Hebrews 3:5

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) As a servant.—What was before implied is now clearly expressed. Hebrews 3:3 associated Moses with the house, Jesus with Him who builded it; of what nature this relation was, is stated in this verse and the next. Moses was “in God’s house;” however exalted his position, he was in the house as a servant. The Greek word used here does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, but is taken from the LXX. version of Numbers 12:7. There is nothing special in the Hebrew word in that place, but the translators seem to have felt that “bond-servant” was less suitable in such a context than “attendant” or “minister.” The object of his service was that he might bear “testimony of the things that should hereafter be spoken.” Are we to understand by these the divine commands that would from time to time be given to Moses? If so, then the statement “Moses was faithful” must be regarded as a pure quotation, equivalent to “Moses was at that time declared faithful.” This does not seem probable. If, however, the words of Numbers 12:7 are taken as descriptive of the whole life of Moses, his “witness” must relate to the things spoken “in these last days;” of these, by his writings, his acts, his life, Moses bore constant witness. (See Hebrews 3:2; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:19; Hebrews 11:26; John 5:46, et al.) The latter interpretation is confirmed by Hebrews 3:6, in which the name given to our Lord is not Jesus, as in Hebrews 3:1, but Christ.

Benson Commentary

Hebrews 3:5-6. And Moses verily — Another proof of the pre-eminence of Christ above Moses; was faithful in all his house as a servant — Θεραπων, minister, or officer. In describing the faithfulness of Moses, when, under God, he built the Jewish Church, God called him, (Numbers 12:7,) My servant Moses. From this the apostle justly inferred that Moses was not a legislator, but only a messenger from the legislator, or his minister. This was his place, this his dignity and honour; and it was amplified by the considerations, that he was faithful in his service — was a servant in the house of God — and was not thus employed, and thus faithful, in this or that part, this or that service of God’s house, but in his whole house, and all the concernments of it. Herein was he different from all others in the same service in the Old Testament; one was employed in one part of it, another in another; one to instruct, another to reform it, one to renew a neglected ordinance, another to give new instructions; no one but he was used in the service of the whole house. For a testimony of the things, &c. — That is, because the Jewish Church was designed for a testimony of the things which were afterward to be spoken by Christ and his apostles. This shows that Moses’s faithfulness consisted not only in forming the tabernacle and its services, according to the pattern showed him by God, but in recording all the preceding revelations, exactly as they were discovered to him by the Spirit. For these revelations, equally with the types and figures of the Levitical ritual, were intended to exhibit the things afterward to be spoken by Christ. Hence our Lord said to the Jews, (John 5:46,) Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me; namely, in the figures, but especially in the prophecies of his law, where the gospel dispensation, the coming of its author, and his character as Messiah, are all described with a precision which adds the greatest lustre of evidence to Jesus and his gospel. See Luke 24:44. But Christ as a Son — That is, was faithful as a Son; over his own house — “Every word proves the asserted pre-eminence of Christ; he is a Son, Moses a servant; he over the house, Moses in the house; he over his own house, Moses in the house of another. The argument of the apostle therefore is obvious.” — Owen. But Pierce objects to this version, over his own house, and thinks the reading ought to be his, that is, God’s house; “1st, Because if the church be Christ’s own house, to speak of him as a Song of Solomon was improper, by reason that he would have presided over it as its master. 