94 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cz VIIL
21. In hope because (éz’ €Amou 671). The best texts trans- fer these words from the preceding verse, and construe with was made subject, rendering rt that instead of because. “The creation was subjected in the hope that,” ete. Jn hope is liter- ally on hope, as a foundation. The hope is that of the subjected, not of the subjector. Nature ‘possesses in the feeling of her unmerited suffering, a sort of presentiment of her future de- liverance” (Godet). Some adopt a very suggestive connection of in hope with waiteth for the manifestation.
Glorious liberty (€Xev9epiav ris ddEns). Better, and more literally, as Rev., liberty of the glory. Liberty is one of the elements of the glorious state and is dependent upon it. The glory is that in ver. 18. The Greek student will note the ac- cumulation of genitives, giving solemnity to the passage.
22. For. Introducing the proof of the hope, not of the bondage.
Groaneth —travaileth together (cvcrevafec—ouvvwdiver). Both only here in the New Testament. The simple verb dda to travail, occurs Gal. iv. 19, 27; Apoc. xii. 2; and the kindred noun dcp birth-pang, in Matthew and Mark, Acts, and 1 Thess. v. 8. See on Mark xiii. 9; Acts ii. 24. Together refers to the common longing of all the elements of the creation, not to its longing in common with God’s children. ‘“ Nature, with its melancholy charm, resembles a bride who, at the very moment when she was fully attired for marriage, saw the bridegroom die. She still stands with her fresh crown and in her bridal dress, but her eyes are full of tears” (Schelling, cited by Godet).
24. By hope (7H édrriés). Better in hope. We are saved dy faith. See on 1 Pet. i. 3.
Hope—not hope. Here the word is used of the object of hope. See Col. i.5; 1 Tim. i. 1; Heb. vi. 18.
26. Helpeth (cuvavtinauBdverat). Only here and Luke x. 40, on which see note. “AauSdvera taketh. Precisely the same verb in precisely the same phrase, which is translated ‘took our infirmities,” Matt. viii. 17 (Bushnell).
Cu. VII] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 95
As we ought (xa90 Se?). Not with reference to the form of prayer, but to the circumstances: in proportion to the need. Compare 2 Cor. viii. 12; 1 Pet. iv. 13.
Maketh intercession for (imepevtuyydver). Only here in the New Testament. The verb évtuvyyave means to light upon or fall in with ; to go to meet for consultation, conversation, or supplication. So Acts xxv. 24, “dealt with,” Rev., “made suit.” Compare Rom. viii. 34; xi. 2; Heb. vii. 25.
Which cannot be uttered (ddadjrois). This may mean either unutterable or unuttered.
28. Work together (cuvepyei). Or, are working together, now, while the creation is in travail. Together refers to the common working of all the elements included in radvta all things.
For good. Jacob cried, all these things are against me. Paul, all things are working together for good.
29. Did foreknow (zpoéyvw). Five times in the New Test- ament. In all cases it means foreknow. Acts. xxvi.5; 1 Pet. i. 20; 2 Pet. iii. 17; Rom. xi. 2. It does not mean foreordain. It signifies prescience, not preélection. “It is God’s being aware in His plan, by means of which, before the subjects are destined by Him to salvation, He knows whom He has to destine thereto” (Meyer).*
It is to be remarked:
1. That mpoéyvw foreknew is used by the apostle as distinct and different from predestinated (mpowpicer).
2. That, strictly speaking, it is codrdinate with foreordained. “In God is no before.” All the past, present, and future are simultaneously present to Him. In presenting the two phases, the operation of God’s knowledge and of His decretory will,
* This is the simple, common-sense meaning. The attempt to attach to it the sense of preélection, to make it include the divine decree, has grown out of dogmatic considerations in the interest of a rigid predestinarianism. The scope of this work does not admit a discussion of the infinitesimal hair-split- ting which has been applied to the passage, and which is as profitless as it is unsatisfactory.