399
θάλασσαν καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς' 16. ὃς ἐν ταῖς παρωχημέναις
γενεαῖς εἴασε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη πορεύεσθαι ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν: 17.
καίτοιγε] οὐκ ἁμάρτυρον ἑαυτὸν ἀφῆκεν, ἀγαθοποιῶν,” οὐρανόθεν ἡμῖν
ὑετοὺς διδοὺς καὶ καιροὺς καρποφόρους, ἐμπιπλῶν τροφῆς καὶ
1 καιτοιγε N*CSHLP 613”, Chrys., Theodt.; καιτοι ΝΕΑΒΟ 3 13, 61”, so Tisch.,
W.H., Blass, R.V., Weiss, Wendt; καιγε DE, so Hilg. (see Wendt’s note (1888)
Ps 312) ο. Χνή. 27.
Σαγαθοποιων, but ΝΑΒΟ 13, 61, 180 αγαθουργων, and so Tisch., W.H., Blass,
R.V., Weiss, Wendt.
The “living” God manifests His life in creation—a manifestation to which St. Paul would naturally appeal before such an audience; even in writing to Christian
converts of the deepest mysteries of the.
faith he does not forget that the God of Nature and the God of Redemp- tion are one, cf. Ephes. iii. 9, R.V.; so too St. Peter prefaces the first Christian hymn with the same words used here by the Apostle of the Gentiles, iv. 24. On the tact of St. Paul at Lystra and at Athens, laying the foundation of his teaching as a wise master-builder in the truths of natural religion, and leading his audience from them as _ stepping- stones to higher things, see notes on xvii. That he did not even at Lystra confine his teaching or his appeal simply to Nature’s witness, see notes on vv. 22 and 23.
Vv. 16-17. ὃς: God working not only in creation, but in history, not only the source of life but the personal living Guide and Ruler of man, even in His tolerance far removed from the easy indifference of the gods of Olympus. The three present participles ἀγαθ.... 88... . ἐμπ. . . . mark the continuous activity and goodness of God, and are all three epexegetical of ἀμάρτυρον; whilst the second participle is generally re- garded as specifying a mode of the first, and the third as expressing a consequence of the second.—ovpavd6ey: only again in xxvi. 13 in N.T., see 4 Macc. iv. 10; so in Hom.and Hes,, old genitive of οὐρανός. ---ὑετοὺς διδοὺς καὶ καιροὺς καρπ.: the Apostle’s appeal becomes more significant when we remember that Zeus was spoken of as ὑέτιος, ἐπικάρπιος (Bethge); the rain was regarded in the East as a special sign of divine favour, and here, as in the Ο.Τ., God’s goodness and power in this gift are asserted as against the impotence of the gods of the heathen, see especially Jer. xiv. 22, and cf. 1 Kings xviii. 1 and I Sam. xii. 17 where this same phrase ter. διδόναι is used of ἄοά.--καρπ. :
here only in N.T., cf. LXX, Jer. ii. 21, Ps. cvi. 34, and also classical ; cf. for the whole passage Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, ii., 53.---ἐμπιπλῶν (ἐμπιπλάω), cf. Luke i. 53, Vi. 25, Rom. xv. 24, John vi. 12, frequent in LXX, ε.ρ., Ps. cvi. 9, Isa. xxix. 19, Jer. xxxviii. 14, Ecclus. iv. 12; see also below on εὐφροσ.-- καρδίας: Blass compares Luke xxi. 34, where the heart is spoken of as overcharged with surfeit- ing, as here it is spoken of as filled with food. But the word may be used not merely as = ὑμᾶς, or in a merely material sense, but as including the idea of enjoy- ment, cf. LXX, Ps. ciii. 15 ; Winer-Moul- ton, xxiii. 1, and Alford on James v. 5.— εὐφροσύνης: in its ordinary Greek use might simply mean “good cheer,” al- though we need not limit it here with Grotius to wine as in Ecclus. xxxi. 28; very frequently used in LXX (only here and in ii. 28 in N.T.), sometimes of mere festive joy, Gen. xxxi. 27, sometimes of religious gladness, Deut. xxviii. 47. Αἱ- though St. Paul could not have used it here as it is employed in ii. 28, yet he might perhaps have used it as a kind of transition word to lead his hearers on to a deeper gladness of heart, a richer gift of God than corn and wine, cf. Ps. iv. 7, and for the phrase ἐμπ. εὖφροσ. Isa. xxix. 19, Ecclus. iv. 12. It may well be that whilst we have in this address the germ of the thoughts afterwards developed in Rom. i. 18, 23, etc., St. Paul did not press his argument on this occasion as in his Epistle, but took the first step to arrest the attention of his hearers by an appeal to the goodness, not to the severity, of God—the goodness which leadeth to re- pentance. It has been thought that the words ovp. ἡμῖν διδούς κ.τ.λ. are rhyth- mical, and may have been some familiar fragment of a song, or a citation from a Greek poet, in which the Apostle ex- pressed his thoughts; others have main- tained that they may have formed part