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HOW TO STUDY THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT 
 
HOW TO STUDY THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 THE EPISTLES (FIRST SECTION) 
 
 By HENRY ALFORD, d.d. 
 
 LATE DEAN OF CANTERBURY. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO. 
 
 $6, LUDGATE HILL 
 
 187S 
 
I.ONDON • 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
is Ag « *. N. M. Harris t jl +3 
 
 22 "/ 
 
 C 
 
 ONTENTS. 
 
 'HE EPISTLES. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY 
 
 II. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS 
 
 III. THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS 
 
 IV. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS . 
 
 V. THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 
 
 VI. THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS . 
 
 VII. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (First Part.) . 
 
 VIII. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (Second Part.) . 
 
 IX. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS 
 
 X. THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON .... 
 
 XI. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS . 
 
 PAGE 
 
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 / 
 
THE EPISTLES 
 
 ( FIRST SECTION 
 
ini ',1' vWJBP' 1 " 
 - 
 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 T HE Gospel, which was founded by deeds, is 
 spread by Narrative. Narrative, not yet 
 written, but current in the mouths of eye-witnesses 
 and of holy men. The journal of that diffusion 
 runs thus : ‘ Such an one went down to the city of 
 such a people, and proclaimed unto them the 
 word. And the Word was concerning Jesus of 
 Nazareth : how that God anointed Him with the 
 Holy Ghost and with power : concerning his life, 
 and his words, and his death, and his rising again, 
 and his going up into heaven.* 4 1 received of the 
 Lord that which also I delivered unto you,* writes 
 St. Paul to the Corinthians, speaking of the great 
 facts of the Resurrection. And it is to be ob- 
 served that, in what follows, he enumerates the 
 many separate appearances of the Lord in order, 
 
 B 
 
2 How to study the Nezv Testament . 
 
 and calls to their mind how that he had given them 
 all these details while he was among them. This 
 points to a care and precision as regards the 
 completeness and order of facts, which we should 
 hardly have been disposed to predicate of the 
 fervid Apostle of the Gentiles. And it is most 
 valuable, as pointing to the kind of foundation 
 which was laid before the Gospel testimony was 
 committed to writing. 
 
 Perhaps we do not sufficiently realise in our 
 imaginations the state of the newly founded 
 Churches during this first and deeply interesting 
 period. And perhaps in consequence we do not 
 appreciate the full significance of the apostolic 
 Epistles, and their entire appropriateness to the 
 work which was then to be done. 
 
 Let us, by way of introduction to the Epistles, 
 take the case of one such church, in Asia Minor 
 or on the opposite shores of Greece, and endeavoui 
 to enter into its state and its wants. 
 
 Imagine a fair plain, with sheltering mountains. 
 The scenery differs not much from that which some 
 of us have seen in the south of Italy, save that the 
 palm has somewhat, encroached on the cypress and 
 the olive : which latter trees however are found 
 
Introductory . 3 
 
 prevalent, and in luxuriance. The plain is be- 
 stridden with the arches of aqueducts, which have 
 for their centre a fair group of buildings, whose 
 columns are marked out by the fierce Eastern sun 
 into lines of bright and dark alternating. That is 
 the Acropolis — the temple fortress — the abode of 
 the tutelar deities, whose images may be seen 
 glittering in the sun, as we see to this day the 
 saints on St. John Lateran glittering miles off 
 over the Campagna at Rome. We are in a heathen 
 land. 
 
 But let me enter the city : let me deliver my 
 Christian note of introduction. The scene is very 
 strange to me. Amidst a crowd of loungers, half- 
 clad slaves, and children wholly naked, moves the 
 heathen procession, with its ox adorned with gar- 
 lands, and its sacrificing priest, girt at the waist, 
 and his axe on his shoulder. It is plain who is in 
 possession. But where is the little seed out of 
 which shall grow the great tree, whose roots shall 
 thrust out the plant that now fills the land? I 
 deliver my letter : I enter into converse. What do 
 I find? 
 
 A few months before, a holy man has taken his 
 departure. He had been with them some weeks — 
 
 b 2 
 
4 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 golden weeks — weeks of blessedness to their 
 furthest memory. It had been an angel's visit. 
 They take me up the Acropolis; there he stood 
 and prayed : there he told them this or that 
 Christian truth : the very cornices of the temple, 
 the very coincident points in the look-out over land 
 and distant sea, are full of the good tidings which 
 he brought. They walk with me under the bright 
 green of the caroubas, and the heavy shade of the 
 ilexes, by which the paved road enters their city : 
 there he walked up and down, and strengthened 
 and comforted them : there first two or three of 
 them who had visited Judaea, and seen that 
 Countenance which none could forget, and heard 
 Him speak like whom none else ever spoke, went 
 forth on that memorable day to meet him — and 
 here, under this Spina Christi, first fell his ‘Salaam/ 
 or ‘Eirene/ or ‘Pax vobiscum’ on their ears. And 
 by that other road, across whose long line of 
 cypresses the mountain now casts its purple 
 shadow, went he forth but the other day — all the 
 gathered band with him : there, where we see the 
 road rise bright over the knoll, he knelt and 
 prayed : there they clasped their arms round him, 
 and mingled their tears with his : there they stood 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 and watched his little company lessen and vanish 
 in the distance : and thence they returned home, 
 sad indeed for a moment, but with a glorious hope 
 full of immortality and joy. 
 
 But I re-enter the city with them, and in the 
 shade of evening, and again under the moist dawn, 
 I resort to their humble room of worship. Here is 
 the centre and focus of the light which has been 
 poured upon them. Here, from day to day, the 
 holy man poured out his treasury of golden words 
 — doubly precious now that the tone of his voice 
 has departed. All that they know of the Son of 
 God sounded from that spot, where he has stood 
 far into the night, telling his wondrous story. 
 There, too, he broke the bread, having told how 
 the Lord did the same : thence he gave the Body 
 broken, and dispensed the Blood shed, to the eye 
 and the taste of Faith. All this remains vividly 
 depicted on the memory. Joy and affection will 
 not let them forget it. Nay, the Apostle, before 
 he went, on a solemn day of the weekly festival of 
 the Lord’s Resurrection, laid his hands, and the 
 hands of them that were with him, with prayer 
 and fasting, on the heads of some among them- 
 selves ; and they keep up now that which he had 
 
6 How to study the New Testavtent . 
 
 begun, and repeat that which he had delivered to 
 them. 
 
 So far, all is well. But, as I said, some months 
 have gone by. Man cannot live wholly on the 
 past. Unless there be knit up a link between the 
 past and the present, unless in some form we can 
 look on the past as present, the past will fade, and 
 fade, and fade : and the importunate present will 
 by degrees take its place. And this, in spite of all 
 helps of other kinds than the one mentioned. The 
 living voice is not enough, if it have only the past 
 to speak of. That which meets the ear, has no 
 permanent record. There is no simultaneity in 
 sounds; as one enters, another departs. In course 
 of time it may become even a question, what the 
 first teacher delivered : some may report him one 
 way, some another. The great oral tradition of the 
 Gospel narrative, in its various forms, needed at 
 length to be written down in order to gain per- 
 manence : how much more the teachings and 
 inferences of any single messenger of the good 
 tidings. But who could be trusted to do this? 
 From the first, two great parties prevailed in almost 
 every infant Christian community. The one, 
 mainly composed of those believers who had been 
 
Introductory . 7 
 
 Jews, would be likely to put into the recorded 
 words more than they would fairly bear of the 
 Judaistic spirit. With them, every saying which 
 asserted the justice and holiness of the law would 
 be taken as enforcing its observance on Christians. 
 The other, the Gentile party, would be liable to 
 report wrongly in the other direction, that of 
 setting aside all the previous dispensation with its 
 types and preparations for Christ, and perhaps also 
 with some of those its moral sanctions and prohibi- 
 tions, which are of eternal obligation, not because 
 there enacted, but because they form portions of 
 God’s revelation of His eternal truth and justice. 
 To these two parties might sometimes be added 
 a third, that of the learned or philosophers, who 
 were for effecting a compromise between Jewish 
 cabalism and Gentile philosophy, and making the 
 words reported to subserve such a purpose. 
 
 In the face of these difficulties, the apostolic 
 teachers were directed to the expedient of writing 
 letters to the churches which they had founded, or 
 which owed their existence to emissaries sent from 
 themselves. And surely no plan could have been 
 more effectual, whether for the present emergency, 
 or for future profit to the church. The questions 
 
8 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 which would need determining would be just 
 those which were likely to recur again and again 
 during the spread of the Gospel, and during the 
 progress of individual churches. The relations of 
 Christianity to social life and to heathen practices, 
 — tire observance of days and the abstinence from 
 meats, — and other doubts arising from circum- 
 stances, would furnish examples of the application 
 of the commands and maxims of Christ, and would 
 call up the mention of first principles in a way 
 which, when once exemplified, it might be easy to 
 continue. And such letters would naturally also be 
 employed in taking notice of any points in the con- 
 duct of those addressed which required correction, 
 and thus would be led to dilate upon the great 
 requirements of Christian morality. And where 
 the writer was conscious of certain doctrines having 
 been but insufficiently explained, he would naturally 
 enlarge upon them; and would establish and en- 
 force the belief of such as were likely to be called 
 in question. 
 
 This would be the ordinary description of the 
 purely occasional Epistle, written to a church after 
 short absence, to impress the lessons given during 
 the missionary visit. 
 
Introductory . 9 
 
 To those who take a fair survey of the apostolic 
 work, it will I think appear, that Epistles of this 
 first kind must have been very numerous. Four 
 such alone remain to us : two to the Corinthians 
 and two to the Thessalonians ; not taking into the 
 number those written to individuals, which are 
 better reckoned under another head. But, con- 
 sidering that St. Paul preached the Gospel from 
 Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, and that 
 his fervid spirit carried in its sympathies all the 
 churches, it can hardly be but that he must have 
 sent Epistle upon Epistle, now lost to us, to 
 churches of which perhaps we know not even the 
 names. Two such Epistles are mentioned in his 
 extant writings : one to Corinth (1 Cor. v.), and 
 one to Laodicea (Col. iv.). One such is expressly 
 asserted to have been written by St. John (3 John, 
 ver. 9). It will hardly be credited that the idea, of 
 any writings of Apostles being lost, has been by 
 some, even in our own time, strongly objected to, 
 on the ground that such writings would be inspired, 
 and therefore cannot have been suffered to perish. 
 The frivolity of this superstitious idea will at once 
 be seen, if for ‘ writings’ we substitute ‘words/ 
 Were not the words of the Apostles equally under 
 
io How to study the New Testament . 
 
 the guidance of the Spirit who spoke within them ? 
 Would not they have been equally profitable to the 
 Church in all ages ? And yet where are the words 
 of Paul at Antioch in Pisidia, the sum of which was 
 that through much tribulation we must enter the 
 kingdom of God? Where are the words with 
 which he exhorted the assembly at Troas, when he 
 continued his speech until midnight ? This is the 
 way in which the human probabilities in the course 
 of the first preachers of Christianity have been lost 
 in artificial theories, and their work divested of the 
 reality and expansiveness of life. 
 
 Assuming then that a number of these occasional 
 Epistles once existed, and judging of their contents 
 by those which are left to us, we can easily 
 imagine how the personal influence and the teach- 
 ing of the Apostles were perpetuated by such 
 reminders. This will be evident more in detail, 
 when we come to consider the four Epistles which 
 have been mentioned. 
 
 The convenience of the epistolary form of com- 
 munication between the teacher and the taught 
 would naturally give rise to the adoption of other 
 forms of Epistles besides the occasional. The 
 general, or encyclical Epistle, was made use of as 
 
Introductory . 1 1 
 
 a means of explaining and inculcating some special 
 setting forth of the truth, and of warning against 
 prevalent forms of error. Of this general Epistle 
 we have examples from James the Lord’s brother, 
 from John the son of Zebedee, from Peter, and 
 from Jude the brother of James. One remarkable 
 Epistle of St. Paul — that to the Ephesians — seems, 
 although addressed to a particular church, to par- 
 take of this catholic character : and under this head 
 also must be set down the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 concerning which Origen, in the third century, 
 could say, ‘ Who wrote it, God knoweth.’ And we 
 must not forget that, in its form, the Book of 
 Revelation forms another such Epistle, addressed 
 by the beloved Apostle, John the son of Zebedee, 
 to the seven churches of Asia. 
 
 In proportion as these epistles are general, they 
 depart from the true form of letters, and become 
 more of pastoral allocutions or charges. Certain of 
 these i catholic’ epistles appear to have at once 
 assumed a position of authority as part of the 
 Christian Scriptures. This may be inferred from 
 their position in all the ancient copies of the New 
 Testament ; which is, next to the Acts of the 
 Apostles, before the Epistles of St. Paul. In this 
 
12 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 number are comprehended the two of St. Peter 
 (sometimes the first only, on which circumstance 
 more will be said in another chapter), the three of 
 St. John (though the second and third have no 
 claim to the title ‘general ’ or ‘catholic’), and that 
 of St. Jude. Next to these come the Epistles of 
 St. Paul, no exceptional place being given to the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians ; and the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews next before the Revelation ; which 
 last, in the ancient as in the modern copies, always 
 closed the sacred canon. 
 
 There are yet some other kinds of epistles to be 
 mentioned, neither occasional, nor general. From 
 his prison in Rome the great Apostle of the 
 Gentiles yearned for communion with those 
 ‘ among whom he had gone, preaching the gospel 
 of God.’ And in this desire were included also 
 others whom he had intended to visit, but had been 
 prevented, ‘ who had not seen his face in the flesh.’ 
 We owe to this the Epistle to the Philippians and 
 that to the Colossians. The latter of these was 
 sent at the same time with the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, and probably during its writing had 
 given rise to that more systematic exposition of the 
 doctrine of the Christian Church. The Epistle to 
 
Introductory . 1 3 
 
 the Philippians was .an outpouring of the Apostle’s 
 love towards a church of his peculiar affection, at a 
 time when his own heart was full of sorrow, and his 
 death seemed to be approaching. 
 
 Two of the greatest of St. Paul’s Epistles have 
 not yet been mentioned : the letter to the churches 
 of Galatia, and that addressed to the congregation 
 of Christians in the Metropolis of the world. Be- 
 tween these two there appears to be so intimate a 
 relation that it is most natural to believe them to 
 have been written at, or near about, the same time. 
 And on examination it seems probable, as in the 
 case of the two other Epistles, before mentioned, 
 that the writing of the pointed and occasional 
 letter gave rise in the Apostle’s mind to the design 
 of elaborating the more complete and systematic 
 one. To the Galatians he wrote as their father 
 in the faith, from whom they were rapidly seceding ; 
 to the Romans, who had never seen him in the 
 imperial city, he wrote as the appointed Apostle of 
 the Gentiles, hoping (as indeed proved to be the 
 case) that his bodily presence among them might 
 follow his pastoral treatise and exhortations. 
 
 The providence of God has not disdained to pre- 
 serve, among the Christian canonical Scriptures, 
 
14 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 letters addressed to individuals. Of these, six 
 have come down to us : four from the pen of 
 St. Paul. The two to Timothy, and one to Titus, 
 are precious to the Church in all ages, from being 
 written on the subject of the choice, and duties, 
 of the Christian ministry. The other, addressed 
 to a private friend, Philemon, concerns a domestic 
 matter, and exhibits to us a beautiful and graceful 
 specimen of the interweaving of Christian feeling 
 and sympathy with the incidents of common life. 
 The other two are from the pen of St. John : the 
 one, most probably, to a Christian lady, otherwise 
 unknown : the other to a certain Gaius. Both are 
 hortatory and general in their character : the latter, 
 however, bringing before us various incidents and 
 persons. 
 
 This enumeration of Epistles properly so called, 
 should close with the most mysterious, and, in one 
 respect, the most remarkable of all : that addressed 
 to the Hebrews. The uncertainty of its authorship 
 has been before mentioned. The lateness of its 
 date is evident, from the allusions regarding present 
 circumstances, and the statement which it contains 
 of the handing down of the Gospel history from its 
 eye-witnesses to the then living generation. 
 
Introductory . 1 5 
 
 One part, however, of the promised testimony of 
 the Comforter to the Church was yet in great part 
 wanting. He was not only to bring to remem- 
 brance all that Christ himself had taught (J ohn xiv. 
 26, xv. 26) — not only to enable the Apostles and 
 apostolic men themselves to bear testimony (John 
 xv. 27), and to guide them into all the truth (tb.) 9 
 but he was finally to show them things to come (ib.). 
 And therefore the New Testament canon closes 
 with that great prophetic testimony of the Spirit of 
 J esus, received by the beloved Apostle in Patmos, 
 and addressed by him in the form of an Epistle 
 to the churches of his own especial jurisdiction in 
 pro-consular Asia. 
 
 Thus we have the epistolary canon complete. 
 We have been hitherto speaking of its various 
 members formally, with reference to their occasion 
 and constitution : let us now regard the whole with 
 reference to its contents, — and to the question, 
 What has the Church gained by its possession ? 
 
 First, What is to be expected ? Proceeding, as 
 of course we must proceed, on the hypothesis of 
 Christian belief, here we have the writings of men 
 under a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, an 
 outpouring such as has never since been witnessed, 
 
1 6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 We believe these writings to have been intended 
 for what they have since proved, the doctrinal 
 charter of the future Christian Church. Nothing 
 could be less like a system , than the teaching of our 
 Blessed Lord. In these Epistles, the true com- 
 ments on that teaching, we may expect great steps 
 to be taken towards systematising it. The Lord's 
 moral precepts, the Lord’s mediatorial acts, are the 
 seeds out of which, under his own direction, by 
 his informing Spirit, the teaching of the Apostolic 
 Epistles has grown. It is easy for any ignorant 
 fellow to present to us a seed and a full-grown 
 plant, and to argue, from their utter unlikeness, 
 that the one is no development of the other. And 
 just in this way has the comparison been made, by 
 some calling themselves critics, between our Lord’s 
 teaching and the Epistles of his Apostles. As far 
 as I have been able to study their arguments, they 
 seem to me to amount to this : Were it not for 
 St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, St. James, St. Jude, 
 and the Writer to the Hebrews, we never could 
 have built up, out of our Lord’s words and deeds, 
 that system of theology which their Epistles 
 enounce. To which I answer : Possibly not : 
 certainly not, unless we were informed by the 
 
Introductory . 1 7 
 
 Spirit which informed them. The educing from 
 the Gospels, and from those further sayings of the 
 Lord which the writers of these Epistles had heard, 
 of the great doctrines of our faith, was a special 
 work of God’s Spirit, not the mere achievement 
 of human logic. The process involved, as it went 
 on, fresh revelations, in the unfolding of the Divine 
 scheme of human salvation. Still, these revela- 
 tions were in aid, not in suppression, of the com- 
 mon reason of mankind. They issued, not in the 
 contradiction, but in the exposition, of our Lord’s 
 words and acts. 
 
 When then I find the Apostles arguing systema- 
 tically for certain great doctrines as inferences from 
 the facts of the Gospel, I find exactly that for 
 which I am prepared : exactly that forward step 
 which it was natural that God’s providence should 
 allow, and cause, next to be taken. 
 
 This being so, what has the Church gained by 
 this addition of the Canon of Epistles to her his- 
 torical sacred records ? 
 
 I answer — First, the clear setting forth of the 
 following great doctrines : — 
 
 1. The unity of three Divine Persons in the 
 Godhead. 
 
 c 
 
1 8 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 2. The person and office of the Son of God, in 
 carnate in the flesh of man. 
 
 3. The inclusion and equality of all mankind in 
 Him as its second and righteous Head. 
 
 4. The constitution in Him of a body, the 
 Church, united to Him outwardly and visibly by 
 sacramental ordinances, and inwardly and spiritually 
 by faith and obedience. 
 
 5. As regards the outward and visible — the pre- 
 scription, by divine command, or by inference, of 
 these sacramental ordinances, symbolizing re- 
 spectively the birth into, and the sustentation of, 
 the new life of man's spirit, — and of an order of 
 men to minister in sacred things. 
 
 6. As regards the inward and spiritual, — the 
 effectual entrance of the individual soul by faith 
 into the state of pardon and acceptance, and the 
 progressive sanctification of man by the inhabita- 
 tion and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Next, 
 
 7. The expansion and grounding of the doctrine ■ 
 of the Resurrection of the body, and its supple- 
 menting by various revelations concerning the last 
 things. 
 
 8. Very numerous directions, too long to specify, 
 concerning uncertain and difficult points of Chris* 
 
Introductory . 
 
 19 
 
 tian practice in life : some, belonging of themselves 
 to all ages of the Church : others, formally belong- 
 ing to the times then present, but by analogy re- 
 flecting light upon corresponding difficulties in sub- 
 sequent ages. 
 
 9. Warnings against error of different kinds, 
 sometimes pointedly and antagonistically, some- 
 times conveyed in strenuous and detailed upholding 
 of the corresponding dogmatic truth : thus furnish- 
 ing an armoury, offensive and defensive, for the 
 Church in all ages. 
 
 10. The concluding portion of the New Testa- 
 ment has also dowered the Church with a rich 
 treasure of prophetic encouragement and warning, 
 mysterious indeed, and awaiting future explanation 
 in detail, but in its general scope and tendency of 
 undoubted application : all pointing on to the second 
 Advent of the Lord, and keeping the Church in ap 
 attitude of expectation of His appearing. 
 
 11. We may add to these particulars, the precious 
 examples of the holy men who wrote the Epistles, — 
 of which no page is destitute. No formal treatises 
 could ever have had the effect of such letters, ad- 
 mitting us into the very life and heart of the writer 
 The Epistles of St. Paul, said by Luther to be 1 not 
 
 c 2 
 
20 How to study the New Testament , 
 
 dead words, but living creatures with hands and 
 feet/ edify and comfort the Church not only by the 
 doctrines which . they establish, not only by the 
 direct words of consolation with which they abound, 
 but also, and perhaps on the whole, principally, by 
 the spectacle which they present to us of a man 
 penetrated with the spirit of holiness, steeped in 
 the love of Christ, living his life in the flesh by the 
 faith of the Son of God : undergoing almost super- 
 human afflictions and toils in the midst of bodily 
 infirmity and mental depression ; with a thorn in 
 his flesh, which is not removed, because Christ’s 
 grace is sufficient for him. 
 
 In these matters the holy Apostles are the inten- 
 sified pictures of ourselves : their little words and 
 seemingly trivial remarks gain unexpected weight 
 when the perplexed soul holds the balances of hope 
 and fear, of desire and repugnance : their obscurest 
 sayings leap out into sudden light, when the spirit 
 is walking in dark valleys, where the Father’s 
 countenance is hidden. 
 
 12. The last use of the epistolary canon which I 
 shall mention is, that of furnishing running com- 
 ments on various points of the apostolical history 
 as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles. As I wnte 
 
Introductory. 2 1 
 
 this, I am quite aware that persons have in out 
 own time been found, who deny that any such 
 correspondence exists, as will make the Epistles 
 confirm the history. I have read some of the ar- 
 guments by which they seek to establish their 
 hostile position. But it has ever seemed to me 
 that common sense is all for the received Christian 
 view, while the praise of ingenious subtlety, if 
 worth having, may be fairly conceded to the im- 
 pugners of that view. Take the arguments of 
 Paley’s ‘ Horae Paulin ae,’ and you may apply them 
 to any sober piece of similar evidence in common 
 life : they are the considerations by which we are 
 convinced, and upon which we act, day by day. 
 But take example from their arguments, — proceed 
 in their way of attack, and you may thus in a few 
 minutes demolish any plain matter of historical 
 fact. This has been shown over and over again : 
 by Whately, for example, in his ‘ Historic Doubts 
 respecting Napoleon Bonaparte,’ and by an in- 
 genious American, cited in an article in the 
 Quarterly Review for last October, who proved, 
 on Strauss’s method, that the Declaration of In- 
 dependence was never signed. Such weapons may 
 be convenient for partisans, but do not suit fair- 
 
22 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 dealing people. We do not approve o£ the poacher’s 
 night-hooks and springes, however much game they 
 may succeed in destroying. We look with ab- 
 horrence on an enemy who poisons wells and 
 fountains. Give us the weapons of fair and honest 
 men, and we are not afraid of the battle. 
 
 In my next paper I hope to begin at once to 
 deal with the Epistles separately. My plan will be 
 to proceed with them, as far as I am able, in 
 chronological order. That adopted in the common 
 arrangement of the canon has been chosen without 
 reference to chronology. It proceeds apparently 
 on consideration of the relative length and im- 
 portance of die Epistles, giving, however, to St. 
 Paul the preference. After his thirteen was placed 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, as being, if not by him, 
 an appendix by some hand almost guided by his. 
 Then followed the ‘ catholic ’ Epistles— then the 
 Revelation. 
 
 This plan has the advantage of something like 
 system, and is, perhaps, for convenience of refer- 
 ence, the best. But our purpose is a different one. 
 It is, to set before the reader the circumstances 
 under which each Epistle was written, and to try 
 to bring about an intelligent view of the purpose 
 
Introductory . 23 
 
 and character of each. The chronological order 
 thus becomes for us inevitable. The missionary 
 journey last preceding : the character of the 
 
 Apostle’s visit among the people addressed, and its 
 incidents, will be most important for us : and if we 
 had to notice these, taking the Epistles in their 
 present existing order, we should have continually 
 to be going back and going forward, and breaking 
 up the continuity of the apostolic progress. 
 
 Giving, therefore, the first place to St. Paul, we 
 shall proceed regularly through his Epistles. The 
 first which will thus come before us in order will be 
 the Letters written to the Church of the Thessa- 
 lonians. 
 
 That portion of each article which takes note of 
 erroneous and inadequate renderings in our Author- 
 ised English Version, will, in the treatment of the 
 Epistles, assume much more importance than 
 before. In fact, it will be very difficult to prevent 
 it from extending beyond reasonable limits. In 
 some of the Epistles, especially in their argumenta- 
 tive portions, the inferential connection is so dis- 
 guised in our version, that nothing less than a re- 
 cast of the whole sentence will at all represent the 
 true meaning. 
 
24 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 So that, while the reader’s pardon will sometimes 
 have to be asked for, and his patience will be some- 
 what largely taxed, we must make up our minds to 
 incur, as we have done before, grave reprehension 
 at the hands of those who are foi keeping the 
 Authorised Version at all hazards; who think it 
 safer to abide by the gloss of man, than to search 
 into the mind of God, 
 
r 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 IRST, who were the Thessalonians ? And 
 
 how came St. Paul among them? If you 
 turn to Acts xvi., you will find the account of his 
 ‘ shameful treatment ’ and honourable dismissal 
 4 at Philippi.’ Then, in chap. xvii. i, we read 
 
 that, ‘ having passed through Amphipolis and 
 Apollonia, they (Paul and Silas and Timothy) 
 came to Thessalonica.’ The former of these two, 
 Amphipolis, is a mass of ruins : even the site of 
 the latter is not known. But Thessalonica was 
 then, ever has been, and is now, under the slightly 
 abridged name of Saloniki, a great and flourishing 
 city. The Apostle and his companions travelled 
 to it through a beautiful country of lakes, streams, 
 and mountains. The outlet of a ravine which 
 
2 6 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 they had been climbing gave to their sight wide 
 plains and the blue JEgean; and over the edge 
 of the slope which was between them and the sea, 
 were visible the walls and towers of Thessalonica, 
 itself built on the descent right down to the water’s 
 edge. 
 
 In the last town in which the Apostle had 
 preached, the Jews were content with a mere place 
 of prayer by the river side. But here there was a 
 (or rather the) synagogue of the Jews. They dwelt 
 at Thessalonica in great numbers, and have con- 
 tinued to do so all through the ages which have 
 since passed. We are told that their number is 
 now 35,000, half the entire population : that they 
 have 36 synagogues : that the greater part of the 
 trade of the place is in their hands.* I may 
 remark to the reader, by the way, that this per- 
 manence and prosperity of the Thessalonian Jews 
 may teach him a lesson, not to be too hasty in 
 pronouncing the opposite features in a people’s 
 history to be a judgment from God. No Jews 
 treated St. Paul worse than these : none have been 
 more uniformly populous and prosperous. 
 
 • See Conybeare and Howson’s ‘Life of St. Paul,’ to which v.orV 
 £ owe many of the details of which my descriptions are made up. 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 27 
 
 But the Apostle and his companions enter the 
 city. Whether they were at once lodged in the 
 house of Jason, where we afterwards find them, 
 does not appear certain. Whether there were 
 believers in Thessalonica before the Apostle’s 
 arrival, we are not informed. We know that, 
 while he was in the city, he laboured night and 
 day for his own subsistence. (1 Thess. ii. 9.) Pos- 
 sibly he may have joined some company of work- 
 men in the Cilician hair-cloth, the making of which 
 was his trade. His exceeding unwillingness to be 
 chargeable to any of them looks rather as if he 
 were not at first any one’s guest, but lodging some- 
 where on his own account. At once (he appears 
 to have come late in the week) he sought the 
 synagogue of the Jews. At once he opened his 
 message regarding Christ. Three Sabbath-days 
 his preaching was continued. And, doubtless, he 
 was not idle during the week ; for in his descrip- 
 tion (1 Thess. i. 9) of his preaching and its results, 
 he reminds the Thessalonians how they ‘turned 
 from idols to serve the living God,’ which could 
 only be said of Gentiles, who would not be likely 
 to be present in the synagogue. We have a very 
 full description of the way in which the Gospel 
 
28 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 was announced by him. He spoke simply and 
 plainly : not flattering the rich and busy city, but 
 speaking his message ‘ with much contention/ 4 not 
 as pleasing men, but God which trieth the hearts.' 
 And the reception which his message met with was 
 remarkable. They received it, not as the word of 
 men, but as the word of God. They who heard it 
 formed themselves into a church, in which, though 
 there were doubtless many Jews, yet beyond 
 question the preponderance was on the side of 
 the Gentiles. It has been observed that in neither 
 of these Epistles is there so much as one allusion 
 to the Old Testament Scriptures : a significant 
 fact, when we remember how steeped St Paul's 
 mind was in all their lore. This does not look as 
 if the readers were to be mainly Jews. Some how- 
 ever of the Jews became believers, and attached 
 themselves to Paul and Silas (Acts xvii. 4). But 
 the great body of believers was composed of Greek 
 proselytes: and to these were added, as indeed 
 seems to have been the case everywhere else, 
 many of the chief women of the city. 
 
 For upwards of three weeks the influence of the 
 Apostle was on the increase. Each Sabbath-day, 
 we may well imagine, he entered further into the 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 29 
 
 nature of the “good tidings/’ and opened and 
 alleged new reasons why Christ must needs have 
 suffered and risen again from the dead ; and why 
 this Jesus whom he preached to them was to be 
 received as Christ. 
 
 Such a course could not but stir up the hostility 
 of those Jews who rejected the message. As usual, 
 where argument was wanting, violence was resorted 
 to. They gathered together the rabble of the 
 market, collected a multitude, and rioted in the 
 streets; directing their attack upon the house of 
 Jason, with whom apparently the missionaries were 
 lodging. Not finding them, they laid hold on the 
 householder himself, and some of the believers 
 whom they took there, and brought them before 
 the magistrates. 
 
 And here let us pause a moment to notice a 
 feature of genuine truth in the narrative. These 
 magistrates of Thessalonica are called by an un- 
 usual name : viz., Politarchs , or rulers of the citizens . 
 First of all, we might well suppose that some 
 peculiar name would be used at Thessalonica ; foi 
 it was what we called a ‘free city,’ i.e . 9 not like 
 Philippi, a colony , governed after the manner of 
 Rome itself, a little miniature of che metropolis, 
 
30 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 but a town left to its own government and customs. 
 So that, if the magistrates were called by some 
 strange title, we might suppose that it was owing 
 to local custom which had not been interfered 
 with. So far we should be justified in believing 
 that St Luke had been faithful in his report, and 
 we might conclude, from this incidental notice of 
 the name, that it was in use at Thessalonica. That 
 is, the believer in the Scripture narrative would 
 give him this credit : the unbeliever would probably 
 find in the name an occasion for denying the 
 accuracy of the narrative. However, we have not 
 been left in this case to mere inference. An in- 
 scription exists to this day on a triumphal arch 
 at Thessalonica, stating that it was erected while 
 Sosipater , Secundus , Gains , and others were polit 
 archs. It will be also observed that the three 
 names which I have selected out of the list belong 
 also to three of St. Paul’s companions in travel ; 
 for Sosipater is only a longer form of Sopater 
 (Acts xx. 4), who was of the neighbouring city of 
 Beroea ; and Gaius was of Macedonia (Acts xix. 
 29), Secundus of Thessalonica itself (Acts xx. 4). 
 So accurate does research ever prove the Scripture 
 narrative to have been. The reader is not indeed 
 
i Thessalonians . 3 1 
 
 to imagine that the bearers of these names, as 
 recorded on the arch, were identical with St. Paul’s 
 companions. The arch itself is probably of the 
 age of the Emperor Constantine — 250 years later. 
 But the inscription proves that the magistrates 
 were called by the very name which St. Luke gives 
 them; and that the names of St. Paul’s Mace- 
 donian companions were of current use in that 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 The immediate result of the appearance of Jason 
 and his friends was to excite and harass the polit- 
 archs. The Apostle was charged with disloyalty 
 to Caesar, and with ‘ saying that some one else was 
 king, even Jesus;’ an awkward charge for a free 
 city under the Roman empire to deal with. Not 
 willing to commit themselves to a decision, the 
 magistrates contented themselves with binding over 
 Jason and his friends to keep the public peace. 
 
 Both for this reason and on account of the 
 hostility of the Jews, Thessalonica was no longer 
 a place for the Christian missionaries ; and accord- 
 ingly they were privately conveyed away by night 
 to Bercea. Such is the brief history of St. Paul’s 
 visit to this city; about a month, more or less, 
 was its duration : and it gave occasion to the two 
 
3 2 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 remarkable letters which we find in our Testa- 
 ments. Let us now see how this was. 
 
 The charge brought against the preachers by 
 the Jews is very instructive on this head. It is 
 plain that the headship and the kingdom of Christ 
 had been a main subject of their discourses. The 
 rough and unjust treatment of St. Paul at Philippi 
 had roused his spirit, so that he boldly and freely 
 proclaimed the good news of a coming reign of one 
 who should judge the world in righteousness, try- 
 ing the hearts of men (i Thess. ii. 2). We find 
 traces of this preaching of the kingdom and coming 
 of the Lord in both the letters. Thus, for instance, 
 in 1 Thess. i. 10, their conversion is described as 
 having resulted in their serving the living and true 
 God, and waiting for His Son from the heavens ; and 
 in the same (ii. 12) they are exhorted to walk 
 worthy of the God who calleth them to His kingdom 
 and glory. See also chap. ii. 19, 20; iii. 13; iv. 
 13 — 18; v. 1 — 11, and 23. The most remarkable 
 of all these passages (iv. 13 — 18) appears to have 
 been written in reply to a fear of the Thessalonians, 
 lest their friends who had fallen asleep in Christ 
 should be excluded from the triumph and glory of 
 His second coming. That they had misunderstood 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 33 
 
 the Apostle’s words, is plain from his remonstrance 
 with them in the second Epistle (ii. 5) where, 
 having set forth to them the things which must 
 happen before the coming of the Lord, he says, 
 ‘ Do ye not remember that while I was yet with 
 you, I was in the habit of telling you these things?’ 
 Their enthusiasm had outrun even the Apostle’s 
 plain speaking ; they regarded the day of the Lord 
 as actually upon, them, and its glories as something 
 which w r ould be missed by those wLo died before 
 the Lord himself should appear. As far as we can 
 gather, there appear to have been two distinct 
 phases of their misapprehension : the first, con- 
 cerning their deceased friends ; then, when that 
 had been removed by a plain declaration that when 
 Christ should come they wrould accompany Him, 
 another mistake as to the immediate coming of the 
 day itself, which it is St. Paul’s aim to correct in 
 the second Epistle. 
 
 But we must now pass from notices of the mes- 
 sage at first delivered, to the circumstances under 
 which the two Epistles were written. 
 
 The Gospel at first made prosperous way at 
 Bercea : but from that city again the missionaries 
 were driven, out by the malice of the Thessalonian 
 
 D 
 
34 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Jews, who came and raised a tumult there also. 
 On this, the principal member of the mission, and 
 the most obnoxious to the Jews, w T as sent away 
 alone by the brethren : it would appear, with secret 
 orders in the route to elude the vigilance of the 
 enemy. 
 
 It is not our object now to dwell on the memor- 
 able visit of St. Paul to Athens. We accompany 
 him thence to Corinth, where we have a notice 
 (Acts xviii. 5) of his companions, Silas and Ti- 
 mothy, having rejoined him from Macedonia. It 
 would appear, from comparing Acts xvii. 15 with 
 1 Thess. iii. 2, that he had sent back by those 
 brethren, who conducted him to Athens, a mes- 
 sage to Timothy (and Silas) to visit the Thessa- 
 lonian church, to establish them, and exhort them 
 concerning their faith, and then to rejoin him as 
 quickly as possible. The nature of the report 
 brought him by his companions sufficiently appears 
 in the first letter. It had been, on the whole, 
 most favourable. The word of the Lord (i.e., con- 
 cerning Christ) had sounded abroad from them, 
 not only in their own country but everywhere : 
 they were cause of great joy to their father in the 
 faith. But there appear to have been some ble- 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 35 
 
 mishes. There was a tendency to adopt or fall 
 back into the immoral habits of the heathen world : 
 there was some want of brotherly love and quiet 
 earnestness, and a disposition to meddle and to 
 be indolent : and there was the great mistake to 
 which we have before made allusion, respecting 
 those who had fallen asleep in Christ 
 
 Under these circumstances the first letter was 
 written. When the tidings from Macedonia arrived, 
 they found the Apostle in an anxious and trying 
 state. He was, we are told, constrained in spirit, 
 testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 
 It was the same kind of work in which he had 
 had such conflict at Thessalonica, and the message 
 brought up before him again all the fervour and 
 love with which his preaching, though strongly 
 opposed, had been there received. He employed 
 his scanty intervals of retirement in pouring out 
 his heart to his beloved Thessalonians. It was 
 apparently the first time that the Divine Spirit had 
 prompted him to preach the Gospel in writing. Of 
 course we cannot be certain of this, because some 
 of his Epistles have been lost; but at all events 
 this is the first of his letters that has come down 
 to us. and it is interesting in that light, as well as 
 
 D 2 
 
36 How to study the New Testament \ 
 
 on all other accounts. We see from it what was 
 the natural course of his feelings towards those 
 among whom he had preached with success. We 
 see how large a portion of his heart was given to 
 love and gratitude, how rejoiced he was to praise 
 and encourage, how unwilling to blame. There 
 is no Epistle that shows us the spontaneous out- 
 flowing of the Apostle’s mind to his converts so 
 plainly as this. And it is all the more interesting, 
 as also making it evident how the unfolding of the 
 great doctrinal system of Christian truth was, even 
 with the Apostles themselves, a gradual thing. In 
 these earlier Epistles there is nothing of that deep 
 dogmatic teaching which becomes so prevalent as 
 time goes on, and almost pervades the later Epistles 
 written during the Roman captivity : here all is 
 affectionate remembrance, and fresh, fervid exhorta- 
 tion, grounded on the elementary facts and hopes 
 of the Gospel. I have said elsewhere,* ‘The 
 earliest of the Epistles are ever moral and practical, 
 the advanced ones more doctrinal and spiritual. 
 It was not till it appeared that the bulwark of 
 salvation by grace must be strengthened, that the 
 
 * “ New Testament for English Readers,” Introduction, ch. viii. <} 4, 
 
 par. 3. 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 37 
 
 building on the one foundation must be raised thus 
 impregnable to the righteousness of works and the 
 law, that the Epistles to the Galatians and the 
 Romans were given through the great Apostle, 
 reaching to the full breadth and height of the great 
 argument. Then followed the Epistles of the im- 
 prisonment, building up higher and higher the 
 edifice there consolidated ; and the Pastoral 
 Epistles, suited to a more developed ecclesiastical 
 condition, and aimed at the correction of abuses 
 which sprung up later, or were the ripened fruit of 
 former doctrinal errors.’ 
 