2d, Because the apostle’s argument requires that Christ be faithful to the same person as a Son, to whom Moses was faithful as a servant.” Wherefore his house, he thinks, in this verse, is God’s house or church. Inasmuch, however, as Christ is the heir of all things, it may with the utmost propriety be said that the church is his own house, that is, the house in which he hath not only a trust and office, but also a property; which is appointed for him to inhabit and preside over, and which is still more especially his own, as it was purchased with his own blood, Acts 20:28. Whose house we — All true believers; are — Or shall make it appear that we are, namely, lively stones in the spiritual temple built upon him, 1 Peter 2:5; and inhabited by him, Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; and true members of his family, his servants, yea, even his brethren and sisters; if we hold fast the confidence — Την παρρησιαν, properly, the liberty of speech; that is, that bold profession of the Christian faith which in the first age was so dangerous, exposing those who made it frequently to imprisonment and martyrdom, but which was absolutely necessary to the continuance of the gospel in the world; and therefore it was expressly required by Christ, Matthew 10:32-33. See Hebrews 10:22-23. The apostle uses another word, namely, υποστασις, to express confidence, as Hebrews 3:14. And the rejoicing — Or, glorying, as καυχημα signifies; of hope — Hope of eternal life founded on God’s promises, namely, the hope which we professed at our baptism; firm — Without declining from or being shaken in it; keeping it up against all that fluctuating uncertainty of mind, which is apt to invade and possess unstable persons; unto the end — That is, as long as we live; not for the present season only, but in all future occurrences until we come to the end of our faith, the final salvation of our souls. Now, in order to this, great care and watchfulness, zeal, diligence, and resolution must be exercised, because of the opposition and violence that will be used to wrest them from us. Hence the exhortation contained in the following paragraph.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-6 Christ is to be considered as the Apostle of our profession, the Messenger sent by God to men, the great Revealer of that faith which we profess to hold, and of that hope which we profess to have. As Christ, the Messiah, anointed for the office both of Apostle and High Priest. As Jesus, our Saviour, our Healer, the great Physician of souls. Consider him thus. Consider what he is in himself, what he is to us, and what he will be to us hereafter and for ever. Close and serious thoughts of Christ bring us to know more of him. The Jews had a high opinion of the faithfulness of Moses, yet his faithfulness was but a type of Christ's. Christ was the Master of this house, of his church, his people, as well as their Maker. Moses was a faithful servant; Christ, as the eternal Son of God, is rightful Owner and Sovereign Ruler of the Church. There must not only be setting out well in the ways of Christ, but stedfastness and perseverance therein to the end. Every meditation on his person and his salvation, will suggest more wisdom, new motives to love, confidence, and obedience.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Moses was faithful ...as a servant - Not as the head of the dispensation; not as having originated it; but as in the employ and under the direction of its great Founder and Author - the Messiah. As such a servant he deserves all the honor for fidelity which has ever been claimed for him, but it cannot be the honor which is due to him who is at the head of the family or house. Paul "assumed" that Moses was a "servant," and argued on that supposition, without attempting to prove it, because it was so often affirmed in the Old Testament, and must have been conceded by all the Jews. In numerous instances he is spoken of as "the servant of the Lord;" see Joshua 1:1-2; Joshua 9:24; 1 Chronicles 6:49; 2 Chronicles 24:9; Nehemiah 10:29; Daniel 9:11; Exodus 14:31; 1 Kings 8:56; Psalm 105:26. As this point was undisputed, it was only necessary to show that the Messiah was superior to a "servant," in order to make the argument clear.

