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* LIBRARY 

OF THE 

University of California. 

Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 

Received October, i8g4. 
c/lccessions No. Sj^^/O . Class No. \ . 




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BIBLICAL COMMENTARY 



NEW TESTAMENT, 

ADAPTED ESPECIALLY FOR PREACHERS AND STUDENTS, 



HERMANN OLSHAUSEN, D.D., 



PB0FB880R OF THIOLOOT IN THB UNIVEBSITr OF ERLANOKN. 



TRiNSUTBD FROM THE GERMAN BY GLEROYMEH OF THE CHURCH OF ENQIAND. 



COMTAIKINQ THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 



%nmiM Mitfon, eirrfttlls IMter^' 

. ;. 






EDINBURGH: 
T. 4fe T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 

LONDON: fiAMILTON, ADAMS, AND 00. j 8IMPK1N, MABQHALL, AND 00.] 
8BBLBT AND 00.; WABD AND CO.; JACKSON AND WALFOBD. 

dvbun: JOHN bobbbuon; bodqbs and smith. 



MDOCOLIV. 



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o 



Da qood jubeB, et jube quod Tie, Dens meos. — Augustinus. 



EDUTBUROR: PBWTID BT AVDRBW JACK, OLTDB BTRKIT. 



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m 



>■ 



CONTENTS. 



GSKBRAL INTBODUOTIOH TO THB BPISTLKS OF 8T PAUL. 

P*f» 
§ 1. Of the Life and BfinlsCk/ of St Panl in genenl, ... 1 

2. The peenliaritieB of St Paul's eharaeter, .... 8 

3. OrderofraoceanonofStPaiil'sEpistkiB, .14 

THB BPISTLB TO THB ROMANS — INTRODUCTIOK. 

§ 1. Of the Genmnenen and the Integrity of the Epistle, . . . 27 

2. Time and plaoe of the composition, .... 83 

3. Of the Roman Carareh, ...... 85 

4. Axgnment of the Epistle, 48 

5. The Talne and the peenliar character of the Epistle, ... 52 

6. Literatore, . 56 

PART I. 

THB IlTTBOlATOneQ?. 
(i, 1—17.) 

§ 1. The Salutation (L M), 59 

2. Introdnetion (L 8-17), . • . • 70 

PART II. 

THE DOCTRINAL EXPOSITION, 
(i. 18— xi. 86.) 

A. SECTION I. 

OF TBB nnWVUtttB OF IHB HUMAM BICB. 

(i. 18— iii. 20.) 
§ 3. Condition of the heathen world (i. 18-32), .... 79 

4. Condition of the Jews (il 1-29), .... 98 

5. Comparison of the Jews and Gentiles (Hi. 1-20), .119 

B. SECTION II. 

TUB DESCRIPTION OF TBI NSW WAT OF SALTATIOH IN CBB18T. 

(iil21—v. 11.) 

§ 6. Tbedoctrine of free giace in Christ (iii. 21-81), 133 

7. Abraham justified by fiuth (iv. 1-25), . . 158 

8. Ofthefrait8of&ith(v. 1-11), 174 

C. SECTION III. 

OF TBB TICABIOUS OFFICB OF CBBX8T. 
(▼. 12— Fii. 6.) 

§ 9. Parallel between Adam and Christ (▼.12, 21), .184 

10. The belieyer is dead to sin (▼!. 1— Til 6), ... 207 



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vi GONTBNTS. 



D. SECTIOH IV. 



OF THE 8TAOBS OP THK DBVBLOFMBIfT AS WBLL OF IRDIVIDUAIS AS OF TBB VMfKBSE. 

(vii. 7 — viii. S9.) 

S 11. Of the DerilopiiiMit of tht IndiFidua niUil his Ej^oMoee of 

Redemption (tiL 7-24), ...... 236 

12. Of tbeEzperieiied of Redemption Data the PttCMtion of the Indhr^^ 

Life (tu. 25— Tui. 17), 258 

IS. Of the Peifeetion of the whole Grestiott with the OiUdnn of Gpd 

(YiiL 18-39), 281 

& 8BGTI0N v. 

THK BJCLATIOlf OF ISRABL AMD OP TBB OBMTIUI WOftLD lO TBB BBW WAY OF 
SALTATIOV. 

(ix. 1— xL 86.) 

§ U. OftheEleetionof Grsoe(ix. 1-29), .... 305 

15. Israeli giult(ix. SO— X. 21), 842 

16. liners SelTBtion(xi 1-36), 855 

PART m. 

THE BTHICAL EXPOSITION. 

A. SECTION I. 

BXUOBTATIOMS TO LOTS AHD OBBDIBMCB. 

(xiL 1 — xiiL 14.) 

§ 17. Of Love (xiL 1-21), 387 

18. OfObedienee(xm. 1-U), 396 

B. SBCnON II. 

OF BBBATIOVR AS TO TBINGS INDIFPBBBMT. 
(xiv. 1— XT. 18.) 

§ 19. Of besring with Uie Weak (xiv. 1-23), . .406 

20. Christ sa Example of besring with the Weak (xt. 1-13), 414 

G. SECTION III 
FEBSOBAL OOMMUVICATIOiri. 

(xv. U-*33, 

§ 21. Apology (xv. 14-21), 418 

22. Notioe of Journeys (xT. 22-33), . 421 

PART IV. 

SALUTATIONS AND CONCLUSION. 

(xTi. 1-27.) 

% 23. Sahitations (xti. 1-20) .425 

24. Coiieliision(xvi. 21-27), . . , • • 429 

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NOTE BY TEANSLATORS. 



A translation of Olshausen's valuable Commentary on the 
New Testament was projected by some members of the English 
Church in the end of the year 1845, and the Epistle to the 
Romans was selected as. the portion which should be first 
executed. 

Before this part of the work was completed, however, the 
whole Commentary was announced for speedy publication in 
the Foreign Theological Library; and, as it was evident that a 
competition between two translations would not be desirable, 
the translators of the Commentary on the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans resolved to offer their version to Messrs Clark, and to 
abandon the rest of their original design. Hence it is that the 
contents of the present volume appear as a part of the Pub- 
lishers' series. 

If the translators had brought out the work on their own ac- 
count, and on their own responsibility^ they would have endea- 
voured to adapt it to Englidi use, by considerable omissions of 
matter which relates to merely German opinions and controver- 
sies, by condensation of the language, and by intimating their 
own occasional differences from the respected author. Under 
the actual circumstances, however, such a process of editing 
would manifestly be out of place. The book, therefore, is in- 
tended to represent the original as faithfully as possible, al- 
though the translators are' fully sensible that their task has 
been very inadequately performed. Their own very few ad- 
ditions are marked by brackets. 

Olshausen's Commentary extends to the Gospels, the Acts, 
and the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephe- 
sians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. In the following pages 
there will be found frequent references to portions which the 
author did not live to execute. It has seemed well to retain 



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▼Ill KOTB BT TRAN8LAT0BS. 

• 

these, as they may be useful in directing the reader to a com- 
parison of other commentaries ; and it appears better to men- 
tion here, once for all, the limits of the actually existing work, 
than to append to every such reference a statement that the 
design is incomplete. 

Four persons have been concerned in the translation ; their 
respective portions are as follows: — 



General Introduction, (pp. 1-24), 
Introduction to the Epistle (25-5S\ 
Commentary chap. i. 1, to v. 11 (69-183), 

, V. 12, to viii. 39 (184^-304), 
ix. 1, to ix. 30(304-342), 
ix. 30 to the end (342-431) 



Apbil, 1854. 



A. 
B. 
A. 
C. 
D. 
B. 



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GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



TO TBI 



EPISTLES OF ST PAUL. 



§. 2. OF THE LIFE* AND MimSTBT OF ST PAUL IN GEKEBAL. 

The connected consideration of the Epistles of St Paul calls 
for a summary view of his personal character in all its grandeur, 
as well as of the ways in which the Lord of the Church pre- 
pared this distinguished instrument for the execution of His 
purposes. For so entirely are St Paul's writings the proper 
growth of his own mind and spirit, almost, so to speak, living 
parts of his very self, that it would be most di£Scult to under- 
stand their peculiar nature without a clear perception of these 
points. 

St Paul was called, for the further spread of the gospel, to 
form the connecting link between the Roman- Grecian and the 
Jewish world ; it was necessary, therefore, that both heathen 
and Jewish habits of life and thought should bear a part in his 
education, in order that he might be able to understand and 
sympathise with both. Bom of Jewish parents^ and in later 
life brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, in the principles of the 
Pharisees, Jewish views and feelings certainly formed the 
ground-work and substance of his education. But, as his birth- 
place was Tarsus, where Grecian art and science flourished in a 

* On the life of St Paul, beddee the older workM of Peenon (AmudeB Paulini) 
and Paley (HonB Pauline), there have more recently appeared the writfaigs of 
Menken, '* Blicke. in das Leben des Apoetels Panlae, (Bremen, 1828), of Heuaen 
(Gottingen, 1880), of Sohrader (Leipa, 1880-82, ui. vota.), and of Sohott (Jena, 
1882). The work of Sohrader ia rich in new reaolte^ wUoh, howerer, oannot bear 



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2 GBVERAL nrrRODITGTION. 

higli degree,* this could not fail to exert an immediate effect 
upon the outward form which his Jewish principles assumed; 
indeed, that it did so, is still evident from the quotations made 
in his writings from Grecian poets. (Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 Cor. xv. 
S3 ; Tit. i. 12.) So that it is at least more than probable that, 
in the later part of his life, when he had escaped from the stem 
bondage of the narrow-minded system of the Pharisees, the 
views he had gained in his youth of the nobler aspects of Grecian 
life rose up again before his mind, and gave him that just ap- 
preciation of Gentile life, which is discernible in his writings. 

For just as Philo, and other Jews, who lived entirely amongst 
Greeks, as well as the earlier Fathers of the Church (as, for in- 
stance, Justin Martyr), regarded the better men amongst the 
Gentiles as by no means excluded from the blessings of the 
Divine Word, the Giver of the heavenly powers of holiness and 
the knowledge of God; even so did St Paul recognise within 
the heathen world a spiritual Israel ; that is, spirits nobler than 
the rest, who thirsted after truth and righteousness (Rom. ii. 
14, 15); and whom he sought, through the preaching of the 
gospel, to lead to the covenants of promise. Even the birth, 
therefore, of the Apostle, and the influences under which he 
grew up, were all so ordered by the providence of God, as best 
to train him for the teacher of the Gentiles (Galat. i. 15). For 
though at first sight it might appear that his connexion with 
the sect of the Pharisees would not conduce to that freedom of 
spirit which he afterwards attained to, yet, on closer considera- 
tion, we shall discern in this very circumstance the wisdom of a 
directing Providence. 

In the first place, there were found in this sect many ele- 
ments of truth, more especially moral earnestness and strictness 
of life; for it was in many only, but by no means in all, that 
these became hypocrisy. And, besides this, just such a nature 
as that of St Paul needed the fiill experience of aJl that one 
system had to offer, before he would become fully conscious of 
what was erroneous and one-sided in it, and embrace with com- 
plete devotion, and all the powers of his being, the comple- 

the test of an impartial oriticism. — Very interesting and infltructive are the re- 
marks of Tholnck in the ** Studien und Kritiken" of 1835. P. ii. p. 864, &c. 

* Strabo (Oeogr. xiv. p. 901, ed. AlmeloT.) plaoes Tarsus, in this respeot, on a 
lerel with Athens and Alexandria. 



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QEKEBAL IKTRODUOTION. S 

ineiitarj truth which that system obscured or denied. The 
energy and determination of his will made him carry out his 
principles as a Pharisee to a fanatical extreme against the 
Christians; and it was not till he had done this, that he was 
possessed by that deep longing which this system of life could 
not satisfy, alnd^ which led him to perceive the state into which 
he had fallen. The miraculous vision which was imparted to 
St Paul, and the startling nature of the announcement that he 
who was still the raging opposer of the Crucified, was hence* 
forth to be His messenger to the Ghentiles, are of course to be 
considered as the decisive causes of the sudden change in his 
spiritual state ; at the same time, we cannot doubt that his sincere 
striving after righteousness by the mere works of the law had 
already, though perhaps without his own consciousness, awakened 
in the depth of his soul the conviction, that his own strength 
could not attain to the fulfilment of righteousness ; nay, that it 
might even lead him, when his intention was good, into the 
most fearful errors. This conviction brought with it that which, 
though not the cause, was a necessary condition of his passing 
into the new life; — namely, the longing after something higher, 
and the power of appreciating such moral phenomena, as the 
ministry and death of Stephen, in which that for which he 
longed was presented to him in actual life. 

Without entering more at length, in this place, into the con* 
sideration of that event which made St Paul into that great in- 
strument in the kingdom of God, as which we honour him, let 
us notice, in the next place, the position which he obtained with 
respect to the Twelve and the Seventy, after his conversion. 
His relation to the Twelve it is of particular importance to deter- 
mine; for though the Seventy seem to come nearest him, in 
respect of their ministry, which, like his, was directed to the 
Gentile world,* yet these so entirely disappear as a body from 
the history after the resurrection of the Lord, that no trace of 
them remains. The separate members of it might indeed have 
been afterwards actively engaged in preaching the gospel, but 
no rivalry could have arisen between them as such and St Paul, 
since no one could doubt that St Paul was at least equal to 
them. But the case was quite different with respect to the 
twelve. These formed a strictly defined and limited body ; so 

* See in Uua Ck>mm. th« Notes to Luke x. 1. 



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4 OBNSBAL IHTBODUCTIOK^ 

that, eyen after the Ascension, the vacancy* which was occa-^ 
sioned in their number bj the apostacy of Judas Iscariot was 
immediately filled up by the express command of the Lord. 
(Acts i. 15, be) This body was, in fact, to contain within it- 
self the pillars and supports of the Church, in proof of which 
we find the twelve Apostles spoken of as the spiritual Fathers 
of the spiritual Israel. (Matt. xix. 28; Rev. iv. 10, xxi. 14.) 
8o that this question is immediately forced upon us: — in what 
relation did St Paul stand, according to the mind of the Lord, 
to this sacred Body of Twelve? Now, if we regard this question 
entirely apart from the individuals, as a matter determined by 
outward circumstances, it cannot be denied that the Twelve stand 
higher than St Paul, as those who had been with the Lord 
throughout this earthly pilgrimage (which St Peter considers 
as requisite in a true Apostle, Acts i. 21), and the special wit- 
nesses of the whole progress of the Redeemer's life on earth. 
They are, and must continue to be, the real foundations of the 
New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 14), so to speak, the roots of the 
whole tree, those who received from the Lord the first-fruits 
of the Spirit. St Paul might indeed justly call himself a witness 
of the Resurrection,'^ since he had beheld the crucified Jesus 
as the risen Lord, and had experienced in his own person His 
divine power; but he plainly had not the privilege of having 
seen the whole course of the life of Christ, and in this respect 
he stood, as it were, one step further from that throne of glory 
which was immediately surrounded by the Twelve. But if we 
turn our eyes from this view of the relation as it is in itself, and 
look at the men themselves as they appear in history, we must 
confess, on the other hand, that the Apostle Paul left all the 
Twelve far behind him, in that *' he (that is, the grace of Qod in 
him) laboured more abundantly than they all." (1 Cor. xv. 10; 

* It woald help us to miderstand the important pontion which we find James, 
the brother of the Lord, afterwards occupying, if we might assume that he was 
taken into the namber of the Twelve in the plaoe of James, who^ we learn (from 
Aots zii. 1)^ was beheaded. At the same time, we have no distinot historical 
evidence on this point ; and, besideai, he does not appear to have left Jerusalem, 
whilst the Apostles were to travel. 

+ It would indeed appear probable, from 2 Cor. v. l6, that Bt Paul had seen 
our Lord before His resurrection, on the occasion of his presence at the Passover in 
Jerusalem ; but certainly no nearer connexion bad subsisted between him »nd the 
Saviour. 



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GENERAL INTBODUCTIUK. 5 

2 Cor. xi. 23.) And this arose hj no means from his personal 
devotedness alone, but also in a great measure from circum- 
stances. For, since the vineyard of God's kingdom was taken 
away from the Jews, and opened to the Gentiles, and St Paul 
was called to labour especially amongst the latter, as the Twelve 
m the first instance amongst the former, it was natural that 
the ministry of St Paul should bear much richer fruit, and that 
all the other Apostles should in comparison with him fall into 
the back-ground. From this we may likewise easily perceive 
how the relation of the gospel to the outyirard institutions of 
the Old Testament, and the admission of the Gentiles into the 
Church without observing these, should have become plain to the 
Apostle Paul, at an earlier period, and more completely than to 
any of the other Apostles — more especially than to St Peter, who 
was called to labour immediately amongst the Jews, and who was 
designed to represent, as it were, the element of stability in the 
Church. In conse(]fuence, therefore, of this state of things, the 
Apostle, whilst standing on a level with the Twelve, was also en- 
tirely independent of them, and occupied a position of his own, 
as called immediately by the Lord to be the Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles. (Acts xxvi. 1 7.) And this is a point on which St Paul 
often found it necessary to insist in his arguments with his op- 
ponents, who wished to impugn his authority as an Apostle. 
(See notes on Galat. ii. 9.) In doing so he laid particular stress 
upon the fact, that he did not in any way receive his knowledge 
of the gospel from the Twelve, or from any other Christian, but 
immediately from the Lord Himself. (See the notes on Galat. i. 
12.) Now, as regards the purely spiritual part of the gospel, 
there is no difficulty in conceiving how St Paul could have made 
this his own without any instruction from man. For the Holy 
Ghost, who was impart^ to him, filled his inner man as an all- 
pervading light, and made plain to him, through his belief in 
Jesus as the Messiah, the whole of the Old Testament, in which 
all the germs of the New wore already laid down. In the Spirit, 
who is absolute truth (1 John- v. €), was given the assured con- 
viction of the truth of the gospel, and insight into its meaning, 
in details. With regard, however, to the historical side of Chris- 
tianity, the case appears to be difierent; and yet there are 
points connected apparently altogether with this (as, for ex- 
ample, the institution of the Lord's Supper, 1 Cor. xi. 23, &c.), 



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6 OEKBBAL INTB0DV0TI09. 

of which the Apostle aBserts that he had received them immedi- 
atelj from the Lord. Now, we should undoubtedly be runniDn^ 
into an erroneous extreme, if we were to assume that aU histori- 
cal particulars in the life of our Lord were imparted to him by 
revelation. The general outlines of Christ's outward life, the 
history of His miracles, of His journeys, and what belongs to 
them, were no doubt related to him by Ananias or other Chris- 
tians. But whatever in that life was necessarily connected with 
the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, as, for instance, the institu- 
tion of the Sacraments, the Resurrection, and similar points, 
came, no doubt, to the Apostle in an extraordinary manner, by 
immediate revelation of the Lord;* so as to accredit him as an 
independent witness, not only before the world, but also to be- 
lievers. No one could come forward and say, that what St Paul 
knew of the gospel had been received through him. For it was 
from no man, but from the highest Teacher Himself, that he had 
received as well the commission to preach, as also the essential 
facts of the gospel, and the Holy Spirit who gives light and life 
to those facts. 

By this, however, it is not intended to deny that there was a 
development in the new life of St Paid; though assuredly (as 
will be shown more at length in the following paragraphs), 
no further change of doctrinal views could have taken place in 
him. But he himself doubtless advanced gradually from child- 
hood to youth, and then to manhood in Christ. And so, when 
the Apostle came forward as a teacher at Damascus immedi- 
ately after his conversion (Acts ix. 19), it was but the expres* 
sion of the true feeling of the necessity which lay upon him 
At once to bear open witness to the change which, through 
God's grace, had taken place in him. But he himself, no doubt, 
soon began to perceive that, before he could labour with a bless- 
ing, it was very necessary that his inner life should be much 
deepened, and more thoroughly worked out. In consequence 
of his perception of this truth, he retired into Arabia for three 
years — a time which, it is probable, he spent chiefly in a tho- 
rough study of the Scriptures. ^ In the midst of these studies, 

* According to the acoount given in the Acts, St. Paul was more than once 
gradonaly honoured "trith a yinon of the Lord. (See Acts zxii. 17, xziii. 11.) 

t See, on this point» the remarks on Acts ix. 20, etc. St Paul himself enjoins 
Timothj (1 Tim. ill 6) that no new oonrert shall be a bishop. Is it, then, likely 



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QENEBAL INTRODUCTION. 7 

probably, the enlightening of the Holy Ghost first revealed to 
him, as a connected whole, the great purpose of the Lord with 
respect to the human race; and now inwardly ripened, and 
firmly established in true principles of doctrine and life, he 
went forth into the great field of labour which the Lord had 
appointed him. As the waters of a stream are spread abroad, 
so did he spread abroad, beyond the narrow depths in which 
they had hitherto been gathered together, the quickening 
powers contained in .the new doctrine; and the whole heathen 
world, which, left to itself, had come nigh to entire corruption, 
was made fruitful as by the fresh springs of an heavenly life. 
Now, as an energetic character, as one whose whole work lay 
out of himself, the Apostle was in danger of forgetting him- 
self in his care for others; or, at least, of letting his incessant 
labours drain and exhaust his inward life. In order to pre- 
vent this, we perceive, on the one hand, the grace of God effec- 
tually renewing him with the powers of the higher world (2 
Cor. xii.), jsince the mighty labours in which he was engaged 
had not been undertaken by him on his own impulse, but had 
been expressly assigned to him by the Lord. And, on the 
other hand, God so ordered his circumstances as to afford sea* 
sons of rest to his spirit; to which belong, for instance, the 
imprisonments which he had to undergo. In such times of 
lonely stillness his spiritual life was more fully developed within 
itself, so that the preacher of the world might not preach to 
others and be himself a castaway. 

The last step in the Apostle Paul's progress towards perfec- 
tion must finally have been taken on the occasion of his mar- 
tyrdom. That which St John experienced inwardly in the 
spirit, St Peter and St Paul were to experience also in the 
body.* It was in the centre of the heathen world, in Rome, 
during thei first great persecution which befel the Church of 
God, that St Paul died, beheaded, as a Roman citizen, with 
the sword. The fact itself of his death is established by so 
many and ancient witnesses, (amongst whom the presbyter 
Gains, and the bishop Dionysius of Corinth, are the oldest. 
See Euseb. H. E. ii. 25), that it cannot be questioned. Tliere 

that he would hare acted in oppoeition to his own rulet or would his wonderftil 
oonveTsioo have exempted him from a rule to whioh even the Twelve w^jre tabjeoil 
* See more on this subject in the notes on John xxi. 30^ etc. 



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8 GEHB&AL INTBOOTOnON. 

remaiiiSy however, an unoertainiy as to the year of hiB death, 
because in this is involved the donbtfiil question oonoeming St 
Paul's second imprisonment at Rome.* This question must 
not occupy us till later; and I only here ren^ark, in pasdng, 
that I think it necessary to assume a second imprisonment of 
St Paul in Rome, and cannot therefore place his death earlier 
than the last year of the reign of Nero (▲. d. 67 or 68.) 



§ 2. THB FEOUUA&mBS OF ST PjLVL'S OHABAOTBB.f 

That St Paul was one of those energetic characters of whom, 
in different ages of the Church, the Lord has taken so many in 
some marked manner to Himself, is so evident that no one can 
well fail to perceive it. Whatever a man may think of the 
truths taught by the Apostle, even the sceptic must confess that 
a powerful and earnest spirit i breathes through his writings, full 
of the glow of enthusiasm for that which he held as true, and of 
burning zeal to communicate what he knew to all. But it is of 
the greatest consequence to obtain a more accurate knowledge 
of the peculiarities of St Paul's mind; because the nature of 
his writings and doctrine will be much more easily comprehended 
if we keep before our minds a clear image of their author. 

Now the simplest way of obtaining an insight into the peculiar 
rities of St Paul's character is by comparing him with St John, 
the Evangelist. Contemplation (TtSietg), in the highest sense of 
that word, we found to be the peculiar feature of St John's life.§ 
The whole bent of his mind was inward and meditative. His 
soul was entirely receptive, wholly occupied with gazing upon the 

* Compare on ibis point, in Hemaen's Life of St Twal, the oondnding oonnden- 
tiont on his death. 

f On the aabjaot of the following pangnphB, oompare tbe eeoay of Neander on 
tfie Apoatle St Pan], in his History of the Apostolic Age (Geschiohte des Apos- 
tolischen Zeitalters, yoI. ii. pp. 501, sqq.) 

t We are easily tempted to picture to ourselyee St Paul's personal appearance, 
as rery poweifbl, or eyen ooloasal ; bnt, acoording to 2 Cor. x. 10, jost the oontraiy 
was the case: hi the dialogue Philopatria (which, however, to be snre, was not 
written eailier than the fourth oentaiy), St Paul is called, «The Qalileas with 
the bald head, and the hooked nose." (See Tholnck's Bemarks, noticed at the 
beginning of this Introduction, in which he describes the tsmperaineiit of the 
ApostlA as the oholerico-melaneholic. 

§ See the Introduction to the Gospel of St John. 



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GENBRAL IKTROI>UGTIOK. 9 

eternal ideas of truth. Tlius outward labours were not so pro- 
minent in his case, and the flower of his life was prophecy. The 
image presented to us by St Paul is very different from this. He 
was not, of course, without that living knowledge of the truth 
which comes by contemplation ; but in his way of treating reli- 
gion he gives a prominence, as St John never does, to the exer- 
cise of the intellect, and exhibits the characteristic acuteness of 
his understanding in working out the ideas received by the spi- 
ritual sense into distinct conceptions. It was through this 
talent for reasoning that St Paul became the author of a pre- 
dsely defined doctrinal language, and the founder of Theology, 
as a science, in the Church of Christ. In him is represented 
the necessity of science for the Church, even in the very narrow 
circle of those on whom the Holy Spirit was first poured forth.* 
And the same character of mind, which made him express his 
religious ideas in a scientific form, made him also, in the fruitful 
labours of his outward life, develop especially the gift of wisdom 
(1 Cor: xii. 8). In addition to the energy which belonged to 
him as a man of action, we may discern in his activity the pe- 
culiar faculty of using the most difficult and complicated worldly 
relations for the purest and noblest purposes of the kingdom of 
God, so that we must distinctly recognise in this a distinguish- 
ing feature of his character. This is very clear, if we compare 
him with St Peter ; for in the latter there was no less energy, 
but it seems in him to be fettered with a stiffness which hin- 
dered its adapting itself to circumstances ; and though this was 
quite in keeping with his character, which was firm as a rock, 
yet we cannot mistake the contrast it affords to St Paul's. 

This bent of St Paul's mind influenced, as we might have ex- 
pected, his whole apprehension of the gospel. While St John 

* It IB in this dideotio oharacter of St FrnVs duoooTM that we may fiod the 
reason that Longinus plaoee the Apoetle on a level with the fiEunoos Greek orators, 
if, at least, the fiunons passage of that rhetorician, in which he makes mention 
of the Apostle, is really genuine. Besides vigorons powers of reasoning, the might 
of deep oonviction, and the glow of enthusiasm, manifest themselves in St Bku1*s 
writings, so that Jerome (in bis work against Jovinian) declares " quotieaounqoe 
Paulum apostolum lego, non verba audire miht videor, sed tonitura." (See Fladi 
olav. S.S. Basil, 1667, p. 887, sqq., and the works of Bauer, PhUologia Thucydi- 
deo-Paulina (Habs 1778), Logica Paulina fib. 1774), Rhetorica PauUna fib. 1782). 
Also Ttoohimer's treatise in his djmso. aoad., edited by Winier. Ldps. 1829. 
Lastly, Tholuok's Remarks, pp. 887, iqq., as noticed at p. 1 of this Introduction. 



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] QBHBBAL IITTRODUCTION. 

receiyed it more, as it is in itself, as an object of contemplation, 
and so made what is revealed to us of God and Christ the centre 
of his doctrine; St Paul, on the other hand, looked at the gos- 
pel more directly in its bearing upon himself, and so made what 
is told us of man's nature, and of the method of his salvation, 
the prominent points of his theology. In the experience of his 
own life he had seen the sinful state of the human heart, as well 
as man's inability to deliver himself from it, and the consequent 
need of a. remedy which should come from God, such as was 
realised in Christ; and from this living source his whole system 
of doctrine springs forth and spreads itself. The Western cha- 
racter of St Paul's mind is seen in this conception of the gospel 
as clearly as in the bent of those two great kindred spirits to 
his, St Augustin and Luther, in whom indeed his own course 
of education was repeated. In St John, on the other hand, is 
shown the Eastern spirit, which loses sight of itself in the con- 
templation of that which is presented to it of God, and which, 
through all the developments of doctrine in later ages, ever 
dwelt by preference on what is revealed to us of God and Christ. 
So that though there is no specific difference, no actual contra- 
diction between the teaching of St Paul and St John, yet these 
two Apostles do already exhibit in themselves the two chief 
tendencies of the later development of doctrine. As the grain of 
com, though one, opens itself into two halves on the unfolding 
of the germ, or as the magnet, from one middle point, discharges, 
at the same time, a positive and a negative power ; so the two 
chief tendencies of the Church, the Eastern and the Western, 
which mutually complete each other, are represented in the 
earliest ages by the two great Apostles, St John and St Paul. 

From the vigorous and decided manner in which the Apostle 
both taught and acted, we might at once conclude that it was 
not likely that any considerable change would take place in his 
convictions, after that first great spiritual conversion, by which 
the fierce opponent of Jesus Christ became his fearless witness. 
After his admission into the Church of Christ, he no doubt early 
formed for himself a consistent view of Christian truth, and 
therefore expresses himself, even in his latest epistles, in the same 
way as in his earliest; from the Epistles to the Thessalonians 
down to those to Timothy and Titus, we find the same fundamen- 
tal truths ever recurring. In one single point only can we discern 



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GSNEBAL INTRODUOTIOV. 1 1 

in his later writings a different form of doctrinal statement from 
that contained in his earlier epistles ; that is, in his views con^ 
coming the second coming of Christ. In his earliest epistles, 
St Paul expresses a hopd that he may himself live until the 
time of the Lord's return (see 1 Thess. iv.; 2 Cor. v.), but in 
the latter he has renounced this hope, and longs to depart and 
to be with Christ (Phil. i. 23). The modification of his views 
in this point may, however, be easily explained, if we consider 
the peculiar nature of the subject. The time of Christ's second 
coming was, according to our Lord's own teaching, to remain un- 
certain (see Matt. xxiv. 36, and the remarks on the passage) ; St 
Paul himself, therefore, neither knew nor could know this time 
(Acts i. 7). Whilst, therefore, the fervour of his love made him 
at first regard all things as near, and long after the kingdom of 
Gtod upon earth as the highest good; at a later period the great 
crisis of the Advent retreated, in his apprehension, to a greater 
distance. We cannot therefore say that St Paul's convictions 
on this point of doctrine underwent any change ; but only that 
his own individual position with respect to the object presented 
in this doctrine was altered. If, however, the above observations 
show that the substance of St Paul's doctrine remained un- 
changed, yet we may certainly observe a constant progress in 
the merely formal development of it; for we cannot fail to per- 
ceive, that his theological language is more full, and his con- 
ceptions more complete and symmetrical, in the later epistles, 
especially those to the Philippians and Colossians, than in the 
earlier. 

St Paul not only kept aloof from the gnosHccU tendency (the 
relative truth of which is represented by St John), and vigor- 
ously combated the errors into which, as is plain from the 
epistles to the Colossians, to Timothy, and Titus, it soon led 
some of its followers; but also from that judaico-materialist 
tendency, which showed itself in so many of those who had left 
the sect of the Pharisees to join the Christian Church. As a 
tree torn from its original soil, and transplanted with all its 
roots and fibres into other ground, such had been the change 
effected in St Paul at his conversion ; and he therefore trans- 
ferred nothing of the one-sidedness and narrowness of the 
system of the Pharisees into his views of Christian doctrine. 
The attempts which have been made to explain many leading 



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12 GBNXBAL INTBODUGTION. 

features of his system from his Jewish views of life,* show just 
as little knowledge of the human heart, as those which seek to 
account for Augustin's doctrine by his former Manich»an errors, 
and for Luther's by his education as a monk. We find, on the 
contrary, that men of energetic character are generally inclined 
after such transitions to despise too much the systems from 
which they have escaped, and to reject even what is true in 
them, rather than to transfer anything belonging to them into 
their new line of thought and life. But from this error, into 
which Marcion and his disciples fell, St Paul was preserved by 
that fundamental Christian view, of which the Holy Spirit had 
led him to see the importance, and which regards the Old Tes- 
tament as divine in its nature, and containing, under a typical 
and prophetical veil, all the essential truths of Christianity in 
the germ. He perceived that the error lay entirely in the rigid 
spirit of the Pharisees, who wished to have the husk of the 
letter regarded as the substance of the spirit itself St Paul 
therefore represented that true and just mean, which lies be* 
tween the false spiritualism of the Gnostics on the one hand, 
and the materialism of the Jews on the other, whilst he held 
the true Scriptural doctrine of the reality and importance of 
both spirit and matter, in their proper relations to each other; 
and this in such a manner as fully to maintain his balance, 
without leaning t either error. In the theology of St John, 
likewise, the same correct views of the relation of matter and 
spirit cannot be mistaken, although in his gospel and epistles 
we find an inclination towards genuine spiritualism, of course 
without making any concession to Gnostic errors: it was only 
in the Apocalypse that St John found the opportunity of bring- 
ing forward in greater prominence that side of the gospel which 
presents to us the material and spiritual in their connexion; 
and therefore any future author who wishes to give a just view 
of St John's doctrine, must consider the ideas of the Apocalypse 
as complementary of those of his remaining works. 

* We need hardly remark that we do not therefore mean to deny that the hia- 
tory of Jewish dootrine furnishes as with a key to the further understanding of 
numy particakir statements in St Paul's writings; we only wish to maintain, that 
the essential points of his system are the results of his own inward experience; the 
▼lews which he entertained at an earlier period of his life at most only affiaoted iba 
form in which he presented the truth. 



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aB5ERA.L INTBODUCTION, 13 

TIlis well-balanced character of St Paul's whole disposition, as 
well as of his theology, is also the reason why the feeling of the 
Church, guided in this matter also into the truth by the Spirit of 
Christ working in her, has regarded the collection of his epistles, 
in which'every thought is expressive of that correct mean which he 
preserved in his doctrine, as the crown of the canon of the New 
Testament. Whilst every separate gospel found its necessary com* 
plement in other gospels, and altogether form the roots of the 
New Testament, whilst the Acts of the Apostles only constitutes, 
so to speak, the stem, which unites the roots with the crown of 
the tree, — St Paul, without laying claim to any authority in point 
of doctrine independent of the rest, stands before us in all the 
riches of his personal endowments, spreading around on all sides 
the fruitfulness of his inward life. He was the first, in whom 
was reflected on all sides, as far as was possible in one man, not 
of course the person of the Lord himself, but that Spirit which 
he had bestowed upon the Church; and this universality of 
character and gifts of grace made him capable, through the powers 
of the same Spirit, of so unfolding the peculiar nature of the 
principles of Christianity both in his doctrine and in his life, as 
to represent it to the Gentile world almost in his sole person. 
Whatsoever, therefore, appeared in the gospels as a bud but par* 
tially disclosed, and indeed in the synoptical evangelists mani- 
festly engrafted upon Old Testament principles, — that the 
Apostle displays before our minds openly and freely, and in some 
parts of his writings, for instance, in the Epistles to the Romans 
and Galatians, in so strictly didactic a form, that it commends 
itself as much by the cogency of the argumenti to ike thoughtful^ 
OB to the feeUng mind by that glow of enthusiasm which breathes 
throughout his statements. If, however, we compare the col- 
lection of the Catholic epistles (with which we must also class 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, as proceeding to the same starting- 
point), with the Epistles of St Paul, we shall perceive that the 
latter are more calculated for the beginning of the spiritual life, 
whilst the concluding writings of the New Testament tend more 
directly to the perfection of the fruits of regeneration in holiness 
and sanctification. Accordingly, if in the epistles of St Paul 
the central ideas, around which he considers everything to move» 
Bxe faith in opposition to the works of the law, juetifiaUion and 
atonement^ and we cannot fail to perceive the earnestness with 



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14 OBHEKAL INTRODVOTIOK 

whicli he labours to impress these deeply on the minds of his hear- 
ers and readers; the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic 
epistles, on the other hand, setting out with these doctrines as 
their admitted foundation, teach from them how the man is to 
perfect holiness in the fear of God. The latter epistles, therefore, 
seem to bear more of a legal character, and on that account found 
much less access to the mind of the Church than those of St 
Paul. They demand, however, also for their right comprehension 
a higher degree of development of the regenerate soul ; and be- ' 
cause this was often deficient, a correct perception of the diffi- 
culties of those writings deterred many expositors from attempt- 
ing to explain them. The different collections, therefore, which 
compose the New Testament canon, each proceed from a different 
point of view, and on this very account mutually complete each 
other, furnishing satisfaction for every stage of advancement, 
and excitement to press forward to higher perfection. (See 
Comm. P. I. Introd. § 2.) 

§ 3. OBDEB OF SUCCESSION OF ST PAUL's EPISTLES. 

From the thoroughly practical character of St Paul's life, we 
might at once expect that his productions as an author would 
have nothing of an abstract form about them. And in fact we 
neither possess any treatises by him on religious subjects, nor 
have we any reason to suppose that he ever wrote any. His 
letters are all suggested by existing circumstances, and are there- 
fore adapted to the most particular occasions of actual life. On 
this account, everything in them is individual, marked, traced 
with strong and definite outlines, and yet, by means of that 
spiritual principle which animated the Apostle, truths of the 
most universal bearing are reflected in those special cases, and 
give to all his remarks and counsel a meaning and importance 
for every age. In what manner those epistles of the Apostle 
which have come down to us were formed into one collection, it 
is now impossible to make out on satisfactory historical grounds. 
We find, however, in the hands of Marcion the Gnostic, a collec- 
tion of ten epistles of St Paul, the three pastoral epistles to 
Timothy and Titus being wanting, whilst in the Catholic Church 
the collection consisted of thirteen epistles (that to the Hebrews 
not being included) : this might then be regarded as the original 



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GENERAL INTRODITGTIoy. 1 5 

neudeus of the collection of epistles^ to which the pastoral epistles 
were added at a later period. And yet if we consider the matter 
more closely, this does not appear probable, and we may there- 
fore suppose that the pastoral epistles were only accidentally 
omitted from the canon of Marcion. For we find that the order 
of succession of the epistles, according to Marcion's arrangement 
was an entirely different one from that of the collection sanc- 
tioned by the Catholic Church ; but if the latter had only inserted 
the pastoral epistles into Marcion's collection, the order would 
have remained unaltered. The cause of the discrepancy of the 
order was, moreover, occasioned by the adoption of an entirely 
distinct principle of arrangement ; the Marcionites arranging the 
epistles, as we shall soon prove, according to their chronological 
succession ; the Catholics, in the first place, according to the im- 
portance of the churches to which the writings were addressed, and 
then according to the dignity of the private persons who had re- 
ceived them. This appears most plainly in the case of the Epistle 
to Philemon; this letter would seem, at first sight, tobolong to the 
Epistle to the Colossians, where Marcion has also placed it, but in 
the collection of the Catholic canon, it followed last of aU, as being 
the shortest epistle directed to a private person. The Marcionite 
collection was most probably first formed in Asia Minor. In its 
composition; the framers of it either proceeded on the principle of 
omitting letters to private persons, and only admitting epistles to 
whole communities (the letter to Philemon finding a place in the 
collection merely as an appendage to the epistle to the Colossians) 
or they were unacquainted with the pastoral epistles. On the 
other hand, the Catholic collection of St Paul's epistles probably 
had its rise in Rome; and the authors of it followed the order of 
importance of the communities to which the epistles were addres- 
sed, and also admitted such private letters as seemed to be of 
value for the Church at large. The tendency of the Roman 
community to pay considerable attention to matters relating to 
the outward constitution of the Church answers remarkably well 
to this supposition with respect to the pastoral letters, and there- 
fore also increases the probability that the Catholic canon of St 
Paul's epistles was formed at this place. 

In our investigation of the order of succession of St Paul's 
epistles, we shall, however, not only exclude the Epistle to the He- 
brews (which does not proceed from the Apostle himself, although 



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16 



OEHEBAL IKTBODUCTIOH. 



it was composed under his sanction*), but also the epistles to Ti- 
mothy and Titus; for in these such complicated relations require 
to be discussed, that they require a distinct consideration. We 
have therefore, in the first place, only to do with the order of suc- 
cession of those ten epistles of St Paul, which eyen Marcion in* 
eluded in his collection. With respect to the years in which these 
are supposed to have been composed, a great discrepancy doubt- 
less exists in the dates assigned by the learned, because the chro- 
nology of the history of the apostles in general, and of St Paul's 
life in particular, is so very uncertain. But our present subject 
is properly only the order in which the epistles follow upon one 
another; and in the determination of this point, the views taken 
are by no means so widely different, as in deciding the years un- 
der which every single epistle ought to be arranged, because this 
last question must always depend upon the chronological system 
adopted by the particular investigation, a circumstance, however, 
which affords much assistance in judging of the accuracy of any 
theory as to the order of succession of the epistles in general. 
In order to facilitate our survey of the different views which 
have been taken on this subject, we give, in the following tabular 
form, the opinions of three scholars belonging respectively to 
the earliest, modern^ and most recent times. 



Bicireion.jr 



MiMbm. 



Schroder, 



GalatiaDB 


I. Thessalonians 


I. Corinthians 


I. CoriDtbians 


II. Thenaloniane 


II. Ck>rinihians 


II. Corinthjarii 


G«1atiaoB 


RomaoB 


Bomant 


I. Cormthians 


I. TheaBalcmiana 


I. TheflsalonUns 


II. CorinihiMis 


II. Tbeflaaloniana 




Bomans 


Ephesiana 




Ephenant 


Coloaaianfl 


ColOMMM 


Colofliianfl 


Philemon 


Philemon 


Philemon 


Philippians 


Philippians 


Philippians 


Galatians 



* See the two orittcal treatises on the subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews in 
Olshansen's Opnscola Theokgica. — [llie anthor's theory is, that it was written by 
the clergy in some church in which St Paul was sojouniing, and that the Apostle 
approTed it when finished. Thus he thinks to account at once for the connexion of 
St Paul's name with the epistle, and for the difference from the style of his undoubt- 
ed compositions. (Opuscula Berol., 1884, pp. 91-122.) The reader may be referred 
to Dr MiU*s remarks, Prsaleotio Tfaeotogicty Cantabr., 1848, pp. 6, 7, and note 
p. 82. B.] 

t See Bpiphanins. hear, xlii., c. 9. 



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OVHBRAL IKTBODUCTIOV. 17 

In the first place, from this table we cannot but perceive that 
as we hare already mentioned above, Marcion could not liave 
placed the epistles in this order ctccidentaUy ; it corresponds too 
exactly with the results of the most industrious critical researches, 
not to have proceeded from the design of arranging the epistles 
according to the date of their composition. The conclusions of the 
most recent examiner, Schrader, coincide exactly with Marcion's 
scheme, except with respect to the epistle to the Galatians. 
Certainly, with respect to this composition, the discrepancy is so 
much the greater; for whilst Marcion assigns to it the first 
place, Schrader places it last. Eichhom, in this case, agrees 
rather with Marcion than with Schrader, in that he places the 
epistle to the Galatians, in point of time, before those to the Cor- 
inthians and Romans; at the same time, he differs from both in 
respect to the epistles to the Thessalonians, for whilst they put 
these letters immediately after the epistle to the Romans, Eich« 

horn considers them to have been written first of al]. Since 

more exact information, with regard to the dates (jif^e'cCknipO' 
sition of the separate epistles, may best be prefix^ to "th^ 8|^- 
eial introductions devoted to each, we will only bi^^y con^dwr' 
in this place the epistles of which the date is questidisiable, those 
to the Thessalonians and Qalatians, in respect of the time of 
their composition, in order to advance a prdiminary justifica- 
tion of our adoption of the order assigned by Eichhom, in favour 
of which Hemsen and the majority of modern scholars have also 
decided. 

The peculiarity of Schroder's arrongement of the epistles of 
St Paul is founded on a theory propounded by this scholar, ae 
cording to which the Apostle made a journey to Jerusalem after 
leaving Ephesus, (where, according to Acts xix., he passed more 
than two years). Hethinks that this journey took place in the 
interval between the events recorded in the 20th and 21st verses 
of this chapter. In consequence of this journey, in which he 
supposes St Paul to have visited Thessalonica, Schrader places 
the composition of the epistles to the Thessalonians at a period 
subsequent to that of those to the Romans and Corinthians. 
Schott has, however, already proved at length,* that nothing 

* See Sohott's Programnii '' Isagoge hbtorico-oritioa in utimmque PauU ad 
Theesalouioenses epistolam." Jenss, 1880. And the same author's "Erorterung 
einiger wichtigen chronolog. Punkte im Leben PaoU/' (Jena, 1882), p. 48, eto. 

B 



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18 GBNEBAL INTBODVfTIOlf. 

can be found in the epistle to the Thcssalonians which speaks of 
their having been written at this later time, but rather that 
every thing indicalbs that they were written in Corinth immedi- 
ately after the first visit of St Paul to Thessalonica (Acts xvii.), 
on the occasion of the first planting of that church. The epistles 
to the Thessalonians must, therefore, necessarily be reckoned 
amongst the earliest, and it is a decided mistake to place them 
after the epistle to the Romans, if only for this reason, that Paul 
did not write the latter until he was at Corinth on his third mis- 
sionary journey. But Schrader's hypothesis, with respect to the 
epistles to the Galatians, is even more capricious. His assumed 
journey from Ephesus to Jerusalem is in fact supposed to be 
that mentioned, Galat. ii. 1, from which it would no doubt fol- 
low that the composition of the letter belongs to a much later 
period, since the Apostle, in the course of that chapter, men- 
tions many other occurrences in his life. But the very circum- 
stance that Barnabas accompanied the Apostle to Jerusalein, in 
the journey alluded to, Galat. ii. 1, whilst it is certain from the 
account in Acts zv. S6, etc., that they had parted from one an- 
other long before St Paul went to Ephesus, is a convincing argu- 
ment against this wholly unfounded theory; and Schrader's 
assertion that the diiFerence between St Paul and Barnabas had 
previously been made up is likewise founded upon mere hypo- 
thesis. For though I am veiy far from accounting for this sepa- 
ration, as Scholt appears to do (Eiwterung, p. 64«, etc.) by sup- 
posing a discrepancy in their views, and am much rather in- 
clined to assume merely outward reasons as the cause of its con- 
tinuance, yet the circumstance, that after Acts xv. 36, etc., 
Barnabas is no more mentioned in connexion with St Paul, is 
decisive against Schrader's assumption.* But the arguments, 
which Schrader thinks he can adduce from the contents of the 
epistle to the Galatians in favour of his hypothesis, are so com- 
pletely overthrown by Scholt in detail (p. 65, etc.) that it is enough 
in this place to refer to the latter writer's treatise. Schrader 
thinks especially that he discovers in the passage, Galat. vi. 17, 

* The paraage 1 Cor. iz. 6, ia the only one whiob appears to support a later 
ooming together of Barnabas and St Paol ; if we are not willing to admit that 
Barnabas was se7>arated from St Paul in Corinth. He must, however, at all 
event have visited this laij, according to the passage above quoted, after the foun- 
dation of the Christian oommunity there. 



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OBNBHAL INTRODVOrrOX. 19 

a declaration of the Apostle, that he is looking forward to the 
sentence of death, and, therefore, concludes that the composi- 
tion of this letter must be referred to quite the end of St Paul's 
life. But how entirely imfounded is such an explanation of the 
text will appear hereafter from our commentary upon it. Edh- 
ler* also has made a similar attempt to refer the composition of 
the epistle to the Galatians to a later period ; but he does not 
understand the journey to Jerusalem mentioned in Galat. ii. 1, 
like Schrader, of a separate journey made from Ephesus, but 
thinks that he discovers in it the journey recorded in Acts xviii. 
22. No doubt, as I have already endeavoured to represent as 
probable in my commentary on the passage, St Paul did visit 
Jerusalem about that time, (which Scholt is mistaken in deny- 
ing, p. 37); but for the assumption that this journey is meant 
in Oalat. ii. 1, there is not a shadow of proof; it is much more 
more certain that it was that made from Antioch to the council 
of the Apostles, Acts xv. Much less, however, can we assent to 
Kohler's view, that St Paul first preached the gospel in Galatia on 
his journey through that province mentioned in Acts xviii. 23, 
since the words added in that passage, f^/tfnjp/^wv vdvrag rodg 
fjM^rirdi^ plainly express that the Apostle wished to confirm in 
the faith the churches which he had already founded in Galatia. 
(See Acts xvi. 6.) Since, moreover, this scholar can only give 
even a shadow of probability to his pq^ponement of the com- 
position of the epistle to the Galatians to the latest period of St 
Paul's life, by means of a conjecture and hypothesis heaped upon 
his first assumption, we cannot feel ourselves called upon by his 
arguments to depart from that order of succession of the epistles 
of St Paul, which is now almost universally received. This is 
connected in the following manner with the principal events of 
St Paul's life, according to the chronology which we have 
adopted from Hug ; in this account, we must however, as we 
have already remarked, leave the pastoral epistles again un- 
touched, because they present peculiar difficulties as regards 
their insertion into the history of St Paul's life, and on that 
account demand a separate consideration. 

After St Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, (about 
the year 36 after the birth of Christ), he went to Arabia^ where 

* " Uber die Abfiissuugsceit der epistoliiohen Schriften dea N. T." L<iipz. 1880. 



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20 OENBRAL IKTBODUCTIOir. 

he remained three years. (Qalat. i. 1 7.) After this he returned 
to Damascus, but in this city he was persecuted by the Jews, 
and only escaped to Jerusalem with extreme difficulty (2 Cor. 
zi. 32. Acts ix. 24, 25). On this visit of St Paul to Jerusalem, 
Barnabas introduced the Apostle to St Peter and St James 
(Galat. i. 18, 19) ; he however only remained there fourteen 
days. On leaving Jerusalem, the Apostle repaired first to his 
native city Tarsus (Acts ix. 25, etc.), from whence Barnabas, 
who it appears was the first to discover his wonderful gift of 
teaching, fetched him away to Antioch, at which place, in the 
meantime, Christianity had also begun to spread amongst the 
heathen. (Acts xi. 19.) Tliis happened about a.d. 42. St Paul 
and Barnabas had been teaching together about a year in An- 
tioch when the great famine made its appearance in Palestine, 
in consequence of which they were both sent to Jerusalem (St 
Paul for the second time) as the bearers of a contribution to the 
necessities of the poor brethren at that place. Acts xi. 30. 
Perhaps, however, Paul himself did not go to Jerusalem, for it 
is not stated in the Acts that he did, and that difficult passage 
Galat. ii. 1, would render the supposition probable. After the 
accomplishment of this business, the people of Antioch expij^ssed 
a wish that the Gospel might be preached to the Gentiles in 
other countries also. The elders of the church thereupon chose 
St Paul and Barnabas^s their messengers to the heathen, and 
they accordingly entered upon their first missionary journey 
(about A.D. 45.) Their journey went first by Cyprus, through 
Pamphylia and Pisidia, and they then returned to Antioch by 
sea (Acts xiii. 5; xiv. 26.) The time of their return it is just 
as impossible to determine with any certainty, as the length of 
their subsequent stay at Antioch (Acts xiv. 28). At the same 
time, there can be no doubt that the iMrd journey of St Paul 
to Jerusalem, occasioned by the disputes concerning the recep- 
tion of Gentile converts into the Church, formed the conclusion 
of this residence (Galat. ii. 1). The apostles and the presbyters 
of the Church at Jerusalem examined into this question together, 
and after hearing the reports of St Paul and Barnabas, decided 
in favour of the milder course, according to which the heathen 
were not obliged to submit to circumcision and observe the 
whole law This important transaction, the so-called apostolic 



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ORNEBAL IKTBODUCTION. , 21 

council (Acts xv.), happened a.d. 52 or 53. Immediately after 
the return of St Paul from Jerusalem to Antioch, about a.d. 53, 
he entered upon his second mimonary journey, which he under* 
took in company with Silas. On this journey he first of all 
visited again the churches he had already planted, and then 
proceeded to Gralatia, and by Troas to Macedonia (Acts xvi. 9). 
Philippi was the first city of this country in which St Paul 
taught, but this place he was soon obliged to leave in conse* 
quence of a tumult stirred up against him by the employers of 
a female ventriloquist, and to betake himself to Thessalonica 
(Acts xvi. 1 2, etc.) The apostle was only able to preach here a 
few weeks, yet even in this short time a Christian community was 
formed there. But a tumult occasioned by the Jews compelled 
St Paul soon to fly from Thessalonica, and to go to Athens by 
Berea, to which latter place his enemies continued to follow 
him (Acts xvii. 1). His companions, Silas and Timothy, he 
had left behind him at Berea, but soon called upon him to foU 
low him to Athens, probably that he might obtain intelligence 
of the churches in Macedonia (Acts xvii. 15). However, he 
immediately despatched Timothy to Thessalonica, in order that 
he might establish in the faith that young and hardly-pressed 
community (1 Thess. iii. 2). In the meantime the Apostle, 
after the dismissal of Timothy, left Athens, where he does not 
appear to have laboured long, and repaired to Corinth (Acts 
xviii. 1). Here he met with the famous Jewish family of 
Aquila and Priscilla, which had been expelled from Rome by 
Claudius; and as Aquila practised the same handicraft which 
St Paul had learnt, the latter undertook to work with him, and 
since his preaching produced great effect, remained there a year 
and a half. By means of the fact here mentioned, the expul- 
sion of the Jews from Rome by Claudius, we also obtain pretty 
exact information with respect to the date of St Paul's residence 
at Corinth ; it must have been in the year of our Lord 54 and 
65. During this his stay at Corinth, it would appear that the 
Apostle commenced his labours as a writer, at least nothing 
remains to us of any letters which he may previously have in- 
dited. In fact, when Timothy had returned from his mission 
to Thessalonica, St Paul wrote his First EpisUe to the Thesaalo- 
niana, and soon afterwards the Second, likewise from Corinth, 



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2t OENBRAL INTRODUCTION. 

All his apostolical epistles belong, therefore, to the later and 
more mature period of his life, a circumstance which is certainly 
not to be regarded as accidental. 

After the lapse of a year and a half St Paul left Corinth iu 
the company of Aquila and Prisoilla, in order to go up to Jeru- 
salem to keep a vow (Acts zviii. 18.) In his voyage he touched 
at Ephesus, without, however, being able to make any long stay 
there, as he wished to be at Jerusalem for the feast of Pente- 
cost. At the same time he promised to return thither as soon 
as possible; and, in accordance with this promise, immediately 
after a brief sojourn in Jerusalem (his fourth visit to that city, 
see Commentary on Acts xviii. 22) and in Antioch, he set off 
again to proceed to Ephesus; this forms the commencement of 
his third missionary journey (about a.d. 67). The Apostle con- 
tinued in this important city two years and three months, 
and wrote from hence in the first place to the Galatians (per- 
haps as early as a.d. 57, certainly not later than the beginning 
of 68) ; he had visited them on his journey to Ephesus, and had 
perhaps, even on this occasion, remarked sundry errors, or at 
all events had soon after heard of such. Next the Apostle 
began his correspondence with the Corinthian Church, writing 
likewise from Ephesus, in consequence of the unfavourable ac- 
counts which he had received of them also. The First Epistle 
of St Paul to the Corinthians is lost (1 Cor. v. 9), but after it 
was sent, new reports arrived from Corinth, which caused the 
Apostle to send thither Timothy and Erastus (1 Cor. iv. 17, 
etc., Acts xiz. 22), and immediately afterwards he composed 
that first episUe to the Corintiiicms which is yet extant. The 
writing of this letter may be referred to a.d. 69, or the com- 
mencement of 60. Scarcely, however, had St Paul- finished 
this letter, when the goldsmith Demetrius stirred up a tumult 
against him in Ephesus, in consequence of which he was obliged 
to fly. The Apostle proceeded by Troas to Macedonia, full of 
desire to receive more exact information concerning the state of 
things in Corinth. When he had received this from Timothy 
and Titus, who came directly from Corinth, he wrote, about 
A.D. 60, the second epistle to the Corinthians. Titus conveyed 
this letter to Corinth; and the Apostle himself journeyed after 
him slowly, through Achaia, to the same city. During this his 
second stay in Corinth, St Paul found occasion to write to the 



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QBNBaAL INTBODUCTION. 23 

Romans, which he most have done as early as in the year 60, 
shortly before his departore from Corinth, since, in Romans xv. 
26, 26, he makes mention of the charitable collections made for 
the Christians in Jerusalem, as well as of the journey he had 
in prospect. This journey to Jerusalem, his yi/Z&, the Apostle 
accomplished by sailing from Philippi in Macedonia to the coasts 
of Asia Minor, then proceeding to Syria, and from thence visit- 
ing Jerusalem (Acts xx. 3, etc.). As early as the tenth day 
after his arrival there, he was taken into custody, on the oc- 
casion of an uproar of the people, and remained (from a.d. 60l 
to 62) two years in prison at Csesarea. When, however, Fortius 
Festus was made Proconsul of Syria in the room of Felix, he 
sent the Apostle to Rome, on his appealing to Caesar. On his 
voyage to Rome, St Paul was shipwrecked upon the island of 
Malta, and did not reach Rome, in consequence, until the be- 
ginning of the year 63 (Acts xxv.-xxvii.). Here he remained 
two years (from 63 to 65) in a mild imprisonment (Acts xxviii. 
30), and composed in this period the epistles to the Ephesians, 
Colossians, Philemon, and the Philippians.* 

The question concerning the date of the composition of the 
three pastoral epistles, as well as the investigation concerning 
the Apostle's second imprisonment and the time of his death at 
Rome,-|- which is so closely connected with it, we leave here, as al- 
ready remarked, untouched; inasmuch as the special introduction 
to these epistles, which form, as it were, a little whole of them- 
selves, will furnish us with amore suitable opportunity for the dis- 
cussion of these points. We reserve also the more detailed exposi- 
tion of our reasons for the place which we have assigned to each 
of the epistles for the special introductory observations on those 
epistles; and, finally, we explain them in the order followed 
by the ordinary editions, since the plan of beginning with the 
epistle to the Romans affords many advantages towards the 

* The view which hu quite recently been put forward by seTeral icholan, and 
especially by Bottger (Beitriige, ii.), that those epistleB which have hitherto been 
attributed to the period of St Paul's first captivity at Rome might have been writ- 
ten during his captivity at Cnsarea, we sludl oonsider more at length in our intro- 
ductions to these epistles, addooing the reasons by which it is supported, and our 
own objections to it. 

t Amongst the most recent investigators, Bleek declares himself decidedly for 
the assumption of a second imprisonment, in his review of MayerhofTs work, in 
the Studien, 1886. H. iv. p. 1028. 



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24 OENEIUL UTBODUCTIOir. 

dogmatical exposition of the rest, and if any one should prefer 
to study St Paul's epistles in their chronological order, nothing 
would interfere with his thus submitting them to his more ac- 
curate consideration, because every composition, with its com- 
mentary, forms a little whole. If any important changes could 
be pointed out in the course of St Paul's spiritual advancement, 
it would certainly be the preferable plan to expound his epistles 
in their chronological order ; but, as this, as we have already 
seen, is not the case, it appears to us much better to follow tbe 
ordinary arrangement. In observing this order, we have, first 
of all, the opportunity, in the epistle to the Romans, of consi- 
dering in their connexion the central ideas of St Paul's doc- 
trinal system, presented, so to speak, in a dogmatical compen- 
dium. A number of passages in St Paul's other epistles thus 
receive their explanation by anticipation, whilst it would 
be difficult to explain them at all if the epistle to the Romans 
had not previously been interpreted. On the other hand, in 
the epistles to the Corinthians St Paul's principles of practice 
are developed, and the external relations of the apostolical 
church arc discussed with so much accuracy that, by their help, 
much light is thrown upon many passages in the smaller epistles. 
Such being the peculiar nature of the larger epistles of St Paul, 
we are persuaded that every connected exposition of the apos- 
tolical writings will best begin with them, because only on this 
plan can the riches of St Paul's ideas be properly uniblded in 
all their different relations, and without repetition. 



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THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 



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27 



INTRODUCTION.* 



§ 1. OF THE QBNU1NBNB8S AND THB INTBORITT OF THB BPI8TLB. 

The authority of St Paul's Epistle to the Christians of Rome 
is warranted by such a completeness of evidence, both internal 
and external, that no one could think of denying, on any system 
of impartial criticism, its claim to be the composition of the 
Apostle. Nor, indeed, did any one in all antiquity dispute the 
genuineness of the Epistle ; for, while it is true that the Judaists 
and all Judaising sects make no use of St Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans (as is also the case with his other epistles), the reason 
is not that they consider it spurious, but, on the contrary, that 
they see in it a genuine production of that apostle whom they 
regard as the greatest enemy of Judaism, and an apostate from 
the truth. Even the searching criticism of later German theo- 
logy has left this epistle altogether unassailed; an Englishman 
of the name of Evanson alone has, in his work against the 
Oospels, cursorily expressed his doubts as to the genuineness of 
the Epistle to the Romans also. His grounds, however, are of 
such a kind that no better testimony in favour of the genuine- 
ness need be desired than the fact that arguments of this qua- 
lity are the only ones which can be brought against it. The 
silence of the Acts of the Apostles as to this Epistle, the exist- 
ence of a great Christian community at Rome before an apostle 
bad been here, and the numerous greetings to the Church of 
Rome at a time when St Paul had not yet visited it, — such are 
the chief points which appear to Evanson to render the genuine- 
ness of the Epistle questionabla (Compare Reiche's C!omm. 
p. 20, seqq.) 

* For the Introdnetion to the Epistle to the Romans, oompftre, among eartler 
writers, J. L. lUmbaeh's Introductio Hist Tbeologica in Ep. Pauli sd Romanbs. 
HaIsb, 1730. In the most recent times, it hu been most folly and learnedly treated 
hy Reiche, in his Commentary, pp. 1-106. 



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28 INTBODVOTION. 

The case is different as to the integrity of the Epistle; while 
its genuineness has been generally acknowledged, this has been 
very often called in question, and especially in modem times. 
All the more ancient witnesses, however — ^fathers of the church, 
versions, and MSS. — regard the Epistle as a connected whole; 
for Marcion's copies cannot be made to tell on the other side, 
inasmuch as he treated the Epistles no less capriciously than 
the Gospels; and Tertullian's quotation of the passage xiv. 10, 
as contained in the ''clausula epistolse" (Adv. Marcion v. 14) 
cannot possibly be used as evidence that he was not acquainted 
with the 15th and 16th chapters, since the expression daiisula 
is so general that it need not be strictly limited to the last two 
chapters. The scholars of later times, consequently, found 
themselves altogether restricted to the department of what is 
styled the higher criticism — ^a department in which it is not 
often that any very trustworthy results are to be obtained. 

Heumann* led the way, by asserting that the Epistle to the 
Romans properly ends with the xith chapter, and that c. xii. is 
the beginning of a new letter, which extends to c. xv. This 
letter he supposes to have been likewise addressed to the Ro- 
mans, but not to have been composed by St Paul until after 
the completion of the first and longer epistle, on occasion of 
reports which had in the meantime reached him as to the 
moral laxity of the Romans. In the sixteenth chapter, accor- 
ding to this view, are contained some further postscripts, which 
had been originally intended to accompany the first letter. 
These, it is supposed, were written on the same parchment with 
the two epistles, and thus the various parts came to be united. 
This hypothesis, however, is so improbable, that it has not been 
able to make any way. Heumann's process of dividing this 
epistle might, with equal reason, be applied in separating the 
doctrinal from the ethical part in every other of St Paul's 
writings. In the passage xii. 1, the particle oh is evidently a 
mark of- transition from the preceding to the following por- 
tion; and so the ifik^v at the end of c. xi. is clearly not the ter- 
mination of the epistle, but merely of the doxology with which 
St Paul very appropriately concludes the doctrinal portion. 

The antiquity of the epistle was attacked in a different way 

• Oomp. HeuniHnn's Erkl. des N. Test. vol. vii. pp. 687, teqq 

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iKxaoptroTioir. 29 

by J. F. Semler, according to whom it is only in the xvth and 
xvith chapters that a diversity of subject from the Epistle to 
the Romans is to be traced.* The grounds on which he relies, 
however, are, for the most part, of no greater weight than those 
which had been advanced by Heumann. Still, there is some 
plausibility in Semler's manner of turning to account the men- 
tion of Aquila and Priscilla's family (zvi. 3, seqq.) These per- 
sons, it is observed, were still at Ephesus when the first epistle 
to the Corinthians was written (1 Cor. xvi. 19); since, then, St 
Paul wrote to the Romans soon after the date of his Epistle 
to the Corinthians, there cannot, in Semler's opinion, have been 
time enough for Aquila first to travel to Rome, and afterwards 
to send accounts of himself to the Apostle at Corinth, — ^which 
he must be supposed to have done, as we find St Paul informed 
that Aquila had again a church in his house. (Rom. xvi. 6.) 
The case, however, is quite intelligible, if we only suppose that 
Aquila left Ephesus suddenly, and that he sent an early report 
of his .new circumstances in Rome to the Apostle at Corinth; 
for it is impossible to determine exactly by months the dates 
of the epistles in question, while, even with the slow means of 
communication which the ancients possessed, 'a few months 
would be sufficient for the journey from Ephesus to Rome and 
back. In any case, a circumstance of this nature cannot be a 
sufficient argument to justify Semler's theory. But when we 
find this learned writer go on to make it a difficulty that seve- 
ral places of Christian assembly are mentioned as existing in 
Rome (xvi. 4, ] 4, 15), it appears to us that an exactly opposite 
inference would be more legitimate; in a vast capital, the resort 
of all the world, such as Rome was, the necessity of places of 
assembly in various quarters of the city would surely become 
manifest on the very first formation of a church ; and, in like 
manner, the numerous salutations (c. xvi.) to a church which 
St. Paul had not yet visited, may be easily explained from the 
character of the city, which was continually receiving visitors 
from every comer of the world, and in turn sending out tra- 
vellers into all countries. Hence the Apostle may not have 
been acquainted, except by reputation, with many of the per- 

* Semler de daplici ftppendice epistoloB PaoK ad Ronumos, Haln, 1767. He top- 
poses c. xvi. to be a list of persons to be saluted by the bearer of the letter on his way 
from Corinth to Rome, and c. xv. in like manner to be a separate writing, intended not 
so mnoh for the Romans as for all brethren who might be met with on the way. 



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30 INTBODUCTIOV. 

sons who are named ; and yet may have sent his greeting to 
them, because he felt himself most intimately connected with 
tiiem by the bond of the same faith. 

These objections to Semler's hypothesis hold good also against 
the kindred view of Dr Paulus,* who is of opinion that c. xv. 
is a Efpecial epistle to the more enlightened Christians of Rome, 
and that c. xvi. is addressed to the governors of the church 
only. Every letter to a church, he observes, would, as a matter 
of course, in the first instance, be put into the hands of the 
presbyters, who read it in public, and delivered the greetings 
which it contained: it could not be at once given to the whole 
community. But it does not necessarily follow from this remark, 
that the portion which contains the greetings was addressed to 
the presbyters exdusively of ike church in general, and that, con- 
sequently, it cannot be regarded as an integral part of the 
epistle; and while, in like manner, we allow that in c. xv. the 
Apostle writes in part with an especial regard to the more ad- 
vanced members of the Roman church, still this circumstance 
by no means obliges us to consider that chapter a letter by it- 
self, inasmuch as the less advanced believers are not excluded 
from a share in its instruction. 

In the most recent times, the genuineness of the last two 
chapters has been again denied by Baur, (Studien, 1836. No. iii.) 
He supposes that a later writer of St Paul's school attempted 
to effect a compromise between his party and the Judaizers, 
who were predominant in Rome; and that, with this view, he 
endeavours, by annexing these two chapters, to soften what was 
offensive in the epistle. The only evidence offered for the theory 
is of the internal kind — e. g,, that c. xv. 1-13 contains matter 
which has already been far better expressed in cc. xii.-xiv. But 
against this it has already been remarked, by Elinge, (Stud., 
1837. No. ii. p. 309,) that, while in c. xv. 1-13 there is a re- 
currence of ideas similar to some which had before been treated, 
they are reproduced with ingenious and spirited modifications, 
in a way which quite accords with the Apostle's usual practice. 
It is alleged further, that the phrase hiaxwH r^g *rs^tro/Lrig, (xv. 8), 
is not in St Paul's manner ; that, in xv. 1 4, seqq., the captoMo 
benevolentioB seems unworthy of an Apostle ; and, lastly, that 

• First eet forth In & programme (Jena 1 801 ) ; afterwards in his ErIilXrung des 
Romer-und Galaterbriefs, (Heidelberg, 1831.) 



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INTEODUCTtOH. 31 

the mention of Illy ria and Spain, in xv. 1 7-24, must be a spurious 
insertion. These points I have already discussed at length in 
my essay against Baur, '(Stud. 1838. No. iv.) and they will be 
more particularly considered in the commentary on the several 
passages. I shall only observe further, that the first words of 
c. XV. are of themselves sufficient to render Baur's supposition 
altogether improbable. The expression ij/t^s/S; o/ dwaro; charac- 
terizes the Qentile Christians as the more liberal and enlightened 
party; surely a follower of St Paul, writing for the purpose of 
conciliating the Judaizers, could not have made choice of a more 
inappropriate phrase. Moreover, Baur's idea of a Judaizing 
tendency in the Roman church requires us to assume that the 
presbyters too were members of the Judaizing party; but how 
can it be supposed that, in such circumstances, a disciple of St 
Paul could add a forged appendage to the Apostle's letter? 
Baur's hypothesis, then, appears to be nothing else than the 
work of a misdirected acuteness and an unrestrained hyper- 
criticism, and will, therefore, never be able to establish itself.* 
We must notice, in the last place, the attempts of Eichhom, 
Griesbach, and Flatt,-f- to explain the different positions of the 
concluding doxology, and its relation to the various forms of 
conclusion which occur after xiv. 23, These writers assume, al- 
though with a variety of modifications, that St Paul ended his 
epistle on the large parchment at xiv. 23, and that the rest was 
written on smaller pieces, which were afterwards shifted and ar- 
ranged in different ways. This hypothesis, it must be allowed 
—especially as it is stated by Eichhom — explains all the critical 
difficulties which occur in the last ehapters. Still, it is not to 
be denied that it has somewhat of a far-fetched and strained 
character, and therefore we could wish for the means of dispos- 
ing of these difficulties by some easier and simpler solution. J. 
E. Chr. Schmidt (in his Introduction) supposed that an easier 
explanation of this kind might be found by assuming the 
spuriousness of the doxology; and this supposition has lately 

• B3ttger, in his BeitrKge Sopplem. GtfUingen 1838, pp. 17 seqq. also dedans 
himself against Baar's theory. 

t Erchhorn, Einleit. ins N. T. vol. iii. Griesbach, Com in historiam textus 6r. 
epistolarum Paali, p. 45. Flatt, in the appendix to his Erklttrang des Rtfmer> 
briefs. Schols has lately maintained that c. xvl does not properly belong to the 
Epistle to the Romans, but may have been perhaps intended for Ephesns. (Comp. 
Stud, und Kritiken, for 1829, No. iii. pp. 809 seqq. 



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32 INTBODtrCTIOK. 

been stated by Reiche in a manner which really seems to render 
it very plausible. If, he observes, the circumstances of the 
case be closely examined, the difficulties of the last chapters are 
all in reality to be traced to this doxology. But, in the first 
place, it is altogether wanting in some MSS. (especially in F); 
while in others, such as D and G, it is struck out by a later 
hand. Then, in the copies which are of critical authority, it is 
found in three different places; (I) at the end, in B, C, £, and 
several other critical authorities; (2) after xiv. 23, in the codex 
J, and in almost all such HSS. as are written in small letters ; 
and, (3) in both places, as particularly in the codex A. That 
such differences are very ancient, is remarked by Origen in his 
commentary on the epistle; only he does not state that he was 
acquainted with copies which had the doxology in boti^ places. 
On the other hand, Jerome (on Ephes. iii. 5) knew of copies in 
which the doxology was altogether wanting. Reiche, then, sup- 
poses that the reading of the epistle in the public assemblies of 
the early Christians probably extended only as far as xvi. 23, 
since little that is of an edifying kind follows in the after part 
of the epistle. In order that the conclusion in this place might 
not be without a benediction, he supposes that the doxology was 
first added in copies which were used in church; that it was 
originally moulded after the doxology at the end of St Jude's 
epistle, and was afterwards gradually extended, until at length 
it was placed, as a full-sounding form, at the conclusion of the 
whole epistle. In order to give this view additional support, its 
learned author endeavours to show that the substance of the 
doxology itself does not point to St Paul as the writer. He 
considers it inflated, overladen, obscure as to the connexion of 
the ideas, and merely made up from Pauline forms. But it is 
precisely this which seems to me to be the weak side of Reiche's 
theory. The supposition that the doxology is spurious would 
indeed appear to me probable in the highest degree, if the na- 
ture of the passage were different- from what it is. In this 
opinion Schott agrees (Einl. p. 250), as also Eollner and Fritz- 
sche in their commentaries; the last-named expositor, in parti- 
cular, may be considered to have settled the question by his 
excellent defence of the doxology (vol. i. pp. 88 seqq.). The 
very commencement, rf dt duva/Asvtft v/jm^ tfrnipi^at xarA rh juayyiXi^t 
aou, X. r. X. is enough to make the assumption of its spuriousness 



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INTEODUOnON. 33 

exceedingly questionable. If the passage had originated in the 
way which Beiche points out, we might expect to find it a 
simple doxology, and in all likelihood a short one; but here the 
personal circumstances of St Paul and of his readers are distinctly 
marked. He addresses them, speaks of himself in the first per- 
son, expresses ideas peculiar to himself exactly in the manner 
usual with him, and yet so that the doxology as a whole appears 
altogether new, and without a parallel in the Pauline epistles. 
8uch an addition would hardly have been ventured on by one 
of the clergy who had no other object than to supply a good 
conclusion for the public reading. 

I am, therefore, unable to determine that the doxology is 
spurious, and am rather disposed to adopt Eichhom's view,* 
although not insensible to its partly &r-fetched character; it 
has, however, the merit of solving the difiiculties, and on this 
account is to be adhered to until something more deserving of 
commendation shall be discovered. But in any case it is estab- 
lished that the various position of the doxology is the only sub- 
ject to be discussed, and that this subject has no connexion with 
any question as to the matter of the last two chapters. The 
Epistle to the Romans, consequently, is not only genuine, but 
it has abo descended to us in a state of completeness, without 
mutilation or addition. 



§ 2. TIMB AND PLAOE OF THB COMPOSITION. 

The Epistle to the Romans, dictated by St Paul to a person 
of the name of Tertius (xvi. 21), and sent by the hands of the 
deaconess Phoebe (xvi. 1), contains suchdecisive indications as 
to the time and the place of its composition, that there has been 
little difference of opinion on these points, whether in earlier or 
more modem times. The only difference which can be properly 
said to affect the subject, is that as to the general chronology of 
the Apostle's life. Dr. Paulus, of Heidelberg, indeed, has (in 

* The opinioii of Koppe and GaUer, that the transpoBitioii of the eondndiDg 
dovAiogj is to be traced to the eeelesiastieal use of the epbtle, would not be un- 
deservuig of attention, if only a safficient probability could be made out for the 
annexation of the doxology to e. xiv. While o. xy. has a good termination, it must 
■till be revy forced to suppoee the final doxology transfeired from the end of the 
epistle, not to c xr. but to c. xir. If c. xvi. were once omitted, it is most likely that 
the doxology would also have been given up with it. 

c 



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34 IHTRODUOTIOH, 

the two publications already referred to) proposed the novel 
opinion, that the epistle must have been written in Illyria, be- 
cause the writer states in c. xv. 19, that he had travelled ** from 
Jerusalem, and round about unto lUyricum;'' but it is very 
evident that the Apostle, in that passage, intends to name Illy- 
ricum only as the fiirthest point westward to which he had at 
the time penetrated, and not as the country in which he was at 
the moment of writing. An equally extravagant view as to the 
time when the epistle was written has been proposed by Tobler,* 
who maintains, on the ground of the Apostle's extensive it6- 
quaintance with the Christians of Rome, that it ought probably 
to be referred to a date later than his first imprisonment. But 
it is at once manifest what a violent construction this supposi- 
tion would require us to put on such passages as i. 9, and xv. 
23, in which the Apostle plainly declares that he had not yet 
been at Rome. The ordinary view, then, — according to which 
the epistle was written from Corinth, during the visit which St 
Paul paid to that city after having been driven from Ephesus, 
and having travelled through Macedonia, — is the only one which 
has the advantage of accounting easily and naturally for all the 
passages in which he speaks of himself, his journeys, and his 
undertakings. Thus, in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, he mentions an intention 
of going from Corinth to Jerusalem with a collection; and we 
find from Rom. xv. 25, that he purposed to set out on this 
journey immediately after dispatching his epistle to Rome. 
Aquila and Priscilla, who were still at Ephesus w^hen St Paul 
thence wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians, had, at the date 
of the present epistle, again arrived at Rome. (1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; 
Rom. xvi. 3.) We find from Acts xix. 21, that the Apostle in- 
tended to visit Rome after he should have accomplished his 
journey to Jerusalem about the business of the collection; and 
in Rom. xv. 28, he speaks of the same design, only with the 
difference, that his plan had been extended to the extremity of 
the west (rtpfut rn^ dvctug)^ 80 as to embrace a visit to Spain. If, 
in addition to these chief grounds, we take into consideration 
some coincidences in detail with what we know otherwise of St 
Paul's history, e. jr., that he sends greetings to the Christians 
of Rome from Caius (xvi. 23), a person mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 14, 

* Compare Tholuck's Gomnieiit Introd. p. x. Tobler's riew b refuted hy Flatt 
ID a prognunme which te inamrted in Pott*B Sylioge Comment, vol. IL 



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nffTB0DT70TI0N. 35 

as then resident at Corinth ; that Erastus^ from whom he in like 
manner conveys greetings (xyi 23), and whom he styles olxS- 
n/Aoi t^s ^SXtittg (i. e. of the city in which he was writing) is also 
mentioned elsewhere as an inhabitant of Corinth, (2 Tim. iv. 
20); that Phoebe, the bearer of the epistle, was a deaconess of 
the church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth — and other circum- 
stances of a like kind — ^there can be no further doubt that the 
Epistle of St Paul to the Romans was written from Corinth 
during his second visit to that city. And consequently, ac- 
cording to the system of chronology which we have adopted, the 
time of its composition is to be referred to about iuD. 59. 

The circumstance that the epistle was written in Greece, and 
in an entirely Oreek city, would at once render it highly pro- 
bable that it was composed in Greek ; and tliis idea is confirm- 
ed by the universal tradition of the ancient church, and by 
the style of the composition, which throughout appears to in- 
dicate an original. Indeed, both earlier and later writers have 
been almost unanimous in the opinion that it was originally ' 
written in Greek, since St Paul, as a native of Tarsus, must have 
had the command of that language, while in Rome it was suffi- 
ciently diffused to be generally intelligible. (Comp. Sueton. 
Cflaud. c. 4. Dialog, de Orator, c. 29.^ Juvenal, Satyr, iv. 185, 
seqq.) Bolton, however, (whose views have been adopted by 
Bertholdt), has here, as in other cases, misapplied his acuteness 
with a view of shewing that St Paul probably composed the 
epistle in Aramean — ^a notion which is surely, from the nature 
of the case, the most improbable that could well be conceived. 
We might even rather suppose with Hardouin, that it was ori- 
ginally written in Latin, and that it is still preserved to us in 
this ancient form in the Yulgate, if it were not too evident that 
this supposition is intended merely to enhance the glory of the 
version received in the [Roman] Catholic Church. So manifest 
is this, that the futility of the opinion has been shown even by 
some more liberal members of the author's own communion. 

§ 3. OF THB BOMAN GHUBCH. 

The circumstances under which the Roman church was formed 
and the dat^ of its origin, are involved in a darkness which could 
only be dissipated by the discovery of ancient documents hitherto 
unknown — ^a discovery which we can now hardly venture to hope 



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36 ^ INTHODUCTION. 

for. At the time when St Paul wrote to the Romans, there al- 
ready existed in the capital of the world which then was, a 
church so considerable that it was spoken of throughout the 
world (i. 8.) and required several places of assembly in the vari- 
ous quarters of the city, (zvi.) The Church of Rome cannot 
have been founded by an apostle ; for in that case St Paul would 
neither have addressed it by letter nor have visited it in person, 
since it was a general principle with him, and is expressly stated 
as such in this very epistle (xv. 20), to avoid interference with 
the work which had been already begun by another apostle : 
and when, in addition to this, we find in the Acts no mention 
of an apostle's having been at Rome, we may fairly reject the 
assertion, which originated early, and has long been maintained, 
by the [Roman] Catholic Church, that St Peter was the founder 
of the Church of Rome,* On the other hand, the presence of 
St Peter in Rome at a later time, and his martyrdom there, are 
facts so well attested by historical evidence that they ought 
never to have been questioned.^ In the first place, Caius, the 
well-known Roman presbyter and zealous opponent of the Mon- 
tanists, states that in his time (towards the end of the second 
century ) the graves of the apostles were pointed out at Rome. 
When it is considered that he wrote in Rome itself, and that he 
is particular in mentioning the localities (viz., on the Vatican, 
and on the road to Ostia), it is inconceivable that there should 
be a mistake in this statement, since thousands must at once 
have confuted him. If the apostles died at Rome, and that by 
public execution, their death, and the place where their bodies 
rested, could not possibly have remained concealed ; if they did 
not die there, it is impossible to account for so early an origin 
of the tradition that they died there, unless we suppose the whole 
church to have consisted of mere deceivers ; and, moreover, 

* It 18 mrpriBing that even some Protestant writers, such as Beftholdt and 
Mynster can have acquiesced in this altogether unsnpported notion of the founding 
of the Rotniah Church by Peter. 

t The question has lately been again raised by Baur, in his essay on the party 
<< of Christ " at Corinth (TSbing Zaigckr. 1831, No. iv.), kad even Keander appears 
to have been shaken by his reasoning, (Apost. Zeitalter, ii. 469 seqq.) To me, 
however, Baur's grounds seem altogether insufficient, and I consider the death of 
St Peter at Rome a het not to be denied. In this judgment Bleek agrees {Stud, 
for 1836, No. iv. pp. 1061, seqq.) I hare examined the matter more (aWy in a 
separate easay agkfaist Baur's hypothesis, (<S/ud 1838, No. iv.) Winer, on the 
other hand (Jteal lexicon, new ed. Art Pelrus) considers the accounts to be at least 
doubtful. 



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INTRODUCTION. 37 

there musty in t/iat case, have been some other discoverable state- 
ment as to the place of St Peter^s death, since it is not to be sup- 
posed that the most celebrated of the apostles could disappear 
without leaving same trace. But even allowing Caius to be no 
valid witness, because he was a Roman presbyter, and might 
have been desirous to enhance tho lustre of his church by tho 
alleged fact, no such exception can be taken to Dionysius, 
Bishop of Corinth, who lived half a century earlier; and, although 
interested in like manner for the church of Corinth, yet plainly 
witnesses that the two great apostles died, not in his own city, 
but in Rome. (Comp. the passages of both authorities in Euseb* 
Hist, Ecd. iL 25.) To these testimonials are to be added those 
of Irenseus {adv, Haer. iii. 1, in Euseb. Hist. Ecd, v. 8), Clement 
of Alexandria (in Euseb. Hist, Ecd, ii. 14>, 15 ; vi. 14), and of 
the critical Origen, who, like. the others, refers the martyrdom 
of St Peter and St Paul to Rome.* (Euseb. H. E. iii. 1.) 

As, then, the apostles must have died somewhere, and no other 
city of antiquity claims the honour of their death, there is really 
no sufficient ground for doubting the account which is thus 
accredited. 

Still, however, we do not from this get any light as to the 
origin of the Roman church. For, even although the Apostle 
Peter be styled by Caius and Dionysius the fov/nder of the 
church of Rome, it will naturally be understood that the ex- 
pression is^not to be referred to the original foundation of the 
community, but to its enlargement and more complete establisk- 
msnt by him ; and in this sense St Paul also is always named 
with him as joint founder of the church in Rome. We are^ 
therefore, wholly left to conjecture on this point ; and perhaps 
the most likely way of accounting for the formation of the com- 
munity may be, to suppose that a knowledge of Christianity 
was early conveyed to the capital by travellers, if not even by 
the Romans who were present at the feast of Pentecost (Acts 
ii. 10), and that through the influence of these persons a church 
was gradually formed there. For if any one strongly prominent 
individual had been the only agent in the foundation of the 

• Reiehe, (loo. cit p. 40,) Note 8, doubts whether the aoeonnt in Eoflebiofl ought 
to be feferredto Origen; but the oondnding words of the ehspter, rmvrm 'O^tyUu 
MT« Xi^f M, r. X. evidently apply to the whole relation. We could at the utmost, 
only doubt, with Valesius, whether the words from e«^»f ^if, »• r< x. be Origen's ; 
from nir^ «f U «. T. X. they are oertamly his. 



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^ IKTBODUCTION. 

Roman church, it is more than probable that his name would 
have been preserved. And, again, the lively intercourse which 
Rome kept up with all parts of the empire, renders it equaUy 
inconceivable that Christians should not early have come to the 
capital from Antioch or Jerusalem ; and if they came, their zeal 
would have also led them to preach the word there. 

We have not, however, any certain trace of the existence of a 
Christian community in Rome earlier than the present epistle. 
For whether (as many have supposed, and as appears to myself 
probcMe) Aquila and Priscilla were already Christians at the 
time of their banishment from Rome by the edict of Claudius, 
is a point incapable of proof, since the passage, Acts xviii. 1--3, 
does not expressly state it ; although, if we consider that other- 
wise their conversion would surely have been related, it can 
hardly be well doubted that this family brought its belief in 
Christianity from Rome with it. 

But even if it were not so, still it is evident that a community 
so considerable as that of Rome appears from St Paul's epistle 
to have been, could not have come into existence all at once, but 
required some time for its formation ; and for this reason, if for 
no other, we must refer the foundation of the church to a period 
much earlier than the date of the epistle. 

There is, however, a difficulty in reconciling this supposition 
(which the contents of the epistle to the Romans oblige us to 
adopt,) with the narrative of St Luke at the end of the Acts, 
where it is stated that St Paul, on arriving in Rome, sent for 
the elders of the Jews who lived there, and related to them the 
cause of his being a prisoner ; to which they are represented as 
answering, that they had not received any letters concerning 
him ; but that, as to the sect of the Christians, they begged him 
to give them some information, since they had heard no more 
of it than it was everywhere spoken against (Acts xxviii. 17-22.) 
From this it would appear that no church could then have ex- - 
isted in Rome, since otherwise it would seem inconceivable that 
the Jews should not have been aware of its existence. This 
conclusion was actually drawn by Tobler (Theol. Aufs., ZQrich 
1796), who, in consequence of it, referred the composition 
of the epistle to the latest period of St Paul's life— an 
opinion which is, of course, altogether untenable, as has 
already been observed), but which has some excuse in the 



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INTBODUCTION. 39 

difficulties of this yet unexplained passage, since it is certainly 
sufficient to remove them. If it be said (as Tholuck and Reiohe 
suppose) that the Jews may have concealed their knowledge of 
the matter, it is impossible to see why they should have done so. 
A man so dangerous as St Paul must have appeared from the 
Jewish point of view, would surely have at once been met by 
them with open opposition. But this supposition becomes yet 
more improbable on a more particular consideration of the se- 
quel, as related in the Acts. For we find that at their next 
meeting with St Paul, the chiefs of the Roman Jews appear 
really unacquainted with the subject of the gospel ; it is evident 
that they hear it for the first time, and the announcement of it 
raises, as was usual, a contention among their own number — 
some assenting to it, and others opposing it ; and surely it is 
impossible to suppose this contention feigned. Hence we might 
suppose that the church may have been entirely broken up by 
the persecution of Claudius (Sueton. Claud, c. 25), and that its 
subsequent gathering may have been so gradual that the few 
Christians who were at Rome when St Paul arrived there were 
unknown to the Jews of the capital.* I had myself formerly 
declared in favour of this opinion (Comm. on Acts xxviii. 17 
seqq., 1st ed.) ; but it cannot well serve as a way of escape from 
the difficulty, since the date of the epistle to the Romans falls 
in the interval between the persecution of the Jews under Clau- 
dius, and St Paul's visit to Rome, and the epistle supposes the 
existence of a flov/rishing church ; it is, therefore, impossible 
that at the later period there can have been but a small number 
of Christians in Rome, as the community was already so numer- 
ous at an earlier time. 

There is, however, the greater reason for desiring a solution 
of the difficulty, because thus light would be thrown on the 
relative circumstances of the Jewish and the Oentile Christians 
in Rome — a subject which is of so great importance for the ex- 
planation of the whole epistle. For that there were Christians 
in Rome when St Paul arrived there, appears (if indeed it yet 
require any proof), from Acts xxviii. 15, where it is related 

* There h*d been an expulsion of the Jews from Rome as early as the reign of 
Tiberius. (Cf. Saeton. Tib. c. 36. Tacit Ann. ii. 85; Joseph. Areh. xviit. 4, ] 5.) 
Perhaps the passage of Suetonios about the expulsion of the Jews in the time of 
CJamlias may indicate also an expulsion of the Christians, who would not at fint be 
soffleiently distinguished from the Jews. 



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40 INTRODUCTION. 

that brethren went as far as Forum Appium and Tires Tabemae 
to meet the Apostle; nor is there any conceivable reason why 
the Christians of Rome should have become fewer at the time 
of St Paul's arrival than they were at the date of the epistle, 
since (in so far as we know) nothing had happened in the mean- 
time to disturb them; and yet it would appear that the chiefs 
of the Jewish community in Rome knew nothing of the Chris- 
tians. This indicates a peculiar relation between Gentiles and 
Jews, Gentile and Jewish Christians, in Rome, and so leads to 
the important question — What was the ncttvre of the Church 
of Romey or what may have been the tendencies existing in it 
when St Paul wrote? a question closely coinciding with the in- 
quiry as to the occasion and object of the epistle, since the epistle 
is the only source from which we can derive our information as 
to the tendencies which, in the earliest times, were prevalent in 
that church. 

Now in the epistle to the Romans itself there is no special 
cause assigned for its being written.* St Paul merely mentions 
(i. 9 seqq.; xv. 15 seqq.) his desire to preach the gospel, as to 
the Gentiles in general, so especially to the inhabitants of 
Rome, as being the capital of the heathen world; whence it 
would simply appear that his object in writing his epistle was 
of quite a general kind. Notwithstanding this, it has often 
been attempted to point out particular causes, and particular 
objects in connexion with these, for the sending of the epistle 
to the Romans. It has been supposed by many writers, and 
some of them highly distinguished, that the only, or, at least, 
the most important, object was to mediate between contending 
parties in Rome, especially the Gentile and the Jewish <]lhristians. 
Others find in the epistle a controversial design against Jews 
or Jewish Christians; while others again suppose that St Paul 
wished to guard against the abuse of his doctrine as to grace, 
or that he meant to oppose the Jewish spirit of insurrection. 
All these views, however (as to which more particular informa- 
tion may be gathered from Reiche, pp. 75 seqq.), on closer con- 

* Dr PmUus takes % naXf view of the matter, inferring from xv. 19 that the 
beautiful i^pearanoe of Italjr from the high eoaat of lUyria awakened in the 
Apoetle's mind a longing for Rome. The aeathetio motive^ however, is verj 
problematical, inasmiMh as (not to mention other objections) it is well known 
that Italy cannot be seen across the Adriatic. 



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INTRODUCTION. 41 

sideratioDy appear untenable; the whole exhibition of doclrine* 
in the epistle is purely objective in its character, ncjr-is there, 
except in passing, any intentional and conscious regard to any- 
thing save the truth of the gospel. But it is, of course, in the ' 
very nature of truth that it forms oppositions against all errors, 
and thus far such oppositions appear in the epistle to the 
Romans as elsewhere; and, moreover, it was a part of the 
Apostle's wisdom as a teacher, that he all along represents the 
doctrine of the gospel in such a manner that the statement it- 
self may be a safeguard against the errors which could not but 
fall in the way of the Christians; but besides the endeavour to 
exhibit the gospel to the Christians of Rome in its natural rela- 
tion to the law, and in its practical results on life, it is quite 
impossible to discover in the epistle to the Romans a further 
design to oppose the Jews, and to keep differences with them 
in view, such as is clearly expressed in the epistle to the 
Oalatians. 

The idea of differences between the Gentile and the Jewish 
Christians at Rome, for the appeasing of which it is supposed 
that the Apostle's letter was intended, is, however, so widely 
prevalent, that it is necessary for us to go into a more particu- 
lar inquiry as to this point.')' This opinion may probably have 
at first been occasioned by the obvious parallel between the 

* [Dantellimg.] 

-f- It has rery recently been again proposed in a peculiar form hy Baor 
(Stnd. 1896, No. 3), and Kling (Stud. 1837, No. 2) partly agrees with him. 
I have more fully considered the treatises of these two writers in an essay 
(Stnd. 1838, No. 4), to which I must here refer tlie reader, contenting myself 
with shortly characterising the Tiews of Baur and Kling. Baur supposes the 
main part of the epistle to be, not oc. iiL-viil, but the section ce. ix.~zL This 
portion, he argues, is intended to assert against the Jewish Christians the uni- 
versality of the Christian dispensation; and he supposes that oc. iii.-Tiii. were 
hitended to lead to this oondusion, the object of those chapters being to quench 
the jealousy of the Jews at the influx of Gentiles into the church, by showing 
that Jews and Gentiles stand iff the same relation with respect to Christianity. 
Thus it is supposed that a Judaising spirit, opposed to St Paul, had prsTailed 
in Rome. BJuir had preriously endearoured to prove this in the TUbinger 
Zeitschrift, 1831, No. 4, and he now attempts to bring further evidence of it from 
the Acts, which book he supposes to have been compoMd at Rome, for the purpose 
of defending St Paul's course of operation against the antipauline party; a view of 
which I have already given my opinion in commenting on the Acts. Kling is 
Inclined to adopt Baur's views, to the extent of recognising In the epistle a contro- 
versial design against Jewish opinions; but finds fisnlt with him for considering the 
mass of the Roman Church as Judaistic, instead of regarding the Judaizers as only 
one element in it. In the mass, he says (p. 320), the Roman Church might rather 
be considered as animated by a Gentile-Qiristian tendency. 



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42 INTRODUCTION. 

epistle to the Romans and that to the Oalatians; and next by 
the idea, that on account of the large body of Jews in Rome, 
there must also have been there a great number of Jewish 
Christians; and that if so, it is not to be supposed but that the 
Roman community came in for a share of the all-pervading 
contentions between Qentile and Jewish Christians. But plau- 
sible as this conclusion may appear, it is evident that it ought 
in the first place to be capable of historical proof; not only, 
however, is there an utter absence of such proof, but there are 
very important reasons to the contrary. In the whole epistle 
to the Romans there is not a syUaile which mentions diepuiea as 
tothereiaticne of the law and the goepd^ such as those which 
prevailed in Gtdatia. In xv. 7 seqq., there is a faint hint that 
in the case of the ascetics, towards whom the Apostle had re- 
commended a tender course of dealing (c. xiv.), the difference of 
Jewish Christians also came into question; and again, in xvi. 17- 
18, there is a warning against such as might cause divisions; but 
in V. 19 the Romans are plainly described as yet free from such 
errors, so that it is only the poseibUity of a disturbance of their 
peace that is contemplated. All that could be said, therefore, 
is this, that, while the Apostle's argument is not openly directed 
to the subject of divisions, it is yet so managed as to make 
us feel through it that he has a covert regard to the two oppo- 
site systems. 

If, however, the matter be so understood, it must also be 
allowed that this feeling may very easily deceive, and by so 
much the more because these possible divisions are not expressly 
represented as originating with the Judaizing party. Where such 
differences actually existed, as in Oalatia, St Paul speaks out 
plainly respecting them; why then should he not do so in this case? 
If he wished, independently of any possible or existing errors, to 
set forth the nature of the evangeUcal doctrine of salvation, he 
could not do so otherwise than by representing the relation of 
this new element to the two old systems of the Qentile and the 
Jewish life; both must, of course, fall into the background in 
comparison with the gospel, and therefore his view* appears to 
be polemical But that it is not so, even in a covert intention- 
ally-concealed manner, is shown by the notice in the Acts of St 

* [Auffkasaag.] 



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. IMTBODUOTION. 43 

Paul's appearance at Rome, which has not been at all suffi- 
ciently brought to bear on the inquiry as to the object of the 
epistle to the Romans. If we conceive the state of the church 
in Rome at the date of the epistle according to the common 
view, the history of St Paul in that capital is utterly incompre- 
hensible. It is supposed that the Roman Church was divided 
into two parties ; that the strict Jewish-Christians wished still 
to observe the Law of Moses even outwardly, with circumcision, 
keeping of the Sabbath, and the like; that the Gentile Chris- 
tians, on the other hand, had freed themselves from it. Must 
we not, on this supposition, necessarily assume that the Roman 
Jewish Christians adhered to the synagogue in Rome ? As the 
Jewish Christians of Jerusalem remained attached to the 
Temple, and did not renounce the Jewish polity, so, too, the 
Jewish Christians of Rome could not have separated themselves 
from the Synagogue. But now let us read the narrative in 
Acts zxviii. 17, seqq., which represents the Christians as quite 
imknown to the rulers of the Roman synagogue, and let us ask 
whether, according to this, the supposition just stated has any 
appearance whatever of probability? There is in that passage 
(as has already been remarked) no ground at all for supposing 
an intentional concealment; and if this cannot be assumed, 
there remains nothing else but to say that the chiefs of the 
Jews really knew nothing of the Christians in Rome. The 
speech of St Paul (Acts xxviii. 17-20) is evidently reported in 
an abridged form; he had spoken in it of his belief in CSirist, as 
is still indicated by the mention of the iXvig roD UpariK On this, 
then, the Jews declare Ttpi rt^g oupUto»t ravrtig yvu^Sv Icrn nftih Sri 
Twfraxov dvriT^ytTai, Do people speak thus of a sect which is 
before their eyes — on whose struggles and contentions they are 
looking? This can hardly be made to seem likely. And to 
this is to be added the discussion which follows with St Paul 
(xxviii. 23 seqq.), in which for a whole day he expounds the 
Scriptures to them, in order to prove the-Messiahship of Jesus, 
whereupon there arises a contention among the Jews them- 
selves : — all which would, according to the common view, have 
been a mere mockery,* sii^ce by that view the Jews must be 
supposed to have known of Christ long before, and to have de- 



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44 INTRODUCTION. 

cided against HiDi.* It is only in the towns where there were 
not as yet any churches that we find the Jews so free from pre- 
judice as they here appear in Rome ; where, on the other hand, 
they were already acquainted with the Qospel through the 
formation of a church, they do not admit of any expositions of 
doctrine hy Christians. As, however, there must yet have 
been a church in Rome, the question is, how we are to explain 
this remarkable position of the Jews towards it ? 

The only possible explanation of this phenomenon — ^and it is 
one which at the same time indicates the origin of the tendency 
which we afterwards find in the Roman Church — ^appears to be 
this.f It must be assumed that the Christians of Rome were 
induced, by the persecutions directed against the Jews under 
Claudius in the ninth year of his reign, to make their differences 
from the Jews clearly and strongly apparent — perhaps in con- 
sequence of the influence which even at that early time some 
disciples of St Paul already exercised on the Roman Church ; 
exactly as at a later date the Christians of Jerusalem separated 
themselves from the Jews, that they might not be confounded 

* This IB deciaive itgainst the siippoeition of Meyer, that the Jews spoke only as 
officials, and in this capacity showed an official reserre — that they merely meant 
to say that nothing had been qffkuMy annQunced to them. Bat— besides that this 
is an evident transferring of modem circumstances to Uie ancient world — ^the dis- 
putes which arose among the Jews themselves in conseqneuoe of St Paul's preach- 
ing will not allow us to explain the phenomena before us hy the character of the 
official body of the Roman Jews. 

t For the further establishment of this view, and the justification of it against 
the attacks of Baur, I refer to my essay, already cited above, in the Studien for 
1888, No. 4. This only I remark here, that his appeal to Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 44), 
by way of proof that Uie Christians were quite well known in Rome, is by no 
means adapted to decide the question before us, since it is the Jews who are here 
spoken of as unacquainted wiUi the Christians, while Tacitus speaks of heathens; 
moreover, it was only by means of the rack that the heathens extorted the names 
of the members of tlie Christian community in Rome: which evidently speaks for 
their concealed and retired condition. Kling (Stud. 1 837, No. 2, pp. 307y seqq.) 
refutes, indeed, the capricious fancies of Baur, but himself reverts to the old unte- 
nable view, that the Jews of Rome only pretended to know nothing of Christians 
there, in order to avoid disputes with them. That they wished to hear St Paul, is 
explained by Kling merely from the forward cariosity* of Jews, which led them to 
seek for an opportunity of hearing a discourse from a fiunous rabbu But it is un* 
necessary to show how unsatisfactory this representation is. The Jews of Rome 
evidently hear of Christ for the first tune; they fall into disputes among them- 
selves; this, surely, cannot be pretence 1 Unless we suppose the Acts of the Apos- 
tles to be tinged with fictionf (as Baur maintains), there remains no other explana- 
tion than that here propoeed. B5ttger's explanation of the case is also extremely 
uneatisfactoiy. He supposes that the diffieidties are all of my own creation, and 
that in reality there are none. Comp. BeirMge, Supplem. pp. 27 aeqq.) 

» VorwiU. t tSoll die Apottctgctchichte keine romanhafte Farbc trag«n.3 



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INTRODUCTION. 46 

with them, and might be allowed to live in Aelia. If disciples 
of St Paul early acquired a decisive influence in Borne, we shall 
also understand how it was that the Apostle could regard the 
Roman Church as his own, and could open his correspondence 
with it without invading another's iield of labour. In conse* 
quence of this persecution of the Jews, Aquila and Priscilla took 
refuge at Corinth; and there they were found by the Apostle 
Paul (Acts xviii. 2), who, without doubt, became even at that 
time acquainted, by means of these fugitives, with the Roman 
Church and its circumstances. On this knowledge St Paul, four 
or five years later, at the beginning of Nero's reign, on his third 
missionary journey, wrote from Corinth his epistle to Rome. 
There is little likelihood that any great number of Jews can have 
ventured so early to return to Rome ; those who returned were 
obliged to keep themselves in concealment, and it was naturally 
the interest of the Christian community there to remain as far 
as possible from them. Even three years later, when St Paul 
himself appeared in Rome, the body of Jews there may still not 
have been considerable, — in part, too, it may not have been com- 
posed of its old members, who had lived there before the perse* 
cution by Claudius, but of altogether new settlers, who were 
unacquainted with the earlier existence of a Christian commu- 
nity. And thus it might come to pass within eight or ten years 
that the Christian community at Rome appears entirely sepa- 
rated from the body of Jews in that city; and in such a state 
of separation we find it, according to the notice at the end of 
the Acts. As, according to the same narration, the Jews did 
not receive St Paul, so that here also he found himself obliged 
to turn to the Gentiles, this separateness continued to subsist, 
and thus by degrees there was developed at Rome a directly 
anti-Judaic tendency, which caused a prohibition of celebrating 
the Sabbath, and of everything Jewish.* According, then, to 
this representation, it is altogether unlikely that there should 
have been Jewish Christians in Rome from whom contentions 

• The latest escpoaitor of the epistle, Dr KtfUner, sappoees that St Paal, during 
his imprisonment, sent for the chief of the Jews for the purpose of gaining them, 
and that St Luke did not intend to give an account of his intercourse with the 
ChristianL This, however, is but an erasion of the difficulty; the real point is, — 
how the behawner of ih€ Jewt^ which is in question, can be conceivable, if in Rome 
itself there existed a Christian community, ui which there were Judaizing Chris- 
tians. Kdllner has not advanced anything towards the solution of the difficulty. 



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46 INTRODUCTION. 

with the Gentile Clhristians could proceed. Christians of the 
former kind were in the habit of keeping up the connexion 
with the synagogue, and if so, the chief persons of the syna- 
gogues could not be unacquainted with the existence of a 
community which declared EQm who was crucified to be the 
Messias. There might still have been Jews by birth or pro- 
selytes among the members of the Roman Church, but these 
would, in that case, have altogether taken up the freer Pauline 
view of the law, and have detached themselves from the con- 
nexion of the synagogue. If, indeed, there were any decided 
testimony for the fact, that in Rome, as in Gralatia, there existed 
within the Church itself a party of gross Jewish Christians, the 
view which has just been given, and which rests on the evidence 
of history, might still be combated with some appearance of 
justice; but there is no such testimony whatever. There is, as 
has been observed, an utter absence of clear statements on the 
subject in the epistle to the Romans ; for (as I have above re- 
marked) xvi. 17 seqq. points only to a possible danger, and the 
proper doctrinal body of the epistle (chap. iii.-viii.) treats the 
relation between law and Gospel in a purely objective way, 
without any reference to differences in the bosom of the church 
itself. Chapters ix.-xL are evidently intended for Gentile 
Christians only, who also are throughout exclusively addressed, 
and, lastly, chapters xii. and xiii. contain wholly objective ad- 
monitions. There remain, consequently, only the first and last 
chapters; and in these very chapters the hints of such conten* 
tions have been supposed to be found. In c. ii., it is said, the 
subject is quite clearly the Jews, who are expressly addressed 
(ii. 17, 27), so that the epistle must also necessarily be supposed 
to have been written to Jewish Christians; in iii. 1, seqq. the 
advantages of the Jews are discussed, and i^though in c. xiv. 
the mistaken freedom of Gentiles is reproved, yet it is in con- 
trast with Jewish scrupulousness, which must, therefore, neces- 
sarily be also supposed to have had certain representatives in 
the Roman churdi. To the observations from the opening 
chapters, however, it is to be answered, that still St Paul assur- 
edly did not write to Jews, and yet it is Jews, and not Jewish 
Christians^ who are addressed in the passages ii. 17, 27; the 
address, therefore, is evidently not to be used as a foundation 
for inferences as to the character of the readers, but is rather 



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IHTBOBUCTION. 47 

to be regarded as merely a rhetorical figure. St Paul's object 
in the first chapters is only to prove of both Gkntiles and Jews 
that they had need of Christ the Saviour; but into these two 
elements the whole world was divided, when regarded from the 
theocratic point of view; and thus, in as far as St Paul has an 
universal purpose in writing his epistle, in so far was he obliged 
to contemplate Christianity in its relation to the previously- 
existing systems,* without giving us a ground for thence deduc- 
ing anything as to the composition of the Roman Church. 
Hence it was quite necessary that the advantages of the Jews 
also should be discussed, (iii. 1, seqq.,) inasmuch as it was neces- 
sary for the Qentilesy even if they embraced Christianity with- 
out any intermediate step, to know how they stood with rela- 
tion to the Old Testament economy and to the people of Israel; 
and, consequently, from a discussion on these points nothing 
can be inferred for the existence in Rome of Jewish Christians 
in the proper sense of the term, — i.e. of persons who not only 
were of Jewish descent, (for in that sense St Paul himself would 
be a Jewish Christian,) but who attached an exaggerated value 
to Jewish views, and adhered to the connexion with the syna- 
gogue and the temple. A more plausible evidence for the ex- 
istence of such a party at Rome is c. xiv., — ^according to which, 
undoubtedly, there must have been in Rome a class of persons 
scrupulous as to the law. It is^ however, extremely improbable 
that these were Judaizers of the ordinary kind, such as were 
foimd in GFalatia; for the latter had no scruple as to the eating 
of flesh in general, but only as to the flesh of unclean animals; 
whereas the Roman ascetics, oh the other hand, disapproved of 
all use of animal food^ and lived wholly on herbs and fruits 
(xiv. 2). The whole question as to the character of these per- 
sons, therefore, requires a closer examination, which we shall 
institute in the exposition of the passage; in any case, however, 
we must say that c. xiv. is not adapted to prove the existence 
of Judaizers in Rome, since the description is not at all suitable 
to them. 

We regard, consequently, the hypothesis of an intended settle- 
ment of dispute between Gentile and Jewish Christians in Rome 
as wholly untenable; and we find in the epistle to the Romans 

• [LebcoMtofMi, degmt of life.] 

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48 INTRODUCTION. 

a purely objective statement of ike nature of the Ooepd^ grotmded 
only on the general opposition between Jews cmd OeniHes, and 
not on the more special opposition existing in the church itself, 
between Jvdaizing and non-Judaizing Christians.* 

§ 4. ABQUMENT OF THE BPISTLS. 

With respect to the plan of the epistle to the Romans, two 
extremes are to be avoided: first, the view which represents the 
Apostle as having written according to a most exactly elaborated 
logical scheme; and, secondly, the supposition that, without 
having any settled design, he merely abandoned himself to his 
inward impulses. Between the two views, the following appears 
to come out as the true and correct idea — that certainly St Paul 
had designed a general plan for the epistle, but without having 
carried it into detail. His epistle, consequently, has not the 
precision of a theological treatise, but preserves the freer form 
of a letter; still, there is expressed in it so determined and clear 
a train of thought that St Paul cannot have written it without 
any plan, and in mere obedience to the current of his feelings. 
For how diflferent a shape such an absolutely free and unpre- 
meditated effusion takes, we see, among other instances, in the 
epistle to the Ephesians. One leading idea, the relation of Law 
a/nd Gospel, is carried out so carefully by the Apostle, with the 
necessary preliminaries for understanding it, and the most im- 
portant consequences which result, that nothing whatever of 
essential importance can be pointed out as missing in his state- 
ment."f" 

* It were to be desiied that the terms Jewinh and QentiU Chrietians were more 
earefuU/ diBtinguiflhed than they usually are from Jvdaixing and non-Jwdava»g 
ChrUtioMs- It is, indeed, certainly to be supposed that most of those who were 
Jews by bhrth continued, even as CSiristians, to keep up a great attachment to the 
Jewish law, and that most of those who were Gentiles by birth remained free from 
it as Christians; yet doubtless, there were also many Jews by birth (and conse- 
quently Jewish Christians) who, as Christians, did not Jodaize; and, in like man- 
ner, many of Gentile burth might have abeady, as proselytes, been so strongly im- 
plicated in Judaism, that, even after becoming members of the Christian diorch, 
they continued to follow a Judaizing tendency. The names of Jewish and Ckntih 
ChrislianM, therefore, ought to be used only to signify descent, and the erroneous 
spiritual tendency to be denoted by the epiUiet Judaizing. 

t The view proposed by Baur, (Stud. 1886. No. 8,) that the mam part of the 
epistle consistB, not of the section cc iiL-viii., but of cc. iz.-zi., has been already 
noticed abore. The untenable character of this supposition has been shown in my 
essay, already more than once cited, (Stud. 1838. No. 4,) to which I now refer 
the reader. 



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INTBODUCTIOK. 49 

The whole epistle fikUs under four divisions. The first part 
contains the opening, (i. 1-17,) in which^ after the Mlutaiumy 
(1-7,) is given the Introduction to the following discussion, 
(8-1 7,). The last two verses expressly state the theme for the 
whole epistle, viz., that the Ooepel is a power of God, and in it 
the righteoumese from faith is revealed,* 

This idea is developed in the Second Part (i. 18 — xi. 36), 
which, as being the doctrinal portion of the epistle, is that which 
gives it its great importance. It falls into fivfi sections, of which 
the first, (i. 18 — iii. 20,) is a preparation for the deduction pro- 
perly so called; being devoted to proving the universal sinfulness 
of all mankind, in order to manifest the insufficiency of the law, 
both moral and ceremonial, and the necessity of another way of 
salvation, the righteousness of faith. First of all, the Apostle 
proves the sinfulness of the Gentile world, (i. 18-32); next, be 
treats of the Jews more especially, (ii. 1-29); lastly, he further 
considers the relation of the Jews to the Gentiles, and allows to 
the former great advantages in their calling, but declares that 
they have forfeited these by their unfaithfulness, wherefore 
there is now no difference between Jews and Gentiles in their 
position with respect to the gospel, (iii. 1-20.) 

With the second section (iii. 21 — ^v. 11), the Apostle then 
enters on the doctrinal exposition itself Since the law, whether 
ceremonial or moral, was not sufficient to render men righteous 
and holy before God, He has opened another way, namely this^ 
that men should become righteous and blessed through faith in 
Jesus, who is set forth as a mercy-Beat,f (iii. 21-31.) St Paul 
indicates the germs of this righteousness by faith in the Old 
Testament, as far back as the life of Abraham, who pleased 
God, not by works of the law, but by faith, which was imputed 
to him for righteousness, (iv. 1-26.) This holy way, then, by 
which alone man in his sinful state can attain to peace with 
God, has, through the love of Christ, been manifested to all 
men; for which cause we may not now glory save in (]lhrist only, 
(ver. 1-11.) 

The third section indicates the internal necessary connexion 
of jihis way of faith with the nature of man. As from Adam 

* It wQI be seen in the commentary that the author Ukes the words differently 
trom the English Tersion. 
t *U«rrit^«f, ver. 25. PropUiaiion, Kng. version. 



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50 IVTBODVOnON. 

the stream of sin poured itself forth oyer mankind, and hence 
every one who is descended from him has fiillen under sin, — so 
from Christ does righteousness proceed, which He imparts to 
the faithful in the new birth The law, therefore, is intended 
only to make sin powerful, in order that grace may become 
more powerful, (ver. 12-21.) The same, therefore, which took 
place in Christ, has been accomplished in his people also, seeing 
that all are in him, as they were in Adam. For this cause, 
also, must not any one who has been incorporated into Christ 
any longer serve sin; for he has died in the old man, and, like 
a woman who has been set free by the death of her husband, 
he has become married to another husband, even Christ, (vi. 1 
— vii. 6.) 

After this follows, in the fourth aectiofiy the description of the 
course of conversion in man, (vii. 7 — ^viii. 39.) From the first 
movements of grace and the quickening of sin, the Apostle 
proceeds to depict the process by which the inner life is evolved, 
to the fully developed contest between light and darkness in 
the soul, which at last is triumphantly ended by experience of 
the power of the grace of Christ, (vii. 7-24.) With this is con- 
nected the description of the life in grace itself, and in the con- 
tinual growth therein, to the consummation of the whole per- 
sonality in God, (vii. 25 — viii. 17.) Lastly, the Apostle passes 
from the consummation of the individual to the consummation 
of the whole, which is represented and assured in it ; and with 
this is attained the purpose of the course of the world, since 
thus all that was corrupted by the fall will be restored to its 
original purity, (viii. 18-39.) 

In the fifth section, (ix. 1 — xi. 36,) the Apostle leads back his 
readers to the peculiar relation in which the Jews stand towards 
the Christian system of salvation. It is primarily intended for 
them; and, nevertheless, they appear as if expressly shut out 
from it, and the Q-entiles as if cidled before the Jews. In con- 
sequence of this relation, the Apostle first unfolds the doctrine 
of election in general, agreeably to the indications in the Old 
Testament, and shows that the holiness and blessedness of the 
creature are solely the work of God's gracious election, §nd 
that the unholiness and damnation of the creature are no less 
to be regarded as solely his own work (ix. 1-29). He then 
shows that it is the unfaithfulness of the Jews which has hin- 



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INTRODUCTIOH. 51 

dered them from laying hold on the righteousness which is by 
faith ; they had obstinately clung to the law as the way of sal- 
vation, whereas Christ is the end of the law, and in Him alone 
dwelleth peace for Jews and Gentiles (ix. 30 — x. 21). And, 
lastly, St Paul opens the prospect, that even for the Jews a 
conversion to Christ is yet to be expected. He points to the 
fact that a holy seed has yet remained in the people, which 
will not be lost; and then, in bold prophetic glances, he passes 
on to the end of days, when Israel shall again be engrafted 
into the olive tree, in whose roots the Gentiles only have at first 
been set as wild shoots. This contemplati:6n incites the Apostle 
at last to an enthusiastic* glorification of God, with which he 
concludes this second and most important part of the epistle 
(xi 1-^6.) 

The third part, the hortatory (xii. 1 — xv. 33), may be divided 
into three sections. In the first (xii. 1 — xiii. 14), St Paul gives 
general admonitions to brotherly love, and to obedience. In 
the second section (xiv. 1 — xv. 13), he treats of the regard to be 
paid to such as are weak in faith, and suppose themselves 
obliged to an exact observance of some altogether unessential 
practices or precepts. The Apostle exhorts the stronger mem- 
bers of the Church to treat these with a forbearing considera- 
tion, and prays them rather, after their Lord's example, to re- 
frain from using their liberty than to offend a brother. In the 
third section, St Paul communicates notices respecting himself 
and his intended journeys. 

The fourth and concluding part forms the epilogue, and con- 
tains greetings and good wishes for the readers (xvi. 1-27.) 

According to this summary of the contents, the nine chapters 
from the third to the eleventh form unquestionably the most 
essential part of the epistle. They furnish b careful doctrinal 
exposition of the nature of the Christian scheme of salvation,t 
by no means, as Beiche says, (p. 66), apologetico-polemical con- 
siderations on it. But the peculiar character of the epistle still 
requires a special consideration, on which we enter in the fol- 
lowing paragraphs. 

* [BegebterteiL] 

t So, with snbfltential oorwctneM, HBpfncor, De cowecation© sententiaram in 
Panli epistola ad Romanos; Lips. 1828. Compare also Fubrman*8 Essay De Coa- 
eionitate in Ep. ad Rom. in Velthasfln, &e., Sylloye, vol. i. 46 1 seqq. 



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52 INTRODUGTIOF. 



§ 5. THE VALUE ARD TRB PBOULIAB CHARACTBB OF THE 
BPrSTLB. 

Among the epistles of St Paul, three classes may be distin- 
guished; first, epistles of do<^nal instruction ; next, epistles of 
practical instruction; and, lastly, friendly outpourings of the 
heart. To the last class belong the Epistles to the Ephesians, 
the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon. All these pre- 
suppose the common faith as known, and aim only at perfecting 
of believers in it, and" confirming them in brotherly love. Those 
which I have styled epistles of practical instruction are especially 
occupied with the external side of the ecclesiastical life. The 
Epistles to the Corinthians, to Timothy, and to Titus, are those 
which, while they touch oh individual points of doctrine, set 
especially-before our view the ecclesiastical circumstances of the 
apostolic age. But the Epistle to the Romans, with those to the 
Oalatians and Thessalonians, belongs, beyond the possibility of 
mistake, to the first class — the epistles of doctrinal instruction. 
In respect of subject, it is most nearly akin to that of the Oala- 
tians ; both treat of the relations of law and gospel : while, 
however, as has been shown above, this relation is treated alto- 
gether objectively in the Epistle to the Romans, the Epistle to 
the Gralatians represents it polemically, in opposition to the 
Judaizing Christians. The Epistle to the Galatians, moreover, 
limits itself exclusively to this relation, and discusses it more 
briefly than is the case in the Epistle to the Romans. In this, 
on the other hand, the relation of law and gospel is set forth 
didactically, in the proper sense of the word, nay, scientifically, 
so that the doctrine of the sinfulness of human nature, which is 
essential to its foundation, and the doctrine of the divine decree, 
which furnishes the key to the passing of the gospel from the 
people of Israel to the Gentiles, are also set forth in connection 
with it.* 

Hence we may say that in the Epistle to the Romans is con- 
tained, as it were, a system of Pauline doctrine, inasmuch as all 

* That in the Epistle to the Galatians the relation between law and gospel alone 
is treated, while in that to the Romans the doctrine of election is also considered, 
may be regarded as the reason why Luther commented on the Galatians only; he 
wifehed undoubtedly to avoid declaring himself on predestination. 



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IMTR0D17CTI0N. 53 

the essential points which the Apostle was accustomed to bring 
forward with essential prominence, in treating of the gospel, are 
here unfolded in detail. It is very appropriate that he, the 
Apostle of the Qi3n tiles, set forth this in an epistle of instruc- 
tion to the Christians of Rome in particular, since that city 
represented, as it were, the whole Gentile world, in like manner 
as Jerusalem represented the Jewish. The Epistle to the 
Romans is thus far a letter to all Gentiles and Gentile- Christians 
collectively (as the Epistle to the Hebrews is addressed to all Jews 
and Jewish-Christians, with a view of bringing them nearer to 
the more comprehensive Pauline position);— cmd in consequence 
of this significancy, its contents have also, in perfect accordance 
with the process of the Church's development, become the basis 
of all the doctrinal development of the Western Church. There 
is in human nature an inclination to deviate ever again and 
again from the essential character of the gospel, and to sink 
back into the law. The difficulty of overcoming the law, and 
of enforcing the gospel truth in its peculiarity, showed itself, 
even as early as during the foundation of the Church. Even 
those who had experienced the power of the gospel, like the 
Christians of Galaiia, might bo again led astray, and drawn 
back to the Old Testament position of the law. Afterwards, 
during the medieval period, a new legal character was developed 
in the bosom of the Church itself, and the righteousness of 
faith, without the works of the law, was altogether misappre- 
hended. By the light of the Word of God, and especially by . 
the careful, profound, and experimental statement of the doc-/ 
trine in the Epistle to the Romans^ the Reformers «gain dis- 
covered the original doctrine of the righteousness which comes 
of faith, and so they built the church anew on its eternal, inde- 
structible foundation. Since the middle of the eighteenth 
century, lastly, the Church again sank down to tfie legal posi- 
tion, in the rationalistic-neological tendency which, from that 
period, became prevalent; and if the most recent time has been 
able once more to find the jewel of faith under the ruins of the 
demolished Church, it is mainly indebted for this to the com- 
prehensive, and, to every yearning heart, convincing statement, 
of the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans.* And as 

* That after this the Apostle's fuodamental suppositions are the only part of the 
epistle to which Reiche (vol. i. p. 91) is even now ahle to attach a value, is iutelii- 



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54 IlTTBODVCnOV. 

the Church, altogether, has always been in danger of losing the 
evangelical truth, and sinking back to the position of the law, 
so is the same to be observed in the development of the life of 
the individual also. Every awaking of sin, and of the striving 
after deliverance from it, proceeds from the endeavour to fulfil 
the law of God, whether the inward law of the conscience, or 
the outwardly given law of revelation. The vanity of the 
struggle which arises from this striving is the first thing which 
brings to the conviction that there must be another way which 
leadeth unto life. From this feeling of the need of salvation, 
arises, by means of the preaching of Christ, faith, and in it re- 
generation, the changing of the whole inward man, and the 
filling with the power of divine life. As, however, the old man, 
in whom sin dwells, still remains alive in the individual after 
this has taken place, there remains also for him the danger of 
relapsing into the law, which becomes so much the more threat- 
ening, if he is obliged to own that he has not avoided the oppo- 
site extreme, relaxing in the struggle against sin, and falsely 
taking comfort from the merits of Christ And as this danger 
of relaxing in the struggle threatens the individual, so again 
does it threaten the aggregate also, and to the avoiding of it 
are directed (as has been already observed) the catholic epistles, 
with the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, in this respect, form a 
necessary complement to the body of St Paul's epistles in gene- 
ral, and to the Epistle to the Romans in particular.* > 

A writing of such penetrative significancy — which in the 
course of centuries has been the regulating authority for the 
Church in the most critical moments of her development — 
which has already been, is, and to the end of time will continue 
to be, the regulating authority for persons without number, as 
to the training of their individual life — ^must have had the 
deepest foim&tion in the life of its author. It was only from 
lively experience that the Apostle could treat a relation of such 
uncommon difficulty in such a manner that hia words still, after 
thousands of years, tell as profoundest truth in the hearts of 

gible from this learned writer's doctrinal poaition. KifllBer (p. 58) consideta it 
necessary to extract the kernel from the husk before we can get at abiding trutba 
in the epistle; he, too, regards its significance aa a whole aa only temporary^ 

* [Olfchausen's Tiews aa to the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews have 
ahready been mentioned in a note on the General Introduction, § 8.] 



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INTRODUOTION. 66 

millions, and in the collective consciousness of great ecclesiasti- 
cal communities. Indeed the whole substance of the vast expe- 
riences through which St Paul had passed in his own life may 
be traced back to the relation between law and gospel. Before 
his conversion, he knew no other way than that of fulfilment of 
the law, and with all the ardour of his noble soul he threw him- 
self on the mass of inward and outward precepts which the 
Mosaic law and the tradition of the Pharisees presented to him, 
with the intention of fulfilling them all. His zeal was honest, 
and he advanced far; for he was regarded by those around him 
as pious and God-fearing. In the depth of his soul, however, 
the Divine Spirit testified the contrary to him; the life of the 
believers, whom in his zeal for the law he persecuted unto 
blood, showed him something in which he was lacking. To 
the stirrings of this inward craving the power of grace attached 
itself, and the appearance of the Lord near Damascus darted like 
a ray from a higher world into his darkness. He was now pene- 
trated by a feeling at once of the infinite impotence of man, and 
of the abounding power of grace. All his exertion in fulfilment 
of the law had resulted in a fighting against God and His holiest 
working; him, the fighter against God, grace in a moment 
changed into an instrument for His purposes. Hence thei 
Apostle, after this experience, knew not how to preach any- 1 
thing save the grace of God in Christ, whereby man is enabled' 
to accomplish whatever the rigid law can require, and still infi- 
nitely more, without becoming high-minded, void of love, or 
contemptuous towards the weak, inasmuch, namely, as it is 
grace that works all in him, not he himself by his own might. 
The words of Augustine — Da quod jvbes, Devs meus^ et jube 
quod vis, — contain, therefore, the whole system of the Apostle 
Paul. 

Such being the nature of the contents of the Epistle to the 
Romans, it may be imderstood why it is usually regarded as 
very difficult Indeed it may be said that where there is want- 
ing in the reader's own life an experience analogous to that of 
the Apostle, it is utterly unintelligible. Eveiything in the 
epistle wears so strongly the impress of the greatest originality, 
liveliness, and freshness of experience; the Apostle casts so sure 
and clear a glance into the most delicate circumstances of the 
inward life in the regenerate; he contrives with such genius to 



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56 IOTBOD0CTION. 

place all that is individual in connexion with that which is most 
general, that the reader who stands on the limited, inferior 
ground of natural knowledge of the world, must at one time 
become dizzy at the vast prospects into the periods of develop- 
ment of the universe which St Paul discloses, and at another 
lose sight of these, in order as it were to look into the, as it 
were, microscopically exhibited circumstances which the Apostle 
unveils with respect to the most secret processes in the depth of 
the soul. Where, however, analogous inward experience, and 
the spiritual eye sharpened thereby, draw near, the esssential 
purport of the epistle makes itself clear, even to the simplest 
mind, as Luther has shown in the most popular manner in his 
celebrated preface to the Epistle to the Romans. It is not, 
however, my intention by this to deny that, even where expe- 
rience is pre-supposed, there still remain considerably difficulties 
in the execution and form of the statement, and likewise in 
particular parts of the epistle — e.jf., in the dissertation on elec- 
tion; but these are still only the subordinate parts of the 
epistle, as compared with the leading main ideas respecting 
law and gospel. It would, however, be a great mistake to 
suppose from what has been said that it is intended to represent 
the study of the Epistle to the Romans as useless in cases where 
the transition from law to gospel has not yet been experienced; 
rather the thorough and laborious study of its profound contents 
is often the very means by which a yet defective experience 
trains itself. My intention is much more to warn against the 
employment of guides who, without a glimmering of the true 
sense of the Apostolic letter, can only hinder the beneficial 
effect of the study of it by their erroneous explanations. 

§ 6. LITERATURB. 

There is hardly any book of the New Testament which has 
been so frequently and fuUy treated as the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans — a circumstance which is sufficiently explained by the 
significance of its contents. A comprehensive survey of the 
literature connected with this epistle is furnished by Reiche 
(pp. 95 seqq.); the following appear to be the principal works. 

First, as to the Fathers of the Church — ^we have no commen- 
tary from that doctor who would have been qualified above all 



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IKTBODUCTION. 67 

others for a deeply-grounded exposition of the epistle-— Angus* 
tine. We possess by him only a fragmentary exposition of 
some passages, under the title, Exfositio quorundam proposi- 
tionum ex Epistola ad Romanes, and the commencement of a 
work on too extensive a plan, and therefore left incomplete. 
This does not embrace mOre than the greeting (i. 1-7), and is 
entitled Inchoata expositio epistolae ad Romanes. On the 
other hand, a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by his 
celebrated opponent Pelagius is preserved among the works of 
Jerome and in the revision of Cassiodorus. The work of Origen 
on this book we possess only in Rufinus' translation, by which 
it has lost much of its value for us. Besides these, we have 
commentaries by Chrysostom and Theodoret, executed in their 
usual manner. The exposition by the so-called Ambrosiaster is 
peculiar ; but his exposition of St Paul's Epistles is of more im- 
portance with reference to history than to doctrine. In later 
times Oecumenius and Theophylact employed themselves on 
the Epistles of St Paul, and also on the Catholic Epistles; their 
commentaries, however, contain but little of their own. But 
the Greek Fathers altogether have, in consequence of their 
Pelagianizing tendency, been very far from successful in the 
exposition of the Epistle to the Romans; the whole purport of 
the epistle was too remote from them to admit of their master- 
ing it. 

