Christians bear Jesus" reproach when we identify with Him. He suffered reproach, and so do we, when we identify with Him. This was especially true of the original Jewish recipients of this epistle. They needed to cut their emotional and religious ties to Judaism. [1] Jerusalem was no longer their special city (cf. Hebrews 13:14). There is nothing wrong with Jewish Christians maintaining Jewish customs provided they do not rely on them for favor with God. [source][source][source]
"The exhortation to leave the camp [2] and to identify fully with Jesus introduces a distinctive understanding of discipleship. Jesus" action in going "outside the camp" ( Hebrews 13:12) set a precedent for others to follow. The task of the community is to emulate Jesus, leaving behind the security, congeniality, and respectability of the sacred enclosure [3], risking the reproach that fell upon him. Christian identity is a matter of "going out" now to him. It entails the costly commitment to follow him resolutely, despite suffering. [source][source][source]
"In the context of the allusion to Golgotha in Hebrews 13:12, this summons to discipleship implies following Jesus on the way to the cross ..." [4][source]
Context Summary
Hebrews 13:1-13 - Sanctify Daily Life
We may not like all the brethren, but there is something in each of them that Christ loves. Let us try to discover it, or love them for His sake. We can love people with our mind and think for them, or with our strength and serve them, even though the heart is somewhat reluctant.
Strangers and captives must never be forgotten, either in our prayers or our ministry. The love within the marriage tie must be unsullied, and we must watch against the insidious lust of gold. Why should we always be thinking of money, when God has promised, with two negatives, never to fail us, Hebrews 13:5? Thrice we are asked to remember those who bear office and rule in the church, Hebrews 13:7; Hebrews 13:17; Hebrews 13:24.
We are called to a holy crusade. It is not for us to linger in circumstances of ease and self-indulgence when our Master suffered without the gate! Let us go forth unto Him, bearing His reproach! Has not the Church tarried in the city long enough, enervated by its fashions and flatteries? [source]
Chapter Summary: Hebrews 13
1Various admonitions as to love; 4to honest life; 5to avoid covetousness; 7to regard God's preachers; 9to take heed of strange doctrines; 10to confess Christ; 16to give alms; 17to obey governors; 18to pray for the apostles 20The conclusion
Greek Commentary for Hebrews 13:13
Let us therefore go forth to him [τοινυν εχερχωμετα προς αυτον] Inferential particle (τοι νυν toi class="normal greek">εχερχομαι nun), usually post-positive (Luke 20:25; 1 Corinthians 9:26) only N.T. examples. Present middle volitive subjunctive of τον ονειδισμον αυτου περοντες exerchomai “Let us keep on going out there to him.” If a separation has to come between Judaism and Christianity, let us give up Judaism, and go out to Christ “outside the camp” and take our stand with him there on Golgotha, “bearing his reproach” (ton oneidismon autou pherontes) as Jesus himself endured the Cross despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2) and as Moses accepted “the reproach of the Messiah” (Hebrews 11:26) in his day. The only decent place for the follower of Christ is beside the Cross of Christ with the reproach and the power (Romans 8:1.) in it. This is the great passionate plea of the whole Epistle. [source]
Bearing his reproach [τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν αὐτοῦ φέροντες] The reproach of exclusion from the Jewish commonwealth. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Hebrews 13:13
Acts 21:34Castle [παρευβολήν] Better, barracks. The main tower had a smaller tower at each corner, the one at the southeastern corner being the largest and overlooking the temple. In this tower were the quarters of the soldiers. The word is derived from the verb παρεμβάλλω , to put in beside, used in military language of distributing auxiliaries among regular troops and, generally, of drawing up in battle-order. Hence the noun means, a body drawn up in battle-array, and passes thence into the meaning of an encampment, soldiers' quarters, barracks. In Hebrews 11:34, it occurs in the earlier sense of an army; and in Hebrews 13:11,Hebrews 13:13; Revelation 20:9, in the sense of an encampment. In grammatical phraseology it signifies a parenthesis, according to its original sense of insertion or interpolation. [source]
Acts 21:34When he could not know [μη δυναμενου αυτου γνωναι] Genitive absolute of present middle participle of δυναμαι dunamai with negative μη mē and second aorist active infinitive of γινωσκω ginōskō The certainty (το ασπαλες to asphales). Neuter articular adjective from α a privative and σπαλλω sphallō to make totter or fall. Old word, in the N.T. only in Acts 21:34; Acts 22:30; Acts 25:26; Philemon 3:1; Hebrews 6:19. Into the castle Koiné{[28928]}š word from παρεμβαλλω paremballō to cast in by the side of, to assign soldiers a place, to encamp (see note on Luke 19:43). So παρεμβολη parembolē comes to mean an interpolation, then an army drawn up (Hebrews 11:34), but mainly an encampment (Hebrews 13:11,Hebrews 13:13), frequent in Polybius and lxx. So here barracks of the Roman soldiers in the tower of Antonia as in Acts 21:37; Acts 21:22: Acts 21:24; Acts 23:10,Acts 23:16,Acts 23:32. [source]
Hebrews 11:26Esteeming the reproach of Christ [ἡγησάμενος τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ] The participle gives the reason for his choice of affliction instead of sin: since he esteemed. “The reproach of Christ” is the reproach peculiar to Christ; such as he endured. The writer uses it as a current form of expression, coloring the story of Moses with a Christian tinge. Comp. Romans 15:3; Hebrews 13:13; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; Philemon 3:14; 1 Peter 4:14. The phrase is applied to Moses as enduring at the hands of the Egyptians and of the rebellious Israelites the reproach which any faithful servant of God will endure, and which was endured in a notable way by Christ. [source]
Hebrews 11:26The reproach of Christ [τον ονειδισμον του Χριστου] See Psalm 89:51 for the language where “the Messiah” (“The Anointed One”) is what is meant by του Χριστου tou Christou here rightly applied by the writer to Jesus as the Messiah who had his own shame to bear (Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 13:12). There is today as then (Hebrews 13:13) a special reproach Moses was laying up treasure in heaven. For he looked unto the recompense of reward In perfect active of αποβλεπω apoblepō “for he was looking away (kept on looking away).” For μισταποδοσια misthapodosia see Hebrews 10:35. [source]
What do the individual words in Hebrews 13:13 mean?