For a testimony - To bear witness to those truths which were to be revealed; that is, he was the instrument of the divine communications to the people, or the medium by which God made his will known. He did not originate the truths himself; but he was the mere medium by which God made known his truth to his people - a servant whom He employed to make his will known. The word after here is not necessary in order to a just translation of this passage, and obscures the sense. It does not mean that he was a witness of those truths which were to be spoken "subsequently" to his time under another dispensation, nor those truths which the apostle proposed to consider in another part of the Epistle, as Doddridge supposes; but it means merely that Moses stood forth as a public witness of the truths which God designed to reveal, or which were to be spoken. God did not speak to his people "directly," and face to face, but he spoke through Moses as an organ, or medium. The sense is, Moses was a mere servant of God to communicate his will to man.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. faithful in all his house—that is in all God's house (Heb 3:4).

servant—not here the Greek for "slave," but "a ministering attendant"; marking the high office of Moses towards God, though inferior to Christ, a kind of steward.

for a testimony of, &c.—in order that he might in his typical institutions give "testimony" to Israel "of the things" of the Gospel "which were to be spoken afterwards" by Christ (Heb 8:5; 9:8, 23; 10:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The gospel Minister doth not only excel Moses as much as a builder doth his work, but as a son doth a servant, proved in this and Hebrews 3:6.

