Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews #226616

Delitzsch's Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, one of the largest and most valuable of his exegetical works, was published eleven years ago (in 1857). Though it has now been long out of print, the author has been hitherto prevented by other engagements from putting forth a second edition, in which he purposed to have excluded or abridged many references to the writings and the controversy alluded to in his preface, - references by which, with their consequent digressions, the course of the exposition is often seriously encumbered. Under these circumstances, it was at first the translator's intention to have prepared an abridged version of the original work, excluding much of the controversial matter, with the approbation and under the superintendence of Dr. Delitzsch himself. This design has also of necessity been abandoned; but some traces of it remain in the following translation, in which many sentences, and a few paragraphs, have been transferred from the text to the notes, without detriment, it is hoped, to the original work, and certainly to the convenience of the English reader.<br><br>The translator's thanks and acknowledgments are specially due to Mr. Sinclair Manson, who, before the abandonment of the original design of a recasting of the whole work, furnished him with a rough literal version of a large part of the Commentary as it stands. Of this considerable use has been made in parts of the present volume.<br><br>The translator has added a few notes and elucidatory sentences, where such seemed necessary, included in brackets or signed "TR." There are also, in the early part of the volume, a few bracketed paragraphs, proceeding from Delitzsch's own pen, which, according to the plan subsequently pursued, should have been thrown into the Notes. All references to the Codex Sinaiticus are of course made by the translator, as that important MS. had not been discovered till after the publication of the original work.