3. 1 Peter. — Here, too, we find the conception that Christians have passed through a process of re-birth. The word used is not the simple 'to beget,' as in Jn 3^-°, but a compound 'to beget again,' which is found also in ' Western ' author- ities of Jn 3'. Thus when St. Peter speaks of God who ' begat us again,' he describes the life of Christians as a new life into which they had entered, and at the same time emphasizes this life as having originated by a Divine act of God. In 1^ he speaks of Christians as * being begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God.' The seed here seems to describe the Divine nature (cf. 1 Jn 3^), and the ' word ' apparently means the message of the Gospel of the incarnate ' Word.' It is in harmony with this conception of the re-birth of Cln-istians that St. Peter speaks of them as invoking ' a Father' (I").
4. The idea of sonship finds little expression in the remaining hooka of the NT. In He 12'- ''• » affliction is regarded as a proof that God deals M'ith the sutterers as with sons. This is merely metaphorical. More to our point is He 2""- ' It became him, through whom are all things, and all things through him, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the leader of their salvation perfect through sullerings. For he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one.' Some would see in the ' sons ' a reference to the uni- versal Fatlierhood of God, but more probably it is Cliristians who are meant, who have become 'sons' by uniting themselves Avith the one Sun. Consequently He and tliey are all sons of one common Father. The use of 'sons' is in this case parallel to that of ' children ' in Jn IP^. The con- ception of sonship does not occur in James, 2 or 3 John, 2 Peter, or in Jude, for the i)hrase 'God the Father' in 2 P 1'^, 2 Jn*, and Jude' seems to have reference rather to tlie relationsiiip between God and Clirist tlian to that between God and men. In the Apocalypse it occurs only in 21', where it is to be the privilege of those who in-
herit the new Jerusalem that they will be sons of God.
If we now try to summarize the teaching of the Ajjostolic Age as expressed in the writings of the NT on the conception of sonship of God, the follow- ing appear to be the main lines of tliought : (1) There is a recognition of the universal Fatherhood of God, to be seen in the teaching of Christ when once it was detached from a literal Jewish inter- pretation (cf. especially the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the use of the term ' the Father ' in the conversation with the woman of Samaria). It appears, too, in St. Paul's words to the non-Chris- tian Athenians. Whether the inference that God is the Father of all men, from Eph 3'^, is a neces- sary one may be more doubtful. The correlative to this thought of the Fatherhood of God should logically be that of the universal sonship of men. But this receives very scanty expression in the NT (cf. again the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Ac 17"^, and perhaps He 2'''). (2) In a unique sense Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (3) The Christian disciple by virtue of his union with Christ becomes a son, or child, of God. In the language of St. Paul he is adopted to be a son. In the language of St. John and St. Peter he is born or begotten again. The condition of such sonship is faith. It is char- acterized by guidance by the Spirit, and it mani- fests itself in love and in righteousness. Consist- ing in the gift of new life from God (incorruptible seed, or the Spirit), it implies growth, i.e. a pro- gressive assimilation to Christ Himself. The con- summation of this process will be a final adoption at the resurrection (St. Paul), or likeness to Christ at His manifestation (St. John).
LiTERATDRB. — For Sonship of God by new birth, in antiquity, see A. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasiiturgie, Leipzig, 1903, p. 157 ff. ; for Adoption, see W. M. Ramsay, Hist. Com. on Galatians, London, 1899, p. 337 S. and art. ' Adoption ' in ERE. For Son- ship of God in the NT, see the Theolojjies of the NT, e.g. G. B. Stevens, Edinburi^^h, 1S99, pp. 69 if., 591 f. For Sonship in St. John, see B. F. VVestcott, Epistles of St. John, London, 1883, p. 120 f. ; O. Pfleiderer, Primitive Christianity, Eng. tr., L [1906J 365 ff., iv. [1911] 227 ff. W. C. ALLEN.
CHILIARCH.— See Army.
CHILIASM.— See Parousia, EscHATOLoaY.
CHIOS (i) Xfos; now 'Scio').— The name was given to a beautiful island in the Mgean Sea, separated from the mainland of Asia Minor by a picturesque channel, 6 miles wide, which is studded with islets. Its capital was also called Chios. In the 5th cent. B.C. its inhabitants were said to be the wealthiest in Greece. It produced 'the best of the Grecian wines ' (Strabo, XIV. i. 35). Under the Roman Empire it was a free city of the province of Asia, till the time of Vespasian, who included it in the Insularum Provincia.