St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: A Practical Exposition. Vol. II

Acts xvii. 7.

111

1 Thess. iv. 11; v. 14; 2 Thess. iii. 6.

112

Jer. xxix. 7; cf. 1 Tim. ii. 2.

113

1 Pet. i. 11. The word for such a 'settlement of strangers,' paroecia, has become, by a suggestive history, our 'parish.'

114

Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 6. 'That which restraineth' the outbreak of lawlessness is (almost certainly) the empire, and 'he that restraineth' (ver. 7) the emperor.

115

Acts v. 29.

116

1 Pet. ii. 13-17.

117

Rom. i. 14.

118

ver. 8, 'his neighbours': margin, 'the other.'

119

Matt. xxii. 40; cf. Gal. v. 14, and James ii. 8.

120

It has been commonly said that Christianity almost created a new word to express the new duty. But this now appears not to be strictly the case. Agape, love, is a word unknown indeed to classical writers, but it is found in the popular speech of Alexandria in the second century B.C. See Deissmann, Bibelstudien (Marburg, 1895), p. 80. (I was referred to this work by Dr. Bernard, Pastoral Epistles, p. 24.) Hence, i.e. from the popular speech of Greek Egypt, it passed into the Greek Bible and so into Christianity.

121

1 Thess. v. 1: 'The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.' To know this is to have answer enough to questions about the times and seasons of the coming (v. 1).

122

It is interesting to compare this passage with the closely similar one of Thess. v. 1-4. Cf. Eph. v. 14 ff.; vi. 11.

123

Christ is 'put on' in baptism by all, Gal. iii. 27; but we all still need to appropriate what we have received, and so 'put Him on' for ourselves; cf. Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 12.

124

See app. note G, p. 238, for an admirable prayer by Jeremy Taylor based on this thought.

125

Conf. viii. 12.

126

Possibly his mind passes by a natural reaction from the thought of sensual licentiousness (xiii. 13) to that of unenlightened asceticism.

127

It is implied (xiv. 1; xv. 1 and 7) that the strong-minded brethren were in the ascendant. It is them chiefly to whom St. Paul addresses himself.

128

Ecclus. xxxiii. 9.

129

Mark vii. 19.

130

Acts x. 28.

131

The matter of 'eating with the Gentiles' was prominent, cf. ii. 12.

132

1 Cor. x. 25.

133

Acts xv. 23.

134

1 Cor. viii, and x. 23-33.

135

The exact point – abstaining from all flesh meat – is so different from what had presented itself at Corinth that there must be a particular reference to Roman circumstances, of which St. Paul was probably informed by Priscilla and Aquila.

136

This seems to follow from Philo's statement that they did not make animal sacrifices: and from Josephus' description of their way of life as Pythagorean.

137

Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 10.

138

Gal. iv. 10; cf. Col. ii. 16, 17: 'Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's.'

139

Or for decisions of doubts, marg. This, or something like this, is the right meaning; cf. Hebr. v. 14: 'for decision between good and evil.' 1 Cor. xii. 10: 'discernings of spirits,' i.e. decisions as to their true character.

140

From Isa. xlv. 33.

141

Cf. Ephes. pp. 271 f.

142

See app. note H, p. 239.

143

Gal. i. 8.

144

1 Cor. xv. 12, 13.

145

1 Cor. v. 6

146

Cf. Ephes. p. 126.

147

1 Cor. xi. 16.

148

Gal. v. 2.

149

Phil. iii. 15, 16.

150

Unity in Diversity, by Charles Bigg, D.D. (Longmans, 1899), pp. 84, 85, 95.

151

'Whatever is not of faith is sin – that is whatever is against conscience.' Aquinas, quoted in S. and H. in loc.

152

Cf. xii. 6: 'Let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith.'

153

Col. ii. 16: 'Let no man judge you in respect of a sabbath day.'

154

This is probably implied in Acts xx. 7.

155

1 Cor. xvi. 1.

156

Philippians, on 'the Christian Ministry,' p. 181. The language in the immediate context I cannot make my own. But the statement quoted is surely true. And to this day I suppose, for those living in religious communities and similar institutions, there is very little practical difference between Sundays and week-days. This almost complete absence of distinction, however, must always come about, if it is to be legitimate, by raising the week-days to the spiritual level of the Sundays, and not by the opposite process.

157

Especially in the Pastoral Epistles: but also in the epistles to the Thessalonians and Corinthians.

158

1 Cor. viii. 13.

159

Cf. 1 Cor. x. 30: 'Why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks.' 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4: 'Meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving… For every creature of God is good … if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. Cf. Acts xxvii. 35: 'And when he had taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all: and he brake it, and began to eat.'

160

Matt. xxvi. 26; cf. Luke xxiv. 30.

161

We are all 'strong' in some respect, Origen remarks, so that 'ye that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak' comes to be as broad a precept as 'bear ye one another's burdens.'

162

Cf. Gal. iv. 4, 5: 'Christ, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we (Jews and Gentiles) might receive the adoption of sons.'

