Ver. 2f. With add’ οὐ πρὸς τὸν θεόν the Apostle summarily repels the ob- jection. ‘‘You say he has ground of boasting ? On the contrary, he has no ground of boasting in relation to God, For what does the Scripture say ? Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to Him for righteousness.” The quotation is from Gen. xv. 6, and is exactly as in the LXX, except that Paul writes ἐπίστευσεν δὲ τῷ θεῷ instead of καὶ ἐπίστευσεν τῷ θεῷ, which serves partly to bring out the contrast between the real mode of Abraham’s justification, and the mode suggested in ver. 2, partly to give prominence to faith, as that on which his argument turned. The read- ing ἐπίστενυσεν δὲ is also found in Jas. i. 23, Philo i., 605 (Mangey), as well as Clem. Rom., I., x., 6, and Just. Martyr, Dial.,92: so that it was probably current, and not introduced by Paul. It is assumed that something not in itself righteousness was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness; only on this assump- tion is boasting in his case excluded.
Ver. 4 f. The faith of Abraham, in whatever way it may be more precisely determined by relation to its object, agrees with Christian faith in the essential characteristic, that it is not a work, To him who works—der mit Werken umgehet: Luther—the reward
616
b Ver. 24; Anpas 5. τῷ δὲ μὴ ἐργαζομένῳ, πιστεύοντι δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν δικαιοῦντα
42. τὸν ἀσεβῆ, | λογίζεται ἡ πίστις αὐτοῦ eis ’δικαιοσύνην. 6. καθάπερ ς Ch. ii. 26, ‘ ‘ , 9 ν a 3 9 , Φε & ia, ix. 8. καὶ AaBid λέγει τὸν μακαρισμὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ᾧ ὁ Θεὸς λογίζεται
δικαιοσύνην, χωρὶς ἔργων, 7. “Makdpro ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι,
καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν at ἁμαρτίαι.
8. µακάριος ἀνὴρ ᾧ ” οὐ μὴ
.
1 aoeBy; for this ΝΟΕ have the form ασεβην, on which see Winer, p. 76.
- For o $*®ACD°FKL ov is found in §'BD!G (so LXX in ΝΙΑΕ). ov is the better supported reading, but ᾧ “ naturally
put ov in text, ᾧ in marg.
W. and H.
established itself as the more euphonious” (S. and H.).
is reckoned, not by way of grace (as in Abraham’s case), but by way of debt. But to him who does ιοί work, i.e., who does not make works his ground of hope toward God—but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. Ver. 5 describes the category under which Abraham falls, but is not a generalisation from his case. The ἀσεβὴς (Gen. xviii. 23, Prov. xi. 31, chap. v. 6) 1s a person who has no claim to justification: if he is justified, it must be not on the ground of works, but freely, by God’s grace, on which he relies through faith. Of course to believe in this grace ef God is to do something ; in that sense it is a work; but it is to do something which involves a complete re- nunciation of hope in anything we can do without God. It excludes merit, boast- ing, justification ἐξ ἔργων. Cf. Philo, i., 486 (quoted in Mayor on Jas. i. 21): δίκαιον γὰρ οὕτως οὐδὲν ὡς ἀκράτῳ καὶ ἀμιγεῖ τῇ πρὸς θεὸν µόνον πίστει κεχρῆσθαι . . « τὸ ἐπὶ µόνῳ τῷ ὄντι βεβαίως καὶ ἀκλινῶς ὁρμεῖν . . « δικαι- οσύνης µόνον ἔργον. The whole Paul- ine gospel could be summed up in this one word—God who justifies the ungodly. Under that device, what room is there for any pretensions or claims of man? It is sometimes argued (on the ground that all God’s actions must be ‘ethical’’) that God can only pronounce just, or treat as just, those who actually are just; but if this were so, what Gospel would there be for sinful men? This “ethical” gospel is identical with the Pharisaism in which Paul lived before he knew what Christ and faith were, and it led him to despair. . It leads all men either to despair or to a temper which is that of the Pharisee rather than the publican of Luke xviii. What it can never beget is the temper of the Gospel. The paradoxical phrase, Him that justi- fieth the ungodly, does not suggest that justification is a fiction, whether legal or