•jeneral, where the word is not found at all till a late period. The word ir\-qpo(popelv , however, has been found in papyri signifying ' to settle fully an account,' ' to give satisfaction as to a doubtful matter,' 'to be completely satisfied with regard to something that was owing' (A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, London, 1910, p. 82). It occurs once in LXX (Ec 8^^). Otherwise its use is exclusively NT and Patristic. — (a) irXiqpocpopla is used absolute!}' in 1 Th 1-', and, though RVm gives 'much fulness' as the translation of woWtj Tr\r]po(popia, this is weak and inadequate, and ' full assurance ' of A V and RV brings out the proper force of the word and really expresses the Apostle's tJiought. The second term of the composite word (-(popia, -(popelv, -fiaOai) seems to carry with it a sub- jective force both in the noun and in the verb, as uuiy be gathered from examples in the NT and in the Fathers. To this 2 Ti 4^ and Lk 1' may be ex- cejitions. We are justihed, therefore, in rendering in Col '2- ' full assurance of the understanding ' ; in He 6'^ 'full assurance of hope' ; and in 1U-- 'full assurance of faith.' In 1 Clem. xlii. 3 fiera ttXt) po(pop'i.as TTvev/xaTos ayiov is ' with full assurance |)roduced by the Holy Spirit,' altliough it might be 'with full reliance upon the Holy Spirit.' This Clementine passage has the verb also (irX-qpocpopy)- devres) and is peculiarly instructive as to the nature of the ' assurance ' which possessed the apostles as they went forth to be ambassadors of Christ : ' Accordingly having received instructions and having attained to full assurance {irXT^pocpopridevTes) through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and having been put in trust with the word of God, they went forth in full reliance upon the Holy Spirit, preaching the glad tidings that the kingdom of God was about to come.' — {h) Tr\ripo<popei(7$at. has the subjective force we have attributed to it in most of the Pauline and Patristic examples of its use. Of Abraham it is said that he was ' fully assured' (TrXrjpocpop-qdeis) that what God had promised lie was able also to perform (Ro 4^'). In regard to doul)tful questions in the Apostolic Church, St. Paul bids each man be 'fully assured' in his own mind (Ro 14^ RV). The prayer of St. Paul and his friends for the Colossian Christians is that they uuiy stand pjerfect and 'fully assured' (ire-rrXrjpo- (popT)fj.ivoi) in every thing willed by God (Col 4'-^). (n the Epp. of Ignatius, who contends so strenu- ously against Docetic views of the Person of Christ, we find the saint and martyr employing the verb in the same sense as St. Paul. He bids his readers l)e on their guard against the seductions of error and be fully assured {TreTrXijpocpopriaOai) of the Birth, Passion, and Resurrection as historical facts, for these tilings were truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ ' our Hope, from which hope may it never befall any of you to be turned aside' [Mngii. 11). Elsewhere, speaking of the OT profjliets, Ignatius declares that they were inspired l)y the grace of Christ Jesus ' to tlie end that unbelievers might be fully assured (ei's rb TrXrjpo(pop7)97jvaL) that there is one God who manifested Himself through Jesus Clirist, His Son' (M'lgn. 8).
2. The doctrine in the teaching of the apostles. — From an examination of the words employed by the NT writers to express Christian certainty, with the illustrations, which might easily be added to, from tiie .Apostolic Fathers, we can gain a clear outline of the character of 'assurance.' It em- braces a C(mvictiun of the truth of the Christian history, of the historical reality of the Uirtli, I'assion, and Resurrection of Ciirist ; tnistful re- liance upon the promises of God in Jesus (Jiirist His Son ; the exercise of the intelligem-e and the reasoning powers to know without doubt what (Jod requires of His ])eople ; and tlie consciousness of a personal interest in Christ and His great redemp-
tion, wrought by the Spirit in the individual soul. This outline we are able t j lill in from the apostles' teaching in passages where the word itself is not employed. Assurance, as an experience of the apostolic writers and their readers, meets us in nearly every one of the Epistles. St. James, in his Epistle, negatively urges it when he dwells upon the evils of the divided mind, and he has words of commendation for the perfected faith of Abraham (Ja l*^- *• 2-'^-). St. Jude knows the secret when he commends the readers of his brief Epistle to Him that is able to keep them from falling and to ijresent them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude """I. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he bids his readers show diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end (He 6"), means ' that your salvation may be a matter of certainty, and not merely of charitable hope' (A. B. Bruce). And pointing to the blood of sprinkling, and the rent veil, and the new and living way, and the heavenly High Priest, he bids them keep approaching ' with a true heart in full assurance of faith' (lO--). But St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul have teaching on the sub- ject which may be a little more fully drawn out.