There is a translation issue bound up with this verse that has a bearing on how it should be interpreted. It concerns the Greek word anti which can be taken either as ‘for’ or ‘in place of’. In his commentary on Hebrews, Calvin prefers the latter option. And he explains why: ‘for he [the author] intimates, that though it was free to Christ to exempt himself from all trouble and to lead a happy life, abounding in all good things, he yet underwent a death that was bitter and in every way ignominious’.

It is one of those ‘stop-you-in-your-tracks’ type statements that crops up in the Bible from time to time. ‘Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (He 12.2). It is, of course, speaking of Christ and his sufferings on Calvary, but it is the strange inclusion of ‘joy’ in this statement that seems out of place.

There is a translation issue bound up with this verse that has a bearing on how it should be interpreted. It concerns the Greek word anti which can be taken either as ‘for’ or ‘in place of’.

In his commentary on Hebrews, Calvin prefers the latter option. And he explains why: ‘for he [the author] intimates, that though it was free to Christ to exempt himself from all trouble and to lead a happy life, abounding in all good things, he yet underwent a death that was bitter and in every way ignominious’. William Lane, among others, adopts the same interpretation in his commentary.

The sense of the verse then becomes, that Christ relinquished the earthly joys that could rightly have been his and instead accepts the anguish of the cross in order to secure salvation for his people.

The majority of translations and commentaries, however, opt for the translation ‘for’, with the sense that Jesus was looking beyond the cross to what it would achieve as the supreme incentive for enduring its pain and shame. (Calvin acknowledges the legitimacy of this interpretation, though adding, ‘I still prefer the former exposition’.)

Regardless of which translation we might deem preferable, the weight of joy in this statement is set against the weight of suffering with the implication that the former far outweighs the latter.

This thought has already surfaced in the New Testament where Paul tells the Romans, ‘For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us’ (Ro 8.18). Suffering weighs heavily on us all – even as Christians – but it is not the heaviest thing in the cosmos. The weight of glory exceeds it and that glory is bound up with joy.

Read More