Ver. 14. κεκένωται cf. 1 Cor. i. 17, ix. 15, 2 Cor. ix. 3. κατήργηται: 2
διὰ
“
12---17.
ὀργὴν κατεργάζεται: οὗ yap! οὐκ ἔστι νόμος, οὐδὲ παράβασις..
619
16.
- ’ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκ πίστεως, ἵνα Kata” χάριν, eis τὸ εἶναι βεβαίαν τὴν ἐπαγ- η Ver. 4.
, ~ rt lol γελίαν παντὶ τῷ σπέρµατι, οὗ τῷ ἐκ τοῦ νόµου μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ
τῷ ἐκ πίστεως ᾽Αβραὰμ, ὅς ἐστι πατὴρ πάντων ἡμῶν, 17. (καθὼς 1 Gen. xvii
9 A a 5. "γέγραπται, “OT. πατέρα πολλῶν ἐθνῶν τέθεικά σε,͵) κατέναντι οὗ κ. Ch, viii
-- a a k fol 9 4 ‘ a a ἐπίστευσε Θεοῦ, τοῦ " ζωοποιοῦντος τοὺς νεκροὺς, καὶ καλοῦντος τὰ
111 Tim: vi. 13.
-ov γαρ; so ΝΡΕΚΙ.Ρ, but AEC ου δε.
favourite word of Paul, who uses it twenty-five times.
Ver.15. ὀργήν: wrath, {.6., the wrath of God. See oni. 18. Undera legal dis- pensation sin is stimulated, and brought into clear consciousness: men come under the wrath of God, and know that they do. This is the whole and sole result of ‘‘the law,” and hence law cannot be the means through which God administers His grace, and makes man the heir of all things. On the contrary, to attain this inheritance man must live under a regime of faith. οὗ δὲ: δὲ is the true reading (see critical note), not yap: but where law is not, neither is there παράβασις. It would not have been true to say οὐδὲ ἁμαρτία, for Paul in chap. ii. recognises the existence and guilt of sin even where men live ἀνόμως; but in comparison with the deliberate and conscious transgression of those who live ἐν vépq, such sin is comparatively insignificant and venial, and is here left out of account, The alternative systems are reduced to two, Law and Grace (or Promise).
Vers. 16-22. The Apostle can now develop, without further interruption or digression, his idea of the representative (and therefore universal) character of Abraham’s justification. The New Tes- tament cannot be said to subvert the Old if the method of justification is the same under both. Nay, it establishes the Old (iii. 31). This is the point which is en- forced in the closing verses of chap. iv.
Ver. 16 f. Ata τοῦτο: because of the nature of law, and its inability to work anything but wrath. ex πίστεως: the subject is the promise, considered in reference to the mode of its fulfilment. ἵνα κατὰ χάριν: χάρις on God’s part is the correlative of πίστις on man’s. els τὸ εἶναι βεβαίαν κ.τλ. This is the Divine purpose in instituting the spiritual order of grace and faith: it is the only one consistent with universalism in re- _ligion. οὐ τῷ ἐκ τοῦ νόµον µόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ ἐκ πίστεως ᾿Αβραάμ: there seems
to be some inexactness in expression here. The seed which is “of the Law” ought to mean the Jews, as partisans of law in distinction from faith: then the seed’. which is ‘‘of the faith of Abraham” would mean the Gentiles. But the pro- mise did not belong at all to the seed which was “‘ of the law,” 7.c., to the Jews, as Abraham’s natural descendants; even in them, faith was required. And the seed which is “of the faith” of Abraham is not quite appropriate to describe Gentile believers exclusively ; the very point of the argument in the passage is that the faith of Abraham is reproduced in all the justified, whether Gentile or Jew. Still there seems no doubt that the persons meant to be contrasted in the two clauses are Jewish and Gentile believers (Meyer), not Jews and Christians (Fritzsche, who supplies σπέρµατι before ᾿Αβραάμ) : the difficulty is that the words do not exactly suit either meaning.
és ἐστιν πατὴρ πάντων ἡμῶν. The πάντων is emphatic, and ἡμῶν expresses the consciousness of one who has seen in Abraham the spiritual ancestor of the new Christian community, living (as it does), and inheriting the promise, by faith. Opponuntur haec verba F$udaeis, qui Abrahamum non nominant nisi cum