Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Heb 9:12)
In this verse, the verb ευρισκω (to find/obtain) is in the middle voice (ευραμενος). Some have latched onto this and claim that Christ offered a sacrifice for Himself, too. This is the view held by many Christadelphians, both historically and in modern times (to be fair, others argue that Christ did not offer a sacrifice for the "sin" of being human). In a rather influential Christadelphian text, we read:
“[Christ] himself required a sin offering; in other words, he sacrificed himself, for himself, that he might save us. Or, in other words, he saved himself in order to save us . . .That Christ needed salvation is seen from Psalm xci. 16. It is also clearly taught in Heb. Ix. 12 . . . “having obtained” is in the middle voice, signifying something done for oneself).” (F.G. Jannaway, Christadelphian Answers [1920], p. 24)
Such sentiments are mirrored on p. 12 of the Christadelphian booklet, Christ’s Death and your Salvation: A Simple
Explanation of John 3:16, we read the following:
However, this shows a gross ignorance of Koine Greek grammar as well as the meaning of this verse--the author's purpose is to emphasise that Christ alone obtained redemption for His people. For instance, consider the following:
Jesus as a representative
man, who bore in his nature the same flesh-promptings of all other men but
conquered them (1 Peter 2:21-24), was in need of redemption from that nature
(not from actual sin for he never committed any) as is all mankind. He obtained
this by his own offering. This is the clear teaching of Hebrews 13:20. Hebrews
9:12 states that by his offering he “obtained eternal redemption.” The “for us”
of the A.V. should be excluded as it is in the R.V. and all other versions.
However, this shows a gross ignorance of Koine Greek grammar as well as the meaning of this verse--the author's purpose is to emphasise that Christ alone obtained redemption for His people. For instance, consider the following:
We can never hope to express exactly the Greek middle voice by an English translation . . . While the active voice emphasises the action, the middle stresses the agent. It, in some way, relates the action more intimately to the subject. Just how the action is thus related is not indicated by the middle voice, but must be detected from the context or the character of the verbal idea. (Dana and Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, p. 57).
This verb occurs in the Greek middle voice, which here intensifies the role of the subject, Christ, in accomplishing the action: "he alone secured"; "he and no other secured." (NET Commentary)
INDIRECT MIDDLE. In the flourishing period of the language this was by far the most frequent use, but it finally faded before the active and the intensive (reflexive) pronoun or the passive. In 1 Cor. 15:28, u`potagh,setai, the passive may bear the middle force (Findlay, Expos. Gr. T., in loco). But in general the indirect middle is abundant and free in the N. T. In the modern Greek Thumb gives no instances of the indirect middle. The precise shade of the resultant meaning varies very greatly. The subject is represented as doing something for, to or by himself. Often the mere pronoun is sufficient translation. Each word and its context must determine the result. Thus in Heb. 9:12, aivwni,an lu,trwsin eu`ra,menoj, Jesus is represented as having found eternal redemption by himself. He found the way. In Mt. 16:22, proslabo,menoj auvto,n, 'Peter takes Jesus to himself.' In Mk. 9:8, peribleya,menoi, 'the disciples themselves suddenly looking round.' (A.T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of the Historical Research, p. 809)