 It is remarkable that the one point as to which 
 experience brought to the Apostle the greatest 
 ‘ desire to change his voice,’ was that very one 
 which our Lord in solemn terms had left in uncer- 
 tainty for all ages of his militant Church — even 
 the day of the second coming. His teaching at 
 Thessalonica had indeed been misunderstood. He 
 himself protests against the sense which had been 
 put upon it. But even misunderstanding points 
 to some tendency in the direction which it has 
 taken. St. Paul’s manner of dwelling on and de- 
 scribing the day of the Lord, without perhaps 
 putting in the cautions which he afterwards gave 
 
38 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 against the idea that it was immediately at hand, 
 had been interpreted as pointing to a very short 
 interval before it should be upon them. ‘We 
 which are alive and remain ’ may represent a class 
 of similar expressions not thus meant by the 
 speaker, but capable of conveying the idea that 
 the hearers should see the Lord’s appearing in 
 their own time. I again quote from the same Intro- 
 duction as before : ‘ The time of our Lord’s coming 
 was hidden from all created beings, — nay, in the 
 mystery of his mediatorial office, from the Son 
 himself (Mark xiii. 32). Even after His Resurrec- 
 tion, when questioned by the Apostles as to the 
 time of his restoring the kingdom of Israel, His 
 reply is still, that it is not for them to know the 
 times and the seasons, which the Father hath put 
 in his own power (Acts i. 7).’ Here then is a 
 plain indication, which has not, I think, been suffi- 
 ciently made use of in judging of the Epistles. 
 The Spirit was to testify of Christ : to take of the 
 things of Christ and show them unto the Apostles. 
 So that, however much that Spirit, in His infinite 
 wisdom, might be pleased to impart to them of 
 the details and accompanying circumstances of the 
 Lord’s appearing, we may be sure that the truth 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 39 
 
 spoken by our Lord, 4 Of that day and hour 
 knoweth no man/ would hold good with regard 
 to them, and be traced in their writings. If they 
 were true men, and their words and epistles the 
 genuine production of inspiration of them by that 
 Spirit of Truth, we may expect to find in such 
 speeches and writings tokens of their appointed 
 uncertainty of the day and hour; expectations, 
 true in expression and fully justified by appearance, 
 yet corrected, as God’s 'purposes were manifested, 
 by advancing experience and larger effusions of the 
 spirit of prophecy. If then I find in the course of 
 St. Paul’s Epistles., that expressions which occur in 
 the earlier ones, and seem to indicate expectation 
 of the Lord’s almost immediate coming, are gra- 
 dually modified, — disappear altogether in the Epis- 
 tles of the imprisonment, — and are succeeded by 
 others speaking in a very different strain, of ‘ dis- 
 solving, and being with Christ,’ and passing through 
 death and the resurrection, in the latest Epistles, — 
 I regard it, not as a strange thing, not as a circum- 
 stance which I must explain away for fear of weak- 
 ening the authority of his Epistles, but as exactly 
 that which I should expect to find : as the very 
 strongest testimony that these Epistles were written 
 
40 How to -study the New Testament . 
 
 by one who was left in this uncertainty — not by 
 one who wished to make it appear that inspiration 
 had rendered him omniscient. And in this, the 
 earliest of those Epistles, I do find exactly that 
 which I might expect on this head. While every 
 word and every detail respecting the Lord’s coming 
 is a perpetual inheritance for the Church, — while 
 we continue to comfort one another with the 
 glorious and heart-stirring sentences which he utters 
 to us ‘ in the word of the Lord,’ no candid eye can 
 help seeing in the Epistle how the uncertainty of 
 ‘ the day and hour ’ has tinged all these passages 
 with a hue of near anticipation : how natural it 
 was that the Thessalonians, receiving this Epistle, 
 should have allowed that anticipation to be brought 
 even yet nearer, and have imagined the day to 
 have been actually at hand. 
 
 The nature of the contents of this first Epistle 
 will have been already surmised. It was written 
 because the Apostle wanted to fill up by exhorta- 
 tion and consolation the necessary defects of a 
 teaching, which had been indeed most earnest and 
 plain as far as it had gone, but had been broken 
 off before it was complete. The earlier portion of 
 the letter is spent in congratulating the Thessalo- 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 4i 
 
 nians and praising them for the simplicity and 
 readiness with which they had received his message, 
 and for the eminence of their faith, which had be- 
 come since then matter of notoriety : in reminding 
 them also of the whole character of his own 
 demeanour among them : his disinterested inde- 
 pendence of them, and gentle, even mother-like, 
 affection towards them. He next recalls to mind 
 the hostility of the Jews, not so much to himself 
 as to them, and draws a comparison between them 
 and the churches of Judea in this respect (14 — 16). 
 Then he touches gently his own case, showing 
 how this same hostility had, since his departure, 
 defeated one and another scheme which he had 
 made for seeing them (17 — 20). The third chapter 
 is occupied with a narrative of the circumstances 
 under which the report of Timothy respecting 
 them had reached him, and with expressions of 
 thankfulness and affection resulting thereupon ; 
 concluding (n — 13) with a wish for the possibility 
 of his visiting them, and for their increase in love 
 and holiness, that they might be blameless before 
 God at the Lord’s coming. And only now begin 
 the practical exhortations and corrections of defects. 
 These correspond to the order in which those de- 
 
42 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 fects have been noted above. Thessalonica seems, 
 like its wealthy sister Corinth, to have been dis- 
 graced by the prevalent practice of immorality. 
 The disciples there are, in consequence, exhorted 
 to purity, and to the chaste adoption of that only 
 method which God has provided for man’s lawful 
 use. Next he very gently touches on a want of 
 brotherly love, blaming, where he seems to praise, 
 as was often his habit. And thus he passes on to 
 that which is in the mind of every Christian, the 
 great passage in the Epistle : the revelation respect- 
 ing the state and prospects of the dead in Christ. 
 I have before spoken of the mistake which they 
 had made ; let us now see how St. Paul corrects it. 
 
 They who had, through the victory of Jesus, ex- 
 changed death for sleep (see below), are gone to 
 Jesus, and when God brings Him back to us, they 
 will also be brought together with Him. For 
 the order which shall be observed — no device of 
 the Apostle’s own mind, but revealed to him by 
 the Lord — will be this : the living will have no 
 advantage over the sleeping, because the Lord 
 himself shall come down froi$ heaven and awake 
 the dead, who, before anything else is done, shall 
 rise — their spirits, which came with Jesus, being 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 43 
 
 united to their bodies which were sleeping; and, 
 this being done, the living, who remain behind on 
 earth, will be caught up into the air to meet the 
 Lord [and them]. Thus were they to be com 
 forted, and not to sorrow as if their dear friends 
 had lost anything ; for, in fact, they had been the 
 gainers : and supposing that day to come in their 
 own time, would have the advantage over them. 
 
 And now he goes on to speak of that great day 
 itself, in terms which doubtless they in their eager- 
 ness fastened upon, and interpreted of its too 
 speedy coming. Now occurs the first of those 
 afterwards often-repeated exhortations to walk in 
 light, as children of the day (see also Rom. xiii. 
 12, 13; Eph. v. 8; Col. i. 12, 13); now is found 
 the first germ of that description of the armour 
 of God, or of light, which he afterwards expanded 
 so gloriously (Eph. vi. 10). Now also first we 
 come to those short insulated admonitions which 
 have been compared to strings of pearls, — with 
 which in after years he was in the habit of coming 
 towards the conclusion of his Epistles (see Rom. 
 xii. 9 — 18 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 13, 14; 1 Tim. iv. 11 — 16 ; 
 2 Tim. iv. 1 — 5). We may remark that he con 
 eludes the Epistle in full consciousness of its 
 
44 How to study the Nezv Testament . 
 
 inspired and authoritative character. ‘ I adjure 
 you by the Lord/ he says, ‘that this Epistle be 
 read unto all the holy brethren/ Such vehemence 
 would ill become the writer of any mere human 
 letter. And this remark is important considering 
 it is the earliest among his Epistles. He wrote in 
 full consciousness of his apostolic power. 
 
 The second Epistle is far too important, as to 
 the explanation of one portion of its contents, to 
 be included in the remaining short space allotted 
 to this chapter. We hope to devote our next 
 to its consideration. Meantime we may make 
 an observation on a matter which is especially 
 worth notice in this earliest Epistle. Though the 
 Apostle, in the address of both, associates with 
 himself Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who had 
 been his companions in preaching the Word at 
 Thessalonica, and continues this method of speech 
 by the use of the first person plural as far as ch. 
 ii. 1 8, yet there he explains ‘we’ to mean, ‘I, 
 Paul/ and when he recurs to it again, asserts that 
 which was true of himself alone and not of his two 
 companions (ch. iii. i). But he soon breaks away 
 into the first person singular (ch. iii. 5), and though 
 most of the remainder of the Epistle is expressed 
 
i Thessalonians . 
 
 45 
 
 in the plural form, yet in his final adjuration he 
 confines himself to the singular. This serves to 
 shew, that, though more names than one may be 
 mentioned at the beginning of an Epistle, and 
 though the formality of using the plural prevail 
 through the greater part of it, yet it is the apostolic 
 authority of St. Paul himself which is the sanction 
 of the whole, and the individual thought of St. Paul 
 that works out the arguments and enforces the 
 exhortation. 
 
 We now proceed to the recounting of the more 
 important varieties in reading, and corrections in 
 rendering, necessary to be noticed in this Epistle. 
 
 Of the former, there are but few, and these not 
 of the first importance. 
 
 In ch. i. i, some of our oldest authorities omit 
 the words ’‘from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ .’ And though other authorities almost as 
 ancient contain the words, the omission seems to 
 point to the original text. Elsewhere the corre- 
 sponding words are not omitted, and it is probable 
 that they may have been inserted here to conform 
 this to those other places. 
 
 In ch. ii. 19, ‘ Christ 9 is omitted in all our oldest 
 authorities, and should certainly be erased 
 
46 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 In ch. iii. 2 , for ‘ and minister of God and out 
 fellow labourer in the Gospel of Christ/ our ancient 
 MSS. have very various expressions. The Vatican 
 has only the words ‘ and fellow worker / the 
 Sinaitic and Alexandrine have only ‘ and minister 
 of God / the Claromontane MS. has ‘ and fellow- 
 worker with God in the Gospel of Christ/ which is 
 most likely to have been the original text, and to 
 have been varied on account of the difficulty pre- 
 sented by the unusual expression. In verses 11 
 and 13, the word ‘ Christ’ is omitted in all the 
 most ancient MSS. 4 The Lord Jesus’ seems to 
 have been at this time St. Paul’s constant way 
 of naming the Saviour. And it is to be noted, 
 that he was charged at Thessalonica before the ma- 
 gistrates with proclaiming ‘ another king, one Jesus.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 1, after the words ‘ please God/ all 
 our most ancient MSS. insert ‘ even as also ye are 
 walking.’ In ver. 7, 6 us’ should be read ‘ you.’ 
 In ver. 13 all our most ancient MSS., instead of 
 4 1/ have 6 we.’ 
 
 In ch. v. 3, at the beginning, ‘For’ is omitted 
 by the Alexandrine and Sinaitic MSS., and in 
 the ancient Syriac version and the most ancient 
 Fathers : the Vatican and Claromontane MSS. 
 
I Thessalonians . 
 
 47 
 
 read 4 But.’ In ver. 5, all the oldest authorities 
 begin the verse ‘For ye are,’ &c. In ver. 20, 21, 
 the words ought to stand 4 Despise not prophesy- 
 ings, but prove all things ;’ i.e., on the one hand 
 do not think lightly of any utterances of the word 
 of God by whomsoever made : on the other, do 
 not be led by everything so spoken, but put all 
 things to the test. See on this place below. 
 
 We now come to what will prove, in the Epistles, 
 the far more serious task, that of enumerating pas- 
 sages in which our English version fails to give 
 the force, and very often the correct meaning, 
 of the original. 
 
 In ch. i. 3, 4 hope in our Lord Jesus Christ ’ is in- 
 correct. The original has 4 hope of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ,’ L e., of his coming — the great subject of 
 the Epistle. In ver. 4, 4 knowing, brethren beloved, 
 your election of God,’ should be, 4 knowing, bre- 
 thren beloved by God, your election.’ In ver. 8, 
 4 sounded ’ should be 4 hath sounded.’ The Apostle 
 is speaking, not of a thing long past, but of one 
 which had just taken place, and was then con- 
 tinuing. Inver. 10, 4 delivered ’ ought to be 4 deli- 
 ver eth.’ 
 
 In ch. ii. 1, 4 was not 9 should be ‘hath not 
 
48 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 been/ In ver. 3, for 4 was not' should stand 
 4 springeth not ’ or 4 cometh not/ The Apostle is 
 speaking, not of what his exhortation was when he 
 was with them, but of its general character : com- 
 pare 4 Even so we speak 9 (not 4 spoke ’), below. In 
 ver. 4, 4 were allowed ' should be 4 have been ap- 
 proved/ In ver. 7 the expression 4 even as a ?iurse 
 cherisheth her children ' is open to mistake, besides 
 being an insufficient rendering of the original words. 
 It may be supposed that the 4 nurse’ is a mere 
 hired servant, and the children hers, merely as 
 entrusted to her. But the original has, as if a 
 nurse should cherish her own children : and the 
 best way of conveying the meaning in English 
 would be to render, 4 like as when a nursing-mother 
 cherisheth her own children/ In ver. 8, 6 souls' 
 ought to be 4 lives.’ In ver. 10, 4 among ’ should 
 be ‘toward.’* Inver. 12, 4 hath called' should be 
 4 calleth.’ In ver. 14, 4 followers' is better rendered 
 literally, ‘imitators.’ Inver. 15, 4 have persecuted' 
 should be ‘drove out.’ In ver. 16, 4 is come ’ should 
 be 4 came.’ The meaning is somewhat obscure, 
 
 * I may be allowed to mention, that in my “New Testament for 
 English Readers” there is a misprint in the text of ver. ii. The words 
 ‘every one of you’ should come after ‘comforting you/ and not in their 
 present position- 
 
i Thessalonians. 
 
 49 
 
 and therefore the original tense should be carefully 
 kept. The present English version gives the im- 
 pression that the destruction of Jerusalem had 
 passed, whereas it did not happen till eighteen 
 years after. 
 
 Ch. iii. 2, ‘ comfort ’ should probably be ‘ exhort.* 
 Ver. 13, 6 God even our Father / should be ‘God 
 and our Father/ i. e ., ‘ Him who is our God and 
 Father/ 
 
 Ch. iv. 1, ‘ by the Lord Jesus' should be ‘in the 
 Lord Jesus/ i. e. literally as the original. The 
 expression is not a form of adjuration, but sets 
 forth the holy element in which his exhortation 
 was made. In ch. v. 9, the expression is quite 
 a different one. In the same verse ‘ have received ’ 
 ought to be ‘received/ He means when he was 
 with them and taught them. In ver. 4, ‘ how to 
 possess his vessel 9 is a mis-translation. It should 
 be ‘ how to acquire his own vessel/ and it means, 
 how to take a wife who might be his own lawful 
 vessel for that purpose which the sin in question 
 carried out unlawfully. In ver. 6 again, the sense 
 is utterly confused by a mistake of our translators. 
 By rendering ‘ in any matter they have made it 
 appear as if the sin of defrauding another, gene- 
 
 E 
 
50 How to study the Neiv Testament . 
 
 rally, were that against which the Apostle is 
 warning: and thus the whole passage becomes 
 incoherent, and loses its solemn force. The words 
 which they have rendered 4 in any matter ,’ stand 
 in the original 4 in the matter,’ u e., in this matter, 
 which is now in hand, viz., the unclean lusts of 
 the flesh. The Apostle is speaking in language 
 somewhat veiled, for decency’s sake. In the same 
 verse, 4 have forewarned ’ should be 4 forewarned 
 and in the next verse, 4 hath not called us ’ should 
 be 4 calleth us not ;’ and the next should proceed, 
 4 for uncleanness, but in sanctification.’ In the 
 next verse, 4 who hath also given ’ ought to be 
 4 who also gave.’ In ver. 13, for 4 others' should 
 stand 4 the rest.’ In ver. 14, 4 sleep in Jesus' ought 
 to be 4 fell asleep through Jesus,’ i. e., by his merits 
 have had their death turned into sleep. 4 Sleep in 
 Jesus’ is a beautiful and true expression: but it 
 is not the one used here. In the same verse, 
 4 with him ’ may be misunderstood. 4 Him ’ does 
 not refer to God, but to Jesus : will God bring, 
 at the same time that He brings HIM, Jesus, 
 through whom they fell asleep. It would be better, 
 therefore, to express it, 4 together with Him,’ which 
 can hardly be mistaken. In ver. 15, 4 shall not 
 
i rhessalonians . 
 
 5i 
 
 prevent ’ would be much better expressed 4 shall 
 in nowise have the advantage of.’ In ver. 17 it 
 is necessary to notice that 4 together ’ does not 
 belong to 4 with them :’ it is not, 4 shall be caught 
 up, together with them, to meet the Lord,’ but 
 4 shall be caught up together, with them, to meet 
 the Lord.’ To make this plain, I have in my 
 revised text inserted the word 4 all :’ 4 shall be 
 caught up all together, with them, to meet the 
 Lord/ 
 
 Ch. v. 1 : 4 ye have no need that I write unto 
 you ’ is literally 4 ye have no need to be written 
 unto/ The Authorised Version puts 4 1 9 into too 
 much prominence. It seems as if some one else 
 might be thought of, who ought to write to them 
 on this point. In ver. 5, 4 the children ’ ought to 
 be ‘sons’ (twice). Ver. 6 , ‘others' should be 4 the 
 rest.’ Ver. 9, 4 hath not appointed us’ should be 
 ‘appointed us not.’ Inver. 10, ‘together,’ again, 
 is not to be joined to ‘with Him,’ but it should 
 be read, 4 should live together, with Him.’ In 
 ver. 15, the words should stand, ‘both toward 
 one another, and toward all.’ The preposition is 
 the same in both clauses. Ver. 22 as it stands 
 in our version is undoubtedly wrong, and has 
 
 e 2 
 
5 2 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 misled many persons, who have thought it to be 
 an injunction to abstain even from that which 
 seems evil, — to avoid all chance of offence. The 
 words mean nothing of the kind, but merely this : 
 4 Abstain from every form of evil/ i. e ., 4 from 
 every species/ ‘every kind, of evil/ And they 
 correspond with the former member of the sen- 
 tence, which should be divided, further, by a 
 comma only, 4 Hold fast that which is good, ab- 
 stain from everv kind of evil/ 
 
THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE 
 THESSALON IANS. 
 
 WO suppositions are possible with regard to 
 
 the occasion of the Apostle’s writing this 
 second Epistle. The first is, that the Thessalo- 
 nians had misunderstood what he had said in his 
 former Epistle regarding the second coming of 
 our Lord, and imagined that day to be close 
 upon them. But to this there are two objections. 
 First, that there is nothing in the former Epistle 
 which could well have given rise to such an 
 amount of misunderstanding. Had it been pre- 
 viously existing, or had it come upon them after- 
 wards from some other influence, there might be 
 nothing in that Epistle to check it : but we can 
 hardly conceive it to have arisen from that letter 
 alone. And secondly, St. Paul’s own words in 
 
54 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 this Epistle hardly bear out such a supposition. 
 The Thessalonians are cautioned not to be 
 “ shaken in mind nor troubled, neither by spirit 
 (spiritual gift of prophecy), nor by word, nor by 
 letter as by usd This would look as if some 
 Epistle had been circulated among them purport- 
 ing to come, but not really coming, from their 
 Father in the faith. And so Chrysostom takes 
 the passage to mean : ‘ He seems to me here to 
 hint, that some were going about with a forged 
 Epistle pretending to be from Paul, and that 
 showing this they affirmed the day of the Lord to 
 be already come, that they might deceive many. 
 And this supposition also derives confirmation 
 from the care taken in ch. iii. 17, to add to this 
 Epistle, itself written by an amanuensis, an auto- 
 graph salutation, and to specify such autograph 
 salutation to be the token of genuineness which 
 the Apostle intended ever after to employ/ And 
 more confirmation still is obtained for this view, 
 from the circumstance that, if this second Epistle 
 were intended for a correction of the first, it serves 
 the purpose very insufficiently, opening in ch. i. 7, 
 with an anticipation of Christ’s coming quite as 
 ardent and realising as any in that former Epistle. 
 
2 Thessalonians . 
 
 55 
 
 We adopt then unhesitatingly the second hypo- 
 thesis : that since the sending of that letter, some 
 one had been imposing upon the Thessalonians a 
 letter in the Apostle’s name, to the effect that the 
 day of the Lord was close upon them ; exciting 
 them, and causing them to walk disorderly, and 
 to disregard their own business in life. On being 
 informed of this at Corinth, where he remained 
 for a year and a half, he sent this second Epistle, 
 not contradicting, not even modifying, his former 
 teaching, but filling it out and rendering it com- 
 plete : informing them of those things which in 
 the divine counsels were destined to precede the 
 coming of the day of the Lord, and the manifesta- 
 tion of which was kept back by circumstances 
 then existing. Unquestionably, this great prophetic 
 passage is the glory, as it furnished the main object, 
 of this second Epistle. It will be my endeavour, 
 first to regard the Epistle as a whole, and then 
 to give particular attention to the interpretation 
 of this passage. 
 
 This Epistle is superscribed, as the former one 
 was, by Paul and Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy. 
 It would seem as if some little time must have 
 elapsed since the former Epistle, enough both to 
 
5 6 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 have brought on the Thessalonians length of per- 
 secution sufficient for endurance under it to be 
 predicated of them, and enough also to give rise 
 to Christian churches in Corinth and its neigh- 
 bourhood : for the Apostle speaks (ch. i. 4) of 
 his 4 boasting of them, in the churches of God 
 for their patience and faith in all their persecu- 
 tions and afflictions that they were enduring/ This 
 endurance is treated by him as a token of God’s 
 justice, preparing them for His kingdom, at the 
 revelation of which they should have rest, and 
 their persecutors recompense of affliction. The 
 manifestation of that kingdom is spoken of in 
 the same tone as prevailed in the former Epistle : 
 thus making it manifest that it is not the intention 
 of the Apostle to correct or change anything which 
 he had before written to them. He now (ch. ii.) 
 addresses himself to the great mistake under which 
 they were labouring : and having both reminded 
 them of his former teaching, and imparted to them 
 again the great truths on the matter which he had 
 then declared to them, he repeats his thankfulness 
 for them, and exhorts them to hold fast the tra- 
 ditions which they have been taught, whether by 
 word, or by his Epistles. 
 
2 Thessalonians. 
 
 57 
 
 In drawing to a close, he begs their prayers 
 for the success of his great work, and for his own 
 deliverance from the Jews, then violently contend- 
 ing with him at Corinth : expressing his confidence 
 in the Thessalonians, and praying for them in turn 
 that their hearts may be led into the love of God, 
 and the patience of which Christ was the example. 
 
 Then follow his final injunctions ; and their cha- 
 racter, as has been already hinted, shews beyond 
 mistake what had been the effect of their mistake 
 which he has been correcting. Some among them 
 were walking disorderly, not working at any busi- 
 ness, but being busy bodies : contrary both to the 
 Apostle’s teaching, and to his consistent example 
 when he was among them. These persons he 
 exhorts solemnly to return to their occupations, 
 and in quietness to earn their own bread. From 
 such as will not, he commands the believers to 
 separate themselves ; not, however, in a hostile 
 spirit, but with brotherly admonitions. And then, 
 having given them a sure token of the genuineness 
 of this letter, viz., the salutation written with his 
 own hand, his token in every Epistle, he concludes 
 with the valedictory prayer, that the favour ot 
 Christ might ever abide with them- 
 
58 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 We now approach the consideration of the im- 
 portant passage in chapter ii. It may be well first 
 to present it in English, as nearly as possible in a 
 literal translation from the original. 
 
 4 But we beseech you , brethren , touchmg the coinmg 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ , and our gathering together 
 unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken from your mind, 
 nor yet be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor 
 by letter as if by us [/. e., with pretence of our 
 authority], to the effect that the day of the Lord is 
 come. Let no man deceive you in any way : for [‘ that 
 day shall not come] or £ it shall not be so : nothing 
 answering to these words is expressed in the ori- 
 ginal] unless there shall have come the apostasy first, 
 and the man of sin [our two most ancient MSS. 
 have 4 of lawlessness ’] shall have been revealed, the 
 son of perdition ; he that opposeth, and exalteth hi?n- 
 self above every one called God, or an object of wor- 
 ship : so that he sitteth down in the temple of God, 
 showing hunself that he is God. Remember ye not 
 that when L was yet with you, L used to tell you 
 these things l And ?iow ye know what hinder eth, 
 that he may be revealed in his own time. For the 
 mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only until 
 he that now hinder eth be taken out of the way. And 
 
2 T hessa lonians. 
 
 59 
 
 then shall the Lawless One be revealed ’ whom the 
 Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his 
 mouth , and shall destroy with the appearance of 
 his coming: whose coming is after the power of Satan 
 in all power and signs a?id wonders of falsehood, 
 and in all deceit of unrighteousness for them that 
 are perishing: because they received ?iot the love of 
 the truth, that they might be saved. And for this 
 cause doth God send them the working of delusion, 
 that they should believe the falsehood: that they ?nay 
 all be judged who believed not the truth , but had 
 pleasure in unrighteousness l 
 
 Now the first matter to be settled respecting 
 this passage is as to its character, in the mind 
 and intention of the Apostle. Did he intend it 
 for a prophetic declaration of that which should 
 hereafter be, or merely for an expression of his 
 own feelings and apprehensions regarding the 
 course of unbelief? We should not have put 
 the question at all, had not this latter alternative 
 been propounded by some among ourselves, whose 
 names command respect. We will only say, that 
 if we are to adopt it, then, it seems to us, we also 
 adopt a rule of interpretation which will deprive 
 Scripture of any categorical meaning whatever. If 
 
60 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 ever language was solemn, and declaratory of di- 
 vine purpose, this is so. We are told to com- 
 pare, by way of corroborating the view that St. 
 Paul was merely speaking his own feelings and 
 apprehensions, his language in 'Acts xx. 29, “ For 
 I know that after my departure grievous wolves 
 shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 
 Yea, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking 
 perverse things, to draw away disciples after them 
 and that in 2 Tim. L 15 , ‘ This thou knowest, that 
 all they which are in Asia be turned away from 
 me/ Surely a more unfortunate reference could 
 not be made. For what two modes of speaking 
 could be more different than that of those places 
 where he is speaking his own convictions and sad 
 experiences, and that adopted here ? The refer- 
 ence itself is a refutation. He is clearly, to any 
 unbiassed reader, speaking here in the fulness of 
 apostolic power ; as when, in the former Epistle, 
 he said, ‘ This we declare unto you by the word 
 of the Lord.’ That about which they had gone 
 wrong, was an event of world-wide import, even 
 the second advent of the Lord. And his cor- 
 rection of their error was of course made ‘ in like 
 material,’ or it would have been no correction at 
 
2 Thessalonians . 6 1 
 
 all. He informs them of matters hidden in the 
 divine counsels, but revealed to him by the Spirit, 
 — matters which might tend to convince them, and 
 through them the Church in all time, that the day 
 of the Lord is not yet manifested, nor shall be 
 until certain appointed developments of evil shall 
 have taken place. We lay it down then for our 
 readers fearlessly, that the passage is prophetic : 
 is the language of the Holy Ghost to the Church, 
 to us, respecting that which is to oe gone through 
 before the day of the Lord. 
 
 This, then, being laid down, what is it which 
 is declared ? 
 
 Let the reader carefully observe that there are 
 three things, or rather, perhaps, two, which require 
 to be interpreted : — i. The apostasy ; 2. The man 
 of sin, or of lawlessness ; and 3. 4 That which,' 
 and 4 he which,' 4 hinders ’ the manifestation of 
 this man of sin. I said 4 rather perhaps two,' be- 
 cause the former two, the apostasy , and the man oj 
 sin , are so closely connected, that they may almost 
 be regarded as one. The man of sin is some 
 great concentration of the principle of the apostasy, 
 be he official, or be he individual. 
 
 First, then, what is 4 the apostasy ' ? The ques- 
 
62 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 tion must be answered, not by preconceived views, 
 nor by traditional prejudices, but simply by fair 
 consideration of the passage before us. The apo- 
 stasy must be judged by the place which it here 
 occupies, and by the characteristics in which it 
 culminates. The place which it occupies is imme- 
 diately before the coming of the Lord : and it is 
 pointed out as the apostasy, because it will be the 
 greatest of all apostasies; that one to which all 
 others will converge, and in which they will be 
 absorbed. Now we may fearlessly say, tha’t such 
 an apostasy, in its full development, the world has 
 not yet seen. There have been many ‘ fallings 
 away’ since the Lord was received into heaven. 
 There were the partial revivals of paganism under 
 Julian and others : there was the great Mahom- 
 medan imposture, drawing after it the greater por- 
 tion of the East. Churches have left their faith 
 and been extinguished : heresies have sprung up 
 and run their course. In the Eastern and Western 
 churches, corruption of doctrine and practice has 
 set in. In the latter especially a monstrous cari- 
 cature of Christianity has put itself in the place 
 of the faith once delivered to the Church : a loca. 
 bishop has set himself over churches and king- 
 
2 Tkessalonians. 
 
 63 
 
 doms ; has invented new doctrines, or borrowed 
 the cast-off abominations of paganism. A more 
 subtle method of undermining the gospel of Christ 
 has never been devised; but still the Papacy is 
 not ‘ the apostasy ,’ any more than any one of the 
 others mentioned. The Papacy does not, which 
 the apostasy must do, abjure and cast off Christ. 
 The power of Christ’s Spirit, however thwarted by 
 its systematic violation and perversion of truth, lives 
 in its system, and works, by means of the sacred 
 Word, on the hearts of its members. To deny 
 this is to shut our eyes to the most manifest and 
 blessed facts. 
 
 In a word, the apostasy is yet to be manifested. 
 Its form cannot be doubtful ; its preparations are 
 going on, and have long been, among the nations 
 of Christendom. It is not any corrupt form of 
 Christianity; it is not Mahommedanism, with its 
 firm hold on the unity and sovereignty of God ; 
 but it is the spread of secular unbelief, which 
 denies, and casts off, God : which sets up nature 
 above God, physical law above personal will. It 
 is the idolatry of material force and of human 
 genius, as opposed to the revelation of the divine 
 and supernatural. That each of the lesser apo 
 
6\ How to study the New Testament . 
 
 stasies has ministered and is ministering to the 
 preparation of this great one, is manifest : and 
 none more signally than the Papacy, with its 
 speaking of lies in hypocrisy, and its universal 
 debasement of the sense of truth and of moral 
 feeling. Any one need but mingle in continental 
 society in any country, to see how completely 
 Romanism has subserved unbelief, and how its 
 exaggeration of claims on submission has issued 
 in universal contempt for its dogmas. 
 
 The Apostasy, then, as we understand it, will 
 be the open and general casting off of Christianity 
 in favour of secular unbelief. How long it will be 
 delayed, God knows ; but it is assuredly that to 
 which, sooner or later, the present state of things 
 is tending. What dimensions it will assume, again 
 God knows. It will not carry away, it will not 
 silence, the Church. Rather will the cloud blacken 
 as the sun brightens, and the testimony to Christ 
 among the faithful will be clearer and purer in 
 words and deeds, as the denial of Christ waxes 
 wider and bolder. 
 
 But the apostasy will come to a head. The more 
 men cast off God, the only Master of the human 
 spirit, the more they become the prey of man. 
 
2 Tkessalonians. 
 
 6 5 
 
 And not only this. ‘ In proportion as the general 
 standard of mental cultivation is raised, and man 
 made equal with man, the ordinary power ot 
 genius is diminished, but its extraordinary power 
 is increased ; its reach deepened, its hold made 
 more firm. As men become familiar with the 
 achievements and the exercise of talent, they learn 
 to despise and disregard its daily examples, and 
 to be more independent of mere men of ability ; 
 but they only become more completely in the 
 power of gigantic intellect, and the slaves of pre- 
 eminent and unapproachable talent. ’* 
 
 This being so, there seems nothing improbable, 
 a priori , in the apostasy culminating in the person 
 of some one personal representative. Every one of 
 its partial manifestations which we have already 
 seen has done so from time to time. And with 
 this idea the plain words of the prophecy com- 
 pletely tally. The 4 lawless One ’ here spoken of, 
 is most naturally understood, not as a dynasty, or 
 an official succession, but as an individual man. 
 Thus the early interpreters always understood the 
 expression. 4 There was nothing in their peculiar 
 
 * I quote from the Introduction to my “ New Testament for English 
 Readers,” vol. ii. p. 92. 
 
 F 
 
66 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 circumstances or temperament which prevented 
 them from interpreting all that is here said as a 
 personification, or from allegorising it, as others 
 have done since. This fact gives their interpreta- 
 tion an historical weight, the inference from which 
 it is difficult to escape. The subject of the coming 
 of Antichrist must have been no uncommon one in 
 preaching and writing, during the latter part of 
 the first, and the second century. That no echoes 
 of the apostolic sayings on the matter should 
 have reached thus far, no savour of the first out- 
 pouring of interpretation by the Spirit penetrated 
 through the next generation, can hardly be con- 
 ceived.’ 
 
 We assume then that this Man of sin, or of 
 lawlessness, is an individual, who shall arise out of 
 the apostasy, and gain to himself the power over its 
 component elements. Let it surprise none that 
 such things as 4 sitting in the temple of God and 
 showing himself that he is God,’ are predicated of 
 him. From unbelief comes lawlessness ; contempt 
 of moral restraint which rests on divine sanction ; 
 and from casting off of men’s legitimate Ruler and 
 Guide, united to the degradation of man’s soul 
 consequent on immorality, comes gross supersti- 
 
2 Thessalonians . 
 
 67 
 
 tion ; fetish worship, under the guise of derision 
 of worship ; readiness to bow down to any 
 usurper, when the rightful monarch has been de- 
 throned. 
 
 But there was a hindrance to the manifestation 
 of this Man of sin when the Apostle wrote ; and 
 that hindrance is still unremoved ; and there was a 
 hinderer , in whom that hindrance was embodied. 
 The Fathers, in early times, took these respectively 
 as being the Roman Empire, and he that ruled it. 
 I believe they were right. But they judged for 
 their own times ; we must judge for ours. That 
 empire, in the form which they witnessed, has past 
 away. But its 4 hindrance ’ has been continued, 
 in other forms. It has given place to other em- 
 pires and kingdoms, by whose means the Christian 
 churches have been maintained, and the reign of 
 law and order has been ensured. As often as the 
 partial outbreaks of lawlessness have taken place, 
 these temporal powers have given way before 
 them ; and when human society again returned to 
 its usual course, it has been by the knitting up 
 again, in new combinations, of the fabric of state 
 governments. Their power, wherever the seeds of 
 evil are most plentiful, is strictly a coercive power ; 
 
 F 7 
 
68 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 and there only is its restraining hand able to be 
 relaxed, where the light and liberty of the Gospel 
 are shed abroad. And this temporal power has 
 ever been especially in conflict with the Papacy, 
 restraining its pretensions, modifying its course of 
 action, witnessing more or less against its tyranny 
 and its lies. 
 
 If this interpretation be correct, ‘he that hin- 
 dereth ’ will be that person, whoever he might be, 
 then at the head of the hindering power. At the 
 time when the Apostle wrote, this was the Roman 
 Emperor, supreme over the known world : at other 
 times the hindering power might be split up into 
 various portions, and governed by many persons. 
 It would seem from the prophecy that this system 
 of lawful and law-observing power is gradually to 
 be dissolved before the end. The wild excesses of 
 unbelief will then break forth over the Christian 
 world, as they did partially break forth in the sus- 
 pension of lawful government during the first 
 revolution in France. How long the predestined 
 Man of lawlessness will be in power, is not 
 declared to us. But one thing is certain ; that his 
 antagonism against our Lord and his Church will 
 be cut short by the appearing of the Lord himself, 
 
2 Thessalonians . 69 
 
 which will be his destruction. Thus we are 
 carried on to the time of the end ; apparently to 
 the same great conflict of which we read in other 
 parts of the prophetic Scriptures, which shall be 
 terminated by the personal victory of Christ him- 
 self over his banded enemies. 
 
 That there are many objectors to this interpre- 
 tation I am well aware ; but I cannot say that 
 their objections have great weight with me, as 
 against the consent of the early interpreters, and 
 the general analogy of the language of prophecy. 
 The favourite interpretation of Antichrist is, that it 
 is the Papacy, or the Pope for the time being. 
 But this signally fails to fulfil any of the requisite 
 conditions of the prophecy. For in the first place 
 the Papacy has been, according to these very 
 interpreters, in power for 1260 years, and the Lord 
 is not yet come ; a fact which, though it may, by 
 forcing the meaning of words, be reconciled with 
 the language of our prophecy, yet is manifestly, 
 to the fair-judging observer, at variance with its 
 natural acceptation, according to which the mani- 
 festation of the Man of sin is immediately to pre- 
 cede Christ’s coming. And secondly, so far is the 
 Papacy from answering to the description of 4 set- 
 
70 How to study the Nezv Testament . 
 
 ting itself up above all that is called God, oi 
 worshipped,’ that its characteristic is to multiply 
 objects of worship, and to bow down to canonized 
 men and women, to sacred images and winking 
 pictures ; in a word, it can never have gods 
 enough nor lords enough ; it is an example, not of 
 atheism, but of pleistotheism ; Olympus was no- 
 thing to the Paradise of Vatican-made deities. 
 Some curious arguments have been used to show 
 that, notwithstanding the Pope’s devotion to mul- 
 titudes of gods, he yet answers to the description 
 here given ; because he makes gods, he must be 
 greater than the gods he makes. But this is the 
 merest fallacy, arising from an equivocal use of the 
 verb ‘ to make.’ The making in this sense is not 
 creation, but simply an act of investiture, or con- 
 ferring a title or office. It would be about as 
 sound an argument to infer that the archbishop 
 who crowns a king is greater than the king; or 
 that a tailor is greater than he who employs him. 
 The Pope gives the most emphatic denial to this 
 character of him, at the very time when he is sup- 
 posed most to exemplify it. On the occasions 
 when he enters St. Peter’s, borne in state on men’s 
 shoulders, with his peacocks’ fans, and his silver 
 
2 Thessalonians. 
 
 7i 
 
 trumpets, he is always set down at the chapel on 
 the right hand as the nave is entered, and spends 
 some time in 6 adoring the blessed Sacrament.’ 
 
 It will excite no surprise in the mind of any 
 believing Christian to read that this Man of law- 
 lessness shall come ‘ in the power of Satan,’ and 
 with the accompaniment of ‘ signs and wonders.’ 
 Those who regard the operations of nature as the 
 mere results of laws independent of personal 
 spiritual agency, may treat such an announcement 
 with contempt; but those only. We of Christ’s 
 Church believe that the present course of things 
 is the conflict, on the broad stage of the world, 
 between our Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 the great Foe of God and man — the conflict which 
 in person He waged and won when He trod the 
 earth, but which remains to be fought out by 
 them whose souls He has redeemed, and to whom 
 He gives the power of His finished victory for aid. 
 They in their own persons, His Church in her 
 collective capacity, must follow out that victory 
 which He has won : and then when it is about to 
 be finally and gloriously consummated, will the 
 power of evil culminate and do its worst. Then 
 shall the Foe himself try by his agents all his arts, 
 
72 . How to study the New Testament . 
 
 and illude the world with signs and wonders, 
 wrought by permitted power. 
 
 And when this reign of darkness is at its height ; 
 — when all worship and faith and service of good 
 and of God shall have been abandoned, and the 
 little flock, despised, and perhaps persecuted, shall 
 have dwindled down to the lowest ; — when un- 
 belief shall have given way to scorn ; — when the 
 very name of Christian shall be held the badge of 
 idiotcy, and the falsehood of the Gospel shall have 
 become clear by a hundred demonstrations : — 
 then shall there arise in the heavens the brightness 
 of His presence whom we love ; then shall the 
 ‘ new day risen upon the day ’ wax brighter and 
 brighter, till all but they whose eyes are purified 
 to behold it, shrink back, baffled and dazzled. 
 Then shall the foes of light wither away, and be as 
 though they had not been ; and He whose name is 
 Light shall stand revealed upon our earth. 4 Amen, 
 even so come, Lord Jesus/ 
 
 The varieties of the sacred text in this Epistle, 
 deserving attention, are but few. 
 
 In chapter i. ver. 2, for 4 our Father/ some of 
 our oldest MSS. read 4 the Father’; ver. 10, 
 
 4 believe ’ should be Relieved:’ as so often, the 
 
2 Thessalonicms. 73 
 
 past is looked back upon as if from that future 
 day. 
 
 In ch. ii. 2, 4 the day of Christ ] should be 4 the 
 day of the Lord.’ In ver. 3, our two oldest MSS., 
 for 4 sin' have 4 lawlessness/ In ver. 4, the words 
 4 as God’ are omitted by all our most ancient 
 MSS. In ver. 8, for 4 the Lord] most of our 
 oldest MSS., versions, and Fathers, read 4 the Lord 
 Jesus/ In ver. 11, for 4 God shall send them ] read 
 4 doth God send them/ 
 
 In ch. iii. 6, 4 he received ’ should be 4 they 
 received/ 
 
 We now come to consider the places where our 
 Authorised Version has inadequately represented 
 the sacred text. 
 
 In ch. i. 7, 4 his mighty angels ] should be 4 the 
 angels of his might/ The difference is not im- 
 portant here : but in some places, e.g., Phil. iii. 
 21, this practice of rendering by an adjective, 
 eclipses and obscures the whole meaning. In ver. 
 it, for 4 the good pleasure of his goodness] should 
 stand 4 good pleasure of goodness/ 
 
 In ch. ii. 1, ‘by the coming,' should be 4 touch- 
 ing,’ or 4 concerning, the coming/ As it now 
 stands, it looks like a formula of adjuring them 
 
74 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 with which -the phrase has nothing to do. In 
 ver. 2, ‘shaken in mind 9 should be ‘ shaken from 
 your mind..’ In the same verse, 1 is at hand ’ 
 should be ‘ is come/ This has been vehemently 
 denied by several who have differed from the 
 above interpretation of the passage. But it ap- 
 pears to me that the words can mean nothing 
 else. The verb occurs six times besides in the 
 New Testament, and always with the meaning, ‘to 
 be present ,’ not, ‘ to be at hand? It is the same 
 word as that in the expression ‘ things present or 
 things to come’ in Rom. viii. 38 and 1 Cor. iii. 22 
 and is thus distinguished from any reference to the 
 future. And so Chrysostom, himself a Greek, and 
 knowing the force of his own language : ‘ The 
 devil, when he could not persuade them that the 
 announcements of things future were false, took 
 another way, and having suborned certain pestilent 
 fellows, endeavoured to deceive by persuading 
 them that those great and glorious events had an 
 end. At one time they said that the resurrection 
 was already past (2 Tim. ii. 17, 18) : but in this 
 case they said that the judgment was come, and 
 the presence of Christ . . . thus removing fear of 
 retribution for the evil, and hope of reward for the 
 
2 Thessalonians. 
 
 75 
 
 good/ In ver. 3, for ( a falling away ,’ render 4 the 
 apostasy/ It is not one among many apostasies, 
 but the great and well-known one, which is in- 
 dicated. The article, being expressed in the 
 Greek in a place where it could not but be em- 
 phatic, ought never to have been omitted by our 
 translators. In ver. 8, 4 spirit ’ is better 4 breath ’ : 
 and 4 brightness ’ ought to be 4 appearance/ In 
 ver. 9, 4 lying wonders ’ should have been 4 wonders 
 of falsehood’ (see above on ch. i. 7). In ver, 11, 
 4 a lie 9 ought to have been 4 the falsehood’: viz., 
 that before spoken of. In ver. 12, 4 damned ’ 
 ought to be ‘judged.’ The word in the original is 
 simply that, and nothing more. Of course, from 
 the context, both in the Greek and in the English, 
 an unfavourable issue of the judgment must be 
 assumed : but the word never ought to have been 
 strengthened in the translation, either here or in 
 the other places where it has been similarly treated 
 (one very sad instance occurs in 1 Cor. xi. 29). 
 In ver, 13, 4 through sanctification’ ought to be 
 4 in sanctification.’ Sanctification is not the in- 
 strument, but the necessary conditioning state, of 
 our salvation. A similar inaccuracy occurs in ver. 
 16 , where 4 through grace ’ ought to be 4 in grace.’ 
 
