Became vain (éuatamdInoav). Vain things (udTata) was the Jews’ name for idols. Compare Acts iv. 15. Their ideas and conceptions of God had no intrinsie value corresponding with the truth. “The understanding was reduced to work én vacuo. It rendered itself in a way futile” (Godet).
Imaginations (Svadoyiopois). Rev., better, reasonings. See on Matt. xv. 19; Mark vii. 21; Jas. ii. 4.
Foolish (adcvveros). See on cuverds prudent, Matt. xi. 67, and the kindred word ovveow understanding, Mark xii. 33; Luke ii. 47. They did not combine the facts which were pat- ent to their observation.
Heart (xapdia). The heart is, first, the physical organ, the centre of the circulation of the blood. Hence, the seat and
Cu. LJ THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, 17
centre of physical life. In the former sense it does not occur in the New Testament. As denoting the vigor and sense of physical life, see Acts. xiv. 17; Jas. v.5; Luke xxi. 34. It is used fifty-two times by Paul.
Never used like uy} soul, to denote the individual subject of personal life, so that it can be exchanged with the personal pronoun (Acts ii. 43; iii, 23; Rom. xiii. 1); nor like TVEV La spirit, to denote the divinely-given principle of life.
It is the central seat and organ of the personal life (xruy7) of man regarded in and by himself. Hence it is commonly accompanied with the possessive pronouns, my, Aés, thy, ete.
Like our heart it denotes the seat of feeling as contrasted with intelligence. 2 Cor. ii. 4; Rom. ix. 2 Xa beeen e Core yi. 11; Philip. i.7. But it is not limited to this. It is also the seat of mental action, feeling, thinking, willing. It is used—
1. Of intelligence, Rom. i. 21; 2 Cor. iii. 15; iv. 6; Eph. 1 1c
2. Of moral choice, 1 Cor. vii. 37; 2 Cor. ix. 7,
3. As gwing impulse and character to action, Rom. vi. 17 ; Eph. vi. 5; Col. iii. 22; 1 Tim. i. 5; 2 Tim. ii. 22. The work of the law is written on the heart, Rom. ii. 15. The Corinth- ian Church is inscribed as Christ’s epistle on hearts of flesh, 2 Cor. ii. 23.
4. Specially, it is the seat of the diwine Spirit, Gal. iv. 6; Rom. v. 5; 2 Cor. i. 22. It is the sphere of His various oper- ations, directing, comforting, establishing, etc., Philip. iv. 7; Col. iii. 15; 1 Thess. iii. 18; 2 Thess. ii. 17; iii. 5. It is the seat of faith, and the organ of spiritual praise, Rom. x. 9; Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.
It is equivalent to the inner man, Eph. iii. 16, 17. Its characteristic is being hidden, Rom. ii. 28, 29; viii. 27; 1 Coma. > xiv. 25-
It is contrasted with the face, 1 Thess. ii. 17; 2 Cor. v. 12; and with the mouth, Rom. x. 8.*
* All students of the psychological terms used by Paul are under very great obligations to the Rev. William P. Dickson, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. In his Baird Lecture for 1883, on ‘‘ Paul’s Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit,” he has presented in a most lucid manner the valuable
Vou. III-—2
18 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
22. Professing (¢dcxovres). The verb is used of unfounded assertion, Acts xxiv. 9; xxv. 19; Apoce. ii. 2.
Wise, they became fools. Another oxymoron; see on ver. 20. Compare Horace, insaniens sapientia raving wis- dom. Plato uses the phrase wdtatov dofocodiay vain-glorying of wisdom (“ Sophist,” 231).
23. Image made like (oyoudpate eixovos). Rev., more lit- erally, the likeness of an image. See on Apoc. xiii. 14. Equiv- alent to what was shaped like an image. Likeness indicates the conformity with the object of comparison in appearance ; image, the type in the artist’s mind; the typical human form. See, further, on Philip. ii. 7.