which, as often happens, so here, has a passive signification : it corresponds to the Hebrew word JVO, and is a conjugate of the verb JyxoflTg/v, ver. 7. Either the whole, when a part is cut off [the whole has the part cut q/f], or a part cut. off from the whole, is said respectively affoxotfrsffQai. Some ascribe the former sense in this passage to the zeal of the apostle, so that the mutilation of the body of the circumcised [viz. by taking away not merely the foreskin, but the whole member] may be denoted ; and, in deed, the LXX. often translate JTD by xoVr-w, a-roxocrw, etc., especially Dent, xxiii. (1) 2, where a-roxsxo/^evos is used for that, which the French here translate more than circumcised; but we can scarcely receive what is said by the apostle but by metony my, i.e., that as persons cut off they may be debarred from the Church. Deut. as above. The second sense is more consistent with the gravity of the apostle, that he should speak thus : As the prepuce is cut off by circumcision, as a thing which it be comes an Israelite to want, so those shall be cut off, as a worth less prepuce, from the communion of the saints, and shall be accursed (anathema) : ch. i. 7, and following verses. With a similar reference to circumcision, Paul, Phil. iii. 2, speaks of xararo/tTiv, concision; nor is it altogether foreign to the subject, what Apollon. in Philostr. v. 11, says of the Jews, already of old time, they not only cut themselves off from the Romans, but also from all men. Now, what is to be done with the particle opsXov? Most construe opeXov not,) airoxo^ovrai ; but o'peXov, though it is a particle of sufficiently frequent occurrence, is nowhere to be found construed with the future of the indicative. The Com- plutensian Edition acknowledging this fact, to avoid this difficulty, have given d-roxo'4/wvra/ ; but it is unsupported by the copies.1 There are many imprecations in the sacred writings, and this word o'pgXev is not used in any of their formulae : nor would Paul in this passage, after a categorical (unconditional) denun ciation, finally make war by a prayer against the disturbers of the peace. 2r/y/^, the point, is put after o'pgXov in the sixth Au gustan. I think it will be found so in many MSS., if philologers would notice such things ; for the comma is certainly in some
1 Bong, errs in this. D(A)G support d^ox.o^/avreti : and fg Vulg. have ' abscindantur.' But ABC, the weightiest authorities, have dirox the difficulty of explaining which gave birth to d-Troxo-^avTcti. — ED.