76 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 In ch. iii. -2, ‘ perverse 7 more nearly answers to 
 the force of the Greek adjective than ‘ unreason - 
 able' : and ‘faith' should be ‘the faith.' Inver. 5, 
 
 ‘ the patient waiting for Christ ' ought to be ‘ the 
 patience of Christ,' the patience which was in 
 Christ. The words will not bear the other render- 
 ing. In ver. 7 (also in ver. 9), ‘ follow ' ought to 
 be ‘imitate.' Inver. 8, ‘ for nought ' is perhaps 
 not quite clear : it may give the impression that 
 ‘ without result ' is meant : ‘ without recompense,' 
 or ‘ without payment,' would express the meaning 
 more perspicuously. In ver. n, in the words 
 ‘ working not at all, but are busy-bodies,' there is 
 in the original a play upon words, which it is a 
 pity to lose altogether : ‘ working at no business, 
 but being busybodies,' comes as near as perhaps 
 can be accomplished in English. Inver. 12, ‘ by 
 our Lord Jesus Christ' should be ‘ in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ.' In ver. 16, ‘ by all means' should 
 be ‘ in every way.' 
 
 I may add, that the probable date of the writing 
 of the two Epistles to the Thessalonians is between 
 the years 52 and 54 a.d. In the latter of these 
 two years, Nero succeeded Claudius as Emperor 
 01 Rome. 
 
THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE 
 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 E left St. Paul at Corinth, where his 
 
 sojourn lasted eighteen months. In nis 
 
 contentions with the Jews there he had been 
 comforted by a vision, in which the Lord had 
 assured him that He had much people in that 
 city. And so he remained, teaching the word of 
 God, till the stir arose in which the cautious and 
 amiable Gallio, refusing to notice the complaints 
 of the Jews, had ensured for the new faith the 
 protection of the law. This favourable incident 
 enabled the Apostle to prolong his stay yet fur- 
 ther. His ultimate departure appears to have 
 been occasioned by a vow, compelling him to 
 visit Jerusalem. Thither he rapidly proceeded, 
 making a short visit at Ephesus by the way, and 
 
78 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 (for we hurry on to the scene with which we are 
 now concerned) returning through Antioch, and 
 the central countries of Asia Minor, again to 
 Ephesus. There he made the longest stay of any 
 recorded during his missionary journeys ; no less 
 than three whole years, as he himself describes 
 it. During this time a visit to Corinth took place, 
 which has not been recorded in the Acts. In 
 2 Cor. xii. 14, xiii. 1, he tells them that he was 
 coming to them the third time, which would of 
 course imply that he had visited them twice before. 
 But only one previous visit has been related, viz., 
 that first one, during which he wrote the Epistles 
 to the Thessalonians. Before his next recorded 
 visit, viz., that mentioned in Acts xx. 1, 2, both 
 the Epistles to the Corinthians had been written. 
 He wrote the first from Ephesus, at a time when 
 he intended to stay there till Pentecost, 1 Cor. xvi. 
 8 : he wrote the second from Macedonia, at a 
 time when he had recently left Asia, 2 Cor. ix. 
 1 — 4; i. 8 ; ii. 12 — after being there in danger of 
 his life. All this agrees with the history of his 
 sojourn in Ephesus related in Acts xix., and with 
 his journey through Macedonia, related Acts xx. 
 1, 2. We infer then that he must have gone over 
 
i Corinthians. 
 
 79 
 
 from Ephesus to Corinth at some time early in 
 those three years of his Ephesian visit. Nor need 
 we be in the least degree surprised that this jour- 
 ney is not recorded in the Acts. For this is the 
 case with numerous travels and adventures of the 
 Apostle. Long and important journeys are dis- 
 missed in a few words (see ch. xv. 41, xvi. 6, 
 xviii. 23, xix. 1, xx. 2, 3), or even altogether 
 omitted, as that to Arabia, mentioned Gal. i. 17, 
 and that in Syria and Cilicia, Gal. i. 21. Of the 
 long catalogue of perils given by him in 2 Cor. 
 xi. 24 — 26, very few can be identified in the his- 
 tory. Ephesus and Corinth were the usual points 
 of transit to and from Asia and Europe,* and a 
 journey across and back might present very little 
 for the sacred historian to dwell upon. 
 
 The nature of this visit is important for those 
 who would understand these Epistles aright. It 
 is alluded to in 2 Cor. ii. 1, as having been made 
 4 in heaviness ,’ — for some reason which gave him 
 sorrow of heart ; evidently, the unworthy beha- 
 viour of some among the Corinthians : for he tells 
 them (2 Cor. xiii. 2, rightly rendered) that during 
 it, he warned them that if he came again 4 he 
 
 * Dean Howson compares them to Liverpool and New York ; and th* 
 time of transit eleven days, also corresponded. 
 
80 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 would not spare ” (the sinners) j and there is a 
 hint (2 Cor. xii. 21) that during it, God had 
 6 humbled him among them.’ 
 
 But we may gather more notices of the state of 
 the Corinthian church at this second visit. In 
 2 Cor. xii. 21, these words occur: 4 Lest , when 1 
 come again , my God will humble me among you , 
 and that I shall bewail many which have sinned 
 already , and have not repented of the uncleanness 
 and fornication and lasciviousness which they have 
 committed l These were the besetting sins of the 
 place ; and the same great peril had set in here 
 which so generally accompanied the infancy of 
 the primitive churches, that of converts, while 
 their convictions and professions were with the 
 church, neglecting to reform their impure heathen- 
 ish practices. I have said elsewhere — 4 It was a 
 visit unpleasant in the process and in recollection : 
 perhaps very short, and as sad as short : in which 
 he seems merely to have thrown out solemn warn- 
 ings of the consequences of a future visit of apos- 
 tolic severity if the abuses were persisted in, — and 
 possibly to have received insult from some among 
 them on account of such warning.’ * 
 
 New Testament for English Readers,” Introduction to i Cor. 
 
i Corinthians. 
 
 81 
 
 This unrecorded visit was followed up, on the 
 Apostle's return to Ephesus, by an Epistle, now 
 lost to us. We might have inferred from hints 
 given in the first Epistle, that such had been the 
 case.* But we are put out of doubt by the asser- 
 tion of ch. v. 9 : / wrote to you in an (properly, in 
 my) Epistle , not to keep company with fornicators .’ 
 No such command occurs in the earlier part of 
 i Cor., to which alone, if not to another Epistle, 
 reference could be made. 
 
 An objection has been raised to the idea of 
 such a lost Epistle having existed, of which I can 
 only say, that it is childish and ridiculous, and 
 can hardly be mentioned with too severe repro- 
 bation. It proceeds on the assumption that no 
 apostolic writing can ever have been lost. I have 
 before observed (p. 9) that the same absurd as- 
 sumption would require that all apostolic sayings 
 should have been preserved to us ; for surely these 
 were as precious, and as much inspired by God, as 
 the others. But this whole class of a priori objec- 
 tions and assumptions is beneath, as it is beyond, 
 
 * See ch. xvi. i, whence it would appear that injunctions to make a 
 collection for the saints had at some time been given by the Apostle. As 
 further instructions were needed now to carry these out, they can hardly 
 have been given vivd voce. 
 
 G 
 
82 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 refutation. There are no more mischievous ob- 
 structors of truth among us, than the maintainers 
 of a system in which God’s duties, and not ours, 
 are the starting point. Judging from the actual 
 phenomena of our existing Epistles, it is highly 
 probable that not one only, but many others, have 
 been lost. Are we to suppose, for instance, that 
 the Epistle to Philemon was the only 4 personal’ 
 letter St. Paul ever wrote ? And what has become 
 of the Epistle which the Colossians were to get 
 from Laodicea and read in their assembly (Col. iv. 
 16)? And when we find St. Paul proposing to 
 give commendatory letters to the messengers of 
 the churches (the right rendering of i Cor. xvi. 
 3), are we not to suppose that this was his usual 
 practice ? 
 
 Believing then that an Epistle, now lost to us, 
 followed on this unhappy second visit to Corinth, 
 we can easily trace its temper and contents. He 
 had in it given them a command ‘ not to keep com- 
 pany with fornicators' (1 Cor. v. 9). It contained 
 an account of his plan of visiting them on his 
 way to Macedonia, and again on his return from 
 Macedonia (2 Cor. i. 15, 16) : a plan which he 
 afterwards changed in consequence of the bad 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 83 
 
 news received from Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 5 — 7); 
 for which alteration of plan he was charged with 
 lightness of purpose (2 Cor. i. 17). It evidently 
 included also an order to make a collection for 
 the poor saints at Jerusalem (see above). ‘It 
 was a short letter, containing perhaps little or 
 nothing more than the above announcement and 
 injunctions, given, probably, in the pithy and 
 sententious manner so common with the Apostle/* 
 
 It would appear (see above) that the unrecorded 
 visit occurred somewhat early in the three years 
 
 spent at Ephesus. For after it there had been 
 
 time, before the writing of this Epistle, for new 
 troubles and difficulties to arise in the Corinthian 
 church, and for a letter to be written, and per- 
 haps also a deputation sent, to the Apostle (see 
 1 Cor. vii. 1, i. n, xvi. 17), to obtain his deci- 
 sion on some doubtful points, or to lay the state 
 
 of the church before him. 
 
 Supposing St. Paul to have arrived at Ephesus 
 late in the year 54, we might venture to place 
 the unrecorded journey to Corinth in the spring 
 of 55, and the writing of this Epistle in the 
 spring of 5 7. Of one thing we are certain : that 
 
 * “New Testament for English Readers,” Introduction to i Cor. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 it was written early in the same year in which he 
 left Ephesus for Macedonia (1 Cor. xvi. 8). 
 
 We now come to the Epistle itself. Its imme- 
 diate occasion seems to have been, the arrival at 
 Ephesus of the family, or some of the family, of a 
 Christian matron at Corinth, named Chloe. These 
 had brought, perhaps the letter of inquiries, but 
 certainly unfavourable intelligence (ch. i. 1 1) from 
 the Corinthian church. The Apostle names only 
 the report of divisions and parties : but we can 
 hardly be wrong in believing that the news of the 
 very serious matter treated in ch. v. were brought 
 by the same persons. These tidings, together with 
 the questions on which apostolic counsels were re- 
 quested, induced St. Paul to write this, one of the 
 longest and most important of his pastoral letters, 
 and the pattern, above all others, of earnest and 
 weighty admonition and declaration springing out 
 of circumstances. For of such a character, above 
 all others, is this our Epistle, — not a treatise on 
 any point or any system of Christian doctrine, as 
 some others by this same Apostle, but a series of 
 fragments, or episodes, each of them occasional \ 
 arising out of something referred to him, or heard 
 of by him, but not one of them devoid of interest 
 
i Corinthians . 85 
 
 for those who come after in all the long ages of the 
 Church. 
 
 I offer no apology for transcribing here the 
 section ‘ On the matter and style ’ of this Epistle in 
 my Introduction to vol. iii. of my “New Testa- 
 ment for English Readers ” : — 
 
 ‘ As might have been expected from the occasion 
 of writing, the matter of this Epistle is very various. 
 It is admirably characterised by Mr. Conybeare, in 
 Conybeare and Howson’s “ Life and Epistles of 
 St. Paul,” vol. ii. p. 28 (2nd edition) : — 
 
 ‘ “This letter is, in its contents, the most diversi- 
 fied of all St. Paul’s Epistles : and in proportion to 
 the variety of its topics, is the depth of its interest 
 for ourselves. For by it we are introduced as it 
 were behind the scenes of the apostolic Church, 
 and its minutest features are revealed to us undei 
 the light of daily life. We see the picture of a 
 Christian congregation as it met for worship in 
 some upper chamber, such as the house of Aquila 
 or of Gaius could furnish. We see that these 
 seasons of pure devotion were not unalloyed by 
 human vanity and excitement : yet, on the other 
 hand, we behold the heathen auditor pierced to 
 the heart by the inspired eloquence of the Christian 
 
86 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 prophets, the secrets of his conscience laid bare to 
 him, and himself constrained to fall down on his 
 face and worship God : we hear the fervent thanks- 
 giving echoed by the unanimous Amen : we see 
 the administration of the Holy Communion termi- 
 nating the feast of love. Again, we become 
 familiar with the perplexities of domestic life, the 
 corrupting proximity of heathen immorality, the 
 lingering superstition, the rash speculation, the 
 lawless perversion of Christian liberty : we witness 
 the strife of theological factions, the party names, 
 the sectarian animosities. We perceive the diffi- 
 culty of the task imposed upon the Apostle, who 
 must guard from so many perils, and guide through 
 so many difficulties, his children in the faith, whom 
 else he had begotten in vain : and we learn to 
 appreciate more fully the magnitude of that la- 
 borious responsibility under which he describes 
 himself as almost ready to sink, ‘ the care of all 
 the churches/ 
 
 ‘ “ But while we rejoice that so many details of 
 the deepest historical interest have been preserved 
 to us by this Epistle, let us not forget to thank 
 God, who so inspired his Apostle that in his 
 answers to questions of transitory interest he has 
 
i Corinthians. 
 
 87 
 
 laid down principles of eternal obligation. Let us 
 trace with gratitude the providence of Him, who 
 ‘ out of darkness calls up light by whose mercy it 
 was provided that the unchastity of the Corinthians 
 should occasion the sacred laws of moral purity 
 to be established for ever through the Christian 
 world : — that their denial of the resurrection should 
 cause those words to be recorded whereon reposes, 
 as upon a rock that cannot be shaken, our sure 
 and certain hope of immortality.” 
 
 ‘ In style, this Epistle ranks perhaps the foremost 
 of all as to sublimity and earnest and impassioned 
 eloquence. Of the former, the description of the 
 simplicity of the Gospel in ch. ii., — the concluding 
 apostrophe of ch. iii. (ver. 16 — end), the same in 
 ch. vi. (ver. 9 — end), — the reminiscence of the 
 shortness of the time, ch. vii. 29 — 31, — the whole 
 argument in ch. xv., are examples unsurpassed in 
 Scripture itself: and of the latter, ch. iv. 8 — 15, 
 and the whole of ch. ix. : while the panegyric of 
 Love, in ch. xiii., stands a pure and perfect gem, 
 perhaps the noblest assemblage of beautiful thoughts 
 in beautiful language extant in this our world. 
 — About the whole Epistle there is a character 
 of lofty and sustained solemnity, — an absence of 
 
88 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 tprtuousness of construction, and an apologetic 
 plainness, which contrast remarkably with the 
 personal portions of the second Epistle. 
 
 6 No Epistle raises in us a higher estimate of the 
 varied and wonderful gifts with which God was 
 pleased to endow the man whom He selected for 
 the Apostle of the Gentile world : or shows us how 
 large a portion of the Spirit, who worketh in each 
 man severally as He will, was given to him for 
 our edification. The depths of the spiritual, the 
 moral, the intellectual, the physical world are open 
 to him. He summons to his aid the analogies 
 of nature. He enters minutely into the varieties of 
 human infirmity and prejudice. He draws warning 
 from the history of the chosen people : example 
 from the Isthmian foot-race. He refers an ap- 
 parently trifling question of costume to the first 
 great proprieties and relations of Creation and 
 Redemption. He praises, reproves, exhorts, and 
 teaches. Where he strikes he heals. His large 
 heart holding all, where he has grieved any, he 
 grieves likewise ; where it is in his power to give 
 joy, he first overflows with joy himself. We may 
 form some idea from this Epistle better perhaps 
 than from any one other, — because this embraces 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 89 
 
 the widest range of topics, — what marvellous power 
 such a man must have had to persuade, to rebuke, 
 to attract and fasten the affections of men.’ 
 
 I now proceed to give an analysis of the contents 
 of the Epistle, commenting shortly on the various 
 points of interest as we proceed. After the opening 
 salutation and expression of thankfulness for God’s 
 grace given to the Corinthians, the Apostle at once 
 proceeds to treat of the divisions among them, of 
 which he had learned from 4 Chloe’s people.’ These 
 divisions have been commonly understood to have 
 taken the form of regular parties or sects ; and 
 the German writers have spent a great deal of 
 ingenuity in minutely describing the Cephas-party, 
 the Paul-party, the Apollos-party, the Christ-party. 
 But this is hardly justified by the text. All we can 
 assume is that certain persons had arisen as 
 teachers antagonistic to St. Paul, and claiming 
 superiority to him on various accounts : some as 
 representing the teaching of St. Peter, an elder and 
 greater Apostle : some as following the Alexandrine 
 learning of Apollos : some again, as having had 
 the advantage of nearer personal intercourse with 
 Christ himself : while the followers of Paul were 
 degenerating into the same type of a mere personal 
 
go How to study the New Testament . 
 
 adhesion to him , instead of following him as he 
 followed Christ. This confused embryo state of 
 parties appears to have been all that can be safely 
 assumed. And this appears the case by the sub- 
 sequent epistle of Clement, bishop of Rome, to the 
 Corinthians, in which we find no vestige of any of 
 these parties, but only the far commoner faults 
 of insubordination and ambition. 
 
 This subject, and the consequent explanation 
 and vindication of the Apostle’s teaching, occupies 
 him as far as the end of the fourth chapter, which 
 he ends with a threat of soon coming among them, 
 and vindicating his apostolic power. 
 
 Then, in ch. v. he deals with the gross case of 
 moral delinquency which had been reported to him, 
 and gives direction for the separation of the of- 
 fender from the communion of the church. In 
 doing this he takes occasion to correct, or rather to 
 qualify, what he had written in his Epistle sent 
 before this; drawing a distinction between the 
 fornicators of this world, with whom they must 
 needs have ordinary commerce, and Christian 
 brethren guilty of such sin, with whom they were 
 to keep no company whatever. 
 
 Chap. vi. is of a mixed character: It would 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 9i 
 
 appear that this case of the incestuous person had 
 in some way given occasion for proceeding in the 
 heathen courts of law respecting a matter in which 
 the Christian Church ought to have pronounced 
 judgment. We gather this from the circumstance 
 of the Apostle’s returning again to the subject of 
 fornication, after he had spoken against calling in 
 the heathen to judge between Christians. 
 
 Chap. vii. is devoted to answering an enquiry 
 which they had addressed to him, respecting the 
 expediency of marriage. It is one of those passages 
 commonly supposed only to have reference to the 
 time for which it was written, but in reality full of 
 weighty counsel for all ages of the Church. Some 
 of the matters in it, which appear obscure in our 
 English version, will be found cleared up in the 
 notices at the end of this article. 
 
 In ch. viii. — x. he deals with another question 
 which they had referred to him, the lawfulness of 
 partaking of meats which had been specially dedi- 
 cated to idols, by forming part of animals sacrificed 
 co them. Viewed in the abstract, there could be 
 no doubt that such dedication was null and void, 
 an idol being a mere fiction of a non-existent being. 
 But such questions are not to be viewed in the 
 
92 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 abstract. Harm may be done, not only by doing 
 that which is wrong in itself, but by doing that 
 which seems wrong to another man, and which if 
 done by him after our example, would be against 
 his conscience, and therefore, to him, an act of sin. 
 He shows in ch. ix. how he himself abstained, on 
 account of the conscience of others, from things 
 otherwise lawful for him : how he, far from in- 
 quiring how much indulgence he might take for 
 the flesh, kept under his body, and brought it into 
 subjection, as one running for a prize. Then in 
 ch. x. he goes into another aspect of the same ques- 
 tion, showing them the peril of commerce with 
 idolatry, by the history of Israel of old, and by the 
 nature of the communion which we have with 
 Christ and one another in the bread and the cup 
 of the great Christian sacrament : concluding with 
 definite directions how to act in doubtful cases, 
 and a general exhortation to avoid giving offence 
 to any. 
 
 Chap. xi. deals with two matters. First, the 
 question of the costume of women in the Christian 
 assemblies ; and secondly, the abuses which had 
 crept into the administration of the Lord’s Supper 
 among them. In treating this latter, the Apostle 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 93 
 
 takes occasion to deliver, as from the Lord himself, 
 a detailed account of the institution of that holy 
 ordinance. 
 
 With ch. xii. begins the Apostle’s instruction re- 
 specting 4 spiritual gifts.’ The ‘ occasional ’ interest 
 of this part of the Epistle was confined to the 
 apostolic period ; but, as usual, in the course of 
 his explanation he continually expounds principles 
 and gives directions, applicable alike to all ages of 
 the Church. 
 
 But the chief interest of this portion of the Epistle 
 is the occurrence in it of the glorious panegyric on 
 Christian Love, in ch. xiii. Good and desirable as 
 all spiritual gifts are, there is a way of doing God’s 
 work and serving his glory super-eminent above 
 them all, namely, Love — the only law for all time 
 and all eternity. I may be allowed to add to what 
 has been already said on this chapter, the remarks 
 of Dean Stanley in his Commentary on these 
 Epistles : ‘ On each side of this chapter the tumult 
 of argument and remonstrance still rages : but 
 within it, all is calm : the sentences move in almost 
 rhythmical melody ; the imagery unfolds itself in 
 almost dramatic propriety; the language arranges 
 itself with almost rhetorical accuracy. We can 
 
94 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 imagine how the Apostle’s amanuensis must have 
 paused to look up in his master’s face at the sudden 
 change in the style of his dictation, and seen his 
 countenance lighted up as it had been the face of 
 an angel, as this vision of divine perfection passed 
 before him.’ 
 
 As ch. xii. contained the general theory of the 
 supernatural gifts then extant in the Church, ch. xiv. 
 comprises practical directions how to deal with the 
 same, that they might be decorously and profitably 
 exercised. 
 
 Chap. xv. is reserved for the treatment of a great 
 foundation doctrine of Christianity, the Resurrec- 
 tion of the Body. Seeing that this doctrine was 
 repudiated by some at Corinth, it became necessary 
 that it should be thoroughly expounded, as to its 
 grounds, its analogies, its necessity. And thus we 
 obtain one of the grandest and most precious 
 portions of the apostolic writings. For record of 
 the appearances of the Lord after His resurrection, — 
 for cogent argument binding His resurrection to 
 ours, — for assertion and implication of the great 
 doctrine of His inclusive Humanity, — for revelation 
 of holy mysteries imparted by special inspiration, — 
 for triumphant application of the phenomena and 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 95 
 
 analogies of nature, — no extant writing can com- 
 pare with this chapter in its value to the Church, — 
 its power of convincing the mind and awakening 
 Christian hope, — its far-seeing confutation of the 
 cavils and scoffs of all after-ages against the doctrine 
 of the Resurrection. 
 
 The sixteenth chapter is supplementary, con- 
 sisting entirely of particular directions, personal 
 notices, and short notes of encouragement and 
 warning. 
 
 I hasten to the task, considerable in so long an 
 Epistle, of pointing out the changes made neces- 
 sary in the English text by more correct readings 
 and renderings. First, for those places in which 
 our version is made from a text not agreeing with 
 our most ancient authorities. 
 
 In ch. i. 22, 6 a sign ’ should be 4 signs. 7 In ver. 
 23, 4 Greeks' should be ‘Gentiles.’ In ver. 28, 
 4 yea and things' should be 4 the things.’ Inver. 
 29, 4 in his presence ’ should be ‘before God.’ 
 
 In ch. ii. 4, it is uncertain whether the word 
 4 man’s ’ should be inserted or omitted. The most 
 ancient MSS. are divided on the point. In ver. 
 13, for 4 which the Hcly Ghost teacheth ’ read 4 in 
 words taught by the Spirit.’ 
 
9 6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 In ch. iii. 3, ‘ and divisions' should be omitted. 131 
 In ver. 4, for ‘ carnal ' read 4 men/ i.e. 9 walking 
 merely as men, not as Christians : see on chap. xv. 
 32. In ver. 13, after ‘ the fire/ add ‘ itself/ 
 
 Chap. iv. 2, after ‘ stewards ’ insert ‘ here i.e., 
 here on earth, in worldly matters. 
 
 Chap. v. 1, for ‘ is not so much as named among 
 the Gentiles ’ read 4 is not even among the Gentiles/ 
 Ver. 3, for ‘ as absent ' read ‘ being absent/ Ver. 
 4 (1st time), omit ‘ Christ / Ver. 5 (end), omit 
 ‘Jesus? Ver. 7, omit ‘ therefore / Ver. 10, omit 
 ‘yet:' and for ‘or' (2nd time) read ‘ and/ Ver. 
 13, omit ‘ Therefore.' 
 
 Chap. vi. 20 (end), omit the words ‘and in y out 
 spirit , which are God's / 
 
 Chap. vii. 3, for k dice benevolence' read ‘her due/ 
 Ver. 5, omit ‘fasting and : ' and for f come together ’ 
 read ‘be together/ Ver. 13, for ‘him' read ‘her 
 husband/ Ver. 14, for ‘by the husband' read ‘in 
 the brother ; ’ i.e., is sanctified, in that the believing 
 brother is her husband. Ver. 38, for ‘but' read 
 ‘and/ Ver. 39, omit ‘by the law.' 
 
 Chap. ix. 1 should stand, ‘ Am I not free ? Am 
 
 * These words have been left, by oversight, in the text of my “New 
 Testament for English Readers.” 
 
i Corinthians. 
 
 97 
 
 I not an apostle?’ Ver. io, for ‘he that thresheth 
 in hope should be partaker of his hope] read ‘ he that 
 thresheth [should thresh], in hope of partaking.’ 
 Ver. 16, for ‘ Yea, woe ,' read ‘for woe.’ Ver. 18, 
 omit ‘of Christ: Ver. 20, after the words ‘to 
 
 them that are under the law as under the law,’ 
 insert ‘not being myself under the law.’ Ver. 23, 
 for ‘ this I do’ read ‘ all things I do.’ 
 
 Chap. x. 1, for ‘ Moreover ' read ‘For.’ Ver. 9, 
 for ‘ Christ ’ read ‘ the Lord,’ and omit ‘ also ; ’ as 
 likewise in ver. 10. Ver. n, instead of ‘for en- 
 samples ’ read ‘by way of figure,’ or ‘example.’ 
 Ver. 20, for ‘ the Gentiles' read ‘they.’ Ver. 23, 
 omit ‘for me ’ both times. Ver. 28, omit ‘ unto 
 idols : ’ also omit, in this verse, ‘for the earth is the 
 Lord's, and the fulness thereof ’ Ver. 30, omit 
 ‘fori 
 
 Chap. xi. 18, for ‘in the church' read ‘in as- 
 sembly.’ Ver. 24, omit ‘ Take, eat l Also omit 
 ‘ broken ; ' reading ‘ This is my body which is 
 for you.’ Ver. 26, for ‘ this cup’ read ‘the cup.’ 
 Ver. 29, omit ‘ unworthily .’ Also omit ‘Lord's] 
 reading ‘ the body.’ Ver. 34, omit ‘And' at the 
 beginning. 
 
 Chap. xii. 2, read ‘ that when ye were Gentiles, 
 
 H 
 
98 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 ye were carried away/ < 5 *c. Ver. 3, read ‘saith, 
 Jesus is accursed.' Ver. 9 (end), for 1 the same 
 Spirit’ read ‘ the one Spirit.’ Ver. 12, for ‘ that one 
 body’ read ‘the body.’ Ver. 13, for ‘ into one 
 Spirit’ read ‘of one Spirit.’ Ver. 31, for ‘the best 
 gifts’ read ‘ the greatest gifts.’ 
 
 Chap. xiii. 3, three of our oldest MSS. instead of 
 ‘ that I may be burned ’ read ‘ that I may boast. 
 The difference in Greek is only that of one letter 
 ( Kauthesomai and Kauchesomai). Ver. 10, omit 
 ‘then? Ver. 11, omit ‘but? 
 
 Chap. xiv. 18, omit ‘ my ’ before ‘God.’ Ver. 
 25, for ‘ and thus are the secrets of his heart ’ read 
 ‘ the secrets of his heart are.’ Ver. 35, for ‘ women 7 
 read ‘ a woman.’ 
 
 Chap. xv. 20, omit ‘ and become? Ver. 24, foi 
 ‘ shall have delivered ’ read ‘ delivereth.’ Ver. 29 
 (end), for ‘ the dead ’ read ‘them.’ In ver. 44 the 
 latter clause should stand, ‘ If there is a natural 
 body, there is also a spiritual.’ In ver. 47, omit 
 ‘ the Lord? In ver. 49 most of our ancient MSS. 
 read, for ‘we shall also bear,’ ‘let us also bear:’ 
 but the Vatican MS. and ancient Syriac version 
 read as our text. In ver. 5 1 many ancient autho 
 rities read, ‘ We shall all sleep, but we shall not 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 99 
 
 all be changed.' But here again the Vatican MS. 
 and ancient Syriac version have it as our text. In 
 ver. 55, for 4 grave read again 4 death.' 
 
 In ch. xvi. 7, for 4 but ' read 4 for.' Inver. 22 
 omit 4 Jesus Christ .' 
 
 The principal places in which our translators 
 have wrongly or inadequately rendered the text, 
 are the following : — 
 
 Chap. i. 26 should stand, 4 How that not many 
 of you are wise after the flesh, not many mighty, 
 not many noble.' 
 
 Chap. ii. 9, 10, ought to stand, 4 But as it is 
 written, Things which eye hath not seen, ear hath 
 not heard, and which have not entered into the 
 heart of man, things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him, hath God revealed unto us 
 through his Spirit.' Ver. 11, 4 no man ’ should be 
 4 none.' In ver. 13, 4 comparing spiritual with 
 spiritual] should be 4 interpreting spiritual things 
 to the spiritual.’ In ver. 15 for 4 judgeth] ‘judged] 
 substitute 4 discerneth,’ 4 discerned,' and for 4 of no 
 man] 4 by none.' 
 
 Chap. iii. 1, for 4 carnal ' should stand 4 men of 
 flesh.' The word is not that commonly used to 
 signify 4 carnal,’ but a grosser word, meaning 4 made 
 
 h 2 
 
ioo How to study the New Testainent. 
 
 of mere flesh/ In ver. 9, for ‘ labourers together 
 with God/ should stand ‘ God’s fellow labourers/ 
 i.e., fellow labourers belonging to God. Ver. 14 
 ‘ reward ’ should be ‘ wages : ’ otherwise, the com- 
 parison to workmen is confused. Ver. 15, ‘ by 
 fire’ should be ‘through fire.’ Ver. 17, ‘which 
 temple ye are ’ ought to be ‘ the which [viz., holy] 
 ye are.’ Ver. 19, ‘ He taketh ’ should be ‘ He that 
 taketh.’ 
 
 Chap. iv. 3, 6 man's judgment ’ should be ‘the 
 day of man’s judgment.’ Ver. 4, ‘ by myself’ 
 should be ‘against myself.’ When our version 
 was made, ‘by myself’ had this meaning, as may 
 be seen in the comments and sermons of the time. 
 
 I know no harm by him ’ is even now a common 
 expression in some parts of England.* Ver. 5, 
 ‘ have praise of God ’ should be ‘ have his praise 
 [that praise which belongs to him] from God. 
 As it stands in the English version, the assertion 
 is not true : every 7 nan shall not have praise from 
 God. Ver. 6, ‘ not to think of men above that 
 which is written ’ should be ‘ not to go beyond 
 what is written.’ Ver. 16, ‘ followers' should be 
 ‘ imitators.’ 
 
 * See my “ Queen’s English,” paragraph 319. 
 
i Corinthians . 101 
 
 Chap. v. 9, 4 in an epistle ’ should be 4 in my 
 epistle/ 
 
 Chap. vi. 9, 4 unrighteous ’ should be 4 doers 
 of wrong.’ It is the same term as above, and takes 
 up the sense. Ver. ii, 4 ye are washed ’ should be 
 4 ye washed them off/ viz., in your baptism. The 
 passive translation is a blunder in grammar. Ver. 
 15, 4 take ’ should be 4 take away.’ Ver. 20, for 
 4 are brought’ substitute 4 were brought.’ 
 
 Chap. vii. 11, 4 if she depart ’ should be 4 if she 
 be actually separated,’ /.<?., if separation have taken 
 place previously to the arrival of this Epistle. The 
 last clause of the verse ought to stand, 4 and that 
 the husband leave not his wife.’ Ver. 21 ought to 
 stand, 4 Wast thou called being a slave ? Care not 
 for it : nay, even if thou canst be made free, use 
 it [slavery] rather’ : i.e,, ‘abide in the calling 
 wherein thou wast called.’ As the English version 
 now stands, it bears a sense directly contrary to 
 that which the Apostle is enjoining; viz., the sense 
 that the slave should get liberated if he could, which 
 would be to desert the calling wherein he was 
 called. Throughout this passage 4 servant ’ should 
 be 4 slave ’ : otherwise the strong recommendation 
 of the Apostle is weakened. Ver. 31, 4 abusing it } 
 
102 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 should be 4 using it to the full/ using it as if it 
 were all, and they were bound to get all they can 
 out of it. In verses 36 and 37, 4 his virgin ’ should 
 be 4 his virgin daughter.’ The case supposed is 
 that of a father, doubtful whether he shall or shall 
 not give his daughter in marriage. ‘Them’ of 
 course means the girl and her lover. As the verses 
 stand in the English version, they are simply un- 
 intelligible. 
 
 Chap. viii. 4, 4 that an idol is nothing in the world ’ 
 should be 4 that there is no idol in the world.’ 
 Ver. 8, 4 commendeth us net ’ ought to be 4 shall not 
 be reckoned to us:’ i.e , 9 will not affect our future 
 standing. 
 
 Chap. ix. 5, 4 a sister , a wife ,’ is better expressed 
 4 a [believing] sister as a wife.’ As the words stand, 
 they are ambiguous. In ver. 9, 4 Doth God take 
 care for oxen ? ’ should be, 4 Is it for the oxen that 
 God careth’ (viz., when He gives this command) ? 
 As the words stand, they convey an inference the 
 opposite of truth. The faithful rendering ol the 
 definite article makes all the difference. In ver. 
 17, 4 a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto 
 me ’ should be 4 1 have a stewardship entrusted to 
 me.’ Ver. 23 (end), 4 with you ’ should probably 
 
i Corinthians . 
 
 103 
 
 be ‘with them.’ Nothing is expressed in the 
 original except 4 that I may become a fellow- 
 partaker thereof.’ In ver. 25, 4 Striveth for the 
 mastery ’ should be 4 contendeth in the games.’ 
 In ver. 27 the word rendered 4 keep under ’ signifies 
 to bruise, to beat black and blue : 4 chastise ’ 
 would be, perhaps, the nearest English. 
 
 Chap. x. 5, 4 many of them’ should be 4 the 
 more part,’ or 4 the greater part, of them.’ Yer. 
 13, 4 also make ’ would be better 4 make also.’ One 
 sometimes hears 4 also ’ joined to the previous word 
 4 temptation,’ and thus made unmeaning. In verses 
 16 and 17 4 conwiunion] should be 4 participation.’ 
 4 Communion ’ has now a technical sense, as the 
 name of an ordinance, and thus causes the idea 
 here intended to be lost by the hearer. 
 
 Chap. xi. 1 o, 4 power ’ would be more intelli- 
 gently expressed 4 the token of power,’ i.e., the 
 covering, implying that she is under subjection; 
 and thus preserving comeliness in the sight of the 
 holy angels, who are present in the Christian as- 
 semblies. Ver. 20, 4 this is not to eat the Lord’s 
 supper,’ may be better rendered ‘there is no eat- 
 ing [i.e., it is not possible to eat] the Lord’s 
 [emphasis on this] supper.’ Ver. 26, 4 ye do shew 
 
1 04 How to study the New Testament , 
 
 should be ‘ye declare/ or ‘ announced In ver. 27, 
 
 ‘ and drink ’ is a misrendering, and it is to be feared 
 a wilful one, on the part of our translators. The 
 sacred text stands, ‘ or drink.’ But this seemed to 
 countenance the Romanist error that the partaking 
 in one kind only was a reception of the whole, 
 and therefore apparently ‘ or’ was altered to 4 and?* 
 Inver. 29, ‘ damnation ’ should be 4 judgment.’ It 
 is a disgrace to the Church in England that this 
 most unjustifiable word still remains in the text. 
 It is not only a false rendering of the original, but 
 is at variance with the next verse, which shows 
 that it is not ‘ damnation ’ which is intended, but 
 temporal judgments. Of all the English versions, 
 the Rheims (Roman Catholic) is the only one 
 which has been faithful to the sacred text. Our 
 translators condemn themselves, by keeping 
 4 judged’ in verses 31, 32 ; but they have recurred 
 to 4 condemnation ’ again when they ought to have 
 written 4 judgment,’ in ver. 34. The boasted per- 
 fection of the authorised English version never 
 
 * It is true that one of our most ancient MSS., the Alexandrine, reads 
 * and.’ But that MS. was not known to our translators: it was presented 
 to Charles I. by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople. The altera- 
 tion from ‘or’ to ‘and’ was made first in the Geneva version of 1557, 
 The older English versions all had ‘ or.’ 
 
i Corinthians. 
 
 i°5 
 
 gives way so completely as in this passage. In 
 ver. 31, 4 if we would judge ourselves 7 should be 
 ‘ if we duly discerned ourselves. 7 The verb is the 
 same as in ‘ discern not, 7 in ver. 29, and should 
 have been carefully kept identical. 
 
 In ch. xii. 2, ‘ these 7 should be 4 the. 7 In ver. 6, 
 ‘ all in all 1 is hardly clear. It would better be 4 all 
 in all men. 7 In ver. 8, the four words rendered 
 1 by 7 are different : the first is ‘ through, 7 the second 
 ‘according to, 7 the third and fourth ‘in. 7 Inver. 
 13, ‘ are we all baptized 7 should be ‘we were all 
 baptized ; 7 and ‘ have been all made 7 should be 
 ‘ were all made. 7 
 
 In ch. xiii., ‘ charity 7 might be perhaps rendered 
 ‘love. 7 And yet this is not wholly certain. It 
 may be, that with sufficient and constant explan- 
 ation, the old term, charity, might better preserve 
 the great idea, and escape the misunderstanding 
 to which the term ‘love 7 might, on one side, be 
 liable. In ver. 11, ‘ wheii I became a man , I put 
 away childish things ,’ should have been, ‘ now that 
 I am become a man, I have done away the things 
 of the child. Inver. 12, ‘ through a glass 7 would 
 be more intelligibly expressed in English ‘in a 
 glass. 7 The idea is that of seeing in a mirror; but 
 
106 How to shtdy the New Testament . 
 
 inasmuch as objects appear on the other side of 
 the mirror, the word 4 through’ is used. 4 Shall 1 
 know ’ should be 4 Shall I fully know;’ and ‘I am 
 known ’ should be 4 1 was fully known,’ viz., by God. 
 
 Chap. xiv. 1 6, 4 occupieth the room of the unlearned' 
 should be 4 is in the situation of a private person : ’ 
 i.e., is ignorant of these spiritual gifts. And 4 amen ’ 
 should be 4 the amen : ’ i.e., which the whole con- 
 gregation ordinarily says. The authorised version 
 is barely intelligible. It looks as if the translators 
 had had the parish clerk in their minds.* In ver. 
 24, 4 convinced of air is liable to be misunderstood; 
 4 convicted by all ’ is the meaning. 
 
 Chap. xv. 8, 4 one born out of due time ’ hardly 
 conveys the idea, which is, that he was the abortive 
 weakling of the apostolic family : 4 the one born 
 out of due time’ approaches nearer. Inver. 12, 
 4 rose' should be 4 is risen.’ In ver. 18, 4 are fallen 
 asleep in Christ are perished' 1 should be 4 fell asleep 
 in Christ perished.’ In ver. 19, 4 have hope’ 
 should be 4 have had hope;’ and 4 miserable'' 
 should be 4 to be pitied.’ In ver. 27 read, 4 But 
 when He shall declare that all things are put in 
 
 * Something like this must certainly have been the case with the 
 Rheims version, ‘he that supplieth the place ol the vulgar.’ 
 
i Corinthian 
 
 107 
 
 subjection, it is manifest that they have been sub- 
 jected with the exception of Him,’ d^c. In ver. 
 29 the punctuation is at fault. It should stand 
 thus : ‘ Else what shall they do which are baptized 
 for the dead ? If the dead rise not at all, why are 
 they then baptized for them?’ In ver. 31, ‘ by 
 your rejoicing which I have ’ ought to be 4 by the 
 glorying which I have of you.’ Ver. 32, ‘ I have 
 fought ’ should be 4 1 fought.’ The stress in this 
 sentence is on the words ‘ after the manner of men.’ 
 If it were only according to the common ideas of 
 men , — i.e., with no faith in the resurrection. Here, 
 again, the punctuation is wrong. It should stand, 
 4 What doth it profit me ? If the dead rise not, 
 let us eat and drink,’ 6°c. In ver. 36, the original 
 requires the emphasis to be laid on 4 thou ’ before 
 ‘sowest.’ This would be effectually provided for 
 if we rendered, ‘ that which thou thyself sowest.’ 
 Chap. xvi. 1, 6 have given ’ should be 4 gave.’ 
 Ver. 2, ‘ as God hath prospered him’ is better 
 i whatsoever he be prospered in,’ as importing the 
 material in which he is to lay by. ‘ Gatherings ’ 
 would better be expressed 4 collections,’ a word 
 universally understood. The Apostle sets his face 
 peremptorily against the great sham of charity ser* 
 
io8 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 mons, and will have no part in stimulating Chris- 
 tians up to their ordinary duty of alms-giving. In 
 ver. 22 there should probably be a full stop at 
 4 Anathema.’ Maranatha, 6 The Lord cometh,’ 
 appears to have been a sort of Christian watchword, 
 having no connection with the word before. Ana- 
 thema, a curse, is Greek : Maranatha is Hebrew 
 ( Aramaic). It would be best to keep the former 
 word in its Greek form, as being more generally 
 understood by us, and to render the latter by, 
 ‘ The Lord cometh.’ 
 
