25. ' Axoxpidit;, answering) Sc. to those things which He was considering concerning His Father's design, His own thoughts, and the character of His disciples.1 — l^oXoyo^aa/, / praise) Nothing can be predicated with praise of God, which is not so in fact : min, praise* is predication.4 Jesus returned thanks to His Father afterwards in the same words, when the seventy disciples had well performed the work which He had appointed them. — Ilcmp, Kvpis rou olpavov xa; r»J£ yr,s} Father, Lord of heaven and eartli) He is frequently called the Father of Jesus Christ, sometimes also His God ; never His Lord, but the Lord of heaven and earth. Let us learn, from the example of Jesus Christ, to apply to God those titles which are suitable to the subject of our prayers. The Jews also forbid to cumulate divine titles in prayers. The address in this passage is indeed most magnificent. — on axixpu^ac — KU.I d-rgxaXu-^/aj, x.r.X., be cause Thou hast hid — and revealed, etc.) A double ground of
1 He uttered the words which follow with an exulting spirit. — V. g.
2 The word used by Bengel is " Conjiteor," which occurs in the Vulgate, both here and in 1 Chron. xvi. 35 with the same sense. That such is his meaning, is clear from his employing in his German Version the phrase, Ich preise Dick, which, when applied to God, signifies " / PRAISE or MAG NIFY T/iee." Bengel employs the word "Conjiteor" in preference to any other, because, like the Greek e|o^oXoyo^«/, it signifies both generically, with an accusative, to confess, acknowledge, proclaim, etc., and specifically, with a dative, to laud, praise, or magnify [GOD]. — See Riddle and Schleusner in voce. — E. V. renders sfo^oXoyot^flt/, I thank. — (I. B.)
3 The word used by Bengel is " Confessio," which he employs with direct reference to his previous " Confiteor," on which see preceding footnote.
On the meaning of ~-'-nJ Gesenius says: — (1.) Confession, Josh. vii. 19; Ezr. x. 11. (2.) Thanksgiving, Ps. xxvi. 7, xlii. 5. rvrn^nt to offer praise to God (for a sacrifice), Ps. 1. 14, 23, cvii. 22, cxvi. 17 (where the phrase is not to be taken as though proper sacrifices were spoken of), rt-vn frrr, Lev. xxii. 29; n-^r'n rn'-p rat, Lev. vii. 13, 15, comp. 12, and ellipt. rn'-P, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, Ps. Ivi. 13. (3.) A choir of givers of thanks, prais ing God, Neh. xii. 31, 38, 40.— (I. B.)
4 And conversely, therefore, Predication is Praise. They are the two sides of an eternal and immutable equation. Much to the same effect, Bengel says elsewhere (ch. vi. 9), " Deus est sanctus, i.e., Deus sanctifi- catur ergo, quando ita, ut est, agnoscitur et colitnr et celebratur." Conse quently, in confessing, acknowledging, and proclaiming, or in any other mode PREDICATING the truth concerning GOD (and not otherwise), we PRAISE Him. -(I. B.)