The middle ages were especiaUy unfitted by the prevailing 
tendency to a legal system for the profitable illustration of the 
Epistle to the Romans. It was not until the Reformation that 
a new period for the interpretation of it commenced. Luther, 
indeed, was in the same case with Augustine; he left no com* 
mentary on this epistle. On the other hand, besides Calvin's 
profound work, the most intimate associate of Luther, Melanch- 
thon, has presented us with an exposition in which we clearly 
trace the spirit of the great reformer. He published in 1522 a 
shorter exposition, under the title of Annotationes in Epistolam 
ad Romanes, Viteb. 1522, 4to. A more detailed commentary 
afterwards appeared imder the title of Commentarii in Epist. 
ad Romanes, 1548, 8vo. Expositions of the Epistle to the 
Romans also appeared by Bugenhagen, Zwingli, Oecolampadius, 
Musculus, Bucer, in all which, however, as is easily accounted 
for, controversy against the Romish Church predominates. In 



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58 urTBODtroTiov. 

the seventeenth century, and in the earlier half of the eigh- 
teenth, many additionsd commentaries appeared, in which 
the same polemical reference was prominent. Among the 
better of the expositors who took this direction is Sebastian 
Schmidt, (Commentarius in £p. ad Romanes, Hamburg, 1644); 
Abraham Calov, in his Biblia Illustra'ta, combats Grotius, and 
his often (especially in the exposition of the Epistle to the 
Romans) very shallow views. Among the [Roman] Catholics, 
Cornelius a Lapide wrote in the seventeenth century a com- 
mentary on this, and also on all the rest of St Paul's Epistles, 
which is still, at this day, not wholly without use. (Antwerp, 
1614.) 

From the middle of the last century until near its end, special 
expositions of the Epistle to the Romans were written by Baum- 
garten, (Halle, 1747.) Mosheim (whose work was edited by 
Boysen, 1770), Koppe (first in 1783, the latest edition, under 
the care of Yon Ammon., appeared in 1824), Andr. Cramer, 
(Kiel, 1784), and Moms (edited by Holzapfel, 1794). 

After this, for about a quarter of a century,* no labour of any 
importance was bestowed on the epistle, until since 1820 the 
activity of literary men has again been directed to it. The latest 
expositions^ are by Bockel, (Greifswalde, 1821), Tholuck (fi.rBt 
edition, 1824; third edition, 1830), Flatt, (edited by Hoffmann, 
Tubingen, 1825), Stier, in the second Sammlung der Andeu- 
tungen (Leipzig, 1828, pp. 205-451) Elee ([Roman] Catholic in 
his view, Mainz, 1830), Riickert (Leipzig, 1831), Benecke 
(Heidelberg, 1831), Dr Paulus, (Heidelberg, 1831), Reiche, (2 
vols., Gottingen, 1833-4), Glocker, (Frankfort, 0. M., 1834) 
KoUner, (iSottingen, 1834), and Fritzsche, (Halle, 1836, vol. i.). 
A work very important for the doctrinal part of the exposition 
is Leonhard Usteri's Entwicklung des Paulinischen Lehrbe- 
griflTs (Zurich, 1833, fourth edition), Dahne's Paulinischer Lehr- 
begrifi^, (Halle, 1835), mry also be compared. Earlier works of 
this kind, such as Meyer's Entwicklung der Paulinischer Lehr- 
begriffs, (Gottingen, 1801), are but little adapted for use accord- 
ing to the present standard of theological science. 

* [Mehrere Deeennien bindordi.] 

t Compare Kling'g ensay, Der Brief an die Rfimer nod defleen nenen Beiurbei- 
ttrngen, in Kloiber's Stud, vol iy., No. 2, pp. 59 eeqq.; vol. t.. No. i, 1 leqq., and 
hiB review of Reiehe and KOllner in the Stad. for 1836, No. 8. 



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59 



EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE. 



PART I. 
(I. 1— I. 17.) 

THE INTBODUOTION. 



The Apostle opens the first part of his great doctrinal epistle, 
according to his usual practice in all his epistles, with a mIiUc^ 
tion (i. 1-7); but the fulness of the ideas which he brings 
before his readers even on his first address, is such as he seldom 
(and perhaps never in such a degree) thus early presents to 
them, and shows how entirely full his heart was with his sub- 
ject; he hastens as it were even in the salutation to give a 
sketch of the whole contents of the composition which is to fol- 
low. With the salutation is immediately connected some intro- 
ductory matter, concluding with the introduction of the theme, 
of which he designs to treat, (ver. 8-17.) We shall, therefore, 
consider the first part of the epistle, according to these two 
divisions. 

§ 1. THE SALUTATION. 

(1. 1-7.) 

We find an entirely distinct character impressed upon the 
forms of salutation in St Paul's Epistles^ in that they contain, 
instead of the x^^^*^ (James i. 1) customary amongst the 
Oreeks, a benediction accompanying the name, the caUing, and 
the designation of those to whom the letter is addressed. The 
blessing thus added has the same tenor in all the epistles, 
except that in those to Timothy, Jbesides x^F'^ ai^d tip^vfiy iX<o( is 



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60 THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

also mentioned : the same phrase is used in the Second Epistle 
of St John, and a similar in the Epistle bf St Jude — viz., x^P'^y 
tlffivri Ka) ayd^ vXfihv^hfi, which last word is also found in the 
two Epistles of St Peter. Peculiar, however, to the salutation 
of the present epistle is the addition of intervening doctrinal 
statements, by means of which it is converted into a small self- 
contained whole; in the Epistles to the Galatians and to Titus 
a similar peculiarity may be observed, but existing in a very 
inferior degree. In three parentheses, which may be distin- 
guished by the usual marks, the Apostle directs attention in the 
salutation of his Epistle to the Romans — 1, To the pre-announce- 
ment of the gospel by the prophets; 2, to the dignity of the Re- 
deemer; and, 3, to his own calling to the office of apostle; by 
means of these he would lead his readers to remark the nature 
of the gospel, as well as its historical connection with the Old 
Testament, and the personal relation in which the Apostle him- 
self stood to it. 

Ver. ] . St Paul generally calls himself at the beginning of his 
epistles simply &v6^o\og *ln^ou Xf/<rrou, only in this place and Phil. 
i. ], douXog *ij]<roD X/'/tfToD, and in Tit. i. 1, doDXo^ ecoD. The term 
iovKoQ designates here the spiritual condition of the Apostle in 
general, whilst &^6<froXog defines it more exactly. He had been 
overcome by the Redeemer, conquered and subdued by His 
higher hhmfLu^ (i. 4.) But as one not merely outwardly conquered 
and still disposed to resist, but inwardly subdued, St Paul had at 
the same time become a willing instrument for executing the pur- 
poses of his Lord, as an Apostle. Since the article is wanting 
both to this word and to doDXo^, we may observe that St Paul places 
himself upon a level with other servants and apostles of Christ, 
without, however, in this place (as in Galat. i. 1) defending his 
apostolical dignity with especial emphasis, since it had never 
been impugned by the Roman Christians. Only the epithet 
xXfjr^^ designates his office as not chosen by his own will, but one 
to which he was ordained by the will of God, (cf. Acts xxii. 21.) 
KKnrii has not, therefore, here the general meaning (Matt. xxii. 
14), according to which every member of the Christian Church, 
to whom in any way the divine %kf^<fii has come, is so designated, 
(as in ver. 6 below,) but that special meaning, according to which 
it is synonymous with %%UKr6^ From the general number of 
the xX^jro/, a new and more exclusive )CKn<fii (t.e. the ixXoyO, 



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CHAPTER I. ]. 61 

called St Paul to be an Apostle. Consequently d^iitroXoi can- 
not here mean any itinerant teacher of the gospel whatsoever 
(as in Acts xiv. 4, 14, Rom. xvi. 7; 1 Cor. xii. 29), but it denotes 
(as Galat. i. 1, where the Apostle himself lays stress upon the 
word) a teacher chosen by Christ himself, and standing upon a 
level with the body of the Twelve. Besides St Paul, the only 
one whom we find in this high position, standing entirely paral- 
lel with the Twelve, is St James, the brother of the Lord, the 
Bishop of Jerusalem (cf. Notes on Galat. i. 19. ii. 9), who filled 
up that vacancy which occurred by the death of St James, the 
son of Zebedee (Acts xii. 1), without, however, having been 
formally elected, as St Matthias. In xXfirSg, therefore, the same 
thought is implied, as is expressed, 2 Cor. i. 1, by dtd hTJiuMrog 
0iovj or negatively in Galat. i. 1, by ovx &ic Mput^m. The words 
&pufifffii¥Oi %h thayytkiw 0fou, appear therefore to be tautological 
if we refer them also, as is commonly done, to ei j;, as the 
Separator. Besides, if the Apostle had meant to say this of 
God, he would scarcely have added, 0fou to ihayyhKiov. It is 
therefore much better to regard this addition as a nearer defi- 
nition of &^6(tTiikoiy and we may then, no doubt, see in them an 
obvious reference to the account given in Acts xiii. 2, where 
the Holy Ghost says, df op/Van ^ fiot rht Bapvdfiav xai rhv 2auXev s/r 
rh itfyov, 3 vpo<fxix\ri/jMi auroui. Even Theodoret, amongst the 
Fathers, appears to have thought of this reference (as later 
Turretinus), in that he bids us remark; how, not only the Father . 
and the Son, but also the Holy Ghost, had sent forth the 
Apostle. The explanation of A^upttrfAevog (in Hebrew, ^13), by 

— T 

referring it to tlie former state of St Paul as a Pharisee, must 
be rejected altogether as a mere play upon words; neither is 
the element from which St Paul was separated to be regarded 
as the xStTfioiy but as the Christian Church herself, to which 
he already belonged, when his original calling of God to be an 
Apostle was outwardly confirmed by the choice of the Church 
at Antiooh. In the words ^ayyiXiov e$ftu, the genitive does not 
denote the object, for that is Christ (ver. 3), but the author 
of the gospel. The words f/r tvayyiXiov are rightly resolved into 
t/g rb xnpMyfba fua/ysX/oo, for unto the gospel in itself, 1.6., to 
the personal enjoyment and use of the gospel, every Christian 
is separated, but not every one is commissioned to teach it. 
(James iii. 1.) 

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62 THE BPI8TLB TO THB BOM AITS. 

Vet. 2. The fint parenthesis* refers, as already remarked, to 
the relation of the gospel to the Old Testament Scriptures; it is 
intended thereby to declare that the former was not a thing 
entirely disconnected with the previous history of the world, but 
the blossom which had grown out of the roots of the Old Testa- 
ment (cf. Acts xxvi. 22). St Paul does not, however, subjoin 
this remark, in order to encounter Jewish opponents, for such 
did not exist in Rome, but to impress upon his hearers from the 
very first that truth which he proves at greater length in a sub- 
sequent part of his epiai]ble, — ^viz. that the Old and New Testa- 
ments are closely connected. It was needful that the relation 
of the two dispensations should be made not less plain to Gen- 
tiles than to Jews; we are not therefore, from such allusions to 
the Old Testament, to form any conclusion concerning the posi- 
tion of the Jews, and Judaizing Christians in Rome, etot is to 
be supplied as the subject of irpotwnyysSkoLro from the preceding 
ivayyiXiov eiou. The prophets appear as the instruments of the 
divine will, and their communications are considered to be con- 
tained in the Holy Scriptures, whose divine authority is pre- 
supposed as a matter of course. The ^f^nrai are not, however, 
those persons merely who are called prophets in the more con- 
fined sense, but all the sacred writers, inasmuch as they were 
filled by God's Spirit. All the passages, therefore, which refer 
to the Messiah are included in these words from Genes, iii. 25, 
to Malach. iv. 2; for wherever a prophecy was uttered concerning 
Christ it was uttered concerning the gospel, for He is Himself 
the gospel. 

iVof TftT/f xXf <r^a/, " to promise or grant anything beforehand 
(before one's appearance)" is only found in this passage in the 
N. T. — ^"Er ypafaTg Ay/a/r we cannot take with Dr Paulus as sig- 
nifying " in passages of holy Scripture." The reason of the 
omission of the article is simply this, that the expression is taken 
as denoting a well-known whole; the words are therefore to be 
translated, " in the collection of sacred writings with which you 
are so well acquainted." The 0. T. was naturally introduced at 
once even into communities consisting of Gentile converts. 

* Fritssche wishes to oonnect n;} r«v w«v mum, not with tlmyytXtev Ouv, out 
with r^firfryyi/Xcr*, to as to avoid making ver. 2 a parenthesis, and to oonaider it 
quite as part of the principal thought; hut the position of n^) r. &. 4. does not 
appear suitahle to this view. At the same time, we must allow that the paren- 
thetical nature of the danses hi yers. 3, 5, is much more strongly marked than here. 



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CHAFTBB I. 2 — 3. 63 

Ver. 3. The gospel of Qtod treats of His Sop, it is therefore 
most nearly connected with Himself, and a special object of His 
care. But the Apostle cannot mention the sacred person of the 
Son of Ood without entering into a closer definition of His 
nature; he describes Him, therefore, according to the two rela- 
tions of His being, the human an,d the divine. The connection 

of vt^i rou v/ou Mtrou with tuayyiXiov 9cou is no doubt the most 
natural, since 'l^itfoO X/»/<rroS in the 4th verse evidently has regard 
in the same way to u/oS auroC, passing over the second paren- 
thesis. Of this latter sentence the first half rw ^iioybbivou U m^ 
/lar^i Aafiid xar^ ifdpxa presents no difficulty. The meaning of 
xar^ sdpxa can hardly be mistaken, if we define it by the help 
of the words in opposition to it xaroL ^mv/iAa; it will then signify 
the earthly human side of our Lord's being, that by which he 
was subject to birth and growth, that in which he appeared to 
the world. (Pcra <r^ai is opposed to iTvat. See Notes to St John, 
i. I.) 2d^ is, in fact, employed not merely to denote the sub- 
stance of the flesh (see Notes vii., 14), but also the human soul 
and spirit, that is to say, a complete human nature, which is 
here designated by the word ad^^ only in order to express more 
strongly its identity with universal human nature (see Notes to 
viii. 3). The special reference to the ifirip/jM Aa/3/d is evidently 
occasioned by the mention of the prophecies in the preceding 
verse, which represent the Redeemer as being of the family of 
David according to His human nature.* It might, however, 
at first sight appear as if the Apostle used the name 6 uih^ rw 
ecoD not only of the divine, but also of the human nature of 
Christ, that is of His whole Person, since rou /fro^lvou is imme- 
diately connected with u/ou auroD. But since, in the very next 
verse, the fourth, whg eioD is expressly applied to the divine 
nature, we must acknowledge that this connection of ytvo/Amu 
with v'm can only be explained by supposing that reference is 
made to the tmity of the Person in which the human and divine 



* The soppotttion that St Paul here expre oe e o his adopiion of the Ebionite view 
of the generatioD of Christ by the words U rwi^ftmrtt Am$i^ is altogether inadmis- 
sible. Christ's descent from David through the Virgin Msrjr entirely justifies this 
expression. The Apostle's object did not the least call upon him to specify how 
Jesus was begotten of the Virgin Mary. Nothing but that rage for scepticism, 
which announces itself in the assertion that Christ was not at all descended from 
David's iamily, but that this descent was only attributed to Him on account of cer- 
tain passages in the Old Testament, can believe itself warranted in using this psa- 
sage as if it denied the generation of Christ by the Holy Spirit. 



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64 THE EPISTLB TO THE BOMAI^a 

natures are so united that it is in general impossible to separate 
them expressly. That the application of this expression to the 
Qod-Man is admissible, is founded upon the fact, that the Iiord 
as man is and may be called the Son of God just as well as He 
is so as God. When, however, we consciously separate the 
divine in Him from the human, the term vih^ Bw& can only be 
applied to the divine nature of Christ, to the eternal Logos. 
(See this more fully discussed in the Notes to Luke i. 35.) On 
this account there is no tautology in the words of this and the 
fourth verse, vhv auroD — i^i&divrc^ u/ou Bfou, for the vkv Bsou (ver. 
4,) is to be taken in opposition to the u/oD Aafiid in verse 3, or 
the v/ov M^iitncw which is implied in the first part of verse 4. 

Ver. 4. He did not, therefore, also become such. He only 
manifested Himself as such in His eternal power. The words wi; 
efou form, therefore, in this place, an opposition and climax to 
the ^ithi Aa^id. Christ was both at the same time the Son of 
God from eternity, the Son of David in time. Amongst modern 
exegetical commentators, Riickert explains the passage in this 
manner with especial force and clearness. On account of the 
choice made of the word o^/^f^^oi, however, several ancient and 
modem commentators have understood the words in an entirely 
different sense. This word, namely, in the language of the 
N. T., means " to fix, to determine, to choose for some purpose." 
(Luke xxii. 22, Acts ii., 23, x. 42, xvii. 26.) From this was 
derived the translation, '* God has chosen and appointed Him 
to be the Son of God," which would at once lead to the Jewish 
view of Christ's subordinate character, viz., that he was not the 
Son of God according to His being, but only by God's election 
(JxX«y<). (Justin Martyr. Dial. c. Tryph. Jud., p. 267.) In 
close connexion with the above stands another interpretation, 
which makes opse^svros to mean the same thing as ^rfoo^u^im^ a 
word which Ephiphanius has even admitted into the text. Ac- 
cordingly the expression is translated proBdestinatus est, and 
referred to God's decree with respect to the incarnation. (Iren. 
adv. hsBr iii. 22, 32. August de prsadestin. sanct., c. 15.) But 
both views, to say nothing of the untenableness of the former 
on doctrinal grounds, must be rejected, because from the con- 
nexion it is manifestly not the decree of God, but the proof 
before men of Christ's divine Sonship, that is here in question. 
No other course, therefore, remains but to take 6p/^f r^o/ in the 



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CHAPTER I. 4. 65 

sense '' to declare, to exhibit as something/' as Chrysostom has 
aheady rightly done. This explanation of the expression is, as 
far as the thought contained in it goes, sufficiently supported by 
passages such as Acts ii. 22, in which Christ is called " dvijp d«-A 
r»o 0foD &'to6t6uyf/kivog dwdfAtci xa) ri^^/' We may, therefoix), 
render 6pf€0i9ro^^ with Chrysostom, by ^tx^ivrog^ araf avfttra. Only 
there is some difficulty in proving that op/^ftftfo/ is ever used in 
this sense. For opit^ot always means originally ^' to define the 
boundaries,'' 6^/^stf^a/, '^to determine or mark out for one's 
self," t.6., to decree. No passage in which it means directly 
" declarare, ostendere," is to be found either in profane or scrip- 
tural writers. At the same time, the notion that Christ was 
decreed to be the Son of God by His resurrection, is so entirely 
at variance with every doctrinal system, and the whole range 
of scriptural ideas, as well as with the language of the Bible, 
(for, even supposing that vi^g ecoD meant nothing more than 
" Messiah," yet Christ was not first appointed or made Messiah 
by His resurrection), that nothing remains but to decide that 
the Apostle has here used the word in a rather wider sense, 
since it must mean in the present passage, in accordance with 
the connexion, " to prove, or present." It can, after all, only 
be regarded as an accidental circumstance, that a convincing 
example of this use of the word is wanting; for when a man is 
defined as to his character by means of some public act, such 
as the resurrection, he is at once thereby declared to be that 
which he really is. Thus only too can iy dwdfifi be fitly con* 
nected with opi^str^ou; the resurrection is in fact considered as 
an expression of the almighty power of God, as it is also usually 
represented in other places of the N. T., (Acts xvii. 32 ; Bom. 
iv. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 17.) But that expression could not be 
employed of the divine decree, and any other connexion what- 
soever of the words iv dwd^u is totally untenable. But if it has 
ever been held, as even Tholuck believes, that the resurrection 
of Christ was not adapted to prove the higher nature of Christ, 
it is because men have started in this assertion with the sup- 
position that the resurrection of Christ, like the resurrection of 
Lazarus, was nothing but the revival of his mortal body; but 
in our exposition of the history of the resurrection We have 
proved at length, that the resurrection was the glorification of 
the humanity of Christ, a view which gives to this event an 



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66 8PI8TLB TO THB B0XAH8. 

iinportance such as the N. T. attributes to it. We have already 
reoiarked, in our obsenrations on Matt. xxii. 29, that this is 
the only passage in which &¥d&ra9is nnpw stands instead of U 
vtxpttv.* But no doubt it is only the preceding U which has 
caused the omission of that preposition before nxpw. To un- 
derstand this formula as having the same signification as i^ o5 
Mnjiy and to refer it to the work of the glorified Redeemer by 
means of His Spirit in the CShurch, would not be objectionable 
with respect to the idea; the fiict of the resurrection is always 
presented to us in the N. T. as that from which the ascension 
and all the operations of the Spirit in the Church proceed as 
simple consequences. But xar^ wnZ/iM can only form in this 
place, according to the context, the opposition to xareb c&^juiy 
and cannot, therefore, be referred to the operations of the 
Spirit; and, moreover, if this reference were not admitted, that 
is to say, if we took i$ ^nt^rdct^g as merely indicating the time 
at which the operations of Christ began to manifest themselves, 
no stress would be laid upon the resurrection as especially de-^ 
daring Him to be the Son of God. Finally, with respect to 
the expression xarcb ^nZ/iM ayi^cbvn^^ the indeterminateness of 
the word Aysmffufri in the language of the N. T. prevents us from 
gaining any certain clue to its meaning, and we must therefore 
be guided entirely by the context. For which &yt6nii signifies 
the state of holiness (Heb. xii. 10; 2 Maccab. xv. 2), and 
Ayta^/Ug denotes the becoming holy or sanctification (Rom. vi. 
19; 1 Thess. iv. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 13), a/zwiruv)} is sometimes taken 
as synonymous with dtyiaefU^ (2 Cor. vii. 1; 1 Thess. iii. 13), 
and sometimes appears to be equivalent to aytorns. In a mere 
question of language it might be considered, therefore, equi- 
valent to wnZfjM ayiw. But if resting on this grammatical pos- 
sibility we were to apply the expression of the text to those 
prophecies of the 0. T. which were given by the Holy Ghost, 
(as if the words stood xa^c^c rh nmZfiM Ayiov cpof/pfjxf), or to that 
Spirit who was imparted to Christ at His baptism, both inter- 

* The exprewioii Jifd^mfs$ nm^ has w fixed an iinge m aignifying the reenr- 
veetioD of the botfyt that we caonot auppoee there ia m thia any reference to that 

?tiritual reenrrection« which Cbriat brought into the world; pexhapa, however, St 
anl here choae an eKpreaeion which doea not ao emphatically designate the reaar- 
reetion of Jeena alone, lU^m^it U ns^r, in order to intimate, that with Him the 
■aints of the Old Teatament had also riaen (Matt, xxvii. 68> At the same time 
this also was bat a partial A»irr«r<f, and it was therefore noeeasary to distingoiah 
tfie A^drrmnt vtmfSt onoe more from the Jfcv«(rT»r«f rSf tixfSf, 



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OHAPTBE I. 4, 5. » 67 

pretatioDB would be inadmissible, according to the context, 
wliich must here alone decide: The opposition to xard sd^xa 
requires it to refer to the Person of the Redeemer Himself, and 
therefore the third Person of the Godhead cannot here be 
meant, though certainly the divine nature of Christ may be. 
In order to denote this, the expression «i«D/xa is chosen on ac* 
count of the ^d^^ which has gone before, just in the same way 
as in 1 Pet. iii. 18, compared with Rom. ix. 5. The divine 
nature of the Itl^ etoS is therefore here very properly said to 
consist in the ^tv/jiM, which is the substance of God (John iv. 
24), and forms an opposition to the ^d^^, in which the eternal 
Word veiled Himself (John i. J 4). (See also 1 Tim. iii. 16, 
I John iv. 2, 2 John ver. 7, Heb. ii. 14.) But this Spirit, as the 
absolute Spirit, is not only in Himself the Holy One, but also 
the Sanctifier of collective humanity, %,e,, He who communi- 
cates His nature to the creatures; this last sense, however, does 
not come prominently forward in this place, which is occupied 
more particularly with the description of the person of the Lord 
himself. 

Ver. 5. At the naming of the holy name of Jesus Christ, the 
common Lord of all believers, the Apostle feels himself con- 
strained to expatiate in another parenthesis on that which this 
bountiful Lord had done for him, who was so undeserving of it. 
We must not think that any polemical allusion is intended (as 
in Galat. i. 1), and therefore suppose an implied contrast of o6 
d/ dv^ftantm with ht o2i. St Paul mentions this grace of the Lord 
out of a pure feeling of thankfulness for the mercy which had 
been shown to him. Xdpn xai dvo^oX^ is not to be taken as h 
hid dvo^, but as a designation of the general grace (that of call- 
ing and forgiveness of sins), and of the particular grace (his 
election to be an Apostle), Augustin says justly, '' gratiam cum 
omnibus fidelibus, apostolatum non cum omnibus communem 
habet." On account of the dwoaro\iiy and the nearer definition 
added to it, ixdS^fA*^ can only refer to the Apostle. The whole 
following sentence, th Mraxoiiv ^ricnvi i v was ro^ Unm irnip rtSi i¥6^ 
fiMTOi aurou is Hebraistic, and answers to the words y^}fSrh 

totjJ h:^ a^sn hb'p, rrywDi^n- ^ p«'® ^^^^ *tis must have 

run, 7ra ifvaxolfOiSt hi ifiov vdvru rd Wwj rji vicrii x. r. X. St Paul 

often uses the word uraxo^ (the opposite to Ta^axoiy, '^ neglect of 



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68 EPISTLB TO THB BOHANS. 

hearing, the turning a deaf ear," 2 Cor. x. 6), for iufitanc^ 
Rom. XV. 18, xvL 19, (also found 1 Pet. i. 2), in the sense of 
^'obedience to the influences of divine grace," properly the 
listening to anything, giving earnest heed to it n/Vr/c (see 
this subject treated more at length in the Notes on Rom. iii. 
21} does not mean the doctrines of the faith, but the disposition 
of faith which necessarily supposes the iKraxoq. But the opera- 
tions of the Apostle were to extend to the whole Gentile world, 
and therefore the Romans could not be excluded from them, 
since their city was the centre of all Gentile life (cf. ver. 1 1). 
Of the words Mp rou Mfiaroc auroD we must certainly regard 
the most important meaning to be " for the honour and glory 
of His name" (cf. Acts xv. 26, xxi. 13), where ii¥Cfia = qjj), 

stands for the being, the personality itself (cf. Comm. on Matt, 
xviii. 21, 22, John xiv. 11-14). At the same time we must 
not overlook the fact, that in the language of St Paul, as in 
the discourse of all persons of comprehensive minds, especially 
when their style is not perfectly formed, sentences often occur 
which are loosely and indeterminately connected, and therefore 
allow of manifold applications. Such instances of grand in- 
definiteness a considerate expositor will not dare to sweep 
away with a single hasty explanation ; he will take them just 
as they present themselves. The wide range and bearing of 
single thoughts gives, in fact, a peculiar charm to the language; 
it enables us to take a view of the world of the author's ideas, 
even though it did not permit him, on account of its very 
riches, to express at one time all that filled his mind as he 
desired. Thus, in this very instance, it cannot be denied that 
the connexion, which Tholuck has defended, of these words 
with uraxoij fl'/tfrswc, SO as to give the meaning, "ut obediatur 
fidei ob ejus nomen," is just as unstrained as the above ; aU 
things in aU boOi are and shall be for Ood and for the execution 
of His will, whether it be St Paul's apostolical office, or the 
faith of the whole heathen world, or that of every individual 
member of the Church. 

Vers. 6, 7. The Christians in Rome therefore are also members 
of that great Gentile world which was committed to him; and in 
that place the Gentile element from the very beginning assumed 
considerable prominence in the Church. The glory of their call- 



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OHAFTXR I. 6 — 7. 69 

ing to be members of the iingdom of God, the Apostle represents 
by means of several commendatory epithets; he styles them 
called, beloved of God, holy. The name iya^njro/ etov is not found 
in any other place in the N. T. It answers to the Hebrew 
t"n^ or -rtl. This name, as well as the following, dyia, denotes 
Christians to be the spiritual Israel of the new covenant; for 
what is called Israel after the flesh in the N. T. also bears the 
name D'^tijip, Deuter. xxxiii. 3, 1 Sam. ii. 9, Ps. iv. 4. With re- 
gard to 5yi6c ay/a^i/v, see the observations on John xvii. 17, and 
Acts ix. 13. The word, in its proximate meaning, denotes no 
degree of moral perfection (the Corinthians, who were in so 
many respects deserving of blame, are called dytoi), but refers 
to the separation of believers from the great mass of the 
x^pkoty the Gentile world. But doubtless the idea is also im- 
plied, that Christians have been made pai-takers of the principle 
of a higher moral life, which, as in a course of development, is 
gradually to pervade the whole man, and produce perfect holi- 
ness. Now this principle is the Spirit of Christ, so that St 
Paul's idea, sx<»f>iru<nt ^/^ac iv rp nyoL^fii9(ft, is also to be applied 
to the conception of ayta. Christians are holy on account of 
Christ, who lives in them, and who is their true self. The very 
juxtaposition of xX)}r«/ and (Z7/0/, which we find here, points to 
the gradual development of holiness; for, as Augustin justly 
observes, "non ideo vocati sunt, quia sancti erant, sed ideo 
sancti effecti, quia vocati sunt.'' 

The words x^^F'^ ^M'^ ^^^ *if^^7 finally, contain the special form 
of salutation, xdpti is no doubt the Latin aalits, which was 
also the customary form of greeting in letters; but in the 
mouth of the Apostle this expression, as well as dpn^, wliich is 
the Eastern form, receives a deeper significance, xdptf and 
f/>^yi9 are related to one another as cause and effect; x^P*^ i^ ^^^ 
divine dyd^ manifesting itself towards sinful humanity, vpfi^ii 
is that state of inward harmony of life which arises in the man 
from the reception of the x^^*^- Grace, however, does not 
merely begin the new life; it also supports it every moment, 
and is capable of an infinite increase, as a consequence of which 
the i!pfi¥fi is also perfected in its turn. The source of grace is 
God, the Father of all men ; the organ by which it is commimi- 
cated is the Son, the eternal Word (1 Johni. 1), by whom all 



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70 EPISTLE TO THB ROMANS. 

things were o^jginally made, and by whom the fallen creature 
must be again restoied. And nothing, we may observe, speaks 
more decisively for the divinity of Christ, than these juxtaposi- 
tions of Christ with the eternal God, which run through the whole 
language of Scripture, and the derivation of purely divine influ- 
ences from Him also. The name of no man can be placed at 
the side of that of the Almighty. He only, in whom the Word 
of the Father, who is himself God, became flesh, may be named 
beside Him; for men are commanded to honour Him, even as 
they honour the Father. (John v. 23.) 

§ 2. nrTRODUCTIOH. 

(1. 8-17.) 

The Apostle begins the letter itself with the expression of his 
hearty joy for the faith of the Romans, and with the mention 
of his desire to be permitted to visit them. For, since his 
commission was directed to all Greeks and barbarians, he natu- 
rally entertained the wish to preach the gospel at Rome also. 
The essence of this gospel St Paul immediately points out to be 
that righteousness of Ood by faith which is revealed in it ; he 
thus then propounds the subject, which he intends to treat more 
at length in the epistle itself 

Yer. 8. St Paul opens most of his epistles with giving thanks to 
God for the faith of his readers ; it is only in the second Epistle to 
the Corinthians, and in that to the Galatians, where he was 
obliged to find decided fault, that this thanksgiving is wanting. 
But as in the life of the believer everything is received through his 
relation to the Redeemer, so also here the Apostle thanks God dt8t 
'I)}tfoD Xfn&rov, We must not regard this as a mere phrase, but 
as a true expression of the Apostle's deepest consciousness. 
Thanksgiving and prayer are only pleasing to God when offered 
through the Spirit of Christ dwelling in the heart The object 
of these thanks is, however, the Roman Christians themselves, 
not anything in them, for the life of faith is a matter of the 
deepest inward personality ; by means of this life St Paul had, 
as it were, himself gained them, and could therefore return 
thanks for them as brothers given to him. It followed from 
the very nature of the case, that the faith of the Roman Chris- 
tians would beknbwn generally amongst believers, since Rome 



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OHAPTBB I. 8, 9. 71 

as the capital of the world, had connexions with all parts of it 
hence Irennus (iii. 3) designates the Roman Church as that, 
" in qii& fidelis undique conveniunt/' In the faith of the capi- 
tal city, therefore, was contained, in the Apostle's view, the 
pledge that this faith would soon spread itself universally over 
the Oentile world. 

St Paul had in his mind at first a di vr for 6$ to correspond to 
the preceding «v>wrov fi'^f, but left the second half of the sentence 
uncompleted. Instead of Wip A.B.C.D., read n^/, which is in- 
deed often interchanged with imp ; at the same time we may 
very well prefer Mp in this place, as it seems to express the 
more uncommon thought, that the Romans themselves are the ob- 
ject of the Apostle's thanks. That no stress is to be laid upon h 
SXtff rff x6afik(ff, is self-evident ; we must refer it to the countries in 
which the gospel had already spread itself; beyond the limits of 
the Christian Church little was as yet known of Christianity. 

Yer. 9. As the reason of the thanks, which he presented to 
God on their behalf, the Apostle appeals to his continual prayers 
for them, prayers which he no doubt offered up to Qod, as for 
the Roman community, so also for all the churches in the world. 
Tliis calling God to witness is not here intended to obviate any 
mistrust on the part of his readers, but only to give the thought 
more emphasis. But if St Paul here calls himself the servant 
of God, as he above called himself the servant of Christ, 
it is plain that he only served God through Christ, and in 
Christ only served God. The expression Xar^tiM, how- 
ever, represents more the spiritual aspect of the relation, than 
iwXivv (see Phil. iii. 3). And therefore in this place (as well 
as in the passage cited) the worship is referred to the 'mZfiM^ 
without, however, any antithesis to the Jewish religion being 
intended. Against llieodoret's interpretation of these words as 
designating a spiritual gift, on account of which the Apostle 
rejoiced, it is sufficient to adduce the /emu; but it is also inadmis- 
sible to take wnvfiM /EMU as a mere designation of personality. 
Both soipka and -^vx^ can be put to represent personality, by no 
means, however, promiscuously, but under such conditions as 
are supplied by the context (See on this subject Olshausen 
opusc. theol. p. 156, seqq.) With regard to the addition, §9 rp 
«6a/7tX/^, we are not to Unnk merely of St Paul's activity as a 
teacher, the words denote also that element in which his own 



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72 EPI8TI.B TO THE ROMANS. 

personal religious life was exercised, and his worship of God 
performed. That strong form of affirmation, which has some- 
thing of the nature of an adjuration, /xafrw /emu • Bi6^, is often 
found in 8t Paul's writings. See 2 Cor. i. 23, xi. 31 ; Phil. i. 
8; 1 Thess. ii. 5. The w^ before dl^aXf/rr»tf is here rightly 
taken by Fritzscho as equivalent to Sn; Calvin, Heuroann, 
Flatt, Beiche, take it erroneously in the sense quam. — (The 
form ddiaXf/rr»r /c^pf/av wiou/uu is one of the favourite expressions 
of St Paul, see Ephes. i. 15 ; Phil. i. 3 ; Col i. 3 ; 1 Thess. i. 2.) 

Yer. 10. As the subject of his prayers, St Paid now mentions 
his wish to reach Rome, by which visit the Romans would re* 
ceive the surest pledge of his frequent thoughts of them. This 
desire, with respect to which the Apostle expatiates at some 
length in what follows, doubtless proceeded from his longing to 
preach the word of reconciliation at the very centre of the 
Oentile world. He could not think that he had fulfilled the 
command which the Lord had laid upon him before he had 
preached the gospel in Rome, the mistress of the world. 

E/TAif jjdfj vori must be rendered, " if not at length at some 
time." See on the use of lldfi in the sense '' at length," Har- 
tung's Partikellehre, vol. i., p. 283. — EuodoDy means strictly " to 
prepare a good way for some one," and then generally ^* to fur- 
ther, to favour," and therefore fuodoDtftfa/ must signify " to pro- 
ceed favourably, to succeed." (See 1 Cor. xvi. 2 ; 3 John ver. 
2.) The Apostle has learnt to place himself and his plans en- 
tirely under God's guidance and superintendence. 

Yer. 11. Entirely possessed with the great object of his 
calling, St Paul longs to communicate to others out of the 
fulness of his own spiritual life in Rome also, and to strengthen 
the believers there. We are not to think, as Reiche justly re- 
marks, of any of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 
xii.) as intended by this x^Mf^ 9rvtvfi,arix69, for St Paul did 
not estimate these so highly as to consider the communication 
of them the business of his life ; but we are to understand 
by it the spiritual renewal of faith, and love, and hope, in 
short, of the Christian life in general. (X<£/>/0}(tassd<tf/>ii/[Mi, Rom. 
y. 16, 17.) The Apostle therefore presupposes that the spark 
of the divine life has been kindled in his readers, and only 
contemplates the increase of the same. 

2rv/xW»'a'=/3f)8«/«/tf^«/, Rom. xvi. 25; 1 Thess. iii. 2, 13 ; 



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CHAPTBBI. 10— 13. 73 

2 Thees. ii. 17. As to dc rl with an infiuitive following, see 
Winer's Qramniar, p. 304. 

Ver. 12. Far, however, from wishing to intrude himself upon 
the Roman Christians as a teacher, the humble-minded Apostle 
only places himself upon a level with them as a brother; he 
desires to establish himself together with them in the faith. 

The compound word ^fi^a^axa\i7tgOai is only found in this 
passage in the N. T. in the sense, " mutually to strengthen one 
another in spirit." The infinitive is to be taken as standing in 
opposition to tfnjpi^^^Sva/, not, as Tholuck asserts, to be referred 
back to iwnrb^&j in fact it explains erj^prxfifai only. The words it 
&KknKM^ must, as Reiche well observes, denote that which is 
reeiprocaUy strengthening and quickening in the life of faith. 
On the other hand, that which is common to all in the posses- 
sion of faith is expressly declared, and more distinctly brought 
before the consciousness, in the words v/iZv n xaJ ift^. 

Ver. 1 3. St Paul's wish to go to Rome had already several times 
grown into a distinct resolution,* but at the same time he had 
always been prevented from carrying his resolution into effect. 
Nothing at all is known of the causes which hindered him; 
whatever, therefore, may be said on this subject can only rest 
upon mere conjecture. 8t Paul represents as the object of his 
journey to Rome, ** that he might have some fruit there also," 
such as he had already gathered amongst the other Gentiles. 
That, by this fruit, he meant nothing for himself, but only ac- 
quisitions for the kingdom of God, is manifest; at the same 
time, under the influence of pure love he regards this as his 
own gain, according to the principle, '^ all things are yours." 

St Paul frequently uses the formula, ou ii>M bfi&g &ymh^ see 
1 Cor. X. 1, 2 Cor. i. 8. For this very reason, the reading oux 
o7/xa/, furnished by D.E.G., is perhaps to be preferred, because the 
alteration of so common a form of expression is scarcely to be 
expected. This is the only passage in the N. T. in which diD^o 
denotes time, it is elsewhere constantly used of place. The 
reading r/yd xapvit is by all means to be preferred, as well on 
account of its MSS. authority, as for the sake of the sense; xA^it 
ma would imply a doubt whether any fruit of his labours would 

* According to Act xxiii. 1 1, the Apostle St Paul had a Tision of Christ, in which 
it was expressij- eaid to him, ** Thou must hear witness of me at Rome also.*' But 
this Tision did not take place until nfier the composition of the Epistle to the Romans. 



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74 EPIBTLB TO THB B01CAK8. 

ever be seen, and to doubt this were to doubt the power of 
Christ. Tlie image of the sower lies at the bottom of the ex- 
pression xapir6i in the Apostle's mind. 

Ver. 14. St Paul regards his relation to the (Gentile world as 
that of a debtor who has to pay his creditors. In the gospel 
an infinite treasure had been committed to him, out of which 
he considered himself bound to impart to all Oentiles without 
exception.- The expression, 'EXXiftf/ n xas Pa^fidpw^ signifies, 
therefore, nothing more than the universal heathen world; the 
Jews, whom even Philo (t^. Jfo*. p. 685) reckons amongst the 
barbarians, are not mentioned at all here, since St Paul did not 
consider himself as their debtor. (See Notes to Galat. ii. 7.) 
The Romans, however, inasmuch as they partook of the general 
civilization of the world at that time, are naturally to be reck- 
oned amongst the Greeks, which expression in the Apostle's 
time had lost, to a certain degree, its merely national applica- 
tion, and had obtained this wider meaning, merely because the 
culture of the old world had proceeded from the Ghreeks. Tlie 
second contrast, tf»fo?i; n xal Awfiroii is not, however, by any 
means parallel to the first; amongst the Greeks there were 
many dv^roi, and amongst the barbarians were to be found indi- 
vividual m^/. Whilst, therefore, the first contrast is founded 
upon a general distinction, the second refers to particular, indi- 
vidual differences ; but the gospel is equally well calculated for 
all difierences of national and personal character, and therefore 
St Paul regards himself as a debtor to the whole of the vast 
Gentile world. These expressions would, however^ have a very 
startling effect in the Epistle to the Romans, if, as Baur sup- 
poses, the Church in Rome had indulged in a Judaizing ten- 
dency, and was therefore composed for the greater part of Jews. 
But the supposition, either that St Paul was entirely silent 
about his readers, or else (if we consider the Jews included in 
this expression), counted them amongst the barbarians, cannot 
certainly be admitted. 

Ver. 15. From this his general spiritual relation, St Paul 
then deduces his readiness to serve the Romans also. 

With respect to the grammatical connexion of this verse 
with the preceding, we may best consider our» as elicited by a 
naiug, to be understood in verse 14. To connect it with the 
xa^tag so far back as verse IS, only increases the difficulty. At 



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OHAFTER L 14—16. 75 

the aamo time it is not absolutely necessary to supply xaius; 
for the sentences may be much better taken merely consecu- 
tively according to the analogy of Acts xvii. 33, xxvii. 17> 44, 
1 Cor. zi. 28, xiv. 25. "I am debtor to all the Gentiles— so, 
as such, I am ready to preach to you also." Thus in profane 
writers also oifrug stands directly for oSroc. (See Matthioe's Or. 
Gramm. vol. ii. p. 1235.) The words rh xar ifif wp6^/u9 are 
best taken in the sense, " my inclination, my readiness." Up^ 
tfu/(tov, as substantive, is found in the best authors, e.g. Eurip. 
Medea, v. 178; Iphig. Taur. v. 989. And xar ifM is a circum- 
locution for fAoir,this form of expression being chosen to point out 
more distinctly to xctfl/iag on the other side. — lEua/^sX/^w and 
t^ou = -^tpa is construed in the N. T. either with ri¥i or nvd. 

Ver. 1 6. With a sudden, but, as far as the thought is con- 
cerned, well-managed transition, St Paul now comes to the 
nature of the gospel itself. Both the doctrine of Christ cruci- 
fied, and the circumstances under which it must be preached 
in Rome, seemed to the eye of man to render a successful 
result of St Paul's preaching there very improbable. In the 
magnificent capital of the earthly potentate of the then world,* 
in a city where all the schools of Grecian philosophy had their 
representatives, it might well appear hopeless to the natural 
man to preach the crucified Son of God, a Master who could 
only promise his disciples death and suffering as far as this 
world was concerned. Nevertheless, under the conviction of 
that divine power which resided in the gospel, St Paul utters 
his oux wou^\)W(ka,i. This must be considered as a Litotes, in- 
asmuch as the preaching of the gospel was to him the subject 
of his highest glory (1 Tim. i. 8, etc). In-order to show plainly 
how little cause there was for him to be ashamed of the gospel, 
he terms it a duya/eug OfoD. The expression combines a reference 
to the exalted source, and to tho almighty power of the gospel, 
which stand in strange contrast with its insignificant, yea 
strange, startling outward appearance, at which both Jews and 
Gentiles stumbled. (1 Cor. ii. 2, &c.) It is not, however, the 
doctrine in itself which is regarded as this dumM^ig^ but the doc- 
trine in living unity with the events to which it is related. 
The gospel is a divine acty which continues to operate through ^ 

* Alexander Moros nje very •trikiDdj on thie snbjeet, '■udax IJMtnus a^ 
tnicem Tocare terranim dominoe." See Koiche on tbk panage. 



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76 BPI8TLB TO THB BOMAKfiL 

all ages of the world, and that not in the first place outwardly, 
but inwardly, in the depths of the soul, and for eternal pur- 
poses. (SoH^f/a is the opposite to AwdiXua. See Hatt. zviii. 
11. Because salvation from temporal and eternal ruin is the 
highest end of Clmstianity, the gospel itself is called tvayyiXtop 
rni (furfipiag, and Christ &exny^c f^f ^wnj^/ac.) The condition of 
its operation in man is only W<rr/r. (With respect to the con- 
ception of v-ftfti^, see the notes to Rom. iii. 21.) The medicine 
only works when it is taken by the patient, and, in like man- 
ner, the gospel is only effectual when the man receives it in 
faith. But this faith is of Ood's grace possible to every one, 
the time of whose calling has arrived; the Jews have, however, 
the first claim to this calling. Tlie contradistinction of Jews 
and Greeks has nothing in common with that of Greeks and 
barbarians in ver. 14. There the Apostle was speaking of his 
personal relation to all classes of the Gentile world, here he is 
speaking of the purely objective relation of the gospel to the 
human race. Looking at mankind as presented to us in the 
divine economy of the world, he considers it divided into two 
halves, the Jewish and the Gentile world, and ascribes to all 
the privilege of being called to believe, whilst he recognises a 
certain prerogative on the part of the Jews (see also ii. 9, 10). 
This prerogative was no mere pretension advanced on the part 
of that people from pride and blindness,* but a divine ordinance, 
which had the design of erecting amongst the people of Israel 
a hearth and an altar for God,*!* from which, as a centre, the 
sacred fire might then be more easily spread over the whole 
earth. (See notes to John iv. 22.) How the Jews lost the 
advantage thus assigned to them, by their unbelief, is mentioned, 
later in chapter z. 

Ver. 17. The Apostle again, by means of the particle yap, 
annexes the reason, why the gospel could be thus effectual as a 

• From the general prevalence of this riew arose^ no doubt, the omission of 
ir^«rr«r, observable in some MSS., viz., B.G., which is, however, certainly quite 
erroneous. No doubt, in the case of the Jews, there was frequently connected 
with the consciousness of their election, arrogance and contempt of the Gentiles, 
instead of humility; but the conviction of their election was not, on that account, 
by any means, itself an error. 

t n^«;r«y is therefore not merely to be referred, as is done by the Greek Fathers, 
to the earlier calling, but also to their larger, endoivment with the gifts and fulnetn 
of grace. Theodoret erroneously asserts that w^Sm designates merely rm%t»tf 



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OHAFTBRI. 16, 17. 77 

divine powet unto eternal salvation; namely, because in it a 
new way of salvation is discovered, '^ the rigkteousneaa of Oodj 
proceeding from faith," The explanation of the leading ideas 
in the theme which the Apostle thus proposes, t. e., the dtxato^vn 
etou, and wiartfj will be found in the introductory observations 
on iii. 21. I will only make this preliminary remark, that the 
former word does not here signify the divine attribute of right- 
eousness, or goodness, or faithfulness, as has been supposed, 
but that the Apostle opposes the hiTiato^n BioD (or U eioD, Phil. 
iii. 9), to the hiTuuocbvn U ¥6fj>ou (or Ig ap^pfovov, i. e., /d/a), and re-* 
gards the whole peculiar influence of the gospel as determined 
by tliis difference. The realisation of absolute perfection\ 
(Matt. V. 18) is the highest end of man's existence; the lawi 
could not effect this any further than the bringing forth of an | 
outward legality, but by regeneration an inward condition is I 
through grace produced in believers, the diKcuocm eioD, which I 
answers the highest requirements. This new way of salvation 
was hidden from all eternity (Ephes. iii. 9; 1 Cor. ii. 7), it 
needed therefore to be revecded by Christ in his actual accom* 
plishment of the work of redemption; St Paul's business was 
simply to communicate this information. From the connexion 
with ver. 16, which exalts the gospel as the power of God, it is 
plain, that drxai«<r6»j dioD cannot signify the mere declaring a 
person righteous, but the real making him righteous. This St 
Paul declares not only of those who were then living, but also 
of all later generations, because he considered the righteousness 
of all Its absolutely realized in Clhrist. That which in Him was 
perfected once for all, is gradually transmitted to individual 
men in proportion to the degree of their renewal, and is received 
by them in faith, and reckoned to their account. Peculiar in 
the present passage is the addition of i/V vs^sv. But doubtlosa 
this is not so to be understood, as if in this place an increase of 
faith were intended, an inward development of faith from a 
lower degree to a higher, the advance from a. more external 
mode of personally appropriating salvation to an inward mode. 
There was plidnly no occasion whatsoever here for St Paul to 
allude to the development of faith, which in itself must by all 
means be acknowledged to be a fact; on the contrary, if we 
were to adopt this interpretation, the principal point connected 
with the mention of the righteousness of God, namely, that it 
proceeded (on man's part) from faith, would remain entirely 

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78 BPIgTLB TO THB ROMAICS. 

untouched. *Bx does not therefore indicate in this place, as 
Beiche has justly remarked, the paint ofdeipariwre with respect 
to an odmnoe, but the grownd of cbtaining righteousness, the 
personal appropriation of the divine benefit, which becomes also 
particularly clear, if we for a moment leave §}g wi^m out of sight. 
In the same way that the Apostle proves in a subsequent 
part of his epistle (chap, iv.) by the example of Abraham, that, 
even in the case of the pious men who lived before Christ, it 
was faith which made them righteous ; so also in this place he 
describes the new way of salvation in its historical connexion. 
We must not consider this a mere accommodation, and appli- 
cation of Old Testament expressions to entirely different rela- 
tions ; this retrospective use of the 0. T. is rather to be derived 
from that scriptural fundamental view of it, which supposes 
that in it all the germs of the N. T. are already really con- 
tained, and that, therefore, the N. T. is only the wXlipust^ of the 
Old. (See notes to Matt. v. 17.) The quotation from Hab. 
ii. 4, is also made use of in Galat. iii. 11, and Heb. x. 38, in 
both with reference to faith, and the righteousness of the N. T., 
and we must acknowledge with justice, since it is but one faith 
at different stages of its development which is represented in 
both the Old and New Testament. (See Heb. xi. 1, etc.) 
Eternal life (Zv^reu is used in a pregnant sense =r. («i)y ouwuov 
f^f/) is never obtained otherwise than by means of faith. Ac- 
coiding to the Hebrew text, pp^-p '^fo^^ j7n2> ^* r/crscag 
cannot be connected with 6txan^, yet it must be thus taken ac- 
cording to the sense in which it is used by St Paul. We fre- 
quently meet with such free interpretations of the 0. T. text, and 
it has already been remarked, that the indeterminateness of the 
connexions in the Hebrew very much favours such a proceed- 
ing.* Applied in a profane spirit, as by the Rabbinical writers, 
this method perverts the Scripture; but when exercised in the 
Holy Spirit, this liberty is a means of manifesting the infinite 
fulness of its contents. (The LXX. must have read "^ro^t^si, 
for they translate it ix ^I<fri<ag (muj and ascribe faith, t. e., faith- 
fulness to God. But the faithfulness of God is doubtless mani- 
fested in sending the Messiah, and in his work, so that this way 
of taking the passage leads us back to the right thought again.) 

* See tb« notes to Luke iv. 18, 19. 



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79 

PART 11. 
(1. 18— XI. 36.) 

THB DOCTBINAL EXPOSITION. 

8ECTI0V I. 

OF THB BIHFULNES8 OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

(I. 18— III. 20.) 

The very nature of the Apostle's undertaking required that 
he should prove the necessity that existed for a new method of 
salvation for man, before he entered upon his account of the 
true nature of that method. It was further requisite that this 
necessity should be pointed out in both those great divisions, 
under which the human race is considered according to the idea 
of the kingdom of God, that is to say, amongst Jews as well as 
Gentiles or Greeks; in order that it might plainly appear that 
such a new and complete way was needed by both in common. 
St Paul, therefore, from the 18th to the 32nd verse of the first 
chapter, treats exclusively of the condition of the Gentiles; 
from the 1st to the 29th verses of the 2nd chapter, the Jews 
principally occupy his attention; and lastly, from the 1st to the 
20th verse of the 3rd chapter, he draws a parallel between the 
two, in which he considers the different relations in which they 
stand to the remedy provided by the mercy of God. We will 
treat this first section according to these three divisions. 

§ 3.— CONDITION OF THE HEATHEN WORLD. 

(I. 18-32.) 

In describing the necessity of a new way of salvation for the 
heathen world, the Apostle naturally set out with considering 
their depraved moral condition.* But it was also required that 
this state of alienation from God should be traced to its origin. 
Even the Gentile world was not without some knowledge of 

* See Uftteri'a PauliniBcher Lebrbegriif, 4th ed. p. 15, teqq., and thepfiasAgw 
there quoted. 



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80 BPISTLB TO THS B0MAN8. 

God, and in consequence some insight into the divine law; but 
the knowledge which was thus within their reach, the Gentiles 
lost by their own fault, and with their theoretical errors, the 
stream of their practical transgressions rose to a most fearful 
height* The mere recovery of that general knowledge of God, 
which they once possessed, could, of course, effect nothing in 
this evil case, for if it had not been effectual in preventing them 
from sinking into vice, still less could it raise the mass from the 
slough of iniquity into which it had fallen ; it was therefore 
necessary that a new element of life, ad{/vafju^ Btov should be in- 
troduced into the world, and that by its means the possibility 
should be given of a new beginning for man; such the gospel 
proved itself to be. 

Ver. 18. The Apostle had already used ydp three times in 
succession in the 16th- J 7th verses, and uses it yet a fourth time, 
in order to connect this verse with the preceding, as (1 Cor. ix. 
16, &c.) For he is contrasting the revelation of God's right- 
eousness in the gospel with the revelation of his wrath in the 
law, as the former comes tl^ «7<rriv, t. 0., f/^ Tc^i^ra; mtrtvovrai, so 
the latter M va&av anfittat. But the last ydf connects what fol- 
lows in such a manner with what has gone before, as to direct 
attention to the life which is by faith: ''Those only who are 
just by faith shall live, for God's wrath reveals itself against all 
unrighteousness" (which cannot be avoided by him who lives 
not by faith). Looking upon ydp as intended to connect or ex- 
plain the clauses of an argument (see Hartung's Partikellehre, 
L 363, &c.), we may here translate it by " yea ; " it points back 
to the well' know truth of God's justice in punishing sin, which 
the life of faith alone can satisfy. In this general idea, there- 
fore, that God punishes sin, on which the Apostle Paul grounds 
his whole argument, he already brings distinctly forward the 
contrasts between the two dispensations; for vers. 17, 18, ex- 
actly correspond to one another. Sinful man has the most 
pressing need of the revelation of the hnuu^eiivn ^*f^t for without 
this he is subject to the hpyii eioO. (The endeavours to force 
another meaning upon y6.p, ''but^" for instance, are altogether 
to be rejected. Comp. Winer Gramm. § 423, &c.) The divine 
anger we of course consider as merely signifying the manifesta* 
tion of God's justice against sin ; this is here represented in its 

• See Notee to Matt, xvlii. 84, S5, Joh. iii. 35, 36. 



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GHAPTBB I. 18. 81 

two prinoipal forms, as alienation from God (a^f/Sfidj), and disoord 
in earthly relations (ddtxia)^ and these in all pWil)l«.6a(ieSy 
greater as well as smaJler (r&^). The only separa^ !ig[ne8tion 
is this, how are the words amxaXlumreu &r oi/pcur^u to be taken? 
Great stress has been laid upon the expression dr ovpayoD, 
and some have interpreted it of some particular judgment of 
God by lightning and so on, or have referred it to the last judg- 
ment But the general character of the whole passage by no 
means admits of such special applications. Each and every, 
outward as well as inward, present as well as future, utterance 
of God*s punitive justice is here designed; they are for this 
reason only represented as coming &it^ oupayoD, inasmuch as that 
eternal harmony whidi reigns in the heavenly world of spirit, 
from which alone all pure manifestations of the divine proceed, 
even those of holy and just punishment is opposed to tlie sin of 
the earth. 

In the opposition rw Hv. aXtjinw h db/xi<f xanx^rrwir, truth, as 
the pvinciple of every thing good, is set against falsehood, as the 
mother of all sin (as well of Aaifitta as of ddix/a), and the former 
is represented as oppressed by the latter by means of the d&x/a. 
(We are not to take h adixicf as equivalent to Adtx&^y or Awfikug, 
since it needs no words to prove that the suppression of the 
truth is criminal; the thought expressed is rather this, that un- 
righteousness = &90fAi<tj departure from the divine law, stifles 
the truth, and gives birth to error and lies.) (KoBrixw, in the 
sense " to keep under, to restrain the activity of," is found also 
in 2 Thess. iL 6, Acts xzvii. 40.) Here, moreover, the truth 
that is kept under is to be referred neither altogether to its in- 
ward effects, nor altogether to its outward, but to both together. 
This pernicious energy of sin naturally begins in the hearts of 
individual men, but extends itself gradually more and more, 
and darkens the conscience of whole nations and ages, in that 
it makes it incapable of perceiving the voice of truth and duty. 
Thus, in the case of the Romans, from the total obscuration of 
conscience, wickedness reached such a pitch, that the gladiato- 
rial games, one of the most horrible outgrowths of sin which has 
ever appeared in the history of mankind, were the general 
custom.* Accordingly there is contained in this passage an 

* It m^ be nid that the pimotiee of eMising thoimnds of their fellow men to be 
slftiigfaterea merely to feed their eyes with a eight of fthows, was sbnoet worse eren 



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82 EPISTLE TO THE BOMAHS. 

r assertion, that ever since the fall, and in the state of hereditaiy 
' sin, there was and is a truth in human nature, which by con- 
stant active sin may be kept under and finally stifled. St Paul 
does not represent man as being, in consequence of hereditary 
ain, in such a state that he can sink no deeper, but much rather 
as having a light in himself; by the extinguishing of which 
( light he may become at length wholly blind. 

Yer. 19. Tho Gtentile world was not, however, excusable in 
these its errors, from what might be thought the impossibility 
of its attaining to the knowledge of Q-od — God, on the contrary, 
revealed Himself to it. This thought is expressed in the 19th 
ver., where it is stated that the knowledge of God is founded 
upon the manifestations of the divine energy; God, in fact, is 
spoken of as He who Himself manifests Himself to men. And 
it is just on this account that their knowledge of God is so un- 
deniable, vi2., because it is conveyed by the beams of the ori- 
ginal source of light, God Himself. The expression rh ym^r^ 
rov eioD, is peculiar to this passage; the word 'ywarov may mean 
either that which is known, or that which may be known; ac- 
cording to the first meaning, the phrase would mean the same 
as yifticig rev 0iov; according to the latter, it would, on the other 
hand, distinguish that which may be known of God from that 
which may not. (1 Tim. vi. 16.) In our choice between these 
two interpretations, we can be guided only by the whole con- 
nexion of the passage, according to which (as will soon be 
shown more at length), the absolute incapacity of the heathen 
for the knowledge of God, is just as strongly denied, as the 
possibility of their imlimited knowledge of him. The expres- 
sions y¥&aig^ or Mymcit roD etoS denote, however, in the language 
of the New Testament, that absolute knowledge of God which 
is conveyed to man by means of the manifestation of God in 
Christ; from which we may assume that the form r& ymerlv roD 
eioD was purposely chosen by the Apostle, in order to designate 
that lower degree of acquaintance with God, which was given 
to men on the footing of the Gentiles, and which was only gra- 
dually obscured by sin. 

than that of efttiog human flesh, which appeazB to hare proceeded at ftnt only ont 
of the unbridled fury of battle. That the gladiatorial games were not only main- 
tained at the time of the highest ciyilization of the ancient world, hut then first at- 
tained a definite form, shows how little the edncation of the bead without the real 
reformation of the heart humanises the manners. 



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CHAPTER I. 19, 20. 83 

However, it is plain that the knowledge of God, which is here 
spoken of, is not to be referred merely to His government of 
the world, and His works in it, but also particularly to Himself. 

Tvoi^g in the N. T generally means recognised, known (Acts 
i. 19, ii. 14, iv. 10, fee, Luke ii. 44, xxiii. 49), for which in 
classical Greek the form yfur6i is usual. The N. T. affords no 
example of the word used in the sense, ** which may be known," 
to support that interpretation here ; the usage is however abun- 
dantly supported by passages of the Classics.* The words if 
mrnh refer to the internal nature of the knowledge of God; the 
meaning of the Apostle is, that the nature of God is represented 
in the soul as in a mirror, so as not to be mistaken. It gives 
quite an erroneous view of the passage to suppose with some 
that this expression is used only of the philosophers who lived 
in the Gentile world, for the Apostle is here treating of an uni- 
versal character of human nature, and what is here said of the 
heathen, it is needless to say, refers to Jews also. 

Ver. 20. Once more with a fresh y^Lf (the seventh, which fol- 
lows without interruption from ver. 16, for di^n, ver. 19, is in 
meaning exactly the same as yap) the Apostle annexes a 
thought in which that energy, by means of which God reveals 
himself, is described more closely. We can point to no mani- 
festations of Deity either immediate or by means of angels to the 
Ckntile world, such as were vouchsafed to the Jews ; but God re- 
vealed Himself to them by His creation from the very beginning. 
'A^h xriatttg %&6iu%\h can only refer to time^ Riickert and Reiche 
justly observe; (on which account, also, ifan^tatt stands in the 
past tense at ver. 19); otherwise the use of minfuafu immedi- 
ately afterwards, by which is denoted the created world, could 
not but be tautologicaL-f- The determination of the time is be- 
sides particularly important here, because the Apostle has the 
express intention of proving, that at no time, and under no cir- 
cumstances, was there any excuse for the deep moral depravity 
of the Gentiles, since the knowledge of God in the works of 
nature was always within their reach. At the same time, whxt 
God was pleased to reveal concerning himself, is more exactly 

* See Hemnami's note on the Oedip. Rex. of Sopbodes, t. 862. Even the 
general analogj of the rerliale in rt also supports this interpretation. 

t On the word mvUn^ see the remarks on viii. 19: It denotes properly and pri- 
marily the <iof of creation, whilst xriV^ui is used for that which U ertaUd; in the 
N. T., on the other hand, »rift$ denotes commonly what is created. 



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84 IPI8TLB TO THI B0MAN3. 

declared in the words rd A6paru alrwi, which expression is ex- 
plained and limited at the end of the verse by ^ n Mio^ «^t; 
dvfofug xmi hiini^ The Ai^f MiHLfM^ is very definite and easy to 
understand. In the contemplation of the creation, the infinite 
fGwer^ which this presupposes, first impresses itself upon the 
spirit (see Wisdom, ch. xiii.); and as compared with the merely 
temporal evolutions of the physical powers, creative power comes 
forward as eternal. On the other hand, the expression ^»^c 
is both striking and obscure, since etoD is necessarily added to 
it But doubtless the Apostle by this word, as above, by choos- 
ing 7irM0<rdv, intended to mark the incompleteness of their know- 
ledge. The divinity of God, t. #., his higher nature in general, 
the dominion of a mighty power over the elements of the world, 
and of a condescending benevolence in the care of all the 
creatures, — all this may be recognised in the mere contempla- 
tion of nature; but by no means the true Utirn^ of Gt>d, His 
personal existence as the absolute Spirit, as well as His justice 
and holiness. But, after all, the most remarkable part of this 
passage is the ao^am auroD; it appears from this that there is an 
UwrU e«ou. And doubtless this is just the meaning of the 
Apostle. The world is the mirror in which the inward nature 
and being of God is displayed;* the garment which clothes His 
very Self (Ps. civ. 2). Therefore, also the world, in order to 
lead man to the knowledge of God, needs to be contemplated 
with a spirihuil eye *{yoc\^fMwt xot^oparcu s= h rp ¥p xo^op&roei); as 
only the spirit can comprehend the spiritual expression of the 
human countenance, because in this case, likewise, the invisible 
being of the man is mirrored in his visible form, so also nature 
speaks of God's might and goodness to him alone, who beholds 
her with more than the mere bodily eye; the latter finds only 
disorder in her. 

Krtstg 7iMfko\9 (see Notes viii. 18) cannot mean the world, that 
which was created, but only the power that was put forth to create 
it. If we take it in the former sense, the connexion with xo^o- 
fHirau by means of ii/ri would present a difficulty; if this had 
been intended, ix would have been chosen, as it is in an entirely 
parallel passage in Wisdom xiii. 5. Meyer, to be sure, refers to 

* GdTin justly olieerrM on this ptange, I>eas per ae iiiTisibilis eet, sed qaia 
elncet ejus majestiB in operibus et crefttnris uniTcnia, debuerunt illioo homines 
•gnoseore, nam aitiScem snun perq>ieae declarant. 



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OUAPTSR I. 20. 85 

Mait. vii 16, where is found dc& r&¥ xa^Sy hriyv(air$^t (Berl. 
Jahrb. 1836. K. 113). But the construction xahp&(rrat with diri 
would never be found. — 'Atdio^ from <£f/, everlasting, eternal; 
didtigy invisible. — ^The expressions h^rnt and ktonig differ from 
one another as ei^^, and hTbg, of which they are the abstract 
nouna The fulness of the 0n^ni resides in the world, the ful- 
ness of the 6i^nt in Christ (Coloss. ii. 9); in Him alone can the 
Father be contemplated as a Person. 

And now, at this remarkable passage, the question arises, 
what does St Paul wish particularly to impress upon us by this 
thought 1 For we might think it necessary to understand by 
the passage, that men in earlier times, when they stood nearer 
to the first age of the world, might have been able to acquaint 
themselves with God through nature, but that, by continual un- 
faithfulness, they had all of them, without exception, lost this 
knowledge, and were abandoned to idol- worship. But this is 
plainly not the meaning of the Apostle, rather is he speaking 
here of human nature, as it manifests itself at all times and 
places, so that he conceives, the knowledge of God might always 
have developed itself afresh from the contemplation of the world, 
whether by reflection on its phenomena, or through immediate 
impressions on the mind, or through awakenings of the con- 
science. The germ of sin, which existed in all men, would not 
indeed have been done away with, but certainly checked in its 
development, by obedience to that knowledge of God which was 
thus within their reach. But instead of this, men gave them- 
selves up to the evil desires of their hearts, darkened thereby 
the knowledge of God which yet remained to them, increased 
thereby, in return, their lusts to such a pitch as to violate the 
laws of physical nature, and thus first fell away into idolatry, 
which is the violation of the laws of the spirit. But there were 
at all times individuals who proved, by leading a nobler life, 
even in the most depraved state of the heathen world, that it was 
at all times possible for man, by the earnest contemplation of 
nature, to raise himself to a certain knowledge of God. This 
power given to sinful man of acquainting himself with God in 
nature, is brought forward by the Apostle in other places also, 
for instance. Acts xiv. 15, &c., xvii. 23, &c. The Redeemer 
himself assumes such a power in passages like Matt vi. 22, 28, 
John viii. 47. (Comp. Usteri's Paul Lehrbegriffe, § 21. There 



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86 BPI8TIS TO TBI BOMAVS. 

is, therefore^ nothing in the passage we are now considering that 
is not found elsewhere. But as this passage is found in the 
Apostle's proof of the sinfulness of human nature, the impres- 
sion has been produced upon many minds, that the idea ex- 
pressed in it concerning the capability of man to raise himself 
to the knowledge of God, limits the greatness of man's dcprar 
vity. But in this the truth has been overlooked, that moral 
depravity has not its immediate ground in the understanding, 
but in the will, and presupposes the want of real love, on which 
account even the morally evil spirits are said to have the 
knowledge of God. (James ii. 19.) In fact, the capability of 
knowing God heightens the moral depravity of man; for that 
they, notwithstanding this knowledge, can go on further and 
further in sin, supposes a higher degree of aversion of the will 
from the law than if they had sinned without this knowledge. 
But the [Roman] Catholic Church, as well as Rationalists, take 
an entirely false view of this verse, whilst they understand by 
the simple yvuarhv roS eioD, true love and ob€^ience together. 
But, at the same time, as we have already observed, the Apostle 
restricts that knowledge of God to which man can attain by 
means of the mere contemplation of nature,, to the knowledge of 
the might and goodness of God. For the proper nature of God, 
as the Supreme Spirit, and pure Love, i. 0., communication of 
self, remained unknown to the heathen, as well as to most of the 
Jews themselves; on which account Christ is so often obliged to 
tell the Jews, that they know not' God. Accordingly, St Paul 
might, with the same justice, have here brought out the idea 
(if.it had happened to suit his argument), that man, from the 
mere contemplation of nature, could never arrive at the true 
knowledge of God ; passages, therefore, such as Ephes. ii. 2, 
are by no means inconsistent with the present. Even the best 
of the heathen, with their weak glimmering of the knowledge 
of God, remained without hope, because it was able to awaken 
in their minds only fear, at most a longing after the unknown 
God. But when Schneckenburger says that St Paul might 
have derived this view from the Alexandrian Gnostics, he 
brings forward a very unnecessary hypothesis; it is much sim- 
pler to suppose that it arose independently in his own mind, as 
it did also in that of the Alexandrians, from the immediate 
contemplation of the nobler moral phenomena amongst the 



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OHAPTBB I. 22, 2U. 87 

Gentikfl. Even supposing that St Paul had heard of die doc- 
trine of the Alexandrians, yet he did not adopt it from them, but 
only propounded it on account of the deep truth which he re- 
cognised in it by the light of the Spirit. 

Ver. 21. St Paul points out the unfaithfulness of the Gentiles 
to the measure of the knowledge of God which they possessed 
as the beginning of their errors. (The yvitng rhv 1 ^ y is 
not inconsistent with the more general term htirtig which has 
gone before, for here he is only speaking historically of that 
true knowledge of God which existed in men originally, and 
which they gradually lost.) God, ba the absolutely highest 
Being, claims man entirely, with all his adoration and all his 
gratitude; and indeed, since God is Spirit and Love, and man 
is so likewise according to his true nature, apiritual adoration, 
and ^tW^oZ gratitude, t. 6., the complete surrender of self, and 
the obedience of the inmost powers of life. Thus^ as the highest 
Spirit, and the purest Love {in eftfv), they honoured Him noty 
even if they did not fail in outward homage likewisa The con- 
sequence of their forsaking the truth was then their sinking 
into vanity (jAaraiou<f^at = '^^Spn* J®^- ^^' ^)> ^^ ^^^^^ forsaking 
the Light, the sinking into darkness, the element of sin. 

The dtaXoyttf/iof are the actions of the vovg (see Olshausen's 
opttacula theologica, p. 157) hence both voDr and xapdta, the two 
principal powers of the man, are drawn down deeper into sin. 
With the wvg begins also the restoration of the man in the new 
birth (See Comm. vii. 25). 

Ver. 22, 23. Gradually the Gentile world became more and 
more degenerate, till the idea of God was entirely obliterated, 
so that men, and even beasts of the meanest and most 'disgust- 
ing forms, received divine honours. Amongst modem exposi- 
tors, Reiche has contested this profound derivation of idol- 
worship from sin, which is yet undeniably expressed in the Old 
Testament. (Jer. ii. 11 ; Ps. cvi. 20.) His opinion is rather 
(p. 158), that the deification of the powers of nature, and indi- 
vidual created things, preceded Monotheism, because all the con- 
ditions for the highest development of the religious feeling were 
wanting. But in this Reiche has set out with the quite un- 
scriptural, and in every respect untenable view, that the course 
of the development of humanity begins with the completest 
rudeness, and proceeds to the gradual perfection of the inward 

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88 EPISTLE TO THE BOKAVS. 

as well as otitward life. But the doctrine of the Apostle is 
founded on the opposite Tiew of a gradual sinking out of a 
nobler state into sin, parallel with which degradation appears 
the restoration of man to his original glory, by means of a suc- 
cession of manifestations of Qt>d's grace. He does not, there- 
fore, mean to say, that the degradation of thel human race 
showed itself suddenly in the fearful form of the worship of 
created powers and images, but that this indicated a continual 
succession of transgressions, and developments of sin.* In con- 
sequence of these the higher power of man's life (the wnvfka) 
yanished almost entirely, and only the brutal inclinations and 
instincts remained, without a ruler. In this way man, of course, 
fell a iHrey to the powers of nature, in which he perceiyed that 
working on a mighty scale which he felt to be active in himself. 
It was especially the generative and receptive powers of nature 
which were recognised by men as the most powerful in them- 
selves, and in external things, and these were, on that account, 
in all nature-worship honoured with all kinds of cruel and im- 
pure services. Where holy love to the Highest Good was lost^ 
another love must necessarily have occupied the heart, {or with- 
out love man cannot exist; but according to the object of his 
love does the man himself become, for love implies self-surrender. 
The speculative reason of man could not free him from this 
bondage of the powers of nature, for it awakened no higher 
love, and led at best to a hylozoistic Pantheism. The wisdom 
of man was foolishness. (1 Cor. iii. 9.) The law, at the same 
time, could only awaken the feeling of bondage, and the longing 
after freedom; but freedom itself, and the raising of the spirit 
to communion with God the Spirit, could only be wrought by 
the imparting of a higher principle of love through Christ, 
wherefore it is the Son alone who makes free. 
*HXXagair i6^a¥ x. r. X. answers exactly to Ps. cvi. 20, where 

the LXX have iWd^Sivro rnv 66^av aur^v (i.^., Jehovah w ofMSiifMn 

fi6^cv. In fv o/Aoictf^ari tixSvos:^ is, no doubt, an allusion to Gen. 

* The neceasity of a preaching of the name of the Lord (Genes. !▼. 26) is the 
ftnt indioatioQ of that (ailing away from the tme God, which it was the object of 
the preaching of the successive patriarchs to prerent 

t The expressions »mr iUivM »%} may i/Mmnw (Genes, i. 26), which there form 
a Hendiadys, are here eompoanded UEito one expression, ifttiitfm timifH, — God 
will be worahipped only in the peifeot hnage of His Son, not in Adam, and his 
children. 



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GfnAPTBR I. 24-27. 89 

i^ 26. Man, according to God's will, is certainly intended to 
present an image of Himself in holiness and righteousness, but 
this image is not to be misused as if it were for adoration : since 
he, as f tfapr^;, is separated from the &^aprti by an infinite chasm. 
With respect to 6/xo/M^a and ifututig, see Com. on Rom. viii. 3. 

The worship of beasts had developed itself in Egypt into the 
rudest forms, and had issued in the most hideous errors, so that 
eren bestiality came forward as part of their worship, as in the 
service of Mendes. The expressions used by the Apostle are 
applicable to the worship of the Ibis, Apis, Crocodile, &;c. &c. 

Ver. 24, 25. Ood punishes sin by sin, that sin may bring with 
it those fearful consequences which first tend to lead man to the 
consciousness of his alienation from God. He, therefore, with- 
drawing the influences of His grace, now left men in their blind- 
ness to their own evil lusts, which showed themselves especially 
in the unchecked dominion of the most powerful of their natural 
instincts, viz., the desire of the sexes, and to the power and 
Prince of darkness, who is the Lord of sin and all its manifesta- 
tions. By dr/^de^ftf^a/ rA owfjkara h iaurtl^i unnatural lust is not 
yet meant, but simply lust in general, which always in its sin- 
ful exercise defiles the body, whilst other sins are without the 
body. (1 Cor. vi. 18. The opposite is xr&c^oi ^xtu^g » r/f/^. 1 
Thess. iv. 4.) Such abominations, which were not only con- 
sidered lawful, but the proper service of their gods, proceeded 
from the wandering away from truth into falsehood. 

'AXijtffia and >|/fDW are here to be taken absolutely, not as 
loguxd, or simply formal, mathematical truth and falsehood, but 
as substantial, real truth. God himself is the Being, and the 
Truth (cf. John i. 14); sin is the absence or perversion of the 
real, is nothingness and lie. 2f/3a^f tf^ai = w^trnmh is only found 
in this place in the N. T. The words «wfflb rh^ xriaavra are best 
taken as meaning, putting into the back ground, passing over 
the true God, or being hostile, opposed to Him. The doxology 
is intended to give prominence to the contrast between the 
heathen's forgetfulness of God, and the honour which was due 
to Him. 

Ver. 26, 27. God let the Gentiles.sink to yet lower degrada- 
tion, in permitting them to fall into unnatural lusts. Here hu- 
manity appears degraded below the beasts ; in the indulgence 
of natural passions, man falls under the power of a very strong 



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90 EPI6TLB TO THX BOMAITS. 

appetite, and haa in that a certain excuse, but nns of unnatuial 
lewdnefis are sheer abominations of unmixed wickedness. That 
they were so much in vogue in the Roman and Grecian world, 
is a convincing proof of the depravity of the age, notwithstand- 
ing all its outward polish of cultivation. (Compare Tholuck's 
Abhandlung Uber den sittlichen Zustand der Heidenwelt, at the 
beginning of Neander's Denkwurdigkeiten, B. I. 

Ver. 28. The punishment of such abominations was the com- 
plete spiritual ruin which accompanied it {amfju^itw h seeoro%, 
i. 6., if rf vf AinXoififidw9rt^ ver. 27), in consequence of which 
the relations of men to one another, as members of a state and 
neighbourhood, must further have been destroyed. God per- 
mitted them to fall into this condition, to bring the consequences 
of their sin completely home to their consciences. 

As the knofdedge of God is eternal life (John xvii. 8) so St 
Paul rightly finds in the absence of it the source of all sins, and 
their results. The expression ddSxifj^ot mI/c contains a play upon 
the words oO» idoxifUL^w, The fact that they did not consider 
God, who is the Good itself, as good, made them reprobates; in 
rejecting Himy as they supposed, He cast them away, and they 
cast themselves away. The corruption is represented as having 
penetrated to the deepest spring of life, in that the AdoxiftJa has 
reference to the wvs itself; the vot^ was intended to govern both 
body and soul, how great then must be the ruin, if the highest 
principle, the power by which man receives the divine, is itself 
destroyed. (Matt vi. 22.) Sexual impurities are set forth as 
the source of all other vices, because they destroy the most 
sacred and delicate relations of human nature. 

29-31. In the following catalogue of sins (a similar list is 
found Galat. v. 19, &c., 2 Tim. iii. 3) by which the mind that is 
estranged from God discovers its enmity, no very distinct suc- 
cession can certainly be traced out, and occasionally the Apostle 
is guided in the connexion by the similarity of sound of the 
words; at the same time it cannot be denied that, setting out 
with the more general forms of sin, he rises to its more special 
manifestations.* 

* GlOckler'B attempt only confirms me in my Tiew, that we most not attempt to 
go further in demonBtratiug the order of the words in the following catalogae of 
the manifestations of sin. He wishes to regard Ahuia, »«»Mt, and Mm»»^^tim as the 
general expressions, and all tliat follows upon them, as the special manifestations 



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CHAPTBB I. 29-31. 91 

The reading «v^ra/a is not found in A.B.C. and several other 
MSS. and documents of critical authority. Without doubt this 
reading is not here genuine, as St Paul had already treated at 
length of sins relating to the sexes. Copiers, who thought that 
this very sin was here missing, added this expression instead of 
vnwifia. novfipia and xax/a are certainly nearly allied, at the 
same time the idea of producing mischief and evil is. more pro- 
minent in the former; ^rovripSi is more the corrupting, xaxoi the 
corrupted. ^^6¥ov and fovou are connected in the same way on 
account of the sound in Euripides Troad, v. 763. Kaxo^^c/a 
denote depravity of mind, inclination to evil, the opposite to 
ivi&tia. Yi^piet^f, a secret calumniator, backbiter; xardi>M>4>g 
every slanderer, even the common, public evil-speaker. Ac- 
cording to the latest investigations, the distinction between 
0§o&nfyfii, God-hating, and hoarvy^gy God-hated, is unfounded.* 
The active meaning, despisers of God, is probably to be here 
preferred, since all evil-doers, as such, are without exception 
displeasing to God, but sin does not rise in all to the actual 
despising of God. The ancients also mention the particular 
sin of e«o<rf;^tfp/a. See Aristoph. Vesp. v. 416. By vfiptarris is 
meant the violent and insulting, whilst vmptipdvog marks him 
who is proud of his personal dignity, &c. 'Agwirovi is wanting 
in several documents of authority, but still it is to be retained 
as genuine on account of the Paranomasia with A^y^irovt. It 
is most suitably taken as '^ foolhardy, rash in wicked enter- 
prises, whilst a<r6v^rou^ denotes the covenant-breaker. — 'AittoV 
dovg is not found in A.B.D.E.G. and several other copies of autho- 
rity, at the same thne it was probably only omitted by the 
copyists on account of its. similarity in form to tho other words, 
if at least it has not found its way into this passage from 2 
Tim. iii. 3. As to its meaning, it differs from the kindred (l<r6»- 
itrot in this, that it marks not the breaking of the covenant, but 
the refusal to enter into one, and therefore implies implacable- 
ness, want of love. 

Ver. 32. Into this flood of sins the holy God permitted un- 

of these. Bui agaiml tliis so much mmy be orged in ahnoet evtoy particular ex- 
pression, that it is better to oonsider the order of sneoession as more free. 

* The accentuation of the word as an ozytone is to be preferred, in oonformity 
with the rule, that compound adjectires in m are always ox^rtones. See Buttmann's 
Larger Grammar, B. II. p. 817. 



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92 EPI8T1E TO THE ROMAVS. 

holy men to sink; not by means of any special influence tending 
to make them bad, but according to the necessary law of the 
moral order of the world. For where God and His holy Being 
is not, and therefore the vanity of the creature's self is the rul- 
ing power, there sin begets sin, and punishes itself by sin. In 
this law divine love shows itself as plainly as divine justice; for 
the frightful consequences of sin are intended to awaken in the 
man the germ of those better feelings that slumber there. And 
if even within the Christian world instances of all these mani- 
fold forms of vice present themselves, this is only a proof how 
carefully the visible Church of Christ is to be distinguished 
from its invisible reality ; indeed, if even in the heart of the 
believer traces of some of the sins which are here denounced as 
heathen are to be found, this only declares the truth, that in 
him too the *' old man"' is living, who, as such, carries with 
him that alienation from God which is the mother of all sin. 
But as in the new man, in the case of the individual believer, 
so also in the invisible Church, in the case of that community 
of Christ on earth to which so much is yet lacking, there is, by 
means of the Spirit which fills her, a new principle active, 
which recognises the true character of all these abominations, 
corrects them in itself and others, and contains within itself the 
power gradually to overcome them. But it is just this, truth 
existing in ike very state of sinfulness, i. e., true repentance, 
which the Apostle so painfully feels the lack of in the heathen 
world. It knows the commandment of God, it knows how de- 
serving of death are its transgressions, and yet it not only 
practises them itself, but praises others als» who practise them. 
A/xo/M/^a is used here in the sense of fyroXii, pj-|, ordinance. 
See notes on Rom. iii. 21, and on the thought itself notes on 
Rom. ii. 14, 15. The MSS. D.E.G. and several versions contain 
after myySvrti the words ovx iv6ii^Wj or oux iyv^aav ou (TUv^xav. 
These additions have, however, only arisen from a misapprehen- 
sion of the thought here expressed; the meaning of the Apostle 
is just this, that they not only recognised sin, but also punish- 
ment as its just desert. In a^m 6avdrou is implied the idea, 
that death is the consequence of sin from its very nature, in 
the same way that life is the consequence of righteousness. (See 
Rom. viii. 1 3.) The Apostle had mentioned many fruits of the 
sinfulness of the heart, which, considered by themselves, could 



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GHAFTBBII. 1-29. 93 

not be punished with death by the civil power; bat in the indi- 
vidual they never appear isolated, and in the sight of God, who 
knows the inmost disposition of the heart, the lesser outward 
transgression is considered as just as culpable, if it has been 
committed under aggravating circumstances, as (he grosser 
outward offence committed under circumstances of palliation 
A man's own sinful deed commonly disturbs, by the increased 
force it gives to the lusts, his power of dear judgment; and 
therefore to take pleasure in the sins of others when one's own 
evil desires are more subdued, and therefore the voice of con- 
science is more easily heard, indicates a higher degree of sinful 
development than the sinful action itself. 



§ 4. THB OOKDITION OF THE JBWS. 

(II. 1^29.) 

That condition of moral depravity amongst the Gentiles, 
which was depicted in the first chapter, made apparent the ne- 
cessity of a new way of salvation; but previous to describing the 
nature of thi/way, the Apostle also directs his attention to the 
second great division of the human race, as considered from the 
theocratic point of view, that is to the Jews. It is, however, 
only in ver. 1 1 that St Paul expressly begins to treat of the 
Jews; for in the first verses he is still speaking of Gentiles, of 
those, namely, who had been preserved from the grosser forms 
of vice. He represents these as excusing themselves, and de- 
claring the gross sinners to be alone culpable. This denial of 
the chaige of sinfulness lay also in the spirit of the Jewish 
people, who were accustomed to look down upon the whole 
Gentile world as sinners compared with themselves; therefore 
the Apostle, in these veraes which form a transition to the 
other subject, amalgamates this part of the Gentile world with 
the Jewish world, which must have recognised its share in tiie 
rebuke, in order that he might in the first place exhibit the de- 
gradation of the latter the more plainly, by contrasting it with the 
excellencies of some really noble spirits amongst the Gentiles. 
The Apostle^ therefore, first proves that the state of sinfulness 
does not the less exist, in cases where it even produces no such 



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94 BPI8TLE TO THE ROMANS. 

outward evil fruits. The manifestations of sin only assume a 
less gross and prominent appearance, without being on that ac- 
count really different. None should therefore judge his neigh- 
bour, but rather judge himself, and let the goodness of God lead 
him to repentance, knowing that the just God punishes without 
fail all sin, whether refined or coarse, whether outward or in- 
ward, and only rewards the good. Now if this principle was 
applicable to all men, it was so in an especial manner to the 
Jews, who had received an express law; but on this yery account 
they would but be more strictly punished if they had not .ob- 
served this holy law, and put to deep shame before many 
heathens, who had walked according to their inferior knowledge 
more faithfully than many Jews who had followed their deeper 
acquaintance with God. Even circumcision, the seal of their 
election to be God's people, had then only any significance, 
when it was recognised as an obligation to a faithful observance 
of the law. The real character of the Jew was not therefore 
something outward but inward, and depended upon the circum- 
cision of the heart 

Yer. 1. The view, that the Apostle addresses himself to -the 
Jews alone from the very first verse, has been supported by 
Flatt, Tholuck, Riickert, and Reiche, besides other expositors; 
this view, however, appears to be altogether untenable from 
the general character of the expressions which the Apostle 
makes use of For instance, Ji Mpt^n 9rag (in ver. 1) in con- 
nexion with vStftt '^vx^ drtf^ctfCftu (ver. 9) is so general, that 
Jews alone cannot well be meant by it.* Besides, avr& 
vpdc^ig (ver. 1) if it is taken according to the usual explana- 
tion, that is, if it is spoken of the outward practice of aU Jews, 
receives no proper sense, inasmuch as the Jewish people col- 
lectively were actually much more free from gross vices than 
the Gentile world. At the same time it is quite true that those 
(Gentiles, whose condition is depicted in the first chapter, can- 
not be spoken of in the second, (though some older commenta- 
tors, for instance Calovius, have supported this view); for the per- 

* GlSeUer reeogidses the gernral oliaraoter of these exprenlons, hat euppoees 
still that St Paul is merely speaking of the Jews; he does not, however, show how 
these two views ean co-exist. The first passage « itifrnwi wit might still be con- 
straed as is done by Fritsscfae, <* whosoever tfaon art* even if thon shonldst belong 
to the people of God." But ver. 9 is clearly to be taken quite generally. 



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OnAPTER u. 1. 95 

sons, who outwardly indulged in all the vices there delineated, 
certainly would not dare to judge others under the sense of their 
own innocence. Such persons could only be either hypocrites 
or idiots, with whom further argument would be useless. The 
connexion appears then only to be natural and complete, when 
we assume tiiat St Paul is speaking to Gentiles indeed, but 
only to such as lived in outward respectability, addicted to no 
such flagrant vices. These considered themselves to be better 
than their degraded fellow-countrymen, and therefore sat in 
judgment upon their sins. The Jews, too, stood in a similar 
position. In general, tKey were more free from gross vicious- 
ness than the Gentiles, and this made them inclined to condemn 
them ; in this manner, then, the Apostle obtains an easy tran- 
sition to the consideration of the condition of the Jews, in that 
he points out how the germ of all those vices is also slumbering 
in their hearts, as well as in those of the better Gentiles.* 
Augustin rightly understood the passage in this manner, and 
it is only thus that the argument of the Apostle receives its full 
truth. All the Gentiles did not actually live in the commission 
of the crimes painted in such glaring colours in chapter i., and 
but few of the Jews especially ; nevertheless, they are all, both 
Jews and Geiitiles, sinners without exception, because they all 
bear in their hearts the seed which is able to produce all vices. 
The Gentiles, who are commended in dhapter ii. 14, 15, only 
receive this commendation because they assent to this truth. The 
Apostle therefore distinguishes in his description three daeees 
ofmm^\ who indeed are all, without exception, sinners^ but yet 
stand in a different relation to sin. The first class consists of 
all those who live unconcerned in flagrant vices ; to this class 
belonged the great mass of the Gentile world, and some few 
individuals amongst the Jews. The second class consists of 
those who check the grosser outbreaks of sin, but nevertheless 
bear in their hearts the germ of sinfulness, and with it all its 

* Very instraetiTe for the right ondentandiDg of this panage is GaL ii. 15, 
where it is writteD, itf^tTt f ^ru *I«i4«r«i, »«} •&» i| iSfSt k^m^mX^U Here then, 
also, the Gentiles are called nmr %i»xnit the ilfur^rivW,as the most nioraUjr soDkeu, 
aooording to which the Jews as a body must be oonceiyed of as the )/x«««i, t. e., of 
course, as the righteous after the law. 

t These three ebsses we meet with again in all places and at all times, and 
therefore the Apostle's statement has not merely a temporary import, but depicts 
in an entizely objeetire manner the nalnre of man's heart in and by itself. 



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96 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

subtler manifestations, but without recognising their sinful con- 
dition, and without longing for something better. To this class 
belonged the great mass of the Jews and individual Gentiles. 
Their condition is only apparently better than that of those be- 
longing to the first class, since, whilst they lacked the latter's 
coarse sensuality and vice, they suffered from spiritual blindness 
and want of love, so that their apparent virtues were in fact but 
" splendida vita." To the third class, lastly, belong those who 
not only have avoided the grosser outbreaks of sin, but at the 
same time also recognise, with penitent sorrow, their inward 
sinfulness, and entertain a longing for a more perfect condition. 
Of these alone can it be said, that they keep that law (ii. 1 4, 15, 
26, 27) which demands love and truth. They fulfil the law of 
love in that humility which will not permit them to judge their 
weak fellow-creatures ; they fulfil the truth in that repentance 
which teaches them to condemn their own sins, even when they 
do not break out into gross iniquity. A picture of this genuine 
Gentile piety is presented to us in Cornelius (Acts x.); and St 
Paul can only have meant such, according to his fundamental 
principles, in chapter ii. 14, 15, 26, 67.* 

Accordingly the person mentioned in ii. 1, as judging others, is 
a man who has nqt indeed outwardly indulged in the same grosser 
sins which he condemns in others, but who is in fact inwardly 
living after a subtler form in the same corrupt frame of mind; 
and it is just this which is expressed by the words rob ydp aura 
wfdfffftii. According to the usual interpretation, it must be e,g. 
a murderer who condemns another for murder, an assumption 
which has altogether something unnatural about it, as we have 
already observed. According to our view, on the other hand, 
the man who judges the murderer does the same things if ho 
hates his brother. It is, however, very conceivable, that a man 
may not recognise the same sin in the hatred as in the murder, 
and will therefore set himself above his fellow-creature. Just 

* The greater nauber of modem ezpositom have mimindentood the Apoetle's 
repreeeutation in thb place. Benecke comes the neaieet to Uie truth, but at the 
same time he has not accurately and pointedly conceived the character of the pious 
Gentiles described in it 14, 15, inasmuch as he also only understands by these per- 
sons men outwardly faithful to the law, without recognising in them &e elements 
of repentance and faith. The manner in which he ^proximates to the view taken 
by us, shows itself especially in his remarks on ver. S8, where he calls attention to 
the {kct, that in the very act of condemning others, that very sin is ineoxred which 
in its turn condemns the condemnor. 



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.CHAPTER 11. 2—4. 97 

in the same way^ theiefore, aa our Lord, in the Sermon on the 
Mounts is the Apostle here engaged in bringing to men's con- 
seioiisnesB their sins in their root 

aj6 refers to i. 82, where the knowledge of God's law is attri- 
buted to sinners. On account of this knowledge, even he who 
transgresses the law in a less obvious manner, and judges his 
fellow-man, has no exeuse, for the law requires also humility 
and compasuonate love. 'By f is not to be explained by means 
of *)ttJM£21» bv^ ^ ^^ following wordiEi rA avrd show, by supplying 
h rour^! fHie stress is laid upon the fact, that the person judg- 
ing commits the same sin as the person condemned. 

Ver. 2. (Hie Apostle illustrates the foregoing thought by the 
idea of the divine justice. God's judgment is an absolutely true 
one, and therefore puniriies sin as well in its subtler as in its 
grosser manifestations, since the law demands its perfect ful- 
filment. 

Karob Akiihiaf 16 to be oesLstnied with xptfia, as designating the 
nature of the divine agency in the work of judgment The 
rerdict of men is often erroneous, God's judgment alone can 
judge hidden sins according to truth. 

Ver. 8, 4. In order to awaken the consciousness of sin in 
these persons, the Apestle next points out that the impunity 
they had hitherto enjoyed in their sinful state was not to be 
considered a sign of God's grace towards them, since the only 
object of God's long-suffering was to lead them to repentance. 
That therefore which the law was intended to produce Atfravo/dt, 
was just the thing which was still wanting in them, whilst 
those who are depicted afterwards (ii. 1 4, 15) had obtained this 
blessing. 

In ver. 8X07/^^ If rotfro is to be understood, ''But eanst thou 
suppose or dream?''' Ver. 4. The expressaons xf^^Arfu, Anxfi 
and fiaTc^fUa contain a climax describing the relation of God 
to this class of sinners, who are often with the most dificulty 
convinced of their guilt 'X^n^rSrfic namely denotes goodness in 
general, dnxfi its exercise in postponing punishment, fua%f9hfi»ta 
again signifies continued o^m^^. To all three St Paul applies 
the expression ^rXoDroc, which he frequently uses as synonymous 
with rXijpw/cMx. (See Rom. ix. 28, xi. 28 ; Ephes. i. 7, iL 7, iii. 
16 Coloss. i. 27.) Mfrc^M/a denotes in this place, exactly as in 

a 



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98 BPISTLB TO THB ROMANS. 

the gospels (see notes to Matt. iii. 2), the painful conviction of 
sin, accompanied with a longing hope of help from above. Re- 
pentance is the mother of compassion, and covers a brother's sin, 
instead of judging it. This expression is not, however, one of 
those in current use with St Paul; it is only found besides 
in 2 Cor. vii. 9; 2 Tim. il 26. 

Yer. 5. The abuse of the long-suffering of God only leaves 
therefore in the mind of the impenitent a fearful looking for of 
future judgment which is ever becoming more oppressive. 

2%\fipirfig denotes that state in which a man has no power, i.^., 
no desire of receiving spiritual things, by which the influences of 
divine grace are rendered ineffectual, and the exercise of repent- 
ance prevented. The form AfAtra¥^ro^ is only found in this place 
in the N. T. Kard is here to be taken in the sense of "accord- 
ing to the proportion," but not as Eoppe suggests, as if it stood 
for the dativus instrumenti. The fifMpa ipynt is to be under- 
stood of the general day of decision, of the judgment of the 
world, on which the manifestation of the righteousness of God 
so long deferred will infidlibly take place. Now the man who 
despises the goodness of God is increasing his guilt against this 
day of decision, and therefore increasing that punishment whicli 
proceeds from God's punitive justice. In the expression trea- 
sured up ifyi, therefore, the cause is put for the effect. The 
substantive dixaioxptda is only found in thig passage of the N. T.; 
the only other place in which it is used is in a Greek translatioQ 
of Hosea vi. 5. Aixouoxptri^ is found 2 Maccab. xii. 41. Instead 
of &voxaX\hi/tug some MSS. read &¥rawM^iiit, at the same time 
the preponderance of evidence of critical authority requires us 
to retain the common reading. A considerable number of MSS. 
read nai after Awxaklt-^wc, and Mill, Wetstein, and Enapp have 
approved of this reading ; at the same time xa/, it is plain, has 
only been inserted on account of the three consecutive genitives^ 
and therefore it is better with Griesbach to erase xoJ. The pas- 
sage loses all appearance of singularity, if we only consider d/xa#o- 
xpt^a rou efov as one conception, and the subject of the AroxAr 

Yer. 6-8. This passage, which describes so simply the course 
of retributive justice, has been misunderstood on the part of the 
[Roman] Catholics, and used as evidence against the Protestant 
doctrine of justification by faith; it has in consequence been in- 



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OHAPTEB II. 6 — 8. 99 

terpreted with an exceaa of caution on the part of the Protestants, 
We cannot in fact agree with them in thinking that the Apostle 
intended to speak merely objectively of the judgment of God, 
and that he wished to assert, not that any one would actually, 
on account of his worics, receive eternal life, but only that if 
tmy one had these to show, he would receive it; the fact being 
that no one has them, because all without exception are sinful, 
and therefore no one can, on account of his works, obtain ever- 
lasting life. Now, there is ne doubt that this argument is in 
perfect harmony with St Paul's principles, but if he had intended 
to use it in this place, surely he would not immediately after- 
wards have spoken of Gentiles, who did the works of the law 
(ii. 14, 15). The key to the interpretation of this passage is 
rather to be found in the definition given in ver. 7 of a. true tpyov 
dya06¥j by means of which the words ^onT^ rSt roD v^/cmv will like* 
wise receive their correct meaning. From the whole tenor of 
the Apostle's argument, it is plain that the term ipyov &ya,U9 
cannot be understood merely of an outward work done in 
obedience to an outward law, which work might be combined 
with inward self-conceit and pride, but only of works proceeding 
from a genuine state of penitence, of which state faith always 
forms an element. As Abraham and other saints, before the 
coming of Christ, lived a life of faith, so individual pious Gen- 
tiles had also those germs of faith in their hearts,«without which 
no tpyti ikya$d, are possible, because where they are wanting the 
best actions to outward appearance remain l^a nKpd. We may 
therefore affirm, that God always judges men according to their 
works, as well those who lived before Christ, as those who live 
a/ler Him, because, in fact, the inward man must ever be mani- 
fested in certain outward appearances, and the latter bear testi- 
mony to the character of the former. We may, however, also 
say, ffice ifered, that as well before as after Christ, men are 
always judged according to their faith, because it alone is the 
principle of good works ; indeed, we might call faith itself the 
greatest and most important work (see notes to John vi. ^), 
inasinuch as it is the mother of all good works. The faith of 
men before and after Christ is not therefore something specifi- 
cally different, but only different in degree and in object. (See 
notes to Rom. iii. 21, etc., Heb. xi 1, etc.) But as faith in its 
highest exercise causes men to judge themselves, in so far are be^ 



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100 BPISTLB TO THE BOWAHS. 

lievera under tbe New Coyenant not judged M &11 (John iii. 18X 
and thus the difficulty of the present paesage vanishes when 
viewed on this side also. The remark, therefore, which Hopfher 
and Usteri make, that St Paul is here considering die sutgect 
from a merely legal point of view, is so far well founded, as^ 
that if this had not been the case, St Paul would not have so 
expreiased himself* At the same time, the thougkt, although 
the Apostle proceeds from legal premises, has acquired such an 
universal application, that it has its truth, with regard to Qod's 
judicial dealings, for all stages of spiritual development. The 
distinction betwe^ the lle8sedne$8 of heaven and the d^greei of 
this blessedness, which latter depend upon the man's works, 
whilst faith is the condition of the former, is no doubt in itsdf 
correct and scriptural (see notes to 1 Cor. iii. 11, etc.), but it 
has nothing whatever to do with the present passage. Reiche's 
interpretation of this te|:t is quite a mistaken one. He wishes^ 
namely, that a distinction should be made between the moral 
order of the world and the limitation of this order by the grace 
which is in Christ; in this case the former is alone spoken o( 
And the latter left entirely out of sight. But he considers the 
latter to be merely an ainnieaty once allowed for certain circum- 
stances, a?id which admits of no farther extension so as to em- 
bra^ the world after Christ. It is manifest, however, that tbe 
very nature of Christianity, as a means of salvation, as an in- 
stitution calculated for all men in all ages, would be entirely 
destroyed by such an assumption. The graceof Ood in Christ 
does not contract the range of the general moral order of the 
world; but establishes it upon its real prindples, and gives it 
the fiillest scope. Fin^Uy, this and similar passages (as e. g. 
iii. 6, xiv. 10, 1 Cor. v. 13) on the subject of the last judgment, 
are particularly important as coming from St Paul, inasmuch 
as we may conclude from them that St Paul did not entertain 
any discrepi^t views with respect to the damnation and the 
resurrection of the wicked. He expresses himself openly, in 
&ct, on neither subject (only in 2 Thess. i. 9, we find the words 
"' etepial destruction"), and much in his epistles seejms to speak 

* At the same tioM we find, even in ] Sam. xxvu 28. *' The Lord reoooipenspe 
every ^an according to hi^ righteousness and hie^im. On the other hand, in 
Pe. zxviii. 4; See. xii. 14; Jer. s?ii. 10, as wett as in Matt xvL 17, mention is 
made of wonfo only. 



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CHAPTEB II. 7, 8. 101 

to the contmiy. (See notes to Rom. xi. 32, 1 Cor. xv. 24, etc) 
But from his description of the day of judgment it is yet pro* 
bahle that, whilst St Paul kept that side of the question in the 
back-ground, he fundamentally entertained the same views as 
the other writers of the N. T. 

As regards the construction, Beiche has tried to connect once 
more, t^n^wjift with ^»4v alwtw, and, on the other hand, to attach 
i&^af X. r. X. to A*jcMttf§t ; but, although this connexion is not 
altogether impossible, we prefer, in common with almost all 
other expositors, the connexion of Zjui^it almw with Aw^dii<rti, in 
which case dS^w J^ffrov^t stands in opposition to ro/ir /&» %. r. K 
Tet it is still undeniably a yery forced construction to connect 
t^fir$uifi 2[m^ ot}<ivto9 with r6Tg di, and then to let the accusative, ' 
which is governed by d^odwtf'f/, come between. In the conception 
of the tpyw ayaii¥ We are to have respect, as has been already 
observed, not merely to the lawfulness of the dead, but especially 
to the sincerity of the motive, which can be nothing but faithy 
without which it is impossible to please Gbd in any stage what- 
soever of spiritual life it stands therefore opposed, not only to 
the sf^ov rrnipSf, but also especially to the l^/or nxp^. The ad« 
dition, xa^ u4ro/xon}» (see Rom. xv. 4; 1 Thess. i. 3; 2 Cor. i. 6), 
refers to the continuance of activity in well-doing, and formsr 
the contrast with those transient ebullitions of better feelings 
in the heart, of which even the wicked are not entirely desti-^ 
tute, but which disappear as quickly as they arise. The ex-* 
pression may be resolved into «•«« roTg irtrofimveit it i^tft dya^p. 
The sense of spiritual need which belongs to those who receive 
eternal life, is pointed out in the opposition, in which ^firtT^ de* 
notes the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. A^a, 
TifL^ and df>^f€ia are to be regarded as forming a climax. The 
future glory is <;ontra8ted with the present shame, which is 
often the lot of the humble man here below; the rtfA^ with that 
drs/Afa which he recognises as his desert ; the df^ap&ia with that 
fbarau^g and f ^opi with which he feels himself now burdened. 

Ver. 8. The accusatives hfyiif xa/ ^fU^ ought to have followed 
the preceding ^«i|r a/c^ww. The Apostle, however, drops that 
construction, and finislies the sentence as if dmMf^dtrai had 
gone before. e4v«rotf should also, properly speaking, have been 
opposed to the idea of life in the preceding clause ; the words 
hpy^ xal ^fiig, howover, denote the cause instead of the effect, 



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102 EPISTLB TO THE BOMAHS. 

just as in vetse 5. With respect to the expression 0/ 1^ ifihsa;^ 
we may remark, that it is founded upon the fi^re of the being 
bom of a certain element, an idea which is elsewhere expressed 
by w*i( or rtxroy. (See Phil. i. 16, 1 7 ; 1 John iy. 5.) The word 
ifi^f/a * is only found amongst classical writers in the works of 
Aristotle (Polit. v. 2, 3) ; he uses it in the sense of " faction, 
party." The etymology of the word is doubtful ; it may come 
from v/^f ufti (from ifM^ " wool,'^ which means " to work in wool," 
and then "to work" in general, ''to work at a person, to seek to 
bring a person over to one's own side;" or it may come from if i(, 
'' strife," and from the verb i^/^t/v, when it would signify '* love 
of strife." This meaning is best suited to the use made of the word 
in the language of the N. T. (See 2 Cor. xii. 20; OaL v. 20; PhiL 
i. 17, ii. 3; James iii. 14.) Since, in this place, ipt^tia is opposed 
to f^ov dya^h^ it Can naturally only denote rebellion against 
God, which is contrary to self-surrender to Him, and devotion 
towards Him. In this condition the man believes himself to 
possess all that is necessary for him, and is, therefore, without 
spiritual desires and aspirations. The opposition xa/ d^uMci 
X. r. X. gives here a more exact description of the state of the 
godless, as the opposition above ^ijroDa^ x. r. X., of the condition 
of the righteous. The root of their sin is disobedience to the 
truth. The lie should properly be set against the truth in this 
passage ; the Apostle, however, puts for it lid/x/o, inasmuch as 
this word, which forms the contrary to d/xa<otf6vi|. contains in it- 
self the idea of the lie. 

Yer. 9, 10. The Apostle repeats once more the same thought 
for the sake of greater empluwis, but, in the first place, with 
that modification which is usually found in the accounts of the 
divine judgments given in the N. T., namely, that the gracious 
acceptance of believers, and not the just rejection of unbelievers, 
is mentioned lasty so as to leave upon the mind the cheerful 
impression of that redemption which has been accomplished 
(see notes to Matt. xxv. 41-46); and, in the second place, with 
a more distinct reference to the Jews, whose condition alone 
he considers in fuller detail in what follows. In fact, in the 
case of the Jews, both blessing and curse must necessarily mani- 
fest themselves with increased intensity, since they had much 
fuller means of becoming acquainted with God, as the following 

• With respect to \^MU see the Exenmn of Fritische, vol i., p. 143 eqq. 



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CHAPTBB 11. 9 — 13. 103 

representation proves. The Jews^ therefore, are so far firom 
being exempt from the general judgment as the chosen people 
of Ood, that it visits them the more severely in case of un- 
faithfulness. 

The opposite to ct%wx/»pia^ that is to say iO/»ux«^/a9 is not 
found in the N. T., though it is used by classical writers. The 
word denotes, like ffki-^ti, the apirihud punishment of sin, since, 
in this place, it is not the earthly consequences of wickedness 
that are spoken of, but the punishments inflicted at the ijA^fpa 
^r/nt (ver. 5), on which account also it is said v^^u, -^mx^ 
dvtfpctfvou, which cannot be said of earthly punishments, since 
many wicked men escape them altogether. In the same way 
the expressions d^ga, rtfuny and cifjiMj, in this passage, only refer 
to the inward aspects of man's life (see ver. 16), for to all out-* 
ward appearance the contrary is the case in this world, on 
which account the natural man, in his false security, sup- 
poses that he shall be able to escape the judgment of God, 
(ver. 3.) The more special definitions of ver. 7, 8, are here 
resolved into the abstract terms xax^v and &yafi6¥. The verb 
ifytrai or IffTi must be supplied. 

Ver. 11. The higher position of the Jews, simply on account 
of their descent from Abraham after the flesh, a prerogative 
which they were always so ready to assert against the Gentiles, 
is denied by the Apostle on the grounds of the impartiality of 
God ; the free improvement and application of those means to 
which each man has access, is that which alone determines hia 
character in the sight of God, (see notes to Matt. xv. 14, etc.) 
The privileges of the Jews therefore only heightened their r0- 
sponsibility; it was the faithful use of them which alone raised 
the worth of the possessors. We are not, however, to think 
that the converts from Judaism are alluded to in this text; the 
Apostle is rather treating the subject, as well as regards the 
Jews as the Gentiles, entirely irrespectively of individuals, in 
order to demonstrate from it the necessity of some other way 
of salvation than that which the law presented. (The sub- 
stantive 4rfotfaMr0Xfr4//a is also found Eph. vi. 9 ; Col. iii. 25 ; 
James ii. 1.) 

Vers. 12, 13. As the cause of the greater responsibility of the 
Jews, and the lesser of the Gentiles, the Apostle brings forward 
the law of Moses which the Gentiles did not possess. But the 



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1^4 BPI8TLB 10 THB B0M198. 

grace of God always sapposes the exercise of free will in man, 
and therefore wherever this graoe is at work, the guilt of man 
may be increased through the abuse of bis freedom. 

*K¥i/M^ is not intended to express here the absolute absenoe 
of all law,* as ver. 15 shows, but only the want of the positive 
law of Moses. In 1 Cor. ix. 21, fmycM^ is found as the opposite 
to cEto^Mf. The opposite tenqs htd^ i^/bmu and MftM^ are naturally 
to be understood as signifying, " with or without reference to 
the law of Hoses/' The words &^q^ %mi dvtiknn'm are startling, 
we might expect that they would not be judged at all. But 
because no one is absolutely without law, he shall be judged 
according to his knowledge. The wttHKua cannot therefore either 
be considered as something absolute. In the same way we find 
Luke xii. 48, that he who knew not his Lord's will received 
/sw stripes, but by no means none at M. We shall reserve 
for the notes on Bom. iii. 21, the more exact determination of 
the meaning of d/xa/M, and dixaiot^ntfvrwy and only in this plaee 
observe with respect to them that they stand opposed to a^oXovy- 
tai and xpt^awrat. In this passage, «t»^f«^ might have been 
substituted for dixcuof tJvcu or dfxa/oD«0a#, since it is only the 
divine acknowledgment of the existing ^xoi^^^mt which is in- 
tended ; but of course, Qod, who is eternal truth, cannot recog* 
nise anything which does not exist. The vonirai fv p^v hsre 
therefore in St Paul's opinion a certain dixauMuMi at all stages 
of their spiritual Kfe. But since the performance of the law 
before regeneration is that which is here spoken of, the iixeutt- 
«ji^, which God recognises in the doers of the law, can of course 
only be understood of the /a/a a/xai^wj. This must^ however, 
be recognised as far as it goes; it is by no means, in conse- 
quence of hereditary sin, a matter of indifference, whether a 
man endeavours to observe the law or not. The righteousness 
of the law in its genuine form, that is to say, when the man re- 
tains the consciousness of his own need, prepares the way for 
the reception of that righteousness which is by faith, whilst 
unfaithfulness renders it more difficult. For that opinion, of 
which we have already spoken in our observations on ver. 6, 

* In danioal wHten Avifu^t 'm cmiy foimd te tbe sigufiMtioo of ''ooatimry to 
lawf' even Id iBodrfttes Paaegyr. p. 28, edit Mori, this meaniag i» to be retained 
altboagh in this passage the other meaning ** without aw,** is also interwoven 
(See Albert! obeenratt. in N. T., p. 47».) 



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OHAPYBftll. 14, 15. 105 

which affirms that the Apostle is here onlj speaking hypothetic 
caUy of the performance of the law^ sinoe that was altogether 
beyond the power of sinful man, it is plainly inadmissible, since 
he speaks in the rerses immediately following of Gentiles who 
do perform the works of the law. That this, however, does not 
deny the truth, that man in his natural state ]« unable to keep 
the law, will be shown in tiie following remarks. De Wette's 
interpretation of the passage is entirely wrong; for he asserts 
that ver. 13 refers altogether to the Jews, and that St Paul 
only returns to the mention of the (Gentiles in ver. 14 Bather 
does yer. 13 refer to all who keep the law, whether they be 
Jews or Gentiles; but since the possibility of observing the law 
might appear to be inconceivable in the ease of the Gentiles^ 
it is explained in ver. 14 how far this might be predicated of 
them also. 

Vers. 14, 15. In order to prove that it might be said of Gen- 
tiles also that they performed the law, the Apostle proceeds to 
demonstrate, in theftrtt place, that a law was in feict also given 
to the Gentiles. He defines this law as a ¥6fut ypa^rhg w roCtg 
xa^dtatg^ which expression forms a contrast with the law of the 
O. T., which was engraven on tables of stone (see 2 Cor. iii. 2, 
3), and obviously means by this term the voice of Ged in the 
conscience, which makes itself heard, in however indistinct a 
manner, even in the most degraded state of the heathen world. 
But with respect to the relalion which this inward law bean to 
the outwardly given law of Hoses, we must allow that the latter 
is not only more clear and definite, and much more exact in its 
demands,, but also that it stands much higher on this account 
especially, that it claims most expressly to be tlie law of Ood 
hims^f. The want of this distinct reference of the law to God, 
in the case of the inward law of the heathen, manifests itself 
most clearly by the inward struggle of their thoughts; for the 
language of lust and sin always succeeds in making itself heard 
in conflict with this better voice, because the latter is not ex- 
pressly recognised as that, which it really is, the voice of the 
Most High God; at the same time, the more indistinct the in- 
ward law appears, the more exalted is the faithfulness of those 
who yield obedience to its weak and confused admonitions. The 
difference, therefore, between the law of the heathen, and the 
clear law of Moses, invested as it is with undoubted divine 



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106 BPI8TLB TO THB BOMAIIS. 

authority, is immense and, in consequence, the advantage of 
the Jews in the possession of this law was very great also. At 
the same time, this difference appears to be somewhat dimin- 
ished by the fact, that the Mosaic law with all its definiteness, 
required for any particular case an application determined by 
the manner of its exposition and interpretation; and this natu- 
rally depended as much upon the whole state of mind of the 
individual Jew, as the interpretation of the inward law upon 
that of the individual Gentile. However, the number of the 
purely external commandments was so great, that, by means of 
them, even in those characters^ amongst the Jews, in which the 
moral feeling was but little developed, there was continually 
preserved alive the consciousness of a Ood, who came to men 
with inexorably strict requirements. But even more important 
than the information, that even the Oentiles were not absolutely 
without law, is, in the second phcey the express assertion of the 
Apostle, that they were also in a condition to follow this law, to 
keep its commandments, and to fulfil it (see ver. 26, 27). It 
has already been remarked (on ver. 1), that this is not to be 
understood merely of an external and legal observance of it, in 
that this would by no means deserve to be called the fulfilment 
of the law (ipyov d/o^ov, ver. 7), but that the necessary condition 
of every good work, faith and love,* which never exist without 
one another, must also be pre-supposed in the case of the pious 
Gentiles. But now the question arises, how is this assertion to 
be reconciled with the doctrine, that it is only through the grace 
of Christ that really good works can be produced? Through 
Christ a pure and holy principle of life has been acquired for 
man, the 0Vip/ia rw etou, which is absolutely without sin, even 
as God. The regenerate in whom this principle dwells, cannot 
sin (1 John iii. 8) ; the sins of the regenerate are in fact only 
the utterances of the sinful old man, who at some moment forces 
back the new, but the inmost centre of their life remains un- 
touched by sin. (See more on this subject in the notes to Rom. 
vii. 25.) Such an absolutely pure principle wrought neither in 
the Gentiles, nor in the time before Christ in general; it was 
first made possible for men to receive it on the completion of 

* With reipcct to the BeDM in which it may be raid of the Gentiles also, that 
they have faith and love, further remarks will be found in the notes to Matt, xxr, 
31, etc., Rom. iii. 21, etc., Heb. xi. I, etc. 



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CHAPTER II. 9, 10. 107 

the work of Chriflt. (See the notes on John vii. 39.) Therefore 
alao the doctrine of the sinfulness of all men without exception, 
even of those who do the work of the law, retains its full truth; 
for in the first place, not only is he under sin, who commits it 
oomtantbf or qften^ but also he who commits it only once, or 
only transgresses the law on one side. (See notes to Oal. iii. 10.) 
If, therefore, the devout Gentiles sometimes, or even often, fol- 
lowed their better motions, yet they did not always do so, and 
therefore they remained sinners. But again, the conception 
which men have of sin, is very different according to the degree 
of their spiritual knowledge. Even the better Gentiles were in 
this respect but little advanced, and their performance of the 
law could never, therefore, be anything hut B,r dative one; only 
that man, who fails not even in a single word, can be reckoned 
entirely perfect and without sin. (James iii. 2.) The possibility 
of a rdative fulfilment of the law is however in contradiction 
neither to the Scriptural nor Church doctrine of the sinfulness 
of human nature; both Scripture and Church only deny the pos- 
sibility of an abaoliUe fulfilment of the law.^ On this account 
also the relative obedience of the Gentiles cannot of course as 
euch be taken as the foundation of their eternal blessedness; this 
could only be supplied by such an absolute holiness as is possible 
to no mere man; but in connexion with that whole frame of 
mind, which even a merely relative fulfilment of the law pre- 
supposes in a Gentile, it could form such a foundation, in that 
this state of mind would render him capable of receiving, in 
penitent faith, that salvation which is offered in Christ. As, 
therefore, the true children of Abraham are the children of pro- 
mise in Clhrist, so also are the devout Gentiles, because they also 
are true children of Abraham. (See ii. 28, 29.) This ap- 
propriation of the salvation which is in Christ on the part of the 
Gentile world, is recognised in Scripture as possible in the doc- 
trine of the '' descensus Christi ad inferos.'' 

A limitation of the conception of a fulfilment of the law, on 
the part of the Gentiles, is therefore by all means required; at 
the same time, notwithstanding this necessary restriction, there 
is still contained in this passage a most consolatory truth. Even 
in the wilderness of the heathen world, does the Apostle teach 

* Tills manifests itself psrtieulsriy in the doetrines of the ^mtia mnttraaK§, and 
el the aehm wtmmdueioni od eonttraioHim. 



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108 BPISTLB TO 9HB B0MAH8. 

118, tlie xfyo; am^f^rtxSi had scattered his precious seed ; there 
were Gentiles, who, by means of a certain conyiction of their 
sins, had become humble and contrite, who had aqi earnest de* 
sire to be faithful to the light which was vouchsafed them, who 
cherished longings for a better spiritmJ state, and therefore 
possessed the capacity for apprehending Christ, when He pre- 
sented Himself to them, wherever it might be. These elements 
were Gfufficient, according to their particular stage of spiritual 
development, to constitute a foundation for etei'nal blessedness; 
in fii^t, that which did not accrue to them here, they received 
in the regions of the dead, after Christ's manifestation there. 
(See notes to I Pet. iii. 18.) Humble faithfulness to that know- 
ledge of the Divine which a person possesses, however small it 
is, if at hast this ignorancs is not sdf-incurred, will, the Apostle 
means then to say, receive its reward in whatever stage of 
spiritual development it may exist. Unfaithfulness, on the 
other hand, even when accompanied by the greatest privileges, 
receives at all times its deserved punishment. But the reward 
of the Gentile world, so far as it was well-pleasing to God, was 
this, that it was capable of being led to Christ, because it pos- 
sessed in joktrama the capacity for apprehending Him. It was 
not, therefore, even in the case of the pious Gentiles, works as 
siich, which were the condition of their salvation, but the germ 
of faith from which they proceeded. That which they retain of 
undiscovered sin is forgiven them without works, through the 
merits of Christ, as they inherited the same without conscious 
guilt from Adam. Christ appears, therefore, as the Redeemer 
of all those who do not positively reject Him, and retain the 
capacity for receiving him into their hearts. (See notes to Acts 
X. 34^6.) 

It is quite wrong to understand 3rar ^otp of a merely ideal 
possibility^ the Apostle plainly speaks of an actual reality (vers. 
26, 27) ; because there do really exist pious Gentiles, St Paul 
concludes they must have some law or other which they follow. 
'OraVf with the subjunctive mood after it, no doubt denotes a 
merely possible, but also a frequently recurring circumstance, 
with respect to which it is only left indeterminate iffhere and 
when it actually occurs. St Paul does not wish to designate 
any particular persons, but certainly to afSrm that sucf^ eadst. 
(See MatthiiB's Greek Gr. § 521, Winer's Gram. p. 265.) Ben- 



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OHAPTBB II. J£F. 109 

gel, whom Biickert has on this point followed, takes f m/ with 
tX^vrot, but tibe odlocation of the words as well as the sense de« 
mand that it should be connected with wluit follows. It wasy 
in &ct, unnecessary to remark that the Gentile had not any- 
thing by nature, since the Jews especially already rated their 
condition low enough ; but it was yery needful to call attention 
to the fact, that they could without higher support obey the 
law in a certain measure. <^i^tg, namely, has here a dogmati- 
cal meaning. It denotes in the N. T., Ist, The natural con- 
stitution of anything (it is thus used Rom. i. 26, xt 21-24, 
Oalat iy. 8), or else the natural descent after the flesh, as in 
Oalat. ii. 15. 2nd, The condition of man without the grace of 
Ood, as he is flesh bom ot the flesh. (John iii. 6.) In this 
sense it is found in Rom. ii. 27, and especially in Ephes. ii. 3, 4, 
8t Paul, tibarefore, manifestly supposes that in the fallen nature 
of man the seeds of something better still remain, which, in 
particular persons, will sometimes succeed in developing them- 
selves in a surprising degree, so as to produce complete recep- 
tivity for the grsM of God. So, for instance, in the Canaanitish 
woman. (See notes to Matt. zv. 32, etc.) The natural man 
finds himseif indeed burdened with a *' proclivitas peccandi,'' 
but no "necessitas peccandi," so far at least as iicUon is con- 
cerned ; in respect, however, of eyil desires, and an inward con- 
formity to the divine law, man appears altogether incapable. 
By the words iavr$Tg d^t v^fiAg is not intended to deny that God 
is the author of this inward law also, but only to call attention 
to the fact that the Gentiles are not conmoua of thii connexion, 
and, therefore, in so far appear as if they were a law to them- 
selves. The inward law of God, whidi exists indeed constantly 
in man, and makes itself known to him, so that he cannot .mis- 
take it, by means of the motioM of his conscience and the 
inward conflict of his thoughts, will hereafter at length be* 
COKM mani/Mt to aUin the actual dmsequences of obedience or 
disobedience to this law, ipddxvwrcu iv ifMptf x.r.X., in that many 
will wonder that so many heathens have been thought worthy 
to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, amd Jacob, in the king<- 
dom of heaven, whilst so many Jews arc excluded. "Epyov roS 
v6f4Av, 1 cannot consider with l^oluck to be pleonastic, nor can I 
regard it with Reiche to be synonymous with the plural rcb ipya, 
for particular ipya are not written in the heart of the man, since 



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110 EPI8TLB TO THB ROMANS. 

they are elicited by circumstances. The Apostle's intention is 
rather to declare that there is not merely a knowledge of the 
law in the minds of the Gentiles, but also that their taiU has 
the power of observing this law to a certain degree. On this 
account the man's thoughts may accuse him with justice, be- 
cause he actually had the power to abstain from the sinful 
deed. And, therefore, ipyot is to be considered equivalent to ri 
ipyl^Atg^' Glockler takes it similarly as that which the law 
is intended to produce, that is to say, righteousness. In 
the same way that St Paul speaks of a 96ft>os 7pa«r^ h ra^ 
na^aui, SO also Plutarch (Moral, vol. v. p. 11, edit. Tauchm. ad 
princ. in erud. c. 3) of a vtf/cto; oOx h fiifixiotg t^u yty^afuiMf^g, e?XX' 
iu^-^nixH ^9 ay^^itfoy. It is that 96fug rtv vooc, of which St Paul 
treats, Rom. vii. 23, and of which we shall speak at greater 
length at that place. But &u¥ti^^it possesses always, in addition 
to the knowledge of the law, the consciousness in itself of being 
able and bound somehow or other to observe that law. At the 
same time, this original law must be accurately distinguished 
from that which, according to Jer. zxxi. 32, Heb. ix. 10, is 
written in the hearts of the regenerate by the Spirit of Christ. 
This latter is the absolutely perfect law, which communicates at 
the same time the highest power for its fulfilment^ and, there- 
fore, also strengthens the will; the former is a weak glimmer 
of that light which filled the heart of the first man.^ Zu/u^m*- 
ruptiirku is only a stronger form of fjM^f§Pf$cu, i. e. to testify, and 
thereby bring before the consciousness. A^t^/Ug is also found 
2 Cor. X. 4. More common expressions are htoKvyi^fUi (i. 
21), ham/iMy j^n/tM^ to denote the operations of the Xo/or or 
Mu;. The accusing principle is that of the Divine Spirit, the 
excusing that of the natural life; this inward heaving and 
tossing of the thoughts is wanting in those who are wholly 
dead, but also in those who are perfectly sanctified, whose souls 
enjoy peace like that of the unruffled mirror of the ocean« 
This inward conflict, then, as more fully described by St Paul 
in the 7th chapter, is but a melancholy advantage, a conse^ 
quence of the awakening of the inner life, a witness of that 

* In the Rabbinieal writ«n the law in the oooBeianoe is e«Ued rr^av m or also 
HTaio n*iin from jrav nature. (See Baxtorf. lex. rabb. et talmad. p. 952 and 1 349.) 
The opposite to this is formed by the anaa v min lex qoA soripta est sdL in btau- 
lis bipideis. 



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CHAPTER 11. 1 7—20. Ill 

original holiness which man has lost, and yet this is better than 
death. 

Ver. 16, With an implied reference to yer. 5, the Apostle 
declares that this manifestation of the state of the Gentile 
world, of which the Jews in particular would know nothing, 
will be deferred till the decisive day of judgment. . 

Reiche has defended the old way of connecting ver. 16 with 
Yor. 12, so that yers. 13-15 form a parenthesis. Howeyer, this 
connexion has its difficulties, not only on account of the length 
of the parenthesis, but also on account of the contents of vers. 
1^1 5. For the subject of these verses stands in the closest con- 
nexion with ver. 12, and forms the foundation of the ideas ex- 
pressed in the last verse; it is impossible, therefore, to place them 
in a parenthesis. The whole difficulty of the passage disap- 
pears, if we only, as Bengel has done, lay the emphasis upon iydf/x- 
wtrat in ver. 15. Conscience and the accusing and excusing 
thoughts are no doubt always at work in the heart of man, but 
are not manifested in conjunction with their consequences. 
This shall only take place in the case of all, as well of those 
who have followed the admonitions of the inner voice, as of 
those who have neglected them, at the day of judgment. 
(See notes to Matt. xxv. 31, etc.) It is only by this con- 
struction, too, that iviiixwfrai forms a suitable opposition to rcb 
xfwfrd; these inward transactions which take place in the depths 
of the soul generally remain quite indiscernible, on which ac- 
count the Apostle deems it necessary in this place to bring 
them before the consciousness of his readers in general, and of 
the Jews amongst them in particular. They remain indeed hid- 
den not merely to others, but also, as regards their real nature, 
to the man's own self, in that the good principle considers itself 
worse, and the evU principle better than it is. The parable in 
Matt. xxv. 31, etc., is therefore in this respect an excellent 
commentary on the present passage. It is intended that we 
should here take notice of both the acquitting and condemning 
voice of conscience on the day of judgment. Other explana- 
tions of the relation of ver. 16 to what has gone before, such as 
Heumann's view, that vers. 13-15 might have been written 
afterwards by the Apostle on the margin, or Eoppe's opinion, 
that ittiragu is to be taken in the sense of /Mrmiroy are altogether 
untenable. In itself fAtra^6 can indeed signify " afterwards," 



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112 BPIStLB TO THB BOM AH8. 

(see Botes to Acts ziii. 42), but here the connexion with aXki- 
>M¥ will not allow of this meaning. Christ is here, as ever in 
the N. T., represented and conceived of as eanying into effect 
the last judgment of the world« (See notes on Matt. bxv. 31, 
etc.; Acts vii. 17» 31.) The addition xard rh ivayyi>jo9 does 
not refer, as was erroneously supposed bj the ancients, to a 
written gospel of St Paul's, but designates merely the spirit 
and substance of his preaching of the gospel 

Vers. 17-20.* St Paul now finally directs himself to the Jews 
in a distinct address, and in the fint place brings forward pnn 
minently all those advantages which had been vouchsafed 
them, in order then to make them perceive, how little they 
had shown themselves worthy of them, and how therefiore they 
could make no boast of being in a better condition than the 
Gentiles, amongst whom noble natures were to be found. It 
has been erroneously concluded, as already remarked in the 
Introduction, from this address, that there must have been in 
Borne a party of rank Jew-Christians. St Paul however speaks, 
as already observed in the Introduction, not of Jew- (Christians, 
but quite generally of all the Jews and all the Gentiles in the 
world, and this distinct address can therefore only be regarded 
as a rhetorical figure. If therefore there were even amongst 
the Roman Christians, as is probable, those who had formerly 
been Jews, yet these were not affected with a Judaixing ten- 
dency; but the only concern that we have with this droumstance 
is in the question respecting the composition of the B^nan 
community. 

The reading of the textus receptus iU has been rightly re- 
jected by the greater number of modem critics and exegetical 
commentators, i/ df has not only the most important MS8. of 
oritical authority in its favour, especially A. B. D. E« and others, 
but is also preferable on account of the connexion. To be sure 
an anacoluthon is occasioned by it, but it is probably only to 
the endeavour to get rid of this Idi owes its origin. 'Btr$nfjkAZw9 
iwafa^aw'v are sonorous words chosen on purpose to mark dia^ 
tinctly the excessive self-conceit of the Jews. With respect 
to the form xou^atfa/, see Winer's Gr. p. 72. In the words h 
ei^ is contained a reference to the special relation in which 
God stood to Israel as its covenant God. The objective law of 

* On the paaeage iL 1 7-29, see AnguBtin. de Bpir. et litt. c. 8. 