V. 
 
 THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE 
 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 T. PAUL had left Ephesus and crossed into 
 
 Europe. His departure appears to have been 
 hastened by the tumult of which we read in Acts 
 xix., for immediately after it (xx. i) we find him 
 passing over into Macedonia. He had heard of 
 the effect produced on the Corinthians by his first 
 Epistle (ch. ii. 3 — iii. 8) : and was now on his way 
 to them (ch. vii. 14 — xiii. 1). He wrote from 
 Macedonia (ch. viii. 1, ix. 2). He had been there 
 some little time, sufficient to have ascertained the 
 mind of the Macedonian churches, and to have 
 gathered from them their contributions for the 
 poor brethren at Jerusalem. 
 
 The news of the effect of his former Epistle had 
 been anxiously looked for by him, and he had sent 
 
iio How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Titus probably for the purpose of ascertaining it 
 At Troas, on his way from Ephesus, he had ex- 
 pected to meet Titus (ch. n. 13), and not finding 
 him there, he crossed into Macedonia, where the 
 meeting took place, and the expected tidings were 
 announced to him. The general reception given to 
 his letter had been favourable, but all had not sub- 
 mitted themselves quietly to it.* The well disposed 
 had been humbled by his reproofs, but his adver- 
 saries had been more embittered than ever. It was 
 his desire now both to express to them the comfort 
 which the news of their submission had brought to 
 him, and also to defend his apostolic authority and 
 personal character against the impugners of both. 
 
 It was under these circumstances, and with these 
 objects, that he wrote this Epistle: and with a view 
 of breaking the severity which he was apprehensive 
 of being compelled to employ against the rebellious 
 (see ch. xiii. 10) by, if possible, winning them over 
 before his arrival. 
 
 Hardly any of the Epistles is so various in cha- 
 racter and style, and so difficult to enter into and ap- 
 
 * Much of this which immediately follows is taken, with some slight 
 alterations, from the Introduction to my “ New Testament for English 
 ■Readers.” 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 predate as this : — ‘consolation and rebuke, gentle- 
 ness and severity, earnestness and irony; succeed one 
 another at very short intervals, and without notice.’ 
 Meyer remarks : ‘ The excitement and inter- 
 change of the affections, and probably also the 
 haste under which Paul wrote this Epistle, certainly 
 render the expressions often obscure and the con- 
 structions difficult : but serve only to exalt our 
 admiration of the great oratorical delicacy, art, and 
 power with which this outpouring of Paul’s spirit, 
 especially interesting as a self-defensive apology, 
 flows and streams onward, till at length in the 
 sequel its billows completely overflow the opposi- 
 tion of the adversaries.’ Erasmus strikingly says, 
 ‘ Learned men bestow much toil in explaining the 
 designs of poets and rhetoricians : but in this 
 rhetorician much more toil is required to appre- 
 hend what he is about, whither he tends, what it is 
 that he forbids : so full of tortuosities is he, if I may 
 say it without blame. Such is his versatility, that 
 you would hardly think one and the same man was 
 speaking. At one time he wells up gently like 
 some limpid spring; and by-and-by he thunders 
 down like a torrent with a mighty crash, carrying 
 everything with him by the way : now he flows 
 
1 1 2 How to study tke New Testavvent. 
 
 placidly and -smoothly, now spreads out far and 
 wide, as if expanded into a lake. Then again in 
 places he disappears and suddenly reappears in 
 some different place, and with wonderful meanders 
 washes now one bank, now the other, and some- 
 times digressing to a distance, by a backward 
 winding returns upon himself.’ 
 
 I may add, that of all the considerable epistles in 
 the New Testament, this at first sight, and on our 
 ordinary impression, contains the least matter of 
 great and universal interest to the Christian 
 Church. But first sight, and our ordinary impres- 
 sion, give way upon more mature examination. 
 We shall attempt to show this as we proceed in our 
 summary of the contents. We shall find that even 
 exclusive of the very important passages which here 
 and there meet us, full of weighty revelations and of 
 comfort for all ages of the Church, — in the midst 
 of the personal portions we have continually 
 precious texts of worldwide import occurring. 
 
 The Epistle opens with the customary greeting, 
 the Apostle associating with himself Timothy, as he 
 had done Sosthenes in the former letter. This 
 mention of Timothy was opportune here, as we 
 learn from i Cor. iv. 17, that he had been sent to 
 
2 Corinthians. 1 1 2 
 
 Corinth to ‘ bring them to remembrance of the 
 Apostle’s ways in Christ.’ These associations of 
 others with himself, are never allowed to interfere 
 in the least degree with the individuality of the 
 Epistles in which they occur. 
 
 And now, from ch. i. 3, at once begin the per- 
 sonal matters which make this Epistle so difficult to 
 explain and put together for us who live at a dis- 
 tance from them. The Apostle speaks of great 
 suffering undergone by him, even to danger of his 
 life (ver. 8), expresses deep thankfulness for his 
 deliverance, and states its purpose to have been 
 that he also might be able to comfort others in 
 tribulation. To what he here alludes is, and must 
 remain, uncertain. One thing we may safely say . 
 that it was not to the peril arising out of the 
 tumult narrated in Acts xix. ‘ So that we despaired 
 even of life ’ (ver. 8) is not an expression applica- 
 ble to danger from a mob, but rather to tedious 
 suffering, which, from minor afflictions, at last 
 threatened even the seat of life. The same may 
 be said of the words ‘ we had the sentence of death 
 in ourselves,’ which look more like a deadly 
 sickness than any danger from without. But, as 
 we said, the matter must remain in obscurity. 
 
 1 
 
ii4 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 But, in thus opening, the Apostle evidently has a 
 further purpose, which soon begins to unfold itself. 
 Chrysostom, with his usual admirable tact, explains 
 as follows : — 
 
 4 The fact of the Apostle’s not coming annoyed 
 and discomposed them, especially as he had pro- 
 mised he would come, but had spent all the time in 
 Macedonia, and seemed to have preferred others to 
 them. For this cause, knowing the feeling against 
 him on this matter, he tells them the cause of his 
 not coming. But he does not set it down plainly, 
 nor does he say, 44 1 know that I promised to come, 
 but as I was hindered by troubles, forgive me, and 
 do not charge me with contempt of you, or fickle- 
 ness of purpose : ” but manages the matter in 
 another way, in a more dignified and trustworthy 
 manner, exalting it by speaking of consolation in 
 his troubles, that they might not even ask for the 
 cause wherefore he disappointed them.’ 
 
 This postponed journey to Corinth becomes more 
 and more the subject, till in ver. 23 it is openly 
 brought forward. It was to spare them, that he 
 forbore his coming, not from any fickleness of pur- 
 pose. And he continues in chap. ii. to expound 
 this his reason, referring to the case of the offending 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 ”5 
 
 person dealt with in i Cor. v., and giving directions 
 for the reinstatement of this now penitent offender 
 in the favour of the church. He proceeds to tell 
 them how anxious he had been for the new’s from 
 Corinth which Titus was to bring; and takes 
 occasion thereby to write (verses 14 — 17) some 
 golden sentences respecting the dignity, and the 
 duties, of his office. 
 
 Continuing this same strain in ch. iii. he draws a 
 contrast-parallel, in allegory, between the Christian 
 and the Jewish ministrations. I may observe in 
 passing, that this passage and that in Gal. iv. 21 — 
 31, form striking links between the teaching of 
 St. Paul and that of the writer of the Epistle to the 
 •Hebrews, and serve to show that the latter, if not 
 writing under the influence of the Apostle himself, 
 was thoroughly imbued with his spirit, and his 
 mode of allegorising. 
 
 The same subject, the apostolic office, and him- 
 self as the holder of it, is treated as far as ch. vi. 1 o. 
 He sets forth his ministerial feelings, sufferings, and 
 hopes, partly with regard to his connection with the 
 Corinthians, but for the most part in general terms. 
 In the midst of this highly personal matter, occurs 
 one of those grand expositions of Christian faith 
 
1 1 6 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 and hope which are the resting-places of believing 
 hearts in all time. It extends from ch. iv. 1 6 to ch. 
 v. io. Notice in it — and this will be better done 
 after making the corrections indicated in the latter 
 part of this chapter — how the confident expectation 
 which was expressed in the words, t we which are 
 alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,’ 
 begins to give way to uncertainty as to whether 
 that day would find the Apostle still clothed with 
 the body, or in the ‘ unclothed’ state. We shall here- 
 after find it deeply interesting to watch how this very 
 uncertainty itself has given way to the prospect of 
 4 departing and being with Christ’ in the later 
 thoughts of the Epistle to the Philippians. Such 
 evidences of a natural change of view on a point 
 which the Lord himself left expressly uncertain, are 
 invaluable as testimonies to the reality and truth- 
 fulness of the apostolic Epistles : and more than com- 
 pensate us, even in outward bulwarks of the faith, 
 for the collapse of the verbal inspiration theory. 
 
 But to proceed. From ch. v. io to the end of 
 the chapter, the conclusion is drawn which the earlier 
 verses had introduced, — the high and self-denying 
 position of the Christian ministry, and the nature 
 of its work, as a reconciliation of man to God. 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 “7 
 
 This description is further wrought out in ch. 
 vi. ; and the earnest pleading with the Corinthians 
 which results from it is carried on into ch. vii. It 
 then gradually passes into an explanatory narrative 
 of his anxiety to receive news of the effect of his 
 former letter, and his heartfelt joy, when he learned 
 how they had felt respecting it. 
 
 In ch. viii. he exhorts them to the duty of con- 
 tributing to the wants of the poor saints at Jeru- 
 salem. That metropolis of the church was passing 
 through dark and stormy days : and the peculiar 
 position of the believers there seems to have first 
 given rise to, and then continued, as a feature 
 found in Jerusalem only, that community of goods 
 which we witnessed in the former chapters of the 
 Acts. The common chest of the church at 
 Jerusalem seems to have been replenished by con- 
 tributions from all the daughter churches : and as 
 yet, though Macedonia in its poverty had been 
 liberal, the flourishing and wealthy Corinthians had 
 proved but backward and scanty in their bestowal. 
 In the course of chapters viii., ix., there are several 
 allusions to circumstances with which we are but 
 imperfectly acquainted : as, for instance, the mission 
 of certain persons, mentioned ch. viii. 18 — 22, con- 
 
1 1 8 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 cerning whom it can never be determined, who 
 they were among the companions of the Apostle. 
 
 And now, with ch. x., begins the direct personal 
 defence of St. Paul against his rivals and adver- 
 saries : and with it, the delicate and intricate 
 alternations of gravity and irony, earnest pleading, 
 and sportive rallying, which make this portion of 
 the Epistle so exceedingly difficult. It is hardly 
 needful to say that the whole of these last four 
 chapters is very precious, both as letting us into 
 the personal character and ways of the Apostle, 
 and as abounding with rich gems of faith, hope, 
 and Christian charity. The description of his 
 practice in ch. x., the narrative of his perils in ch. 
 xi., the mysterious passage about his visions and 
 revelations in ch. xii., with the answer of the Lord 
 to his troubled prayer, are portions which we feel 
 to be indispensable to our thorough knowledge 
 of St. Paul and his work, and by consequence, of 
 the whole primitive system and age of Christianity. 
 The last chapter contains a grave declaration of his 
 resolution to come among them, and exhortations 
 and denunciations, grounded on the certainty of 
 that his approaching visit. The final salutation is 
 cut off very short, in accordance with the serious 
 
a Corinthians . 
 
 1 1 9 
 
 and almost minatory tone of this conclusion ; and 
 the letter ends with that benediction in the express 
 name of the Holy Trinity, which has become the 
 accustomed formula of dismissal throughout the 
 ages of the Christian Church. 
 
 We now come to our usual task of correcting 
 places in which our translators have either used a 
 faulty text, or have insufficiently rendered the text 
 which they had before them. And first, for the 
 places in which the text used by our translators is 
 not that of the oldest and best authorities. 
 
 In chap. i. 6, the verse should stand thus : — 
 ‘ But whether we be in tribulation, it is for your 
 comfort and salvation, which worketh in the endur- 
 ance of the same sufferings which we also suffer 
 (and our hope is steadfast for you) : or whether we 
 be comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation.' 
 Then the next verse begins, 4 knowing that as ye 
 are,' 6^c. Inver, io, ‘ doth deliver' should stand 
 ‘will deliver.' In ver. 12, instead of ‘ simplicity ,' 
 all our most ancient MSS. have ‘ holiness.' In the 
 Greek, the words are much alike : ‘ simplicity ' 
 being haplotes , ‘holiness,' hagiotes. Inver. 18, for 
 ‘ was not' we should read ‘ is not.' Ver. 20 should 
 be read and rendered, ‘ For how many soever be 
 
120 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 the promises of God, in Him is the yea : where* 
 fore through Him is the Amen, for glory unto God 
 by us/ 
 
 In ch. ii. io, ‘for if I forgave anything, to whom 
 I forgave it ,’ read ‘ for indeed what I have forgiven, 
 if I have forgiven anything/ 
 
 In ch. iv. i, instead of ‘we faint not/ most of 
 the oldest MSS. have ‘ we shrink not back/ The 
 difference in the Greek is only that of one letter — 
 ‘we faint’ being ‘ ekkakoumen f ‘we shrink/ ‘ en- 
 kakoumenl In ver. 6, for ‘ commanded the light to 
 shine out of darkness / read, ‘ said out of darkness 
 light shall shine/ In ver. io, ‘ the Lord ’ should 
 be omitted. In ver. 14, ‘by Jesus/ should be ‘with 
 Jesus/ Inver. 16, ‘faint not’ should be ‘shrink 
 not back / see on ver. 1. 
 
 Chap. V. 5, omit ‘ also.' Ver. 12, omit, ‘fort 
 Ver. 14, for ‘ that if one died for all , then were ah 
 dead ,’ read ‘ that one died for all, therefore all died/ 
 In ver. 17, for ‘ all things are become new/ read 
 ‘they are become new / Inver. 18, omit ‘ Jesus l 
 In ver. 21, omit ‘Fort 
 
 In ch. vii. 12, for ‘our care for you] read and 
 render ‘your earnest care for us/ Ver. 13 should 
 stand, ‘For this cause we have been comforted’ 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 I 2 I 
 
 but in our comfort we joyed the more exceedingly 
 for the joy of Titus/ &*c. 
 
 Chap. viii. 4, should stand, 4 praying of us with 
 much intreaty the grace and the participation in the 
 ministering unto the saints/ In ver. 12, for 4 that 
 a man hath ,’ &*c., read 4 that which it (viz., the 
 willing mind) may have/ &*c. In ver. 19, for 6 to 
 the glory of the same Lord and declaration of your 
 ready mind] read 4 to the glory of the Lord, and 
 the furtherance of our zeal.’ In ver. 21, instead of 
 providing/ read 4 for we provide.’ 
 
 In ch. ix. 4, 4 in this same confide?it boasting / 
 should be 4 in this same confidence.’ In ver. 5, for 
 four bounty , whereof ye had notice before / read 4 your 
 promised blessing.’ In ver. 10, 4 minister . . . 
 multiply . . . increase ,’ should be 4 shall minister . . 
 shall multiply . . . shall increase.’ It is not a wish, 
 but a prophetic assertion. 
 
 In ch. x. 7, the word 4 Christ’s,’ the second time 
 it occurs, should be omitted. It, of course, may 
 be supplied in the sense ; but it does not exist in 
 the ancient text. The same may be said of 4 us 9 
 in ver. 8, which though fairly supplied in the sense, 
 is not in the ancient text. 
 
 Chap. xi. 3, for 4 the simplicity that is in Christ \ 
 
1 22 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 read 4 the simplicity and the purity that is toward 
 Christ/ In ver. 4, for c ye might well bear with 
 him ] read ‘ye with reason bear with him/ In 
 ver. 6, for 4 we have been throughly made manifest 
 among you in all things ] read 4 in everything did 
 we make things manifest unto you before all men/ 
 In ver. 10, for 4 no man shall stop me of this boast- 
 ing] read 4 this boasting shall not be shut against 
 me/ In ver. 28, for 4 that which cometh upon me 
 daily] read 4 my care day by day/ In ver. 32, omit 
 4 desirous l 
 
 In ch. xii. 1, the readings are in great confusion. 
 That which seems to claim the preference is, 4 1 
 must needs boast, though it is not expedient/ In 
 ver. 3, for 4 out of] read 4 apart from/ In ver. 9, 
 it is uncertain whether we ought to retain ‘my' 
 (before 4 strength ’) in the text. In ver. n, omit 
 4 in glorying.' In ver. 19, for 4 again , think ye ihat 
 we excuse ourselves unto you V ought to stand 4 ye 
 have been long thinking that we are excusing our- 
 selves unto you/ 
 
 Chap. xiii. 2, ought to stand 4 1 have said already, 
 and now say beforehand, as when I was present 
 the second time, so now also in my absence, to 
 them which/ 6^c. In ver. 4, 4 for though He was 
 
2 Corinthians. 
 
 123 
 
 crucified] ought to be 4 for indeed He was cruci- 
 fied. ’ Ver. 7 ought to begin 4 Yet we pray/ instead 
 of 6 Now, I pray' The 4 Amen 9 at the end is 
 an addition not found in any of the most ail" 
 cient MSS. 
 
 The list of mistaken and imperfect renderings 
 in this Epistle is far larger. There is hardly any, 
 where the translators have more frequently failed 
 to catch the sense, or to represent the connection. 
 And in consequence, many parts of it fall heavy 
 and flat on the ear of the English reader. The 
 delicate turns of the Apostle’s courtesy mixed with 
 severity, the keenness of his exquisite irony, the 
 playfulness of his half suppressed allusions, have 
 been rudely disguised, or lost, in the hands of 
 King J ames’s divines. 
 
 In ch. i. S, 4 in us' is a misrendering. It should 
 be 4 unto us ;’ and 4 by Christ ’ should be 4 through 
 Christ.’ Inver. 9, 4 had' should be ‘have had.’ 
 In ver. 12, for 4 not with fleshly wisdom but by the 
 grace of God,’ render, 4 not in fleshly wisdom but 
 in the grace of God.’ In ver. 14, for 4 rejoicing 
 should stand ‘boast.’ Inverses 21 and 22, omit 
 ‘hath’ twice. In ver. 23, for 4 record' read 4 wit- 
 ness.’ 
 
1 24 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 Chap. ii. ver. 5 is one of those cases where the 
 delicacy of the Apostle's blame has been obliterated 
 oy the translators. What he says, is this, that the 
 offender has not wronged him , but in a measure 
 (he will not say this without qualification, lest he 
 bear too hardly on him) all of them — the whole 
 Corinthian church. This meaning would be ex- 
 pressed thus : 4 But if any hath caused sorrow, he 
 hath not caused sorrow to me, but in part (that 
 I press not too heavily) to you all.' This is com- 
 pletely disguised by our present version, 4 he hath 
 not grieved me , but in part : that I may not over- 
 charge you all l In ver. 12, 4 to preach the Gospel 
 of Christ 7 should be 4 for the Gospel of Christ } 
 there is nothing about preaching in the original. 
 In ver. 14, 4 causeth us to triumph 9 seems to be 
 a misrendering. The verb implies to 4 lead in 
 triumph, 7 i. e . to 4 triumph over ; 7 and the meaning 
 seems to be, that God ceases not to exhibit us, 
 his former foes, as overcome by Him. The literal 
 rendering, which would carry this meaning, would 
 be 4 leadeth us in triumph. 7 The 4 sweet savour 7 
 spoken of immediately after is in pursuance of the 
 same figure : as during a triumph sweet spices were 
 thrown about, or burnt in the streets. 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 l *S 
 
 In ch. iii. 6, ‘ who made us able ministers 
 
 gives a wrong idea; it should be, ‘who hath en- 
 abled us as ministers,’ ‘ given us power to become 
 ministers,’ or ‘made us sufficient as ministers,’ keep- 
 ing the same expression as has been used before. 
 In ver. 13, ‘ could not’ should be ‘might not.’ 
 The Apostle is speaking, not of a result, but of 
 a purpose. This whole passage is commonly mis- 
 understood, by reason of a mistake in our version 
 of Exod. xxxiv. 33. It is commonly assumed that 
 Moses spoke to the Israelites, having the vail on his 
 face; and this is implied in our version — ‘ till Moses 
 had done speaking with them, he put a vail on 
 his face.’ But the Hebrew and Septuagint give a 
 different account : ‘ and when he ceased speakmg to 
 them, he put a vail over his face.’ He spoke to 
 them without the vail, with his face shining and 
 glorified : — when he had do?ie speaking , he placed 
 the vail on his face : and that, not because they 
 were afraid to look on him, but as here, that they 
 might not look on the end, or the fading, of that 
 transitory glory : that they might only see it as 
 long as it was the credential of his ministry, and 
 then it might be withdrawn from their eyes. Thus 
 the declaration of God’s will to them was not in 
 
126 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 openness of speech, but was interrupted and broken 
 by intervals of concealment, which ours is not. 
 In ver. 14, the words ought to stand ‘at the read- 
 ing of the Old Testament the same vail remaineth, 
 it not being discovered that it is done away in 
 Christ.’ In ver. 17, ‘ that Spirit’ should be ‘the 
 Spirit.’ In ver. 18, ‘ open ,’ which drops the simi- 
 litude, should be ‘ unvailed.’ The vail was removed 
 at our conversion. At the end of the verse is a 
 flagrant mistranslation, again obscuring the sense. 
 The words thus rendered cannot by any possibility 
 mean ‘ the Spirit of the Lord .*’ they may be ren- 
 dered in two or three ways, but not in this. By 
 far the best is, ‘the Lord the Spirit;’ the Lord, 
 who, it had been said in ver. 17, ‘is the Spirit.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 3, where the same image of the vail is 
 again recurred to, the translators, with singular in- 
 felicity, have managed to obliterate it. It ought 
 to stand, ‘ And even if our Gospel is vailed, it is 
 vailed to them that are perishing.’ In the next 
 verse, ‘ the glorious Gospel ’ should be ‘Gospel of the 
 glory ’ : the good news of the glory of Christ. Verse 
 15 is a difficult verse. The most probable render- 
 ing is this, ‘ That grace, being multiplied by means 
 of the greater number, may make the thanksgiving 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 127 
 
 abound unto the glory of God.’ In ver. 1 7, 4 our 
 light affliction which is but for a moment] would be, 
 more correctly, 4 our present light affliction.’ In 
 ver. 18, 4 temporal ’ should be 4 for a time.’ It is 
 not the worldly or secular character but the fleeting 
 nature of the things that are seen, which the Apostle 
 is setting forth. 
 
 Chap. v. has been lamentably disguised in the 
 rendering : the fineness of fancy displayed in 
 the imagery obliterated, and the meaning confused. 
 The corrections can hardly be made except by 
 giving a totally different English text. Still, we 
 must try. In ver. 1, 4 house of this tabernacle ’ 
 should be 4 tabernacle wherein we dwell.’ The 
 introduction of the word 4 house ’ here, sadly mars 
 the imagery. The Apostle was a /<?;z/-maker ; and 
 the tents were made of the Cilician haircloth, 
 which was also used for clothing. Hence the 
 mingling of the images of dwelling and clothing, 
 which in our version is unintelligible, because we 
 do not wear the materials of which houses are 
 built. 4 Of God] should be 4 from God.’ And after 
 4 eternal ] a comma should be placed.* In ver. 2, 
 
 * This has been omitted in the text of my “New Testament Coi 
 English Readers,” though implied in the note. 
 
t.28 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 for ‘ earnestly _ desiring to be clothed ufio?i ,’ write 
 ‘ longing to clothe ourselves.’ The English version 
 involves a blunder in the voice of the Greek verb. 
 Ver. 3 should stand 4 seeing that we shall verily be 
 found clothed, and not naked.’ The verse asserts 
 strongly, with a view to substantiate and explain 
 ver. 2, the truth of the resurrection in a glorified 
 body, probably in reference to the deniers of the 
 resurrection at Corinth : and the sense is ‘For I do 
 assert again, that we shall in that day prove to be 
 clothed with a body, and not disembodied spirits.’ 
 In ver. 6, the full sense of the words would be 
 better given by 4 whilst we are in our home in the 
 body, we are away from our home in the Lord.’ 
 In the parenthesis which follows ‘ not by sight ’ 
 should be ‘not by appearance.’ The word signifies 
 not that by which we see, but that which we see. 
 Again, we should express it, ‘ to go from our home 
 in the body, and to come to our home with the 
 Lord.’ In ver. io, ‘ appear ’ ought to be, ‘be made 
 manifest.’ Ver ii, is a curious instance of mis- 
 rendering : and is often used and preached upon 
 as having a sense which was never in the Apostle’s 
 mind. His meaning is, ‘ knowing then,’ being our- 
 selves conscious of, ‘ the fear of the Lord,’ i. e ., 
 
2 Corinthians . 
 
 12C 
 
 being God-fearing persons ourselves, looking for, 
 and living under the consciousness of, this eclair- 
 cissement before Christ’s judgment-seat — ‘ we per- 
 suade men,’ i. e., it is men that we attempt to 
 persuade, not God, to whom we are already made 
 manifest. The 1 terror ,’ o: ‘ terror si as sometimes 
 further misquoted, has been altogether imported 
 into the verse : and the excellent lesson so often 
 preached from it, that being aware of the terrible 
 judgments of God, we persuade others to avoid 
 them, is wholly alien from its purport. In ver. 13, 
 ‘ to God ’ should be ‘for God.’ In ver. 14, ‘ the 
 love of Christ ’ should have been expressed 1 Christ’s 
 love.’ It is not our love to Christ, but His to us 
 which is spoken of. ‘ The love of Christ ’ may 
 mean this, but is ambiguous. ‘ Theji all were dead ’ 
 is a sad misrendering and obscuration of the sense. 
 It should be c then all died.’ It does not follow, 
 because one dies for another, that that other was 
 aead y but it does follow that that other died by 
 substitution, virtually died, inasmuch as one died for 
 him . And thus we all died in Christ’s death for us. 
 In ver. 1 8, omit ‘ hath ’ twice. In ver. 1 9, the words 
 should stand, ‘ to wit, that God was reconciling the 
 world unto Himself in Christ.’ Again, omit ‘ hath .’ 
 
 K 
 
130 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 In ver. 20, omit 4 you 9 (twice). It is the general 
 office of the ministry of which he is speaking. 
 
 In chap, vi., from the beginning of ver. 6 to the 
 word 4 God ’ in ver. 7, the prepositions should all 
 be 4 in and then to the end of the list in ver. 8, 
 
 4 through.’ The Apostle having made this differ- 
 ence, the translators ought to have carefully ob- 
 served it, instead of rendering both the Greek 
 words by an indiscriminate 4 by.’ 
 
 In chap. vii. 2, omit ‘have’ three times. Ver. 
 13 should stand ‘For this cause we have been 
 comforted ; but in our comfort we joyed the more 
 exceedingly,’ &c. In ver. 14, 4 1 am not ashamed ’ 
 ought to be 4 1 was not put to shame :’ and 4 is 
 found] ‘was found.’ 
 
 In chap. viii. 1, 4 make known to you ’ would 
 now be better understood than the obsolete 4 do you 
 to wit oft In ver. 16, 4 put ’ should be 4 putteth.’ 
 In ver. 22, 4 / have] supplied by the trans- 
 lators, should be 4 he hath.’ In ver. 23, 4 the 
 messengers ’ should have been faithfully rendered 
 as St. Paul wrote it, ‘Apostles.’ A mere eccle- 
 siastical difficulty should not induce us to 
 quash the weighty testimony of a word like this 
 being used of other persons than those commonly 
 
2 Corinthians . 1 3 ] 
 
 thus known. There is no definite article before 
 ‘ Apostles/ 
 
 Chap. ix. 4. ‘ they of Macedonia ' should be ‘ any 
 Macedonians/ In ver. 5, ‘bounty' (twice) ought 
 to be ‘ blessing ’ : and in the next verse 4 bounti- 
 fully ' should be 4 with blessings/ 
 
 Chap. xi. 1, ‘ and indeed bear with me' ought to 
 be ‘but indeed ye do bear with me/ In ver. 4 , 
 for ‘ preacheth ' and ‘receive] read ‘as preaching/ 
 and ‘ are receiving/ He is supposing a fact, not 
 merely stating a contingency. And in the same 
 verse, for ‘ have not preached ' and ‘ have not ac- 
 cepted] read ‘preached not’ and ‘accepted not/ 
 In the next verse, for ‘ the very chief est apostles' 
 should stand ‘ those overmuch apostles i. e ., those 
 men who pretend to be more than the Apostles 
 themselves. He means, the false and rival teachers, 
 not the Apostles. This, which I have endeavoured 
 to substantiate in my note on the passage, is clear 
 from the context in which the same expression 
 occurs, ch. xii. n (see below). In ver. 16 ‘I* 
 should be ‘ I too/ viz., as well as they. In ver. 21 
 the words should stand, ‘ By way of disparagement 
 I assume that we were weak/ thus ironically calling 
 to mind his abstinence, when among them, from 
 
 k 2 
 
132 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 all these acts of self-exaltation at their expense 
 In ver. 28, for 4 the care oft read 4 my anxiety for.’ 
 In ch. xii. 2, 4 I knew a man,’ should be 4 1 
 know a man/ This is a serious blunder. The 
 Apostle is not speaking of one whom he once, but 
 of one whom he now knows. Fourteen years ago 
 is the date, not of the knowledge , as our version 
 makes it, but of the vision . The same is the case 
 *n ver. 3 also. At the end of ver. 6, 4 of me 1 should 
 be ‘from me.’ In ver. 7, for 4 the messenger / 4 the 
 angel/ There was no reason for departing from 
 the ordinary New Testament meaning of the word. 
 In ver. 8, 4 for 9 would be better ‘concerning/ In 
 ver. 11, for 4 am I behind/ read ‘came I behind/ 
 The translators have knowingly misrendered the 
 past tense to suit their sense. For 4 the very 
 chief est Apostles / read as above, ‘those overmuch 
 Apostles/ This is absolutely required here. St 
 Paul challenges them to compare him with his 
 rivals among them, and states that in no particular 
 did he come behind them. This could not apply 
 to the Twelve, whom the Corinthians had never 
 seen. The translators were aware of this, and in 
 bad faith altered the past tense, 4 came I behind/ 
 to a present, 4 am I behind/ This is the way 
 
2 Corinthians. 
 
 *33 
 
 the word of God has been dealt with in a version 
 vaunted as perfect and verbally inspired. In ver. 
 15, for ‘you 7 should stand ‘your souls. 7 The 
 words are plain in the original, and why the trans- 
 lators changed them must be ever a mystery. 
 
 Chap. xiii. 9, ‘ wish 7 should be ‘pray for. 7 
 Ver. 11, ‘ fareweir should be ‘ rejoice, 7 viz., in the 
 Lord. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 
 
 I T is hardly possible to imagine a letter sur- 
 passing this in interest or in marked cha- 
 racter. Those to whom it was written, the occasion 
 which gave birth to it, the strong personal feelings 
 and convictions of the writer — these are all before 
 us in marked and unmistakable outlines. We 
 shall endeavour to present each in turn before 
 our readers. 
 
 The Galatians, or Gauls, or Kelts, for the name 
 is probably but one and the same under these 
 different forms, are found at the earliest historic 
 period inhabiting the greater part of Western Eu- 
 rope. When we first encounter them, they are a 
 restless, migratory people, making incursions on 
 their neighbours, and occupying new territories by 
 conquest. In the fourth century before Christ, 
 
Galatians. 135 
 
 we see Rome itself sacked and plundered by them ; 
 shortly after, the famous temple at Delphi suffers 
 their attack and witnesses their repulse. A de< 
 tachment of this same invading body wandered 
 away into the far east, and overran the lesser Asia. 
 There eventually, after a series of vicissitudes, 
 which it is beside our purpose to relate, they be- 
 came settled. The central portion of Asia Minor, 
 known as Galatia, was their country ; and at the 
 time of the apostolic history, gave its name to, 
 and was itself part of, a Roman province, slightly 
 exceeding its own extent. Mingled with this in- 
 vading people were a considerable number of the 
 original Phrygian inhabitants ; and, what is more 
 important for our present purpose, a large and 
 influential J ewish element. 
 
 Still, the character of the population in the main 
 was that of the Gauls or Kelts. Its description 
 by independent writers is full of interest for the 
 readers of this Epistle. Caesar, the great conqueror 
 of Gaul, describes himself as taking certain pre- 
 cautions, ‘fearing the weakness of the Gauls, 
 because they are fickle in taking up plans, and 
 ever fond of innovating, and therefore he thought 
 that no trust should be put in them.’ The his- 
 
136 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 torian of the Gauls, Thierry, thus describes them : 
 — ‘ They have a frank, impetuous spirit, open to 
 every impression, intelligent in the extreme : but 
 with all this, excessive mobility, a total want of 
 constancy, abundance of ostentation, and lastly a 
 perpetual tendency to quarrel, arising from exces- 
 sive vanity/ The Roman historian Livy says that 
 they were physically unable to bear endurance in 
 toil or heat ; and that from this circumstance, 
 coupled with their excitable ardour, at the begin- 
 ning of their battles they were almost stronger than 
 men, at the end of them weaker than women. 
 
 Professor Lightfoot, in the Introduction to his 
 admirable work on this Epistle, gives some other 
 interesting traits of Celtic character to which pos- 
 sibly allusions may be traced in it : — 
 
 ‘ St. Paul’s language will suggest many coinci- 
 dences which perhaps we are tempted to press 
 unduly. His denunciation of “ drunkenness and 
 revelling ” (chap. v. 21), falling in with the taunts 
 of ancient writers, will appear to point to a darling 
 sin of the Celtic people. His condemnation of 
 the niggardly spirit with which they had doled 
 out their alms, as a “ mockery of God ” (chap. vi. 
 6, 7), will remind us that the race is constantly 
 
Galatia7is. 
 
 T 37 
 
 reproached with its greed of wealth, so that Gaul 
 ish avarice has passed almost into a proverb. His 
 reiterated warning against strife and vain-glory 
 (chap. v. 15, 2 6 : compare v. 20, 21 ; vi. 3), will 
 seem directed against a vice of the old Celtic 
 blood still boiling in their veins, and breaking out 
 in fierce and rancorous self-assertion. His very 
 expression, “if ye bite and devour one another,” 
 will recall the angry gesticulations and menacing 
 tones of this irritable people/ 
 
 But the main feature of their character with 
 which we are in this Epistle concerned, is their 
 restless love of change. They had received the 
 Gospel at the hands of St. Paul, with their usual 
 fervour and impetuosity. But at the time of his 
 writing this letter, they were rapidly changing to 
 another gospel, which was not another (chap. i. 6) : 
 and the nature of that change is not without its 
 interest. It was being brought about by Jewish 
 influence, and was in the direction of the Mosaic 
 rites and ceremonies. Now Caesar's description of 
 the Gauls is, that they are above all other people 
 given to superstitious observances ; so that here 
 again we have a point of national character brought 
 
 out. 
 
138 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 We proceed to give an account of St. Paul’s 
 connection with this remarkable people. In Acts 
 xvi. 6, we read that the Apostle, who had, in com- 
 pany with Silas, revisited the churches previously 
 founded by him in Lycaonia, ‘ went through the 
 Phrygian and Galatian country — for so the words 
 should be read. No more is here said. It would 
 appear from Gal. iv. 3, that his intention had been 
 merely to pass through, but that he was detained 
 by a sickness. (See below the correction of read- 
 ing in this passage.) What sickness that was, is 
 no matter of doubt ; for the same passage contains 
 a distinct allusion to his constitutional infirmity, 
 his ‘thorn in the flesh’ (2 Cor. xii.), whatever that 
 may have been. He appears to have taken occa- 
 sion by this detention to preach to them the 
 Gospel ; and to found the Galatian churches, of 
 which churches we have no particular account. 
 
 His description of the reception which they gave 
 to his message is in accordance with their fervent 
 national temperament. They took no account of 
 the temptation in his flesh, which made him appear 
 contemptible ; they received him as an angel of 
 God, nay, as if he had been our Lord himself. In 
 an expression which must ever remain somewhat 
 
Galatians . 
 
 139 
 
 obscure, but which testifies to the exaggerated 
 nature of their affectionate excitement, they were 
 ready to have plucked out their own eyes and have 
 given them to him, in the self-congratulations 
 which they expressed at his being among them 
 (chap. iv. 14, 15). 
 
 But this was not his only visit. We find him 
 in Acts xviii. 23, carrying out a more formal visi 
 tation : going through the whole country in order, 
 confirming all the disciples. This was after an 
 interval of at least three years; and it is to this 
 second visit that some allusions of an instructive 
 character, occurring in the Epistle, must be re- 
 ferred. In chap. iv. 16, he asks them reproach- 
 ingly, whether he had become their enemy by telling 
 them the truth ? These words cannot of course 
 apply to that first visit ; as little can they be inter- 
 preted of anything in the Epistle, which the Gala- 
 tians had not yet received ; but their reference 
 must be found in something that happened on 
 the second presence of the Apostle among them. 
 Then he must have found the evil beginning to be 
 apparent, and have spoken to them his mind 
 about it. Some hints are given of the character ol 
 his plain-spoken warnings. In chap. i. 9, he says, 
 
140 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 6 As we said before, so now I say again, If any man 
 preacheth unto you any other gospel than that 
 which ye received, let him be accursed/ The 
 perverters of the Gospel had already begun their 
 teaching; they were preaching conformity to the 
 Jewish law; for he says, chap. v. 3, ‘I testify again 
 to every man that is circumcised, that he is a 
 debtor to do the whole law/ This also had formed 
 a portion of his warning at the second visit. But 
 matters were even worse than this. In chap. v. 
 21, having enumerated the works of the flesh, he 
 adds, ‘ of the which I forewarn you, as I also fore- 
 warned you before , that they who do such things 
 shall not inherit the kingdom of God/ 
 
 After this second visit, the Apostle remained a 
 considerable time — three years , as he himself calls 
 it, Acts xx. 31 — at Ephesus. There he would hear 
 frequently of the progress of error among the Gala- 
 tian churches ; thence we know that he sent to 
 them an order to contribute for the help of the 
 poor brethren at Jerusalem (1 Cor. xvi. 1 — 6). A 
 very general opinion has been, that this Epistle 
 was written during the stay at Ephesus. The ex- 
 pression in chap. i. 6, f I marvel that ye are so soon 
 removing from Him that called you/ seems hardly 
 
Galatians . 
 
 141 
 
 to allow of a longer interval than three years 
 having elapsed since that calling took place. Still, 
 this is not the only consideration to be taken into 
 account. The Epistles of St. Paul form themselves 
 naturally into various groups, each of which is 
 pervaded by a similar spirit and tone of the 
 Apostle’s mind, not found to prevail in others. 
 We shall have occasion hereafter to follow out 
 this idea in more instances than one. At present, 
 let us bear it in mind while comparing 2 Corinth- 
 ians, Galatians, and Romans. It cannot be denied 
 that remarkable affinities bind together these three 
 Epistles. The necessity of self-vindication, exist- 
 ing with regard to both churches, causes the per- 
 sonal portions of 2 Corinthians and Galatians to 
 have much in common. Very differently, it is 
 true does the Apostle shape his c apology 9 to the 
 two churches. The great hard lines of his vigorous 
 self-assertion to the Galatians are softened into 
 delicate and subtle irony of compliment to the 
 Corinthians. But the same anxiety for his influ- 
 ence and office as bound up with the declaration 
 of Christ’s truth, causes the same spirit, in spite 
 of the differing vehicle, to pervade both Epistles, 
 and binds them inseparably together a? works of 
 
142 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 the same period. Still more strikingly is our 
 Epistle united to the Epistle to the Romans. 
 Whole passages, consisting of arguments on the 
 relation of Christians to the law and its ordinances, 
 are almost identical in the two. Compare together 
 Gal. iii. 6 — 29 and Rom. iv. 3, 10, n, 17, 18, 
 i. 17, x. 5, xi. 32, vi. 3, and xiii. 14 ; Gal. iv. 5 — 7 
 and Rom. viii. 14 — 17 ; Gal. ii. 16 and Rom. iii. 
 20; Gal. v. 14 and Rom. xiii. 8 — 10 ; ver. 16 and 
 Rom. viii. 4; ver. 17 and Rom. vii. 15, 23, 25; 
 and many other passages and expressions. As 
 Professor Lightfoot has remarked, 4 there is no 
 parallel to this close resemblance in St. Paul’s 
 Epistles, except in the case of the letters to the 
 Colossians and Ephesians. Those letters were 
 written about the same time and sent by the same 
 messenger, and I cannot but think that we should 
 be doing violence to historic probability by separat- 
 ing the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans 
 from each other by an interval of more than a few 
 months.’ He finds a common link between the 
 three Epistles, serving to place this one interme- 
 diate between the two others, in the lists of sins, 
 2 Cor. xii. 20, 21 ; Gal. v. 19 — 21 ; Rom. xiii. 13. 
 
 If we adopt this view, then St. Paul must have 
 
Galatians . 
 
 M3 
 
 written the Epistle from Corinth, during his stay 
 there after he had written the second Epistle to 
 the Corinthians in Macedonia; or perhaps partly 
 in Macedonia on his journey, and partly after his 
 arrival at Corinth. Professor Lightfoot gives seve- 
 ral other reasons, grounded on St. Paul’s way of 
 speaking of his personal sufferings in the three 
 Epistles, his doctrinal statements, the progress of 
 opposition to him on the part of the Jews, and 
 his mode of treating offenders, why this order of 
 the three, rather than the commonly-supposed one 
 should be adopted. And I own, though this was 
 not always my opinion, that I am now disposed 
 to think with him. 
 