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant; your great legal prophet, in whom many of you Hebrews trust, John 5:45, did truly and fully reveal and do what God charged him, in ministering his will to his church, Exodus 40:16-33; he did not diminish from, nor add the least to, God’s charge, yerapwn, Numbers 12:7. As a minister, Moses was as faithful as any God had; not a slave or a drudge, but a free, willing, ingenuous servant, most entirely and obsequiously addicting himself in that honourable place and office of great trust, to which God called him; a stewardly servant, a prophet and a prince, inspecting and ordering all according to God’s will; in all Christ’s house and family, his church, he is but a servant.

For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after: his faithfulness was evident in his bearing true witness to the church, of all God made known to him, that they might not be uncertain of the truth; even all that truth, which was more fully and clearly to be spoken by the prophets after him, and by Christ and his apostles; but which the Spirit shall speak to them further concerning Christ and his church in this Epistle, John 5:46. In which is insinuated, that Christ was the truth himself witnessed to by Moses, who was a witness of an inferior degree, though in his work faithful, and conformed unto Christ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant,.... Moses was not only a servant to the Israelites, but he was also the Lord's servant, a servant of his choosing, sending, and approving; he was a servant in holy things, and served the Lord heartily, sincerely, and ingenuously, with all becoming fear and reverence, respect, and honour, and with all ready and cheerful obedience; the house in which he was a servant, was not his own, but belonged to God, even the Son of God, as appears from the following verse; he was not a servant in the world, and with respect to civil things, and the affairs of Providence, but in the church of God, and in divine things; and he was faithful here, and that in all things; he did all things exactly according to the pattern showed him in the Mount; and the apostle strongly affirms all this, as well he might, since there was full proof of it, and God himself had bore a testimony to it: and the end of his being a servant here was,

for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; these words may regard his faithful testification of God's will to the people of Israel, after he was fixed as a servant in God's house; or what he said afterwards concerning the Messiah, of whom he spake and wrote, and of whom he bore an honourable testimony, Deuteronomy 18:1 or they may have respect to the things spoken after Moses's time, by the prophets, Christ, and his apostles, which agreed with the testimony of Moses; or to the things afterwards spoken of in this epistle; to which may be added, that Moses in his office was typical of things to be spoken and done by the Messiah, when he came; as his deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt; his leading them through the Red sea and wilderness, to Canaan's land; his giving them the law from Mount Sinai; the erection of the tabernacle, with all its furniture, and the institution of sacrifices and the like.

Geneva Study Bible

And {5} Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

(5) Another comparison: Moses was a faithful servant in this house, that is, in the Church, serving the Lord that was to come, but Christ rules and governs his house as Lord.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 3:5 as far as αὐτοῦ, Hebrews 3:6. Return to the point of comparison between Christ and Moses, Hebrews 3:2 (πιστός), and the exaltedness of the former above the latter, Hebrews 3:3 (υἱός, ἐπί … θεράπων, ἐν).

καί] is the more sharply-defining “and indeed;” whereas μέν serves to bring into relief the personal name Μωϋσῆς, and finds in Χριστὸς δέ, Hebrews 3:6, its emphatic opposition. Hebrews 3:5-6 init. does not, accordingly, contain a second proof for the superiority of Christ to Moses (Calvin, Bengel, Tholuck, Ebrard, Woerner), but is only a more detailed unfolding of the thoughts, Hebrews 3:2 and Hebrews 3:3.

πιστός] sc. ἦν, or else ἐστίν, in connection with which latter mode of supplementing, the thought would be less of the historic fact as such, than of the fact as it still continues present in the O. T. narrative.

αὐτοῦ] refers not to Μωϋσῆς (as Ebrard assumes, since he starts with the erroneous presupposition that the author speaks of a twofold οἶκος, and that the design of Hebrews 3:5-6 was just that of rendering clearly apparent the difference of the house entrusted to Moses on the one hand, and that entrusted to Christ on the other), but to θεός, Hebrews 3:4.

