Hebrews 12:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Furthermore, we have had fathers, &c.— The awful, yet tender insinuation at the end of the verse, of the terrible consequences of rebellion against the Father of Spirits, (in which there is an allusion to the capital punishments to be inflicted on a disobedient child, (Deuteronomy 21:18.) is very remarkable; and an instance of the apostle's forcible manner of suggesting the most weighty thought, sometimes in an oblique way, and in very few words. Some would read this verse interrogatively: Have we then had fathers in the flesh, &c. and reverenced them? &c.