Thereforewe should go forthtoHimoutsidethecampthereproachof Himbearing
Greek Commentary for Hebrews 13:13
Inferential particle (τοι νυν toi class="normal greek">εχερχομαι nun), usually post-positive (Luke 20:25; 1 Corinthians 9:26) only N.T. examples. Present middle volitive subjunctive of τον ονειδισμον αυτου περοντες exerchomai “Let us keep on going out there to him.” If a separation has to come between Judaism and Christianity, let us give up Judaism, and go out to Christ “outside the camp” and take our stand with him there on Golgotha, “bearing his reproach” (ton oneidismon autou pherontes) as Jesus himself endured the Cross despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2) and as Moses accepted “the reproach of the Messiah” (Hebrews 11:26) in his day. The only decent place for the follower of Christ is beside the Cross of Christ with the reproach and the power (Romans 8:1.) in it. This is the great passionate plea of the whole Epistle. [source]
The reproach of exclusion from the Jewish commonwealth. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Hebrews 13:13
Better, barracks. The main tower had a smaller tower at each corner, the one at the southeastern corner being the largest and overlooking the temple. In this tower were the quarters of the soldiers. The word is derived from the verb παρεμβάλλω , to put in beside, used in military language of distributing auxiliaries among regular troops and, generally, of drawing up in battle-order. Hence the noun means, a body drawn up in battle-array, and passes thence into the meaning of an encampment, soldiers' quarters, barracks. In Hebrews 11:34, it occurs in the earlier sense of an army; and in Hebrews 13:11, Hebrews 13:13; Revelation 20:9, in the sense of an encampment. In grammatical phraseology it signifies a parenthesis, according to its original sense of insertion or interpolation. [source]
Genitive absolute of present middle participle of δυναμαι dunamai with negative μη mē and second aorist active infinitive of γινωσκω ginōskō The certainty (το ασπαλες to asphales). Neuter articular adjective from α a privative and σπαλλω sphallō to make totter or fall. Old word, in the N.T. only in Acts 21:34; Acts 22:30; Acts 25:26; Philemon 3:1; Hebrews 6:19. Into the castle Koiné{[28928]}š word from παρεμβαλλω paremballō to cast in by the side of, to assign soldiers a place, to encamp (see note on Luke 19:43). So παρεμβολη parembolē comes to mean an interpolation, then an army drawn up (Hebrews 11:34), but mainly an encampment (Hebrews 13:11, Hebrews 13:13), frequent in Polybius and lxx. So here barracks of the Roman soldiers in the tower of Antonia as in Acts 21:37; Acts 21:22: Acts 21:24; Acts 23:10, Acts 23:16, Acts 23:32. [source]
Koiné{[28928]}š word from παρεμβαλλω paremballō to cast in by the side of, to assign soldiers a place, to encamp (see note on Luke 19:43). So παρεμβολη parembolē comes to mean an interpolation, then an army drawn up (Hebrews 11:34), but mainly an encampment (Hebrews 13:11, Hebrews 13:13), frequent in Polybius and lxx. So here barracks of the Roman soldiers in the tower of Antonia as in Acts 21:37; Acts 21:22: Acts 21:24; Acts 23:10, Acts 23:16, Acts 23:32. [source]
The participle gives the reason for his choice of affliction instead of sin: since he esteemed. “The reproach of Christ” is the reproach peculiar to Christ; such as he endured. The writer uses it as a current form of expression, coloring the story of Moses with a Christian tinge. Comp. Romans 15:3; Hebrews 13:13; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; Philemon 3:14; 1 Peter 4:14. The phrase is applied to Moses as enduring at the hands of the Egyptians and of the rebellious Israelites the reproach which any faithful servant of God will endure, and which was endured in a notable way by Christ. [source]
See Psalm 89:51 for the language where “the Messiah” (“The Anointed One”) is what is meant by του Χριστου tou Christou here rightly applied by the writer to Jesus as the Messiah who had his own shame to bear (Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 13:12). There is today as then (Hebrews 13:13) a special reproach Moses was laying up treasure in heaven. For he looked unto the recompense of reward In perfect active of αποβλεπω apoblepō “for he was looking away (kept on looking away).” For μισταποδοσια misthapodosia see Hebrews 10:35. [source]