** Covetise That eggeth folk in many a guise To take and yeve (give) right nought again, And great treasoures up to laine (lay).
And that is she that maketh treachours, And she maketh false pleadours.
Full crooked were her hondes (hands) two, For Covetise is ever woode (violent) To grippen other folkes goode.”?
Cu. I.] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 23
‘¢ Avarice Full foul in painting was that vice.
She was like thing for hunger dead,
That lad (led) her life onely by bread. This Avarice had in her hand
A purse that honge by a band,
And that she hid and bond so strong,
Men must abide wonder long,
Out of the purse er (ere) there come aught, For that ne commeth in her thought,
It was not certaine her entent
That fro that purse a peny went.”
Maliciousness (xaxia). See on naughtiness, Jas. i. 21. Full (weorods). Properly, stuffed.
Envy, murder (¢9dvov, gpdvov). Phthonow, phonow. A paronomasia or combination of like-sounding words.* Com- pare Gal. v.21. Murder is conceived as a thought which has filled the man. See 1 John iii. 15.
Debate (&p.d0s). In the earlier sense of the word (French, débattre, to beat down, contend) including the element of strife. So Chaucer:
‘“‘Tales both of peace and of debates.” ‘““Man of Law’s Tale,” 4550.
Later usage has eliminated this element. Dr. Eadie (“ Eng- lish Bible ”) relates that a member of a Scottish Church-court once warned its members not to call their deliberations “a de- bate,” since debate was one of the sins condemned by Paul in this passage. Rev., correctly, strife.
Deceit (SdA0v). See on John i. 47. Malignity (caxonJe/as). Malicious disposition.
* Paronomasia differs from the play upon words, in that the latter has re- spect to the meaning of the words, while the former regards only the similar- ity in sound.
24 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cuz. 1.
30. Haters of God (Seoortuyeis). Rev., hateful to God. All classical usage is in favor of the passive sense, but all the other items of the list are active. Meyer defends the passive on the ground that the term is a summary of what precedes. The weight of authority is on this side. The simple verb otuyéo to hate, does not occur in the New Testament. Sruyn- t6s hateful, is found Tit. iii. 3. The verb is stronger than pucéw I hate, since it means to show as well as to feel hatred.
Proud (isepnddvous). Rev., haughty. See on pride, Mark vii. 22.
Boasters (ddafovas). Swaggerers. Not necessarily imply- ing contempt or insult.
31. Without understanding, covenant-breakers (acuve- tous, adouvsérous). Another paronomasia: asynetous, asynthe- tous. This feature of style is largely due to the pleasure which all people, and especially Orientals, derive from the assonance of a sentence. Archdeacon Farrar gives a number of illustra- tions: the Arabic Abel and Kabel (Abel and Cain) ; Dadut and G@ialut (David and Goliath). A Hindoo constantly adds mean- ingless rhymes, even to English words, as button-bitten ; kettley- bittley. Compare the Prayer-book, holy and wholly ; giving and forgwing ; changes and chances. Shakspeare, sorted and consorted ; in every breath a death. He goes on to argue that these alliterations, in the earliest stages of language, are partly due to a vague belief in the inherent affinities of words (“Language and Languages,” 22’).
32. Judgment (Sicafwua). Rev., correctly, ordinance.
Commit (apdocovres). Rev., better, practise. See on John iii. 21.
Paul would have been familiar with the abominations of the pagan world from the beginning of his life. The belief in paganism was more firmly rooted in the provinces than in Italy, and was especially vigorous in Tarsus, which was counted among the three Kappa Kakista, most villainous K’s of antiquity—
Cu. IL] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 25
Kappadokia, Kilikia, and Krete. Religion there was chiefly of an Oriental character, marked by lascivious rites. See Farrar’s “Life and Work of Paul,” i., 24-34.