The prophetic writer of Revelation naturally retains the old picturesque language with its dread suggestion. His armies of angelic horsemen have breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brim- stone— red and blue and yellow — and their breath is fire and smoke and brimstone (9^''). The worship- pers of the Beast and his image are to be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels and the Lamb (14^°). And the destruction of the wicked in the end of the age Avill be a magnified re})etition of the overthrow of the cities of the Ghor — the godless multitude are to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (2^8 . cf. 19-" 201").
James Strahan.
BROTHER.— See Family.
BROTHERHOOD.— See Brethren, Fellow- ship.
BROTHERLY LOVE.— 1. Meaning of the words
and usage. — The word 0tXa5e\0ia occurs in the NT in Ro 12'^ 1 Th 4^, He 13', 1 P 1", 2 P F. The AV renders it in the first three passages ' brotherly love,' in the fourth ' love of the brethren,' in the last ' brotherly kindness ' (in order to mark a quali- tative as well as a quantitative distinction between (piXadeXcpla and the following dydir-n). The RV has in all passages ' love of the brethren,' which is more correct, since in the Greek word the second part takes the place of an objective, not a subjective, genitive. The adjective ^iXdSeX^oy is found in 1 P 38. The original meaning of the word is the literal one of love for brothers (and sisters) by blood-relationship (cf. Xen. il/em. II. iii. 17, ' loving one like a brother' ; Jos. Ant. IV. ii. 4, where the word is used of Moses and Aaron ; Lucian, Dial. Deor. xxvi. 2, where it is used of Castor and Pollux). In the NT it has only the metaphorical sense of love towards the fellow-members of the Church — a usage which already occurs in earlier Jewish writ- ings (cf. 2 Mac 15'^ the love of Israelite towards Israelite). It should be noted that ' the brother- hood '(IP 2''') to which this love applies is nowhere in the NT humanity as such. 'Brethren' is not the correlate of the universal Fatherhood of God, but of that specific paternal relation which God sustains to believers (cf. Mt238-'*). _ The NTconcep- tion has its root in the redemptive experience of Israel (Zee ll'-», Mai 2i») and of the Apostolic Church. It obtains its significance for universal- ism through the missionary extension of this, not through pliilosophical abstraction from all positive differences as is the case with the Hellenic idea of cosmopolitanism. Even where tlie duty of love for all men is based on kinship by nature, tin's is traced back to creation in the image of God (Ja 3^). In 1 Th 3'^ love towards the fellow-members of the Church and towards all is explicitly distinguished,
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but it is uncertain whether 'all' here means all Christians or all men. In 2 P 1' ' love ' appears as something supplementary to ' brotherly love ' ; the context here requires the reference of this ' love ' to man ; the distinction between (piXadeXcpia and dydirt] must therefore lie in the range of extent ; at the same time the difference in the Avord used suggests the deeper and more intimate character of brotherly love (cf. 4)LXdv in Jn 5'-^" 16'-^). In Gal 6'" a distinction is made between the working of good toward ' all men ' and toward ' them that are of the household of the faith.'
2. The primacy of love in Christianity. — The dis- tinctiveness of Christianity lies not so much in the theoretical discovery or proclamation of the prin- ciple of love, either as constitutive in the Divine character or as regulative for human conduct, but rather in the production of forces and motives which give to the principle a new concrete reality in the life of men (cf. Mk 12^2, Lk 10-^ 1 Jn 'J? 3-*). Still, even as a subject of teaching, love occupies a prominent place in the apostolic writings. It ap- pears not merely as one important factor among others in tlie Cliristian life, but as its chief and most characteristic ingredient, greater even than faith and hope (1 Co 13'^). The Pastoral Epistles utter a warning against the absorption of the re- ligious interest by the false gnosis and its asceti- cism or impure love to the detriment of true Chris- tian love ( 1 Ti P 5^ 2 Ti 2^2-25 31-4. lO), xhe primacy of love also hnds expression in such passages as Ro 13»-i", Eph IS Ja 2', Kev 2\
3. LoYC for God. — The love thus made prominent is, before all else, love towards God. Ritschl's view, that the NT writers, especially St. Paul, conceive of love towards God as something difficult of attain- ment, and therefore hesitate to speak of it, except in the quotation which underlies lio 8^, 1 Co 2" 8^, Ja V' 2^ is not borne out by tlie facts. Against it speaks 2 Th 2^. Conceptions like ' living unto God ' (Ro G^'J- ", Gal 2'9), 'pleasing God' (Ro 8^, Gal P", 1 Th 4'), 'offering sacrilice to God' (Ro 12' 15'8, Ph 418, He 13'3, 1 P 25), 'serving God' (Ro P 7" W^, ITh P, 2 Ti P, He Qi^), all imply that the Chris- tian's religious life is inspired by an affection directly terminating upon God (cf. also 1 Co 14'-, Rev 2^"- '^). It is unwarranted, where the concep- tion of love occurs without further specihcation of the object, to think exclusively of the fraternal affection among Christians mutually. In many cases the writers may have had in mind primarily the love for God. The very fact that Christian love must be exercised in imitation of Christ favours this primary God- ward reference (Eph 5'-). Nor is it correct to say that the only mode of expressing love to God lies in the service of men. 1 Jn 4'^ is often quoted in proof of this, but the passage in the context means no more than that the invisibility of God exposes man in his feeling of love for Him to the danger of self-deception, which can be guarded against by testing oneself in regard to the actual experience of love for the brethren. Hence in 5- the opposite principle is also affirmed, viz. that the assurance of the genuineness of one's love for the brethren is obtainable from the exercise of love and obedience towards God. Only in so far as the love of God assumes the form of concrete deeds of helpfulness, it cannot serve God except in the brethren.