 When we come to speak of the character of 
 this Epistle, our task is an easy one. It is indeed 
 marked and unmistakable from the first. The 
 letter sprung out of two circumstances, both be- 
 longing to the same growing apostasy on the part 
 of the Galatians. They were falling from the 
 gospel of the grace of Christ, and they were re- 
 pudiating his apostolic authority. On this their 
 twofold fault the whole Epistle is the comment. 
 First of all, after denouncing in the plainest terms 
 their fickleness, he proceeds to defend the apostolic 
 
144 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 character of his ministry, and its independence on 
 human testimony. This he does by giving a his- 
 tory of his intercourse with the other Apostles at 
 and after his own conversion : ending with a re- 
 markable account of an occasion at Antioch when 
 he found himself compelled to withstand and 
 openly rebuke St. Peter. The value to the Church 
 jf this narration cannot be over-esteemed. It has 
 set before us the reality of the conflicts of the 
 apostolic Church, and the fallibility of the great 
 leaders of it, in a way for which we cannot be 
 too thankful. It is hardly strange that, in the 
 midst of the superstition which has ever clung 
 to the estimate of the Apostles’ character and 
 work, this very passage itself should have been 
 made a subject of contention. Jerome, with that 
 want of ingenuousness which he so often shows, 
 endeavoured to explain it away, and to make out 
 that there was no difference between the Apostles 
 after all. Whereupon Augustine, the most honest, 
 as he was far the most able, of the Fathers, wrote 
 .o him most plainly and seriously, warning him 
 of the consequences to the cause of truth, if such 
 an explanation were allowed to stand. It is much 
 to J erome’s credit, that he openly retracted his dis- 
 honest interpretation. 
 
Galatians . 
 
 145 
 
 At chap. iii. the polemical portion at once 
 begins, with that abruptness and fervour which 
 are the characteristics of our Epistle. Who had 
 bewitched and seduced them into such folly as 
 they were now showing ? They had seen Christ 
 crucified, in the Apostle’s plain setting of Him 
 forth : but some one had raised a counter-spell, 
 had obscured and drawn them away from that 
 holy vision. They had begun in a high and 
 glorious spiritual course : they were seeking to 
 be perfected in a low, beggarly, carnal one. Not 
 so Abraham, the father of the faithful, who was 
 justified by faith, and whose children walk by 
 faith and are blessed. The law brings not bless- 
 ing, but a curse ; from which curse Christ hath 
 delivered us. And God’s covenant of faith with 
 Abraham, ratified long before the law, could never 
 be set aside nor modified by that subsequent dis- 
 pensation which was merely interposed for a 
 temporary purpose, and that purpose, fulfilled 
 when Christ came, clothing us with the fulness 
 of our adoption as sons in God’s family. 
 
 Here (chap. iv. 8) he again turns abruptly to 
 the Galatians, and breaks out into fervid, but at 
 the same time most affectionate pleading with 
 
 L 
 
146 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 them on their strange conduct as regarded the 
 Gospel and himself : recounting the totally diffe- 
 rent reception given by them to both on his first 
 visit amongst them. 
 
 And now follows a remarkable passage, in which 
 St. Paul carries on his argument against the 
 Judaizers by maintaining against them the alle- 
 gorical sense of that law of which they professed 
 themselves the upholders : by maintaining, that is, 
 that the events, and even the names, which come 
 before us in the Old Testament history, have 
 beneath them spiritual meanings, and are parables 
 of Christian truths. He adopted the same strain 
 in 1 Cor. x., when he spoke of the mystical mean- 
 ing of the history of the J ews in the wilderness : 
 the same again in 1 Cor. xv., when he insisted 
 on the mutual relations of Adam and of Christ. 
 Mr. Conybeare has well remarked, ‘ The lesson to 
 be drawn from this whole passage as regards the 
 Christian use of the Old Testament, is of an im- 
 portance which can scarcely be over-rated.’ 
 
 The result of the argument from the allegorical 
 interpretation is, that we are not children of a 
 system of bondage, but of liberty wherewith Christ 
 made us free. In this liberty we must stand fast, 
 
Galatians . 
 
 H7 
 
 and not be entangled again in slavery. If we are, 
 Christ has become of no use to us. The adoption 
 of any requirement of the law cuts off from Christ. 
 Who could have perverted the favourable course 
 in which they were once running? Whoever he 
 were, he should bear his punishment. One form 
 of his yearning for the excision of their perverters 
 the Apostle signifies in a wish, which modern 
 language is obliged to veil, but which is all the 
 more characteristic of his burning and irrepressible 
 zeal for the purity of the faith. 
 
 And now comes in the third or hortatory por- 
 tion of the Epistle, by which it appears that, be- 
 sides fickleness in matter of belief and ceremonial, 
 grave moral faults had broken out among the 
 Galatians : bitter mutual dissension, and licentious 
 following of the lusts of the flesh. 
 
 After this, he draws to a close. And that close 
 is as remarkable as the opening. Contrary to his 
 usual practice, he had written this whole letter to 
 them with his own hand: and he directs their 
 attention (see chap. vi. n, in the corrections 
 below) to the great sprawling handwriting, the 
 consequence probably of his weakness of sight, 
 or unsteadiness of hand, testifying to the earnest- 
 
 ly 2 
 
148 How to study the New Testament 
 
 ness of his all-absorbing feeling for their good. 
 Once more, before ending, he sums up all. It was 
 not for the sake of keeping the law that these 
 troublers were seeking them ; but simply that they 
 might boast of them as their own followers. Boast 
 of them? What did he, Paul, feel in his inmost 
 heart about boasting? This, this only : that there 
 is but one thing in the world worth boasting in, 
 the Cross of Christ. In that, was his victory 
 over the world; in that, the world’s contempt of 
 him. The newness of life thus brought in is the 
 only thing that avails under the Gospel. All who 
 thus believe and thus live — God bless them, and 
 bless His own Israel in the Spirit ! As for him, 
 let none trouble him, for he was the branded slave 
 of Jesus Christ, not his own, but with the marks 
 of his Master upon him. And so, with his prayer 
 for Christ’s grace in their spirits, he leaves them. 
 
 We have to subjoin our usual list of corrections 
 of reading and rendering. The principal places 
 in which our authorized text differs from that esta- 
 blished by the best and most ancient MSS., are 
 the following : — 
 
 In chap. i. 10, the second ‘for ’ should be 
 omitted. In verse 15, for 4 it pleased God \ who l 
 
Galatians . 
 
 1 49 
 
 it should stand, 4 He pleased, who/ * In verse 17, 
 
 6 went up l and ‘ went l should probably be, both 
 times, ‘went away/ The expression conveys, the 
 first time, somewhat of scorn : ‘ I did not go 
 wandering away to seek human intercourse : ’ and 
 the second time expresses the contrast to this 
 wandering away : ‘ I went into seclusion/ In 
 verse 18, ‘ Peter ’ should be ‘Cephas/ 
 
 In ch. ii. 11, ‘ Peter ’ should be ‘Cephas,’ as 
 also in verse 14: where ‘ Why compellest thou ’ 
 ought to be, ‘ how is it that thou compellest ? ’ In 
 verse 16, after ‘knowing,’ insert ‘nevertheless.’ 
 
 In ch. iii. 1, the words ‘ that ye should not obey 
 the truth] should be omitted. They have appa- 
 rently come in from ch. v. 7, and are not found 
 in the oldest MSS. The words ‘ among you ’ 
 should also be omitted. In ver. 17, the words 
 ‘ in Christ ’ should be omitted ; and in ver. 2 9, 
 ‘ heirs according to promise ’ should be read with- 
 out ‘ and ’ preceding. 
 
 In ch. iv. 6, ‘ your hearts ’ should be ‘ our 
 hearts.’ In ver. 7, for ‘ an heir of God through 
 Christ ,’ should stand ‘ an heir through God.’ In 
 
 * This correction has been inadvertently overlooked in my “ Nert 
 r I cSiament for English readers.’* 
 
150 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 v T er. 8, 4 them which by nature are no gods,’ should 
 be 4 gods which by nature exist not.’ In ver. 14, 
 for 4 my temptation/ read 4 your temptation/ In 
 ver. 24, for 4 the two covenants/ it should be 4 two 
 covenants/ The article is wanting in all our 
 MSS., both ancient and later. In ver. 26, for ‘the 
 mother of us all’ read 4 our mother/ In ver. 28, 
 many ancient MSS. for 4 we/ read ‘ye;’ but it is 
 not quite clear which should be adopted. 
 
 In ch. v. 1, there is considerable confusion of 
 readings. The most probable seems, 4 With (or, 
 in) liberty Christ made us free. Stand fast, there- 
 fore/ In ver. 19, omit 4 adultery. ’ In ver. 24, 
 for 4 Christ’s’ read 4 Jesus Christ’s/ In ch. vi. 15, 
 4 availeth’ ought to be 4 is/ In ver. 17, 4 the Lora 
 Jesus/ ought to be 4 Jesus/* 
 
 The principal corrections to be made in the 
 rendering of the original text by our translators, 
 are the following : — 
 
 In ch. i. 6, ‘removed’ ought to be 4 removing/ 
 In ver. 8, ‘have prevailed/ should be ‘prevailed.’ 
 In ver. 9, 4 said’ should be 4 have said.’ In ver. 
 
 * In my “ New Testament for English Readers,” the note stating this 
 omission is, by mistake, printed against the words, ‘ our Lord,’ in 
 ver. 18. 
 
Galatians . 
 
 151 
 
 15, ‘ separated met which is ambiguous, should be 
 ‘set me apart.’ 
 
 In ch. ii. 2, ‘ I should run, or had runt ought 
 to be ‘ I should be running, or have run.’ In ver. 
 4, ‘ false brethrent should be ‘ the false brethren.’ 
 In ver. 6, ‘ seemed, ’’ ought to be ‘seem.’ He is 
 speaking of the reputation which the other apos- 
 tles held among the Galatians at the time when 
 he was writing, not at the time when he was in 
 Jerusalem. The same applies to the same word 
 ‘seemed,' in ver. 9, which ought to be ‘seem.’ (I 
 am indebted for this correction to Professor Light- 
 foot.) In ver. 8, ‘ in Peter,’ should be ‘for Peter;’ 
 and ‘ in me,’ ‘ for me.’ In ver. 9, ‘ heathent should 
 be ‘Gentiles.’ In ver. 11, ‘ to be blamedt should 
 be ‘ condemned.’ Peter was not to be blamed, 
 but (in the original it is simply the perfect parti- 
 ciple passive) was already by his conduct a con- 
 demned man. In ver. 13, ‘ dissembled likewise with 
 him,’ substitute ‘also joined in his hypocrisy;’ and 
 at the end of the verse, for ‘ dissimulationt render 
 ‘hypocrisy.’ In ver. 13, for ‘we who are,’ render 
 ‘we are.’ In ver. 16, for ‘ but by,' render ‘save 
 only through ; ’ and for ‘ the faith of' ‘ faith in ; ’ 
 and for ‘ even we have beliroedt ‘we also believed. 
 
1 52 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 In ver. 18, for ‘ make ,’ render ‘prove/ In ver. 19, 
 for ‘ are dead ,’ substitute ‘ died/ In ver. 20, for 
 1 am crucified/ substitute ‘have been crucified/ 
 The following clause should stand : — ‘ And it is no 
 longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me/ 
 In ver. 20, for ‘ by the faith/ substitute ‘ in the 
 faith/ In ver. 21, for ‘ is dead in vain/ render 
 ‘ died without cause/ 
 
 In ch. iii. 1, ‘ hath been evidently set forth’ 
 should be ‘was evidently set forth/ viz., when 
 the Apostle was among them. In ver. 3, k made 
 perfect ’ should be ‘being made perfect:’ it is a 
 present tense, not a past one. In ver. 4, ‘ Have 
 ye suffered' should be ‘Did ye suffer.’ In ver. 5, 
 ‘among you’ should be ‘in you.’ In ver. 7, for 
 ‘ the children ’ render ‘ sons.’ In ver. 8, ‘ the heathen ,’ 
 and ‘ nations t should both be ‘Gentiles.’ In the 
 same verse, the expression ‘ preached before the 
 Gospel ’ is ambiguous: ‘ before ’ may be either a 
 preposition, ‘ preached — before the Gospel — unto 
 Abraham/ or an adverb, ‘preached before — the 
 Gospel — unto Abraham.’ It is an advei'b , and 
 the ambiguity should be removed by substituting 
 ‘ beforehand/ which gives the meaning unmis- 
 takably. In ver. 11, the words ‘the just shall live 
 
Galatians . 
 
 x 53 
 
 by faith ’ ought to stand, 4 the just by faith (i.e. 
 they that are justified by faith) shall live. , The 
 stress of the argument here is on the contrast 
 between those that are just by faith, and those 
 whose righteousness arises from having done the 
 works of the law : the attainment of life being 
 common to both. In ver. 12, ‘ doeth' should be 
 ‘hath done/ Inver. 13, ‘ hath redeemed’ should 
 be ‘ redeemed.’ In ver. 14, 4 through ’ should be 
 ‘in.’ In ver. 15, 6 yet if it be confirmed ’ should 
 be ‘ when it hath been ratified/ In ver. 17, ‘ can- 
 not l * should be ‘doth not.’ In ver. 18, ‘ gave' 
 should be ‘hath given.’ In ver. 19, ‘ was made ’ 
 should be ‘ is made.’ Ver. 20 would be clearer 
 expressed, ‘Now a mediator cannot be of one 
 (i.e. necessarily requires two parties), but God is 
 one’ (one in Himself, and essentially one in His 
 purposes and actions). In ver. 21, for ‘ should , ,’ 
 render ‘would.’ In ver. 22, ‘ hath concluded' 
 should be ‘ concluded,’ or better ‘ shut up.’ In 
 ver. 24, ‘ was ’ should be ‘hath become;’ and 
 ‘ might ’ should be ‘may.’ In ver. 25, ‘ after that 
 faith is come ’ should be ‘now that faith is come.’ 
 Verses 26 and 27 should stand thus: ‘For ye 
 are all sons of God through the faith in Christ 
 
1 54 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Jesus. For all ye who were baptized into Christ 
 did put on Christ.’ In ver. 28, ‘Ye are all one ’ 
 would be more correctly and clearly expressed, 
 ‘Ye are all one man.’ The word ‘ one ’ in the 
 original is masculine ; and it is the unity of all 
 mankind in the manhood of Christ that the 
 Apostle is insisting on. In ver. 29, for ‘ the 
 promise 7 should stand ‘ promise.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 2, ‘ tutors and governors ’ would be 
 more correctly expressed ‘guardians and stewards;’ 
 and in ver. 3, ‘rudiments’ would be nearer the 
 sense than ‘elements;’ as also in v. 9. In this 
 latter verse, ‘ now after that ye have known God, 
 should be ‘ now that ye know God.’ In the end 
 of the verse, ‘ again ’ does not sufficiently express 
 the meaning, which is ‘again from the beginning.’ 
 In ver. 12, 6 ye have not injured me at all ’ should 
 be ‘ye did me no wrong.’ In ver. 13, ‘ through 
 infirmity of the flesh] should be ‘ because of an 
 infirmity of my flesh.’ It was an illness which 
 first detained him in Galatia : see the introduction 
 to this chapter. In ver. 17, ‘ affect ’ does not 
 convey much meaning to the modern reader : 
 ‘ court ’ would express the sense better. The same 
 applies to the next verse ; where also ‘ in a good 
 
Galatians . 
 
 155 
 
 cause ’ would be better than 4 in a good thing.’ 
 In ver. 22, for 6 a’ (twice), read 4 the.’ In ver. 23, 
 for ‘ promise ,’ ‘ the promise.’ In ver. 24, for 4 are 
 an allegory ,’ ‘ have another meaning.’ In ver. 25, 
 for ‘ this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia ,’ read 
 ‘ the word Hagar is in Arabia (i.e. in the Arabic 
 language) Mount Sinai;’ which appears to have 
 been the case. The Chaldee paraphrast of the 
 Old Testament uses it with this meaning. In ver. 
 31, ‘ //h? bondwoman ’ should be ‘a bondwoman:’ 
 ‘ we are not children of a,ny bondmaid, but of the 
 (the chosen, the well-known) freewoman.’ 
 
 In ch. v. 12, it is not possible to present to 
 the English reader the Apostle’s meaning in plain 
 words. I can only refer to what was said above, 
 in treating of the contents of the Epistle. It may 
 suffice to say that the authorised version does not 
 in the least degree represent his wish : and to refer 
 to my New Testament for English Readers, or my 
 Greek Testament, for further explanation. In ver. 
 13, ‘ have been called] should be ‘were Called.’ In 
 ver. 17, 6 so that ye cannot' ought to be, ‘that ye 
 may not.’ In ver 19, ‘ which are these ’ should be 
 ‘ such as.’ Those which follow are not all the 
 works of the flesh, but merely specimens of them. 
 
156 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 In ch. vi. 6, ‘ communicate unto 9 ought to be 
 ‘share with.* In ver. 11, how ‘large a letter’ 
 ought to have been rendered ‘ in how large letters.’ 
 He is speaking not of the length of the Epistle, 
 but of the great coarse handwriting, testifying that 
 he wrote it with his own b.^nd. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 ( First Part) 
 
 E have now arrived at that Epistle which 
 
 is beyond question the greatest work of 
 St. Paul. Indeed it has sometimes been regarded 
 as more of a treatise than an Epistle. In very 
 early times it seems to have been circulated in an 
 abridged form, with the merely epistolary portion 
 (chaps, xv., xvi.) omitted. Still there is no deny- 
 ing it, even if it were thus reduced, the title of an 
 Epistle. Every now and then, in the very midst 
 of its argument, the epistolary address occurs : 
 and it is manifest that the Apostle never at any 
 time dropped from his thoughts the fact that he 
 was writing a letter to the members of a Church. 
 
 St. Paul had finished the journey in which we 
 found him engaged at our last notice, and had 
 
1 58 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 settled down at Corinth for the winter. At some 
 time during this stay he probably wrote the Epistle 
 to the Galatians, as we have already shown. The 
 great subject which the fickleness of the Galatian 
 Church had brought into prominence, had been 
 much before his mind. 4 Ye are all children of 
 God through faith in Christ Jesus;’ this wrought, 
 and was kept fermenting by the Divine Spirit in 
 his thoughts, and, as centuries after in him who 
 was to enforce the great doctrine in ages of 
 corruption, so now in the ear of the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, 4 The just shall live by faith,’ was ever 
 sounding. Coincident with this engrossing of 
 his thoughts by this one great theme, came news 
 from the now growing and important Church in 
 the metropolis of the world ; news that in it, as so 
 often elsewhere, the Jew and Gentile elements 
 were not in Christian accord ; that questions of 
 precedence and questions of observance wanted 
 settling among them. What more natural, than 
 that the Apostle should regard the tidings thus 
 brought as furnishing an opportunity for laying 
 forth the great doctrine of c Life by Faith ’ for the 
 Church of God ? He had long been intending to 
 visit the Roman Church. It had been founded 
 
Romans . 
 
 1 59 
 
 by no Apostle, but apparently owing to the con- 
 currence of all men from all parts at the capital. 
 This had brought together Christian converts in 
 sufficient numbers to form a considerable church. 
 It is an absolute historical necessity to assume 
 this origin of the Christian body at Rome. For 
 St. Paul declares, Romans xv. 20, that it was not 
 his practice to build where other Apostles had 
 laid the foundation ; and further to clench this as 
 applicable to Rome, he formally takes charge of 
 them as the Apostle of the Gentiles, and speaks 
 of his hitherto prevented visit as intended to 
 bestow on them some formal gift of apostolic 
 grace (chap. i. 4). We may notice in passing, 
 that all trace is wanting in historical fact of 
 St. Peter having founded the Church of Rome. 
 That he had not been there before St. Paul’s Epistle, 
 is certain; that he could not found the Church 
 after St. Paul had written, is certain ; that he did 
 not live and exercise authority after St. Paul, is 
 certain from primitive tradition, which makes him 
 suffer martyrdom at Rome together with St. Paul. 
 His twenty-five years’ popedom is the veriest and 
 silliest fable ; would have been, even did history 
 leave place for it, a dereliction of his special office 
 
i6o How to study the New Testament . 
 
 as Apostle of the circumcision, and an invasion of 
 the province of another. And this popedom of 
 St. Peter, together with the notion of his having 
 founded the Roman Church, is repudiated by 
 many of the ablest among the Romanists them- 
 selves. 
 
 This Church then thus founded, what was it? 
 It was of necessity the most important Christian 
 community in the world. It would be sure to 
 receive the greatest future accessions ; it had the 
 advantage of the greatest publicity, and the widest 
 ventilation, for any truth delivered to it. 
 
 An occasion then having arisen for a letter to 
 explain and settle the misconceptions which had 
 grown up among the Romans, what wonder if the 
 great Apostle availed himself of it to lay forth 
 to them the whole dispensation of God’s grace to 
 Jew and Gentile ? What wonder if he determined 
 to expand the thoughts of the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, to put into full logical order and ex- 
 tension the matters there boldly and roughly 
 declared, to make a fair and more voluminous 
 copy of the ‘big writing’ which his own hand 
 
 had traced in the fervour of his heart to the 
 
 * 
 
 rapidly apostatizing Church? Opportunities were 
 
Romans . 
 
 161 
 
 doubtless frequent for transmitting a letter from 
 any part of the Roman world to the great metro- 
 polis. But at the present moment an unusually 
 favourable one occurred. Phoebe, a deaconess of 
 the Church at Kenchrea, the port of Corinth, was 
 travelling to Rome. She had won, by her acts 
 of beneficence to the Church and to himself, the 
 Apostle’s approval and esteem. She therefore 
 (for we can hardly otherwise understand chap. xvi. 
 i, 2) becomes the bearer of the Epistle. 
 
 An interesting consideration remains for us 
 before we enter upon the contents of the letter, 
 respecting a point of some apparent difficulty. 
 The letter was most probably sent from Corinth 
 in the spring of a.d. 58. Three years after, in 
 the beginning of a.d. 61, the Apostle arrived a 
 prisoner at Rome. The Jews resorted to him, 
 and he addressed them, as we read in Acts xxviii. 
 There we find the Jews having very scant know- 
 ledge about St. Paul himself, and hardly any about 
 the Christian sect. They wished to know more 
 about him and it. Now some have asked how 
 this could have been, if, three years before, the 
 faith of the Roman Christians was spoken of 
 throughout all the world (Rom. i. 8). The 
 
 M 
 
[62 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 answer seems to me to be very plain. Those who 
 came together to St. Paul’s lodging were not 
 Christians, but simply Jews, resident in Rome. 
 Their knowledge of their own (to them) apostate 
 brethren would be necessarily but small, and would 
 be dissimulated by them as being smaller than it 
 really was. They, having heard of Saul of Tarsus 
 and his doings, assemble to inquire of him about 
 himself and the sect which he has joined; and 
 speak to him in a manner most likely to elicit that 
 knowledge. The interview reveals to us nothing 
 about the Christian Church in Rome at the time. 
 Of them we first gain a glimpse, when we learn 
 that during the seven days’ stay of the Apostle at 
 Puteoli, they heard of it, and sent a deputation 
 many miles out of Rome to meet him (Acts xxviii. 
 15). And another, when we are told that ‘ Paul 
 received all that came in unto him, preaching the 
 kingdom of God, and teaching those things which 
 concern the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Acts xxviii. 
 30, 3 1 *) 
 
 And now let us come to the Epistle itself. It is 
 very important that the English reader should have 
 the contents and argument of it clearly set out 
 before him. For it is one of those treatises which 
 
Romans. 
 
 163 
 
 can hardly be understood, except by seeing it as a 
 whole, and marking the progress of the argument 
 from one step to another. 
 
 The first chapter opens with the apostolic greet- 
 ing, conceived, however, in terms more solemn 
 and stately than ordinary. It would seem as if 
 the Apostle had before his mind the metropolitan 
 majesty of the imperial city of Rome, and set 
 against it the majesty of the great revelation of the 
 Son of God, the fulfilment of the world-long pro- 
 mise, the temple of the indwelling Spirit poured 
 out upon mankind, the firstborn from the dead. 
 He looked upon all the world obedient to the 
 sway of Rome, and he thought upon that wider 
 and grander obedience of faith which should 
 bring under its sway all nations of the earth. 
 There is not a grander thing in literature than this 
 opening of the Epistle to the Romans. After this 
 he speaks of his desire to see them, and so is led 
 to his readiness to proclaim the glad tidings at 
 Rome also. Yes, even at Rome, in all its power 
 and splendour ; for he felt no shame in doing this, 
 no shrinking at standing forth, a solitary man, in 
 the pomp of the Forum, in the crowd of the 
 Suburra, before plebs and patricians, before fla- 
 
 M 2 
 
164 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 mens and augurs, before prefects and Caesars, and 
 announcing that which is the power of God unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth ; first to 
 God’s chosen people — they were committed spe- 
 cially to others ; then to the Gentile nations, 
 among which this was first. Thus he arrives at 
 the enunciation of his great theme. This Gospel 
 is the power of God to every one that believeth, 
 because in it God’s righteousness is unveiled to the 
 eye of faith ; and the more, the higher degrees of 
 faith are attained. And this was no new idea, 
 no invention of his; but it had been long ago 
 declared by the word of the prophets that the 
 way to life was to become righteous by believing 
 God. 
 
 From this point (chap. i. 18) begins the doc- 
 trinal exposition of the mighty truth just declared, 
 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation 
 to every one that believeth, by uncovering to man 
 the righteousness of God. And first, man must 
 be made to see that he has no righteousness of his 
 own. First, then, comes a revelation of wrath 
 against men for keeping down or holding back the 
 truth of God in unrighteousness. And first for 
 the majority of mankind — the Gentile world. 
 
Romans . 
 
 165 
 
 Then follows that terrible description in plain 
 words of the fearful state of the heathen world, so 
 abundantly confirmed by the classic writers, so 
 testified by the Epigrams of Martial and the walls 
 of Pompeii. And here let me boldly say that I 
 thank God for such passages as this in our Bibles. 
 I thank God for some of those chapters in the Old 
 Testament from which pretended modem delicacy 
 shrinks in an age which has no other opportunity 
 of hearing sin called by its true name, and put 
 into connexion with declarations of God’s wrath. 
 May the day never come when the mistaken 
 fancy that such words should not be publicly 
 read in our churches will cause their exclusion 
 from our table of lessons, as some have threat- 
 ened. 
 
 The Apostle goes on to show that in this matter 
 of sinfulness before God, all are alike : that none 
 has a right to set himself up above and judge 
 another; for that man’s unworthiness and God’s 
 long-suffering are universal. And so he passes 
 gradually to the case of the Jews, whom by-and-by 
 (chap. ii. 1 7) he directly addresses, especially with 
 reference to their supposed, and real, advantages 
 over others in the knowledge of God : contrasting 
 
1 66 How to study (He New Testament. 
 
 the pride of the Jews in their law and their God 
 with their actual disobedience to both; showing 
 that by the works of the law shall no flesh be 
 justified : and that Abraham’s real advantage was 
 his faith, by which he was justified before God 
 without the works of the law. And this justifica- 
 tion by faith was not his alone, but shall be ours 
 also, if we believe the resurrection of Jesus from 
 che dead. This is the state of the main line of 
 argument as far as the end of chap. iv. With 
 chap. v. begins the general statement, for Jew and 
 Gentile alike, of the blessed consequences of this 
 justification by faith ; of the nature and extent of 
 the blessings bestowed on us by the death and 
 resurrection of Christ ; their extent being as wide 
 in their saving influence as Adam’s sin was in 
 ruining : yea, wider, because the nature of a free 
 gift is of itself wider and more spreading than that 
 of a prescribed and limited condemnation. And 
 the very use of the law was this, to make abundant 
 and multiply the grace of God, by creating sin, 
 over which grace might triumph. And now with 
 chap. vi. the Apostle begins one of those wonder- 
 ful courses of what we may call retrogressive 
 argument, with which this Epistle abounds. If it 
 
Romans. 
 
 167 
 
 be true that the more sin, the more grace, then we 
 have only to continue in sin that grace may the 
 more abound. This he puts as a question, Is it to 
 be so ? Is it after all to come to this, that the 
 Gospel, which was to do away with sin, encourages 
 sin ? Let it not be : God forbid. The very 
 essence and condition of the covenant of grace is, 
 deadness to sin, and of this the rite which ad- 
 mitted us into Christ was symbolical. And now 
 comes in, as ever in the Apostle’s arguments, a 
 fresh element, introduced by the reply to the 
 objection — the new life of righteousness springing 
 up coincidentally with the death to sin, and owing 
 to the same influence of union with Christ. Not 
 only are we one with Him in His death, but one 
 with Him also in His resurrection ; if we died 
 with Him, we also live with Him. And, therefore, 
 we have no life unto sin for sin, and are bound to 
 slay it in our bodies and live for God. This we 
 can do, for sin shall not conquer us, we not being 
 under the law, which is its great instrument, but 
 under grace. Not that (and here again comes in 
 the objection in an interrogative form) we may 
 therefore commit acts of sin, because we have no 
 fear of being brought under its dominion : for then 
 
1 68 How to study the New Testame7it. 
 
 we should be actually putting ourselves under its 
 dominion, from which we have been freed. Be- 
 sides, its fruit — we ourselves being judges of it in 
 our former lives — is shame, and ends in death, its 
 wages : whereas we are servants of God, being 
 made holy, and being heirs of His gift, everlasting 
 life. 
 
 But now this assertion, that we are not under the 
 law, but under grace, comes in for further explana- 
 tion and elucidation. In ch. vii. i — 4, he illus- 
 trates it by the comparison of a woman freed from 
 the marriage vow by the death of her husband. 
 Then he carries the subject on, by showing that, 
 as the law was the multiplier of sin, tempting the 
 evil in our hearts to break forth into transgression, 
 so we, when we were under it, served in the 
 bondage of the letter, and brought forth fruit unto 
 death ; but now, having died with Christ, we are 
 freed from the law, and serve in the newness of 
 the spirit, in liberty, which is where the Spirit of 
 God is. 
 
 But then does it follow that the law was sin ? It 
 looks very like it, if it brought out and multiplied 
 sin. But it may not be. It is not sin, but the 
 detector of sin. Sin is brought out by it, and its 
 
Romans . 
 
 169 
 
 working discerned. It is not the poison, but the 
 test. And here the Apostle introduces a very 
 remarkable form of illustration, suddenly turning 
 his discourse into the first person, and relating 
 apparently his own experience. The inquiry into 
 and explanation of this are so important, and the 
 progress of the argument from this point to the end 
 of ch. viii. so unbroken, that we must here make 
 that pause which the length and weight of the 
 Epistle necessitate, and reserve the rest of it for 
 our next part. 
 
 We will here give our usual corrections of the 
 text, and the English rendering, for the former 
 portion of the Epistle. 
 
 As regards the text, the following alterations 
 should be made, in order to conform it to the 
 testimony of the most eminent and trustworthy 
 authorities. It will be observed that they are very 
 few in comparison to the number in some other 
 books of the New Testament. 
 
 In chap. i. 16, omit the words “of Christ .” 
 In ver. 29, omit 4 fornication l In ver. 31, omit 
 4 implacable .’ 
 
 In ch. ii. 17, for 4 Behold ,’ substitute 4 But if,’ 
 which is the reading of all our earliest MSS. In 
 
1 70 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 the Greek the two expressions differ by one letter 
 only, and that letter one frequently expressed or 
 not, indifferently, in the ancient manner of writing. 
 
 In ch. iii. 22, ‘and upon all/ is omitted by most 
 of our early MSS. This may have been done by a 
 transcriber’s mistake : as nothing is more common 
 than to find that the copyist’s eye passed from a 
 word or a syllable to the same word or syllable 
 again occurring near. But this omission requires 
 notice, being found in so many ancient MSS. of 
 different origin. In ver. 28, our earliest MSS. are 
 divided between ‘therefore/ and ‘for:’ see below 
 in corrections of rendering. 
 
 In ch. iv. 1, for ‘ father / read ‘ forefather.’ In 
 ver. 19, many of our oldest authorities omit the 
 word ‘ not.’ If we adopt this reading, the mean- 
 ing will be, ‘ He considered, was well aware of, his 
 own body, &c., and, &c. ; but staggered not,’ &c. 
 
 In ch. v. 1, occurs a very remarkable various 
 reading. Where our text has ‘ we have peace/ all 
 the very ancient MSS., without exception, have 
 ‘ let us have peace.’ The difference in the Greek 
 is only that of one letter : echomen, with the short 
 o, or omicron (o), being ‘ we have/ and echomen, 
 with the long o, or omega (w). being ‘ let us have.’ 
 
Romans . 
 
 1 7i 
 
 What complicates the difficulty of deciding between 
 the two in this case is, that the two letters are not 
 unfrequently interchanged in the early MSS., 
 where no difference of meaning could have been 
 intended. Thus the Vatican MS. reads, ‘As let 
 us have opportunity/ in Gal. vi. 10, which would 
 be nonsense, and cannot have been meant ; the 
 Alexandrine and Parisian read, ‘ let us which have 
 believed enter into rest/ in Heb. iv. 3, of which 
 the same may be said ; and the Alexandrine reads, 
 ‘ let us receive/ of which the same may be said, in 
 1 John iii. 22. So we are really uncertain whether 
 this is to be treated as a substantial variation or 
 not. If we adopt ‘ let us have/ the meaning will 
 be, although unexpected and somewhat obscure, 
 yet in substance the same, ‘ let us have/ i.e., having 
 it, let us recognise that possession, and act ac- 
 cordingly. In ver. 2, omit ‘ by faith' Inver. 6, 
 for ‘for when/ the Vatican MS. has, ‘if, that is, 
 when.' In ver, 8, the same MS., for ‘God/ has 
 ‘ He/ Many of the MSS. which read ‘ God/ have 
 it variously placed in the sentence : a sure sign 
 that it is a later addition. 
 
 In ch. vi. 1, for ‘ shall we continue/ almost all 
 our early MSS. have, ‘ are we to continue/ i. e ,, 
 
1 7 2 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 c may we continue.’ The received text has hardly 
 any MS. authority. In ver. 11, omit 6 our Lord;' 
 and in ver. 12, omit 4 it in' 
 
 In ch. vii. 6, for * that being dead wherein we 
 were held/ all our earliest MSS. have, 4 having died 
 unto that wherein we were held.’ 
 
 The necessary changes in rendering, owing to 
 the mistakes of our translators, are far more 
 numerous. Indeed, it is hardly possible for the 
 merely English reader to make himself master of 
 this argument of this great Epistle, so much has it 
 been obscured for want of accurate translation. 
 
 In ch. i. 5, ‘ for obedience to the faith,’ substitute 
 ‘ obedience of faith.’ In ver. 8, ‘ spoken 0/,' should 
 be ‘published.’ In ver. 10, for might have a 
 prosperous journey ,’ ‘ I shall have a way opened/ 
 In ver. 12, for 4 by the mutual faith both of you and 
 me ,’ 4 each by the faith that is in the other, both 
 yours and mine.’ In ver. 17, the words ‘the just,’ 
 or 4 the righteous shall live by faith,’ might also be 
 understood, 4 the righteous by faith,’ 4 those that 
 are righteous by faith,’ ‘shall live.’ In ver. 18, 
 ‘ hold ,’ ought to be ‘hold back,’ or ‘hold down,’ 
 i.e., having it and knowing it, quench its testimony 
 and its power by their unrighteous lives. In ver 
 
Romans . 
 
 *73 
 
 19, ‘ that which may be known,’ ought to be, ‘ that 
 which is known.’ The Apostle is speaking, not of 
 what they might have known of God, but of what, 
 as matter of fact, they did know. In ver. 21, 
 * imaginations ,’ ought to be ‘reasonings.’ In ver. 
 29, ‘ haters of God ,’ should be ‘hated of (or, by) 
 God;’ for such is the meaning of the word. It 
 was an epithet used by the ancient writers to 
 signify any one given up to crimes which were ab- 
 horrent from our idea of the divine equity and 
 mercy. In ver. 32, ‘ knowing ,’ is not strong 
 enough for the word in the original, which sig- 
 nifies ‘knowing well,’ being perfectly acquainted 
 with. 
 
 In ch. ii. 5, for ‘ against the day,’ substitute ‘ in 
 the day.’ In ver. 8, for ‘them that are contentious ,’ 
 ‘ them that seek their own.’ In ver. 22, for ‘ com- 
 mit sacrilege ,’ substitute ‘ rob temples.’ In ver. 
 26, ‘ righteousness ’ should be ‘ordinances.’ In 
 ver. 27, ‘through the letter’ is better than 6 by 
 the letter.’ It is the medium through which, not 
 the instrument by which, that is spoken of. 
 
 In ch. iii. ver. 3 should stand thus : — ‘ For what 
 if some were unfaithful ? shall their unfaithfulness 
 make void the faithfulness of God?’ In ver. 5, 
 
i 74 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 * taketh vengeance ’ should be ‘ infiicteth his wrath.' 
 It may be well to remark once for all on the ex- 
 pression, ‘ God forbid ’ (ver. 6). It is not the 
 literal rendering of the original, which is, ‘ Let it 
 not happen !' but it comes the nearest to its mean- 
 ing in solemnity and earnestness of denial and de- 
 precation. In ver. 8, the meaning would be clearer 
 if the ellipsis of the original were somewhat more 
 filled up : ‘ And why should we not say, as we be,' 
 &c. In the end of this verse, ‘ damnation ' does 
 not mean what we now commonly understand 
 by it, and would be better therefore expressed 
 by ‘condemnation.' In ver. 19, ‘become guilty 
 before ' should be ‘ be brought under the judgment 
 of.’ In ver. 20, ‘ therefore ' should be ‘because.’ 
 Inver. 21, ‘ without ' should be ‘apart from.' In 
 ver. 23, the verb ‘ come ' is ambiguous in tense. 
 It is very commonly joined with the auxiliary 
 ‘have’ — ‘All have sinned, and have come short.' 
 But this is wrong, for the verb is present. It should 
 therefore be expressed by some word which may 
 indicate this — as, ‘ All have sinned, and fall short 
 of the glory of God.' In ver. 25, ‘ in His blood' 
 should be ‘ by His blood.' As it stands, it is open 
 to the mistake of supposing that the words • faith 
 
Romans . 
 
 175 
 
 in His blood ’ are to be connected, which is not 
 the case, and, if it were, would give us an unex- 
 ampled form of expression. In ver. 28, ‘for’ is 
 better than 4 therefore ’ (see the former set of cor- 
 rections), seeing that this is not an inference 
 concluding an argument, but a reason stated in 
 justification of the expression just used, ‘the law 
 of faith ;’ and for 4 conclude ,’ which is not the sense 
 of the verb, but has been given to it to support the 
 idea that this is the conclusion of an argument, sub- 
 stitute ‘reckon and for 4 ivlthout] ‘apart from/ 
 
 Ch. iv. ver. 1, ought to stand, ‘What then shall 
 we say that Abraham our forefather hath found as 
 pertaining to the flesh?’ For no distinction is 
 here made, as in ch. ix. 3, 5, between his fleshly 
 and his spiritual paternity; but fleshly gain and 
 privilege are contrasted with those which are 
 spiritual, in the case of the same, our forefather 
 Abraham. 
 
 In ch. v. 2, render, ‘ through whom we have also 
 had our access, &c. ; and we glory in the hope of 
 the glory of God.’ In ver. 3, 4, for ‘ patience ,’ ‘ en- 
 durance ;’ and for ‘ experience ,’ ‘approval,’ both 
 twice . In ver. 5, for ‘ the love of God l ‘ God’s love.’ 
 It is not our love to God, but His to us, which is 
 
176 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 spoken of. In the same verse, for ‘ is given ] ‘ was 
 given/ In ver. 11, for ‘ the atonement] ‘our recon- 
 ciliation/ In ver. 12, for ‘ passed upon] ‘spread 
 through unto/ and for ‘ have sinned] ‘sinned/ 
 In ver. 15, for ‘ offence ] ‘ trespass / and for ‘free 
 gift] ‘gift of grace/ also, for ‘ many ' (twice), ‘the 
 many/ i.e., all men. This mis-translation is a 
 grievous instance of the way in which our trans- 
 lators allowed their own theological opinions to 
 bias their rendering of Scripture. In the Latin, 
 and those versions that were made from it, the 
 mistake was obvious, as the Latin language has 
 no definite article; but King James's translators 
 professed diligently to compare with the original 
 Greek, and ought to have known better. In the 
 same verse, for ‘ the grace of God and the gift by 
 grace , which is by one man , fesus Christ , hath 
 abounded unto many] ‘ did the grace of God and his 
 free gift abound unto the many by the grace of 
 the one man Jesus Christ/ In ver. 16, for ‘ offences] 
 ‘ trespasses.' This distinction, here and before, is 
 important. The Apostle is speaking of the state 
 of things under the law, when sin was not only an 
 offence, but a trespass of a rule laid down. In ver. 
 17, for free gift,’ ‘gift/ and for ‘ one] ‘the one. 
 
Romans . 
 
 177 
 
 Ver. 18 should stand, ‘ Therefore as through one 
 trespass the issue was unto all men to condemna^ 
 tion : even so through one righteous act the issue 
 was unto all men to justification of life. 7 In ver. 
 19, for i one man's disobedience/ 4 the disobedience 
 of the one man / and again twice, for ‘ many ] 4 the 
 many/ see in ver. 15 : and for ‘ one] ‘the one.’ 
 In ver. 20, ‘ then the law came in besides, that the 
 trespass might be multiplied. But when sin was 
 multiplied, grace did beyond measure abound.’ In 
 ver. 21, for ‘ sin hath reigned unto death, ] ‘sin 
 reigned in death.’ 
 
