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and the deliverance of the kingdom into His hands takes place, that all authority may be swept away. — vapabp rfa (3a<ri\s!av, shall have delivered up the kingdom) The Father will not then begin to reign without the Son ; nor will the Son cease then to reism without the Father ; for the divine kingdom both of the Father and of the Son is from eternity and will be to eternity. But the apostle is here speaking of the mediatorial kingdom of the Son, which will be delivered up, and of the immediate £*.«., without mediation] kingdom of the Father, to which then it will give place. In the meantime, the Son manages the affairs, which the Father has put into His hands, for and by His own people, for the elect, by the instrumentality of angels also, and in the presence of the Father and against His enemies, so long as even an effort of these last continues. The Son will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, inasmuch as the Father gave it to the Son, John xiii. 3. The Father does not cease to reign, though He has appointed the Son to be king ; nor does the Son cease to reign, when He delivers up the kingdom to the Father; and by the very circumstance, that it is said, not that it is to be abolished , but to be delivered up to the Father , it is signified, that it itself also is of infinite majesty. But the glory before the foundation of the world will remain, after the kingdom has been delivered up : John xvii. 5 ; Heb. i. 8 : and He will not cease to be king according to His human nature, Luke i. 33.1 If the citizens of the New Jerusalem shall reign for ever and ever, Rev. xxii. 5 ; how much more will God and Christ reign ? — rp Qsp xal Kurpi, to God even the Father) God is here regarded in a twofold point of view. He is considered, both as God and as the Father in respect to Christ, John xx. 17 ; even in His state of exaltation, Rev. iii. 12, 21 : and in respect to believers, Col. iii. 17. He is considered as God, towards [in relation to] His enemies, xarapyrj<sr\ [ shall have put down\ shall have abolished ) viz., God even the Father , of whom it is also said (until) He put (Sy, ver. 25) and He has subjected [vvira^sv, ver. 27]. In a similar manner, the subject is changed to a different one [from God to Christ] in the third person, ver. 25 and 29 [the baptized
1 S. R. D. Moldenhauer on this passage refers to it the passage in Luke ; comp. Dan. vii. 14. He very often agrees with Bengel : for example, ver. 32, 49, etc. — E. B.
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