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Faithful in all His house as a servant...

Text: Hebrews 3:5

A SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION

A special grammatical construction must be noted in the following text.

“And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which would be spoken
afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house…”
Hebrews 3:5-6a

1. The grammatical construction to be noted (men…de)

a) This construction was to show a contrast.

b) This contrast would be between Moses and Christ.

c) At a deeper level the contrast would be between Moses as a servant, and Christ as Son.

2. The phrase “as a servant”

a) In some Greek texts this phrase is missing.

b) In other Greek texts this phrase is included.

3. The meaning is not adversely affected in any way. The meaning of the text is not affected for the following reasons:-

a) The grammatical use of “men…de” argues for a logical comparison.

b) The phrase in Greek may be translated as “On the one hand… On the other hand”.

c) The contrast may be seen quite clearly in this way:-

i) On the one hand we have Moses… on the other hand we have Christ.Both the names of Moses and Christ were specifically mentioned

ii) On the one hand Moses was but a servant (in his faithfulness)…on the other hand, we have Christ as Son.

iii) Obviously, Moses cannot be compared with Christ as “a son’!

iv) Hence the idea of servanthood (Moses) must be the point of contrast with reference to sonship (Christ).