Hebrews 12:1. witnesses: i.e. men who bore witness to God by faith. The idea of spectators is not contained in the Greek word. easily beset us: lit. easily entangling, an image from trailing garments.
Hebrews 12:2. of our faith: should simply be of faith. author is better translated leader. The servants of God in all ages are regarded as a single host of which Jesus is the captain. He is also the perfecter of faith, since the promises will at last be fulfilled through Him. for the joy: the words might also bear the meaning instead of the joy that was offered Him He endured the cross. In this case the thought would be similar to that of Paul in Php_2:6-10: Jesus exchanged the joys of heaven for a life of earthly suffering, and so attained to a yet higher exaltation. But the meaning given above is more in accord with the ideas enforced in this section of the epistle (cf. Hebrews 11:26).