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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 6:6 - 6:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
6. τ. γιν ὅτι, almost = schooling ourselves to remember—the idea is one which grows with experience of the new life—contrast εἰδότες Rom 6:9, cf. Moulton, p. 113. The point of the sentence lies in the ἵνα clause—the object of our crucifixion with Christ was to deliver us etc.
ὁ παλ. ἡ. ἄνθρωπος: ἄνθρ. as often = human character, humanity: two uses are to be distinguished, (a) ὁ ἔξω and ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρ. marking the twofold character of human nature—mind and body; Rom 7:22; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16; cf. 1Pe 3:4. This use goes back to Plato. (b) ὁ παλαιὸς and ὁ καινὸς ἄνθρ. marking human nature as unregenerate or regenerate; so here; Eph 4:22 f.; Col 3:9. This use seems to be peculiar to S. Paul, and is a notable link between Rom., Eph. and Col.; cf. S.H. For the idea cf. 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15. It involves the thought of a new act of creation; and is perhaps connected with the idea of 1Co 15:45 and so with c. 5. above. A further development of the thought is found in Eph 2:15.
συνεσταυρώθη, a more concrete expression of the idea of Rom 6:5; cf. Gal 2:20 (only, in this sense); also Gal 5:24; Gal 6:14.
τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας = the body as the instrument of sin; the body which sin had made its own—explained by the next clause and Rom 6:12. S.H. cf. Rom 7:24; Php 3:21; Col 2:11. The body is the organism of the human spirit; the spirit is the source of all moral action, both positive and negative; but the use of the body in sinful ways has a cumulative effect upon the bodily activities, and by influencing impulses and habits makes it a ready instrument of the sinning spirit, and of sin regarded metaphorically as an external tyrannical force: all these acquired habits and impulses need to be annihilated. Without metaphor = the body in which and by which we sin. The result of this ‘crucifixion’ is to make the body an instrument of righteousness, cf. Rom 12:1.
τοῦ μηκέτι δ. τοῦ with infin. is normally telic in N.T. = ‘so as to …,’ ‘so that we are …’; cf. Php 3:10; Moulton, p. 216 f. The purpose is expressed by ἵνα, the result by τοῦ κ.τ.λ. So δουλεύειν pres.: so that we are no longer in slavery to sin.