For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
For. Such diligent striving (Hebrews 4:11) is incumbent, FOR we have to do with a God whose "Word," whereby we shall be judged, is heart-searching, and whose eyes are all-seeing (Hebrews 4:13). The qualities attributed to the word of God show that it is regarded in its JUDICIAL power, whereby it doomed the disobedient Israelites to exclusion from Canaan, and shall exclude unbelieving Christians from the heavenly rest. The written Word is not the prominent thought, though the passage is often so quoted. Still the Word of God (the same as that preached, Hebrews 4:2), in the broadest sense, is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), with double edge-one edge convicting and converting believers (Hebrews 4:2), the other for condemning and destroying unbelievers (Hebrews 4:14). Revelation 19:15 similarly represents the Word's judicial power as a sharp sword going out of Christ's mouth to smite the nations (cf. Revelation 2:12; Revelation 2:16). The same word which saves the faithful (Hebrews 4:2) destroys the disobedient (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). The personal Word is not here meant: He is not the sword, but has it. Compare Joshua 5:13; appropriately Joshua is referred to, Hebrews 4:8.
Quick, х zoon (G2198)] - 'living:' having living power, as 'the rod of the mouth and the breath of the lips,' with which 'the living God shall smite the earth.'
Powerful, х energees (G1756)] - not only living, but energetically efficacious.
Sharper, х tomooteros (G5114)] - 'more cutting.'
Two-edged - sharpened at both edge and back. 'It judges all that is in the heart, for there it passes through, at once punishing (unbelievers) and searching' (both believers and unbelievers) (Chrysostom). Philo similarly, 'God passed between the parts of Abraham's sacrifice (Genesis 15:17) as a "burning lamp," with His Word, the cutter of all things: which sword, sharpened to the utmost, never ceases to divide all sensible things, and even things not perceptible to sense or physically divisible, but perceptible and divisible by Word.' Paul's early training in the Greek schools of Tarsus and the Hebrew schools at Jerusalem accounts for his acquaintance with Philo's thoughts, which were current among learned Jews everywhere, though Philo belonged to Alexandria. Addressing Jews, he by the Spirit sanctions what was true in their current literature, as he similarly did in addressing Gentiles (Acts 17:28). [Traducianists rightly maintain that man's psychical nature ( psuchee (G5590), soul), moral and intellectual, is transmitted from father to son: original sin would not be, if the soul with its sinful bias were directly created by God. Creationists are right as to the pneuma (G4151), that it is not derived by descent, but created at birth (John 1:13; John 3:6; James 1:18; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:1; 1 John 5:18-19)].
Piercing, х diiknoumenos (G1338)] - 'coming through.'
Soul and spirit - i:e., reaching through even to the separation of the animal soul, the lower part of man's incorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14); 'the natural (animal-souled) man [Jude 1:19, "sensual," psuchikoi (G5591)]; from the spirit (the higher part, receptive of the Spirit of God, allying man to heavenly being).
And of the joints and marrow - rather х achri (G891): reaching even TO], 'both х te (G5037) kai (G2532)] the joints (so as to divide them) and marrow.' Christ "knows what is in man" (John 2:25): so His word reaches even to the intimate knowledge of man's hidden feelings and thoughts, dividing - i:e., distinguishing what is spiritual from what is animal in him, the spirit from the soul: so Proverbs 20:27: cf. its effect on Lydia, Acts 16:14; and the woman of Samaria, John 4:29. As the knife of the Levitical priest reached to dividing parts closely united, as the joints, and penetrated to the innermost parts, as the marrows х mueloon (G3452)], so the word of God divides man's closely-joined immaterial parts, soul and spirit, and penetrates to the innermost recesses of both. In 'Aleph (') A B C H f, Vulgate, there is no 'both' х te (G5037)] before "soul and spirit," as there is in the clause 'both the joints and,' etc.: which makes the latter clause explanatory of the former. "Joints" (metaphorical) answers to "the dividing asunder;" 'marrows,' to "soul and spirit" (especially the latter. It divides soul from spirit, and so reaches the "joints," and pierces so as to reach even the inmost recesses (the 'marrows') of soul and spirit alike. Soul, as well as spirit, is laid bare and "naked" before God (cf. Hebrews 4:13). 'Moses forms the soul, Christ the spirit. The soul draws with it the body; the spirit draws with it both soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23) (Bengel). The Word's dividing and far penetrating power has both a punitive and a healing effect.
Discerner, х kritikos (G2924)] - 'capable of judging.' The thoughts - `the sentiments.'
Intents, х ennoion (G1771), from en (G1722) and nous (G3563)] - 'mental cogitations.' [As enthumeeseis (G1761), from thumos (G2372) (animus), 'refers to the sentiments, feelings, and passions, so ennoiai (G1771) refers to the intellect.]