07_AN_Kibbe_282_286_282_286 10/07/15 12:22 Pagina 285 REQUESTING AND REJECTING: Paraite,omai IN HEB 12,18-29 285 that he might not be thought wiser than the others” is not so very different from saying “Daniel refused to be thought wiser than the others”. For two reasons, then, these texts do not prove that paraite,omai + mh, + infinitive necessarily implies a positive nuance (“request”) rather than a negative one (“refuse”). First, syntactical parallels between Hebrews and one early 4th century BCE document and one late 1st century CE document, neither of which has any connection to Hebrews apart from this single syntactical construction, are an insufficient basis upon which to build such an argu- ment. Second, one of these parallels (Ant. 10.203) illustrates the fact that in some contexts the lines between the “negative” and “positive” nuances of paraite,omai are blurred at best. The claim that Heb 12,19 and 12,25 refer to different events in Israel’s history is thus unsustainable on syntactical grounds, as shown above, and no less so on contextual grounds. The evidence is overwhelming, in fact, that Heb 12,25-29 continues to have its sights set on Sinai. First, the contrast in Heb 12,18-29 between heaven and earth, or what is heavenly and what is earthly, begins with the contrast between the “pal- pability” of Sinai (12,18) and the heavenly locale of Zion (12,22), con- tinues through the contrast between the warning that took place “on earth” and the one that happened “from heaven” (12,25), and climaxes with the claim that both earth and heaven will one day be shaken (12,26). The heaven/earth theme, established by the comparison of Sinai with Zion, continues throughout the pericope. Second, the most natural referent of evkei/noi ouvk evxe,fugon paraithsa,menoi to.n crhmati,zonta evpi. gh/j (those who did not escape when they rejected the one who warned on earth) in 12,25 is the same group of people just identified in 12,18-20, that is, the Israelites who stood at Sinai. Third, in Heb 12,26-27, the author uses Hag 2,6 to point toward the earth being shaken e;ti a[pax — “once more” or “one more time”. And this poses the question: if the eschatological shaking of all creation will be once more, then when did the previous shaking — specifically the shaking of the earth — take place? What possible answer is there other than the Sinai theophany? Finally, Heb 12,18-29 closes with a citation of Deut 4,24 (o` qeo.j h`mw/n pu/r katanali,skon; “our God is [a] consuming fire”) 6, suggesting that the preceding exhortation (Heb 12,25-28) is ultimately based on the character of the God who spoke from the fire at Sinai — making it certain that from start to finish the author of Hebrews has the Sinai events in view. * * * 6 See, e.g., LANE, Hebrews 9–13, 500; GRÄSSER, Hebräer, 3.338; WEISS, Hebräer, 695.