XaAs aiToO also designates Israel in Lk 1°' 7^', llo 11' 15'°, St. Paul having in mind in Ro 11' a phrase that appears in 1 S 12=», Ps 93'* 94< LXX. Israel's title, A XaAs toD Oeov, is extended in He 4' 11^ to the NT Church : 'it was a point with the Author to identify Christian Hebrews with "the pc()|j|e of God"' (A. B. Davidson, Epistle to the Jlcbrews, Edinburgh, n.d., p. 95).*
In the foregoing survey we see the designation passing over from the O'l' to the NT Church. The l)rocess was gradual. The idea would not occur to the members of the Christian community at Jeru- salem, who continued to attend the Temple and the synagogues, that their kinsmen according to the flesh had lost their right to be called the XaAs tieoO. On the contrary, they were willing to admit that the people and their rulers had acted Kara dyvoidv in putting Jesus to death, and they looked for their repentance and conversion, which should bring in the promised naipol ava^f/i^ewt and xP^"'"- diroKaTQcTTiffcus Trdi'Tw;' at the speedy return of their Lord (Ac 3"'-"). But as time went on, and Jewish hardness and unbelief remained unchanged, they must have recalled such sayings of Jesus as those about the vineyard of the wicked husbandmen being given to others, and the supper that should not be tasted by the first-bidden guests (Mk 12°, Lk 14=''). It is remarkable that while Jesus Himself occasion- ally referred to the Jews as 6 XaAs oDtos, He never once spoke of them as the XaAs deov (cf. DCG ii. 334). Jn 8'' reports His having denied that His opponents were true 'children of Abraham,' which reminds us of St. Paul's demonstration in Ro 3-4, Gal 3-4 that they who have the right to call Abraham their father are those only who believe God's promise of salvation as he did (cf. Ro 9'). Another correspondence between this Gospel and St. Paul appears in our Lord's greeting Nathanael as oKridu^ ' lo-paTjXeiVijs (Jn 1*'), and the Apostle's distinguishing an Israel Kara (rdpKa (1 Co 10") from an Israel toO 0eoO (Gal 6" ; which may refer to the Jewish believers of St. Paul's circle, but more probably designates all Christians). In discrimin- ating between circumcision as an external rite and the circumcision of the heart (Ro 2-° ; cf. Ph 3^) St. Paul follows the OT {e.g. Dt 10'», Jer 9-«). It is true that in Ro ll"'- the Jews still remain the XaAs, and the Gentiles are ' ingrafted ' into the people to whom the jiromises belong, as the wild olive branch into the good olive tree — a comparison which Harnack thinks ' must have been very un- pleasing to Gentile Christians' (J9a<« of Acts, p. 48, note 2). But in 1 Co 12" (cf. Gal 3=*, Ro 10'") Jews and Gentiles are ' one body,' having received the same Spirit ; and this fundamental idea is fully developed in St. Paul's later Epistles (Col 3", Eph 2'* 3°'-, Ph 3^'-).t St. Peter, without explicitly designating his readers A XaAs, applies to them all Israel's characteristics (1 P 2'- '), and says that it has now devolved upon them to rise to the high ideal set forth in the Law (1'"-); with this we may compare St. Paul's warning to the Jewish and other Christians of Corinth (1 Co 10"-) not to dally with idolatry, lest they should ' perish in the way ' as their fathers did before reaching the promised land, notwithstanding their having had means of grace which corresponded with the two sacraments insti- tuted by Christ.
Although we Gentile Christians are fully war- ranted in believing that the title of ' the people of God ' is included in the ' all things ' that are ' ours ' (1 Co 3-'), yet we are forbidden by St. Paul's words in Ro 11'' ^ ' to limit God's " people whom he fore-
* In Acts 5ijjuos denotes ' the people of a heathen city and more particularly when gathered together in the popular assembly (e.g. at Cnssarea, Ac 12— ; at Thessalonica, Ac 175 ; at Ephesus, Ac 1930- 33)' (j. B. Lightfoot, On a. Fresh Revision of the English NT, London, 1871, p. 80).
t Cf. P. Gardner, The Ephesian Gospel, London, 1915, p. 36.
PEKDlTlU-\
PEKFECT, PERFECTION
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knew" to a spiritual Israel, foreknown and pre- destined to be saved through thoir reception of llie gospel' (E. H. Gillcnd, Speaker's Commentary, ' Romans,' London, ISSl, p. 191). We believe that God accepts the 'Jjn ' Here am I ' of those who are called to rule over Jewish congregations (see ' New Chief Kabbi's Message,' Scotsman, Feb. 21, 1913).
Literature. — Much valuable information may be found in the works of Zahn and llarnack, both of whom have i^iven special attention to the subject of this article. See T, Zahn, Introduction to the yT, Knjr. tr., Edinburgh, 1909, i. 81, note 0, ii. 142 f., 253 f., 545; A. Harnack, Expansion of Chfistianiti/, Ens. tr., do., 19U4-05, i. 60, 67, note 1, 80. note 2, 300, 316, 343 f.. The Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Oospds, Eng. tr., London and N.Y., 1911, pp. 42, 45, 48, 6G, 58, 03, 112. Of great interest is the statement of Harnack {Expansion, p. 344 ft.) that the designation of Christians as ' the third race * was ' perfectly common on the lips of the heathen in Carthage about the year A.D. 200." He quotes Tertullian (ad yat. i. 8.), who says, 'Plane, tcrtium genus dicimur.' The Greeks, Romans, and all other nations were 'the first race,' the Jews 'the second,' the Christians (with their spiritual God, their lack of images and saorilicea, and their contempt for the heathen deities) ' the third ' (cf. p. 352). J AMES DONALD.