contact with the dead, should be sprinkled with ‘the water of separation.’ In the true Israel not water poured on the ashes of the victim, but the blood of Jesus Christ (ef. He 9"), is ever ready for the cleansing of those who are obedient, but who from time to time are defiled through contact with evil. Thus the sequence of thought is precisely that in 1 Jn 17 (ἐὰν ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν. . . τι αἷμα Ἰησοῦ κ.τ.λ.)." The end of the divinely sustained growth (2?) and of the discipline of the Christian man (15) is ‘salvation’ (els σωτηρίαν᾽--- that ‘perfect soundness’ which answers to God’s purpose in creation.
(3) The Church.—The two aspects in which the Christian Church is prominently presented in this Epistle are closely related to OT language and Jewish thought. (a) The Church is regarded ‘as first and foremost the true Israel of God, the one legitimate heir of the promises made to Israel’ (Hort p. 7). Hence in 2% the remarkable trans- ference to Christians in their corporate aspect of the prerogatives which belonged to Israel. The Christian Society is represented as a priestly body (2°) chosen to do priestly service (25), but the spiritual character of this worship (as opposed to the material and merely ceremonial worship of ancient Israel) is insisted on (πνευματικὰς θυσίας, 25; οἵ, Ro 12), Jn 43). The idea of the new Israel is not foreign to St. Paul (e.g. Gal 615) or other writers of the NT, but nowhere is it insisted on with such emphasis as here. (4) The Church is a universal brotherhood (917 59), In the OT Israelites are con- stantly described as ‘brethren’ (6... Ex 418, Dt
* Hort, basing the interpretation of the phrase on Ex 2438 concludes that the reference is to an initial pledge of obedience and an initial ‘sprinkling with blood ’'—the admission to the Christian covenant. The preposition εἰς (emphasized by juxta- position with ἐν), pointing to a goal, and the position of the clause
seem to the present writer strong arguments against interpretation.
PETER, FIRST EPISTLE
18%, Neh 5°); for the usage of later times comp. ¢.g. 2 Mac 1’, Ac 22° 287. In the true Israel the tie is not natural, but spiritual. It grows out of the fundamental fact of the Divine ἀναγέννησις (15). The duties involved in this brotherhood are dis- tinctly described as flowing from the spiritual relation of Christians to God as their Father— ἀλλήλους ἀγαπήσατε... ἀναγεγεννημένοι (13). Hence the re insistence on ἀγάπη and φιλαδελφία (17 2)" 4°), If the very term ἀδελφότης (2! 5°) emphasizes the notion of unity, the 4 ifying words ἡ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ (5°; of. διασπορᾶς, 1') su zgest the idea of universality: the Tiehernaed is catholic. Little is said of the organization of the Church. The spirit in which elders are to work is enforced in 5'™, In 4! there is an allu- sion to the due exercise of χαρίσματα in the Chris- tian Society, and particular reference is made to those who teach and those who minister. The term ἐκκλησία, however, does not occur in the Epistle. The allusions to the Church suggest that, while the writer had a deep realization of the broad facts, he had not been led specially to ponder on their inner significance and promise, as the ‘Ephesians’ shows that St. Paul had done.
(4) Eschatology.—The Epistle holds an import- ant position in the NT in respect to eschatological teaching. St. Peter (47) regards the ‘end of all things,’ $.e. the great consummation, when the oticoeer order will pass away, as near at hand. In his point there is an important contrast between the i Rot this Epistle and that of the later Epistles of St. Paul (Hort, Romans and Ephesians
. 141f.). The time of the end is regarded under
Ὁ chief aspects. (1) It will be a time of ἀποκά- Avyis. Then the progressive ‘revelation of Jesus Christ’ (12) will culminate in a final ‘revelation of Jesus Christ’ (17 5‘; cf. Lk 17), a ‘revelation of his glory’ (44; cf. 1+”). Then will be the sea ἔσχατος when the ‘inheritance’ of Christians
ill be ‘revealed,’* their participation in the glory ‘which shall be revealed’ (61), God’s αἰώνιος δόξα which was the goal of their ‘calling’ (5%). (2) It will be atime of judgment. God, indeed, is essentially ὁ κρίνων---ἀπροσωπολήμπτως negatively. without partiality; 117), δικαίως (positively, with absolute justice ; 2%), ἑτοίμως (with the unerring
ion of perfect knowledge; 4°). His judg- ment is individual, and is determined by eac man’s action (117). it will then comprehend ‘ quick and dead’ (4°; cf. Ac 10%, 2 Ti4'). It will be ob- served that, throughout, the judgment is ascribed to the final authority of the Father (cf. e.g. Ro 14”), and that nothing is said in the Epistle of the mediatorship of the Son in the judgment (Ro 2° 2 Co 5"; cf. Jn 5%”), : But the question inevitably arises, How will rfect justice in judging the dead deal with ose who died before the proclamation of the gospel? To this question St. Peter gives an answer in 4°, in close connexion with which we must take 3!-, The difficulty of the two passages lies not so much in any obscurity of language as in the mysterious nature both of the subject with which they deal and of the problems which they suggest. The earlier of the two passages (3'%) is limited in scope, dealing only with the case of those who, being disobedient, perished in the a typical judgment of the ancient world. he interpretations which explain the words as