 In ch. vi. ver. 2, for ‘ are dead] substitute ‘died,’ 
 the time spoken of being that of our baptism, as in 
 the next verse. In ver. 4, for ‘ are buried,’ ‘ were 
 buried;’ and for ‘ by baptism into death] ‘through 
 our baptism into his death :’ and for ‘ by the glory,’ 
 ‘through the glory.’ In ver. 5, read ‘if we have 
 become united to the likeness of his death, surely 
 we shall be also to the likeness of his resurrection.’ 
 In ver. 6 , for 6 is crucified,’ ‘was crucified.’ In 
 ver. 7, the word rendered ‘freed/ is, literally, 
 ‘justified. ’Inver. 8, for ‘ be dead] ‘died.’ Ver. 10 
 would be better an more literally, ‘ For the death 
 that he died, he died unto sin once; but the 
 
 N 
 
1 78 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.’ In ver. 13, 
 for < are alive from the dead] 4 were dead and are 
 aliye. 7 In ver. 17, read 4 ye obeyed from the heart 
 the form of doctrine whereunto ye were delivered/ 
 Inver. 19, for 4 have yielded/ 4 yielded/ and also 
 in ver. 22, for ‘holiness] 4 sanctification/ Inver. 
 21, 4 then 7 is ambiguous ; it may be the ‘then’ of 
 inference, or the 4 then 7 of time. It is the latter. 
 Render therefore, 4 at that time, 7 and the ambiguity 
 is escaped. Also, after 4 at that time, 7 put a note of 
 interrogation, and proceed, 4 Things whereof, 7 &c. 
 In ver. 23, for 6 through] 4 in/ 
 
 In ch. vii. 1, for ‘speak to them] substitute 4 am 
 speaking to men. 7 As the verse now stands, it 
 looks as if the Apostle suddenly addressed himself 
 to a new class of readers ; whereas he means that 
 those whom he is throughout addressing are men 
 that feared the law. In ver. 3, for 4 he dead] 4 die. 7 
 In ver. 4, for 4 are become] 4 were made ] and for 
 ‘ married] ‘ joined/ In ver. 5, for 4 did work . . . . 
 to bring] 4 were active .... so as to bring. 7 In 
 ver. 6, for 4 in newness of spirit] ‘ in the newness 
 of the spirit. 7 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 ( Second Part.) 
 
 E resume our summary of the contents of 
 
 this great Epistle at that point (ver. 7) in 
 ch. vii. where the Apostle suddenly assumes the 
 first person, carrying it on as far as ch. viii. 2, 
 where it is again dropped. And in order to master 
 the meaning of this section of the argument, we 
 must be able clearly to set before ourselves who it 
 is that here speaks. Is it the Apostle in his own 
 person, or is it the Apostle in the person of some 
 one else ? And let not the latter seem to any 
 improbable. Nothing is more common (the present 
 writer is conscious of the practice in his own 
 sermons) than to introduce in the first person a 
 general example of that which one is adducing or 
 arguing for, without any intention of identifying 
 
 N 2 
 
1 80 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 that which is said with any portion of one’s own 
 experience. Still, the practice has its rules and 
 limits. It usually applies to the present and the 
 future of the person thus designated, but can hardly 
 be extended to the past. One might say, for 
 example, after describing the sympathy of our 
 blessed Lord, 4 Well then, I see but One who can 
 feel for all my infirmities. I have no scruples, no 
 backwardness in coming to such a Friend, such a 
 Brother, and pouring out all my heart to Him.’ 
 While we speak thus, we are well understood to be 
 using general language, and referring, not to our 
 own, but to human experience in general. But if 
 I were to say, in the past tense, ‘Well, I felt all 
 this : I took into account that He who was perfect 
 God, was also perfect Man : I came without scruple 
 or timidity, and I poured out my heart before 
 Him,’ — who would not naturally suppose that I 
 was describing something that had happened to 
 myself? Could such language be used, and yet 
 the meaning have no such reference? Would not 
 one who thus spoke, intending only to give a 
 general example, be fairly chargeable with clumsi 
 ness and mal-adroitness ? And are these at all the 
 faults of the writer with whom we are now dealing? 
 
Romans . 
 
 1 8 1 
 
 Granted, that St. Paul’s arguments are not con- 
 ducted according to the set procedure of a logical 
 treatise : that his fervid spirit is continually carrying 
 him out of bounds, and causing him to digress into 
 the by-paths of the road along which he is con- 
 ducting his reader ; granted, that he rather bounds 
 over the fences of dialectic rule, than walks be- 
 tween them : yet in the midst of all his fervour and 
 irregularity, there is ever the most delicate tact, 
 the most rapidly responsive sense of possibility of 
 being misunderstood or misapplied : nothing like 
 awkwardness, nothing like mal-adroitness. We 
 cannot suppose him to have spoken in the first 
 person, and in the past tense, without really 
 meaning to relate things which have happened to 
 himself. If he is writing here in the person of all 
 mankind, or in that of the Jewish people, all we 
 can say is, that he has forgotten his usual clearness 
 and elegance, and is writing clumsily and unin- 
 telligibly. If we shrink from bringing these charges 
 against him, we are, it seems to me, bound to 
 adopt the other alternative, and to believe that he 
 is describing his own past life, at some time or 
 other of its history. But now comes the question, 
 at what time ? And here opinions have been 
 
1 82 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 various. We may best perhaps discuss them as 
 we pass on in the exposition of the passage. 
 
 He has spoken before (ver. 7) of our having 
 died to the law, and of the stirrings of sin, which 
 were, i.e. took place, by means of the law. And 
 by this strong language, some risk has been incurred 
 that his reader may imagine the law itself to be 
 identical with sin ; seeing that we are dead also to 
 sin — seeing that sin works within us, and by means 
 of sin we are stirred ?nd moved to sin. This 
 error he now proceeds to combat ; and he does it, 
 not by any general assertion of what takes place in 
 the human heart in general, but by what he was 
 conscious of in his own history. Had he spoken 
 generally, the influence might not have been sure : 
 a reader might have stopped short of a living con- 
 viction that it was all true of individual men ; but 
 now that he gives an actual experience of his own, 
 he states what none can deny, and what finds an 
 echo in the history of a thousand souls. 4 The law 
 is not sin; far be the thought. Yet (not ‘ nay,' 
 which obscures and blunders the whole) so near is 
 the law to being sin, that the law first introduced 
 me to sin — first made me acquainted with it. But 
 how? I was in the habit of coveting. I did it, 
 
Romans. 
 
 183 
 
 unconscious of any fault. But the law came in, 
 became heeded by me, with its voice, 4 Thou shalt 
 not covet:’ and my coveting started up into sin, 
 became sinful, to me, and in my esteem. And, as 
 we are ever prone to enjoy that which is forbidden, 
 sin thus got life and zest for me, and I indulged in 
 all manner of coveting, just because stolen waters 
 were sweet, and sin wrought upon my human per- 
 verseness. Before this forbidding voice spoke 
 within me, before the commandment i came/ 1 
 lived ; was alive and well ; enjoyed a kind of 
 innocence and freewill of my own ; but after this, 
 not I, but sin in me, lived and wrought its will. 
 And the very prohibition which was for life, by 
 waking up the sense of sin, and the desire for sin, 
 killed me, set me lusting for that evil which is death, 
 and slew my freewill and my former peace and joy. 
 Yet notice, that it was not the commandment itself, 
 but sin, the sinful principle in me, awakened into 
 life by the commandment, that thus killed me : 
 and the commandment only brought out that which 
 was there before, but latent and dormant : brought 
 it out, for good, and for the behalf and the life, of the 
 better and worthier ‘ 1/ the ‘ I ’ in conflict with sin, 
 the complex man, the 4 1 Paul ’ of the time present 
 
184 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 And now, and from this point, the narrative of 
 the past ceases, and the description of the present 
 begins. In the Paul then writing to them, these 
 motions toward sin remained ; this conviction 
 of sin through the law continued. In the breast of 
 the Apostle, there was an uncertainty and a con- 
 flict : what he did he knew not (not, allowed not : 
 see in corrections below), — /.&, as Chrysostom 
 admirably explains it, 4 he was in the dark, stag- 
 gered, and struck down, he knew not howl He 
 did not the good he wished ; the evil that he wished 
 not, that he did. And this new conflict is a testi- 
 mony that it is not I, not the inner man, not the 
 very person in his full personality, that do this sin, 
 but another, even the living principle of sin within 
 me. The real inner man delights in the law of 
 God ; but this other in the law of sin. And this 
 produces a state of despair, yea, even of a living 
 death, the consequence of the coming in of the 
 law, holy as it is, and awakening sin within a man. 
 How is Paul, how is any man, to get deliverance 
 from this body of death ? Thanks to God through 
 Christ, the issue has been won, the deliverance 
 effected. Condemnation has passed away fo T 
 them that are in Christ (see corrections below) 
 
Romans. 
 
 185 
 
 The law of the Spirit of life has set them free 
 from the law of sin and death. The law could not 
 do this ; it was a carnal commandment, working 
 through the medium of the flesh, and could go no 
 further ; but God did it, by sending His Son in the 
 likeness of that flesh of sin, and by making Him a 
 victim for sin. Thus sin stands condemned in the 
 flesh ; thus, on the other hand, the demands of 
 the law are fulfilled in us who walk, not after the 
 flesh, but after the spirit; and thus, too, though 
 the flesh is still subject to death by reason of sin, 
 the spirit is heir of life by reason of righteousness, 
 and shall, moreover, by reason of its being dwelt 
 in by God’s Spirit, bring up the mortal body also, in 
 virtue of Christ’s resurrection, and by the exertion 
 of the same power of the Father. 
 
 Well then, what is the inference? This: that 
 we owe nothing to the flesh, so as to induce us to 
 live after it. To do so would be to die spiritually. 
 Life is bound up with sonship in God’s family ; and 
 they who are His sons are led by His Spirit, who is 
 to them the witness of their adoption. This son- 
 ship also brings heirship with it ; co-heirship with 
 Him with whom we are now suffering — with whom 
 we shall be hereafter glorified. 
 
1 86 How to studv the New Testament . 
 
 Then follows a digression — which, like others in 
 St. Paul, is not really a digression, but ministers 
 admirably to the main argument — on suffering, 
 decay, death, as ordinances in God’s creation, 
 ministering to future glory, in which even crea- 
 tion itself shall partake. That we ourselves share in 
 these, is no reason why we should ultimately fail of 
 glory, or be separated from the love of God. This 
 separation, indeed, nothing can effect ; God has 
 bestowed on us His own Son as a pledge that He 
 will, with Him, freely give us all things. So that 
 no present nor future evil, no power in heaven or 
 earth, can separate us from the love of God in 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 And thus the mighty argument is brought to an 
 end. The remainder of the Epistle is spent in the 
 determination of various points of interest as related 
 to the position of Jew and Gentile, in God’s deal- 
 ings, and in the church of the time. Meanwhile, 
 however, the great argument is supplemented by 
 the views of God’s wisdom and love, and does not 
 reach its final conclusion till ch. xii., where the 
 Apostle gathers up all in general exhortations, 
 grounded on this review of God’s mercies to Jew 
 and Gentile 
 
Romans. 
 
 187 
 
 From that point, he begins giving directions for 
 Christian conduct under various circumstances; 
 directions grounded, no doubt, in the special com- 
 position and position of the Roman Church. 
 Among these are, commands as to obedience to 
 the earthly powers set over them : as to observance 
 or non-observance of times and days, and the 
 abstinence from certain meats : things, St. Paul 
 rules it, absolutely indifferent in themselves, and 
 to be arranged by the rules of charity and respect 
 by one to the scruples of another. Even Christ 
 pleased not himself: neither ought we to have 
 regard only to our own sentiments and desires. 
 Jew with Gentile, Gentile with Jew, ought to 
 glorify God in common : both were contemplated 
 in the mission of Jesus Christ, and spoken of in 
 its prophetic announcements. And the Apostle 
 himself was specially ordered to minister to the 
 Gospel of God, in offering, as it were, as a priest, 
 the Gentiles unto Him as an acceptable sacrifice. 
 This to accomplish had been the object of his 
 apostolic life : and in pursuance of that purpose, 
 he was in due time coming to them, after having 
 carried the contributions of the churches to Jeru- 
 salem. Meantime, might God bless them, and 
 
1 88 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 might a favourable issue of this his purpose be 
 granted, so that he might come to them in joy by 
 the will of God. 
 
 The last chapter is spent in commending to 
 them Phoebe the deaconess, the bearer of this 
 letter, and in salutations of them, and to them from 
 the brethren who were with him. In this con- 
 cluding chapter there are several points of interest 
 to every age of the Church. First, we have Phoebe, 
 deaconess of the church at Kenchrea, the port 
 of Corinth, commended in such an especial manner 
 to the church at Rome, as to make it more than 
 probable that she was the bearer of the Epistle. 
 We see woman in the early church already in a 
 position of trust and high usefulness : a position, 
 let me observe, which she retains in the Roman 
 Catholic communion to this day, in conjunction 
 with various conditions opposed to Christian free- 
 dom and our Lord’s commands, but which, owing 
 to those conditions having been justly repudiated 
 by the Reformed Churches, she has very generally 
 lost among ourselves. One of the gravest problems 
 of our own and of the coming age will be, to bring 
 in female help to the work of the Church, and 
 woman into an accredited position in her service, 
 
Romans. 
 
 189 
 
 without any admixture of the ‘votal’ element ; 
 without any permanent obligations to poverty, to 
 what is called ‘obedience/ to what is mistaken 
 for ‘chastity.’ Another matter of interest in this 
 chapter is, the examples which it gives us of the 
 refined delicacy and courtesy of the great Apostle. 
 ‘ To whom not only I give thanks, but all the 
 churches of the Gentiles/ ‘which were in Christ 
 before me ; ’ ‘ Salute Rufus, the elect in the Lord, 
 and his mother — and mine;' i.e., his mother, whom 
 I also love as a son. 
 
 Yet another point of interest is this. On the 
 southern side of Rome, as you approach the gate 
 now called the Porta San Sebastiano, — not far 
 from the Arch of Drusus, under which St. Paul 
 passed as he entered the city with the brethren, — 
 is a garden, containing the ‘ columbarium/ or 
 ‘pigeon-house/ of the ‘family’ of Nero. It may 
 be necessary to inform the English reader, that 
 these ‘ columbaria ’ are so called from their con 
 taining a number of small recesses like pigeon- 
 holes, in which are deposited the ashes of the 
 dead; and that the ‘family’ of a Roman prince 
 or noble comprehended all who lived in his court, 
 his relatives, freedmen, and slaves. And with 
 
190 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 thus much explanation, we may repeat the result 
 of our own researches in the columbarium of the 
 family of Nero. Among the names inscribed on 
 the memorial tablets there, we found Tryphaena 
 (ver. 12), Tryphosa (ver. 12), Hermes (ver. 14), 
 Hermas (ver. 14), and Junias (ver. 7). 
 
 Another matter of interest in this chapter is the 
 remarkable doxology with which it concludes. It 
 would appear as if at first the Epistle had con- 
 cluded with ver. 24 ; and that the Apostle, at 
 some subsequent period, on reading it over, had 
 added the doxology. This idea is confirmed by 
 the state of the readings of the ancient MSS. (see 
 below) ; and by the fact that the style of this 
 doxology is not that of the rest of the Epistle, but 
 rather that of St. Paul’s later writings, the Epistles 
 to Timothy and that to Titus. 
 
 Our list of corrections to be made in the text 
 of our present portion (Rom. viL 7 — end) will be of 
 necessity somewhat long : more, however, as re- 
 gards errors of translation, than varieties of reading. 
 
 To the latter class belong the following : — In 
 ch. vii. 18, for ‘/ find not ,’ read ‘is not (present).’ 
 In ver. 25, for ‘ I thank God,’ read ‘Thanks be to 
 God.’ 
 
Romans. 
 
 191 
 
 In ch. viii. 1, omit the clause 4 who walk net 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit? It has probably- 
 been interpolated here from ver. 4. In sense, at 
 first-sight, it fits in well; here, as there, being a 
 distinctive and correct statement of those in Christ 
 to whom there is no condemnation ; but on look- 
 ing further, it clearly appears to be out of place 
 here, since at present the assertion is general, 
 respecting all those who are in Christ, and after- 
 wards the distinction is raised, and their true and 
 spiritual character defined. In ver. 11, ‘by His 
 Spirit,' should be 4 by reason of, or because of, His 
 Spirit. 7 In ver. 26, for 4 infirmity, 7 read 4 infirmity/ 
 or 4 weakness. 7 The meaning is not here, that the 
 Spirit helps our infirmitzhr, generally : but that Pie 
 helps in this particular point our weakness, our 
 inability to wait with patience for that which we 
 hope for. In the same verse, the words 4 for us 7 
 are wanting in most of the ancient authorities. 
 
 In ch. ix. 19, for 4 why / read 4 why then. 7 In 
 ver. 31 (end), omit the words 4 of righteousness. 7 
 In ver. 32, for 4 the works of the law, 7 many of our 
 ancient authorities read simply ‘works. 7 In same 
 verse, omit the word ‘yfrr/ and arrange thus : 4 Be- 
 cause pursuing after it not by faith, but as by 
 
192 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 works, they stumbled against the. stone of stum- 
 bling. 7 In ver. 33, for ‘ whosoever] read ‘ he that. 7 
 
 In ch. x. 1, the insertion of ‘ Israel 7 is not 
 justified. It should stand, ‘ and my supplication 
 to God on their behalf is for salvation. 7 In ver. 
 17 , for ‘ God] read ‘ Christ. 7 
 
 In ch. xi. 6, the whole latter portion, 6 But if it 
 is of works, it is no more grace ; for otherwise 
 work is no more work, 7 is omitted in several of our 
 oldest MSS. It is very possible that the omission 
 may have been made by mistake, on account of 
 the similarity of the two sentences of which the 
 verse consists : so that it is best to leave the words 
 in the text, and mark them as doubtful. In ver. 
 17, for 4 the root and fatness, 7 ‘ the root of the fat- 
 ness. 7 In ver. 22, instead of ‘toward thee, good- 
 ness] read, 4 toward thee, God’s goodness. 7 It 
 stands thus in our principal ancient authorities ; 
 and these emphatic repetitions are customary with 
 St. Paul. 
 
 In ch. xii. n, instead of ‘serving the Lord,’ 
 some of our ancient MSS. have ‘ sen ing the time,’ 
 i.e., the opportunity : watching for opportunities. 
 The difference in the Greek is very 5 light, ‘ Kurio 7 
 being ‘ the Lord,’ and ‘ kairo 7 ‘ the time. 7 It is 
 
Romans . 
 
 *93 
 
 not quite certain which of the two is original ; but 
 internal evidence seems to predominate for ‘the 
 Lord/ inasmuch as Christians may be ordered to 
 watch opportunities, or the times, but hardly could 
 be ordered to serve (be in bondage to) them. 
 
 In ch. xiii. 3, for ‘ good works / read ‘the good 
 work.’ In ver. 7, omit ‘ therefore / In ver. 9, 
 omit ‘ Thou shalt not bear false witness l 
 
 In ch. xiv. 4, for ‘ God] read ‘ the Lord.’ In 
 ver. 6, the latter sentence, ‘ and he that regardeth 
 not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it/ is 
 omitted by all our earliest MSS., although inserted 
 in the most ancient versions. The omission may 
 here also have originated in mistake, the eye of 
 the transcriber passing from the end of the former 
 sentence to the exactly similar end of this one. 
 As ancient testimony is almost unanimous, we are 
 bound to mark the words as of doubtful authen- 
 ticity, remembering, however, as we do so, that 
 there may have been other reasons than mere 
 accident for their exclusion. They were as likely 
 to appear objectionable to the rigorous observers 
 of days in ancient times, as they are inexplicable 
 to the rigid Sabbatarian in our own. In ver. 9, 
 instead of ‘ both died and rose and revived / read 
 
 o 
 
194 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 4 died and -lived ; ’ the latter word, by the context, 
 meaning, lived again after his resurrection. In 
 ver. io, for 4 Christ ,’ read 4 God.’ In ver. 15, for 
 4 But if/ read 4 For if.’ In ver. 18, for 4 in these 
 things ,’ read 4 in this/ or 4 herein.’ In ver. 22, for 
 4 Hast thou faith ? have it/ read 4 The faith which 
 thou hast, have it.’ 
 
 In ch. xv. 7, most of our ancient authorities, 
 instead of 4 us , 1 have 4 you.’ In ver. 8, for 4 How 
 I say/ read 4 For I say/ and omit ‘Jesus! In 
 ver. 11, for 4 laud Him all ye people] read 4 let all 
 the people praise Him.’ In ver. 19, ‘Spirit of 
 God/ the ancient MSS. vary, some having 4 Holy 
 Spirit/ and the Vatican has 4 Spirit ’ only, which 
 latter was probably the original reading. In ver. 
 24, the words ‘I will come to you ’ are wanting in 
 all our most ancient authorities. They have evi- 
 dently been inserted to fill up the sense, which 
 seemed imperfect without them. But this will not 
 be so, if we read the sentence thus, 4 But now I 
 have no more place in these parts, and have had 
 these many years a longing to come unto you, 
 whenever I take my journey into Spain.’ The 
 English reader must be reminded that there are 
 no stops in the ancient MSS., and that the whole 
 
Romans . 
 
 J 95 
 
 punctuation and arrangement of sentences in Scrip- 
 ture is purely a matter of modern guess-work. In 
 ver. 29, omit- ‘ the gospel of? 
 
 In ch. xvi. 3, for ‘ Priscilla ' read ‘ Prisca,' with 
 all our most ancient MSS. (see 2 Tim. iv. 19). In 
 ver. 5, for ‘ Achaia 1 read 4 Asia.’ In ver. 6, for 
 ‘us’ read ‘you.’ In ver. 16, for ‘the churches' 
 read ‘all the churches.' In ver. 18, omit ‘Jesus? 
 In ver. 20, omit ‘A men? Ver. 24 is omitted by 
 our four most eminent MSS. ; and verses 25 — 27 
 are omitted altogether by some ancient MSS., — 
 omitted here , and inserted after ch. xiv. 23, by 
 others, — and by others inserted in both places. 
 The truth seems to have been, that two different 
 editions of the Epistle were current in apostolic 
 times, one with, and one without, the concluding 
 doxology. See above. 
 
 The errors and insufficiencies in translation of 
 this portion of the Epistle may be thus described : — 
 
 In ch. vii. 7, ‘ nay 9 should rather be ‘neverthe- 
 less;' and ‘ lust 9 should be ‘coveting.' In ver. 8, 
 the words ‘ by the commandment ' ought to be 
 joined to ‘ wrought in me,’ not to what has gone 
 before ; and, again, ‘ concupiscence ' should be ‘covet- 
 ing.' Again, ‘ was dead ’ should be ‘ is dead.' In 
 
 o 2 
 
196 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 ver. 9, ‘revived' should be ‘came to life/ In ver. 
 10, ‘the commandment ’ should be ‘the very com- 
 mandment/ Inver. 11, again, the words ‘by the 
 commandment ’ ought to be joined with what 
 follows, not with what precedes. In ver. 13, ‘ in 
 me’ should be ‘to me/ In ver. 15, ‘ allow not’ 
 ought to be ‘know not/ The original word is 
 that always used for ‘ to know,' and no other 
 meaning here is either required or justified. In 
 ver. 20, for ‘ sin that dwelleth/ ‘the sin that dwel- 
 leth/ Inver. 21, for ‘ a law,' ‘this law/ Inver. 
 23, for ‘ another law/ ‘ a different law/ It is not 
 merely another, but a contrarient law. 
 
 In ch. viii. 2, for hath made me free/ should 
 stand, ‘set me free/ viz., when I received it as 
 my law. In ver. 4, ‘ righteousness 9 ought to be 
 ‘ righteous demand/ In ver. 6, ‘ to be carnally 
 7 ninded' > should be ‘the mind of the flesh:’ and 
 ‘ to he spiriually minded] ‘the mind of the Spirit/ 
 In ver. 7, for ‘ is not subject .... neither indeed 
 can be] substitute, ‘ doth not submit itself .... 
 neither indeed can it/ In ver. 8, for ‘ so then] 
 ‘ and/ In ver. 10, read ‘ the body indeed is dead/ 
 In ver. 11, for ‘ shall also quicken/ ‘ shall quicken 
 even/ In ver. 13, for ‘ye shall die/ ‘ye must die. 
 
Romans . 
 
 x 97 
 
 The original is, ‘ye are about to die,’ conveying 
 a more certain and inevitable result than the future 
 tense, which is used afterwards. In ver. 15, for 
 4 ye have not received , 4 ye did not receive.’ 4 Again 
 to fear’ is ambiguous ; it does not explain whether 
 4 fear ’ is the noun or the verb. Better say, 4 lead- 
 ing back unto fear.’ Omit 4 have ’ before ‘received.’ 
 In ver. 16, for 4 with our spirit,’ 4 to our spirit.’ 
 In ver. 20, for 4 the creature ,’ 4 the creation.’ The 
 adverb 4 willingly ’ is ambiguous. It should be 
 4 of its own will.’ F or ‘hath subjected the same,’ 
 4 made it subject.’ In ver. 21, 4 the glorious liberty ’ 
 altogether evaporates the meaning. It should be 
 4 the liberty of the glory of the children of God : ’ 
 that liberty which belongs to the state of glorifica- 
 tion of God’s children. Inver. 23, ‘waiting for’ 
 does not fully express the meaning. It is 4 waiting 
 for the end of,’ 4 for the full accomplishment of.’ 
 In ver. 24, 4 we are saved’ should be 4 we were 
 saved.’ For ‘yet] ‘also.’ In ver. 26, 4 likewise ’ 
 should be ‘in like manner:’ which perhaps 4 like- 
 wise ’ may have been meant to represent : but it 
 does not now convey that sense. Verses 33, 34 
 should probably stand thus : 4 Who shall lay any- 
 thing to the charge of God’s elect? Shall God, 
 
198 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 that justilieth? Who is he that condemneth ? Is 
 it Christ that died, yea more, that is also risen 
 again, who is also at the right hand of God, who 
 also maketh intercession for us?’ 
 
 In ch. ix. 1, for 4 my conscience also bearing 
 me witness,' substitute ‘ my conscience bearing me 
 witness of the same.' In ver. 19, for ‘ hath re- 
 sisted] ‘resisteth.’ In ver. 22, for 4 the vessels,' 
 4 vessels.' In ver. 28, for ‘ he will finish the work, 
 and cut it short,' ‘he is finishing the reckoning, 
 and cutting it short and further on, for ‘ a short 
 work] ‘ a short reckoning.' In ver. 33, for ‘ on 
 him] ‘ thereon] viz., on the stone. 
 
 In ch. x. 5, for ‘ doeth] ‘hath done;' and for 
 4 by them] ‘in it.' In verses 15, 16, ‘ gospel ' 
 ought to be ‘glad tidings,' the word being the 
 same throughout. In ver. 17, ‘ hearing ' (both 
 times) should be ‘ report : ' the word again is the 
 same throughout : ‘ So then faith cometh of re- 
 port, and the report is through the word of 
 Christ.' In ver. 21, for ‘ to Israel,' ‘in regard to 
 Israel.' 
 
 In ch. xi. 1, it should be, ‘Did God cast away 
 his people?’ And in ver. 2, ‘did not cast away,' 
 and ‘saith in [the history of] Elijah.' In ver. 11, 
 
Romans . 
 
 199 
 
 4 Did they stumble ? ’ and for ‘fall] 4 trespass * (so 
 also in ver. 12). Inver. 17, for ‘be broken off/ 
 
 4 were broken off : ’ for 4 being a wild olive tree / 
 ‘being a wild olive and for ‘ partakest] 4 wast 
 made partaker/ Inver. 18, for 4 boast / 4 boastest 
 against them/ In ver. 25, 4 blindness ’ is a mis- 
 rendering. The meaning of the word is not 
 4 blindness/ but 4 hardness/ 4 callousness/ In ver. 
 29, for ‘are without repentance / ‘cannot be re- 
 pented of/ In ver. 30, for ‘have not believed / 
 4 were disobedient to ; ’ and for 4 unbelief 9 below, 
 4 disobedience/ So, also, in verses 31, 32, ‘not 
 believed 9 should be 4 been disobedient/ and 4 in 
 unbelief ’ should be 4 in disobedience/ 
 
 In ch. xii. 3, the Apostle plays upon words, as is 
 his manner ; and such similarity of sounds ought 
 to be preserved in the English, when it can be 
 done. Here the words might stand, 4 not to be 
 high-minded above that which he ought to be, but 
 to be minded so as to be sober-minded/ In ver. 
 8, 4 simplicity ’ should be ‘liberality/ In ver. 11, 
 4 business' should be 4 diligence ’ or ‘zeal/ It 
 does not refer to the business of this life, but 
 to Christian duties as such. In ver. 1 6, 4 con- 
 descending] to men of low estate, might also 
 
200 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 mean 4 inclining unto the things that be lowly.' 
 In ver. 20, 4 therefore ’ should be 4 nay, rather.’ 
 
 In ch. xiii. 1, 2, 3, 4 power’ should be 4 au- 
 thority.’ Inver. 1, 4 th t higher powers' should be 
 4 the authorities that are above him.’ For 4 are 
 ordained,’ 4 have been ordained.’ In ver. 2, for 
 4 damnation ,’ 4 condemnation ; ’ punishment for that 
 disobedience, not eternal perdition, being meant. 
 In ver. n, it would be better for clearness to 
 insert the word 4 first ’ before 4 believed.’ In ver. 
 14, 4 make not provision for ’ should be 4 take no 
 forethought for.’ 
 
 In ch. xiv. 14, 4 by the Lord Jesus’ should be 
 4 in the Lord Jesus.’ In ver. 23, for 4 damned, ,’ 
 4 condemned.’ In hardly any place where this 
 terrible word is used is its use justified, or is the 
 meaning to be referred to a future life. Our 
 translators have been most inconsistent and capri- 
 cious in their renderings of this and like words : 
 which is the less excusable, considering what a 
 serious matter was at stake. 
 
 In ch. xv. 4, the words should stand, 4 that 
 through the patience and the comfort of the 
 Scriptures we might have hope.’ The verse is 
 sometimes read as if 4 patience ’ were one thing by 
 
Romans . 
 
 201 
 
 itself, and 4 comfort of the Scriptures ’ another by 
 itself. But the two go together : — it is 4 patience 
 of the Scriptures, and comfort of the Scriptures ’ : 
 i.e., patience and comfort, both arising from the 
 Scriptures, — produced by their study. In ver. 8, 
 for 4 was,’ 4 hath been made.’ In ver. 9, for 
 4 might glorify] ‘glorified.’ In ver. 12 (end), for 
 4 trust ,’ 4 hope.’ In ver. 16, 4 ministering the 
 
 Gospel' should be, 4 ministering as a priest in the 
 Gospel.’ In ver. 20, 4 so have I strived to preach ’ 
 would be more clearly expressed, 4 on this wise 
 making it my ambition to preach.’ In ver. 22, 
 for 4 1 have been much hindered,’ ‘these many 
 times I have been hindered.’ In ver. 26, for 
 4 the poor saints ,’ ‘the poor among the saints.’ In 
 ver. 3T, for 4 do not believe ,’ ‘are disobedient.’ 
 
 In ch. xvi. 1, for 4 a servant ,’ 4 a deaconess.’ 
 It seems clear that the word here in the original 
 was used in its official sense in the primitive times 
 of the Church. As it may not be amiss that the 
 English reader should know the proper pronuncia- 
 tion of the names in this chapter, I set them down 
 as we proceed. Ver. 5 : Epaenetus. Ver. 7 : 
 Anaronlcus. The person here called Junk, is 
 most probably Junkj*, and a man, not a woman. 
 
202 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Ver. 9 : The -person mentioned as Urbane is not a 
 woman, nor is the word a trisyllable, but the e is 
 mute, and Urb ane is Urban, i.e. 9 Urbanus. Ver. 
 io : Aristobulus.* Ver. 14: Asyncritus. Ver. 15 : 
 Philologus. In ver. 1 7, for * ye have learned/ 
 ‘ ye learned/ Ver. 21 : Sosi'pater. In ver. 23, 
 for ‘ a brother/ ‘our brother/ In ver. 25, for 
 ‘ since the world began / ‘ during eternal ages/ 
 Ver. 27 should stand, ‘ to the only wise God 
 through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for 
 ever. Amen/ 
 
 * On ver. n, it is interesting to observe that an epitaph exists, 
 inscribed by Tiberius Claudius Narcissus, a freedman, * to his affec- 
 
 onate and frugal wife/ Claudia Dicaeosyna. This was probably 
 one of the ‘household of Narcissus’ here mentioned, who had taken the 
 name of his patron. The name of the wife is remarkable, as being 
 the Greek word for Righteousness, so familiar to the readers of 
 St. Paul. Possibly she had an objectionable heathen name, which 
 was changed at her baptism : and the particular word may have been 
 chosen in consequence of this very Epistle. 
 
 I am indebted for this information to my friend Professor Plumptre 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 
 
 D URING St. Paul’s long stay at Ephesus, 
 related in Acts xix., we are told that ‘ all 
 they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord 
 Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.’ Even remembering 
 that 4 Asia ’ is here used as signifying, of course not 
 the great continent now known by that name, nor 
 even the lesser ‘ Asia Minor,’ but only the Roman 
 province thus designated, — these words must evi- 
 dently be taken as a vague expression, implying that 
 very many places besides Ephesus were, by means 
 of persons who carried the good tidings thence, made 
 acquainted with the word of the Lord Jesus. And 
 this prepares us for what we read in ch. ii. of the 
 Epistle to the Colossians, that the inhabitants of 
 Colossae and Laodicea had never seen the Apostle’s 
 face in the flesh. He had become the founder of 
 these churches without having visited the cities 
 
204 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 themselves. To both of these he wrote Epistles. 
 We hear of the Epistle to the Laodiceans in Col. 
 iv. 1 6, and there only; for it has not come down 
 to us, having been lost. Some silly people are 
 very much shocked at the idea of an inspired 
 apostolic letter having been lost to the Church, 
 and therefore try to quibble away the words of Col. 
 iv. 1 6, and to understand by the Epistle from 
 Laodicea that written to Philemon, or some other 
 of those which we possess. But these people seem 
 never to have reflected, that in all probability 
 St. Paul wrote multitudes of epistles besides those 
 which have come down to us. Do they think that 
 the Epistle to Philemon is the only private letter 
 which the Apostle ever wrote ? or that he did not 
 write all he did write with the same apostolic 
 authority ? Do they imagine that his spoken words 
 were less precious than his written ones ? and yet 
 the greater part of those has perished. 
 
 But the letter to the Colossians has been pre- 
 served. To it let us now give our attention. 
 
 Colossse, or Colassae, as it is written in our 
 earliest manuscripts, was a city on the famous 
 river Maeander, and on the high road from Ephesus 
 to the East. Epaphras, one of its inhabitants, 
 
Colossians . 
 
 20 5 
 
 appears to have fallen in with St. Paul at Ephesus, 
 there to have been converted by him, and thence 
 to have returned as a missionary to his native city. 
 With him afterwards were joined, also having been 
 converted by the Apostle at Ephesus, Philemon, 
 his wife Apphia, and (probably) his son Archippus. 
 Their house served for the assembling place (or 
 one of the assembling places) of the church : and 
 they themselves were employed in the sacred 
 ministry. 
 
 Of what numbers the church at Colossae con- 
 sisted, we are not told. The town itself was one 
 of considerable importance : but had during the 
 reign of Tiberius been desolated by an earth- 
 quake, and had never recovered its former pros- 
 perity. So that perhaps the number of believers 
 was but small. Still, the prospect of the introduc- 
 tion of error into any portion of the church was 
 reason enough why the Apostle should pour forth 
 his vehement and affectionate spirit in counter- 
 acting it. And error of a very serious kind by 
 degrees made its way into the little community at 
 Colossae. The neighbourhood, and indeed the 
 inhabitants of the whole territory of Phrygia, in 
 which it was situated, were prone to mysticism and 
 
2o6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 fanatical superstitions. Phrygia was the seat of 
 one of the principal forms of mystic heathen 
 worship, that of the goddess Cybele : and ritual 
 observance and ascetic practices seem to have 
 found an especial welcome in the Phrygian at- 
 mosphere. The heresy afterwards known as 
 Gnosticism, the teachers of which professed a 
 higher gnosis , or knowledge, than others, was 
 beginning to spread in various parts of the 
 Eastern Church. We find it at Colossse in strange 
 commixture with a leaning to Jewish observances. 
 With these, and the superstitions with which they 
 had become corrupted, the Colossian Gnostics 
 also combined a vainly curious search into the 
 degrees and orders of angelic beings, and a wor- 
 ship of the great hierarchs of the heavenly king’ 
 dom. Such a tendency survives even now in the 
 modem superstitions of the Greek Church in the 
 neighbourhood. A great inundation, it is said, 
 once threatened Colossse, and was dispersed by 
 the descent of the archangel Michael, who opened 
 a chasm into which the waters flowed. (See 
 Conyb. and Howson, 4 Life of St. Paul/ ii. p. 41 1.) 
 Angel-worship was condemned in a council held at 
 the neighbouring Laodicea in the fourth century. 
 
Colossians. 
 
 207 
 
 This curious mixture of opinions in the Colos- 
 sian Church is accounted for partly by the fact 
 told us by Josephus the Jewish historian, — that 
 Alexander the Great sent, in consequence of the dis- 
 affection of Lydia and Phrygia, 2,000 Mesopotamian 
 and Babylonian Jews to garrison the towns. 
 
 To such a church St. Paul wrote his Epistle : 
 but whence ? and when ? 
 
 Between six and seven years had elapsed since 
 its founding by Epaphras. During this time the 
 Apostle had passed through all that eventful period 
 of his life related in the last nine chapters of the 
 Acts of the Apostles : had escaped the tumult at 
 Ephesus ; had crossed into Greece, and wintered 
 at Corinth; had gone up to Jerusalem with fore- 
 bodings which caused him to take a solemn fare- 
 well of the elders of Ephesus at Miletus ; had 
 narrowly escaped with his life from his enemies in 
 the Holy City ; had lain two years in prison at 
 Caesarea ; had accomplished that long and perilous 
 voyage to Rome. There he was now a prisoner, 
 dwelling with the soldier that kept him in his own 
 hired house, receiving all that came to him without 
 let or hindrance, and labouring for the Gospel of 
 Christ by his tongue and by his pen. 
 
20 8 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 At this time Epaphras comes to Rome and 
 brings him a report from Colossae. He spoke of 
 their Christian faith, and love, and hope ; but he 
 also spoke of much which pained the Apostle's 
 tender heart, and roused his jealousy for the pure 
 faith of Christ. Some time appears to have 
 elapsed after the receipt of this report before 
 St. Paul wrote the epistle. This seems implied 
 in the expression, ‘ Since the day we heard it, 
 we do not cease to pray for you,’ in ch. i. 9. 
 Probably he waited till near the time when 
 Tychicus, whom he sent with the letter, was ready 
 to depart. 
 
 Having thus in some measure cleared the ground 
 of preliminary matter, we may proceed to the con- 
 sideration of the epistle itself. 
 
 St. Paul begins with the usual apostolic saluta- 
 tion, associating with himself Timothy, as he had 
 done Silvanus and Timothy in his Epistle to the 
 Thessalonians, Sosthenes in his first Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, and Timothy in his second. The 
 object of the Apostle in this has never been quite 
 understood. Possibly it may have been with a 
 view to carry out the general principle, that in the 
 mouth of two or three witnesses every word should 
 
Colossians. 
 
 209 
 
 be established ; and then, within the limits of this, 
 there may have been special motives, at present 
 unknown to us, for the selection of the particular 
 associates on each occasion. They seldom appear 
 or are thought of again after the first mention ; 
 and even where St. Paul uses the plural number, 
 ‘ we/ he is usually speaking not of himself and his 
 associates, but of himself only. 
 
 Having thus opened his Epistle, he proceeds, 
 also after his usual manner, to congratulate the 
 Colossians on the report, which Epaphras had 
 brought, of their faith, and love, and hope. With 
 his thanksgiving for this, he gradually and deli- 
 cately interweaves his prayer for their further 
 advance in knowledge and practice; and then 
 almost imperceptibly approaches the great subject 
 of their error and his anxiety. Admirable indeed 
 is the way in which, through the long sentence 
 extending from ch. i. 9 to ch. i. 20, the figure of 
 our glorified Lord is made slowly to rise upon the 
 mind’s eye in all its love and majesty ; care being 
 taken meantime that every separate clause should 
 do its own work in affirming His truth and im- 
 pugning their error. St. Paul uses the very terms 
 which they had adopted for their vain imagina- 
 
 p 
 
210 How to study thr New Testament. 
 
 tions : as in the case of the word rendered ‘fulness 1 
 in ch. i. 1 9, which is the ‘ pleroma ’ of the Gnostic 
 heretics ; he overthrows by anticipation their 
 practice of angel-worship by maintaining the abso- 
 lute and exclusive pre-eminence of Christ over all 
 created beings, and that through the blood of His 
 cross. His blood has made peace ; and in that 
 peace they who were once God’s enemies are 
 included, provided they continue grounded in the 
 faith, and are not moved away from it. To this 
 end he, the Apostle, is * labouring, carrying on, in 
 his work for Christ, the afflictions of Christ to their 
 completion, according to the stewardship of the 
 mystery entrusted to him, which was Christ among 
 them, the hope of the glory to come. 
 
 Now, with chap, ii., he approaches nearer to the 
 point concerning which he is at issue with them. 
 His object is, that they who had not seen his face 
 in the flesh (which circumstance seems to increase 
 his responsibility and anxiety) might attain to the 
 thorough knowledge of the mystery of God (see 
 corrections at end). And now appears, what must 
 have been for some time in the mind of an intelli- 
 gent reader, the motive for his writing this. It is 
 because some one (it would appear from the form 
 
Colossians. 
 
