I. CORINTHIANS 8, 3. 141

This is the precise sentiment of the text. Love is essential to knowledge. He that loves God, knows God. The apostle in this connection interchanges love of the brethren and the love of God, because the love of the brethren is only one of the forms in which the love of God manifests itself. When he said, " Love edifieth," he meant love to the brethren, and without that love, he says, there can be no true knowledge ; but if a man love God, (which includes love to the brethren,) the same is known of him. What is meant by this last expres- sion, is not easy to determine. To he known of God may, according to scriptural usage, mean, 1. To be selected or approved by hun, Exod. 33, 12. 17. Nahum 1, 7. Matt. 7, 23. 2. To be recognized as belonging to a particular class. So here, the sense may be, ' Is recognized by him as one of his disciples, or as one of his children. 3. To be the object of God's knowledge ; but what this can mean in this connection, unless it include the idea of approbation, it is not easy to see. 4. According to others, the word {tyvwcrrai) is to be taken in a Hophal sense — ' has been caused to know.' ' K any man loves God, the same has by him been brought to the true knowledge.' This view certainly suits the context. * If a man is without love, he has not true knowledge ; but if he love God, he has the right kind of knowledge.' The later gram- marians deny that the passive form of Greek verbs ever has a causative sense analogous to the Hophal of Hebrew verbs. But as intransitive verbs in Greek often have a causative sig- nification, (see Matt. 5, 45. 28, 19. 2 Cor. 2, 14,) it is not unreasonable that the passive form should be so used, if the context require it. In Gal. 4, 9, Paul says, " If after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God ; " where the sense may be, ' or rather have been taught of God.' Whether the general principle be admitted or not, that the passive of Greek verbs can have this causative force, it is not improbable that Paul assumed that the particular verb ytvwo-Kciv might mean cognoscere facere^ (i. e. to teach^) a sense attributed to it by Stephanus in his Thesaurus ; and if so, the passive as here used may mean, was taught. It is to be noticed, that it is only this verb that he appears to use in this way. If, how- ever, this interpretation be rejected, as is done by the major- ity of modern commentators, as contrary to Greek usage, the first explanation given above gives a good sense. ' If any love God, the same is approved of him, i. e. is recognised as having the right kind of knowledge.'