Who shall ascend into heaven? The Septuagint adds for us, and bring it to us, and hearing it we will do tt.
To bring down. Interpreting the Septuagint, and bring it to Us.
7. Descend into the deep. Rev., abyss. Septuagint, Who shall pass through to beyond the sea? See on Luke viii. 31. Paul changes the phrase in order to adapt it to the descent of Christ into Hades. The two ideas may be reconciled in the fac’: that the Jew conceived the sea as the abyss of waters on which the earth rested. Compare Exod. xx. 4. Thus the ideas beyond the sea and beneath the earth coincide in designating the realm of the dead. Compare Homer’s picture of the region of the dead beyond the Ocean-stream :
“« As soon as thou shalt cross Oceanus, and come to the low shore And groves of Proserpine, the lofty groups Of poplars, and the willows that let fall Their withered fruit, moor thou thy galley there In the deep eddies of Oceanus, And pass to Pluto’s comfortless abode.”
“Odyssey,” x., 508-512.
Vou. III.--8
114 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. X.
‘Our bark Reached the far confines of Oceanus. There lies the land and there the people dwell Of the Cimmerians, in eternal cloud And darkness.” ‘“Odyssey,”’ xi., 13-15.
To bring up. There is no need. He is already risen.
8. The word is nigh thee. Septuagint, Very nigh thee és the word. The word is the whole subject-matter of the Gospel. See ver. 9. Moses used it of the law. See on Luke i.37. The whole quotation in the Hebrew is as follows: “It (the com- mandment) is not in heaven, that ye should say, Who will ascend for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us hear it that we may doit? And it is not beyond the sea, that ye should say, Who will go over for us beyond the sea, and bring it to us, and make us hear it that we may do it? But the word is very near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, to do it.” The object of the passage is to contrast the system of faith with the system of law, and that, especially, with reference to the remoteness and difficulty of righteousness. Moses says that the commandment of God to Israel is not incapable of aecomplish- ment, nor is it a distant thing to be attained only by long and laborious effort. The people, on the contrary, carries it in its mouth, and it is stamped upon its heart. Compare Exod. xiii. 9; Deut. vi. 6-9. In applying these words to the system of faith, Paul, in like manner, denies that this system involves any painful search or laborious work. Christ has accomp- lished the two great things necessary for salvation. He has descended to earth and has risen from the dead. All that is necessary is to accept by faith the incarnate and risen Christ, instead of having recourse to the long and painful way of es- tablishing one’s own righteousness by obedience to the law.
Word of faith. The phrase occurs only here. ‘“ Which forms the substratum and object of faith” (Alford). Others, the burden of which is faith.
We preach (xnpvccopev). See on Matt. iv. 17, and preacher, 2 Pet. ii. 5.
Cre] THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 115
9. That (67s). So rendered as expressing the contents of the word of faith ; but better because, giving a proof that the word isnigh. Confess and believe, correspond to mouth and heart.
The Lord Jesus (xépiov Incodv). Others, however, read 76 pha év TO oToparl cov Ste KUpuos "Inoods If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the word that Jesus is Lord. Rev., Jesus as Lord.
10. With the heart (xapdia). As the seat of the energy of the divine Spirit (avedma, see on ch. viii. 4) ; mediating the per- sonal life (of the soul srvy7, see on xi. 3), which is conditioned by the Spirit. It is not the affections as distinguished from the intellect. Believing with the heart is in contrast with oral con- fession, not with intellectual belief. “ Believing is a mode of thinking not of feeling. It is that particular mode of thinking that is guided to its object by the testimony of another, or by some kind of inter-mediation. It is not intuitive” (Mori- son).