to be set before someone: to lie in front of a person, whether as something already on hand, a goal held out ahead, or a public exhibit on display
The word paints a simple picture: something lying in front of a person. It joins a small word meaning "before" or "in front of" to a common verb meaning "to lie" or "be laid." In everyday Greek it named food set out on a table, a body laid out for viewing, a prize waiting at the finish line, and, in contracts, the clause "stated above." The plain verb behind it, κεῖμαι, just means "to lie" or "be placed"; adding "before" turns it into "to lie set out in front of someone." It works as the receiving end of the active verb "to set forth" (προτίθημι): what one person sets forth, this word says is now lying there before you.
The New Testament uses the word only five times, yet those five span its whole range:
- Paul uses it plainly: when a willing readiness "is there" for the collection, the good will is genuinely on hand, and that is what God accepts (2 Corinthians 8:12).
- Jude uses it of a public exhibit: the ruined cities of Sodom and Gomorrah "are set out" as a visible warning for all to see (Jude 7).
- Hebrews uses it three times of a goal held out ahead of a person: the hope set before the believer, the race marked out for the runner, and the joy set before Jesus (Hebrews 6:18; 12:1; 12:2).
The picture ties these together. Whether the thing in front of you is already in hand, waiting at the end of a course, or standing on display, the word simply says it is there, positioned before you. In Hebrews the image is a race: the runner sees the finish line and the prize laid out ahead, and that is what draws him on.
Nuances
In Hebrews 12:2 ("who for the joy set before him endured the cross"), the sense of this verb is agreed, but the accompanying preposition ἀντί is disputed: does it mean "for the sake of / in exchange for" a prospective joy, or "instead of" a joy already available?
- majorityFor the sake of the joy ahead: Jesus endured the cross with his eyes on the future joy of resurrection and exaltation, the prize waiting at the end of the race. The reading is supported by the parallel athletic language of 12:1 and by ἀντί at 12:16 (Esau selling his birthright "for a single meal").; N. Clayton Croy, Endurance in Suffering: Hebrews 12:1-13 in Its Rhetorical, Religious, and Philosophical Context, SNTSMS 98 (Cambridge, 1998), 176-95; Gareth Lee Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NICNT (Eerdmans, 2012), 609; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1989), 356-57
- minorityInstead of a joy within his reach: Jesus set aside a joy he could have kept (the relief of escaping a shameful death) in order to endure the cross.; William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B (Word, 1991), 411-13; Paul Andriessen, "La traduction de Hebreux 12,2," Nouvelle Revue Theologique 97 (1975): 424-38