 21 1 
 
 of this sentence, as if it had been an individual 
 false teacher) had been endeavouring to lead them 
 captive through his philosophy and vain deceit, 
 according to the traditions of men, according to 
 the rudiments of the world, and not according 
 to Christ. And then their completeness in Him 
 is again insisted on : its past assurances to them 
 in their baptism, which superseded the necessity of 
 that Jewish ordinance into which they were again 
 retreating back, by burying them and raising 
 them again with Him in that living union which it 
 symbolized. And thus, when He suffered on His 
 cross, He blotted out, by fulfilling, all ordinances 
 which were enacted against us ; God thus, as it 
 were, divesting Himself of that ministration of 
 angels by which the law was brought in, exalting 
 His Son above them, and in His Person triumphing 
 over them (see corrections of rendering in ch. ii. 
 15). What then was the result? Why, this. 
 They were to assert their Christian liberty, as 
 being thus complete in Christ. They were to let 
 no man domineer over them and prescribe to them 
 as to the keeping of days, whether feasts, or new- 
 moons, or sabbaths : all these belonged to the old 
 law ; between one part of it and another there was 
 
 p 2 
 
212 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 no distinction : all these, sabbaths as well as new* 
 moons and feast days, were but shadows of things 
 then to come, which things were now come : the 
 body which cast this shadow before it, being 
 Christ. To the same false teacher belonged the 
 scheme for defrauding them of their Christian 
 prize by degrading them into worshipping of the 
 holy angels, dwelling on the evidence of visions 
 (see corrections, ch. ii. 18), and self-conceited, 
 because not holding, and therefore not deriving 
 strength from, the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 This submission of theirs to be prescribed to by 
 men is then further stigmatized. If they died to 
 the world with Christ, why did they allow them- 
 selves to be debarred from the use of those things 
 which Christ has cleansed for us, as though they 
 were living in the world ? Why did they tamely 
 submit to commands not to touch, not to taste, 
 not to handle ? Why did they submit to prohibi- 
 tions against marriage, and commands to abstain 
 from meats ? Such things are not of the essence 
 of our spiritual life, but belong merely to this 
 perishable condition, and will vanish with it : and 
 these meddling and petty ordinances about them 
 serve to exalt pretended doctors and teachers into 
 
Colossians. 
 
 213 
 
 a repute for wisdom and heroism, because of their 
 volunteering more than is required, and appearing 
 to be humble and self-denying — but are not God’s 
 appointed way of honouring our bodies, the instru- 
 ments of His glory, nay, are all so many feedings 
 of carnal vanity, under the guise of carnal mortifi- 
 cation. 
 
 Such is the fervid and outspoken denunciation 
 with which the great Apostle meets the ascetics 
 and the ritualists in the Colossian church. Such is 
 his protest on behalf of the life of Christian liberty, 
 and Christian loftiness of aim and spirit. We can 
 hardly conceive a more direct declaration of the 
 apostolic mind on the controversies which in these 
 our times agitate the Church of Christ. Do we 
 want to know how one who thought, and as to 
 whom we think, that he had the Spirit of God, 
 regarded the observance of times, the abstinence 
 from allowable states of life, or lawful sustenance 
 of life ? Come here and take his rule, not derived 
 through ages of doctors and corruptors, but fresh 
 from the fountain head. Do you want an instruc- 
 tive and a decisive contrast ? Read first a page 
 of the 4 Directorium Anglicanum,’ and then read 
 Col. ii. 8-23, and say which is binding on us 
 
214 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 Christians : - for both cannot be. Was St. Paul 
 ‘an irreverent Dissenter’? Or are these chasubled 
 gentlemen, these prescribers and proscribers, false 
 churchmen ? Because it does seem to me, that we 
 must accept one or other of these alternatives. 
 
 Of course the passage is as strong a protest 
 against the whole Romanist system, which is 
 founded on, and upheld by, precisely the prin- 
 ciples which St. Paul here impugns. If we have 
 not mentioned that system first, it is partly be- 
 cause our present conflict, being with false teachers 
 within a church which holds primitive truth, more 
 nearly resembles that in our Epistle, than our 
 protest against error outside our communion : but 
 chiefly because Roman ritualism, as venerable and 
 consistent, while we cannot approve it, commands 
 our respect : Anglican, as the mere upstart cari- 
 cature of the other, as inconsequent and suicidal, 
 stands out prominent for the loathing and con- 
 tempt of all honest men. 
 
 With ch. ii. the controversial part of our Epistle 
 ends, and the hortatory begins. We were raised 
 with Christ in our baptism : we must therefore 
 live that heavenly resurrection-life which Christ 
 is now living; for our life is hidden in Him, and 
 
CoZossians. 
 
 2*5 
 
 our manifestation in glory will coincide with His 
 manifestation. We should then be dead to the 
 present world, its lusts and ambitions and strifes. 
 To this mortification, and the corresponding new 
 life after the image of God, he now exhorts them 
 in detail. All are to be loving, pitiful, and for- 
 giving : all are to praise God with the life and 
 with the lips : all are to consecrate their whole 
 lives to the service of their master, Jesus. And 
 if all, then each separate class, out of which 
 classes, put together, the community is made up : 
 each glorifying God, each serving the Master 
 Christ, in its peculiar place and circumstances : 
 wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves 
 and masters. 
 
 After this the letter concludes with a few pri- 
 vate notices. Tychicus was to bear it to them, 
 and to carry them news of the Apostle’s state. 
 With him was to go Onesimus, the once fugitive, 
 but now penitent and returning slave: concerning 
 whom we shall have more to say in our next 
 chapter. Among those who send salutations we 
 find one name of considerable interest to us. It 
 is that of Mark, ‘ cousin (see corrections) to Bar- 
 nabas.’ Our readers will remember the last 
 
2 1 6 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 occasion on which this name came before us in 
 the apostolic history. It was when Paul and 
 Barnabas were divided asunder owing to the 
 misconduct of this same Mark, and to the desire 
 of his relative, notwithstanding, to take him with 
 them on their missionary journey. It would 
 appear that since then he had been received 
 into favour by St. Paul, and had been the sub- 
 ject of a general order to the churches obeying 
 St. Paul, that they should receive him. This 
 Mark, or John Mark, is generally supposed to 
 have been the writer of our second Gospel. The 
 notices of him are very few, and on that account 
 every scrap is interesting. We also find respect- 
 ing him here, that he is classed with the small 
 number of the Apostle’s fellow-workers who had 
 been a comfort to him. We have also a greeting 
 here from 4 Luke, the beloved physician/ the 
 writer of the third Gospel. It is very possible 
 that the expression, 4 the beloved physician,’ may 
 be not without a meaning of some interest. It 
 appears to have been after a serious illness of 
 St. Paul, that St. Luke first became permanently 
 attached to him as a companion (compare Gal. 
 iv. 13, 14 with Acts xvi. 6 — 10), and we can 
 
Colossians. 
 
 21 7 
 
 hardly avoid surmising that the obligation of the 
 Apostle to his fellow-traveller may have caused 
 him to attach this appellation to his name. We 
 have another mentioned here, of whom we shall 
 hear again : Demas, whose stay with St. Paul 
 was not permanent. 
 
 After these notices follow two directions : one, 
 on which we have already remarked, that the 
 Colossian and Laodicean churches should inter- 
 change the Epistles sent to them, and that each 
 should be read in the church of the other ; and 
 another, a solemn charge to Archippus, probably 
 the son of Philemon of Colossse, to take heed 
 of the ministry which he had received in the 
 Lord, that he fulfil it. From this we may infer 
 that he was a young man but recently admitted 
 to holy orders. The Apostle adds a salutation 
 in his own hand; the rest of the Epistle having 
 been written by another hand at his dictation. 
 He entreats them not to forget him in his im- 
 prisonment, to bear in mind the chain which 
 moved over the paper as he wrote, and all the 
 circumstances of bodily need and spiritual depres- 
 sion which it implied, and with the simple 4 Grace 
 be with you/ concludes. 
 
2 1 8 How to study the New Festament. 
 
 The Epistle to the Colossians, while it takes a 
 high rank among St. Paul’s letters for fervour of 
 rebuke and of affection, is less severe than that 
 to the Galatians, and less affectionate than those 
 to the Thessalonians and Philippians. It is one 
 of those letters which spring out of an occasion, 
 and mainly treat of it. So did that to the Gala- 
 tians ; and it is remarkable that each of the 
 principal occasional Epistles of the Apostle gave 
 rise to a greater general Epistle ; the Galatian 
 Epistle, to that to the Romans ; this, to that to 
 the Ephesians. 
 
 We have now to give our lists of corrections 
 in reading and rendering. In doing so, we cannot 
 help expressing our thankfulness that, as we learn 
 from various letters, these lists are valued, and 
 find their way into the margins of men’s cottage 
 Bibles. Of all the wants of the English Church, 
 one of the greatest is a better version of the New 
 Testament Epistles. The churches in Britain are 
 not dealing honestly with this great matter. There 
 are hundreds of learned clergymen, who know in 
 their hearts that a revision is an absolute duty, but 
 who dare not speak out. This being so, it is 
 something to know that we have, in however 
 
Colossians . 
 
 219 
 
 humble a degree, contributed to deepen the public 
 dissatisfaction with the present inadequate and 
 over-praised version. But to our task. And first, 
 as usual, for those corrections which are required 
 to bring the text into accordance with the testi- 
 mony of the most ancient manuscript authorities. 
 
 In ch. i. 3, ‘ God and the Father/ should be 
 ‘God the Father.’ In ver. 6, instead of ‘ and 
 bringeth forth fruit ’ read, ‘ it is bringing forth fruit 
 and growing,’ — placing a semicolon at ‘ world,’ 
 which precedes. In ver. 7, omit ‘ also ;’ and in- 
 stead of ‘ for you,’ read, ‘ on our behalf.’ In ver. 
 10, for 6 in the knowledge,’ read ‘ by the know- 
 ledge.’ In ver. 14, the words ‘ through his blood’ 
 are not found in any of our ancient authorities, 
 and should be expunged. They have been bor- 
 rowed from Eph. i. 7, where they are genuine. 
 
 In ch. ii. 2, for ‘ the mystery of God, and of the 
 Father , and of Christ’ read merely, ‘ the mystery 
 of God.’ The addition has probably taken place 
 owing to the common practice of the writers of 
 the MSS. of explaining in the margin, when the 
 divine Name occurs, to which Person it belongs. 
 Thus, ‘ of God ’ having been all that was in the 
 original, ‘ the Father ’ would by one be put as a 
 
220 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 marginal explanation, ‘ Christ ’ by another : and 
 then these notes would by subsequent tran- 
 scribers be added to, or substituted for, that 
 which was in the text. In the present place* 
 there is great confusion in the additional words, 
 even in the ancient MSS. ; and, in that case, the 
 shortest text is to be presumed to have been the 
 original one. In ver. n, ‘ the sins of 9 should be 
 expunged, not being found in any of our ancient 
 authorities. In ver. 13, for ‘ you all trespasses/ read 
 ‘us all trespasses/ In ver. 18, instead of ‘things 
 which he hath not seen/ read, ‘things which he 
 hath seen/ with the majority of our ancient author- 
 ities. See, on this place, the corrections of 
 renderings below. In ver. 20, omit ‘ wherefore / 
 In ch. iii. 6, the verse which, as it now stands, 
 has been conformed to Eph. v. 6, should be read 
 thus : — ‘ On which account cometh the wrath of 
 God/ omitting the rest. In ver. 12, for ‘ bowels of 
 mercies / read ‘an heart of pity/ In ver. 13, for 
 ‘ Christ / read ‘the Lord;' and in ver. 15, for 
 ‘ God / read ‘Christ/ In ver. 16, ‘psalms and 
 hymns and / omit ‘ and ’ both times, and place 
 commas — ‘ psalms, hymns, spiritual songs/ At 
 the end of the verse, for ‘ the Lord / read ‘ God/ In 
 
Colossians . 
 
 221 
 
 ver. 17, for ‘ God and the Father/ read ‘God the 
 Father/ In ver. 18, omit ‘your? In ver. 20, for 
 ‘ unto the Lord/ read ‘in the Lord/ In ver. 22, for 
 1 God? read, ‘ the Lord,’ and omit ‘ And? at the be- 
 ginning of ver. 23. In ver. 24, instead of ‘for ye 
 serve the Lord Christ/ read ‘Serve ye the Lord Christ. 
 At the beginning of ver. 25, for ‘But? read ‘For/ 
 In ch. iv. 7, several of our oldest MSS. begin 
 the verse as in Eph. vi. 22, ‘That ye may know 
 our state. . . / But when passages are thus 
 found conformed to one another, the differing read- 
 ing, if at all worthily supported, is the true one. 
 The tendency of transcribers always was to con- 
 form parallel places verbally to one another ; 
 sometimes from mere carelessness ; afterwards, 
 when the text of Scripture began to be regarded 
 as verbally inspired, from superstitious motives. 
 In ver. 1 2, for ‘ Christ ?’ read ‘ Christ J esus ; ’ and 
 for ‘ complete ? ‘fully assured/ In ver. 13, for 
 ‘zeal? read ‘labour/ At the end, omit ‘Amen/ 
 with most of our oldest MSS. 
 
 The corrections necessary owing to wrong or 
 inadequate renderings are as follows : — 
 
 In ch. i. 11, render, ‘being strengthened with all 
 strength, according to the might of his glory / 
 
2,22 How to stuay ttie New Testament. 
 
 This is one those cases where the English transla- 
 tion unfortunately expresses by a mere adjective* 
 epithet what is in the original the principal sub- 
 stantive. In verses 12, 13, omit ‘ hath , 7 all three 
 times. The reference is not to our present state, 
 but to God’s past act in each case. In ver. 14, 
 ‘ redemption 7 should be ‘ our redemption. 7 In ver. 
 15, ‘every creature 7 should be ‘all creation. 7 In 
 ver. 16, ‘by him 7 should be ‘in him. 7 The differ- 
 ence is most important ; and the ‘in 7 of the ori- 
 ginal ought never to have been tampered with. As 
 God in Christ reconciled the world to himself, so 
 also God in Christ created all things. It was ‘ by 
 Christ 7 ; but the expression implies far more, and 
 that English readers lose. At end of verse, for 
 ‘were, 7 read ‘have been. 7 In ver. 17, ‘ consist 7 
 would now be better understood, if it were ‘sub- 
 sist. 7 In ver. 18, for ‘might have the pre-emi- 
 nence, 7 read ‘may be the first. 7 In ver. 19, the 
 Greek has only ‘ Because he was well pleased that 
 in him should all the fulness dwell. 7 In ver. 20 
 for ‘ by him, 7 read (both times) ‘ through him. 7 In 
 ver. 21, read ‘ by your wicked works; 7 and in ver. 
 22, ‘through his death. 7 In ver. 23, have heard, 
 should be ‘heard. 7 In ver. 25, for ‘am made, 7 and 
 
Colosszans. 
 
 223 
 
 ‘ is given/ ‘ was made/ and ‘ was given.’ In ver. 26, 
 for 4 ages ’ and ‘ generations/ 4 the ages ’ and ‘ the 
 generations :’ viz., all that have ever been. In ver. 
 27, for ‘would make known/ ‘was pleased to make 
 known: ’ and for ‘Christ in you/ ‘Christ among you. 7 
 
 In ch. ii. 2, for ‘ acknowledgment ] ‘ thorough 
 knowledge.’ In ver. 3, for ‘ in whom are hid all 
 the treasures] substitute ‘wherein are all the hidden 
 treasures.’ In ver. 6, for ‘As ye have therefore re- 
 ceived/ read ‘As therefore ye received :’ and for 
 ‘ as ye have been taught ] ‘ even as ye were taught.’ 
 In ver. 8, for spoil you,’ read ‘ lead you captive : ’ 
 and for ‘ philosophy ,’ ‘his philosophy.’ In ver. 11, 
 for ‘ in whom also ye are circumcised ] ‘ in whom ye 
 were also circumcised/ viz., at the time of your 
 baptism: and the ‘also’ is connected, not with 
 ‘whom,’ but with the verb. For ‘ the circumcision/ 
 ‘ a circumcision.’ At end of verse for ‘ by the 
 circumcision of Christ/ ‘in the circumcision of 
 Christ.’ In ver. 12, for ‘ baptism / ‘your baptism:’ 
 for ‘ wherein also ye are risen] ‘ wherein ye were 
 also raised:’ for ‘ faith of] ‘faith in:’ and for 
 ‘hath raised/ ‘ raised.’ In ver. 13, ‘ sins' ought to 
 be ‘trespasses:’ and ‘ hath he quickened,’ ‘he 
 -quickened/ or ‘did he quicken : ’ viz., at that same 
 
224 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 time. In ver. 14, ‘ took ,’ should be ‘ hath taken:’ 
 and ‘ his cross/ 4 the cross.’ The translators fancied 
 that the subject of the whole sentence was Christ, 
 whereas it is God the Father. In ver. 15, ‘ having 
 spoiled/ should be ‘stripping off from himself/ 
 ‘divesting himself of’ : i.e. in the cross of Christ 
 God put off from himself the ministration of angels, 
 by which the law was given, subjecting them all to 
 Christ, whose triumph they grace, as we also are 
 said to do, 2 Cor. ii. 14 (see corrected rendering 
 there). Therefore, angels were no more to be 
 regarded as mediators between God and man, nor 
 the law which they ministered, as binding. Thus, 
 and rendering ‘the principalities and the powers’ 
 (viz., the same as those before spoken of in ver. 
 10, and ch. i. 16, and Eph. iii. 10), the connexion 
 with the next verse becomes plain, which in the 
 authorised version is totally obscured. At end, 
 for ‘ in kiwi] read ‘in it/ viz., the cross. Inver. 
 16, for ‘in meat or in drink ,’ read ‘in eating or in 
 drinking.’ ‘An holy day' would now be better 
 understood, if it were ‘a feast day.’ Omit ‘ the ’ 
 before ‘ Sabbath days :’ the Apostle’s command 
 extends further than to the Jewish Sabbath only. 
 In ver. 17, for ‘ things ,’ ‘the things.’ Read ver. 18 
 
Colossians. 
 
 225 
 
 thus : ‘ Let no one of purpose defraud you of your 
 prize, in lowliness of mind and worshipping of the 
 angels, insisting on things which he hath seen ’ (see 
 corrections of reading above). In ver. 20, for ‘ if 
 ye be dead] ‘ if ye died.’ For ‘ are ye subject to 
 ordinances] ‘ are ye (do ye suffer yourselves to be) 
 prescribed tod In ver. 23, for ‘ will worship] read 
 ‘voluntary worship:’ for ‘ humility ] ‘lowliness of 
 mind:’ for ‘ neglecting, ] ‘not sparing:’ and place a 
 comma at ‘ honour,’ thus connecting the last clause 
 with what went before, not with the word ‘honour.’ 
 In ch. iii. 1, for 6 be risen] read ‘were raised.’ 
 In ver. 2, ‘ affection ’ should be ‘ mind.’ The Greek 
 is merely ‘ mind the things,’ &c. Read, both 
 times, ‘the things.’ In ver. 3, ‘ are dead ’ ought to 
 be ‘died.’ In ver. 4, ‘ shall appear ’ ought to be 
 ‘ is manifested,’ and ‘ appear ’ the second time, ‘ be 
 manifested.’ In ver. 5, ‘ mortify ’ conveys no 
 meaning to the modern English ear. It is, ‘kill,’ 
 or ‘ make dead.’ ‘ Inordinate affection ’ should be 
 ‘lustful passion.’ In ver. 8, ‘ put off’ is imperative, 
 which no English reader would suspect. Read it, 
 ‘ But now lay ye also aside the whole.’ Filthy commu- 
 nication ’ is what we now call ‘ foul language.’ In 
 ver. 10, for ‘ is removed,’ ‘ is being removed : ’ the 
 
 Q 
 
226 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 verb is present , and the act is going on, not com- 
 pleted. For ‘ in knowledge ] ‘ unto the perfect 
 knowledge/ In ver. n, for ‘neither] better ‘no 
 such thing as ; * and it ought to be ‘ Greek and 
 Jew/ ‘circumcision and uncircumcision :’ not ‘ nor ’ 
 in each case. The meaning actually conveyed by 
 the English version is, that in Christ there are no 
 Greeks nor Jews , no circumcised nor uncircumcised, \ 
 no Barbarians , Scythians , bond nor freemen : where- 
 as the Apostle says that there is no such thing as 
 ‘Greek and Jew,’ i.e. the distinction between them. 
 The last four have no copula : and should stand, 
 ‘ barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman.’ In ver. 
 
 14, ‘ above all these things’ does not mean ‘more 
 especially than all these things :’ but above in posi- 
 tion, on top of. Better therefore read ‘ over all 
 these things.’ For ‘charity] read ‘love.’ In ver. 
 
 15, ‘are called’ should be ‘were called.’ In ver. 
 
 16, put the semicolon before the words ‘ in all 
 wisdom:’ they belong to ‘teaching,’ &c., which 
 follows. In ver. 19, for ‘ bitter] read ‘ embittered :’ 
 not only be not bitter, but do not allow yourselves 
 to be worked up to wrath against them. In ver. 
 2 t, ‘disheartened’ is better than ‘discouraged? 
 In ver. 23, ‘do it’ should be, ‘work at it.’ In ver. 
 
Colossians. 
 
 227 
 
 25, ‘ receive for the wrong ’ should be, ‘ receive back 
 the wrong.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 3, 4 of utterance ’ should be ‘for the 
 word.’ In ver. 5, ‘ redeeming the times 9 should be, 
 ‘buying up opportunities’ (see the explanation in 
 our future remarks on Eph. v. 16). In ver. 10, 
 ‘ sister’s son ’ ought to be ‘ cousin.’ In ver. 17, for 
 i hast received, ,’ read ‘ receivedst, ’ 
 
X, 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON, 
 
 HIS short letter differs from all others which 
 
 have come down to us as parts of the canon of 
 Scripture. It gives us a glimpse of the private friend- 
 ships of an apostle, and of the social intercourse 
 which he held with his fellow Christians. And 
 this, in relation to a matter originally of mere pri- 
 vate interest : the return and reception of a run- 
 away slave. If it be asked, what motive can have 
 led to the placing of such a letter among the books 
 of Scripture, we Christians have no hesitation to 
 Whose guidance to ascribe its preservation. It 
 cannot have been thus honoured merely as a relic 
 of St. Paul; for there must have been scores of 
 similar letters in the possession of men and families 
 in the early Christian world, which, had that primi- 
 tive age been as careful of relics as we are now 
 
Philemon . 
 
 229 
 
 taught to believe it was, would have been preserved 
 with equal care. All these others have perished, 
 and this only remains. I believe that reason suffi- 
 cient will appear, before the conclusion of our 
 present paper, why this should have been so ; that 
 the instruction to be derived from this private letter 
 concerning a mere domestic matter, will vindicate 
 itself as thoroughly worthy to have been conserved 
 for the church in all ages. 
 
 First, let us review the circumstances under 
 which the epistle was written. And here let me 
 say that, wishing to make this chapter complete in 
 itself, I shall not be careful to avoid repeating 
 information given already in the preceding chapter, 
 on the Epistle to the Colossians. The reader will 
 thank me for sparing him the troublesome task of 
 referring back and combining the two accounts. 
 
 During St. Paul’s long sojourn of three whole 
 whole years at Ephesus, the principal city of Asia 
 Minor, he appears to have become the founder of 
 several churches in that country, without having 
 himself visited the towns where they sprung up. 
 The general expression in the narrative in the Acts 
 is, that u all that dwelt in Asia heard the word of 
 God , both Jews and Greeks;” and in Col. ii. 1, the 
 
230 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 Apostle speaks of the people of Colossi and Lao- 
 dicea as never having seen his face in the flesh. 
 It is to the first mentioned of these, Colossae, that 
 our attention is now directed. It had once been 
 an important city, but had a few years before the 
 time of which we are speaking been desolated by 
 a terrible earthquake, from the effects of which 
 it appears never afterwards to have recovered. 
 During St. Paul’s stay at Ephesus, Epaphras, an 
 inhabitant of Colossae, became acquainted with 
 him, and received from his lips the word of 
 truth, which became the seed of the Colossian 
 church. Probably in consequence of this, others 
 from the town visited the Apostle, and among them 
 the family with whom we are now concerned, con- 
 sisting of Philemon ; Apphia, his wife ; Archippus, 
 probably their son ; and Onesimus their slave. 
 The result of the intercourse between them was 
 that the head of the family became a missionary 
 to his native town — a fellow labourer with the 
 Apostle. Apphia became a sister in Christ; and 
 Archippus, apparently at that time a youth, was 
 afterwards admitted to holy orders ; for in the 
 Epistle to the Colossians, iv. 17, St. Paul writes, 
 ‘Say unto Archippus, Take heed to the minis- 
 
Philemon. 
 
 231 
 
 try which thou receivedst in the Lord, that thou 
 fulfil it’ ) 
 
 We must now pass over six or seven years. In 
 that interval, the Apostle has gone through all those 
 trials and perils which signalised the latter portion 
 of his missionary journeyings as related in the 
 Acts: has stood before Felix and Festus; and, 
 having for his safety used his right as a Roman 
 citizen of appealing to Caesar, has been sent pri- 
 soner to Rome. He is dwelling there under mili- 
 tary custody in his own hired house, resorted to 
 by Christian brethren from all parts of the East. 
 Among the rest comes Epaphras, with news of a 
 mixed kind from Colossae — news which, making 
 the Apostle both joyful and anxious, set him upon 
 despatching at once an epistle thither. Two mes- 
 sengers are with him, ready to be the bearers of his 
 letter. One of these was Tychicus, a native of 
 Asia, and companion of St. Paul on his missionary 
 journeys. On the other we will for a new minutes 
 direct our attention. He is no other than the slave 
 Onesimus, of whom we before said that he had 
 probably accompanied his master, Philemon, to 
 Ephesus, and there had become acquainted with 
 St. Paul. So much is, I think, necessary to be 
 
232 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 supplied in order to account for what we find now 
 happening. Onesimus has become since then a 
 runaway from his master. He has escaped the 
 search of the slave-police, established expressly for 
 the purpose of tracking and bringing back fugitives, 
 and is lying hid, where all that was bad and dis- 
 reputable found its confluence and its concealment, 
 in the great metropolis, Rome. There, led by 
 what providential chance we know not, he visits 
 the Apostle. He may have been brought by Epa- 
 phras. More probably he may have recollected, 
 with fond regret, amongst the refuse of the lowest 
 society, in which such a fugitive would naturally be 
 found, the pure and warm-hearted man who had 
 wrought such a change in his master’s family — who 
 had reasoned, in his case in vain, of righteousness, 
 temperance, and judgment to come. He may 
 have been not unacquainted with some part of 
 the Apostle’s subsequent course. He may have 
 even worked his way in one of the ships in which 
 St. Paul had made his broken and perilous voyage 
 to Rome. Or he may have accidentally heard that 
 he was now a prisoner in the same city. Be this 
 as it may, the two met together ; the runaway slave, 
 the Apostle of Christ, — and the result of the meet- 
 
Philemon. 
 
 233 
 
 ing was that the slave became a Christian brother. 
 The guilt of an accusing conscience, the sense of 
 insecurity and danger, the ties of reviving affection 
 and gratitude drawing him back to his master, all 
 pleaded on the side of the Apostle, and Onesimus 
 was convinced. As in Hagar’s case, so in this, so 
 in every case . of forsaken duty, the voice of God’s 
 messenger is, 6 Return and submit thyself.’ At 
 whatever cost or risk, the first work of the peni- 
 tent must be to repair as far as possible the wrong 
 done. So Onesimus is ready to start from Rome 
 on his way back to his master at Colossae. Natu- 
 rally such a traveller would seek for a letter of 
 commendation. He would be afraid of the anger 
 of his master, even were that master a Christian 
 brother ; and we are, I think, almost compelled to 
 assume, from the deprecatory tone of this letter, 
 that Philemon was a master from whom severity 
 was to be expected. Paul the aged, from whom 
 both his master and he had received the glad 
 tidings of salvation, would, if any could, be an 
 effectual pleader for him. So the Apostle dictates, 
 and partly, or even perhaps wholly, writes with his 
 own hand such a letter as Onesimus required — a 
 letter containing nothing respecting church doctrine 
 
234 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 and discipline, but wholly concerning this one pri- 
 vate matter, praying earnestly that the returned 
 slave might be kindly received, and his former 
 faults forgiven ; mentioning the happy change 
 which had taken place in him during his flight, 
 and bespeaking for him on hk> return, not only a 
 welcome, but recognition as a Christian brother 
 And thus the Church has acquired this letter. It 
 was preserved in the family to which it was ad 
 dressed, %nd read first, no doubt, as a precious 
 apostolic message of love and blessing, in the church 
 which assembled in Philemon’s house. Then copies 
 of it became multiplied, and from Colossae it spread 
 through the church universal. It is quoted as early 
 as the end of the second century, and has ever, 
 except with some few who question everything, 
 remained an undoubted portion of the writings of 
 St. Paul. 
 
 Let us now examine the Epistle, for our under- 
 standing and use. The Apostle begins it by calling 
 himself ‘ a prisoner of Jesus Christ t This he did 
 not do in the opening of the letter to the Colos- 
 sians, which was written and sent at the same time. 
 There, associating with himself Timothy, as here, 
 and by the same title of ‘ our brother] he calls him- 
 
Philemon. 
 
 2 35 
 
 self 4 an apostle f here, ‘ 2, prisoner? Doubtless this 
 was because there he wished to carry the weight of 
 authority: here, he is requesting a favour. This 
 view is substantiated by our finding him by and by, 
 ver. 9, when he is about to prefer his petition, men- 
 tioning this fact of his being 4 a prisoner ’ of J esus 
 Christ, as an additional reason why it should be 
 kindly received. When he is beseeching the Ephe- 
 sians to walk worthily of the vocation wherewith 
 they were called, he similarly styles himself 4 the 
 priso?ier of the Lord? 
 
 He addresses the letter, coupling Timothy with 
 himself, to the whole household of Philemon, and 
 to the church that is in his house. There is a 
 certain tact and skill in this. Some of us might 
 think that in a matter regarding the treatment of a 
 servant by his master, that master only ought to 
 have been exhorted, and by one person only : but 
 when, by thus joining another with Himself, and 
 others in the house to Philemon, he makes them 
 witnesses of a jointly-given counsel, he gently re- 
 minds Philemon, that even our domestic duties are 
 not matters of which we may judge by ourselves, 
 and purely as regards ourselves, but that as to them 
 also we owe an obligation to the feelings of one 
 
236 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 another, to our own families, and to the church of 
 God. He also skilfully provides for the success of 
 his exhortations : for if Philemon might have been 
 tempted to treat lightly advice of which only he 
 himself was cognizant, he hardly could, consistently 
 with his wish to stand well with those about him, 
 do so when others also were aware of it. 
 
 A word respecting this church in Philemon! s house. 
 Remember that this was before there were any 
 fixed buildings appropriated to purposes of divine 
 worship. The Christians assembled where and how 
 they could, and generally, we may well suppose, in 
 not very large numbers : and thus the house of the 
 minister, or of some other Christian brother, became 
 a regular place of meeting for prayer and the sacra- 
 ment. We learn from the Epistle to the Colossians 
 that in the neighbouring city of Laodicea one 
 Nymphas similarly assembled the church in his 
 house: and in Rom. xvi. 5, and 1 Cor. xvi. 19, 
 the same is said of Aquila and Priscilla. ‘ Where 
 do you assemble V the heathen prefect asked of the 
 primitive apostolic father, Justin Martyr. ‘Where 
 each one can and will/ was the answer. ‘You 
 believe, no doubt, that we all meet together in one 
 place ; but it is not so, for the God of the Chris- 
 
Philemon . 
 
 2 37 
 
 tians is not shut up in a room, but He fills heaven 
 and earth, and is honoured everywhere by the faith- 
 ful/ He adds, in relating this, that he himself had 
 ordinarily such an assembly in his own house. The 
 practice is interesting, as showing the independence 
 of our holy religion on outward circumstances : but 
 it is not to be quoted in disparagement of our pre- 
 sent practice. When the circumstances of the 
 Church altered, her practice also altered. She is 
 the Church of all time, and of every land ; and is 
 no more obliged to continue, in these times, her 
 primitive modes of assembling, than they were to 
 anticipate our fashion. 
 
 The Apostle proceeds to pave the way for his 
 coming request, by commending the faith and love 
 of him to whom lie was writing. Philemon had 
 refreshed the hearts of the saints; was known as 
 one full of benevolence and Christian charity. 
 This, the Apostle says, made him the bolder. He 
 might have commanded him to do what was fitting ; 
 this also he mentions to bespeak acceptance for the 
 lesser thing — viz., his request for love’s sake. 
 
 And thus he introduces the subject of his letter, 
 even further bespeaking favour for it by the cir- 
 cumstance of his being now Paul the aged, and in 
 
238 How to shidy the New Testament . 
 
 chains for Jesus’ sake. Onesimus is his own child ; 
 a birth into the Christian Church, which had been 
 the fruit of his own imprisonment. His name 
 Onesimus, in Greek, signified 4 profitable little 
 indeed had this signification as yet been verified ; 
 but now the unprofitable one had become a source 
 of profit — to the Apostle, whose ministry he had 
 sealed, — to his master, who would receive him now 
 not as a slave, a chattel, but as a brother beloved. 
 The Apostle had a thought of retaining him to 
 minister to himself that duty which he gently 
 reminds Philemon that he, the master, owed to his 
 father in the faith ; but he is unwilling to take his 
 service for granted, and thus constrain it ; all that 
 he does for the Apostle shall be of free will. 
 
 The pleader now becomes more pressing, and 
 assumes a more serious tone. Perhaps there was 
 another hand in all this ; perhaps it was of God, 
 whose providence had deprived him of a servant 
 for a season, to bestow upon him a friend and 
 brother eternally. And so, if he counted St. Paul 
 as a fellow-labourer, he was to receive Onesimus as 
 he would receive himself. 
 
 But one thing remained. Since a slave could 
 possess nothing, the means of escape and suste- 
 
Philemon . 
 
 2 39 
 
 nance must have been fraudulently obtained out 
 of his master’s property, even supposing there was 
 no greater theft behind. To whatever sum this 
 damage amounted, St. Paul gives his word that he 
 would himself be chargeable with it. His own 
 hand attests this, whether he wrote this portion 
 only, or, as is more probable, the whole letter, him- 
 self. But he does not expect this his pledge to be 
 redeemed. He delicately reminds Philemon that 
 a far greater debt is owing to him than can be due 
 from him — 4 even thine own self ’ — to him who first 
 taught thee the worth of thine own soul. This 
 being so, let me have profit of thee (another allu- 
 sion to the name of Onesimus), not indeed in 
 worldly good, but in a rich increase of voluntary 
 compliance over and above my present request. 
 
 Thus (and who shall say that it is discourteously 
 or unskilfully?) he urges his plea, and concludes 
 by holding out a prospect of a visit to them, and by 
 sending salutations from those who were with him. 
 All is closed with the benediction, ‘ The grace of 
 our Lord fesus Christ be with your spirit .’ 
 
 And now let us gather up the thoughts which we 
 may carry away from this short epistle. 
 
 First, it furnishes an important evidence of the 
 
240 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 apostolic spirit, or, which is for us the same thing, 
 the teaching of the Spirit of God, with regard to a 
 subject much debated, but now, by God’s good 
 Providence, happily determined in our time — I 
 mean slavery . We learn from this letter two 
 
 things. 1. That the Apostle will not rashly or 
 hastily interfere with existing institutions. He had 
 elsewhere advised (1 Cor. vii. 20) that every man 
 should abide in the calling in which he finds him- 
 self; and had recommended the Christian slave, 
 even if he might be free, rather to continue as he 
 was (v. 21). And here he is consistent with him- 
 self. He never requests Philemon to set Onesimus 
 free, but only to receive him back kindly. 
 
 So much for one side. But we must not lose 
 sight of the other. It has been often and well 
 observed that, though St. Paul was no abolitionist, 
 yet St. Paul’s principles, if carried out, inevitably 
 lead to the abolition of slavery. The gentleness 
 which he here recommends, and elsewhere enjoins, 
 coupled with the great doctrine which he never 
 ceases to enforce, of the union of all mankind in 
 Christ, could not make way among men, without 
 the institution of slavery falling before them. The 
 best practical proof of this is, that as these have 
 
Philemon . 
 
 241 
 
 made way, slavery has fallen. So then let us be 
 fair. Let us not quote the moderation of the 
 Apostle on the one side, without remembering that 
 all the weight of his principles and character was 
 thrown, and has prevailed, on the other. 
 
 Secondly, we happen to possess the means of 
 comparing this specimen of Christian intercession 
 with a like specimen from the pen of a kindly- 
 spirited and cultivated heathen. The younger 
 Pliny, the same who wrote the celebrated letter to 
 the Emperor Trajan about the Christians in Bithynia, 
 writes to his friend Sabinianus entreating his pardon 
 for a freedman who had offended him ; and writes 
 again, acknowledging gratefully the granting of 
 his request. The letters are models of courtesy, 
 humanity, good feeling. But to a Christian mind, 
 the comparison with this of St. Paul is most in- 
 structive. They lack just that in which this is 
 eminent. Pliny conjures his friend by motives of 
 pity, of self-respect, even of self-indulgence, for, 
 says he, anger must be a torment to a man of your 
 benevolent disposition. Nay, he puts in another 
 motive still : — if you spare him now, you will have 
 more excuse for anger with him in case he offends 
 hereafter. Paul writes to his friend far otherwise. 
 
 R 
 
242 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 There is no mere appeal to pity, no mirror held up 
 to self-esteem, no afterthoughts admitting and jus- 
 tifying inconsistency : all comes warm from the 
 loving heart, and all the heart’s love is kindled by 
 the love of Christ. 
 
 Thirdly, we have here the instructive sight of a 
 man practising what he has preached. Some years 
 before, St. Paul wrote the beautiful description of 
 love in 1 Cor. xiii. Now many a man may write a 
 beautiful description, and yet not exemplify it in 
 his own conduct. Sometimes sympathy, sometimes 
 enthusiasm, sometimes mere pride, makes us ora- 
 tors — makes us angels ; but when we are off our 
 prophesying chairs, the old Adam prevails, and we 
 falsify our own words. It is a pleasing glimpse 
 into St. Paul’s character, when we see that this was 
 not so with him. The love which he eulogized 
 then, he exhibits now. Where can we find a 
 nobler illustration of the beautiful words, ‘ Love is 
 long-suffering, is kind ; love envieth not ; love 
 vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not 
 behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not 
 easily provoked, imputeth not the evil; rejoiceth 
 not at unrighteousness, but rejoiceth at the truth ; 
 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 
Philemon . 
 
 2 43 
 
 things, endureth all things ’ ? Here was a prisoner 
 with a chain clanking on his arm, with anxiety 
 about his own fate continually gnawing his heart, 
 with the constant presence of an alien keeper, the 
 eyes ever fixed on him, which have been described* 
 as the greatest torture of guarded imprisonment; 
 with the care of all the churches upon him, and the 
 endless complications of relations of J ew and Gen- 
 tile to arrange, — yet finding room in his heart for 
 the poor runaway slave, and time and words at his 
 command to plead his cause. Such, we may add, 
 is the grace of God’s Holy Spirit ; such the power 
 of holy love ; such the bloom of Christian courtesy 
 and Christian humility. 
 
 Again, the history of Onesimus himself is not 
 without its instruction and consolation for us. Like 
 the prodigal, he had fled from his home, and amidst 
 the secret haunts of the depraved metropolis was 
 seeking concealment from justice. But even there 
 the messenger of grace and mercy found him, and 
 he was restored, not to his former estate, but to far 
 greater blessedness : he found, not only a recon- 
 ciled master on earth, but a loving and precious 
 Master in heaven. Many, in commenting on this 
 
 * See ‘ The Prison Life of Jefferson Davis.* 
 
 R 2 
 
244 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 Epistle, have reminded us of the deeper thought 
 which has occurred to them, that St. Paul is indeed 
 here our example, but was himself following a higher 
 example ; even that of Him who found us wander- 
 ing from our duty and our Father’s house, and 
 pleaded for our restoration with His own suffering, 
 and His own most precious blood. 
 
 But beyond doubt, the lesson of all others from 
 this Epistle is, that we should carry into the con- 
 cerns of private life the courtesy and the Christian 
 spirit here shown by the Apostle ; that we should 
 talk to one another, argue with one another, write 
 letters to one another, not as men of the world, but 
 as disciples of Christ ; not as Pliny, but as St. Paul ; 
 remembering Whose we are, and Whom we serve ; 
 and that our religion is to be a light shining before 
 men, to show forth the glory of Him who hath 
 redeemed us by Christ. 
 
 Our usual task of summing up the necessary cor- 
 rections of readings and renderings, will in this 
 case be naturally but a short one. 
 
 In ver. 2, instead of 1 our beloved Apphia] read, 
 with all our oldest MSS., 4 Apphia our sister.’ In 
 ver. 3, our three oldest MSS. omit ‘ Jesus.' In the 
 same verse, for ‘ you read ‘ us,’ with all our oldest 
 
Philemon . 
 
 2 45 
 
 MSS. In ver. 7, for 4 we hove, ’ read 4 1 had/ In 
 ver. 12, for i sent again,’ read 4 sent back to thee/ 
 In the same verse, omit 4 thou therefore/ In 
 ver. 20, for 4 the Lord l read 4 Christ/ 
 
 As to corrections in the rendering : in ver. 4, it 
 should stand, 4 1 thank my God always, making 
 mention of thee in my prayers/ And in the next 
 verse, 4 hearing of thy love, and of the faith which 
 thou hast/ 6°c. 4 All saints/ should be 4 all tJie 
 
 saints/ In ver. 6, render, 4 may become effectual 
 unto Christ in the knowledge of every good thing 
 which is in us/ In ver. 7, and also in vers. 12 
 and 20, 4 heart 1 expresses much better that which 
 4 bowels’ was intended to convey. In ver. 7, for 
 4 are refreshed/ read 4 have been refreshed/ In 
 ver. 8, for ‘though I might be much bold/ read 
 ‘though I have much boldness/ and for 4 con- 
 venient’, ‘fitting/ Place the period at the former 
 ‘beseech thee/ and connect the next words with 
 what follows : 4 Being such an one, — as Paul the 
 aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, — 
 I beseech thee/ 6^c. In ver. 10, ‘son’ should be 
 4 child/ and 4 have begotten ’ should be 4 begat/ In 
 ver. 13, for 4 would have retained’ read 4 was pur- 
 posing to retain / and for 4 might have ministered,’ 
 
246 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 ‘might minister/ In ver. 14, for ‘ benefit / read 
 ‘good service/ In ver. 15, for ‘ shout dest receive 
 him/ ‘mayest receive him/ In ver. 19, for ‘ alb tit 
 I do not say / ‘ that I say not/ In ver. 20, for ‘joy,* 
 read ‘profit/ the word is a play on the name 
 ‘ Ones i must In ver. 21, for ‘ wrote / ‘ have written / 
 and for ‘ wilt also do more / ‘ wilt do even more/ 
 In ver. 22, for ‘ withal] read ‘ at the same time/ 
 Our next chapter will be on the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians ; which, being written and sent at the 
 same time, and by the same messenger, as those to 
 the Colossians and Philemon, as well as from its 
 internal similarity to the former of those Epistles, 
 naturally enters into the same group with them. 
 
