While the duty of obedience is specially associ- ated in OT with the precepts οἱ the Law (so Dt 30”, Ex 247, Jer 44%), it is not restricted thereto. No commandment of J”, however de- livered, can safely be disregarded (cf. Ex 5%, the case of Pharaoh ; 1 S 15 39 288 Saul, in the case of Amalek; 1 K 20%, the prophet who disobeyed J”; Jer 38” 421% 21 444-7, the matter of the Egyp- tian alliance). Hence it is required, not merely in the case of J” Himself (Job 36": ™, ef. Ex 23°” the Malak J”; Pr 57: 15. the divine Wisdom), but of His human representatives (Joshua, Nu 27, Jos 1"; the judges, Jg 27; Samuel, 1S 8; the future prophet, Dt 18"; the servant of J”, Is 50").
In many points the NT usage follows the OT (ef. the references to Israel in Ro 1015, Ac 759, He 2? 118). In a few cases obedience is predicated of inanimate objects (the wind and the sea, Mt 8”, Mk 4", Lk 8”; the mountains, Lk 17°), or of the evil spirits in the presence of Christ (Mk 1”). With these exceptions, it is used of men, either in their human relations (children to pga Eph θ᾽, Col 3%; wives to husbands, 1 P 3°; servants to masters, Eph 6°, Col 3”), or more frequently in their relations to God (Ac 5”), to Christ (2 Co 10°), or to their human representatives, as the apostles (Paul, 2 Th 34, Ph δι 2. Co 29, Philem# ; Titus, 2 Co 7). Characteristic of the Greek usage is the impersonal use of the object. Men are said to be servants of sin (Ro 6"), unrighteousness (Ro 2°), obedience (Ro 6'*), the truth (Ro 95, Gal 5”), the teaching (Ro 67), the word (1 P 3'), the pel (2 Th 1°, 1 P 417), the heavenly vision (Ac 26").
The importance of obedience is no less empha- sized in NT thanin OT. It is at once the cause and the condition of salvation. Through one act of obedience (Ro 5) Christ became to all His followers the author of an eternal salvation (He δ᾽). But this salvation is only to be obtained on con- dition that they also obey (He δ). In His fare- well address to His disciples Christ makes obedi- ence the supreme test of love (Jn 14’ *, cf. Dt
5°), Paul declares that the obedience of the Christian should extend even to the very thoughts (2 Co 10°). On the other hand, disobedience is the
Adam’s act of disobedience sin
supreme evil. By entered the winia (Ro δ᾽»). Israel’s troubles in the days of the old covenant were due to the same cause, Still worse is the case of those who disobey under the new covenant (He 2%), Such shall receive dreadful punishment, even eterna!
582 OBEISANCE
OBSERVE, OBSERVATION
destruction at the Parousia of Christ (2 Th
15 ἢ.
Since the great duty which God requires under the new covenant is faith in ὌΠ ΕΝ diedience for the Christian takes the form of faith, as Ro 15 16%, where the two words are combined in the expression ‘the obedience of faith’ (cf. Ac 6’, He 11°, the case of Abraham). Hence obedience re- ceives in the Epistles the technical meaning of acceptance of the Christian religion. So without qualifying words Ro 15 16”, 1 P 1? (cf. Ro 6” ‘Ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered’); Gal 5’, Ro 2%, obedient to the truth; 1 P 3), the word ; 2Th 1%, 1 P 4", the gospel. The phrase ‘chil- dren of obedience’ is used in 1 P 1} as equivalent to Christians. On the other hand, the expression ‘sons of disobedience’ is used by St. Paul to denote those who belong to this world (Eph 2? 5°, Col 35.
The great example of obedience is Christ, who ‘humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’ (Ph 2%); who, ‘though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obe him the author of eternal salvation’ (He δ", cf. Ro δ᾽. Hence it should be the effort of every Christian to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience or Christ (2 Co 10°).
Lrrgratune.—Cremer, Bib.-Theol. Lex. sub ὑπακούω, «εἴϑομαι, and Ley Harless, Christian Ethics (Eng. tr.), 115-125; Weiss, Bibl. Theol. of NT, Index ; Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, 863-380. The subject is treated homiletically by H. P. Liddon, Some Words of Christ, 63; P. Brooks, Light of the World, 340; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. 94; H. E. Manning, Sermons, i. 117, 129, 242, 287. W. ApAMs Brown.
OBEISANCE.—‘ Obeisant’ and ‘ obeisance,’ com- ing through the French, have been superseded by ‘ qhediant and ‘obedience’ which came directly from the Lat. obediens. Maundeville, Travels, 155, says, ‘In that Lond chei have a Queen, that governethe alle that Lond; and alle thei ben obeyssant to hire.’ And Berners, Froissart, p. 85 (Globe ed.), has, ‘And when the month was ex- pired that they of Segur should give up their town, the earl sent thither, and they of the town rave up and became under the obeisance of the
‘ing of England.’ The form is already rare in the sixteenth century. When found it is almost always in the phrase ‘make obeisance’ or ‘do obeisance.’ Sha —— has the subst. once (the adj. not at all) in the phrase ‘Call him “‘ madam,” do him obeisance’—Tam. Shrew, Ind. i. 108. But AV has retained from Tindale, as the tr. of any shahah (in its Hithpael conj.), ‘make obeisance’ in Gn 377-* 43%, 2 Ch 24", and ‘do obeisance’ in Ex 187, 2S 1? 144 155, 1K 1% Το the examples of ‘do obeisance’ RV makes some additions, viz., for AV ‘do reverence’ in 2S 95,1 Καὶ 1%; for AV ‘bow oneself’ in 1 § 248 9819, 2S 98 14%] Καὶ 1%; and for AV ‘humbly beseech’ in 2S 16. The Heb. verb in the form so tr4 means to prostrate oneself in reverence or worship, and is variously rendered both in AV and RV, though its usual tr. is ‘worship.’ See WoRsHIP. J. HASTINGs.