faith, he is no mere model. His perfect act of obedience implemented the new covenant and made possible a “true heart-obedience” in God’s people.258 He has given faith “a perfect basis by His high-priestly work.” “Through this,”
Delling writes, “πίστις, which is firm confidence in the fulfillment of God’s promise (11:13, 33), has become full assurance.”259 His faith and what it achieved is, for the readers of Hebrews, a greater incentive for faith than the faith demonstrated by the cloud of witnesses.260