ὡς θεράπων] in his capacity as servant, comp. Numbers 12:7. Upon this, as upon the preceding ἐν, rests the emphasis of Hebrews 3:5.

εἰς μαρτύριον] belongs to θεράπων. It is unnaturally referred back by Estius, Seb. Schmidt, Stengel, and others to πιστός

εἰς μαρτύριον τῶν λαληθησομένων] to give testimony to that which should be spoken, or proclaimed to the people. Τὰ λαληθησόμενα are not the revelations afterwards to be given in Christ (Erasmus, Calvin, Cameron, Calov, Seb. Schmidt, Owen, Limborch, Wolf, Wetstein, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Alford, Moll, Ewald, M‘Caul, Woerner, and others), which must have been more precisely specified; and still less does the expression indicate: “dicenda a nobis in hac epistola de cerimoniis earumque significatione et usu” (Pareus), but the law to be proclaimed by Moses, at the mandate of God, to the Jewish people is intended.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Hebrews 3:5. καὶ Μωϋσῆς.… Another reason for expecting to find fidelity in Jesus and for ascribing to Him greater glory. Moses was faithful as a servant in the house (ἐν), Christ as a Son over (ἐπὶ) his house. θεράπων denotes a free servant in an honourable position and is the word applied to Moses in Numbers 12:7. [“Apud Homerum nomen est non servile sed ministros significat voluntarios, nec raro de viris dicitur nobili genere natis” (Stephanus). It is especially used of those who serve the gods. See Pindar Olymp. iii. 29.] Both the fidelity and the inferior position of Moses are indicated in the words which occur like a refrain in Exodus: “According to all that the Lord commanded, so did he”. Nothing was left to his own initiative; he had to be instructed and commanded; but all that was entrusted to him, he executed with absolute exactness. The crowning proof of his fidelity was given in the extraordinary scene (Exodus 37), where Moses refused to be “made a great nation” in room of Israel. He is said to have been faithful εἰς μαρτύριον τῶν λαληθησομένων. The meaning is, the testimony to his faithfulness which God had pronounced was the guarantee of the trustworthiness of the report he gave of what the Lord afterwards spoke to him. This meaning seems to be determined by the context in Numbers 12. “My servant Moses … is faithful in all my house. I will speak to him mouth to mouth, apparently and not in dark speeches.” Grotius says “ut pronuntiaret populo ea quae Deus ei dicenda quoquo tempore mandabat”. Bleek and Davidson refer the μαρτύριον to Moses not to God. “He was a servant for a testimony, i.e., to bear testimony of those things which were to be spoken, i.e., from time to time revealed. Reference might be made to Barnabas viii. 3, εἰς μαρτ. τῶν φυλῶν. The meaning advocated by Calvin, Delitzsch, Westcott and others is attractive. They understand the words as referring to the things which were to be spoken by Christ, and that the whole of Moses’ work was for a testimony of those things. Thus Westcott translates “for a testimony of the things which should be spoken by God through the prophets and finally through Christ”. This gives a fine range to the words, but the context in Numbers is decisively against it. The idea seems to be that Moses being but a θεράπων needed a testimonial to his fidelity that the people might trust him; and also that he had no initiative but could only report to the people the words that God might speak to him. In contrast to this position of Moses, Χριστὸς ὡς υἱὸς ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ, Christ’s fidelity was that of “a Son over his house”. It was not the fidelity which exactly performs what another commands and faithfully enters into and fulfils His will. It is the fidelity of one who himself is possessed by the same love and conceives the same purposes as the Father. The interests of the house and the family are the Son’s interests. “We are His house” and in Christ we see that the interests of God and man, of the Father and the family are one. [Grotius quotes the jurisconsults: “etiam vivente patre filium quodam modo dominum esse rerum paternarum”.] But this house so faithfully administered by the Son Himself is the body of Christian people, οὗ οἶκός ἐσμεν ἡμεῖς, we are those on whom this fidelity is spent. The relative finds its antecedent in αὐτοῦ. The “house of God” is, in the Gospels, the Temple; but in 1 Peter 4:17 and 1 Timothy 3:15 it has the same meaning as here, the people or Church of God. “Whose house are we,” but with a condition ἐὰν τὴν παρρησίαν … κατάσχωμεν, “if we shall have held fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end”. For, as throughout the Epistle, so here, all turns on perseverance, παρρησία originally “frank speech,” hence the boldness which prompts it. Cf. Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 10:19; Hebrews 10:35; so in Paul and John. καύχημα, not as the form of the word might indicate, “the object of boasting,” but the disposition as in 1 Corinthians 5:6 : οὐ καλὸν τὸ καύχημα ὑμῶν and 2 Corinthians 5:12 : ἀφορμὴν διδόντες ὑμῖν καυχήματος. [Cf. the interchange of βρῶσις and βρῶμα in John 4:32; John 4:34, and Jannaris, Hist. Gk. Gram., 1021 and 1155.] Whether ἐλπίδος belongs to both substantives is doubtful. The Christian’s hope of a heavenly inheritance (Hebrews 3:1), of perfected fellowship with God, should be so sure that it confidently proclaims itself, and instead of being shamefaced glories in the future it anticipates. And this attitude must be maintained μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν, until difficulty and trial are past and hope has become possession. βεβαίαν In agreement with the remoter substantive, which might give some colour to the idea that the expression was lifted from Hebrews 3:14 and inserted here; but Bleek shows by several instances that the construction is legitimate.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. in all his house] i.e. in all God’s house. Two “houses” are contemplated, Mosaism and Christianity, the Law and the Gospel. Both were established by God. In the household of the Law, Moses was the faithful minister; in the household of the Gospel, Christ took on Him, indeed, “the form of a slave,” and as such was faithful even unto death, but yet was Son over the House. This seems a more natural explanation than that the writer regards both the covenants as one Household, in which Moses was a servant, and over which Christ was a Son.