163

1 Cor. x. ii: 'These things happened unto them (the Jews in the Wilderness) by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.'

164

2 Tim. iii. 15-17. 'Sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.'

165

Cf. above, xi. 9; in the Gospels, Matt. xxvii. 34; John ii. 17; xix. 28; also Acts i. 20.

166

See S. and H. in loc.

167

Driver, in loc.

168

Cheyne, in loc.

169

Vol. i. p. 53.

170

lii. 15, according to the Greek.

171

'Round about,' literally 'in a circle,' as opposed to a straight course; cf. Mark vi. 6, 'round about the villages.'

172

Cf. i. 13-16.

173

i. 11.

174

'Ministering in sacrifice' marg.

175

Cf. the opening of 1 Cor., a letter which contains on the whole so much blame.

176

Euseb. H. E. iv. 23.

177

Sanday, Conception of Priesthood (Longmans), p. 89.

178

Like 'agape' (see above, p. 131, n. 2) so this word 'liturgus' appears to have been adopted in its priestly sense by the Greek translators of the Bible from the current Greek of Alexandria, cf. Deissmann, Bibelstudien, pp. 137 f.

179

Cf. S. and H. in loc. 'Making sacrifice as a priest under the Gospel.'

180

Cf. xii. x.

181

Col. i. 28: 'Teaching every man … that we may present every man,' i.e. present him in sacrifice.

182

For his repeated statements see app. note I. p. 240.

183

Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 15; xv. 31; 2 Cor. i. 14; vii. 4, 14; viii. 24; ix. 3; x. 8, 13; xi. 10, 16-xii. 9; Phil. ii. 16; 1 Thess. ii. 19. These passages are worth examining in connexion.

184

Cf. 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.

185

See 2 Cor. xi. 17; xii. 1.

186

1 Cor. i. 13 ff.

187

1 Cor. ii. 1-5.

188

Gal. vi. 14.

189

See S. and H. in loc.

190

Acts xx. 2.

191

i. 14, 15.

192

Not Peter therefore, though he was doubtless afterwards at Rome.

193

Ad Cor. 5, see Lightfoot in loc.

194

2 Cor. xii. 13.

195

Cf. Jas. ii. 5, 6.

196

Gal. ii. 10.

197

1 Cor. xvi. 1-4; 2 Cor. viii, ix.

198

Cf. Acts xxiv. 17.

199

Rom. xvi. 23. Cf. 1 Cor. i. 14, which shows us a Gaius at Corinth. Cf. the allusion to Erastus in the same verse, coupled with 2 Tim. iv. 20.

200

Acts xix. 21.

201

Acts xx. 4.

202

Rom. xvi. 21.

203

See further, on the purpose of the epistle, vol. i. pp. 4 ff.

204

Or deaconess, as margin.

205

See on this subject Deaconess Cecilia Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses (Methuen, 1898), and Bernard, Pastoral Epistles, p. 59. With Lightfoot, he interprets 1 Tim. iii. 11 of deaconesses rather than of the wives of the deacons.

206

Matt, xxiii. 11; Luke xxii. 37.

207

Or Junia (a woman's name), as margin.

208

See the readings of Rom. xvi. 3; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; 2 Tim. iv. 19 (in R. V. which is probably right); and of Acts xviii. 2, 18, 26.

209

1 Cor. xvi. 19.

210

2 Tim. iv. 19.

211

Twice out of three mentions in each case.

212

Perhaps both freedmen of the same member of the Acilian gens. For Priscus or Prisca (or Priscilla) was a favourite cognomen in the gens, and the nomen itself was commonly written Aquilius. This nomen a male slave, when freed, would have borne (besides his own name and his master's praenomen); and a female could have borne the cognomen Prisca or Priscilla. '[Greek] Akúlios could be corrupted into {Greek] Akúlas, the Greek form of a different name Aquila.

213

Cf. Acts xii. 12; Col. iv. 15; Philem. 2. See S. and H. in loc.

214

Cf. 1 Cor. xvi. 15.

215

The term 'apostle' is also used in 2 Cor. viii. 23, Phil. ii. 25, apparently in the sense of messenger.

216

Others, including Liddon, would translate 'highly esteemed among, i.e. by, the apostles' but this is not probable.

217

Mark xv. 21.

218

And closely associated with St. Paul.

219

If we retain the words 'to whom' the grammar of the sentence breaks down, but the object to whom praise is ascribed is probably the Father.

220

1 Cor. ii. 7, 10.

221

See especially Eph. iii. 1-13. Cf. also 2 Tim. i. 9-11; Titus i. 2, 3.

222

It is fully treated in Lightfoot's Biblical Essays (Macmillan, 1894), pp. 287 ff, by Lightfoot himself and Hort from different points of view, and by S. and H., pp. lxxxv. ff.

223

We are familiar with the derived adverb of confirmation, 'Amen.'

224

In Rom. iii. 3, Matt, xxiii. 23, it is still used for 'faithfulness.'

