* See Morison’s long and acute discussion,
Cu. IIL] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. Bit f
authoritative instruction of God, may be viewed either inde- finitely and generally as the revelation of God to men; or authoritatively, as to the duty incumbent on man as man; or with reference to the instruction as to the duty incumbent on men as s¢mful men under a dispensation of mercy; or as in- struction as to the duty of Jews as Jews. Ver. 20 relates to the instruction regarding the duty incumbent on men as men. “It is the law of commandments which enjoins those outer acts and inner choices and states which lie at the basis and constitute the essence of all true religion. In the back- ground or focal point of these commandments he sees the deca- logue, or duologue, which is often designated ‘the moral law’ by way of pre-eminence” (Morison, from whom also the sub- stance of this note is taken). By the phrase works of the law is meant the deeds prescribed by the law.
Flesh (cdp&). Equivalent to man. It is often used in the sense of a living creature—man or beast. Compare 1 Pet. i. 24; Matt. xxiv. 22; Luke iii. 6. Generally with a suggestion of weakness, frailty, mortality; Septuagint, Jer. xvii. 5; Ps. Ixxvil. 39; Eph. vi. 12. The word here has no doctrinal bear- ing.
Be justified (dumawwdjceta). For the kindred adjective Sixavos righteous, see on i. 17.
1. Classical usage. The primitive meaning is to make right. This may take place absolutely or relatively. The person or thing may be made right in dtself, or with reference to circum- stances or to the minds of those who have to do with them. Ap- plied to things or acts, as distinguished from persons, it signi- fies to make right in ones judgment. Thus Thucydides, ii., 6, 7. “The Athenians judged it right to retaliate on the Lacedae- monians.” Herodotus, i., 89, Croesus says to Cyrus: “I ¢thonk a right to shew thee whatever I may see to thy advantage.”
A different shade of meaning is to judge to be the case. So Thucydides, iv., 122: “The truth concerning the revolt was rather as the Athenians judged the case to be.” Again, it oc- curs simply in the sense to judge. Thucydides, v., 26: “Tf anyone agree that the interval of the truce should be excluded,
38 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Ca. IIL
he will not judge correctly.” In both these latter cases the ety- mological idea of right is merged, and the judicial element pre- dominates.
In ecclesiastical usage, to judge to be right or to decide upon wn ecclesiastical councils.
Applied to persons, the meaning is predominantly judicial, though Aristotle (“ Nichomachaean Ethics,” v., 9) uses it in the sense of to treat one rightly. There is no reliable instance of the sense to make right intrinsically ; but it means to make one right in some extrinsic or relative manner. Thus Aéschy- lus, “ Agamemnon,” 390-393: Paris, subjected to the judgment of men, tested (StxarwIels) is compared to bad brass which turns black when subjected to friction. Thus tested or judged he stands in right relation to men’s judgments. He is shown in the true baseness of his character. ;
Thus the verb acquires the meaning of condemn 3 ad- judge to be bad. Thucydides, iii., 40: Cleon says to the Athenians, “If you do not deal with the Mitylenaeans as I advise, you will condemn yourselves.” From this readily arises the sense of punish ; since the punishment of a guilty man is a setting him in right relation to the political or moral system which his conduct has infringed. Thus Herodotus, i., 100: “ Deioces the Mede, if he heard of any act of oppression, sent for the guilty party and punished him according to his offence.” Compare Plato, “Laws,” xi., 934. Plato uses duxavwTnpia to denote places of punishment or houses of correction (‘‘ Phaedrus,” 249). According to Cicero, dccard@ was used by the Sicilians of capital punishment: “’E8ccaréInoav, that is, as the Sicil- jans say, they were visited with punishment and executed” (“Against Verres,” v., 57).