0' Scripture is everywhere wont to express `danger:
0'" but Oecumen. and Cat. agree with the old reading, h Palaia. Possibly the meaning of the whole passage may be somewhat as follows. "It is something great and sublime that Peter has darkly hinted in saying, `it was not possible that He should be holden of it.
0' And the very expression kaqoti implies that there is something to be thought of (comp. Caren. in 1). Then, in the Old. Test., the expression wdinej qanatou means pains in which death is the agent; but here they are the pangs inflicted upon death itself, travailing in birth with Christ `the first-begotten from the dead.
0' It shows then both that death could not endure to hold Him, and, that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. For the assertion, etc. But then, without giving them time to ponder upon the meaning of what he has darkly hinted, he goes off to the Prophet," etc.-On the expression wdinaj luein Mr. Field, Index to Hom. in Matt. s. v., remarks, that "it is said sometimes of the childbearing woman herself, as p. 118. B., sometimes of the child born, as p. 375. A., sometimes of the person aiding in the delivery, as Job xxxix, 2. Hence the obscure passage Acts ii, 34 is to be explained. See Theophylact in 1."
7 It is noteworthy that this interpretation of wdinaj tou qanatou (24) is exactly that of Meyer who explains thus: "Death travailed in birth-throes even until the dead was raised again. With this event these pangs ceased, they were loosed; and because God had made Christ alive, God has loosed the pangs of death." Other interpretations are: (1) The snares or bands of death, on the ground that wdinej is used in the lxx. to translate the Hebrew lbx
(e. g. Ps. xviii. 5), which has this meaning. So Olsh. (2) That the pains of Jesus connected with the whole experience of death are meant. He is popularly conceived as enduring these pains until the resurrection when God loosed them, the conception being that he was under their power and constraint. We prefer this view. So Lechler, Gloag, Hackett.-G. B. S.
8 It might be observed, that all St. Paul's reasoning here and to the Galatians holds against circumcision and the Sab: bath alike.
9 politeia.We want a word to express at once the spiritual citizenship and the corresponding life.
10 The passage iii. 1-8 considers four possible objections. (1) "This placing of Jews and Gentiles in the same condition, takes away all the theocratic prerogatives." (v. 1.) No, answers Paul, they have a great advantage as to light and privilege, though none as to righteousness. (v. 2.) (2) "They have the O. T. scriptures, you say; but what if those scriptures have not attained their end in bringing the Jews to believe in Jesus as the Messiah? If some have not believed, does not that render void God's promises to his people in the O. T., so that he is no longer bound by them?" (v. 3.) The answer is: "No, God is faithful to his promises in all conditions (v. 4). (3) "Then the unbelief of the Jews seems to be the occasion of eliciting God's faithfulness. The conclusion would be that falseness contributes to God's glory." To this Paul gives no specific reply but develops the argument so as to show that it leads to a (5) position: "Let us do evil that good may come." (v. 8.) He thinks it enough to exhibit the logical conclusion of such an objection. It is enough to know that it obliterates all moral distinctions and impugns the justice of God. Paul might have shown that from God's overruling of sin to his praise the approval of sin does not follow. But he is content to make it clear that the objection is inconsistent with a righteous judgment of the world.-G. B. S.
11 See Gen. xviii. 19; Deut. iv. 37, and Deut. x. 15.
12 For this use of the word, see 1 Tim. iii. 16.
13 Field reads logoij "His words:" probably by a misprint.
14 A practical, not a theoretical unbelief. It might he clearer to use the word "unfaithful" throughout, but that apistein is treated as the exact negative of pisteuein: in fact we cannot translate idiomatically all that either St. Paul or St. Chrysostom has to say of pistij, without using the three words "faith" "trust" and "belief" for it and its correlatives.
15 Field thinks that St. Chrysostom wrote "Therefore if, because we did despite to Him ...... was shown to be clear, why am I to be punished," etc.? Heyse would have "Then, since through our despite and wrong God became victorious. ...why," etc.?
16 So Field with most Mss. and Interp.
17 elegen. St. Chrysostom treats it as his habitual teaching, so that it had been already misrepresented, though not yet embodied in this Epistle.
18 goun.He is evidently aiming at some who still used such reasonings.
19 i. e. The Greek, see a few lines below. Savile's punctuation was first corrected by the Benedictines.
20 Barbaroj,Though this word is not equivalent to Barbarian, it has force enough to give a fitness to the term "merciless." St. Chrysostom excels in these side-strokes, which he so much admires too in the Apostle.
21 kakistoj o proj eauton xrwmenoj th moxqhria, etc. Arist. Eth. v. 1.