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CHAPTER II. 21 — 24. 113 

God 10 taken as the rule of self-examination. In consequence 
of this position of privilege, the Jews, blind as to their own glar- 
ing nnfaithfulness, arrogated to themselves the most decided 
spiritual authority over the Gentiles, whom they regarded as 
altogether blind in comparison of themselves. In odtiyo^ 
rvfXm there is no doubt an allusion to Matt. xv. 14. This ten- 
dency in Judaism to overrate their mere outward calling had 
developed itself most strongly amongst the Pharbees. The ex- 
pressions Ap^onQ and y^^r/oi have this difference, that the former 
denotes a low degree of knowledge, in this case of divine 
things, the latter a low degree of spiritual development in 
general If the law is described as a fAo^puffurri^ /yjS^ca^ xa/ 
aXnMag, it is plain that this expression still indicates an ad- 
vantage on the side of the Jews; the Gentiles had not even a 
typical representation of essential truth. At the same time, in 
the choice of the word fM^oisiQ it is implied, that in the 0. T. 
the substance itself was not yet given. Mo^ foitrig is used here in 
the sense of picture, outline (see 2 Tim. i. 13, iii. 5) like the (rx/a 
as contrasted with tho 6u/jm. (Coloss. i.l7.) Knowledge 
(John xvii. 3) and truth (John i. 17) are recMy imparted in the 
N. T., and not merely typically. 

Yer. 21-24. In what follows, the unfaithfulness of the Jews 
is presented in the most glaring contrast with their assumptions. 
Notwithstanding their possession of the divine law, the Jews 
transgressed its holy commandments in particular cases out- 
wardly, and the great mass of them inwardly, ii^ cherishing evil 
desires; and thus, by their openly immoral or arrogant conduct, 
and that want of real self-knowledge which it betrayed even to 
the pious Gentiles, they injured the cause of truth, instead of 
promoting it according to God's will by their faithfulness and 
humility. And whilst in such a condition themselves, they 
wished yet to teach others, from a feeling of their proper voca- 
tion, that ihey were mainly intended to be the teachers of the 
world; but to them may be applied those words of the Psalmist 
(Ps. L 16, 17), "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, 
or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing 
thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee?'' 

The second clause of the sentence should properly have fol- 
lowed in ver. 21, connected with the first clause by diari, of 
some such word, but instead of thl|, the Apostle drops the con- 
struction. I would rather not take the following sentences in- 

H 

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114 BFI8TLB TO THE BOUANS. 

terrogatively, as Enapp does ; the address becomes more empha- 
tic by the use of the decided declarations. You are unfaithful. 
In the mere external sense, it is impossible to understand these 
sins as committed by all the Jews; for as now, so also then, 
the grea mass of the Jews lived outwardly with morality, 
especially in respect of sexual intercourse. B^tXvf&t^ku, to 
entertain abhorrence; particularly against idolatrous practices; 
therefore ^diXvy/iM = j^^pyj* an idol. (1 Kings xi. 5, Isaiah ii. 
8.) With this, however, hpo^\t7\f forms no proper contrast, for 
the latter word can only mean to plunder or rob the sanctuary. 
But no doubt covetousness, the national sin of the Jews, was 
present to the Ai>ostle's mind when he made choice of this ex- 
pression; covetousness he always regards its an inward idol- 
atry (Col. iii. 5), so that in this way the contradiction between 
the profession and practice of the Jews is plainly expressed, as 
if he had said: ''Thou abhorrest idols, and yet, in thy covet- 
ousness, thou practisest idolatry."* No doubt hfufuksh cannot 
in itself mean, '' to indulge covetousness,'" but inasmuch as /c/>o- 
euKih is the most daring manifestation of the covetous spirit, 
this crime may be used to express that which is the motive to 
it."!* Israel was in God's purpose intended to exhibit to the 
Gentiles a picture of truly holy national life; its unfaithfulness 
therefore dishonours God himself; it causes the Gentiles to say, 
" The God of this nation cannot be the true God V This fear- 
ful operation of Israel's sin (which is repeated in the case of all, 
who are called upon at any period to be the focus of divine life, 
and by unfaithfulness fall away from their vocation), is already 
rebuked by the prophets of the Old Testament. See Isaiah Iii. 
£, Ezek. xxxvi. 20; another parallel is, 2 Sam. xii. 14. 

Ver. 26. St Paul, however, by no means loses sight of the 
prerogatives of Isra'el (see iii. 1, etc., where he considers thein 
at greater length); he only shows that they demand faithful- 
ness to those responsibilities which are connected with them by 
God, if they are not to turn out to the deeper condemnation of 
their possessors. The Apostle, therefore, presupposes, in all 

* Stier, in his *<Andeatimgeii" (part ii. p. 267), follows Luther, who says on this 
passage,^ Thou art a thief towards God, for honour helongeth unto God, and this 
all self-righteous persons take from Him." The comiexion, however, points to 
actual sin, not to mere self-righteousness. 

t An example of such sacrilege is related b^ Josephus (Arch. xxiL 6, 2), who 
telU us that the presents of the rich proyelyte Fulvia were pilfered hy the Jews, to 
whom they had been entrusted. 

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CHAPTER II. 25 — 27. 115 

stages of spiritual life, the possibility of a certain measure of 
faithfulness and moral earnestness, corresponding to the degree 
of knowledge; and the personal condition of the individual is 
determined by his exercise of this faithfulness. 

The mpirofikfi is here regarded as the seal of the divine election, 
so that in it, all theocratical privileges are considered as concen- 
trated. The Jews, therefore, with their materialistic tendencies, 
attributed the greatest value to the outwardly accomplished 
operation of circumcision. In consequence of this view, it is 
declared in the Talmudic treatise Schemoth (see Schottgen on 
the passage), that in the case of Jews who are damned, the 
foreskin must first be outwardly restored. The Gentile world 
is therefore also called at once ax^ifiinsria = n^"1^> ^ unclean, 
lacking the sign of the covenant.* 'Ear in ver. 25 as well as 
in ver. 26 is not used conditionally, for St Paul does not over- 
look the transgressions of the Jews, and the faithfulness of 
many Gentiles; but in the same way as l^rav in ver. 14, where 
the fact is regarded as certain, whilst however it remains un- 
certain in what particular case it occurs. 

Ver. 26, 27. If such a degradation of the Jew to a lower 
station as to privilege and honour was conceivable to him, from 
the dreadful threatenings under which the 0. T. demanded 
obedience (see Deut. xxviii. 15, etc.); yet the reception of the 
Gentiles to grace was to him inconceivable. And^ yet the 
Apostle asserts this also, and sets the Gentiles before the eyes 
of the Jews as rebuking the latter by their good conduct. 

AtxaiufMt = ivroXfjy the particular command of the general 
vofio;. In the phrase Xoy/^icrtfa/ tig ^f/ro^^v there is evidently an 
allusion to the Xo/Z^Kr^a/ tig diKaio<fvyriv (in iv. 3); that which 
they have not is imputed to them as if they had it. Now the 
ground of this imputation is this, that though they have not 
indeed the sign, they have instead of it the germ of that reality 
which the sign represents, ». «., a good conscience, which they 
maintain faithfully, according to the small measure of know- 
ledge which God has given them, is their bond with God; and 
therefore they may not untruly be regarded as such as have 
the sign also, ver. 27. Kai is best taken as carrying on the 
question with ou;^/ understood. In xphuv that rebuke is of 
course only intended, which unrighteousness is constantly re- 

* The form of the word in pare Gi*eek was A»f§ir9rB^m. See on this point 
Fritz8chc,vol.i.p. 136. . 

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116 BPI8TLB TO THB ROMANS. 

oetving from righteousness from its very nature. (Matt. xit. 
42, Heb. xi. 7.) The connexion of M ^vaav is uncertain; at 
first sight, on account of the arrangement of the words, the 
only one which seems admissible, is that with axpofiu^Ja, so 
that it would mean the natural circumcision as opposed to 
circumcision in a spiritual sense. Thus Tholuck, Biickert, and 
Beiche. At the same time, however much may apparently be 
in faTOur of this construction, I cannot hold it to be the 
right one. For in the first place the addition of Jx fustug to 
Axfffv&rla is quite unnecessary; if St Paul had thereby wished 
to distinguish bom Gentiles from Jews with Gentile sentiments, 
and such is the .meaning of dxpopvaria in ver. 25, he would have 
been obliged to add ix ^lanttg to ixfopvorJa at once in ver. 26; 
but since he twice uses dxpofiv<rrIa in ver. 26, without this addi- 
tion, it appears to be unsuitable in ver. 27. On the other hand, 
the opposition to o d/cb y^dfifSMroi xa) ^ipiropkfig ira^a^dln};^ impera* 
tively demands that f x ^u&iotg be referred to human nature left 
to itself, whilst '/(dfj^fut (^= y<$/Mg, or vo/mq y^avrig, 2 Tim. iii. 15, 
in so far as it is contemplated amongst the Jews as some- 
thing externally given, and standing over against the man) and 
^^trcfjkti denote the grace of God, in which the Israelites made 
their boast. Eoppe observed this uite rightly, but made this 
mistake, that he wanted to refer ix ^i^ug immediately to nV 
ovtftt, to which course however the order of the words ofiers too 
much resistance. But the case is otherwise, if we take Ax^tfiu^- 
via rh vo/mv rfXovtf'a as making up one conception ; Ix fun^g then 
becomes related to this one collective thought, and the whole 
idea comes out clearly, whilst the reference of the words to &x^ 
Pu<fria alone always introduces some awkwardness. The mean- 
ing of the words is then " that Gentile world, which, without 
special help from above, observed the law, judgeth thee who, in 
the possession of this special help from above, transgressest the 
law."' Beza's interpretation of did in its instrumental sense, so 
that the sense becomes, " the law ai;d circumcision were to the 
Jews occasions of sin," expresses a thought in itself correct; 
but it is improbable that St Paul should have so far anticipated 
the course of his argument as to introduce it here; he only 
enters upon that topic later (vii. 14). Biickert rightly derives 
the application of did in question from its local signification, 
according to which it may mean, " with, during, under the cir- 
cumstances." See Bom. iv. 11, xiv. 20. The meaning, "not- 
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CHAPTER 11. 28, 29. 117 

withstanding, in spite of/' which Glockler supports, is unprece* 
dented. The way in which Meyer endeavours to justify this 
meaning, '' breaking through as it were its limits," has mani- 
festly something very strained about it. 

Ver. 28, 29. In these verses is contained the key to the whole 
of the Apostle's argument in the two first chapters of the Epistle 
to the SLomans. St Paul exhibits to us the contrast of Jews and 
Gentiles in a manner full of deep meaning. It is not the bodily 
physical descent, or the circumcision of the flesh, which consti- 
tutes the true son of Abraham, but conformity to Abraham's life 
of faith (for their ancestor, Abraham, had also sons, who were 
not partakers of the promise, Bom. iz. 7, Gal. iv. 22), and that 
circumcision of the heart, by which the sinful vpomprfifi^ara r^g 
•^uxni are removed. In the outward Israel, i. tf., after the flesh, 
there exists therefore a heathen world, which God, in that great 
judgment which visited the Jews at the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, condemned, whilst the few genuine Israelites were either 
received into the Christian Church, or preserved for later times 
as the germs of a new generation (Bom. xi.) But in the Gen- 
tile world also there is to be discovered an Israel,— -that is to say, 
a number of noble souls, truly capable of receiving every thing 
of a higher nature, for whom the divine promises are not less in- 
tended than for Israel after the flesh, for those at least of it who 
belong also to the spiritual Israel; at the same time, however, 
it is not to be denied that, ceteris pwribus^ the children of Abra- 
ham after the flesh had a more comprehensive vocation, so that, 
for instance, Gentiles could not have been numbered amongst 
the Twelve, nor could Christ have been born with the same 
propriety of a Gentile mother. (See notes to John iv. 22.) 
This view is not found merely among the later Babbinical 
writers,* who might have adopted it from the eflects of Chris- 
tian influence, but also in the 0. T. Scriptures. These demand 
not oidy the circumcision of the heart (Deut. x. 16, xxx. 6; 
Jer. iv. 4, compared with Coloss. ii. 1 1, Phil. iii. 2), but also re- 
present the true children of God as scattered throughout all the 

* Compare the remarkable words of Rabbi Lipmami, in the Nizzaehon, p. 19: 
'* Irriait noe Christianus quidam dicendo: mulieres qun cirenmddi non poiBUiity 
pro JudfiBiB non aunt habendee; verum illi nesciunt, quod fidee non poeita ait in 
circumcisione, Bed in corde. Quicunque vero nou credit, iUum circamciaio 
Judsenm non faeit; qui Tero recte credit, ie Judsus e8t,etiam si non circameiraa." 
Reiche adduces a very striking passage from Plutarch (de Isid. et Osir. p. 352). 
where, on the principles of (he heathen religions, the same is said of the genuine 
worshippers of tho gods. 



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118 EPISTIE TO THE BOMAHS. 

world, and amongst all nations. Thus especially in Isaiah xliii. 
o, etc. Here the Lord commands that His children be brought 
from the ends of the world, " even every one that is called by 
His name, and whom he has created for His glory." The dis- 
persion of Israel after the flesh amongst all nations is not spoken 
of in this passage; by these, then, can only be meant those nobler 
souls scattered amongst all nations, those in whose hearts the >joyog 
6^tpfLarix6i has planted his seeds. In the same sense the Re- 
deemer speaks of other sheep, which are not of this fold, i. 6., 
of the community of Israel after the flesh. (See the notes to 
John X. 16, xi. 52, and in the 0. T. the passage of Micah ii. 12.) 
According to thid scriptural exposition, therefore, the election 
of God appears in complete harmony with the free self-deter- 
mination of man. In the case of every man, whether much or 
little have been entrusted to him, all depends upon the personal 
faithfulness with which he improves the privileges to which he 
has been called, and by the faithful employment of that which 
has been vouchsafed to him the most insignificant individual 
may outstrip the roan to whom the greatest gifts have been 
entrusted, if the latter shows himself unfaithful. The difficulty 
returns upon us, however, with increased strength, when, pene- 
trating deeper into the subject, we come to regard faithfulness 
itself as a fruit of grace; we shall not, however, arrive at this 
before we consider Rom. ix. The whole passage, moreover, is- 
in so far remarkable, that it exhibits the manner in which the 
Apostles and writers of the N. T. explained the 0. T.; verhaUy 
indeed, but by no means literally. 

Ver. 28. The yap in this verse is to be explained by the 
thought which is implied in ver. 27, " Jews can also be re- 
jected." To this, then, as its reason, is annexed the thought, 
that the true idea of the Jew as a member of the 'theocratic 
nation, and of circumcision as the seal of the theocratic cove- 
nant, is not an outward but an inward one. The external de- 
scent from Abraham, the external operation of circumcision, 
has no real meaning without the inward foundation of a right 
disposition. Kf>u4rrcV, as the opposite of favtpSg, used of the 
moral disposition, is also found 1 Pet. iii. 4. 

Ver. 29. There is a difficulty in the words ou ypAfifMirt^ on ac- 
count of the indefinite character of the connexion of h ^tu/iart 
with what precedes. The contrast of ypdfifia and ^tufia is not 
very different from that of (fdp^ and <irvfvfia. In the same way 



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CHAPTER III. 1—20. 119 

, that the body is the clothing of the spirit, so constituted that 
by it the spirit presents its own impress, and without it cannot 
manifest itself as a personal being here below, — so also in Scrip- 
ture, the letter is the transparent veil of the spirit, without 
which the spirit cannot be fixed. In this way, then, we should 
arrive at the exact contrast of ^a¥tf>6v and x^u«rov. But because 
these last expressions have already occurred, ypdfi/Aa and «Yii^- 
fAa cannot well, without tautology, express this same contrast; 
and, on this account, it is no doubt better in this place, with 
Beza, Heumann, Morus, and Reiche, to understand ypdfAfia, as 
in ver. 27, of the law, but of course of the law in so far as it is 
considered on the side of the letter. For, regarded as to its in- 
ward nature, there was the imvflM also in the law. And there- 
fore Ruckert is right in understanding ^iufAa of the New, ypdfi^ 
fia of the 0. T., for the spirit in the 0. T. is just the New Testa- 
ment in its ^T^puatg. (Matt. v. 17.) Ver. 29 is therefore to be 
understood thus: '* but the inward Jew and the circumcision of 
the heart is the true circumcision, in that it contains the reality 
of the thing represented by the outward sign, after the spirit 
and not after the mere letter.'' The concluding sentence, cZ 6 
f«'a/yo;, X. r. K, refers, of course, to the leading idea, that is to 
the true Jew, though it may also refer to TviD^td, which, as far 
as the sense goes, comes to the same thing; the judgment of 
God on the man, as the true judgment, is opposed to the false 
judgment of man, which is determined by outward appearances. 
The preposition' fx is very suitable, for a commendation pro* 
nounced by man can also he from God, if it is a just one. 



§ 5. COMPARISON 07 THE JEWS AND OBNTILES. 

(III. 1-20.) 

This spiritual view of the relation between the Jews and the 
Gentiles might, however, as the Apostle, not without reason, 
feared, be easUy misunderstood. St Paul, therefore, finds it 
necessary to call attention to the fact, that by this representa- 
tion of the relation it was by no means intended to depreciate 
in themselves those advantages which the Jews possessed above 
the Gentile world; on the contrary, he confesses that they were 
of the greatest importance. Only these advantages had annexed 



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] 20 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

to them the condition of faith, and this condition had not been 
fulfilled by the mass of the nation; although, therefore, the 
promises of God had been accomplished notwithstanding their 
unbelief, yet the people of Israel, as such, had lost their theo- 
cratical prerogative, and the spiritual Israel alone, composed of 
Jews and Gentiles, had received the promise, as the true chil- 
dren of faithful Abraham. According to this view of the con* 
neiion, those difficulties disappear, which have been supposed 
to embarrass this portion of the Epistlo to the Romans. The 
Ai>ostle does not at all lose the thread of his argument (so that 
it were necessary to assume, as even Reiche still proposes^ that 
it is only at Rom. ix. 4 that the same is resumed), but he com- 
pletely obviates an objection, so far, at least, as it was needful. 
For that no diun^ov follows the vpuroy in ver. 2, is naturally ac* 
counted for by the fact, that tikis first which is adduced includes 
in it everything else which could have any claim to be men- 
tioned besides. The passage iii. 9 stands, however, in no con- 
tradiction with ver. 2; for, whilst this passage treats of the 
original calling of the Jews, the former speaks of the actual 
state of their relations to God which had been introduced by 
their unbelief All the promises of the Old, as well as the New 
Testament, are, in fact, conferred upon the condition of believ- 
ing obedience; if this does not exist, they are, eo ipw, annulled, 
nay more, the blessing is converted into its direct opposite, the 
curse. (See Deut. xxviii. 1, etc., 15, etc.) St, Paul might there- 
fore have expressed himself even more strongly than he does in 
iii. 9 ; he might have said, " the Jews have not only no advan- 
tages over the Gentiles, but the Gentiles are now preferred to 
them, they have been grafted into the olive tree instead of those 
branches which have been hewn oif. But, according to Rom. 
xi. 20 etc., the same condition holds good also of the Gentiles, 
and they may through unbelief just as well forfeit their calling 
to privileges, as the Jews did before them. Chapters ix.-xi. are 
therefore a kind of extended commentary upon this passage, 
but without being a continuation of what is here begun. 

Ver. 1, 2. With a glance back at the foregoing deduction of 
the sinfulness of the Jews, the Apostle now asks, what then 
has become of the privileges of the Jews? Their sinfulness had 
placed them on a level with the Gentiles, for the law had not 
attained its exalted object in their case at all. The law was in- 
tended to produce the Myvutif/s afiapr/at (ill. 20), tliat is to say, 



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CHAPTBB III. 1 — 20. 121 

true repentaBce, instead of which, on account of their unbelief 
and the unfaithfulness which this gave rise to, it only produced 
sin itself, and indeed the very worst form of sin, the exact con- 
trary to repentance, the arrogant opinion that they were with- 
out sin, and as the descendants of Abraham after the flesh, were 
already inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. Nevertheless, the 
divine promise retained its objective reality; those Jews, who 
apprehended in faith the salvation offered to them in Christ, 
received also His full blessing, notwithstanding the great body 
of the nation forfeited it. 

T^ ^piwhv is to be taken as a substantive, just as ri 
7W(friw^in i. 19, in the sense of ^'advantage or prerogative.'' 
We are not to suppose that in this passage either, as Rriche 
justly remarks, St Paul was disputing with actual personages; 
the matter is treated quite objectively. The opposite to ?Mrdt 
^arra rpoWov is found 2 Maccab. xi. 31, %&r cvdiva rpWof, No 
doubt vfirov /cfrf V points as far as form is concerned to other ad- 
vantages, which St Paul intended to name. But he felt quite 
rightly, that all was in reality contained in that one which he * 
had adduced. In the interpretation of i^ttfnv&n^ctfy Reiche is 
inclined to adopt the view of Eoppe and Cramer, according to 
which it is translated, '' the divine promises were confirmed to 
them.'' But the usual meaning of the word, " were confided 
to them," is plainly more suitable to the connexion, since in 
what follows it is just their &'xt^rta in the possession of these 
promises which is spoken of. Mention is made of the divine 9i€Ti^ 
only in consequence of this Liniria. (On the well-known con- 
struction of the passive sec Winer's Gram. p. 237.) The Xfy/a 
roD estfO are no doubt in the first place the promises (Acts vii. 
38; 1 Pet. iv. 11 ; Heb. v. 12), and indeed especially those of 
the Messiah and the kingdom of God, to which all the others 
were related. But inasmuch as these promises constituted the 
most important part of Holy Scripture, the whole Word of God 
is also indicated by this expression. 

Yer. 3. It is not altogether easy to follow the course of the 
Apostle's thoughts in this transition; Tholuck has, however, 
already rightly supplied the links which are wanting. The 
Apostle namely presupposes the notorious fact of the unbelief 
of the Jews, just at the time when the promises were being ful- 
filled, and deduces from thence that even if the blessing was 
lost to the nation collectively, it yet, according to God s faith- 
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1 22 BPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

fulness, remained eyen now confirmed to individual bdievers, 
and should hereafter also belong to: the whole of Israel when 
God should have led them back by wondrous ways. (Bom. xi. 
25.) He forbearingly calls the unbelievers nfU in the hope 
that many in Israel might yet turn to Christ. See ix. 1, etc. 

For ))4r/tfr9j<ray the M.S. A. reads fjrtltiBffw, because the xi 
yia were taken as synonymous with the law. ^ho matter is 
understood more in accordance with St Paul's views, by re- 
garding unbelief as the root- of disobedience. (See notes to 
John xvi. 9.) With regard to 'in&rigy viartvu and its opposite 
dm<frfu, see notes to Rom. iii. 21. With respect to the word 
xaragyiT^, which occurs so frequently in St Paul's language, see 
notes to Luke xiii. 7, the only place in the N. T. in which it is 
found except in St Paul's writings. In the LXX. also it occurs 
but four times. 

Ver. 4. With man's unfaithfulness is now contrasted the un- 
changeable faithfulness of God, who knows how to form for 
Himself, in spite of sin, the inheritors of His promises. For 
God's promises cannot be fulfilled without the existence of 
persons to accept them; He is therefore not only true in giving 
and keeping His promises for His own part, but He is also 
faithful in creating such as are worthy to receive them, so that 
if aU men were to be faithful they would not be unfulfilled. 
In chap. ix. this idea is carried out more at length, and it is 
only when thus understood that the words, " if we believe not 
yet He remaineth faithful. He cannot deny himself," receive 
their full meaning. The streams of the <Hvine grace, when im- 
peded on the one side, turn themselves to the other, and form 
for themselves amongst Jews and Gentiles organs for the king- 
dom of God, without, however, operating by constraint, without 
any prejudice to man's freedom, rather by really establishing 
and completing it. 

Mj) ytvoiro answers to the Hebrew n'?'''?rT* which latter word 
is thus translated by the LXX. (See Gesenius' Lexicon under 
^l^pl.) It is also frequently found in Polybius, Arrian, and 
others, and particularly often in St Paul's writings in the N. T., 
thus again in the epistle to the Romans iii. 6, 31, vi. 2, 15, vil 
7, etc. To translate ymtrdu 6$, " let it be rather so, God is faith- 
ful, etc.," is forced. Reiche justly observes, the imperative is 
only used to express emphatically the irrefragable nature of the 



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CHAPTBB III. 1, 5. 123 

assertion. The words m<f M^wrog '^§{f^rfig are taken from Ps. 
cxvi. 11. Tliey have so far their perfect truth, that man in his 
separation from, or even opposition to God, who has alone 
essential being and truth, becomes untrue and unfaithful; so 
far as he is good and true, God is in him. Whenever, there- 
fore, this divine truth takes up its abode in a heart, the man 
confesses himself to be untrue without God, and with this first 
truth begins his true life. (See notes to ver. 10.) For further 
confirmation, Ps. li. 6 is quoted exactly after the LXX. In this 
Psalm the struggles by which the soul works its way out of the 
night of sin are described in an inimitable manner. David 
wrestles as it were with God, and has a controversy with Him, 
whilst God, by the operation of His Spirit, convinces him of 
his sin; the confession of David is the victory of tlie truth in 
him. On a greater scale the same struggle is going on in this 
sinful world, and the moment in which any individual emerges 
into the element of light is that in which he makes the coiifes- 
sion here expressed. God is ever the victor, when the creature 
ventures into a controversy with Him, appearing as just in all 
His promises. This "judging" of God takes place whenever 
His guidance is distrusted. A/xa/outr^a/ means here " to be re- 
cognised as just " See notes on iii. 21. The parallelism would 
certainly lead us to suppose that \&yoi means here, in the first 
place, law-suits, as in Acts xix. 38, but according to St Paul's 
application of the passage, this expression stands parallel to XSytu^ 
ver. 2. Accordingly, xpin<t&cu in the Apostle's use of it can only 
be taken as the passive, although, according to the original 
text, the active meaning should predominate. 

Ver. 5. According to the Apostle's view, therefore, God is 
the only good being, the Good in all good, so that even the 
best has no merit ; sin alone is man's property and his fault; at 
the same time even this must serve to manifest God's glory and 
excellence the more brightly. The man who is estranged from 
God does not recognise this relation of truth to falsehood, of 
righteousness to unrighteousness; he thinks that God could not 
punish sin, if it produced what was good. But it is God who 
works that which is good by means of sin, not ein itself; sin 
remains notwithstanding what it is, that, namely, which de- 
serves a curse, and has its punishment in and from itself. 

A/xa/otf^»f} and Abixia are here to be taken in the most general 
sense, see the notes on Rom. iii. 21. 2v¥t^Tdvuv signifies hero to 

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124 EPI8TLB TO THE B0MAK8. 

represent, and by representation to make anything known in its 
real nature. Rom. v. 8. — St Paul often uses the formula rJ 
ipovft49 especially in objections. Bom. vi. 1, vii. 7, ix. 14. — 
Beiche has some very happy remarks on this passage with re* 
spect to the formula xard AtiptMrov Xc^m. He justly observes, that 
the meaning of this phrase of such multifarious significations is 
to be determined solely by the context. It may be used either 
of the way of all men, or of the majority, or of a certain class of 
men. Here it may be most properly referred to the natural 
man as alienated from Qod, who is without the real knowledge 
of God, and is therefore incapable of forming a judgment of 
God's dealings. In the passage Rom. yi. 19, di6pu,vim >Jkytt is 
used instead, for which in profane writers wtrdL rh dfd^ivwy 
dv&P^mg Xl/Af are found. See the passages cited by Tholuck 
on ver. 19. 

Ver. 6, 7. The unreasonableness of the above question is de- 
monstrated by St Paul from that truth which all Jews acknow- 
ledged, that God would judge the Oentile world; but this would 
be impossible, if, from the fact that man's unrighteousness 
exalts the righteousness of God, it should follow that He could 
not punish sin. For then the Gentile might also say, '' My sin 
too has magnified God's righteousness, how then can I be con- 
demned as a sinner?" Reiche has proved by convincing argu- 
ments in opposition to Tholuck and Riickert, that ver. 6 is not 
to be understood of the universal judgment, but only of the 
judgment of the Gentiles, who from the Jewish point of view 
were considered as the xoV/to? in its proper sense, as the ct/MtpruT^ 
xar l^oxTiv. (Galat. ii. 16.) In fact, it is only in this way of 
understanding it, that the argument can hold, because that 
which is uncertain must ever be proved by that which is ac- 
knowledged. For it was only considered certain with respect to 
the Gentiles that God would judge the world, the Jews "enter- 
tained doubts on this subject as regarded themselves, (ver. 5.) 
To this may be added, that it is only by this explanation we 
can gain any distinct notion of the person referred to in x^ydt. 
" I also," says the Gentile, " might claim exemption from judg- 
ment, for in this case also the sam^ holds true." The only 
thing which could be urged against this reference of the pas- 
sage to the Gentile world with any show of reason, is this, that 
the above Jewish notion of the judgment which shall visit the 
Gentile world is false, and that St Paul would not argue from 



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GHAPTBB III. 6—8. 125 

an error. But this view of the Jews was not in and of itself 
false^ it only became false in consequence of their supposing 
that this judgment would concern the Qentiles onl}/, and not 
the Jews also. Now it is just this very falsehood in it that the 
Apostle combats, and we need therefore surely feel no scruple 
about assuming his argument to be as stated above. 

As regards the meaning " Gentile world" sometimes belong- 
ing to KdfffMiy I cannot say that I agree with Reiche in so ren- 
dering x66/A0i in the passages Rom. iii. 19; 1 Cor. vii. 31,* 
though no doubt the context imperatively demands it in Rom. 
zi. 12; 1 Cor. i. 21. There can be no doubt but that this 
meaning may be justly attributed to the word, since the general 
idea which belongs to it, " that of the creature in its alienation 
finom God,*' may be confined to the Gentile world, because in it 
the corruption of the creature was represented in its most glar- 
ring colours. irsu<r/Aa is found in no other place in the N. T. 
In opposition to aknhta it denotes that whole state of falsehood, 
i.e.y of alienation from God, from which all the particular utter- 
ances of sin proceed. The divine U^a is here the knowledge 
of God's sublime attributes, which are brought out more dis- 
tinctly by the contrast of man's sin. 

Yer. 8. As at all times, so also even in the Apostle's day, the 
Gospel was reproached as tending to promote sin^-f* and teaching 
' men to do evil that good might come, but this did not deter 
him from declaring God's faithfulness amidst our unfaithfulness. 
8t Paul therefore finds himself obliged (vi. 1, etc.), to refute 
this error with greater care, and to discover it in all its absur- 
dity. Tlie man who can make such an assertion as this pro- 
nounces his own condemnation, in that he makes known, that 
the nature of divine grace, and of that love which it kindles in 
the heart, is wholly unknown to him. Doubtless, it was men 
such as the Judaizers, whom St Paul had to oppose in Galatia, 
who circulated such blasphemies. 

* In hiB ezplaDation of Rom. iii. 1 9, this scholar rightly nnderstands the whole 
human rluse to be meant bjr »«r^«r. His addneing the passage as above, can there- 
fore onljr be an oyersight. 

t Of snoh hypocriti^ slanderers Luther says, ** God grant us grace that we may 
be pious sinners (that is, poor in spirit, humble), and not hoUf ttanderers (that is, 
outwardly obserrers of the law, apparently holy, but really proud.) For the Chris- 
tian is in the state of becominff such, not in the state of having become so; whoso- 
ever therefore it a Christian, is no Christian, that is, whosoever thinks that he is 
already a Christian, whilst he is only becoming one, is nought*' 



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126 EPISTLE TO THE BOUANS. 

Witb respect to the construction of the sentence xai fifi is to 
be taken as an anacoluthon; the Apostle intended at first to 
proceed with ^ro/iJ^M/xfy but afterwards connected the principal 
thought by means of Sn immediately witli Xi^i/y in the paren* 
thesis. The conjecture en is therefore just as inadmissible 
as the omission of on. 'Evdixo^, that which is founded h rfi 
dUp, is only found besides in the N. T. at Heb. ii. 3. 

Yer. 9. After obviating .these misunderstandings of that im- 
portant truth, that the unfaithfulness of men does not annul 
the faithfulness of God, the Apostle could bring forward the 
concluding thought of the whole argument contained in the 
first two chapters, and assort, ihat all Jews as weU as Gentiles 
are under sin. He in no way contradicted by this assertion his 
previous declaration as to the great advantages of the Jews 
(iii. 1), for to every Jew who acknowledged his sinfulness, 
in whom, therefore, the law had accomplished its purpose, 
in stopping his mouth (ver. 19), and awakening him to a 
knowledge of his own sin and need of redemption (ver. 
20), these privileges were still available in their fullest ex- 
tent. But to those TtvU (ver. 3), who formed the mass of the 
nation, these advantages were no doubt lost, for in them the 
truth had so far yielded to the lie, that they did not any 
longer^even retain the fundamental truth of confessing their 
own sinfulness, but boasted of external things as if they had 
been substantial privileges. And, therefore, the true inward 
Jews, amongst Israelites and Greeks, the poor, in spirit, the 
humble, the hungering and thirsting after salvation, and these 
only, received the promise. But since it was in every one's 
power to become such an one, in that he only needed to give 
up his active resistance to the Spirit of Truth, which bore wit- 
ness to him of his sin, no one could complain; God appeared 
just, as in His promises, so also in their fulfilment 

T/ oZ¥ is best taken as a separate sentence. It is found 
complete in Acts xxi. 22. upofx^ is found nowhere else in the 
N. T.; in the active it means " to have advantage over," prw- 
stare. But in this case the passive form must be derived from, 
the meaning " to prefer," an usage which is completely estab- 
lished even in classical Greek writers; "are we then preferred 
by God ?" The application of the meaning, " to advance as a 
pretext," so as to make the words signify " have wo anything 
to urge in palliation," which Meyer and Fritzche have lately 



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CHAPTER III. 9 — 18. 127 

defended after the example of Ernesti, Moms, Koppe, etc., is \n 
point of language quite allowable, but not suitable to the con- 
text. For the question is not, whether the Jew has anything 
to defend himself with, to allege in his defence, but whether or 
not he has any advantage over the Gentiles. In ou vdvrui, 
the negative particle could no doubt limit the meaning of 
vdvrug, 80 as to make the whole signify "not in every re- 
spect; but the context plainly demands that irdvrui be taken 
as giving emphasis to the negation, nequaquam. If persons 
have demurred about giving to rdvrtg its full signification, 
and have wished to explain it by ^roXXo/, although the ohdl 
th which follows leaves no doubt as to the Apostle's mean- 
ing, this has arisen from the uncleamess of their views as to 
the peculiar nature of the AxpoSugHa v6fMv nXoD^a (ii. 27), to 
whid), however, we must of course suppose a mptro/ukn vij^v 
TtT^v^a (xi. 4) to correspond in every age of history. This un- 
cleamess has presented a considerable obstacle to a well de- 
fined conception of this section in the case of the greater num- 
ber even of modem expositors. A more detailed explanation 
of this subject will immediately follow in the notes upon verses 
10-18. upoamdof4Mi is found nowhere else in the N. T. In 
the words v^ AfAupriav thai sin is represented as a tyrannical 
power from which a \vrpufftg is needed. (See the notes on 
Rom. vii. 1 etc., and vii. 14. vsTpa/img v^h r^t afiaprfav,) 
The two parallel passages, Rom. xi. 32, Gal. iii. 22, throw 
an uncommon light upon this passage. See the exposition of 
them. 

Ver. 10-18. Since nothing is more intolerable to the high- 
minded natural man than the confession of his sinfulness, t. e., 
not only of individual sinful actions, but of sinful cormption in 
general, and the inability to do anything good of hiniself, the 
Apostle justly applies all his power to the proof of this point. 
By a long succession of passages from the Old Testament, ho 
proves that the Word of God corroborates his doctrine, in that 
it ascribes to no man, without exception, a tme dixaioc<tvfi. The 
question now arises, how are the assertions of the Apostle, ii. 
14, 26, 27, to be reconciled with the present text. For there 
individual Gentiles were spoken of who observed the law, and 
we must of course therefore assume, that amongst the Jews 
also there were many pious men of whom the kimo might be 
said. (See Luke i. 6.) The usual assumptions that the Apostle 

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128 EPISTLE TO THE B0UAN6. 

is only speaking of his contemporaries; or> secondly, that the 
observance of the law is only to be understood of an external 
observance, and not of that inward law as more strictly defined 
by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount ; or, lastly, that the 
words of the Apostle only refer to the whole mass, and that he 
is not here concerned with particular exceptions, are yet nothing 
but ways of escaping from the difficulty, and not of solving it 
in its foundation, though we would not deny the truth which 
Ues in the second remark. The last view is especially erroneous, 
namely, that particular exceptions are to be admitted to the 
general rule of man's sinfulness, for the Apostle's whole demon- 
stration of the necessity which exists for a new way of salvation 
for all men without exception, rests upon the fact that all, 
without exception, are sinful. As has already been indicated 
above, but one interpretation of the passage is possible, and by 
means of this all St Paul's ideas preserve their full harmony. 
The Apostle namely understands by the faithful men who ob- 
serve the law, such as unite with earnest endeavours to walk in 
conformity with their knowledge, the humble insight into their 
spiritual poverty, and real need of redemption, men of whom 
the centurion Cornelius (Acts x.) furnishes us with an example. 
Tliese faithful persons are then so far from being excluded from 
the general state of sinfulness, that they confess themselves in 
the most decided manner to be sinners, and acknowledge the 
justice of the charge which the Word of God brings against 
them.* Those, in whose minds the earnest endeavours to keep 
the law is not united with humility, have nothing but a mere 
apparent righteousness, inasmuch as they grossly violate that 
law, all whose commandments may be reduced to the love of 
the truth) in its innermost substance by their want of love, and 
denial of their alienation from Gk>d. To them, therefore, ap- 
ply the Apostle's words in Rom. ii. 1. All men, therefore, 
without exception, are sinners; the only difference between them 
is this, that some give honour to the truth, and acknowledge 
themselves as such, and in their case the law has accomplished 
its purpose and they are ripe for the gospel; whilst others are 
either in a complete state of death, and serve sin without any 
rebuke from conscience, or if they have been brought by con- 
science to make certain efforts to observe the law outwardly, 

* This oonfession is the first work m them, which is wrought in God, wherefore 
they do not shrink back from coming to the light (See notes on John iii. 20, 21.) 



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GUAPTBR III. 19. 129 

still only derive to themselves from these efforts fresh sin, 
that is to saj, proud self-complacency, and contempt of others. 
In the Codex Alezaqdrinus the collection of texts which S 
Paul here adduces are adopted into Psalm xiv., doubtless only 
from this passage. — ^Vers. 10-12 are cited freely from Ps. xiv. 
1-3. 2«wa;ir = '5^3j|^. — 'rxxXivu = "^^jp. — 'Axi>h6u is not found 
elsewhere in the N. T., but frequently in Polybius. — Ver. IS is 
from Ps. V. 9. The image is probably derived from beasts of 
prey. — 'EioXioDirav is a Boeotian form for idoXtoZf. The words ihg 
d^vlduv b'rh rit, ;^i/X»j avruv are taken from Ps. cxl. 8. — Ver. 14 is 
after Ps. x. 7. The Hebrew text has pf\jy\iy which does not 
mean wsx^/u but deceit. Probably the LXX. had another read* 
ing. — Vers. 16, 17 are taken from Isaiah lix. 7, 8. — ^wr^t/ifia 
xal raXou^uf/a answer to ^yoSt) ibJ- — Ver. 18 is from Ps. xxxvi. 
1, 'Amavri ruv if^aXfikSiv avT&v=syiyiy ixh* These passages of 

the 0. T. refer indeed undeniably in their primary connexion 
to more special relations, but in these the Apostle perceives the 
universal to be depicted ; and justly. For every germ of sin 
contains within it the possibility of all the different forms which 
it can assume, and no one is without this germ. The more en- 
tirely, therefore, the inward eye is opened, the more ready is 
the man to recognise in his heart the source of every error 
whatsoever. Even the least leaven leavens the whole lump; 
and man is in God's sight only either erUirdy holy or entirely 
a sinner. 

Ver. 19. The delineation of sinfulness in the above-cited 
passages has so objective a character, that it applies not only to 
the Jews, but just as well also to the Gentiles. The law of nature 
also forbids such manifestations of sin not less than the written 
law of Moses» Therefore the Apostle, in conclusion, considers 
the position of men with respect to the law quite universally, 
and declares that the law condemns every one who has such sin- 
ful motions in himself, and that as no one can entirely acquit 
himself from these, every one also, without exception, falls under 
the curse of the law. The connexion requires that ¥6fi9g be 
taken in the same sense in vers. 19 and 20; now the conclusions 
which St Paul derives from the substance of the two first 
chapters are quite general, and therefore v^^bofi must also in this 
place signify in the most general sense the law as such, as well 
the Mosaic law (and that especially in its moral requirements) 

I 

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130 BPI8TLB TO THB ROMAKS. 

as the law written in the heart, (iL 15.) No reference can 
.therefore be intended in this place to the passages above cited 
[as such, but only a reference to the substance of the thoughts 
jwhich they express. Every law forbids such sins to those who 
fare subject to it. Reiche most inconsistently understands by 
I vtfiAi the law of the Jews only, and yet proceeds to refer 'jrag 6 
I xoV/c&o; to all men. The context indeed imperatively demands 
the latter reference, but on this very account v^^to^ must also be 
taken in the most comprehensive sense. 

The expressions "kiym and XaXs^ are to be accurately distin- 
guished in this place, according to their true conception ; the 
former denotes more the inward aspect of speech, the pr6duction 
of thoughts and the formation of words; XaXt/v more the outward 
side, the expression of what is within. The dative XaXs? toTq » 
rtfi v6fA(ft is naturally to be taken thus, " this it declares for those 
living under the law," i. «., in order that they may fulfil it By 
the expression o/ gi> v6fi(fj we are led, indeed, to think, in the first 
place, of ii. 12, where it denotes the Jews; but the context in 
the present passage is too distinctly general to allow us to retain 
this meaning here. We must, therefore, understand the thought 
so that all those who are subject to the sphere of the law may 
be included in it, without its having particular respect to the 
wider or narrower sphere of the law, amongst Jews and Gen- 
tiles. ^Tofia ppdff(ftiv is a strong expression for *' to reduce to 
silence," in this case by convincing of unrighteousness. 'r^Sdixo^, 
to fall under d/x»j, is not found elsewhere in the N. T. Most in- 
terpreters, even Tholuck and Reiche, erroneously understand 
ha in this place as denoting the event and not the purposa 

I The strong delineations of man's sinfulness, in Scripture, have 
the object of excluding every excuse. Calvin rightly said, long 
ago, *' ut praecidatur oninis tergiversatio, et excusandi facultas/* 
Ver. 20. As the great and decisive result of his whole argu- 
ment concerning the nature of sin, the Apostle therefore, with 
a retrospective glance at Rom. i. 16, 17, sets forth this truth, 
that man in his natural condition cannot attain to true dixai- 
tKTvm* by means of the works of the law, because the law pro- 
duces the conviction of sin. And therefore the revelation of a 
new way of salvation was needed, in consequence of which 

* The first half of this verse, like the paratlel passage in he concluding words of 
Gal. ii. 16, appears to be a reniiniscence of Ps. cxliii. 2. 



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CHAPTER III. 20. 131 

Zixoio&uni should be revealed and communicated without law; 
and this way both Jews and Gentiles had to follow in order to 
obtain salvation, (Ver. 21, etc.) The impossibility of attain- 
ing to dixaio^vn by i^ya »6fiAu is founded, in fact, upon the 
absolute character of the law, in consequence of which the 
smallest transgression, and that only once committedy* consti- 
tutes a transgression of the whole law and that for ever. (Gal. 
iii. 10.) Human weakness (tfa^^ cannot, without the help of 
the divine rftZfia, satisfy these absolute requirements. It is, 
moreover, by no means the purpose of the law to realise the 
true dixouosvvn in man (Gal. iii. 19, 21), it is only intended to 
present moral perfection as the object of man's endeavours, 
thereby to produce Mym^iQ u/iapriaiy and to pave the way for 
the reception of the gospel. (Gal. iii. 25.) This Mymff/^ a/utp- 
Tiai is, however, by no means to be regarded as a mere un- 
concerned knowledge about sin; this may be possessed by one 
who is entirely unawakened, and in whom the law has not at all | 
done its work; it is to be understood as a true acquaintance I 
with sin, a k nowl edge of its n ature and r eality. This can only 
be conceived as existing m connexion with deep sorrow on ac- 
count of it, and a lively longing desire to be delivered from it. 
The MymitQ afiaprtai is, therefore, synonymous with that /mt^ 
una unto which, as the proper fruit of the Old Testament 
economy, St John the Baptist baptized those who came to him. 
(See notes on Matt. iii. 1.) It relates not merely to particular 
unlawful actions and their unpleasant consequences^ but to sin 
itself, to that sin which affects the whole man, and therefore to 
the habitue peccandi,'\' But sin in its true nature is always 
d'x'Kfria (John xvi. 9), from which, as their source, all other 
-sinful outbreaks proceed. We may, therefore, affirm that the 
Mymet^ afMipriaiy as the Xuflnj, xara BfSv (2 Cor. vii. 10), has 
necessarily the germ of faith already existing in it. It is only \ 

* The popular feeling htm embodied this truth in ft proverb : He who htm once 
stolen is, and ever remainB, a thief ; [Once a thief always a thief 1] even if he never 
fiteala anything again, yet he remaiuB for ever one who has stolen. Thus the trans- 
gressor in the sniBllest matter retains also for ever the character of the sinner in 
the sight of the holy God, until the Aft^ts rnt i/»«^r/«i and }ttuiimrt$ have erased 
til is character inddibUia, 

t Stier distinguishes in a very marked manner (Andeut. P. ii. p. 269), between 
Uie %^iy99t0it kf/M^Ut and the mere Wty^m^n rwiiMmwftmru rtSeuv (i. 32, ii. 2), 
which the ^epntved, as well as the only apparently reformed, may have in their 
conscience. 



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132 EPISTLK TO THE ROMANS. 

the truth which can discover the lie in its true character, onlj 
vi6rtf which can fathom drteria. Although, therefore, the law 
brings down the curse (Gal. iii. 10), and the man who lies 
under the Myvoafig a/Mi^iag bitterly experiences this curse, 
yet this feeling again always contains within itself a blessing, 
and the deepest repentance is, on this very account, the farthest 
from despair, because the humble and contrite heart, as an 
already believing heart, is well pleasing to God (Ps. li. 19), and 
because it is only out of that which He has already reduced to 
nothing that the Lord creates something, that is to say, the new 
man created in Christ Jesus unto good works. 



8BCTI0N II. 

(Ill 21— V. 11.) 

THE DESCRIFTIOK OF THE NEW WAT OF SALVATION IN CHRIST. 

After having thus laid the foundation for his superstructure 
of doctrine, by proving the necessity that existed for a new way 
of salvation, the Apostle proceeds in the next place to describe 
this. way itself. In this everything assumes a different aspect 
from that which it wore under the Old Testament ; instead of 
the demands of the law we hear the voice of grace, instead of 
works faith is presupposed, and yet the law is not abolished, but 
rather confirmed (iii. 21-31). Of this way of salvation, says 
St Paul, even the Old Testament itself gave intimations, especi- 
ally in that Abraham, the great progenitor of Israel, was justi* 
fied by faith and not by works, and only received circumcision 
as a sign and seal of that faith which he had whilst yet uncir- 
cumcised. Faith in Christ, therefore, was truly a new way of 
salvation, but yet^ after all, the ancient way, which all the 
saints had trodden (iv. 1-25). This is therefore the only way 
which leads to the desired end, and even the sorrows, which are 
connected with walking in this way, must minister to the per- 
fection of the man. For, instead of the spirit of fear, the spirit 
of love will be thereby shed abroad in his heart, — of love en- 
kindled by the exceeding abundant love of (Christ (v. 1-11.) 



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CHAPTBB III. 21 — 31. 133 

§ 6. TUB DOCTBIBB OF FBBB QBACB IK CHBIST. 

XIIL 21-31.) 

Before we enter upon the explanation of this important pas- 
sage, the citadel of the Christian faith, we must give exact de- 
finitions of the leading expressions which St Paid uses to com- 
municate bis ideas, and throw some light upon the varioiLS 
points of view from which these ideas have been considered. 
To the leading conceptions with which we have to do in the 
endeavour to comprehend St Paul's doctrine, belongs in the 
very first place dixouotruMi, by which word is denoted the com- 
mon object as well of the 0. T. as of the N. T. dispensation. 
In the definition of this term, the common mistake has been, 
. either to reckon up too many meanings of it, deduced from a 
mere superficial view of particular passages (thus Schleusner 
has noted not less than fourteen significations of dixato<ru9ti), 
or else, as Bretschneider and Wahl have done, whilst assuming 
fewer meanings, to neglect to trace them in their derivation 
from the radical meaning. Notwithstanding several separate 
treatises on this term, as those of Storr (in his opusc. acad., 
vol. i.), of Koppe in his fourth Excursus to the Epistle to the 
Galatians, of Tittmann (de synonymis N. T. i. p. 19, sqq.), and 
of Zimmermann, we are yet in want of a thoroughly satisfac- 
tory development of this important expression from its original 
meaning. I therefore propose the following essay to the con- 
sideration of scholars. 

The root of d/xa/o^, dixa/otrCvti, and all expressions connected 
with it, is the word d/xij, whose original meaning, as we learn 
from Tim^BUS in his Lexicon to Plato, is, '' manner and way, 
ri ght relatio n,'' 6 rpwn^ xai 4 ofMsdrrig. This term came to be 
prmcipaily applied in common language to the relations of 
law, and 6ixn therefore denoted the right relation between 
guilt and punishment, between merit and reward. In its appli- 
cation to earthly concerns, the use of dixouog, btxaio^x^n, accord- 
ing to this original signification, presents no difficulty; but 
when it is transferred to higher matters, indistinctness arises 
from the manifold nature of the relations involved. In this 
case it is best to distinguish two relations, first, that of God to 



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134 BPI8TLE TO THE ROMANS. 

men, and secondly, tbat of men to God; from this distineiioii 
arises the following difference of meanings. Since in God as 
the absolute Being all qualities are absolute, we must conceive 
i>f the dsxatogvvfi in Him as absolute, so that He orders all re* 
Jations with absolute justice. The justitia Dei, qud Justus est, 
manifests itself therefore differently according to the differences 
in men's characters. Towards the wicked it manifests itself as 
pwnisking, towards the good, on the other hand, as rewarding. 
Hence dtxouo<r6vfi, applied to God and His relation to men, has 
not merely the signification of punitive justice, but also that 
of goodness, grace. That npTJ* ^^ *^® language of the 0. T., 
as well as of the Rabbinical writers, is also used in the same 
manner, has lately been proved at length by Tholuck (Ex- 
position of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 347, etc.) (Comp. 
Ps. XXIV. 5; Prov. xxi. 21; with Matt, i, 19, vi. 1; 2 Cor. ix. 
10.) £ut as regards, in the second place, the position of man 
with respect to God, this is, first of all, in his present condition, 
a dist]u:})ed r elatio n to Go^«JlJ£x/a. The right relation, the dtxato- 
6vvn, must be sought after by him. But this endeavour can 
only gradually attain its object. Man, in his alienation from 
God, commences, namely, with considering that law of God 
which meets him from without as something external, and by 
sincere endeavours, corresponding to his knowledge, to observe 
this as an outward law, he enters into a relation to God which is 
relatively true. On this account there is ascribed* to him a btxouo- 
<rv¥fi rov v6fLov, or ex ¥6/j,ou a 6ixato<rvffi idla (Rom. X. 3; Phil. iii. 9), 
because the man renders this obedience with, so to speak, his 
own powers, those moral powers which remain to him after the 
fall, without the operation of grace. But if we consider the 
matter more deeply, we must of course regard these powers also 
as of God, and man's own righteousness also as incapable of 
being produced without God and His co-operation ; only grace 
in its proper and special sense does not yet appear to be opera- 
tive in this case. But it is not intended that man should re- 
main in this relatively true condition, rather must he arrive at 
an absolutely ri ght relation; not merely his outward act, but 
his inward disposition and inclinations must be conformed 

* St Paul also uses, as equivalent to this, the words hxttitvg^^en 1^ t^yi^f tif^ou, or 
f> ye/KM, }m fift$u, 866 Gal. ii. 16, 21, iii. 11. 



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CHAPTER III. 21 — h L 135 

to the divine law. But this, because it presupposes an in- 
ward transformation^ the man cannot of himself, and by 
his own strength, accomplish; on this account it is called 
dixouoifuvfi 0soD, or ix Tjortotg = 6ti^ ^rianug (Gal. ii. 16), be- 
cause God gives it, and man receives it in faith. In this I 
case it is God Himself in the man, the Christ in us, who 1 
satisfies that which God demands of him,* and therefore, that \ 
which on the side of evil exhibits itself not as substance, but 
as a mere relation, has on the side of good in its completion 
passed into substantiality; for nothing is really good but God 
Himself and His influences; but where He works, there He also 
is. From these considerations we may very easily explain the 
use which is made of the expressions derived from dsxaiog.^ 
A/xoMOM = p^«f2^,« denotes the divine agency in the calling 

into existence dtxat^ifCfti, which naturally includes in itself the 
recognition of it as such. A/xo/oDd^oi = *pf^f denotes, on the 

other hand, the condition of the dixato^ iTva/, and of being re-/ 
cognised as such. In both expressions, at one time, the notion 
of making righteous, or of being made righteous, at another, 
that of accounting or declaring righteous, or being accounted 
or declared righteous, comes forward most prominently, but al- 
ways in such a way that the latter presupposes the foimer. 
Nothing can at any time be reckoned or declared righteous 
by, God which is not so. AtxaiwfiM = rh d/xouov signifies that 
which is right in any particidar relation, so that it may be taken 
as synonymous with ivro>Ji, ^qhJq, pn» AtxaJucig, on the 

other hand, denotes the action of htxas^^ti, • taken abstractedly, 
th ^ energy of making righteous (Rom. iv. 25, v. 18.) Only in 
two passages, Rom. v. lo, 18, does the signification of bixai<aiia 
pass over into that of ^txaSoteig, which cases are, however, ac- 
counted for by the peculiarity of the context, as will be shown 
more at length in the exposition of the passage. 

From this explanation it is plain, that the common rendering 
of the word 6ixaio<rlvfi, by " virtue or uprightness," proceeds 
from the Pelagian and Rationalistic view of the subject, and is, 
therefore, at most, only admissible for the dixatocitvti roC vifiou. 

• Therefore it ib termed in St Paul's writings ^txMtt^^n U ei«» (Phil. iii. 9), 
which is equivalent to "itMuifn^mt U X^itrf (Gal. ii. ] 7), because union with Christ 
by faith (Xv^tSnrwt m X^irrS Phil. iii. 9) is the means of obtaining it. 



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136 SPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

This meaning does not answer at all for that righteousness 
which is by faith ; we shall therefore do best to translate dtxat- 
•rjvf} by "righteousness/' and, indeed, *'the righteousness of 
God,"* since even the expressions ''justification,'' or " righteous* 
ness which avails in the sight of God," so far as they are con* 
sidered as synonymous with *^ the recognition as righteous," do 
not, at all events, express the immediate and original meaning 
of the word, as the phrase yintku dtxat^&Cvn eiov h Xpiarpy 2 Cor. 
T. 21, evidently proves. 

To the common end of dtxana6yn9 therefore, two ways lead; 
first, that by the vi/M^ secondly, that by x^^'^- With both of 
these, on the part of man, are connected certain corresponding 
acts, with the v6/jlo^, tpya^ with x^f^'^t ^'<^'(* These terms now 
equally need a closer definition. With respect, in the first 
place, to the term p^^cm^, this designates, in its widest sense, the 
divine will, so far as it meets man with certain requirements. 
The particular expressions of the law, in concrete cases, are 
termed irroXa/ or hxamfjMra, But the divine law manifests 
itself as well amongst the heathen, by the inward voice of 
conscience (Rom. ii. 25), as in the 0. T., by means of the 
Mosaic institutions (in which, besides moral, ceremonial, and 
political injunctions also are found), and finally, as in theN. T., 
where Christ, especially in His Sermon on the Mount, estab- 
lishes the law in its ^Xnp^sti, The essence of this vX^pams does 
not consist in imparting altogether new laws, different from 
that of conscience and that of Moses; but in revealing the 
nature of these same laws in their inmost depths. It is, there- 
fore, nothing but a development of that one principle, "Be ye 
perfect even as God is perfect," (Matt, v, 48), which is the same 
thing as, Love God above all tilings, for it is, in fact, by means 
of love that the Perfect One communicates Himself, and pro- 
duces what is perfect. It is, then, quite false to confine the 
conception of the law to any one of these forms of its manifes<^ 
tation, in an exposition of St Paul's view of the way of salva- 
tion, as is especially done by those who, considering the subject 
from the Pelagian and Rationalistic point of view, are accus- 
tomed to think only of the ceremonial part of the Old Testa- 
ment law The Apostle speaks of aU men, Jews as well as 

* See Augustiii (de spir. et litt e. 9), who obserres with great jastiee: ^ justitia 
Dei, non qaA jostas est, sed qnA indait hominem, earn jmtiiicat impium." 



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CHAPTER III. 21 — 31. 137 

Gentiles, and therefore the law is also to be taken in its widest 
sense, so that the meaning of x^F^^ ^^f*o» is, " in no form can the 
96fMs produce dixaio&ivfi in its inward reality; only an apparent, 
simply outward dtxatoaiffi is possible to a person standing on 
a legal footing." Further, if we consider more closely the 
relation of man to the law,* t. 0., the ipya which the law requires 
or forbids, we find that thre^ daases of them may be distin- 
guished. Firsty ipya vonipa or Kand (Rom. xiii. 3), t. e., open 
transgressions of the commandments, spya cxSr^vt (Rom. xiii. 12), 
or ffapx6i (Gal. v. 19), also called a^aprijA^ara, TapoMrruftara, 
Tapa/3atfi/(, in short, the utterances of &fAapria^ of the sinful 
nature of man. Secondly, Spya nxpA (Heb. vi. 1, ix. 14), or fo/mu, 
t. tf., works, which outwardly correspond with the command- 
ments, but do nol proceed from the absolutely pure disposition; 
these, therefore, in their extension over the whole life, consti- 
tute the condition of dsKeuo^vvni idiay which is no doubt in itself 
higher than the state of open disobedience to the law, but yet 
only in case it is accompanied by a consciousness of distance 
from the mark, by true fLtrama. If it does not include this, it 
becomes Pharisaic self-righteousness, which is not less displeas- 
ing to God than gross transgression of the law, for it is in fact 
itself a gross, yea, the grossest transgression of the law, because 
it sins against that which is the fundamental principle of all the 
commandments, — against love, which is self-renunciation, whilst 
the former state implies self-exaltation. (See notes to Rom. ii. 
, etc.) The ihird class of works, lastly, are the ipya Ayaid, or 
T/tfn«(, also called ipya xaXd (Tit. ii. 7, 14; Col. i. 10), tpya roD 
SfoD (John vi. 28); in them is realized not merely an outward, 
but also an inward conformity to the law. They are, therefore, 
only possible by means of that faith which receives the powers 
of x^F'i > ^^^ S^^^ works are fruits (xap^ro/), i, 0., the organic pro- 
ductions of the inward life, and it is, of course, only the tree 
which has been made generous that can bear generous fruit; 
this can, however, never be conceived as without fruit, because 
the powers of its inward life necessarily produce them. Wlien, 
therefore, St Paul declares of the works of the law, that they 

* The general character of the legal position is the prominence of aetiwiy (the 
VM A), whilst that of the New Testament is marked by the predominence of patsiv- 
ity, that is, an openness to receive the divine powers of life, by which, however, 
certainly a new and higher activity is generated. 



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1 r^S r EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

are incapable of leading to d/xaio<ruv9}, he means especially those 
of the second class; but he does not say the contrary even of 
those of the third class, because he would rather lay stress up- 
on fche principle irtortg^ than upon the effects; St James speaks 
differently (ii. 24.) 

Now, with respect to the second way, that of grace, this is 
found also in the Old Testament, in the same manner that the 
law is recognised in the New; but whilst grace forms the pre- 
dominant feature of the new covenant, and manifests itself 
there in its full power, before Christ it only appeared indis- 
tinctly revealed. For in its most comprehensive signification 
X^pfi is the will of Ood, as it exhibits itself in communicating, 
and not in demanding.* Since now justice and grace are the 
eternal forms of God's revelation of Himselff He worked also 
under the form of grace amongst Jews and heathen, but grace 
^ iu these phases of spiritual life could only manifest itself in 
consolations and promises, it was not until after the accomplish- 
ment of Christ's work that grace appeared in the N. T., really 
imparting itself and calling forth a new creation. All the for- 
mer operations of divine grace were therelore^ so to speak, the 
breathing of the Spirit upon humanity, it was only in the 
Redeemer that the streams of grace were poured forth. (See 
notes on John i. 14.) It is to Christ, therefore, that x^P'^ ^^ 
especially ascribed, whilst ayd^, i. «., the source of %a^/;, re- 
sides in the Father. (See notes on 2 Cor. ziii. 13.) But we 
are by no means to regard grace as the mere heightening of the 
natural powers of the man from within, but as the communica- 
tion of a higher, absolutely pure, and perfect principle, that is 
to say, of the ^ntu/ia &ym, to which the human TrHZfua, stands in 
the same relation as the -^^xh to the 'KvtZfua in man« (See notes 
on Rom. viii. 16.) 

Finally, with respect to man's relation to xaf'« i- e, leittrit, we 
have no doubt spoken already several times concerning this 
term, in our observations on Matthew viii. 2, ziii. 58; Mark 
ix. 20-27; Matt xxi. 17; but the importance of the subject de- 
mands in this place a fresh and more comprehensive considera- 

* In relation to the cnaturt, therefore, x^V^ conveys the idea of that which is 
undeserved, see Rom. iii. 23, iv. 4. The communication of the life of the Father 
to the Son is not called x'^V** ^^^ kyi^n. But, inasmuch as the ci*eature is at the 
rame tune regarded as miuraUt, Ixcn, #«'X«^;^»« are substituted iot x^^*t* (Comp. 
the principal passage, 2 Cor. xiii. 1 3.) 



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OHAPiSB m. 21 — ^31 . 1 39 

tion. We start in the first place with the assertion, that this 
term also has in all the writers of the N. T. but one radical 
meaning, though it is modified according to certain relations in 
which it appears. Holy Scripture itself gives us this radical 
meaning in a formal definition, inasmuch as it designates faith, 
as i\wtt!^ofi,ivuv bvoffram^ ^rpayfjkdruv sXf^'^off ov ^iTo/ihuv (Heb. xi. 
].) Faith, therefore, taken in its most general meaning, 
forms the opposite to that knowledge of the visible, which p,p- 
pears to the natural man to be the most certain of all, as well 
as to that beholding of invisible things which belongs to a 
higher state of being, and which St Paul denotes by the ex- 
pression Tipsirart?^ did •tdovg{2 Cor. V. 7, compared with 1 Cor. xii. 
12). Now, man's relation to that which is invisible and eternal 
may be regarded as three/old; it is either entirely founded 
upon the thinking faculty, or it is entirely based upon the wUl 
and the affections, or lastly, it rests uniformly upon all the 
powers of the man. In the first of these significations. Scrip- 
ture ascribes irt^tg even to the devils (Jas. ii. 19), and supposes 
the possibility that faith may exist in men,* without a corres- 
ponding life, (Jas. ii. 17, 20; 1 Cor. xiii. 2). Such a dead head-\ 
faith, faith in the letter, as this, is not only of no use to men, ^ 
but even makes them more deeply rcsponsiblcf In the second 
relation, it appears as the faith of the heart, i. «., as a living 
capacity for receiving the powers of the higher world, the soul 
absorbing, so to speak, the streams of the Spirit as a thirsty 
land. It was this kind of faith, which, as we showed, in the 
above quoted passages of our Commentary, was exhibited by 
those who came to Christ to be healed, as recorded in the gospels. 
In these persons we could only assume a very imperfect and in- 
<distinct knowledge of divine things, but they manifested a heart 
glowing with love, and were therefore capable of receiving 
X^P'^' We in consequence also designated faith as identical | 
with receiving lave, whilst grace is imparting love. Since now * 
from the heart proceeds life (Prov. iv. 3), such faith as this 

* Petrus Lomlmrdus makes the following just distinction between ''eredero 
Deum, t. e., credere quod Deus sit, qnod etiam mali faciuut," and « credere in Deuni, 
i. e., eredendo amare Denm, credendo ei adhserere." The belief m God is a dedi- 
cation, a consecration of ouxaelyea to Him. 

t The ease of the man who is hardened with such a dead faith is doubtleaa worse 
than if he did not belieye at all; yet not for those around him. The word which is 
spoken OTen fly one who is dead, may be the means of awakening others to life. 



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140 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

is ever a living faith, even though it may often be an imperfect 
faith. For it only shows itself as a complete faith when, in the 
third place, it takes possession of the whole man, when, there- 
fore, it combines a living capacity to receive with clear and 
comprehensive knowledge. At the same time, we find that it 
is the practice of the writers of the N. T. to apply the word 
y¥6i6ii to such a true knowledge of the divine as springs from 
participation in the divine reality, so that t/^/^ and yvuaig are 
complimentary to one another, representing the life of God in 
the heart and in the head. But if in the passage in St John 
xvii. 3, ym^ii presupposes 4r/(rr/(^ there are many other passages 
in which, vice versd, vieriQ presupposes yvs^eti. Neither can be 
conceived as absolutely without the other, so long as both re- 
tain their true nature; but in order that each may receive an 
equal and harmonious cultivation, particular circumstances are 
required; the latter, therefore, is not necessary to salvation, 
though the possession of t/^/^, as heart-faith, is absolutely so; 
because, without this, it is impossible to take up into one's own 
being the divine element of life. But if 7/<rn^ is not only modi- 
fied in this way by the eoctent to which it reigns in men, its 
character depends equally upon the object to which it refers. 
In fact, «'/(rr/ff is the universal foundation of religion at all stages 
of spiritual development, so that not only in the N., but also in 
the 0. T., (see the whole 11th chapter of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews), and, indeed, amongst the Gentiles themselves, the 
existence of flr/<fr/ff must be recognised. "Without faith it is 
impossible to please God." (Heb. xi. 6.) Those faithful Gen- 
tiles, therefore, whom God regards as the circumcision (Rom. 
ii. 14, 26^ 27), must have been well-pleasing to God from their 
faith, in the same way that the true Israelities were. It also 
appears from the gospel history, that there existed in many 
Gentiles (the centurion of Capernaum, the Canaanitish woman, 
and others),* a very powerful faith, and a lively receptivity for 
the powers of the divine life. What, then, is the difference 
between these degrees of faith ? From the point at which the 
noble Oentiles stood the object of faith was the Divine as an 
undefined and general idea; on which account, in their case, it 

* Worthy of especial remark are the passages with respect to Rahah, to whom, 
as a Gentile woman, faith and the works of faith are attributed, Ueb. xi. 81 ; Jas. 
ii. 25. • 



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CHAPTER III. 21—31. 141 

could only manifest itself as a longing, testifying of the remains, 
of the divine likeness in man. This longing is not, properly \ 
speaking, faith, until the moment when the desired object pre- 
sents itself and is embraced by it, in the same way that the eye 
does not see until the sun discovers itself. We might, therefore, 
ascribe to the noble-minded Gentiles faith potentid, i. e., the 
completely developed capacity for believing, which can only, 
come forward actu on the revelation of the divine to them,/ 
either in doctrine or in life. The condition of a^ioria may, on 
the other hand, be considered as the undeveloped, or even sup- 
pressed, capacity for believing, according as the term is taken 
merely in the negative, or also in tlie privative sense. Even, 
therefore, when this Gentile faith, so to speak, was exercised 
towards the person of Christ Himself, as, for example, in the 
case of the centurion of Capernaum, &c. (Matt. viii. 1, etc.), it 
remained still incapable of recognising in Him more than some** 
thing divine, in a general way, although the tliirst of the spirit 
found itself truly quenched in coming to Him, in the same way 
that the eye of the child rejoices in the sun, without knowing 
what it is. On the other hand, from the position at which the 
true Jews stood, the object of faith appears as the personal 
Godhead, and of this truth they were also conscious. But the 
faith of the Jews still conceived of this personal appearance of 
God as one merely fxUure, to be realized in the Messiah, and 
as something outward. It is only Christian faith that is able 
to raise itself to the conception of the Divine Personality, as 
having Appeared in Christ, as a present and inward reality 
Christ will not merely shine upon men from without by His 
work and His Being, but he will dwell in them and work in them 
inwardly, in order that man may become what He is. (J John 
iv. 17.) As the human race in general has therefore to pass^ 
through these different stages of faith, so also the individual. { 
In childhood, when the personality of man himself is as yet 
but imperfectly unfolded, he believes only in the divine; in the 
progress of his life the Divine personality becomes revealed to 
him in Christ, but first only as an outward fact, whose full in- 
fluence upon his heart is yet future; at last he experiences His 
operation as something present and inward, and then only is 
his faitli completed; it becomes a devotion of himself to God, 
an espousal of his soul to the heavenly bridegroom, whereby he 



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1 " 



142 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

becomes one with Christy and Christ's whole work and Bein^ 
become his own. (Hosea ii. 20.)* In this form, therefore, faith 
is one and the same thing with regeneratior^ because, whilst 
faith thus manifests its power, the whole disposition becomes a 
new creature, the man of earth has become a man of heaven 
and of God. (2 Tim. iii. 17.) The lower degrees of faith, on 
the other hand, are as yet without regeneration. (See notes to 
John i. 1 7.) In all stages of development, the nature of f^itL 
remains the same, t he re ceptivity, of the i nward li fe for that 
whjchJa. xlivine; but the latter reveals itself diflferently, in the 
manifestation of the Father, the Sou, and the Holy Ghost, and 
on this account that faith which is one in its nature presents 
itself in several forms. Nothing farther is needed towards the 
explanation of ^hn^ in its subjective signification (fides qua 
creditur), except to distinguish it from ^ritrrti as used in an 
objective sense, of the substance of that revelation which is 
believed (fides qu89 creditur), but this need only be briefly 
alluded to. When used of God (Rom. iii. 3; 2 Cor. i. 18; 2 
Tim. ii. 13, several times) it denotes the faithfulness of God in 
the fulfilment of his promises. 

From this unfolding of the various meanings of the terms 
used, we proceed now to the consideration of the contents of 
the passage itself, Rom. iii. 21. In the first place, wvf (= ly r^ 
vCp xa/f>^, Galat. iv. 4, and below in ver, 26), is evidently to be 
referred to the time since the accomplishment of the work of 
the Lord, so that the ages before Christ appear as the mighty 
past.-|* In these, indeed, redemption, as a future blessings was 
announced beforehand, and confirmed by witnesses, in the 
Thorah (Gen. xlix. 10; Ex. xxxiv. 6; Deut. xviii. 15) and in the 
Prophets (Jer. xxiit. 6, xxxiii. 16; Is. xlv. 17, liii. 1, etc.); but 
in these and in the symbols of the sacrificial worship, it was 
hidden under a veil, on M'hich account the saints of the 0. T.- 
itself had only an indistinct presentiment of the mode of re- 

* When faith is represented as a x^v^fi^ ^'* ^"* 7» ^*"' 3)* ^^ denotes the 
capacity for appropriating the divine power, so as to perform miracles by means 
of it. Faith, indeed, is requisite for the reception of all gifts of the Spirit (see 
Matt. xvii. 1 9, 20), but it appears in a particularly heightened and conceutrate<l 
form as a special gift of grace in the passages above cited. 

t Fritzsche wishes to take vups -)t as a mere form of transition, and it is no 
doubt correct to suppose that no determination of time is indicated in the relation 
of ver. 21 to ver. 20. But the subsequent mention of the law and tin propheU 
renders it necessary to assert for fvu the sense of time. 



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CHAPTER III. 2L 143 

demption (1 Pet. i. 10, 11); it was not until the death and 
resurrection of the Redeemer that the mystery, was revealed. 
(Rom. i. 18, xvi. 25, 26.)* Now the subject of this revelation 
is this: the lofty aim of man, the dtxouo^vfi 0«oD, is to be 
obtained without law through faith in Christ. By the x^^*^ 
iofMv, however, as is self-evident, it is not intended to express a re- 
nunciation of the law, for the law is holy and good (vii. 12), and 
necessary for all phases of life, but to designate the altered posi- 
tion in which man stands to the law. By nature man sti^nds under 
the law, and is impelled by the law to dmaiocvvTi ; this relation is to 
cease; man can indeed never be above the law, but can very well 
live in the law, and really bear the law in his heart. Accord- 
ingly, in 1 Tim. i. 9, it is said d/xa/V vofibog ov xtTirai, on which pas- 
sage Augustin's excellent remarks should be consulted (de spir. 
et lit. cap. 10). This condition, in which man is thoroughly one 
with the law, even as our Lord tells us God Himself is (Matt. 
V. 48), constitutes exactly that dixanKruvti BfoD, to which faith 
brings us, because through faith man receives the being of God 
into the depths of his soul. In this passage, therefore, x^^^^ 
vofMu is exactly parallel to x^S^^ *i7^* ^^f'^^ (Gal. ii. 16), by which 
It is not denied that good works cannot exist in the life of faith, 
but only asserted that these works form the foundation of that 
right relation to God which is restored under the new covenant, 
good works being, in fact, merely the consequences of this rela- 
tion. This foundation lies positively in the work of Christ, 
negatively in faith, from which works both outwardly and in- 
wardly conformable to the law necessarily proceed. Dead works, 
in the sight of Qod, do not even constitute a dixcuotrOvfi vofji^v^ these, 
therefore, cannot at all be meant. The profound meaning of 
this verse will unfold itself before our eyes most plainly in de- 
tail, if we review the false interpretations to which it has been 
exposed. Of these the coarse Pelagian and Rationalistic view 
refutes itself According to this, 96fi,og is to be understood 
simply of the ceremonial law, wiffrtg of the assent of the under- 
standing to the doctrine of Christ, and dixouoavvf^ of morality; so 
that the sense would be, " outward religious exercises avail no- 

* St Paul does not merely say: The way to atUin to the righteonsneaB of Ood 
is manifeBted, but thi$ laUer 'i» itsdf revealed, for it is personally in Christ, and 
appears in men only as Christ in us; man has no righteousness of God besides 
Christ; whatsoever of this righteousness the regenerate man possesses is entirely 
of Oirist. 



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144 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

thing, but only virtue according to the pure moral precepts of 
Christ/' In this entirely external view, however, one small cir- 
cumstance has been overlooked, that according to the Apostle's 
I doctrine it is impossible for sinful man to exhibit this pure mora- 
lity (viii. 3), the question therefore is, whence does the man ob- 
tain strength for this work? That which is new in the gospel 
does not consist in a more excellent system of morality, but in 
this, that the gospel opens a new source of strength, by means of 
which true morality is attainable. Much subtler is the error of 
the [Roman]' Catholic Church in its doctrine of dtxouwfifii. The 
I)oint of difference with respect to this doctrine between her and 
the Protestant* Church is this, that the latter considers d/xa/o- 
<r6v9} as a judicial act of Ood (actus forensis), as a recognition as 
righteous (declaratio pro justo),*!- whilst the former regards it 
as a condition of soul colled forth in the man (habitus infusus), 
according to which ''justificatio" has its degrees; so that on 
the whole the Protestant view exalts the objective side, and the 
Roman Catholic view the subjective. The Protestant Church by 
no means denies the truth contained in the [Roman] Catholic 
view; she places the subjective side under the name of sanctificor 
tion, immediately on a line with justification, and asserts that 
sanctification is the necessary consequence of justification. The 
Roman Catholic Church, however, denies the truth contained 
in the Protestant doctrine, and it is just in this point that her 
doctrine is erroneous. Considered as a mere question of gram- 
mar, dtxatoMas is no doubt more properly interpreted "Justus 
effici" than, according to the Protestant Church, " pro justo 
declarari;" but since nothing can be declared by God to be 
righteous which is not so in fact, it follows that the translation 
of dtxaio<fi¥n, by the " righteousness which avails before God/' 
is not false but only derived; dtxato^vn &«><^ means in the first 
place the righte ousneas which is wroughtbjJSod, but that 
which God produces answers to its idea, and must therefore 

* [EvangeliMche Kirehg. The term Proteaiant bas been adopted in the tranna- 
tion of this passage, as more suitable than Evangelical, according to the con^mon 
£ngliab usage of the words. 

t It is qaike false to suppose, that the Protestant Church regards Justification 
as something merely outward, because she sees in it a declaration of God» as 
MOhler misrepresents us in his Symbolik. Justification contains, according to 
Luther's system of doctrine, not merely remiano peccatnTum, but also imputatio mfriti 
Chitti, and the adoplio w JUum JDeL The divine decUration is consequently to be 
regarded as an inwjfcrd operation in the consciousness of the man, as is, indeed, 
necessarily implied in the idea: what Grod declares, u so by His very word. 



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OHAPTEB III. 21. 145 

avail before Him.* The [Roman] Catholic Church, therefore, 
gains nothing at all by this grammatical advantage; on the 
other hand, she has not only let dip an important element of 
the truth, but also, when this was proved to her, apposed it, an 
element which the Protestant Church has established with 
greater grammatical accuracy upon the formula Xvyif^isfias tig 
^xouoaCnif, than upon the expression d/xa/otfu^ eioS. This import- 
ant point is in fact the purely objective nature of jutiUficatio% 
which the expression actus foreneis is intended to affirm, so that 
justification does not depend upon the degree of sanctification, 
but entirely upon the purpose of God in Christ Jesus; by the 
passive and active obedience of Christ the sin of all has been 
expiated, and the obedience of all fulfilled* in Him. God now 
regards men no more as in Adam, but in Clirist, from whom in 
the work of conversion the germ of the new man is transmitted 
to the individual. Thus only does the gospel become in truth 
good news, since according to it the salvation of man does not 
depend upon his own unstable conduct (on which supposition, 
as the [Boman] Catholic Church desires and requires, a constant 
uncertainty must remain in the man's mind here below whether 
or not he be in a state of grace), but on the contrary, by the 
unchangeable purpose of God, which the man apprehends in 
faith, the instability of his own character is corrected. *^ If, 
therefore, the man believes not, yet God abideth faithful, He 
cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. ii. IS), and the unfaithfulness of 
man is not removed by the fact that he strives to be faithful 
(for this very endeavour is unfaithful, and in the best case can 
only bring presumptuous pride to light), but simply and alone 
by believing in the faithfulness of God in-Christ, by means of 
which faith he becomes partaker of a higher power. As, there- 
fore, the mother of aU sins is the not believing in Him whom 
God hath sent, so to believe in Him is the mother of all virtues 
(John xvi. 9) ; beside faith there can exist no virtue, but all that 
is true and real in man proceedsyrom it. The [Roman] Catho* 
He Church erroneously understands by faith, fides formata, t. e., 
fides cum aliis virtutibus, arriving at this notion by always re- 

* BeD«oke'0 opinion that hMMt§^vfn e$w in this pung«, as well as in ver. 25, 20, 
means thBJtuiUia Dei qui Justus est, is joat as inadmissibie, according to the con- 
text, as his view, that «'<Vr/r 'In^w denotes the faitZ/ubuss which Jesos exercises. 
Faith stands here evidently in opposition to the i^y*it implied in the words ;^«^'f. 
M/M4V. Tliat, however, the grace and fuithfulness of Christ produoe faith also in 
men, is hroaght forward by him with perfect justice. 

K 



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i 46 EPISTLE TO THE ROHANg. 

garding &ith as a dead assent of the understanding to a thing 
as historically true, whilst, a^ording to the Protestant view, as 
well as according to Scripture itself, it is life and blessedness. 
The doctrine of a meritum congrui, and meritum condigni, has 
arisen entirely out of the Pelagianizing views of the [Roman] 
Catholic Church, according to which man in the fall has only lost 
a donum supemcUwrale, but still possesses all his natural facul- 
ties uninjured, and, consequently, the capability of loving Ood 
and keeping His commandments. According to my view, the 
transition from the state under the law to the state under the 
gospel (of which we shall treat more at length in the notes to 
chapter vii.), must be conceived of somewhat after this manner, 
rin his state under the law, the man is able, by means of his na- 
/ tural powers, which, however, can never be considered as wholly 
' separated from the influences of the Logos, to perform certain 
opera civilia. But the more powerfully the light of truth works 
in a man's mind, the more plainly will he perceive that' all his 
endeavours to establish a perfect righteousness are vain, and 
that his best works, on account of the selfishness which cleaves 
to them, are, as Augustin says, severely, indeed, but yet truly, 
but splendida viHa, %. e., the wild fruit of a degenerate tree. 
With this Mym<fi9 rnt kfiM^inc (iii. 20) is connected the longing 
for deliverance (vii. 24), and if the preaching of the gospel 
brings the true Redeemer within his reach, faith apprehends 
this Saviour and appropriates both Him and His work. On 
the man's side no merit, no righteousness, is pre- supposed, but 
simply a living faith in the merits and righteousness of Christ; 
these faith takes up into itself, and thus everything which is 
Christ's becomes the man's. This transfer to the sinful man 
of the being of Christ is denoted by the expression, " righteous- 
ness is imputed to him." That work which was objectively ac- 
complished upon the cross, is thus subjectively applied to the 
individual believer, that germ of the new man which exists in 
Christ is grafted into and bom in the old man. This act of 
transfer is, therefore, a mysterious occurrence in the depths of 
the soul, a new creation, which none can effect by his own 
power, a pure gift of the Spirit, ^o " breatheth where He 
listeth." Since, however, in every regenerate man, the old man 
is still living, and, therefore, sinful motions must still exist, the 
question arises, how can Ood, the Omniscient, the Holy, the 
Just One, regard the imperfectly sanctified man as entirely 

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\ 



X 



on- 
ers I 



CHAPTBE III. 21. 147 

righteous? The anwser is: Because as God judges the man, not 
according to that which is realized in him, but according to that 
which is in Christ. As all men have fallen in Adam, so in Christ 
have they all been raised again; Grod therefore recognises all as 
righteous in Him, even generations yet to come. If the divine 
declaration of this great fact is made to a man, and he receives 
it in faith, it produces in him the new life; but inasmuch as this 
life is derived from another, and can, therefore, also be lost, it 
does not constitute the decisive point in the divine judgment as 
to the state of grace. And therefore, also, the believer, in his 
own judgment, must not found his hopes of salvation upon his 
inwaxd condition, but upon the merits of Christ; however, as an 
evidence of being in a state of grace, the inward condition is im- 
portant, because faith in Christ unto justification cannot be con- 
ceived to exist without an inward transformation, and powers 
received from above, which enable the regenerate man to do that 
which under the law he could not do. (See notes to Rom. vii. 
24, viii. 8.) 

Ver. 22, 23. This way of salvation by faith is now equally 
necessary for all, because the 96/Mg could conduct none to the 
ltiucic<fu9n Biou in that all wUhouit exception have sinned, even if not 
actually in such gross forms as those mentioned in chapter I and 
ii., yet inwardly, because the germ of all sins lies in every one. 

In the 9h ^dprag xai M ^dtrai we may observe not merely a 
heaping together of synonymes, but a climax; the image of a 
flood of grace seems to be at the foundation of the expression, 
a flood which penetrates to aU, and even streams oner alL The 
words hxat^6\ntn ^oH (soil, i^trou) hg ^dvrag are, however, only to 
be understood of the divine purpose, *' it is intended for aU,'" 
without any intimation of the actual restoration of all. The 
expression wigng 'isj^oD stands for ^Ung §ig 'ifieouvj as elsewhere 
wlatig eioif for f/V Bi69. (Mark xi. 22; Acts iiL 16; Gal. ii. 20.) 
In the words vrdyrtg ri/Aaprot we are not to think merely of actual 
sin, the consequence of hereditary sin, but especially of the 
latter. Even where no peccata actiudia have been committed, 
as^ e. g.^ in the case of unconscious children, the power of re- 
demption is still needed. (See notes on vii. 12.) To under- 
stand vatipoMoLs r^g do^nt rou Btw of the approval of God, as 
Winer, Fritzsche, and Reiche still wish, or a cause of boasting 
before God, for which xai^nM^ commonly stands, as Rosen- 
mQUer and Tholuck explain it, is plainly feeble. Ruckert has 

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/ 



148 BPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

decided in favoiir of the old interpretation, which makes it* 
refer to the image of God in which man was created, and this 
appears to me also to be alone admissible. There is no diffi* 
culty in giving this meaning to the expression d6^a r«u eioC, 
according to the analogy of rrtn*; T^IJ (s®® notes on John i. 1), 
even though it does not happen to occur again in the N. T. 
Lastly, the comparison of these words of St Paul in ver. 22, dixeu- 
oifuvfi etou dtdi wl&riug with the parallel passage, Gal. v. 5, Ix «'/V- 
nui iX<!r/da dixatoavvfii A^txiixfifM^a is instructive. The words in 
the present passage are spoken by the Apostle, whilst taking an 
entirely objective view of the subject; in Christ the righteous- 
ness of God exists for believers absolutely complete; but the 
subjective mode of contemplating it has also its truth, although 
this occurs less frequently in St Paul's writings. From this point 
of view ^ixatotfuvfi is an object of hope, because in this world it can 
only be imperfectly realized in man. (See the Com. on Gal. v. 6.) 
Ver. 24, 25. Since, then, they cannot become righteous by 
merit, they are made righteous gratuitously, t. e., without pre- 
vious works and proper deserts, out of pure grace through the 
redemption of Christ. (Grace is the operative cause, redemption 
the means by which it works.) We arrive now at another very 
important point, namely, at the question. How then has Christ 
introduced the possibility of the dixato^vfi etoD through faith in 
Himself? The Apostle answers this question by laying stress, 
not upon the communication of a higher spirit through Christ 
and upon His divine glory, but just on the contrary, upon His 
deepest humiliation. His sufferings and His death, by which he 
declares that redemption was accomplished. Now, in the^r^ 
placey with respect to the language of the Bible on this point, 
we meet with three expressions, by which the redemptive 
agency of Christ is designated. 1st. The term A^iroXurponns^ of 
which we have already treated in the notes on Matt. xx. 28. 
St Paul generally makes use of this form (Ephes. i. 7, 14, iv. 
30; 1 Cor. i. 30), inasmuch as the a<!rb expresses the idea of 
making free more strongly than the simple Xurpuing, The figure 
of slavery lies at the foundation of this word,* from which 
slavery man must be redeemed by means of a ransom (on which 
account i^ayopAt^u is used. Gal. iii. 13, iv. 6), in order to attain to 

* No doubt, therefore, redemption and atonement are aymboHeal expressions, 
hilt symbols full of essential truth, which cannot find any subetitute whatsoever in 
human language, and are thc^refore necessary. 



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ouAPTEB III. 24y 25. 149 

freedom, in the ^same way that cmrripia (Rom. v. 9, 10), implies 
some great danger or distress, druXi/a, from which he is to be 
delivered. The Xurpov is the blood of Christ, which constitutes 
the offering made by love to justice, by means of which objective 
transaction alone it is that real forgiveness of sins in God, and 
the appropriation of the same in the individual instance, become 
possible. 2nd. We find the expression KaraXkayn (Rom. v. 11, 
ix. 15; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19), at the root of which lies the idea of an 
enmUy which is done away with. The choice of this particular 
word to express this thought is, however, of the utmost import- 
ance; xaraXX(£tf(rAi, in fact, means, in the first place, *^ to change, 
exchange,"' and only afterwards " to reconcile.'' (Rom. v. 10; 
2 Cor. V. IS, 19.) In reconciliation, namely, those contraries 
which stand harshly opposed to one another, make, so to speak, 
mutual exchanges, and form once more an harmonious unity. 
8o Christ takes upon Himself our misery, and imparts to us 
His glory, in order to reconcile us to God. The distinction 
which Tittmann assumes between d/aXXa^^oi, to remove a red- 
procal enmity, and KaraXKd^itUj to remove an enmity existing 
on one side only, has been proved by Tholuck to be utterly un- 
founded (Bergpred. p. 192, etc.)* We find, 3rd, and lastly, the 
expression / >.ok (1 John ii. 2, iv. 10; iXditM^ai, Heb. ii. 17), 
the proper term, even in Old Testament language, for expres- 
sing the idea of expiation by sacrifice."!- Christ is therefore 
Himself called the $uifta or ir^fo^d (Ephes. v. 2, Heb. x. 12; and 
«•«£(%«, 1 Cor. v. 7), or else &fiv6i (John i. 29, 36; 1 Pet. i. 19), 
&$9i09 (Rev. V. 6, 8, 12, 13, vi. 1, etc.) With respect to the 
relation in which these expressions stand to one another, we 
may, however, further remark, that xaraXKayti and }>MafUg 
always denote the beginning of Christ's work, whilst dToXu- 
rpu(fig does not only include the beginning, but the end also (see 

* In Heb. ii. 15, we ftod kwmXKdrvuw but = Uiv^mm??. 

t Nitzsch, in his *< System of Christian Doctrine," distingaiBhes between ** Ver- 
sahnnng" and " VersUhnung," i. e., <* reeonciliaUon " and '* propitiation,-' This 
distinction is very terrioeable for the maintenance of the diffSerenee between ««r«x- 
Xttyti and ixm^/ut. That a separation of these two expressions has not long ago 
heeu established, may be explained from the faet, that the deep meaning which re- 
sides in the idea of propitiation had entirely escaped the mind of our whole time. 
It was not, in £set, merely in theology that the importance of this idea was over- 
looked, bdt also in the science of kw; punishment was degraded into a mere means 
of man's invention Jbr deterring men from crime, instead of receiving its sanctiHca- 
tion by means of that propitiation of justice which is Manifested therein. In the 
recovery of this idea, an essential advance has been made towards deeper views of 
the whole work of Christ. 



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150 SPISTLB TO THB fiOMAHS. 

notes on Rom. viii. 23; 1 Cor. i. 30), so that this is the most 
comprehensive term, comprising even &ytasfUg itself; (it stands 
panJlel to ip^t^ rZf a/na^twy Ephes. i. 7; Col. i. 14, whilst M >^»- 
l^SfMwc axfrcTg tA raparrw/Aara avrw stands in opposition to xaraK- 
>Mirw, 2 Cor. v. 19). 

But in the second place, as regards the ideas themselves, de- 
signated by these terms, they belong to the most difScult in 
Holy Scripture. At the same time, the last few years have 
brought to light such profound views on these subjects, that, in 
fact, very much has been done towards their solution. We may 
indeed not only consider that rationalistic view to be set aside, 
which wholly misunderstands the essence of Christianity, whilst 
it reduces the work of Christ to doctrine and example, but also 
the infinitely deeper mode of representation of Schleiermacher 
(Glaubenslehre P. ii. p. 262) to be disproved.* The latter 
theologian, namely, considers the work of Christ as the Re- 
deemer to precede His work of reconciliation, and considers 
both only from his own mbjecHve point of view. Accordingly, 
redemption is, in his opinion, only the communication to be- 
lievers of the sinlessness and perfection of Christ, and reconcilia- 
tion the adoption into that blessed fellowship with Christ, which 
follows, as a necessary consequence, from that communication* 
This is, however, an entirely arbitrary definition of the terms. 
But besides this, in the above view, a most essential point is 
left out of sight, namely, the btottirtg out of the guilt of ein, 
which Schleiermacher was obliged in consistency to omit, be- 
cause he had denied the reality of evil, and was therefore satis- 
fied with a mere replenishment of man's emptiness. This one 
point, therefore, it yet remains for us to discuss, — ^how the 
death of Christ is related to the forgivenness of sins, and 
whether this fact has reference merely to men, or also to the 
Divine Being Himself. And here, in the first place, I feel my- 
self constrained to remark, that the views expressed in my 
notes on Matt. xx. $8, implying that reconciliation was an act 
on man's side aloney have been modified by some recently pub- 
lished profound researches, as I have also taken occasion to re- 
mark in my notes to John iii. 16 (in the second volume of the 

* Usteri, in the fonrth edidon of his " Pauliniacher Lehrbegriff *' (p. 86, ete.), 
Btni adberee to Schleiermaeher's view of thiB doctrine. Amongst the meet recent 
exegetical oomnientators, Rttckert has, in partieular, taken a ooneot ex^getieal 
view of St Paul's doctrine, without, howerer, having been able to adopt the idea of 
an atonement, not merely on man's part, bat also on God's. 



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CHAPTBB III. 24, 25. 15J 

Commentary, third edition, p. 108, note). For the most pro- 
found observations on this subject we are indebted to a man 
who has deserved well of Theology and Philosophy, no less than 
of Law, Carl Priedrich Qoschel.* In fact, we may say, if recon- 
ciliation were an act taking place in man only, we could have no- 
thing to do with a "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. v. 18); 
for then to preach reconciliation would not be to announce an act 
of Godf but only an act of msn^ and indeed only of a few men, 
for how many are there who will not be reconciled unto God ! 
Even if, therefore, in the N. T., the expression, " God is recon- 
ciled," does not occur (see the note to John iii. 1 6), because He 
appears throughout it as the Author and Founder of this recon- 
ciliation, yet there is contained in the very idea of sacrifice and 
expiation (as the 0. T. plainly shows), a necessary reference to 
an altered relation of God Himself Every sacrifice is intended 
to expiate the guilt of men, and propitiate the anger of God, 
consequently the sacrifice of all sacrifices, in which alone all 
the rest have their truth, must effect that which the others only 
foresluidow. Since now the view of the Scotists (gratuita ac- 
ceptatio) disproves itself, inasmuch as God can never regard an 
object as that which it is not, and the view of Grotius (accep- 
tilatio) is erroneous, inasmuch as according to it the law and 
righteousness are to be considered as detached from the Divine 
Being and Nature; nothing remains but the highly acute 
theory of Anselm (satisfactio vicaria), a theory, when rightly 
understood, just as consonant with the doctrine of Scripture as 
with the demands of philosophy. The elements of which it is 
composed are, on the one side, the enormity of sin in itself, and 
the guilt and liability to punishment which proceed from it; 
and, on the other side, the impossibility of conceiving in God 
one attribute as active wiihout the other, that is to say, there- 
fore, in this case love without righteousness, on which account 
God cannot forgive sin on mere repentance, as a man can who is 
himself a debtor; and between both these elements comes the 
Person of the God-Man, who is not a man, amongst and by 

* See GQediert *^Zer«tr«nte Blftlter ant den Hand and HOl&aeten eines Joris- 
ten." Erfurt, 1832. See besides the Essays in Tholuok's lit Anseige, 1888. 
Knm. 8-1 4. An essay of the same in the Evang. Kirchen Zeitong. 1 834, January 
No. Very well worth reading are also the treatises of Stier. which appeared earlier 
(Andent P. i. p. 879, sqq., more aoeurately defined in the Andeut P. ii. p. 24, 
sqq.), of Meyer (in the *< Blfttter ftlr hOhere Wahrheit/' toL tI. 884, ete.» xi 206, 
ete.), and Tholuck's work *■ Von der Sfinde, nnd Tom VersObner." 



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152 BPISTLI TO THB B01IAV8. 

the side of many othen, but the man, the second Bpiritual Adam 
of the whole race,* who is just as much connected with sinners 
by means of His true though most holy humanity, as with the 
Lord of the world by means of His diyine Nature, in whom 
love is manifested as brightly as righteousness in the Father, 
and who again reveals the Father's love as brightly as His own 
righteousness. That, therefore, which cannot be conceived as 
united in any human act (in that man can ever only exercise 
either grace or justice), the highest act of grace, the absolution 
of a whole sinful race, and the perfectly righteous punishment 
of sinners, in the death of Him who bore the whole race in 
Himself (as the centre embraces the collective rays of the cir- 
cumference), is all harmonized in the death of Christ; and 
therefore the giving up of the Son by the Father, and the free 
sacrifice of the Son, constitute the highest Act of God, worthy 
to form the subject of preaching to the whole human race, be* 
cause it has power to breathe life into the dead bones, and 
truly to impart that peace which flows from the forgiveness of 
sins. It is to this objective act of God that faith attaches it- 
self according to Protestant doctrine, and by the powerful glow 
of its flame all those half or wholly Pelagian views must be 
dissipated, which would have the divine life of love to derive 
assistance from the exertions of man's natural powers. For 
where life is not awakened by gazing on that serpent which is 
lifted up (an efiect just the contrary to that produced by be- 
holding the head of Medusa), there the most exactly defined 
commands, and the most fakir-like exertions and acts of self- 
denial, can only produce a bare respectability, or ridiculous 
conceit. In this fountain thus opened alone flows the water of 
life, on this altar alone can heavenly fire be obtained; — ^here 
righteousness and grace melt into an ineffiible unity, as they 
are one in God himself; for the forgiveness of sins on account 
of the death of Christ is oudh xard v6fM¥, 9udh xardb v^jaoi^ dXXd in^ 
96fuv %ai Mp ¥6fiAv^ i. e.y not according to the law, for by that 
man was to bear his own sin, and yet not against the law, since 
in the sufferings of Christ satisfaction was rendered to his de- 
mands, but above the law, because grace is mightier than right- 

* With respcet to the rfpretmttaHve cfaAneter, a more detaOed explanatioii will 
be found in the notes to Rom- v. 12, eqq. We ai'e immediately oonoerned in this 
place only with the idea of aatUfitetion^ which is quite eeriptunl, even though the 
expreaeion is not found in Scripture. 



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CHAPTSU III. 24, 25. 153 

eousnesB, and /or the law, because it is itself established there- 
by. (See Tholuck '' yen der Siinde, p. 108, 3rd edition.) 

It is only in this mode of comprehending it that the represent 
tation of the Apostle receives aJso its exact verbal interpreta- 
tion. He calls Christ iXactipm^ a word which is not, however, 
to be taken=/Xa(rA6^(, or to be explained with the addition of 
tfi//*a of the sin-offering, but which must be understood, with 
M^iMt supplied, of the covering of the Ark of the Covenant^ in 
which expression, at all events, the idea of expiation is most 
distinctly enunciated, even according to the etymology of the 
word. This covering, in fact, made of fine gold, 2^ cubits long 
and a cubit and a half broad, at whose ends the two cherubim 
stood overshadowing the ark with their wings, was the throne 
of the Shechinah, symbol of the presence of God; on this ac- 
count it is called, Heb. iv. 16, d^ing x^f^^- (^^ Exod. xxv* 
17, etc.) On this mercy-seat the High Priest sprinkled once 
every year, on the great day of atonement, the blood of a bul- 
lock seven times, and the blood of a goat seven times, to make 
atonement for the sin of the people (Levit. xvi. 18, etc.) This 
lid is called now in the 0. T. n"^fe3, firom -^bj, " to cover," i. e., 
according to the Old Testament view, " to forgive,'' because sin 
in this dispensation could not yet be entirely removed, but only 
remained suspended through the long-suffering of God, until 
the completion of that true sacrifice which was able to take it 
away. The LXX. translate it tXa^nptof, As now the whole 
form of worship of the 0. T. was symbolical, so this institution 
also represented the real truth in an image. As the mercy- 
seat of the tabernacle presented itself to the spirits of the 
people as the place from which the forgiveness of their sins 
proceeded ; so also is the Redeemer solemnly presented, in the 
Holy of Holies of the universe, as in the true Temple of God, 
to the believing gaze of the whole of that spiritual Israel, which 
is gathered out of all nations, in order that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins through His blood. As He is therefore the 
sacrifice, so is He also the mercy-seat itself, because all contra- 
dictions are harmonized in him; " God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto Himself." (2 Cor. v. 19.) So God himself was 
enthroned between the cherubim, above the sacred coveriug of 
the Ark of the Covenant, and accepted the offering made for 
the forgiveness of the sins of the people. (Lev. xvi. 2; Heb. 
ix. 7, etc.) 

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154 BPI8TLE TO THB B0UAN8. 

On the side of msji faith alone is required (d/eb vienuc is not 
to be connected with dixaiovfi,tv6i duptdv/so as to stand parallel 
with 6i6t Tfif dToXur^wcnwc, but with iXa^pm, only we are not to 
consider this latter as dependent upon «'/(rr/(, but must supply 
as follows, " which must be received through faith in His blood"); 
but this faith is not by any means to be regarded as a human 
work, but as the gift of God, and is indeed «r/<fr/ff Jv rp ahrmj 
aJiMtrt, (jlicTig » Ai/jkari is used according to the analogy of 
^icriQ h Xpi^lfiy Gralat. iii. 26; and several times in Ephes. i. 15; 
in which phrases no interchange of prepositions is to be as- 
sumed, for the indwelling of believers in Christ, and of Christ 
in them, and their abiding with Him and His blood is indicated 
by them.) But with respect to the usual assertion, that aff/M 
denotes the bloody death of Christ, and that this represents the 
collective sufferings of Christ, it is not indeed untrue, but still 
does not exhaust the meaning. We never find a flr/tfr/^ g/^ 
ddmTM spoken of,* it is the Hood of Christ which is constantly 
mentioned. (Acts xx. 28; Rom. v. 9; Ephes. i. 7, ii. 13; Col, 
i. 14, 20; 1 Pet. i. 18, 19; 1 John i. 7; Heb. ix. 12, 14, x. 19, 
xiii. 12; Rev. i. 5, v. 9, vii. 14, xii. 11.) The constant use of 
this language must be founded upon some inward reason, and 
this Heb. ix. 22 plainly discovers to us, when it says» '' without 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins/' (See Levit. 
xvii. 11.) For, as we find it expressed in this latter passage, 
" the life of the body is in the blood." The phrase v/V/; i/V 
Hvarov would therefore be much less suitable, inasmuch as in it 
the idea of the forgiveness of sins and the expiatory sacrifice 
does not come forward, and ddvarin^ consequently, only denotes 
death as such, the mere dying. But the death of Christ, which 
is life itself (John i. 3), is the effusion or pouring forth of His 
holy life, %. «., of His blood, which He also communicates con- 
stantly to His people in faith, and in the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper. (John vi. 47, 64.) The formula ^i^n !» rp 
alfjMTi is therefore in the highest degree important, in that it 
declares, that the shedding of the blood and the death of Christ, 
who is called the life itself, is the expiation of the sin of the 
world, and not something dead, but the most living thing pos- 
sible, so that in His death, death itself seems to be swallowed 

* We find in Rom. v. 10, « we are reconciled to God by the dtaih of His Son,** 
only because the opposition with ^mi requhred this expression. In CoL i. 22, 
0df»r§t is more exactly defined in ver. 30. 



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CHAPTER III. 24, 25. 155 

up of life. Ab therefore the vial of balsam, if it is to refresh 
all those who are in the house by the odour of its contents, 
must be opened and poured forth, so also did the Redeemer 
breathe out into the dead world that fulness of life which was 
contained in Him, by pouring forth His holy blood, the sup- 
porter of His life,* and this voluntarily, since none could take 
His life from Him. (John x. 18.) Thus did He, through the 
Holy Spirit, offer Himself as the most precious sacrifice to Gt>d, 
that He might purge our consciences by the sprinkling of His 
blood, to serve the living God. (Heb. iz. 14) 

As to the concluding words of ver. 25, d/xa/otf^nj, in the con- 
nexion sig Mtt^t¥ rij( dtxaso&lfvnt auroD, might no doubt be under- 
stood of the goodness of God, which manifests itself as plainly 
as His strict justice in the sacrifice of Christ; but the addition 
of 'dtA r^v irdptcn x, r. X., and ver, 31, demand here, in the first 
place, the adoption of the latter signification. Those sins of 
the world before Christ, which had hitherto been, as it were, 
overlooked (Ps. Ixxviii. 38), rendered necessary the final mani- 
festation of God's righteousness, and were punished by the 
righteous God in Christ, the representative of the whole race, 
who voluntarily gave Himself up for all. At the same time, as 
is proved by the T/>i( Mn^tv x. r. X. in ver. 26 (which is by no 
means to be considered as a simple repetition of s/V ivd^i^n), 
there is a constant allusion to that grace which manifests itself 
in the work of redemption, and is particularly expressed in the 
^xaioupra x. r. X. ; and, in fact, both these attributes, justice and 
mercy, like the divine and human natures in Christ, can pro- 
perly only be considered separate in ahstracto in the work of 
redemption, inasmuch as they are actually amalgamated into a 
perfect unity therein. 

Ud^^ig does not occur in any other place in the Bible; if it 
had therefore been intended in St Paul's mind to be synony- 
mous with af ftf/g, as was grammatically possible, the Apostle 

* No doubt a tnie and deep idea lies at the foundation of Aekennann's inge- 
nioos treatise ^ On the chemical feature in the Christian conception of sanctifica- 
tion" (in Fichte'a Zeitiehriil far Philosophie and epeeulatiYe Theologie. Bonn. 
1887. 1 vol. 2d part, pp. 2S2, sqq.) ; this namely, that an analogy exists between 
the operation of Christ and His blood (t. «., of His life) upon the sinAil race of 
man, and chemical agents and reagents ; that therefore God has formed Christ by 
means of the derelopment of His hunaan life into a special source of healing and 
principle of attraction. But this idea, when carried out into detail, easily gives 
rise to dangerous enrors, and tends to lower the whole proeesa of restoration which 
is revealed in Christianity into a m&n physical one. 

[The TransUtor has thought it expedient to omit the remainder of this note.] 



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156 EPI8TLE TO THX BOMASS. 

would doubtless have chosen, in preference, the latter well- 
known word. Exod. zzxii. 34, in connexion with Acts xvii. 
80, is a sufficient explanation of this passage; brspidiikssyy^^ 

there signifies "the overlooking," or "letting alone." The 
afiaprrifjkara vpoytyovSra can, however, according to the following 
fv rf vv¥ xoupp, only mean the sins of the world before Christ's 
coming, in connexion, of course, with that original sin of 
Adam's, which was the source of all subsequent transgressions. 
In the 0. T. there was no real, but only a symbolical forgive- 
ness of sins;* the former could not then exist (Heb. ix. 12, 13), 
because it was only through their relation to Christ that the 
sacrifices of the 0. T. received their power of forgiveness. 

Finally, nothing can be more erroneous than, as Riickert and 
Reiche have. recently proposed, to confine the redeeming and 
forgiving power of Christ to those sins only which were com^ 
mitted in the time of &'yvota, and to deny the possibility of any 
forgiveness in the case of believers. Tliis view, consistently 
carried out, would entirely destroy the very essence of the gos- 
pel, and convert it into glad tidings for the unbelieving only, 
but for believers a new and even more hopeless law. The utter 
fallacy of this opinion will, however, be demonstrated more at 
length in the notes on vii. 14, etc. Much rather may we regard 
the time of ayvoia as belonging not only to the whole race, and 
to whole nations, but also to every individual^ at the same time 
that it must ever be regarded as a state which only gradually 
disappears. We must, if I may be allowed thus to express my- 
self, conceive of humanity as divided not merely according to 
its breadth, but also according to its length; and every indivi- 
dual passes through, in his own case, the same stages of devel- 
opment as the race. (The connexion of »f rfi avoxji rov etoD with 
what follows is quite unsuitable; it must be construed with 
'rdptifii, of which it discovers the inward ground.) 

Ver. 26. As the Apostle had first exhibited the side of seve- 

* The expression n &ptrtt rSf Afut^run or wa^awr»0fUvm (Ephes. i. 7,) must 
not be confounded with &ptfif m/iui^/tMrt' The theocratical forgiveness of any 
partieitlar sin was possible even under the O. T., bat the forgiveness of a// sins, 
actual sins as well as hereditary sin, can only proceed from Christ, and is a divine 
act. It presupposes, namely, nothing less than the creation of a new and holy 
man, and the slaying of the old man, inasmuch as it is regeneration itself, on which 
account the forgiveness (fsins is at the same time life and salvation. This hap- 
pens therefore also only once or twieef and is only confirmed from time to time to 
the believer, as in the Eucharist ; the former, however, is frequently repeated. 
(1 John ii. 1 ; Job xxxiii. 29.) 



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CHAPTBR III. 27—29. 167 

rity, he now also brings forwaid that of grace, which no less 
displays itself in the work of redemption. If to designate this 
he likewise uses the expression ^xai«tf69f|, this arises no doubt 
from his desire to accumulate expressions of the same kind. 
As dtxato^fn itself proceeds from Christ, as He produces nothing 
but 6/xa/wff so also His work, in every form of its manifestation, 
has the divine ^xas^fn as its foundation. 

To consider t/»^ t rdt/g/r as a mere repetition of the foregoing 
thMii^tv is not quite suitable; to be sure, h n^ vvr Mupift might 
seem to be in its favour; but at the same time, dixaiouvra x. r. X. 
is too much opposed to this construction. — In the words, i/V rh 
%h€u 9,\rth dsxoiof is implied at the same time the idea of His 
being recognised as such by men. — A/muouv can only be under- 
stood as a manifestation of grace. 

Ver. 27-29. After this explanation of the nature of the new 
way of salvation, St Paul returns to that question, which he 
had been treating in iii. 1, etc, whether, namely, there was any 
advantage in the case of the Jews/ and answers, no! ('e»- 
xXf/«, see Oalat. iv. 17, means "to exclude, t. «., to make un- 
availing, inadmissible.") For since in this place the question 
is not concerning such works as the law could alone produce, 
but concerning faith, Qentiles as well as Jews had access to 
this grace, in case they believed. If the Jews had lived in true 
love, they would have rejoiced on this account, but instead of 
this, they were offended because Ood was so gracious. 

vificg has here the more extensive signification of "divine 
ordinance or institution.^' The gospel may therefore be called 
the f6/Aog 9'titrtugf in so far as it is that divine ordinance which 
requires of men faith. And indeed faith cUone (as Luther 
rightly translates this passage in the sense of the Apostle), for 
in it is contained every thing, as the collective fruit of the tree 
in its germ, beyond and besides it there is nothing which belongs 
to the same spiritual position. Since, however. Gentiles as 
well as Jews are here spoken of, the tpya vS/mv can only mean 
the works of the moral law, which are derived from the will of 
God, demanding man's obedience.i* These can be, in the most 

* In the conception of »»vxi^it is implied that which belongs to self, as op- 
posed to grace ; this iv. 2 shows with especial clearness. To lfi»Xi/Wii we must 
Supplj U-i r«v Bttm. 

f Glttckler is quite mistaken in his riew, that ;c*'i*' Uy* ^^f^" w to be trans- 
lated, ** without the law of works,'* as the yery collocation of the words show. 
Ihe law, according to St Paul, is only to be abolished in its old form, in which it 



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158 KPI8TLB TO THB BOMAHS. 

favourable case, but the blossoms of the man's own life, and 
are therefore transitory like this life itself, but the works of 
&ith partake of the eternal nature of that principle £rom which 
they proceed. 

Ver. 30-^1. The one God stands in the same relation to all 
His children, and His different, modes of dealing do not contra- 
dict one another,* but afford to one another mutual support. 

'E«t/«vf qtiandoquidenij aiquidem, is nowhere else found in 
the N. T. On this account, also, it is not probable, that the 
reading i7«tp, which Lachman has admitted into his. text from 
A.C. and other MSS., etc. of critical authority, is the original 
ona — 'Kx and d/eb ridrfw^ do not stand parallel to one another, 
as designations of the source and cause, as Reiche still supposes; 
in this case ix r^g Tianug must also have been written ; rather 
does 6tA T^g rianoiQ alone refer to the principal thought. *Bx 
\^i«nui has a special reference to the Jews, (see iv. 12), who 
supposed that they were partakers of divine grace, not as be- 
lievers, but simply as the children of Abraham after the flesh. 
The gospel establishes the law, because it is the most sublime 
manifestation of the holiness and strictness of Ood. Sin never 
appears more fearful than at Qolgotha, where, on account of it, 
God spared not His own Son. 



§ 7. ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BT FAITH. 
(IV. 1—25.) 

In order to demonstrate more exactly the connexion between 
the N. T. and the law, and to vindicate the gospel from every 
charge of introducing anything strange into religion, the Apostle 
next proceeds to show, that even the saints of the 0. T., amongst 
whom he mentions Abraham and David, had walked in the path 
of righteousness by faith. In order rightly to comprehend this 
whole argument, we must further remark, as was already ob- 

ftppeuB M mftldng reqnireiiMnti upon die man from without; in the eoonomj of 
grace, it preaente itaelf again as an inwudly operatiTe Uw. (See notes to Galat. 
u. 16, 18.) 

" Galrin has this apt remark on the passage: " Ubi lex fidei opponitor, ex eo 
statim qoaodam repngnantiae sospieionem earo arripit, ao si alteram alter! adrer- 
■aretur. PraBsertim rero &eile obtinet fiUsa hae imaginatio inter eoe, qui prsppos- 
terA legis intelligentiA imbati nihil aliud in eA qonnmt qnam operum justitiam, 
promiasionibos omissia." 



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CHAFTBR in. 27—29. 159 

served on Matt. xi. 11, that the position of all the pious men in 
the 0. T. was bj no means similar. There were some amongst 
them whose piety wore a purely legal expression, e. g., Elijah ; 
others, again, in whom, whilst the legal form retired into the 
background, the life of faith was predominant. To these last 
belong, in an especial degree, Abraham and David, the develop- 
ment of whose spiritual life bears in fact considerable resem- 
blance to that of believing Christians. At the same time, with 
all this similarity, we must not lose sight of the difference be- 
tween them, for by so doing we should rob the gospel of its 
specific character (John i. 17.) The faith of Abraham and 
David had indeed, as well as the Cliristian's, the person of the 
Redeemer for its object, but then it was directed to Him that 
should come, not to Him who hxtd appeared; it was only after 
the appearance of Christ and the accomplishment of His work 
that real power could proceed from him. (John vii. 39. The 
veiy regeneration of the 0. T., if we are willing to assume its 
existence, (see notes on Matt. xi. 11), can therefore only be re- 
garded as symbolicai, a character which the Apostle himself 
seems to ascribe to it in ver. 23. 

Ver. 1, 6. St Paul proves from the 0. T. itself, that the 
righteousness of Abraham had not proceeded from his works.* 
He names Abraham as being the natural progenitor of the Jew- 
ish race, as one whose spiritual character formed the illustrious 
example to which all Israelites looked. 

The phrase rloh ipou/iw has here lost its ordinary form ; for 
ri must be connected with tvpnxtvai. If we were to take r/ 
ipcvfA^f in the usual way, we should still be obliged to supply r/ 
to tupfixhai. See iEschyl. Eumenid. v. 154.) In fact, St Paul 
does not wish to ask, what has Abraham found or obtained, but 
how has he received that righteousness which we allow him 
to have ? This thought is, however, intimated in the turn, what 
has he obtained xard adpxa. The answer therefore is also not 
completely carried out, but only negatively ; ver. 3 contains, on 
the other hand, the positive side, though indirectly. The cut in 
ver. 1 connects this chapter with dXXcb r^v igrdfAw in the last 
chapter ; " If then we establish the law by faith, so that the 
two cannot contradict one another, what can Abraham have 
obtained by works?" — ^We can only connect xar& cdpxa with 

* That it 18 pofluble to take another view of the history of Abraham, is shown 
by the epistle of St James, e. ii. 



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r 



160 BPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

tupfiximt and not with wari^a. According to tlie sense it«=fg c^w, 
ver. 2. We may best understand tfofg here of the outward in 
general (Gal. iii. 3), as contrasted with the mtZfMx.^ the inward 
and life-giving. (See notes to James ii. 26.) — ^xououfdcu ^i 

i^afv -= ixj^v dtKaiO(fU9H9 fx vofiou. — Kou;;^9j^a denotes the act of 
boasting and the object of the same, maieria gloriandt. The 
fourth verse discovers plainly the ideas which lie at the founda- 
tion of this whole argument. Works give merit, merit justifies 
a person in making demands or in boasting; no x^'^ can there- 
fore consist with works, but only a relation of debt. But God 
can never stand in the relation of a debtor to any creature, 
therefore St Paul says dxx' ou «-^^ rhv etSv. For even where a 
dix&io<fij9fi rev ¥6fjkou is in question, it is only by a gracious conde- 
scension on God's part that this becomes possible ; it remains, 
in fact, always only a righteousness in the sight of men. In 
ver. 2, c/ fdixouii^fi — ixti xaixnt^x. is to be construed, ''if he 
namely (as is in fact the case), is justified by works, he has 
indeed some glory, but not before God, only before men." St 
Paul then says here the same as is found James ii. 2], (With 
respect to •/ with the indicative, seo Winer's Gram., p. 267. If 
it meant, " if he had become righteous, he would have glory," 
we should find tJxtv at. 

Ver. 3-5. The Apostle then proves from Gen. xv. 6, a pas- 
sage which he quotes from the LXX., that it was not by his 
works that Abraham became righteous, but that his faith was 
reckoned to him for righteousness. Works might have brought 
him into the relation of a debtor or creditor, but faith brought 
him into the relation of grace, since he relied upon a promise 
flowing entirely from the divine mercy. This line of argument, 
taken in connexion with chapter vii., in considering which we 
shall return to it, is most admirably calculated to give us a clear 
conception of St Paul's doctrine of justification. For it is not 
itjMma^i itself, but \oyiJ^s6$ou ttg dixaie^vqv, which corresponds to 
the Hebrew n^^fjsn HiTTJ ^hf *^d which forms the centre of 
the Apostle's statement in this chapter. The two are, however, 
by no means synonymous, but stand exactly in the same rela* 
tion to one another as the [Roman] Catholic (so far at least as 
it contains truth) and the Protestant doctrines of justification, 
inasmuch as the former is implied in the hixaiwj<s6ou (to be made 
a righteous person), the latter in the "Koyfl^t^ku (to be accounted 
as such.) Wliatsoever is reckoned or imputed to a person, 

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CHAPTER IV. 1, 2. 1^1 

that the person cannot himself possess (see Rom. ii. 26, &jcpo- 
fivffrfa il$ ^tptrofiiiy Xoy/^srof/), but he is looked upon and 
treated as if he had it. This now is not predicated in the 
present passage of Abraham only, who lived 2000 years 
before the reconciliation effected in Christ, without which 
the iixouo(fuvn9 rou 0soD cannot be conceived as existing, but also 
•f those who lived according to his example after Christ (vers. 
11, 24), so that the formula Xoy/^ftr^a/ stg dtxaiotrvvfiv appears as a 
general designation of justification, in addition to dixaiov<r6ai. In 
order duly to understand the meaning of these expressions, and 
to perceive their bearing upon the subject before us, we must 
consider-yet more closely than was done at iii. 21, the transUion 
from the legal standing-point to that of grace, a inattcr wljich >^^^ 
it is particularly difficult to represent. When tlio law haa ac- ^?S^ 
complished its purpose on the man, i. e., when tho i^tyfrnm r^f 
a/Aapr/ag (iii. 20) or true fiirdma is produced in him, h^e regards 
^xa/o<nJir?j (which he recognises as a reality, and in recQg:uiaing 
which he becomes aware of the contrast of his own coildition)^ 
as something completely external to himself. But in the an- ' 
nouncement of the Messiah the promise is made to him, that 
this righteousness shall through His work become an inward 
reality to himself; this announcement he embraces in faith^ 
and, although still sinful and far from dixatoffvvtiy yet his faith 
in that which is outward and future is reckoned to him as 
righteousness, i, e., he is treated as a righteous person, and 
therefore as standing in a state of grace.* Now, the difficulty 
in this view lies especially in the circumstance, that God from 
His veracity cannot regard a person as that which he is not; if 
the man is sinful, it seems plain that the True One must look 
upon him and treat him as a sinner, until he ceases to be such; 
and if he actually ceases to be such, he can then again only be 
regarded as a righteous person and no longer as a sinner at all. 
On this argument rests the opposition of the [Roman] Catholic 
Church to the Protestant view, an argument which it seems at 
first sight impossible to refute; but yet on closer examination 
it proves to be false, and calculated to lead men entirely astray 

* Rademption makes the man in the progrees of his sanctification free from sin ; 
wifh sin no one can become blessed, as is indeed self-evident, for sin itself is the 
only source whatsoeyer of misery. But it is quite true that redemption begins in ^ 
sin, that is to say, the man must begin as a sinner, must loolc upon himself in faith 
as righteousybr ChriaCt take, not on account of th& somewhat improved condiiion 
of his own soul. 

L 

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162 EPISTLB TO THB ROMAICS. 

with respect to the way of salvation. In fact, according to the 
[Roman] Catholic view, it is not the objec^ye piupose of God 
which forms the irrefragable foundation of man's faith, but the 
shifting condition of his own heart. If the man thinks that ho 
can discover this concHtion of righteousness wrought in him, he 
assures himself of his state of grace, but if in times of tempta- 
tion he cannot discover it in himself, he is doubtful of it, or do* 
spairs of it. The purged eye of the regenerate man can detect 
even in his best condition much in himself that still needs to be 
cast out. (See notes on vii. 14.) The [Roman] Catholic Church 
consequently maintains, and in perfect consistency M'ith her 
principles, that man in his earthly condition can never be cer- 
tain of his being in a state of grace, but must remain in constant 
uncertainty; whilst the Protestant Cliurch teaches the exact 
contrary. The truth of the Protestant conception of this sub- 
ject is seen most distinctly when we look more closely at that 
principle on which the [Roman] Catholic doctrine is founded, 
namely, that God cannot regard any one as different from what 
he is. If we were to take this thought in its literal sense, since 
without the work of Clirist no forgiveness of sins and no sancti- 
fication is conceivable, it would follow that before the accom- 
plishment of Christ's atoning sacrifice no holy man could have 
lived, which contradicts the whole of the doctrine of Scripture. 
That notion must therefore be modified in the first place, in 
accordance with that principle, which teaches, that in every 
action of God all His attributes co-operate. God can therefore 
no doubt account a man to be something which he is not at 
present, whilst namely He looks to His own purpose, which is 
to render the man that which he is to be. As unalterable, 
therefore, as is this determination, so true also is God's con- 
templation of that which w not yet as already existing (ver. 17). 
But besides this, it belongs to the very nature of faith, as a 
living condition, and not the mere assent of the understanding 
to a thing as historically true, that it already contains within 
itself the essence of the object of belief; it is an act of the man 
by which he appropriates the Divine, which of course pre- 
supposes that the inmost nature of man is akin to the Divine. 
At the time of Abraham, indeed, Christ Himself and His whole 
work were as yet future; of Abraham, therefore, nothing more 
could be said, than that God counted to him his faith for right- 
eousness, inasmuch as He regarded this future work as already 

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CHAFTBRIY. S — 5; 163 

accomplished in His omniscience, to which all things are present. 
But in the case of all those who believe after the coming of 
Christ, faith does already in itself contain the substance of this 
righteousness, in that the Redeemer has once for all accom- 
plished the whole work of justification, as well, indeed, as of 
sanctification and glorification for all men (Rom. viii. 30). But 
if faith turns itself away from its proper object, the Ohriat with' 
out us and the objective purpose of God in man's redemption, 
and directs itself to the Christ within vs as the ground, not the 
consequence of redemption, and if the man only considers him- 
self the object of divine favour because he discovers Him in 
himself, and only so long as this is the case; then faith alto- 
gether loses its proper nature, and the man falls again under 
the law, as was once the case with the Oalatians. For man, 
therefore, so long as he is in this world, the Xvyit^te^ai tit 6/xaio- 
^¥nv must ever remain the way to true d/xaio^ni itself; and if 
he thinks that he no longer needs the former because he al- 
ready possesses the latter, he has fallen from faith.* As therefore 
the forgiveness of sins (that which is vouchsafed once, by vhich 
man is translated into the state of grace, as well as that which 
is dailif needed) is not imparted to the old man, who must die, 
neither to the new man, who cannot sin (1 John iii. 9), but to 
the inmost personality itself, which is conscious of the old man 
as well as of the new as belonging to it, and which in the pro- 
gress of regeneration must be gradually altogether transformed 
into the new man ; so also does it happen with respect to the X^//- 
(fltf^a/. Righteousness is not imputed to the old man, but to the 
true personality, which perceives the presence of the old man as 
its own, but with deep repentance and a lively longing to be 
delivered from it. The substance of this true personality is, 
however, nothing else but that sdwtiUa of the divine likeness 
which has remained in man since the fall, and without which 
sin would form the very substance of the human being. Faith 
attaches itself to this spark, and then, deriving nourishment 
from the higher world, elicits once more from this spark^ the 
flame of the divine life. 

'Efyflc^fijtfa/ = ipya fl'wi*, and that moreover as a means of at- 

. * We moBt not therefore frame the antithesis in this manner, either the man is 
a sinner, or he is a regenerate and holy roan; the latter also is still a sinner, inas- 
much as he retains the old man nntil death. But in his case God does not look to 
the old man, but to His own purpose of grace in Christ, and regards him for 
Clirist's sake as altogether righteous. 



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164 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

taining to dixai6ctij¥fi. According to the divine ^^^ talionis, man 
is treated according to the position nfhich he assumes ; the man 
who has recourse to justice alone, is treated according to its 
stem law, " Cursed is eveiy one who continueth not in off that 
is written in the law" (Galat. iii. 10); but whosoever, on the 
other hand, clings in faith to grace, is regarded according to its 
over-ruling law. xdpa, as the opposite to ^fc/Xn/Mc, has here 
accordingly the sense of that which is undeserved, that which de« 
pends on no merit. — In ver. 5 the epithet applied to God, hixauw 
rh aersjS^, does not refer to Abraham dUms^ as Reiche still asserts, 
nor yet to other men without him ; rather is it a general designa- 
tion of God's relation to mankind. For to suppose that allusion 
is here made to some particular sin of Abraham's, for instance 
to his participation in the idolatry of his father Terah, as many 
commentators on this passage have wished to assume, is quite 
inadmissible ; the question is entirely about universal sinfulness. 
And then we have in this way of understanding the passage an 
important proof, that St Paul does not consider any one as ex- 
cluded from the general sinfulness of the race; even Abraham 
himself, that venerable and holy patriarch, is an dtfcjSsy^. AU 
men in respect of God are in a state of a<rsj^f/a, and unable by 
their own powers to raise themselves into any other condition.* 
God alone^ therefore, is the author of dixaioifuini, and proves Him- 
self to be such to those who come forward to meet Him in «'/Vr/r; 
the endeavour to establish one's own righteousness is the surest 
method of shutting one's self out from the d/xo/oduM} erov. (See 
Bom. X. 3.) 

Ver. 6-8. St Paul then corroborates the truth he has ad- 
vanced by the example of David, from Ps. zzxii. 1, 2, a passage 
which is likewise quoted according to the LXX. If we find here 
expressly added x^P^^ tpyotv, it is yet plainly not the meaning of 
the Apostle that iffya sliould be wanting; on the contrary, these 
possess in faith, and in that imputation of righteousness of 

* The degrees of nnfnlnesB are not (o be eoottdeied in regard of the life of fiiiih 
in and for themseWee, but only the effect which ie thereby produced upon the in- 
moet condition of the soul. A person in a deeply sunken state ;)[iay stand quite 
near to the kingdom of God, if sin has made him of a broken and contrite spirit 
(Matt. xxi. 31 ; Luke xv. 30), and a strict observer of the law outwardly may be 
far from this' kingdom, if he has become through his strivmg hard-hearted, lorelefle^ 
and arrogant. The moet desirable condition is, of course^ one of earnest striving 
and freedom from gross transgressions, combined with humility, a sense of need, 
and faith. But every one who desires to come to Christ, must altogether, and in 
vverything, recognise himself as a sinner. 



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CHAPTER lY. 9, 10. 165 

wliiclx it is the means, their most plentiful source (Gal. y. 6) ; 
but howeYer richly and purely works may proceed from this 
source, the foundation of final blessedness does not exist in 
themy but in thai principle by which alone they become possible, 
i.e.f not in men but in Qod. As, therefore, it is to God aione 
that thanks are due for the existence, and creation of man, so 
also to Him alone for man's goodness; it is not as if there en* 
tered into the latter two creatiYO energies, first that of God, and 
then that of man (such a Dualism makes all true goodness im* 
possible, for this consists especially in the deliverance from aU 
that bdongs to self); there is assuredly but one^ namely that of 
God, because all pure, good, true action on man's part, is the 
act ofOod, the only true Good, in him^ so that man has and can 
regard nothing as his oum^ but sin, unfaithfulness, and unbelief. 
(See notes ix. 1.) 

In the passage, howeYer, adduced by the Apostle, the ques* 
tion appears to be not with regard to the positive imputation of 
righteousness, but only the negative non-imputation of sin, 
whilst at the same time nothing is expressed about faith; we 
might therefore suppose that the passage did not apply to tbo 
present subject; but forgiveness of sins is surely not a human 
fancy, or a human action, in which a man says to himself, '' I 
haYO forgiveness of my sins," but a divine work, a living word 
ofOod spoken into the heart, which faith alone can appropriate. 
But the word and act of God is the most positive thing we can 
conceive, it is being itself; on which account Luther most rightly 
terms the forgiveness of sins, ''life and blessedness," for it con- 
tains within itself the imputation of the righteousness of God. 

Aphcu and i^tKaXvTrti¥ = ^^3 and nDp» ^^ *^® ^^^^ ®^" 
pression we perceive more of the New Testament aspect of the 
forgiveness of sins, according to which it is the real taking away 
of sin, even though this be but gradual; in the second, on the 
other hand, as well as in t^e d^afr/av ou Xo^/^stf^oi, there is more 
of the Old Testament view, according to which sin remains, 
though under the forbearance of God (Rom. iii. 25), until the 
completion of the work of Christ, in consequence of which the 
actual forgiveness of sins was first imparted to those who lived 
before Christ. Comp. Matt, xxvii. 68; 1 Pet. iii. 18. 

