fellow-man. There can be no doubt that a great Father like St. Gregory the Great rightly interprets the spirit of the NT when he says that when we give what they need to those who are in want, we give them that which is their own ; we are not giving away what is ours, we are rather discharg- ing an obligation of justice than performing a work of mercy (Lib. Reg. Pastor, pt. iii. ch. xxi.).
Literature. — E. Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen Eirchen und Gruppen, 1912 ; R. W. and A. J. Carlyle, A His- tory of Medioeval Political Theory in the West, vol. i. ('The 2nd cent, to the 9th,' by A. J. Carlyle), 1903; E. B. Redlich, St. Paul and his Companions, 1913, p. 7 ; O. Cone, Rich and Poor in the liT, 1902, p. 143 2. ; E. Schiirer, GJf's ii. [1S9S] 564 fE.
A. J. Carlyle. COMPASSION.— See Pity.
CONCISION.— See Ciecumcision.
CONCUPISCENCE.— See Lust.
CONDEMNATION.— Not only from the Gospels, but from the rest of the RV as well, the word ' damnation ' disappears, ' condemnation ' taking its place in Ro 3® and 1 Ti 5'^ 'destruction' in 2P 23, and 'judgment' in Ro 13^ and 1 Co ll^s. The reason is that the process of degeneration, which had begun before the translation of the AV, linked up the term Avith conceptions of finality and eternity, originally alien to it, and thus made it no longer representative of apostolical thought. With the exception of 2 P 2^, the same Greek root occurs in all instances, and the context in the various passages is mainly responsible for the differ- ent shades of meaning. In the case of the verb, an exception must also be made of Gal 2^^, where the idea is that the act of Peter needed no verdict from outside, but carried its own condemnation, as in Ro 2' W^ and Tit 3".
Little difficulty attaches to the use of the term in the sense of ' destruction ' in tlie case of Sodom (2 P 2®), to the reference to the ark as a visible sign of the destruction about to come upon the unbelieving (He IP), or to the denunciation by James (5") of men wlio unjustly ascribe blame to others and exact penalty for the imagined fault. The Avanton are rightly condemned for the rejec- tion of the faith whose value they had learnt by experience (1 Ti 5^'^). Sound speech, on the other hand, cannot be condemned (Tit 2^). The man who fails to judge and discipline himself is re- minded of his duty by Divine chastening ; and if that fail, he shares in the final judgment with the lost (1 Co Ipi'-; cf. Mk 9"^-}. In Ro 5i«- ^^ coq. demnation is the consequence of an original act of evil, and suggests the antithesis of a single act of righteousness, the effects of which overflow to the potential justification of all men ; and the freedom from condemnation continues beyond the initial stage of forgiveness and rijiens into all the assured experiences of union with Clirist (Ro 8')-
In several passages the term is involved in a context which to some extent obscures the mean- ing. The justification of evil as a means to good is indignantly dealt with in Ro 3^ ; with the authors of the slander that he shared that view the apostle refuses to argue, but he leaves them with the just condemnation of God impending. That God ' condemned sin in the flesh ' (Ro 8^) has been taken to mean that tlie sinlessness of Clirist was by contrast a condemnation of the sin of man, or that the incarnation is a token that human nature is essentially sinless ; but the previous phrases connect the thought with the death rather than with the birth of Clirist. For Him as man death meant the crown of sinlessness, tlie closure of the last avenue through which temptation could approach Him ; and in virtue of union with Christ, the believer who is dead with Him is free from
CONFESSION
COI^^FESSIOX
237
sin, though not immune from temptation. In 2 Go's'' ' condemnation ' is antitlietical to ' righteous- ness,'and synonymous ^Yith 'death' in v.^. The ar«mment appears to be that sin is so horrible that the law which reveals it is glorious ; a fortiori the covenant that sweeps it out exceeds in glory. 'This condemnation' of Jude* ought grammatic- ally to be retrospective, but NT usage allows _ a prospective use with an explanatory phrase in apposition. The meaning is that ungodliness of the kind described is self-condemned, as has been set forth in various ways in Scripture (cf. Jn 3^*, 2 P 21-2) as well as in Enoch, i. 9 (cf. Judei'*-!^). 'The condemnation of the devil ' (1 Ti 3**) is a com- parison of his fall with that of any vainglorious member of the hierarchy. Both being God's minis- ters to the people, the similarity is one of circum- stance, not necessarily of degree.
R. W. Moss.
CONFESSION.— 1. Confession of Christ.— The duty of confessing Christ before men was very plainly taught by the Lord. He promised (Mt 10^^) that He would Himself acknowledge a faithful disciple before His Father and the holy angels. He had challenged by a leading question the con- fession of St. Peter : ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ' (Mt le^**), which He commended. In the Acts we find the same root ideas carried into practice. St. Peter and the other apostles openly confessed Jesus as the Christ (Ac 23"-), The references to baptism into the name of the Lord most probably refer to the confession of faith in Him which was made by all candidates for bap- tism. Probably the little creed put into the mouth of the Ethiopian eunuch (Ac 8" ' I believe that .Jesus Christ is the Son of God ') is an interpolation, and represents the creed of some Church in Asia Minor, since it was known to Irenseus.