latest parts of the Pent. (Lv 10=, N-i !«• 18»; cf. Ex 12'» 30'^ Nu 8'"— all from P). The Book of Genesis, remarkably enough, has no men- tion of the wrath of God, though its equivalent is there in repeated manifestations of God s judgment on sin (expulsion from Eden, cursing of the ground, flaming sword, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.). Ritschl's view of the Biblical development has features of its own. He rightly conceives of wrath as connected with the divine holiness, but would interpret the latter attribute as expressing originally only the notion of God as the exalted, powerful, unapproachable One, to draw neai to whom would mean instant destruction for the creature ; and sees the peculiar manifestation of wrath, accordingly, under OT conditions, in a sudden, unexpected, and violent destruction of the life of those who had violated the obligations of the covenant (Rccht. und Ver. ii. pp. 93, 125, 135, 136). We can only urge in reply that there is no stage in the OT revelation in which the ideas of transcendence over the world, and of moral per- fection, are not already united in the conception of holiness. The instances which most readily suggest an outburst of destructive energy apart from moral considerations, are those in which indi^•iduals or companies are smitten for what may seem very slight faults, or acts of inadvertence {e.g. 1 S 4'*- ^, 2 § 2'). But even in these instances a careful examination will show that it is the moral sanctity of the divine character which is the ground of the special awfulness with which it is invested.
When, finally, we pass from the OT to the NT, we find that the notion of God's wrath is not essentially altered, though the revelation of love and grace which now fills the vision places it comparatively in the background. The Marcionite view, which would represent the contrast between the God of the OT and the God of the NT as that between a wrathful avenging Deity and a loving Father who is incapable of anger, is, on the face of it, incorrect. The pitying, fatherly character of God is not absent from OT (Ex 34'- ", Ps 103''), but, even there, is rather the primary basis of God's self-revelation, to which the mani- festation of wrath and judgment is subordinate. He is 'slow to a.' (Ps 103' et al.), and 'fury (w. ) is not in' Him (Is 27^). On the other hand, the fatherly love of God in NT does not exclude the aspect of Him as 'Judge' (1 P 1"), and 'a consuming fire' (He 12^), whose wTath is a terrible reality, from which Christ alone can save us (Jn 3", Ro V>-^' 5», 1 Th 11" etc.). In this connexion Ritschl labours hard to show that ' wrath ' in NT has (as in OT prophets) uniformly an eschatological reference, and does not apply to the present con- dition. He goes even further, and challenges its right to a place in the Christian system at all. ' The notion of the affection of wrath in God,' he says, 'has no religious worth for Christians, but is an unfixed and formless theologoumenon' {Recht. und Ver. ii. p. 154). It is no doubt true that the eschatological asjiect of wrath is prominent in NT . and that for the reason already given the WTath of God throughout recedes into the background, and becomes, as it were, an attribute in reserve (Ro 2°, 3**) ; but many indications warn us that it is onhj in reserve, and is still there in its unchanged character, and rests with its heavy weight upon the disobedient (.In 3^, Eph 2--'); nay, that in a most real sense its etl'ects are manifest in the terrible retributions for sin exacted from men even here (Mt 23"- '«, Ro P'-", Ac .5'-" etc.). And if the objec- tion is urued, as it will be by many, that the attri- bution of wrath or anger to God (otherwise than as the reflection of the sinner's distrustful thought* regarding Him) is an unworthy mode of con- ception, and derogates from the divine perfection.
ANGLE
ANXAS
99
It may at least with equal justice be repliert that a Ruler of the universe who was incapaole of being moved with an int«nse moral indignation at sin, and of putting forth, when occasion required, a destroying energy against it, would be lacking in an essential element of moral perfection ; nor would either the righteousness or the mercy of sncb a Being have any longer a substantive value.
LmRATPRB.— Weber Vom Zamt Gottet, 1862; Ritschl De Ira Dei, 1859, Recht. und Ver. ii. pp. 89-148 ; Oehler Theology V O.T. 1. pp. 151-168 (Eng. tr.); Schultz O.T. Theology, ii. yg- 187-179 ; D. W. Simon The Redemption tff J/otv— ch. v. 'The Anger ot God"; DaJo The AUmemeiU, Lect. VIII. ; Lux Mundi, pp. 285-288. J. QKR.
ANGLE occurs only as a subst.. Is 19* 'all they that cast a. into the "brooks' ; Hab 1" 'They take up all of them with the a.' In Job 41', the only other occurrence of the Heb. word (njn), the tr. is ' hook ' (RV ' fish-hook '). See FisHINO.
J. Hastings.
ANGLO-SAXON YERSION.-See Versions.
ANIAM (cyjK 'lament of people'). — A man of Manasseh (1 Ch 7"). See Genealogy.