Heb. 12:2, 3 Tuesday

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,

Today, I want us to look at two translations: Young’s literal translation and Alfred Marshall’s Interlinear translation of Hebrews 12:2.

“looking to the author and pefecter of faith – Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him – did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;” Young’s

“looking away to the of the faith author and finisher Jesus, who against the set before him joy endured a cross shame despising at [the]right [hand] and of the throne of God has taken [his] seat.” Marshall’s

I love looking at literal translations because I can more clearly see the meaning of the words in the Greek.

Here are the definitions of the words fix, author and perfecter from the Greek.

FIX -- apharoa -- To turn the eyes away from and fix them on something. BlueLetterBible.org. In the original Greek, it is not the word fix it is the word fixing, which makes it ongoing. Fix means “to turn the eyes away from something in order to fix them onto something else.” In order to fix our eyes on Jesus, we must turn them away from the world. We don’t just fix our eyes on Jesus for awhile and then go back to looking at the world; we are crucified with Jesus—dead to the world. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20

AUTHOR – archegos -- “beginning or rule; to lead. Originator, founder, leader, chief, first, prince as distinguished from simply being the cause. One may be the cause of something but not the beginning.” Arche like archegos denotes the founder as the first cause, ruler, dispenser; e.g., Jesus Christ is called the archegos of life (Acts 3:15) because He is the arche, the beginning or the originator of God’s creation (Rev. 3:14). This excludes him from himself being a product of that beginning. Jesus Christ is called archegos, the originator of faith in Heb. 12:2. (The Complete Word Study Dictionary) There is a sentence, here, that’s extremely important; Jesus is “the originator of faith.” The original Greek leaves out the word our in “the author and pefecter of our faith” which is in the NIV and other translations – some have “the faith.” What a difference leaving out one word makes and how adding it takes away from its meaning. Jesus is the originator of faith. Not, “Jesus is the author of our faith,” but “Jesus is the author of faith.” Doesn’t that deepen the meaning of this verse to you?

PERFECTER: teleiotes one who has in his own person raised faith to its perfection and so set before us the highest example of faith. The word occurs nowhere else. WOW! Before someone can be a perfect-er He must be per-fect. That is why Jesus is the pefecter of faith. Another word that is a root of the word teleiotes is the word teleioo meaning to complete (perfect) to add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full. Ladies, you and I are incomplete without Christ. We are not even a fraction; we are NOTHING, zero, nada, not anything. No, we are not a zero when we are IN HIM, but we are a zero without him. We want to think that grace covers that which we cannot do. But, my sisters, grace covers all of me. It’s not the part of the yardstick I can’t measure up to; it’s the entire yardstick. Do you get that? Do you really get that?

To know that Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith, is such an encouragement to me, because I realize that he whom I fixing my eyes upon, has gone down the path of faith before me, knowing where I’ve been, where I am, AND knowing where I’m going to go. Thanks be to God that leads me to Jesus in every way.