matters connected with an altogether extraordinary subject, which would be in vain sought for elsewhere, are here discussed. — V. g.]
qpeTsj we) The saints, by speaking thus in their own age, have
greatly added to the obligation resting on those of following ages to look for the Lord. The we is presently explained by the following words, who are alive, and further on, who remain. — 01 £wi/rg£ 01 rtspihsivopsvo/, who live, who remain [who live, surviv ing']) So also ver. 17. This is equivalent to an apposition. Who live, is an antithesis to, who sleep. There is at the same time intimated the small number of those who live, compared with the multitude of the dead ; likewise the good condition of those who are asleep, so that the living may desire to be gathered to them. Men of all ages conjointly have a lively anticipation of [realize to themselves the immediate fulfilment of] some one thing ; * and so believers, who are now long wait ing, and who regard themselves in the light of persons who are to live at the coming of the Lord, have spoken in accordance with this their character (spake in the manner that became the character they represented, viz. those who shall be alive at the Lord's coming). Those who live, and those who remain till the coming of the Lord, are the same, and these are denoted by the pronoun we. Each generation, which lives at this or that time, occupies, during that period of their life, the place of those who are to live at the time of the coming of the Lord.2 So the we is put here, as elsewhere the names Cajus and Titius,3 and that, too, with the greater propriety, because believers of that age [i.e. of each successive past age] have not yet been allowed distinctly to know the vast period of time to elapse till
1 Or ' reprsesentant ' means, Men of different ages aiming conjointly at some one object (for instance, the House of Commons in successive ages seeking civil liberty and good government) are joint representatives of that one idea : and so the men of each particular age might regard themselves as the representatives of it in their particular age. — ED.
2 That is, they are called on to live in daily and hourly expectation of the Lord's coming in their time, since the time of His coming was left un certain for that very purpose, Matt. xxv. 13. Such ' watchers ' in each generation are representatives of those who shall actually be found alive when He comes. — ED.
8 Imaginary persons put in law as representatives to exemplify some principle. — ED.