Ver. 9, 10. Hereupon the Apostle returns to the considera- 
tion of the relation between Jews and Gentiles, and proves that 
this way of salvation by faith was designed, not merely for the 

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166 EPISTLE TO THE BOIUKS. 

Jews, but aho for the Qcntiles, since the occurrenee in Gen. 
XV. 6 took place before circumcision was instituted, at a time, 
therefore, when Abraham stood on a level with the Gentiles. 

In ver. 9, tpx^rat must be supplied. It were better to connect 
Xiyofibiv yap x. r. X. with ver. 10, for the sense is, "from the pas- 
sage concerning David it is not so distinctly to be gathered, 
whether or not the Gentiles are to be included amongst those 
to whom faith is counted for righteousness, but this may very 
well be done from that concerning Abraham, for," etc. In ver. 
10 ^uc is to be translated " under what circumstances." 

Ver. 11, 12. Circumcision was not, therefore, the means of his 
justification, but only the sign of that justification which had 
before taken place; in the same way, sJso, that baptism does 
not beget faith, but presupposes it. On this account also his 
name, *'the Father of the Faithful," does not relate merely to 
those who are physically circumcised, but to all those, whether 
Jews or Gentiles, who like him believe. 

A. C. and other documents of critical authority read mptrcfitit 
instead of mptrofMiv; the genitive is, however, to be preferred as 
well on external as internal grounds. — 2ii^«7by = j^*^^, that 
which points back to something else; ^paytg the impression of 
a seal, by which something is confirmed (1 Cor. ix. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 
19.) In the same sense is QH'^n ^^ ^^ Hebrew. — Aixouca6ni 

T 

wi^Tioii (ver. 14), the righteousness imputed is treated as a true 
righteousness. — E/^ rh sTfot is not, as Tholuck supposes, to bo 
understood merely of the consequence, but of the intention, as 
ver. 1 6 proves. Abraham received the seal of circumcision first, 
in order that he might be presented as the general Father of 
believers. In the conception of Father the similarity which 
exists between him and his children, is the point here insisted 
on; believers are his true children, for the outward circumcision 
is the unessential part (ii. 28, 29), and these alone receive also 
the righteousness which he received. — In the words nrtartvovng 
61 dxpo^vifrtagy di& is not to be understood caiisaltter, but as in ii. 
27, " during, under such circumstances," — The transition from 
the genitive to the dative (roTf) was perhaps occasioned by his 
looking back to Xoyt^rimi. — 2ro/;^i« = tnpi^ariuy COmp. Gal. V. 
25, vi. 16; Phil. iii. 16. To understand the Gentiles, again, by 
the term arotxovvnc is inadmissible, and would oblige us to 
assume that rpTs o5x stands for ob roTg, an inversion which would 
be too hard. 

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CHAPTBB IT. 13 — 15. 167 

Yer. 13. Tliis leads to the more explicit statementy that with 
Abraham's case legal relations had nothing whatever to do, but, 
as in the case of every promise, grace alone. It is remarkable^ 
that it is not merely said, the promise did not come by the law, 
for of course, all that follows upon this must be regarded aa 
reward, but that there is added, it came through the righteous- 
ness of faith. We might expect that it would be said through 
grace, for it seems natural that the promise should go before, 
and then faith apprehend the same as an object, and not vice 
ffersa. But this difficulty vanishes, if we consider that the 
promises of Ood to Abraham form a climax, and that in this, 
whilst the first promise preceded his faith, all the higher ones 
followed it. In this place, as Tholuck rightly remarks, reference 
is made to that promise, which succeeded Abraham's greatest 
trial of faith (Gen. xxii. 16), and therefore his xXjifon^/a x^djtMf 
does not mean the mere possession of the land of Canaan, in 
an outward or inward sense, but the incorporation in himself of 
the whole race, so far as it is faithful, and the spiritual govern- 
ment of the world by his influence proceeding therefrom. At 
the same time, the idea reaches yet further, as even the Rab- 
binical writers indicate in that saying, " possidet Abraham pater 
noster, (et nos cum illo) mundum hunc et futurum. In its deep- 
est sense it points to Christ's dominion over the world, which his 
believing people shall share with him (Rom. viii. 17; Rev. iii. 21), 
and in which the inward powers of the spiritual world shdl 
manifest their energy outwardly. On this account, also, rf 
gvipfjuiri ahrov is added,* by which expression, according to Gal. 
iii. 16, St Paul considers Christ to be designated, and further, 
in Christ as the second Adam, the collective body of believers. 
(Gal. iii. 28, 29.) A similar promise is not to be found in so 
many words in any passage of the 0. T., but it is given in 
substance in Gen. xv. 7 (where Canaan is promised) and Gen. 
xxii. 16. 

Ver. 14, 16. If accordingly they which are of the law be heirs, 
the promise would be of none effect, for they would be able to 
demand all as reward. But since none could so keep the law, 
as to be able to found any demands upon it, since it rather 

* We miiBt not orerlook 9 rf rwiputrif instead of which onlj onunportuit MSS. 
read »«) rf rwi^fimvu The 4f is to betaken as a nearer definition, in the tense ^ or 
much rather," for it was in Christ that Abraham first became aetnally the heir 
and lord of t]ie world, and in Christ Uie hnman race. 

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168 EPISTLE TO TI)E ROMAKS. 

kindles God's anger against them, the whole assumption is in- 
admissible. In ver. 14, 0/ ix vofMv are opposed to 0/ ix vicrt^i^ 
see Gal. iii. 9, 10. — KcMu^^a/ means to be converted into some- 
thing, x%m empty, powerless. — Between ver. 14 and ver. 15, we 
must supply some such expression as, '' But it is according to 
the very nature of the law impossible, that it should make men 
heirs of the world, for so far from conferring merit, it only 
awakens indignation. — Ver. 15, h^yiiit xanpydf^MTot] not by its na- 
ture, for that is holy and good, but through its power in bring- 
ing to light the depths of sin. (See more in the notes on vii. 
10, etc.) The words oC yitf^ oux x. r. X., are an addition merely 
intended to give a cursory explanation of l^^v xartpyd^icku; it 
is the law which makes men first appear in their worst condi- 
tion; how then shoidd it be able to make them the heirs of the 
world. 

Ver. 1 6. The promise, then, could only come through faith, 
inasmuch as it thus only could remain a tnte promise, i. e., a 
wholly gracious assurance; thus only, indeed,, could it appear 
assured to all, inasmuch as by its dependence upon the law the 
promise of the faithful God would depend for its fulfilment up* 
on unfaithful man, whom the law is intended only to exhibit as 
exceeding sinful. The contrast intended in the words rp U rod 
¥6fMu, and r^ ix ir/(rrf w^, is not therefore between Jews and Gen- 
tiles, but only between men seeking to establish a righteousness 
by the law, and believers whether amongst Jews or Gentiles. 
The member of the theocratic nation has not merely as such ia 
share in the promise, if he is not also at the same time a be- 
liever. But in these words the expression ih rh that ps^afav in- 
troduces us to an idea, which is very important for the under- 
standing of the connexion of St Paul's ideas as a whole. 
Everything, namely, which depends upon the decision, faithful- 
ness, and constancy of such an irresolute and wavering being as 
man, is, in St Paul's view, extremely uncertain ; but that which 
depends upon God, *'with whom is no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning," is firmly established. On this account, the 
divine promises afford an irrefragable certainty, because nothing 
can annul them ; as God gives the promise, so also does he 
raise up men to believe it, and thus accomplishes all His works. 
But so great is the perversity of man, that he will not recognise 
this most certain foundation of salvation; he wishes to have 
God's unalterable promises and prophecies considered as depen- 



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CHAPTKEIT. 17. 169 

dent upon him for their execution, though in this way the ful- 
filment of a prophecy would tend to the merit of man, and not 
to the glory of God, which were plainly a blasphemous asser- 
tion. According to St Paul's way of looking at the matter, the 
blessedness of the man is certain, only because God has promis* 
ed it and firmly intends it, and he only who believes in this 
decided will of God, has this salvation abo wrought in him. 
(With respect to the mode in which, notwithstanding, man's 
freedom remains inviolate, and is in fact thus only truly 
established, see the notes to chap. ix. 1, etc.) 

Yer. 17. The citation of Gen. xviL 5 (which passage is also 
quoted exactly according to the LXX.), is intended to prove 
still more decidedly Abraham's right to the title of Father of 
of the Faithful, as a relation extending beyond the limits of 
Israel, and embracing all nations. (Tt^itas = the Hebrew m^). 

But with respect to the latter half of the verse, which presents 
many difficulties, in the first place the reading irianvaac, which 
is given by F. G. and the Syriac version, by means of which the 
following words are connected with the quotation, must be re- 
jected as inadmissible, on account of the preponderance of critical 
evidence in favour of the usual reading. The construction xaru 
mm oS Martv^ Bfv must be explained as an attraction of an 
unusual character certainly, since in this case a dative is 
affected by it. (See the treatise of Schmidt on this verse in 
the Tlibinger Zeitschrift, 1831, part ii.; Bemhardy's Syntax, p. 
299, etc.; and Winer's Gram., p. 155.) But with respect to the 
sense of the words, it must be allowed that it is difficult to de- 
termine it, on account of the xamatrt^ whose usual signification 
" against over against," does not seem to suit here. We may, 
however, take it most simply as=«<3p'5 or ^j^ya, so that we 
obtain the following sense: "Abraham is before the eye of 
God, t. e., before His omniscience, the father of us all, even be- 
fore we existed." * To this sense the subsequent description 
of God, the object of Abraham's faith, as the Creator, answers 

* Amongst the many explanations from different sources to be found in Tholuek 
and Reiche, that of Uie ancient Fathers, Chrysoptom, Tbeodoret, and others, 
' deserves attention. They take ««Tiv«»ri after Gen. ii. 18 m »•/ IftMim^Lm so as to 
get the sense, '* Abraham is the image of God, an image of the true Father, and 
fbundation of that relationship." The meaning is beautiful; but does not agree 
with the context, because the following description of the creative agency of God, 
if this interpretation were admitted, would bear an application to Abnham, which 
is not the case. 



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170 EPISTLE TO THE ROHAKS. 

« 

Veiy well. The words ^UMronT^ rodf nxp^ug and xaTM r& (kii lura 
itg Ivra refer, in the first place, as the context shows, to the be- 
getting of Isaac (ver. 19, 20) by his parents Abraham and 
Sarah, when their bodies were "dead." The whole history of 
Abraham is however here, as also elsewhere (Gal. iv.), treated as 
a type, and thus Isaac, who was bom through the power of God, 
is considered as an image of tho whole of the spiritual Israel, 
and consequently t^omronh and xdksTv as designations of spiritual 
awakening and regeneration, (vi. 1 3.) Thus taken, the words 
xaXf^i' rd ^^ ovra ug ovra become particularly significant. The ex- 
pression r& fi,^ ovra is, namely, by no means to be understood of 
that which is absolutely nothing (nihilum negativum), of which, 
nothing more can be said than that it is not; but only of that 
existence which is not yet fashioned into a concrete form, as it 
is also to be taken in the language of Plato and Philo. (See 
Philo de yit& Mosis. p. 693. de creat. 728.) Thus, not only may 
whole nations, in so far as they have not yet entered into ex- 
istence, be called ^i) %vra^ although they already exist in God's 
sight, and already live potentially in their progenitors, but the 
natural unregenerate man may also be called a t^^ wy, inasmuch 
as in him the true idea of man, the &¥6pu^og ecoD, is not yet 
realized, since this does not take place till his regeneration. 
KaXf Jk = ^-^5, is the creative call of the Almighty, by which 

T 't 

He, according to the analogy of Uie first act of creation (Gen. i. 
d), calls forth the concrete formations out of the general stream 
of life, 'n^ is to be taken quite simply as a particle of compari- 
son, " vocat ea, qusB non (nondum) sunt, tamquam (jam) 
adsint." What a powerful description of that God who beholds 
all future things as really present ! 

Ver. 18. The example of Abraham was of too much import- 
ance to the Apostle for him to break off his contemplation of it 
80 soon. Everything, in fact, which is related of him, is a type 
of the life of faith under the New Testament (ver. 23, 24). 
As, therefore, Abraham, against all hope believed in hope, and 
was, consequently, obliged to wrestle in order to hold fast his 
faith and hope against all the contradictions of the senses and 
of nature; so also does the fight of faith manifest itself in every 
child of God.* 

* We mij^t aeoordingly say, that the farther faith stende from the objects of iti 
longing, or hope from its fulfilment, the more intense and powerful it must be, if it 



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CHAPTER IT. 29-3|. 171 

' Harder and more deeply agitating than all the struggles be- 
tween the law and the selfish inclinations is the struggle of 
faith aginst unbelief, which would rather have the tender con- 
science believe anything than its own salvation. It was only 
in appearance that Abraham's fight of faith referred to anything 
else than his salvation; for, in fact, Abraham's blessedness de- 
pended just as much upon the birth of his promised son, from 
whom the Messiah should in process of time descend, as the 
blessedness of every believer upon the birth of the new man in 
him. But faith itself is already this new man coming to the 
birth, and| therefore, all depends upon its maintenance and 
increase. 

Chrysostom very justly observes toward the explanation of 
this Oxymoron, §«' iX^ridi rji rou Btou. vra^ iXMa njr ay^^oKr/v^n— - 
*£/; rh ytvMai must again be understood of the purpose, the ex- 
ercises of Abraham's faith were appointed not only with the 
design of perfecting him, but also of laying down in him the 
germs of perfection for future believers; his life was not merely 
a fore-shadowing, but, if I may be allowed the expression, the 
fore-reoZtfy, i. e., the true germ of what was to come. De Wette 
supposes that, by this interpretation, a distinct intention must 
be ascribed to Abraham in his believing. But we need not 
surely assume that the patriarch was conscious of the purpose 
of these dispensations; the words refer only to God's designs. 
The new quotation is from Gen. xr. 5, where ovr»g refers to th^ 
stars, with whose multitude God compares Abraham's descen* 
dants. 

Yer. 19-22. As the object, with respect to which Abraham's 
faith was especially exercised, the Apostle now names the birth 
of Isaac. If we regard this event merely as securing to Abraham 
legitimate issue, there appears indeed to exist an essential differ- 
ence between Abraham's faith and that of the N. T.; but this 
mode of understanding it is one entirely opposed to St Paul's 
view of the subject. From Gal. iv. 22, etc., it appears that the 
significance of Isaac was no less than this, that he was a type of 
Christ, who was to proceed from his descendants. St Paul, there^ 

iWBiis itodf at all. Abraham's faith may therefon appear to be greater than that 
of betieTiDg CbristiaDs, for they have their exercise of it rendered easier, by be- 
holding the eifeets of that which they beliere. At the same time, in oonsidering 
the degree of faith and its character, we must especially take into aooount the real 
substance of the same, and in this respect the New Testament stands fiur above 
the Old. 



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172 EPISTLE TO THE BONAITS. 

fore (Gal. iii. 16), treats of the seed of Abraliam, t. e., ia the 
first place, Isaac, as of Christ, and contemplates, moreover, in 
Christ, as the second Adam, all His believing people. 

Ver. 19. The usual reading eu xartf6n^ is certainly preferable 
to the usy which no doubt arose from a mistake of the copyists 
in writing ou, but must yield, as Reiche justly remarks, to the 
simple xanv^tff. For this just brings out the thought that 
Abraham was well acquainted with all the unfavourable out- 
ward circumstances, and yet believed. A. C. 67, as well as the 
Syriac and Coptic versions, support xanvoiitfi, but it is difficult to 
understand how cb can have crept into the text. It is only with 
the reading, xarivoijcrf that the following di (ver. 20) receives its 
proper meaning. — The words nxfouahu and nxf^gis refer here to 
the deadness of the powers of generation. (Heb. xi. 1 2.) Clon- 
ceming Abraliam's and Sarah's age, see Gen. xvii. 17. — Uw 
without accent means, in the case of numbers, " about;" this is 
the only place in the N. T. where it is used in this sense; in 
Heb. iL 6, iv. 4, it means " anywhere.'' Aiaxpinaku means pro- 
perly " to be divided, separated," and thereby " to lose one's 
balance, to waver or stagger." In this way it is several times 
used of unbelief, as inward spiritual unsteadiness (Matt. xxi. 21; 
Mark xi. 23; John i. 6; Rom. xiv. 23.) This is contrasted 
with the inward firmness and strength expressed in ivdwafMu^au, 
As opposed to ^Xnpopop%T(r^i, unbelief might also have been 
designated by xivuati ; for this expression, as well as the sub- 
stantive 4rX)7po^o/»/a, represents faith as the replenishment of the 
inward man with spiritual life (Rom. xiv. 5; Col. ii. 2; 1 Thess. 
i. 5; 1 Tim. iv. 17). In ihelhvi do^av r^ Off is expressed the 
practical recognition of the divine omnipotence, which accom- 
plishes that which it promises. 

Ver. 23, 24. After this detailed consideration of the life of 
faith as manifested in Abraham, St Paul declares the principle 
which justifies such a consideration. Abraham's history he does 
not regard as something dead and past, but as the living history 
of the believers of every age. This passage, in addition to 1 
Cor. ix. 10, X. 6; Gal. iv. 24, etc., contains one of the most im- 
portant hints as to the manner in which the Old Testament is 
to be treated according to the doctrine of the apostles. It is not 
the externals of its history, but that spirit which moves in them, 
which is to be considered, and in this way it has its eternal truth 
for the times of the New Testament also. To attribute tliewholc 



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CHAPTSB lY. 25. 1 73 

mode of treatment^ which St Paul applies to the Old Testament, 
in this as well as in other places, to Jewish habits of thought, a 
view Reiche in particular has once more defended, destroys not 
only the apostolical character of St Paul, but also flie very 
essence of the 0. T., which, as the eternal word of God, is, ac- 
cording to our Lord's own words (Matt. v. 18), to abide when 
heaven and earth have passed away. 

The words fikXKu Xoyi^ta^at are to be regarded from the posi- 
tion which Abraham and his generation occupied. But if in this 
place not faith in Jesus, but faith in the Father who raised Him 
up, is brought forward, it is accounted for by looking back to 
the ^»o4ro/iA in ver. J 7, which manifested itself most gloriously in 
the resurrection of Christ For the physical and spiritual in- 
terpenetrate each other in the conception of ^»o«'6/f5, as in that 
of ^ftMJ (John vi.) God is the awakener of life in every form of 
its manifestation. Besides this f/c/pi/ir presupposes a preceding 
iniaxuv, so that a reference to the death of Christ is implied in 
this verse, as well as distinctly expressed in that immediately 
foUowing 

Ver. 25. Whilst, however, in iii. 25 Btxa4o^¥n is connected 
simply with the blood-shedding of Christ, d/xoiW/c in this verse 
follows upon the resurrection. The older commentators have 
found great difficulties in this mode of representation, but if we 
understand it according to the tenor of v. 10, vi. 4, the thought 
expressed in the passage is quite simple. For as resorrection 
necessarily presupposes that death has gone before, so also upon 
the death of Christ, who is the life, necessarily follows the re- 
surrection, that is the victory over death. These, therefore, in 
the life of oar Lord stand related to each other as two necessary 
complementary halves, which it is altogether impossible to con- 
ceive as existing without each other. It is not the death of 
Christ in itself which is important, but only that death which 
was conquered by the resurrection. But in the same way that 
the death and resurrection of Christ form an intimate unity, so 
also in man the death of the old and the rising up of the new, 
cannot be conceived as existing without each other. It is im- 
possible, that in any individual sins can really be forgiven, and 
the old man be crucified without the new man arising; and when 
the new man begins to live, the death of the old man must take 
place at the same time. In consequence, therefore, of the neces- 
sary connexion between these two events, only one at a time is 

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174 BPI8TLB TO THE BOMAHS. 

commonly mentioned, either negaJtivdy the for^giyenesB of ains, 
arpoeitivdj/ the communication of the new life. But in some 
cases both are joined together, as in this place, and in ver. 10, 
and then the negative side, the putting away of the old, is con- 
nected with the death, and the positive side, the communication 
of the new, is annexed to and founded upon the resurrection of 
the Redeemer. In the term d/xa/W/^ in this passage, therefore, 
we must hold fast the idea of that act, which makes righteous 
and creates the new man, an act which is expressed in ver. 10, 
by the word ^dt^t^tou; whilst the expression di6t, rob wapaTrrtafMira 
ifL^v answers to' the xaraXKayfi in ver. 10. For the vapavru/tr- 
ara are the sins which separate man from God, and which need 
first of all an dpt^Hy a xaraXXa/ii, on account of which the Son 
of God was delivered up to death. In these two complementary 
halves the whole work of God in the soul of man is complete, 
and neither, can be wanting where this work has truly begun, 
although no doubt at different crises of the inward life of the 
individual, now one, now the other side may predominate. 

With respect to vapadiiovou^ scil. ttg ^dvaroVf see Acts iii. 13, 
Rom. viii. 32, Isaiah liii. 12. In the passage Ephes. v. 2, it is 
said, 9a/tdu)U9 iavrhv rpo0fp6t9 xot,i $vdav, — In the life and work of 
• Christ everything happened for us, nothing for Himedf^ for 
He already possessed all things with His Father, before He be- 
came man (2 Cor. viii. 9.) — Atxa/agse is not here the same as 
dsxouo6{f¥fi; for in the same way that d/d rSt wa^tMrrtafuira ift^w 
must be understood " in order that our transgressions might be 
pardoned," hik njv dixouu^tt ifiwf must also be explained ''in 
order that righteousness might be wrought in us.'" Aixoia^e^ 
therefore, denotes the divine act of making righteous, as 3/cb rd 
fl'a^arrw/^bara, the divine act of forgiveness. 



§ 8. OF THE FRUITS OF FAITH. 
(V.1-11.) 

To this complete exposition of the doctrine of the new way of 
salvation itself, according to its scriptural foundation, the Apostle 
now annexes some intimation of the effects of the life of faith, by 
which the excellence of this way is first brought to view in all its 
clearness. To be sure St Paul could not in this place do more 



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GHAPTKBV. ], 2. 175 

than cursorily allude to them, because many things needed to be 
considered before he could enter into such a full description of 
these effects as is found in the next chapters. It is not until 
the eighth chapter that we find a complete account of the in- 
finite consequences of redemption, as well for the individual as 
for the whole creation. 

Ver. 1. St Paul includes under one expression the whole ful* 
ness of those blessings which accrue to the man who is justified 
by faith (as the receptive cause), through grace (as the creative 
cause), i. e., under itpnvn «-pA; rhv 0969. The conception of f/'pijni 
= Q^^\t$ ^^ ^^'^ distinguished by the addition of wphg rhv ei^y, 
not merely from false peace, the t/pini rph rh xoV^My, which is de- 
stroyed by the operation of Christ (John xvi. 33), in that the 
latter calls forth a struggle against sin (ver. 3, etc.) ; but also 
from that higher degree of peace, that inward peace of soul, the 
%lpii^n ^F^i tfiavr^y, which St Paul also calls itftim ei^u (Phil. iv. 
7; Col. iii. 15), and Christ in St John's gospel f/^in} f>9. (John 
xiv. 27.) The two stand, in fact, in the same relation to one 
another as justification and sanctification; justification, or the 
Xo^/^ftftfa/ f/V itxa/off{t9fi9 gives at once xaraXXa/^, and with it tlp^^ 
wphi rhv Ofov, the consciousness of being in a state of grace, the 
contrary to which is the ix^ea tig Stiv. (See Rom. viii. 7.) No 
doubt this state contains within itself sanctification in the germ, 
but also only in the germ ; because the old man still lives inward 
harmony of life is only at first partially restored. The complete- 
ness of this harmony is only a fruit of life in the Spirit (Rom. 
viii. 6; Gal. v. 22), whilst the life of faith begins with f^^i^ rphg 
rhv Of^y, because this flows at once from the first act of grace. 
As the author of peace in every form, God Himself is moreover 
called et6i r^e denvng (Rom. xv. 33; 2 Cor. ziii. 11; 1 Thess. 
V. 23; 2 Thess. iii. 16). The reading ix^fi^^'i which Lachmann 
and Scholz have adopted from A.C.D.I., must be regarded as 
inferior to the reading ixo/^tf from inward grounds, for it is a 
strange idea to call upon men to have peace with God; for 
peace with God is the gift of His grace. 

Ver. 2. As the second blessed consequence of justification, the 
Apostle, after a parenthesis, presents to us the exultation felt in 
the hope of future glory. For the words dl o5 *. r. X. cannot be 
understood to mean, that the Tpoaaye^yfi is another result of the 
ZtxasoMai sx Ti^rtui, for in that case in the first place the con- 



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1 76 RPISTLE TO THB BOKAKS. 

struotion with nai would have been proceeded with, and then St 
Paul would have avoided the introduction of the words %h x^^'^i 
which necessarily suggest quite another thought. Tholuck, in- 
deed, has proposed to place a stop after f«^4xa/*i»» but this the 
reading, rfi rs^ttiy will not permit. These words are no doubt 
wanting in B.D.F.G., and other documents having critical autho- 
rity, but it is plain that they have only been omitted to avoid 
the connexion of w^ayuyn with what follows. Besides this, even 
if rji ^iarn were away, the placing a stop after i^T,xafhu would 
be inadmissible, because %ii ri)v y/ifif raurriv would have no right 
connexion with what follows And further, tliat St Paul else- 
where (Ephes. ii. 18, iii. 12, the verb is found 1 Pet. iii. 18) uses 
this word of that access to God which is opened for the soul, can 
be no reason for giving it this sense in the present passage, since 
here it is defined more exactly by the addition of %h r^9 ya^n 
ravrniK The whole sentence 6/ ou i^xa/Liv must therefore be 
placed in a parenthesis, expressive of the fact, that the power 
of the Redeemer not only produces peace at the same time tcith 
justification, but even introduces the soul into the state of grace 
itself before tliis^ so that the xo^/r aDnj is the very d/xa/ocruni ix 
^isrton itself, to which not our own power, but Christ's grace 
alone can conduct us. 

The allusion to a ^fK^^ayor/tli who, so to speak, introduces the 
soul to God, is, by the above remarks, proved to be unsuitable; 
nor has it otherwise any scriptural foundation. The perfect 
forms an opposition to the preceding present s^^*''* ^^ ^^^^ 
wishes to refer all to Christ, to make him appear as the Author 
and Finisher of our renewal. The xa/ is therefore to be taken 
emphatically, " by whom also already we have received access." 
T^ T/tfffi may also be connected with i/V n)v x<^p/v, yet it is better 
to take %k =^ r^6e^ to connect it with ^r^ayatynt &^d to regard rfi 
^igrtt == mcTtucvrtg. 'Etfr^xo/tf v does not denote the mere standing 
in a certain relation, but leads us to think of the firmness and se- 
curity of the state of grace, as opposed to all wavering. By the 
dS^a 0feD Reiche supposes the divine image in man to be meant; 
this does not, however, suit the context, because fV ix^idt is added; 
forthedivine likeness is not merely restored to the regenerate man 
in hope, but in reality. The expression rather denotes the hea- 
venly existence of God, the participation in which constitutes the 
highest blessedness of the creature. And in the connexion of xau- 



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CHAPTER V. 3 — 5. 177 

X^S^ou with fX4r/( is implied the irrefragable certainty of being 
partaker of the glory of Ood. 

Ver. 3^ 4. The Apostle, by a bold contrast, places the sufferings 
of the present in a parallel line with the glory of the fyturey and 
considers that the former proceed just as necessarily from the 
Umauuitvn *^C m^%(a^y as does the %kn^ 'rphf rhf 0i69. (2 Tim. iii. 
12.) For there resides in the believer a principle which re- 
bukes the sin which is in the world, and by so doing excites it 
against him, and which will not leave things in a state of indif- 
ference with respect to itself, but either attracts or repels them. 
In these very sufferings of the present, therefore, is contained 
a source of exaltation* for the Christian, in that they are not 
punishments to him, but the means, of his perfection. (James 
i. 2, etc.) The three stages of vrofMv^^ doxifi^nj and SXTir are con* 
sidered as proceeding from the sufferings; whilst the former 
denotes the state of moral earnestness and of faithful endur- 
ance, doxifAti relates to the state of approval as sterling proceed- 
ing from it, which bears within it hope as its blossom.'f' 

AoKtfjk^ is the act of testing, but also that state of approval as 
genuine which proceeds from trial. In the same way i^xJ/uw 
unites both significations within itself (See James i. 3; 1 Pet. 
i. 7.) Karasaxy^ca is to be taken actively, " hope maketh not 
ashamed,'" not intransitively, '* hope is not ashamed, «. e,, is 
well-founded. 

Ver. 5. This hope, thus bom in the midst of conflict, contains, 
however, within itself, the assurance of obtaining the glory which 
shall be revealed ; for, as an earnest of the same, we have already 
liere below the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. The ay ami 
rev euv is considered therefore to be only, so to speak, the secret 
presence of Ood himself in our souls, whilst in eternal blessed- 
ness God gives Himself to His saints as the manifested One. 
Accordingly, the love of Ood is not the inward life of man in a 

* RQckert Twy pointedly remftrks on this paaaagQ: ** We must not pwe awny 
Anything from the conception contained in »«tf;^«r/M, unless we wish, at the same 
time, to detraet from the powerful efaaracter of the Apostle; he is not only un- 
daunted, not only of good courage, but really joyful, really lifted up in mind, yea, 
he reckons it at an htmovr to hinutdff that tribulation befals him, for this is to him a 
pledge of future glory." But wliat an advance manifests itself here when com- 
pared with the Old Testament ! In the book of Job the doubts of the sufferer, on 
account of his sufferings, wrestle anxiously with his still weak faith, here tlie be- 
liever rejoices boldly in all affliction and even exults in it. 

t On the subject of txmt see more in the notes to Rom. TiiL 24. 

M 



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178 EPISTLE TO THE B0MAN8. 

state of exaltation, the life of his feelings raised, so to speak, to 
a higher power, but it is a higher principle which has been 
grafted into the man, the llMvfia dytov; the latter words express 
the stibstantiai cause, aydvui the actual effect; but in reality 
they are both identical, for the &ydin^ 0£oD cannot be regarded 
as separate from the essential being of God in its highest mani- 
festationy %, 6., the Holy Ghost. God's love is there only where 
He Himself is, for He is love, and does not have love as some- 
thing in or beside Himself. 

Karauifyjjm = gj^^ " to make ashamed, to disappoint by want 
of success." Rom. ix. 33, x. 11. In 19 ds iXng the article is not 
to be taken = etunj, for there is but one true hope, rather is this 
sentence to be regarded as the fourth member in the sense, " but 
hope works its own accomplishment, or has its fulfilment in it- 
self," so that the colon must be placed after xarat&x^m. The 
words on, X. r. X. (ver. 5) are not in fact to be connected with 
xara/d^uvfi alone, but with xaup^w/c^f^a (ver. 3), and indeed the 
whole passage in vers. 3, 4. According to that Pelagian and 
Rationalistic view, which is opposed to the doctrine of the 
communication of the Spirit, &yd^ 0fou means the love of man 
to God; in the Apostle's meaning it is the love of God to man, 
which however awakens in him reciprocal love (1 John iv. 19), 
not indeed proceeding from his own mere natural powers, but 
from the higher powers of the Divine Spirit. Only when thus 
taken can it be properly said, concerning love, that it is shed 
abroad, for it is identical with the element of the Spirit, and 
only contained in His manifestation. The expression ixxe^vrou 
is founded upon the image of a spiritual stream which spreads 
itself out. over men; no doubt an image, but in which there is 
this reality, that a higher power takes possession of man's being. 
(See John vii. 38, 39 ; Acts ii. 16; Is. xxxii. 15; Ezek. xxxvi. 
25; Joel iii. 1.) The movement by which the Spirit is shed 
abroad, is considered to be connected with the fjkmt¥ of the same 
in the inner man, therefore we find h not etg. The xapdta is, 
moreover, regarded as the receptacle of the Spirit, as the centre 
of the disposition and of the inclinations; for instance, vov^ could 
not be used here. (See Olshausen opus, theol. p. 156 sqq.) 
The addition of rou do^Urog rifiT^ is not pleonastic by the side of 
ixxixtJrai, the relation of the two expressions may be thus 
stated. The Spirit was given at the day of Pentecost once for 



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CHAPTER V. 6. 179 

all to mankind as a whole, but it is not therefore shed abroad 
in every individual heart, for this the personal appropriation of 
the work of Christ is first needed. The addition of r«u Mtvro^ 
fifuh is not therefore unnecessary, but expresses the possibility^ 
which is provided for every one, of receiving the Holy Spirit 
poured forth into his heart. See John vii. 39, zvi. 7. 

Yer. 6. The nature of divine love is then exhibited by the 
Apostle, in the most illustrious proof which it could give of its 
power, iu the sacrifice of the Son of Qod. It manifests itself 
therefore in the same self-sacrificing character in the hearts of 
believers also, to whom it is imparted by that Holy Spirit 
which Christ obtained for men by His death. (John vii. 39.) 
The leading thought in this verse presents no difiiculty, after 
what has been said on iii. 25, but the different readings of the 
text demand a more exact consideration. The in at the com- 
mencement of the verse has probably occasioned all the varia- 
tions with which it abounds.* In the first place, for in several 
MSS. read t/yi, others •/ ydf or i7 r/. Semler, followed by 
Usteri, concludes, therefore, that u is the right reading, and 
supposes that in the original letter of the Apostle an anacolu- 
then existed, to avoid which, some transcribers wrote in. This 
hypotheses has certainly something to recommend it at first 
sight, but at the same time, the singular position of in affords 
a sufficient explanation of the origin of the different readings ; 
and then, if we carefully examine the passage, the reason for 
which Ui was prefixed to it appears to have been the emphasis 
which this particle gives, on which account the ardent soul of 
the Apostle could not pronounce it too soon. But besides this, 
several MSS. of considerable authority, A.B.C.D.F.G. and others, 
repeat in after A^vZv. Griesbach has even admitted this read- 
ing into the text ; but it was soon rejected by Enapp, and, in 
fact, it appears only to have been adopted from those MSS. 
which had erased irt at the beginning of the verse, and were 
determined by the parallel passage in ver. 8. If we retain the 

* Compare on this point the critical essay of Profeesor Franz Ritter of Bonn, in 
the<* ZeitschriftflirPhiloeophie and Kathol. Theologie,*' Heft 19. (Cologne, 1856.) 
p. 45, See., who reckons this passage amongst the few in the N. T. to which oonjectu- 
i-al crilicism most he applied. In fAcU according to Ritter, we should here r^id 1r$ 
ykf t^rtn fifimt £r/ivi?f »ark futifiw ILftgrh vw\f iri/S^f kvitait, according to the 
analogy of yer. 8, in which the same collocation is found. But the exercise of con- 
jecture where so many critical appliances present themselves, appears justly to most 
modern critics to be altogether inadmiasible. 



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180 EPISTLB TO THB EOMANS. 

double ir/y we must explain the repetition by the strong feeling 
under which St Paul wrote, just as in vii. 21. No doubt the 
whole stress in this thought (as in iv. 5) is laid upon the fact, 
that men did not amend themselves before^ and do not now re- 
ceive the blessings of Christ, as it were, for their reward, but 
that He died for them, even whilst they were yet godless and 
estranged from God, so that this highest act of love was the 
very meana of their transformation. The difficulty that God, 
from His very holiness, cannot love the ungodly, so long as they 
remain what they are, is' obviated if we remember, that evil 
does not surely manifest itself absolutely in any man, but 
always in such a way as to attach itself to the remains of the 
image of God in him. Inasmuch, therefore, as God loves the 
proper substance of man, his true though now darkened- and 
oppressed self, He hates only that element of sin in or about 
man which impedes his free development. — ^With respect to 
the transposition of In, see Winer's Gram. p. 509. The term 
Aa&ivuv is not merely explained by Air$fiGvy but also in ver. 8, by 
itfiMpruikWy and in ver. 10, by i%^po/. At the same time, it is not 
personal transgressions which are 'referred to, which are only 
derived from something deeper, nor some few particularly sin^ 
ful men only (iv. 5), but the condition of moral weakness in 
which oil men are without exception. (See Galat. iv. 9, 13; 
Heb. iv. 15, v. 2.) Kare^ xcuf>6¥=^f\fxaifuif at the time appointed 
by God. (Galat. iv. 4; 1 Pet. i. 20; Heb. ix. 26.) On the 
signification of Ursp, when the subject is the death of Christ as 
the representative of man, see Rom. v. 15. 

Ver. 7, 8. In order to display in the fullest light the excel- 
lency of the divine love, it is compared with the most noble 
utterances of natural human love, which, however, remain far 
below it. But in the communication of the love of God to men 
through the Holy Spirit (ver. 5), is also given the possibility of 
imitating Christ in the point of loving our enemies (Matth. v. 
44, 45; 1 Pet. iL 21). Particular difficulties have been dis- 
covered, strange to say, in ver. 7, though, as Reiche justly re- 
marks, the passage is quite simple. Semler even regarded vers. 
7, 8, as interpolated; Grotius wished to read dd/xou for d/xo/ov, 
and others asked, whether 6ixam and ayaM were substantives 
or adjectives, masculines or neuters. Since the whole question 
is about persons, in the first place both expressions must natu* 



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CHAPTBmy. 7 — 10. ]81 

rally be also referred to persona And further, as regards the 
terms ^Muog and &ya^, the context plainly leads us to assume, 
that iincuoi designates the character of the righteous man, who 
performs whatever can be required of him, &ya^6s the character 
of the benevolent man, who does more than others venture to 
ask.* The first man we may esteem and respect, the second, 
on the other hand, we can love, and even earthly love can lay 
down its life for the object of its affection ; but divine love dies 
for its enemies. 

Ver. 7. The first ydp must be explained by a thought which 
is to be supplied, " but this is something noble, something un- 
heard of!'' The word rax» = /^«( is only foimd again in the 
N. T., Philem. v. 15. — The ToT^p serves to denote the highest 
degree of self-sacrifice. — "iwi&rojmt^ " to' prove, announce." See 
iii. 5. 

Yer. 9, 10. Just as in iv. 25, St Paul now again pUces paral- 
lel with the first operaticn of Christ, the dtxaiu^fgy which was 
brought about by means of His death ^ o^r part of His work, 
which is here designated as <r^miipia, and is referred to His life 
as its source. These two, as already remarked upon the former 
passage, are by no meam^ to be separated, but at the same time, 
in their very connexion they must also not be confounded. The 
first is always absolute, for although the first foi^giveness of sins, 
by which man enters into a state of grace, is daily repeated, on 
account of continued transgressions (1 John il 1), yet it is al- 
ways vouchsafed total and entire, for a partial forgiveness is none 
at all ; the eeooTid, on the other hand, is the subject of a gradual 
devdopment, and is only complete with the d^^xitrpottrtt (1 Cor. i. 
30 ; Bom. viii. 23), in Uie more confined sense of that word. On 
this very account, therefore, as has already been remarked, the 
state of grace cannot have its foundation in the new life in man, 
because this is never more than relative, and therefore can never 
give peace (ver. 1) ; where this is notwithstanding done, as ac- 
cording to the doctrine of the [Roman] Catholic Church, there 
exists continual insecurity (». e^ an uncertaiBty as to one's being 
in a state of grace), as its consequence, and this is a condition 
which the doctrine of truth rejects, because no effort can be 

* The same relaUon snbetsts in Latin between Jtuiw and btmut. See Cicero de 
offic. iii. 15. ** Si vir bonus is est, qni prodest qnibus potest, iiooet nemini, recto 
juHtm viram, 6on«is non facile reperiemas.*' 



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182 EPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

successful, which does not proceed from a heart altogether re- 
conciled, and living at pecLce with Ood. In this difference be- 
tween foigiveness of sins and sanctification, according to their 
inward nature, lies the Apostle's justification for having repre- 
sented them aa standing paraUd to each other, and drawing 
from one a conclusion with respect to the other. 

Atxaiou^ou and %ara\Xd<t<n^as are here used as quite sy- 
nonymous; the proper substance of both is the eUffA^ r&9 afbof- 
rtSiv, the negative side of the way of salvation, the removal of 
the old, of the barrier. (With respect to xaraWayi, see the 
notes to Rom. iii. 24, 25.) This transaction, an act of Ood, 
occurs whilst man is yet in the condition of an enemy to God : 
since then by means of this act the man becomes a f /Xir Stou, 
and ^ya^fibivoi (Ephes. i. 6), how much more easy is it to be 
assured that the work He has begun He will also complete in 
the ffuTfiptal Neither is this last, however, according to the 
Apostle's view, a work of man, as if God began indeed the new 
life in him, but the man himself is to continue it and complete 
it (see notes to ix. 1) ; He who is the Author is Himself also 
the Finisher of our faith (Heb. xii. 2), and indeed by means of 
His t^Mfi, %. e., His glorified life at the right hand of God. But it 
is just this climax, indicated by the ^oXkf /jmWov, which is ex- 
pressly repeated in ver. 10, which is peculiar to the present pas- 
sage (compared with iv. 25.) The thought is not to be under- 
stood objectivdy, as if Christ had more power in His exaltation 
than in His humiliation, but only eribjectivdy, according to the 
way in which it is comprehended by man. The power of Clhrist 
is equal in all stages of His life, but in His state of humiliation 
He restrained Himself from the utterance of His power, and on 
this account after His resurrection it presents itself to our hu- 
man comprehension as an increasing power. We may therefore 
realize to* ourselves the thought in this manner: if God has re- 
generated the man, it is to be hoped that He will* maintain and 
perfect him in his regenerate state, and the conceivableness of 
a falling away gradually diminishes till it reaches a minimum. 
The term (rainjp/a here, as well as &iro\vrpo»&it in 1 Cor. i. 30, is to 
be taken in the narrower sense ; in its wider signification this 
word may also include that dixaiova^atf in which lies the pledge 
of the further development of the inward life. ^urTipia, more- 
over, stands commonly alone, as the mere contrary to A^dXtm, 



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CHAPTER V. 11. 183 

but in this passage it appears in a connexion which we could 
never have expected, and this shows us how careful we ought to 
be in supplying words to complete the sense of Scripture. If &^h 
rrjg hpyrjg had not stood here, certainly no one would have sup- 
plied just these words, but probably some such as arh rfjt a^af>- 
rtag For it appears as if the dtxouoZ^ou had already relieved us 
from the wrath, and that therefore in the further development 
of the life the only question could be about our entire deliver- 
ance from the old man of sin. But however true this may be, 
it is not less true that every, even the leftst sin, has the divine 
hpyn for its necessary accompaniment. We may therefore say of 
the man who is btJuu^Hk or xaraXXa/i/;, on the one hand, that 
he as such is already delivered from wrath, inasmuch ais the 
centre of his personal being is saved (John iii. 36), but, on the 
other hand, that he remains yet under the hpyh, inasmuch as the 
totality of his being is not yet sanctified, and he needs continual 
forgiveness; the latter mode of representation is that here chosen, 
whilst the former is the more usual. 

Ver. 11. However, with this e^rti^ia^ which is only to be at- 
tained hereafteTy the Apostle once more contrasts, as in ver. 2, 
that joy already present^ which is to believers the eSrnest of the 
divino glory (viii. 24). The present blessing of reconciliation 
here below, with which is connected the gift of the Spirit (ver. 
5), is to them so sure a pledge of their future inheritance, that 
they feel as if they possessed it already. 

To ffoi6fi^6fiki&a is opposed xaux<^M'9*oi sc. hfAiv (for which later 
MSS. read xmtyfifhtda and xau;^w/cfrfv).— The climax o\» fi6vo¥ — 
AXkA, xai raises xau^acr^ai above the preceding €u^ff6/ii,i(la; the 
latter contains in fact only the mere conception of if Xfr/^, whilst 
xavxn^'s goes &x beyond this. There is no reference here to a 
new and higher object. Fritzsche and Winer wish to keep 
strictly to the participle in xauxM/icfvoi and co-ordinate it with 
xaraXkayitrii SO that both participles may depend upon ^u^eSr 
fii&oy and the following sense arise, " not only reconciled, but 
also rejoicing in God, we shall be saved.'' But the thought " we 
shall be saved rejoicing" is not very suitable, either in itself, or 
in relation to *' we shall be saved being reconciled." We there- 
fore prefer to take the participle as temp, fin., so that St Paul 
proceeds from the subject of redemption to the new subject of 

xavxviftg. 



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184 BPISTLB TO THB BOMAVS. 

BBonoHin. 
(V. la-VII. 6.) 

OF THB TIOAaiOVfl OFHOB 0? CH&I8T. 

After this description of the nature of the new way of salva- 
tion, and its effects, Paul might at once have proceeded to set 
forth how the individual man is developed upon it, which at 
chap. vii. 7, &c., he does, but that a thought mediating thisy 
which then presented, as it does now, especial difficulties to men, 
the vicarious office of Christy required a further deduction for 
the foundation of the doctrine itself. Without the idea of His 
vicarious office the whole work of the Saviour would remain 
something isolated, a beautiful act of self-sacrifice by an indi* 
vidual, without any real power for the totality, a power which 
first made it the object of a sermon to the world, and the turn-* 
ing-point of the world's history. The Apostle proves, therefore, 
this important point most carefully, and does so, fireHy, by 
bringing ChVist as the second Adam into parallel with the first, 
and shpwing, that, as from the first ein, so from the second 
grace issues, like streams from different well-springs (v. 12-21). 
Secondly^ Paul sets forth, how accordingly all that was done in 
Christ was fulfilled in the faithM themselves, who are in Him 
as they were in Adam (vL 1-11.) And, 2(u%, he infers, that 
no one, consequently, who is in Christ, can serve sin, for that by 
his very being in Christ he has died to sin and become free, in 
order to his entering a higher state (vi. 12 — ^vii. 6.) 

§ 9. PABALLBL BBTWEBN ADAM AND CHRIST.* 

(V. 12-21.) 

Aooording to the tenor of the epistle in the whole, the Apostle's 
primary object here was nothing more than to set forth Clirist as 

* Compare upon ^is important section of the epistle Hothe's Monognphie 
(Leipsig, IS86), Mid tlM Essavs of Finkb (Tfibiiw. Zeitsehrift 18S0. H. 1.% and 
Schmid (Ibid. H. 4.) 



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CHAPTER y. 12—21. J 85 

the representative of the wliole race, and as the originator of 
righteousness for all ; in order, howeyer, to make this relation 
perceptible, he sets out from the position of Adam to the human 
race, which he presumes as acknowledged; and so gains occasion 
to trace as well in its inward grownd the fact of general sinful- 
ness^ which he had brought out in chapters i. and ii. Accord- 
iiigly the following weighty section forms the foundation for 
two doctrines of truth equally important, and each supporting 
the other; for the dodbrine of original «tn, that is, the prodivitas 
pecccmd% which diffuses itself oyer the race, in the way of gene- 
ration from Adam, independently of the proper personal sin of 
men, and for the doctrine of the tnoarioiu office of Christ. As 
Paul's exposition sets out from the former as a thing presumed, 
we also take it first into consideration that the latter may follow 
upon it. Meanwhile both rest upon a common basis, to which, 
therefore, we must preyiously make reference. In a treatise I 
mean, like that in which we are now engaged, it is quite impos- 
sible to arriye at any satisfactory result, if we are divided in the 
fimdam^ital views. The hope of uniting all expositors in the 
view of this passage must be entirely given up, for the yery 
reason that there is no prevailing imity upon its principles. 
No one, however, with the best intention, can make any other 
exposition, than such as shall comprehend the ideas of the holy 
writer, with which he wishes himself to agree, in one harmony, 
that is in accordance with his principles; but this process is 
certainly far from producing a likeness of result. Of the truth 
of this assertion with regard to this passage, every one may be 
convinced by the treatise of Reiche (Comment, ad. loc. p. 409- 
446.) This learned man treats the difficult and important pas- 
sage with great industry, and certainly with unbiassed mind, 
notwithstanding he arrives at results which are in direct con- 
tradiction to the express words of the Apostle, and the sum of 
scriptural doctrine; and this for no other reason than because 
he sets out from an entirely different basis from that on which 
Paul stands. From this his different station all the expressions 
of the Apostle present themselves to him in a false light, so 
that he must necessarily fail in comprehending the whole. The 
dispute upon the differing conception of single parts is now an 
endless one, and therefore most unsatisfactory and to no pur- 
pose; yet something may surely be hoped for from a conference 



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186 EPISTLS TO THE ROMAKS. 

upon the common basis — to thia, therefore, we chiefly apply, 
and according to our plan shall touch only upon what is most 
important in particulars. 

Antiquity knew only two different stations from which to 
consider this passage, and although under altered names and 
forms with shades of distinction and modifications, the same 
have 'Continued to the present essentially like what they were, 
since the time when they were first keenly expressed; the 
Augustinian and the Pelagian. The difference between these 
two carefully considered is not in som^^ but in all points, and 
they deviate specifically upon all the great problems; any recon- 
ciliation, therefore, between them is out of the question; they 
run, like parallel lines, constantly beside, without getting nearer 
to each other. For our purpose, the following observations 
upon the interpretation of this passage result from these two 
directions. The Pelagian (whether half or whole^ it makes no 
difference here) can never conceive of mankind otherwise than 
as a sum of free, intellectual individuals, standing by one an- 
other; in virtue, as in sin, every person stands and falls by him- 
self.* The Augustinian can just as little conceive of mankind 
otherwise, than as an united whole, in which the separate indi- 
viduals are by no means disengaged substantial entireties, but 
integrating parts of the totality. If now the expositor sets out 

* Whether the &I1 of indtTiduals be said to occur in this world, or, aooording to 
Origen, in a former, is in the main all one; each individual ewer stands t>r falls by 
himself according to this theory. See thereon the admirable exposition in the 
Phil, des Rechts by my honoured colleague, Prof. Stabl, vol. 2, part i. (Heidelberg, 
1833), p. 99, &&, where he says, ^ Adam is the oriyituil matter^ Christ is the ott- 
ginal idea in God, of mankind, both personally living. Mankind is one in them, 
therefore Adam's sin became the sin of all, Christ's sacrifice the atonement for all. 
Every leaf of a tree may be green or wither by itself, but each suffers by the dis- 
ease of the root, and recovers by its healing. The shallower the man so much the 
more isolated will everything appear to him, for upon the surface all lies apart. He 
will see in mankind, in the nation, ay even in the family, mere individuals, where 
the act of the one has no connexion with that of the other. The deeper the man 
is, so much the more do these inward relations of unity proceeding from the very 
centre force themselves on his notice. Yea, the love of our neighbour is itself 
nothing but the deep feeling of this unity, for we love him only with whom we fed 
and acknowledge ourselves to be one. What the Christian love of our neighbour 
is for the heart, that unity of race is for the understanding. If sin be through one, 
and redemption through one be not possible, the command to love our neighbour 
is also unintelligible. The Christian ethics and the Christian faith are therefore of 
a truth indissolubly united. Christianity effects in history an advance like that 
from the animal kingdom to man, by its revealing the essential unity of men, the 
consciousness of which in the ancient world had vanished when the nations were 
separated." Even so; man comes not truly to himself until he comes to God in 
Christ; without Christ he remains in the element of animal life 1 



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OHAFTEB V. 12 — 21. 187 

from the first station, he has only the choice between two ways; 
eithei' to take the words of the Apostle, in this place, to mean, 
that the effect of Adam's sin and the effect of Christ's righteous- 
ness are to be understood merely as the operation of doctrine 
and example, but in no respect as really inwrought, which in- 
deed, according to his principles, they cannot be, or to say, that 
Paul doubtless proposes a different view, but that this view is 
false. Whoever, on the other hand, interprets the words from 
the second station, finds himself according to their nearest, 
simplest meaning, in perfect harmony, not merely with the 
Apostle Paul, but with the whole Scripture. That the advan- 
ta^gSy therefore, is on this ude, needs no proof; yet that alone 
certainly cannot determine any one to incline to it; but inde- 
pendently of this, the deeper truth lies in the contemplation of 
mankind as a comprehended unity, since the substantiality and 
separateness of individuals is but a very relative one, and in 
this relativeness is comprised that unity, just as the relative 
substantiality of the members of a body is comprised by the 
absolute unity of life of the whole animal organism. (Comp. 
further at zi. 1.) However, this is, of course, not the place to 
enter more particularly into this extensive inquiry; suffice it 
here to notice, that the voice of the Scripture itself accords 
with this conception by the image* of the body (1 Cor. xii. 20), 
of the vine (John xv. 1, etc.), and olive tree (Rom. xi. 17, etc.), 
whereby it marks the unity of life of the whole. But in these 
images, consecrated by scriptural use, the idea is expressed in 
a singularly illustrative manner; as, namely, in a tree not eveiy 
little branch is of any essential importance to its whole growth, 
but as many may be broken off, without causing any damage 
tu the entire tree, so also in the human race. But in two 
respects the destruction even of the smallest twig brings all the 
tree to nothing. First, at the sprouting of the seed, secondly, 
at the grafting of the tree. By breaking off the apparently in- 
significant sprout, or the feeble graft, the whole tree is de- 
stroyed. Even so, mankind has two poles of life in its develop- 
ment, the condition of which decides the state of the whole. 
Firstly^ Adam, the bud, out of whom the whole race was 
developed; his death immediately after his creation would have 
annulled mankind, the injury he suffered damaged all the coming 
racej as a bruised bud makes the whole tree grow scant and 



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188 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

crooked. Secondly, Christ, whose relation to the race derived 
from Adam is like that of the noble graft to the wild tree [ Jer. 
ii. 21] ;* could it be thought, that Christ had been taken away 
before the completion of His work, mankind would then have 
remained in their natural rudeness, just as a tree, whose graft 
was destroyed, and which now puts forth mere water-shoots. 
But if the noble graft abide, it makes the whole tree noble; all 
juices, which are guided through it, change their nature, and 
are no more wild. Men are wont to say, that parables prove 
nothing; nevertheless, comparisons often teach by depth of 
meaning infinitely more and better than all abstract atguments, 
seeing they are derived from nature, the mirror of the glory of 
the unseen God, living demonstrations, as it were, of the Most 
High God Himself It follows of course, that, according to the 
principles of these different views, the notions also, which pro- 
perly fall under consideration here, respecting the origin of 
soiiUyf must be modified. The Pelagian can only consistently 
follow Creaiianism, or what leads to the same isolating of men, 
Pra^-existentianism, for which Benecke has again attempted to 
plead. But according to the Augustinian principle we are led 
to Tradiudanisfii, which alone has any agreement with Scrip- 
ture and experience, BXidkept dear of Materialism^ is able to 
satisfy all requisitions of the Christian consciousness. The 
consequence, therefore, is, that, as the existence of this passage^ 
with its precise explanations, effected no moro for the Pelagians 
of all centuries, but their trying by subtleties to evade its im- 
port so opposite to their system ; so even if the passage were 
not there, the Augustinians would be no further from their 
principle, since it rests by no means merely on these words, 
but upon the coherent doctrine of Scripture and its inward 
necessity. 

* 4b to how far it can be said that Christ represents also the stnful tendeney in 
mankind, see the observations at Rom. riii. 3. 

t The discussion of this subject at lai^ we defer to Hebr. ix. 7, &o. I have 
only now to remark, that it would not be very difficult to get rid of the objections, 
lately made by Thohick (lit. Anz. Jshrg. 18S4. Num. 23), sgainst the tndneian 
view, from the experience of bad children bemg often begotten of good parents, 
and vice vermx; since the old man still lives even in the best, and geims of nobler 
life are resting in the wont; but individually we cannot trace, withoot prejudicing 
in some degree the mam view, by what Uw the one element or the other gains pre- 
dominance in the moment of generation. The assertion, however, that ewesj tra- 
dttcian view has materialism in it, is decidedly false, and will meet its refutation at 
the passsge referred to. 



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CHAPTER V. 12—21. 189 

A totally different position, however, regarding the questions 
which oomeunder consideration in this passage, from that occupied 
bj antiquity, has been adduced by the latest theology,* and from 
this station Usteri (Paul Lehrbegr., 4th edit. p. 24, &c.) gives 
his exposition. The latest theology is far from that mechanical 
contemplation of the world, upon which the Pelagian method of 
isolation rests ; on the contrary, in respect to the relation of the 
individual to the whole, it takes entirely the side of the dynamic 
view of the world, which forms the basis of the Augustinian 
theory. But it deviates, nevertheless, in the result, because it 
sets out from a different view of euU, As Schleiermacher's doc- 
trine of predestination could not but be quite different from the 
Augustinian, since he openly avowed the restoration ; so also 
the doctrine of original sin could not but take a different form, 
if evil, as he and the Hegel Sohool assert, is to be held as mere 
negation. Adam's fall could be no loss to him, for he had no- 
thing to lose, but only the manifestation of that deficiency which 
clave to him as creature ; the sinfulness of the race could not 
proceed from Adam's act, because all bear in themselves the 
same imperfection which made Adam's fall necessary, and they 
just as much as Adam must have been brought into that oppo- 
sition, of which it is no advantage not to know ; Christ, accord- 
ingly, worked only so far in redeeming and atoning, as by His 
divine fulness of life he made up the created deficiency in the 
creature. Infinitely more full of spirit and depth of meaning, 
however, as this doctrine of modem theology is, than the flat 
Pelagian rationalism, we feel ourselves nevertheless unable to 
make it our own, since evil, according to the Scripture, is by no 
means represented as mere negation. It is not, indeed, like good 
in its complete manifestation, substance, as ManichsBism holds, 
yet surely something real and positive ; it has, that is, without 
substantiality its positive reality in the actually disturbed sym-^ 
metry. As such real disharmony in the relations ordained by 
Qod, Holy Scripture removes evil in its origin and its operative 

* The mode in which Beneeke hai proposed the pMaege shoald be understood, 
needs but a brief notioe, sinoe it proves itself at once to be nnienable. He sopposes^ 
nameljr, as Origen, that every man has sinned by himself, not however in this world, 
but in a state of pr^enatence. The Scripture, however, dues not acknowledge any 
personal pree^xistence, it teaches rather merely a pne^xistent state of being in the 
divine mind, since Qod beholds the future as present. (Comp. thereon Epbes. i. 4.) 
The farther defence of prm-existenee by Beneeke in a letter to Ldcke (Stud. 1832. 
H. 3. p. 616, Ac), brings forward no new mailer. 



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190 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

power iDto the spiritual world ; from hence it continues to dif- 
fuse the effects of its disharmonious nature, until it finds its bar- 
rier at the element of good. Therefore is the fall of Adam set 
forth in the Bible as the opening of agate that leads to the spirit- 
ual world, so that it is not his act, outward and isolate, which 
is efficient, but that act in connexion with the frightful element 
to which it conceded entrance. So tliat, as a spark thrown 
into inflammable matter can enkindle a fire, to consume the 
greatest wood, or one stone taken from a protecting dam causes 
a whole stream to pour away ; so also Adam's sin which might 
appear so trifling. Spark and stone, without touchwood and 
stream, could do no essential harm, so without the existence of 
a kingdom of darkness Adam's sin could not have caused such 
hurt. In relation to this kingdom Adam stood, like the porter, 
holding also as he did then in his hand the keys of the kingdom 
of light; he opened that door and the lot was cast for ages. In 
the same position we behold the Saviour. According to the 
histoiy of the temptation the key to the kingdom of this world's 
prince was offered also to Him, but He refused it and opened for 
mankind Paradise instead, whereby the stream of light then 
breaking in had power to scare off the shades of former pight 
which ages had been gathering. Thus comprehended, Adam 
and Christ alone appear in their complete central meaning, as 
the Scripture sets them forth. They are the hinges, round which 
the doors of the powers of the universe move ; the poles, from 
which life and death, light and darkness stream, which reveal 
themselves as well in the totality, as in every individual, in the 
power which they exercise on the world. The life of the great 
collective body, which we call mankind, oscillates between Adam 
and Christ, ay the life of the whole universe, for Adam's fall and 
Christ's resurrection are turning-points for the development of 
it all. (Comp. at Rome. viii. 19, &c.) And even so the being 
touched by the life-stream of Christ is for individuals greater 
or less, for nations and men, the turning-point of their existence. 
If, therefore, the latest theology and philosophy are to attain to 
a complete appropriation of the substance of the gospel, which 
they are trying for as a task of highest worth, a revision of the 
doctrine of evil and a deeper foundation for it will be of urgent 
necessity. (Comp. the observations at Matt. viii. 28.) 



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CHAPTER V. 12. 191 

Ver. 12. The apostle now clearly, while connecting by 6ta VoDr* 
the foregoing exposition of the efficacy both of the death and 
life of Christ, presumes by the comparison with ua^tp the rela- 
tion of Adam to the sinfulness of the whole race as acknowledged. 
The question however is, how far Paul could do this ? For we 
certainly do not find among the Rabbins any common agreement 
upon the doctrine of original sin. They term the general sin- 
fulness ^yiffhp^ ^^^^^ ^^> " confusion, desolation," or as original 
sin 5nn "^!r»> ^^^^ ^8, " the imagining* of evil." (Comp. Bux- 
torf. lex. talro. pag. 973 and 2041.) At onetime, however, they 
refer the origin of sin in man to Adam's fall, at another they 
represent it as created with man by God.'f* Meanwhile Tholuck 
observes justly, that the latter of these conceptions could pro- 
ceed only from the theory of cabbalistic emanation, which makes 
evil appear as mere negation ; now since no trace is to be found 
among the Jews of the properly Pelagian view, that every one 
is himself the originator of his own sinfulness by personal abuse 
of free will, we may so much the more consider the doctrine of 
Adam's sin, as the causa eficiena of the sinfulness of his race, 
to have been the prevailing Jewish doctrine, for the cabbala 
kept constantly in narrower circles and the Apocrypha clearly 
shew, how much the doctrine of original sin at the time they 

* [Sinnen. See note^ where *nir is tmi8]*ted by « ConenpiMeiittt;*' ito original 
meaning is ** bilden, ./In^tfrc, form." Gen. vi. 5. oomp. Van Ebb.] See also John 
Smith*B Select Discourses, 3d edit. pp. 817, 428, 480. 

t Compare SchOttgen and Wetatein ad. loe. Tholoek and Reiohe aho have 
given copious extracts in their commentaries; the views of the Bible Dogmatists 
may be seen in Usteri, Paul. Lehrbegr. s. 25, note. Among the passages which 
refer sin to the fall of Adam, besides the interpretations of later Rabbins, to which 
certainly lees is to be conceded, and the Targums on Eccles. viL 29, Ruth. iv. 22. — 
Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 18. I, has considerable weight, where it is said : ^nlsi Adam 
peccaset, fuisset nudos et ooitnm exercuisset et concupiKcentia prava neminem iii- 
duxisset; postqnam vero peceavit et concupisoentia prava pin *iir adest, nemo nu- 
dus incedere potest*' The p*in *i)r on the contrary appears as created by God in 
Succa fol. 52, 2. " Quatuor sunt, quomm poenitet Deum, quod ilia creoveri/, nim- 
•irum captivitatero, Chaldseos, Ismaelitas et ooncupiscentiam pravam." It may be 
questioned notwithstanding, whether crear€ here, like piantare in Aben Ezra ad 
Psalm, li. 7. ought not to be otherwise interpreted, namely, to be understood of the 
negative operation of God, permission. Nothing tells more for the correct appre- 
hension of the' doctrine of the Rabbins than the circumstance that they had also 
conceived correctly the parallel between Adam and the Messiah as hb antitype. So 
in Neve Schalom, foL 160, 2. " Quemadmodum homo primus (Adam) fuit nriK 
Mvna (that is, the first or rather only one in sin, the representative of the whole sin- 
ning race of man) sic Messias erit ultunus ad auferendum peccatum penitus." The 
doctrine of the Messiah alone, in the complete form in which the Jews already had 
it, could not, indeed, consistently followed out, 'lead to any other view upon the 
origin of the sinfulness of the mce, than that the whole must have fallen in Adam 
and throvgh htm. 



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192 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

were composed was formed. (Comp. Wisd. Sol. ii. 23, xii. 10, 
xiii. 1 ; Sirach xxv. 24.) Most decisive, however, is the collec- 
tive import of the Old Testament with its doctrine of the Messiah 
and His sacrifice, which, as the Epistle to the Hebrews proves 
at large, necessarily presupposes the sinfulness of the whole race 
through Adam. For were all men bom with the same moral 
powers as were created in Adam, and did they all sin by the 
the mere abuse of their own free will ; neither regular expiatory 
sacrifices could have been beforehand ordained for all, since every 
moment some one might have proved himself to be quite pure, 
and at all events children who died in infancy must have been 
excepted, who nevertheless were just as unclean according to the 
law as all the dead were, nor could so thorough an influence have 
been derived from the appearing of One Person, as is connected 
with the Messiah. As far as regards passages like Ezek. xviii. 
1, &c., they are only apparently contradictory, for the doctrine 
of original sin on no account excludes the responsibOity for par- 
ticular sins nor a faithful use of the proffered means of salvation 
spoken of in that chapter. The doctrine of original sin does not 
say, that any one must steal, commit adultery, or such like, on 
the contrary man possesses even after the fall, according to the 
doctrine of Scripture and the Symbolical Books, power enough 
to perform opera dvilia and to abstain from positive transgres- 
sions of tne law; it only teaches, that man is unable by his own 
power to get rid of the prava concupiscentia* the evil desire that 
swells up in the heart, and the procUvitas peccandiy into which 
the mere posstbilitas peccandi created by God in the first man 
passed, when by the first sin he made room for the influence of 
darkness. 

Now, in what manner the Apostle could have put it, in order 
more clearly and decidedly to express his doctrine of the sin of 
Adam being causative of the sinfulness of his race, than by saying: 
d/'bo; dv^f'u^ov ri ajMapria itg rh¥ x66fM¥ i/V^x^e, cannot certainly be 
conceived, notwithstanding artifice enough has been employed 
upon his simple words. For instance, it is attempted to evade 
the apostolic idea, by taking afULprla to mean independently sin- 

* Luther : *' Original sin is not done like all other sins, but it is, it liveth and 
doelk all other sins.'' — And in another place : <* Thou canst do nothing but sin do 
as thoa wiliest, all which thou settest about is sin, and abideth sin, let it show as 
fine aa it may ; beginning, furthering, and finishlug is all Ood'a." 



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CIIAPTBB V 12, 

ful actions (peccata actualta\ while it designates the sinful habit 
{habitua peccandi), the expressions of which are termed a/t*a^ 
rrifiMy ra^^«rM/M(y va^a^ti. So far as the sinful habit must be 
necessarily presupposed from these expressions of it, a/uMprso^ 
mag certainly denote the sinful act, but even the following ex- 
position of the Apostle shows, that, where a sinful act is to be 
expressly mentioned, he makes use of one of those words. Be- 
sides, supposing that ofMiprta might be so taken here, the d/ ub^ 
Mfxi^ou (which thus occurs again 1 Cor. xv. 21), woiild be suffi- 
cient to forbid that the passage should be interpreted: ''Adam 
opened the line of sinful acts," whereby alone it can be brought 
near to the Pelagian view. But the modem theoiy of sin being 
create in man is contradicted not only by the dieb but the f/tf^x^i. 
Sin existed already with and in Adam, it did not come first by 
him. According to that theoiy Paul must have written, '' as 
sin in the first man first also manifested itself." — ^The ih ^v^pw- 
wog is moreover, as ver. 14 shows, Adam. If it is said, 1 Tim. 
ii. ] 4, of JE'iw, that she, not Adam, was deceived, this form of 
exposition refers merely to the relation of woman and man, the 
former being certainly the half the more accessible to sin. But 
where mention is made of the race collectively, and the relation 
of man and woman is not brought forward, Adam is named as 
the head of the first human pair, which is to be comprehended 
as unity. As consequence of sin deatl^ only is made prominent, 
in which as the head of all evil every other form of it is com- 
prised. Here indeed ^Avaro^ signifies principally the death of 
the body, as also Gen. iii. 3, 4, but this had not been possible 
without the spiritual death, which entered with sin itself.* For 
it is the nature of death to disturb and separate that which 
belongs together; in the first state indeed men had no more the 
impassibilitaa moriendi than the impossibilitaa peccandi, but 
both the poesibiUtas non moriendi and non peccandi he had, and 
this passed by sin into the necessOas moriendi and the prodivi- 
taa peccandi. Thus, while the bodily death is the separation of 
the said from the body, the spiritual death is represented as the 

* Comp. Augostine's tNfttifle hereon, in the i&nt chapter of the thirteenth book, 
4$ ehiUUB Ddi partienlarly in cap. 5, open the queetion: ** Qnod sioat iniqtii 
male ntuntar lege, qase bona eet, Ita et jiuti bene atuntnr morte, qa» mala est." 
Adam's life after his fall was even as a slow dying, that reached its completion in 
his physical death: Christ's {mtwin^it of mankind is also gradual, the height of which 
is in the gloriftcation of the body. 

K 



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194 BPISTLE TO THE B0MAN8. 

separation of the spirit from tbe sovl. This latter, howeveTy 
was not a total separation, as sin did not develop itself, as with 
the fallen angels, in man himself, but was brought to him from 
without, as in the temptation of Christ. The necessitcu pec- 
candi appears therefore first as the ^dmras Mnpos, as the high- 
est point of sinful deyelopment. The reciprocal operation of 
the spiritual and physical, which finds expression in this, is not 
however limited according to the Pauline doctrine merely to 
man, but its disturbance reacts also upon the xr/<f/s generally, 
as at Rom. viii. 17, &c., will be further shown.* But no sooner 
has the expression tig x6<tfM¥ uA'^6t been used of Adam's sin 
(where %6cfMg does not signify the universe, for sin was already 
in the spiritual world, but the world of man), than this sin is 
set in death, as its bitter fruit, as a principle penetrating 
through {lirik&si) the whole of the race, and, as is tbe course 
ivith every development, increasing and terminating in itself. 
(The ol/rwff must be taken, therefore, " according to the connex- 
ion of sin and death/') Although, therefore, Adam's act was 
not the act of an isolated individual, but the act of the race, 
since he is not to be considered as one man by the side of and 
among many others, but as the man ;t yet the continuing pro- 
gress of sin is not so denied by the sin of his posterity, but 
most decidedly established with it. Only sin itself is ever to be 
considered as punishment of sin, so that the sinning of the descen- 
dants became the very saddest consequence and punishment of 
the first sin. Had it been possible for the nearest descendants 
of Adam, for instance Abel or Seth, by perfect righteousness to 
stop tbe stream of corruption that came breaking in, to stand 
in the gap (Ezek. xxii. 30), Adam's act would then have been 
of no greater importance than any other sin, and it would then 
have been not merely fitting for the Apostle to mention any 
other, in order to make the antitypical comparison with Christ's 
act, but it would have answered even better, for instance, Cain's 

*G10ekler (p. 84) says very appropriately: ^ Sin has the power of reproducing 
itself in the next neighbour, and that to the full extent, with all its consequences, 
unless it be subdued by the mightier power (derived ttvm Christ) of that neigh- 
bour's life. Especially must this be the case with that neighbour, who owes his 
whole existence to a living organism, which is penetrated throughout by the power 
of sin. Here, conception is already a conception in sins, the first germ of life re- 
ceives already the whole shape of sin." 

t Rightly says Augustine: ** In Adamo omnes tunc peccaverunt, quando in ejus 
Datura adhuc omnes ille unus fueront." (De pecc. mer. et rem. iii. 7.) 



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CHAPTER V. 12. 195 

killing would seemingly have formed a far stronger contrast 
with Christ being killecL But every one feels that such a thing 
would, according to St Paul's way of thinking, have been quite 
untenable, for Adam's sin is to him the mother of all ^ test^ 
and therefore, however insignificant in outward seeming, in its 
essence the sin of all sins, because the greatness of the sin de- 
pends on the situation which the sinner occupies, and no sinner 
ever yet stood where eternal love had placed Adam. 

After these observations, it is clear what ought to be thought 
of the ordinary Pelagian-rationalistic view, that the addition j 9' 
^ o-aiTf^ nfMtpro¥j signifies that the sinfulness of men is not 
caused by Adam's act, but by their otvn sins. For it is evident 
that the Apostle is thinking of that sinning of all as being the 
consequence of Adam's sin, and makes this addition only in 
order to show that if any one could have been supposed who 
sinned not, as the case was afterwards with Christ, then indeed 
a bound had been thereby set to death, provided that he occu- 
pied as central a position as Adam and Christ. Excepting this, 
it could only be said that the Apostle intends to intimate that 
the unfaithfulness of men, in not resisting sin even to the extent 
tl^at they might have done, according to the moral powers still 
left to them, diffused the common sinfulness more quiddy and 
generally than otherwise it would have been. Surely, there- 
fore, if if" f is not to be translated with the vulgate in quo,^ 
and 80 this expression forms no proof in favour of the represen* 
tation of the race by Adam ; still it forms no weapon against 
this doctrine itself, which, in the connexion of the whole argu- 
ment, is sufficiently established. Grammatically, if f can only 
be taken as conjunction, as no antecedent can be fully traced, 
to which the relative could be easily applied."|* As such, i<p' f 
answers to our " indem'' (in that), = -^jiJ^^j, and signifies the 

being at the same time, or together.^ with another.§ As to 

* How little iw f would be contrary to Paul's meaning, is shown bjr 1 Cor. zr. 
22, where it is said: Jrry it rf 'AiitfL w^tnt kwdi^n^m^v^tf, §Jirm jm») b ry X^«rrf 

t GiSckler and Schmid (ad loc p. 191, &c.) would refer I^V ^ ^ttvuruf " even 
onto whidi all sinned/' that is, to make death the rtXes of sin; but this has some- 
tiling extremely forced. 

X [Zugleichseyn.] 

§ In passages like 2 Cor. y. 4, PhQ. iii. 12, iff is the conjonction also, not 
merely Ir/ with the relative, bnt it cannot be admitted to be so here. According 
to Rothe's explanation, who takes \fi*f « Ir) r«vrM iffrn, the sense would also be: 

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196 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

ffMipro¥, many are of opinion that Paul is thinking of actual sins, 
in using the word, sins which proceed from the prodivitaa pec- 
oandi; but if the r^vn;, as the representation of the whole 
chapter requires, is to be understood in its properest sense of 
the totality, and so to include children dying in unconsciousnessy 
this view naturally gets involved in extreme perplexity, and 
can only fall back upon the assertion that Paul is only speaking 
of individuals capable of sin ; an assertion, however, which as- 
suredly draws on the difficult argument, where the capability 
for sins begins.* How entirely untenable this view is, appears 
by this its own principal support in the most glaring light ! 
Augustine's theory, on the contrary, although his translation 
of «^' ^ by in quo is wrong, is here in thought impregnable. 
For the nfiMFrop signifies '* being sinful," together witi commit- 
ting sin," and it is only casual in individuals that the latter 
does not issue from the former, the being sinful remaining 
nevertheless; the sense of the words therefore is: "in that (in 
Adam) all (without any exception) sinned, and with the greater 
number as consequence thereof the original sin expressed itself 
besides in further sinful acts, therefore did death also, the 
wages of sin, pierce through to all." Taken so the imputatio in 
pcenam et reatum of the sin of Adam has its truth; taken so the 
efficiency of Christ, in whom all in fact rose again just as they 
had in fact fallen in Adam, forms with that truth a true paral- 
lel. The question how in Adam all who were not yet in exis- 
tence could sin with him, has difficulty in it only so long as the 

'Id soch wifle that, ander the oertMUtj that." Bat he asBames that all amiied 
themgeheB, Now this was not so; death Btrack many withoat their having tlieni- ' 
selves sinned, «. ^.,all infant children. But it is just on rMvnr that all the em* 
phasis in the argament is laid. Aecording to the Apostle's meaning, therefore, t» 
Murf is doubtless to be supplied, and the passage to be taken thus: since they had 
all (collectively) sinned, namely, in Adam. This sense, too, alone agrees with what 
follows, where even the difference of the sinning, of those, for instanee, who lived 
before the Mosaic law, from Adam's sinbing, is set forth. Adam acted as person, 
and transgressed a positive command of God, the collective body sinned only in 
bun; yet the punishment of death fell upon all together, as a proof, that even the 
participation in the general sin is of itself sin before Crod, although certainly in 
another sense than purely personal sin. (Upon the dassical neage of i^*f in the 
signification M rtvrf £^n, comp. Matthi»'s Gr. § 479, p. 1068; Bemhardy's 
SyuUx, p. 268; Fritzsche ad loc. p. 299, &c. — Upon the use of the synonymous iy 
ff comp. at Rom. viii. 3.) 

* The manner in which Meyer (in his oomm. ad loc.) tries to solve the difficulty, 
why children should die in infancy, if death is the consequence of actual nns only. 
Is too meagre; he supposes (p. 120): <* Paul entirely forgot this neoessaxy excep- 
tion (!)'* Elsewhere surely the memory of the great Apostle is not wont to fail 
bim in any respect. 



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CHAPTER V. 12. 197 

kolation of individuals is maintained. If this be given up, all 
takes a simple form, and in Adam every one of his descendants 
must have sinned with him, just as in the act of one man, all 
his members and every drop of blood co-operate; and in an army 
not the general only conquers or is defeated, but every warrior 
of the host conquers or is conquered with him.* 

As concerns the structure of the whole sentence &^tp has no 
apodosis. To consider ven 13 — 1 7 as parenthetic digression, in 
favour of which Reiche, after Grotius, Wetstein, and Flatt, has 
again pronounced, is harsh, because in this digression the sub- 
stance of the thought proper to the conclusion is already ^tnti- 
cipated. It is better, therefore, to suppose an anaooluthon here 
also, and to consider ver. 18 as recapitulating resumption of the 
discourse of ver. 12. So Rothe explains it, as also Winer, 
Ruckert, and others. Besides this conception of the passage 
as anacoluthon, De Wette's view is the only one which can 
claim any attention, that the second member is introduced with 
(tftfvf^, and the first presupposed from what has been said before, 
as wdiffnp occurs Matt. xzv. 14. But it is decidedly against this 
interpretation, that in what has been said before the preceding 
member has not been sufSciently expressed, to be immediately 
understood by the words : d/cb roDro wd^-fp. Moreover, with this 
acceptation it seems as though the principal reflection intended 
to be brought in view by the Apostle were, the connexion of 
sinful nuuL with Adam; but it is quite the reverse, for the chief 
object with Paul is to> set forth the connexion of the &ithful 
with Christ. Hence this principal idea must also be considered 
as resting upon the bythought,t supposed to be taken for 
granted, the sinfulness of men since Adam, and therefore an outm^ 
follow the wtf^p. But as it was Paul's intention to show the 
difierence as well as the similarity between Adam and Christi 
and further to draw the attention to the relation of the law to 
these two poles of the life of man, and the parallel resulted of 
itself from the line of argument; he let go the conclusion, and 
returned, ver. 18, to the leading thought. — In the Codd. D.E. 

* Rflokeri's explanation of ter. 12 is qaite coxreet Heiajrs, p. 218, ^ Aooord- 
ing to this vene, therefore, Adam is the ofiyinator of human sinfakiesB, and so fitf 
the iixst eanse of death; bat men have wiihal by their own sinning desenred it" 
Only the last part of the sentence is not quite sUnctly expressed, for Paul does not 
intend to allege two causes, the finning of men rather is itself founded in Adam's 
sin; their nnfaithfulness has only enhanced sin the higher. 

t [Nebengedaiiken.] 



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198 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

F.G., and other critical authorities, • ^d¥aros is omitted before 
6tri>Jw. Much maj certainly be said, as well critically as exe- 
getically, in favour of the omission; as ^dmrcg for instance is 
only subordinate,* it seems more fitting to refer d/^X^ to oL/ut^ta 
the principal idea, out of which the presence of ^Avar^ follows 
of course. But the reading 6 AdvaTo^ dirjTJfv appears the more 
preferable on account of ver. 13 being connected with the 
former by yap, since the mention of a/Aoprta afterwards requires 
^dvarog to be immediately preceding, which as mere consequence 
presupposes the cause, and as the head is named for all conse* 
quentjes. 

Ver. 13, 14. This general dominion of death, even in the 
time before the promulgation of the positive Law of Moses, when 
therefore men could not by personal transgression of the law 
incur guilt as Adam did (vii. 7), proves the presence of sin in 
mankind, through the influence of the first sin, for the righteous 
God cannot suffer punishment (that is, i^dvarof here) to come, 
where there is no guilt. These two verses are commonly 
considered as a passing observation; but such is not the case, 
according to the connexion of the subject, which has been in* 
dicated. The Apostle uses them rather, immediately to corro* 
borate the principal thought in ver. 12. That sin was in the 
world after the law he presumes as a matter of course, but even 
before it, he says, sin was there, as death proves, although it 
might have been supposed, there was no sin, because there was 
no commandment to transgress. Paul therefore clearly infers 
the imputatio reatus from the impuAatio poBnm peccoH Adami- 
tid. As far as regards the supposition of many of the most 
distinguished expositors and dogmatists, as Origen, Augustine, 
Thomas Aquinas, Melanthon, Beza, that the sinfulness of chil^ 
dren is intended here, this view, although inadmissible of itself, 
has somewhat of truth, in that the period from Adam to Mosea 
is in fact the time of the childhood of mankind. Adam himself 
before the fall occupied indeed a higher station of consciousness^ 
but after it he sunk with his descendants to a childish consci* 
ouslessness, in which not even a law could be given to men. 
Every individual has a similar period in his own life, during the 

• Rothe (p. 86) pioteBts against Utmr^t being subordinate, but the ^ rmt d/m^. 
rmt iUtmrt dearly enough makes death to be conditioned by shi; it is subor- 
dinate, therefore, although it becomes especially prominent afterwards. 



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CHAPTBE V. 13. 199 

twilight consciousness of childhood (comp. at vii. 9, &c.); never- 
theless man, like the race in the whole, ay the very child in the 
cradle, is even during this period in sin, and suffers the punish^ 
ment for sin, even death; so that here it is perfectly clear how 
the Apostle in the use of itfiMpria would not be understood to 
mean sinful independent actions, but the state of inward dis* 
harmony, from which outward disharmony, whose head is death, 
takes rise. This state of disharmony is found also in the beast, 
ay in the physical creation (Rom. viii. 1 7, &c.), but it is called 
&fi,apria only where the possibility of conscious development is 
given, elsewhere p^opd only. 

Ver. 13. Paul does not mean any absolide absence of law, as 
Bom. ii. 14, 15 shows; where, however, there is no outward law, 
it is only by very indistinct warnings that the inward law gives 
indication of itself, especially in^ the twilight life of childhood. 
Personal impiUatioh {iXXoyeTirOat) of personal acts (the unconsci* 
ous one shares only the burden of the many's guilt), is there- 
fore out of the question during such a state.* Yet a fia<tt\%ia 
$avdrcv found place (opposed to the kingdom established by 
Christ, the /?a<nX«/a ^urii), even (xa/) over those who had not, 
like Adam, transgressed a positive command; death therefore 
has naturally no less dominion over those who, arrived at a 
state of consciousness, have by their own guilt increased the sin 
which they inherited. — ^The /iri before dfiM^riicawag is omitted 
in some of the Fathers. But as all MSS. have it, and the con- 
text properly understood requires it, the omission can only pro- 
ceed from misinterpretation. — The M rf o/^o/w/wKr/ answers to 
n^?D*73 (Daniel x. 16.) With an entirely new thought: 5^ itsri 
rwrof rou fMKXovrog, Paul now passes to that statement to which 
the representation of the efficacy of Adam^s sin is intended 
merely to be a foil. Christ and Adam bear the relation of 

* The acceptation of \xx»y$7r^M proposed by Usteri (fourth edit, of the Paul. 
Lehrbegr. p. 42) and Gl0ckler (p. 82), instead of the teplaoation given here, and 
oorreedy put forth by Rtickert also, is quite inadmissible. They would have it to 
be understood not of the imputation of God, but of the self-imputation of men, so 
that the sense should be: ** Without lav, man does not impute sin to himself, that 
is, he is not oonscious of it as such, heeds it not, therefore, and does not take it duly 
to heart.** This, however, does not agree with the context, because it is not the 
subjective Judgment of man which is there treated of, but the Judgment of God. 
God indeed allows death admission to all men, because it is the conseqaence of the 
collective guilt contracted through Adam, but the individual guilt of men is not 
yet punished, as is shown by the instance of Gain and Lamech, the law being wanting. 
(Comp. upon the Ta^i^a at Rom. iii. 25.) 



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200 - EPI8TLE TO THB ROMANS. 

antitype to type, or as a Rabbin says : t^d «Vt CHjA T^D 
r r ^ ttJ an — ^^^^ i® • "*^^ mystery of Adam is the mystery of the 
Messiah/' The elements of forgotten typology are becoming 
more and more recognised, and cannot, consistently with truly 
historical exposition, be overlooked in the New Testament. 
The Old Testament is a /i^o^f «<r/f r?^ AXfiMag to all the writers of 
the New Testament, and according to this principle Christ must 
naturally appear as the second Adam (1 Cor. xv. 46), the whole 
race being represented by him after a spiritual manner, just as 
by Adam after an outward manner. Now the point of compari- 
son between Adam and Christ here is manifestly the passing of 
sin and of righteousness from them upon all. Accordingly this 
passage must present great obstacles to Benecke's doctrine of 
praB-existence; he is obliged, therefore, to have recourse to the 
forced interpretation, that fiiXXovroi must be taken as neuter, 
soil, /cyour, so for Adam to be called a type of the race to come, 
because all sinned like him. How arbitrary this construction is, 
is evident. 

Yer. 15. The relation between the efficacy of Adam and that 
of Christ is however with all similarity still a different one; the 
power which appears in Christ is one of incomparably greater 
might.* But this preponderance is not, with Qrotius and 
Fritzsche, to be referred to a mere logical More of possibility 
and certainty, but to the intensive power of grace. First ofcdl 
(ver. 15) it shows itself stronger, in that in Adam's sin the 
principle of righteousness merely is manifested, but in Christ 
the overflowing element of divine grace. Need (ver. 16) Adam 
produced mere negative effect, but Christ positive, forgiving 
the many sins by His sacrifice. Ay, not by forgiveness merely 
does He operate, but also (ver. 17) by communicating a new 
and higher life. Then follows, in ver. 18, 19, an antithetic 
repetition of the whole thought, Here accordingly Paul asserts 
the idea of the vicariotis office of Christ, with which the doc- 
trine of the satisfaction expressed Rom. iii. 24, 25, is so closely 
united. For were Christ one man beside and among many others, 

* The whole eipoeition given here may be need in favour of the doetiine of tlie 
restoration. Since namely Adam's sin came in fact to all, its power would appear 
greater than the power of Christ, if the wicked could resist the latter, and it pene- 
trated all. That would, however, lead to the gratia irretistibiHs, which Paul does not 
teaeh, as will be shown at ch. ix.; we must, therefore, with regard to the greater 
power of grace, lay emphasis only on those points which are brought forward. 



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' OHAPTBB V. 15. 201 

it were indeed ineonceivable, how His doing and suffering could 
have any essential influence upon collective humanity; He 
could have worked only by doctrine and example ; but He is^ 
besides His divine nature, to be conceived of as ^ Man, that is, 
as realising the absolute idea of mankind, and therefore potenti- 
ally bearing mankind in Himself «pmtua%, just as Adam did 
corporeally. This character of the human nature of Christ is 
designated in dogmatism by the term imvpersonalUas^ and Philo, 
anticipating the profound idea, described the Logos as rh %ar 
aki^tiw M^^Mnv^ that is, as the idea of man, the human ideal 
According to this His universal character, the Redeemer be- 
oomos in twofold respect vicarious; * first, in that standing in 
the stead of sinful men, by His own suffering he takes their 
suffering on Himself, as sacrifice for the sins of the world; then, 
in that He perfected in Himself absolute righteousness and 
holiness, so that the believer does not generate them afresh, but 
receives their seed in the Spirit of Christ. The former is the 
cledientia pasaiva, the latter the obedientia acHva. The latter 
will be further treated of at ver. 19; of the former it is to be 
remarked, that it is commonly said of Christ in the language of 
the New Testament : Mrip ifMf &vUa¥$. Meanwhile it has been 
already noticed at Matt. xx. 28, that n^/ also, dt^ and even 
Atr! is used. The most of these prepositions certainly can signify 
no more than " for, in behalf of,'' but in Avri the signification 
" in the place of, instead," is clearly prominent, which, accord- 
ing to ver. 7, and 2 Cor. v. 20, v^p also undoubtedly bears. But 
according to the antithesis here carried through of Adam and 
Christ, it becomes perfectly evident that the Apostle conceives 
the life and death of our Lord as vicariotMf so that what took 
place in Him, in fact went on in all (2 Cor. v. 15.) Now the 
reason for putting the expression p^apid^ahere (ver. 15) in oppo- 
sition to rap^ffT«/*a (the sin of Adam), as also ver. 16 parallel 
with dctf^^a is, in order that the circumstance of its having been 
done once for aU may be marked in the act of Christ's love, in 
opposition to the sin committed once for aU by Adam ; the effect 
of the termination fut being to denote this-i* Long intervals 

* In both rektiona the power of Christ fai Ha tnunsitioii hito manldad is to be 
eompered with a moTement proceeding from a centre, concentrically diiAising It- 



self. Christ brings His dmiA and rtawrtdiom to every individual, the former for 
the old, the latter for the new man. 
t Compare Buttman's large Gram. B. iL p. 814. The syllable /*$$ denotes the 



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202 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANB. 

decide not on mankind's destinies, but moment^ ; even so also 
in the life of individuals and nations there are precisely-limited 
moments in which the determination to better or worse for long 
periods is at stake, parting-ways which for long spaces condition 
the development to come. 

O/ ToXXo/ (with the article) is equal to rdvrtg above ver. 12. 
As Augustine cont. Jul., vi, 12 says : omnes revera sunt multi. 
Without the ^article, indeed, a part only of the race could be 
meant,* but with it the expression has regard to the preceding 

Xap/^ is general, the love of God in its utterance towards sin- 
ners, dwptd its special utterance in the mission and the work of 
Christ. ntpt(f&9vu is not to be taken transitively, as Paul cer- 
tainly uses the word (2 Cor. ix. 8; Eph. i. 8 ; 1 Thess. iii. 12), 
but, as ordinarily, intransitive. The aorist is put, that grace in 
its historical manifestation in the work of Christ may be set id 
the balance against aTt^avov, the operation of justice. 

Ver. 1 6, 1 7. But there is a further distinction between Christ's 
efficacy and that of Adam, in that it operates not merely nega- 
tively but positively, justifying mankind from the infinitely many 
transgressions, yea even imparting to them anew and higher life. 

Ver. 16. The reading afiaprtifiarog is found instead of kiiapTn- 
tfavroiy arising doubtless merely from the seeming incompleteness 
of the antithetic member, a/ kvhf dixalov must certainly have 
been added to dwprifia, if the sentence were to have been filled 
up. Kpifia is the operation of the divine justice objectively con- 
sidered, which could but show itself as xardxpifjM after Adam's 
the first man's sin. According to the antithesis ix voXKSfv vapor 
^(afidruvj the only word that can be supplied after Ig IvSg is «-apa- 
vrtafAarog, In the ix toWuv vapavr/Mdruv, .^oXkuv is not to be 
taken as masculine; the many sins rather are opposed to Adam's 
one. The preposition, however, is not to be construed in either 
case in the sense of " proceeding from," but it is to be under- 
stood ''on account of, in consequence of;" so that the 
sense is: ''in consequence of one sin the operation of 
God's justice passed into condemnation, in consequence of 

abstract^ f$m the ooncrete, pm flaeiuates between both. This with referenee to 
Rothe's opinion, who thinks this oonoeption of x^^P^ <uid ^^nfM eapricions. 

* GlOckler's obserTation is wrong, when he says that «*•»«; oould not be osed, 
because the one is taken out. For it is the same thing at ver. 1 8, and yet irivrff 
is used there. Besides the one continues to belong to the whole^ nay he tf the 
>\ hule. 



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CHAPTER IT. 12—19. 203 

the many sins among mankind the operation of God's grace 
passed into justification/' * The use of hxai^fiM here and ver. 
18 is peculiar, as was observed at Bom. iii. 21. Commonly it 
signifies that which in a particular case is bixaiw^ therefore "sta- 
tute, ordinance, JvroXii." But here it is used, as d/xa/ai<r/^ ^w^g in 
ver. 18 shows, like btxouot^ig = rh dixaiovv, .Tn y y . This deviation 
from the common use in the passage before us is founded in the 
structure of the whole sentence. The Apostle's point was, to 
contrast the act of Christ's efficacy to the act of the fall; now 
dixaiufia expressed the momentary better than dixatotursg. — ^Yer. 
17. The dative ^apairroifiari denotes the caum efficiena of death, 
3/a ToZ h6Q designates Adam as the organ, through whom the 
cause became operative. So was God also through Christ the 
causa efficiens of His work (2 Cor. v. 19). The dixatotrvvfj is that 
which is worked in man by the d/xatufftg = hxaiufia of Christ. — 
By an easy turn of the parallel, instead of putting ^wj? itself as 
the reigning power in opposition to the reigning tf(£yaro^, the 
ZfivTH are represented with Christ as those who reign h rji fia^i* 

Ver. 18, 19. Finally the Apostle once more comprises in these 
verses this great contrast between Adam and Christ, and in so 
doing not only lays the emphasis upon the efficacies being each 
wiiversal^i' but indicates also, that the hixaiottv}^^^ and ^«^, which 
he had just before treated abstractedly as separate moments, in 
the concrete fall into each other, only with this distinction, that 
the 5txai(ij(fis constantly appears as absolute, no degrees being 
conceivable in the forgiveness of sins, the ^uii on the contrary is 
represented as gradually growing perfect. — In ver. 19, the idea 
which grounds this whole passage is expressed in altered terms, 
and with a distinctness, which renders Paul's real meaning more 
perceptible than all he has said before.:t ^ot the personal 

* If i| itit and in T9kx£f are to form an antitheBis, it might be sappoeed whether 
the many sins did not designate those merely which brought Christ to the cross ; 
tmly, bnt this was done not merely by the sins of those who lived at the time, bat ' 
of all men of all times, so that it comes to the same thing. The emphasis in this 
verse, moreover, is laid on )<»«/iw^«, God did not only forgive the sins, bat he mad^ 
the sinners righteous. 

t As mV«xx«i is said as well of Christ as of Adam, t. «., <ri£vnf , it most be said, to 
evade the restoration, that mention is made here of the divine purpom in the work 
of the redemption, not of its ruulL (Comp. upon the restoration more particularly 
at ix. 1, and xi. 25. 

t Yet Usteri says (p. 27) even of this passage, that it says no more than: ** tlwt 
in the sinfulness of Adam, which first made itself known as actual conscious sin in 



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204 EPISTLE TO THE KOMANS. 

transgressions of individual men, but the disobedience of Adam 
was aione the foundation of all being sinners; and just so the 
reverse ; the personal striving of individuals could not make 
them righteous (for the very best effort of man's own powers 
remains powerless and defiled without Christ's support), but the 
obedience of Christ is the only effectual cause of the righteous- 
ness of all. No expression can be imagined by which Paul could 
have himself more distinctly defined vers. 12 and 16, and pro- 
tected his meaning from erroneous conceptions; if notwith- 
standing he has not succeeded in preventing them, the cause of 
the failure can only at last be found in the heart's resistance to 
this doctrine, bringing as it does to nothing all man's self-suffi- 
ciency, a resistance which even unconsciously asserts itself while 
interpreting such passages. — The expression uraxo^ applied to 
Christ deserves a closer consideration here, as the question re- 
garding the obedientia nctiva and pcLseiva is connected with it 
(Comp. PhiL ii. 8.) Now we must certainly allow, that the 
doctrine of the obedientia activd cannot be proved from this 
passage, for the nearest signification of v^mxt^ in contrast to 
fl-apaxo^ (Adam's eating of the fruit) must be the obedient sur- 
render of Christ to death, as the once done act of love, to which 
Phil. ii. 8 also has reference. Nevertheless the doctrine of 
the obedientia activa has foundation in the Scripture, only it 
must be laid on other passages, for instance Rom. viii. 30. The 
wliole life of Christ as such is His work, and even His death, as 
the summit, receives its significance only from its connexion with 
the perfect life of our Lord. As death and resurrection, so are 
even in this whole life the active and passive obedience of Christ 
related, it being however borne in mind, that the distinction is 
not an absolute one, since the highest passivity cannot be ima- 
gined without activity, nor the latter without the former. 

Yer. 18. ipa nZv is, according to Bible use, placed at the be- 
ginning of the selitence, which certainly is not conformable to 
classic use. (Comp. Rothe ad loc. p. 1 36.) — In ver. 18 also, xpf/jko, 
and ;^(£f>/0/Aa ipx^rai are to be supplied after ver. 16. As to xara- 
cra^tfwrai in ver. 19, xa&ttn-aff&ai certainly signifies "to be set 

the tnuiBgreflsioii of a positiye eommaDd, Uie sinAilDefls of the whole huDuai Datare 
was brought to fight." How the words %tk rUf ^a^mM$tis rtv Uit could be chosen to 
express such a thought ss this, the fouudation of which is the false assumption that 
sinfulness belongs to the character of the creature, is inconceivable. 



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OHAPTBR V. 20. 205 

forth as somewhat, and by the setting forth to be pronounced to 
be somewhat/' so that the expression is parallel with Xoyf^ttrfieu 
hf dsKouo&iffiv. But as the discourse relates to the operation of 
Ood, it must be borne in mind, that Qod cannot pronounce any 
one to be what he is not; so far xoB/^a^k^t, like xak»Ts6au^ hofid- 
Z^t^ai^ coincides with tJvou. 

Ver. 20. The Apostle's readers must naturally after this ex- 
position have felt it requisite to ascertain, in what relation then 
the law, which is also a divine institution, stood to the principal 
turning-points of the world's history.* Paul therefore briefly 
touches upon this question, although in chap. vii. he discusses it 
at large. His view is briefly this : the import of the law is in 
its being a preparatory step of the life of faith, it comes in be- 
tween Adam and Christ, to awaken the consciousness of sin, 
and thereby to sliarpen the longing for redemption. (Comp. at 
iii. 30, and vii. 24, 25.) The chief object, therefore, in its being 
given is not that it may be fulfilled, for no one exists, who could 
keep it in its intrinsic meaning, as it is set out in the Sermon 
on the Mount, and a half or improperly fulfilled law is before 
Ood a law not kept at all (Gal. iii. 10), although the prevention 
of gross sins is before man not unimportant (Gal. iii. 19); but it 
is to be the waulayoy/hg $}g Xfierw (GaL iii. 24). In so far, how- 
ever, as it is of divine, eternal nature (vii. 12), it continues even 
for the &ithful the absolute rule of the development of life. 

In the fi-apf/dix^y not only its coming in between is indicated, 
but also that it was something beside, and not absolutely neces- 
sary, for in the efficacy of Christ the law is given also; its ante- 
cedent promulgation by Moses was only to facilitate man's way 
in getting to Christ. — ^The ^mfdrr^/Mi is remarkable, for the law 
was certainly to enhance sin inwardly^ but the outward bursts of 
sin were to be checked (GaL iii. 19) and not increased by it; yet 
w^a^rr^pM cannot signify the sinful state.t Doubtless therefore 
the expression here must be taken thus; the law indeed is not 
purpoeedly to multiply the outbreaks of sin, but they are not- 

* The treaUae, Gml iiL 19, fte., is quite % penOlel to tbie; the eommentuynpon 
it may be oompamd here. 

t Rothe'a aappoattioii miiat be conaidered faulty, aoeording to which the wm^i. 
wrmfui m to mean Adam's wm^^wrmff more and more derelopiog itaelf, and diffuaing 
itself aooording to its effects. In treating of the operation of the law npon the 
sinful state, the actoal sins of single indiTiduals only, but not the coUeetiTe aet of 
Adam, can be intended. 



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206 BPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

witlifltanding the inevitable consequences of it (vii. 8) ; now, 
inasmuch as th^ consciousness of sin is awakened by it, the 
transgression itself may be also regarded as an object of the law. 
It is inappropriate to take Iva merely i x/3ar/x»(, it is clearly con- 
trary to the Apostle's meaning to consider it as mere conse- 
quence, as chap. vii. 8, etc., will further show. He regards the 
law as a beneficial medicine, which forces outwards a disease, 
which is raging undiscemed in the noble parts within.* On 
account of the aorists oZ is taken better with Grotius and De 
Wette in the signification "as/' instead of "where:" the Apostle 
is speaking of the regulations of Ood quite in their objective cha- 
racter, the subjective conception of them does not come into play. 
The aorist i^XtSva^ goes on, therefore, to the fact of the killing 
of the Son of God, in which sin actually reached its summit, but 
at the same time grace set forth her over-measure, in that the 
salvation of the world was gained and made sure by the highest 
sin. Rothe endeavours to explain the aorists from the circum- 
stance, that the sentence, in his opinion to be taken as paren- 
thesis (oS — x^^'^)» contains a thought expressed as an axiom or 
proverb. But this is contradicted by the peculiar constitution 
of the thought, which has its place entirely within the Pauline 
theory, but has nothing at all of a proverbial character in it. — 
*Tffif^ip/<r<nuw is to be taken like tXiovcc^w intransitively, in the 
signification " being rich beyond." In the passages 2 Cor. viL 
4; 1 Tim. i. 14, the parallel vvt^Xtovdf!^oti occurs, 

Ver. 21 . The absolute reign of grace, therefore, to eternal life 
(vi. 22, 23) is the final aim of redemption through Christ, while 
till then sin reigned to death. 

The strict antithesis would have required c/V ^d»arov or h l^ufi, 
but h denotes expressly, that sin itself is spiritual death, tig makes 
the aim more prominent. — The dtxaminffi is taken as the means 
by which grace exercises her dominion. But at the very founda- 
tion Christ Himself is considered as the holy Instrument, 

* Angnstine correctly expreases himself upon the relation of the law: ** Data esl 
lex ad oetendendnm, quantts quamqne arctia vinenlia peccatonim constrieti tene- 
reotnr, qui de suis Tiribiia ad implendam juetitiam pmBumebanL" Equally bo 
Calvin: '* Erant quidem homines naufragi ante legem, quia tamen in suo interita 
sibi videhantur natare, in profundum demeni sunt, quo illostrior fieret liberatio, 
quum inde pneter humanum sensum emergant Neque yero abeurdum fuit, legem 
hao partim de causa ferri, ut homines semel damnatos bis damnet; quia nihil jus- 
tins est, qnam modia omnibus addud homines, imo couTictos tirahi, ut mala sua 
aentiant." 



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OHAPTBB VI. 1 — VII. 6. 207 

through which the reign of life is realised; inasmuch namely as 
the Father who sends the Son into the flesh, is acknowledged 
as the First Cause of the decree of grace. 



§ 10. THB BELIEVBfi IS DBAD TO SIK. 

(VI. 1— VII. 6.) 

It is not likely that the passing notice of the law and its rela* 
tion to grace (v. 20, 21), induced the Apostle Paul in what fol- 
lows to proceed to refute the error, that we might continue in 
sin that grace should abound. It answers far better to connect, 
as Rothe does (p. 49), the subsequent words with the leading 
thought of chap. v. in this manner: ''What shall we say, then, 
in this state of things ? Namely, seeing that justification through 
faith in the redemption by Christ according to its specific opera- 
tion is essentially the sanctification of believers. Shall we, 
therefore, yet think of continuing in sin?" The Apostle then 
prosecutes the refutation of this error in such a manner, that 
the principal idea of the section, the vicarious rdcUion of Christ 
to the collective whole, always continues in the foreground, and 
forms the main of the argument. Although, however, accord- 
ing to the tenor of the epistle in the whole, the treatise that 
follows can form no more than an accessory part, it is notwith- 
standing of the highest importance for the practical application 
of the Apostle's doctrine of justification by faith without the 
works of the law; and this indeed not merely at that time, but 
in every time, and especially in the present. For firstly, there 
are never wanting persons who, in fact, miswnders^nd this holy 
doctrine, and through misunderstanding misuse it. Whether it 
be that stupidity, or which is perhaps more common, more or less 
unconscious impurity is the cause, certain it is that many con- 
strue the doctrine of justification as though they now had leave 
to live on quietly in sin, as if Christ would make a man blessed 
with sin, which is itself unblessedness, and not from sin. No 
one has ever consciously taught such doctrine, because it is in 
fact too absurd for the lowest grade of spiritual development 
not to acknowledge the perverseness of it; but insincerity of 
heart makes the consciences of many dull, and in such a state 



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208 BPISTLE TO THB ROMANS. 

they apply the doctrine falsely, and turn grace to wantonness. 
(Jude ver. 4.) But, secondly, this treatise is no less important, 
because the opponents of the doctrine of justification regard this 
abuse of it as one necessary to it, and essentially founded in it, 
and think themselves obliged therefore to combat the doctrine 
as an extremely dangerous one. In this error are found not 
merely all thorough rationalistic-pelagian theologists, but others 
also, who with no living experience of the nature of faith and of 
justification, are animated by a kind of legal jealousy, and flatter 
themselves that by their own effort they can soon attain, if they 
do not already exhibit the type of absolute perfection. For every 
one, however, who is willing to see, the apostolic doctrine may, 
under the guidance of this section, with very little pains be 
perfectly justified; on the other hand, indeed, no help is to be 
found against impurity of heart, or against the conceit of self- 
righteousness, unless grace itself reveals to hearts their secret 
sins; at least the statement of the Apostle has not itself been 
able to prevent tlie errors either of the former or of the latter. 
Meanwhile the Scripture fulfils even by this inability one of its 
purposes, that, namely, of becoming, like Christ himself, th^/otf 
of many (Luke ii. 34), not to destroy them, but by revealing to 
them their most secret sins of impurity, or of-HConceited self- 
confidence, to save them. 

^ Ver. 1, 2. Without noticing any particular party — ^such as 
Jews or Jew-Christians only — ^the Apostle proposes the question 
quite generally, as one proceeding from impurity of heart in 
general, — whether according to what had been said the meaning 
be, that sin could be continued in, in order to let grace have its 
full power? He answers this question most decidedly in the 
negative, by designating the faithful as those who are dead with 
respect to sin, who cannot therefore live in it any more.* This 
idea of the faithful being dead, Paul carries through to ver. 11, 
and that in such a manner as to regard the death of Christ not 
merely as a symbol of the death of the faithful, but as a real 
event in themselves, of which they are partakers, as they are 

* So GalTin, when be justly obeervee: " Plusqoam igttur pmpostera eaeet opens 
Dei inversio, si oeessioDe gratice, qcus nobis in Chiisto offertur, peecatom vires col- 
ligeret. Neque enim medicina morbi, quern extinguit, fomentum est.*' Yet man 
can hardly believe in the power of Christ without law; henoe Luther ssys well: 
** The multitude will have a Moses with hoiTis;" that is, the law with its frighten- 
ing power. 



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OHAPTBR YI. 3, 4. 209 

also of HiB resurrection through faith. Here then is man feet, 
how keenly and with what thorough decision Paul conceives 
and applies the vicarious office of Christ. He is mankind ; what 
came to pass in Him, in fact went on in all, in Him are all dead, 
have all suffered death for sin, in Him are all risen itgain and 
have received the new life. The history of Jesus therefore is a 
living continuing history, since it is livingly repeated in every 
one. (1 Pet ii. 24.) According to the Pelagian interpretation, 
this passage is understood only of the resohe or the vow of ab- 
staining from sin, which was entered into at baptism. But Paul 
would clearly contradict himself by such a thought, for down to 
iii. 20, he had shown at large that man is incapable, by mere 
resolve, to renounce sin. According to such an acceptation, 
moreover, even the d^At^m in the passage, Rom. viii. SO, could 
not be conceived as a thing already past, but it is put in the 
aorist, just as all the other moments are. The Pauline idea 
doubtless is, that our Lord in those words upon the cross, " it is 
finished,^' declared the work of atonement and redemption to be 
accomplished not merely for himself, but also for all believers of 
all times, so that whoever believes in Him as surely died with 
him,* as with Him rose again. Such a postulate, too, is not 
merely admissible or the like, but necessary [as a consequence] 
from the idea of the vicarious office, that as in Adam all fell, so 
must all die and rise again in Christ, for He was themselves. , 

Oriesbach is right in putting the reading iirtfihufjkiv into the 
text, and Lachmann also; while other codd. read %*{fi»%tmiuu^ ivi- 
fMWfjuv, $wifA$9ovfMv. Tho last is the reading of the text, reo., and 
has distinguished critical authorities also in its favour; it must, 
notwithstanding, be considered inferior to the first. 'Am^^xuv, 
like l^f rm (ver. 10), is, even in profane authors, the usual figu- 
rative mode of expression for *' entertaining or breaking off con- 
nexion with any one.'' But the following exposition shows, 
that Paul does not merely mean the expression figuratively, but 
conceives it inwardly indeed, yet quite really. Khrfi by itself 
might have stood for iv alrji. 

Ver. 3, 4. In proof of the affirmation above, Paul appeals to 

* The old man is not to be gndnally Banetifled, but rnnst die m eiimer, as Luther 
aptly says: ** Flesh and blood abideth ever and erer uudean, until they fetoh shovel 
strokes upon it;" that is, until ii is dead and buried. And in another place: " We 
must scourge the old man and strike him in the £sce, pain him with thorns, and 
pierce him through with nails, until he boweth his head and giveih up the ghost.** 



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210 BPISTLB TO THE BOMAKS. 

the conscience of his readers with regard to their own experience. 
They had gone through, he says, in baptism the death, nay, the 
burial of Christ with Him, as also the awi^kening up unto a new 
life.* In this place, ^Iso, we must by no means think of their 
own resolutions only at baptism, or see no more in it than a 
figure, as if by the one half of the ancient rite of baptism the sub- 
mersion, the death and the burial of the old man — by the second 
half, the emersion, the resurrection of the new man — were no 
more than prefigured; we must rather take baptism in its i'n- 
ward meaning, as spiritual process in the soul. That which was 
already objectively fulfilled on and in the person of Jesus, the 
same is appropriated subjectively through him in faith to man; 
he experiences the power as well of the sufierings and of the 
death, as of the resurrection of the Lord (Phil. iiL 10). Ac- 
cordingly this efficacy can only be ascribed to the baptism of 
grown persons, and in their case it coincides with regeneration; 
in the baptism of infants a spiritual influence certainly is al- 
ready wrought upon the child, but the personal appropriation 
of the power of Christ does not take place before that later 
awakening and conversion, the necessity of which confirmation 
prefigures. 

The 6V¥frd^7i/igv is only a stronger expression for ^dyarog. The 
burial withdraws the dead person entirely from view, and is 
therefore, like annihilation. (Comp. Rom. viii. 17, Col. iii. 1, 
2 Tim. ii. 11.) The fiavrm^fau %h Xpt^h\& (comp. at Matt, 
xxviii. 19), is only more clearly defined by the /3a«r/atf?ww tt^ 
rhv ^dvarov avrov, as by the cuvra^^vas avrfi itg rh¥ ^dmrov. The bap- 
tized person vows himself to the whole Christ, and Christ him- 
self wholly to him, consequently death and resurrection become 
equally man's. The tU 6d¥aro¥ is not to be understood therefore 
= ilg visrif 0a9drov, but of death itself, the participation of which 
surely is meditated by faith. The d6^a roD ^rarpog appears as the 
awakening power, that is, the whole fulness and majesty of His 
Being, for even in the creation of the world the divine proper- 
ties show not such splendour, as in the redemption and raising 
up of Christ. nip/^ariTk means the abiding continuance and 

* ROckert's obsexration ad loo. \b qnito just; that the Aposde li not saying here 
what Christians have done at their baptism, but what has been done to them in 
baptism. 

t Against Bindseil's observations upon this formula (Stnd. 1822, pi 410, &o.), 
comp. the striking refutation of Fritzsohe ad b. I. p. 859, not. 



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CHAPTER VI. 5 — 7. 211 

living )u the xoufirng ^«?g (2 Cor. v. 17, Gal. vi. 15, Eph. ii. 15, 
iv. 23), which forms the contrast with the old, sinful state, which 
is in itself properly a death, so that in the regeneration death, 
which has in itself a positive power, is, in truth, itself killed, that 
is, the life of pure spirit is born« 

Yer. 5. Upon the necessary connexion of the one with the 
other, the Apostle then grounds the proof, that where the death 
of Christ shows itself effective. His awakening life must be also 
powerful (comp. 2 Cor. iv. 14), for it is life only that kills the 
old man. 

ivfifvrog is only found in this passage in the N. T.; in profane 
authors it occurs, like tft/^tf u^;, very often in the signification, 
"grown to, grown together, thence united, bound together." 
This sense is perfectly suitable here; the faithful are considered 
as grown together with Christ to one unity.* Instead of Christ 
himself, first o/M/cv^Men ^avArov only (that is, 6/xo/«^, or BfMiot $a¥d-' 
rov), and afterwards &va<frd(nui is used, because, the efficacy of 
Christ is represented by these two halves. It is inappropriate 
to take the dative as instrttmentai here, and to found ^^fi^vrw 
ytyovafitf upon it. Tholuck asserts, that according to the ac- 
ceptation proposed here the &¥ci(tra^if must then be applied not 
merely to the spiritual, but also to the bodily resurrection. But 
we need not hesitate at that (comp. at Rom. viii. 11), since the 
bodily dvdtn-aifif is but tiio height of the expression of the ^oii^ 
of Christ in man (comp. at John vi. 89.) 'AXXA xa/ is not to 
be taken as merely inferring, as Ruckert and Reiche correctly 
observe, but to be explained rather from an w fjk6vov latitant in the 
first part of the sentence, since the resurrection, as the life, is 
more powerful than death (comp. at v. 10, 11.) The reading oipM 
xa/ has arisen merely from a correction. 

Yer. 6. 7. But at all events t}ie service of sin must be out of 
the question with one that is dead; for death, the sum of all 
punishment, necessarily frees every one from sin^ on account of 
which it is suffered. 

Touro ytffi^Mvrtg = oux dyvcovvTM^, " since we know for certam," 
Suwtfraupwtfij, a stronger expression than 0dvar&f, which is partly 

* Calvin observes rightly on the pMiage : *• Insitio non exempli tantun oonfonni- 
tatem deeignat, eed areanam oonjanetionein, per qoam cam ipso ooaliliimuB, ita at 
noe spirita suo yegetans ejus virtutetn in nos tnuisfnndat. Ergo ut sureulna com- 
munem habet vit» et mortis conditionem cam arbore, in quam insertos est, ita 
▼itn Christi non minos qoam et mortis participes nos esse consentaneam est. 



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21 2 BPISTLB TO THB ROMANS. 

chosen to point at the death of Christ, partly to describe the death 
of the old man as a painful and ignominious one. The ra>Mthg 
Mpuirog forms the contrast with the iiaMf (Eph. iy. 24), answer- 
ing to the j^t) ^n M*njl» ^7 which the proselytes were desig- 
nated. In consequence of the doctrine of regeneration this 
name was assigned in a higher signification to the faithful. In 
the passage Bom. vii. 21, &c., the relation of the two will be 
treated more at large. I only observe here, that this contrast 
is by no means identical with the o l^u and 6 Uu Av^ptanr^ (Rom. 
vii. 22), for this latter has place as well in the noatural man, but 
the first only in the regenerate, KarapytTg^at = (fuvra^^va/, to be 
entirely done away, annulled in its efficacy. The opinion, that 
here in the eZ/ia rng St/jkaprsag, the body as the seat of sin in and by 
itself is intended, in favour of which De Wette has again deter- 
mined, is sufficiently refuted by Reiclie.* After the auvi^avfuhi 
the xarapyfj&fi cannot have any weaker meaning; according to 
De Wette it is no more than "to make inactive." In the 
stronger and proper acceptation, the thought however is untrue, 
for the body subject to sin is not to be annihilated in the pro- 
cess of regeneration, but to be glorified. It were a forced ex- 
pression to say, that in its very glorification the sinful body is 
actually annihilated and absorbed by the spiritual body. Here, 
therefore, perhaps the Hebrew usage of Q^y or pi^ might be com- 
pared, by which the reality and substance of a thing is denoted. 
Meanwhile it is simpler to interpret ^ufia by carrying out the 
complete image of the crucifixion of sin, so that it is itself con- 
sidered as embodied. Thus Theodoret, later Eoppe, Flatt, 
Benecke, Reiche. Ver. 16, &c., the service of sin is described 
at length as 3ouXi/a,f The whol6 of ver. 7 is wanting in some of 
the Fathers, but it is without doubt genuine, and omitted only 
as being merely explanatory; as such it cannot have reference 
immediately to the spiritual, but to the physical death. The 
latter, however, is certainly comprehended in its analogy with 

* We shall exprew onnelves more at \tkrge at the cloee of the 7th chapter, as 
to the relation which, according to the Pauliue conception, the hodily substaoce 
bears to sin. 

f At the words rtlS fmniri hvXtvuf Calvin obserres: " Unde sequitor, nos, qoam- 
dia snmus Adn filii ac nihil quam homines, peccato sic ease mancipatoe, at nihil 
possimns aliad, quam peccare ; Christo Tero insitos a miaera bac necessitate liberari; 
non quod statim desinamus in totum peecare, sed at simns tandem in pugna su- 
pertorcB." 



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CHAFTBB YI. 8, 9. 213 

the spiritual death. In thinking of the physical death notwith- 
standing, we are not so much to consider that the sinner is free 
from sin^ that is, that he cannot sin any more, for the expres- 
sion MixatMrou has too decidedly a judicial relation. We are 
to consider rather a sentence of puntshment to which Christ's 
death also leads; whoever died in consequence of this, he, even 
although he returned to life, is acquitted from sin on account 
of which he was condemned,* for he has expiated it. (Ouilt 
before men, I mean, is the only thing spoken of in this sentence, 
and the satisfaction which is made to civil justice; not the divine 
eternal justice.) So is man also dead in Christ, and as a dead 
man, incapable of serving sin. So, therefore, justification stands 
in no contradiction with the law. According 'to the law the 
sinner must die, and even so he dies, who is justified through 
Christ; only in the dying of the old man the new gets life. 
Upon dii(feu6v(t&ai &^6 comp. Acts xiii. 39. 

Ver. 8, 9. In the certainty, therefore, of death with Christ 
lies the certainty also of life with Him, that is, of His life in us, 
for in Him dwelleth the fulness of infinite, immortal life. En- 
tirely the same train of thought is found 2 Cor. v. 14, &c., from 
which repetition may be perceived what deep root it had in the 
Apostle's mind. (When the believer in his immediate consci- 
ousness is certain of his death with Christ, the litnmg with Him 
[tfv^j^ir], although its germ is likewise present in him, is yet so 
far something future, as its complete development extends into 
the ^«f) a/fitfv/o^. But the firm ground which this faith has, is in 
the unconquerable life of Christ, which he sheds without ceasing 
on His own. — In the ouxir/ xvp/iiii it is signified, that death cer- 
tainly had dominion over Chri8t,t in that he really died, but 
not by the necessity of nature, but by freely giving up Himself 
in love (John x. 18; Phil. ii. 7). Tet even in death life could 
not be holden of death.) 

Ver. 10. The relation which Christ, the 5«i? (John i. 4,) bore 
to death, on which our hope of life rests^ is yet more nearly de- 

* In entirely the same sense the Talmud ssys: ''Posfqaam mortaos est htntnot 
oeoBEt » prmeptis. Sehabb. fol. 151. 2 (oomp. Meiuchen, N. T. e Talmade, Uliutr. 
page 170. 

t If theologians of the Heformation befieved that death had dominion over Jesus 
until the resurreetion, their opinion rests opon a fitlse conception of the descent to 
hell and its import (Comp. at 1 Pet. in. I8.» Our Lord appeared among the 
dead as ah'eady conquei-or over death; God is not a Qod of the dead, but of the 
living, niaj also be said of Him. 



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214 EPI8TLK TO THB BOMANS. 

£ned, namely, that His death, the once-suffered death, came 
to pass only for our sins; hut what* he liveth, he liveth to God. 
There is no difficulty in the first half of the verse ; the idea of 
xupaUtv (ver. 9,) leads the Apostle to a closer description of the 
death of Christ. He died not for Himself, hut ybr men, that is, 
for the doing away of their sins, not often and for ever, but 
, once. (Heb. ix. 12, 26, &c.; x. 10.) The greatness of His 
sacilfice outweighed by His dying once mankind's eternal 
death. In the second half, however, the tji r^ &if causes a 
difficulty, some antithesis being looked for to i^dtra^y or at 
least to afjMpT/a, but to neither does the ^p rf %%f seem to 
afford any. Now the antithesis to i^d^a^ may lie in the pre- 
sent tense by its expression of continuity. The rf 0if is not 
so easy. For if the words are to be construed: ** He liveth /or 
God, with regard to God," this did Jesus even on earth, and 
in His heavenly Being He lives again not less for men, than 
on earth. The whole thought then appears somewhat irrele- 
vant; Htxatottvni might, as it seems, have been better opposed to 
afiapria. The only tenable acceptation of the passage seems to 
many to be that of the Fathers. Chrysostom, and after him 
Theophylact, take rp etf as h rf, BvvdfAn rov eitfu, that is, ihrough 
God; taken so, the idea certainly of eternal and imperishable 
life, which the context requires, comes clearly into view, for 
God it is who only hath immortality, (1 Tim. vi. 16.) But even 
so, there arises no antithesis to afiapria, and then, too, ver. 11 
does not come right, where t^fv rf et^ is said of men, and where 
notwithstanding it can have no other sense than ver. 10. Ac-, 
cordingly we can only say, that to live to God is the same as 
" to live to righteousness," namely for the purpose of furthering 
it among men, whereby this sense results: Christ died once for 
sin, that is, to extirpate it, and lives eternally for God, that is, 
to further righteousness. Death is then as at v. 10, 11, under- 
stood as working forgiveness, and the resurrection, righteous^ 
nes& So in ver. 11 this is applied to the human standard, and 
understood as a dying off from sin and a living for God. 

The ^ is best taken as accusative of the object in the sense, ''in 
as far as, in respect that," so that in the first member the ^dp^i 
in the other the tntZfia, is to be understood. Thus the passage 
becomes quite parallel to 1 Peter iii. 18, fiavaruM^ fih eapxi, 

• [Or in 90 far as, in retpect that. Eng. V. " in thftt." B.] 



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CHAPTER TI. 11. 215 

1^oMinin^9i^ df wnvfMkn (oomp., too, the parallel 2 Cor. xiii. 4). 
Reiche takes it so only in the second member, but the anti- 
thesis requires the same in the first as well. To complete the 
antithesis, some would construe rf ofUL^ricf also : " through sin'' 
(comp. upon the ablative use of the dative Winer's Gram. p. 
194). But the parallel raxpo/ apMpricf^ ver. 1 1, forbids this, just as 
we observe upon ^v ei^s, which cannot be to live through God. 
Ver. 11. Hitherto Paul had conceived and set forth the rela- 
tion of the faithful to sin quite in the abstnict, and accordingly 
said that what came to pass ii^ Christ, in fact came to j>ass in 
all believers. As Christ died and rose again, so are also all, who 
are incorporate in him through the laver of regeneration, really 
dead in the old man, can therefore, as being dead, serve sin no 
more, and live really in the new man. But the relation does 
not so purely show itself in the concrete case. As doubtless the 
kingdom of God, which has peace, righteousness, and happiness 
in its train, exists on earth, yet peace, righteousness, and hap- 
piness have not yet dominion upon earth; so may also the new 
man» Christ in us, truly live in an individual man, without having 
yet the absolute dominion. Rather does the process of the dying 
of the old man extend itself over the whole earthly life, as well 
as that of the new man's growth in living ; each of them is the 
condition to the other, and their consummation is reserved for 
tAo^ life beyond, since without the glorification of the body (Bom. 
viii. 11), it is impossible. Therefore the life of the believer ex- 
hibits itself as an oscillating between two poles of life; its result, 
the final completion of the new man, as well as the complete 
death of the old, reaches beyond this present life. To this rela- 
tion, as it appears in the concrete, the Apostle passes with the: 
X«7#^f d^s f avrov^ mx^ov^ For even as iii. 21, etc., he had repre- 
sented abstract bixaiwfny and then iv. 1, etc., in the >.07i^f<rtf«/ %h 
^xeuo^vnv considered it in its concrete growing in man, so it is 
repeated here. This passage is therefore most highly important 
to the comprehension of the Pauline doctrine of the old and new 
man, which is especially treated of vii. 8, etc., in the description 
of the course of development in the new man. The common 
view already spoken of, vi. 2, that the Apostle is treating here 
of purposes and vows merely, to forsake sin, and to practise 
righteousness, as they were promised at baptism, has its ap* 
parent support in the circumstance, that in what fjpllows the 



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21 6 BPI8TLS TO TUB ROMANS. 

dtflcourse assumes an imperaiiye form. Paul exhorts to forsake 
sin and to serve righteousness (ver. IS, 18, 19)| he presumes 
consequently, it is said, that such is by no means the case yet^ 
but had only been promised in good purposes. Thence it is in- 
ferred, that no real vicarious power is ascribed to the dying and 
rising again of Christ, but that it has only the weight of an in- 
fluential example. But the conception of the true relation be- 
tween the old and the new man, gives a perfect insight into St 
Paul's mode of expression. Where by regeneration an Jfv^fOMrv^ 
xoivos isjbom, there the man is cqrtainly no more sub lege (ver. 
14), though yet by no means in lege, since even the new man 
needs for this a full development, in which he first gets absolute 
dominion ; he must rather walk constantly cum lege, and by no 
means suffer his own will to loose him from the law, for against 
this, vii. 1, etc., he is warned, as against a spiritual adultery. 
Just as little, however, may he fall back again into a legal state, 
which is the Apostle's censure among the Qalatians, for so fear 
rules him instead of love, and his works do not flow forth of 
thankful love for love, but are the means to him to merit 
blessedness. Tet the aspect of the old man still mighty in him 
tempts him continually to such rdapse into the state tmder the 
law; therefore the Apostle gives here that wise precept, pre- 
venting equally both stray paths, so continually in faith to re- 
gard ourselves, as being absolutely dead to sin, that is, in other 
words, constantly to appropriate Christ in faith, as Him who 
makes sin dead, and gives the new man life. By this continual 
action of faith the new man is constantly nourished by powers 
from above, and the I* is engaged in a continual Exodus from 
the Babel of sin. This considering ourselves as dead for sin, 
however, is no comforting self-^eeeit, but it is a spiritual opera- 
tion fuUy true, answering throughout the aim of Christ, with* 
out which altogether no real sanctification, that gaining above 
all of thorough humility and divesture of all selfishness, is pos- 
sible. For it has its truth in this — that the germ of the new 
man created in regenera£ion in fact is absolutely pure (1 John 
iii. 9), and salvation is not to be consid^ed as depending on its 
development, but the degree of glorifisation only. (Comp. more 
particularly thereon at 1 Cor. iii. 11, etc.) Therefore may the 
beUever, although he knows that he is capable of a greater de- 



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CHAPTER VI. 12 — 14. 217 

velopment of the new man, look towards death without anxict j 
for bis salvation, because this depends not upon the degree of in« 
dividual development, but upon the fiuthful laying hold of Gt)d's 
objective decree of grace, which can neither be increased nor 
dimini9hed, but abides unchangeable as Qod himself. This X07/- 
(<0#f iavrovQ nx^if^ rji afut^Ht^ f^Stfra^ St rp Bt^ is besides SO much 
the more an urgent admonition for aU, as it is in the very life 
of the most advanced that often times of heavy combating set 
in, in which their new life in God is quite hidden from them- 
selves, and they seem left with sin. These are the sifting times 
to hold up and keep the victory, through that faith, that does 
not see^ that against hope believes in hope, (iv. 18). 

The addition rfi xv^i<ft ifMv is wanting in the oldest and best 
Codd. Perhaps the words have found way into the passage from 
Utui^cal use. Whether the stop be placed after v/Atra or after 
ftfurou^ makes no difference to the thought ; after v/AtTis is the 
more simple as to grammar. 

