priate particle, denoting passage, without consideration either of the peril which threatened from the waters in themselves, or of the safety afforded in their being borne above them in the ark. Thus the following verse accords with this.
21. 'O xa/ avTiTunov) The relative o, which , stands in the place of vdup, water ; and has avr/rvxov added to it as an epithet ; but the substantives, baptism and asking [“ answer ”], are put in apposition to it. — vuv, now) at this time, which is in other respects an evil time. — <rw£g/, saves) brings us forth from the destruction of the whole world, and of the Jewish people. There is a reference to were saved, ver. 20. Peter shows that, as in former times there were some who perished through unbelief, and others who were saved through faith, so altogether in the New Testament there are some who are saved (as in this passage), others, on the contrary, who perish : ch. iv. 4-6 : that they both experience, although in different ways, the efficacy (power) of Christ : which very thing has special force to bring forth the godly from the wicked, and to confirm them in patience. — ou oupnbg, not of the flesh) He declares why and how far baptism has so salutary an effect. There were baptisms also among the Jews ; but they were such only as purified the flesh, and to this their efficacy was limited : even now the flesh is washed in baptism, but the wash- ing of the flesh is not that in which baptism really consists, nor does it (baptism) save, so far as it is [i.e. in respect of its being] done by the hand : comp. Eph. ii. 11 : but so far as it is the asking [u answer”~\ of a good conscience. The word <ra px'og, of the flesh, is emphatically put first, and the putting away of impurity is ascribed to the flesh [i.e. u the flesh’s putting away of impurity”] (accordingly it is not said, the putting away of the filth of the flesh [as Engl. Vers.]) ; and the con- science is opposed to the flesh. — ffuvs/dqtrsug dyctOrjg s'repdrrjfia,1 the asking of a good conscience) Dan. iv. 14, (parallel to which is
KEJnQ, a judicial decree, Heb. "in), in the Septuagint, J-xs purred, in this one passage. But and mi are oftened rendered by the same by the word enepurdw. The Greek Scholia have this : evepdrtyLa, rovr'fffnv, dppa,(3uv, sve%upov, drrod&i^ig, an earnest, a pledge, a proof. There is no doubt but that the apostle had reference to the Hebrew
1 iTTipuTYipici. The word seems to denote the promises made in baptism. St Luke ii. 46, uses the word Impuroiv for questioning, where he speaks of the child Jesus as being found in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. The word appears to compre- hend, as referred to baptism, the mutual questions and answers which make up the process of teaching on one side, and the stipulation on the other. — T. See Quarterly Review, vol. 71, p. 332.