his mud hovel and enter in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
3. If SO be that being clothed we shall not be
found naked.
Few verses in this epistle have been more variously ex- plained than this. In the first place the reading is doubtful. The received text has ctye, which the great majority of the critical editions also adopt ; Lachmann, on the authority of the manuscripts, B, D, E, F, G, reacl^ dircp. The latter {if so be, 2^^ovided) expresses doubt; the former (since) expresses certainty. This distinction, however, is not strictly observed in Paul's writings. See 1 Cor. 8, 5. Gal. 3, 4. Col. 1, 23. 2 Thess. 1,6. A more important diversity is that several ancient manuscripts and most of the Fathers read cKSucra/xcvot (un- clothed) instead of hSvadfievoL (clothed). The former renders the passage much plainer. * We earnestly desire to be clothed with our house from heaven, since (or, even if) being unclothed we shall not be found naked.' That is, ' Although despoiled of our earthly tabernacle we shall not be found houseless.' Mill, Semler and Riickert prefer this reading, but the weight o^authonty is in flivoiir of the received text. There are three general modes of explaining this passage which have been adopted. 1. Calvin among the older commentators, and Us- teri and Olshausen among the moderns, say that the words clothed and nciked must be understood to refer to the moral or spiritual state of the soul ; to its being clothed with right- eousness or being destitute of that robe. Calvin says the apostle's design is to Hmit the blessedness spoken of in the preceding verses to the righteous. The wicked are to be de- spoiled of their bodies and will appear naked before God ; but believers, being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, will stand before him in the glorious vesture of immortality. There are two garments, therefore, he says, referred to ; the one, the righteousness of Christ, received in this life; the oth- er, immortal glory, received at death. The former is the cause and necessary condition of the latter. Calvin lays special stress on the Kat, cdso, which is inserted for the sake of ami)lilication, as though Paul had said, 'A new garment shall be prei)ared for believers at death if also (or already) in this life they were clothed.' This interpretation, however, is evi- dently out of keei)ing with the context. It is very unnatural