Ver. 12-14.* Sin, therefore (with retrospect upon ver. 1), is 
no more to have dominion over him, who does not live under 
the law, but under grace, than death over Christ (ver. 9) ; for 
him there is access to the higher power of life in Christ, which 
is stronger than sin (v. 1 5.) But the Apostle purposely chooses 
the words jSaAXiufiy, xvptiw here, to signify the relation of the 
believer to sin. For the law is able to check gross outward 
transgression of it {ipya ^ovnpA), and in it a man, even without 
grace, can perform opera externa and civUia; but even under 
grace a roan may not entirely avoid and check finer expressions 
of sin, hastinesses in words and deeds, sinful desires and impulses, 
since the old man at times represses the new, and checks him 
in his efiicacy. Hence there is need of the constant cleansing 
and ever renewed intercession of Christ (1 John ii. 1), of daily 
repentance and forgiveness, as they are expressed in the Lord's 
Prayer, and symbolically represented by the washing of the feet. 
(Comp. at John xiii. 11, etc.) From this state, however, the 
dominion of sin must be distinguished, that is, its iree unre- 
sisted sway in the life of the man; this in the regenerate is 

* From rer. 12 the principal ideas of sin, UDrighteousneaa aod righteoosnefls 
hare asBumed almost personal forms ; in order Uiat this personiBcation may be 
distinguished, Fritzsehe has had them not unsuitably printed with capital initial 
letters. [As Fritzsehe wrote in Latin, the capitals would ha?e a significance in his 
work, which they have not in German. B.j 



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218 EPISTLE TO THE B0MAN8. 

utterly inconceivable. (Comp. at vii. 26.) The whole repre- 
sentation in this passage (as in the following 16-21) is so man- 
aged that the man never appears as absolutely independent as the 
natural man is disposed to consider his state, but as constantly^ 
governed by an element As any one, who is swimming in a 
powerful stream, notwithstanding his wilful exertions, finds him- 
self compelled to follow the course of the current; even such is 
the condition of the unregenerate man in this world's sinful 
stream ; he receives his course from the &px^* ^^^ x6^fMv rourov, 
and is incapable of freeing himself out of this stream, however 
he may be able, by applying his powers in true practice of law 
(which affords him the attainment of a justitia civilis), to pre* 
vent his sinking deeper and deeper into the mud. But if the 
higher and redeeming power of Christ has drawn him from this 
sinful stream (vii. 24), he stands not then, as it were, absolutely 
isolate and independent; but a new stream receives him, though 
a holy, blessed stream of divine light, by which it is the highest 
freedom to let himself be governed and swayed. In sertnce, 
therefore, man is always; and there is no middle state between 
the service of sin and the service of God. Man has either jW^i- 
fication, or forgiveness of sins (and with it life and salvation), 
entirely, or he has it not a;t aK.* Sanctificaiion only, which 
springs from living faith, as fruit of love returned, has its de- 
grees, may be pursued more earnestly and lukewarmly; but this 
does not determine, as was observed before, the state of grace, 
salvation, but only the degree of glory in salvation, (1 Cor. iii. 
12-15). This is the apostolic and evangelic doctrine, which 
no force and no prudence can protect from misunderstanding 
(whether it come undesignedly from ignorance, or designedly 
from insincerity of heart), but which nevertheless remains the 
way which aJone leads to God, and upon which the sincere and 
humble cannot err. The erring of the insincere upon it, as well 
as tlie offence which the proud take at this way of God, is most 
properly, as was observed before, one among the aims which the 
Lord pursues in having this word of reconciliation preached (2 
Cor. V. 18, etc.), for Christ is to be as well the rock on which 
the proud are shattered, as on which the humble stay them- 

* Rightly says Luther : " Wliere tliis article is gone, the church is gone, and no 
error can be withstood. If we stand to it, we have Uie true, bearenly sun, but if 
Me let it go, we have then nothing but hellisli darkness." 



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CH APTBR VI. 1 2 — 1 4. 21 9 

selves. The key, however, to this mystery, that the doctrine 
of reconciliation, without exacting works, begets in the mind 
the purest works, lies here; that love awakens love again and 
strong desire for holiness. Thereby the striving of the man 
leaves off being a heavy, bitter toil;* he no more struggles tiiat 
he may be saved and please God, but because he is become, 
without deserving, saved, and acceptable to God in the Beloved 
(Ephes. i. 6), he works for love as if the matter were his own. 
So there are but two states of the man (ver. 14); he is either v^i 
¥6/Aov, or iMri x&9n. Under the scourge of the law he deals in 
works, and serves for hire (iv. 4), but according to the strict 
right of retribution he fares by it but very badly; if he is 
tempted he falls, and sin has rvle^ even though the better con- 
quers now and then. On the other hand, under grace, the man 
indeed is tempted, but he crniqyLerSy even if now and then sin for 
once tells upon him. 

As regards the expression h rp ^rip hftZn fi^ftMri^ h%rh ^u/t^a is 
used entirely = <rdp^ (vii. 18), or rA fiiXri (vii. 23-25). But this 
is by no means to say that, according to Pauls view, sin is to be 
sought for in the body, and its sensual impulses alone; it is in- 
tended rather to be signified only, that it commonly makes it^ 
self known in the body by the excited sensuality. (Comp. more 
particularly thereon at Bom. vii. 17.) By the cZfia, however, 
the character of mortality is put forward in order to contrast the 
sinful body, and, as sinful, especially exposed to all temptations, 
with the sanctified organ of the glorified one (viii. 11). The 
words must not therefore be construed, '* let not sin reign in your 
body/^ as though the body were distinguished as the place 
where it should not reign, for in viL 25 the body is described as 
still subjected to sin, even in the regenerate ; but they are to ber 
connected thus : " let not the sin revealing itself in your mortal 
body reign, so that ye yield to it, but oppose strong resistance 
to it from the spirit.'^ '£» rp ^ftirp v/im ffdfiart may therefore be 
supplied by oZca or oUov^a, At the close of ver. 12, the Codd 
vary much. Some have only avrfi, others only raTg i^i^fifatf 
avrov, others both together. One dative only can be received, 
for the blending of the two in the text. rec. by an additional h 
is certainly inadmissible. Goschen has declared for the recep- 

* iSckaanMrken^-^m word which we cannot profeaa to translate, except conjeotnr- 
aUy.~B. Perhaps « Taskwork." See Adelnng.] 



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220 BPISTLB TO THS BOMAKS. 

tion of ra7( ivi&vfiiaig avrou ; notwithstanding, the .addition of a 
dative might be more easy of explanation than its omission, as 
the mere infinitive seems somewhat bare, na^t&rdtou^ to pre- 
sent or exhibit one's self forth, that is, to give up or offer for 
disposal. The choice of the word Mm proceeds from the image 
of a contest, which lay at the foundation of the Apostle's ex- 
position. (Comp. Eph. vi; 12, &c.) The addition itg U nnpSh 
i^Stvrai refers to the fact that the service of sin is only possible 
in spiritual death ; where life is, there is its longing for the 
fountain of life. 

Yer. 15-16. After this statement, the Apostle expressly re* 
sumes the question from ver. 1, only with this modification, that 
he draws the Christian's relation to the law more decidedly, 
with regard to the last-mentioned contrast of vvh ¥6fjkw and (nri 
X^i9 into consideration. For as the decree of God In Christ is so 
hard to be comprehended, not merely to the Jew, but to the man 
generally, since he does not easily get rid of the conceit that 
righteousness and salvation must be At^ work, not God's act; so 
also does the opposite Antinomian error lie very near him, that 
if then man is not saved by the law, but out of grace, sin is 
something indifferent, the law something useless. To this error 
the Apostle, in what follows, opposes the reasoning, that if the 
man be no more vrh dfMv, he on no account lives without the law, 
or above the law, but in and witk it. The man's state is undsr 
the law, when it meets him, like a strange thing, from without, 
and, by its rigid commandment, checks and confines the life 
that resists it; this is not in itself a false, though a subordinate 
state, which is to bring on the higher one of the life in and witk 
the law. For in this state, the law establishes itself as the in- 
ward principle of life itself; it appears as written on the tables 
of the heart, and as one with the will of the man. Without law, 
or altogether above the law, the man can never be, for the law 
is the expression of the divine essence itself. Upon this deeper 
conception of the nature of the law, Paul also founds his ail- 
ment, in which, although he does not use the terms h Hfi,^^ di^r 
y^/ft^, he, in fact, expresses the idea which they denote. He re- 
futes, namely, the question, whether we shall sin, because we are 
not under the law, but under grace ? by saying, we are in the 
very state of grace made free from sin, and become servants to 
God {ho\ik<a0ivT9i Btf, ver. 22), and therefore can serve it no more. 



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CHAPTBB lY. 15, 16. 221 

This thought of the service ofOad, or, which is the same thing, 
of righteousness, must not, however, he again understood as an 
ofUward relation of a servant towards God, as under the 
dominion of the law, for this is just what grace has overcome 
(viii. 15); but as an inward one. The soul of him who is living 
in the state of grace serves God, inasmuch as He makes abode 
in it by His Spirit, which is His own Being (John ziv. 23; Rom. 
V. 5), and so becomes the determining principle of its life. 
Now, as the divine Being has the law not in itself or beside it- 
self,* but, being divine, is the law itself, so also the regenerate 
man has the law itself essentially in himself, in the indwelling 
of the divine Spirit, as the moving, governing power within him 
(Rom. viii. 14), and cannot, aa euoh, act otherwise than perfectly 
(1 John iii. 9). But this state, indeed, appears, as such, in no one 
here on earth ; for as in every regenerate man the old man is 
living still, so also moments occur in the life of every one in 
which it pushes back the new (1 John ii. 1). The service of 
God in Christ still appears to the old man as a yoke (Matt. zi. 
30), because he feels that it leads him into death ; yet if he is 
loosed from the divine law, he feels his state imdisciplined. So 
understood, the whole of the following passage gains the strictest 
consistency with itself, and with what precedes it ; to the false 
iXfu^f^/a (Gal. V. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 16) is opposed the true, which is 
the very dependence upon God himself. 

The reading otfiMpr^ffufiktv has certainly weighty authorities; 
for instance, the Codd. A.C.D.E. and others. Notwithstanding 
it is probably only a correction of afukftrnsofnv, because the future 
seemed unusually appUed here. But it is to be understood here 
of the possibility or admissibility of being ignorant "f of the law. 
The conjunctive of the future, besides, is not found in the N. T. 
except in various readings. (Comp. Winer's Gr. p. 69.) The 
first half of ver. 16 seems pleonastic, but the doCXo/ itrt f vira- 
xovtn is to be understood as the consequence of ^apiardveUf so that 
the sense is : ** to whom ye yield yourselves to obey, to him ye 
must then pay obedience.'' Thus the dependence of man as 
creature is held to view; he serves always, if not God, then 
sin and its prince. (John viii. 44.) He cannot, however, at any 
moment he would, release himself from his service, to whom he 

* [An sicb Oder mhen rich.] 

t Ignorirm — rather, perha|>8, a ihutting on^M t^ft against it, — B.] 



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222 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

once yielded himaelf; but the power of that element^ to which he 
gave in, either of good or evil, binds him. If the sinner feels the 
heavy yoke of sin, often would he be quit of it; but as he hates 
only the evil consequences, and not sin itself, he continues 
bound, and sin becomes punishment of sin. If the Christian 
feels the bitterness of the Cross and of the world's contempt, 
which befalls him, the wish may at the same time rise within 
him, Could'st thou be again as thou wast before! but the power 
of grace holds him to his good, and so becomes its own reward. 
Ver. 16. the antitheses a/Maprttt and uraxoi}, &d¥ar^ and dixcuosivfit 
are not strictly chosen. However, as it is clear, according to v. 
19, that the very nature of afAapria is vapaxwi (comp 1 Sam. zv. 
23. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft), its contrast may be 
v^axofi. And to ^dfarec, as spiritual and bodily death, as con- 
summated fruit of sin (ver. 21) not less aptly is opposed iixat^ 
^ffi = dUatof fTvat, the essential internal state of righteousness^ 
as in germ identical with the ^on) a/uwof (ver. 22), which is not 
merely to be hoped for hereafter, but begins already here. — ^The 
omission of i/f ^dvarov in D.E. and other authorities may doubt- 
less be accounted for by idvaro^ not appearing to the copyists to 
form an antithesis to bixatMhvn. — The fro/ is = % the earlier 
writers usually put ^ro/ once only, the later also use it twice. 

Ver. 17. This salutary turn, then, Paul continues, has, God be 
thanked (vii. 24), taken place with his readers, they have felt 
the service of sin, and are become obedient to the truth. The 
same holds good of all the truly converted ; the old is passed 
away, and a new life is begun. In the passage vii. 24, 25, this 
transition will be more particularly represented in its pecidiar 
character. 

In the ^rs douXo/ the preterite has its full force, so that the for- 
mer state is understood as past ; for even if sin is not thoroughly 
removed from the believer, yet it has no dtmtinion, but is wnder 
dominion to the man. — The i^axouc/ir is == doDXd^ than roD Oiou ; 
in order, however, to distinguish it from a mere show of life in 
faith, the Apostle adds Ix xaphta^ (= ^a*? ^35 Deut. vi. 6), 
where by the entrance of the whole being, with the centre of 
the personality, into the gospel, is intended to be marked. — The 
expression rhvm htbax^i is peculiar for thayytkiw. The significa- 
tion •'form, type," namely, does not suit the verb ucaxoui/i', it 
should have been said seemingly: "Ye have shaped yourselves 



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CHAPTER IV. 18—20. 223 

to the form of doctrine/' But in the inraxoiMf this idea, in fact, 
is latitant, for as the servant of sin accepts its image in himself, 
so also does he who obeys the truth receive her form within him. 
Commonly, indeed, the 0. T. is called rwro^, as type of the New 
(1 Cor. X. 6; Heb. viii. 5), but the N. T. itself may also be called 
Titroiy inasmuch as the life of the faithful is formed after it. — As 
to the construction^ wrdMvttv is never construed in the N. T. with 
t/ff, but always with the dative; it is more appropriate, therefore, 
to connect th with raptMn^t, which has an equal signification 
with hg 'rapMhi dg. iffiai or u/a7v, SO that by ^'apadiioa^at the guid- 
ance of divine grace, which leads men to the gospel, becomes 
marked. This certainly uncustomary use of vapadidoir&ai has 
induced Van Hengel, drawing his analogy from Rom. i. 24, 26, 
28, to think of a being-given-over to errors, which however can- 
not possibly be meant by r{rtrog btba')^^. The accusative rhm^ 
stands according to the proposed solution of the construction by 
attraction for ru^(^. 

Ver. 18-20. To the/afae freedom, which the natural man is 
wont to find without the restraint of the law, the Apostle op- 
poses the truBy which consists in the deliverance from the yoke 
of sin and in the service of God and of righteousness, which His 
Spirit creates in man. This conception of dixaioavvri as a new 
dovXita, Paul justifies by the necessary condescension to the 
standard of liis readers. The notion of iXtuhpia (John viii. 36) 
might have been conceived by them as absolute and unbounded 
licentiousness, therefore he describes it as a new and nobler 
bondage,* as the Redeemer also Himself (Matt. zi. 29, 30) re- 
presents it as the taking on of a yoke, of a burden. The earthly 
life of the believer, since the real iXsvhpia never comes com- 
pletely to view, is represented with perfect truth as the going 
under a t^uycg or popr/or, only it is easier than that of the 0. T. 
For although God's commandments are not grievous to the new 
man who lives in love (1 John v. 3), yet the I f continues still 
bound up with the old man, and so far is sensible of a iouXs/a 
of 6txouo<r{tffi, Not until with the impossibility of sin the absolute 
perfection comes, and God in Man is become all in all, does the 
iXnhpia r?? 3ogjjf r. 0. (Rom. viii. 21) appear. Yet there is not- 
withstanding even in the earthly life of the believer a specific 
diflference from the natural state to be observed; in the latter, 

* [Gebundenheit] f [Das Icb.] 



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224 EPI8TLB TO THS BOMANS. 

although with some good, the man expressly and unresistingly 
served sin; in the state of grace, although he sometimes fall,* 
he serves as ezpresslyf righteousness to his becoming perfect. 

The parenthesis: Mforrmv yJya k. r, X, has reference net 
merely to the figure generally, but also to the constitution of 
the figure, as Biickert rightly observes. The MfilMrtfw therefore 
can only be ==s xar Mpmrw (comp. iiL 5), but on no account sig- 
nify, as Origen, Chrysostom, Wetstein, Semler propose, " what 
is to be performed by man, possible for man,'' for Paul requires, 
what no man can perform, absolute righteousness. — ^The Mtma 
T^t ifo^c, however, cannot be understood with Beiche of mere 
weakness of intellect, which we have no warrant whatever for 
attributing to the Christians of Rome; there is intelligence, 
indeed, treated of here, but the circumstance to which it refers, 
is of that kind, that the comprehending of it is hard even to 
men of strong intellect, if they ate wanting in the inward ex- 
perience, and easy to those of weak intellect, if they possess it. 
idf^y therefore, is the whole sinful nature of man, whereon more 
particularly at vii. 18. Paul again calls the /c*iXiy asver. 12 the 
ffZfAOj in order to denote the coming of the evil desire into act, 
in which sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James i. 
15). — 'Afca^ap^a and &¥Ofi,ia signify the more passive and active 
side of sin, where enjoyment or violence prevails. In the t!g 
n)v iivoflJa¥ the idea of &vofiJa is extended and becomes the entire 
contrast to dytacfUg; so that thereby the nature of sin is desig- 
nated as that of opposition to law.| But the Apostle with pro- 
found perception makes this as the bloom to be bom of sin 
itself, for sin conUnuaUy brings forth sin, only she produces 
figures ever more frightful from her teeming womb. Even so 
does dtxaio^vfi also generate by degrees more gloriously, until 
she becomes dyia^fUi. (Comp. upon a/ia^t/v at John xiii. 31 ,32.) 
This expression denotes here, as 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4, 7, the state 
of being holy, which arises in the holy God's communication of 
His holiness to man (1 Pet. i. 16); but so far as the being holy 

• [Ps. xxxYii. 24, P. B. vera.] 

t Exoelleot are the words of Anselm, ad loo., which Tholaek qvotet : ** Sicut ad 
peocandom tos nollos oogebat timor, sed ipsius libido voluptasqae peceali, me ad 
juste yiyendaxn non vos supplicii metus urgeat, sed ducat delectado jostitiae. Si- 
out ergo ille iniquissimus, quem ne poenn quidem temporalM deterrent ab immun- 
diH operibus, ita justififtiiuus ille, qui ne poenarum quidem temponUium ttmore 
revocatur a ssnctis operibus.*' 

t [Gesetzwidrigkeit.] 



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CHAPTBB VI. 21, 22. 225 

proceeds from a gradual development of the new man, ayia^fiof 
is used also for the becoming holy (2 Thess. ii. 13; 1 Cor. i. 30; 
1 Pet. i. 2). Ao0Xo( is only found here in the N. T. used as an 
adjective. 

Ver. 21 , 22. In order that the difference of the two stations under 
the law and under grace may be brought still more decidedly 
forward, the Apostle points, in conclusion, to the final result of 
their development. He designates it as fruit, according to the 
image pervading the whole Scripture, according to which man 
in his moral constitution is compared with good or bad treeS| 
(Ps. i. 3; Is. Ixi. 3; Matt. xii. 33; John xv. 1, etc.; Bom. xl 16, 
etc.; Jude 12.) This image, therefore, is most highly signi- 
ficant; because it comes most powerfully in opposition to the 
Pelagianism so convenient to fallen human nature. The na- 
tural man» without knowledge of himself, of God and of sin, 
fancies that he will by his own power and able exertion produce 
a virtue, which shall be able to stand before God's judgment; 
he knows not, that necessarily and naturally he can bear no 
other than evil fruit, as the wild tree can only bring forth woody, 
bitter fruits. For, if he succeeds most perfectly in his striving 
after virtue, it brings in its train lovelessness and conceited pre« 
Bumption, and so has just as much death for its reward, as if 
fleshly transgressions defiled his life. The beginning of that 
truth, — ^whose fruit is holiness, and, being no less conformable 
to nature, proceeds from inward organic necessity, with which 
true freedom is one, — is for man ever the confession, that the 
principle of death rules in him, and that life must first be 
brought into him. (vii. 24.) 

T^f and in, ver. 20, answer to the i^ v6/mv as vw does to the 
bwh yjkfn fJio/. Paul does not name the fruit of sin itself, as no 
expression parallel to ayta^iU^ presented itself to him; hence 
arises the inexact connexion by if' oTi;, which is retrospective to 
Ko^; taken collectively, and so refers to the ifyo^ vvfifd, the 
consciousness of which fills the better part in man with shame.* 
The note of interrogation, therefore, is without doubt better 
placed after r^n, than after i^ouexyns0i. TiXtt^ is by no means to 
be taken in the same signification with xapHg, but to be under- 

* From deep experience CaWin eaye : ** SoU «6t lux Domini, qnss potest oenlot 
Boetros Aperire, at proepieere queent latentem in oarne noetn foeditfttem. Itle 
igitur demum ChristiansB philotophin primordiis imDHtue eet, qui libi eerio displi- 
09ri ae BiuB miserioe verecundia bene oonfundi didieeriu** 

P 



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226 EPISTLE TO THE BOMAES. 

stood as denoting the final use of the fruit which proceeds from 
its nature. DecUh therefore signifies here the being rejected as 
of no use and worthless; eternal life the being acknowledged 
as useful, essentially answering its end. This is naturally not 
to be understood as if lidvaroc and ^wi) asdmc had other significa- 
tions here than elsewhere, but only that -by the image made use 
of, and from which these expressions properly issue, they ac- 
quire a modified relation. The acceptation of xa^vk in the 
signification *' advantage, gain,'' does not, as Reiche has well 
proved, suit so well here; especially as vii. 4, 5, xa^afof^cau rtf 
kt¥dr<ft is spoken of. In the ix^tv xap^hv ilg aytatfUv, however, 
holiness is again taken to mean as vi. 19, the result of the life 
of faith gradually proceeding from its development. 

Ver. 23. In the closing verse it is not so much that a new 
thought is expressed, as that the thought stated in ver. 21, 22, 
is only more closely defined. Although, namely, both courses 
of life bring their fruit, and their different disposition decides 
their final event, yet their respective circumstances are by no 
means exactly alike. Sin is altogether man's; Death, therefore, 
the wages of it, must also devolve upon him according to the 
law of strict justice; but righteousness and holiness is altogether 
not of man, but the work of God in him (Eph. ii. 8-iO); he 
cannot, therefore, as holy, demand, and, according to the law 
of justice, receive, anything; but the mercy of God adds to the 
gracious gift of forgivene9s of sins and sanctification the new 
gift of eternal life beside, so that the lost one must confess, that 
through himself he has lost oU, the saved one that through 
himself he has gained nothing, to the glory of the justice and 
grace of the Lord. Thus did Augustine rightly comprehend the 
passage (Epist. 105), while he writes: ''Adversus elationis pestem 
vigilantissime militans, etipendivm, inquit, peccati mors. Becte 
stipendium quia debetur, quia digne retribuitur, quia meritum 
redditur; deinde, no justitia de humane se extoUeret bono 
merito, sicut humanum malum non dubitatur esse peccatum, 
gratia, inquit, Dei vita aetema." 

'CK}/wyioir properly signifies provisions, then pay of soldiers 
(Luke iii. 14; 1 Cor. ix. 7; 1 Mace. iii. 28, xiv. 82), finally me- 
rited, earned wages (2 Cor. xi. 8). So here, equal to fMc66g, con- 
trast to xj^^Kf/uM, oomp. iv. 4. How Reiche in such passages as 
2 Cor. IV. 1 7, V. 10 ; 2 Tim. i. 12, iv. 8, 18 (PhiL iv. 5 is wrongly 



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OHAPTER VII. 1 — ^3. 227 

cited), can find to the contrary, namely, that eternal life is me- 
rited reward, not the gift of g^race, is to me inconceivable. 

Chap vii. 1-3. Now although the question which (vi. 1) was 
brought on as to the rektion in which one living under the gos- 
pel stood with regard to sin, might appear sufficiently discussed 
by the exposition hitherto made, the Apostle Paul notwithstand- 
ing thinks fit once more concisely to demonstrate his thoughts 
in a fresh similitude, in order that no uncertainty may remain 
with regard to this important and difficult point. This simili- 
tude is taken from marriagey by the laws of which the wife is' 
bound to the husband until he dies. His death allows her the 
freedom to form another connexion; and she would not on that 
account be considered as an adulteress. This relation of the wife 
to the husband is one generally human, any predominant bear- 
ing, therefore, to Jews or proselytes is here inadmissible. Even 
with nations, among whom polygamy prevails, the wife is the 
property of the husband, and is not free of him until he dies. 
Riickert, therefore, is right in observing that neither the ad- 
dress ^diX^o/ relates to Jew-Christians, nor the addition: yn<a^ 
ffMuin ydp ¥ifjbO¥ XaXftf. Baur, therefore, seeks here in vain a sup- 
port for his opinion, that the Christians of Rome had a Judaising 
tendency. For as the article is used neither with yim^xwat nor 
with ¥6(uo¥y no contrast can be found here, to others, who do not 
know the law (and such indeed could hardly be supposed),* 
but this addition is to be taken like the dv^pd^mv Xey&i, vi. 19. 
VofMi signifies here the regulation existing among all nations, 
that the wife is bound to the husband, not the Mosaic law. The 
Apostle reasons from premises common to mankind; in writing, 
therefore, to his first readers, he writes for all intelligent men 
without exception. The way of applying this parable, however, 
to the relation of man to sin, has its difficulties. The figure of 
marriage, as significant of the relation of the soul to God, is 
certainly not unusual either in the Old (Isa, liv. 5; Hos. ii. 16, 
etc.) or in the New Testament (John iii. 29; Eph. v. 22, etc.); 
but here Sk second marriage is spoken of, which is entered into, 
the first being considered as dissolved by the death of the hus« 
band. Now unless it be said that we are not to press the dying 

* GlOckler would have those anderatood, who wiU not know the law^ that is, the 
unruly; however, if this oontnat had been intended to appear, another expi^eeeion 
Would probahJy have been ohoeen for ytwMtt*, 



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228 EPI9TLB TO THB BOHAVS. 

of the husband, which of courae cannot be admitted, inasmuch 
as it is on this very point that the whole argument turns, the 
question then is, who is to be considered as the dying husband? 
Biickert, indeed, asserts that no comparison at all is to be seen 
here, but a mere example; that the Apostle could not hare 
found any instance, in which the party in stibj^ction should die, 
and therefore, notwithstanding the inconvenience, chose this one 
of marriage, in which the nding party should die. Paid, how- 
ever, might only have reversed the same similitude, to say that 
by the death of the wife the husband is free of her, if that had 
served his purpose better. But taken so he could have made no 
use at all of the comparison of marriage to make his thoughts 
perceptible. De Wette dispenses entirely with the solution of 
the difficulty by asserting, that the Apostle has not chosen his 
example accurately, and in this, instead of bringing in the death 
of the party bound to the law (ver. 1 ), has brought in the death 
of the one to whom the law binds, and has continued this mis- 
take in the application (ver. 4). As we may safely assume that 
Paul knew how to choose his instances with exactness and pre- 
cision, we must ascertain with more carefulness who the dying 
husband is. Two opinions prevail upon this; according to one^ 
which Origen, Chtysostom, Ambrose, and Hilary proposed, and 
afterwards Calvin and Bucer defended, as lately Tholuck also 
has done, the law is the dying husband. But first of all it is 
manifestly unfit to consider, the law, holy, just, and good (vii. 
12), as abolished; it is in &ct not abolished for the believer 
(Matt. V. 1 7), but only gains a dififerent position towards him; 
he is no more uT^ier the law, but lives in it. In the next place, 
according to this view, a leap into another similitude must be 
assumed at ver. 4, for there it is said, " ye are dead ;" such a 
change, however, has at all events something extremely awk- 
ward in it, and could only be assumed in extreme necessity. 
The other opinion is proposed by Augustine, and afterwards 
especially defended by Beza. According to this, the lust of sin 
is at first the husband, and the old man, the. wife; but in the 
second marriage, the new man is the wife, and Christ, the prin- 
ciple of righteousness, the husband. Against this there is 
less weight in Tholuck's objection, — " that in what follows (ver. 
7, etc.), it is not the relation to lust, but to the moral law, 
that is treated of;" for the law excites (according to ver. li) 



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GHAPTBR VII. 1 — 3. 229 

even last (vii. 8, etc.) — than that then a second wife seems to 
be supposed) while^ according to the oomparison, tlie wife con- 
tinues tlie same. This difficulty will only be radically removed 
by the following conception of the passage. As in Christ him- 
self, without prejudice to the unity of his personality, the mortal 
is distinguished from the immortal Christ (comp. ver. 4, with 1 
Pet iii. 18), so in man also the old man is distinguished from 
the new, without prejudice to the unity of his personality^ which 
Paul subsequently (ver. 20) signifies by iyii. This true person- 
ality, the proper self of man, is the wife, who in the natural 
state, appears in marriage with the old man, and in intercourse 
with him, generates sins, the end of which is death (vi. 21, 22.) 
But in the death of the mortal Christ, this old man is dead with 
him; and, as the individual man is grafted by faith into Christ, 
his old man dies, -by whose life he was holden under the law. 
As, however, with the death of Christ, the immortal Saviour of 
the world also arose, even so with the death of the old man, 
the new man becomes living; and with this, the Christ in us, 
the I* enters upon a new marriage, from which the fruits of the 
spirit are born. But here it might be asked, whether such a 
distinction of the I from the old and new man has warrant from 
other passages of Scripture ? I refer with regard to this question 
besides the explanation already given at Matt. z. 40, to the fol- 
lowing illustration of Rom. vii. 7, etc., for the distinction lies at 
the foundation of this passage throughout; and I have only to 
remind further of the forgiveness of sins, the nature of which 
necessarily leads to this difference; for sin cannot be forgiven 
to the old man, that must die, not to the new, for this is sinless, 
but certainly to the I,* who is \ho bearer, as well of the old 
as of the new man, and by whom the man can speak of his old 
and his new man. There is o^Iy one more seeming inexactness 
in the Apostle's statement, with reference, namely, to the vS/i^og; 
but this indeed is inseparable from the use of similitudes, since 
the thing compared can never be even with the object to which 
it refers. In ver. 2 and 3, which contains the similitude itself 
(ver. 1 expressing the thought which forms its general basis), 
the ¥6jMg is only the marriage law, or the precept, that the 
woman may only be the wife of one man, to whom she belongs. 
But in the three following verses (ver. 4-^ y^( is the law 

* llku Jek throvgbout the paaiage.] 



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230 EPISTLE TO THE BOM AKS. 

generally, and indeed not merely tlie ceremonial law, bnt the' 
law in every expression of it, and therefore the moral law also; 
wherefore Paul's statement possesses its tntth for all times and 
every state of things, because the moral law is given with the 
essence of man itself. 

Ver. 1. Comp. upon n &ymM the passage vi. 3. The • vifug 
xugnvtt rov df^gdmu expresses the general thought, from which, 
ver. 2, the «pecial case of marriage and the precepts relating to 
it is deduced. The thought exactly answers to the passage, vi. 
7. Hence artff amto; must not be explained of the wife, for the 
same thing holds good of the husband; as it does also with the 
slave. Death makes every one free from every law. — ^Ver. 2. 
inravd^ signifies subject to the power of the husband, according 
to Numb. V. 29, naJ^H T^F\ m^M (comp. Eccles. ix. 9, xli 
21). — The construction xarijf^nrai &ih ¥6fiov is peculiar. The verb 
xarapytMat commonly refers to things, especially to law, but 
not to persons. Besides this passage it is found vii. 6, and GaL 
V. 4, used in the same way, = lUv^tfwidku. The Chald. 1^^ 
YQ Ezra iv. 21, 23, v. 5, vi. 8, is used in exactly the same man- 
ner, for which the LXX. have always xarapyth, though without 
the following &^6. — No^^ A^d^k not the law, which the husband 
gives, the imperiwn damesticum^ but which protects the husband 
in his right over the wife, and determines it. Upon x^/emc- 
r/^w in the meaning " to be, to be called," comp. at Acts xL 
26. — Tinc^&i avdpi irtptft = "^f-f^ Q^mV ST^' Deut. xxiv. 2. 

Ver. 4. The Apostle now applies this comparison by represent- 
ing the faithful themselves as dead in their old man, and thereby 
freed from the yoke of the law (Acts xv. 20), so that the freedom 
is acquired for them to devote themselves to another husband, 
even Christ (2 Cor.xi. 2). But the death of the faithful in the 
old man is again, as vi. 2, 4, 6, connected with the death of the 
B«deemer, so that his death was tiieir death, and did not merely 
prefigure it; for no one by his own power or resolution can die 
in the old man, because no one can generate the new man, by 
whose birth the death of the old man is conditioned. Christ is 
therefore the living type both of the old and new man; of the 
old, according to the A^tnia r^g ^apx6g (2 Cor. xiii. 4, 1 Pet. iii. 
18), which was in him, and because he bore the sin of the 
world; of the new, according to the power of the Eternal Spirit, 



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CHAPTBB YII. 4. 231 

vliich filled him. From this Bpiritaal union, then, spring spiri- 
tual fruits (GhJ. vi. 22), begotten to the honour of God. Ac- 
cording to this representation, it is clear that the liberation from* 
the law must not be an act of sdf'WiU. As little as the wife 
may wantonly separate from her husbahd, since his death is 
requisite for her liberation; so little may the I free itself from 
the law, as long as the old man is living. If this is done, there- 
fore, as is always the case where a mpre seeming faith prevails, 
it is a spiritual adultery, the lust after false freedom, that is, 
licentiousness, lawlessness. The liberation from the law rightly 
takes place only where the new man arose in the stead of the 
old, where therefore Christ is truly living in the man. There 
is no licentiousness, for Christ brings with him the strictest law 
wheresoever he works; but the }/oke of the law is removed by 
that love, which is shed into the hearts. This love urges to do 
more than the law requires, and to fulfil every act with purer 
intention than the most threatening law can demand. For love 
is insatiable, she never satisfies herself and the Beloved; she 
bums on, till with her fire she glows through the whole heart 
and being, and has sacrificed her all to the Beloved. After this 
manner works the gospel all in man without law (iii. 21) 
although it exacts nothing from him, but only promises and 
gives to him. But because it gives all of grace, and even loves 
and blesses enemies, it wins the inmost self of man, and there- 
fore all his powers. As on the one side, however, there is tlie 
danger lest a man should liberate himself from the law, and 
persuade himself that he has faith and is regenerate, a way that 
seduces to false freedom; so, on the other side, there threatens 
a danger equally great, which leads into new, and indeed still 
more galling slavery, than the former was.* A false zeal for 
sanctification, proceeding from vanity, and striving only to see 
itself perfect as soon as possible in an image of its own design, 
often fancies, that the long, but certain way of sanctifying grace 
in Christ does not lead quick enough to the goal, and so draws 
back, when the life in grace has scarce begun, under the law 
again. What God in man has begun, the man himself (in con- 
tradiction to PhiL i. 6, Heb. xii. 2) would complete; he will not 
become blessed through Christ, but with and beside him through 

* [TIm AQtlior here quotes, in a note, a forcible wytng of Luther (Leipz. edit, 
▼o'. xi. p. 83).] 



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232 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

himself, but so destroys the delicate tracery of the new man in 
him. This is, then, not merely to wake up the old dead man 
again, but even to despise the new true husband, to rate his power 
low, yea^ to count the blood of the covenant unholy, and to do 
despite unto the Spirit of Grace. (Heb. x. 29.) Hence it is^ 
tliat Paul so emphatically warns the Galatians, who had entered 
on it, from this dangerous byeway. (Gdi. ii. 16, etc., iii. 3, etc.) 
And yet it is so tempting, and just to the more earnest, zealous 
men, to fall into this error, that even the Apostle Peter, Bar- 
nabas, and others, could be for a moment seduced from the way 
of grace! (Gal. iL 12, eta) Ay, the sectarian history shows 
that most of the founders of sects made use of a self-willed 
striving after sanctification as their motive, to collect their fol- 
lowers, and, with the guidance of that striving, to exercise an 
often frightful spiritual tyranny. Therefore does the Apostle 
Paul teach the true middle way, which just as little suffers a 
man of his own will to loose himself from the law, as that he 
should bring himself under it again, since Christ continues to 
him both the Beginner and Finisher of Faith. (Heb. xii. 2.)* 
This completion, however, Christ, of course, does not perfect out 
q/'and without the man, but in the very depth of his own self, 
since he takes in full possession the noblest thing the man 
possesses, even his love, and fills it with the powers of his 
higher love, which makes him mighty enough for all, even the 
weightiest requirement. If he sees, therefore, that the old man 
still is stirring, he draws in faith unceasingly fresh power 
from Christ's fountain, and so is more than conqueror in him 
who loved us. 

'xi<rr» is here particle of inference, "accordingly;** comp. 
Winer's Gr. p. 277. The expression dtSi rw etaf^arog rou Xpi^roD 
can of course only form the antithesis to the iyt^hh i% Mxp£)r. 
S^/EM is distinguished here, as 1 Pet. iii. 18, the <n£p$, in order to 
signify the mortal side of the Redeemer, to which the immortal, 
the ^enZfiMy of the risen Christ, is opposed. 

Ter. 5, 6. That he may once more offer to his readers a dis- 

* Of the oontnst between troe and fUee righteousness, Lather speaks pvofonndly 
in his exposition of the 88th PSahn: <* It is a wondrous thing; whoso hath no sin 
(beoause of faith) he [it is who] feeleth and hath it (in true penitenoe and hnmilitjy); 
and whoso hath sin, he [it is who] feeleth it not, and hath none " (after the eon- 
oeited blindness of his heart). And at the 143d PaaUn: « Satan is sueh a 
dexterous master [Meister], that he can mahe eren the very best works (by admix- 
ture of conceit) the rery biggest sins." 



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ckAPTBB vii. 5, 6. 233 

tinct perception of the difference between the two states, Paul 
sets them out in their principles side by sida In the legal state, 
the sinful impuisee (rA ^adnfuara ru9 ofiMpriuv, the individual 
utterances of the spiritual members- of the old man) work with 
absolute sway in the whole nature of man, even to the periphery 
of the physical life, so that they become act. In the state of 
grace, the old man dies with all his sinful impulses^ and the. 
man can then, free from the fetter of the law, which oould only 
bind the old man, serve God in spirit and in truth. The dying 
of the old, .and the rising of the new man, however, are, of 
course, not completed in him all at once, but through the earthly 
life they continue beside each other in the believer, (comp. more 
particularly at vii. 25), although the former is to be constantly 
decreasing, the latter ever growing. Therefore the problem is, 
because the old man still continues to exist, and may become 
strong again, never to be secure, yet for the sake of the ever- 
efficacious and accessible grace never to despond, but to fight 
most zealously against all doubts of 6od's grace and power 
against sin.* 

2<£p§ can only signify the old man here, as viiL 8, 9 ; it forms 
indeed the antithesis to the yuy/, x. r. X. (ver. 6.) Theodoret, 
Grotius, and others, would have it to be understood of the 0. T., 
which in and by itself might certainly be admissible, but still 
only where the contrast of the mtvfia clearly stands out. Tcb 3/d 
rod v6fAcvcB,n only be supplied, according to ver. 11, with x/vot^ 
fi'tva, it is intended, namely, to be signified that the law is the 
inducing, provoking cause of sin. It altogether misleads to take 
f M)P7f7^o passively, for the fuXfi = ^ai/tta, appear then to be the 

* The obsenration of MeUtnthon, ad loc ii very pertinent: " Hie locos diligenter 
obaerrandns est, ut diaeamm dtttUaiione» de gratia Dei e$m peeeatttnty at repngBemoB 
et erigamoB nos evangelio et sciamus, esse euituM Dei in ilHe terroribvs reyugnare 
dMtaiioni et d\ffideKtia. Surely the beloved man of God says right, that it is not 
permitted only, bat a duty, ay, hoHegt sfrrice of Qod^ to contend to the ntmost 
againat ali doubts of Qod and of hie grace, f^T thoee never spring from a good source. 
Yet, on the contrary, it is very wrong to smother the doubts cf himadf and his own 
virtue, which God's Spirit of grace cidls forth, in order to convert the roan; it is to 
contend against Qod, and hinder regeneration. The [Roman] Catholic Church, 
however, with which all sects that proceed from Pelagian principles agree, deters 
from the certainty of the state of grace, and desires uncertainty towards God. 
Such uncertainty of hearts is then a convenient mOans to keep men in the leading- 
strings of the priesthood or ambitions founders of sects; for sinoe they are not 
allowed to have any certainty thenLselves respecting their relation to Grod, they can 
only rest upon the judgments of their leaders about it, who thus rule souls with 
absolute dominion; the true evangelic doctrine makes free from such slavery to 



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234 KPISTLS TO THE BOiAnS. 

proper aeat of sin, whereas it really manifests itself outwardly 
from within. To be sure its blossom is in this manifestation 
upon the periphery of life, for a repressing power of the spirit 
must be presumed, if at least the outward eruptions of sin are 
hindered. Bdmrog appears again as the t9>as (vi. 23), inasmuch 
as the sins coUeQltiyely work, as it were, for him and his king- 
dom. In ver. 6, a variety of readings are found. For the 
A^Uatdfng of the teai. rec., A.G., and many other Codd., and the 
Greek Fathers as well, have dTo^P^in^ while D.KF.G. and the 
lAtin Fathers read roS htfdrov. This latter reading, however, 
looks very like a correction of the copyists, in their not under- 
standing how the Apostle could speak of a dissolution of the 
law itself. The genitive of the singular proceeded from that 
conception of the passage, according to which the law is con- 
sidered as the dying husband, but the f ^amrw^n, ver. 4, speaks 
against this. ' ATo^ai^^vn; , therefore, is certainly the only correct 
reading, for which Lachmann also has decided. In the xari- 
;^fa'^ai, the binding, compulsory power of the law is signified. 
The h f refers to ra/tb;, and is on no account to be taken, "in as 
far, in as much as.'' Kcu96rfig ^mlifLar^g is ^ xaifinii ^w^r in the 
passage vi. 4. The wnZfLa is considered as the principle from 
which the new life issues. The old, therefore, is a spiritless, 
merely physical life (1 Cor. ii. 14). The substantive ^aXa/^ur 
is found in the N. T. only in this passage. . TpAfifMx, forms here, 
as ii. 29, an antithesis with «irfD/u«, as <rapg elsewhere, to denote 
the outside, as the form in which the life manifests itself. The 
choice of just this expression is founded in this passage upon 
the reference to the law, which, in its most complete form, the 
law of Moses, appears to be compassed in the letter, but in this 
form is for the sinful man a heavy, killing yoke. (2 Cor. 
iii. 6, 7). 



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CHAPTBR VII. 7. — vin. 39. 286 

8BOTI0H IV. 

(VII. 7.— VIII. 89). 

OF THB STAGBS OF THB DBVELOPMEHT A8 WELL OF INDIVIDUALS 
AS OF THB UNIVBBSB. 

The properly dogmatical exposition has at length completely 
finished the foundation of the new way of salvation upon the 
vicarious character of Christ and the indication of its relation to 
the law. The Apostle forthwith most fitly proceeds to indicate 
all the stages of development^ as they are exhibited themselves 
immediately in individual men^ whereby all he has said before 
gains first its proper light. He* shows namely, first of all Cvii. 
7-24), how the man rises from the state of undeveloped childish- 
ness into that of the life tmder the law, in which the sin that 
awakes by the resistance of the law calls up that inward conflict, 
by which he first becomes truly conscious of the contradiction in 
himself and how he is held bound by sin. The result of this con- 
flict is the need of redemption, out of which the faith in the re- 
demption brought to pass in Christ develops itself; and in the 
power of this faith the believer is enabled, what of his own effort 
he could never do, to serv& the divine law in spirit, albeit the 
old man in him remains still subjected to the law of sin. Then 
follows (vii. 25 — ^viii. 17) a descriptionof the development of the 
new life itself received through Christ. This penetrates not 
merely the inward man, but sanctifies and glorifies by degrees 
the bodily substance also, so that the whole man becomes like 
to Christ, and thereby heir of God and co-heir of the glory of 
Christ. But since man is a member, the most essential member 
of the creation, his life must react upon the universe for glorifi- 
cation no less than his death has acted upon it for destruction. 
The participation of the totality in the perfecting of humanity 
in Christ, Paul treats of lasUy (viii. 18 — ^89), and this contem- 
plation of the endless power, which lies in Christ, as the germ 
of the whole great, glorified creation, gains such hold on the 
Apostle, that he closes with a bold song of triumph, in which he 
utters with glad assurance the unconquerableness of the life of 
Christ in all His faithful. 



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236 BPI8TLX TO THB B0MAV8. 



§ 11. OF THE DEVELOPIIEKT OF THB IHDITIDUAL UKTIL HIS 
BZPB&XBNGB OF BBDBMPTION. 

(VII. 7-24.) 

Before we treat of the particulars of ibis remarkable, and^ both 
theoretically and practically, so highly important section, some 
general questions are to be taken into consideration, upon the 
answer to which its illustration in great measure depends. Is 
Paul speaking in this section of his own state or not? and are the 
experiences of the regenerate or unregenerate its subject matter? 
As regards the first question, it is clear, that the Apostle could 
not possibly have chosen to carry through this representation in 
the first person, if no analogy at all for his description had been 
discoverable in bis own life, if he had intended himself to be 
considered as expressly eoccepted. On the other hand it is 
equally clear, that Paul cannot be so speaking of himself, as if 
the subject related to him alone, for his desire is, to enlighten 
his readers upon their own necessities; in his experiences those 
of the generality must the rather be reflected. Hence it can 
only be said that the Apostle is certainly speaking of himself, 
but simply according to the experience he had in common with 
mankind, not according to his own individually. Little, how- 
ever, is gained by this, unless it be determined in what period 
of his life the experiences of which the Apostle speaks were 
felt. This determination coincides with the other highly 
important question, whether the description given by the 
Apostle has reference to the state of the regenerate or unre- 
generate. The passage 7-13, indeed, according to the opinion 
of all expositors, applies to the state before regeneration, as the 
Apostle also sufficiently indicates by the aorist that the state 
described is gone by; but whether ver. 14-24 is likewise to be 
considered as before regeneration, seems very uncertain, since 
in this section Paul makes use of the present only, while viii. 2, 
etc.. the aorist again appears. It is in fact difficult to answer 
this question, as in the first place the events treated of are purely 
internal, and require thoroughly analogous experiences and a 
definite consciousness of these experiences, in order to be rightly 



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OHAPTBR VII. 7 — 24. 237 

estimated; in the next place, the influence of many false tendencies 
has confused the inquiry. Pelagian blindness as to moral states, 
as well as Donatist rigorousness, must have found it easy to 
assert, that ver. 14-24 could not have reference to the regener- 
ate, for that sins in these must be henceforth quite out of the 
question. Moral laxity or hypocrisy again have found it very 
convenient to say, that Paul is describing the state of the regen- 
erate, fancying so, that they might, notwithstanding their moral 
degradation, consider themselves as regenerate. But beside 
these decidedly false tendencies, even the most faithful and 
learned members of the church have held diflferent conceptions 
of the passage, according as they were accustomed to consider 
the sinfulness of man to be greater or less, and so to rate differ- 
ently the effect of regeneration. Accordingly we are not 
surprised to find the easterns always inclining to Pelagianism, 
as Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, on the side of those who 
refer the passage to the state before regeneration. Even 
Augustine followed them at first; as he carried out his system, 
however, he was induced to defend the opposite view, that Paul 
is describing the state of the regenerate themselves. He was 
followed not merely in the middle ages by the most esteemed 
theologians, especially Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, but the 
reformers also, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, interpreted 
the passage as Augustine did. After Spener, Franke, Bengel, 
Gottfried Arnold, Zinzendorf, the words of the Apostle were 
again begun to be explained of the state before regeneration, 
and Stier, Tholuck, Ruckert, De Wette, Meyer, follow them in 
their interpretation. These learned men nevertheless quite 
rightly acknowledge, that the Augustinian representation has 
also something true in it, since that in the life of the regener- 
ate moments occur, in which they must speak entirely as Paul 
expresses himself here ; and, moreover, as it is only by degrees 
that the transforming power of the gospel penetrates the differ- 
ent tendencies of the inward life, congenial phenomena extend 
through the whole life of the believer; and this leads to the 
thought, that the two views might admit of being united in a 
higher one. For it is little probable beforehand, that men like 
Augustine and the reformers should have entirdy erred in the 
conception of so important a passage. It may perhaps become 
perceptible from the following mode of laying out the context, 



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238 BPISTLB TO THB BOMANS. 

how such a difference of views could be formed in the interpre- 
tation of the passage, and what in such difference is right and 
what erroneous. 

First of all, it is evident that the Apostle's purpose is, to 
sketch a description of the inward process of development from 
its first beginnings to the highest perfection. He sets out, (vii. 
9), from a state in which the man is living entirely without law, 
and closes, (viii. 1 1), with the glorification of the bodily substance 
The question occurs here, how many stages of development are 
property distinguished? Four clearly present themselves. First, 
a life without law, in which sin is dead; next, a life under the 
law, in which sin becomes alive and has dominion; further^ a 
state in which, by the power of (Thrist, the spirit has dominion, 
and sin is mastered; finally, the state of the entire separation 
of sin by the glorification of the bodily substance. If by regei^ 
erattan all is to be understood from the first stirrings of grace, 
the whole of tho Apostle's description may then be applied to 
the regenerate, because the very heedfulness of the law is called 
forth by grace. But it is surely more correct and scriptural to 
call regeneration that inward process only, by which, after the 
need of redemption is awakened, the power of Christ becomes 
mighty in the mind; so that a new, spiritual man enters into 
being, and exercises his ruling power. According to this accep- 
tation, the state under the law cannot co-exist with regener- 
ation, and without question therefore — as vii. 24 is to express 
the awakened need of redemption, and ver. 25, the experience 
of redemption itself— -vers. 14-24 is to be referred to a position 
be/ore regeneration, and to be understood as a description of 
the conflict within an atoaJcened person. As, however, the 
Apostle makes use of the present for this section, while before 
and afterwards he applies the aorist, we are led to the idea, that 
he does not intend to have this state of conflict regarded as con- 
cluded with the experience of redemption. In the description, 
vers. 14-24 itself too, as will afterwards be more particularly 
shown, an advance in the conflict with sin is clearly observable, 
the better I stands out in the man more «nd more, and the 
pleasure in God's law grows gradually in him. To this, ver. 17 
speaks, especially the ¥V¥i St oDxin, and ver. 20, o^xir/ which indi- 
cates a bygone state. In a far higher degree, as ver. 25 ex- 
presses, is this the case after the experience of the redeeming 



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X , CHAPTBR VII. 7 — 24. 239 

power of Christ, where the conflict with sin is described as for the 
most part victorious on the side of the better part in man. But 
a conflict remains still, even afUr the experience of regenera- 
tion ; and that even the regenerate man does not aJnvays hold it 
victoriously, that even for him times of temptation, of very hard 
temptation, come on, the Scripture sanctions in express decla- 
rations (comp. at 1 John ii. 1), and in communications upon the 
life of the Apostles, even as the experience of all saints of all 
times sanctions it. If we add to this consideration, that in 
proportion with the true advance in the life of faith, the spiri- 
tual glance into the stirrings of sin sharpens, the conscience 
refines and censures strictly even the smaller deviations, which 
had else on lower standards remained unnoticed; it is clearly 
right that Augustine and the great doctors of the church who 
followed him, should have declared, that even the regenerate 
man can and must say of himself all that the Apostle, ver. 14- 
24, utters. The best manner, therefore, in which we can ex- 
press ourselves upon the question, whether Paul is here treating 
of the regenerate, is, that in the passage, ver. 14-24, he im- 
mediatdy describes the state of the man before regeneration, 
since his purpose is, to set forth coherently the whole course of 
development; in the consciousness, however, that phenomena 
entirely similar present themselves within the regenerate man, 
he makes the description applicable to the regenerate also. The 
opinion, therefore, on the one side, that the Apostle immedir 
atdy and directly intends the regenerate, is as absolutely wrong, 
as on the other side the assertion, that in the regenerate man 
nothing like what is described, ver. 14-24, can or ought to be 
found. The distinction between the conflict and the fall of the 
unregenerate and the conflict and the fall of the regenerate 
remains, notwithstanding the subjective feeling of their near 
affinity, objectively so great (as at vii. 24, 25 will be proved), 
that the anxiety, lest by the view proposed, regeneration should 
be robbed of its essential character, must appear to be quite 
unfounded.* If we now look back again to tiie first question, 
of which period of his life the Apostle could say such things as 

* Reiofae has fitrikiDgly fkUed in his aeeeptation of this pssssge; he holds that 
the Jewish humanity, comprehended in the Apostle's person, is spwking here. The 
one-sided reference of the 9ifi§t merely to the Jewish ceremonial hiw, is the im- 
mediate cause of this clearly false acceptation; that one-sided reference itself, how- 
ever, is founded in the dogmaiic principles of this learned man. . 



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240 BPISTLB TO THB B01IAN8. 

lie utters, yer. 14-24, it is clear that he cannot be immediately 
describing the state of his, soul after the Lord's appearing to 
him by Damascus, but that he is speaking of his inward con* 
flicts under the yoke of the law; but the transition into the 
present certainly indicates, that even in his state at the time 
he wrote, sensations were still sounding, which mad^ him ex* 
claim with perfect truth, although with incomparably finer 
application to more delicate circumstances than in his former 
state (comp. at vii. 24, 25): What I would, I do not, and what I 
would not, that I do; wretched man that I am, who shall deliyer 
me from the body of this death I (Comp. at 2 Cor. xii. 7, etc.) 
Yer. 7, 8. The two first verses of this section contain the 
general fundamental thought briefly expressed, which yer. 9, 
etc., further carries out. The Apostle namely pronounces in 
these the relation which sin bears to the law, and describes the 
latter as the power* which brings sin to sight. Sin is in human 
nature, eyen without regard to the law, but by the law only it 
comes to the sight and so to the conscience of man. Hence 
also, notwithstanding tliis proyocation of sin by the law, the 
law itself is no sinful formation, but rather is it holy, just, and 
good (yer. 12), as the expression of the holy will of God, of 
whose eternal, unalterable nature it eyen therefore partakes 
(comp. Ps. oxix. 96), and is to lead to life; only sin misuses it 
to death. (Yer. 10 and the obseryations at John xii. 50, com- 
pared with Ley. xyiii. 5, Deut. y. 16, 33.) What the Apostle 
pronounces here, therefore, holds also, not by any means merely 
of the Mosaic ceremonial law, but of the moral law generally, 
in all forms of its manifestation among heathens, Jews, and 
Christians. It is the entirely uniyersal character of the law, 
that sin breaks and swells up against it (comp. at yer. 13), 
since it checks the stream of sinful desire in a concrete case by 
a positive command (i vroXij), and by this check urges to a trans- 
gression of the commandment, whereby his inward state then be- 
comes perceptible to the man. The relation in which Paul places 
the QkfMKfriak and the mh^^ia is peculiar in these verses. At first 
sight namely, it seems as though Paul considered the i^i^ufkia 
as the first, the kfka^ia as derived from it. In the sinful CLCt 
the two are really so related, the evil desire is the mother of 
the evil deed (James i. 15); but AfiMpria denotes here the sinful 
state generally, which comes to sight in the concrete case only, 



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CHAPTEIl VIL 9, 10. 241 

and for this relation the position is exactly reversed. The 
iwi^fkln, prava conctbpiscentia, issues from the general, sinful 
nature of man, as its first utterance, and then the act follows. 
Upon nearer consideration of the Apostle's words, however, it 
becomes evident, that he intends the relation oiatiapria to iiri^ 
li4a to be exactly so understood here. Sinfulness causes the evil 
desire in all its forms (^r a ^ a y iri6\tfi»ia¥)^ to rise up against the law 
in the inward man {xartifya^ar^ h if^os); and the divine com- 
mandment against the desire reveals now to man his corruption. 
A permission of the desire to proceed into act is not at all in ques- 
tion. The desire tteelfis sinful, and forbidden in the law, and 
the man may become conscious of his sinfulness, even by the 
greatness of the lust, although it should not break forth into out- 
ward evil deeds, which indeed is commonly the case. Hence, 
too, the 0VK i^i^fin^vi (Exod. xx. 14; Deut. v. 8) is not to be 
taken, according to Tholuck, with an '' and so forth,'' as though 
Paul put forward one only of the numy commandments; but it 
is to be understood as the comprisal of the whole law. Posi- 
tively, all laws say: love God above everything; negatively, 
they all say: suffer not thyself to covet 4 that is, cleave not 
vrith thy love to any created thing, not even to thyself, but to 
tlie Eternal only.* The nature of iinhfjbia is not the desire of 
itself, the joy at this or that, for the perfect man might have 
the highest) purest pleasure in all creatures of Qod ; but the 
desire, when it is separate from God, the selfish love, estranged 
from God. The command oux srthfi>ti<fiig, therefore, is nothing 
less than that the man has to give himself up with all his own 
desire and joy; this giving-up, however, is not possible without 
regeneration, therefore the man can never, as the following 
discourse demonstrates, arrive at peace by the law; he is in 
need of a Redeemer from himself (ver. 24.) (Yer. 8, the diA 
TT^i irroXnii as afterwards ver. 11, is better connected with ii^op- 
fiiiv Xa/SoCffa than with the following words, because the peculiar 
operation of the law is thus most decidedly marked.) 

* The Apostle takes no notice of the circumstance which is the rarer case, that 
even the fright, the terror of sin, may hurl into sin, if the shield of faith is wanting. 
Evil thoughts, that fill the heart with horror, may hy this very terror, which takes 
away the presence of mind, draw men down into sin. The histories of criminals 
often afford proof of this. Notwithstanding, in order to explain such eases, we 
might assume, perhaps without exception, either previous moral corruption, or 
spiritual weakness as well as diseaae. 



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242 EPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

Ver. 9, 10. The Apostle now, after haying expressed the 
general thought, proceeds in the description of the course of 
development in the man from its first beginnings; he describes 
a state in which sin is as yet deady and the man is Pving wttk'- 
out law. This state of childish unconsciousness is disturbed by 
the law with its commandment in the case in question. There 
is a question, however, how we have to suppose such a state of 
life without law, for the Apostle cannot mean the state of pro- 
per infantia; yet, except this, there is no time in the life of 
man, of which it may in the proper sense be said that the man 
is in it without law, and sin without motion.* To explain this 
difficulty, it may be of essential service to remark, that the 
Apostle, during his whole exposition, is not supposing crimes 
and such like outbreaks of sin, which even the magistracy re- 
sents, and which draw after them the contempt of the world ; 
for the law surely is able to repress sins of this kind, and the 
man can by the guidance of the law fulfil of his own power so- 
called opera dvUia or jmtitia^ extemw. But in such a state of 
legal action all laws and ordinances appear to the man BspoliU- 
cal, or at least as merely human statutes, and his whole effort 
is without reference to God; he avoids the sins, not for God's 
sake, but for the sake of their disagreeable external conse- 
quences, which to be sure is better than that impudence which 
does not even shun the consequences, yet it does not satisfy 
absolute righteousness; with such a spiritual standard, tlie 
Apostle has nothing at all to do here. He is speaking rather 
of that moment, when the man becomes conscious of his re- 
lation to God, not as mere proposition, but in essence and 
power, and he learns to regard all the commandments and 
ordinances of the law as divine^ that is, as absolute command- 
ments. Tlie whole time before this moment he calls the life 
without law, when sin was dead.f With this acceptation results 

* Uateri (in the Paul. Lehrbegr. 4 th edit p. 89) sopposes this state to be like 
that of Adam before the fall, which is surely against the Apostle's meaning, who 
considers thin state of the deadness of sin itself as a anuegyence of the fall. 

t The i} kfMM^^m kfilinwtit (ver. 9), is not, as Rdckert still holds, to be constru- 
ed ''sin revived," as though it had once been alive (from which conception the 
reading Vinwif^ which must certainly be set aside, proceeded); ItmXaut is rather '* to 
come to life," (aufleben), as kfir^nfu (in its intransitive tenses) is " to arise 
(aufstehen), stand up." The coming to life, however, presupposes no antecedent 
living of that which comes to life, but a slumbering only of the life in it. Thus the 
slumbering germ of a grain of seed comes to life, which had not as yet indepeud- 



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CHAPTER Tir. 9, 10. 24S 

AsOy what is to be eqaallj remarked upon all subsequent stages 
of development, that we are not to suppose this first stage as 
instantaneously got over. Certain it is that with most men 
the discernment of the law^ as being the will of the absolutely 
holy God, takes place in a moment, and the former and after 
life may be clearly distinguished; but it is only by degrees that 
the risen light diffuses itself into the different regions of the in- 
ward life, and even those who have made progress may have 
still to experience on isolated departments, that they were 
living there without law, since the necessity of applying the 
divine law in this or that individual case had been a long time 
in becoming to them a matter of living consciousness. Thus it 
may be perceived, what is meant by the expression x^F^^ ^^^ 
AjjMffrla Hx^d, The deadness of sin is not to imply that it has 
no motion at all, for it is the very disordered life, and must 
constantly utter itself as such, even though often negatively 
only by deficiency in fear and love of God; but it is so far dead 
witiiout law, as it is not at first discerned in its nature and in 
its whole magnitude, without the light of the law to enlighten 
its darkness. With that knowledge, however, the sin itself in- 
creases; first, because from the insight a resistance now unfolds 
itself, by which the wild power of the natural life rises (ver. 13); 
next, because the sin, which has got so far into the conscious- 
ness, is like a germ awakened from slumber, that strives to de- 
velop itself more and more. The self-will of the man rears 
against being broken, the lust of knowledge perverted to curi- 
osity bums for eagerness to taste the forbidden thing, and so by 
the law sin finishes itself in itself by the increasing of the 
desire; supposing that it does not also, which however will 
always rarely be the case, break forth into openly criminal 
actions. This phenomenon is so consonant to experience that 
it is acknowledged before in the 0. T., Prov. ix. 17, and even by 
profane authors. Comp. the noted passage in Ovid. Amor. iii. 
4, "Nitimur in vetitum. semper cupimusque negata." To the 
quickening of sin the Apostle immediately attaches the dying 
of the /, the better self; ♦ it seems, therefore, as though the 

cDtly lived. The •xpremaan, "* to oome to life again," or, « for the seoond time,*' 
is here qnito ioappropriaie. 

* 1 believe it may be said, that the development of the conflict aMames in many 
men a diiferent ahape. Sin is with many allTC from the beginning, and the better 



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244 EPI8TLB TO THE ROMANS. 

latter had been alive before the moment of the law's coming in, 
that is, that the better I had prevailed^ and that accordingly this 
moment would not appear to be the foundation of any advance 
to the better, but of a retreat, to the worse. And indeed this is 
Paul's meaning, as ver. 18 clearly shows; but the retreat is but 
a seeming one, like the full, open coming-out of a disease 
hitherto lurking in secret. As no cure is possible without this, 
so unless sin be thus forced to show itself, there is no deliver- 
ance from it. The relatively better state of a kind of good- 
nature and freedom from violent desires is also but a seeming 
one, that has no true foundation, and therefore vanishes as soon 
as the hour of temptation approaches. The coming forth of sin, 
however, is not, as was before noticed, to be understood of out- 
rage and crime, which man on any stai^rd can and must by 
his own power leave, but of those inward motions of sin and its 
finer utterances, which are beyond the cognizance of human 
judgment. Meantime it is certainly possible, even for the gross 
offender, when the law becomes alive in him, forthwith, by 
penitence and faith, to enter into redemption, only he may not 
misuse this psissage for the purpose of exculpating himself. 
The actiud thief or adulterer may not appeal to the sinfulness, 
in consequence of which [as he might pretend], he mu^t have 
sinned so; he could very well havQ omitted the deed; but the 
inward lust no man can of his own power do away; and it is of 
the overpowering of this that the Apostle immediately treats 
here. 

Ver. 11-13. Paul lingers awhile by these thoughts,* and 
brings forward the holiness of the law, as expressing the will of 

I seems to sleep. The course of coDversion with such persons then takes another 
shape, the conflict is first developed, when the I awakes from its deep slumber in 
the inner man, and opposes itself to the unresisted dominion of the sinful element 
The Apostle's description, therefore, is not to be understood, as though evtry course 
cfcontersw^ must wteessarily assume the shape vAtcA he describes} experience indeed 
^ows, that in the life of many oonvdrted persons, e, g^ Spener's and Zinzendorf's, 
no such decisive moment occun'ed, as Paul describes in the passage, vii. 24. Bat 
such as theirs naturally are only to be supposed in the church; with heathens and 
Jews, as those of whom Paul was immediately thinking, the conversion must 
necessarily have shown itself, as Paul represents it; because with them any abiding 
in the, grace of baptism is out of the question, and consequently in them conversion 
must reveal itself as a sudden change, namely, as entrance into the communion of 
the faithful. 

* The delineation of the state under the law begins fundamentally at ver. 9 with 
the \}J*iwfii Ik Tnr Ur«>.irf , the description itself does not properly follow until ver. 
14, while ver. 10-13 regard more immediately the moment of transition. 



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CHAPTERVII.il — 13. 245 

the holy G-od, so that it is indeed sin itself which is the cause of 
its effect in increasing sin. The law is but the innocent occasion, 
the conditio sine quanon; the causa efficiens is the sinfulness of 
man. The latter therefore appears as something in itself fo- 
reign to the man, deceiving himself, as a glance at the narrative 
Gen. iii. shows. This relation of the l/c«; to a/Aaprm is of the 
highest importance for understanding what follows, and for the 
scriptural anthropology generally. Sin is not the nature, the 
substance of man himself (as evil generally is nothing substan- 
tial, but disharmony only, the disturbance of the relations ori^ 
ginally ordained by God), rather has the germ of the divine 
image remained even in fallen man. on which grace founds 
her work of bringing back to God. (Comp. at Rom. ii. 14, 15.) 
This better germ of life, however, appears in the natural state, 
when sin has quickened, as suppressed by a foreign power, 
troubled and obscured in its nature, and hence the operation 
of grace finds expression in striving to draw it upwards, and to 
make it prevail. Sin therefore is not to be considered as a 
sum of evil actions standing separate, any more than good as a 
sum of good deeds standing separate, but both, good and evil^ 
are elements of life; wherefore, where good or evil has place 
in one person, the one or the other element, light or darkness, the 
Lord of the kingdom of light, or the prince of darkness, exercises 
his dominion. Therefore it is said also, 1 John iii. 8, 6 ^oiGj¥ rf)y 
afiMfriw fx rwj d/afiSXov f<fr/v. But the dominion of sin, when it 
is allowed, takes the foim of d^ar^, because the I fancies it will 
find in sin true joy and abiding satisfaction, in which, however, 
it deceives itself. Sin, as disharmony, is never able to* still 
that thirst for eternal *joy which is planted in every being, for 
she brings ever in her train the loathing of herself. The law 
fulfils, then, one of its important aims in bringing this deceit 
home to the conscience of the man; it manifests the secret 
hidden nature of evil {ha favfi dfiaprta), it increases it in its 
nature, in order the more surely to awaken the disgust at it, 
and to convert all the desire and love of the man to that godd, 
which, as the internal harmony, stills the longing for eternity. 
The words l¥a yifn^at xa^ v7npfioXii9 d/jMpruXhg 4 dfMtprfaf there- 
fore, are not to be refined on ; they are intended to state, ac- 
cording to their simple sense, that tiie commandment increases 
sin. As a rapidly flowing stream rolls calmly on, so long as no 



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246 EPISTLX TO TUB BOXANS. 

object checks it, but foams and roars so soon as any hindrance 
stops it, just as calmly does the sinful element hold its course 
through the man, so long as he does not stem it; but if he 
would realize the divine commandment, he begins to feel the 
force of the element, of whose dominion he had as yet no 
boding. 

The construction of the sentence is not without difficulty. 
To ' AXXflb i ikfAapria the words ifiAl yvyoH 0d¥arog are eyideutly to be 
supplied from the preceding, but the following iva favfi kfiMp- 
ria seems to stand unconnectedly, and some expositors would 
therefore have bracketed it as parenthesis, which however is 
without doubt wrong. It is better to draw from Ihil the idea of 
the divine purpose, and consequently to supply: ''whereby 
(namely that sin becomes the cause of death to men) God pur- 
poses that.'' Ka^ wpfio7Jif=vwipfia70U¥roig is frequently used 
by Paul. (Comp. 1 Cor. xii. 31 ; 2 Cor. i. 8, iv. 17 ; Gal. i. 18). 
The formula is found also in later profane writers. The second 
im is to be taken as standing quite parallel to the first ; the 
second clause only illustrates and enhances the thought of the 
first. 

Ver. 14. The carnal state of man is now opposed to the 
purely objective divine nature of the law (the rviufAarixSg is to 
be interpreted as emanation of God, of the «>tD/(*a, John iv. 24.) 
Spirit and flesh lust against each other. (Gal. v. 7.) Therefore, 
the I also and the law are against each other, the I would be 
autonomous. There is certainly no break to be made here at 
ver. 14, the Apostle does not pass to any new representation; 
but <he alteration of the tenses — the present keeping on so 
constantly to the end of the chapter,* and preterites having 
been hitherto used — cannot, as has already been observed, be 
overlooked. We find a generalization of the relations signified 
in this; Paul regards in what follows the man in himself, upon 
all stages of development, in conflict with the law, and in as 
far as the old man remains even after regeneration, so far the 
following description as has been shown above, has its truth 
also for the regenerate man himself. But the question occurs, 
what conception are we to form of ^dp^y and its derivative 
^a^x6€ ? Schleusner counted no less than sixteen significations 
of ffdp^i which Bretschneider and Wahl have, to be sure, reduced 
to seven ; notwithstanding even the exposition of these learned 



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CHAPTEK VII. 14. 247 

men is not calculated to make it perceptible, how one of these 
meanings proceeds from the other. The following observations 
may perhaps afford an easy survey of the course of the for- 
mation of the different meanings which the word takes in. Saf g, 
•^{2^ immediately signifies the substance of the flesh, as far 
as it belongs to the living organism ; as dead, it is called xpiag. 
In this meaning, as substance of the ^u/jm, flesh and bones 
are often connected (e. ^., Luke xxiv. 39 ; Ephes. v. 30), 
in order to mark as strongly as possible the material This 
nearest meaning, founded on the perception of the senses, is 
then applied in holy writ to spiritual things in two ways. 
First, the flesh is understood as the visible veil of the Spirit, 
and so far ^Ap^ appears in equal signification with ypdfifuk, the 
veil of the Spirit in the Scripture, or. with fanp^v in contrast to 
xptfWT6¥ (Rom. ii. 28, 29; Col. ii. 1, 5; Heb. ix. 10), and denotes 
the outward, the outside, the form in contrast to the essence ; 
nex^t edp^ signifies the decaying, perishable part of man, in 
contrast to the eternal, imperishable spirit dwelling in him. 
This sense appears especially in the forms ^Ap^ xai aT/ie^ (Matt, 
xvi. 17; 1 Cor. xv. 50; Ephes. vL 12) and vaifa Hp^ (Luke iii. 
6; John iii. 6; 1 Pet. i. 24) as signifying the decaying, perish- 
able race of man generally. The notion of sinfulnesa is, then, 
necessarily given with that of decay, for the former is the cause 
of the latter ; death penetrated into mankind with sin ; and 
decay is but that death gradually diffusing itself. Accordingly, 
sinfulness itself is also, especially in the Epistles to the Romans 
and Qalatians, directly called adp^y and Irnhft^fai ffapx6g (Ephes. 
ii. 3; 1 John ii. 16; 2 Pet il 18), a wvs (fapx6i (Col. ii. 18), 
ffujuM mpxis (Col. ii. 11, compared vrith Eccles. xxiii. 16), and 
such like are spoken of. Yet this usage is not to be under- 
stood as though the writers of the Bible considered sin to be 
grounded merely in the bodily impulses, as preponderating 
sensuality. The ^Ap^ is rather to be understood as embracing 
the whole psychical life with all its will and mind ; for with« 
out the animating 'v]/v;^4, the same being distinguished from 
«v«D/M(, the ffdp^ alone cannot so much as commit sin. It is 
certainly correct, however, that ed^^ can only be used to denote 
human sin, the sin of the world of evil spirits having quite a 
different character. In this it is of a spiritual nature, and 
tlierefore incurable; in the natural man sin has only pene* 



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S48 BPISTLB TO THE BOXANS. 

trated the nature of soul and body ; the spirit, bj being op- 
pressed or troubled by sin, may be defiled, but it has no sin in 
its nature. When in man sin occupies the spirit itself, and pro- 
ceeds from it, he is then on his way to the sin against the Holy 
Ohost.* The use of the adjectives aapxtxk and 6af%if6i may 
now be easily explained. The latter (2 Cor. iii. 3, is the only 
place where it is quite ascertained) answers to the German 
fleiachem, or *' fleiscliig," fleshy ; the former is our fleischlich, 
camaL In the later Greek, the two adjective forms were con- 
founded, and hence many variations are found in the read- 
ings ; in the N. T., however, excepting the passage adduced, 
eapxix6g might be everywhere read. This form, then, designates 
as well the merely outward (Rom. xv. 27; 1 Cor. ix. 11), as 
the perishable, and, therefore, sinful, which latter meaning 
prevails in the passage before us. The i/ctf, namely, is so far 
called tfa^xixoV, as it is governed by sin; not, in as far as it has 
sin essentially in. itself, for in the course of the following expo- 
sition of the Apostle, it appears as again freed from that foreign 
dominion, as it was relatively free from it before sin became 
alive (ver. 9.) The expression m9rpa/i,i¥9t itwh ri)y ofMtprtav also 
points to the same relation ; the image of one sold for a slave, 
who is in need of being ransomed, is the foundation of it For 

* Compare more partienkrly hereon at the important passage, 2 Cor. vil 1. 
Very etrUdng obeerrationa upon this subject are to be found in Vitringa oba. aaer. 
(Jen» )7SS) page 560, seqq. Comp. also my opnsc. theol. (Berol. 188S) page 
166, seqq. Mttller, in his excellent work ui>on sin (Breshiu, 1839, B. i. s. 182), 
thinks my illustration of the notion of riB^( more satisfactory in the treatise upon the 
Trichotomy than here. I am not aware, howcTer, that I have expressed myself 
otherwise In the commentary than in that treatise, only I haye here developed my 
view more fully. The scriptural explanation which Mtlller himself gives of r«f( 
I certainly cannot acknowledge to be the right one, and it is impossible for it to 
gain credit. M filler, namely, is of opinion that the expression ri»(( does not sig- 
nify the sinful part in man, but '^all that is merely human — the human as denuded 
of its relation to God, and in contrast to this relation " (p. 1 84.) That v^i^mi, in 
opposition to r«^(, is not thp human but the divine spirit; that »«vf or • U§t 
iff^vir»t is used in contrast to ri^|. But *»»t is acknowledged to be a function 
only of the ^nvftm, and how the fr« Sif4M»§ is to be otherwise understood than of 
the mvfinif is not to be conceived. But even setting aside this identity of the 
irnufitm, with both the notions which Mttller recognises as opposite to r«^|, the as- 
sumption of such contrast itself contradicts the notion of rm^l which he has pro* 
posed. As Paul states here a conflict in the man between the ri(^| and the »•«« , it 
cannot be that all which is merely human is called ri^l, for that includes the vwt 
itself. 2mfl is the human nature, ao/ar as it is separated from God, and beeomes 
subject to the power of darkness, that is, r«>Mr and ^^v^ti; in the ^wiSfiM^ on the 
contrary, or, taken as faculty, in the vM/f, the light has remained to him, a light 
still in his darkness ; the good impulses proceed from it, as from the ri(^ the evil 
ones. 



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CHAPTER VII. 15 — 20. 249 

the free maD only can come into bondage, and becomes free 
again with his liberation from it. Surely, however, he cannot 
loose himadf from it, but needs a ransomer, and to this point 
the deduction of the Apostle leads (ver. 24). Therefore, even 
the regenerate man may say the eapxixU *ifi»t of himself, in that 
he, albeit for .moments only, has yet to experience the domi- 
nion of sin. 

The reading ^Jda/Mv is without hesitation to be preferred to 
the other oTBa /cmv, as the latter has no manuscript authority at all, 
and has evidently proceeded merely from the observation, that 
the singular stands elsewhere in the whole passage. But for 
the veiy purpose of indicating that the Apostle is not expressing 
merely individual experiences, but such as are at the same time 
experiences of the generality, J;he employment of the plural was 
necessary here at the turning-point of the whole disquisition. 

Ver. 15 — 20. The thought just now generally put iy«tf iraf^x/xoV 
dfLi, the Apostle carries out experimentally in the following 
verses, and describes in the most vivid manner the fluctuation 
of desires and thoughts both tempting and fighting against the 
temptation. The repetition of the same words (ver. 15 comes 
in ver. 19, and ver. 16 in ver. 20, word for word again) gives in 
the most touching manner the impression of a dreary unifor- 
mity of this inward struggle, before a higher power of peace has 
revealed itself in the mind. Meanwhile, however, this repetition 
is by no means to be considered as entirely without purpose, it 
is intended rather to lead to even stronger consciousness of the 
sinful state, and thereby to ever livelier longing for redemption. 
In the course of the conflict, too, more conscious separation of 
the better I from sin bespeaks that progress, which the Apostle 
afterwards indicates not merely by the stronger expression, 
which marks in the advance (ver. 23) the joy in the divine law, 
but also by the even more perceptible parting of the old man 
ffom the new man who is in process of formation, and of the 
law of sin from the law of the spirit. It is yet to be observed, 
that here again the Apostle's representation is not to be applied 
to such offences, as human authority punishes, that no mur- 
derer therefore, or adulterer, or any one who commits anything 
else, which is generally considered as a criminal act, can say, I 
do what I would not, but I cannot help it. Such an one the 
Apostle would answer: thou hypocrite, thou canst well forbear 



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250 KPX6TLB TO THB B0XAN8. 

committing the act, if thou only appliest the natural powers 
which God has bestowed upon thee. The whole representation 
regards the inner man, and finer transgressions of the divine 
commandment, e,g., by an overhasty word. Hence, it has klso 
its perfect truth for the regenerate man,* who is open to im- 
pressions from the more subtile temptations only. But the 
conscience being also more acute in him, his situation is^br his 
feding quite similar to that represented here, and he is as much 
in need of daUy repentance and renewed forgiveness of sins, as 
, the unregenerate is of the first repentance. Some consideration 
is now requisite in this passage of the relation of the one and 
the other I, of which respectively Paul speaks, to the unity of 
the personality. The one I would the good, gives assent to the 
law (ver. 1 6, &u/i^fAi rp v6fi,^\ nay has its pleasure init (ver. 22, 
&uifndofuu rp vSfjktfi) ; the other notwithstanding does sin, that is, 
nourishes desire, the evil concupiscence, albeit the other I can 
withhold it from breaking out into act.^ In quite a similar 
manner our Lord also speaks (Matt. x. 39) of a twofold -^vxn, 
one of which must die, if the other is to be kept. According to 
the ordinary notion of the soul, as being a thing of itself closed 
in itself, that breeds of itself at pleasure good as well as evil, 
this mode of expression is hard to be explained; but, as has 
been already observed at Matt. x. 39, it becomes quite intel- 
ligible, when the soul is considered as receptive nature, pene* 
trated by the powers of light and darkness, that contend in it 
for the mastery. In the better I, light gets predominant, in the 
sinful one, darkness, and the man thus perceives in the unity of 
his life the duplicity of the fighting elements, that reflect their 
nature in him; he has not two souls, but the oneness becomes 
twofold by the powers that are operative in it. By total sur? 
render to the one or the other of these elements, he passes 

* The boundary, how and wherein a regenerate perwn can stiU rin, and how 
and wherein not, is to be defined by men upon the extremities only. We may eay, 
a regenerate person, who should oommit a premeditated murder or the like^ was 
entirsly fidlen from faith; but if a belieTer should be fuilty in a word or a simi- 
hr small matter, it would naturally not be considered as in itself apoetaey. Not- 
withstanding oTen ofM word may in the divine judgment be a reiy heary sin, i^ 
9.g,f it is intended to wound a neighbour deeply; and circumstances, which often 
God only ktiowe, may exceedingly mitigate a seemingly rery heavy sin. The 
greatness of the temptation, the degree of consciousness and the like, which are 
beyond human judgment, are instances in point 

+ Bengel says very aptly upon this: ''Assensus hominis legi contra semet ipsum 
praestitUB, illustris character est religiouis, magnum testimonium de Deo." 



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CHAFTBB YII. 15, 20. 251 

entirely into their nature. Even before Christ experience led 
rightly to such a duplicity in the inner man. Besides the well 
known : '^ video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor^' of Ovid 
(Metam. vii. 19), and beside the expression of Epictetus : o a/jMp^ 
rdvvif 3 fiu9 tffXf/ ou ta/i?, xai 8 ft^ii tfiXf/«'oii7'(Enchir. ii. 26), the pas* 
sage of Xenophon (Cyrop, vi. 1, 21) is remarkable, in which two 
souls are expressly distinguished, with the entirely correct re- 
mark, that the phenomenon of the inward conflict, and of the 
attraction to good as well as to evil, cannot be satisfied by the 
explanation, that the same soul addresses itself at one time to 
the good, at another to the bad, for that in the choice of the 
one, the bent towards the other manifests itself a^ the same 
time.* Naturally, however, the willing of good before regener- 
ation can only be considered as the free will gradually develop- 
ing itself, as dispoeMon to true freedom, as mere veUeitcts. For 
this 0i\u¥ can only express itself negatively, in as &r as it 
checks the outbreak of sin into the gross act ; but as soon as 
the man becomes conscious that the evil desire as such is sin, 
he feels that mere willing is not sufficient to remove it, even as 
it is incapable of calling forth in the heart holy motions and 
desire for holiness. 

The w ynilM^y ver. 15, is not to be construed with Augustine 
and Grotius, "I approve not," as Reiche still maintains. For 
although the conceptions " know,'' and '* approve," or " be in- 
clined towards," pass into each other, the context forbids the 
application of the meaning '^ be inclined to, like," here, because 
a tautology thereby arises, ^"kin expressing the same thing. 
One is led to construe the expression so, only because the 
speaker seems to know well what he does, as at ver. 18, too, it 
is said: •Iba yd^p x. r. X. But then it is overlooked, that although 
the Apostle does know well the fact of the inward conflict, he 
does not comprehend the cause of this phenomenon, or at least, 
in the described moment of inward development, he pictures 
the speaking subject as perplexed in his view of it. Like, as it 
is said, John iii. 8, of the regenerating Spirit, '' a man hears 
and feels its sound indeed, but knows not whence it cometh 

* EeielM, in a stnuige mumer, explains these words of the Apostle, expressing 
so profoundly the genersl experienoe of all more earnest men, of the ideal and real 
Jew. The oonformity of profane writers with the Apostle's expression might 
Burdj have taught him hetterl 



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252 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

and whither it goeth/' — Ver. 16. gv/iftifAt is weaker than the 
following tft/rnd«/Mei, ver. 22; this is to be distinguished from 
ifndo/iat, by which mischievous joy is designated. The two ex- 
pressions are only found here in the N. T. Vers. 17 and 20, 
the mi dl ovKtri is important; Paul indicates therein, as has 
been remarked above, a progress; he is supposing that the 
man at first himself performs the evil, till theparting of the m^fiJa 
and the wvs is completed in him, and the evil afterwards stands 
opposed to him as a strange thing, molesting his true I. mJwf 
is not to be understood of time, but to be construed as inferring 
only. The temporal progress is indicated only in the olfxirt. 
Ver. 18. Upon the otxiT sv rfj ^apx/ /icv ti a/Mt^/a, and the AiXnv 
rapaxurat fA6i, comp. at 21, 22. Ver. 18. A.B.C. and several 
critical authorities leave out tvpi^x^, and read only : r^ St xanp* 
/a^ftf^o/, oj. The omission of the verb might be more difficult 
to explain than its addition, and therefore I prefer the shorter 
reading. Ver. 20. The most important authorities, namely, 
the Codd. B.C.D.E.Q., omit the first iyut, while the second re- 
mains quite undisputed; the omission seems certainly very 
proper, for the following Jyw together with a^apr/a, goes back 
,to tf«x« and ato/S; there was, therefore, no ground for putting 
Jyw at the beginning of the verse ; notwithstanding the very 
reason for the omission might have been, that the so putting it 
was unaccountable. 

Ver. 21-23. That duplicity within the man, already notified 
in the foregoing verses, is now more closely described.* Paul, 
namely, distinguishes the Um Av^puvog (Eph. iii. 16), from the 
fgfti Av^fwroi (2 Cor. iv. 16); parallel with the first iBzpression he 
uses vovg^f with the second ^df>^ or A&fX9). Considered in and by 
themselves, these expressions are not of equal signification with 
xatvts Siv^pu^og (Eph. ii. 15, iv. 24), or xaiyi) xr/V/^ (Gal. vi. 15; t 
Cor. V. 17), and ^aXaihg AvOpntMrof (Rom. vi. 6; Eph. iv. 22 ; Col. 
iii. 9). For the three latter formulse refer only and solely to 
the birth of the new man in regeneration (John i. 13); whereas 
every natural man has an inward man,- a rvsvfjM or Mg, or as 
Peter says (1 Pet. iii. 4), a x^u«t^ Avfi^urog nj? xafiiag. But as 

* Compare hereon, and upon the connexion of ch. rii. and viiL, Knapp'a treatise 
in the scriptis var. arg., p. 429 sqq. 

t In 2 Cor. it. 16, however, there is reference also in trti &vt^ti9»t to the glori- 
fied body. 



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CHAPTER VII. 21—23. 253 

far as the transformation in regeneration begins in the ^tviDaux or 
roS^ of the natural man, and the inner man is the condition, we 
may say the mother of the new man, so far the meanings reach 
one another, and although^ therefore, in the passage before us 
the state of the regenerate is not immediately the subject of 
discourse, yet the description, with the modifications above 
directed, has its truth for this state also. The relation, how- 
ever, of imvfM, or vou( to tfcl^^ or /jk^Xn will be only properly under- 
stood from that trichotomy of human nature which serves as 
basis to the Apostle's representation.* According to the 
acuteness of the contrast, in which Paul places the two above- 
mentioned parts of man, his unity would be entirely annulled, 
if we might not, upon the authority of other passages of Scrip- 
ture (especially] Thess. v. 23, and Heb. iv. 12), supply the 
•4/u;^ as the third part, and indeed as that part in which the 
man becomes conscious both of the raur and of the ^A^^f as hie^ 
and which therefore must be considered as the proper centre of 
his personality. In the wvtvfia (which is only comprehended in 
the 9<iv^ as ability, as capacity) the connexion of the -^vxn with 
the higher world of the spirit is represented, in the ^d^^ the con- 
nexion of it with the creature. In the natural state certainly, 
the spiritual potency of the mD^ is dimmed (2 Cor. vii. 1); the voD^ 
of itself is in fiMrut^rrii, having no power or capacity to conquer 
(Eph. iv. 18), as even the conscience may be defiled (Tit. i. 15); 
wherefore the man is in need of the irnufMt &yto¥, of the absolute, 
pure, the highest Spirit, for his perfection; meantime, however, 
the you;, even although obscured, forms for the natural man an 
inward light, that gives him a sort of insight. This light is 
never quite extinct but by a continued resistance to it, and 
then all spiritual power vanishes. (Matt. vi. 23 ; Jude ver. 19). 
Accordingly the Apostle speaks of a f6fus roD mo^, that is, of a 
law coming to the consciousness of man by the wvs. This law, 
which the man feels himself unable to satisfy, is not, however, 
given to him autonomously, but Qod gives it him by the voD;, as 
the organ susceptible of the divine operations. The two laws, 
therefore, are not to be held apart, as Tholuck still holds them; 
they are thoroughly identical, only regarded according to their 
nearer or farther sources. So for the ¥6/m^ rtis afia^riaty or y<^/uo^ 

* Coinp. hereon my treatiee : de tricfaotomia humaDn natune N. T. seriptoribus 
rccepia, which is printed in my opoec. theol. p. 143 sqq. 



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254 EPISTLE TO THE R0XAH8. 

r^ff (fa^xoff, v6fM^ rou diap6>M might be put, since the ultimate cause 
of the expressions of sin in man cannot be supposed without 
incitement from the kingdom of darkness and its prince. 
When, however, a law is assigned to sin itself, which is in its 
nature opposed to law, it is with a view to indicate, that in the 
sinful development, no less than in good, there is a constant 
advance, an incessant urging and assertion of itself. It may 
be said, that in the department of sin the law of good is re- 
versed; as in good the constant law of attraction upwards re- 
veals itself, so in evil a constant law of the attraction down- 
wards. Nothing, as has already been remarked on another 
passage, is more dangerous and erroneous than the opinion that 
one evil deed can stand isolate — ^that a man can commit one or 
another, and then stop. Bather does all evil hang like a chain 
together, and every sin multiplies the weight of the indwelling 
evil in frightful progression, until, quicker than the man for* 
bodes, it turns him dizzy and drags him into the deep. But 
even so the good grows also in itself, and every little victory 
furthers its elasticity, which has its impulse upwards. Tliese 
two potencies, therefore, fight against each other in the -^t/xny 
us their arena. The I has the insight into the better, has the 
fikttv even, a sort of veUeitas to do it, but the xdnpydj^$g$ai is 
wanting (ver. 18); thus the inward power of action in the man, 
that which proceeds from the ^mv/ia, is crippled. Sin makes a 
prisoner of the I (ver. 23), it is a slave in its own house. 

No emphasis is to be laid on the expressions n &fiMfrIa o/xi^ H 
ii\si¥ irapdxitrou (ver. 18, 20, 21), as though dxtTif were to express 
the^ constant inhering, ira^axiMou the more distant attachment, 
for ver. 21, vrapaxiTa^ai is used likewise of evil. The expression 
ohtTiif tfMl dfiM^ta (ver. 17), is more nearly -defined, ver. 18, by o&x 
6}x$Th Tjl m^xi fMu d/a^'y. The obx aya^&v=xax^v^ ver. 19, answers 
to dfiapria considered as a state; sin is removed out of the 
nobler, higher potency of the man, the you;, into the lower, the 
-^vx^ aapxix^y or the <fdp^ •+yx'*^- (Comp. at ver. 14). The 
lower potency defiles the higher also, and presses back its opera- 
tion ; but the latter has not in itself the law of disharmony; 
this is the case with the evil spirits only, and with men, when 
they have, by continued personal sin, killed the spirit itself. 
Ka\6v is used entirely as the hellenic xaXlv xtjtya$6v in a moral* 
aesthetic meaning. pyQ^ is similarly used in a moral view, Eccl. 



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CSAPTSR Til. 24. 255 

iii. 11. Ver. 21. Touching the difficult constraction of the 
vene, it i» not entirely cleared by any of the attempts to solve 
it (Reiche's comm. ad. loo. may be referred to for them); it 
geems that an anacoluthon must be assumed in it With this 
supposition one must be guided by the leading notion vofiog, 
which must then in ver. 21 be understood as in ver. 22, 23, and 
therefore of the law of God. With regard to the grammatical 
construction, rhv fSfiov might be annexed to roic^. But in this 
way of taking the passage, especially maintained by Enapp, 
not only is the rh xaUv* harsh, for which Enapp would impro- 
perly read rh¥ xaXSv, but also the repetition of I/m/. If it be 
further considered that Paul never}* uses the form 96fuv ^mh ; 
it is only found Oal. v. 3; that, in fine, an inpo^ vtfM^ is spoken 
of in ver. 23, which is explained as fifs^ kiiapriai) the simplest 
mode seems to be, to take rh fSfup as accusative of the object in 
the sense : '' I find then, the law, that evil is present with [or 
besets] me, while I am yet wishing to do good." The placing 
rhp fifjkw before, suits this sense very well. Ver. 23, a}x/^>>^*Xl^9 
as well as alyjMtyMrtiu (2 Tim. iii. 6) belongs only to the later 
Greek, and especially to the Alexandrine dialect. Comp. Phiy- 
nichus by Lobeck, s. 442. 

Ver. 24. So, then, Paul had arrived at the proper turning- 
point in the interior of the spiritual life, to the complete deve- 
lopment of the need of redemption, to the parting of law and 
gospel. The law has fulfilled its work, when it has awakened 
repentance, and the despair in a man's own power to set forth 
true holiness within and without him (Rom. iii. 20), and is thus 
become the ^athaywyhg i/V Xftf/roV (Qal. iii. 24). It seems sur- 
prising only, that he who in the deepest longing cries for re- 
demption, longs for this redemption not from sin, or from the 
law of sin, but from the fsllifM roD ^avdnv = ^Zfia 0¥nr6if,t All 

* The ri HmXif CAO only be taken m redundant, nnlete with Homherg, »j^«», or 
with Hemsterhnis »cX*» is to be struck out, but for which there are no critical 
anthorities. (Comp. Knapp, ser. t. arg. p. 437.) 

t [This seeming oontradicUon is the author's.] 

:t If a moment could be pointed out earlier, which might be oonsidered as the 
experience of the redemption of Christ in the spirit, and oonld this whole section 
be expUined immediately of the regenerate, one misht believe that Ter. 24 might 
be taken thus : ** Would that I might, now that I am spiritually redeemed, be 
glorified in body also I" But so the redemption would appear totally done with 
spiritually, and only remain to be completed corporally ; while according to scrip- 
tural representation, it needs, as well for the spirit as for the whole man, constantly 
renewed repetition. 



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256 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

explanations of this expression, which abstract from corporeity,* 
must necessarily founder on the two decided declarations of the 
Apostle in the preceding part of the discourse, which constantly 
speaks of the tfapg, nay of the fLtXti (comp. vi. 12, vii. 18, 23, 
25.) Paul is not, however, supposing (as was remarked at ver. 
14) in a Manichsean manner, the &dp^ or the 6Qfut to be in and 
of itself sinful; the Apostle says rather, that as far as the ^S^f^ 
is necessarily connected with the psychical life of man, and as a 
member of the material world is exposed to its wild powers, so 
far 4 dfjkoprta oUtT h rp ffapxi. He wishes, therefore, to be re- 
deemed, not from the body in itself (he longs rather to be clothed 
upon with the true heavenly body, 2 Cor. v.), but only so to be 
redeemed from the mortal body, that is, the body subject to 
corruption, that the Spirit may give it life. (Comp. at Rom. * 
viii. 11.) Accordingly, it may clearly be perceived from this 
passage also, that Paul, as we already intimated, teaches the 
sinfulness of man's nature, and recognises in himf the remains 
of the divine image, which restoring grace knits on to. Man 
is become by original sin no mtufia Axd^aprov, such as the evil 
spirits are ; but from the disobedient will of the -^vx^, man's 
corporeity is immediately become subject to the mere natural 
life and its rude powers,^ hence by a reaction the vttvfMt also 
is become grieved and hindered ; howbeit the ^iu/iAa has retained 
a certain light and grade of beneficial influences, whereby even 
in the heathen world phenomena relatively noble are bred. 
(Comp. at Rom. ii. 14, 15.) Meantime the natural life suffices 
not, the natural power of the will to boot, to do away with sin 
and rear true inward holiness, as the divine law requires; man 
needs a Redeemer, therefore, through whom his spirit may re- 
ceive again the whole fulness of its original power, which here- 
upon first sanctifies the -^vxi and glorifies at last the ^w^a also. 
As, therefore, the lusts of the flesh war from beneath against the 

• [Leiblichkeit.] 

f [/n ihm. There is no mascoliiie word in the eentenee to which ihm can rebte. 
Perhaps it may be a misprint for tAr , t. «., dtr mmtehHehen naturj or the aothor may 
have put ihm to agree with dem menacheHf forgetting that this was not the expres- 
sion which he had used. B.] 

t Only, Holy Scripture eert&iniy knows nothing of the heathen view of the body, 
as a prison of the soul ; it is rather a necessary organ to her of herself, wherefore, 
even upon the hifj^eet stage of perfection, the body again appears, only in glorified 
form. Without body, the state of the soul is an imperfect one. (Comp. upon the 
reUtion of the body to the soul, Seneca [epist. 65] who expresses himsell thereon 
in a manner nearly approaching the Christian doctrine. 



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CHAPTEBVII. 25 — VIII. 17. 257 

-^vxn; so does the impulse of the spirit sanctify it from above; 
hence sanctification must, before all things, be directed to the 
crucifying of the flesh (Gal. v. 24; 1 Cor. ix. 27), because the 
spirit comes to have dominion, when the predominance of the 
flesh is suppressed* But if sin were founded immediately in 
the wnv/iM or wuiy so that Paul might have said: aftaprta a/xf?» 
rf ^mv/Aarif atonement could then have been as little spoken of 
for men, as it is in the case of the evil spirits, for there had been 
no connecting point for grace in the inner man. Since then> 
even with the regenerate mom^ the body of death and the old 
man is living stil^ he also has occasion to exclaim: ra\otsirupoi 
sydf &v0paMn^; more in a partial sense, however, the exclamation 
being here intended in its full compass, as liberation from the 
whole former state, and longing for a thoroughly new life, whose 
property the subsequent representation describes. The expres- 
sion raXo/ff-w/Por, from rXdat, to sufler, and ^Zfog^ a rock, a heavy 
stone, is very suitable for describing the hjard pressure under 
which the man is suffering during the dominion of sin. It is 
found besides at Bev. iii. 17. The choice of the word ^iof^as us 
also very significant ;* that powerful, energetic, puUing-out lies in 
its meaning, which is looked for not from any circumstance, but 
from a person only spiritually superior in might, therefore, r/; fts 
iu^rcu. That in the ^^tftra/, moreover, not merely the communi- 
cation of a new principle of life, but the forgiveness of sins, 
atonement is intended, the expression xarAxpifka ovSt¥ roTg fv 
Xpi0Tf testifies. In the words, U row ctafiMrcg rov 6a¥drov rourou, 
the pronoun belongs to ^cM^Mro;, since it is placed according to 
the known Hebrew use where two substantives are connected, 
after.t) 

* The whole ezprettioii : r/r f*i fy^trm, cxpNBsasb moreortr, not merely the 
thoQgfat : who will at last sometime oe&'ecr me out of this cheerless state of conflict, 
but also the thought : who can. The feelmg finds vent, that no hanan help avails 
anything here. 

t The HypaUage with pronouns in Greek is certainly unusual (comp. Winer^ 
Gr. p. 519, and Meyer ad loc); but the context speaks decidedly here for the 
adoption of a Hebrew* idiom. (Comp. Gesenius Gr. p. 741. For the thought, 
*■ body of this hithei*to described death," does not suit the context, since fdMtrt 
last occurred at ver. 13, and the following description from ver. 14, contains 
no point at all, which could lead to the notion of death in a physical sense. 
The putting rSftm imtArw together, however, siiggests immediately the physical 
death, as the final expression of the corruption which has dominion of the whole 
man. '%mfm rtS tm*AT»u cannot certainly be : body, which is the eaun of 0^vmr»$, 
but it may be : body which bears in itself the nature of death s ^ZfAm. itn>ri* [viii, 
10.] The meanuig ''mass, whole,'' according to the analogy of ni3 is quite inap< 
plicable here. 



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258 KPISTLE TO THE ROMAKS. 



§ 12. OF THE EXPERIENCE OF REDEMPTION UNTIL THE PERFBCTIOK 
OF THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE. 

(VII. 25— VIII. 17.) 

To the question uttered in ver. 24 : who shall redeem me? 
the Apostle answers by a deep but eloquent silence. He points, 
namely, by it to that invisible and unspeakable act otregenera- 
ti(m, when the man sees heaven open, and perceives the 
whisper of the Spirit, and therein the presence of God (1 Kings 
xix. 12), without knowing whence the breathing cometh and 
whither it goeth (John iiL 8). To signify, however, that here 
the experience of redemption in his own heart is to be con- 
sidered as attained, he utters his thanksgiving for this grace 
to the originator of the work of redemption, God the Father, 
through Christ, whom he can now from his heart call his Lord.* 
With this experience an entirely altered state commences 
within the man, the nature of which the Apostle proceeds to 
describe, unto entire perfection, even of the body (viii. 11). 
While, namely, in the former state the divine law reflected itself 
indeed in the voZg and the vdsh was stirring in the inner man, that 
he might be able to keep it, nay, his joy in it notified itself, yet 
the main thing still was wanting, the xarsf^a^ier^a/ (vii. IS). The 
voD; could not in freedom serve the law of God,*!* the very inner 
man was taken prisoner by the resisting law of sin. But by 
experience of the redeeming power of Christ, whereby the wug 
is strengthened, the man sees himself enabled, at least with the 
highest and noblest potency of his being, to serve the divine 
law, and thus we find no more in him the ^sXi/v merely, but the 
Kartpyd^i^dou also. Meantime the head only, as it were, is as yet 
lifted up from the l^ging sea, there is but the A^oXurpuetg rov 

* Should the act of regenention be anppoeed to have eome to pass earlier, it 
would appear strange, that from ver. 9 to 26 /Ae name of Chriti should not oecur ; 
this just entirely agrees with our acceptation. 

t Stier erroneously understands this of a mere deHifht in the diTine law in the 
thought of man, of equal signification with wtn^trim above ; it is, however, more 
than that, it is the doing of Uie law according to its mward Mente, for in its coarser 
exUrior the man may keep it even without grace. Such <hatg only can rightly be 
called UvXtvttf »j^ei««, the hvXtvtt* ti^lifuifTimt which happens merely with the 
riC^, is no doing of sin, but a mere remaining exposed to the motions of the sinful 
flesh. (Comp. Gal. v. 17.) 



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CHAPTEEVII. 25 — VIII. 17. 259 

vyi^Auxro; or vUf, to which afterwards, viii. 23, the a^o>jirpu&ig roC 
^difiMTog must join ; the tf^g, and the '^t^x^ necessarily to be 
considered as united with it, the whole inferior region of life 
therefore, remains yet subject to the law of sin. Hence even 
in the regenerate the conflict lasts on, but it has lost it cheer- 
less uniformity; in the power of Christ he knows he shall 
usually conquer in this battle, and if he sometime fall (in lesser 
things), he knows he shall soon get up again (1 John ii. 2) ; so 
that t/fnni governs now in that higher sphere of human being, 
where once the contest was most violent, because there the op- 
position to sin revealed itself most determinedly. Accordingly, 
they who belong to Christ are quit of the condemning con- 
science, since the living spirit of Christ has made them free from 
sin and death (viii. 1, 2). This new principle of life, however, 
is gradually to diffuse itself through the being of the man, until 
the -^vxfii nay the adfiMy is glorified by it, and Christ becomes 
the ^u^ for the whole man, that he may raise him up at the last 
day. (Comp. Rom. viii. 11, with John vi. 44, &c. At both 
passages my commentary may be consulted.) 

Notwithstanding that a most simple consistency results from 
this conception of the passage, it has been mistaken by almost 
all the older and later expositors,* nay, Reiche would have the 
whole of ver. 25, which is so essential a member in the Apostle's 
description, considered as a gloss. Most of the others refer 
the 5^ 0U9 to the whole description of vii. 14-24, — so that ver. 
25 is to represent the same state which that section describes, 
— ^and the &pa orv (viii. 1), either to ch. v., or even as Tholuck 
would, to ch. iii. If no other acceptation of the passage could 
be made good, I would rather with Reiche strike out the verse, 
than determine upon so forced an interpretation. Perhaps the 
false division of the chapters may have prevented the right 
sense of the words from being found, for it is indeed as impro- 
per as it can be. The seventh chapter ought surely to close 
with ver. 24, and all would then go on in connexion; the strict 
particle of inference &pa and the ydp following at viii. 2, 3, on no 
account allows the thread of the discourse to be broken here. 
But what can have induced the expositors so with one voice to 
find the same thing in ver. 25, as is expressed vii. 14-24, while 

* GlOckler only §e§m9 to have conceired it rightly; h« is, however, too hrief in 
bis expUnstion of the important words for his view to bo dearly perceived. 



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260 EPI8TLS TO THE ROMANS. 

the words are so palpably a declaration of something quite 
different? It was believed that because the v6fMg rod etoC was 
spoken of above also (ver. 23), that the vof iovikiiu vh/^^ eiou was 
identical with the €\tvi]hQfi^t rf vo^c^^ rw eeou (ver. 22), and again 
the dM/Xfu*! capxi ¥OfA(ft afietprlag identical with the before (ver. 15, 
18, 23) described dominion of the ¥6u,ot 6tfiMpr7ag, But that is 
clearly not the Apostle's meaning.* In the state of which first 
the need of redemption was a result, the fJtJiole man, the wvg 
therefore with him, was unable to serve the law of God, the 
better I itself was taken captive by the law of sin. But here 
the voug appears as freed, and in this freedom serving the law of 
God, and only the lower sphere of life remains subjected to tbe 
law of sin. The voifc, however, being the ruling principle in the 
whole man, the law of God rules in it, and by it also in 
Uie whole man, albeit something indeed remains still to be got 
the better of and brought under, namely, the flesh itself yet 
captive in the sinful element.i* 

For thxH*^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ reading xM*^ ^9 ^9 ^s found, which 
must, however, yield to the usual one, as having less critical 
foundation. The d/d 'It^irou X^ntroyi is not to be taken elliptically, 
with itf^w^r for instance supplied, but to be connected with su;^a- 
f/#r«. The thanksgiving offered to God through Christ testifies 

* It might be said, it is not: A ^kfi ^ouXtvu tSfitf kftM^rias^ bat tyi rji r«^»} 
)«<a.i^M f. 2., and tberelbre tbe I, just m from ver. 14-24, might be sappoBed ea 
Berving sin. But \yi in ver. 25 is not, as ver. 9 in the ty^ iiHfmtn, to be under- 
stood as denoting the better part in man, for this is signified by the v«vr, which is 
distinguished from it, and which can now serve the law of God; but as denoting 
the personality in general. Now, in the regenerate man the flesh is not the flesh of 
another, but his own flesh, At* old man, consequently he also remains, the flesh 
merely considered, still as rcgenraate subjected to the ktw of sin. Gal. v. 17 is 
especially important for understanding the whole passage, and there principally the 
words: *m fth i At fixnrtf rmVrm iftnru So also here Paul supposes in the be- 
liever that possibility of umTi^y»Zt^tu, which is wanting in the merely awakened. 

t Meyer makes the following objections to my acceptation: 1. ** If Paul had in- 
tended to express the thought in this signification, he must have reversed the sen- 
tence: ifti tZn mM§ iym r^ t"^* ^m^k) ievkiu*/ tifn^ ifita^Ttttg, t^ ll wvifui Bi«v.** 
By no means; it was necessary that after the thanksgiving the pvogress should be 
immediately brought forward, of being now able with the wg to serve the law of 
God; the suffering in arrear ought only to be mentioned afterwards. 2. ** Accord- 
ing to viiL 2, 3> the redeemed is oi/trd^ freed from the law of sin;" that is not so; 
the regenerate conquers in tbe conflict with sin, he has dominion over it, but he is 
not rid of it; this entire riddance is not effected until the glorification of the mortal 
body. 3. ** If the redeemed still with the ^dfi remained sabject to the law of sin, 
Paul could not say, viiL 1, •Hlf if »«» »mriti(tfuk,** Answer; Paul can say so 
with full right, because the man is not free from condemnation, on account of his 
subiective condition, but for the sake of the objective woriE of Christ, which he lays 
hold of in faith. 



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CHAPTBR VIII. 1 . 261 

the redemption wrought by Ood ihreugh Christ. The avrh^ iyd 
is not to be construed *' I mjself/' but ego idem^ " I, the one 
and the same, have in me a twofold element/' To be sure aMs 
in this signification commonly has the article, but the iyti sup* 
plies it here. 

Chap. viii. 1. As the &fa our, according to the acceptation 
given above, is closely Connected with the thanksgiving for the 
experienced redemption, so again is the &pa vDf with the descrip- 
tion of the state of the regenerate, in whom the conflict indeed 
has not altogether ceased, but is become a victorious one. Those 
who have experienced redemption are now in Christ (o/ h Xiitt- 
rfi 'li|(rou); that is, by real spiritual communion, by the indwell- 
ing of the Spirit of Christ, they are become spiritually united 
with him, members of His body, and as such they are freed 
from the xaraxp//xa, from the sentence of God's justice that re- 
jects sinners. And this, too, not merely in subjective feeUng, 
so that they now feel the peace of God instead of the curse, but 
objectively also, so that their relation to God, and God's posi- 
tion towards them, is become another. The righteousness of 
Christ is imputed to the believer, so that he is regarded as 
though he were Christ;' he is precious to God for the Beloved's 
sake, to whom he belongs, and whose life dwells in him. In 
thorough misconception of the passage, De Wette remarks, " The 
doctrines of satisfaction and justification are not to be intermix- 
ed here; " as if an exposition of the Christian religious develop- 
ment were possible, unless those doctrines formed the turning- 
points in it ! 

It only seems to strike one here, that this alteration commenc- 
ing with the experience of redemption (vvv) is derived in this 
passage from the state of the sinner^ not from the objective act 
of Christ's redemption and atonement, as it was, iii. 25. But this 
difference of representation is easily explained from the different 
points of view taken here and there by Paul for his descriptions. 
There he was viewing the relation quite objectively, here he 
contemplates the subjective appropriation of that objective pro- 
cess. It is not, therefore, in any way his meaning, that forgive- 
ness of sins and deliverance from condemnation is effected by 
the state of the man; rather that comes to pass by the 
sacrifice of the death of Christ alone; he would only say, that 
the subjective appropriation of this act of Christ is now first 



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262 BPISTLE TO THB ROMAVS. 

ctcknowledged and ensues with the actual experience of His re- 
deeming power. The cause (Christ's death) and the effect (the 
regeneration of man) are, therefore, in the life necessarily to- 
gether, they can only be separated and conceived in their 
different relations when they are considered abstractedly. Should 
it, however, be said, that a xardxp/fMx remains still even for the 
regenerate, since their €dp^ (and the '^vxn united with it) is 
still subject to the law of sin (vii. 25); it is assuredly right, 
that where sin is, condemnation is, and that even the regene- 
rate, therefore, is in need of constant repeUtian of forgiveness 
of sins when transgressions occur, be they in the eyes of men 
of ever so little importance. (1 John ii. 1.)* But as a tree 
once grafted is called a noble one, although it may yet shoot 
water-sprouts below the graft, and although it may as yet be 
little developed; so is the regenerate man called perfect, pure, 
holy, without sin, free from all condemnation, for the sake of 
the divinely pure nature of the new element that is come into 
him, although this element, whose new course of development 
is in itself,t may as yet be taken up with the first beginnings 
of this development (1 John ii. 13, 14), and at times be re- 
pressed by the stirring powers of the Vapg. Thus the seeming 
contradiction is reconciled, that whosoever is bom of Qod doth 
not commit sin, because he can not sin, and yet sin still exists 
in the old man of the regenerate, which sin, because the old man 
is h%8i must be called his sin also. Nay, even if a regenerate man 
falls away from faith, the regenerate man, as such, has not 
sinned, but the old man, again grown mighty by that man's 

* Upon the sins of the regenerate, Luther thiu apt}y expresses himself : ^ If 
the regenerate had no sin, he would not come so well off. For if I felt not sin, the 
evil life and eonseienoe, 1 should never relish so the power of the divine Word." 
Sin itself must therefore be the means, for evermore urgently seeking the power 
of Christ It may be said that this ia a dangerous doctrine, for so a man might 
make light of sin and abuse grace! It is certainly possible ; but upon this possibility 
it has nevertheless seemed good to God to free the faithful from the yoke of sin. 
Such knavery of sin, that makes an abuse of the holiest gift of Gk>d, must surely 
come to light The truly regenerate, if he trace any sound of it in himself, will 
only so much the more zealously abhor sin ; if he did not so, he would be in pro> 
oesB of apostacy from faith. The man who only in self-deceit holds himself as re- 
generate, will, if uprightness be in him, thereby be frightened out of his error. 
The insincere hypocrite, however, who can calmly carry on such a wanton abuse, 
fancies indeed he can deceive God and man, but is properly only deceivmg himself, 
and has his reward that way. 

+ [Or— << which contains in itself his (t. <., the man's) new course of develop- 
ment." B.J 



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CHAFTEB VIII. 2. 263 

fault, has again thrust out the germ of the new man from his 
nature. That the new man, however, the Christ in us, is not 
even in the most advanced development of the regenerate, the 
ground of favour, but the token of it only, must ever be main- 
tained, as he withdraws himself at times entirely from the 
man; the ground of acceptance to favour with God is and re- 
mains the Christ for us. (As to the state of the text of viii. 1, 
the mistaken interpretation of vii. 25 could alone have sug- 
gested the alteration of the important niv into oSv. It is the 
very note of the new state of regeneration, and is entirely ne- 
cessary here. On the contrary, the addition: f/,^ Kara 96i.^%a 
Tfp/^ar«D<frv, AXXcb xarek intZiua, [the first half of which only is 
found in some critical authorities], is wanting in the best Codd., 
B.G.D.F.Q., and betrays itself, moreover, so evidently as a gloss 
borrowed -from ver. 4, in order to guard against a misconcep- 
tion of the vdhh iLardxpifiai that it is at all events to be struck 
out. The words are intended namely to attach a condition^ and 
are to be translated: if so be they walk according to the Spirit, 
etc For if they were merely to signify the character of the 
regenerate, they would run: mTg oO xarii c&pxa inpiraroum x. r. X. 
Ver. 2. The following representation then describes, as is 
generally acknowledged, the way and manner of the formation 
of the regenerate state. The man draws not himself, but a Power 
that makes free, that looses the bond, draws him from the aty/M^ 
Xonff/a of sin (comp. vii. 2S), namely 6 vl/Mg roD flryt^/ctaro; rng Z,omi* 
As (John viii. S6) the Son appears as the only one who indeed 
makes free, so here also it is said : o vtfMQ rou innifiartii h xpierf 
'inftwj riXiv0ipu<ft fAt. It is only that the contrast with the law of 
sin and of death proceeding from sin may stand more clearly to 
view, that Christ is here comprehended in the law of the spirit 
of life founded by Him. For in the aorist nUviiffutn is signified 
here not the once-done act of Christ, but as De Wette rightly 
observes, the laying hold of the work of Christ's redemption 
in faith. The possibility of this laying hold is, then, ver. 3, 
grounded on the act of Christ. Both life and death, however, 
are comprehended in their absoluteness, as Christ himself is 
called the Life and the Resurrection, being the conqueror of 
death. If, further, the name of a fSfiog is assigned to the ^tvfia 
rnt Z,mii this is with regard to vii. 22, where the f6tMi roD 
eioD was spoken of, and in contrast with the 4(a;^ n|i afia^riag. 



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264 BPISTLS TO THE ROMANS. 

The expression has its inward truth ; the divine is in itself the 
legaly* onlj it so represents itself in Christ to man, that it brings 
with it the power to satisfy the very claims which it establishea 
That the foithAil, therefore, fulfil the law, is not their own warh^ 
(and consequently gives no merit), but God's work in them 
Ephes. ii. 8-10) by His Spirit that giveth life. Whether, more- 
over, the expression • t6/Hi roD mOfAarog r9( t^wif is construed 
like w99{ffAar9€ 3Lai r^; ^«9(, or as irnvfMrog J^oMTondfroff is essentially 
the same thing as far as regards the thought. For the Spirit 
is the true life, and, therefore, alone capable of imparting it, of 
animating death itself. 

Ver. 3. The incapacity of the law (as a divine institution for 
salvation) to deliver man from sin, made, as Paul had set forth 
at large in the beginning of the Epistle, the other way neces- 
sary, namely, the sending of the Son of God in the flesh, to 
attack sin in its root. 

Th Mvarw ia to be taken as absolute accusative, " touching the 
incapability of the law." — *lLv ^ss *^Q7t)21 *' ^ ^^^^> ^° ^ ^^^ ^" 
of like signification with 9f>' f, oomp. at v. 12 (used also classi- 
cally, oomp. Bemhardy's Syntax, p. 21 1). Thus h f is found, 
Heb. vi. 17, but not, as De Wette thinks, Heb. ii. 18, 1 Pet. ii. 
12, nor John xvi. 30;t in these passages it is the relative with 
the preposition. — ^The law might perhaps avail somewhat with 
the perfect, but the sinfulness of human nature hinders its effi- 
cacy. (Comp. at vii. 12, 13.) 

In the description of the sending of the Son of God, all stress 
is laid upon the idenMy of ths human nature^ in which he ap- 
peared, with ours. The incapacity of the law, to bring forth 
true holiness, lay not in itself (vii. 12), but in corrupted human 
nature, which robbed the divine law of its strength (4<r^s- 
ni)4 Hence this sinful nature was to be in Christ's person 
destroyed in the divine judgment (xartxp/vf riit &^apr/av if if 
tfttpxi). It seems remarkable, however, that the Apostle uses 

* [Da$ GeaeixmSmgef that which is aooording to Uw.] The Uw, the inward im- 
palM o# Uie Spiiir, is to be holy sad to make holy; the Uw of the flesh is, to be 
unholy and to make unholy. Both lost eonstaatly i^^aiuBt ea«h other (GaL t. 17). 
Comp. at ilL 27, m^h r^t irim»tt. 

t [A wrong referenee.] 

t When Heb. Tii. 18, an Jk^itAt ««) AfmpiXU ef the Uw h spoken of, the expns- 
sion is not to be understood of the natun of the Uw but of its workkg^ whioh is 
pewerlesB on aeeonnt of the sin of men. Therefore Paul calls it, Gal. iii. 21 , ^« 



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CHAPTXR YIII. 3. 266 

here the expreasion, «V4^«c ^^» iaunu wMv (vik if used in its 
Btrietly proper sense of the eternal, divine nature of the Son, 
and the greatness of Qod's love is intended to be set forth by 
the i»mv), $¥ ifUMfiart sapxh^ k/Aafrkt^, for by this the human 
nature of Christ himself seems to be described as sinful. But 
had Paul meant to say, that Christ's human nature (for At/^^ 
signifies here, as Rom. L 4, by synecdoche the whole humanity 
of spirit, soul, and body) was sinful, as fallen human nature is; 
he must then have written h ^a^x) apM^ia^ not h iffifafkan 
eotfxhf A/Aa^ta^. Adam's nature, too, before the fall, was the 0/^/61. 
fka of man's nature now ; he became not by the fall specifically 
another, the same man merely became corrupt Here it lay in 
the Apostle's course, to bring forward more immediately the 
ajgynity of Christ's nature with ours; he is silent, therefore, 
upon ih» , difference between them. This difference, however, 
must be so conceived, that the Redeemer, certainly before the 
resurrection, wore no rS/Aa rjf^ d^n^ but a 9&(k€L ruvavta^ut 
(Phil. iii. 21), that was affected with an &ff0i»ua rni ea^iUi (2 
Cor. xiii. 4); but his humanity, notwithstanding, yt^a free from 
paeUive sinfuiness, as begotten of the Holy Qhost. That d^tfl- 
9tia has then the aim, to mediate the possibility of temptation 
(comp. at Matt. iv. 1, etc.), which our Lord had to suffer, in 
order to become the conqueror over evil (Heb. ii. 14, 17, 18, 
iv. 15). Thus the two equally necessary moments were united 
in Christ; connexion with nuunkind unto one true unity of life, 
and the exaltation above mankind, that he might lift. them out 
of their misery. 

'Ofut6rni is properly, analogously as a/zonig, the being like, 
and ifkOiotfAOj the made like, an imago. Paul uses it, however, 
also like ofyuortn. So Rom. i. 23, v. 14, vi. 5, and, besides^ PhiL 
ii. 7. James iii. 9, ^/cm/ant/; is found. So also in the LXX., Gen. 
i. 26. Now, if the sinfulness of human nature were nothing but 
a mere deficiency, the filling of mankind with the life of the 
Son of God would have sufficed to scare it away. But since, 
beside this deficiency in spiritual life^ there is a real disturbance 
of the harmony in the inner and outer man, more than the mere 
incarnation was requisite, namely, the extirpation of the guilt 
and the restitution of the disturbed order by the founding of a 
centre, from which harmony might pour forth through all the 
spheres of life, even as from Adam disharmony had been dif- 



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266 KPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

fused (comp. at Rom. v. 12, etc.) This thought, however, is not 
to be pressed upon the xai vspi a/utprtai^ which words are rather 
to be connected with the preceding in the simple sense, " on ac- 
count of sin,'" "by reason of sin," as ground for the sending of the 
Son of God ; but it lies in the xartxpm rij» afjMpriav iv rfi aapxL* 
There is no foundation whatever for finding in the ^pi oL/utpriag 
a reference to the sacrifice of Christ's death, so that afjMpria = 
Ojj^ should mean sin-ofiering (comp. at 2 Cor. v. 21). The 

T T ^ 

((losing words of the verse, on the contrary, express most decid- 
edly the vicarious and atoning death of the Saviour. For the 
xarixpin evidently has retrospect to the ovdir xardxptfia (viii. 1), 
BO that the sense of the words is this : no xaraxpifia falls on 
tiiem, because He took it on Him; He stands, therefore, in the 
stead of mankind, bears what should fall on them, and so efiocta 
all which the law could not effect, which all comprises in itself 
the reconciliation of God. As, therefore, in the sending of the 
Son the love of God expressed itself, so in the giving of Him up 
His righteousness did, while the Son represents companion, in 
that of His own accord He let Himself be sent and given up 
to death. Thus is the divine righteousness, as its nature re- 
quires, thoroughly satisfied, and at the same time a sinful world 
is saved by love. For the sin condemned in the death of Christ 
is not the sin of some, but the sin of the world, which the Lord 
bore in His flesh (t v rf ^a^xi soil. a2rrou), so that the words 
are equal to the saying of Peter (1 Pet. ii. 24): rki ofjM^tag 
91/1^9 avrhg Aniviyxiv t f r f tfcv/ctar/ aurou M rh §i)Xof. How 
Christ's suffering and Christ's death can be the suffering and 
death of the collective whole (so far as they are one with him in 
faith), became perceptible to us by the idea of the representa- 
tion (comp. at V. 12, etc.), according to which Christ is not a 
man, but the man, the real comprisal of the totality. It is diffi- 
cult, however, to suppose the sin of the collective race in the 
Holy One, so that they could be condemned in Him ; for it may 
be conceived, how the Redeemer could be the representative of 
the holy part of mankind, but it is not so clear, how He was able 
to represent the unholy also, which nevertheless seems to follow 

* Neaoder (apost Zdtalt B. ii. 8. 544, note), explains the Mmrin^nt rj^y ^/K«f- 
rUf by: ^he toolc away sin, broke its power," and appeals to John xiL 81, xtL 
1 1 , where, however, «^/vii» is quite properly ^ to condemn." Neander chooses this 
explanation, becanse he thinks that he must refer «)vy«r«v r«v tiftw to the »mrm»^i' 
t$49 rii9 iifim^rmf, which is by no means necessaiy. 



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OHAPTBR VIII. 3. 267 

from that sentence. As this consideration was not entered into 
at the passage v. 12, etc., the following notice may perhaps help 
to remove the difficulty in making such relation perceptible. As 
there is but one personality in the regenerate man, and yet this 
one person disUnguishes in itself the old and new man, and at 
the same time acknowledges both as its own^ so Christ repre- 
sented in the divine and human unity of His person the collec- 
tive members of a race that form one whole. In this race the 
oppositions of the old and of the new man are set forth as ten- 
dencies of the good and of the evil, and so far then as Christ 
represents the inseparable and indivisible sum, He represents also 
in Himself the tendency of sin. Spiritually, indeed. His holy 
Being was totally separate from sin, and even bodily he was 
connected with the world of sin but loosely, since the indwelling 
Spirit was ever raising even His cra^, while yet his earthly so- 
journ lasted, from the ramhuitii of the natural life to the bi^a of 
the divine; but loose as this His bond with the sinful world was 
in itself, so intimate did it become through that love that fills 
the being foreign to it with its own being.* And in the power of 
this love the Lord identified Himself essentially with sinful men. 
His relation being to them as their new man to the old. As, 
therefore, the new man in the regenerate thrusts not from him 
the I, that still bears in it the old man, but even identifies him- 
self essentiidly with it, and bears all which the old man brings 
dragging after it; neither did the Saviour in His sojourn upon 
earth thrust mankind from Him, for having in it still its old 
man, the evil tendency; but He penetrated even its inmost 
centre, identified Himself entirely with it, and though, indeed, 
he bore the whole pressure of the world's sin and all its conse- 

* The mjrsteiy of love, which allows a transition into a foreign being, and be- 
comes like it, without giving up its own nature, is treated of at large by the Apostle 
Paul under iti^figm of marriage, especially Ephes. ▼. 25, etc. By the power of 
love Christ beoune entirely as the sinful world, so that He, as Luther's expres- 
sion is, could say with truth, ** poor sinner that I am," and remained notwithstand- 
ing* by his nature, specifically separate from sin. He only changed with mankind, 
took their sin upon Himself, and gave them His righteousness and holiness. The 
possibility of such an exchange becomes perceptible from the nature of evil. Christ 
oould not love sinful humanity as His bride, if it were substantially sin; but as sin 
only cleaves to it, he loves the germ of the divine left in it If now sin were a mere f»,ii 
o, it could not well be seen how the essential union with this divine germ of life 
could prepare suffering and death for Christ; but if sin is taken to be real disturb- 
ance (^ the original humony of life, such an union must necessarily have had as' 
its consequence, that the Redeemer was smitten by the whole vwlenoe of that dis- 
harmony which sin had generated upon earth. 



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268 EPISTLS TO THE ROMANS. 

quences, eren thereby He won His very adversaries, and so con- 
verted the whole into Himself. Whilst He then first became like 
mankind, afterwards mankind became like Him 1 Accordingly 
neither the taking upon himself the sin of the world on the part 
of the Son, nor the laying of the sin upon the Son (as the Lamb 
of Sacrifice) on the part of the Father, is, consistently with this 
representation, to be considered as a mere act of the will, which 
must always retain something arbitrary in it; but as something 
given with the incarnation itself Then has this event its an- 
alogy in every ^act of compassionate love. Whoever would help 
another panting under a heavy burden, must go under it and 
bear its whole pressure himself; or, to give an example from 
spiritual things, whoever would bring the salvation in Christ to 
the Negroes or any other rude people, must enter into their 
condition, must bear all the burden of their corrupted sinful 
nature, must, as it were, first become like them, to form them 
like himself. Thus also does the Lord from heaven lower Him- 
self into sinful humanity, and bears essentially its sin, with all 
its consequences, of which death is the heaviest. 

The reference of ver. 3 to the active obedience of Christ can 
forcibly only be traced in the words. The connexion, namely, 
is simply this — what the law could not do, Christ can. The 
law was not able to take away the xard^xpi/M, it served rather 
only to increase it; but Christ takes it away, in that He takes 
it upon Himself; this comes to pass by the vicarious, atoning 
sacrifice of His death. It certainly implies as well, that Christ 
foundedabsolute righteousness, else the «arax^i/M( would ever again 
have generated in man ; but that is not the chief thought here, 
it is in ver. 4 that the active obedience decidedly appears. The 
most that can be said is, that as it must constantly be affirmed 
of the life of Christ, that passive and active obedience every 
moment penetrate each other in Him, so even here His eur- 
render into death presupposes the highest activity. There is 
no necessity for supplying avrov exactly at h rji ifapxiy but cer- 
tainly rStv Mpfivw oStftiy ought not to be supplied. The expres- 
sion embraces rather the fiesh of Christ and of men together. 
He represented the totality; what, therefore, came to pass in 
Him was essentially done also to all. However, the pre- 
vidling idea requires that the sentence should immediately be 
understood as completed thus: 0thi xarixpivt n}? dpMprhiv Ar- 



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CHAPTBB Tin. 5, 6. 269 

y6r..4 Now immediately next in order to the description 
of the way of Qod in sending Chrifit, follows the delineation of 
the efficacy of Christ; what the law could not, the gospel is 
able to doy in that it condemns sin, namely, to call forth in man 
the state of true holiness. Evidently, then, it is not according 
to the context the Apostle's meaning, that this state is the 
condition of partaking in Christ's work, but the conaeqtience. 
He presupposes already the wtptranTy xardt innfMty and this again 
the experience of the redeeming power of Christ (vii. 25). But 
BO surely as the Roman Catholic doctrine is wrong, as surely is the 
exaggeration of the Evangelical interpretation to be rejected, 
accoiding to which sanctification is considered as quite parted 
from the forgiveness of sins. According to the genuine doc- 
trine of the reformers, which rests upon this apostolic passage, 
sanctification of life necessarily (although at first in germ only) 
comes with the appropriation of Christ's work, not, however, as 
stated condition, but rather as consequence of the forgiveness 
imparted in free grace without condition. 

The it\nF«^ cv ^^U'^ distinctly indicates, that sanctification of 
life is none of man's own work, but that God in Christ perfects 
it in man; hence ht auroD only need be supplied. We do not 
fulfil the law, but the work of Christ is our work; by his Spirit 
He imparts His righteousness and holiness unto us. The per- 
fection^ of every individual, therefore, in Christ's life is to be 
considered as already completed, entirely according to viii. SO ; 
as in His death the sin of every individual appears condemned. 
The expression ^xaiufM rou v6fMv comprises all, which the law 
can in any respect whatever require; it is the absolute htnaifolmi 
considered as command of God. The addition rB% fu^ xard ^px6^ 
X. r. X» is to define the ifjbtTg more distinctly, so that the sense is : 
the effect of Christ's appearing applies to' those only who walk 
after the Spirit, have therefore experienced in themselves, vii. 
25. Christ's work indeed is reckoned for all, but it first reveals 
itself in its sanctifying efficacy, when the man appropriates it 
personally. 

Yer. 6, 6. This state of xard fmufM 'nfuwunh Paul new de* 
scribes more nearly by its contrast. It is that, namely, in which 
the believer tarries* here below, until his bodily glorification 
(viii. 11), for if the state be capable of a heightening in itself, 
yet man can never get beyond it in this earthly life. Its pro- 

* [Ps. xxvii. 15, 16, Prayer-book Tereion.] 