225

In spite of Ellicott, Holtzmann, and Bernard, I believe this to be the true rendering, and not that of the R.V. margin.

226

On the development of the principle of faith in the soul, see vol. i. pp. 29, 30; and on its naturalness, in the highest sense, for man, see pp. 21, 22.

227

In LXX [Greek] ou gàr súnoida emautô átopa práxas.

228

Vol. i. p. 103, n. 2.

229

e. g. when conscience was described by Epictetus as the grown man's inward tutor [pedagogue], which must obviously mean that it is to instruct as well as reprove.

230

Summa, pars. 1, qu. 75, art. 6, 'Respondeo dicendum, quod necesse est dicere, animam humanam, quam dicimus intellectivum principium, esse incorruptibilem.'

231

See Dr. Agar Beet's Last Things (Hodder and Stoughton, 1898), pp. 194 ff, and Gladstone's Studies Subsidiary to Butler (Oxford, 1896), part ii. pp. 260 ff.

232

See Types of Ethical Theory (Oxford, 1885), ii. pp. 60 ff.

233

The only passage in the New Testament which strongly suggests an everlasting persistence of personal consciousness of pain, is Rev. xx. 10, 'Shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.' This is explicit enough. But I am persuaded that all the numbers and expressions for periods of time in the Apocalypse are strictly symbolical. 'A thousand years,' 'forty and two months,' 'three days and a half,' 'day and night for ever and ever,' are expressions which have to be translated into some moral equivalent before they can be made the basis of literal teaching. Thus 'day and night for ever and ever' describes in a picture the completeness of the final overthrow and the anguish of the enemies of the Lamb. The symbolical character of the expression is further indicated by 'the beast' and 'the false prophet' – themselves symbolical figures – being with the devil the subjects of the torment.

Some will say that the deterrent effect of the doctrine of hell depends upon its being held to be a state of strictly endless conscious torment. I do not believe this is the case. The language of the New Testament is full enough of deterrent horror if we are faithful to it.

234

Phil. ii. 8; Hebr. x. 5-9.

235

The perfect Man perfectly realized the misery and horror of the sins on behalf of which He suffered. How much is involved in this in the way of detailed realization of each individual sin of each individual sinner, is a matter on which we have no clear grounds for exact statement.

236

I believe that nothing more than this is really suggested by Scripture. The phrase, 'made sin for us' (2 Cor. v. 21), means, I believe, according to the clear use of the word in the LXX, 'made a sin-offering for us.' The same words in the Hebrew stand for sin and sin-offering, and the use of the Greek follows: see especially (in LXX) Lev. iv. 31, 'It is the sin (= sin-offering) of the assembly;' 24, 'It (the goat) is a sin;' 29, 'He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin;' vi. 25, 'This is the law of the sin'; viii. 14, 'The bullock of the sin.' Cf. Hos. iv. 8, &c.

237

See especially Ezekiel xxviii, xxxi.

238

See vol. i. p. 193.

239

Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. 12. 96; Iren. c. Haer. iv. 38.

240

See also above, vol. i. pp. 78, 79.

241

On the meaning of 'freedom of will,' see vol. i. pp. 230 ff.

242

See above, vol. i. pp. 80-1.

243

Romanes, Examination of Weismannism (Longmans, 1893), pp. 61-70, 153.

244

The Last Link (Black, 1899), p. 79.

245

Romanes, Darwin and after Darwin (Longmans, 1895), ii. p. 279.

246

Examination of Weismannism, pp. 114, 115.

247

Darwin and after Darwin, ii. p. 90.

248

See also in Haeckel, Last Link, p. 148: 'We assume the single monophyletic origin of mankind at one place, in one district'; and passages cited above, vol. i. p. 196, n. 1. The science of comparative religions also suggests the same conclusion. Everywhere common underlying religious needs and tendencies appear. Acts xvii. 27 is justified by a comparison of religions.

249

It must not be left out of sight that the idea of life as naturally derived from what was inorganic, has not yet been made to appear even scientifically probable, in view of the evidence.

250

W. Bateson, Materials for the Study of Variations, treated with especial regard to discontinuity in the origin of species (Macmillan, 1894), p. xii.

251

Biologists are now apparently more disposed than formerly to admit the sudden appearance of considerable and important modifications and rapid developments. Cf. Haeckel, l. c. p. 144, and Bateson, p. 568. He concludes that 'discontinuity of species results from discontinuity of variation.' 'The existence,' he says, 'of sudden and discontinuous variation, the existence, that is to say, of new forms having from their first beginning more or less of the kind of perfection which we associate with normality, is a fact that disposes, once and for all, of the attempt to interpret all perfection and definiteness of form as the work of selection. The study of variation leads us into the presence of whole classes of phenomena that are plainly incapable of such interpretation.' This relative perfection of variations at starting Mr. Bateson attributes in great measure to the principle of 'symmetry,' or 'repetition of parts' in living things. An organism is symmetrical, and thus what happens in one of many similar organs repeats itself normally in all the others. Change in one part is not an isolated fact, but there is 'similarity and simultaneity of change.'