ment, where they are now our fellow-servants. And from this very circumstance, that they are our fellow-servants, we under stand that they are not inactive under the New Testament, but merely that they act under a different relation from that under which they acted under the Old Testament. As in this passage angels are opposed to the Lord, so ver. 16, they are opposed to the brethren [ver. 11, 12]. The apostle couples believers alone with Christ alone. — vvsraZe, subjected) This verb
is now brought forward at once from the eighth verse. God
subjected; for the language refers to ch. i. 1. — rqv oixovpeniv rrtv psXXovffav, the world to come) There is but one earth, otxovfteni, belonging to all times, ch. i. 6. Therefore the expression, the world to come, is used as we say to-morrow's sun, although there is but the one sun of all days. Kin in Hebrew is expressed by /j/sX\ovffa in Greek. The world is one (and the same world), under grace and under glory ; the epithet, to come, is added to it, not because it is not already existing, but because it was formerly predicted. The 'newness which was introduced by Christ in the New Testament is considered of so much import ance in Scripture, that there arises from it a twofold division (dichotomia), viz. between the times of the Old and those of the New Testament, with one and the same eternity depending upon them. These latter taken together are called % 55 psXXovffa, the world to come. They are ever and anon about to come, when regarded from the Old Testament point of view, which prophetically looks forward to the New Testament ; but in the New Testament they are present Good things, obtained by Christ ; which commence while the world to come is in the course of being subjected to Him, at the time when first He was crowned with glory and honour. Concerning this ex pression of Paul, comp. note at Rom. iii. 30. Although, even in reference to the time of this epistle, it is to come, /^sX^ouffa, in its own way, viz, at the time when all things shall be made subject to Christ, even including death, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Consider the not yet, ver. 8, and the actual description of " the world to come," ch. xii. 26, etc. The noun, world, is of very wide meaning. See the psalm which is presently quoted. Uarrip rou MEAAONTO2 aiuvoc, Pater futuri seculi, Is. ix. 6, in the Greek and Latin versions ; the Father of the world to come ;