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270 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

per character, however, is best perceived by the xaru tapnA Tspi- 
^art7k=rfil rijg ffec^xhs ^^vt7)fy=f^69fifLa riig tfa^x6g,=i9 ifa^xi %hai (vcr. 
9), and=xard ita^xk Zjiit (ver. 12). All this is consequent on 
xardL ifA^xA that, which expression is of like signification with yt- 
yemi/i$¥ov ix rjjg aapxSg (John iii. 6). The Apostle, certainly, would 
have no life of vice to be understood by this; but the very state 
described vii. 14-24, in which the yoD; is taken captive by the 
law of sin in the ad^^. To this the ouds yd^ dwarai (viii. 7), in con- 
nexion with the adv¥aTov rov y6fMv (viii. S), most distinctly points. 
But then the cn^ivanT^ xarA ^tvfia=p^ovi7ff rd rov «n»«u^arop=p^o- 
vflfAa rou ir¥iVfiaros=i9 ^nbfuari tJpai (ver. 9), and^=fl>f6/ei&ari Ayt^ai 
(ver. 14), (all this is consequent on xard rvsv/nx, sJvai, which expres- 
sion is of like signification with ysytvvnM'itw Ix rou mtvfiaros, John 
iii. 6), is the very state described vii. 25, in which the very wvg 
can serve the divine law, and the cd^^ only remains subjected to 
the law of sin. The walking after the Spirit does not, therefore, 
exclude attSrcks on the part of sin, temptations of the flesh, 
even single smaller transgressions are not thereby denied (I 
John ii. 1); but the direction of ihe whole inner man to God 
and the victory over sin essentioMy and in the whole is thereby 
asserted. The advance in the new man, the development in 
the walking in the Spirit, is altogether not to be considered as 
a gradual transition of the old man into the new, or as a con- 
stantly-progressing conversion of the former into the latter; 
but as in the sum of mankind, the tares are developed beside 
the wheat, and good and evil come to their full in parellel rows, 
so does the old man continue to the last beside the new man ; 
and it may not be that, the further the spiritual development 
advances, so much the nearer an approximation takes place 
between them, but the reverse ; as spirit and flesh lust continu- 
ally against each other, so must the Christ in us lust more and 
more against the old Adam. The right conception of this relation 
is, therefore, of the highest importance, because, according to 
the light in which the regenerate man beholds it in himself, 
his whole effort at sanctification is formed. If he seeks gradu- 
ally to improve the old man in him, and to wash it clean, he 
not only undertakes a labour utterly in vain, but he is also in 
constant danger of falling back under the law, as it happened 
to the GFalatians ; nay, this very striving is properly the retreat 
already beginning. The old man cannot be sanctified, but he 



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OHAPTER viir. 5 — 9. 271 

mnst be crucified, that is, be given v/nto death in aelf-deniaL* 
From the Spirit, therefore, a constant war must be kept up 
against tho flesh and its lusts. This conflict, however, is but 
the negative side in the life of the regenerate; the positive 
activity that furthers his new life in the constant keeping up 
of intercourse with the originator and the abiding well-spring 
of this new life. Thereby he receives on and on the v¥tvfi,a 
from above, and the man bom of grace lives and grows, too, on 
and on, in grace and by grace. 86 the man shares rightly law 
and gospel ; the new man lives in the gospel, the sharpest law 
is given to the old man by the new, and the man is not without 
law by not being under the law, but is living with the law of 
God, of which, certainly, the old man only is in need, for the new 
man has it in his very nature, he can not sin (1 John iii. 9), as 
little as the sun can darken. Regarded from a human point of 
view, moreover, the possibility of apostacy remains still for 
every regenerate man upon every standard of development, 
even upon the highest, that is, that the new man may bo 
thrust aside by the old ; but just as decidedly, we must say, 
that, regarded from the divine point of view, it is impossible for 
the elect of God to be overpowered by sin. Were it possible, 
namely, with one, it would be so with all, and then God's plans 
would be dependent upon man's fidelity ; it might happen that 
the whole world fell away. This is, of course, inconceivable, 
and impossible (Matt. xxiv. 24) ! Hence, as in Christ's temp- 
tation, freedom and necessity penetrate each other in the re- 
generate ; their relation will be treated more at large at chap, 
ix. and xL 

In the f /)0K^, fp69fi/jka^ the constant direction of the whole inward 
being towards something is expressed; this alone determines 
the true constitution of the man. (Comp. my opusc. theol. p. 
159.)' At viii. 6, comp. the parallel, vi. 23, where t^o^i stands 
alone, while here tipn^n is united with it. 

Yer. 6-8. The reason why carnal-mindedness works death, is 
no other than this; because this disposition separates from God 
(the Fountain of Life). That which is akin to Him alone can 
please the Holy One, but the carnal mind is unable to generate 

* In this Bpiritual death of the old man the law of the Old Testament keeps its 
fbU right, when it requires the death of the sinner. But the graeunu and righte" 
oitt God so fulfils His strict justice, that He makes life itself the killer, so that he 
who dies in the old man first finds in this very death the true life. 



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272 BPI6TLI TO THB ROMANS. 

anything well-pleaain^ to God; even its good wotIlb aie an 
abomination to Him, because they come from impure, selfish 
motives. No one, however, can set himself free from himself, 
a higher love must come, that attracts him more than his own 
I. The notion of txh<* iiiust not be softened. The carnal man 
hates Ood, for he sees in Him the robber only of his lust; and 
Qod hates him according to His holiness; the two are tho- 
roughly and irreconcilably against each other. But so God 
hates not man as such, He loves him rather, but He hates the 
sin in hinL This holy hatred passes to the regenerate; he hates 
in himself and others sin and camal*mindedness, without hating 
men. 

The inability in the vou^ to submit to the divine law (viii. 3), 
is the cause of the conflict (vii. 23), and so of the want of peace. 
The ability to fulfil the law (viii. 4) God is well pleased in, as 
His own work, and it gives the soul the taste of peace with 
God. Yer. 8, di forms no antithesis, but only carries on the same 
thought. 

Yer. 9. Here, then, the Apostle makes the transition to address 
his readers, whom he naturally treats as regenerate, who walk 
after the Spirit For if h^p seems to express a doubt, it is only 
seeming, as it is not to be construed here like si modo, but as 
siquideniy as sure and certain presupposition. (Comp. thereon 
Hartung's Partikellehre, part L p. 327, etc., 344, etc., where the 
relation of vtg to yi in its fundamental meaning is excellently 
brought out.) The Being of the Spirit in the believer is conceived 
as an o/xi^lr of Him, like vii. 18, where the o/xi^ of sin in the flesh 
was spoken of The divine Spirit dwells, of course, in tliat part 
of human nature most kindred to Him, in the ^mvfAa or vv^ The 
•;xf2k, however, is opposed to that fleeting passage and breathing- 
through of the Spirit, as it appears in the O. T. in the prophets, 
for which the word fipsa^ai is used (2 Pet. i. 21), as contrast to 
the AyoF^ai of the N. T. (ver. 14, GaL v. 18), by which the 
constant, unbroken operation of the indwelling Spirit is signi- 
fied, the life of Christ in us, GaL ii. 20. The ohuh is there- 
fore like the /sivsiir of John (comp. at John L 83, in the comm.) 
and the txu* in$ijfAa, which occurs in the verse before us. In the 
latter expression, the man appears as though he were the pos- 
sessor and governor of the Spirit, that yet, however, possesses 
him, and governs his inmost being, by which idea the scrtv 



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CHAPTER vm. 10, 11. 273 

avrou at the end of the verse is to be explained; to be Christ's, 
namely, is to be a member of Him, to be governed, guided by 
Him. The opposite would be iTpai d/ajSoXoti, comp. at John viii. 
44. ^ But iu &ct the man also possesses the Spirit within him 
(as the husband indeed is the lord of the wife, but yet the wife 
also possesses the husband), in so far, namely, as he may 
drive Him away by unfaithfulness, nay, in so far as he has the 
privilege of conducting this Spirit, according to the intended 
aim (1 Cor. xiv. 82). The words ts di m wnZisM Xptgrw ^U sx<u 
point to this possibility of apostacy, for the question here can- 
not be of entire unbelievers; either, therefore, the recreant must 
be meant, or at least those who are in conflict indeed against 
sin, but have not yet experienced the redeeming power of 
Christ (vii. 25). At all events the words are to contain the 
warning, that the benefits of Christ are then only to be appro- 
priated when a man is conscious by faith, and the Spirit 
received in faith, of being a member in the body of Christ. The 
possession of this Spirit of Christ, however, is naturally not to 
be measured according to the mere feding (the agreeable sensar 
tion of the nearness of God, of comfort, of spiritual joy), for 
this is too fleeting, and the state of grace may be entirdy un- 
impiUred, even in great barrenness and dryness,* nay, in the 
progress of the inward life, the sweet sensations of the first 
young love are almost ever disappearing, but according to its 
real effects smd fruits. If the man observes not tiiese in him- 
self, and temptations at the same time increase and strengtiien, 
then at all events he is in a suspicious, assaulted state. 

It is to be observed that the Apostle, from ver. 8-1 1, uses 6i 
six timet one after the other. The expressions rtivfia efou and 
J4>i0w alternate (comp., besides, ver. 1 1, 14) ; wftvfia dy/ov might 
have been said (comp. ver. 1 6). For father, Son, and Spirit 
are One,'^ although not One Person;t " 1 am in the Father and 
the Father is in me," saith the Lord. (Comp. the Commentary 
at John X. 80, xiv. 10). The background of the whole repre- 
sentation before the soul of the Apostle is, that whosoever is 
not Christ's belongs to the kingdom of darkness. Independent 
man cannot be, according to his whole constitution; he cannot 
stand between light and darkness; he must ever incline to the 
one or the other. (Comp. at John viii. 44.) 

• [Pa Ixiii. 2, P. B. vuMioii.] + [Eint, tf] 1 1^"*^* "''rl 



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274 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

Ver. 10, 11. The Apostle, in a conclusion, points at last to 
the highest stage of the perfection of the individual life, to the 
glorification of the body. As it was said in Faradise, " if thou 
eatest of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
surely die/' so does the enjoyment of the true tree of life, of 
Christ, bring again to perfect life, even of the body.* Thia 
passage has its commentary in John vi., where Christ represents 
himself as the ^c^ in all respects, even of the body. Whatever, 
therefore, at the transition into the state of regeneration (viL 
25) was left behind, the dovXtvttv rfi gapxi vSfitff dfiapria^^ is here 
likewise considered as overcome; even the body has experience 
of redemption (viii. 23). Ajb €SffMi stands here instead of the 
former t/dp^^ it is clear that the Apostle means decidedly the 
material side of human existence, of course, however, in union 
with the whole psychical life, without which there is neither 
<rufia nor ifdp^, but xpias. But if the ffSifia is here called wxpov, it 
is self-evident that this expression is not to signify absolute 
deadness, for it is intended to describe the very living body in 
its natural constitution; it is to be taken rather as afjMpHa vtxfoi, 
vii. 8. The kfiaprfa is called dead, because it does not yet express 
and make itself known in its true nature, so neither does the 
body, which, according to its original destination, is something 
far more glorious than it now appears. Hence it cannot be said 
that nx^6i is Bvn^k) the latter expression is used in its proper 
physical sense, according to which the living can only be mortal; 
but the former is used in a figurative sense. Therefore the 
passage would be entirely perverted, if, instead of wxpel*, ^wjr^i' 
should be put. For this sinful state certainly the deadness of 
the body is so far good, as it lessens the susceptibility for the 
disturbing and painful impressions of the outward world (where- 
fore the nobler bodily nature of Christ must have enhanced His 
suffering), but it remains still a most imperfect state, which 
must be overcome. A sure pledge, then, for the glorification of a 
man's own body is givenby the consciousness of that awakening 

* [Leiblichkeit.] De Wette's remark ad loc is pertinent: 'Mr inward bodify- 
wpviiuol proeeat is here spoken of, not an e'vent occurring from without, as the re- 
surrection is usually understood." Even so; without this conception the scriptural 
doctrine of the bodily f^lcrification, which is constantly represented as going on 
already here below (comp. especially at 2 Gor. iv. 10, 11), would be thoroughly un- 
intelligible. But this life of bodily glorification forming itself in gradual process, 
comes in many as if by a flash of lightning, at once into appearance (1 Cor. xv. 
52), and so is the resurrection of the dead represented. 



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CHAPTBB VIII. 10, 11. 275 

power dwelling in the Spirit of God, which has verified itself in 
the waking of Christ from the dead. It may yet be remarked, 
that the Apostle represents the resurrection as though it were 
merely something imparted to the holy, as though there were 
no resurrection of the wicked. It might certainly be said here, 
that Paul is treating only of the course of the development of the 
faithful, that the wicked are out of the question; but by the 
similar representation, I Cor. xv. 22, where the glance of the 
Apostle seems to comprehend all men, and by the circumstance, 
that he never makes mention of the resurrection of the wicked, 
and once only of eternal damnation (2 Thess. i. 9), the matter 
becomes more difficult. The difficulty, however, must be reserved 
for further discussion at the passage adduced from the Epistle 
to the Corinthians. 

Upon thedoctrine of the glorified body comp. more particularly 
at 1 Cor. XV., 2 Cor. v. It was preliminarily spoken of at John 
vi., and at the history of the resurrection. By the readings ^Arr, 
^y the contrast to Mxpov is intended to be more distinctly shewn; 
for that very reason, however, J^vn is surely the original reading. 
At' iifiaprla^ and dsit dsxaf^vnc might have been said; but the 
accusative brings forward not so much the means as the pre- 
sence, " on account of the sin present in the body, on account 
of the righteousness communicated by the wvg," — Aixcuogini is 
here also the state of dUatov iTiw/, the dixa/M^^yo/. — Ztitd^mTy is used 
of the bodily awakening according to 1 Cor. xv. 22. At the 
dose of ver. 11, also the text. rec. has the lighter reading of dtd 
c. genit. D.E.F.O., however, several translations, and many of 
the Fathers, have the accusative. Lachmann has decided for the 
usual reading, and so Enapp has; Griesbach, Eoppe, Riickert, 
Beiche, on the other hand decide for the accusative. This I 
too hold as more appropriate, but not so much because I con- 
sider, as Reiche does, that the genitive has arisen from dogmatic 
principles (in order to represent the Holy Ghost as operating 
more independently), but simply for the sake of the context, in 
connexion with the stronger critical authorities, and because by 
taking the genitive the sense appears lightened. The accusa- 
tive represents the indwelling of the Spirit as pMge of the glori- 
fication which shall be of the body; and that enters best into' 
the train of Paul's ideas. 'Era/xf« is found besides at 2 Cor. vL 
16, Col. iii. 1 6, of the spiritual penetrating of the human spirit 



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276 EPISTLB TO THB BOMAVS. 

by the divine. All the material is here naturally to be excluded^ 
but the real neyertheless to be maintained; suoh expressions are 
not to be reduced to mere Oriental phrases, since they have li& 
and being. As surely as the spirit is immaterial, yet really 
dwells in the nlaterial body, so surely does the Divine Spirit 
penetrate and unite with the human, without annulling His es- 
sence, or confounding His inward laws; for the human spirit is 
the very organ for the divine, and that is a perverse state (sin) 
if He is not working in it. We have too little knowledge of the 
substance of the spirit to get a clear insight into such penetra- 
tion of spirit by Spirit, meanwhile nature offers analogies not to 
be rejected in the material, for instance, the penetration of electric 
or magnetic streams. 

Ver. 12, 13. These verses seem to interrupt the chain of the 
discourse, which proceeds again, in strict connexion with the 
foregoing part, at ver. 14. They give the impression of an onset 
to a parsenesis, which is "not completely carried out. A very 
strict connexion, however, might result if the AbiXXtn A^Migxtf¥ 
and t^n^ch were only definitely referred to the glorification of 
the body, so that the sense would be formed as follows: "Since 
such glory (of bodily glorificati<m) awaits us, we are so much the 
more obliged to live according to the spirit, that we may not 
lose such glorification, but receive it." Then *Hhe mortifying 
the deeds of the body" would veiy fitly denote the advancing 
bodily sanctification, which is considered as means to bodily 
glorification. And in the dying and living, not merely the gene- 
ral states of misery and happiness would be indicated (which, 
according to the special glorification of the body, would be 
something very feeble), but the obtaining and losing this grace 
of bodily glorification be made prominent. Now that ^v should 
signify glorification, can make no difficulty, for this is in fact the 
summit oflife^ and therefore, at John vi. 40, and frequently ^^9 
a/(uMo» txjuv is used in equal signification with the capacity of 
being raised up at the last day. It might, however, appear more 
difficult, that ftiXXcrs d^o^^xi/v should be: ''Ye will not obtain 
the resurrection." Notwithstanding if it be considered, that at 
John vi. 50 /^i) A^n^niy also is used in equal signification with 
the iipA&rami «» rfl i^x^^fi n^*P?» consequently, that dying is taken 
equal to not attaining to the resurrection, and that, further, the 
Apostle supposed the time of our Lord's coming again to be 



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CHAPTBE VIII. 14, 15. 277 

near, and was hoping still to be while in the body clothed upon 
(2 Cor. V. 2, etc.); then the bodilj dying of the carnal may, 
without hesitation, be taken synonymously with the loss of 
bodily glorification, and it cannot here be conceiyed otherwise, 
if a strict connexion is to unite this verse with what precedes 
and follows. The mere general observation, that those who 
walk after the flesh die, would be, according to the special 
thoughts immediately preceding and following, altogether too 
feeble, and nothing but a repetition of what was said at viii. 6, etc. 

Comp. upon hpiXirnt at i. 14. The condition of debtors has 
reference to the union entered into with Christ. (Comp. vi. 
18.) The T^^gf/r denotes here the individual sinful tendencies 
of the old man, his members, as it were, which must be crucified 
(Gal. V. 24). The life of the regenerate, therefore, as already 
observed, is to be a gradual crucifying of the old man, not a be^ 
tering of it ; the holy, but granted life, is in the new man only. 
So the man becomes perfect, and yet continues poor in humility, 
for what he has is God's work, not his property. The reading 
0tt^x^^ is Beemiugly more conformable- to usage than tfw/*aroc, but 
on that very account it is certainly a mere correction. Paul 
uses cSfjka also in such combinations; comp. vii. 24. 

Ver. 14, 15. Most unconstrainedly now, after the proposed 
acceptation of the words of the preceding verse, the subject con- 
tinues. The mortifying of the deeds of the flesh is a being led 
by the Spirit, and therefore not (like the former striving de- 
scribed vii. 14-24) an anxious task of law, but a working in 
joyous spirit, as if owning the cause, as the sons of the house 
work for themselves in their Father's business. We do not deny 
ourselves, in order to be saved ther^, but because we are saved 
in hope by grace. The communion in the pains of the Son of 
God xar i^oxv^i secures then, too, the communion in His glory, 
that is, in the entire perfection, the glorification even of the 
body (viii. 17-23). Those who are bom of the flesh are flesh, 
those bom of the Spirit are spirit (John iii. 6). All ^nnv/j^nxof 
therefore, in the trae sense of the word, are children of God, of 
the absolute ^mv/ia (John iv. 24). Thus Paul arrives quite con- 
sistently at the idea of vM eioD, which he maintains as the thread 
of his argument until ver. 17, and still pursues in the following 
weighty section (from viii. 1 8). The AyuBcu ^mifiMn eioD, ac- 
cordingly, is not to be understood of the influence of a foreign 



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278 KPIfiTLB TO THB BOVAITB. 

power, giving as it were its impulse from ?nthout, but it is to 
be considered as the element of life, as deciding tbe tone of 
character and being, so that the Spirit of God generates also, 
where He works, a higher, heayenly consciousness, a man of 
Gt>d, a son of God.* This sonship of God, however, men receive 
merely as one derived from the original Son, the Logos, the ^i^ 
ytv^i and frpotrirMog (viii. 29). The difference of iytif^ (GaL v. 
18) and fip%chu (2 Pet. i. 21) was spoken of above at ver. 9. 
But here Paul is not contrasting the abiding of the Spirit's 
operation in the N. T. to its alternation in the Old, but bondage 
to freedom or sonship. In the 0. T., namely, God meets man 
as the holy, righteous principle, foreign to the sinner, living 
outward to mankind, opposing to him His strict requirements 
and awakening the ^6^^ roC eioD, the heginmng of Wisdom (Ps. 
cxi. 10); in the N. T., on the contrary, God appears in Christ 
most intimately connected and allied with mankind, awakening 
therefore that love, which in its perfection drives away all fear 
(1 John iv. 18), and not only requires, but gives also what it 
requires. But God gives nothing of less value than His own 
being and nature, because nothing is enough for Him, but Him- 
self; therefore is the state of freedom in love identical with son- 
ship. As spirit bom of Spirit, therefore, the faithful of the N. 
T. are greater than the greatest that are bom of women (Matt, 
zi. 11), children, namely, of the heavenly mother, the Jerusalem 
above (Gal. iv. 26). 

Upon uiH ^^^ comp. the observations at Luke i. 35. The 
phrase differs from rixm e. (v. 16, 21) only by expressing more 
exactly the developed consciousness of being a son, while rixvop 
denotes only the origin itself. The latter name, therefore, does 
not occur as applied to Christ. The poor reduction of the state 
of being God's children to the favourable inclination of God to- 
wards the faithful is thoroughly untenable; such inclination is 
to be considered as mere consequence of the essential transforma- 
tion, the birth from the Spirit; God loves the faithful, because 
He has made them accepted in the Beloved (Ephes. i. 6). B/^ 
d^ficqv should be contrasted to f/r f oSoy, but the saying Abba is 
to be constmed as the very expression of love. The reading b%f 
Xfai came perhaps into the text merely from the parallel of 2 

* Cofmp. M panlM the ezprenion of Olympiodor (Comm. in Plat. Aleib. p. 193, 



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CHAPTBR VIII. 16. 279 

Tim. i. 7y where 9nnuflM ikiXIag is opposed to the mnv/Mt duvdfitwg 
xai dyd^fig, liaktv is to be connected with i/^ fojSoy, the omission 
of the word in some unimportant Codd. arises perhaps from the 
fiilse application of it to ixd^trt, which must have made frdXn 
appear strange, because no actual communication of the Spirit 
is spoken of in the 0. T. The word vio^ida is used only by Paul 
(Rom. viii. 23, ix. 4; Gal. iv. 5; Ephes. i. 5). It signifies ac* 
ceptance.to the state of children, and presupposes, therefore, 
that those accepted had not been children. Hence it is clear 
that the expression has no reference to physical existence, by 
which all natural men also are children of God, but to the in- 
ward life only. In reference to this, natural men are without 
God in the world, strangers and enemies to Him (Ephes. ii. 
12); in Christ they are first ordained to the state of children 
(Ephes. i. 5). The expression of a child's consciousness is 
the cry of Abba, which naturally is only to be understood 
of the true expression of the inward life. 'Afifi&y M2lM> Clhald. 
form of 2M, The • varrip is the Hebrew vocative, wherefore the 
conjecture, • varrip^ is untenable. The choice of the Chaldaic 
word is not to be referred to the prayer of Christ (Mark xiv. 36), 
as Reiche thinks, nor with Winer (at Gal. iv. 6), to be explained 
from the circumstance that well-known prayers of the Jews 
began so; but to be derived from the form of the word. Abba> 
like papa, can be spoken by the mouth even of the babbling 
child, and properly, therefore, characterizes genuine child-like 
disposition and manner. 

Yer. 16. In this state of being children, then, the witness of 
our own spirit with that of the divine Spirit penetrate each other 
in a peculiar manner. The one that properly gives witness in 
this testimonium spiritus is the divine Spirit; the human spirit 
is more the receiver of the witness from Him, as it is said : Spirit 
witnesseth that Spirit is truth (1 John v. 6); that is, the Spirit 
needs no witness^but Himself for His truth, He has it wholly in 
Himself ; as the light is not and cannot be testified by ought 
but by itself. But as the physical light needs an eye, a faculty 
of receptivity, in order to be perceived, and as this is itself light, 
so is the spiritual light, the voD; (the human ^cD/ta) the eye for 
the divine Spirit. It was observed before (at ver. 9) that this 
witness of the Spirit is not to be placed merely in the feeling 
(1 John iii. 19), but His whole inward and outward efficacy must 



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280 BPISTLE TO THB ROMANS. 

be taken together; for instance, His comfort^ His indtement to 
prayer, His censure of sin, His impulse to works of love, to wit- 
ness^ before the world, and such like more. Upon the founda- 
tion of this immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit, all the 
regenerate man's oonvicticn of Ohriet and His work finally rests. 
For the faith in the Scripture itself has its basis upon this 
experience of the divinity of the principle which it promises, 
and which flows into the believer while he is occupied with it 
This passage is, besides, important as one of the most striking 
in which the human spirit is represented as not in and by itself 
identical with the Divine.* We cannot certainly conceive the 
difference as a specific one; as image of God, man must be in his 
spirit kindred to the Divine (Acts zvii. 28, 29). But the human 
spirit may be defiled by sin (2 Cor. vii. 1), the Divine not ; He 
may be grieved only (Ephes. iv. 30), or driven away; but as the 
absolute principle of holiness. He is himself incapable of spot. 
By communication of this highest principle of all life, man 
therefore first becomes one spirit with the Lord Himself, as it 
is said 1 Cor. yi. 17. (2u/if*a^rv^/v here, as at ii. 15, is not of the 
same import with the simple verb; a twofold witness rather is 
here spoken of, that actually indeed blends again to one, wherein, 
however, a positive and a negative side may be distinguished.) 
Moreover, the expresssions wvsvfLa dovXc/ar, «7f D/ita u/otfftf/a^ are not 
to be taken as though the Apostle assumed a double ^mufia, or 
a twofold form of the operation of the spirit, one of which effects 
a servile, the other a filial mind ; nor is rvtZft^a to be taken sub- 
jectively in the meaning " mindedness ;"- the idea is rather to 
be understood thus: We have received the One true Spirit, this 
Spirit leaves us not in a state of bondage, nor calls forth such a 
state again, but He begets a filial consciousness. For the state of 
bondage and fear is, not that of castaways, but subordinate only 
to that of children; the utterly dead man alone is without fear 
and without the feeling of bondage (viL 9); with the awakening 
(vii. 10-24), fear begins ; with the regeneration (vii. 25, etc.), 
love. 

Ver. 17. The idea of the state of children leads the Apostle, 
in conclusion, to the conception of dS^a as an inheritance, the 

* The asMrtion of the idaiHty of the haman and divine q>irit would lead to the 
oonscioasnen of God hi man being the consciouBnen of God of Himaelf, which is 
thorongfaiy nnieriptitral. Chrbt himself prays to the God without him, to the 
Father in Heaven! 



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CHAPTBB Till. 18 — 39. 281 

proper posseasor of which, indeed, the Only-begotten is, but in 
which His brethren (ver. 29) are to have share. All that glory, 
therefore, which the Lord from eternity had with the Father, 
and which he took poBsession of again after his return to the 
Father (John zvii. 22) is imparted to the fstithful also (Rev. lii. 
21). The condition, however, presupposed as known and acknow- 
ledged, of participation in the glory of Christ, is the previous par- 
ticipation in His sufferings, that is, in the conflict with sin in 
ourselves and in the world, whereby alone the new man attains 
to the full growth in Ood« Even so are sufferings represented 
as the condition of participation in glory, in the passages Col. 
iii. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 12; 1 Pet iv. 13 ; not as though for the extra- 
ordinary glory something extraordinary also must be endured, 
as equivalent, but in so far as the old man must be crucified 
with Christ, since the new man only is and can be capable of 
the reception and the thankful enjoyment of the giorj to come. 
(Comp. 1 Pet. iv. 1.) Upon the idea of nXfipw6fiog, comp. more 
particularly at Gal. iv. 1, etc. 

Ej^np has the signification si modo, '' provided that;*' comp. at 
ver. 9 and at 2 Cor, v. 3. 2ufMrd^6» is found besides at 1 Cor. 
xii. 26. 2uvd«gd(^ftftfa/ does not occur again in the N. T. 

§ 13. OF THB PEBFBCTION OF THB WHOLE OBBATION WITH THE 
OHILDBEK OF QOD. 

(VIII. 18-39.) 

With a very free and beautiful turn, the Apostle leads over 
from the idea of the suffering of the faithful with Christ to a de- 
scription of the glory which awaits them. The peculiar character 
of this glory is in its being a perfection of the individual together 
with the whole. Thus the following statement gives the reason 
why the individual cannot alone attain to bodily glorification; 
every individual, namely, is only part and member of the whole, 
and as one member of the body cannot, without disturbance in 
its harmony, be completed alone, neither can the individual 
believer without the totality. Here below, therefore, the life of 
the believer is a constant walking in hope; to behold what is 
hoped for is not for this world. Only the Lord himself was 
excepted from this law, because He was Himself the whole, in 



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282 BPI8TLB TO THE B0MAN8. 

that He esBentiallj included in Himself the totality of the life 
which unfolded from Him^ as the germ does the whole tree to be 
developed from it. Sufferings appear therefore here (albeit they 
remain still consequent on sin, without which every develop- 
ment might have gone on without disturbances and distractions) 
as a blessing, as a means to perfection; and it is naturally to be 
understood that this is not meant of self-made sufferings— for 
instance, of false ascetic exercises and denials of a man's own 
choosing — ^but x>f such only as the Lord himself sees good to lay 
upon him. If now the perfection of the individual were at- 
tached in the passage before us merely to the perfection of the 
whole Church, or even of the whole human race, doubtless far 
fewer difficulties would have been found in it; but the Apostle 
extends his look over the whole creaiiofiy and this has not un- 
frequently been thought too bold an idea. It has been attempted, 
therefore, to say nothing of the utterly unfit conceptions which 
at one time have suggested angeUy at another animals^ at 
another the dead (comp. thereon Reiche's excellent observations 
in his comm. B. ii., 8. 215, etc.)i gradually to narrow the mighty 
compass of the Pauline contemplation, according as the [ex- 
positor's] particular view was more or less stinted. Now xrSttg 
was to mean Christians merely, then only a part at most of 
Christendom, and that either Jew or Heathen-Christians; then 
again the expression was to apply to the people Israel, or to the 
Heathen magistracy; then it was extended to the whole Heaven 
world, or to the whole of mankind. The wider the reference is 
made, the nearer naturally it comes to the truth, notwithstand- 
ing the most comprehensive of the explanations adduced, that 
of the whole of mankind, is not sufficient, since the Apostle spans 
with one mighty glance the whole creation in all its parts. That 
even the inanimate creation was not excluded from his thought, 
has been set forth so with one consent, and with such striking 
reasons, by the latest interpreters, (by Tholuck, Stier, Riickert, 
Reiche, IJsteri, Schneckenburger,* KoUner), that I feel excused 
from the repetition of those reasons, with leave to refer to the 
well-known writings of these learned men, (especially to Beiche's 
copious discussion upon this passage, compared with his two 

* Comp. Sehneckenbaxger^s Beitr. S. 118, etc., and UlliDan's and Umbreit's 
Stadicn Jahrg. 1 832. H. 4, S 885, etc Of Usteri the 4th Edit, of the PanL Lehr- 
begr. appendix H. In the three first editions he explains xri^tt of mankind. 



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CHAPTSR Till. 18 — 39. 283 

Festprograms of 1830 and 1832.) Meanwhile, this remarkable 
and important idea of glorification to be looked for of the whole 
creation, demands still a somewhat more exact consideration, to 
which we hope to contribute by the following reflection&* The 
question then is, first of all, how far the Apostle, if he would 
speak of inanimate and unconscious nature, can ascribe to it a 
waiting, yearning, and groaning for the reyelation of the chil- 
dren of God? Just because this did not seem probable, even 
men, who were not averse from the idea of a glorification of 
nature in itself, have believed themselves forbidden to find it 
here; and, therefore, explained the xr/V/^ of the heathen world, 
or of all men apart from Christianity, who are longing yet to 
become partakers of the salvation in Christ. Or, in referring 
the xr/V/(to inanimate nature, its representation as of a waiting, 
yearning creature, has been conceived merely as allegory, for 
which even Reiche still decides; but in no way can we accede to 
this latter view. Holy Scripture throughout conceives nature, 
in its relation to the world of spirits, like the human body in its 
relation to the soul and spirit, as filled and borne by their living 
breath. As, therefore, in the individual, the spiritual life 
operates either with a distracting or glorifying effect upon the 
bodily substance, so does the life of the regenerate, considered 
as a whole, upon the totality of the creation. The conscious life 
in man is but the bloom of the life that sways in the sum of the 
creation. If we observe, then, the unconscious creation more 
narrowly, we must acknowledge that an impulse to glorification, 
a yearning for perfection, appears in it also.*|* The whole bent of 
the plant urges it to bring all its powers to perfection in the blos- 
som and the fruit, and if checked by circumstances in its develop- 

* Tbe Greek fathers explained the passage, almost without exception, of the 
creation. Augustine's Polemics against the Manichees, for whose hylosoistie Tiew 
of the world this passage most naturally have heen very welcome, induced him to 
consider it merely of the extra-Christian part of mankind, and his inflaence in the 
middle sges decided many to follow this riew. The reformers tirst unanimoosly 
retomed to the reference of the »r/rif to the whole creation, for which even Grotius, 
too, determined. The Sociniaus and Arminians again adduced other acceptations, 
which, since the last century, many Protestants followed. The latest commentators 
upon the epistle since Tholuek have returned, notwithstanding, to the ancient ex- 
planation; only many of them, even Tholuek, Reiche, Meyer, de Wette, err from the 
truth in this respect, that they would altogether capriciously have the extra-Chris- 
tian men excluded from the urUit. Ktfllner has given quite me right interpretation, 
as also Kmbhe has. (Of Sin, p. 11 5, 1 84.) 

t Beaatifully, says Schubert (Hsndb. der KosmoL Ntlmberg. 1828. p. 5): 
'* Even hi the thugs of the materml world which sorroonds us, there is an element 



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284 EPISTLE TO THE BOMAKS. 

meni — for instance, by want of light — ^an effort of all its powers 
may be perceived to surpass the hindrances, and outset the default; 
so that a plant often presses through narrow clefts to get at the 
element of life, and produce its bloom. The same impulse for glo- 
rification shows itself also in the animal. In this impulse of life 
that creates life again, the life enclosed in the animal would 
press as if beyond itself, but naturally can produce nothing 
better than what itself contains. Inasmuch, howeyer, as the 
animal sensibly suffers from the sin of men, the yearning and 
waiting for redemption is expressed far more distinctly and 
perceptibly in it ; * the eye of a suffering or dying animal 
speaks a language to which every feeling mind is sensible; it 
sighs and yearns for redemption, or rather the general life in it 
yearns to get free from its confinement. The waiting and 
yearning of the creature, therefore, cannot possibly be admitted 
to be mere allegory, neither is there any obvious reason, after 
what has been said, to think it applicable ordy to men living 
out of the Christian principle. These certainly are not to be 
considered as excluded, for, as the children of God (ver. 19) 
can only be those regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, there 
would be a total silence (if the xtI^iq were to signify the inani- 
mate creation exdusive of men) upon the ultimate bringing in 
of the extra-christian world, nay, it would be almost denied, 
which in every respect is untenable. It is also entirely indemon- 
strable, that xrhii signifies the creation mthatU man. The child- 
ren of Ood, on the contrary, may be considered as separated from 
the general creation, and are here expressly distinguished by the 
Apostle, because they form, as it were, a new creation different 
from the old. If it should be said, however, that the Apostle 
does mean by these children of God all mankind, so far, namely, 
as it is destined to be received into the community of Christ ; 
then the men who lived before Christ would still be omitted; or 
supposing them to be included as children of God, ^ut which 

of life, a yearning of what is bound, which, like that of the Memnon-Btatne, ancon- 
scioualy Bends forUi symphony, when the ray touches it from above." The Geneveae 
philosopher, Bonnet, represents the striving of nature after a more perfect state in 
his palingenesie philosophique. 

* Gfithe's correspondence with a child affords proof of how a spirited contem- 
plation of nature still leads to this apostolic idea. Bettina writes (B. L 6. 38): 
*' When I stand all alone at night in open nature, I feel as though it were a spirit 
and begged redemption of me. Often have I had the sensation as if nature, in 
M ailing sadness, entreated something of me, so that, not to understand what she 
longed for, cut thitjugh my very heart.'* 



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CHAPTBR VIII. 18—3.9. 285 

yer. 23 decidedly oontradicU, since the first fruits of the Spirit 
cannot possibly be ascribed to thenf), then thus much, at least, 
must be allowed, that men, na much and as far as they yet be- 
long to the old life, are also reckoned as xr/^i;, for, ver. 23, the 
same yearning is mentioned of the children of Qod, as ver. Id is 
ascribed to the creature. The separation, therefore, does not 
admit of being so much outwardly as inwardly effected; the 
xrhii is everywhere, even in man, in the regenerate himself, so 
far as the transforming Spirit of Christ has not yet wrought his 
change; but, at all events, mankind out of Christianity cannot 
be considered as excluded from th^ xHctg.^ It would be much 
easier, and far more natural, if the xrhig were to be understood 
only of men, who .are still ever the nearest object of redemp- 
tion, exclusive of the inanimate world; an acceptation of the 
passage, which, on the whole, is the only one that can have a 
place in our consideration, beside the explanation proposed by 
us. But 1, it is against this that ail men cannot be meant by 
xrtiftg here, since the regenerate oa wch (ver. 19) are expressly 
excepted from it, but in no way are they treated as part of the 
xr/V/r. Then 2, the simple thought, that there is a yearning for 
redemption in the men, who are yet far from the covenants of 
the divine promise, would clearly have been expressed quite 
differently fVom the tone of this passage. Lastly, 3, the idea 
of a glorification of the universe does not at all belong to the 
Apostle alone, but it pervades the whole scripture ; it is, there- 
fore, in thorough keeping with the connexion of the whole 
passage, which advances from the individual to the whole, for 
Paul to demonstrate, how, with the perfecting of the Church of 
Christ, the world itself will receive its perfection.-|- Accord- 

* For the aeoeptaiion thmt Paul, in thb paiaage, woald faaye merely lueonseioaa 
natare, exeladtng uncoirverted men, to be understood by the expreasi^n mrintf the 
passage, rer. ^l, tuu avrn A »rirtt seems to speak. The Apostle has most cer- 
tainly conceived the life of nature in its extreme form, aa unconscious, nay, aa life- 
less nature ; but it does not follow that he did not conceive the natural men the ^i^ 
«»rif (Rom. iv. 17), from nhom true men are yet to be bom, as grown with the 
most remote formationa of the natural -life. The «••«'• 4 »rUtt, rw. 22, speaks 
decidedly for this, and the manner in which the xriVi; ia described aa willing and 
longing, for which the supposition of a mere personification ianot sufficient. 

t Rosenonuiz, in his Diosertatio de corrnpto natures statu, (Regiom. 1834), de- 
nies altogether the diaturbanee of the harmony of life in unconaeious nature ; but 
to say nothing at all of the clear dedsrations of Holy Scripture thereon, this ac- 
ceptation, since the actually apparent monstrous dishannoniee in natuVe cannot be 
denied, would lead, consistently carried out, to Luoretian doubto in Qod's lore and 
wisdom. Comp. Lucret. de natur. ser. t. 196, etc, where it ia said: ''Ausimeon- 
iirmare, nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam naturam rerum, tanta stat pras- 
dita culpa." 



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286 XPI8TLE TO THB.B0MAN8. 

ingly, then, we must say, that Paul contrasts Christ, and the 
new creation called forth by Him, to all the old creation, to- 
gether with the unregenerate men, as the flower of this creation. 
The whole of this old creation has one life in itself, and this 
is yearning for redemption from the bonds which hold it 
and hinder its glorification ; tlds one yearning has forms dif- 
ferent only upon the different degrees of life, and is naturally 
purer and stronger in unregenerate men than in plants and 
animals; in them the creation has, as it were, its mouth, 
by which it can give vent to its collective feeling. Yet the 
most of these men know not what the yearning and seeking in 
them properly mean ; they understand not the language of the 
spirit in them ; nay, they suppress it often, though it is, mean- 
while, audible in their heart, and what they do not understand 
themselves, God understands, who listens even to prayers not 
understood.* So decided, notwithstanding, as the contrast is 
between the old and new creation, yet they may not be con- 
sidered as separated thoroughly. Rather as the new man, in 
all distinctness from the old, still is in the old, so is the new 
creation (Christ and the new life proceeding from Him) in the 
old world. The old creation, therefore, is like an impregnate 
mother (comp. at ver. 23), that bears a new world in her womb 
— ^a life which is not herself, which neither springs from her, 
but which, by the overmastering power that dwells in it, draws 
her life, with which it is connected, on and on into itself, and 
changes it into its nature, so that the birth (the completion of 
the new world) is the mother's death (the sinking of the old). 
As then there is a regeneration of the indivrdual, there is a 
regenerationf also of the universe (Matt. xix. 28), and as the 
former is completed gradually, so is the latter also. For as 
Paradise at first vanished from the earth with sin (Gen. iii. 18), 

" Aeoordingly, Lather qaite justly nys : '^Albeit the creature bath not such 
apeeefa as we hare, it hath a language still, which God and the Holy Spirit faeareth 
and understandeth, how it groaneth for .the wrong it must endure from the un- 
godly, who misuse it so." 

t Acts iii. 21, Jtwrnmrd^rm^it witrtn has a like signification, answering the 
Rabbinical &y\v vi-rn, renovatio mundi. Luther naively designates this glorifica* 
tion of nature as the putting on of God's Easter robe, instead of the present work- 
aday dress ; the foundation of which expression is the comparison of the eourse of 
the world with the week of the creation >. Gen. i.), upon which a new Sabbath is 
still to follow. (Comp. Tboluck's fifth appendix to his Treatise on Sin and the 
Atoner, where the universality of the longing for a paradisiacal time is proved. 



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CHAPTER VIII. 18 — 30. 287 

and in man's inward being the wug was subjected to sin^ so does 
the restoration through Christ begin first with the liberation of 
the f6vc (Rom. vii. 25), and in the creation with the restoring 
of Paradise at the resurrection of the just, the representatives 
of the wSftf for the totality (Rev. xx. 4, etc.) To this time the 
prophecies of the prophets point, that the deserts shall blossom 
again (Is. xxxv. 1, etc.), the lamb and the lion shall feed to- 
gether (Is. xi. 6, etc., xxxv. 9, Ixv. 25). As, however, in the 
individual even after the experience of redemption, the flesh 
remains still subjected to the law of sin (comp. at vii. 25), so 
with the restoration of Paradise in the kingdom of God upon 
earth, the animal life in nature, ay, even in man (Rev. xx. 7, 
8), is not yet quite overpowered ; hence, as the individual needs 
the bodily glorification, so does the whole creation need a total 
transformation — the passing away of the old heaven and the 
old earth (2 Peter iii.), and the birth of a new heaven and a 
new earth (Is. Ixv. 17; Rev. xx. 11, etc., xxi. 22), at the ge- 
neral resurrection. Here the animal life, that adverse middle 
step between matter and spirit-ccmscious life, is quite overcome, 
and the glorified matter become the pure bearer of the spirit. 
So then it is clear, also, that by the xr/A^, not merely our earth 
or our solar system, but the totality of all creation, {ovpavhs xal 
7g=*p^-^ D?D\Sn> *1*® spiritual and material world), must be 
understood. Whether the ancient world had such a perception 
of the greatness of the universe as the telescopes give us, does 
not signify in this respect ; the Spirit of God in the Apostles 
imderstood explicitly what they themselves took implicitly only ; 
even if they thought the universe smaller than we are accus- 
tomed to consider it, they, nevertheless, meant the universe as 
well as ourselves in every expression that denotes the totality; 
just as a drop of water is meant by every one who utters the 
word, whether he know or not, that it contains a world of anf- 
malcula. Just as little can the smallness of the earth, in rela- 
tion to the universe, and the many vast globes in it, withhold 
from this acceptation; for either it may be said that, as in the 
human organism, little members (the eye, for instance) are 
more important than great ones, the legs, for instance — so in the 
whole system of the worlds (to us, indeed, yet quite unknown) 
the earth occupies a far more important place than the largest 
fixed stars; or, the diminutiveness of the earth might be ad- 



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288 BPISTLB TO THE BOMANS 

mitied with the remark, that it is the yeiy method of the Lord 
to chooae the little, and to make something out of that which 
is nothing.* At all events, the earth neyer appears in holy 
Scripture as a pitiful speck of rust on the great clockwork of 
the creation, but as the point where the great conflict between 
light and darkness is most decidedly carried on; therefore, it 
is, that what is going on upon the earth may have the most 
thorough effect upon the universe. 

Yer. 18. The Apostle passes from the for^^ing part of his 
discourse to the glory awaiting the faithful, by bringing the 
sufferings in this temporal state of the world into immediate 
parallel with it The Xtysl^ofuu yd^ namely, is so connected with 
the fiWi^ M/cMra«xo/ftfp, that the mediating thought: "which 
we easily may," is to be supplied. Yer. 18, then, contains 
an indirect encouragement not to withdraw from these suf- 
ferings. 

'o ruf xaf^6g^=eu^9 oSr*;. Comp. in the comm. part i. at Matt, 
xii. 32. *Agi«r has here its closest meaning, that which draws 
down the scale, outweighs anything. The wuinfutra are not 
merely physical sufferings, but the spiritual sufferings also, 
which proceed from the sins of atkers; the consequences of 
men's own sins, known and express, are naturally to be ex- 
cluded. Even, therefore, the M^a also is the comprisal of all 
that which inwardly and outwardly blesses and glorifies the 
man. The principle of blessedness and glory is operative in- 
deed in man already here below (CoL iiL 3; 1 Cor. xii. 12), but 
only in a manner hidden and ever in conflict with the sin in 
the old man; hence its aw^xdXtt^sg is something future. 

Yer. 19. How very incapable the sufferings of this time are 
of being compared with the glory to come, Paul proves by this, 
that the children of God and their glorification are an object of 
yearning for the universe. In this thought mankind is raised 
to a height which as much surpasses all poor human conjec- 
tures upon its development, as the humiliations which the 

« 

* Beantiful m this tiiODgfat, which does not however belong to me, Appears, it 
must, notwithstanding, on nearer consideration, yield perhaps to the other alter- 
native; God, namely, chooses indeed for bis most sablime purposes, whal is little 
and despised m iht tytt <^ mnu becaose they look to the form, and not to the sub- 
stance, but still not what is in and of itself little and contemptible. God beholds 
the things aeeording to theur true essence, and accordingly uses them also: what is 
little, for little purposes; what is great, for great ones. 



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CHAPTER VIII. 1 9. 289 

Scripture awards to the natural man, to th« unenligj^tened 
seem little soitabla The Word of God measures out depth 
and height to the very uttermost, and shocking as it is, when 
human pride would make itself great, as adorable is the mercy 
of God, by which he, who first was lowered beneath all, is ej^-^ 
alted over all, after he has been made humble. In this sens^^s . * 
the centre, round which the purposes of God conduct their itto^-y 
ments, Paul calls the faithful '' a spectacle to the world, toaii^^, 
and to men." (1 Cor. iv. 9, comp. also thereon at 1 Cor. vi. 2.) \^ - 
ver. 1 8, the do^o, so here now the uhi rov ei oD are considered ftt 
present, already existing, but not become perceptible as being 
what they are.* . It follows, of course, that no such members of 
the Church are meant, as only outwardly belong to her, but 
those who, as truly regenerate, bear Christ's life in them. Hence 
it is ever properly Christ alone that is glorified, rules and 
governs in the faith Ail; and for this very cause alone the least ' 
in the kingdom of God, as bom of God, is greater than the 
greatest bom of women, because Christ is his life (Gal. ii. 20). 
As, however, Christ's glory was first revealed at the resurrec- 
tion, so too the glory of the regenerate at their resurrection. 
This revelation, then, the waiting creature yearns for, in the feel- 
ing that it is to share the glory of it. 

'A^xapadoxja, which is found once more in the N. T. at Phil. 
i. 20, from dvoxapadoxsu, xapadoxiuy signifies eaxerto capite pro- 
epicere, as the EtymoL magn, says : rp xt^aXfi vrpo^mtv. Hence 
" urgently to long for something, to wait for. (Comp. Eurip, 
Rhea. 144, Diod. Sic. xiv. 60.) The connexion with the syno- 
nymous amxdixi^&cu enhances the idea in this passage. 

But as regards the principal idea xHtrig, the prevailing signi- 
fication of the expression (as was observed at i. 20), in the N. 
T. is, what is created (=xr/d/*a), in i. 20 only it extends to 
the act of creating. Hence it frequently signifies (usually in 
connexion with 5Xi| or fr&ea, but without this addition also, 
though not without the articlof) the universe, the whole worid. 

• The diffennee of the inward life of the faithfal from their exterior, which is 
not different from the world, is incomparably represented by the well known song: 
— *• £s glKnaset der Christen inwendiges Leben."— (« AU glorious within is the life 
of belieTers.")-^ f Comp. Ps. xly. 14.] 

t Yet compare Mark x. 6, xiil 19; 2 Pet iii. 4, where the formula A» i^x^t 
»TUutt occurs; in this formula, howerer, the idea of the beginning already leads 
necessarily to the totality, which, therefore, does not require to be further especi- 
ally marked by Ae article. 

T 



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290 EPISTLE TO THE ROUANS. 

(So TV 22, Mark xvi. 15, Col. i. 15. Further Wisd. xix. 6, 
Judith xvi. ] 4.) Doubtless now xHsig might figuratively, as with 
most nations similar expressions are so used, (e. jr., ;-fn!l by the 
Rabbins), signify men only ; but it does not so occur in the N. T. 
The passages Hark xvi. 15 (which Reiche still maintains), Col. i. 
23 are to be taken otherwise ; in the former xrhtg is mankind 
only so far as it is regarded as the flower of the creatioti in 
general, as appears from the use of m<ta also with it ; in the 
latter xnV/; is taken locally of the extent of earth, equal to K6&/k»^ 
KriV/g, however, occurs in the N. T. of single created things, as 
Rom. i. 25, viii. 39, Heb. iv. 13, and therefore it cannot still be 
denied that it is possible it might mean mankind. Only this 
must be denied in the passage before us^ because, to say nothing 
of the reasons already adduced above, r&ca ti xrkiQ occurs ver. 
22, which cannot possibly signify a part of the creation, and 
xr/V/c, ver. 19, cannot be taken in a sense different from that 
in ver. 22. The rabbinical usage, however, (on which compare 
the remarks at Mark xvi. 15), according to which n^*r)!l ^^P^' 
fies the heathen, cannot be «f any assistance here, because surely 
not the heathen only are longing for the revelation of the sons 
of God, but the Jews also. Accordingly the xr/V/^, as has been 
deduced already, can only signify here the totality of the uni- 
verse, as the first creation, in contrast to the new one in Christ, 
and that not without men, but t£;i^even the extra-Christian men. 
When Reiche (B. ii. S. 191), mentions, in opposition to this view, 
that judgment awaits those who are without Christ, that they 
therefore cannot long for the revelation of the children of God; 
this is true only of those who, having become acquainted with 
the life in Christ, have rejected it; but all those, to whom it has 
not come at all, who could not therefore refuse it, are naturally 
to be considered as the members of mankind before the birth of 
Christ. The same longing, therefore, is to be supposed in them, 
which constitutes the character of this race before Christ. Of 
the circumstance, however, that there are men who refuse the 
salvation in Christ, the Apostle could so much the less take 
notice here, as an unconscious longing for well-being is still even 
in them, and they are only deceiving themselves, if they hope to 
find it out of Christ. (Upon the particular use of xrieig in Heb. 
ix. 11, 1 Pet. ii. 18, we shall treat when we come to the ex- 
planation of these passages.) 



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CIIAPTBK VIII. 20, 21. 291 

Ver. 20, 21. As ground for this expectation of the creature 
the Apostle assigns first of all its subjection to perishableness^ 
but then at the same time observes that this is not nor is to be 
absolute, but that the creature itself must become free from it, 
as the children of God are already (in hope, v. 24) become free 
from it. In these verses the fLareuSrng (or f>hfd) and the do'ga, 
•which is to be considered as df tfap^/a, — the if^aray^ (or douXf/a) 
and the iXiuhpioy form antitheses. Both parallel members stand' 
in necessary connexion; the bondage is as little to be supposed 
without perishableness, as the freedom without glory ; nay, the 
one^isy necessarily and of itself, the other also; wherefore too 
at the close of ver. 21 freedom and glory could be blended to 
the one conception of ikiuhpia rfjg d^g^ir. Now the aorist (irtnrdyn) 
leads in a manner not to be mistaken to an historical event; 
originally the creature too was free, but it ceased to be so. That 
here the fall of man and the curse attaching to it is alluded to 
(Gen. ili. 17| etc.,) cannot be doubted ; we have accordingly in 
these verses a highly significant commentary upon the Old 
Testament hieroglyphics. We perceive from it, that the trans- 
ition of the curse from the conscious creature to the un- 
conscious is no arbitrary one, but one of internal necessity. 
The Apostle, namely, connects the two here, the conscious and 
unconscious life of the creation, in such a manner with each 
other, as to predicate the same event equally of both. The oux 
txou^a leads principally to the conscious or at least animated 
creation, whilst the xal aur^ i xrUtg immediately refers to the 
extreme points of the creature in its unconscious existence, 
whose participation in the great process of liberation in the re- 
demption is wont to be the latest perceived. But, as was before 
observed, there is the same relation between the conscious and 
unconscious life of the creature in the whole, as that between 
soul and body in the individual; mankind is the bearer of the 
consciousness of the world in the creation, as the children of 
God are the bearers of the consciousness of God, and are even 
therefore, as xa/n) xnV/^, taken from the old. Accordingly, as 
the fall even of the creature began with man, so does the re- 
storation of that creature begin also with him. The notion of 
being subjected to fiMrai^i or f%^ presupposes however 
naturally a germ of better life, which, bound only by alien 
power, is held in dooXf/«. This alien power is no other than that 



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292 EPIBTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

of the prince of this world, of the kingdom of darkness. As the 
light is the life of the world (John i. 4)» so is the darkness the 
death, the disturbing element; but death is only the head of 
^^opd. The words of the Apostle consequently are not to be 
limited to any special corruption, such as the abuse of the 
creature for idolatry, but they mean this together with all other 
consequences of sin. In as far, however, as there is left in 
every creature a germ of nobler life, which forms the fount of 
yearning for redemption, so far also a constant combat of nature 
against the /Mirou6rnf and fiopd, and the point they come to, 
0dvarog, may be observed. This is signified by the obx fxoDtfa 
vnrdyfi. Every natural man, ay, every animal, every phint 
struggles to get beyond itself, to realise an idea, in the realisa- 
tion of which it has its iXiu^s^/a, that is the being perfectly an- 
swering the divine harmony ; but the nothingness (^377, Ps. 
xxxix. 6, Eccl. i. 2, 14), pervading its nature, that is, the life 
failing in its fulness, and the transitoriness grounded therein, 
and death its end, lets no created thing attain its aim ; every indi- 
vidual of the species rather begins the circle of its course again, 
and struggles cheerlessly against the impossibility of perfect- 
ing itself. And even the history of mankind would be nothing 
more than such a cheerless beginning over again were not the 
element of hope in it, and that the hope on Him who is to 
bring back all that is lost. Tlirough this fount of life alone the 
life of man receives being by Him, who has that power of end- 
less Hfe (Heb. vii. 1 6), which gives all nature being also. For 
this whole u^rora/i? under the bondage of death is indeed for 
punishment of sin, but it is at the same time a blessing too and 
a means for God to complete His works ; therefore the Apostle 
says, Imrdyni did rhv urord^avra. That the vrord^ag can only be 
God, not the devil, nor Adam, nor Nero (as Semler thought, 
who understood xrtai^ of the Jews whose conversion Nero 
hindered), needs no proof; Gen. iii. 1 7, etc., where God pro- 
nounces the curse, is decisive for it. But the ordinary accepta- 
tion of the did in the meaning *' by or through " is not so cer- 
tain. A/dc 0. ace. may doubtless be used of means (comp. at 
John vi. 57, and Winer^s Gr. p. 378), and this acceptation might 
here be thought preferable, because ixotftfa precedes it, so that 
the sense should be : " not by its own will, but by God's will." 
But the observation, that God is the originator of tl^is Mrora^j?, 



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CHAPTBR VIII. 22, 23. 293 

and not man, is something too idle to have any place in this 
grand development. God is acknowledged to work all, and man 
nothing but bj God. There is signified, however, besides 
in fxoutfa not the mere will, but the willingness (1 Cor. ix. 17) ;* 
the xr/V/( subjected itself with resistance (only repentance and 
&ith effect in man the willingness to subject himself to this 
order), because it did not perceive the purpose of thi^ divine 
management; but this purpose was no other than the fulfil- 
ment of the divine plans of the world, which after the entrance 
of sin could only be completed by surrender of the creature to 
death, wherefore Christ's death took away again all conse- 
quences of the fall. The d/cb rhv irtrora^avra is intended to express 
this reference to the plans of the divine government of the 
world; for God's sake, to His honour and final glory even this 
seeming destruction of His creation served. On this account 
the only begotten Son of God also subjected Himself to it, and 
all His saints with Him share this subjection to the f^pd and 
the Bdmrta, for as man fell by willing to he high, he rises again 
by the love to lowliness, for God dwells only with the lowly. 

Ver. 22, 23. Into the more general idea of the yearning of the 
xr/V/( (ver. 19), that of pain is admitted now, which since the eat- 
ing of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is the inheritance of the 
creation. In the »Dn of Christ's appearance there is, beside the 
fountain of pain, an inexhaustible fountain of joy first opened 
ako, which the world before Christ looked for in hope, whereby 
its pain was hindered from turning to despair, but which to the 
faithful of the New Testament already vouchsafes enjoyment; 

* Hie ooDception of the tlx ^»»»^» m oontnat, not to the children of God, hat 
to the oatnnl nmn, who with and by his will became subject to ysnity, which is 
not the case with the onconscioos creature, is quite untenable. It was in man's 
first sin by no means his will to become subject to vanity; probably indeed he sub- 
jected himself with inward repugnance to this curse, which becomes a blessing so soon 
as the resistance ceases. Hence all divine preaching begins with repentance, for this 
deadens the resistance and makes the cross to be wUlingly borne. But that, if this 
be the sense of the words, the creature cannot be meant without man, is clear. 
Should the conception of the •ttx i»*»^»» which we have disputed, be tenable, the 
i^trdlmt must then be man, which the context does not admit o£ Calvin under- 
stood the words quite properly, in saying : ^ Invita et repugnante natura vim 
patitur, quidquid detinetur sub comxptione." Life has a natural horror of death, 
which can only be overcome by a higher power, that of love. (The words are not 
with Griesbach to be enclosed in brackets, but to be connected thus: 4 nrUis 
imrmyn tvx W««r«t mXX* ^m rn uinrm^frm ir* iXri^j* 'AA.A.* namely forms no 
antithesis to tux '«•»'«» hut with ir' iAvdi the antithesis to the entire half of ver. 
20. '* With repugnance was the creature subjected to vanity, but not for ever.*' 



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294 SPISTLB TO THB mOMAHS. 

albeit only a partial enjoyment. The ewMm defines still more 
nearly the nature of the pain; it is compared to that anxious, wo- 
fiil pain of a woman in travail, which is peculiar, in that those who 
are in labour feel together with the pain the secret joy of giving 
existence to a new being. The Apostle ascribes this character 
also to the conflicts and sorrows of mankind, and of the whole 
creature in her travail of thousands of years. The twMni there- 
fore indicates indeed on the one hand the greatest height of 
pain, but on the other it contains the intimation also, that it 
brings with it the secret cheer of not being purposeless. The 
birth-rpangs of the creature give life to a new and fairer world! 
(The rabbinical expression rntJgn "h^ ^^^ denoting the great 
conflicts before the Lord's coming again, is to be taken from the 
same profound image; comp. thereon at Matt. xxiv. 6, etc.) In 
this general struggle for a perfect state the children of God them- 
selves, so long as they sojourn here on earth, still take share; 
for in their tf<£^S they carry the xri^n still, and in it even they 
still remain subjected to f^opd. As, therefore, the regenerate has 
a conflict similar to that of the merely awakened (comp. at vii. 
14, etc.), he also has the groaning and waiting of the creature, 
but with this difference that in his voD^ he has the consciousness 
of Ood already present, and his (Tai/mx only tarries still for the 
iH^roXvr^aitf/r, which comes to pass so soon (according to ver. 11) as 
the mortal body is made living.* 

Yer. 22, the iruarttdj^t/j ifiimb'mi is not to be referred to the 
children of God; the transition ou fUm dc, dXX(£, does not admit 
of this. I would not, however, regard the ir^y as mere strength- 
ening of the simple form. It is best without doubt to resolve 
the xr/V/ff into the totality of the individual formations, which 
constitute it, and then to take the sense of the words to be that 
every thing in nature yearns one mih another for the freedom 
of the children of God. The 5;^/ roD »Dr applies to the time of 
the completion of the work of Christ, and the birth of the chiU 
dren of God connected with it, to which the yearning of the 
creature looked. Ver. 23. Many different readings are found in 
the words &W& xai ahrol X. r, X., which however have no influence 
on the thought. The reading proposed by Griesbach is very 
natural, but it is just on that account questionable, whether it is 

• Upon tbe Awkur^m^n r#? ^mfimrt comp. more partiealarlj at 1 Cor. xv. and 
2 Cor. T. Th« latter paaiage has especial alBnity with the one before us. 

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CHAPTER vin. 24, 25. 295 

the original one. Lachmann would read xaJ auro/ merely, and 
encloses iflkiTs in brackets. But perhaps Paul wrote ifAtH altro/ 
twice, without its being at all necessary to suppose an enhancing 
at the second, such as any special reference to Paul or the 
Apostles. The crtvdf^av h iauroTg is to be considered as opposed 
to something like ^nvdj^m fV JfXXo/^, and applies to the groaning 
for their own perfection, which does not exclude a sympathy 
praying for the perfi^ction of others and of the whole. The 
expression &wo\{trpu^tg rod ^w/xaro; is only found here: it gives the 
redemption in its absolute completion (1 Cor. i. 30), while the 
expression used elsewhere without the addition ^dfAarog denotes 
the beginning of the redeeming operation of Christ. Applied to 
the body, the formula contains at the same time the indication, 
that there is a nobler germ, a body of light as it were, dwelling 
in it, which being bound at present, shall some time be free 
through Christ. 

The description of the. proper character of the wo/ or rixva rou 
eiou is remarkable. They have the «>fu/xa vhh^tac (ver. 15), 
but yet are longing for the vn^t^Ia itself. The Spirit namely is 
only the principle, which both begets that uio^f^/a and at the 
same time grants the pledge for it. The v/o^iWa is not perfect 
until tho bodily glorification, for it is the state of absolute per- 
fection, in which the man as microcosm is a pure image of the 
fkOMpoxicftAt^ the ca^a xrhtg. Without bodily glorification, how- 
ever, the being of man is imperfect, therefore even the souls 
under the altar long for bodily perfection (Rev. vL 9). As pos- 
sessors of the Spirit, the faithftil, from whom there is no ground 
at all for separating the Apostles or Paul alone, are said to be 
n)ir irapp^^y roil nrndfiMTog ip^ovrir. Upon the idea already touched 
upon, that the regenerate is called a possessor of the Spirit, so 
that the Spirit seems to be subject to him, comp. more par- 
ticularly at 1 Cor. xiv. 32. The expression A^ra^^ ( = n*niJM^» 
JLevit xxiii. 10, Deut. xxvi. 2) refers to the figure of a great 
harvest of the Spirit, which awaits mankind, and whose first 
fruits were allotted to the Apostolic church in all their glory. 
The ideas both of the early ripe, and of the excellent, are 
equally to be maintained therein, and on this account those are 
by no means to be understood here, according to the supposition 
which has been again maintained by 01j>ckler, who are just come 
into Christianity, and the Apostles to be contrasted with them 



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296 SPI8TU TO THl BOMAKS. 

bj the second ti/M%. This expressioiiy howeyer, naturally leads 
to an inferiority of the Old Testament life, in which all, as well 
regeneration as communication of the Spirit, existed as type 
only, not as substance. 

Ver. 24, 25. By this participation of the regenerate in the 
groaning of the creature, the Apostle would not have the reality 
of the redemption denied or limited; this is rather' objectively 
fulfilled (hMuMf\ though not in perceptible possession of it, but 
in hope. This passage is especially important to determine the 
notion of 2 Xcic. First of all it is opposed to p>Jmn ( = did s/dov^ 
wtfivarthy 2 Cor. v. 7), to the being able to behold as outwardly 
existing ; but next it forms as strong a contrast to the complete 
absence and separateness of the object; it is rather identical 
with the inward possession of the thing hoped for, so far namely 
as it is spiritual goods. Man can only believe and hope for 
eternal things, so far as they are inwardly present to him, and 
on this account the Christian hope stands so high; she is the 
daughter of experience (Rom. v. 4), and as such maketh not 
ashamed, and sister of &ith and love (1 Cor. xiii. 13). Good 
wishes, desire, longing, all this therefore is not iXr/;, for there 
is wanting therein the inward essential possession of the thing 
longed for. 

Ver. 24. Lachmann leaves out the xai, which too is more 
burdensome than advantageous to the sense. Hermann's re- 
mark upon the use of xai (ad Viger. p. 837) is not applicable 
here, as r/ is not " what," but " why ;" xai therefore, if it is not 
to be rejected from the text, could only be translated here 
" also, besides.*' 

Ver. 26, 27. As we thus have what we do not see (says Paul 
in the name of the faithful), so are we able in that groaning in 
us (ver. 23), to pray for what we do not know, namely by the 
spirit that guides us. Even in the creation it is alone the uni- 
versal spirit filling it, that is yearning for the eternal magnet ; 
in the faithful it is that higher spirit that makes them children 
(ver. 1 6). This spirit upholds the human weakness, and leads 
it aright in the gloom of its longing, which suffers it not to 
bring before God the necessities it feels in the frame of definite 
prayers. The ^rtvayfi^ &\d\nrot are therefore (with reference to 
ver. 23), stirred by the Spirit himself ; they are called AXaXfim* 

* 'AXd\9iT0t is not to be distingaidied from AuxXmXnrtt (1 Pet. i. 8), or Anmhn 



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CHAPTSK VIII. 26, 27. 297 

inasmuch a's the man can only speak out what he knows and 
apprehends, but in this instance he only knows that he wants 
something, but not what he wants. The knowing jr6nera% that 
the AwtiXvr^u^is ^tafAarc^ is wanting, is of course not enough ; the 
Apostle means that the special need in every moment (which is 
signified by the *a^h dif) and the way that it can be appeased, is 
hidden from the believer; only an unutterable secret yearning 
thrills through his being, a draught to his eternal origin, that 
finds its vent in sighs. The Apostle's words are gathered from 
such deep experience, that they make good their truth in every 
heart that ever felt this yearning; it makes itself known, how- 
ever, there especially, where that sweet feeling, companion to 
the first love, has disappeared, and now the conflict with the 
wicked one (I John ii. 13) begins. Then the soul often feels 
anxiety, without being conscious of any decided sin, and in her 
anxiety groans for redemption.* 

In the cu¥aifrt>Mfifidvi^^ou (comp. Luke xviii. 40), the ^¥ is not 
to be understood of the co-operation of the divine Spirit with 
the human; the Spirit of God does not work beside the human 
spirit, but on and ihrough it Still, however, not so as to annul 
it, but by sanctifying and glorifying it. The word is used for 
the simple AvriXtt/jk^dvi^^cu in the meaning adjuvare, apem ferre. 
The reading &66tni(f, is marked partly by the Codd. A.B.C.D.y 
and many other critical authorities, partly by its intrinsic worth 
as the preferable one. Lachmann has also, according to his 
principles properly received it into the text. In the rh ykp ri 
X. r. X. the rh applies to the whole sentence. 'JLfrxtyywnm Mp 
Tivot is to intercede for any one, %ar& nvog (xi. 2) to work, pray 
against any one. The verb in its immediate sense is, 'Ho meet 
with any one,'' so Acts xxv. 24 only. The composition with 
MTiV, as the passage before, us has it, does not occur again. The 
formula with vwiff rmg is used also of the Son, Rom. viii. 34, 
Heb. vii. 25. Now the intercession of the Son is naturally as 
distinct from that of the Spirit, as the efficacy of the Son and 
the Spirit in general differ. The former is atoning, the latter 

ynr§t (2 Cor. iz. 15) : it ngnlilcs the imaitered, becaue it is (for tlie time or far 
erer) imatte»ble. 

* Meyer has remmrkably misooneeived this passsge; he thinks luunely, that it is 
not the groaning of men that is spoken of, which the Spirit incites, bat the groaning 
of the Spirit itself. As if groaning oonld be a predicate of God, and unatterable 
groans might in any sense whaterer be spoken of as to God. 



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298 EPI8TUS TO THX BOMAHS. 

Banctifying and perfecting. The words of the Apostle are to 
be understood accordingly, that the Spirit, what he teaches to 
pray for also Himself fulfils and createa The Spirit's inter- 
cession is not merely, as De Wette holds, *' He teaches us to pray 
aright ;'' the thought is rather implied that nothing human as 
such holds good before God; only God Himself can satisfy God; 
BO the Son in the work of redemption; as the Holy Ghost in 
the work of sanctification. As the divine principle He naturally 
ever works in accordance with God's will (xarcb et^v), who as 
knowing the depths of the heart can perceive the most secret 
wishes of men^ In this relation of the Spirit to Q(A entirely the 
the same thing appears, which we observed in the relation of 
the Son to the Father, and the prayer which the former suggests 
(John xvi. 23, etc.) All true emotions of life in man, and there- 
fore prayers among the number, have their foundation in (rod 
Himself, and this alone gives them their fulfilment; * whether 
the incitation shall be referred to the Son or the Spirit, depends 
upon its relations to the work of the one or the other. In the 
expression f^9n/jM roS mufiant, the whvmm is not to be understood 



* Qnite jiutlj Augustiiid says (Tnust tL in Joan): *< Non Spiritns & in 
ipso apud aemetipsom in ilia trinilate gemit, aed in nobia gemit, quia gemere noa 
fecit" Thia obaenration, which makea itaelf known in the experience ^ every one 
of the regenerate, even the extra Christian world exprenea in its more profound 
members, as the excellent paasagea of DscheUleddin.show, which Tholuck baa ad* 
duoad here; in one of them it ia said: — 

Sagst da: Herrkomm! selberheisst daa: hie main Kind! 

Deine Gluth and Seufzer Gottea Boten aind. 
Sayst thoa: Lord come! that says: come child, to me I 
Thy glowing sigfaa God's message bring to thee. 

[Ia. IvUL 9, Ixv. 34.] The following anonymoos linea from an En^Ush mind 
composed nndesignedly within the last fifteen years, may oontribate aomething to 
tlie reflectione npon this beanttful sabjeet; at least may bear some teetfanony to that 
great maater's hand, who, amidst His whole creatkm, wakens the deep mnsic of the 
lan heart— Acta xvii. 26. 

* * To me they seem. 

Those far, sad streaks that reach abng the West, 
Like stiaina of kmg, foil yearning from the chorda 
Of nature's orchestra. Weary, yet still 
She sinks with longing to her winter>sleep, 
Dreams ever of tlwt birth, for whose bright dawn 
The whole creation groans. Fair, sad companion 1 
I join my sigh with thine; yet none can be 
. Oar sigh's interpreter, bat that great Good, 
Who breathea eternal wisdom; made, redeemed, 
O, lovea us both : and ever moves as erst 
On thy dark waters' iaoe. 
• • • • 

Navenber. 



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cHirrER viJi. 28. 299 

of the divine or Holj Spirit, but of th^ human ; p^fjM can only 
be aaid of man, never of God. But then either the divine Spirit 
is to be supplied at ivrvyxAnt^ or, which seems more suitable, we 
say, Paul does not clearly distinguish here the divine and human 
spirit, since they have most intimately penetrated and wedded 
each other. 

Ver. 28, 29. The waiting for the redemption of the body 
(ver. 2dXas well as all sufferings (ver. 18), so little, however, keep 
back the perfection of the children of God, that with the elect, 
who as such love God, they are the direct means of perfecting 
them, for this their perfection and assimilation to the image of 
Christ, is the very predestination of God, and therefore immut- 
ably firm. 

Ver. 28. wdvra applies especially to the sufferings; these em* 
bitter or deter all who do not love God, but ftirther all who love 
Him. The.f/p dtyet^v denotes just this inward ripening. The 
conception of ^n^$h in the sense that several co-operate in the 
work of sanctification, is entirely contradictory to the Pauline 
doctrine: 1, God; 2, man himself; 3, sufferings and all circum- 
stances in general. According to Paul, man effects nothing^ 
God everything^ and that too by circumstances. The ^npy»r is 
therefore, as avcnvd^n above (ver. 22), to be taken as resolving 
the idea of wdvra : " for furthering the perfection of man all must, 
according to the will of God, co-operate one thing with another, 
but so, that He is tlfe fundamental cause of all these effects.'' 
Paul does not found the certainty of perfection upon good pur- 
poses, or upon fidelity, but upon the election of God's grace, 
which itself first transforms the bent of the man's mind from 
faithlessness to truth. Christ, the prototype of holiness, is in 
this the model, to which God assimilates the faithful Su/i/Mpfor 
occurs again Phil. iii. 21, and there certainly of the body only, 
which neither here (according to ver. 23) is to be considered as 
excluded. Tho will of the decree of love is to unite the regen- 
erate mankind to one great family of Oody in which Christ is 
the wptifiroxog. Bev. i. 6, CSirist is called the w^w^rcxog rw 
nx^&fj as first become alive from the dead; so too Col. i, 18. 
But the resurrection is not immediately and expressly the sub- 
ject here; the expression therefore is to be tflJcen in a wider 
sense, namely, like *^^3^ as the first perfected, and at the same 
time pre-eminent in every sense. So it occurs too Col. i. 15 ; 



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SOO EFT8TLB TO THB R0MAK8. 

Heb. i. 6. n^vrorMo;, however, is by no means of the same 
signification with fi^poytnif^ it does no^ I mean, refer, like /mm- 
ytnicj to the divine nature of the Redeemer only, but to the 
whole historical Christ, with whom' therefore men even may be 
compared. The name of honor, ''Brethren,'' Christ himself, 
moreover gives to His own, Matt. xii. 50; Mark iii. 35; John 
XX. 17. Comp. also Heb. ii. H, 12; Ps. xxii. 23. The expres- 
sions in these verses, which refer to the doctrine of election by 
grace, as xarSt r^i^^sv xX^jro/, vpvytfd&xtiff wf^o^t^uf will be further 
explained at Rom. ix. I observe here, by way of preliminary 
merely, that, according to Pauline doctrine, a prcsdestinaitio 
aanctarum, in the proper sense of the words, exists; that is;, 
God does not know beforehand that they will, by their own 
decision, be holy, but He creates this very decision in them. 
In the wp^yim^tiv the property of the divine knowledge only, in 
^poopJJ^uv that of the vdll alone is marked, both of which appear 
combined in the wp4&t^ig. Nevertheless there seems to be no 
difference here between ^pwyvu and wp^pia, while, too. Acts. ii. 
23, 1 Pet. i. 2, Rom. xi. 2, ^pfyvu^it is used directly for the divine 
will. In the verse before us it is only <rufjk/jk6ffOovg rii *lx6fH x. r. X. 
that forms the advance in the thought. 

Ver. 30. The attention was drawn to the importance of this 
passage for the doctrine of the obedierUia Chriebi activay at v. 
19.* The circumstance that 0f^f is here the subject and not 
Christ, does not influence it at all; the wlfole work of Christ is 
God 8 work through the Son, and what is said here of God, 
therefore, holds just as good of Christ, because God has fulfilled 
it through Him. The essential moment in the doctrine of the 
obedientia activa is however this, that the efficacy of Christ is not 
merely a negative, but just as much a positive efficacy also. 
Christ does not merely root out the sins of men, and then leave 
it to them to produce holiness themsdvee, but he has likewise 
brought this forth for Himself and all His own by His holy 
life, so that in the work of regeneration both the annulling of 
the old, and the creation of the new, are equally the work of 
Chriet, and both were fulfilled already in His life on earth; 
wherefore they are immediately only imputed to individual be- 
lievers, and then gradually communicated. It is just this 

* Comp. here the important parallel, 3 Cor. t. 14, etc , in which likewiM all is 
conceived at already fintehed once for nil in Christ. 



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CHAPTER VIII. 30. 301 

which, in the passage before us, is most decidedly expressed bj 
the UixaiuM xai hh6^a9%. In the former expression the real com- 
munication of the d/xo/otf^y^i x^/tfroD lies already indicated (comp. 
at Bom iii. 21) ; but in the id^atfn even that entire sanctification 
and completion of the d/xaiotf^v*) is expressed, which Paul had above 
(ver. 23) denied of himself and his brethren, namely as being 
yet to be found in their actual possession. Accordingly, as in 
Adam the whole natural race of man rested, and all history is 
but a development of that which is set forth* in him, so is 
Christ the real bearer of the whole Church, of the new creation, 
the sanctified mankind, in that, as by His atoning power he an- 
nuls the old. He just as much creates the new, and deposits His 
holy image in every fSs^ithful soul. After this acceptation it first 
becomes clear, how faith is the one and all in the (christian 
life; the Christian has neither before nor after his conversion to 
generate an independent sanctification of his own^ but he has 
only constantly to receive the stream of the influential powers 
of Christ's life upon him, and this receiving is faith itself. Just 
«o the tree, when the development of its germ is begun, has only 
to suck in water, air, and light, in order to unfold itself from 
within, and all the drawing of a stupid gardener at the branches, 
all his working at the buds, to coax forth blossoms, can only 
disturb, but never further its development. And yet this pew- 
sivity is at the same time the utmost activity ^ since Christ does 
not work out q^the man, but in the very innermost depth of his 
most secret self, and then pours the stream of His whole active 
power through the wUl. But the believer remains ever con- 
scious of this active power as of one given him, and can so pre- 
serve the deepest humility with the highest perfection ; he does 
not work, but Christ liveth and worketh in him (Gal. ii. 20). 
After this it is sufficiently evident also, how in the passage be- 
fore us the aorists are chosen to convey its essential meaning, 
wherefore every attempt to alter them must be thoroughly 
set aside.'f They are not to be Futures, for with the word: 
** it is finished I "" the Lord had negatively and positively com- 
pleted His whole Church, together with the xr/<r/f^or all iuwit. 
No mortal could add to it even the very least; all which presents 

* [ GegdtfHj seemingly given as the terms of a proposition are. B.] 
' f [The peculiar power of the aorist seems to be. that it is an indefinite past 
formed from the future, and comning or involving it : a prophet ie past.] 



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BPISTLS TO THS BOMAKS. 

itself in the individual members of the Church, after the course of 
centuries, is mere derelopment of that already given* in Him ; the 
Church, and every individual in her, together with the xr/«r(, 
which necessarily forms her basis, are "God's workmanship 
created in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii. 10); the redemption is a new 
glorified creation, and the prerogative of creation is and continues 
Crod's alone. The context leads imperatively to this reflection, 
for it is the very certainty of salvation, which nothing earthly 
can disturb, that Paul intends to shew. But the divine act 
only has any true certainty. Salvation would be the most un- 
certain of all uncertain things, if it rested not on the objective 
act of God in Christ, but on the wavering subjectivity of man. 
Only by this its objectivity is the gospel a true glad tidings, 
which nothing can remove ; even imbelief can merely refuse it 
(Comp. upon doga^fiir, the remarks at John xvii 4.) 

Ver. 31-34. This profound and colossal thought, which indeed 
divine power alone could generate and reveal to men, inspires 
the Apostle to a dithyranibic of faith, which even in a purely 
formal consideration, must be acknowledged to equal any of the 
most sublime creations of human language ; wherefore even 
Longinus, it may be too principally for the sake of this passage, 
ranks the Apostle with the greatest orators.'f The absolute 
power of God makes every thing earthly vanish : '* if God be 
for man, what can be against him ?" But the greatest possible 
act of God's love is the giving up of His Son ; in that all else 
which can be thought and wished for lies enclosed. 

Ver. 32.'id/o; has reference to the merely adopted children of 
God (viii. 19). The ovx ifi/Varo is chosen with regard to Gen. 
xxii. 12, the history of Isaac being typically qonceived. For rd 
vdrra D.F.G. read iravra only, which I rather prefer; it compre- 
hends the idea more absolutely, while reb w&rra has respect to 
ver. 30. Inasmuch, however, as in the moments there enumerated^ 
especially in the do^a^i/y, all is absolutely included, it comes 
back to the same thought. Ver. 33, etc., I prefer, with Augus- 
tine, the interrogative form throughout ; the vividness of the 
language g£ns much by it. — 'EyxaXioisB xarn^opiw, comp. 
Acts XIX. 38, xxiii. 28, xxvi. 2. — Upon ixXixr^; comp. at Rom. 
IX. — Upon tJvai h 6t^i<f comp. in the Comm. Part ii. p. 488, 
* iOtgitbei^ M befoM.] 

t Ensmas olMerree of this pMSAge qnito jnrtlj : << quid asqiiMn Cicero dixit 
grandiloqaentiasl'* 



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CHAPTBR VIII. 36. 303 

Sd Edit — Upon ivnu^sf comp. at ver. 26. Used of Christ inter- 
cession signifies the continuing communication of His atoning 
and redeeming power to men; it is, like all which proceeds 
from Christy to be understood not Ycrbally merely, but really. 
Comp. more particularly at Heb. vii. 25 ; ix. 24. 

Ver. 35-39. As God and Christ can neither contradict them- 
selves in their efficacy, nor alter, but as they are throughout and 
constantly/or Christians, so neither can anything earthly draw 
the faithful away from them. Man only has the sad preroga- 
tive of being able to draw himself away from the eternal Pitier* 
by unbdie/y the mother of all sins. (Comp. at John xvi. 9.) 
The whole world, indeed, with all its powers, its enticements, 
audits threatenings, is against the believer; but what is the 
world against God, who does what He will with its powers in 
heaven and on earth ! 

Ver. 3& The parenthetic citation describes the Christian's 
constant danger of life; it is taken from Ps. xliv. 23. The ex- 
pression Tp6fiara cfaytii describes the adversaries' contempt, 
who regarded the Christians as devoted to death. — ^Ver. 37. u^tp- 
vtxav is found only here in the N. T. Tlie preposition strengthens 
the meaning; Josephus uses iMrtpaya^&v, b^i^Ktyp^t^-i and similar 
expressions in like manner, as corroborations of the simptida. — 
The reading hi^ rh dyaTn^vra has important authorities, espe- 
cially D.E.F.G., notwithstanding the genitive evidently gives an 
apter thought, since the power is thereby more decidedly referred 
to God, as the origin of it. — The farthest contrasts are placed to- 
gether, in order rhetorically to mark the idea of allness. That 
which is common to all is the idea of the created (the xr/^/;, ver. 
39), which is opposed to the divine as the eternal. No creature 
can do anything else than what God wills, for He holds them 
all in his hand; now it is not God's will to destroy the saints by 
sufferings, but to perfect them, consequently every creature 
must serve to bring the saints to their object. 

As to the text, in some Codd. i^ovff/at is added, in others, 
which the text rec. follows, dwdfAttg is placed before in<frCira and 
/MXXovro. The latter reading is evidently founded merely in the 
desire to rank the duvAfAng immediately with the iyytXct and 
a^o/y from which they seem to be separated by in^ura and 
/uiXXorra. The addition of l^ouaieu, however, may be derived 

• [P». ciu. 18.] 



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304 BPI8TLB TO THB BOlCAHS. 

from the passages 1 Cor. xv. 24; Eph. vi. 12; Col. ii. 15. (At 
these passages comp. more iMtrticularly upon the different de- 
grees of angels.) It is bj no means entirely necessary by 
angels to suppose evil oneSy because imless they were so they 
could not widi to draw away from the gospel, for Ghd. i. 8, 
Paul puts the case even that an angel from heaven may preach 
another gospel. AU the terms are to be taken here in their 
most general sense, and do not need any closer definition, as 
life and death, height and depth; the indefinite expressions are 
to denote all that can be thought of, and are only a rhetorical 
paraphrase of the conception of allness. — 'Eftgritra = wdpwxiL, 
''what is present," occurs also 6aL i. 4; 1 Cor. vii. 26. 



SBOTION V. 

(IX. 1— XI. 36.) 



THE RELATION OF ISRAEL, AND OF THB OENTILB WORLD, TO THB NEW 
WAY OF SALVATION. 

After this explicit exposition of the new way of salvation, 
(ch. iii. 6), and after the portraiture of the manner in which 
the development both of the individual and of the whole (ch. 
vii. 7) is conditioned by the same, the Apostle Paul might 
naturally have brought the doctrinal part of his Epistle to an 
end. But, in the meanwhile, the song of triumph with which 
he terminated that exposition, awakened powerfully his feelings 
for his own nation, for whom all glory in Jesus Christ had more 
immediately been promised and designed. For this very peo- 
ple, to which he belonged, the Israel of God, had forfeited the 
divine promises the moment they were fulfilled, and they were 
entrusted to the heathen. This unexpected issue, this peculiar 
relation of the two great portions of mankind to God's new way 
of salvation, reversing, as it did, their positions with regard to 
the covenants of God, Japhet coming to dwell in the tents of 
Shem (Gen. ix. 27), held back the pen of the Apostle, and be- 
fore St Paul attains the close of the Epistle, he expresses him- 
self in words full of mystery upon God's election by grace (ix. 



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CHAFTBB IX, 1-20. 305 

1-29); with a view of evincing, not that God had proved un- 
faithful to his promises^ but, rather, that the Jews had, wil- 
fully, maintained the righteousness which is by the law, while 
they rejected the righteousness by faith which God had revealed 
unto them (ix. 30 — x. 21). Before, however, he concludes, he 
points to a ti^e when the remnant of holy seed remaining in 
the nation of Israel shall again be grafted into the olive tree, 
and so all Israel shall be saved ; and this gives him an occasion 
of terminating with praises of the love, the wisdom, and the 
knowledge of God. 



§ 14. OF TH8 BIiBCTIOll OF ORAGB. 

(li 1-29.) 

The ninth chapter of our Epistle belongs to those passages of 
Holy Writ in which the unfathomable nature of its contents, 
and the colossal character of its ideas, are exhibited in a more 
than usually conspicuous light.* On this account, it has ever 
been, since the time of Augustine, a hinge around which the 
prevailing tendencies within the Church have moved, and such 
is it even now. The [Roman] Catholic Church, in striking up* 
on this rock, fell under the dominion of a Pelagianizing view, 
and daily experienced all the injurious consequences which are 
wont to accompany this tendency; while, on the other hand, in 
the Frotestantf Church, at the present moment, in their en- 
deavour to master the import of this chapter, men have either 
fallen down the precipice of the absolute predestination of the 
evil to evil, or have been betrayed into the gulf of an universal 

* Lather very truly says, on the reading of this lection, ^ Who hath not known 
paaeion, eroea, and travail of death, cannot treat of foraknowledge (Election of 
Grace) without injury and inward enmity towards God. On this acooont must 
Adam be fint fairly dead, before he may bear this thing, and drink this strong 
wine. Wherefore, take heed that thou drink not wine, whiie thou art yet a suck* 
log babe. Each several doctrine hath its own season and measure and age." A 
noble instance of the wisdom of the great reformer. Ob the subject of the follow* 
ing investigation, see the treatise upon Bom. ix. by Steudd, in the Tubingen Jour* 
nal, 183$, No. 1, p. l-i»3, and by Haostedt in Pelt's TheoL Mitarb., No. 8. In 
the same work will also be found an essay by Meyer, upon the line of thought in 
Romu ix.-xL RUeker^ in addition to his commentary, gives a separate triatise 
upon the doctrine contained in Rom. is., in the first number of his £xegetio Maga- 
aioe. In this seetiop, RQckert discovers the rigid doctrine of Prcsdeetinatlon. 



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306 BPI6TLB TO THB BOXAHS. 

restoration;* of which errors, the former leads at one time to 
desperation, at another to security, while the latter, as the 
Scripturb plainly declares, must have moral indifference for its 
inevitable result. In the meanwhile, the symbolical books of 
the Lutheran Church, especially the Formula of Concord, as 
well as the " Confessio Marchica"f among tl^e i^aformed confes- 
sions, have already, in all essential points, delivered the true 
scriptural definition; and many of their commentators have, in 
the main point, adhered to them.^ The causes which have, 
notwithstanding, led men so frequently, and on different sides, 
to depalt from it, were probably, first, the inward one, of the 
want of a real experience of grace, and, in the next place, the 
outwaid one, of taking up with insulated passages^ without 
having regard to their connexion with others, and with the 
general teaching of Scripture. The want of experience leads 
to Pelagianism; the upholders of the absolute predestination of 
the evil to evil take the ninth chapter of our epistle apart from 
the eleventh; the defenders of universal restoration take the 
eleventh without the ninth. In order to avoid this one-sided- 
ness, let it be our first endeavour to make ourselves acquainted 
with the connexion which this momentous chapter has with 
itself, and with the whole of the Epistle, and teaching of Holy 
Scripture, before we examine more closely the particular points 
in it. 

The fifth section (ch. ix.-xi.) of the dogmatical portion of our 
epistle exactly corresponds with the first section of it (ch. i. 18 — 
iii. 20). In this first section, the Apostle had considered the 

* Sehleiermaeher't doctrine upon the subject of the Election of Gnee (in tbe 
jonnud conducted by himself with De Wette and LQcke, No. 2) is an entirely anti- 
Calvinistio one. since he maintains the restitution of all things. Oltfckler, Beneeke^ 
and HtfUner, also adopt the Apocatastasis. Reiche altogether questions the ob- 
jective truth of the Apostle's statements. 

t Compare Augusti's << Corpus Ubr. symb." (Elberfeldi, 1827)i psge 882 and 
following. 

X Especially^ among more recent oommentators, Flatt, and Beck, in his " Pnen* 
matico-Hennenentical development of the. nioth chapter of the Epistle to the 
Romans, Stuttgart, 18S3." Only Beck's paper, whidi contains so much that is 
excellent, would have been greatly improved, if, in connexion with this chapter, he 
had at the same time elucidated chapters x. and xL Tholuck (whom my respect- 
ed colleague. Professor Httfling, in his ** Beleuchtnng dee Daumerischen Send- 
schreibens," Nuremberg, 1832, follows in essential points) takes the middle course^ 
and explains some insoUted passages rery well, but he has neither ddivered him- 
self witfi sufBcient preciuon upon the remarkable passages, ch. xi. 26-82, nor has 
treated chap. ix. enough in connexion with chap. x. and xL, to give entire satisiae- 



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CHAFTBB IX. 1-29. 307 

relation in which both Jews and Gentiles stood to the first way 
of salvation, the law ; in the fifth, he considers the relation of 
the Jews and the Gentiles to the new way of salvation, the 
gospel. We are not, however, by any means to look upon the 
ninth chapter as a resumption of the same subject which wa^ 
treated ch. i. 18 — ^iii.- 20; the Apostle is speaking, on the con- 
trary, of a very different matter; at the same time the contents 
of either section have a close aflSnity one to the other, since the 
relation of the Jews and of the Gentiles to both of God's dis- 
pensations were very similar. For, with regard to the law, their 
situation was this. By far the greater number of the Gentiles 
had transgressed it in the grossest manner, and so were sunken 
in an abyss of misery ; while some few among them really ful- 
filled it, according to their relative measure of knowledge. In 
consequence of these opposite conditions, both divisions of them 
were fitly disposed for the reception of the gospel, the new way 
of salvation. For those gross transgressors had experienced the 
dreadful consequences of sin which in them had become exceed- 
ing sinful, and so grace was able in them to be all powerful; 
while the more virtuous heathen had likewise attained, by their 
noble endeavours, to the true blessing of the law, the conviction 
of sin (Rom. iii. 20) ; and, on that account, they also were led 
to embrace the gospel as a remedy. And with regard to the 
Jews, although a small portion of them might be in the last 
mentioned condition, yet the relation of the greater number of 
them to the law was such that they gave it an outward obedi- 
ence, but inwardly transgressed it — ^a case which might' occur 
with individuals among the Gentiles also, though it was a very 
rare one. And so arose the melancholy consequence, that the 
law was unable to work its blessing on Israel, that is, it could 
not efiect any conviction of sin; they confidently looked upon . 
themselves as righteous, and yet were no less sinful than the 
most degraded among the heathen, if not in the outward, yet 
in the inward man ; and this relation of the two parties to the 
law would naturally regulate their respective attitudes, with 
regard to the new way of salvation in the gospel. The greait 
mass of the Jews who were inaccessible to the faith, were sure 
to reject it, only those few availed themselves of the profiered 
way of salvation ; while with the heathen, on the contrary, it 
was precisely the great mass of them who were disposed to re- 



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308 EPI8TLB TO THE ROKANS. 

ceive salvation in Christ; and so the truth of the word (Rev.- 
iii. 15, 16), " I would thou wast either hot or cold/to then, be- 
cause thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth,'' 
was established both in the Jew and in the Ctentile. The Gen- 
tiles, viewed as grievous transgressors of the law, were cold, as 
sincerely fulfilling the law they were warm, and so, in both 
capacities, they were susceptible of grace, whereas the great 
mass of the Jews came between these two conditions. They 
strove in an hypocritical manner after the fulfilling of the law, 
but they had no inward hatred against sin, nor any fire of true 
and divine love. And so fell Israel from his vocation, and the 
heathen world stepped into his place. 

By this means was brought about a strange complication. 
Mankind had the appearance of being more powerful than God, 
since they were able, through their sins, to make void what 
God had promised. To show, however, that this is not the case, 
but that God observes justice in all His ways, this is the great 
object of the Apostle in the present section; on which account - 
also, xi. 33, he exclaims, " Oh, the depth of the riches, both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God !" He proves, I say, that, 
from the beginning, the promise of God was spoken not to the 
Israel after the flesh, but only to that which was after the 
Spirit (comp. ix. 7 with iu-^S);* but, among these last, the 
promise had already found its fulfilment, namely, among the 
Israel of God, whether they were Jews or Gentiles. The con- 
tradiction, therefore^ was only an apparent one (ix. 30), when 
the Gentiles, who sought not after righteousness, attained to it^ 
while the righteousness-seeking Jews received it not, because 
the endeavour of the Jew after righteousness had been one that 
appeared so only in the sight of men, but in the eye of God had 
been a real transgression of the law; and, on the other hand, 
what, in the case of many a Gentile, would appear to human 
eyes, a non-seeking after righteousness, had, in fact, been an 
inward fulfilment of the law. And thus there had been in 
God's dealings a strict consistency, which manifested itself no 
less in the adoption of the true spiritual children of Abraham, 
than in the rejection of his merely fleshly issue; and which is 

• Compara also Deut. zxxii. 5, where it b said of the rebellioas Israelxtes, ** they 
are blemtthes and not His children.'' [Their spot is not the spot of His diildreii, 
Eog. yers. 



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oHAPTBii IX. 1-29. 309 

apparent from other things, and especially fix>m this, that the 
heathen, if they fall from their vuntage ground of faith (zi. 17), 
might again, on their part, be deprived of the gospel (which has 
already, in some degree, been verified in the Oriental church), 
while, in like manner, there is a possibility for the Jews, on 
their becoming ready to receive the faith, to enter again into 
their calling; yea, the Apostle expressly announces that, with 
regard to Israel, an universal conversion really impends (xi. 
25). So far the connexion of thought is plain enough ; and it 
necessarily follows from this, that the Apostle neither intends 
by the grace of God to take away from man the free determina- 
tion of th^ will, nor by means of the latter to question the all- 
sufficiency of grace — ^his only object is to establish both together. 
The manifestation of the grace of God is always made to depend 
upon the more or less of fidelity with which men employ that 
knowledge of divine things which they already have. (Esek. 
xxxiii. 12.) 

In the meanwhile, it must be allowed, this simple connexion 
of ideas would not have been misunderstood as often as it has 
been, -if it were not for an intervening discussion (ix. 14-29), 
which appears to load to a very different result; namely, the 
declaration of St Paul, that '' God hath mercy upon whom he 
will have mercy, and hardens whom he will harden.'' This 
declaration, viewed in itself, might very conceivably lead those 
who believe in the eternal damnation of the wicked, to tl^ 
doctrine of absolute predestination, as, on the other hand, in the 
case of those who do not uphold the former tenet, it serves just 
as easily to establish that of the restoration ; the compassion- 
ating and the hardening presenting themselves only in the 
. sense of an earlier or a later election ; and the dose of St Paul's 
argumentation (xi. 23), while it is directly opposed to the 
doctrine of the predestination of the wicked, which loses all 
semblance of truth as soon as ch. ix. 14 is viewed in connexion 
with ch. xi., furnishes a very plausiblis ground for the last- 
mentioned interpretation, because the whole question there 
appears to be about the final reception of all, without one word 
being spoken of the damnation of any, and the whole reasoning 
issues in the great thought, " God hath concluded t^^em all in 
unbelief that He might have mercy upon all," (xi. 32); and 
thus the earlier or later disobedience, together with the unbelief 



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31 EPISTLB TO TIIS BOKAKS. 

-which is necessarily connected with it, is just as much attri- 
buted to all as the earlier or later experience of the mercy of 
God. Consequently, as ch. i.~iii. teaches the universality of 
sin, so ch. ix.-xi. would ajgpear to indicate the universality of 
redemption, and so, in this point of view also, both sections 
would correspond one with another. But although, perhaps, 
we may not be able to point to any passage in St Paul's Epistles^ 
with the exception of that in 2 Thess. i. 9, which expressly 
teaches the doctrine of eternal damnation* — ^niny, it must be 
admitted that they contain expressions, such as 1 Oor. xv. 28, 
which rather seem to lead to the opposite conclusion — ^yet the 
New Testament, in those portions which do not belong to St 
Paul, and notably in the discourses of Jesus Christ Himself 
(Matt. XXV. 41, etc.), and that not merely in parabolic language 
(Matt. xii. 32; xxvi. 24; John xvii. 12), contains such decisive 
passages for this opinion, that we should be very cautious how 
we place the Apostle Paul in contradiction with them, ^e 
business of the expositor is certainly to find the true sense of 
the passage before him, and not to allow himself to be diverted 
in his operation through fear of a contradiction of other Jllaees; 
still he would do well to reflect whether his operation have 
reached the true meaning of the words, if it issue in an open 
contradiction with other passages of Scripture; and even such 
is the case here. For, granting that by admitting the doctrine 
of a restoration, the passage receives a consistent meaning, it 
by no means follows that this may not be obtained without this 
admission; and if this be the case, the last-mentioned sense 
must be preferred, as the one which was really in the Apostle's 
contemplation, since, at all events, it must be allowed that St 
Paul, though he does not bring it prominently forward, is far 
from combating the doctrine of eternal damnation, or preaching 
explicitly the doctrine of the restoration. The following con- 
siderations may serve to indicate the practicability of such an 
explanation of the passage in question, as may avoid both the 
one and the other of the two extremes. 

The difficulty and obscurity of the whole section before us 
are diminished when we reflect that by it no means contains 

* The doetrine of etenal daiiiii»tioD is implidtly giyen in the pantge Rom. ix. 
4, apon which eompAre the commentazy. In Rom. ti. 8, 9, 16, the eternity of the . 
punishment of the wicked ib not expressly marked, and the same applies to 1 Cor. 
V. 18; xi. 32. 



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CHAPTBB IX. 1-29. 3] 1 

anything peculiar, since the same ideas which so startle ns in 
reading it, are also expressed throughout the whole of the Old 
as well as the New Testament. It is only their conciseness, 
their bold and powerful utterance, that lends them, as it were, 
an unprecedentidd appearance here. There are two series of 
apparently conflicting representations of the relation of man- 
kind to God, which pervade to the whole of the sacred writings. 
Acoovding to one series, all appears to depend upon man, his 
earthly position as well as his eternal position in the world to 
come. Already, in the Old Testament, laws were placed before 
man, accompanied with blessings and with curses; if he ob- 
served them, he was bid to expect welfare and peace both here 
and hereafter; if he observed them not, the contrary portion 
awaited him. In this point of view, man is represented as 
responsible for all his actions, and for the development of his 
whole life ; he appears as the absolute master of his destiny. 
And in the New Testament, a similar series of expressions pre- 
sents itself. '^Believe and be baptized," is the command given 
to man: it is their own affair ; it rests with them to receive or 
not receive it. The most arduous commandments are impera- 
tively laid upon them, " Be ye perfect," or " Be ye holy!" Of 
the impenitent and unbelieving, it is pronounced, ** Ye would 
not !" It is the Lord himself who calls with deepest sorrow ; 
it is the Creator who cries with tears before his creature, '' How 
often have I desired to gather you, as a hen gathereth her 
chickens together, but ye would not !" (Matt ±xm, 37 ; Luke 
xiii. 34.) But, by the side of this view, there is another series 
of representations which apparently constitute a complete con- 
tradiction of the first.* It is expressly said that it is " God 
that worketh both to will and to do in man of his good pleasure," 
(Pliil. ii. 13), while immediately before occur the words, ''Work 
out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Christ him^ 
self says, '' All that the Father giveth me is mine ; no man can 
come unto me except the Father draw him." (John vi. 37, 
44.) '' No man can come unto me except it be given him of the 
Father," (John vL 65); and, " without me, ye can do nothing." 
(John XV. 5.) Moreover it is said, '' a man can receive nothing 
(and therefore neither truth nor untruth) except it be given 

* Compare my remarks in the earlier Tolamee of Uub Commentary, yiz., roL i., 
Matt. xiii. 1 0, 1 7, 96, 43; xxt. 34, 36. Vol. a Matt, xxvii. 3, 1 0. 



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312 BPISTLB TO THB BOHANS. 

Lim from heaven." (John iii. 27.) Aocording to this view, 
man no longer 'appears as the lord of his destiny, but Almighty 
Gk>d alone, who worketh all in alL And on this account do all 
saints acknowledge, with the Apostle Paul at their head, 
** through the grace of God, I am what I am;'' everything, the 
truth, the belief^ the reception of grace, is God's work in man, 
and man may as justly call his conception, and birth in his 
mother's womb, his own work, as he can call the life of faith 
his o?m work. The believer is God's work, created in Christ 
Jesus unto good works. (Eph. iL 10.) ** He that glorieih, let 
him glory in the Lord." (2 Cor. x. 17.) Now, on the side of 
the good, this statement of the exclusive operation of Gt>d, as 
delivered in Scripture, is easily understood and admitted. He 
who has abandoned the Pelagian point of view finds no difficulty 
in conceiving that the good are not good beMe God, in such 
sense that He is acquainted with their good thoughts, resolu- 
tion, works only from without, rather will he feel that no man 
is good but the one God, who himself both is the good that is 
in them, and works the good that he discerns in them. But^ 
if such be the relation of man to God, then it further plainly 
appears that man cannot reserve any good for himself, even 
though the greater portioxi'be of God, as, for example, the free 
continuation of the work of regeneration, which God has begun 
(for what God begins God alone can continue), or belief in grace, 
or the apprehension and appropriation of the same;* for this 
apprehension is precisely the capital point in the whole work of 
conversion, and this would reserve to God only a secondary 
part, or, at any rate, man would admit God only to an equsd 
share in the production of the new man, which is certainly 
altogether inadmissible. It is God who makes the beginning, 
the middle, and the end in the work of conversion. He gives 
grace, and empowers man to embrace it at the beginning, and 
hold it fast to the last ; all, in short, is God's, and nothing is 
man's of his own. Meanwhile, although we maintain the oper- 
ation of God in man in its fullest extent, this will yet combine 
very well with the first series of expressions which apparently 
attribute all to man, so long as we keep to the side of the good. . 
For the working of God by no means takes away the freedom 

* Compare tbe sabjoined paflsagw in which oooTenion, belief, fidelity, axv ex- 
pressly referred to God, and nothing of his own left to man. Jer. xxxi. 1 8; lleb. 
xii. 2; Luke xxii. 32; 1 Cor. iv. 7; 2 Tfaess. ill 2; 1 John ▼. 4. 



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CHAPiBii IX. 1-29. 313 

of man, but rather perfects it God works in the good and 
holj not externally to their willsy but rather within them, and 
fills them with that eneigy from a higher world which they 
experience in themselves. Hence it is, that he is able to create 
in them to will and to accomplish, without their ceasing to be 
free^ nay, by this operation it is that they just become truly 
free, since so long as they are able to will any thing, other thai^ 
what God works, they have not the libertas, but rather, at the 
best (as Adam before he fell), the libera voluntas, or (as is the 
case with fallen men, in whom exists a predominating inclina- 
tion to what God willeth not), the liberum arbitrium. The 
whole world of good angels, as also the just men made perfect,* 
will nothing and can do nothing of themselves, but only through 
Ood, and yet are they free, yea, among the creatures they alone 
are free, since in them Gt>d works as in beings whom he hath 
constituted in independence and freedom. Moreover these 
imperative addresses to men, *' Be ye perfect," etc., are intel- 
ligible, notwithstanding the fact that' man is n6t able to make 
himself perfect, but only God, when understood with reference 
to the good, since this divine command is no other than that 
creative word whereby they become perfect, according to that 
deep saying of Augustine, *'Da quodjubea, etjube quad vis." 

The whole weight of the difficulty falls thus upon tlye side of 
the evil. God is in Himself, substantially, The Good. He 
wills and creates only the good; and so it is conceivable, how, 
in good men, who are known to him, he operates all that is 
good. But then He is absolutely separate from the evil, which, 
otherwise, has no substantial being, by virtue of his holy 
nature he is not able to will it;"!* and yet the Scripture says 
that God, according to his eternal foreknowledge, not only 
knows all evil, but that He works it too. The former assertion 

* Meaawlifle &• enated being hM this freedom innate within it It is only whea 
we have been etrenglliened and etablished in the warfare against sin, that this 
result is atUined. So that we cannot say that God might have so made all 
oonseioBs beings that it should have been impoeuble for them to sin. It is neces- 
sary for the creature to letain the possibility of preyaxicating from the Uiw of life 
imphuited in it by God, in order that it may not bold its perseverance therein as 
somewhat merely meelnudeal. 

t The diiBenlty whieh many Sad in ibis whole cycle of doctrine, is aggravated 
by the want of a distinct conception of the fundamental ideas, good and evil. The 
good may, it is true, in a subordinate sense, signify a reUtion, but even then only 
where it is a question of a merely legal righteousness. In its true and highest 
meaning, it is to be taken as a substantial thing. God's essence alone is good, 
and where good is, there is God. On whieh account no man can generate good, it 
must be imparted unto him. On the other hand, the evil is nothing substantial 



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31 4 KPISTLB TO THB BOMANS. 

alone might at first suffice, since in consequence of the unity of 
operation in all His attributes, the knowledge of God cannot 
be conceived apart from his operation ; but then the Scripture 
adds to this the explicit declaration, that Ood worketh evil, 
both here and in other passages as well In the prophecies of 
the Old Testament, from Oen. ix. 27, downwards, GKhI's know- 
pledge of evil is decisively enough proclaimed. " Japhet shall 
dwell in the tents of Shem,'' but then the descendants of Shem 
are to fall from their vocation. Again, in Deut. xxxi. 16, 17, 
20, 21, and Deut xxviii., xxix., xxx., the fall of the people of 
Israel is predicted in the distinctest manner, and no less clearly 
is it signified (precisely as in Bom. xi.), that after this fall 
Israel will be converted and inherit the blessing. The passion 
of the Messias is foretold in the clearest manner, and this in* 
volves also the knowledge of those by whom He was to sufier. 
(Comp. Ps. xciv. 11; 1 Cor. iii. 20.) In like manner Jesus 
knew who it was that should betray him (John vL 64, etc.), 
and yet chose Judas to be one of his disciples; He knew be- 
forehand that Peter would fall, He warned him, and it came to' 
pass as Jesus had already foreseen and spoken. In consequence 
of this God's absolute knowledge of evil, it is also said (Is. xlv. 
7), '' I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and 
create earil," and (Amos iii. 6), " Shall there be evil in the city, 
and the Lord hath not done it V He hardeneth Pharoah, He 
awakeneth Nebuchadnezzar; in short. He worketh what He 
will, good as well as evil. To say that these are merely Oriental 
phrases, is evidently inapplicable to the solution of this diffi- 
culty; nor again would any man be disposed, in the face of 
these and similar passages, to maintain that God does not 
foreknow the free actions of man, or at least, if he foreknow 
the good, because the good has a being, to deny that he knows 
the evil, since evil is a nonentity. For the world's history de- 
velops itself as well by evil actions as by good, even as the cru- 
cifixion of the Son of God, which was brought about by actions 
perfectly free, is the turning-point of the old and the new world ; 
and if there be anything that God does not know, then it 
becomes impossible to admit any true foreknowledge in God, 

(to miBrm wbieh is Manicheism), and yet it is not without reality (a mere ^^ «»X 
it is a real but inwardly, and, by consequence, aleo an outwaixily disturbed rela- 
tion. And, therefore, all the powers of Uie eril are in substance good, only their 
employment has been perverted. And from this it is that God may be operadve, 
in and with all the evil, and yet from the evil, as evil, remain absolutely separate. 



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CHAPTS& iz. 1-29.* 315 

and, consequently, anjr personal Gh>d at all Since, therefore, 
as we remarked before, it is found impracticable; upon deeper 
considerations of the subject, to separate the foreknowledge 
from the predetermination of God, nothing remains but to take 
the thoughts of holy Scripture as they are presented to us, and 
to inquire in what way it would have them understood. That 
it should mean that God wills the evil as evil, and hath wrought 
it himself in His creatures, is so manifestly contradictory to 
innumerable passages of it, and also to its entire spirit, that 
none of the elder partisans of the rigid doctrine of predestina- 
tion, Augustine, Gottschalk, Calvin, ever ventured to maintain 
it; they only said that, whereas by the fall of Adam, which 
took place without the predetermination of God, mankind had 
become a massa perdiHoniSy God, out of them, by an absolute 
decree of grace, and by means of gratia irTe^istibilis, hath 
elected some to happiness, and (as Gottschalk and Calvin in- 
fer), by a decree of reprobation, hath appointed others to per- 
dition. The latter supralapsarians were the first who went so 
far as to maintain that the fall of Adam himself was predeter- 
mined, in which, indeed, the doctrine of a gratia irreaistibUia 
being once admitted, they were more consistent than Augus- 
tine and his followers; nay, in consequence of their principles, 
they were obliged to derive even the fall of the devil and his 
angels from the decree of God, and not from the misuse of their 
own free will. Still, as surely as we see it to be the doctrine 
of Scripture, that God does not work evil as evil, it being the 
melancholy privilege of the creature, in virtue of the free will 
created within him, to be able to generate evil, so surely is it 
equally impossible to exclude evil, viewed as a phenomenon, 
fi^m the divine operations. The abstract evil never appears in 
history, it is but evil personalities, who, with their evil deeds, 
ever appear on the scene ; these, however, exist in necessary 
combination with the world of good, because, in every evil 
being, and even in the devil and his angels, the powers them- 
selves with which they act are of God, who bestows on them at 
the same time both the form in which, and the circumstances ^ 
among which, they may come into manifestation.* With re- 

* Without this infinitely oonsohtory doetrine, the man whom hostile elements 
assail, would he ohliged to heliere himself abandoned, without hope, to their savage 
power. Consider the. martyrs of the early church in presence of the shocking 
wickedness of their persecutors; what could have invpired them with courage, if 



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316 EflSTLE TO THB ROMANS. 

ference to this latter agency of Qod in evil, lie is said in 
Scripture to be the originator of evil itself, considered as a 
phenomenon in history, and this was what the ancient dogma* 
tical authors ''intended to express by the canon, Deus concurrit 
ad^nateriale, non ctd formale actionia malcB. Certainly, after 
this method of understanding it, the great, and, perhaps, ever 
insoluble problem still remains, namely, the ability of a created 
being to act contrarily to the will of God.-f- Meanwhile we 
miist proceed upon the supposition of this ability as upon an 
axiom, even as we lay it down as an axiom that ihe world was 
created out of nothing, without forgetting that of the how the 
world came to be from out of God, and through God, does not, 
on that account, cease to be a problem. What has been said, 
however, will serve to elucidate the various expressions used in 
Scripture, regarding the relation of free beings to God, and 
solve, at the same time, in essential points, the difficulty of the 
passage under our consideration. We thus avoid the predestina* 
tion of the evil to evil, as well as the restoration of all things, 
and maintain, on the contrary, an election of grace in the case 
of the holy4 in pursuance of which God not only knows who 
will be holy and happy, but also effects that they may be holy 
and happy, without abolishing their own free self-determina- 
tion. This, as the confessio Marchica very pertinently says, 
is " one of the very most consolatory articles," for, whereas no 
man is acquainted with the mind of God, and God excludes no 

they liad not been upheld by the sure conviction that God, in his wifldom, had 
ordained even this way, in order to their perfection and happineee, and, therefore, 
had sammosed op such forma of evil as thoee which they saw opposed to them. 

* Nor has the most recent science been able to produce anything more satisfac- 
tory npon the relation of human freedom to the divine omnipotence, than the old 
theory of the ooHcarsttt contains. Only this must not be so understood as if 
God contributed one half to the execution of the free deed and man the other, but 
rather that God alone and exclusively is the creator as well as the upholder of the 
whole roan, and of every deed he does. 

f The assertion that, as the possibility of a thing is already the thing in the germ, 
if God have created man with the possibility of sinning, he must have also created 
the germ of sin in him, is not tenable, because it is only in the case of substantial 
realities that there can be any question of a germ at all. But evil is not any sub- 
stantial reality, the evil is the deflection of created will from the will of God; this 
originated in a free deed, which was in faet the beginning of an eotirely new series^ 
but it draws its groond or cause for and in itself alone. 

t Although, therefore, man is free, it is impossible that all should become evfl 
and oppose God's way of salvation; for, were this possible, man would be more 
powerful than God, and able to defeat God^ plan. Comn. the words of Christ, 
Matt xxiv. 24; 1 Cor. x. IS. 



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CHAPTBR IX. 1-29. 317 

man from h&ppinees (1 John ii. 2; 1 Tim. ii. 4), althoogfa God 
knows who excludes himself, so each one can and may hold 
himself as elected. This belief that we are elect, <iBji injure 
none but him who inwardly is so impure as to dream it possible 
for a man to be happy without becoming holy, nor, on the 
other hand, without this belief can any one be made perfect; 
for, upon what shall a man found the certainty of his happiness, 
if he may not* presume to rest it upon the unalterable decree of 
Ood? Nothing remains but to rest it upon himself, his own 
will, his own integrity, which, of all conceivable foundations, is 
the most insecure. Yet we do not by any means conceive this 
election of grace as a gratia irresistibilis^ which necessarily 
draws after it the whole doctrine of predestination, with its 
most extreme consequences, but only, as we do not attribute to 
the holy and the happy the smallest part in that by which they 
become such, for that is the mere work of Ood, so man, cer- 
tainly, in every stage of his earthly development, reserves the 
negative ability of resisting grace, he may fall at any time from 
it. So that the whole merit as entirely belongs to Gtod, as the 
whole of the guilt belongs to man alone.* Though the whole 
development and historical formation of the evil in the world 
depends upon God, so far as it is He who causes the evil to be 
evU in that particular form in which it is so, yet the being evil, 
in itself, is the simple consequence of the misuse of man's own 
free will. Taken in this scriptural point of view, history be- 
comes no stiff necessity, no fatal physical evolution, nor, on the 
other hand, are mankind exhibited as a number of little gods, each 
one of whom makes of himself even whatsoever he may please. 

* The Don-nsistanee of grace in the holy does not signify the same thing with 
the receiving of grace. The former is the pore negative, the latter is positive, and 
presupposes an energy in the will, which is first wrouglit in man by God. Man, 
therefore, hinders God's work, but he is not able to promote it, in the same man- 
ner in which man is in a condition to destroy created objects in the world, and yet 
is unable to make a single blade of grass. Nor is there any inconsistency, when 
we are told in the Bible that in the work of regeneration, man can do nothing of a 
positive natore, and yet we are directed to pray, for prayer is simply this non- 
resisting towards that attitude of preparation to the progress of the human niuid 
wfaioh is requisite in order to receive the workings of grace. For the rest, it 
stands to reason, that there is no moment of human existenee, nor any conceivable 
act of men, in which the negative and the positive portion of it can be entirely 
separated; rather they are continually interpenetrating one another. In the mean- 
while, one or the other always has a decisive predominance; the pontirt activity 
predominates in the natural man, but in the work of regeneration the teeeptivity 
must prevail, in order to leave, the positive side to the Holy Spirit 



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318 BPISTIB TO THB BOXAHS. 

The truth is, that in God all is necessary, as in man all is free 
— ^not, however, in mere supposition, but in living truth; and it 
is only thus that the ideas of guilt and judgment have their 
deep and awful significance. All evD, in God's hand, serves but 
for a foil and for the promotion of the good, and yet His wrath 
bums with justice against it, because it originates only in the 
wickedness of the creature which receives its punishment from 
righteousness. The possibility of this punishment being an 
eternal one, does not depend upon God, but is in the creature 
alone, which, as it has the power to resist God's will once, may 
also continue to persevere in its resistance.* The doctrine of 
the restoration appears inconsistent in admitting the possibility 
of resistance for a time, and making it cease in as arbitrary a 
way at a certain point, for there is no point at which the resist- 
ance of the evil may not be considered as possible to be con-* 
tinned. Moreover, as this doctrine does not deny the realitj of 
sin, it gains little by having recourse to a final restoration of all 
the evil, because, if God knew beforehand that a being would be 
evil for thousands of years, and yet created that being, it miglit 
justly be said, that, since evil is so awful a thing, that it would 
appear better never to have been bom than to have sinned but 
once with no more than the glance of the eye, God should have 
preferred never to have created such a being at all. The only 
doctrine consistent with itself, is that which denies the reality of 
evil, but this leads to a consequence which rests upon a w^Sirot 
^tvd^g; for, according to this, the quality of all actions is alika 
Whereas, if we assume the reality of sin, and admit only the 
problem of the ability of the creature to resist God, the whole 
doctrine of Scripture follows in order, and both divine and 
human interests are perfectly secured. And the principles here 
laid down furnish at the same time the following simple con- 
nexion of the passage in question : '' I behold with deep sorrow 
the unbelief of Israel; but God's word is not on that account 

• Aooording to the tlieory of the unreality of sin, and the perpetuation, not of 
the individual, hut only of the race, it might be said that there is neither a restora- 
tion, nor yet an eternal damnation. Those who have become enturely otiI wwM 
perish when they die altogether, and oome to nothing, as the withered leaves fall 
from the tree, while the sanctified alone would continue to live. But it is scarcely 
necessary to observe thai the Bible is far from asserting the personal imm<xrtality 
of some persons only; not to mention, also, that upon this supposition, the grief of 
St Paul, Rom. ix. 1 , etc., would be without adequate motive, <* for he who is dead 
is free from sin" (Rom. vi. 7), and no longer an object of lamentation. 



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OIIAPTBR IX. 1-20. 319 

made of none effeet; the All-knowing and Almighty One rather 
permits both good and evil to have their manifestation according 
to His will, even as He has long ago predicted the fall of the 
Jews, and the election of the Gentiles, in the prophecies of the 
Old Testament" (ch. iz.) But the guilt of this apostacy is not, 
on that account, at all the less chargeable upon the Jews alone, 
since by resisting grace, they went about to establish their own 
righteousness, instead of the righteousness of Qod (ch. x.) 
Moreover, even in the fallen nation itself, God hath reserved a 
holy seed, and in this will the fulfilment of the divine predic- 
tions one day be realised (ch. xi.) 

If we now proceed to consider the cycle of expressions em- 
ployed by the Apostle Paul to expound his doctrine of election, 
we shall find that the circumstance of earlier or later, which are 
merely human modes of thinking, and which cannot be thought 
to liave any place in the mind of God, are implied in all of 
th^m. The terms ^posidu (Acts ii. 31 ; GaL iii. 8), ^ptyiyvta^jtoj 
(Rom. viii. 29, xi. 2; 1 Pet. i. 20), ^-foof/^w (Acts iv. 28; Rom. 
viii. 29, 30; 1 Cor. ii. 7; Eph. i. 6-11), irpori^fi' (Eph. i. 9), and 
the substantive ^pSyvu^ig (Acts ii. 23; 1 Pet. i. 2), and 'jrpd- 
Btifii (Rom. viii. 28; ix. 11; Eph. i. 11; iii. 11; 2 Tim. i. 9) 
express the knowledge and the will of God, before the object of 
His knowledge comes into outward manifestation. And as all 
the expressions applied in Scripture to God have been selected* 
not on His account, but only for the sake of man, so too it is 
only for man that they hold perfectly good. Considered from 
the human point of view, God does in fact foreknow, although, 
as far as regards Himself, the whole co-exists in one eternal 
present. So that, in the expressions in question, there are 
evidently two distinct classes, first those which express know- 
ledge or discernment, then those which apply to the will. It 
may be objected that, albeit the will always presupposes the 
knowledge of that which a man wills, yet our knowledge need 
not always be combined witb the volition of the thing known. 
God, for instance, knows the evil as such, not simply as a 
phenomenon, he discerns in the evil deed what it is that makes 
it evil, in short, God possesses the thought or the knowledge of 
evil, but not the will. Still, however accurate this statement 
IS, it has nevertheless no relation to the phraseology of St Paul. 
The Apostle never speaks but of God's knowledge of the evil 



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S20 EPISTLE to THE BOKAJTS. 

phenomenon, but this God wills as well aa knows; and it is Onlj 
and solely because He wills it tliat it comes into manifestation. 
We must, therefore, altogether reject the Pelagian distinction of 
a prcBviaio and proBdestinatio when we view the question in rela- 
tion to the good, since it is only with regard to evil that it haa 
a certain degree of truth, and is of no service at all in solving 
the difficulties in the Apostle's writings. In St Paul, God's fore- 
knowledge always implies a fore-working and a fore-determina- 
tion, just as His fore-determination is never without foreknow- 
ledge. Now this fore-determination, as has already been 
demonstrated, does not destroy the freedom of the will, but 
rather presupposes it. God creates and works in free beings as 
free, and in beings not free as not free. Now, one remarkable 
expression of the divine ^p6iscif is the term UT^yw (John xv. 
16-19; Acts xiii. 17; 1 Cor. i. 27, 28; Eph. i. 4), equivalent to 
which is dpopiZjkiif (Gal. i. 15), or the ixkayn (Rom. xi. 5-7; 1 
Thess. i. 4), also v^6h6t^ %wr ixX^y = ^r^h^tg UXf/ou^v (Bom. 
ix. 11), by which the ixXixro/ (Matt. xx. 16; xxii. 14; Rom. 
viii. 33; Col. iii. 12; comp. comment, on Matt. xxii. 14; xxiv. 
22) are designated, and which is manifested through the xkn^ig 
to the human consciousness. (Rom. xi. 29; 1 Cor. L 26; Eph. 
1. 18; iv. 1; 2 Thess. i. 11; Heb. iii. 1.) This election of the 
holy and the blessed (since it is to blessedness alone that U- 
X079 in St Paul's language refers, and not, as will be shortly 
shown, to subordinate advantages) has nothing compulsory in 
it: the possibility of resisting still remains in every one of the 
elect, only with God, in virtue of His omniscience, neither this 
possibility obtains nor any other possibility whatever. (Matt, 
xxiv. 24.) Nor does the ixXo/^ at all involve in itself the 
positive rejection of the non-elect. Humanly considered, they 
also are elect, since God wills the happiness of all; but since 
they resist this divine will, and God knows it so will be, before 
Him they are non-elected or rejected, but not through any 
decree of reprobation, but only through their own rejection of 
the universal decree of grace. 

After these observations^ we may now proceed to ponsider 
the particulars with some hope of a prosperous i^sue out of the 
labyrinth of the Apostle's discourse, which seems, like the sixth 
chapter of St John, calculated for the express purpose of sifting 
the Church of Christ. 



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CHAPTEB IX. 1-29. 321 

Yer. 1, 2. St Paul ezpreases hU aorrow for the unbelief of 
his people with the most earnest protestation; his use of the 
phrase iXn^iw Xi/m, ov >|/fu^/Mif, indicates an apprehension that 
some might not give him credit for these sentiments. It is 
clear that in the case of the hostile Judaisers, this was so; we 
have, however, no particular ground for looking for these in 
Borne; the habitual feelings of the Apostle exerted an involun- 
tary influence upon his immediately present ideas; and he had 
the less inducement to repress it, inasmuch as he must needs 
have expected to meet with the counteraction of these his 
opponents also in Rome. 

Tholuck is certainly right in not allowing the words Ir Xpt^rp, 
$9 mitfian kyit^ to amount to forms of swearing; after these 
words, we ought rather to understand &ir; but he overlooks the 
fact that there is the resemblance of swearing in these vehement 
protestations, which are so heightened by the words Iv Xfisriji 
that they come very near in meaning to an oath. There is no 
kind of ground for Griesbach's proposal to inclose the words 
«ti/Ec/Mfrufou«q( /M# f7[( tfwf/d^tfffti^ /bMu in a parenthesis. Lachmann 
rightly connects them with those following. — ^Ver. 2. hhlt^n is the 
stronger expression for sorrow, grief of soul. 

Yer. 3. To show how great his grief is, the Apostle exclaims, 

fMv. The whole passage loses its meaning and its deep earnest- 
ness, if we suppose that Paul was really aware that every single 
individual of the Jewish nation, all mankind indeed, would in 
the end be blessed. These words, therefore, indirectly contain 
a strong proof of this conviction, that there is a state of eternal 
damnation; as he expressly declares, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9, that those 
who obey not the Gospel shall suffer punishment, even eveilast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord. See John iiL 
86. The words have no meaning unless we understand him to 
wish to be banished from Christ, and so miserable for ever, in 
place of his brethren (urif = dlrr/, not merely for their advantage, 
comp. Comment. Bom. v. 8, 12, etc.) This wish, it is true, is 
an impossible one, since neither does love admit of unhappiness 
(rather where true love is there must needs be happiness), nor 
can one brother suffer in place of another (Ps. xlix. 8); Christ 
alone is able to do that, because He is the representative of all.* 

* To mainUin tha objoetiTe powibility of any one giving bis soul to be aiutthcma 

X 



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322 BPISTLE TO TH8 BOMAHS. 

But the love of Christ which had been shed abroad in the heart 
of Paul, made him also crj, as the same spirit of Christ had 
already bid Moses say : " foi^ive them their sins, if not^ then 
blot me out of thy book " (Ex. xxxii. 32, 33), in which place 
also, the sense of the whole passage ought, certainly, not to be 
completed by the words, " for a certain time,'' but '* for ever/' 
The words may also be taken for an intercession of Paul with 
Christ,* who was able to do what he was only able to wish, and 
what, in the form of a wish, he utters of and for himsel£ 
Meyer's view will not hold (v. Pelt's Theology, Mitarb. Pt. 3. p. 
71) according to which, the imperfect tense is intended to indi- 
cate the merely momentary rise of this wish. The imperfect 
here, as Winer has already rightly remarked (Gram. p. 259), 
has no narrative force, it only stands, as it often does^ for the 
conjunctive, "I could wish-" 

'AvdhfML was originally the same with &9d$nfibay but in more 
recent times, and in the N. T. also, the latter form was used for 
what was consecntted, devoted to the gods, while dvatfi/^a came 

for another, leads by direet oonaeqaenoe to Oicbtel'a doetrine of the Melehiiedekian 
priesthood, aocordiog to which, the Girist within ns is able to suiFer for sins, in the 
same manner in which Jesns himself snffered. Bat this doetrine evidently con- 
tradicts the all-sofficienoy of the merits of Christ, who, by His once offering of Him- 
self, hath perfected all them that are sanctified (Heb. x. U). No donbt Christ 
poors his love into the hearts of the ikuthfal, and they willingly undergo whaterer 
portion of temporal suffering the sin which is in man brings with it for them; but 
the undertaking of the burthen of sin for another npon one's self, together wiUi its 
eternal consequences, is a thing not to be conceived of any man except in the per- 
son of Jesus alone. The partizans of the so-called pure love, as Fendon and 
Madame Quion, often quote these words; meanwhile, if the doctrine of pure Iotc 
mean any more than that man ought not to love God on account of his gifts alone^ 
it cannot certainly by dahn to any countenance in Scripture. In the rest, the 
words of Beogel are worth considering: *<de mensurA amoris in Moee et Paulo 
non facile est esustimare; non capit hoc anima non valde provecta." Such 
passages as Eph. iii. 18, Col. i. 14, 1 Thess. in. 10, which are apparently related 
to Uie present, require another interpretation, as will appear when we oome to ex- 
pUun them. [Gichtel, mentioned at the beginning of this note, was a German 
enthusiast, bom 1658, died 1710.] 

* Similar sentiments are of frequent occurrence ui the mysties, both of former 
and of modem times, which are to be viewed as the offspring of their overflowing 
love. So Aogelus Silesins, in his «' Cherabmical Pilgrim," No. 28, says:— 
Kein Tod ist seliger als in dem Herm sterben, 
Uud um das ew'ge Gut mit Leib und Seel 'verderben, 
" No death is more blessed than to die in the Lord, 
And for the eternal good with body and soul to perish." 
[Angelus Silesins was the name assumed by John ScheflBer, a physician oC 
Breslau, bora 1624. He became a convert to the Romish foith, and published 
several works of mystical poetry. He died in a convent at Bresku in 1677. His 
Qienibinisher Wandersmann is described as having enjoyed great popularity in 
Germany. See Conversations Lexicon.] 



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CHAPTER IX. 4. 323 

to signify anything accursed, or devoted to the gods in an evil 
sense, like the Latin sacer. It corresponds with xd^apfjM^ ^pt- 
-y^nift^ mpixdktpfM (1 Cor. iv. 13), that is, a victim for a com- 
munity, a man upon whom, in the case of a pestilence or other 
national calamity, the guilt of the community, which is supposed 
to be the cause of the visitation, is laid as upon a victim. This 
meaning would be applicable here by reading M, which is sup- 
ported by D.E.O.; but &^6, which, upon critical grounds, merits 
the preference, does not admit the application of this figure of 
speech. On this account, it is more to the purpose to compare 
the Hebrew Q'^n* ^7 which we obtain the notion of extrusion, 
exclusion, banishment. We need not be reminded that the ban 
here spoken of is not to be understood as an outward exclusion 
from the communion of the church, or of merely physical death; 
the depth of the thought points to the spiritual and eternal 
exclusion from the communion and life of Christ, in which alone 
Paul had found happiness (viii. S3, etc.) We may supply here 
f/ du9ar6¥, which occurs in a similarly hyperbolic^ passage of 
GaL iv. 15. 

