Overcome (w«rjons). Rev., prevail. Gain the case. The word occurs only three times outside of John’s writings.
When thou art judged (ev ta xpivec9al ce). Rev., when thou comest into judgment.*
5. Commend (cuvicrnow). Only twice outside of Paul’s writings, Luke ix. 32; 2 Pet. iii. 5, both in the physical sense. Lit., to place together. Hence of setting one person with an- other by way of introducing or presenting him, and hence fo commend. Also to put together with a view of showing, prov- ing, or establishing. Expositors render here differently: com- mend, establish, prove. Commend is the prevailing sense in the New Testament, though in some instances the two ideas blend, as Rom. v. 8; 2 Cor. vii. 11; Gal. ii. 18. See Rom. xvi. 1; Borsiy..2* vi 4. x: 18.
Who taketh vengeance (6 éidépwv thy dpynv). Rev., much better, who visiteth with wrath. Lit., bringeth the anger to bear. The force of the article it is difficult to render. It may be the wrath, definitely conceived as judicial, or, more probably, as in Matt. iii. 7, referring to something recognized —the wrath to come, the well-understood meed of unrighteous- ness. See on Rom. xii. 19.
As a man (cata dv3pwrov). Rev., after the manner of men ; i.e., | use a mode of speech drawn from human affairs.
* Perowne translates the Hebrew actively, when thou judgest. So Hengsten- berg and Alexander. The Vulgate takes it as passive. But even the passive is used in a middle sense in the New Testament, as Matt. v. 40; 1 Cor. vi. 1, 6 ; and in the Septuagint this use is frequent, with or without a judicial ref- erence. Gen. xxvi. 21; Judg. xxi. 22; Job ix. 3; xiii. 19; Isa. xliii. 26,
ete. Vou. 1ik—s
84 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. III.
The phrase is thrown in apologetically, under a sense that the mode of speech is unworthy of the subject. Morison aptly paraphrases: “ When I ask the question, ‘Is God unjust who inflicteth wrath?’ I am deeply conscious that I am using lan- guage which is intrinsically improper when applied to God. But in condescension to human weakness I transfer to Him language which it is customary for men to employ when refer- ring to human relationships.” Compare 1 Cor. ix. 8; Rom. vi. 19.
7. Lie (redouars). Only here in the New Testament. The expression carries us back to ver. 4, and is general for moral falsehood, unfaithfulness to the claims of conscience and of God, especially with reference to the proffer of salvation through Christ.
9. Are we better (poexydueda). Rev., are we in worse case than they? Render, with the American Revisers, are we in better case than they, i.e., have we any advantage? The Rev. takes the verb as passive—are we surpassed ? which would re- quire the succeeding verses to show that the Gentiles are not better than the Jews; whereas they show that the Jews are not better than the Gentiles. Besides, nothing in the context suggests such a question.* Paul has been showing that the Old Testament privileges, though giving to the Jews a certain superiority to the Gentiles, did not give them any advantages in escaping the divine condemnation, After such showing it was natural that the question should be renewed: Do the Jews have any advantage ?
* The rendering adopted is objected to on the ground that the verb is not used in this sense in the middle voice. But the middle is sometimes used in the active sense, and may have been preferred here because Paul speaks of a superiority which the Jews claimed for themselves. The marginal rendering in Rev., ‘‘ Do we put forward anything in excuse,” maintained by Meyer an¢ Morison, would require an object for the verb, which is not used absolutely. This is shown by the quotations given by Morison ; Thucydides, iii., 68 ; iv., 87; Sophocles, ‘‘ Antigone,” 80. He urges the very lame plea that there is nothing in the nature of the word to render its absolute use an @ prior? improbability, and infers such use from that of the kindred mpoBdAAoum. The student should by all means examine his very full discussion in his monograph on this chapter, which is, literally, a stupendous piece of exegesis.