XI. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 
 
 I N the consideration of this great Epistle, we 
 are at once met by a question which it is of 
 some consequence satisfactorily to answer. There 
 has been in all ages a doubt, whether its present 
 title is rightly given. In order to deal with this, 
 for the general reader, we must first explain its 
 grounds. 
 
 It will be remembered that St. Paul had spent 
 a portion of time which he himself describes as 
 ‘ three whole years' at Ephesus. He was bound 
 to the church there by ties of the closest affection, 
 as appears by the pathetic description of the leave- 
 taking in Acts xx. He writes, as commonly re- 
 puted, an Epistle to that church. Yet in it do we 
 find not one single instance of personal greeting, so 
 common in his other Epistles. Is this probable ? 
 
248 Hoiv to study the New Testament . 
 
 Secondly, it is said that in this Epistle the con- 
 version of those to whom it was addressed is stated 
 to have been known to the writer only by report 
 (ch. i. 15), which could not be likely, considering 
 that he founded the Ephesian church himself. 
 
 Thirdly, he seems to treat his readers’ knowledge 
 of himself as an Apostle, as one accruing by 
 hearsay only, — so that he needed credentials to 
 assure his mission to them (ch. iii. 2 — 4). 
 
 Fourthly, he describes, it is said, his readers as 
 almost exclusively Gentiles (ch. ii. n ; iv. 17), 
 and as having been but recently converted (ch. v. 
 8; i. 13; ii. 13). 
 
 Fifthly, the words ‘ in Ephesus ’ (ch. i. 1) are 
 omitted by our most ancient MSS., and thus not 
 only internal, but external, grounds exist for doubt- 
 ing whether the Epistle could have been addressed 
 originally to the Ephesians. 
 
 We will deal with these somewhat formidable 
 queries one by one. 
 
 As to the first then, we must be familiar with 
 the Apostle’s manner in sending his private salu- 
 tations, before we can reply. 4 They are found in 
 greatest abundance in the Epistle to the Romans, 
 written to a church which, as a church, he had 
 
Ephesians , 249 
 
 never seen, but which, owing to its situation, 
 contained many of his own friends and fellow- 
 labourers, also many friends of those who were 
 with him at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians, written 
 to a church which he had founded, and where 
 he had long resided (Acts xviii. n), there is not 
 one person saluted by name, and one salutation 
 only sent, — from Aquila and Priscilla. In 2 Co- 
 rinthians, not one personal salutation of either 
 kind/ The Philippians were his 6 dearly beloved, 
 his joy, and his crown:’ yet not one of them is 
 saluted. The Galatians were his ‘ little children, 
 of whom he was in labour till Christ should be 
 formed in them yet not one is saluted. The 
 Thessalonians were ‘ imitators of him and of the 
 Lord, patterns to all that believed in Macedonia 
 and Achaia : ’ yet not one of them is selected for 
 salutation. What is even more to the point, 
 1 Timothy was sent to Ephesus itself : yet in it 
 no one is saluted. It is plain then, that we can 
 infer nothing from this absence of salutations. He 
 sometimes omits them when writing to intimate 
 friends : he inserts them when writing to those 
 whom he had never seen. The seriousness of his 
 subject, or the mere play of his free feeling at the 
 
250 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 time, influenced him, and no merely local consi- 
 derations. That this letter contains no personal 
 salutations, is absolutely no reason why it should 
 not have been addressed to the Ephesian church. 
 
 The second and third objections are entirely 
 unfounded. He does not speak of knowing them, 
 or their history, by report, but only their present 
 state of faith and love, or rather, some notable 
 instances of both which were 4 among ’ them. And 
 he does not say that they knew him only by report, 
 or that he wanted credentials to them. This will 
 appear in our corrections further on. 
 
 As to the fourth, he is elsewhere in the habit of . 
 addressing mixed churches as Gentiles (see 1 Cor. 
 xii. 2), when their location was in the Gentile 
 world. And of all Epistles this would be least 
 likely to preserve the distinction, seeing that he 
 is treating of the constitution and glories of the 
 universal church. At the same time, there are not 
 wanting indications of the mixed composition of 
 the church to which he was writing: as in the 
 words, 4 that he might make the two into one f 
 new man in Himself’ (ch. ii. 15). 
 
 To the latter part of this objection we may 
 reply, that he uses the same term to express the 
 
251 
 
 Ephesians 
 
 length of time since their conversion, as he uses 
 respecting his own : compare Eph. ii. 13, v. 8, 
 with Gal. i. 13, 23; Titus iii. 3 ; so that no infer- 
 ence as to its recent occurrence can be drawn. 
 
 The fact that the words ‘ in Ephesus ’ are want- 
 ing in some ancient MSS., we may notice, (1) that 
 Basil, who observes upon this omission, yet regards 
 the Epistle addressed to the Ephesians ; (2) that 
 the words ‘ in Rome ’ (Rom. i. 7) are also absent 
 from some MSS. ; and that the local designation 
 appears to have been left out in order to generalise 
 the reference of the contents, when the subject 
 was one of catholic interest. 
 
 Some have supposed that our Epistle is that 
 spoken of Col. iv. 16, as to be got from Laodicea, 
 and read at Colossae. But this is pure hypothesis. 
 No MS. substitutes the words ‘in Laodicea ’ for 
 ‘ in Ephesus.’ 
 
 Others have believed that it was a kind of 
 circular letter addressed to various churches, and 
 to be designated as it might happen, a gap being 
 left to be filled in accordingly, ‘ in Ephesus,’ ‘ in 
 Laodicea,’ ‘ in Hierapolis,’ 6° c. This view is even 
 more untenable than the other. The Epistle is 
 evidently addressed to one set of persons, co- 
 
252 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 existing in one place, as one body, and under 
 the same circumstances. No indication is found 
 of this encyclical character as in 2 Corinthians and 
 Galatians. For these, and for other reasons which 
 I have treated in my 4 Introduction to the New 
 Testament for English Readers,’ I have no hesita- 
 tion in rejecting altogether this latter hypothesis. 
 
 We infer then, that the Epistle was veritably 
 written, as now addressed, to the Ephesian church, 
 and to no other. 
 
 Of that church let us now speak. Ephesus was 
 a place of great commerce and note, at the mouth 
 of the river Cayster in Lydia. It was famed for 
 its great temple of Diana, one of the wonders ot 
 the ancient world (Acts xix. 24, d^c.). St. Paul’s 
 first and short visit to it is recorded Acts xviii. 
 19 — 21. The work begun by him was afterwards 
 carried on by Apollos, and by Aquila and Priscilla. 
 During his second visit, lasting ‘ three years,’ he 
 founded the Ephesian church (see Acts xix., xx.). 
 The number of converts seems to have been con- 
 siderable, and the church had been an especial 
 object of the Apostle’s personal care. On his last 
 recorded journey to Jerusalem he did not touch 
 at Ephesus, but summoned the elders of the Ephe- 
 
Ephesians . 253 
 
 sian church to meet him at Miletus, where he took 
 an affecting farewell of them, which at the time he 
 believed to be his last. 
 
 The subsequent history of this church will come 
 before us when we write on the first Epistle to 
 Timothy. 
 
 It is interesting, among the doubts which have 
 been above dealt with, to trace some minor indi- 
 cations, confirming the view that the Ephesian 
 church was that really addressed. 
 
 In St. Paul’s farewell speech, Acts xx. 24, we 
 find him speaking of having preached to them the 
 ‘gospel of the grace of God,’ and (ver. 32) com- 
 mitting them ‘ to the word of His grace.’ It is, 
 therefore, interesting to notice that in this Epistle 
 alone, and not in the contemporary and similar 
 one to the Colossians, he uses such expressions 
 as ‘ the glory of His grace ’ (i. 6) ; ‘ the riches of 
 His grace ’ (i. 7, ii. 7) ; and that ‘ grace ’ in many 
 combinations runs through the whole letter. If he 
 preached among them ‘ the good tidings of the 
 grace of God,’ this may well be called ‘ the Epistle 
 of the grace of God.’ 
 
 In Acts xx. 22, he had said, ‘ I go bound in the 
 spirit to Jerusalem.’ .... ‘ Bonds and afflictions 
 
254 How to study the New Testa7nent. 
 
 await me.’ Accordingly, here alone, in his letters 
 to churches, does he call himself ‘ the Lord’s 
 bondsman,’ or 1 prisoner ’ (chap. iii. i ; iv. i). 
 
 In his speech in the Acts (xx. 28), he had said 
 of the church of God, ‘ which He purchased with 
 His own blood.’ In Eph. i. 14, we have the sin- 
 gular expression, 4 the redemption of the purchased 
 possession.’ 
 
 In Acts xx. 32, he commits them to God and 
 the word of His grace, ‘ which was able to build 
 them up, and give them an inheritance among the 
 saints.’ The image of building , often found else- 
 where, is more than ever common in this Epistle ; 
 some have supposed in allusion to the great temple 
 of Diana. But, however this may be, we can hardly 
 fail to connect the words just quoted with Eph. i. 
 1 8, ‘ which is the riches of the glory of this inherit- 
 ance among the saints;’ i. 14, 4 which is the earnest 
 of our inheritance :’ and v. 5, 4 hath no inheritance 
 in the kingdom of Christ and of God ’ (see Acts 
 xix. 8). 
 
 When we come to inquire into the occasion of 
 the Epistle, we find nothing special in the state 
 of the Ephesian church which may account for it. 
 Rather does it seem to have sprung out of the 
 
Ephesians . 255 
 
 circumstances of the Apostle’s employment at 
 the time. He was sending, by Tychicus and One- 
 simus, a weighty letter to the Colossian church, 
 occasioned by defects in its belief and practice. 
 His mind was much exercised on the points which 
 he had to treat in that Epistle. But these very 
 matters were parts of a larger and more complete 
 subject, which the special import of that letter 
 would not allow him to introduce. He longed to 
 set forth the length and breadth and height of the 
 church of Christ, as founded in the counsel of 
 the Father’s will, wrought by the obedience and 
 love of the Son, carried on and nourished by the 
 indwelling influence of the Spirit. And to whom 
 should such an Epistle be addressed, but to that 
 church which, more than any other, he had founded 
 and built up, — the church at Ephesus ? This then 
 seems to be its occasion. It is to the Epistle to 
 the Colossians, what the Epistle to the Romans is 
 to that to the Galatians : a great offspring, greater 
 than the parent, embracing the general subject 
 of which the other treated a particular portion. He 
 addresses the Ephesian church as a type, a sample, 
 of the church universal. He sets forth to them 
 the ground , the course , the ai?n and end of the 
 
256 Hozv to study the New Testament . 
 
 church universal. All through the letter this three- 
 fold division is found. The origin of the church 
 in the will of the Father; the course of the 
 church by the satisfaction of the Son; the scope 
 and aim of the church, life in the Spirit, — these 
 three things run through the whole, dividing the 
 Epistle first into three larger portions, and then 
 in those portions carrying out the same order in 
 every paragraph, and almost in every sentence. 
 The whole is a magnificent apostolic comment 
 on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as the divine 
 Persons are concerned in the work of our re- 
 demption. Those who deny that doctrine, must 
 either set aside this Epistle altogether, or must tear 
 out of it all meaning and coherence. We shall 
 presently have occasion to trace the design through- 
 out the contents of the Epistle ; meantime we will 
 speak of its place and time of writing, as pointed 
 out in its own pages. 
 
 These are easily traced by two indications. First, 
 St. Paul was a prisoner when he wrote the Epistle, 
 as appears from ch. iii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 20. This he 
 was at Caesarea (Acts xxi. 27 — xxvi. 32) during 
 parts of the years 58 — 60 a.d. : and at Rome, from 
 the beginning of 61 to the end of the history in 
 
2 57 
 
 Ephesians . 
 
 the Acts, and perhaps longer. Of these two pe- 
 riods, some have believed that the former was that 
 of his writing this Epistle. I have, in my ‘ New 
 Testament for English Readers/ examined the 
 grounds of this opinion, and have found it far 
 more probable that the Roman imprisonment, not 
 the Caesarean, was the time, as commonly be- 
 lieved. The free intercourse between him and 
 others — the names of his associates who were with 
 him at the time when the three Epistles were 
 written — the interval which naturally separates the 
 Epistle from the last visit, corresponding to the 
 Roman imprisonment, but not to the Caesarean — • 
 all these considerations tell very strongly for the 
 common opinion. And if this be adopted, the time 
 of writing will be fixed somewhere about the year 
 62 A.D. 
 
 In style and language, this Epistle is by far the 
 most difficult of all St. Paul’s writings. I have de- 
 scribed it as follows in the work referred to above : 
 — 4 Elsewhere, as in the Epistles to the Romans, 
 Galatians, and Colossians, the difficulties lie for 
 the most part at or near the surface : a certain 
 degree of study will master, not indeed the mys- 
 teries of redemption which are treated of, but the 
 
 s 
 
258 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 coherence of the context, and the course of 
 argument : or if not so, will at least serve to point 
 out to every reader where the hard texts lie, and to 
 bring out into relief each point with which he has 
 to deal : whereas here, the difficulties lie altogether 
 beneath the surface : are not discernible by the 
 cursory reader, who finds all very straightforward 
 and simple. All on the surface is smooth, and 
 flows on unquestioned : but when we begin to 
 inquire why thought succeeds to thought, and one 
 cumbrous parenthesis to another — depths under 
 depths disclose themselves, wonderful systems of 
 parallel allusion, frequent and complicated under- 
 plots : every word, the more we search, approves 
 itself as set in its exact logical place : we see every 
 phrase contributing, by its own similar organization 
 and articulation, to the carrying out the organic 
 whole. But this result is not won without much 
 labour of thought — without repeated and minute 
 laying together of portions and expressions — with- 
 out bestowing on single words and phrases, and 
 their succession and arrangement, as much study 
 as would suffice for whole sections of those 
 Epistles which carry their meaning more on the 
 surface.’ 
 
Ephesians . 259 
 
 We will now follow the Apostle’s great subject 
 through the Epistle. 
 
 After the customary apostolic greeting, begins 
 the first portion of the Epistle, i. 3 — iii. 21 — The 
 Doctrine of the Church of Christ. This is 
 subdivided as follows : — 
 
 I. The Ground and Origin of the Church, in 
 the Father’s counsel, and His act in Christ, by 
 the Spirit, i. 3 — 23. In carrying out this, the Apostle 
 gives (1.) the preliminary idea of the church, set 
 forth in the form of an ascription of praise, i. 
 3 — 14, and thus arranged : — The Father, in His 
 eternal love, has chosen us unto holiness (ver. 4), 
 ordained us to sonship (ver. 5), bestowed grace on 
 us in the Beloved (ver. 6) : in the Son, we have 
 — redemption through the riches of His grace (ver. 
 7), knowledge of the mystery of His will (ver. 8, 9), 
 inheritance under Him as the one Head (ver. 10 
 — 12) ; through the Spirit we are sealed, by hear- 
 ing the word of salvation (ver. 13), by receiving the 
 earnest of our inheritance (ver. 14), until the re- 
 demption ot the purchased possession {ibid.) (2.) 
 The idea of the church carried forward, in the form 
 of a prayer for the Ephesians, ,in which the fulfil- 
 ment of the Father’s counsel through the Son, by 
 
260 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 the Spirit, in his people, is set forth as consisting 
 in the knowledge of the hope of his calling, of 
 the riches of his promise, and the power which 
 He exercises on His saints as first wrought by Him 
 in Christ, whom He has made Head over all to 
 the church. 
 
 II. The Course and Progress of the Church 
 
 through the Son (ii. i — 22) : thus subdivided: (1.) 
 ver. 1 — 10, the power of the Father in quickening 
 us, both Gentiles and Jews, in and with Christ 
 (ver. 1 — 6) ; his purpose in manifesting this power 
 (ver. 7) ; inference respecting the method of our 
 salvation (ver. 10). (2.) ver. 11 — 22, hortatory 
 
 expansion of the foregoing into detail ; reminding 
 them what they once were (ver. 11, 12) ; what they 
 now were in Christ (ver. 13 — 22). 
 
 III. The Aim and End of the Church in the 
 Spirit (iii. 1 — 21) mainly set forth in the revelation 
 to it of the mystery of Christ, through the ministry, 
 working in the Spirit ; and primarily, as regarded 
 these Ephesians, by himself. Thus (1.) of his office 
 as Apostle of the Gentiles (ver. 1 — 13) ; (2.) under 
 the form of a prayer for them, of the aim and end 
 of that office as respected the church ; its becoming 
 strong in the power of the Spirit (ver. 14 — 19). 
 
26 i 
 
 Ephesians 
 
 Then (ver. 20, 21) a doxology concludes this fust 
 portion of the Epistle. 
 
 Now begins the second poption of the 
 Epistle, being hortatory (iv. 1 — vi. 20) : and 
 herein — 
 
 I. (iv. 1 — 16) The ground of the Christian’s 
 duties as a member of the church, viz., the unity 
 of the mystical body of Christ (ver. 1 — 6), the 
 manifoldness of grace given to each (ver. 7 — 13), 
 that we may come to perfection in Him (ver. 
 14—16). 
 
 II. (iv. 17 — vi. 9) Exhortations to a course of 
 walking and conversation, derived from the ground 
 just laid down. And herein (1.) (iv. 17 — v. 21), 
 general duties of Christians as united to Christ 
 their Head : (2.) (v. 22 — vi. 9) the Christian duties 
 being all thus comprehended and hallowed by the 
 church, the Apostle treats of them in the three 
 greatest of the social relations : that of husband 
 and wife (v. 22 — 33), that of parent and child 
 (vi. 1 — 4), that of master and servant (vi. 5 — 9). 
 
 Then the Epistle draws to a conclusion, in a 
 general exhortation to the spiritual conflict and to 
 prayer (vi. 10 — 20): that conclusion itself being 
 introduced by the announcement of the mission 
 
262 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 of Tychicus with the Epistle (vi. 21, 22), and com- 
 pleted with the apostolic blessing (vi. 23, 24). 
 
 It is well that the reader should have his atten- 
 tion called to the fact, and the nature, of the 
 similarities between this Epistle and that to the Co- 
 lossians. No one who reads with any intelligent 
 attention can fail to have observed them ; and few 
 but will have seen how probable it is that a writer 
 sending two letters at the same time should cast 
 the two in the same common mould. If the one 
 were written under special circumstances, while the 
 other was intended as a more general exposition 
 of the writer’s mind, then would this common form 
 be modified to suit those circumstances in the one 
 case, and not in the other. 
 
 Now this is precisely what we find in the two 
 Epistles. It is not our purpose to compare them 
 throughout ; but let any reader take the two first 
 chapters of each, paragraph by paragraph, and see 
 for himself whether it be not so. 
 
 4 In writing both, the Apostle’s mind was in the 
 same general frame — full of the glories of the per- 
 son of Christ, and the consequent glorious privi- 
 leges of his church, which is built on Him, and 
 vitally knit to Him. This mighty subject, as he 
 
263 
 
 Ephesians. 
 
 looked with indignation on the beggarly system of 
 meats and drinks and hallowed days and angelic 
 mediations to which his Colossians were being 
 drawn down, rose before him in all its length and 
 breadth and height ; but as writing to them, he was 
 confined to one portion of it, and to setting forth 
 that one portion pointedly and controversially. He 
 could not, consistently with the effect which he 
 would produce on them, dive into the depths of 
 the divine counsels in Christ with regard to them. 
 At every turn, we may well conceive, he would fain 
 have gone out into those wonderful prayers and 
 revelations which would have been so abundant if 
 he had had free scope : but at every turn the spirit 
 bound him to a lower region, and would not let 
 him lose sight of the cautionary matter-of-fact 
 pleading, which forms the ground-tone of this 
 Colossian Epistle. Only in the setting forth of the 
 majesty of Christ’s person, so essential to his present 
 aim, does he know no limits to the sublimity of 
 his flight. When he approaches those who are 
 Christ’s, the urgency of their conservation, and the 
 duty of marking the contrast to their deceivers, 
 cramps and confines him for the time. 
 
 6 But the spirit which thus bound him to his 
 
264 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 special work while writing to the Colossians, would 
 not let his divine promptings be in vain. While he 
 is labouring with the great subject, and unable to 
 the Colossians to express all he would, his thoughts 
 are turned to another church, lying also in the line 
 which Tychicus and Onesimus would take : a 
 church which he had himself built up stone by 
 stone ; to which his affection went largely forth : 
 where if the same baneful influences were making 
 themselves felt, it was but slightly, or not so as to 
 call for special and exclusive treatment. He might 
 pour forth to his Ephesians all the fulness of the 
 Spirit’s revelations and promptings, on the great 
 subject of the Spouse and Body of Christ. To 
 them, without being bound to narrow his energies 
 evermore into one line of controversial direction, 
 he might lay forth, as he should be empowered, 
 their foundation in the counsel of the Father, their 
 course in the satisfaction of the Son, their perfection 
 in the work of the Spirit. 
 
 4 And thus, — as a mere human writer, toiling ear- 
 nestly and conscientiously towards his point, pares 
 rigidly off the thoughts and words, however deep 
 and beautiful, which spring out of and group around 
 his subject, putting them by and storing them up 
 
Ephesians . 265 
 
 for more leisure another day : and then on re- 
 viewing them, and again awakening the spirit which 
 prompted them, playfully unfolds their germs, and 
 amplifies their suggestions largely, till a work grows 
 beneath his hands more stately and more beautiful 
 than ever that other was, and carrying deeper con- 
 viction than it ever wrought : — so, in the higher 
 realms of the fulness of inspiration, may we con- 
 ceive it to have been with our Apostle. His 
 Epistle to the Colossians is his caution, his argu- 
 ment, his protest : is, so to speak, his working-day 
 toil, his direct pastoral labour : and the other is the 
 flower and bloom of his moments, during those 
 same days of devotion and rest, when he wrought 
 not so much in the Spirit, as the Spirit wrought in 
 him. So that while we have in the Colossians, 
 system defined, language elaborated, antithesis and 
 logical power, on the surface — we have in the 
 Ephesians the free outflowing of the earnest spirit, 
 — to the mere surface-reader, without system, but to 
 him that delves down into it, in system far deeper 
 and more recondite, and more exquisite : the greatest 
 and most heavenly work of one, whose very ima- 
 gination was peopled with the things in the heavens, 
 and even his fancy wrapt in the visions of God. 
 
2 66 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 ‘ Thus both Epistles sprung out of one inspira- 
 tion, one frame of mind ; that to the Colossians 
 first, as the task to be done, the protest delivered, 
 the caution given : that to the Ephesians, begotten 
 by the other, but surpassing it : carried on perhaps 
 in some part simultaneously, or immediately con- 
 sequent. So that we may have in both, many of 
 the same thoughts uttered in the same words : 
 many terms and phrases peculiar to the two 
 Epistles ; many instances of the same term or 
 phrase still sounding in the writer’s ear, but used in 
 the two in a different connexion. All these are 
 taken by the impugners of the Ephesian Epistle as 
 tokens of its spuriousness : I should rather regard 
 them as psychological phenomena strictly and 
 beautifully corresponding to the circumstances 
 under which we have reason to believe the two 
 Epistles to have been written ; and as fresh eluci- 
 dations of the mental and spiritual character of the 
 great Apostle.’* 
 
 It remains that we indicate, as usual, the places 
 in this Epistle requiring correction, either in the 
 readings, or the renderings, of our English version. 
 
 In ch. i. i, as has been already noticed, our two 
 
 * ‘New Testament for English Readers/ Introduction, vol. ii. part ii. 
 
Ephesians . 
 
 267 
 
 oldest MSS. omit the words ‘at Ephesus. 7 All the 
 rest contain them; and it is probable that they 
 formed a part of the original text. See above. In 
 ver. 6, ‘ wherein he hath made us accepted] should 
 be, ‘ which he freely bestowed upon us. 7 In ver. 14, 
 instead of ‘ which 7 (neuter), several of our oldest 
 MSS. read ‘who 7 (masculine). In ver. 15, ‘love' 
 is omitted by our three oldest MSS. In ver. 18, 
 
 ‘ understanding 7 should be ‘heart, 7 as in all our 
 ancient MSS. In the same verse, for ‘ and what, 7 
 read ‘what. 7 In ver. 20, some of the most 
 eminent MSS. read ‘ which he hath wrought. 7 
 
 In ch. ii. 17, all our oldest authorities read ‘of 
 peace to you which were afar off, and of peace to 
 you which were nigh; 7 and in ver. 19, ‘but are 
 fellow-citizens. 7 
 
 In ch. iii. 3, instead of ‘ how that by revelation he 
 made known unto me the mystery , 7 read ‘ that by re- 
 velation was the mystery made known unto me. 7 
 In ver. 6, for ‘ his promise in Christ] read ‘ the 
 promise in Christ Jesus. 7 In ver. 8, for ‘ preach 
 among the Gentiles the] read ‘ bring to the Gentiles 
 the glad tidings of the. 5 In ver. 9, for ‘ fellowship ] 
 read, with all our most ancient authorities of every 
 kind, ‘dispensation. 7 In ver. 9, omit ‘ by Jesus 
 
268 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 Christ ,’ with all our oldest authorities. In ver. 14, 
 omit, with the same, the words ‘ of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ .’ In ver. 21, for 4 in the church by Christ 
 Jesus ,’ read 4 in the church and in Christ Jesus.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 6, 4 in you all ’ should be 4 in all/ No 
 ancient MS. reads 4 in you all ;’ some have 4 in us 
 all/ but the chief read ‘in ail/ In ver. 9, 4 first ’ 
 is omitted by the majority of our ancient MSS. 
 In ver. 17, for 4 other Gentiles ’ read 4 also the 
 Gentiles/ 
 
 In ch. v. 2, for 4 us ’ (first time) two of the oldest 
 MSS. read 4 you;' ana for 4 us’ (second time) one 
 of the oldest MSS. reads 4 you.’ In ver. 5, all the 
 ancient authorities have, 4 For of this ye are sure, 
 knowing,’ 6°c. In ver. 9, for 4 the fruit of the 
 Spirit ’ all the oldest MSS. have 4 the fruit of the 
 light.’ Inver. 17, for 4 understanding , ,’ the oldest 
 MSS. have ‘understand’ (imperative). In ver. 19, 
 4 spiritual ’ is omitted by one of the oldest MSS. 
 In ver. 21, for 4 God ’’ read 4 Christ.’ In ver. 22, it 
 should stand, 4 Ye wives, unto your own husbands,’ 
 &>c. In ver. 23, read, 4 As Christ also is the head 
 of the church, himself the Saviour of the body.’ 
 In ver. 24, omit ‘own.’ In ver. 27, read, with all 
 the oldest MSS., 4 that he might himself present 
 
269 
 
 Ephesians . 
 
 unto himself/ 6^c. After ‘ men ’ in ver. 28, and after 
 ‘Christ’ in ver, 29, insert ‘also.’ In ver, 30, ‘of 
 his flesh and of his bones ’ is omitted by our three 
 oldest MSS. 
 
 In ch. vi. 1, ‘in the Lord ’ is omitted by some of 
 the oldest MSS. Ver. 8 should stand, ‘ knowing 
 that each man, if he shall have done any good 
 thing, shall receive the same from the Lord/ 6°c. 
 In ver. 9, for ‘ your master also / read ‘ their master 
 and yours.’ In ver. 10, for ‘ Finally / read ‘ Hence- 
 forth/ and omit ‘my brethren.’ In ver. 12, for 
 ‘ the darkness of this world] read ‘ this present dark- 
 ness.’ In ver. 16, for ‘above all/ our two oldest 
 MSS. read ‘ in all things ’ (see below). 
 
 The principal errors and inaccuracies in transla- 
 tion are as follow : — In ch. i. 3, 4, ‘ hath blessed ’ 
 should be ‘ blessed/ and ‘ hath chosen ’ should be 
 ‘ chose / ‘ heavenly places ’ should be ‘ the heavenly 
 places.’ In ver. 5, ‘ the adoption of children' should 
 be simply ‘adoption / and ‘to himself' should be 
 ‘unto him.’ In ver. 6, ‘ the beloved' would be more 
 clearly expressed by ‘ the beloved One.’ As it 
 stands, it might be plural. In ver. 7, ‘ sins ' ought 
 to have been ‘ our transgressions.’ In ver. 8, 
 ‘ wherein he hath abounded' should have been, 
 
270 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 ‘ wherein he made to abound.' In ver. 9, ‘ he hath 
 purposed' should be, ‘he purposed.' Ver. 10 
 should run thus : ‘ unto the dispensation of the 
 fulness of the times, to gather up all things in 
 Christ,' d^c. In ver. 11, ‘ in whom we also have 
 obtained an inheritance ' should be, ‘in whom we 
 were also made his inheritance.' Ver. 12 is ambi- 
 guous as it stands in the Authorised Version : ‘ who 
 first trusted in Christ ' may refer to ‘ we,' or to the 
 person spoken of in ‘ his glory.' The ‘ we ' should 
 be repeated : ‘ that we should be to the praise of 
 his glory, we who before have hoped in Christ.' 
 Ver. 13 should stand thus : ‘ In whom are ye also, 
 having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your 
 salvation : in whom also ye having believed were 
 sealed by the Spirit of the promise, even the holy 
 Spirit.' In ver. 14, for ‘ until the redemption,' 
 read ‘for the redemption.’ In ver. 15, for ‘ your 
 faith in the Lord Jesus] ‘the faith in the Lord 
 Jesus which is among you.’ In ver. 17, for ‘the 
 knowledge,’ read ‘full knowledge.' In ver. 19, for 
 6 his mighty power] read ‘the might of his strength.' 
 In ver. 20, for ‘ when he raised him] ‘by raising 
 him.' In ver. 22, for ‘ hath put,' d^c., ‘put all 
 things in subjection under his feet.' In ver. 23, 
 
Ephesians. 271 
 
 4 filleth all in all ’ is ambiguous. It should be, 
 filleth 4 all things with all things/ 
 
 In ch. ii. i, 4 in trespasses and sins' should be 
 4 by reason of your trespasses and your sins/ In 
 ver. 2, 4 children ' should be 4 sons/ In ver. 3, that 
 which was meant by 4 conversation ' would be better 
 conveyed by 4 way of life ;’ 4 of the flesh and of the 
 mind 9 should be 4 of our flesh and our thoughts ;’ 
 and 4 others' should be 4 the rest/ In ver. 5, 4 sins' 
 should be 4 our trespasses ;’ 4 hath quickened ’ 
 
 should be 4 quickened ; ’ and 4 are saved/ 4 have 
 been saved/ In ver. 6, 4 together in heavenly 
 places’ should be, 4 together with him in the 
 heavenly places/ In ver. 7, 4 through Christ 
 Jesus’ should be, 4 in Christ Jesus.’ In ver. 8, 
 
 4 are ye saved ’ should be, 4 have ye been saved/ 
 In ver. 10, 4 hath before ordained ' should be, 
 
 4 before prepared.’ In ver. 12, 4 without Christ’ 
 should be, 4 separate from Christ ;’ and 4 promise ' 
 should be, 4 the promise.’ In ver. 13, for 4 some- 
 times ,’ 4 aforetime ; ’ and for 4 are made nigh by ,’ 
 ‘have been brought nigh in.’ In ver. 14, for 4 hath 
 made] 4 hath broken ,’ 4 made ’ and 4 brake.’ Then 
 it should go on, 4 brake down the middle wall of 
 the partition, to wit, the enmity, in his flesh : 
 
272 How to shidy the New Testament . 
 
 abolishing the law of the commandments [consist- 
 ing] in ordinances/ In ver. 16, for ‘by the cross/ 
 4 through his cross/ Inver. 17, 4 preached peace * 
 would be better expressed, ‘ brought glad tidings of 
 peace/ Ver. 18 should run, ‘ Because through 
 him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the 
 Father/ In ver. 19, for ‘now therefore] ‘so then/ 
 for ‘foreigners/ ‘ sojourners/ In ver. 21, ‘ grow eth 9 
 would be better expressed by, ‘ is growing / and 
 in the next verse, ‘ are builded, ] which looks like a 
 past perfect tense, by ‘ are being builded ’ (present). 
 
 In ch. iii. 2, for ‘ have heard/ ‘ heard/ In ver. 4, 
 for ‘ knowledge ] ‘understanding/ In ver. 5, for 
 ‘ is now revealed/ ‘ hath now been revealed / and 
 for ‘ by the Spirit/ ‘in the Spirit/ In ver. 6, for 
 ‘should be] ‘are/ and for* ‘ of the same body/ 
 ‘joined in the same body/ In ver. 8, for ‘ is] 
 ‘was/ Ver. 9 should run, ‘And to enlighten all 
 men what is/ d^c. (see above). In ver. 10, for 
 ‘ heavenly] ‘ the heavenly / for ‘ might] ‘ may / 
 and for ‘by] ‘through/ In ver. n, for ‘Christ 
 Jesus our Lord/ ‘the Christ, even Jesus our Lord/ 
 In ver. 12, it should stand, ‘our boldness and our 
 access/ Ver. 15 should run, ‘from whom every 
 family in heaven and on earth is named/ The 
 
Ephesians . 2 73 
 
 authorised version is an ungrammatical rendering 
 of the original. It is very difficult to convey in 
 English the Apostle’s meaning, which depends on 
 a similarity of words in the original ; the word for 
 family ( p atria ) being derived from that for father 
 [pater) ; that heavenly Pater , from whom every 
 patria in heaven and on earth derives its name and 
 its laws of being. In ver. 17, 4 being rooted and 
 grounded ,’ would better be, 4 having been rooted 
 and grounded.’ In ver. 19, ‘that ye may be filled 
 up unto all the fulness of God.’ Inver. 20, 21, 
 for 4 Now ’ . . . and i glory] read ‘But’ . . . and 
 4 the glory.’ 
 
 In ch. iv. 1, for ‘ of the Lord,’ ‘in the Lord.’ 
 ‘ Vocation ’ simply is ‘ calling ’ in the original, and 
 should have been so expressed. In ver. 4, for 
 ‘ even as ye are called, ] ‘ as ye also were called.’ In 
 ver. 7, for ‘ is given grace] ‘was the grace given.’ 
 In ver. 8, ‘ captivity ’ should be ‘ captives,’ which is 
 what the word ‘ captivity,’ or ‘ a captivity,’ in the 
 original means. Inver, n, ‘ He gave some, apos- 
 tles ] should be filled up so as to be intelligible 
 
 to the English reader, ‘ He gave some to be apos- 
 tles,’ d^c. In ver. 12, 6 the ministry ’ should be 
 4 ministration.’ Ver. 13 should stand, ‘till we all 
 
 T 
 
2 74 How to study the New Testament . 
 
 attain unto the unity of the faith and of the perfect 
 knowledge of the Son of God, unto the full-grown 
 man/ 6°c. In ver. 14 it should be, ‘tossed as 
 waves, and carried about by every wind of teaching, 
 in the sleight of men, in craftiness that leadeth 
 to the system of error ; but being followers of truth 
 in love/ d^c. 6 Speaking the truth ’ is a most in- 
 adequate and unfortunate rendering. It is the 
 whole being, not the tongue alone, that is treated 
 of. In ver. 16, ‘ that which every joint supplhth' 
 should be ‘every joint of the supply:’ i. e., ‘every 
 one of those joints whereby the system of supply is 
 carried on.’ In ver. 18, ‘ blindness ’ is a mistransla- 
 tion. It should have been ‘ hardening/ The literal 
 meaning is, ‘ becoming callous.’ Inver. 19, ‘ have 
 given ’ should be ‘gave/ and in ver. 20, ‘ ye have 
 not so learned ,’ ‘not so did ye learn.’ Ver. 21 
 should stand, ‘ if indeed it was Him that ye heard, 
 and in Him that ye were taught, according as is 
 truth in Jesus.’ In ver. 22 for ‘ concerning the 
 former conversation, ,’ which conveys very little mean- 
 ing to the English reader, substitute ‘ as concerneth 
 your former way of life.’ For ‘ corrupt according to 
 the deceitful lusts] ‘ corrupting (i. e., becoming cor- 
 rupt — neuter) according to the lusts of deceit.’ In 
 
Ephesians. 2-75 
 
 ver. 23, for i in the spirit] ‘by the spirit’ — ‘ the 
 spirit of your mind ’ being the Holy Spirit, dwelling 
 in, and being part of your mind. In ver. 24 it 
 should stand, ‘which was (or hath been) created 
 after God’s image in righteousness and holiness of 
 the truth.’ In ver. 25, ‘ putting away' should be 
 ‘ having put away.’ Inver. 27, ‘ give place' should 
 be ‘give occasion.’ In ver. 29 read ‘ whatever is 
 good for the building up of the need.’ In ver. 30, 
 for ‘ are sealed,’ ‘were sealed.’ Inver. 32, ‘ hath 
 forgiven ' should be ‘ forgave.’ 
 
 In ch. v. 2, for ‘ hath loved ’ and ‘ hath given ’ 
 should stand ‘loved’ and ‘gave.’ In ver. 3, ‘ once ' 
 should be ‘ even.’ In ver. 4, ‘ which are not con- 
 venient' would be better expressed, ‘things which 
 are not becoming.’ In ver. 1 1, ‘but rather reprove 
 them’ does not quite express the original words. 
 Better ‘ but rather even reprove them,’ i. e ., not 
 only make no terms with them, but even go so far, 
 if it may be, as to become their rebukers. In ver. 
 13 the translators appear to have mistaken the voice 
 of a verb, and thus to have misrepresented the 
 original. It should run thus : ‘ But all things when 
 they are reproved are made manifest by the light ; 
 for everything that is made manifest is light ; that 
 
 t 2 
 
276 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 is, — the light of your Christian light, which will be 
 by your reproof shed upon these deeds of darkness, 
 will bring them out of darkness into light, for every- 
 thing, when it is manifested, becomes light. The 
 Ephesians themselves were c once darkness/ but 
 were now become ‘ light in the Lord,’ having been 
 reproved ‘ by God’s Spirit.’ For this reason it will 
 be better in ver. 14 to render instead of ‘ Christ 
 shall give thee light / ‘ Christ shall shine upon thee/ 
 make thee light. Ver. 15 should stand ‘Take heed 
 then how ye walk strictly/ i. e ., Take heed of what 
 sort your strict walking is ; let it not be foolish and 
 headstrong, ignoring the course of Providence 
 and the necessities of place and time, but in view 
 of God’s will, and shaped to suit it. The ‘ strict 
 walker’ is but a fool and a nuisance, unless this 
 be kept in view. The English version misses 
 entirely this important counsel. In ver. 16, ‘re- 
 deeming the time ’ is altogether beside the purpose. 
 The original has ‘ buying up (the) opportunity/ 
 i. e ., of good, wherever it occurs : as the part of 
 him who not only walks strictly, but also does it in 
 wisdom. In ver. 18, again, 6 excess 1 is quite beside 
 the point, and a mere truism. Who ever doubted, 
 that in drunkenness there is excess ? But the word 
 
Ephesians . 
 
 277 
 
 thus rendered means ‘ruin/ ‘profligacy/ reckless 
 casting away of body and soul. The best rendering 
 would be ‘ profligacy.’ Inver. 24, ‘ therefore ’ ought 
 to be ‘nevertheless/ Inver. 26, ‘ the washing' is 
 a mistranslation ; the word in the original never 
 has that meaning. It signifies the vessel in which 
 the washing takes place, ‘ the laver/ or ‘ the font ;’ 
 ‘ water / again, should be, as in the original, ‘ the 
 water/ viz., of baptism, which is here spoken of : 
 ‘ by ’ should be ‘ in/ viz., in the power of Christ’s 
 word, which made the element into a sacrament. 
 In ver. 28, for ‘ his wife ’ read ‘ his own wife.’ 
 
 In ch. vi. 4, ‘ nurture ’ should be ‘discipline.’ 
 For ‘ servants' in ver. 5, 6, it were better to read 
 ‘ bondmen/ or even ‘slaves :’ the servants addressed 
 were not hired, as ours. And the admonitions 
 apply only as far as that which the two states of 
 life have in common. In ver. 6, the words, ‘ from 
 the heart’ are better taken with what follows, 
 
 ‘ from the heart with good will doing service/ and 
 not with what went before. In ver. 9, for ‘ threat- 
 ening] ‘your threatening/ i. e., that which is too 
 common among you. In ver. 10, for ‘ be strong] 
 ‘be ye strengthened.’ In ver. 12, it should be 
 ‘against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the 
 
278 How to study the New Testament. 
 
 heavenly places/ In ver. 15, for ‘ preparation ,’ 
 ‘readiness/ In ver. 16, for ‘ above all/ ‘besides 
 all / and for ‘ the wicked] ‘ the evil one/ In ver. 
 19, instead of ‘ that I may open my mouth boldly to 
 make known / ‘in the opening of my mouth, to 
 make known with boldness/ In ver. 20, ‘ bonds' 
 does not represent the word generally thus ren- 
 dered, but ‘chains/ In ver. 24, for ‘ sincerity ’ read 
 ‘ incorruption/ 
 
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