Yer. 4. In order to set the depth of the fall of Israel in the 
plainest light, Paul brings forward all their prerogatives, the 
exercise of which, nevertheless, was bound up with their obe- 
dience (Deut. xxviii.), and which are kept in reserve by God for 
the people, until the stipulated condition, the obedience of faith, 
shoidd have been realised in them, just as a throne is with- 
Nholden from a kingly race overthrown by their own culpability 
(xi. 29). In moaj; of all their privileges he places the sacred 
name 'UpatXi^at, by which the theocratic people were character- 
ised as the soldiers of God (2 Cor. xi. 22, Phil. iii. 5). But in 
the days of Christ they were no longer victorious in the struggle, 
as was Jacob of old (Gen. xxxii. 29); on the contrary they were 
fallen. The vioh^a belonged to the nation as the type of the 
true Israel of the N. T., for, considered in itself, Israel was yet 
in bondage (viii. 14), yet the people is already called in hope 
the first-bom of God. (Ex. iv. 22, Jer. xi. 8.) The dd^a here 
cannot well be applied to the general gloxy of Israel, since that 
could not, properly speaking, be mentioned among its especial 
privileges, nor is the supposition of an Hendiadys more tenable, 
since the object of the Apostle evidently is to enumerate, one 
by one, the greater prerogatives of Israel, and on this account. 



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324 KPI8TLE TO THR ROMANS. 

Koi is constantly repeated. The best way, undoubtedly, is, to 
compare it with the Hebrew ^^m. "tiaS (P^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^)> <^d 
to underBtand the piUar of cloud and fire which led the poeple 
through the wilderness, and was the symbol of the presence of 
Ood. To find the reason why the dtni^xcu are distinguished from 
the vofAohffkky we must remember the covenants of Gtod with the 
patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. The Xdrp$ia specifies the wam- 
hda with reference to the several theocratic institutions of the 
temple worship. Under i^ayysX/eu are included all the pro* 
phecies, especially the Messianic ones. UnripH denote especially 
the patriarchs, the first ancestors of the race, of whose posses- 
sion the Israelites were so proud, and by whose blessing they 
were blessed. The reading i^ &9 would restrict what follows to 
^ariptg alone, and xai fg wr reckons the natural descent of Christ 
among the privileges of the nation. Critical authorities are 
decisive for xai, only F.G. omit it, as also the following rL 

Ver. 5. In the treatment of this famous doxology, interpre- 
ters have differed down to the most recent time, according to 
the dogmatical view which they have taken of the person of 
Christ. All those who have maintained the divinity of Christ, 
have understood this passage also of Him; all those who bave 
denied it, refer it to the Father. Glockler alone is in favour of 
referring it to God, though he is far from denying the divine 
dignity of Christ. On the contrary, he expressly acknowledges 
it. This impartiality is laudable in itself, and it must be ad- 
mitted that the momentous dogma of the divine nature of 
Christ cannot suffer from the loss of a single text ; and, more- 
over. Christian antiquity made but little use of this passage as 
a proof, properiy so called, from an apprehension that too much 
might be proved thereby, namely, the Sabellian indifference of 
the persons.* I should, on that account, determine myself, 
without hesitation, in favour of Glockler^s view, if his reasons 
were more solid than they are. For he takes the words 
from cDv unto ^y together, and considers the first half, with 
icTt or icrw understood, as the subject, and the latter half as the 
predicate. The words are thus intended to fit into the context 
in such a way, that Paul praises God fi>r the many tokens of 
His grace exhibited to the Jews; but as the Apostle had just 
been afflicted by the thought that all these favours had been 

* Compare Reicbe's Comm. vol U. p. 268, note. 



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CHAPTEB IX. 5. 325 

forfeited by the people of Israel, Glockler supposes that these 
words are only to be viewed as a transient smile eaUed up on 
the countenance of one in sorrow, by the remembratice of happy 
moments of his life. But this is obviously a forced construe** 
tion, and it is much more simple to say that Paul's intention is 
to place the human nature of Christ in contraposition to His 
divine nature. The observation that^ by referring it to Christ, 
the sentence falls into two parts, an apposition, that is, and a 
doxology, whereas this is not the case if it be referred to Ood, 
is entirely insignificant. Only two objections of any moment 
remain, first, that ihXoytirig does not occur in application to 
Christ (comp. Luke i. 18, Mark xiv. 61, 2 Cor. xi. *31, Bom. i. 
25, Eph. i. 3, ] Pet i. 3), but to Ood alone;* and, secondly, 
that 6 M wdpTw BiSf can only be predicated of the Father. To 
the former of these remarks no weight is to be attributed, since 
it is only so far true that 9b>^»yfir6t cannot be applied to 
mere man, or any creature whatever, nevertheless, but in as far 
as Christ is God of God, so far does this divine predicate also 
belong to Him, as much as any of the remaining ones, so that 
it must be looked upon as matter of mere accident that it has 
not been assigned to Him in more numerous places. The 
second observation, on the other hand, is not without its weight, 
and it is, upon the whole, the only one which can perplex the 
expositor in his treatment of this doxology. For not only does 
the expression M wdftw et^^ not occur with respect to Christ 
(if that were all, the argument would have force, since there is 
no need that all His names should often occur), but it appears 
as though it could not be assigned to Him. For, notwithstanding 
the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, the latter 
remains ever the Unbegotten, and so God over all, and the 
former the Begotten One. If then, this name could, without 
violence, be reconciled with the scriptural doctrine regarding 
the Son of Gt>d, the reference of the doxology to Christ must 

* In Mfttt. xxl d, Luke xix. 28 ^Ix^ytiftift ia certainly applied to Christ, bnt it 
oeeurs in a quotation from the Old Teetaxnent. Bnt if we remember that, with 
the exeeption of 2 Tim. iv. 18, the New Testament in geneval oontaioB no formal 
doxologies to Chnst (see, however, Bom. xvi. 27, Rer. t. 12, tIL 10), the want of 
plaoes in which the term tvX^ynrit is applied to Christ, is Tery simply aoooonted 
for. Bat alter such passages as John t. 28, the almost total absence of formal 
doxologies to Christ can be the result of accident alone. The doxology in 2 Peter 
iii. 18, cannot well be broagfat to bear, as the genuineness of this epiHle has been 
called in qoestion. 



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EPISTLB TO TBS SOMAH8. 

then be abaiid<med, although eTerything elte is in its fityour, 
since critical authorities in &Tonr of the omission of B^k are 
nnimportant to the last d^^ee, bong no more than a few cita- 
tions of the Fathers; and the inrersion of the words etk M 
wAirm^ does not at all affeet the sense. It mnst» howoTef;^ be 
acknowledged, upon a nearer sorrey of the words BUg M ^rdwrn, 
that we cannot take wAvrm as the mascnline with «#^w««if or 
01 MP, or some such word understood (as is the meaning Lord of 
all Lords, God of all Gods, Deut. x. 17), since there is here no 
reference to the Gentiles; it can only be taken in the neater 
gender, so that onr passage will then be parallel to the words 
in Bom x. 12, and Acts x. 86, where it is said, •Ctk 90n vdnw 
nMfiH. And if we fnrther consider that in John i. 1, etc, the 
name Btig is applied to the Logos, and, at the same time, the 
nniyerse is represented as dependent upon Him, it is difficult to 
see why the Son should not be called M rdwrm %Ui. The ex- 
pression would only be an improper one in case the Father were 
conceived as included among rd r^pra, but it is self-eyident that 
this is not the case, as Paul says, 1 Cor. xv. 27 : ^r«r h f7«ii, on 
WfTa vwmraxnu, dijXM, fr/ i*r6i rov itwrd^affg avrp rd ravrok I 
therefore understand the passage in the usual manner with 
Tholuck, Ruckert,* and other recent expositors, as relating to 
Christ. Among the yarious punctuations on record since Eras- 
mus wrote, the one which has found the most fiiyour, is that 
according to which the words ^ Cv M wwrmr are referred to 
Christ alone, and the last words taken as a doxology tothe Father. 
But in that case the doxology stands without any connexion, and 
M wdtrw has no regular position, and, therefore, this can satisfy 
only those who have an insuperable objection to apply the name 
M wdvTM e€6g to dirist. The conjecture of & instead of wp, is 
certainly an acute one, but it is destitute of any critical autho- 
rity from manuscripts. 

Ver. 6-9. After this introduction, the Apostle proceeds U> 
the argumentation itself. In the first place, he shows how the 
fall of the Israelites from their yocation does not make yoid the 
word of God, and the promises contained in it, since among the 

« The last mentioiied sdioIar'B xvmark, that i^x^yiiWf, when applied to Ood, 
most, aocordiog to the idUun of the Old and New Testament, alwa^ precede the 
novn, 18 of no nnportanoe. EoUner rightly oheerves, that the position of the words 
is altogether not a mechanical thing, but is rather determined, in each particular 
conjuncture, by the connexion, and by the mind of the speaker. 



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cnAPTBB IX. 6-9. 327 

desoendantB of Abraham, to whom these were to be referred 
from the begimung, were to be understood not the fleshly but 
only the spiritual progeny. He might even have said that the 
Word of God had been established by the fall of Israel, since 
he shows by the quotations from the Old Testament in Rom. 
eh. iz. 24, etc., that the fall itself had already been predicted in 
it. St Paul founds the idea of a spiritual Israel, which he had 
already broached. Bom. ii, 28, 29, upon that passage in Gton. 
zzi. II, where Isaac is denoted as the seed to whom the pro- 
mises belonged, and upon Qen. ZTiii. 10, 1 4, which contains 
the words of the prophecy itself. Isaac is represented as the 
antithesis to Ishmael, who was bom indeed before the former, 
and yet was not the heir, and therefore stress must not be laid 
upon the merely natural descent, but rather upon the spiritual 
affinity with the faith with which Abraham lived. (Compare 
the detailed treatment of this antithesis between Isaac and 
Ishmael, Gal. iy. 22, Heb. zi. 1-9.) The primary object of this 
demonstration is indeed only to show that the Word of God re- 
mained unshaken, but this would not make the notion that the 
Apostle had no positive intention of ezhibiting Isaac as the 
figure of the faithful, and therefore of the happy, and Ishmael 
as the type of the unbelievers, at all the less ^assuredly false. 
It is true St Paul does not here ezpress the idea, but it sleeps 
in the depths of his soul, as appears from Gal. iv. 22, and as 
will be made more evident by the sequel of the argumentation 
in this chapter. Only we must not conclude that because St 
Paul represents Ishmael as the typical representative of the un- 
believers, that is, of the non-elected portion of mankind, he 
therefore viewed Ishmael himself and his descendants as ac- 
tually condemned; since we ought, on the contrary, to reserve 
to Ishmael and all the Ishmaelites, the power to cease, in the 
Apostle's sense, to be that which they are, and also to pass 
over into the spiritual family, just as respecting Israel we must 
assume for them the power of ezcluding themselves from the 
spiritual family. St Paul is not here intending to offer any 
dteision upon the secrets of the divine judgment, as to whether 
Ishmael in person should be eventually blessed or not, but only 
vrishes his spiritual position, as it occurs in Scripture, to be 
conceived as symbolical.* 

* As the meek Ismc, who gare his life for » willing sacrifice, is the symbol of 



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328 EPI8TLI TO THB BOMAVS. 

The phrase •tfx ^' i^h ui yer. 6, is elliptic for •& tMi f«n^ A 
tern irt, meanings at the same time, I do not meaa to say, or it 
does not however follow fix>m that. [t. Winer's Cham. p. 282.] 
Lobeck on Fhrynichus, p. 427, adduces similar figares of speedi 
from ancient writers^ but a precisely parallel idiom is nowhere 
found. A similar use of mc irt occurs in 2 Cor. xL 21^ 2 These, 
ii. 2. Aiyog efov refers to the whole of the Old Testament, 
which would be altogether shaken by the annihilation of so very 
important a portion as the prophecies. — 'EMwkmn answers to 
^yg^ the opposite to /emm/f, and signifies to fall away, to lose 

power or significance; here in reference to the fulfilment^ it 
means to remain unfulfilled. Israel denotes not the person of 
the patriarch, but the nation, with reference however first to 
their physical existence, and secondarily to their spiritual 
character. No one can possess the latter who wants the 
natural descent, and vice versa. Yer. 7. In like manner ^f/ua 
arm) is first the physical eoboles, and then the spiritual; the 

former are the rixva rq^ aa^xog, the latter the rixva nu wttifiMr^ 
or eiou. The same distinction between &npfjM and rixva occurs 
in John viii. 37, 38. KdkiTit^cu here, as frequently in the Old 
Testament (see Comm. on Luke i. 32), has the signification of 
being, with the secondary idea of being recognised as such; it 
can by no means be equivalent to IxXi/t/v, as Tholuck proposes. 
The quotation, ver. 9, is the substance of Oen. x. 18 and xiv., 
given freely from memory. The word iXi ^o^mu refers as it were 
to God's foresight of the accomplished fulfilment, with re- 
gard to the phrase xardt rhv xatphv roDrov =& ppf^ r\3^3> compare 

Beiche's letter, p. 15. In the Septuagint, instead of the usual 
form, we find tig r. x. r, together with tig cS^c, and I agree with 
Reiche in thinking it probable that originally this last phrase 
alone stood in the text of the LXX., and the phrase xard^ r. 
X. r. was first introduced into it from Rom. ix. 9. The expression 
signifies ** this time year,'' the year being taken as a thing 
which perishes and again produces itself 
Yer. 10*13. But the history of the holy patriarchs furnishes 

Ibe goKptH in te piNwIiirity, to IthoiMli the wild mill, whOM hind li agslnsl evvty 
man (Gen. xtL 12), tymboUieB the peealiarity of labm, wUeh wm bom of tht 
people desoended nom him. For m the seed tlready oontunB the ehMMter of the 
plant which la to be developed from it, ao in the aneeatora of nationa are ftmnd 
those peouliaritiea which eharacteriae thehr deaeendanta. 



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OHAPTE& iz. 10~ia 329 

ill the relation of Esau to Jacob a Btill more decisire proof of 
the principle that the blessing does not depend npon the flesh- 
ly descent For Ishmael was the son of a bondmaid, which 
makes it more easily conceivable that the child of the lawful 
wife should be preferred to him ; but Jacob and Esau were both 
sons of a free woman, nay, they were even twins, and yet as 
soon ey^n as they were bom, and without regard to any act of 
theirs whatever, their respective positions were assigned, by the 
predestination of Gk>d, according to the passages in Gen. xxv. 
22, Mai. L 3. Here again, then, Jacob corresponds with Isaac, 
and Esau with Ishmael Eveiy attempt, however well intended, 
to mitigate the harshness of the idea, and to avoid viewing 
Esau as the representative of the reprobate, taust here be 
abandoned, as contraiy to the intention of St Paul, especially 
as Esau is presented as such elsewhere in Scripture. (Heb. xii. 
17.) In this place the Apostle already adopts into his argu- 
ment the leading idea which he follows out in the 14th and 
succeeding verses, namely, that God summons evil creatures 
as well as good into the historical order of the world (not cer- 
tainly as evil, but as evil beings in this or that definite shape), 
and therefore these last do not avail to defeat his purpose and 
system of governing the world, which are made known by the 
prophecies. 

The construction of ver. 10 is elliptical, not inconsecutive; as 
Bebecca is named, the most natural word to supply is Sarah, 
when the sense would be, and not only " Sarah shows this, but 
also Rebecca.'^ The other ways which have been suggested for 
completing it, are forced. Ko/nj, bed, an euphemism for cohabi- 
tation, where x. tx^ is said of the woman who conceives in con- 
sequence of cohabitation with any one, x. btd6mi of the man.— > 
Ver. II. The words rpda^fnf AyaMt point evidently to Jacob, 
naxSv to Esau, so that the meaning is, that although they had 
neither done either good or evil, yet God spoke of them as if 
they had. It is doing great violence to the meaning to refer 
the ^M$(r/g %ar ixXoynf, which did not depend upon the works 
which were not in existence, but rested upon the holy will 
(juuHt9 = 'xa3ff Temsia unalterably fixed), idone of EQm who 
calleth whom He wiB, Jacob only, and not Esau, with Beck, 
simply to the right of primogeniture, or with Tholuck to the 
occupation of the theocratic land. For in St Paul's view, 



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330 EPISTLB TO THB BOMANS. 

Esau's possession of the primogeniture and the theocracy in- 
volved his election to eternal life; as therefore he proves in GhkL . 
iv., that Israel was to be rejected, so in his view Esau is also 
the rejected son, and the type of all the rejected in general. — 
Yer. 12. The thought is not materially affected, though we 
should, as Tholuck does, understand the terms fAtJ^mp and 
iXA^w of the nations which sprung from Jacob and Es&u, sinoe^ 
according to the sense of St Paul and the Scriptures, these 
latter participate in the character of their fathers, not indeed in 
every individual, but in the great mass of them. But dwXiwtw 
need not be understood of political servitude, it must be refer- 
red to a state of spiritual dependence into which Esau was 
brought by throwing away his birthright, while the stream of 
grace flowed away to Isaac. — Yer. 13. All the assurances that 
fiudth here does not mean to hate, but only to love less, to be- 
stow a less advantage, cannot satisfy the conscientious exposi- 
tor, since he cannot overlook the fact that St Paul has advised- 
ly selected a very strong and repulsive expression from the 
passage of Scripture in question. Nor does it make against 
this, that in the passage of Malachi the immediate question is 
of outward circumstances, since these also are to be viewed as 
expressions of the wrath of God. 

Yer. 14. It is only in this severe manner of interpretation 
that the question has any meaning, ftfi dd/x/a wapit rp Sip ; and 
the thrilling answer in ver. 1 5 suits. The mitigating construction 
of the passage from ver. G-13, affords no occasion for such 
thoughts at all ; and, therefore, the interpreter cannot in any 
way evade the stringent connexion of thought. Only he must 
not forget at the same time the principle, Scripiura ScripturiB 
interpreSf and therefore many to whom the observations which 
have been already made (ch. ix. 1), have clearly shown that 
God does no injustice when He hates the wicked, because God is 
not the cause of his being wicked, but only of his wickedness 
coming into manifestation in such a form as is most salutaiy 
both for himself and for the universe^ might demand how are 
those other passages in which the universality of grace is as^ 
sorted, to be reconciled with this doctrine of the 9f6hm xar 
ixXoyiv. But we have already given this a brief consideration 
in ix. 1, in treating of the twofold manner in which the subject 
is represented in Scripture, according to which the whole process 



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CHAPTER IX. 15, 16. 331 

in the work of renewal is attributed at one time to Ood, and at 
another to man; nevertheless this doctrine forces itsdf so 
strongly upon us in every verse of the £(dIowing passage, that it 
stands in need of a fresh consideration. The Scripture declares 
in the most explicit words, that God wills that all mankind 
should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 
(Ezek. xxxii. II, 1 Tim. ii. 4, Tit. iL 11, 2 Pet. iii. 9.) This 
universality of grace would seem, however, to be done away by 
the irp6^$si€ xar ixXoyi^ir. But, evidently, this could only be the 
case, were we to attribute the activity wherewith man resists 
grace also to God^ in the way in which this is done by the rigid 
doctrine of predestination, for in that event God would call those 
who were not elected as it were in mockery, only to put men all 
the sooner and more surely to confusion ; a representation which 
can only be described as one of the most remarkable aberrations 
of the human mind that has ever been revealed. Whereas, if 
we will only put down the power of striving against grace, and, 
in short, all that is evil in man, as his own melancholy property, 
the two manners of expression may easily be reconciled one with 
another in the following method. God's all-comprehending 
love excludes no man from salvation, whosoever is excluded is 
himself the cause of his own exclusion. But, on the other hand, 
God compels no man to be saved, and knows, in virtue of his 
omniscience, who it is who will exclude himself, even, as in 
virtue of His omnipotence he is the author of eveiy form of sin- 
fid development. In reference, therefore, to this latter considera- 
tion, Gt)d 8 will is styled a vpidt^i^ %wt fxXo/iir, in reference to 
the former God's grace is universal Though, therefore, in 
virtue of His attributes of omniscience and omnipotence, God 
assuredly both foreknows who they are that will resist His 
grace, and also permits them to appear in definite forms in 
history. He knows them only as persons who, by misuse of their 
own free will, have become evU and continued so, and if there 
exist beings ^possessing the possibility of resisting God, the 
relation of God to those in whose case tliis possibility may have 
been realised, can be represented no otherwise than as the 
Bible exhibits it. 

Ver. 1 5, 16. St Paul does not meet the question with a direct 
answer, he only replies by quoting God's words in Exodus xxx. 
19. The question indeed involves a self-contradiction, and 



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332 EPI8TLB TO THB ROMANS. 

could only have been hazarded by human blindneaa or temerity, 
and accordingly, at ver. 20, it meets with its merited censure. 
G-od's will is the eternal rule of right (Deut xxzii. 4.) How 
then can unrighteousness be in Him ; there is no abstract ngjkt 
to which God ib as it were subordinate, but his free and holy 
will alone is for the creature the rule of right The circum- 
stance, however, that in the passage here quoted, the metcy of 
Ood alone is spoken of, is but an apparent alteration of the 
difficulty, sinoe, according to the intention of Paul, we must also 
add, ** and whom He will he hardeneth" (ver. 18). The words 
only agree with the context when taken in the following sense: 
God's will is absolute, He does what He will, and there is no one 
who may call him to account^ and say, ''What doest thou?"'* 
It is self*eyident that in God the will cannot be an arbitrary one, 
but must ever work in union with love and wisdom; but since 
man is not able to comprehend the ways of Gt>d, hit duty is 
humbly to submit himself to Bib will 

Ver. 15. No distinction need be sought between iXit^ and 
e/xm/Vi/v pf-f and orn, both are used only in opposition to the 
idea of merit, ig ipywy ver. 11. But they certainly refer to the 
election to happiness, not, as Tholuck thinks, to the exhibition 
of any extraordinaiy proofs of love. The immediate context of 
the passage, in the original, gives us here no clue; St Paul 
treats this as well as the following from a more extended point 
of view, and we must therefore follow him to his point of 
observation. Ver. 16. ^iXw and the stronger word rpiynif^ which 
needs not to be exclusively applied to running in the race 
course, signify here the positive activity of man, which has no 
existence in relation to God. Every, even the least portion of 
good in man, is from God alone.'f It is not, however, here pre- 
tended that man is not able to exert a negative power of 
resisting God. On which account the Scripture continually 
urges upon him, ye would not, ye have been unfaithful, dis- 
obedient, but then on the other hand it says: it is Ood who 

* It itends to reMon that llie nadon tbatPanl intends in this pbuse to oppose tfas 
Phariwio doctrine eoneerning ikte, is Hemisn espeoiallj, foUowing OHgen sod 
Cbrysostom, has oonstrued it, is altogether untenable. 

t OltfoUer's yiew of this passage m qoite mistaken. He translates it, ^ It dependi 
noi apon man's willing and running, that ii, ii k not aoeording and sahserrient to 
homan willing and running, but yet not contrary thereto. St Panl is treating of 
the causality of the spiritiul life, and this must be denied to roan, and awarded to 
God alone. 



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CHAPTER IX. 1 7. 333 

hath wrought both the iirill, and the faith, and the obedience 
in you. 

Yer. 17. Although in ver. 15 the question was only of the 
gracious operation of God, the example in the present verse is 
taken from an instance of a directly opposite character, which 
clearly shows that Paul intends this notion to be supplied in 
the former verse also. In the passage of Ex. ix. 15, 16, the 
Scripture expresses itself in such a manner with regard to 
Pharaoh and his opposition to Moses, the messenger of Qod, 
that God would seem to be himself the author of this sinful 
phenomenon.* Eveiy attempt to explain away the force of 
these thoughts is altogether contrary to exegetical principles. 
According to the manifest drift of St Paul, the conceptions 
denoted by i^nyu^a and Sca^ hit^ufutt, are not to be taken in a 
diluted sense, but in the full power of their import. It by no 
means follows from this high view of the subject, that St Paul 
intends to say that God has made Pharaoh e^ by any positive 
operation, but he only means that God permitted that evil per- 
son, who of his own free will resisted all those workings of grace 
which were communicated in rich measure even to him, to come 
into manifestation at that time, and under these circumstances, 
in such a form that the very evil that was in him should even 
serve for the furtherance of the kingdom of The Good and the 
glory of God.f Even so, St Paul means to say, must the apos- 

* Ql5ckler ludentandB lltytifuf of the eleTation of Phanoh to the throne, and 
maiDtafaiB that UUiifffiuu should be taken hi a pMeire eenae, ** in order that I might 
be mamfested as to my pc^wer." The fint proposition is altogether ontenable, and 
needs no refatation, and the seeopd does not mitigate the thought, as Gltfckler seems 
to think it does. Moreover, there is a decided predominance of the middle form 
in the New Testament idiom, and thare is no ground whaterer to depart finmi it 
here. 

t It is quite horrible when Gomarus, and the other SupraUpsarians say, that 
when God will condemn a man, He first creates sin in him, in order that after he 
has been plunged into sin, he may be justly damned. But, in the Apostle's Tiew, 
the 'lyfi^iif of the eril themselTes, is an act of the Iotc of God, not only for the 
members of the kingdom of God and the pious* but even for the wicked. For the 
evil is in man without having been created by Qod ; when therefore he causes what 
is lying concealed to come to sight in the concrete appearance, this is Just the most 
poweifttl mean to bring the wicked into a sense of their condition, and, if possible, 
to effect their oonTevBion. (See Comm. u. 8.) If, bowever, any one should rejoin, 
before men, this may be true, because tliey may always hope that the wicked 
may be oonTcrted, but not before God, who, by Tirtue of his omniscience, knows 
who they are who will not be converted, for in such persons as should not be con- 
verted, their guilt would be even aggravated by every attempt to convert them ; 
tlie answer must be, that it certauily is the very curse of the evil that they turn 
even what is good to their own injuxy, but that God, when he willed the possibility 
of sin, thereby established also the possibility of persevering in sin, and of miiusing 



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334 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

ta/sy of Israel also glorify the name of God, for it, too, has been 
brought into manifestation by God in this very form. 

St Paul has intentionally sharpened the language of the LXX., 
who had expressed the thought in milder terms. He renders 
^iTIIDrn ^7 'S^r^'P^ whereas the LXX. have fMxir n^rw d/fm- 
H^tf, according to which the idea will be that Pharaoh had 
made himself evil. But St Paul's translation entirely corres- 
ponds with the original text. The interpretation, ** permit to 
stand," *' permit to continue/' for which Tholuck decides, is no 
doubt admissible in itself, but in the first place, it is not the 
nearest to the Hiphil of ^y, and next, it is contrary to the 
sense and intention of the writer, as the following verses clearly 
show, and Reiche, Eolner, and Glockler rightly acknowledge. 
'09ug must be taken strictly rtXixSn; in order that Pharaoh 
might become a monument of the penal justice of God, God 
provided that the evil actually existing in him should be mani- 
fested in this definite form. The last words of the quotation, 
which in no way affect the main idea, agree with the LXX., 
only they have /0%uy instead of 6imfAtv. St Paul therefore sub- 
stituted Vi^nytifo, with express design, as his argument required, 
a circumstaiice which puts all mitigation of the thought out of 
the question. 

As a sequel to the preceding quotation, the Apostle now 
plainly discovers the previously suppressed antithesis, according 
to his bold method of pursuing an idea to the very limits of the 
truth contained in it ; for he says, God also hardeneth whom 
he will. Here, also, the ^iXf/ir of God is obviously not to be 
imderstood of mere arbitrariness, which cannot in any way be 
imagined in God, but of His will, as directed by wisdom and 
love. But it is objected that the notion of siCkti^hntf (equivalent 
to which is ^oi^6^ from v^po^^ coMo obducere, cbdurare, Rom. xi. 
8, John xii. 40), appears to be in itself inapplicable to God ; 
certainly the usual form is 0xXi]puM<rtoi or ^xXfipdvuv iaurSv (see 
Acts xix. 9; Heb. iii. 8, 13, 15; iv. 7. Occasionally also in the 
Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Ex. vii. 22; viiL 19; Ps. 
xciv. 8; Sirach. xxx. 11). But here the hardening, as in Bom. 

His gmoe. Th«re only remMiis the matter of faot, which fnrniaheB the nlthnrnte 
problem, tIx., « How came God to create a being with power to withstand Hhn the 
Almighty One t" And here nothing is left for man but to be aUent, and say, ** it 
is God's doing, whatoTor God does is well done.** 



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GlIAPTBB IX. 1 7. 335 

xi. 8, 18 referred to the will of Ood. In the Old Testament, on 
the other hand, p^ti, r UPljl | (y- 2 8am. xvi. 10; 1 Kings xxii. 
22; Is. Ixiii. 1 7; Deut. ii! 30; Ps. cv. 25), is more frequently 
found, denoting the positive operation of God against the wicked. 
The notion of its standing, as Ernesti and Schleusner prefer 
(like fMfnTi in ver. 13), for a mere equivalent to ovx $Xun, is 
evidently inadequate. They refer to Job xxxix. 16, where it 
is said of the stork, AvwrxXripivti t& rixm iawjig, %, 6., she neglects 
her young. But even there it is a hard thought to say that 
God neglects one of His creatures. On the other hand, it is 
not incorrect to refer to the divine presence in the case of evil, 
provided this be not extended also to good, so as to make the 
sense, that God will have mercy upon those of whom He fore- 
sees that they will, of their own accord, determine themselves 
to good, and He hardens those of whom He has foreseen the 
contrary. For the very determination of himself to good in the 
good man is God's work, but the resisting of good in the evil 
is no work of God. Meanwhile, this appeal to the prescience 
of God, evea though it be not incorrect in the case of evil, 
creates more difficulty than it clears up, in that it makes the 
divine will appear dependent upon the will of man ; whereas, 
the express object of the Apostle, in this place, is to set in clear 
light the absoluteness of the will of God. The best methcnd, 
therefore, will be to consider more attentively what is implied 
in the notion of hardening. In the first place, this hardening 
is not the beginning of an evil state, it rather presupposes this 
as being already begun. Accordingly, St Paul does not say 
that God awakens the beginnings of evil in men. He considers 
these notions as already in being, first as a consequence of 
original sin, and then on account of man's own unfaithfulness, 
which does not suppress the already existing sinfulness, but 
only gives it sway. This hardening, therefore, is not an aggra- 
vation of sin, but, so far at least as it is partial, it is rather a 
method of checking its aggravation. It is essentially the with- 
drawal of the capacity of receiving the operations of grace ; 
God renders man, under certain circumstances, incapable of 
receiving grace, in order to mitigate his guilt ; for if the man 
in question had the eyes of his spirit open, were he aware what 
was offered to him, and yet resisted, in that case he were a far 
greater subject of punishment than without this capability he 



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.*)36 KPI8TLB TO THB ROM AKS. 

coald be. Thus one might say of the cotemporaries of Noah, 
that God had hardened, had indurated them so that they 
obeyed not the preaching of Noah (2 Pet. ii. 5), and yet by 
reason of this yery obduracy, they were not rejected for oyer 
(1 Pet. iii. 18). Finally, the total induration is a manifestation 
of the simple punitive justice of God, when the sins of man 
have reached that degree of intensity in which they constitute 
that which is called the sin against the Holy Ghost. If this be 
the import of St Paul's conception, no objection can be made, 
on any score, to the proposition, Iv ^\»i fxktipitm. The divine 
will, tempered as it is with wisdom and loVe, applies this haiv 
dening, be it a partial or a total one, only in those cases, and in 
that degree in which His holiness requires that it should be 
applied. God neither makes the hardened person evil, nor the 
evil more evil than they are ; all He does is to cause the evil 
that is already in him, and must, at any rate, accomplish its 
development, to come in such a way, and no other, into outward 
manifestation; this, however, he does^ as Calvin says, not 
merely permiUendo^ but also intua et extra operando. 

Ver. 19-21. The Apostle now introduces* anew the unwise 
inquirer of ver. 14, in order to find an apology for himself in 
this operation of God, even in the forms of evil. St Paul 
abashes this arrogance with an appeal to the absolute character 
of God, for whose ways the creature must render an uncondi- 
tioned submission, even where it is not able to comprehend 
them. The similitude which he introduces of a potter, and his 
relation to the clay which he fashions, exhibits this dependency 
in the most striking manner. Nothing, however, but the same 
want of sense which suggested that question, could understand 
the comparison as though St Paul's intention was to represent 
God as resembling, in all respects, a hjiman artisan. The 

* The whoU tone in which Paul here exhibits the remonetmieee of the Jewi is 
chanoterised by a kind of ^miliarity which we often find, in the Old Testament, in 
all its simple dignity, and especially in Job^ where, towards the doee of the book, 
God himself acknowledges the truth that It oontains. When, howoTer, nobility ef 
sentiment is lost, this £miliarity then assumes the fonn of rashness, and, there- 
fore, this defect also belongs to the darker side of the Jewish character, in the days 
of its degeneracy. The oonseiousness of the divine election, which, in an objective 
view, was a well-founded one, instead of prodneing an humble adoration under 
such unmerited favour, imparted to many individuals amoog the Jews an unblush- 
ing temerity, a vaunting of their own righteousness even in the sight of €rod, the 
like of whidi was never Inmd in any other nation. Paul's preeent objeet is to 
abash this tendency, and henoe the form which his aignment assumes, which, how- 
ever, is not carried to a vidous extreme^ but observes the limits of the truth. 



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OBAPTBB IX. ld~21. 337 

diffisrenoe between the two, which the Apostle nowise intends 
to deny here, bat which he has no inducement to bring especi- 
ally forward on this occasion, is this: man maketh what he 
will of his own weak and often unholy and loveless will, whereas 
God createth with his almighty will, but which is yet ever 
holy, ever full of love. In consequence of this, God can cer- 
tainly form beings with different talents, and impart to one 
more, and to another less of these talents, and, consequently, 
determine their several vocations to a greater or inferior 
agency, but He cannot make one evil and the other good, 
because His holy will is unable in any case to produce eviL 
But here the question arises, whether the oxiDo^ i/^ n/A^v and 
dri/Aiav in the present passage, do not exactly denote these two 
degrees of vocation which God dispenses of his own free deter- 
mination, without their having any relation to morality or 
a life of faith, and, therefore, to the bliss dependent upon 
them? In the first place, the comparison might be em- 
ployed to show that no potter ever makes entirely unservice- 
able vessels, but only such as are destined for some more or 
Jess honourable use. Next, this view is apparently favoured 
by the circumstance, that, in the following verse, the ^iwi Ixiour 
and i^s^ may be so discriminated from the vessels of honour 
and dishonour, that the vessels of honour should not necessar- 
ily be vessels of mercy, nor the vessels of dishonour vessels of 
wrath, but only so that, according to the good or bad use of 
their free will, the Jews, who were the vessels of honour, might 
become vessels of wrath, whereas the. heathen, who were the 
vessels of dishonour, should become vessels of mercy. And 
this would contain this admonition for the Jews: do not 
imagine that you, although you be vessels of honour, must 
necessarily become and continue vessels of mercy; you may 
become vessels of wrath, and the heathen, who are vessels of 
dishonour, may become vessels of mercy I And no doubt this 
yields a very beautiful meaning, and we must unquestionably 
admit that Paul might have followed out this thought; but his 
line of argument, upon the whole, does not authorise the notion 
that this was what he really meant to deliver here, or why 

* The ezprestion e»tyn i^ynf laemi to be foniied after the Hebrew inpr «^a 
(Is xiii. 5), although its rignkoation in the pateage from the Old Testament Taries 
a little from that in which Paul employs it. 

Y 



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338 EPIfllLB TO THB ROMAHS. 

Bhould he have come so suddenly upon the inyeetigation into 
the dispenaation of giffas? The words from ver. 19 onward 
refer, I admit, to the thought in ver. 18, but then iXtth and 
tfxXijf vvny, in this verse, refer to moral conditions alone, not to 
gifts of grace, and verses 24-29 also point to the same. There 
is not a word to indicate any difference between the ax^un rtfMis 
and &Tifdaiy and the CM\m <>iouff and hfyni\ according to St Paul's 
intention, they correspond, one with another, throughout, just as 
in the parallel passage of 2 Tim. ii. 20, the wooden and earthen 
vessels stand, not for those who are more or less endowed, 
but for the wicked. These latter, indeed, are called vessels of 
Gh)d, inasmuch as God knows how to make even them avail* 
able to his purpose, and, in this respect, also the similitude 
of the potter holds good.* God not only permits the wicked 
to come into the world, but he also causes them to become as 
they are, although He does not cause the evil that is in them 
(ver. 19). 

'Ai*dt(fnixf is not a hebraism for the optative aorist^ as Tholuck 
supposes, but is to be understood thus, " Who hath ever been 
able to resist His will V — ^Ver. 20, /^wwOi^i is wanting in D.E.F.G. 
In A. it comes after Av^f m««, but we doubt it was only left out 
on account of the difficulty; it occurs elsewhere in the New 
Testament only in Luke xi. 28, and is to be viewed as a particle 
implying, at the same time, concession and limitation, and to 

* GlSoUer gioiuidlMdy roftues to reoogniBe any siinOitade liere, but only a 
rimple ooncloaion from the lew to the greater, m if the meaning were, if a renel 
cannot qnestion the potter, how maoh lees ean num qnestion G^ ! Bat eridcntly 
this will not hold, since it might be answered, that it is the Tcry property of a man 
that he is able to do what the lifeless yessel cannot. The parallel instances of the 
Old Testament sufficiently proTo that it is intended to be a similitode. Bat the 
reader has abeady been reminded, on Matt. xiiL 1, that no comparison holds good 
hi all its relations, otherwise it were identical with the object which is to be ilios- 
trated by it RQckert and Usteri are of opinion that the proof is defeetiTe in this 
pbice, but the exposition which has been just given of the connexion of thought here 
will hare made it oTident that the proof is conducted in the most stringent manner, 
if only we do not encumber the Apostle with the proposition that God creates evil 
itself. If, howerer, it be rejoined, why then does not Paul give the questira ri 
In faift^trm the direct answer, ^ because thou makest the evil thyself and God 
only determines the shape in^ which it shall come out in manifestation 1" — it will be 
sufficient to answer, that the Apostle does, in point of fact, expressly make this 
observation in the 80th and following verses of this chapter; only here he wHI not 
allow himself to be diverted from his immediate train of ideas, which is of the 
highest importance with him, because it might be the means of impressing upon 
the Jewish mind, that they must first abandon their dauns upon God, before any 
mention could be made of a participation in the kingdom of Gk>d, because it was 
the advancement of these pretensions that entirely stood in the way of an humble 
reception of grace on the side of the Jews. 



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OHAPTBB IX. 22, 23. 

be rendered " certainly it may so seem.'' (Com. Hermann ad 
Viger. p. 541^ who translates it by quin imo^ enim vero^ Upon 
the image of the potter, comp. Job x. 8; Isa. xlv. 9; Eccles. 
xxxvi. 7; Wisdom xy. 7. But the passage which appears more 
particularly to have been in the Apostle's mind, in this com- 
parison, is Jer. xviii. — Yen 21. «^>i( is the day^in its raw 
state, (fntfofiM the mass of day kneaded for work— the doughy as 
it were. 

Yer. 22, 23. After this may now be mentioned the respec- 
tive relations in which the phenomenon of the evil as well as 
of the good in the world's history stand with regard to God's 
designs; the latter furnishes occasion for the revelation of His 
grace, as the former does for his power and his justice. On 
this account, it is impossible to deprive Int of its intentional 
sense, and the phrase ^iXwv hdil^a^Bat xai ymphas must be con- 
flidered as equivalent to ha. On the side of the good, Gh)d's 
operation is altogether to be considered as ubiquitous though 
not compulsory, on which account, in ver. 23, it is said, Bihg 
nrp9Piroi/Aa^¥ ^tln i)Joug tU i^av. According to which, the word 
iTfonro/fiM^v signifies God's foreknowledge as well as his working 
and creation of the good, both in its commencement, continua- 
tion, and end. But of the evil, on the other hand, Paul will not 
consent to say that God creates the evil in them, but only the 
form which the evil assumes. Therefore he does not use «*/> oijro/- 
/fttttfiv of them; moreover, instead of the active, he uses the 
middle form xarriftrtafiuva^* by which the production of evil 
itself is transferred to the side of the creature. 

Yer. 22. A few unimportant MSS. omit f/ di or 6$ alone, in 
order to relieve the construction; but the words are evidently 
genuine, though the sentence is an anacoluthon. The usual sup- 

* Here also Raiche and othen would mpply iwi rtS %ttS, Were this in the 
text, even then it might be explained of the operation of God in the wicked cod- 
ndered as a phenomenon. But since it is not found there, I cannot consider snch 
an addition warranted by the intention of St Paul, but am much rather disposed to 
beliere that we must assume that the Apostle intended by this method to signify 
the diffbrent relation in which God stands to the good and the evil, sinoe he employs 
such diflTerent terms for the one from what he does for the other. And I am the 
more readily determined in fitTour of this sense in the present ease (although other 
wise, I obserte, as an ezegetical cause for the intopretation of this passage 
the rule of taking every expression in its entire force), because the ^viy»iv Iv ir«xx jf 
futM^ttvfg!^ will not accord with the prominence thus given to the divine activity. 
There is something not only discordant but absolutely contradictory in the idei^ 
that God endures with much long-suffering what He has himself prepared. 



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340 EPISTLE TO THE B0MA98. 

plements, r/ i^Zfi,$9 or r/ fMfkftraty do not suit, becaiise they only 
go back again to the question in ver. 19 ; it is better to suppose 
that after the words %i U x, r. x., the subsequent member of the 
proposition, which, with its present form, %al iia yvt^piqi, denotes 
the construction with which it set out, ought to have followed 
with some such words as ol^w; xai yvm^iZti x. r. X. or ymp/Xu nai 
X. r. X. At any rate, this is more natural than Meyer's most 
violent supposition, according to which, at the conclusion of 
Ter. 28, an Aposiopesis takes place. The manner in which 
▼er. 24 joins on to ver. 23 is quite incompatible with this inter- 
pretation. — Ti duvariv = i hlifOfMg with the idea of avengiug 
power implied — flftn h futxpoiuftJt^ can only apply to the ripen- 
ing of the evil in evil God endures the wicked in their evil, 
until they become manifest to themselves in their evU fruit, in 
order that, even by these means, they may yet be brought to 
repentance, or else be involved in utter destruction. In St 
Paul's intention a/wivoc in this place is that which is dUrwXs/a (2 
Thess. i. 9), even as d^d must be taken as equivalent to («i) 
cUdtme — SxtDor iXfovg tfxt&er JxXo/q;, Acts ix. 15. The choice of 
expressions here is strictly governed by the already used image 
of the potter. Moreover, in the Hebrew ^^^ has the more ex- 
tended meaning of utensil, or means. Comp. Is. xiiL 5; Jer. 1. 25. 

Ver. 24-26. The principles which have just been developed 
are also openly propounded in Scripture. The passages of Hos. 
ii. 25, i. 10, are a comment upon h 9k\u iXfir(ver. 18). These 
prophecies were realised in the calling of the Gentiles, which is ^ 
BO fax from making God's word of no effect, that it rather ful- 
filled it (ver. 6). Gbd's prophecies, being the utterances of the 
All-knowing and Almighty one, must needs be fulfilled, not, 
however, by destroying the free will of the creature, but rather 
through that very free wilL 

In ver. 24, with the word ou;, the figurative expression tfxfuij 
is dropped for terms peculiar to man. oh /dm — dlXXcb xa/ is a 
mitigated expression ; for St Paul might have said, few Jews 
and many Gentiles. It is of the latter alone that there is any 
question in the first quotations, yet so that the fall of Israel is 
Uiere already intimated. Since, according to the* analogy of 
the sons of Isaiah (Isaiah vii., etc.), the daughters of Hosea also 
wear a typical character, in particular, the o6x i^yoLvrifiifn (hS 
Trorn) represents the kingdom of Israel. St Paul, however, 
takes the name in a wider sense, and comprehends under it all 

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GHAPTBB IX. 27-29. 341 

the heathen down to whose level the kingdom of the latter had 
sunk. (1 Pet. iL 10.) Moreover, the translation does not 
exactly correspond with the original text; hut as the difference 
does not at all affect the thought, it must only be ranked 
among those incidental to quotations from memory. 

Ver. 27-29. The following quotations from Is. x, 22, 23; 
Is. i, 9, form the comment on the second half of ver. 18, 
which constitutes the middle point of the whole of the Apostle's 
argument, namely, the words, Sy d^ 0i\tt ^Xnp^^n. According 
to these predictions, the people of Israel, taken in the mass, is re- 
presented as rejected, while a holy remnant alone is to remain to 
later times. The extension of the Jews does not on this account 
make Qod's word of no effect, but rather establishes it (ver. 6). 

St Paul might have produced many similar prophecies, e.g.f 
Is. vi. 13; Amos ix. 9; Zech. xiii. 9; Zeph. iii. 12. But he 
selected these, because, in connexion with the rejection (which, 
however, in the former of the two passages, is only expressed 
in a negative and indirect manner), they also make mention of a 
holy remnant. In contrast with the little troop of the true sol- 
diers of God, St Paul plaees the innumerable mass of the fleshly 
unbelieving Israelites. Though the number of the children of 
Israel be as the sand of the sea, nevertheless the remnant only 
shall be blessed. Israel has its old and its new man, the old 
man must be slain and put off. God's wonderful providence is 
seen in the dreadful judgments which fell upon the people, 
while those escaped destruction who were to constitute the xa- 
rdUifAfMP^fyi^i^^j^ *^MQS ^ *^^^ ^^^ ^^ future ; a thought which 
already points to ch. xi. — Yer. 28. The words here quoted fol* 
low exactly the LXX, until M tJig yv^^ for which the latter read, 
h rfi oJxwfAivp iXfi. St Paul probably chooses the former expres* 
sion, because it more decidedly declares the universality of the 
judgment. The passage portrays the judgment of God visiting 
the Israelites, which began on them, with the appearance of 
Christ (which here, as so often elsewhere, is conceived as one 
with the last times) ; they ought then to have brought forth 
fruits worthy of repentance, but no such were found among them. 
In the original the quotaticm, accurately rendered, runs thus, 
*' God executeth his fixed decree with righteousness, since God 
will make, that is, accomplish, a decisive decree in the whole 
land."' On which account, the participles must be completed by 



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342 BPUTLB TO THB B0IUH8. 

the words ei^ itrt; but Xfyo^ corresponds with Tfipf^ fulfilment^ 
decision, word; that is, will of God. iwnXOif stands for pg^ 
which properly means stream forth, then fill, fnlfiL iwrii^w 
IS used in a peculiar sense, to which the Hebrew tpn corres- 
ponds. This word signifies to cut, cut off, and then to decide. 
To decide, to shorten, to hasten, are all contiguous conceptions; 
and the Apostle, following the LXX, has brought the last es- 
pecially forward. The words, therefore, according to the dispo- 
sition of the text in the passage before us, must be translated 
thus, " God is speedily fdlfilling His decree, for He will make a 
rapidly completed decree on the land.'' Yer. 29 entirely agrees 
with the LXX. The Bebrew, ^yjjs *TnjD " * remnant, how 
small, i 0., a small remnant,'' is translated by the LXX, mvp/eme, 
to signify that out of this remnant, as out of a grain of com, the 
nation shall, as it were, flojirish again. By means of this rem* 
nant, life was preserved in the whole,* and, without them, all 
Israel had come to destruction; and then indeed the promises 
of God had been made void; but God, in his omnipotence and 
compassion, was always able to preserve this holy seed in the 
nation of Lsrael. 

§ 15. israbl's guilt. 

(IX. 30— X. 21.) 

The Apostle has hitherto confined himself to the distinct con- 
sideration of the divine agency; he now with a like precision 
exhibits the hwrum side of the subject. Although it was not 
without the knowledge and will of God that the Jews fell firom 
their calling, yet the guiU is solely and entirely their own, not- 
withstanding all the warnings of God in the Old Testament. 
For every prophecy is at once an act, and, when it relates to 
sin, is at the same time a warning to man against the accom- 
plishing of that act,* e. g.^ the Saviour's words to St Peter, ** Be- 
fore the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice."f 

* Just M Abnluun, at the destraetion of Sodom, prayed that God would not de- 
stroy the eity for the lake of the nghteons perwiiiB that were withhi it. At the 
■ame time, the life-giTing power of the holy most ever be eonaidered aa atanding in 
aome relation to the nmnber of those who axe to be preaerred. Ten may aerve to 
preaerre a eity, but not a nation. 

t The remark of Bacon, quoted by Beck. (lee. eit p. 104), ia hero in point, 



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oiuPTBB IX. 30, 31. 343 

The Jews opposed the long-desired Messiah when He came, 
nay, they nailed him to the cross (as is intimated in ix. 33), be- 
cause he did not answer to the idea which they had formed of 
Him. Before the Babylonish captivity, the people had. been 
addicted to idolatry .and gross sins; even in those days it was 
rejected in the mass; only a small ffxipfka returned into the Holy 
Land, and from this remnant the nation derived a new youth. 
From that time it appeared entirely cured of idolatry and 
heathenish vices; but it now fell into the opposite error of 
proud self-righteousness. This became quite as great a hinder- 
ance to laying hold on Christ as the former state (comp. Bom. 
i 18, iii. 20, where these two forms of sinful perverseness are 
described as those generally prevailing among men) ; for it 
is humble repentance alone which fits for a reception of Christ 
and HiB power, and to bring himself to such repentance is still 
harder for a self-satisfied, self-righteous person, than for one 
who has grossly sinned, and therefore our Saviour promises the 
kingdom of heaven rather to pubUcans and harlots than to such 
persons, (Matt. zzi. 31.) 

Yer. 30, 31. St Paul by an 'oxymoron expresses the idea, that 
the Gentiles who were degraded and took no thought about any 
righteousness, laid hold on that which was offered to them in 
Christ as a free gift, while the Jews, who followed after righte- 
ousness, did not attain to it. These words are an authoritative 
commentary on ver. 16; all ^iXi/v and rff;^c/» of the Jews were 
unavailing; while they anxiously avoided fleshly sins and 
idolatry, they fell into so much the greater spiritual sins — ^into 
self-conceit, hard-heartedness, and want of love— and thus the 
second deceit became worse than the first; they only departed 
farther from the goal which they sought to reach. But, on the 
other hand, while God punished the sin of the Gentiles by sin, 
so that they became exceedingly sinfiil, these came into the 
condition of true repentance ; they conceived a longing for aid 

« Prophetia historiaB genus est, quando qaidem histom divina eA polleat Bixper 
humuiam pnarogativl at narratis fMtam praeotder^ non minuB qaam »eqtd posBet" 
PropheoteB are to no purpoee, unlew on the presupposition of St Paul's doctrine as 
to predestination : it is not man that causes their Ailfilment, but God by means of 
man, and that precisely by his free act. Hence it is no illusion if God warns against 
a sin, and yet that sin must needs be committed; for it is precisely as the free act 
of the creature that God fbreknows it; although doubtless such a sin heightens the 
guilt of the sinner. But according to the comprehensive love of God, the deed of 
sin is always meant to lead to repentance and regeneration, as the history of St 
Peter clearly shows ; and on this account eren the evil are not to be rooted out 
(comp. on Matt. xiii. 30). 



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344 BPI8TLB TO THE BOMAITS. 

from above^ and were now able in faith to lay bold on Cbiiat. 
Thus, then, all depends on Chnl's iXtth, not on man's rfi^tn, 
Pontivdy, man cannot produce the least of what is good; he 
musty, therefore, always place himself in a passive position to- 
wards God, never in an active; his whole productive power is 
negative, and its fruit is evil, of which the essence is opposition 
to the will of GK>d. Hence no sin is so difficult to cure as self- 
righteousness; for ibis is want of love; and love alone is the 
fulfilling of the law, for God is love, and it is only through his 
power that the creature can love purely. 

Glockler is for connecting r! au» J^ou/mv with ver. 22, and con* 
sidering all that intervenes as a continuation of the first clause 
of the sentence; but this is clearly very unsuitable. Nor is the 
question to be regarded as a subsumption of the whole preced- 
ing aigument (ver. 6, seqq.), and to be translated, "What 
shall we now say after all this?" (It is so taken by Eoppe, 
Buckert, Beck, De Wette, who make the answer to begin at in 
$hn X. r. X.) The following itari (32), is in favour of the continu- 
ation of the question to sftfa^i. Yer. 30, 31 contain the problem 
to be solved, but not the solution of it, W oS» f>oD/0My, therefore, 
must relate only to what follows, not to the preceding words. 

Yer. 32, 33. The cause of this strange phenomenon is their 
unbelief-^', e., their resistance to the grace which would work 
belief in their heart; for this reason it is that the rock of salva- 
tion became to them a stone of stumbling, as had been foretold 
long before in the Old Testament (Is. xxviii. 16, viii. 14.) The 
nature of T/tfv/;, therefore, is the key to the mystery ; as it is 
impossible to pour anything into a vessel which is stopped up 
and full, in like manner is a soul fiill of pride and devoid of love 
incapable of receiving the streams of the Spirit Man cannot, 
indeed, by his own deed, empty and open himself, but doubtless 
he can hinder God's accomplishing this work on him, and on 
this resistance, which is within the power of man, his guilt rests 
as its final cause. 

In ver. 32, ue ig ipyw yo/tou denotes the subjective fancy of the 
Jews, that they might attain to righteousness through works 
(comp. Winer's Grammar, p. 497). On X/tfo^ 9rpo<fx6fib/Larog comp. 
note on Matt. zzi. 42 seqq., where there is a similar citation 
from Ps. cxviiL 22. For tfxdlvdaXov, see note on Matt. xviiL 6. 
St Paul accommodates Is. xxviii. 16 to his purpose, by an addi- 



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OHAPTEB X. 1-4. 346 

tion from yiii. 14 (on this proceeding see note on Luke iv. 18, 
19). The same union of texts is found in 1 Pet. ii. 6, in com- 
bination with Ps. cxviii. 22. Neither of these passages relates 
to the Messiah in its immediate connexion, but they had been 
typically applied to Him as early as the Chaldean and Rabbini- 
cal paraphrases, and St Paul with propriety so applies them. 
The Old Testament is one great prophecy of Christ; all isolated 
and particular relations of men to God have in Him and by 
Him become universal and comprehensive truth. — ns^ is here 
spurious; it is wanting in the MSS. A.B.D.E.F.G., and in several 
versions; it was perhaps adopted from xi. 10. — Karcuifxvv- 
^(ftrcu would correspond to \i^y, but the text has mipp, which 

• T • T 

primarily meAXis festinavit, and then is commonly taken in the 
sende oifugit^ expavit. Perhaps the LXX. read tZ^l**, 

Chap. X. 1, 2. There was, after all, a true side in the legal 
striving of the Jews; it arose from a deep earnestness and a 
lively zeal, which, however, were without a true insight into the 
nature of the old covenant, as well as of the new. This, then, 
the Apostle explains more exactly in what follows. (The fi.iv 
presupposes an omitted dl, by which the guilt of Israel should 
be marked. Compare Winer, Gr. p. 500.) Eudox/a and b%n<fii 
do not harmonize with reference to imp abrStVy if the usual sense 
of good pleasure'' be retained; but the connexion is enough 
to show that it is here inapplicable; the word is rather to be 
taken in the sense of longirig, wish, as )«^^ is also used. E/^ 
cwrnpiaif signifies the object of the prayer for Israel. In ver. 2, 
^^Xoff 0mD does not denote the greatness of the zeal (as if it 
were a divine zeal), but zeal for God and His cause. Josephus, 
Philo, and the profane writers of the first centuries of the Chris- 
tian era> are full of examples of the zeal which the Jews shewed 
for their religion ; but it was a raging. Fanatical zeal, and hence 
was full of conceit, without higher aspirations, love, and the 
tender virtues of the spirit which truly seeks God. The words ou 
xar* Myvugiv are meant — not, indeed, to acquit the* Jews of all 
guilt (for they might have had the knowledge from the Word 
of God), but yet — to eofUn^ their guilt, and render visible the 
possibility of the conversion promised in c. xi. 

Ver. 3, 4. The ignorance of the Jews relates to sin and 
righteousness. The law had not wrought in them any Wiymsi^ 
rni d/ia^iag, and therefore they did not lay hold on the new 



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346 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

way of salvation, which offered them that which the law could 
not bring. They clung to the law, although it had reached its 
end in Christ. 

In yer. 3, vvtrdyn^v bears a middle sense. The aorist points 
to the act of proffering the gospel to them. De Wette wrongly 
understands rfj itxeuo^vp row eioif phx vnrd^^v to mean, ^'Th^ 
have not submitted to the righteous ordinance of Gh>d, the ^ft/^ 
v/&noag." £uxaio(f{/ni never occurs in such a sense. The meaning 
is: They have not penitently submitted themselves in fieiith to 
/ the righteousness which has been won by Christ, and which 
was offered to them, but they have wished to originate a righte- 
ousness of their own In ver. 4, Christ is to be under- 

stood in combination with His whole work ; but it is a peculi- 
arity of the gospel, that in it every thing is referred to the 
person of the Redeemer himself, not to any thing in Him or 
from Him. Agreeably to the connexion, and to the usage of 
language, riXos ¥6fuv can only mean the object^ the endy as our 
Lord says (Luke xvL 16), 6 v6fiog xai oi Tfofgroi fW *lmdmu. But 
this, of course, is not to be understood of a portion of the law 
only (the law of ceremonies alone, for instance), but of the 
whole law; nor must we conceive of it as an abrogation, but as 
a higher and real fulfilment. (Matt. v. 17.) Everything in 
the Old Testament is, in its enduring import, transferred into 
the New, and is only done away with in such a sense that 
there it remains preserved. Hence we learn from the fate of the 
Jews, that man must not depend upon any momentary opera- 
tion of God, but on God himself, so as to be able to follow the 
changes of His dealings. The Jews strove against the Lord 
by the very circumstance that they wished to maintain an in- 
stitution which unquestionably originated from Him, at the 
time when He did away with it. True piety fixes its love on 
God, not on His gifts. 

Ver. 6-8. The Apostle proceeds, as if by way of supplement 
to the argument in iii. 21 , seqq., to exhibit the difference be- 
tween these positions of men under the law and under the 
gospel, by passages from the Old Testament, and that from the 
writings of Moses, from the law itself; whence it appears that 
the Jews had not understood the writings of Moses^ inasmuch 
as they fancied that they were adhering to them when they 
opposed themselves to faith. He shows from Lev. xviii. 5, that 
doing is the character of the law, and from Deut. xxx. 12, IS, 



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CHAPTBB Til. 5-8. 347 

that bdieving is that of the gospel; the former presupposes an 
actiffBy the latter a pcudve position of the soul. That St Paul 
intends here to found a formal argument upon the passages 
which he quotes^ has been well maintained by Reiche, in oppo- 
sition to Tholuck and Riickert, who had followed earlier inter- 
preters in questioning it. The difficulty in the second quotation 
is the only thing that could suggest such an assertion; for the 
passage from Leviticus (which is also referred to in Ezek. xx. 21; 
Neh. ix. 29; Matt. xix. 16; Gal. iii. 12), is excellently adopted 
to the Apostle's line of proof. *^ No one can live (i. e.y 2[«t)v 
atwtov fxt») by the law, but he who keeps it; but no one can 
keep it (Rom. i.-iii.); consequently, another way of salvation 
is needed/' 

The reading in before ri)v dixa/o<rvM)v in ver. 5 is merely an at- 
tempt at correction on account of the construction of 7f»(£fi/, with 
the accusative. It is not suitable to take y^Apn as meaning 
'' to describe^ to represent.'' We shall do better to take the ac- 
cusative absolutely '' with respect to the righteousness.'' A.hrd 
and a2»rorg refer to <^a, understood in the idea of i^/iMff. On this 
passage compare the remarks on Gal. iii. 12. 

There is, however, unquestionably a difficulty as to the 
second quotation (Deut. xxx. 12-13) in which the righteousness 
of faith is conceived, of as if personified, pr God, as its author, 
speaks to man, in whom it is produced, with the intention of • 
directing his mind from that which is outward to that which is 
inward — to deep self-contemplation and heedfulness to God's 
working in him. In the first place, the passage in St Paul does 
not agree either with the original text or with the LXX. The 
clauses rwrr i^i Xfiarhv jiarayayth and rovr iari Xpi^hv ix nxp&f 
AvayaytTi are, indeed, to be regarded as explanatory additions of 
the Apostle, which he did not at all intend to be reckoned as 
part of the question; and thus, leaving out of sight unessential 
omissions and abbreviations, the variation certainly does not 
appear so very considerable. Still, it is here said rtg xara^n^rai 
$h He ^u<rtfor, instead of which, the LXX. have r/f htMnp&au iifiA 
th rh npav r9( $aXd^6iiii\ which, with the other alterations, is 
enough to cause perplexity to the defenders of literal inspiration. 
According, however, to the principles which we have through- 
out maintained, sui^ a free use of the Old Testament text does 
not occasion any difficulty which can affect us; St Paul made 
use of the Old Testament in the same Holy Spirit in which it 

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348 EHSTLE TO THK ROMANS. 

was composed^ and therefore could not charge its import with 
anything foreign to it. But^ besides this, the sense of the pas- 
sage is itself obscure. The connexion in Deut. zxz. is as fol- 
lows: — In ch. zxix., Moses had threatened the people with 
ejection from the land of promise in case of unfaithfulness, but 
afterwards, in ch. xxz., foretells that they will return to them- 
selves, and will at last be gathered again by God into the land 
of their fathers. " Here Grod will circumcise their heart, that 
they may love Him with all their heart, and keep His com- 
mandments. For God's commandment is not far from them, 
neither in Heaven, that they should say. Who shall go up for ug 
to Heaven, cmd bring it to us t neither is it beyond the sea, that 
they should say, Who shaU go over the sea for t^, and. bring it 
to ust it is nigh unto them, in their mouth, yea, in their heart." 
Thus the passage refers, in a way which cannot be mistaken, to 
the dispensation of the Messiah; it points to the circumcision 
of the heart — ^to a state in which man will be able truly to love 
God, and to keep the commandments. The only possible 
difficulty is from the circumstance that, in xxx. 11, it is said — n 
fvroXj) jy i^fitf emXXo/fra/ tfo/ tfijAbff ov; by which it would seem that 
the passage which follows is referred to the law of the Old Tes- 
tament, and not to faith. But if we consider that the law is by 
no means wanting in the New Testament-r-that it is only re- 
garded as no longer something merely outward, but as inward 
— as the voice of the eternal Word in man's heart (John xiL 50), 
nay, that this reception of the divine into itself is the very 
essence of the New Testament, and of the life of faith which be- 
longs to it — it will be clear how the Apostle might, with perfect 
justice, interpret those words of the Old TestMuent as relating 
to the circumstances of the New.* He conceives of Christ in His 
person, andas the object of preaching, not merely according to His 
historical appearance, but as the eternal Word, which is dormant 
in every man, and which preaching from without only wakens 
and renders active. This word, then — the living law itself— has 
also in itself the power and energy whereby man is placed in 
a condition to keep it, and to love God above all things.-!- The 

« Some (m lately Reiche) haTe ialsely deeignated the Apostle's explanation In this 
place as allegnrical, such as that in Gal. iv. 22, eeqq. The ooly proper name for it 
is mirituali i, e., it is such an explanation as penetrates through the letter of the 
Old Testament into its spirir. The whole passage (Dent. xxix.-axx.) points most 
properly to the New Testament dispensation, and in this inner sense it is undentood 
by the Apostle. 

t Christ is active in the Old Testament (1 Pet. i. 11; Heb. xi. 26} also; but 

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CHAPTER X. 5-8. 349 

course of thought, therefore, in St Paul takes this form. " The } 
Scripture saith of the righteousness of the law, that whosoever I 
shall fashion himself conformably to the law which meets him ] 
from without, shall live; but this no man can do; consequently, 
no man attains life thus; all that he can attain by this way is 
the knowledge of sin (iii. 20.) But, in the New Testament, he 
hath, by the operation of the Spirit, the law within himself; it 
is written on his heart; therefore, he need no longer seek it 
from afar, but only become aware of this treasure within him, 
and follow the power of the Spirit.''* The words, " my not in 
thine heart, Who shall ascend or descend" (with which those in 
vii. 24, " Who shaU ddiver me?' are parallel) are a negative 
expression of an idea which would be positively expressed as 
follows: — If in the Old Testament doing was required, so now 
it is faith ; for all has been done through Christ The words ava- 
fiaUtty %h oupavSv and Karafiotsniv $h n)y S^\t6€o9^ therefore, are 
merely symbolical expressions to signify a seeking in the re- 
motest quarters. 

The latter phrase is stronger and bolder than that of the 

rather as an operation (Jnfut) than as a person (x«7«f) (oomp. on John L 1 ; also 
mj Opuse. TbeoL p. 123 seqq., and the essay on the Word of God in the Chrigto* 
ierpe for 1885, p. 1 seqq.) Bat, in the preaching of the Apostles, the subject was 
not the doctrine eoncemwg Christ, but He Himself, in His life and power. (Comp. 
1 Pet L 28-25, which forms the most perfect parallel to yer. 8.) 

* If the connexion of the words, both in the Old Testament and in the psssage 
before us, had been more earefully attended to, it could not haye been possible that 
so many tingU applications should haye been brought forward — ssy that the inten- 
tion was to proye that CSirist is omnipresent (Origin)-t<>r» that the gospel is not 
hard to fulfil or to diseoyer (FUtt, Moms, RosenmUUer)— or, that the reality of the 
appearance and the resurrection of Christ is the subject (Reiche^ RQekert, Usteri) 
These spplioations, it is true, all lie in the words; it is not, howeyer, as tMoiaUd 
truths that they are there, but in as far as they belong to the essenoe of faith gene- 
rally. Bengel, Knapp, and Tholuck suppose that St Paul is representing to the 
anxious heart, which knows not bow to enter into heayen or to escape hell, that 
Christ can effect this in it. The context in this ]^aee, howeyer, eyideutly does not 
point to the distresses of penitent hearts, although it is true that, where there is 
faith, penitence is presupposed. Rather the Apostle contrasts the kw and the 
gospel with each other in timr moat ffenetal character, and shows that this is already 
recognised and exhibited in the Old Testament. The nature of the law is repre 
sented directfy, as reqnuing the dowg of the Uw; the gospel indirectly^ as the life 
of faith. The indirect form of the proof, howeyer, is ol such a nature that faith is 
indicated in its origination [Qenesb] ; faith personified, on one who already belieyes, 
is represented as speaking to nnbelieying mankind, or to an indiyidual unbelieyer. 
Unbelief has for its eharscteristie a tuxning to what is oatward. It regards God 
as a distant being. From this oatward direction, the spirit is called bade into its 
inward depths, in which it finds God's eternal Word present; and this finding is 
isith itself. But St Paul, of ooune, eoneeiyee of the eternal Word as that which 
has become ineamate; and henee he brings liorward the consideration that Ckfvd 
Is neither Ux off nor dead, bat intunately nigh to eyary one and liying. 



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350 BPI8TLB TO THB ftOMANS. 

LXX. — d/acip^v ih rh «Vjpay f% ktkA^cn^) for the word cS/StftfVor, 

which corresponds to ViHQ}> ^^ i^o^ ^^ ^ understood as mean- 
ing the sea^ bat the regions of the dead.* In making choice of 
it, the Apostle had, no doubt, Ps. cxxxix. 8 before his eyesr 
"Afivifaog is properly an adjective, boUomlesSy from jSu^tro;, the Ionic 
form of fiu06s; thus. Euripid. Phoen. 1632, raprdpou afivifga x^^ 
(iMTa, Comp. Luke viii. 31; Rev. ix. ], 2, 11; xi. 7; xvii. 8; 
XX. 1. After what has been said, it only remains to be ex- 
plained how St Paul could apply the &m^nc%Tau and xarttfiiicvnu 
to Christy as if they related to bringing Him down from heaven, or 
up from the dead. As in Christ, the eternal Word had been 
xnade flesh (John i. 1-14), and this Word forms the very object 
of the preaching of faith in the gospel (ver. 8), every seeking 
after the Truth, as if it were something distant, which had not 
yet appeared among men, is to be looked on as an ignoring of 
Christ and His Almighty presence; by such seeking, men act 
as if Christ had not yet come down from heaven into the flesh, 
or as if He were still among the dead, and not long ago risen 
again. 

Instead of f^/^a 4r/<rrfwc, 1 Tim. iv. 6 has xfyo; «r/0n«^ It 
is not the business of preaching to introduce the word originally 
into man, but only to arouse its dormant life as a spark does 
flre. There is in all things a word of Gh>d, for God upholdeth 
all things by the word of His power. (Heb. i. 3.) 

Ver. 9-11. This having of the Divine Word within ourselves, 
in unspeakable intimacy, so that it is nearer to us than we are 
to ourselves, is the essence of faith, in which profession is in- 
cluded; whosoever, then, possesses faith, obtains, through the 
power of the Divine principle in it, the salvation which he could 
not have attained to without it. The power of futh, which 
leads to salvation, is, moreover, owned in the Old Testament 
also. (Is. xxviii. 16.) 

The distinction between hfMiUyth etifiMrt and ir§&nv$i¥ xof 
dicf is caused simply by the foregoing quotation; for the two 
are correlatives. No true belief remains without confession, 
any more than fire without light ; and every confession presup- 

* The opinioxi of some writers (as Bolten and Eoppe), that $tt ri «'ff •» rnt 0mXd^ 
0nt abo signifies Scheol [Hades]— this being unagined, as hy Homer, to be sitn- 
ated at the boundary of the ocean— is inadmissible. The Hebrews sappoeed the 
region of the dead to be beneath the earth (oomp. note on Eph. iy. 9); the ezpi'ee- 
sion in question denotes merely a distance which it exceeds man's power to reach. 
And this idea has only been expressed more pointedly, bat not altered, by St PaoL 

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OHAPTBB X. 12-21. 351 

poses belief, for a hypocritical confessioB is no confession at all, 
but a counterfeit of it. A dumb faith is no faith. " I be- 
lieved, and therefore have I spoken.'' (2 Cor. iy. 13.) The 
reason why the resurrection of Christ is especially brought for- 
ward as the object of faith, is that it is the moment of victory, 
the emblem of the spiritual resurrection of all men. 2»n}f»/a and 
dixouoirv¥fi are not to be distingui^edas Qlockler supposes; for in 
ver. 9 ao*^^ stands by itself. As this distinction, then, cannot 
be pressed, and as, moreover, ver. 11 also relates to one thing 
only, ver. 10 seems tautological after ver. 9. The emphasis, 
however, is to be laid on xapdsa and ^r^/Mx, so as to yield the 
sense. — In order to the attainment of salvation, what is out- 
ward must be united with what is inward. On the quotation of 
Isaiah zzviil 16 in ver. 11, compare the remarks on ix. 33. 
. Ver. 12, 13. The distinction made under the Theocracy be- 
tween Jews and Gentiles, therefore, no longer appears in the 
New Testament; aU men have one access to the Lord of all, 
namely, fedth, of which calling on Him is the expression. This 
is again confirmed by a passage of evangelical prophecy. (Joel 
ii. 32.) 

As to o6 ydp inri dtaaroXi (ver. 12), compare iii. 22. *o a&r^^ 
is the subject, and xipio^ the predicate. According to the con- 
text God is primarily meant, as the quotation indicates, but 
according to St Paul's way of thinking, it is of course God in 
Christ, nxours^ relates to the riches of grace and mercy, from 
which no one is excluded. By th is signified the direction in 
which the stream of grace pours itself forth. 'Bfl-ixaXf/d^a/, like 
cflboXoyth above, presupposes a lively faith. We need not there- 
fore supply, '' If the calling be sincere and honestly intended," 
for unless it be so, it ceases to be a caUvng^ it only ap]^r8 to be 
that which it really is not 

Ver. 14-21. If, however, this new way of salvation is to be 
for all, it is necessary that to all — Gentiles and Jews alike — ^the 
opportunity of becoming acquainted with it should be given. 
This St Paul sets forth in four questions, which depend one upon 
the other, and then he shows how God, agreeably to His pro- 
mise (Is. Iii. 9), has sent His messengers to preach. But men, 
especially the Jews, have been inattentive to the preaching, as 
God had foretold (Is. liii. 1); they have hot listened to it or 
acknowledged the preaching.* The sentences in ver. 16-19, 

* Tbia if not to be understood u if the preaching alone were of God, and faith 



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352 EPISTLB TO THB BOMANS. 

therefore, answer exactly to the several questions in ver. 14, and 
cany out the idea that Ood has done what was to, be done on 
His part-^He has sent messengers and has set them to preach 
— ^but men have not laid hold on God's word (John i. 5). The 
reference to Israel peeps through in the whole passage, but is 
not expressly brought forward until ver. 19, seqq. 

In ver. 14, to which ver. 1 7 is a necessaxy supplement, we meet 
•with the important idea that preaching is the only way by which 
the gospel is propagated among mankind. (In ver. 17 dum is 
to be taken as = nv%30> ^ir^fi^-) It cannot be produced by 
some immediate operation of the Spirit, scattered as seed here 
and there, but in order to its propagation there is constantly 
required an imparting from the centre of the Church. The 
Church of Christ partakes in the nature of every self-KH>n- 
tained* organization, which cannot develop itself save on the 
condition that all the members remain in connexion with the 
whole. Not only is it impossible that a community of Christians 
should come into existence without connexion with the whole 
body of the Church, without having the history of Christ preached 
to it,t but, moreover, without this living connexion, it cannot 
subsist for a length of time without changing its nature — as is 
proved by the history of the Ethiopian Church. This is to be 
accounted for, first, from the historical character of Christianity, 
which essentially rests on the facta of the history of Jesus; and, 
next, from the Spirit, which is the power that operates in preach* 
ing. This principle is connected with the person of Jesus (John 
vii. 39), and is diffused from Him in continuous operation. 
Hence in ver. 1 7 'fifia Bhv is certainly to be referred to the doa- 
trine of the revelation which forms the basis of the preaching, 
but in such a way that this doctrine is conceived of as one ani- 
mated and quickened by the Spirit of God, so that the expression 
might also have been i 6h dxoi) d/it ffviu/tMcror OfoD. Missionary ac- 

were of man; rather, aa God creates both the light and the eye, lo also the preach- 
ing and faith ai-e both of Him. UtMief, however, is man's fault, as, withoat being 
able to produce the light, he can certainly dose his eye intentionally against light, 
that he may not see. 

* [Geechloesen.] 

t No people ever has been or can be converted, nor can a ehoreh be formed, by 
means of the Holy Scriptures alone, without an interpreter and the living word [of 
preaching] ; otherwise the first member would have to begin by baptizing himself. 
Wherever there arisea a rei^Uy lively feeling of the need, thither God sends 
I of the faith; the Bible, howerer, may certainly awaken the need. 



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CHAPTER z. 14 — 21. 353 

tifity, therefore, is an esaetttial property of the Clhureh, and the 
chaise in Matt, zxyiii. 19 is of foroe for her to the end of 
time. Next, however, comes the question, what ought to be 
supplied after i^¥ mi) arporaXSi^tl First of all, evidently vwb rou 
x^tTw, He Himself, the Lord of the Church, sends forth alL 
the messengers, and by His Spirit arouses them for His ser- 
vice. But that the order of the visible Church may be pre- 
served, this inward calling requires the addition of an outward 
sanction; therefore, the inward call must have recourse to the 
constituted ecclesiastical authorities, in order that it may be 
able, through their confirmation and recognition, to co-operate 
in a regular manner towards the edification of the Church. 
An opposite course would introduce a tumultuary and separa^ 
tistical manner of working, in which all superintendence of the 
teachera, and, consequently, all prevention of enthusiastic and 
fknatical efforts, must become impossible. St Paul, who was 
called from the world in the most immediate manner, neverthe^ 
less, by his example, most strikingly confirms the reality and 
necessity of this mutual operation with the established organs 
of the Church. Although baptized with the Spirit by the 
Lord Himself, he yet receives baptism from Ananias at Damas- 
cus (Acts ix. 19); and, although expressly set apart by the 
Lord for the ministry of the Oentiles, he yet does not formally 
enter on his ministry among them until the Church of Antioch 
chooses him, and sends him forth as a messenger to the Gen- 
tiles (ch. xiii. 1). The subordination of the individual* to the 
needs and regulations of the whole body, is a necessary condi- 
tion of the Churdi's developing itself with a blessing. 

The passage from Is. lii. 7, does not exactly follow the LXX. 
St Paul keeps nearer to the Hebrew text, and gives the pas- 
sage in the form which was most suitable for his purpose. The 
feet are mentioned as the organs which are most characteristic 
of the messengers, and of their itinerant office.'^ The parallel 
with the angels, as spiritual messengers of God, forces itself on 
us; the incarnate God sends forth human messengers also to fulfil 
His commands. The passages from the second part} of Isaiah, 
which are quoted in this section, are all to be considered as 
most properly evangelical ; all other applications — e. g., to the 
people of Israel, the prophets, or the better- members of the 

* [Svlfeelhritai,] f [Wemdemden Wtrhmnkat.^ t [<^P- zl^lzri.] 

Z 

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354 EPISTLE TO THE BOMAKS. 

people — are not excluded by thisy but by a typical interpreta- 
tion lead us back to the evangelical sense. In ver. 15, Goschen 
renders «^/ by veloces. The speed of the messengers, and the 
zeal from which it proceeds, are certainly included in the idea^ 
but yet it is because of the delightful tidings which th^y bring, 
that the feet of the messengers, i, e., they themselves are espe- 
cially styled M^a/b/. In ver. 18 and 19, /lii oux are not to be 
joined together ; fiii is the interrogative particle, and ov belongs 
to the verb. (Comp. Winer's Gr., p. 427). Ps. xix. 5 is quoted 
according to the LXX. The passage relates, in the first in- 
stance, to nattJtrej which tells the glory of God; which is the 
reason that pBfyyog, corresponding to ^y^ is used, whereas in 
the application to persons, Xoyog or xtifvyfjka would be more suit- 
able. St Paul, however, considers the Church as a new work 
of the creation of God, the creatures of which — ^the saints — 
penetrate the world with their song of praise, and draw all 
things to join in the general ecstacy. Whatever opposes this 
movement (as the Jews did), shuts itself out from the joy of 
the new world. Hence f^^x^f is to be understood as propheti- 
cally spoken; that which is begun is viewed as if already com- 
pleted, and therefore we need not seek for any further explana- 
tion, how it is that St Paul can represent Christ's messengers 
as spread all over the earth, whereas, when he wrote these 
words, they had not so much as carried the preaching of Christ 
through the whole of the Roman empire. Ver. 19. The unbe- 
lief of Israel had been expressed as far back as Deut. xxxii. 21, 
in terms which also indicate the pressing forward, in faith, of 
the Gentiles, who are designated by oux Uvos, t^vot &<ru9frof, to get 
before them. The idea that even in those days there was a 
possibility of the gospel reaching the Gentile world, pre-sup- 
poses its rejection by Israel. Ua^aJ^niXou, 'jrd^o^iZju, to excite jeal- 
ousy, are expressions taken from the figure of the marriage 
between Jehovah and Israel ; by bestowing His love on others, 
God. designs to awaken in them a consciousness of their infi- 
delity. Bretschneider and Reiche wrongly take ei^ as the no- 
minative to lym, making the sense to be, " Does God then no 
longer know (i.e., love) Israel?" It is not until xi. 1, seqq., 
that this idea is brought forward; to supply eUg here is too 
hard, and is quite unnecessary, as the connexion is plain. Oux 
I/I'M is parallel with oux jxov^ay in ver. 18, and in this place as in 



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OHAPTKB XI. 1 — 36. 355 

that, we ought to supply x^gityfi,a ^rl^rt^g^ which is agrieeable to 
the bearing of the whole passage.* The object of ver. 19, then, 
is merely to apply the general question to Israel in particular. 
There is no reason for apprehending that the quotations which 
follow would not accord with this way of taking it. For St Paul 
could not again answer that messengers had been sent to them, 
since he had just before declared, in the words of Ps. ziz. 
5, that messengers had been sent into oM lands, even into the 
distant regions of the Gentiles; he therefore answers indirectly; 
in showing that the Gentiles believe, he implies — How, then, 
should Israel have been unable to believe, if only it had been 
willing ! The same idea is repeated by Isaiah Ixv. 1 : *' I am 
found of them that sought me not;" how much more might 
Israel have found me if it had been willing; but it is in vain 
that God stretcheth forth His arms to the unfaithful people ; 
they wovld not (Matt, zziii. 37). n^wro^ in ver. 19 refers to 
the later prophecies of Isaiah. In ver. 20 h% is not to be taken 
as marking opposition but continuation. 'A^oroX^^I denotes the 
boldness of the prophet's speech in representing the heathen as 
called. The idea in ver. 20 is parallel to that in iz. 30, and 
the contrast which is there expressed (iz. 31), is to be sup- 
plied in this place also. — And those who {in appearance) 
sought me, have not found me. Yer. 21. For ^^h^ Xahv dt/nt$ovvra 
xai &¥rt\iyo9ra the Hebrew has only 'y^^Q DV/M' PGi'haps the 
LXX. found added in their copies rn*^t3^ which occurs in con- 
nexion with 'yy^o in Jer. v. 23. 



§ 16. Israel's salvation. 

(XL 1-36.) 

After having shown the guilt of Israel, St Paul proceeds to 
teach prophetically that this apostacy of the people is neither 
total nor perpetual — that God has preserved in Israel a holy 

* Ktfllner followi Koppe and RoseDinttller in understanding — " Did not Israel 
know that it was to Hand hdow the O^uUsb /" But rer. 21 does not agree with this, 
and, moreover, a subject is thus anticipated which St Paul does not begin to treat 
before eh. xL It is only by taking the first two quotations (19, 20), apart from 
their main connexion, that this way of supplying the ellipse could be suggested. 



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356 BPISTLE TO THB EOXAKS. 

seed, and in this all Israel is to be blessed. For the understanding 
of this section, however, it is neoessary to consider more par- 
ticularly an idea without which it must be obscure, namely, the 
relation of individuals to the whole body — which has already 
been cursorily touched on in toL i. p. 865,* and in the note on 
Bom. V. 12. Doubtless the whole race of men forms one unity, 
in which the nations are lesser wholes, and these in their turn 
are composed of individuals; but yet the degrees of develop- 
ment of the collective body, and of the several nations, is very 
different, and consequently so is their responsibility. At the 
moment of Christ's appearance, when the fulness of time was 
come, and mankind had attained the age of maturity (Ghd. iv. 
4), yet all the nations were not equally advanced, but many 
were still in the lowest grades of development, as continues to 
be the case at this day. But as to the question of a nation's 
guilt, everything depends on its degree of development. In the 
wilderness the people of Israel incurred guilt, so that it was 
necessary that the elder generation should die there; the like 
happened in the captivity, where the greater number of the 
exiles remained behind among the heathen, and were mingled 
with them; but, because the development of the people was not 
then BO far advanced as in our Lord's day, their guilt in those 
earlier times was also less. (Comp. on Matt. xi. 20, seqq.) And 
in the same way do individuals in the greater or smaller aggre- 
gations of people stand relatively to each other. True it is that 
all the members of a nation without exception are influencedt 
by the same spiritual atmosphere — ^the spirit of the nation, as 
we commonly call it. The lower the condition of the whole 
people, the greater is the dominion exercised over individuals 
by this spirit of the generality; as development advances, indi- 
vidualization increases in a nation. But yet the condition of all 
the individuals who compose the nation is not alike, whether in 
the higher or in the lower degrees of development. Rather, as 
different nations in the unity of mankind stand at different 
stages in the same period of the development of the whole, so 
too do the various individuals in the unity of a nation. When, 
therefore, we speak of the guilt of a people at a particular period, 

* [i 9^ of some German edition earlier than the third, to which the referenee ie 
not Bultable. The paaaage intended would aeeni to be a part of the eommentBrjr 
on the warnings in I^tt. xxiv.j 

t lOetraffem,} 



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CHAPTBBXI. 1— 36. * 357 

this guilt is distributed in very various measures among the 
individuals of that people. Now, in every people there may be 
distinguished active and passive individueJs; in aots of sin, the 
latter are merely drawn along in the train of the former class, 
but the active are those who, in the critical moments, determine 
the tendency of the whole to sin. Thus, in our Lord's time, it 
was the Pharisees and Priests who produced the sin of the apos- 
tacy; the mass of the people was only carried along by them ; 
if the leaders had taken another direction, it might have been 
differently guidod. Thus, then, in a ease of national guilt, the 
degree of guilt is variously determined in such a way that the 
active members especially bear it. In the mass, which is only 
swayed by them, the guilt of many may be very slight in such 
a proceeding as the rejection of Christ was, inasmuch as an exact 
knowledge of the circumstances is often not even rendered pos- 
sible for them. Those, then, who thus have loaded their con- 
science but little, may form the seed of a new generation. 
Hence the gre^t judgments which befel Israel (in the wilderness, 
in the captivity, under Titus, and under Hadrian), — ^in which 
those members of the people who had fallen wholly under the 
dominion of sin, were removed — ^appear, at the same time, as 
restorations, inasmuch as the remnant of the people, like a living 
root which is set free from the dead tree, was in a condition to 
put forth new shoots. There are, therefore, three classes to be 
distinguished in the people of Israel ; first, the few who had the 
energy, in opposition to the corrupted spirit of the mass, to re- 
cognise and apprehend the Messiah in Him who was crucified; 
these passed over into the spiritual Israel of the Church. Neat, 
those members of the nation who, with more or less clearness of 
knowledge, strove against God; these fell off from Israel, and, 
although circumcised in the flesh, became in spirit like the hea* 
then uncircumdsion (ii. 28-9), for which cause Qod caused them 
to perish in the great judgment under Titus which followed. 
ThircBjf, those who were not strongly enough actuated either by 
sin or by grace; so that they neither became so deeply guilty 
as the second class, by their not believing, nor, on the other 
hand, did they attain to the same perfection as the first. This 
third class remained over as a seed, and out of it was developed 
the Israel after the flesh, which we see descending through the 
course of the Christian ages, and which sojourns among our- 



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358 EPI8TLS TO THI BOXAHS. 

selves, as a living miracle of the Lord, scattered over all tbe 
world, yet faithfully adhering to the customs which it has in- 
herited. Japheth indeed now dwells in the tents of these chil- 
dren of Shem; t. 6., they are bearing the guilt of their fiithers, 
and have ceased to be the centre of the divine system of salva- 
tion; yet they are not cast off for ever, but their prerogative is 
only withdrawn from them for a time, and still remiuns in store 
for them They are like a royal race excluded from the throne 
through the faidt of its ancestors, but for which the crown is 
reserved imtil the time when it shaU please God to restore it to 
its dominion. 

After these remarks, the following statement of the Apostle 
as to the various classes of individuals, and the aggregate of the 
people of Israel, will be more easily intelligible. 

Yer. 1. In accordance with what has been said, the question 
H &^(laaaro X. r. X. is not to be imderstood of the individual 
members of the nation who lived in the days of our Lord and 
the Apostles; for they were, in truth, for the most part rejected, 
and in ch. ix. St Paul expressed that deep sorrow over them that 
they did not belong at all to that Israel for which the promises 
were intended (ix. 6, seqq.) ; it relates to the people as a body. 
This depended on the Xf^/ta (xi. 5) ; t. e., on the better disposed 
among the people, who either already believed, or, at least, did 
not intentionally strive against faith. For these the promise 
remained, according to Qod's prescience (U tpm^fm) which also in- 
volves the operation of grace, and, therefore, cannot be in vain. 
Those, on the contrary, who had fallen away, were never in God's 
Bight members of the true Israel; for he foreknew their unfaith- 
fulness, and had not elected them ; just as the dry branches of a 
tree are cut away by the gardener, without his thereby giving 
up the tree itself — ^nay, rather the pruning is a proof of his 
continuing care for it. As an easamj^ of this holy seed in the 
nation, the Apostle mentions himself; but with St Paul we are 
also to think of all those who had at that time already attached 
themselves to the Church; for by these it was visibly manifest 
that God had not forsaken his people. 

Ver. 2-4. He proceeds, however, further from the visQAe to 
the invisMe nucleus* of the people of God. The history of 

* [Ktm, The term must be retained in this place, beeaufie the figure is after- 
wardit carried out.] 



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CHAPTBR XI. 5, 6. 3.>9 

Elijah (1 Kings zix. 10, 14^ 18) offers him an excellent oppor- 
tunity of illustrating this truth as to the existence of a hidden 
handful of true believers in an apostate people. It is evident 
that St Paul cannot here mean those Jews only who had passed 
over to the church — for they were discernible — but those, un- 
known to every human eye, who bore in their heart, without 
being themselves conscious of it, the hidden treasure of faithful- 
ness and uprightness. These stand in the same relation to the 
bulk of the people as the remains of the Divine image to the 
old man in the individual; or, as in the regenerate person the 
new man, undeveloped, and often repressed by sin, stands to- 
wards the sinful man which encompasses him. As this latter 
must die in order that the other may dominate, so too must the 
XtT^/ia be set free from the alien husk in which it dwells, in order 
that it may be in a condition to extend itself. It is always the 
people properly so called (ix. 6, seqq.), to which all promises 
relate, as Uie new man which makes no show is alone the true 
man in the rude mass of the old man. 

In ver. 2, iv 'HX/.f means the section in which the history of 
that prophet is told. In like manner Thucydides i. 9, uses h 
rfi axfi^pou xapadoat to denote the second book of the Illiad. 
'£yn;7x<i^v« xard rmg does not occur elsewhere, except in the 
Apocrypha, 1 Mace. x. 60. In ver. 3, the quotation is freely 
made, and does not exactly follow either the LXX. or the He*- 
brew. Xf^fi/Aarj^/i^, the answer of an oracle; the substantive 
occurs in this place only; as to the verb compare note on Matt, 
ii. 12. Ver. 4. The form i fidaX is chosen by St Paul after 
the example of the LXX., who most commonly use this form, 
although in the story of Elijah (1 Kings xix. 18) it is o fioUtX 
The feminine for t^y^ does not occur in the Old Testament as 
meaning the goddess who is there spoken of by the name of 
Queen of Heaven or Astarte. The circumstance that the LXX 
represent the male god as also female, is to be traced to his 
androgynous character, and is not to be regarded as intended in 
mockery. 

Yer. 5, 6. Having in ch. x. decidedly characterised the want 
of faith as guilt, he now as strongly denies that the superiority 
of the better kind is their desert; this, like all other good, is 
not to be ascribed to any works whatever, but solely to grace. 

In ver. 5 XiTfifia = xardxufifiay comp. on ix. 27. The words 



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360 BPISTLB TO THS SOMANS. 

inXny^ X^F^^f do not require fxXo^i) x^/aav by way of oppoaitioiiy 
for the Divine opemtion produces only what is good. The idea^ 
however, of the election of grace donbtlen indndea this — that 
God perfects those whom He chooses. The election is in itself 
as comprehensive as the love of God itself; but through His 
foreknowledge of those who, by resistance, make themsdyes 
evil, it becomes partiaL In ver. 6, A.B.D.E.F.G., omit the 
addition d Hk i^ ip/Mv oMn §gri x^'^ ^^ ^^ ^P7^ wjurt f«rfr 
ipy¥. l%ere is evid^itly something superfluous in it; and 
moreover, the last words, rb tfyw o&xi n i^rh i^w, are in their 
form quite out of character with St Paul's manner. 'Enl is to 
be taken in the sense of " otherwise,'* comp. iii. 6. 

Yer. 7-10. Israel, therefore, considered as a people, is di- 
vided into two parts — ^the XtSfi/La or iitXo/ih-the people in the 
true theocratic sense (iz. 6), and the hardened. In the former 
dass, the grace of God accomplishes everything; in the latter, 
it produces the form in which they appear in history. In 
order to establish this idea of the division of Israel into a be- 
lieving and an unbelieving half, as an act of God, the Apostle 
again appeals to the Old Testament, where the unbelief and 
the sinfol development of many Israelites (always, of course, in 
respect of the manifestation only, and not in that it is sin itself), 
is not only foretold according to God's omniscience, but is also 
ascribed to His omnipotence. Thus the ideas of iz. 1 7, are here 
repeated, only with a definite application to Israel. 

Beiche is for eztending the question to Mmx* ^ but it is bet- 
ter to understand r/ ch only as interrogative. The words refer 
back to iz. 80. Here, however, as in iz. 6, 'igfanX is to be under- 
stood of the physical posterity only; the JxXo/sy alone is the 
spiritual Israel But it is God alone, as omniscient, that can 
distinguish between the spiritual and the physical Israel 60- 
fore the event; man cannot do so until (^i^ the event. — iiufim 
=s ^Xfiplnm, comp. note on iz. 18. The only words that can 
be supplied, agreeably to the quotation which follows, are M 
rou 010?. But God hardens only those whom He will; and He 
only wills to harden those who, to a certain degree, have given 
themselves over to sin. Such an one He intends to restrain from 
deeper guilt by the irw^MA^, if it is but temporary, or to punish 
by it, if it is permanent It is evident from the words 'timg r^^ 
(T^fAifov fifiipag, that the Apostle has in view, in the first instance. 



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CHAPTBBXI. 11. 361 

only a temporary hardening, and hopes that it will soon be poa- 
Bible to remoTe the spirit of slumber from them, without being 
obliged to apprehend that they will afterwards^ when awake, 
continue to r^ust, and only incur heavier guilt. The received 
text reads roltrw, but A.C.D.E.F.G. have nvr^y which reading is to 
be preferred, as the most unusual ; hrirvyx'^'^ usually takes the 
genitive, comp. Heb. vi. 15, xl 33; James iv. 2. The reading 
i^npiihi^f {Aetf were hurt^ or maimed), has no considerable 
authority in its favour, llie quotation in ver. 8 is freely made 
up from Is. xxix. 10, and Deut. xxix. 4. The unbelief of Israel 
is the proper subject of both passages; but in the first nx^txiv 
stands instead ofidctM, and in the second the turn of the sentence 
is, ^* Gk>d gave you not eyes to see and ears to hear ;'* whereas 
St Paul refers the negative to /Sxi^i/y and dxo^v. The word 
xardw^ti signifies in the LXX deep deep^ rtOT\F\i ^^™ *^^» 
not, as in profane writers, pricking, from fC^^w. The expression, 
spirit of dumber, is meant to denote the reality of the divine 
operation — ^the outpoured element which produced the same 
effect in alL Yer. 9, 10 are from Ps. Ixix. 28, 24. In this 
passage Israel is not the subject; rather David is speaking of 
his enemies, and curses them. Here, however, as in other 
Psalms, these are not his personal enemies, but the enemies of 
God's cause in him; his curses are the expression of Gh>d's 
righteous judgment, the effect of which was the only thing 
that could avail to lead the adversaries from their evil way and 
convert them. This quotation also is fireely made from memory; 
fiyipa is neither in the original nor in the LXX. The sense of 
the first verse is — Where they least expect it,letihe snare ofde- 
strucHon come upon them hy way of recompense; of the second 
— Load them wUh misery, let their eyes become dark, bow down 
their badcs for ever. The original has, in the first verse, 

cnfh^ f^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^> ^^ ^^^^^^'^p ^ ^^ LXX 

translate i/c Avraflr^io/ta, they no doubt read oyo^'hvh- '^^ 
darkening of (he eyes, and bowing down of the back, cannot well 
be understood hero of age and its troubles, because bia*mfrU, 
equivalent to *riQn» ^^ joined with them; we shall do better 
to understand syi)jeotMn, perhaps with blinding of the eyes. 

Ver. 11. The subject of ver. 1 is now resumed and carried 
further — ^how that God has by no means rejected the people as 



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362 EPI8TLE TO THB BOMAHS. 

such, but rather salvation has come to the Qentiles, through 
the fall of the Israelites, in order thereby to incite these to the 
recovery of their prerogative. Thus (as in ver. 8), the harden- 
ing of Israel would appear as merely transitory, out of which 
God, according to his wisdom, knows how to bring forth some 
good effect. If, however, this idea were understood of aU the 
individual members of the outward body of the nation, then, as 
has been already remarked at ver. 1, in the first place, the 
grief which St Paul expressed in ch. iz. seqq., would be merely 
affected; for, in that case, tbe calamity would be nothing more 
than that some reached the goal later than others; and as, 
moreover, the salvation of the Gentiles was hereby brought 
about, all cause of complaint would substantially disappear. 
And further, in that case the Apostle would contradict himself; 
for in ix. 6, seqq., he had said that not all those who were 
physically members of the Israelitish people were such inwardly 
also, but that to these latter alone the promise belonged; con- 
sequently he cannot here intend to speak of all who were Israel- 
ites by fleshly descent. If we should choose to suppose (which, 
however, according to the subsequent discussion, is not pro- 
bable), that St Paul imagined the coming of Christ to be im- 
mediately at hand, and hoped that it would effect the conver- 
sion of the Israelites; still there had been an interval of more 
than twenty years since our Lord's ascension, and during that 
time many Jews, who might have become believers in Christ, 
had died in unbelief; and therefore, even on this supposition, 
the Apostle could not mean aU the individuals who had ever 
belonged to the nation. We must rather, according to the prin- 
ciples laid down at the beginning of this chapter, make a clear 
distinction between the individuals and the essential part* of the 
nation. Many individuals ^^ stumbled at Christ that they 
should fall" — %. 0., in punishment of their own sin they utterly 
forfeited the salvation which is in Christ; but these were such 
as in nowise belonged to the people of God, properly so called, 
being only members of the fleshly Israel ; the XtTfAfAa, on the 
other hand (ver. 5), which is the proper essence of the nation, 
was, through this very stumbling of the others, and the calling 
of the Gentiles, to be saved, and hereafter to become a great 
blessing to the world. The sense of the words is consequently 

• [JTem.] 



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OH AFTER XI. 11. 363 

this — to the elect all things must serve for good, even the sin 
of iheir neighbours; to those who are not elect, all things serve 
for their hart, even the divinely-appointed means of salvation; 
for their inward perverseness causes them to pervert everything 
from its proper purpose. (Comp. Ps. xviii. 27; Rev. xxii. 11). 
Of course, however, as has already been often remarked, this 
election of God is not to be thought of as arbitrary, but as 
directed by Divine wisdom and holiness, and consequently as 
leaving no one unchosen but such as resist the operation of 
grace. After what has been said, the only thing in the pas- 
sage under consideration that strikes us as a difiSculty is, that 
the Apostle does not distinguish these two classes, but speaks 
of the whole mass as if it were of uniform quality. The cause 
of this circumstance, however, is only to be sought in the 
fact, that St Paul views the people as a definite unity, and 
attributes to it collective actions. The two wholly different 
classes contained in this unity — those of genuine and false 
Israelites, of elect and non-elect— can be separated by Qod 
alone ; it is only in the generations which have quitted the 
earthly scene that man begins to perceive their difference, and 
even in these it is but partially and uncertainly, while in the 
living he cannot discern at all. One who, to the last moment, 
is an unbeliever, may yet, with his last breath, turn and be- 
come a believer. And it is with the whole of mankind as with 
the people of Israel. In God's sight there are two wholly dis- 
tinct classes among mankind, but for man this distinction is 
not perceptible. In the living and in future generations, man 
sees a great mass destined to salvation; it is only in the gene- 
rations which have passed away that he sees the difference; 
and even among these, again, he sees it but imperfectly, since 
no human eye penetrates into the depth of the soul, and we 
can seldom be entirely assured as to the happiness or misery of 
another. 

We must not attempt at all to refine the relations of «ra/fip 
andfl-fgrn/v to each other; the former means simply to aturnble 
against (with reference to ix. S3), the latter the falling, which 
is the consequence of stumbling, with the result of this fall, 
viz., the &ir(a>Ma which may follow from such falling. The ten- 
dency of the Apostle's argument in this place, is to prove how 
God's wisdom can turn the fall of Israel, in the sense which has 



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364 EPISTLE TO THB B0MAN8. 

just been more particularly defined, to the good of others in 
the first place (as had ahready been seen), and eventuaUy to 
that of Israel itself alsa 'ira is^ therefore, to be understood 
rtkixmiy as it is also in yer. 19, which is a passage vexy similar 
to the present *JLymrt is to be supplied to n ^«ri|^/«. Salva- 
tion, doubtless, would have come to the Gentiles, eren in the 
case of Israers having believed ; but, in the first place, it would 
not have been until later, and moreover, if Israel had remained 
true to its calling, the Gentile world would not have become, 
as it has, the transmitter of the ordinances of salvation.* As 
to va^^qXwtfiK/, compare note on x. 19. As in the individual, a 
deep fall is often necessary in order rightly to kindle the new 
life in him to a flame (as, e. g., in the case of St Peter), so, too, 
are the fall of the Jews amon mankind, and the sight of the 
Gentile world enjoying their prerogatives in consequence of 
this fall, the means in God's hand of bringing the IsrwA of 
God to the true life. 

Yer. 12. St Paul goes on to shew, by an argument a mmori 
ad majus, how powerful an influence Israel exercises on man- 
kind — ^like the heart, by the motions of which the life of the 
whole organic system is regulated. If even their faU has had 
the power per C(mtrar%tMn^ to operate for blessing, how mudi 
more will their rising again, when it takes place! The Apostle, 
however, forthwith defines more precisely the idea of the ^ofdr 
^rru/Aa; for, in another view, this fall of Israel was the acceptance 
of some members of the people. If it had been possible that 
the Apostles 'also (who were all children of Abraham), the 
Seventy, and all the Israelitish friends of our Lord, should 
have continued in unbelief, or have become apostate (which 
certainly was impossible, according to Matt. xxiv. 24), then 
neither would the gospel have reached the Gentiles; it would 
have utterly failed. St Paul's idea^ therefore, is properly this : 
— If so small, a number of Israelites has been able to effect so 
much in the Gentile world {x6<ffikoc »= Untj comp. note on iii. 7), 
what will Israel effect when the whole body comes to act! The 
expression chosen for this idea^ {mi^ %ai irXipotpMj is as diffi- 
cult as the idea itsdf is simple. UafiTr^/iM would require, by 
way of contrast, some such notion as ii»6,€Tatfi^\ but this is want-* 
ing, and is absorbed in ^xifufut. ''Hrr^^a, attic for if^npM, is 

[* Triger der HeibanBtelten.] 



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OHAPTBB XI. 13, 14. 365 

used by profane writers like fwa or jjrra^ in the sense of aver- 
throWyhurif loss; in tliat sense it would be synonymous with ^rapdr 
jrrhfMf but if so taken, it would not, seemingly, form a contrast 
with T>JipvfiM. The only other place where it occurs in the 
New Testament is 1 Cor. vi. 7, where it means, like sXAmtfMy 
a moral defect, degradation. The expression rXi^M^bux which is 
used of the full complement of a ship, the whole popidation of 
a city, and the like, points to the idea of a pari as its opposite; 
but it cannot be certainly made out that irrnM,a can bear this 
sense. [Olsh. would render it by the word AusfaU {** abate- 
ment, deficiency,") which, he says, " is used to signify that por- 
tion of a connected multitude which is not filled up.'"] The 
Apostle, no doubt, had in his mind the idea of a definite num- 
ber, which, in the course of its development, the people of 
Israel roust make up — an idea which also appears in a modified 
form in Rev. yii. 4. This number had, in our Lord's day, 
an important deficiency [AusfaU]y in consequence of the unbe- 
lief of many ; and yet, if the faithful few already had such 
powerful influence — ^this St Paul means to say — ^then we may 
well infer what the effect will be, when the number determined 
by God shall be full !* The passage was rightly explained in a 
similar way as far back as Origen. Beza and Grotius in later 
times, and most recently De Wette, also agree in this explana- 
tion, of which ver. 25 is a further confirmation. 

Ver. 13, 14. St Paul proceeds to say that, actuated by a 
knowledge of what is in store for Israel, he, although especially 
an Apostle to the Gentiles, yet always keeps his own people also 
in view, in the hope that his labours among the Gentiles may 
react beneficially on Israel. As, howerer, he says ^w^w nvSts 
fg aOra)K, it is clearly a mistake to suppose that the Apostle con^ 

* The passage Gal. It. 24, seqq., is rery instniettve as to the Apostle's whole 
▼iew of the relation hetween the aggregate of Israel and the hidividnals who oom- 
pose it. The nation is the mother, who constantly represents a poasSnUty of bear- 
ing; but she is long barren (GaL iv. 27); and when she bears, as Sanh bore only 
Isaac, she bears but few ohildren. But the time will eome when the forsaken, 
aged, barren one, shall bear more children than she that hath an husband. Israel, 
scattered among all nations, and forsaken of God, is like to such a deeiming and 
barren woman; individttals alone here and there separate themselves from the 
people, and enter into Christ's Gentile Choreh, which at present has the husband-^ 
t. c, in which God and His grace are in operation. But this barren widow will, 
In her a^ hereafter, bear children, as the dew is bom from the dawn (Ps. ex.), 
[where the latter part of ver. 4 is rendered by Luther, ** Thy children axe bom to 
thee as the dew from the dawn.''] Israel's growing-old is a continuous process of 
purgation; the refuse gradually falls away, the pure gold remains bebiocL 



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366 BPISTLB TO THB ROMANS. 

tinuedy at the date of the Epistle to the Romans^ to imagine our 
Lord's second coming to be as near as he had thought when he 
wrote to the Thessalonians. For, as appears from ver. 25, he 
expected the conversion of ^ag 'upanK at the advent; conse- 
quently, if he had still regarded this as so near, he would have 
chosen some more comprehensive expression instead of rmg. It 
might indeed be said, that St Paul left the conversion of the 
mass of the Jews to the twelve, and himself only hoped to con- 
vert some Jews in addition to his proper work. And if so, no 
conclusion could be drawn from this passage as to St Paul's 
views respecting the nearness of Christ's coming. Still, how- 
ever, the Epistle to the Romans gives the impression, that St 
Paul no longer considered the advent so near. (Comp. note on 
xii. 11.) But in any case, he hoped by his conversion of some, 
to hasten greatly the restoration of all. 

'k^' Uw is to be taken in the sense of in bo far as, inasmuch 
as (supplying r^o^oy), not so long as, (supplying %fovov). The 
conversion of some Jews appears to the Apostle, who always 
keeps in view the great prerogatives of his nation, as a do^d^uk 
of his office. 2«^5 fMv=^)jy7^ (comp. Gen. xxix. 14), in the 

sense of kindred, persons of the same nation, feUow-countrymen. 
Ver. 15. Now, from this conversion he expects a beneficial 
effect for the whole kingdom of God, according to the principle 
of ver. 12, that if even the deficiency* of so many conduced to- 
wards the salvation of the world, the accession of these would 
have a yet far more powerful effect. Here xaraXXoyi) xos/uv ex- 
plains the more general expression wXovros (ver. 12). The Gen- 
tiles were in a state of natural enmity to God (Eph. iL 1, 
seqq.) ; the removal of this enmity, by their calling unto Christ, 
is the xaraXXa^^. Here too the Gentiles are conceived of as a 
collective body, standing in contrast to the Jews as another col- 
lective body. Although so many Gentiles were still in unbelief, 
it is yet alreadj said of them in altogether general terms that 
they are called, inasmuch as the Gentile world, assuchfWtA des- 
tined by God's decree to be, instead of the Jews, the transmitter 
of the divinely-appointed ordinances of salvation; and although 
individual Jews became believers, and in the course of ages 
many more continually joined the Church, it is yet said of them 
that they are rejected, because, regarded as a people, they had 

• [AuBfallJ 



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CHAFTBR XL 16. 367 

ceased to be the centre of the ordinances of salvation. 'A^rofioXi 
is used as equivalent to nrrfi/jM in ver. 12. The rejection of 
Israel is at the same time the reception of some, and it is only 
on this positive side that it is the blessing of the Gentile world. 
The ^pd&kn^sg^ however, is that reception of the whole body which 
is to be expected (according to ver. 25), and of which the opera- 
tion will be so much more potent for all mankind, because 
already so small a number had been able to work on them so 
powerfully. The term r/r — •/ /ifi (which corresponds with rrf^^ 
fjbaXko¥ in ver. 12) is intended to give prominence to the great- 
ness of this influence. Z»4 ix nxpuv (sc. nSsfAov), is equivalent to 
AfA^a^iSy which is to be regarded as that still higher result which 
arises out of the xardkkofyri, exactly as in Rom. v. 9, seqq., the 
two are mentioned together as the lower and the higher. The 
resurrection is here to be primarily understood in a spiritual 
sense (as in Ezek. xxxvii.) The enmity of the Gentiles was, 
iddeed, removed by the fall of Israel, but the spiritual life was 
still weak in them ; from the assumption of Israel, on the other 
hand, St Paul expects the most powerful excitement of life for 
them. The two divisions of mankind, therefore, Jews and 
Gentiles, operate reciprocally on each other. The life which is 
in the Gentiles arouses the emulation of the Jews; and the life 
of the Jews, in its turn, heightens that which is in the Gentiles. 
But inasmuch as, according to ver. 25, it is not until the end of 
the world's development that the irpd&kfi-^tg is to take place, 
and then also the physical resurrection of the saints follows, 
thus far the idea of the ^ani) ix vtxfdv has reference at the same 
time to the bodily resurrection also — as the two, indeed, always 
properly imply each other. (Comp. on John vi. 39, seqq.) 

Ver. 16. Again continuing his argument with t! (a particle 
which begins six sentences between ver. 12 and ver. 21), the 
Apostle employs figures of which the sense is in itself plain, al- 
though there is an obscurity as to their connexion with the 
course of the reasoning. The object of both figures is to affirm 
that the part bears the nature of the whole, or the derivative 
that of the original. The d^rapxi is the general* — the holy first 

• There were two kinds of flnUings Dnisa ivvin the tint ripe fmits, and n^in 
mDi*in the p«rt8 offered to the Lord of that which was prepared. To suppote, 
with Tholnck and Reiche, that the Utter are meant, is a needless increase of the 
difficulty ; for so the two images would stand m an opposite order. The root is the 
general, out of which the branches grow; and by analogy fvf«f*a must also have 



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368 EPISTLE TO THB BOMANS. 

fruits which were offered to the Lord, from which the fv^s^Mi is 
prepared as a derivative ; in Uke manner, the if^a is the original, 
out of which the xkAd^ grow. The nature of the tree is shown 
also by the branch which shoots forth from it. 8t Paul holds 
fast to this second image, and uses it as a substratum through- 
out the argument which follows. But how does he light on the 
idea at all? and what does he intend by it in this place? The 
sentence which must be supplied in order to restore the connex- 
ion, is this: — BtU thai vf6^Xn-i^'^which has been epoken of 
may be expected with certainty , for that which ia derived must 
needs have in it the nature of its original^ and consequently the 
Israd that now is — {the branches) — must also have the nature of 
the root from which it grew. Now these roots are, of course, the 
patriardis, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (ver. 28); because they 
are holy, their seed must also be holy ; for the blessing of the 
righteous descends to thousands (Exod. xxxiv. 7). Then the 
connexion is quite simple between this and the further state- 
ment (ver. 17, seqq.), that the Gentiles indeed were grafted in 
instead of the branches which were cut off, but that, notwith- 
standing, Israel was not rejected for ever. If it be objected that 
too much would follow from this idea, viz., that the Jews could 
not have £Ekllen at all, whereas the Apostle had just been repre- 
senting that they had fallen — ^it is to be considered that St Paul 
does not mean to deny the possibility of a good tree putting 
forth unprofitable shoots; the only inconceivable thing is that 
it should not produce any fruitful branches at all. The apostacy 
of many, therefore, nowise proves that all hope is given up for 
ever ; rather generous branches must yet be put forth from the 
generous root. De Wette's explanation, which makes ^tj^d to 
denote the ideal theocracy, founded in the patriarchs, and 
xXddos, on the other hand, to mean the mere external relation 
to it, fleshly descent and outward membership — exactly coin- 
cides with our interpretation ; for outward membership is de- 
stood first, asd k^a^x^ have followed. Bat, thst St Panl ahould have intentionaUjr 
chosen the one position in the first comparison, and the other in the second, is 
utterly unlikely, since his argument requires that the derivatiTe should follow firam 
the original, as existing hefore it. 'Ara^n means the first fhuts which are eonse- 
crated to the Lord, ^v^mfia the dough which is prepared from them. Reiche tells 
us that we nowhere read of dough l^ing prepared firom the first firuits, but it is not 
nnnrossry that a thing which is understood as a matter of course should be special^ 
related. If St Paul had wished to express the other idea, he would haye had to 
say, ii )) T« ^v^fui Syuwt mm) i i^f. MoreoTor, the disthietton altogether is of later 
origin. Comp. Winer's Real-lexicon in toe. 



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cnAPTEB XI. 17, 18. S69 

signed to include an invitation to enter into th^t whick is 
inward also. 

Ver. 17, 18. The figure of the tree, which has been chosen, is 
more exactly defined by its being characterized as a generous 
ditfe-tree. From this branches have been cut off— (the Apostle 
gently speaks of them as rms, whereas he might have styled them 
the greatest part); and instead of these, wild olive-branches have 
been grafted into the generous parent-stock. St Paul/ of course, 
means by this the children of Japheth who dwell in the tents of 
Shem, and 'who are thus, consequently, admonished to preserve 
a humble consciousness of this benefit as a favour shown to them. 
The circumstance that St Paul makes choice of the olive-tree 
for the illustration of his idea^ while our Lord chooses the vine, 
arises from the character of the former tree; its irtSrris is sym- 
bolical of the spiritual fulnesi^of Israel. Hence the holy anoint- 
ing-oil (Exod. XXV. 6, XXX. 31, xxxvii. 29) was a symbol of being 
filled with the Spirit. And whereas, according to the image in 
this place, the wild branches are engrafted into the generous 
tree, reversing the usual process by which good branches are 
grafted into wild trees — we are informed by both ancient and 
modem writers that such a process is practicable in this very 
tree, the olive, and is often practised in the East — ^a circum- 
stance which is fully sufficient to account for the representation 
in the text. (Comp. Columella de Be Rust. v. 9; Palladius de 
Insit. xiv. 53; Schulz, Leit. des Hoohsten, vol. v. p. 38.) Still 
the main idea in these verses — the engrafting namely — has itself 
an appearance of difficulty. What is the idea which it is intended 
to express when the figure is explained ? The converted Gen- 
tiles will after all not become Jews, as might be said of a prose- 
lyte [to Judaism], inasmuch as he is quite absorbed into the 
nationality of the Jews, and joins them in their manners and 
way of life. Still, it is said that the Gentile Christian is grafted 
not only into the root, but into the very branches which are cut 
off (h auro^f). These words are by no means to be considered 
pleonastic, but denote the place where the branches grew on to 
the tree, the wound (as it were) which was produced by their 
removal, and into which the Gentiles are engrafted. The 
Apostle's whole representation of the case can only be under- 
stood by premising the following fundamental ideas. St Paul 
conceives of the true Israel, i. e., the community of all true be- 

2 A 



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370 BPI3TLB TO THB ROMANS. 

lievers — as aa articulate organization which has in it its own pro- 
per life. Whoever does not stand in connexion with this body 
has no share in the life which animates it. Now, this organi- 
zation has been developed from Abraham, as the Father of 
the Faithful (Rom. iv.), until Clirist, who was, in his humanity, 
the absolutely perfect fruit of this organization; its influence 
did not extend beyond the' bounds of the fleshly Israel, inas- 
much as the Gentiles whom it received into itself were always 
proportionately few, and these, moreover, became at the same 
time nationally Jews. But with the appearance of Christ arrived 
the hour of salvation, and at the same time of judgment on the 
fleshly Israel; the power of life in this holy self-contained 
organization broke forth, attracted the kindred natures in the 
physical Israel, and repelled the uncongenial multitude. As the 
latter preponderated, and formed,* properly speaking, the mass 
of the nation, the physical Israel now ceased to be the centre of 
that spiritual organization, the true Israel. The Gentile world 
now became this centre, and the gaps left by the unfaithful 
members of the fleshly Israel were filled up by the faithful Gen- 
tiles. We must, therefore, consider the idea — ^that if members 
in this organization fall away, others must fill the gap, — as the 
basis of the argument. This is typically shows in the body of 
the Apostles ; when Judas had fallen out of it, his place was 
filled, another was to take his bishopric (comp. note on Acts i. 
20). This idea leads us to apprehend the powerful realistic 
manner in which St Paul conceives of this spiritual body, which 
is no other than the true UxKn^ia^ extending through all man- 
kind — the new man coming into being within the great old-man 
of the human race, who was even from the beginning filled with 
the breath of the Eternal Word, although it was not until the 
fulness of time (Gal. iv. 4) that this Word personally incorporated 
Himself in it,* and so brought him to the knowledge of himself. 
'AypiiXasoi is less usual than the feminine form ayp/OMia; xdk- 
\ii\afSy ver. 24, is its opposite. 'Eyx9¥rpt%n9, to insert into any- 
thing by pricking^ from xivrpof, Acts ix. 5. KaraxavxS^^ here 
means selfish eondtation over another, as opposed to the humble 
consciousness that whatever has been received is of grace. £/ 
df in ver. 18 requires us to supply " then know — then thou must 
know." 

* iDm'9dben (em. seemingly the U«x«ir/«„ or periiaps MenaMeii, mankind.] 



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CHAPTER XI. 19-22. 371 

Ver. 19-22. Notwithstanding that the Apostle's statement 
appears in certain parts to subject everything to a rigid neces* 
sity; yet other passages, on the other hand, clearly show how 
firmly he at the same time holds free-will ; and to this latter 
class the following verses belong. He reminds the Gentiles of 
the possibility of their falling away, and of the restoration of 
the people of Israel. St Paul, therefore, is far from teaching a 
doctrine of irresistible grtice. It is, indeed, through Ood alone 
— as well through His election as through His operation — ^that 
the good man does any good thing; but yet he retains the 
power of resistance as long as he lives on earth ; hence the con- 
tinual possibility of falling away. And, on the other hand, the 
worst of men, so long as he sojourns in the body, retains the 
possibility of ceasing from his resistance, and hence the continual 
possibility of conversion. Gt>d, indeed, knows the event before- 
hand, but he knows it precisely as one that is brought about 
through the free-will of the individuals. This possibility St 
Paul states in the passage following; and we must acknowledge 
in consequence the possibility that the candlestick of the Oen- 
tiles might be removed. History presents us with partial ap- 
pearances of this kind, especially in the Eastern Church; but, 
according to ver» 25, it is not to be conceived that, as to the 
Gentiles as a whole, this possibility should ever be realised.'^ 

In ver. 20, faiik and unbelief are specified as the tempers 
which fundamentally determine the mind, by which the man 
stands or falls. The former means, as it always does, the inward 
openness to receive the influences of a higher world; the latter, 
the self-sufficient self-isolation and limitation to its own powers, 
which consequently cannot lead to anything above itself, ^r-^n- 
Xopponh is again found in 1 Tim. vi. 1 7, and is the opposite to ^ojSi ^tr- 
^as, which is not meant to denote a slavish fear, but a tender 
carefulness — ^not a fear (/God, but a fear/or God and His cause, 
a fear of one's-self and sin. In ver. 21, ^ojSou/CAa/ is to be supplied ■ 
before fjkti Tug. Tlie received text has ^tinfirat, which is indeed more 

* The adherents of the well-known fimatical preacher, Irving, in London, hold 
that the whole Gentile Church hae already become apostate, and that now, at the 
end of the development of the Church, a Jewi|h Chnrch will again be formed. This 
ides, however, has evidently no foundation in Scripture, and must, therefore, be 
reckoned among the many errors of that party. It may, however, not impossibly 
be in the scheme of Divine Providence, that in the last days a Jewish Church 
may again arise, 6y theddto/iht Gentile Church, as was the case in the apostolio 
age. 



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:^72 EPISTLB TO THB BOM AN8. 

suitable tban ftinreu to the usual construction of ft^n ««ff; there 
is, however, no lack of examples of the construction with the in* 
dicative also (comp. Winer's 6r. p. 471). In ver. 22 the meaning 
of a^nrofiJa is sufficiently determined bj the oppositOi xf^^^t; 
it is equivalent to ipyti^ but is preferred on account of the figure 
of the cut-off branches. By iav i^tfAiUpt it is not intended to 
ascribe to man an independent power of action of his own, as if 
without the help of grace he could preserve himself from falling 
away by his own strength and faithfulness; but rp vtgrti is to be 
understood (comp. ver. 23), and it is intended to signify the con- 
tinual preservation of the receptivity for that grace which pro- 
tects from falling away. '£«/ else, othenvise, as in ver. 6. 

Ver. 23, 24. The possibility of the restoration of rejected 
Israel is now placed by the side of the possible apostacy of the 
Gentiles; the condition of it is, that they no longer continue to 
resist the divine grace, by which resistance the omnipotence of 
God itself is hindered, inasmuch as it cannot be His wiU to put 
constraint on a being which was created free. The whole, how- 
ever, continues thus far to be on the footing of a hypothesis, as 
it is not until ver. 25, 26, that the certainty of such a restoration 
is expressed ; further observations on this idea are therefore re- 
served for the following verses. 

In ver. 23, duvarSi x. r. X. denotes the divine omnipotence, 
which, however, is never to be thought of as separate from wis- 
dom; hence God cannot again engraft those who continue in 
&'xifTlay since His wisdom does not admit of His willing it. The 
opposition of xarel ^im and 9ap6 fv^sv must by no means be re- 
garded as an unmeaning part of the image; rather it has the 
important signification that the Jews, considered as a people, 
have in their whole tendency and qualifications, a higher call 
than all other nations to employ themselves on the things of 
God. This calling of theirs is not taken away by their unfaith- 
fulness, but only suspended; the consciousness of it, conse- 
quently, can very easily be re-awakened in them, while a very 
long time was required to bring the Gentile world into its pro- 
per relation to the divine ordinances of salvation. 

Ver. 25, 26. In order, th^n, to bring the Gentile Christians, 
whom he seems in this place to regard exclusively (or quite pre- 
dominantly in the Roman Church, to the proper estimate of their 
position (lira fi^ frt ^ap iavroTi f^^w/xw), the Apostle points with 



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CHAPTBR XI. 2.5, 26. 37.*} 

prophetic emphasis (ou ftXu v/i&i Aym)^, comp. note on i. 13), to 
tlie mystery of Israel's restoration^ when rh ^x^put/uka rZv ihSif 
shall have first come in (to the community of the faithful, or of 
the kingdom of God). That this remarkable passage contains 
a prophecy, properly so called, respecting the people of Israel, 
is acknowledged by the great majority of expositors, both 
ancient and modem; and the context so positively requires us 
to understand Israelites after the flesh, that a different interpre- 
tation of the passage will never be able to gain a permanent 
footing. It was only from a mistaken opposition to the Jews, 
and from apprehensions of fanatical abuse of the passage, that 
Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Jerome, long ago, and in later days 
the reformers especially, were led to explain the Apostle's words 
as relating to the epirUtuii Israel. The correct application, how- 
ever, was again established as early as Beza in the reformed* 
Church, and in the Lutheran by Calixtus and Spener. How 
forced the sense of the words is, according to that interpretation 
which refers them to the spiritual Israel, is apparent from the 
translation of the passage to which this leads, Israel has been 
in part affected trith hardness, throughout the whole time thai 
i&XF'i oS) the fulness of the Oentiles is entering into the kingdom 
o/Ood, i. e., while the Oentiles are entering in a body, individtuil 
Jews only will become Christians ; there is no help to be expected 
for the Jewish people as a whole. t) But then (viz., when all 
the Gentiles shall have entered), will the whole spiritual Israel, 
made up of Jews and Oentiles, be blessed. The utter irrelevancy 
of this last sentence must be apparent to every one ; it is only 
when applied to the fleshly Israel that it acquires a meaning. 
Ammon, Reiche, and Eollner acknowledge this, indeed, but 
suppose that the prophecy has remained unfulfilled ;| as if the 
history of the people of Israel to this day did not preach aloud 
that it is yet to receive its fulfilment. Benecke, without any 
ground, transfers this fulfilment wholly into the next world; the 

• [i. e.y Calviniatic] 

t The pomtiveneM with whieh Luther aflMrtBtheimpoBsibility of the eonveniou 
of the Jews is remarkable. He says, among other things : — " A Jewish heart is 
so Btock-stone-devil-ironhard, that in nowise can it be moved ; they are young 
doTiJs, damned to bell ; to convert these devil's-brats (as some fondly ween oat of 
the Epistle to the Romans), is impossible." From this, as from other ezprsasions, 
it is manifest that the knowledge of the last events of the world's history was a 
province closed against the great Reformer. 

t L*- «f apparently, that it is utterly void.] 



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374 EPISTLS TO THB BOMAB3. 

portion of truth which may lie in this idea will forthwith come 
out more distinctly. The first question which occurs, on our at- 
tempting to ascertain more exactly the sense of this remarkable 
prophetic expression, is — ^what does the Apostle wish to be un- 
derstood by 4rS( 'l0^i}X? Does he mean all the individuals who 
ever belonged to the fleshly Israel ? and consequently among 
them, Judas Iscariot, Absalom, and all the cut-off branches? 
It might seem so, according to vers. 15 and 23, where the pos- 
sibility of engrafting is declared with respect to those who have 
been cut off, t. e., the reprobate. This is also strongly favoured 
by ver. 11, where it is expressly stated that the design was not 
that they should utterly fall, but that they should be stirred to 
emulation. Still, the x^mT^i only means the Jews regarded as 
a whole, in opposition to the Gentiles, but not the single indi- 
viduals of the nation who had contracted especial guilt. If all 
individuals were one day to be made blessed, there ^^ould, as 
has been remarked already, be an inward untruth in St Paul's 
grief (ix. 3); and so too in the separation between the spiritual 
and the fleshly Israel (ix. 6), since in that case the. whole of 
Israel would be spiritual, only that this character would not be 
developed in some until a later time. Or (2), does wag 'u^\ 
signify only those Jews who live in the last days, so that we 
must suppose idl earlier generations of the people of Israel ex- 
cluded from bliss? If so, the history of Israel since Christ's 
coming would be like the forty years in the wilderness, only that, 
as the space of time is greater, the repetition also would be on a 
larger scale. In the one case, it was necessary that the old 
generation should utterly die out, in order to make room for a 
new; in this case, it would be necessary that a whole series of 
generations should die off, in order more and more to gather to- 
gether the scattered seeds of a better life, and at length to ex- 
hibit them united in the last generation, as in a matured fruit. 
In like manner, as we see in the patriarchs of the nation, that 
of Abraham's descendants his son Isaac alone (and not Ishmael) 
could be regarded as the transmitter of the holy life, and of 
Isaac's in turn, only his son Jacob, not Esau; while, on the 
other hand, of Jacob's, all his twelve sons form the piUars of 
Israel. But the Clhristian spirit is opposed to this representa- 
tion, on the ground that, according to it, the one saved genera- 
tion would not stand in any proportion to the many who 



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ciiAPTKE XI. 25, 26. S75 

perished, while yet the loss of salvation would not appear as 
caused by any personal guilt of the latter, by their resistance to 
grace. Rather the Apostle unquestionably means, that the 
XiTfA/jMz xar ixXoyiJr ;^a^/ro( (xi. 5), is to be conceived of as existing 
in the nation at every period of time. Israel would have ceased 
to be Israel if this had been utterly wanting in any generation. 
Consequently, we can only understand the prophecy in such a 
sense that all those members of the Israelitish people who ever 
belonged to the true XsTpt^fia attain gurripia; at the end of the 
world, assuredly, the people will enter in a mass into the king* 
dom of God, but even then too there will be no want of such 
individuals as are Israelites after the flesh only. But all the 
better persons of the earlier generations, who remained in 
ignorance of Christ without guilt of their own, and yet led their 
lives in sincere fulfilment of the law, true repentance, and firm 
faith in the Messiah, whom they had been taught to look for— ^ 
(as is doubtless to be supposed of many Jews in all ages) — these 
will be dealt with like those who lived before the coming of 
Christ, and who learn in the next life to know that which here 
they knew not; in like manner as pious heathens also, who here 
had no means of becoming acquainted with Christ, will there 
find a possibility of laying hold on Him as their Saviour. Thus 
the fulfilment of the prophecy is of a truth to be partly placed 
in the next world, and this is the truth which is contained in 
Benecke's view. And in this sense St Paul could with propriety 
speak of ^rftc 'Uffa^\ since those who forfeit salvation do not 
really belong at all to the Israel of God. (ix. 6.) It is indeed 
certain that the Apostle did not imagine the fulfilment of this 
prophecy to be so distant as experience has shown it to be; still, 
it has been already observed (on ver. 14) that neither did St 
Paul conceive it to be quite close at hand, as if it might taka 
place in his own lifetime ; he did not know the time of Christ's 
second coming (Acts i. 7), but hoped that that which he longed 
for would soon come to pass. The greater or less length of the 
interval, however, does not in any way affect the substance of 
the view ; if there were but a single generation between, still 
the question always arises how this is to be regarded ; and it 
cannot be answered otherwise than as it has been, since there is 
nothing to warrant us in supposing that the generation either 
attains salvation without exception or perishes without exeep^ 



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376 EPISTLB TO THB KOMAVS. 

tion. The expression iy^t^ tZ, consequently, is meant merely t^ 
indicate the term at which the tfctrnpfa of Israel will come to pass, 
without more particularly defining the time. The ti^px^^ku of 
the flrXji/^AVEM rCiJt ihw (viz., t/^ ri|v Pa^iXtl/wf rw OfoD), is, howOYer, 
no less a difficulty than the definition of irilt 'if/w^X. Are we^ 
by this phrase, to understand all Gentiles who ever lived or 
will live, without exception ?* This, again, cannot possibly be 
the Apostle's meaning, since iu chap. i. he had represented them 
as so deeply sunk, and nowhere intimates that aU will allow 
themselves to be brought to repentance. Or is it only all the 
Gentiles who shall be alive at the time of Christ's second com- 
ing ? If so, how should the better-minded of the earlier heathens 
(ii. 14, 26, 27) have ofTended, who, without guilt of their own, 
knew nothing of the way of salvation ? And how can we recon- 
cile with this the statement, which is continually repeated in 
Scripture (comp. on St Matt, xxiv.), that just at the time of the 
second advent, sin will be exceedingly powerful among men? 
That every individual should be won to the truth by the preach- 
ing of the gospel among the Gentiles, is in itself unlikely, and 
contradicts Scripture, which represents the gospel as preached 
to them for a witness unto them. (Matt. xxiv. 14.) The elect 
among the Gentiles, therefore, can alone be meant But why 
does St Paul choose for this meaning the word tX^pm/m, which 
may also signify the whole aggregate body ? (Comp. on ver. 12.) 
It is in order that here again he may hold fast the idea of the 
supplying of a deficiency.j- The gap caused by the unfaithful- 
ness of many Israelites will be filled up by a corresponding 
number of the Gentiles, who enter on the higher calling of those 
who have fallen out from their places. In God's kingdom, all 
is rule and order ; and thus even the number of His saints is 
counted ! (1 Cor. xiv. 83.) The explanation of ver. 32 will 
show that that verse may be reconciled with this interpretation. 
Mutft^^/oy does not mean something which in itself cannot be 
known, but something which (as being the free counsel of God) 

* AeeordxDg to Rev. xx. 8, there are stiU beftthens eyen in the kingdom of God, 
who are led astray by Gog and Magog ; thus all beaUiens cannot become GbristisM* 

t It is similarly taken by Bengel, who rightly renders it ntpplemenUm, So, too, 
Stier, who refers to John x. 16, xi. 52 ; and remarks that the conversion of ^^ 
Gentiles will not fnlly flourish until forwarded by the activity of the oonverUa 
Israelites. (Comp. Isa. ii. 8, Ixvi. 1 9, seqq. ; Zechar. viii 20, seqq. ; Mic ▼. ^O 
Compare, also, Justin Martyr, Apol. ii. p. 82, ed. Sylburg., who in like manner ex- 
presses the idea of a numbei* o( the Gentiles which is to be filled up by degress. 



