*See two thorough articles, “St. Paul an Ectroma,” by EH. Huxtable, “ Expositor,” second series, iii., 268, 364.
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been lawful, Zeus would not have stopped him who knew the right way to restore men from the dead”* (‘‘ Agamemnon,” 987-992).
14. Vain (xevov). Empty, a mere chimaera.
17. Vain (wataia). <A different word, signifying frudtless. The difference is between reality and result.
19. Only. To be taken with the whole clause, at the end of which it stands emphatically. If in this life we are hopers in Christ, and if that is all. If we are not such as shall have hope in Christ after we shall have fallen asleep.
20. The first-fruits (arapyy). See on Jas. i. 18. Omit become. Compare Col. i. 18, and see on Apoc. i. 5.
92, All—all. What the all means in the one case it means in the other.
23. Order (rdypati). Only here in the New Testament. In Sept., a band, troop, or cohort ; also a standard ; Num. x. 14; xviii. 22, 25. How the one idea ran into the other may be perceived from the analogy of the Latin manzpulus, a hand- ful of hay twisted round a pole and used by the Romans as the standard of a company of soldiers, from which the company itself was called manipulus. In classical Greek, besides the meaning of company, it means an ordinance and a fixed assessment. Here in the sense of band, or company, in pursuance of the principle of a descending series of ranks, and of consequent subordinations which is assumed by Paul. The series runs, God, Christ, man. See ch. iii. 21-23; xi. 3. The reference is not to time or merit, but simply to the fact that each occupies his own place in the economy of resurrection, which is one great process in several acts. Band after band rises. First Christ, then Christians. The same idea appears in the first- fruits and the harvest.
* Aesculapius,
276 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ([Cu. XV.
24. Rule —authority — power (apy, éfovoiav, dvvapw). Abstract terms for different orders of spiritual and angelic powers; as Eph. i. 21; iii. 10; vi. 12; Col. i. 16.
97. When He saith (érav ein). God, speaking through the Psalmist (Ps. viii. 6). Some, however, give a future force to the verb, and render but when He shall have said; ie., when, at the end, God shall have said, “ All things are put un- der Him. The subjection is accomplished.” See Rev., margin.
29. What shall they do (ré vroujcovow). What will they effect or accomplish. Not, What will they have recourse to? nor, How will it profit them ? The reference is to the living who are baptized for the dead.
Baptized for the dead (Samifouevor vrép tav vexpar). Concerning this expression, of which some thirty different ex- planations are given, it is best to admit frankly that we lack the facts for a decisive interpretation. None of the explana- tions proposed are free from objection. Paul is evidently al- luding to a usage familiar to his readers; and the term em- ployed was, as Godet remarks, in their vocabulary, a sort of technical phrase. A large number of both ancient and modern commentators * adopt the view that a living Christian was bap- tized for an unbaptized dead Christian. The Greek expositors regarded the words the dead as equivalent to the resurrection of the dead, and the baptism as a manifestation of belief in the doctrine of the resurrection. Godet adopts the explanation which refers baptism to martyrdom—the baptism of blood—and cites Luke xii. 50, and Mark x. 88. In the absence of anything more satisfactory I adopt the explanation given above.
31. I protest, etc. J protest is not expressed, but merely implied, in the particle of adjuration, v by. The order of the Greek is noteworthy. J die daily, by your rejovcing, ete.