as a servant] The word used is not doulos “slave,” nor diakonos “minister,” but therapôn “voluntary attendant.” It is also applied to Moses in the Ep. of Barnabas and in Exodus 14:31 (LXX.).

for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after] They were to be spoken afterwards by Christ, the Prophet to whom Moses had pointed, Deuteronomy 18:15. The Law and the Prophets did but witness to the righteousness of God which was to be fully revealed in Christ (Romans 3:21). They were but a shadow of the coming reality (Hebrews 10:1). But although it is natural for us to understand the expression in this way, the author possibly meant no more than that the faithfulness of Moses was an attestation of the Law which was about to be delivered.

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 3:5. Καὶ, and) Another reason for the superiority of Christ to Moses.—θεράπων, servant) So the LXX., Numbers 12:7. This intimates the excellence of Moses in comparison with all other prophets; but again it speaks of Moses as inferior to Christ the Lord.—εἰς, for) He was a servant, in order that testimony should be given by him.—τῶν λαληθησομένων, of those things which were to be spoken) which Moses was to speak (ch. Hebrews 9:19), chiefly of Christ; and subsequently Christ Himself was about to speak. In ch. Hebrews 9:19, there is a verbal parallelism, which however at the same time infers a like reason, viz. what Moses, in accordance with the time, Numbers 12, both had spoken and was about to speak. Miriam did not assail the authority of Moses respecting the past; but she wished to claim just as much for herself for the future, on account of certain past specimens (of God speaking by her and Aaron).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 5, 6. - And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterwards to be spoken; but Christ, as Son over his house. We have already anticipated the explanation of this passage, which, according to the view taken above, is a setting forth of the distinction between Christ and Moses intended from the first; that of one being "Son over," the other but "servant in," the house of God. The rendering of the A.V., "his own house," in ver. 6, where Christ is spoken of, is not justifiable. It is true that we have no means of knowing whether αὐτοῦ or αὑτοῦ was intended, and that even αὐτοῦ might, according to the usage of Hellenistic Greek, refer to Christ; but if the writer had so intended it, he might easily have avoided ambiguity by writing ἑαυτοῦ, etc. He has not done so; and, therefore, it is most natural to take "his house" in the same sense throughout the passage; viz. as" God's house," referred to in Numbers 12:7, whence the expression is taken. We observe further that "the things that were afterwards to be spoken (τῶν λαληθησομένων)" must be taken as denoting the future "speaking" of God to man "in his SON" (cf. Hebrews 1:1); not, as some interpret, the speaking through Moses himself in the Law. Moses was inferior to Christ, not only in respect to his personal position as a servant, but also in respect to his work as such; which was only to testify beforehand, typically and prophetically, to a fuller revelation to come. Whose house we are. Here begins the transition to the warning intended when the "holy brethren" were first called on to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession," who has now been seen to be so much greater than Moses. We Christians constitute this completed "house of God," over which Christ reigns as Son; if only warned by the example of the Israelites under Moses, we forfeit not our higher calling. This condition is expressed by If we hold fast the confidence (or, our confidence) and the rejoicing (rather, boast) of the (i.e. our) hope firm unto the end. Παῥῤησιά (often rendered "boldness;" see below, Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:19, 35) is the confidence felt by assured believers; καύχημα is the boast thereupon ensuing. This word (as also καυχᾶσθαι) is often used by St. Paul (cf. Romans 4:2; Romans 5:2; 1 Corinthians 5:6: 9:15; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 9:3; Galatians 6:4; Philippians 1:26; Philippians 2:16). Its proper meaning is not (as is by many sup- posed) the materies gloriandi, but the uttered boast itself (see note on 1 Corinthians 5:6, in the 'Speaker's Commentary'). The con- eluding words, μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν, are omitted in the Codex Vatican, and, notwithstanding the preponderance of authority in their favor, may have been interpolated (as is supposed by Mill, Tischendorf, Alford, and Delitzsch) from ver. 14, especially as the reading is not βεβαίον, so as to agree with the substantive immediately preceding, but βεβαίαν, as in ver. 14. Hebrews 3:5

Vincent's Word Studies

And Moses

Καὶ and introduces the further development of the thought of Hebrews 3:2, Hebrews 3:3 - fidelity, and the corresponding honor. It is not a second proof of the superiority of Christ to Moses. See Numbers 12:7.

A servant (θεράπων)

N.T.o. Comp. Revelation 15:3. Often in lxx, mostly as translation of עֶבֶד, servant, slave, bondman. Also, when coupled with the name of a deity, a worshipper, devotee. Sometimes applied to angels or prophets. Of Moses, θεράπων κυρίου servant of the Lord, Wisd. 10:16. In Class. and N.T. the word emphasizes the performance of a present service, without reference to the condition of the doer, whether bond or free. An ethical character attaches to it, as to the kindred verb θεραπεύειν: service of an affectionate, hearty character, performed with care and fidelity. Hence the relation of the θεράπων is of a nobler and freer character than that of the δοῦλος or bondservant. The verb is used of a physician's tendance of the sick. Xenophon (Mem. iv. 3, 9) uses it of the gods taking care of men, and, on the other hand, of men's worshipping the gods (ii, 1. 28). See Eurip. Iph. Taur. 1105; and on heal, Matthew 8:7; Luke 10:15, and on is worshipped, Acts 17:25.

For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken (εἰς μαρτύριον τῶν λαληθησομένων)

Ἐις for, with the whole preceding clause. Moses' faithful service in God's house was for a testimony, etc. The things which were to be spoken are the revelations afterward to be given in Christ. Others, however, explain of the things which Moses himself was afterward to speak to the people by God's command, referring to Numbers 12:8. According to this explanation, the fidelity hitherto exhibited by Moses ought to command respect for all that he might say in future. But (1) in the present connection that thought is insignificant. (2) It would be an exaggeration to speak of Moses's fidelity to God throughout his whole official career as a witness of the things which he was to speak to the people by God's command. (3) The future participle requires a reference to a time subsequent to Moses's ministry. The meaning is that Moses, in his entire ministry, was but a testimony to what was to be spoken in the future by another and a greater than he. Comp. Deuteronomy 18:15, explained of Christ in Acts 3:22, Acts 3:23.