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CHAPrBB XI. 26, 27. 377 

cannot be discovered by man. In like manner, the calling of 
the Gentiles is also called fj^u^rnftov, (1 Cor. xv. 51 ; Ephes. i. 
9, iii, 3.) — n«J iavrf fp6vifMs thou answers to V^y^l Djn (Prov. 
iii. 7.) The w<^pMg/g (comp. on ver. 7) here appears in so far as 
an act of grace, as it withdraws the knowledge from the people 
until the suitable moment for their conversion. If the Jews had 
resisted salvation with their eyes open, their guilt would have 
been far greater than in the actual case. "Axpit oZ can, of 
course, signify only th^ term, until the entrance of the Gentiles 
shall be complete, not the duration of their entering through 
all ages. 'at& ijApoxn is not to be joined with irutpufftf, as if the 
hardening were partial, but with Israd; as many Jews became 
believers, this addition was necessary. Glockler is mistaken in 
his interpretation of the passage — '' Hardening came on the 
people of Israel from a portion of it;'' viz,, from those who 
lived in our Lord's day — (i. c., a part brought guilt on the 
whole); d<ri fiipwi must be the opposite to tS; 'itrpa^K — oSrw 
is to be taken as meaning " Such circumstances having arisen." 

Ver. 26, 27. For the confirmation of the hope which he had 
expressed, St Paul now again refers to a prophecy of the Old 
Testament. He quotes freely, from memory, and thus, as he 
had before done, mixes up two passages (Isaiah lix. 20 and 
xxvii. 9). Hence no stress is to be laid on the variations from 
the original and the LXX. The Apostle was concerned only 
with the leading idea, that, according to the Old Testament, a 
deliverance is to be expected for Israel — an idea wliich is in- 
deed expressed in both passages. That St Paul regards Christ 
alone as the person who accomplishes this deliverance of Israel, 
and does not suppose (as some enthusiasts have fancied) that 
at the end of time a further special Redeemer is to come for 
Israel, — ^this point requires no proof. The circumstance that 
here His coming is represented as future, whereas Jesus had 
already performed His work at the time when St Paul wrote, 
is easily explained by considering that the intention is hereby 
to express that the experience of this redemption through 
Christ, before which it cannot be said to have acquired its 
reality for them, is future for the Israelites. 

Instead of ix S/c^v, the LXX. have mxsv x#mv, from the He- 
brew y^H^I^, St Paul probably had in his mind such passages 



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d7S EPI6TLB TO THB ROMANS. 

as Ps. xiv. 7, where Y^h^ is found. The title ivS/Mvog answers 
to ^t^^;[, a well-known Jewish designation of the Messiah, 
which is the same in idea with ^onrfip. — A/a^i}xij vap' ifi^oV points 
to the fact that the covenant proceeds from God, and is founded 
in His grace. 

Ver. 28, 29. After this full statement, the Apostle is now 
ahle to rec\ir to the fundamental idea, that the Israelites, con- 
sequently, although by resistance to the gospel they had put 
themselves into a position of enmity, must yet ever continue to 
be regarded as friends by the believer, for the sake of their 
fathers, in whom they were called — ^a relation which cannot 
be done away with by their unfaithfulness. In these verses 
there is an opposition between thayyiTaw and IxXo/^, and again, 
between h/ Ifiag and d/cb roO^ ^aripa;- The former of these op- 
positions is, of course, to be so understood, that the gospel is 
taken in connexion with the resistance to it which proceeds 
from the Jews, and the IxKoyn with the grace of God which 
keeps them upright. In the word i/a, the signification " with 
respect to," is primarily to be kept to. The 6/tf?i;, consequently, 
are to be conceived of as Gentiles, the faihers as the true 
Israel, so that in these words are signified the two divisions of 
mankind according to the fundamental idea of the Theocracy. 
But when the election is traced back to the fathers, the idea 
comes out that the posterity are regarded as included in the 
ancestors. (Comp. the more particular remarks in note on 
Rom. V. 12; Heb. vii. 9.) If the individuals were absolutely 
isolated, the children would have no connexion with the fathers. 
The important point in these verses, however, is the question 
whether here (ver. 29) the doctrine of gratia irresist^nlis do 
not appear to be expressed. We must, indeed, allow that Holy 
Scripture does not contain any passage from which that doe- 
trine might be deduced with greater plausibility than from 
this, taken iu combination with ver. 32. But even here it is 
easy to show the unsafeness of such an inference. The divine 
xX^ffii is not to be thought of except as united with God's 
omniscience, by which He knows the non-resistance of the 
elect; He does not, therefore, force the resisting will, since 
there is no such will, but he does according to His pleasure in 
those hearts which give themselves up to Him. But if it 



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CHAPTER XI. SO, 81 . 379 

sliould be said that there is in all men a certain resistance to 
grace, forasmuch as they are sinful beings, and therefore it can 
only be the power of grace that overcomes this resistance in 
the elect; that hence, we must either suppose, if there be 
any eternal damnation, that Grod by a decree does not suffer 
grace to become powerful enough in the damned to overcome 
their resistance, or else we must suppose an universal restora- 
tion, as many of the later writers have been led by ver. 32 to 
imagine; but that, in any case, the Divine grace is to be con- 
ceived of as irresistible, since it is the working of the Almighty; 
— if, I say, such a conclusion were proposed, it may be met as 
follows, from a scriptural point of view and on scriptural prin- 
ciples. The Almighty and All-wise God, who has once created 
man with a capacity of resisting His will, cannot contradict 
Himself, as would be the case if He wished to force the resist- 
ing >vill of the creature to a conformity with His own. Hence 
results the operation of grace for every man according to the 
measure of the position in which lie stands, so that there 
always remains for eineTy one a possibility of resisting the oper- 
ations of grace which come to him. This agency of God is in 
the passage under consideration understood only in combination 
with His omniscience, by means of which God knows from 
everlasting those individuals who compose the true Israel as 
persons who do not hinder the power of creative grace which 
visits them. 

Tlie xj^ptiffiMTa are the several manifestations of x^^/r, which 
word would suit the place equally well; we are, of course, not to 
think of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. KXtj^ig, on 
the other hand, is the Divine agency by which the grace which 
dwells eternally in God visits man in time. And from this re- 
lation of the two expressions, the circumstance that xXti^ti 
stands second is to be explained; if the extraordinary gifts of 
the Holy Ghost were meant, xXn^tg must of course stand first. 
The only other passage of the New Testament where the form 
&/it,frafAi\firoi is found is 2 Cor. vii. 10. In profane Greek it is 
of very frequent occurrence. 

Ver. 30, 31. The general principle which has just been 
declared is now established equally with respect to Gentiles 
(who are again exclusively and expressly addressed), and Jews, 
80 that the divine grace forms the Israel of God alike from 



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380 EritSTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

Jews and Gentiles. But if the unbelief of the Jews was the 
occasion of the calling of the Gentiles, it yet will not in turn 
be the apostacj of the Gentiles that is to cause the restonation 
of Jews ; for an univertal falling awaj of the Gentile world is, 
according to ver. 25, inconceivable ; but, on the contrary, the 
GentUe world's experience of God's men^ will soften the heart 
of Israel also to emulation of its example. (Comp. on x. 19, 
XI. 14.) 

In &wtihJ\r and &Ttshta, the notions of disobedience and unr 
belief interpenetrate each other; the latter is properly the 
deviation from true obedience towards God.* The dative, rf 
&Ttiht<i^ is naturally to be taken in the sense of " by occasion of 
their unbelief." The attempt to connect vfuri^tft fXff# with irst- 
hiffa¥ is quite inadmissible, if there were no other reason than 
that the unbelief of the Jews did not follow but preceded the 
reception of the Gentiles. In ver. 31, u/uktri^ift ixiu is to be taken 
passively "through Ood*8 showing you mercy" not actively 
*' through your prctctising mercy" For, according to ver. 11, 
St Paul means to say, ** Your reception is intended to provoke 
Israel to jealousy, in order that it also may lay hold on the 
salvation which is in Chri8t."+ The insertion of rw or u^rtfv 
before i\»n&Si6i is a mere correction of the transcribers, which 
varied according as they imagined the future conversion of the 
Jews to be nearly or more remote. 

Ver. 32. The whole statement is at length concluded with a 
deeply significant declaration, in which the whole history of the 
world is represented as the act of Ood, without prejudice to the 
freedom of man. Sin itself must become a foil to that which is 
good and beautiful; it turns love into grace, and grace into 
mercy. Sin (in its outward determinate form), no less than 
mercy— all is the act of God, the All-sufficient. The limits, 
however, which in the Apostle's mind are set to this sublime 
declaration, are exceeded by those among the later interpreters 
(especially Reiche, KoUner, and Glockler), who understand the 

* St Paul does not intend, in this place, to treat of the origin of anbelief among 
the heathen, hut only of the fad. Henee, there was no need for Dengel's obser- 
▼ation, ** Incredulitas cadit etiam in eos qui ipei uon audivere verhum Dei; quia 
tauien primitos id in patriarchia, Adamo, Noacho, sufeoeperaut" It is simpler 
to say that, as through their iall in Adam they were sinnens so, too, were they un- 
believers. 

t [Tlie German hss ^'in order that you also, etc.,** which does not appear (o 
make sense ] 



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CHAPTER XI. 32. 381 

words 0/ vdvrti to relate to all individuals of the Jews and Gen- 
iiles. This word stands in direct contradiction to the plain 
statements of St Paul, that all are not the children of faith (iz. 
6); moreover, the article hefore inivrtg* forbids us to suppose 
so, showing, as it does, that we are not to think of the absolute 
total of the individuals who compose mankind, but of that 
aggregate of the elect among Jews and Qentiles, which had 
previously been indicated. And lastly, the words, ha roug ^dvras 
iXt^gp ought in any case to be understood as signifying the divine 
purpose only, like other passages which declare the universality 
of grace (1 Tim. ii. 4 ; 2 Pet. iii, 9 ; 1 John ii. 2), without giving 
us to suppose that this purpose takes eifect in the case of every 
individual. Since, then, St Paul teaches in the strongest terms 
that salvation is not in fact attained by every individual of man- 
kind (2 Thess. i. 9), the interpretation of this passage which has 
been noticed, can only be regarded as erroneous. Stier, among 
later writers, rightly declares himself to the same effect. The 
parallel passage, Qal. iii. 22, speaks decidedly in favour of our 
interpretation. It is there said, twiKXti^iv ri ypa^ii rA ^dvra 
if^h &iiJkapriav, ha fi irayyiTJa ix flr/tfrifti^ "'lijtfoD Xp/ffroD do^ roT'g 
viffrfvou^i. Thus, although the Apostle had in the former 
part of the verse taken a more extensive conception of the 
whole, so that even the xri^t^ may be understood as compre- 
hended in it,f still in the latter part he restricts the salvation 
to those who believe; but that all the individuals of mankind, 
without exception, will believe, is assuredly not St Paul's mean- 
ing, since in 2 Thess. iii. 2 he says expressly, 6u ydp ^dvrw 4 
^/<fr/;, and in 2 Tim. iii. 1, seqq., he particularly describes the 
manner in which very many give themselves wholly up to sin, 
and fall away again from the faith which they had acknow- 
ledged. 

• The expression tfu/xXf/i/y is based on the metaphor of a prison^ 
in which those whose guilt is alike are shut up together. In $ig 

* Comp. the oommentniy on John xii. 32. I would remark, further, that in the 
exposition of that panage I have not given prominence to the eircnnistanoe that 
there too it is the purpose and not the effect that is spolon of. \^e may say that in 
.that place the suhjeci is the universality of the operaiicnt of ffrece, but not the 
btettediten of all; t. e., not the actual result 

f D. and E. read rk wdtrm, and P.O. read irdfTm in Kom. xl 82 also, but these 
variations are seemingly to be regarded only as correetions from Gal. iiL 22, which 
passage, as being an important parallel, might easily influence the text of the 
other. 



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382 BPtSTLB TO TBI BOMANS. 

Amthtaf IB signified as the element to which men are thereby made 
over; while in Qal. iii. 22, iMrh afha^riaf denotes sin as the hard 
master, to whose service sinners must be subject. The whole 
passage, however, represents God, not as the author of sin, 
through whose influence and counsel it is generated, but as one 
who distributes in equal measures the evil which has been gene- 
rated by the misused free-will of the creature, in order to afford 
a possibility of salvation to all who do not resist. 

Yer. 33. This whole contemplation of the wonderful ways 
of the Lord, who knows how to gather His flock unto Himself 
out of all languages, kindreds, and tongues, was assuredly fitted 
to excite a feeling of amazement and admiration.* To this 
feeling, then, the Apostle gives vent in an exclamation which is 
indeed short but deeply felt, and full of great ideas. If, how- 
ever, /S(£^o( wXoitrou be taken as one notion (according to the usual 
explanation), then that very attribute of God is wanting which, 
from the context, we must expect to find mentioned before all 
others — ^the attribute of compassionate love. There is some- 
thing so distressing in this want, that we decide with Glockler 
in favour of understanding vXovrog to mean riches of mercy — of 
love. In this there is no difliculty whatever, since St Paul speaks 
directly of TXoDro; Xpitfrou (Eph. iii. 8; Phil. iv. 19), which can 
only be understood of His grace; and since, besides, in the idea 
of love there is involved an intimation of its overflowing, rich 
character, which establishes a natural connexion between love 
and spiritual riches. Add to this, that the clauses which follow 
correspond exactly, in a reversed order, to the three attributes. 
The words w; &vt^spt\f9?ira x. r. X. refer to ypuatt ; r/( yap iyvtt x. r. X. 
to ^0^/a ; and lastly, r/i ^pMaxtv avrf to the mere grace, which 
gives where there is no desert. Nay, further, in ver, 36, the 
three prepositions ig, dtd, and t/^ point back to the three 
characteristics mentioned in ver. 33. Reiche's remark, that if 
three genitives were to be connected with jSatfo^, there ought 
also to be xai before ^XoDrou, or that which stands before e^iag 
should be wanting, is insignificant. For, to say nothing of the 

* This bold And powerful flight aeems, howoTer, to hare a foandation only on 
the supposition of an entire restoration. If only some, or but a few in all, are 
blessed, how is God*s wisdom to become manifest in the result ! but if all become 
blessed, wiiliout prejudice to free-will and justice, this, assuredly, appears as a 
miracle of God. The doctrine of a restoration has very many passages of St Paul's 
episiles apparently in ito favour. 



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CHAPTER XI. 34^-36. 383 

fact that the xa/ before ^ia^ is wanting in some HSS., we have 
no ground for supposing that there must necessarily have been a 
triple xou in this place; it would be necessary only if it had the 
sense of as wM . . . a» also; but here we may take it as merely 
a connecting particle, like the Hebrew •)» so that the passage 
resembles Matt. xxvi. 59, Eph. iv. 6. 

2op/a is God's knowledge of the purposes^ ym^ng His know- 
ledge of the nature of things. 'Ayigf^iuniro^ is not found else- 
where in the New Testament, but Aquila uses it, Prov, xxv. 3, 
for -^pn pt4- ' An^ixjfia^roi occurs again, Eph. iiL 8, and in the 
LXX. version of Job v. 9, ix. 1 0. Kpi/iMra and 6dc! signify the 
utterances of Ood's will in as far as they give things their 
nature and subsistence, while in ver. 34 is described the agency 
of God in determining ends. 

Ver. 34, 35. The Apostle enlarges on the unsearchableness 
of God in words taken from the Old Testament (Is. xl. 13; Job 
xli. 2). Tlie meaning of course is only that no creature can 
penetrate into the counsel of God ; but, doubtless, God Himself 
may, by revelation of Himself, give glimpses into His ways. 
The words rtg vpo'UoiXiv aurff however, are in every respect to be 
taken absolutely, inasmuch as the giving powers of the creature 
are themselves only derivative; the creature has nothing of its 
own but what is evil. God's gift is always a grace, for it can 
never be deserved. 

The passage, Job xli. 2, is in the LXX. xli, 11, and runs thus 
— rii dvr/errij^f ra/ /mi xai v^ofLiysT. In the Hebrew, on the other 
hand, it is oVttJbJI '^3?D*^pn *^y which exactly agrees with the 
sense of St Paul's words. - Perhaps, therefore, the Apostle trans- 
lated immediately from the original. In the Alexandrian MS. 
of the LXX., the words are placed at Is. xl. 14, but as they are 
there altogether wanting in the Hebrew, they must, no doubt, 
have been written by some copyist in the margin of xl. 13, and 
so have found their way into the text of some MSS. 

Ver. 36. St Paul at length closes his great doctrinal investi- 
gation with a doxology, in which God is described as embracing 
all things* — as the beginning, middle, and end of all things, 
and, consequently, of the believing Israel as a whole, and of 
everj individual. That these references are what is intended by 

* Tholack aptly compares with this Dante's address to God — ** Tliou in whom 
all good tilings begin and end 1" 



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384 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

the prepositions i^, dtd, and t/V, is no longer questioned bj later 
writers. But, on the other hand, they continue blind to tiie fact 
that these references also express the relation of Father, Son, 
and Spirit. In an exactly similar way it is said of God, Eph. 

iv. 6, i i^i wdrrtif xai d/cb 4ravr«f, naJ if «&«r. Of the Father as . 
the source of all being, »x or \rtrh is always used in the New Testa- 
ment, and M with respect to His absolute power; of the Son, 
always d/^ as the Revealer of the Father, the organ of His 
agency (comp. on John i. 3); of the Spirit, f/(, inasmuch as He is 
the End to which the divine agency leads, or », inasmuch as 
He is the element which penetrates and supports all things. 
1 Cor. viii. 6 is decisive in favour of this interpretation; as there 
St Paul himself explains Jg o5 and 3/ ov of the Father and the 
Son, and if so only by accident that he does not also mention 
the Holy Ghost. The only objection which might be advanced 
is, that the passages, thus understood, might favour Sabel- 
lianism. It is, indeed, unquestionable that the personality of 
Father, Son, and Spirit, cannot be deduced from these passages, 
which witness only to the unity of Essence; but if the person- 
ality be warranted elsewhere, such passages as these are no 
argument against it, affirming, as they do, nothing more than 
that one divine Being manifests itself as Father, Son, and Spirit. 
— Again, Col. i. 16 might seem to bear against our interpreta- 
tion, as there the predicates of the Spirit (f/V and f v), although 
not those of the Father, are transferred to the Son. Tliis, how- 
ever, may be got over by the consideration, that the agency of 
the Son and that of the Spirit are, in the New Testament, not 
unfrequently represented as blended together, — ^the Spirit re- 
ceives everything from the Son (John xvi. 14); hence also that 
which belongs to the Spirit may be ascribed to the Son, without 
our having any reason thence to conclude, that the difference of 
personalities in the Divine Being, as indicated by. prepositions, 
is not to be maintained. . . . ll&wa tti aMv might also be refer- 
red to the restoration of all things; but in this aphoristic clause 
there is not so much the declaration of a fact, — ^that all things 
shall be brought back, — as that all are designed to be brought 
back to Him ; but whether all things have attained this destina- 
tion, this, it may be said, is a different question. Still, in this 
place, as in others, there is a very strong appearance in favour of 
the restoration. (Comp. the remarks on 1 Cor. xv. 26, seqq.) 



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385 

PART III. 
(XII. 1— XV. 33.) 

THB STHIGAL EXPOSITION. 
SECTION I. 

(XII. 1— XIIL 14.) 

EXHORTATIONS TO L07B AND OBEDIENCE. 

The Apostle most suitably follows up his detailed doctrinal 
statement with an ethicai part^ as is the case in almost all his 
opistles. As blossom and fruit grow onlj from a sound root, 
BO, too, it is only from faith in Christ, and in the redemption 
wrought by Him, that the true moral life proceeds. But from 
this faith it must indeed of necessity be produced, as surely as 
light and warmth must be diffused where there is fire. But if 
from this it should be argued that, therefore, there can be no 
need df particular moral admonitions, we should overlook the 
perv^rseness of hun)^ nature. If indeed the life of faith had 
its thoroughly right course in every individual, then, certainly, 
it would not be necessary to call attention particularly to the 
fruits which ought to proceed from it, even as thefe is no need 
of any special precautions in order to make a generous tree 
bring forth generous fruits. But in man, changeable as he is, 
the life lias no sudi physically regulated course. The dis> 
ordered relations of head and heart often lead him to persuade 
himself that he has the life of fietith, without really having it. 
Hence it is necessary to point to the fruits of faith, inasmuch 
as the defect of these is a decisive token of the defects of the 
inner man. The object of the ethical admonitions is not, 
therefore, immediately through them to produce fruit; for of 
this the law altogether is not capable, not even in its New 
Testament form. Still, neither is their object the purely nega- 
tive one of merely forming a mirror, in which the reader may 
be able to discern what he has not and is not. Bather the 
ethical admonitions of the New Testament have a positive cha- 
racter, which consists in this, that, although they do not work 
productively (which nothing can do but faith, or the power of 

2b 



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386 EPISTLB TO THE BOMANS. 

the Spirit accompanying the admonitions)^ yet they are meant 
to arouse the consciousness how far the power of faith must 
work into all circumstances of life, even the minutest. The ad- 
vanced members of the Church, therefore, and, above all, the 
Apostles, have to shew others the way how to attain, by degrees^ 
to the estate of being penetrated on all sides by the Christian 
principle. 

In the ethical development before us, we must first direct 
our view to the plan which the Apostle follows in it. For I 
can by no means accede to the assertion of the majority of ex- 
positors, that St Paul has no plan at all here, and merely strings 
his exhortations together without regard to order; rather we 
should adhere to the deep saying of Hamann : " In the Bible 
there is the same regular disorder as in nature/'* In the first 
chapter of this portion, the Apostle starts from the idea which 
is the foundation of all Christian morality— an absolutely-em- 
bracing consecration of the whole life. This has humility for 
the principle which gives the tone to the inner man (xii. 3), 
and out of it are rightly shaped, firsty the relation of the indi- 
vidual Christian to the Church of Ood on earth (xii. *4'13), 
according to faith (4^-8), love (9-11), an<l hope (12, 13); and 
also, further, his relation to the world (xii. 14-21), inasmuch 
as the principle teaches him even to love and bless his enemies. 
And this general relation of the Christian to the world finds 
its especial application in his position towards the ruling power^ 
which, 08 8tuA, always stands without the Church, inasmuch as, 
from the character of the community, it can only represent 
the law and not the gospel. In submitting to the ruling power, 
therefore, the believer submits to the Divine law itself, and his 
submission to both is equally without exception (xiii. 1-7). 
But, again, this obedience to the Divine ordinance has its root 
in nothing else than love, which is the fulfilling of the law, to 
which the time of the Messiah urgently warns us to devote our- 
selves, since now the night is pastf and the day has dawned; 
for which cause, also, the believer is bound to walk as a child 
of light, and has before him the task of quelling all the works 
of the flesh (xiii. 8-14). The Apostle takes this last turn with 

* CoiDpare the Essay by Stier,-—^ Die geheinoere Ordonng " (in bis ** Andea- 
tuiigen f Ur glXubiges SchriftTei'st&ndnisa." K6nigBberg, 1 824, p. 88, aeqq.), wbich 
well deeerres a readiog. 
+ 1" U far apeut."— Eug. V.] 



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CHAPTKE XII. 1-21. 387 

a prospective regard to what follows in ch. xiv., where he has 
to deal with an error opposite to the indulgence of the flesh, 
viz.^ with erroneous asceticism. 



§17. OF LOVB. 

(XIL 1-21.) 

The Apostle sets out with the idea of an entire devotion, t. e.^ 
offering up of one's-self to Qod, as the fundamental moral prin- 
ciple of the Christian; (renunciation of vice being the funda- 
mental moral principle of the man who lives under the law). 
The motive of this is the mercy of God (manifested in Christ), 
which must call forth a return of love; and the devotion is re- 
presented as absolute, inasmuch as it extends even to the body 
— thus presupposing the devotion of spirit and soul. It is only 
in this absolute entireness that devotion to God has a meaning 
and significancy, or is a Xarptia Xo^/xq ; the Lord of all requires 
every man to give his all. 

The oh is immediately connected with xi. 36, but, in so far 
as this verse is a simiming-up of the whole preceding deduction 
(especially from ix. 1), it is also connected with the whole of 
what precedes. 2u/jm is not chosen because it suits better with 
the notion of a sacrifice, or even because it stands by synecdoche 
for the whole of man (according to the analogy of the Hebrew 
mj^), but in order to extend the idea of the Christian sancti- 
fication even to the lowest power of human nature. In the 
idea of the sacrifice is indicated the apiritiml priesthood of the 
Christian (comp. note on 1 Pet. ii. 9), which has no relation to 
the outward Church, but rather to the inward life; the un- 
ceasing praying devotion of the faithful is the continual sacri- 
fice which they present to God. The predicates ^Zira, ayia, and 
tifdf>t^o^ characterize the nature of the Christian sacrifice; even 
the Old Testament required for sacrifice animals free from 
blemish (Lev. xxii. 20; Deut. v. 21);- how much more must the 
New Testament require a pure mind! The epithet ^Gura, how- 
ever, is peculiar. For every sacrifice only becomes what it is 
when the animal dies and sheds its blood; but the Christian 
life is an unceasing spiritual devotion of self, a living sacrifice 



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388 EPISTLE TO THS BOMAHS. 

or self-offering. The only other plaee where Xtyink occurs in 
the New Testament is 1 Pet. ii. 8« It is equivalent to mc^*^ 
which, however, is not found at all in the New Testament,* 
although the substantive vou^.is the usual expression, and >Juy^ 
does not occur as synonymous with mu^ This service of God is 
here styled "reasonable," as alone answering to its idea. 
The opposite to it is not that which is false (for the outward 
sacrifices of the 0. T. were not false), but only that which is sub- 
ordinate; the 0. T. institutions are sensible forms for the idea& 
Tliere is a hardness in the construction of the accus., as it does 
not suit well with ^a^a^^eu; it should have been o Itftv x^^/xj 
Xarpg/a. 

Ver. 2. The negative idea is opposed to the positive: — ^Be 
not conformed to this world, in which good and evil are min- 
gled, but form yourselves after the pattern of the absolutely 
pure heavenly world. The idea of man's capability of formsr 
tion, the reception into his inward part of a holy or an unholy 
pattern is, according to scriptural principles, closely connected 
with the doctrine of the [divine] image, and of the essentiid 
character of the sold. The -^vxn has no active, creative nature, 
but is passive in its character ; it cannot of itself produce a 
form, a shaping of the being, but the influences which it re- 
ceives impress a form on it. It has, however, the power of 
warding off unholy agencies, and of giving itself up without 
reserve to those which are holy; and this self-abandonment is 
the way of sanctification. 

On aiit¥ oZroiy comp. Comment, vol. i., p. 411, seqq.;+ aim 
fiiWw, i, €., wpdvioc, is here to be understood as its opposita 
ivtf^fMtri1^990ai is also found at 1 Pet. i. 14; its meaning is, to 
take the 0%9j»a of sometliing else. It is substantially equivalent 
with fitroL/iApf>w>if^t; the latter expression, however, bears more 
on what is inward, while the former relates more to the outward 
part. The Amxaht^^g r«S n^ here denotes the progressively 
transforming operation in the believer. The mv^ itself is the 
first object of this operation; but from it as a beginning, the 
whole man, even to his body, is renewed. Tit. iii. 5 is the only 
other place where the substantive occurs ; the verbs Afaxaaim 
<2 Cor. iv. 6; Col. iii. 10) and dMsxa/v/^oi (Heb. vi. 4-6) are more 

* The parallel tttnix^t ocean Mark xii. 34. 
t L 404 of Ed. 3 ; ii. 108 of the TnnaUtkm. 



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CHAPTEKXIL 1-21. 389 

frequent. The renewal is not different in kind from regenercUion; 
the latter term, however, regards the matter more as an act, 
the former, more as a consequence of this act Renewal coin* 
cides exactly with 8cmcHfica4i(m — in which expression, also, the 
gradual prevalence of the new life is especially marked. In nig 
rh d^KtfkoH^tn it is signilBed that the natural man cannot truly 
prove the will of God; he is without the higher light and the 
delicacy of the moral feeling; he can, consequently, discern 
Qod's will only in that which is most palpable.* 

The first particular to which the Apostle passes from speak* 
ing generally, is kumilityy the especially Christian virtue, the 
supporter of all the rest. Through this it is that each man 
acknowledges the place and the gift allotted to himyf and thus^ 
makes possible a joint operation of the whole. The Apostle 
utters this and the following exhortations, however, not as his 
personal good wishes, but by virtue of his apostolical authority; 
and this for the fiedthful alone, since it is only for the position 
of the life of faith that the instructions which follow are suitable. 
Where the principle itself is yet wanting, no directions can be 
given how it shall diffuse itself through and impregnate all the 
circumstances of life; or, at the utmost, they can only effect 
that which is all that the law altogether can effect — the know- 
ledge of sin. (Bom. iii. 20.) 

xdpts denotes primarily the apostolic office, but of course in 
connexion with the gifts imparted for discharging it. The 
words Tavri rp hrt iv bfi3^ are intended, unquestionably, to make 
the exhortation quite general; but the thai h v/aT^ is mesxii to 
mark especially that the exhortation is addressed to believers, 
to members of the Church. 'rvrt^fponJy =&= v^v>^9<pfmh, comp. xi. 
20. In fl^aj 8 Mppmhy it is indicated that there is also a false 
humility, which will not own to itself what God has done. True 
humility is fully conscious of the grace which it has received, of 
the call which has been addressed to it, yet not as if this were 
anything of its own, but as of God. This true humility is the 
it^pani^ ss rd <f2)a p^oM/p, the right and healthy view of ourselves 
and our position. Gh)d's creation knows no absolute equality; 

* AugUBtiiie aptly says: ** TaDtsm videmas qnantiim morimur hnio saeoulo; 
quantum autem huic TiTimiu, non videniua" 

t Reiche supposes that the Apostle is led away from the chief idea, humility, to 
a eubflidiacy oonsideration, the gifts ; hut the two suhjects are most closely 
connected. It is precisely the ooneeionsnesfe of our own limited gifts thi^t teaches 
the necessity of co operation with others, who possess other gifts. 



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S9d EPISTLE TO THB BOMAVS. 

as among the angels there is sabordination, so too in the Chnich 
of God the measure of faith, and consequently also the mea- 
sure of the Spirit, is variously dealt out And this is not as if 
according to individual faithAilness, bufc according also to the 
free ordering of Qod. ni^sg is here taken quite generally, as 
denoting the subjective disposition of soid, in which man is 
capable of receiving into himself the objective working of the 
Spirit — the grace spoken of in ver. 6. This expression fur^w 
^iarws has, as is well known, given rise to the dogmatic term 
analogiafidei; but it is needless to remark that the sense of 
the phrase is here quite different. On the trajection ixder^ 
»f comp. Winer's Grammar, p. 508, seqq. 

Yer. 4, 5. After the figure of the human organization, the 
Apostle regards the faithful as an organized whole, in which the 
individuals as members, are mutually supplementary; the visible 
Church, therefore, like the invisible, cannot be conceived with- 
out members respectively leading and led; and hence follows 
the necessity of government for the visible Church. 

Comp. as to the figure of the ^m/mc what is more particularly 
said at 1 Cor. xii. — As to 6 lA xfxjS iU, comp. on Hark xiv. 19, 
John viii. 9, where A xa^ ih occurs, as here, in the sense of 
** each." (Comp. Winer's Ghr., p. 227.) Every one is regarded 
as a collective notion, and is construed with the plural ^Xn. 
In order to the completion of the parallel, there should imme- 
diately have been added — and these membere have also diverse 
operations; but this is more fully set forth in ver. 6 and what 
follows. 

Ver. 6-8. Having hitherto regarded the persons themselvefl^ 
as the members of the body of Christ, the Apostle in the sequd 
makes use of the figure in such a way as to represent the va- 
rious gifts of the Divine Spirit (who, if regarded in His opera- 
tion, is the same with grace), as giving the law to the various 
operation of the members. St Paul here only names some gifts 
by way of example — ^and indeed only three; while in 1 Cor. xii. 
7, seqq., a much greater number is reckoned up. To the^Charis- 
mata properly so called — i. e., to the extraordinary and mira- 
culous gifts which were peculiar to the apostolic age — ^there are 
then added (ver. 8) other points, which might either be taken 
as merely expressions of the three Charismata, or as appearances 
of the Christian life in general, such as are enumerated in the 



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CHAt»TBE XIL 6-8. 391 

8th and following versesL As expressions of the three Charis- 
mata, they might perhaps be taken in a reversed order, so that' 
wapAxaXt?f should be applied to the d/d<£<rxaXo(, fktra^tdSwu to the 
didxoinsj v^t^aeku and fXkfJV to the rpof ^rq;, with reference to the 
severe and to the gentle aspects of his office respectively. For in 
the three gifts there seems at the same time to predominate a 
reference to the three principal offices in the Church, inasmuch 
as the wpopnrtii answers to the bishop, the dsid^xaXoi to the priest, 
and the third gift to the iidxowi. There seems, however, to be one 
objection to this supposition of the three gifts, viz., the t/n before 
^oLfaxaXw. But, as appears from the evidence of JD.E.F.G., and 
other critical authorities, this is spurious, and has found its way 
into the text only from the analogy of the preceding $ir$ i d/do^<r- 
XM¥. St Paul knows nothing of a special Charisma of xapaxyJiaig. 
. . . As to the structure of the sentence, Meyer would erro- 
neously connect ixj^vrtg with t<rfjkt¥ (ver. 5) ; but the 6t of ver. 6, 
by which, in opposition to the already concluded sentence, ver. 
4, 5, the discourse is begun afresh, and carried onwards, is de- 
cidedly against this. Rather the sentence has something of an 
anaooluthon in it ; the verb is wanting to f^oyn (, and the most 
natural words to supply would be—'' Let each use his gift ac- 
cording to its purpose.'' Moreover, St Paul also leaves the 
accusative, and in ver. 7 puts the nominative, and the concrete 
instead of the abstract. It is, however, remarkable that, in the 
clause about prophecy, there is put, not, as in the case of other 
gifts, i¥ rfi xpoffinie^ but xareb n)r dyorX^/a? rtig xSanctSf which is 
evidently synonymous with /j^irpov iri^nug above, and, conse- 
quently, as being quite a general expression, would seem ap- 
plicable, not to the prophecy alone, but to all gifts. It is, 
indeed, impossible to draw from the x/arig any special and 
exclusive reference to prophesying, and therefore we must say 
that the Apostle, by an inexact way of expressing himself, 
especially connects with the chief Charisma, the general idea 
which is to be understood in the case of every gift, and thus 
comes to leave out h rf xpcffirti(f. For xisrtg is here, as in ver. 
3, the ftindamental disposition of the soul, without which it is 
altogether impossible to conceive any working of the Spirit, and 
consequently also any gift in man. 

On xpofftrtioy the gift of teaching as to the things of God with 
full consciousness in the power of the Spirit; on dtax^via = xu' 



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S92 EPISTLE TO THE EOMANS. 

fitM^i^ And on 6i6a9Km>Ja, cocip. the move particular obsenra- 
tions at 1 Cor. zii. 28. 'AraX^^/a is not found elsewhere in the 
New Testament; in profane usage, it is especially employed of 
mathematical proportions. Here it answers to /t«ffM^9 ver. 3. In 
ver. 8, awyJrfit excludes all mixture of purposes in giring; it 
ought to be the expression of pure beneyolence, and it is only 
as being such that it has any real value. 

Ver. 9-11. The Apostle now leayes the subject of the extra- 
ordinaiy operations of the Spirit, and turns to other exhorta- 
tions, especially the exhortation to make love, in its true nature, 
the regulating principle in all circumstances. In the most 
general way, love manifests itself in hatred of what is evil (a 
hatred necessarily implied in love itself, which loves the sinner), 
and in cleaving to what is good; and next, in more particular 
workings. Even the honour shown to our neighbour is beautifully 
referred to love; without love it is mere hypocrisy or flattety. 

On ver. 9 comp. Amos v. 15, where the same idea is found. 
In the general clause, n dyd^ &w^6xftrog, it is better to supply 
itftt than f (fr«, as the latter is very rarely supplied. (Comp. Ben- 
hardy's Syntax, p. 381.) In ver, 11, the two clauses rfl #<v«vdff 
tti) 6x9fip9t and r{9 irnvfjkari t^icvrtgf express the same idea, first 
negatively and then positively. They both describe the nature 
of love — " The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a 
most vehement flame." (Cantic. viii. 6.) In addition to many 
earlier commentators and critics, some of the modems, especially 
Tholuck, Riickert, Lachmann, and Beiche, have decided in fa- 
vour of the usual reading, xupftf), which has certainly by far the 
greater support from authorities, as only D.F.O., and some Latin 
Fathers, read xatpp. But the internal reasons appear to me so 
weighty, that I decide unreservedly for xatptff. A charge so 
entirely general, to " serve the Lord," is out of place among 
such alt(^ether special exhortations. The form xv^Ufi IkuXiutn is 
so well known, that it might easily have been substituted for 
the unusual xai^f>. In Latin, indeed, tempori aervire occurs 
(Cic. Epist. Famil. vi. 21), but it is not found in Qreek before 
the second century. To serve the time in a right manner, how- 
ever, is an expression of love which perfectly suits the context, 
and is, moreover, a thought which easily arises out of the 
Pauline circle of ideas. 

Ver. 12, 13. Lastly follow the expressions of the third great 



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CHAPTER XII. 14-16. 393 

Christian virtue — Hope. The manifedtation of this in endurance 
of sufferings and in {Hrayer is simple; but aots of kindness and 
hospitality seem not so much to oome under the head of hope as 
of hv6y especially of the ^/XaiiX^/a mentioned in yer. 9. Both 
these virtues^ however, have also ^n essential connexion with 
hope^ inasmuch as they point to the recompense which is to be 
expected; and here, without doubt, St Paul had a view to this 
side of the subject^ which is also touched on in other passages 
of Scripture. (Comp. on Matt. x. 40, 41, and on ^;o«xa^^f«, 
Acts i. 14; ii. 42; vi. 4, etc.) In ver. 18 the reading /ah/ou^ 
instead of xS'^oug, is remarkable; but it undoubtedly originated 
in a later time, when the invocation of saints became customary. 
The same MSS. which read mu^^ support also the various read- 
ing fAniatg^K circumstance which, as must be allowed, is favour- 
able to the maintenance of xv^^. 

Ver. 14^-16. From the relation of the Christian to the mem- 
bers of the Church, the Apostle now turns to his position rela- 
tively to the unbelievers.* Faith and hope must now retire; it 
is love alone who here celebrates her triumphs; she blesses the 
enemies^ she weeps with them that weep. The Christian is 
always accessible to the universally human feelings of joy and 
grief, from whatever quarter they meet him; he never in stoical 
indifferonce or insensibility holds himself above such sympathy, 
but willingly condescends to the wretched. The words rh aWh^ 
tig &XKn\ovg f>f>o9ouvris (ver. 16)^ however, do not seem to suit 
with this connexion. An exhortation to Christians to unity 
among themselves is certainly quite out of place here; but it 
fits easily into the connexion if We take it as follows : f — Paul 
exhorts aU believers to be alike in ihis lave towards the unbe- 
Uevers (and that for the very purpose of converting them), not 
arrogantly to place themselves at a distance and above them, 
but to enter into their needs. 

Ver. 14 refers to the words of Christ, Matt. v. 44. Chrysos- 

* It might be Mid that eren in the Chareh itself there is room for the applica- 
tion of ihe precepts of Ioyo towards enemies (comp. on Blatt r, 43, seqq.Y and 
thai, eoDseqnently, We cannot condude fkom their oeeorrenoe that they fonn a 
tnuMiiion to the relation of Christians to unbelisTers. Bnt, in so far as these 
precepts still find their application in the Tisible Church, the mmv §ST§g also still 
exists In the Chnreh itself; the admonitions which follow regard the rdatlon to 
those who are still moving wholly ot partially in the element of this mmw, 

f The sense in which the Fathers take it— that we should enter into the cu*- 
cmnstances of another, in order to understand his feelings — is hardly justifiable in 
point of language. 



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394 EPISTLE TO THE BOMANS. 

tom's remark, that it is harder to rejoice sincerely with the 
joyful than to weep with the sorrowing, is very true ; but this, 
doubtless, has its foundation in the remarkable and deep-seated 
temptation of pleasure at the misfortunes of others, which it 
is difficult to extirpate. In the misfortunes of our best friends, 
says Eant,^ there is something which is not altogether dis- 
pleasing to us. In ver. 16 the ramvoi are, of course, not the 
hmnble or poor in spirit, but those who are outwardly or in- 
wardly unhappy. The word here answers to the Hebrew •13^ 
or <)3tr. Beiche, without sufficient grounds, is for taking it as 
neuter, ^wa^dyu, to carry off wiih^ ^MHMt&ytfskUj to oarry off 
with one'S'Self, i. e., to put one's-self into connexion or com- 
munion with a person. Luther rightly says — ^Let yourselves 
jdown to the wretched, nay (since there is nothing to restrict 
the words to the communion of believers with one another), 
withdraw not thyself from the poor and despised who as yet 
know not the gospel. Self- withdrawal and exclusiveness belong 
to the religion of the Old Testament; that of the New Testa- 
ment bids us remain in communion even with those in whom 
the life of Christ denominates not as yet. The proverb, ^ Tell 
me what company you keep, and I will tell you who you are,"f 
is therefore true only for the Old Testament, where exclusive- 
ness is a duty because the power is too little to master the 
opposition. The Son of God teaches the faithful to consort 
with publicans and sinners, in order to win them for his 
kingdom. 

Yer. 17, 18. The words fi^ yht<fh ppivifui ^ap' iavriiTg again do 
not seem suitable to the connexion, which is otherwise very 
exact as far as ver. 21. This clause, however, must be taken 
as parallel with ^4 rd u-^niXS^ ^p^vourra above; it is the worst 
form of high-mindedness — i. e. oflovelessness — ^to think highly 
of self; by this a man's view is limited to himself, and the 
loving care for others is checked. 

The words fAt^dtvi xaxhv %, r. X., are merely a negative expres- 
sion of the same idea which is positively contained in «>>omou- 
ihirn X. r. X. The latter words are taken from Prov. iii. 4. With 
the second half of ver. 17 compare Is. v. 21, which appears to 
be referred to in the Apostle's words. n^ow«7i' is used with the 

* [The sentiment is Rochefoacanld'a.] 

t Answering to the Latin — Nosoitur ex socio qni non eognoscitur ex se. 



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CHAPTER XII. 19-21. 39£ 

genitive, 1 Tim. v. 8; with the accusative, 2 Cor. viii. 21. The 
words JntfT/oy Mpt^rw are to be explained according to Matt. v. 
16. Universal peace is not possible except where sin does not 
exist; therefore the Apostle says $i dufarSt; but yet Christians 
may on their part (rh i^ iffjkCif\ often by endurance mitigate the 
sharpness of opposition, and gain even their enemies. 

• Ver. 19. Even in the worst case, however, the Christian 
must not avenge himself, but must, according to Scripture 
(Deut. xxxii. 35), leave vengeance to Him with whom alone it 
is always holy. 

In the phrase ^n r6ro9 rpiryfi, most expositors have rightly 
supplied etou, so that the sense of the words is — Do not antici- 
pate the ways of God, allow time and space to His righteous 
retribution. Reiche wishes to imderstand it of human anger, 
and takes the words to mean — ^Allow space to wrath, that it 
may not at once break out into act* But the quotation does 
not agree well with this, since it forbids not only the wUd 
anger of a moment, but also that anger of man^ which is de- 
ferred, and thereby mitigated. It is quite unsuitable to 
understand the anger of the person wronged, in the sense — 
Do not expose yourselves to anger, give way to it. On r6m9 
dtd69cu, comp. Eph. iv. 27. The quotation is free; in the LXX 
version the words are — h vfktptf Mix^^ag Aifrawodta^u. St Paul 
is nearer to the Hebrew — D^^h Dp3 *''?• 

Yer. 20, 21. Instead of the wrath of the natural man, the 
Apostle recommends the love of the spiritual man, which, at 
the same time, is of the most potent influence in overcoming 
evil; it not only gains something from the adversary or on him, 
but it even gains his most proper self. 

The passage is borrow'ed, word for word, from Prov. xxv. 21, 
22. The image of coals heaped on the head is to be explained 
especially from 2 Esdras xvi. 53; it can only mean — ^Thou 
shalt prepare for him a sensible pain, yet not in order to hurt 
him, but to lead him to repentance and improvement. The 
Oriental style, which delights in strong expressions, contains 
many kindred forms of expression. (Comp. the passages in 

* In oUmt retpeetfly the Latin Spalntm dare ira, would suit well with this inter- 
pretation. Perhaps Laetantius had an eye to the passage before us when he wrote, 
Laudanm, n, cwmfuiMiet tratuB, dedistH irtt wtt tpaihm, W haUrei modum easHgatio. 
De Ira., e. 8. 



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396 EPISTLS TO THE ROKAKS. 

Tholuck and Reiche in lac.) Gldokler thinks that the figure 
is taken firom laying coals on pots in order to sofi^i hard 
meats, and, consequently, that the meaning" is — ^Thou shalt 
soften his hard heart; but this is quite erroneous.— *-2Ar^i*i, from 
(M^g, a heapi is also found in 2 Tim. iiL 6. 

§ 18. OF OBEDIENCE. 

(XIII. 1-14.) 

Without any apparent connexion, there follow exhortations 
to obedience towards authority. According, howeyer, to the 
manner in which we have indicated of understanding xii. 14- 
21, the dissertation which follows is very naturally connected 
with those verses. The hostile element against which Paul had 
hitherto directed the behaviour of the Christian in his private 
rdiUiana, met the Church of the apostolic age in a concentrated 
form, as it were, in the civil power of the Roman empire. A 
wrong conception of the idea of Christian freedom might, there- 
fore, easily have misled the Christians to place themselves in a 
false relation towards the heathen authorities; as it is well 
known that among the Jews the party of Judas the Galilean 
made it an article of faith that it was unlawful to pay tribute 
to heathens, inasmuch as the genuine Jew could recognise 
Jehovah alone as the king of the Theocracy, according to Deut 
xvii. 15. (Comp. note on Acts v. 37, and JosepKus Antiq. 
xviii. 1, 1; Bell. Jud. ii. 9). In the statement of Suetonius 
(Claud, c. 25), that the Jews of Rome made a commotion 
under the leadership of one Chrestus, there is perhaps an indi- 
cation that a portion of the Roman Christians, in their lively 
feeling of Christian liberty, may not have quite rightly appre* 
hended their relation towards the authorities. If, now, we 
consider that the Epistle to the Romans was written under 
Nero, after Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, with their abomina- 
tions and madnesses, had already passed over the scene, there 
appears in the foUowing exhortation a greatness and purity of 
thought strikingly contrasting with the malice and baseness 
which were manifested in the ruling power of the Roman em- 
pire. This purity and truth could not but at the same time 
carry in it the power of renewing the youth of the whole old 



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CHAPTBR xni. 1. 397 

and oornipted world, and of restoring ifc for a series of ages. At 
present we look forth into a world which has, in like manner, 
passed into corruption, in which " the people are become wild 
and desolate because prophecy is nothing heeded ;'"* in such a 
case, the object is that the law should be again " kept,'" as com- 
ing from above, and that the doctrine of holy Scripture respect- 
ing the magistracy, as G-od's representative on earth, should be 
anew established. 

Ver. 1. The precept of obedience towards the magistracy is 
one of universal extent, so that no one may suppose himself 
released from it by attaining a high degree of spiritual advance- 
ment, or the like; hence it 13 said ^&sa -^vx^ v^9ra^^^6t = 
^y^^, i* e.y 'ixaaroi. By the term i^ovdat^ St Paid designates 

VV T 

the magistracy in the widest sense, and under it we must un- 
derstand not only the emperor and the highest official autho- 
rities, but also the inferior authorities which act only in his 
name. The predicate b^t^x^^^' designates them as actually 
existing, as having the power in their hands, and answers to 
the following a/ St oStas. The di in «# dh tl^ai is to be under- 
stood as explicative, not as adversative. By this the believer 
is exempted from all investigations as to the rigktfulneeB or the 
origin of an actually subsisting power; in that which subsists 
he sees the ordinance of God, although it may be only provi- 
sionaLf Notwithstanding, however, this unconditional subjec- 
tion to the human magistracy, there is no one further removed 
than the Christian from the service of men ; in the magistracy, 
as in all other relations, he serves his God alone. Every autho- 
rity by the grace of the people, leads to frightful tyranny of 

* Prov. xxix. 18. [Wetm die Weisaagung aus i»t, wird daa Vclk wUd mid wuste: 
wohl aber dem dtr dot Oeselz handhabet. lather's Tenion. There is a difficulty in 
traaslatiiiglhis pusage, inasnnch as Obbanflen follows Luther's handhabet (admi- 
nisters), whereas the more oorreot Eoglbh version is "keepeth.*'— >A. would render 
— ** It 18 (hen necessary that the law shoald again be administered as by Divine 
commission," and has kindly procured translationa from two eminent Grerman 
scholars. (I/, ^ It is necessary that the law should again be exercised from 
above (by those in authority.)" J. C H. (2), *' It imports that the hiw be 
again maintained (or affirmed) as from above." R. C. T.— In the text it has been 
attempted to combine Ol&hauseu's meaning with a reference to the English version. 

f The question how the believer ought to act in the perplexing tratmtions from 
one government to another, e. g., in revolutions, especially at what point a newly- 
arisen government is to be regao^ed as de facto subsisting, is not referred to by 
the Apostle; because, on account of the multiplicity of circumstances which ai-e 
conceivable in such cases, it is impossible to lay down any objective rules on tlic 
subject. 



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398 BPISTLE TO THB BOMAKS. 

man, even under the mildest rule ; the magistracy, regarded 
and conceived of as bj the grace of God, is a ministry of God, 
even if a Nero sits on the throna Thus the believer is servant 
of none save his God, and yet is subject to every one who has 
power over him ; thus only is true freedom compatible with 
order; the freedom which is independent of God has within 
it the element of the most fearful confusion. In this re* 
presentation, however, the Apostle's idea, ou yd^ i^tv i^wda u 
fs,ii Art (or, according to another and perhaps more correct read- 
ing, itwh) eiou, appears very remarkable. Was a Nero of God? 
But of course the person of the ruler ought to be separated 
from his office, and then we must certainly say that Nero's 
office was of God; even the worst government is better than 
anarchy, and whatever such a government still contains of the 
elements of order, that is of God. But are there not absolutely 
ungodly powers which come into being by sedition or other evil 
means? Are these also of God? Certainly they are so, in as 
far as they really come to appearance and subsistence.* We 
must here apply the same principles which were laid down in ix. 
1, with respect to the phenomena of evil generally. All evil 
which comes into existence has been willed by God, not as evil, 
but as a phenomenon; and thus, too, it is with powers which 
originate through sin. The Christian, who as such knows him- 
self to be the citizen of a higher world (tmUaa he be also Miged 
thereto hy his civil relations^ has not to enter into investigations 
as to the rightfulness of the subsisting power, which, besides, 
are generally of great difficulty, and hence cannot possibly be 
devolved on each individual; he belongs to that power to which 
God has given the sway over him. Evil governments have 
their judge in God alone, not in men. 

y er. 2. Hence the act of resistance to the magistracy — ^inde- 
pendently of the motives which, at the utmost, may render it 
less criminal, but never can excuse it — ^is as such a resistance to 

* Reiehe ib altogether wrong in hk nnderstanding of this paaaage, inaanuch as 
he thinks that the recognition of eveiy de facto goTemment» as of God's willing, is 
erroneous, and that we must only extend what is predicated to good goTemments. 
For, according to this principle, every one is left to consider the power above him 
as good or bad at pleasure, and thus an opening is made for any revolutions. 
The Apostolic principle alone whoUy prevents them, since by it both good and evit 
governments are warranted in demanding obedience. But the moment when a 
government is to be regarded as defado subsisting, cannot (as has been ahready 
observed) be determined by objective rules. 



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CHAPTBB XIII. 3, i S99 

Qod's ordinance, and whosoever has been guilty of it falls under 
the Divine judgment. But here arises the question, Why does 
not the Apostle mention that the magistracy may also require 
something contrary to Qod's command, and that in this case 
it is not to be obeyed (according to the saying in Acts iv. 19, v. 
29, that " we ought to obey God rather than men," on which 
the observations in the commentary are to be compared), since 
surely such cases were of very frequent occurrence, in the Apos- 
tolic age especially? The reason of his silence is, undoubtedly, 
because it is in the nature of the thing itself, that, as God's or- 
dinance is to be recognised in the magistracy and in its will, 
the will of God has precedence of the magistrate's command, 
where the one is against the other; inasmuch as in such cases 
the latter has ceased to be what it was meant to be. Unques- 
tionable, however, as is the abstract principle — ^that we must 
obey God rather than. men, even than the magistracy — ^it is no 
less difficult to reduce to definite rules the application of it in 
tbe concrete circumstances. The Mennonite finds a conflict 
between the order of the magistrate and God's commandment 
in the requisition to become a soldier; the Quaker and other 
parties in other points. Holy Scripture, therefore, has not 
gone into any definitions on the subject, because it is always a 
question of the most particular inward and outward circum- 
stances, to decide what is the right course in the case which 
occurs. This only it maintains without reserve — that the fun- 
damental character of the Christian must always be endurance, 
and that no force and no injustice can justify him in opposing 
the subsisting authority by act, whether in a negative or in a 
positive shape. 

KpifAa "Kaiifi&nn is according to the analogy of the Hebrew 
tOQtt^ MtS> comp. James iii. 1. Under xpifia it is best to in- 
clude outward and inward, temporal and eternal detriments, 
inasmuch as these are all regarded as the punishment of dis- 
obedience, which God lays on us. 

Yer. 3, 4. Without allowing himself to be in the slightest^ 
degree prejudiced or embittered by the state of things which was 
before him in the Roman empire, the Apostle Paul holds exclu- 
sively to the idea of authority, which is indeed never wholly 
realised, because the authority is represented by sinful men, 
but may yet be recognised even in the worst magistracy, inas- 



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400 BPI8TLB TO THB BOMANS. 

much as even this is under a necessity, for the sake of its own 
existence, of upholding social order in essentials. Hence the 
magistracy appears as a blessing for every one, even for such as 
should suffer iVom it through individual acts of injustice which 
proceed from it. Hence results^ then, the simple exhortation to 
do that which is good, which is at the foundati<m of all laws in 
idea ; for only he who does what is evil need fear the magistrate. 

In ver. 3, very many considerable critical authorities, instead 
of the genitive plural, read the dative singular — r^ d/atfp Ip^^^ 
&\KA rp xcMp. To me, also, as to Reiche, this appears to deserve 
the preference over the usual reading, since the collective use of 
tpyof might easily be mistaken. In ver. 4, the phrase fktvxat^^ 
pff%h denotes the power of punidiment in general, not merely the 
right over life and death, which is but the highest exercise of that 
power. The expression is commonly understood of the dagger 
which the emperors were in the habit of carrying as an ensign of 
the judicial power. (Sueton. Galba, c 11, Tacit Hist. iii. 68). 
The punishments inflicted by the magistracy, therefore, are 
God's punishments, since it is His minister; but in regard to 
this it must again be kept in view that St Paul aigues from the 
idea of the magistracy, which cannot be done away with by 
individual exceptions. 

Ver. 5-7. Hence, consequently, fear alone cannot be the mo- 
tive of obedience, but the consciousness of the good itself which 
results to every one from the orderly arrangements of the state. 
For this reason are to be fulfilled even those duties which appear 
more trivial, and, therefore, are very readily neglected; the 
trivial is closely connected with the great — ^with the ftmda- 
mental tone of the mind. 

Ver. 5. avAyxn does not denote any outward force, but that 
inward moral control which the truth exercises. The two terms 
hpyii and awt/^ctg are to be differently referred; the former 
belongs to the magistracy, the latter to the faithful. — Yer. 6. 
TtXiTti must, on account of the preceding yd^y be the indicative, 
not the imperative — ''For this cause, i. e. inasmuch as ye recog- 
nise this right of the rulers, it is that ye pay tribute/^ In the 
words which follow, the Xwrou/^o/ might be the officers who gather, 
the tribute, who must be active for this very purpose (i/^ avrh 
roDro, for the collection of it). But in that case, irp^cxaprt- 
^oZfTu must be taken as the svlject, and with this the want of 



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CHAETJSB ZIII. 8-10. 401 

the article does not agree. It is better, therefore, to supply, 
with De Wette, the leading notion of the whole sentence, ipx^vrts, 
and to translate, "for they, the rulers, are God's ministers, who 
attend upon this very thing,'' viz., the Xf/rovf/i 7k« This construc- 
tion, indeed, is not without difficulty; for there is a hardness in 
taking the notion of the \$irw^$h out of the Xjirou^o^ esoD i/V/^ 
and then connecting the 9h aM r«Dro with 4r^otfxa^f^i7^, which 
also does not suit perfectly with it; but yet it seems to me pre- 
ferable to the other. — In ver. 7 it is a mistake to refer the 
d96dort T&tf'/ to all men indifferently, as Beiche does ; the ideas 
which follow relate undoubtedly to the authorities, and there- 
fore we must think only of the gradations among the authorities. 
The extension of jbhe idea in the 8th and following verses^ must 
not be supposed to have an influence so early as ver. 7.* The 
only question i% for what reason St Paul may have chosen this 
very position for the sentences. Perhaps, as has already been 
hinted, it is intended that the special should be represented 
according to its foundation in the general ; whosoever fears and 
honours the prince, will also pay scot and toll to his officers. 
^6pci denotes taxes on persons; riXo^, on things. 'Ax^rt is to be 
supplied with the datives. How careful the early Christians 
were even in this point, which is so often treated with disregard, 
appears from Tertullian^s Apolog. c. 42. 

Yer. 8-10. With a remarkably spirited turn, St Paul, in the 
following verses, again passes to the subject of love, as that 
which contains the security for the fulfilment of this, as of all 
other commands of God. The Apostle keeps to the idea of 
debt, and characterises love as the only debt which can never 
be cleared off, which the Christian may owe with honour. The 
whole ethical part of this epistle is in substance as much a re- 
presentation of the nature of hve as the-doctrinal part is an ex- 
position of the nature of faith, and the supplement to that part 
(ch. ix.-xi.) of hope; hence the Apostle can from any point re- 
vert to love, which is the fulfilling of the law. In the first verses 
the Apostle probably had in his mind the word of Christ, Matt, 
xxii. 40, as to which the observations in my commentary may 
be compared. 

In ver. 8, IftlXin is to be taken imperatively — " ye should not, 
must not owe anything!" Mfidiv is used, and not Miv, in order 

" [The original erroneoasly reads 9th and Sib, for 8th and 7th respeetively.l 

2c 



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402 BPI8TLB TO THB ROKAKS. 

to give prominence to the mAjecUve application; according to 
the various degrees of inward enlightenment and development 
the notion of guilt contracts or expands — ^love alone has the 
wonderful quality, that the more it is practised, the more amply 
it unfolds itself, and rises in its claims. While, therefore, in 
other circumstances a man stands better in proportion as he 
owes less, love is in the best condition the more that it feels 
itself in debt.* Beiche's objections to this idea are altogether 
mistaken. The ground of his error is, that he conceives of love 
as a commandment, which is true only for the position of the 
Old Testament; whereas, according to the apostolical view, it 
is an element, a power, namely, the life of God in man. Hence 
love is as inexhaustible a3 God himself, and is the absolute ful- 
filment of the law. In man, however, love is growing, and, 
consequently, is only the fulfilment of the law in process of ap* 
proximation. Ver. 9. It is not intended that any exact order 
should be observed; hence the sixth commandment stands first 
The addition ou •v|/iudo/uafn;^tff/( is spurious, according to the best 
critical authorities. On Xo/o; comp. note on ix. 6. ' Avoxs^aXoi- 
M^ to comprehend under one chief idea (xi paXoioi') ; it also 
occurs in Eph. i. 10. As to the quotation comp. note on Mark 
xii. SI, Lev, xix. 18. Ver. 10. vXii^^tfiM is chosen merely on 
account of ^rfirX^f «xf, ver. 8, and denotes perfect observance. 

Ver. 11, 12. The exhortation to love is indeed one of univer- 
sal force, and it is already found in the Old Testament; yet 
under the New Testament dispensation it has a peculiar mean- 
ing, "f* For in the Old Testament the precept of love is intended 
chiefly to awaken the consciousness of the want of it ; whereas 
in the New Testament, on the contrary, it is present as a real 
source of power. To this character of the New Testament the 
Apostle refers, by way of giving point to his exhortation. The 
time before Christ is in his view the period of night, of men's 
unconsciousness as to their higher origin; the time since Christ, 
on the other hand, is the day, since which the Sun of Righteous- 
ness sheds forth His beams, since which the true consciousness has 

- ^-b- * . . . 

* Augustine aays, with equal beauty and truth. Amor atm reddihar, npn ofmUihar^ 
Mgd r^fhndoTHuhiplkftvr, 

t Ver. 1 1-14 are historically remarluible, inasmuch as they were the means ot 
the oonversion of Augustine, that greatest teacher whom the Church had until the 
Kuforniation.~[Confe6S. viii. 29.] 



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CHAPTER ZIII. 13, 14. 403 

become awake iu man. With this figure, of day atfd night, light 
and darkness, sleep and waking, St Paul proceeds to mix up a 
second, of putting on an armour, for a more particular notice 
of which the notes on Eph. vi. are to be compared. The 
man who has awaked goes also into the fight which is ap- 
pointed for him, and arms himself for it with the armour 
of light or of the Spirit. (Comp. Rom. vi. 13.) The only diffi- 
culty which can be felt here is in the words vw ydtp iyy{frspo^ 
ifikw i ffunifiotj i ir$ fff-itfrfutfa/ufv. These evidently point to the 
second coming of Christ, and the perfecting of humanity which 
will then take place, and which is here denoted by ^wnj^/a. 
Consequently the vDf and its contrast 9 irt apply to the time 
when Paul wrote, as opposed to the time of his first conversion, 
^' Salvation is nearer to us than at the time when we embraced 
the faith." We need not, however, conclude from this passage 
that the Apostle, at the date of this epistle, continued to ex- 
pect the second advent in his own lifetime; he says, indeed, no 
more than that they have advanced nearer to this great con- 
cluding act of the world's history. (Comp. on xi. 13, 14.) The 
exhortation to the faithful, to put off the works of darkness, is 
rather a reminding of the resolution already embraced at their 
baptism, and which ought to be daily renewed. 

Yer. 11. Totfoir^ /i&Xko¥ is to be supplied after xas roDro. 
Comp. Heb. x. 25. — Ka/^g is the nature of time generally, w/ya 
that which is properly chronic in time. The parenthesis is not 
to be placed (as Griesbach has it) after iyytxtv, but after i^ss- 
nv^a/M¥; the words i vit^ x.r.x. are a more exact description of 
xatpi^. — Yer. 12. On ^pcx6^u, comp. Luke ii. 52. Here the idea 
of growth, increase, has combined with it the sense of being 
completed, passed by. Beiche erroneously derives &^o^<ifM0a 
from &9n^My instead of from ^4ror/%6/. 

Yer. 13, 14. In the admonitions which here foUow, we 
must not think of gross manifestations of fleshliness, such as 
exjen the law punishes, so much as of more delicate spiritual 
manifestations in evil thoughts and inclinations, which may be 
quelled by a careful discipline of the body. 

Yer. 13. Bh^ntf^to^g is also found in 1 Cor. xiv. 40; 1 Thess. 
iv. 12.— Kw/cM^, comneaaaJtio, properly roving abowt in villages, 
thence roving, diseohUeneae/in general. Ghd. v. 21 ; 1 Pet. iv. 8. 



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404 BPISTLB TO THE BOMAKS. 

Koirn, bed, it euphemiBtically put for unchastUy. — Ver. 14. 
The phrase Xf/^hv iM^a^eu is derived from the figure of a robe 
of rigkteoumess (Is. IxL 10); it occurs again in the N. TL at 
Gal. liL 27. Profane writers also use Ard^ustftfa. and iMi^cu in 
like manner, in the sense otfouhioning one'e self unlike or like 
a person. (Gomp. Dion. Halic. xi. p. 689, Lucian in Qal., c 
-19.) Xipiviaf iPMMtu=i^^m%Mat, comp. xii. 1 7. The negative is 
on account of the connexion with what follows, to be so taken 
as not to censure the care of the body as such, but only in the 
excess, when it excites the lusts of the flesh. Hence we may 
supply dl/r»< &fir% after ironTth, since the tig denotes that opera- 
tion which alone is intendedf to be forbidden. 



SJBOTION II. 

(XIV. 1— XV. 13.) 

OF BBHAVIOUB AS TO THINGS IKDIFFBBBHT. 

By the transition which the contrast suggests, the Apostle 
comes from the improper care of the body to the opposite error 
of improper aeoeticism and shows in what manner love ought to 
bear itself towards the maintainors of this tendency. The pre- 
cepts which St Paul gives with reference to this breathe the 
deepest truth, and real freedom — i, e., impartiality — of spirit. 
The following section is the more important in proportion as 
the errors of believers have been, and still are, more frequent in 
respect of the so-called Adia/phora; errors which might have 
been avoided if men had been at pains to apprehend the 
apostolic counsels more deeply in their inward meaning. For 
there are two classes of intermediate things; (1) those connected 
with moral laxity, and (2) others which are connected with 
moral strictness. It is only in respect of the latter that Holy 
Scripture contains express admonitions, and especially in the 
passage before us; respecting the former, there are only the 
general observations as to keeping ourselves unspotted from the 
world. (2 Cor. vi. 14, seqq.) There is nowhere a direct pro- 
hibition of sharing in dancing, theatrical amusements, and the 



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CHAPTEB XIV. 1 — ^^XV. 13. 40o 

like. This is, doubtless, in part to be explained by the circum- 
stance that, in the apostolic age, i\e severe tone of feeling 
tended much rather to exaggerated strictness than to laxity. 
But assuredly this absence of directions has also its foundation 
in the whole manner of dealing of the sacred writers. They do 
not begin with outward things, but first change, through Ood's 
grace, the ground of men's hearts, convinced that with this in- 
ward change that which is outward will also be spontaneously 
changed. In the later ages of the Church, as also at the present 
day, this course has often been reversed; outward things are 
treated as that by which all is decided, and from a forsaking of 
these, a change of the inward man is expected. No heart, how- 
ever, is regenerated by forsaking dances, plays, and other such 
indifferent things, but rather the heart which is renewed by re- 
generation will of itself lose its relish for such trifles. The cause 
of this unwise and unscriptural proceeding is chiefly to be 
sought in this — ^that men confound such indifferent things with 
positive divine commands, and treat the former like the latter. 
It is, indeed, true, that nothing is morally indifferent, and that 
the most trivial thing may be good or evil according to the 
mind with which it is done; but, nevertheless, the notion of 
Adiaphora is correct, and is necessary in ethics. For that 
which is denounced by divine laws must never be done under 
any conceivable circumstances; thus we must never steal, com- 
mit adultery, or abuse the name of God. But with the Adia- 
phora it is otherwise. In these it is not the act, as such, that^ 
is sin, but the circumstances under which, the manner in which 
it is done. Now, because in these matters the question is 
usually about subjective condittona, on which their moral worth 
or unworthiness depends, Holy Scripture wisely avoids defining 
as to things indifferent by ctjecHve commands, but seeks always 
to infli^ence the suijecUve conditions, in order thereby to sanctify 
the whole. According to these principles St Paid proceeds here 
as elsewhere* He does not command — Ye shall eat flesh, ye shall 
drink wine — ^although, in an objective view, he held the ascetic- 
ism in question to be wrong, but he exhorts to treat with for- 
bearance those who maintain it, and expects their deliverance 
from that error to be the gradual result of the gently transform- 
ing power of the Spirit of God. 



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406 BPISTLB TO THE BOMANS. 

§ 19. OF BBARUra WITH THB WBAK. 

(XIV. 1-23.) 

Ver. 1, 2. The particularity with which St Paul treats these 
ascetics leads us naturally to suppose that they lived in Rome, 
and that the manner of behaving towards them had been a sub- 
ject of discussion there. It is, however, diflSicult to determine 
of what spiritual tendency these ascetics were, since what St 
Paul adduces respecting them does not seem to agree either 
with rigid Jewish Christians, with Essene, of with Qentile as- 
cetics. For the first of these classes kept, indeed, the precepts 
of the Old Testament as to food, but they did not wholly avoid 
the use of flesh and wine,* as St Paul reports of these Roman 
ascetics (xiv. 2, 21); for there is nothing to afford a founda- 
tion for the assumption that in the passages in question the 
subject is only the partaking of fle^h offered in sacrifice to idols, 
and of wine used in libations. The Essene ascetics, on the 
other hand, whose life was similar (comp. Josephus Yit. § 2, in 
the description of the ascetic Banus), never lived in towns, but 
in the wilderness. And again, Oentiles who, in the apostolic age» 
also often practised a rigid asceticism, did not observe days in 
the manner related in xiv. 5 of the persons here described. It 
is, therefore, most correct to suppose that in these ascetics we 
have before us persons in whom Jewish principles mainly pre- 
vailed, indeed, but in combination with Gentile elements. This 
conclusion is especially supported by the passage, xv. 7, 8, where 
the ''strong" are designated as Oentile, and the "weak'' as 
Jewish Christians. Such mixtures of elements, in themselves 
heterogeneous, are not inconceivable in a time of such excite- 
ment as that of the Apostles was. Among the Neopythagor^ 
eans and other philosophical sects of the first century of Chris- 
tianity, there had been developed a sort of religious-moral 
eclecticism, which might easily call forth appearances of this 
kind. Seneca describes, in his 108th Epistle, how he himself 

* Still SDcfa a form of asoeticism might ewuly be developed in Jewish ChristiMiB out 
of the Nazarite rale, as appears, among other instances, from that of St James, the 
Lord's brother, which Hegesippus relates (in Eusebias, Hist Eod. il 23}-— «ry«f 
»«) r/»i(« m im-it9, tvil ift,'4>vx»f if«yt. Comp. my Momum, Hut. EccL i., p* 11-) 
Jewish asceties will be spoken of more particularly in the Introdnction to the Pas- 
toral Epistles. * ^ 



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CHAPTER XIV. 3, 4. 407 

had for a time been engaged in a similar endeavour; in oppo- 
sition to the prevailing immorality and voluptuousness, many 
of the nobler spirits had recourse to rigid self-denial. Such a 
tendency must, indeed, have been repulsed by Pharisaical 
Judaism, but it might very readily amalgamate with Essene 
elements. Eclectics of this kind, then, when they had become 
Christians, still persevered in their accustomed way of life; 
and St Paul desires that they may not be disturbed in it, since 
they did not insist on it as necessary to salvation, as the Jewish 
Christians of Qalatia insisted on circumcision. In any Case, 
these ascetics must be altogether and most careftilly distin- 
guished from the Pharisaical Jewish Christians, who every- 
where persecuted St Paul, and against whom he wrote the 
Epistle to the Galatians. (Comp. Introd. § 3.) These Jewish 
Christians were fanatics who carried on attacks against the 
Apostle; whereas the Roman ascetics appear to have been 
quiet, anxious persons, who were only unable from scruples of 
conscience to disengage themselves from their accustomed ob- 
servances, but did not affect to lay down rules for otheris. 

In ver. 1, vpo^KoLfiPane^ai signifies forwarding, helpful, sup** 
port. — Ml) f/V biaxpieug d/ahoy/^/Am SC. s>J»<ft. A/dK^iaig is opposed 
to ^/ffrtt, as the condition of inward wavering or uncertainty. 
The ^(T^yf ;» wi^ft brings forward not so much the wavering itself 
as the source of it — the powerlessness of the principle of faith* 
— The conjecture dtA Xoyiafim is unnecessary; for the thoughts 
are represented as brought into a state of uncertainty in the 
weak. — ^Ver. 2. The form xdx^va Mim indicates not only the 
refraining from the use of sacrificial flesh, or of animals forbidr 
den in the law, but the avoiding all use of flesh-— «n abstinence 
which did not exist in the Jews as sUch. A^xo^fa denotes all 
sorts of vegetables, as opposed to flesh. 

Yer. 3, 4. Both parties, as well the weaker as the stronger, 
are then warned against one-sided judging of others; the de^ 
cision is to be left to God, who alone can begin and complete 
the work of regeneration. 

Yer. 3. xpimv has the sense of xaraxpi9$4¥. It is not the judg- 
ment as to the objective ground or want of ground that is for<» 
bidden, but the determination as to the personal guilt in the 
matter — the condemning. — npoetXAffsro has reference to ver. 1, 
but is used in a modified sense, as it here relates to reception 



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408 EPII^LB TO THB B0MAK8. 

into the Church. — ^Ver. 4 proyes this idea from the circumstance, 
that no believer is lord over another, but all are Ckd's servants, 
and to Him, consequently, the case of His servants is also to be 
left; by judging, we place ourselves above the servants, to whom, 
however, we ourselves belong ; it is, as it were, God's own a&ir to 
keep His servants for Himself, and if man thinks to assume the 
care of it, he invades Qod's province. The form ^«m, formed 
by aphaeresis from Vtfnjxct, is very often used by St Paul. Be* 
yond his writings, it occurs in the New Testament only in 
Matk xl 25. 

Yer. 5, 6. It might be supposed that a new class of persons 
is here spoken of; but, from the manner in which the eating is 
mixed up with the observance of days in ver. 6, this is not pro- 
bable. It accords, aUo, with the whole tendency of such 
anxious religionists, that, where the one scruple exists^ the 
other develops itself likewise. For such points of difference 
also the Apostle recommends forbearance towards the weak, 
and that each should act faithfully according to his own 
subjective conviction. If this be observed, and that with 
an entire reference to Ood, He by His Spirit guides to 
the objectively right view also. Ver. 5. By the forms ig^ffai 
xpmn or fpcvsTit is expressed the attaching a value to days, such 
as Sabbaths, new-moons, and the like. KphM signifies examina- 
tion and selection ; fpmTft, careful consideration, valuation. In 
the words xphttv A-a^ay ifitpav is expressed the original apostolic 
view, which did not distinguish particular festivals, because to 
it the whole life in Christ had become one festival. As, however, 
the season of the Church's prime passed away, the necessity 
could not but at the same time have again made itself felt, of 
giving prominence to points of festival light in the general cur- 
rent of everyday life. An Old-Testament-like observance of the 
Sabbath, such, for example, as prevails in England, is, accord- 
ing to this passage, assuredly not that which is objectively cor- 
rect.* The requisite for each of these positions — ^neither of 
which alters the essence of the gospel — is an assured conviction, 
txatfTQi iv rjD /d/yi vof ^XfipofopiMtt. FoT 9\fip6f>op%Ttfku, which is the 
opposite of ^taxpinc^cu, see on Rom. iv. 21. In ver. 6, the words 

* [The reader may be referred to Mr Vansittart Neale*s Keaayon " Feaats and 
Fasta,*' London, 1845, for information as to the degree in which (he view here 
censored is countenanced by the authority of the English Charoh and Legnlatnre. j 



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OlIAFTBH XIV. 7, 9. 409 

xal h fi^ fpo¥Si¥ — ff^onT&re omitted by very many imp<»rtant MSS. ; 
the context, however, imperatively requiroB them, and it appears, 
consequently, that they have been omitted only because the 
copyists were misled by the homoiotelenton. 

Yer. 7-9. An unreserved devotedness to the Lord is that 
Tt'hich must ever be the essential of the Christian life: whatever 
can consist with this may be willingly borne with in a brother. 
^ It is not until something" is remarked in a brother, which might 
interfere with this devotion, that love acquires a right to be 
jealous. Tlie opposition of living and dying is not meant 
merely to denote absoluteness, but, as ver* 10 shows, to point 
to the idea of the divine judgment, by which all human judg- 
ment is excluded. Yer. 7. The Christian is neither another's 
nor his own; he is wholly God's; as in marriage the wife de- 
votes herself wholly to the husband. The presential forms, Zp^ 
A^nMi^ti, express the ideal, which, indeed, is not always actually 
realized. The believer, however, must always keep before him 
the ideal in its absoluteness; he must always regard it as his task 
to bear himself as betrothed unto the Lord, in order that by 
degrees he may realize it to the full Yer. 8. The conjunctive 
AirMiMu/jkiv is not to be explained (as it is by Beiche) by the 
apostolical view as if Christ might come again before the death 
of many who were then alive — ^an opinion which we are con- 
vinced that St Paul had ceased to entertain at the date of this 
epistle-^but by the uncertainty of the moment of death. The 
indicative, which is found in many MSS., is assuredly to be re^ 
jected. This union of the fisiithful with the Lord for death and 
life, is then, in ver. 9, regarded as the essential object of His 
work. The life and death of Christ were, so to speak, an 
acquisition, a purchase, a conquest of the living and the dead; 
with this His property no one may interfere. A profound and 
forcibly practical idea! Whosoever knows himself to be thus 
bound to the Lord of the world, will not wish to belong to any 
other, and will loose all ties which might still hold him! The 
readings vary greatly in the words of ver. 9, xai Ain^an xai 
itfl^f. The first xai is decidedly to be rejected; it would seem 
to have been added only on account of the nai nxfw. The vari- 
ations in the verbs undoubtedly arose from the position; it 
seemed that i^ijeffp ought to stand first, or, if it were meant to 
denote eternal life, it seemed that the present was required. 



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410 EPISTLB TO THB BO|IAHS. 

Hence i^fimv was taken in the sense of Mf^n^f or <jbMtf>n|. It is 
probable tliat sometimes one, sometimes the other, of these ex- 
pressions, was at first written in the margin, and that from it 
sometimes one, sometimes both were adopted with the text. 
The explanation of l^iiifi, which is in any case the right reading, 
as an aorist and in this position, is indeed not free from diffi- 
culty. To take it without scruple as equivalent to dra'^ittfi is 
altogether inadmissible ; even where the resurrection is referred 
to, the tense which is used of the simple verb is always the 
present, and never the aorist (comp. Eom. vi. 10, 2 Cor. xiii. 4), 
even although an aorist preceded. But to explain the aori^ 
as Meyer does, by supposing that it is intended to mark the 
beginning of the condition, is altogether a perversion; for, in 
the first place, there is no motive for marking the beginning; 
and further, this suits only with states in time, not for those of 
eternity. The simplest way is to assume a hysteron-proteron 
for the explanation, and to understand if^n^t of the earthly life 
of Christ, since Z^¥nc also denotes those who are alive on earth.* 
By His perfect participation in the life of earth and its neces* 
sities, the Lord has won for Himself the right of dominion over 
man. (Comp. Heb. ii. 17, 18.) This transposition was no 
doubt caused by the circumstance that the idea of dying im- 
mediately preceded, and that Paul wished to connect with it 
the parallel with the Saviour. 

Ver. 10-12. The universal equality of all believers, notwith- 
standing their inward differences, admits, then, no judgment of 
one respecting another ; each has to give account for himself in 
the general judgment. If, however, believers, as well as others, 
are here represented as appearing before the judgment-seat of 
God, whereas in John iii. 18 it is said that " whosoever believeth 
on Him is not judged,"-|- the seeming difference is to be ex- 
plained by the consideration that the Divine declaration of 
exemption from judgment may itself be regarded as an act of 
judgment. The fundamental idea of judgment is the separating 
from the mass, the joining together of what is akin ; where this 
separation. has already taken place, as in the case of believers 
(1 Cor. xi. 81) it cannot, of course, be again executed in the 

[' OlBh., therefore, would read Awi^ttn »•) tln^tt, and he tnmalatca hai gtlebi 
vnd ist gestat'ben, i. «., 'Mived and died."] 
t Eng. Verv. '* He that believeth on Him is not oondemned." 



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OHAPTBR XIV. 13-15. 41 1 

proper sense; Go4 however, may recognise it as executed, and 
thus the judgment is to be understood in this passage. 

Yer. 10. On i99/*a, compare note on Matt, xxvii. 19, and 2 
Cor. V. 10. For Xfi^frouy I prefer to read with Lachmann and 
Beiche, supported by the authorities A.D.E.F.G., eioD, since 
the substitution o{xpssrou might easily have taken place on^ac- 
count of the preceding words. — ^Ver. 11. The quotation is from- 
Is. xlv. 23, and is very free. It expresses, indeed, the idea of 
adoration only, but this is one with the consciousness of depen- 
dence, which is here the subject. Reiche wrongly applies i^^ft^ 
Xoy^tfiro/ to confession of sins — ^which, according to the parallel- 
ism, cannot possibly be meant. 

Yer. 13-15. The Apostle follows up the negative side with 
the positive. He does not suppress the fact that the ascetics 
in question did not hold the objectively correct tiew ; but, as 
their subjective error was not one of essential importance, he 
exhorts other Christians not merely to abstain from condemning 
them, but even to accommodate themselves to them« These 
verses (with which the parallel verses, 1 Cor. viii. 9, seqq., are 
to be compared) furnish a commentary on the apostolic saying 
as to becoming '' a Jew to the Jews, and a Gentile to the Gen- 
tiles," (1 Cor. ix. 20, seqq.) For this idea may easily be mis- 
understood, as if the Apostle allowed us to accommodate our- 
selves to cM weaknesses; and then an inference might be 
drawn, that the Reformers did amiss in refusing to keep the 
fasts with the [Roman] Catholics. There was, however, the 
difference, that with these the question was not merely of fast- 
ing, but of fasting as a means to salvation and as a meritorious 
work; whereas the ascetics of Rome had no such idea of their 
fasts; and it was on this account only that the Apostle could, 
without injury to the truth, advise accommodation to them.* 
But, besides this, the idea in ver. 14 is dificult — wdw xoivhv tt 
auroD, compared with ver. 20. For by this the laws as to food 
in the Old Testament appear degiaded to merely capricious 
ordinances — ^which is unsuitable to their Divine origin. The 
Apostle, indeed, does not here refer immediately to the rules of 
the Old Testament; for the Roman ascetics did not adhere 

* This is most dearly shown by i Tun. !▼. I, seqq., where St Psnl reckons 
among doctrines of devils the forbidding to many and the abstaming from meaU 
whidi Qod hoM ereaUd, This, however, applies only to such as make it a pHndple of 
dodrine that, for the sake of salvation, men mniit not eat this or that kind of food. 



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412 EPISTLE TO TUB ROMANS. 

closely to these, but went far beyond them; but yet they doubt- 
less presupposed these rules, and only thought to do an optM 
eupererogatarium if they ate no flesh whatever, and abstained 
from all wine. There is, therefore, good ground for inquiring 
into the relation of these apostolical declarations to the laws 
laid down as to food in the Old Testament. Now these laws 
cannot be merely capricious orders; we cannot conceive that 
God might have declared other animals to be unclean than 
those which He has declared. In the creatures which were 
declared unclean, the sin of nature must be supposed to have 
been most remarkably concentrated; and in any case it seems 
that, since all nature is defiled by the Fall (comp. note as to the 
xr/^i, on viii. 18, seqq.), it might rather be said that nothing Lb 
clean than that aU things are so. Farther, we must say that 
St Paul would have assuredly disapproved of it if any one 
under the law had allowed himself in not observing the regular 
tions as to food ; which yet would have been objectively righti 
if none of the forbidden animals had been in itself unclean. 
We can and may, consequently, understand the Apostle's idea 
only in this sense — that through Christ and His sanctifying tn- 
fltience the creation has been restored to purity and holinesa 
If it should be said that this influence does not manifest itself 
as yet, but (according to viiL 18) only at the end of the world, 
and that nature still appears as unholy and unclean — ^the 
answer is, that this is certainly true, but that (1), as is often 
the case, the inchoate work of Christ is already regarded as 
complete; and (2), the superior force of Christ's power in the 
faithful neutralizes the slighter efiSdcts arising from nature in such 
a way that they become as if null. The passage before us is, 
therefore, to be taken exactly as 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, where it is 
said that " every creature of God is good, for it is sanctified hy 
the word of Ood and prayer." 

Yer. 14. We might be inclined to connect Jv Mpif^ 'i^^oC with 
what follows, rather than with ici^tfSfLai, but^ that the portion 
of the words is against it. Still, from the mention of the 
Christian conviction, the idea must be drawn that Adam's 
fall and its consequences are not to be thought of .as removed 
until removed by Christ. Yer. 1 B. Jxi Tt^oy d^r^xxui refers, of course, 
to the shaking the person in his persuasion, and the conse- 
quent wavering and doubting as to everything, so that d^tiXtia 



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OUAPTKR XIV. 16-23. 413 

aiwm IB indicated as a possible result of it. The value of even 
the poorest and weakest brother cannot be made more strongly 
prominent than by the words, Mp oZ Xfofrht d^0an. 

Yer. 1 6-18. Consequently the point is, to distinguish between 
what is and what is not essential, for which purpose, indeed, the 
distinguishing principle, the Holy Ghost, is necessarily required. 
Yer. 1 6. BXetapifAiMv is of course to be understood as meaning 
— ^Do not by your conduct give occasion that the good which 
has been manifested in you be slighted. — ^Yer. 17. BagtXt/a 
r. e., is the community of life which Christ has brought in and 
founded, conceived in the widest sense, both as outward and 
as inward. (Comp. Comment, on Matt. iii. 2.*) BpQga xai 
w6^ii is a short expression for the attaching importance to 
eating and drinking, whether by abstaining from certain things 
or by eating of everything. We might have expected that the 
iXnhp/a should be brought into prominence; but since this 
might itself be also carried to a faulty extreme, St Paul puts 
the general idea, d/xa/otf^vi}. The words iv nnvfAan Ayttft are 
to be extended to all the three points named; for it is in- 
tended precisely to exclude the ^eJ/^righteousness to which a 
mistaken asceticism so readily leads. Hence also iv ro6r^ and 
not ToifTotg is to be read in ver. 18; for with the principle of the 
Holy Qhost all individual virtues are implied. 

Yer. 19, 20. From this fundamental principle of the Chris- 
tian life the Apostle proceeds to deduce an exhortation to 
strive after peace, and to edify God's building, not to destroy 
it by unwise and unseasonable instruction. The persuasion 
of liberty in such matters must be organically developed from 
within. 

After dxX^Xou;, D.E.F.G. have fuX(£|»/*fy, which, however, 
cannot well be more than an addition of the copyists. 

Yer. 21-23. ''All things are lawful for me, but all things are 
not expedient " (1 Cor. vi. 12); to this Pauline principle the 
following exhortation reverts. In cases where any one out of 
personal, conviction does or refrains from a certain thing, with- 
out making his own practice an objective law, his conviction is 
to be honoured by the stronger believer through voluntary ab- 
stinence; for in such thinga of intermediate charctcter the sub- 

* [This 18, no doubt, the p«MAge intended. The author'i referenee is to " vol. 
i pp. 160, seqq.," which does not agree with the edition before us— the third.] 



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414 RPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

jective conviction is the rule of action. For that so important 
moral principle, «fty 3 oux fx 4r/tfnM(, afiM^la i&rh is throughout 
to be taken with this necessary restriction, if it is not to lead 
to the grossest errors. Where positive commands or prohibi- 
tions of God are in question, the subjective conviction has no 
voice.* As has been already remarked on ver. 1, no conceiv- 
able grounds can be a sufficient motive for the suspension of a 
positive command of God. But in Adiaphora, %, e., not in 
morally indifferent cases (for such have no existence), but in 
cases for which no positive rule can be laid down, because, 
through circumstances, they may at one time be morally good, 
at another time wrong, and in which the greater or less de- 
velopment of the subjectivity has an influence — in Adiaphor% 
the personal conviction of the moment, «. e., the ^-Zifr/r, is the. 
decisive ground of determination. Hence, also, we cannot say 
that true faith, correct conviction, alone may be the decisive 
ground which determines our action; on the contrary, even that 
which is objectively false may be so. The conviction of these 
ascetics at Rome was of this objectively false nature, and yet 
St Paul advises them to go on according to its dictates, until 
the Christian life should have developed within them to a purer 
conviction. This, however, applies only in the case of such 
Adiaphora; never in cases which are immutably fixed by ap- 
pointments of God. 

In ver. 21, A. and C. omit the clause 9 tfxavdaX/^frai n 
it^nr; and indeed both these verbs appear to be merely sup- 
plied from what goes before. In ver. 22, the reading ^ wsom 
nv tx*'^ ^^^^ ataurbvy ix* *' *'- ^ ^^^7 i&terfores with the idea; yet 
it is supported by A.B.C. 

§ 20. OHRIST AN EXAMPLE OF BEARING WITH THE WEAK. 
(XV. 1-13.) 

That the insertion of the concluding doxology (xvL 25-27) 
between chap. xiv. and xv., is altogether unsuitable, has been 

* An addttioD to Luke vL 4, whieh is oontained io the K7S. D., is reiy highly 
instractive for the uudentanding of this paaaage. It is, indeed, nnqoeetionablj 
sporiooB, and probably belongs to an apocryphal gospel; but the idea is genuinely 
Christian, and perhaps the whole incident related may have really taken phiee. It 



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OHAPTBR XV. 1-6. 415 

already fully shown in the Introduction (§ I.) The connexion 
of the following pasBage (xy. 1-13) with the preceding is so 
close, that the division of chapters ought to have been different 
It is not until ver. 14 that an entirely new subject comes in. 
The earlier verses are merely a setting forth of Christ as a pattern 
of the conduct towards the weak recommended in chapter xiv. 

Ver. 1, 2. St Paul here clearly distinguishes two classes among 
the Christians of Rome (and the same may be assumed as to all 
churches) ; the one includes the strong (dwaroi), the other, the 
weak (ddumrw^ A^fTg). The distinction between the two is to 
be sought in the degrees of spiritual development, especially of 
the y¥oigif, which gives insight into the peculiar connexion of 
doctrines and laws. Among these classes it is the duty of the 
stronger towards the weaker not to live after their own plea- 
sure, but lovingly to bear with the infirmities of the others. 

On ftturjD Apt€%%if and rf) «'X9j<r/oy &pi<rxtt¥y comp. 1 Cor. x. 33, 
Oal. i. 10. It is the nature of love to go out of itself, to live 
not in itself, but in others. 

Ver. 3. This love towards the weak manifested itself in per- 
fect purity in the Saviour (Phil. iL 7), who left all His glory to 
enter into the deepest ignominy for man. According to this 
conception, the quotation from Ps. Ixix. 10 stands in exact con- 
nexion with the coiyse of the Apostle's ideas. The living not 
for one's own pleasure but for that of our neighbour is always 
a «elf-denial, which grieves the flesh; this self-denial Christ 
practised in the purest form, as is manifested in His course of 
suffering. He loved those who hated Him, and out of love 
willingly endured all the ignominy which they heaped on Him, 
and all this for the building up of the work of Ood. 

On quotations from the same Ixixth Psalm, compare Matt. 
xxvii. 39, seqq.; John ii. 17, xix. 28; Bom. xL 9. The words 
are quoted exactly fi*om the LXX. 

Ver. 4-6. Exactly as in the passage. Bom. iv. 23, 24 (on 
which compare the comment), St Paul again announces the 
important canon of interpretation — that the whole substance of 
Scripture is designed for man and for his instruction. It is not, 
therefore, to be understood according to its outward letter, but 

is there told that Jeeus iaw a man workiog on the Sabbath, and said to him «i 

In these words, the tiiUmi expresses the same which is here signified by mwrtuu^j 
namely the settled subjective conviction. 



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416 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

rather according to what is inward; i. e., according to the 
Eternal Spirit which pervades its whole substance, and which 
renders it a mirror of truth for ail times and for all circum- 
stances. This eternal purport of the Scriptures, however, is 
recognised by the wviv/iMrtxii alone; it is Spirit alone that 
discerns and understands the Spirit. The reason why St Paul 
here gives especial prominence to the ideas of patience and con- 
solation is, because the relation to the weak members of the 
Church of Qod itself has in it something especially trying,* and 
for this the believer requires above everything consolation and 
strength to endure. The Apostle then expressly wislies his 
readers the communication of these gifts, in the hope that in 
their power all such differences may be overcome, and unity 
may be preserved. 

Yer. 4. On account of the chief idea— of Scripture and its 
significanoy for men, the words rw ypapuf are to. be referred (as 
by Beiche) to both the preceding genitives, u^ofuni^ and vapa* 
xXnes^g, not (as by De Wette) to the latter only. The intention 
here is, of course, to characterize Scripture as the channel of 
grace which Qod employs in order to work patience and com* 
fort in men. Yer. 5. The expression 0t6g r^g b^fkom wi wttfor . 
%>Jic%m€ denotes the all-sufficient God as the real source of these 
gifts; He may be designated according to, all that is good and 
beautiful, because He includes all in Himsel£ Similar expres- 
sions occur, Bom. xv. 13, 33; 1 Thess. v. 23; 2 Cor. i. 3. On 
the former ei^^ xa; vaHp 'is}(rou xpt^ov^ comp. note on 2 Cor. i. 
3. For 6fM^/Aad6¥f comp. Acts i. 14 

Yer. 7, 8. By a peculiar turn, St Paul further sets forth the 
person of the Lord as an example of merciful love towards the 
weak, in that out of mercy He called the Gentiles into His 
kingdom. It is evident that the Gentile Christians are here 
conceived of as the strong, and the Jewish Clhristians as the 
weak; whence it results that the Roman ascetics cannot pos- 
sibly have derived their views from Gentile sources alone. But 

* The Christian does not make any daime on the worid, ainee he knowa that in 
it the Spirit of God is not; but so mnoh the more does the belierer, in the liegin- 
ning of his life of faith, make claims on the Church. Every neophyte is a bom 
Donatist; he requires that the Church should be the perfected kingdom of heaTon! 
The oontiQaal striving with the weaknesses of the brethren is the most difficult 
self-denial for the Csithful, even as in the Saviour's life it was one of the most try- 
ing necessities that he had unceasingly to contend with the perversitieB and weak- 
1 of his disciples. 



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CHAPTKE XIV. 7-13. 417 

it has been fiilly shown in the Introduction (§ 3), that these 
Boman Jewish Christians are not to be regarded as Judaizers 
in the same sense as the Galatians were so. In a peculiar 
inanner the Apostle now represents the relation of Christ to 
the Jews as a matter of duty; because of the promises made 
to the fathers, it was in a manner necessary, for the sake of 
His truA, that God should send Christ to the Jews. It was, 
therefore, out of mere mercj/ that the gospel was preached to 
the Gentiles, inasmuch as they had no right to lay claim to 
the fulfilment of promises. The whole manner of representing 
the matter is, of course, to be understood xar eHytf^AKrov; for in a 
preceding part of the epistle (ch. x.), St Paul had reproved the 
Jews' for the very fault of supposing that God awed them His 
favour. His object here is, to impress upon the Gentiles the 
advantages of the Jews, and, therefore, he makes use of this 
particular form of stating the case. 

Yer. 7. On vpo&XofAfidn^^i comp. note on ziv. 1. — ^Yer. 8. xiyoi 
d«, " Now I mean — ^I intend to say." The title d/dxovo^ mpirofjkfjg^ 
used of Christ, occurs only here. So strong an expression is in* 
tentionally chosen, in order to represent Israel in its exaltation. 
Baur has, without ground (comp. Introd. § 1), declared the 
expression unpauline, and characterised the following v^p Akn- 
hia$ eioy as containing too great a concession to the Jewish 
Christians. For in the didKovog there is only a reference to the 
devotedness of Christ, which is represented as a serving in 
Matt. XX. 28 also; and that the salvation in Christ is primarily 
intended for the Jews, was clearly declared by the ^purov in i. 
16, and in like manner in ix. 5, xi. 16, 28, as it is by Christ 
himself, Matt. xv. 24. All that it implies, therefore, is, that 
Israel is the people of the covenant, and that the truth of God 
requires the fulfilment of his promises on it. 

Yer. 9*-13. The calling of the Gentiles, as the idea which 
actuates the Apostle, is again represented by means of quota- 
tions from the Old Testament as purposed by God. The pas- 
sages are taken from Ps. xviii. 60; Deut. xxxii. 43; Ps. cxvii. 
1; Isa. xi. 10. Paul almost entirely follows the LZX. in his 
citations. 

Yer. 10. *H ypafi is to be supplied to y^yn. In the quotation, 
ver. 10, the Hebrew text varies from the LXX., who, perhaps, 
read it differently.— Yer. 12. 'liwo/, Jesse, the father of David. 

2d 



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4] S IPISTLB TO THB ROMANS. 

The root of Jesse or David is Christ, as branch or son of David. 
Comp. Bey. t. 5, xxii. 16; Ecdus. xlvii. 26. — ^"O AviordfMvog &fx*"» 
** He who is bom or destined for rule;'' for dfS^a^^ai is here to 
be taken in the sense of " to appear, to announce one's self 
as." — ^Ver. 13. The triple iv gave occasion for alterations ; 
some MSS. wholly omitted «v rf 9i€Tt{t%n^ others the %$ before 
rfi Ikri^. But the not altogether proper accumulation of pre- 
positions is itself an evidence for the correctness of the usual 
reading. 



SBOnON lU. 

(XV. 14-33.) 

PBBSOKAL COMMUNIOATIOK& 



The following section is really only a sort of appendage to 
the ethical part, which properly ends at xv. 13. The Apostle 
begins by apologizing for the free admonitions which he has 
ventured to give to the Romans, and then gives information 
as to his intended travels, at the same time expressing a wish 
that he may be able to visit the Christians of Rome, (xv. 
22-53.) 

§ 21. APOLOGY. 

(XV. 14-21.) 

It seems at first sight somewhat strange that the Apostle apo- 
logizes for his serious admonitions. It looks^ as it were, worldly, 
that he, the Apostle clothed with divine authority, speaks as if 
he might possibly have been too bold in what he had said. 
Ver. 20, however, shows what induced him to this turn. Even 
although disciples of his might have been at work at Borne 
(comp. Introd. § 3), still St Paul could not altogether regard 
the Church in Rome as his own, since he had not been its 
founder. According, then, to his principle of never invading 
another's field of labour;, there arose in him the apprehension. 



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CHAPTER XV. 14-16. 419 

that his free-spoken language to the Romans might be made a 
crime by the Jewish opponents who eveiywhere followed in his 
track, and that by their insinuations the Romans might be 
prejudiced against him. Tliis possible danger the Apostle seeks 
to avert by the following captatio benevolenticBy in which he 
places himself as a brother on a level with them (as in i. 12), 
without asserting his dignity as a teacher and an Apostle of 
the Lord. Baur and Eling have altogether groundlessly taken 
offence at this. It is naturally understood that here the ques- 
tion is not of any hypocritical or flattering captatio benevolentiofy 
but of one which is pure and true, and such St Paul often 
makes use of. In 1 Cor. i. 4, seqq., he praises the Corinthians, 
although he had much to blame in them. To this kind belong 
also the passages, 2 Cor. vii. 4, seqq., vii. 12, seqq. 

Yer. 14-16. If there had indeed been contentions among 
the Romans like those in Qalatia, ver. 14 would contain an 
untruth. The Roman Church was really in a good condition 
(i. 8); hence St Paul could praise it with truth. His boldness 
in admonition he excuses on the ground of his high calling, 
which (he says) makes the Gentile world his especial care, and 
makes it his task to prepare it as a holy sacrifice, well-pleasing 
to God. 

Ver. 14. xai abrhg iy(a '' I as well as others/' even although in 
appearance my admonitions indicate the eontraiy. — 'Aya^oiffOvn 
is also found Eph. v. 9, 2 Thess. i. 11. It belongs to the later 
Greek. As this denotes the condition, so does yvwctf the know- 
ledge respecting it; these two elements constitute the capacity 
for vwhnTif. — Ver. 15. On account of the *«-* /At^vg, the ro\{<Mj/>o- 
rtpw cannot apply to the writing itself, but only to the manner 
of Mrriting in some parts, especially from chap. xi. onwards. 
The words mc ivava/Atinv^sKOiv suppose everything to be before 
known to the Romans, and are, consequently, a mitigating ex- 
pression. — xdpig signifies again, as in xii. 3, the aposUeMp. — 
Ver. 16. St Paul by a grand figure represents himself as an 
officiating pri^t, and the Gentile world as a great sacrifice to 
be consecrated to God («'pocf o/»^), which he had to offer to God 
through the gospel (hfovpyt7v\ so that the whole Christian pro- 
cess of sanctification appears as an adorning of the sacrifice 
which is to be consecrated to God. Aiirovpy6g properly signifies 
one who administers business of the state, and secondarily often 



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420 EPISTLB TO TITB ROMANS. 

stands as equivalent to dsAxow^ (Rom. xiii. 6); by the LXX. it is 
commonly used of priestly servants. This is the only place in 
the New Testament where hpoupyth occurs ; it is the proper 
term for sacrificing. Hesychius explains hpoupyt? by ^f/» h^ 

Ver. 17-19. The mention of his apostolic calling very na- 
turally leads the Apostle on to speak of its blessed efiects, which 
are such as to give him an apparent warrant for administering 
admonition to the Romans. The whole of this blessed efficacy he 
humbly refers to Christ, without claiming any part of it for 
himself. The help of the Lord, however, manifests itself quite 
as much through ordinary as ihrough extraordinary supports. 

Ver. 17. Ka6;^Md'i( is to be taken as in iii. 27, in the sense of 
" occasion for boasting.'^ — Tc^ vpht rhv e$69 is to be taken as an 
accusative absolute, — " as regards the cause of God.'' — ^Ver. 18. 
The transition is somewhat obscure, and so is the term XaKth n 
&9 ov X. r. X. If, however, we only take in its positive form the 
idea which is here negatively expressed, it is quite simple; in- 
stead of saying — *^ I shall not venture to bring forward anything 
which Christ hath not done by me," the same idea may be thus 
expressed : " I shall never venture to glory in my deeds, but 
will proclaim the glory of Christ alone." Reiche's objections 
to this way of taking it are not to the point. He supposes the 
negative to apply, not to the manner of the operation, but to 
the operation itself; and, moreover, that St Paul could not 
intend here to disclaim the conversion of the Gentile world, 
inasmuch as in the preceding and following parts of the epistle 
he ascribes it to himself. According, however, to the way of 
understanding the words which we have indicated, both these 
objections are needless. He does not disclaim the conversion, 
but regards himself wholly as Christ's servant, and hence refers 
it wholly to the Lord. Consequently the idea is meant to refer 
precisely to the operation itself, and not to the manner of it, to 
which the interpretation here given in nowise constrains us. — 
A6ytff xai spytft signify the ordinary operation of grace ; h duydf/tf/ 
enjuktfuif xai npdrwy that which is extraordinary — ^through cha- 
rismatay for fuller details as to which the comment on 1 Cor. 
xii. is to be compared. In the words If ^vdfMi Un(ff/Mr9€ a^/ou, 
the common source of both is named. — Ver. 19. nx^oDr lyay- 
ytKiw is certainly not a Chaldadism, according to the Chaldee 



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CHAPTEE XV. 22-24. 421 

^D3i ^l^ic^ means, first, to fiU^ and secondarily, to teach; but 
tike the form xSyov tXjj/^oDv, to bring a discourse to an end, to 
speak completely to an end (Col. i. 25), it has the sense of ** to 
publish in its whole compass," = xtiputfguv. That St Paul visited 
Illyria itself, is nowhere related; probably he only proceeded 
as far as the boundary of this province during his residence in 
Macedonia. 

Yer. 20. St Paul feels himself further induced to mention 
the principle of his action as an apostle (Gal. ii.), according to 
which he wrought only where no one had before preached, in 
order to avoid building on another's foundation. If, indeed, 
the passage ohx ^ou ufofida^n Xp/^Si were literally taken, St 
Paul woidd have been obliged to refrain from preaching at 
Bome also; but, 1, no other Apostle had preached there, and 
this was the very point of his determination, in order that the 
spheres of operation might not come into any conflict ; and, 2, 
the population of Rome was greater than that of many a pro- 
vince, and, consequently, as several apostles might labour in 
diflerent parts of the same province, so also Peter and Paul 
might preach together in Rome. 

Ver. 20. */Xor/^i?(rda/, properly to strive after honowr, and 
thence to strive with zeal in general. The accusative of the 
participle refers to Abi, ver. 19. 'awfi&g&n means more than 
simply to he preachedy viz., to he named as Saviour, %. e., to be 
acknowledged as such. Yer. 21 is quoted from Is. lii. 15, 
closely according to the LXZ. In the quotation fnpi avrov is, 
according to Paul's intention, to be taken as masculine, and 
referred to (Thrist. 



§ 22. NOTICE OF JOURNEYS. 

(XY. 22-24.) 

Yer. 22-24. In this principle of his, then, St Paul also finds 
Jhe ground of his never having as yet visited Rome, beisause the 
gospel* was already spread there. It was not until after it 
should have been difused in the eastera provinces of the 
Roman empire that he could hope to be at liberty to gratify his 
wish to see Roma Even then^ however, it would not be so that 



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422 EPISTLB TO THB BOMANfl. 

Rome should be' the proper mark of his travels iu the West^ but 
he only hoped that he might be able to touch it in passing on 
towards Spain. The only thing which seems surprising here is, 
how St Paul can say /tiixfVi r^ov ixi^^ '* ^^^ x>Jiia€t nuroitj since, 
he was yet far from haying preached everywhere in Greece and 
Asia Minor. We see him always labour in the great chief towns 
of provinces, and then devolve on his assistants, who were 
fixedly stationed there, the further diffusion of the gospel from 
tliese points. Moreover, he undoubtedly did not believe that 
every individual was to be received into the Church, but only 
those who, according to God's gracious election, were ordained, 
unto eternal life. His task, therefore, appeared to him to be 
that of everywhere breaking ground and preaching the gospel 
to all nations for a witness concerning them; and tliis he might 
regard as fulfilled in the eastern provinces. 

Yer. 22. The dtd refers to ver. 20, " by reason that I always 
found much yet to be done in the East." The iftzMrrdfinvy sc. 
Mv is to be taken thus — "The way was cut off for me, I was 
hindered." (Comp. Acts xxiv. 4; Qalat. v. 7; 1 Thess. ii. 18; 
1 Pet. iii. 7. Ta fl-oXXa = mWdxi^, — ^Ver. 23. xXl/Aa^ from the 
indination of lands towards the pole, — a geographical term of 
the ancients. Paul's wish to visit Rome is no doubt to be ex- 
plained from the circumstance that in that city he saw the 
centre of the heathen world. He wished to preach in the seat 
of the prince of this world the kingdom of the Lord of heaven. 
— Ver. 24. This passage is certainly insuflScient to prove that 
St Paul executed his plan, which is here merely represented as 
possible, of going into Spain. But yet the necessity of supposing 
a second imprisonment,* combined with the statement of 
Clement of Rome (Ep. i. and Cor. ch. v.), that St Paul pene- 
trated i/( rh ripfiM f^( 3utfi»( — (an expression which, when written 
at Rome, can only be understood of Spain) — render it in the 
highest degree probable that the great Apostle of the Gentiles 
was also preserved by God for the complete .fulfilment of his 
vocation. He does not speak of Rome as the proper object of 
his journey, because Christ was already known there (xv. 20); 
he only wishes to salute the Roman Christians in passing. He 
was, however, afterwards involuntarily detained there for a long 
time. The reading iXtugofMu r^k hfi&gy iX«'/^m yap is opposed by 

* Compan Introd. 4o the Pastoral Epiitlee. 



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CHAPTBR XV. 26-29. 423 

60 many and important critical authorities that it ought un- 
doubtedly to be rejected.* Rink and De Wette, however, 
endeavour to assert the genuineness of the words against 
Lachmann, because A.B.C. have the 7«^p, and with this conjunc- 
tion the whole clause stands or falls. It is more correct to 
suppose, with Meyer, that the words were early interpolated, 
and that when the original text was restored in A.B.C., the y^f 
still remained. — n/»o«YAb9^i>a/ relates to the convoy usually given 
to apostles on their leaving a place; comp. Acts xv. 3, xvii. 14, 
seqq. ; xx. 38 ; xxi. 5. — "tiMt^ i/MrXn^^y wttU I befUed with you, 
saticUed ; the addition of &^6 fuipovs is intended to signify the 
insatiableness of the Apostle's longing. 

Yer. 25, 26. In the first place, however, he remarks, he has 
before him a journey to Jerusalem, whither he has to convey a 
ooUectionf for the poor Cliristians of that city. How on this 
journey he was arrested at Jerusalem, afterwards remained two 
years in prison at CaBsarea, and at length was taken to Borne 
as a prisoner, is (as is well known) fully related in the Acts of 
the Apostles. On the xo/vMv/a or dsaxovia for the poor of Jerusa- 
lem, compare more partictdarly the notes on Gal. ii. 10; I Cor. 
xvi.; 2 Cor. viiL 9; Acts xix. 21; xxiv. 17.— Ver. 26. The ex- 
pression •/( rovg rrotx/^ ^^^ &yfw shows that not dU the Chris- 
tians of Jerusalem were in poverty; hence the community of 
goods cannot have produced the poverty, or at least it cannot 
itself have been long in force. 

Yer. 27-29. In the observation that the believers of Mace- 
donia and Achaia had regarded themselves as debtors to the 
Jewish Christians, there is implied a delicate hint for the Ro- 
mans, that they should also do so, and consequently should 
contribute to the collection. After accomplishing this business, 
the Apostle continues, he hopes to go to Spain by way of 
Rome, and he knows that he shall not come to them without a 



Here again, as in verses 8 and 9, the Jews are regarded as 
the first rightful possessors of the gospel, the priestly nation 
for mankind, as it were, to which earthly things are to be given 
for heavenly, in like manner as to the individual spiritual 

* [ Thus the reading will be mt 'i«ki> (or if) w^tum^mt %U rjiv 2«r«fMiv, ix«'4^« )ii- 
t On St Paul's pnrpoae as to tlie coUectSons, oomp. the remarks on 1 Cor. xvi. 1 



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424 BPmrLB to thb bomabs. 

pMior (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14).— Yer. 28. Sffoyi^M^ denotes jenir- 
ing, mating foM, in general. Here the pefBonal conrejanoe 
is the means of the secure ddiTeij. The explanation of this 
passage which has been attempted bj Bottger {Beiir. Part, iii 
pp. 67, seqq.), can hardly be regarded as other than an ntter 
fiulore. He wishes to illostrate it bj the Boman laws^ which 
prescribed in what manner oontracts ought to be sealed, and to 
be secured against fidsification. Yer. 29. •Q« is more than 
subjectiye conjectnre; it is certainty of conTiction, because he 
had a word of the Lord for his warrant. (Comp. Acts xxiiL 11.) 
WJifttfita ilXtyiai=^^xarH ivX^i«€» ridiyfiM blessing. The read- 
ing vXnpoffia for ff-Xiffiri^a has indeed D.KF.O. in its fayoar, 
but Paul uses this expression not in the sense ctwktur§^ but for 
*' firm conviction," which is not applicable in this place. 

Yer. 30-S3. Ilie Spirit of the Lord, however, signified to the 
Apostle, at the same time, the sufferings which threatened him 
from the enmity of the Jews ; hence he recommends himself to 
the intercession of the belieyers at Rome, for deliverance from 
their hands. The knowledge of the Divine plan% therefore, 
was not in St Paul of a SBttalistic nature; he does not say — ^I 
know that I must surely go to Rome, and therefore I have no 
need of any precaution or of any intercession ; rather it was a 
lively, free acquaintance with the plans of the free personal 
God, which are fulfilled through the working together of the 
free actions of free beings. 

Yer. 31. The ivr^dixro^ indicates, that St Paul supposes 
even the Christians of Jerusalem to be prejudiced against him, 
as is confirmed also by Acts xxi Instead of AKtvau^ufiuu, D. 
and E. read dva^vgw, and F. G. dMt-^/vx^ ^^ ^A^^* ^^ Oriental 
MSS., however, unanimously support the usual reading*-^ Yer. 
83. As the ethical portion is here ended, St Paul concludes it 
with a short doxology. It is, however, in the nature of the 
case, that for so rich a letter he reserves a more frill-toned con- 
clusion i this does not follow until quite at the end, after the 
greetings. 



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425 

PART IV. 
(XVI. 1—27.) 

8ALUTATI0KS AND 00N0IU8I0K. 

It h&8 been already shown in the Introduction (§ i.)^ that there 
is no ground whatever to warrant us in denying that this con- 
cluding chapter was written by the Apostle, or belongs to the 
epistle. The great number of the salutations is certainly strik- 
ing, when it is considered that Paul had not yet been at Rome. 
As, however, this city formed the centre point of the then world, 
where people from all countries met, and from which journeys 
were taken into all parts of the vast Roman empire,* it is in- 
telligible that St Paul may even in it have had a particularly 
numerous acquaintance. And, moreover, it is nowise necessary 
to suppose that St Paul knew them all personally; he had, 
doubtless, heard of many of the Roman Christians through 
Aquila and Priscilla, and now greets them as acquaintances 
known not in person but in the spirit. 



§ 23. SALUTATIOKS. 

(XVI. 1-20.) 

Ver. 1, 2. First, St Paul recommends to the Cfhristians of 
Rome the deaconess Phoebe, who was no doubt the bearer of the 
epistle. She did not serve the Church in Corinth itself, but in 
Cenchrea, to which place also it thus appears that the gospel 
had already spread. Ver. 1. 'H dtdMvog, afterwards ti d/axoi^ 
iifga, denotes the female ministers of the C!hurch, whom the 
rites of the early Church, especially in baptism, and the position 

* On this oompare the pMsage from Athenaeofl, Deipnoa i. fol. 20, quoted by 
Ne«nder, ApoaL ZmttiUr^ Td. i. p. 845, note, l^t *Tm^U,t wiktp Xmrftitf riff 
•Uwftiwnt, U f fptiiut Uri9 ir40mt rkt iriXut sl^y^iiMH — ttmi yks Ikm rk thn U^imt 
tthriti rtrnfmrrm. With espeoial referenoe to ChriBteDdom, Irenttiis, as is well 
known, mjb of Rome and the Cbnreh ther»— **Ad banc enhn eeeteriam propter 
potiorem principalitatem neoeaae est omnem eonvenire eGcle8iam,h. e. eos qni sunt 
undlqqe fldeles." {Adv, Haer. II. iu. p. 201, edit Grabtt.) 



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426 EPISTLB TO THE ROMANS. 

of the female sex in the East, imperatively required. For more 
particular information, compare the commentary on 1 Tim. iii. 8. 
Cenchrea was the name of the eastern port of Corinth; Lechaeus, 
of the western. — Ver. 2. i¥ xvpltft, in the mind and in the name 
of Christ, because she is a Christian, and as befits such an one. 
Grotius rightly observes, that St Paul does not say wa^aran^ 
t. e.y a helper, but ^poitrdng, t. 6., a diief, a patroness. By 
this title of honour Paul intends to raise her consideration, and 
to make his recommendation more complete. 

Ver. 3, 4 For an explanation how Aquila and Priscilla could 
already be again at Rome, whereas 1 Cor. xvi. 19 represents 
them as still being at Ephesus, the observations in the Intro- 
duction, § 1, may be compared. It is not known to what ocur- 
rences Paul here refers. As to this celebrated family in gene* 
ral, see note on Acts xviii. 19. In Rome, as well as at Corintk 
and Ephesus, it appears to have had in its dwelling the place 
of assembly OxxXfi^ia xar oTxov), for a division of the city. A 
city of such extent as Rome must naturally have very early had 
places of assembly in various parts of it. 

Ver. 3. upt^a is the original form of the name, but Upf^ 
x/XXa is more commonly used for the wife of Aquila. The 
phrase rpdxn^^ov v^ortfsfat is figurative, and means, to expose one's 
self to the most evident dangers. 

Ver. 5-7. The persons here named are not further known. 
The title d'^apx^ denotes the first convert of a city or province. 
Instead ot'Axatag, we should read, agreeably to the best criti- 
cal authorities, 'Ad/a;, t. e., Asia proconsularis. For according 
to 1 Cor. xvi. 1 5, Stephanus was the first fruit of Achaia. De 
Wette, however, has observed, in favour of the former reading, 
that that passage may itself have been the very cause of an 
alteration, and further, that avapxn need not be precisely limited 
to an individual, inasmuch as several persons might have been 
named together as the first converts. But in that case it would 
probably be " one of the first fruits." — Ver. 7. Junia appears to 
have been the wife of Andronicus ; it is not known where they 
were fellow-prisoners with St Paul. Their relationship to him 
is probably to be understood only of national connexion. The 
title of AposUes is of course to be taken here in the wider sense 
of the word. Comp. Acts xiv. 4, 14. 

Ver. 8-12. The names which follow are also unknown. The 



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OHAFTBB XVI. 8-18. 427 

formula in ver. 10, nug ix rw 'Afi(rrojSouXou, is to be filled up like 
r^vt fx rwr Nafx/tftfou, roD; Zvrac h xvpl(ft in Yer. 11 — ^those among 
the slaves of Aristobulus or Narcissus who have become 
believers. Narcissus, the well-known fSftvourite of Claudius 
(Sueton. Claud.), had been some years dead at the date of 
the epistle, and therefore cannot well be meant here. 

Ver. 13-16. It is of course only in a figurative sense that St 
Paul styles the mother of Rufus his mother, from her having 
shown motherly love towards him. The expressions in vers. 
14 and 15, oi ^diXfoi irdv auro% are to be explained like n ixxXqa/a 
xar tJxof in ver. 5 — ^the brethren attached to their community 
or circle, so that the persons named are to be regarded as the 
presbyters and deacons of this church. — ^Ver. 1 6. As to the 
kiss of peace, comp. 1 Cor. xvi. 20; 2 Cor. xiii. 12; 1 Thess. v. 
26; 1 Pet. v. 14. The Christians regarded themselves as mem- 
bers of one family of God, and expressed the consciousness of 
this spiritual unity by the symbol of the kiss. The addition 
AdVd^ovrat v/ub&g al ixxKtieiat v&tfat ruD Xpiorou is omitted by some 
authorities ; perhaps because it was supposed that the greetings 
were not in place before the section xvi. 21, seqq. In the com- 
mon text, fi'otd'a/ alone is wanting, doubtless because it was sup- 
posed that Paul could not know whether all churches on earth 
saluted the Romans. But no doubt *&^as is to be understood 
only of the various churches of Corinth and its ports. 

Ver. 17, 18. It is not until here, quite at the end of the 
epistle, that we find a short admonition against divisions, 
couched in altogether general language, which may be referred 
to the Judaizing party which persecuted Paul everywhere, 
but which wrought in Galatia especially with so pernicious 
efiect. The circumstance of its being conceived and introduced 
so abruptly, and in such general terms, is most decisive evidence 
that the erroneous teachers in question did not actually exist 
in Rome, but that St Paul only wished- to give a warning 
against them, with a view to the possible, and unhappily only 
too likely case, that they might make their appearance there 
ftlso. The edict of Claudius, which still continued in operation, 
and only by degrees fell into oblivion, was no doubt the only 
cause which had until then preserved Rome free from these 
opponents of St Paul* 

* De W«tto and Meyer alio aeknowledge, that the paaMige eannot proYe, as 



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428 EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

The term dtdaxiy 9* m*h ifiAhTty is an indioation not to be 
mistaken that it was disciples of St Paul who had first preach- 
ed at Rome. — ^Ver. 18. The charge of serving their belly is not 
to be so understood as if Paul meant to represent them as per- 
sons of grossly sensual habits; for this is precisely what the 
Pharisaical Jewish Christians usually were not; the meaning 
is only to describe them as working for themselves and their 
own advantage, not for Christ. (Comp. on Matt, xxiii., and 
Phil. iii. 19.) X/^iitfroXo/Za usually includes the bad subsidiary 
meaning, of kind and gentle speech without deeds to corres- 
pond. In exactly a similar way luXo^/a is here used in its pro- 
perly classical signification ; it stands for words fair and well 
put together, but of deceptive appearance. The omission of 
%\ikoyia originates only with such as understood the word in the 
sense of blessing, which it usually bears in the New Testament, 
and which they naturally, according to the context, regarded 
as unsuitable in this place. 

Ver. 19, 20. With respect to this danger, however, St Paul 
trusts to the obedience (u^raxo^) of the Roman Cliristians, and 
therefore expresses the hope, that they may be found no less 
wise and prudent than free from falsehood; with God's help 
they then would soon overcome all evil, togetheir with the 
prince of darkness. 

Ver. 19. 'T^raxoi) %h ^^rrac d^/xirv, as IS said in i. 8, of the faith 
of the Romans. The r6 has wrongly been omitted before ip' 
\tfjb^\ it is intended precisely to bring out a particular feature in 
the Romans as a subject of joy. The reference to Matt. x. 16, 
is not to be mistaken in the end of the verse. — ^Ver. 20. The 
Ood of peace is placed in contrast with the author of all strife, 
who works by his instruments here on earth. The power of 
Ood in the faithful — Christ in them — ^bruises the head of the 
serpent. The words tfuvrp/^]/!/ \^h r^vg ^Mat contain an allusion 
to Gen. iii. 15. The form of conclusion, n x^f'^ ». r. x. is un- 
doubtedly genuine, although it is wanting in D.E.F.G. 

Banr Anerts, that then had already been dispntes with Jewish Ghristians at Rome, 
but only that the Apoetle is anztous to proTide against their breaking oat there as 
in other ohorohes. In addition to the Spittle to the GaUtians, oompare eepeeially 
3 Cor. ii. and PhO. iiL 



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OHAPTBB ZVI. 21-24. 429 

§ 24. OONOLITSION. 

(XVI. 21-27.) 

The verses 21-24 cannot but seem somewhat strange if one 
ascribe them to St Paul. For ver. 22, is, in any case, an addi- 
tion by the penman of the epistle, Tertius himself; but how 
singular it would be if ver. 21 were by St Paul, ver. 22 by Tertius, 
and ver. 23, 24, by St Paul again ! There is, too, the circum- 
stafice, that St Paul had already concluded his salutations before ^ 
the exhortation in ver. 1 7-20, with the comprehensive form d^ff-ii- 
J^ovrat vfiA^ at ixxXtiffiau ^oLffat roS Xpt9r6u. Is it then to be supposed 
tiiat, after this, he added some others by way of supplement? 
It is far simpler to assume, that the great doxology, ver. 25-27, 
was immediately connected with the blessing in ver. 20, but that 
(according to the hypothesis of Eichhom which we have adopted, 
comp. Introd. § 1 ), it was written on a small separate parchment 
as the larger was already full. The back of this small parch- 
ment remained empty, and this the writer Tertius then employed 
for writing in his own name, ver. 21-24, including the blessing. 
The only objection which may be made to this is, that Timothy 
is styled <rwif>y6g fMu, and Gaiu^ ^Uog a^v, which seems to point 
to St Paul rather than to Tertius. There is not, however, any 
discoverable ground why Tertius also might not have styled him- 
self a fellow-labourer of Timothy, or connected by hospitality 
with Ghkius. But even if this were an inconvenience, it will bear 
no comparison with the difficulties in which we. must entangle 
ourselves if we refer the verses to St Paul. 

Ver. 21, 22. As nothing further is known of Tertius, some 
have wished to identify him with SilaSy the well-known compan- 
ion of St Paul, and to regard his name as merely the Latin 
translation of the Hebrew "ni^^, " the third." There is, how- 
ever, no historical ground that can be adduced for this coiijec- 
ture. The addition o ypd-^ai denotes the penman, as St Paul 
was in the habit of dictating his epistles. Comp. 1 Cor. zvi. 21, 
Col iv. 18, 2 Thess. iii. 17, and Gal. vi. 11.) 

Ver. 23, 24. Gains is undoubtedly the person named in 1 Cor. 
i. 14, whom St Paul himself had baptized. In Acts xix. 29, xx. 



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430 SPIffU TO THB B0MAB8. 

4, 3 John I, odier penoiu of this luuneare spoken of. Theex- 
pression ^dng f% ixxX^^/ov SXjk, signifies that GUus had at 
Corinth the assemblies of a congregation in his honse. Eiastns 
oocnrs perhaps in Acts xix. 22, 2 Urn. !▼. 20; but if so he must 
have resigned his office as manager of the city funds. The bless- 
ing in ver. 24 is also best referred to Tertius^ as St Paul had 
already used the same words in Tor. 20. It is precisely on 
account of the repetition that the MSS. A. C and other critical 
authorities have omitted it 

Ver. 25-27. On the position of the g^reat conduding dozology, 
and on the Tariations of MSS.,* and the learned hypothesis con- 
nected with it, compare the remarks in the Introduction, § 1. 
As we cannot adopt Reiche's hypothesis of the spuriousness of 
the doxology, on account of its internal nature, and as Grlockler s 
▼iew — that Tertius was the author of this doxology, as well as 
of the preceding Torses — ^is also improbable, inasmuch as Tertius 
would assuredly not have written xarA rft tvayyiTjir fihu, 
Eichhom's hypothesis, although in itself somewhat farfetched, 
is yet the most deserving of commendation, viz., that the vari- 
ations in this section istre to be explained by supposing a trans- 
position of the different pieces of parchment on which the 
epistle was written. The similarity of the conclusion of the 
Epistle of St Jude, which is not to be mistaken, I should regard 
as arising from imitation of this in the Epistle to the Romans 
rather than the reverse. As to the internal structure of the 
doxology generally, Reiche, in his effort to prove it spurious, has 
very considerably exaggerated its difficulties. The f in ver. 27 
certainly raises a difficulty; but Glockler has already rightly 
shown how this may be got over by the simple means of supply- 
ing sw/^rnfi^. The form of the doxology will thus become per- 
fectly regular — " To God, who alone can stablish you in the 
faith, to the only wise God, I commend you through Jesus 
Christ, to whom be glory for ever." It is consequently nowise 
necessary to suppose an anacoluthon, as Tholuck would do. 
And in other respects the doxology fits most appositely into the 
connexion, and by means of the ideas introduced,t agrees very 
well with the purpose of the whole epistle. For, according to 
our view, the doxology is immediately connected with the ex- 
hortation against getting into any divisions. With this, then, 



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CHAPTBB XVI. 25-27. 431 

the notion of the erfipf^cu perfectly agrees. In order that they 
may be secured against the assaults of the seducers, St Paul 
wishes the Christians of Borne establishment in the life of faith. 
With respect, next, to the intervening clauses,* they relate 
exactly to the substance of the epistle ; they bring forward the 
two leading ideas which the Apostle has developed in ii:-^first, 
the mystery of the gospel, which was long hidden but now is 
made manifest; and secondly, its transition to the Gentiles. 
Hence we must not allow ourselves to be misled by the triple 
xara into supposing three parallel members; there are but two 
oppositions in the passage, and these ought to be so connected 
as that the second point shall be introduced by the n. The 
following would then be the rendering of the passage: — "To 
Ood^ who alone is of power to staUish you, a^xording to my gospel 
and the preaching of Christ — (these representing God as the 
source of all strength) — which (gospel and preaching) are agree- 
aUe to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from 
eternity, but now is made manifest, and which, according to the 
commandment of the everlasting God, by the scriptures of the 
prophets, is made known to aU nations for the obedience of faith; 
— to this ordy wise Ood I commend you through Jesus Christ, to 
whom be glory for ever. Amen I" The mention of the pro- 
phetical scriptures, and the name atwtot 0t6s, which apparently 
do not suit the context, had the object, which we have already 
seen manifested in the epistle, of marking out the transition of 
the gospel to the Gentiles as not a new or unheard-of thing, but 
as something already announced beforehand by the unchangeable 
God in the scriptures of the Old Testament. And with relation 
to this it is, too, that in the end of the doxology God is desig- 
nated as the only wise, while in the beginning of it he had been 
designated as the Almighty. 

* iZwud^entSii§.} 



THB END. 



EDIKBUBOH : PEZNTIX) BT AlTDKXW JACK, OLTDB BTBEIT. 



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