Hitherto, no reference has been made to the Epistles of St. John, and indeed in these Epistles no mention is made of the act of creation. But it may none the less be maintained that St. John adds an essential element to the whole apostolic doctrine. A consideration of this may be intro- duced by a summary of the foregoing. As we have seen, the majority of apostolic writers are not in- terested in the question. How did things originate? Their language can be used with equal sincerity by those who believe in separate acts of creation and in some form of evolution (though doubtless, if questioned, all of them would have upheld a literal interpretation of Gn 1). Their interest is in crea-
* A word should here be added on the four terms for creation and created objects ; ktiVcs denotes created things either singly or collectively, like the much rarer KrCcrixa (Ro 819, Col 1^, He 911, 2 P 'i-*; cf. Wis 196). K6a-iioi is the world as an ordered system ' relative to man as well as God ' (Westcott), and thus comes to denote the order of things apart from God, separate from Him, and even in antagonism to llim(e.g. in Ro 36, 1 Co 120 4», 2Co5i», He ll^, Ja 127, and constantly in 1 Jn.). alu>v is chiefly a dispensation evolving into something farther : when used in the singular, it refers either to the present age or to the perfect age; but it is often used, quite naturally, in the plural (cf. He 12 118, also 2 Co 44, Eph 22).
CRESCENS
CRETE, CRETANS
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tion as a stage or epoch ; an epoch destined, after its work is done, to give place to a better, whose beginnings can even now be discerned. Neither of these stages can be understood apart from Christ. The first, like the second, is good, because it is the work of God. It is based on Christ ; it is held to- gether in Christ. But its goodness (to employ the profound Aristotelian distinction) is a matter of 5vva/xis rather than of ivreXix^ia. Moreover, it exists side by side with another order, Kda/mos, which is ruled over by the powers of evil, and which is doomed not to be superseded but destroyed. The second stage or epoch, whose succession to the first is sometimes spoken of in terms of a sudden catastrophe, sometimes, as it would seem, as the result of a long process — ' one far-otf divine event ' — is the complete manifestation of the will of God ; it involves a kind of transfigured pantheism, in which God is all things, and in all things (1 Co 15-^).
St. John does not, however, pay attention to these two epochs ; his antithesis is throughout between the present evil order and God's final purposes (the phrase 6 Kda/j-os b fi^Wuv is never used). This order is the abode of evil (1 Jn 2^^) and of the great enemy of God (4'*) ; it lies, indeed, in the evil one (5'*) ; it is passing away (2''') ; it is not to be loved (2'^ ; contrast Jn 3^^), but to be conquered (5^). On the other hand, the Son of God has been sent into the world ; and through believing in Him is enjoyed, here and now, the gift of eternal life — a gift so complete and fiual that only in one passage does 1 Jn. speak with any deliniteness of a future order at all (3^). As the other apostolic writers imply, the order of creation which centres in Christ, properly understood, is not physical, but moral and spiritual ; and therefore, to those who believe in Christ, it is present here and now.
References in the Apostolic Fathers are not numerous ; the deeper aspects of NT teaching were hardly caught ; attention may be called, however, to 1 Clement : ' the Creator and Father of the ages ' (ch. XXXV.), 'the God of the ages' (Iv.), and 'the King of the ages' (Ixi.). In Hermas we have a further reminiscence of the NT ( Vis. I. i. 6) : ' God, who dwelleth in the heavens and created out of nothing the things that are, and increased and multiplied them for His church's sake.'
LrrERATURB. — References to the literature on Creation as a part of theistic doctrine cannot be given here, but the reader may be referred to G. H. A. v. Ewald, Old and New Test. Theology, Engr. tr., 188S ; A. M. Fairbairn, The. Philosophy of the Christian Religion, 1902 ; D. Somerville, St. Paul's Conception of Christ, 1897 ; and the Comm. of Westcott, Lig^htfoot, and Sanday-Headlam, ad locc W. F. LOFTHOUSE.
GRESCENS (Kpijo-Kjjs). — Crescens, a companion of St. Paul during his last imprisonment, had at the date of the writing of 2 Timothy gone to Galatia (2 Ti 4^"), which may mean either Galatia in Asia Minor or the western province of Gaul. We find two of the best MSS (H and C) reading TaWlav (Gaul) for TaXariav (Galatia), and Eusebius (HE III. iv. 9), Epiphanius (Rcer. li. 11), Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret understand Western Gaul to be meant in the passage. If the Apostle visited Spain, as we have every reason to suppose, it is probable that he passed through Southern Gaul and may have founded churches there to which Crescens may have been sent as a delegate. On the other hand, the fact that the other delegates mentioned in the verse were sent to the east of Rome has led some to think that Asiatic Galatia is meant. The reference in the Apostolic Constitu- tions (vii. 46) is ambiguous, as Western Gaul might be referred to as Galatia. Lightfoot thinks it likely that Western Gaul is indicated, and that the Apostle would certainly have written ' Galatia ' when referring to the province in the West. He also holds that VaWlav (Gaul) is an early explana-