1 Ti 1""). Probably he thought that, in accordance with the sentence of the Church, God would allow Satan to inflict some physical malady that Avould lead the offender to repentance. If we may take
2 Co 2®"" to refer to the same case, the desired result was reached.
'It cannot have been unknown to Paul that he was hero using a form of words similar to the curses by which the Corinthians had formerly been accustomed to consign their personal enemies to destruction by the powers of the world of death. It seems not open to doubt that the Corinthians would understand by this phrase that the offender was to suffer disease and even death as a punishment for sin ; and Paul goes on to add that this punishment of the tlesh is intended to bring salvation ultimately to his soul (iVa rb in/evixa. a-iodfi) '. by
physical suffering' he is to atone for his sin. . . . The whole thought stands in the closest relation to the theory of the confession-inscriptions, in which those who have been punished by the god thank and bless him for the chastisement ' (Ramsay in ExpT X. [1S9S-99] 59).
For cases in which physical ill followed ecclesi- astical censure see Ac 5^ 8-" 13"*. Some hold that the ' delivery to Satan ' was by virtue of the special authority of St. Paul himself, while the Church had power to expel only. There is nothing in the text to support such a view. This punishment must not be confounded with the anathema of Ko 93, I Co 16-2, Gal l«-9. 'The attempt to explain the word [avdOefia) to mean "excommunication" from the society — a later use of the Hebrew in Rabbinical writers and the Greek in ecclesiastical — arose from a desire to take away the apparent profanity of the wish ' (Sanday-Headlam, Romans^ [ICC, 1902], p. 228). Calvin and some other re- formers thought the expression dvdde/jLa. Mapdv add (I Co 16'^^) was a formula of excommunication. Buxtorf (Lex. Chald., Basel, 1639, pp. 827, 2466) says it was part of a Jewish cursing formula from the Prophecy of Enoch ( Jude'*). There is no reason for such an opinion. It was not held until the meaning of the Avords was lost or partially so. They are neither connected nor synonymous as some have supposed, and are rightly separated in RV — ' If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maran atha ' (cf. Ph 4^).
In addition to the specific case at Corinth and general references in such passages as 1 Th 5^^, 2 Th 3" (cf. Ro 16", Ja 5'«), we find more precise directions in later books — the Pastoral Epistles and General Epistles of St. John (see 1 Ti 5'9- 20 6^, Tit 3'", 1 Jn !"• 5's, 2 Jn '«, 3 Jna-'"). Heresy, schism, insubordination, usurpation of the auth- ority of the Church by a section, became grounds of excommunication. The morals, doctrine, and government of the Church were all imperilled at times and could be preserved only by strict dis- cipline and severe penalties upon wrong-doers. As in the Jewish community, the sentence of excom- munication might be lighter or heavier, the ex- clusion being more or less complete. It might mean only expulsion from the Lord's Table, but not from the Lord's House ; or it might be utter banishment from the Lord's House and an interdict against all social intercourse with its members.
It is beyond the scope of this article to trace the history of excommunication in the Christian Church. Suffice it to say that the distinction be- tween the minor (d0opt(r/t6s) and major (wavTeXrii dcpopia-fibs dvddefia) forms of it, which existed from very early times, if not from the Apostolic Age it- self, Avere continued for centuries with a wealth of elaborate detail as to the exact penalties involved in each, and as to the attitude of those within the Church to those without its pale. Unfortunately, excommunication often became an instrument of oppression in the hands of unworthy men. In mediwval days it frequently entailed outlawry and sometimes death.
'The censures of the Church, reserved in her early days for
the gravest moral and spiritual offences, soon lost their salutary terrors when excommunications became incidents in territorial squabbles, or were issued on the most trivial pretext ; and when the unchristian penalty of the interdict sought to coerce the guilty by robbing the innocent of the privilege of Christian worship and even of burial itself (A. Eobertson, Regnuin Dei [Bampton Lectures, 1901], p. 257).
See also Anathema, Chastisement, Disci- pline, Restoration of Offenders.
Literature. — Artt. 'Discipline' in HDB, DCO, 'Discipline (Christian)' in ERE, 'Excommunication' in DCG, Smith's DI^, JE, CE, 'Bann (kirchlicher) ' in PRE3; E. v. Dob- schiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, Eng. tr., London, 1904 ; H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church Hiistory, do. 1909 ; E. Schurer, HJP, Edinburgh, 1885-1890; C. v. Wei2s£cker,
EXHOETATION
EXOKCISM
383
Das apostoUsche Zeitalter^, Tubingen, 1902 (Eng. tr. of 2nd ed., London, ]894-95);A. Edersheim, LT*, London, 1887 ; J. Bingham, Origine.s Ecclesiusticoe, do. 1708-1722 ; H. Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages^'>, do. 1853. H. CaRISS J. SiDNELL.
EXHORTATION. — Exliortation (irapa.KX'nais) played an iuiijortant part in the apostolic ministry. As a technical term for a specilic kind of Christian teacliinf,% it first emerges in Acts and in the Epistles, No mention of it (as such) aj^pears in the Gospels. They record the facts and teaching of Christ upon which the later exhortations were founded. Ex- hortation, or TrapdKXrjaLs, may be described as a summons to the will, an appeal — urgent, per- suasive, and even authoritative — A\hich was based sometimes on Scripture (Ac 13^*) or apostolic teaching (1 Ti 6^, 2 Ti 4'-), but more especially on Christian prophecy (Ac 15^-, 1 Co 14^- ^^). It was what we call in modern sermons the ' application.' Prophesying and exhorting naturally went to- gether in the proclamation of salvation. Cremer holds that exhortation belongs ' to the domain of prophecy, and is like this a special charisma (Ro 12**), though it does not appe<ar to have manifested \\jSQ\i se2}arately as such' (Bibl.-Theol. Lex. of NT Greck^, p. 337). Generally, no doubt, it was given by the Apostle or prophet hiniself, e.g. by St. Peter (Ac 2^"), by Barnabas (Ac ll-^), by St. Paul (Ac I3^^''^')) but at times, so it would appear from Ro 12*, the one who did the 'exhorting' might be a different speaker from the one who gave the 'prophecy' or 'teaching.' Frequently, indeed, especially in times of persecution or unrest, it con- sisted in a mutual exchange of encouragement or warning among believers (1 Th 4^* 5'S He 3^^ 10"^).