The bondage of the will ('the will, deprived of liberty, is led or dragged by necessity to evil ' [Calvin, Inst. iii. 2]), a theologounienon figuring so largely in the Augustinian and the Reformed the- ology, strains Pauline teaching and finds little or no illustration in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
3. The righteous life, on the other hand, is also described as a bondage (Ro 6'*). This servitude, which is that of the oovXoi of God, or of Christ (1 Co 7-^*' etc.), is freedom in relation to that of sin (as per se, cf. ' Whose service is perfect freedom,' Book of Common Prayer), and vice versa. But St. Paul surely uses a gentle irony in representing sinners as ' free ' from the bondage of righteousness (Ro6-»).
4. The term is used of other forms of religious life in contrast to the liberty of the Christian life. Thus in the allegory, wrought out in Rabbinical fashion, in Gal 4^^^-, Judaism spells bondage ; the gospel, freedom. In v.^ and vv.^'^" slavery virh rk (TToixeia rod Kocr/xov includes apparently reference both to Jewish legalism and to Gentile devotion to false gods. In this connexion must be noted Ro 8"* (cf. Gal 4^'"') with its striking contrast between the servile temper of fear characterizing life under law, so A'ividly depicted in Ro 7, and the filial spirit of happy confidence pertaining to Christian experi- ence. For another instance of the association of
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BOOK OF LIFE
bondage with fear and the antithesis between the lilial and the servile condition, see He 2''*''.
5. In Ro 8^^ all creation is represented as being in bondage — ' servitude to decay ' — but hoping for deliverance and for that freedom whicli character- izes 'the glory of the children of God.' With this contrast the reference in 2 P 2'^ to ' the bondage of corruption ' as = moral degradation.
J. S. Clemens.
BONDS.— See Prison, Chain.
BOOK.— See Writing,
BOOK OF LIFE.— The actual phrase occurs in six passages only of the NT : Ph 4^ Ftev 3^ IS^ 17« 2012.15 2127 (in 22^9 the evidence for the reading 'book of life' [AV] instead of 'tree of life'[RV] is negligible). Of these passages the most import- ant for the purpose of determining the meaning is Rev 201^- 1^, because there the book of life is dis- tinguished from certain other books : ' and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the hooks, according to their works . . , and whoso- ever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire.' The natural implication here is that the other books were records of works, but that the book of life was simply a register of the names of those destined for life — an interpre- tation which fits all the above-noted passages.
An interesting exegetical point comes up in connexion with Rev 13^. The words ' from the foundation of the world' may grammatically refer either to ' written ' or to ' the Lamb which hath been slain.' But in 17^ where the same phrase occurs, the only natural way to take it is as referring to ' written ' ; and this is practically decisive for 13^ also (so Swete, Apoc. of Si. John ^, London, 1907, and RV). The phrase thus carries a suggestion of predestination ; but this is not thought of as absolute, since the idea of blotting out a name from the book of life occurs quite freely.
With the above-noted passages there fall into line a number of others where the same conception is clearly implied : Lk 10-", Dn 12i, Ps 69-8, Ex 3232. 33^ 'pijg conception of a register found in all these passages seems to be based on the analogy of citizen-lists, registers of the theocratic com- munity, such as are referred to in Is 4^ : ' He that is left in Zion shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem ' (cf. Neh 12-2- 23, Ezk 13«). To be written in the heavenly counterpart of such a list meant to be assured of being a sharer in the blessings destined for the true Israel. Other passages which associate them- selves more or less closely with this conception are 1 S 25-'*', Ps 87" 139i«, Is i8^\ Jer 223o, He 1223.
The conception of a heavenly record of man's actions, which we found clearly distinguished from the above in Rev 20'- 1^, appears equally distinct in Dn 7'" as compared with 12i. See also Ps 56^ Is 65", Mai 3'«.
Diffaient again is the conception of the Book with tlie Seven Seals in Rev 5, for that is thought of as the book of destiny — the prophetic history of the world.
All three conceptions appear in the Book of Enoch. When the Head of Days 'seated Himself on the throne of His glory, and the books of the living were opened before Him ' {E71. xlvii. 3), the context makes it clear that the purpose of the opening of the books is not a great assize, it is a vindication of the righteous that is at hand, and 'the living' means, not all living, but the righteous. Charles remarks that 'books of the holy ones' in En. cviii. 3 has practically the same meaning. The complementary conception ' tiie book of those that