taken from tlie good angels their authority. He sul)jected them to Christ, and proposed them
J>ublicly as an example of cheerful obedience to lim {i.e. to Christ), causing them to t,riuinph in Christ.' What was this authority ? In Gal 3'", He '2-, Ac 7°' angels are described as the medium through which (iod revealed Himself at the Law- giving, and in this sense they might be called His robe or veil. But when Christ came the veil was laid aside and the angels took an inferior position (cf. He 1°), God henceforth manifesting Himself in the Person of His Son. ' He has i)ut off and laid aside the garb of angelic mediation in which, under the Law, He was wont to hold intercourse with men' (Findlay). On this view, ' madeashow of them ' implies no shame, only that He exhibited them in a true jiosition of inferiority, and therefore not to be worshijiped. The chief ot)j('ction lies in the word 'triumphing,' which, if tnUeti in the Roman sense of 'captives led in triumph by a victorious general,' seems to require that the principalities and powers should be hostile angels. This is obviated if Findlay's contention can be established, viz. that 'triumph' (5pia/t/3ei)w) here has the meaning of 8piafi^o!—a hymn sung in procession in honour of Dionj'sus ; accordingly, the sense would be — God has formed them into a festal chorus 'who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,' hymning His praises, and devoted to His service.
In Ro 8'''- ^' : 'I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God ' (RV), the same question arises as in Col 2'^ As the other influences are in pairs of opposites, some find here also a contrast, 'angels' being heavenly beings and ' principalities ' earthly ; or , 'angels' being good spirits and 'principalities' evil. Others think that both terms mean evil angels, arguing that the good would not try to separate us from the love of God. But this may be only a hypothesis like Gal 1', and the point is that nothing, however powerful, whether liUely to harm us or not, can separate us from the love of God ; and Godet well says that what is itself good may contribute to lead us astray, if our attach- ment or adoration stops short at the creature, instead of rising to God. See artt. AUTHORITY, Dominion, Power, Throne.
LiTERATTJEE. — Commentaries on Romans : C. F. A. Fritzsche, 1838-43, F. Godet (Eng. tr., 2 vols., 1S81-82) ; Ephesians : H. A. W. Meyer (Eng. tr., 1S80), S. D. F. Salmond (in EGT, 1903) ; Cotossians : J. Peirce (21729), H. A. W. Meyer (Eng. tr., 1876), C. J. Ellicott PlSIJ.i), J. B. Lightfoot (ais79), J. A. Beet (1890), A. S. Peake (in EGT, 1903), W. Alexander (.Slpeaker's Commentarj/, ISSl) ; T. K. Abbott, ICC, ' Ephesians and Colossians,' 1897 ; G. G. Findlay, 'St. Paul's use of Sfnan- p<ii<u,' in Exp, 1st ser., x.2 [1881] ; Joseph Hall, ' The Invisible World," in Works, new ed., viii. [1837] ; and K. R. Hagenbach, Bistory of Christian Doctrines, Eng. tr., ii. [1880] § 131.
W. H. DUNDAS.
PRINCIPLES [apxn, He 5'= 6').— In Greek philo- sophy dpxri is an element or first principle— that by which anything begins to be. When it is dis- tinguished from aroix^'iov — the terms are often interchanged — it means the formal and active as opposed to the material cause. The two words are used together in He 5'^ ' the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God ' (to. aroix^^a ttjs dpxv^ rwu Xoylwi/ toO 6eou). The tautology is studied and effective. The writer is chiding his readers for not endeavouring or perhaps caring to advance beyond the ABC (in Luther's phrase, die ersten Buchstabcn) of the gospel. He reminds them that they are no longer vijirtoi. Milk is the natural food of babes, but babes are potential adults, and the food of men (re^eloiv, 'perfect,' i.e. 'full-grown,' is emphatic), and of those who aspire to be such, lias to be more solid than that of infants (5"_). The backwardness which the writer reproves is alike
PRISCA, PRISCILLA
PKISOX
375
intellectual and s|iirifiial. wliile his grave tone dilters from that of lioraee's ' bhmili doctores,' who give their pupils eakes 'elcmenta velint ut diseere prima' {Sat. I. i. 25 f.)- That there is an immense diflerenee between the dpxv and the t^.Xos of Christi- anity ; that Jesus is not only the Beginner but the Perfeoter of onr failh {apxvy^" ''i' TfXeiurijv, He 12-')— these are the trutlis he wishes to drive home. Childhood is beautiful, but only a false sentiment would pndcmg it. The same tliought is frequent in St. Paul's writings (1 Co 3' 13", Eph 4"). The Kabbis spoke of their younger pujjils as 'sucklings.' Perhaps in He 5'''- " we have a case of one Alexandrian echoing another, for Philo says {de Agric. ii. ): SSince milk is the food of infants, but cakes of wheat (rd iK Trvp(bp w^p.fj.aTa) are the food of full-grown men, so also the soul must have a milk-like nourishment in its age of childhood, namelj', the elementary lessons of art and science (rd r^s eyKUKXioo ^ouaiKijs TrpoTratoee^ara), but the perfect food which is for men is education in prudence, temperance, and every virtue.'