Ver. 4. ὥστε καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐθανατώθητε τῷ νόµῳ: the inference is drawn rather from the principle than from the example, but καὶ ὑμεῖς means “you as well as the woman in the illustration,” not “you Gentiles as well as I a Jew”. The last, which is Weiss’s interpre- tation, introduces a violent contrast of which there is not the faintest hint in the context. The meaning of é@ava- τώθητε is fixed by reference to chap. vi. 3-6. The aorist refers to the definite time at which in their baptism the old life (and with it all its legal obligations):
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5. ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ
a Matt. xiii. 2 2 ΄ a ͵ a ο. 23; Col. i. ἐγερθέντι, ἵνα "καρποφορήσωμεν τῷ Θεῷ. ο... δν σαρκὶ, τὰ παθήµατα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόµου ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν
ο) aN ε ~ 3 A a ~ 6 , iS 6 . δὲ τοῖς µέλεσιν ἡμῶν, εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ . vuvl δε
κα ἠθημεν ἀπὸ τοῦ νόµου. ἀποθανόντες ἐν ᾧ κατειχόµεθα, ὥστε τηργήθημ μου, τες ἐν ᾧ κατειχόµεθα,
δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς] ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος, καὶ οὐ παλαιότητι γράμματος.
7. Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; 6 νόμος ἁμαρτία; μὴ γένοιτο: ἀλλὰ τὴν
ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἔγνων, et μὴ διὰ νόµου τήν τε γὰρ ἐπιθυμίαν οὐκ p γνωνς γ
1 ηµας om. BFG. Most edd. (W. and Η., Lachm., and Treg.) bracket it; Weiss omits, but allows that the case is disputable.
came toanend. διὰ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χτοῦ: Weiss rejects as opposed to the context the ‘‘dogmatic’’ reference to the sacrificial death of Christ as a satis- faction for sin; all the words imply, according to him, is that the Christian, in baptism, experiences a ὁμοίωμα of Christ’s death, or as it is put in vi. 6 is crucified with Him, and so liberated from every relation to the law. But if Christ’s death had no spiritual content—if it were not a death ‘‘ for our sins ” (1 Cor. xv. 3), a death having the sacrificial character and atoning virtue described in iii. 25 f.—there would be no reason why a sinful man should be baptised into Christ and His death at all, and in point of fact no one would be baptised. It is because Christ’s death is what it is, a sin-expiating death, that it draws men to Him, and spiritually reproduces in them a reflex or counterpart of His death, with which all their old relations and obligations terminate. The object of this is that they may belong to another, a different person. Paul does not say ἑτέρῳ ἀνδρί: the marriage metaphor is dropped. He is speaking of the ex- perience of Christians one by one, and though Christ is sometimes spoken of as the husband or bridegroom of the Church, there is no Scripture authority for using this metaphor of His relation to the individual soul. Neither is this inter- pretation favoured by the use of καρπο- φορήσωμεν; to interpret this of the fruit of the new marriage is both needless and grotesque. The word is used frequently in the Ν.Τ, for the outcome of the Christian life, but never with this as- sociation; and a reference to vi. 21 shows how natural it is to the Apostle without any such prompting. Even the change from the second person (ἐθανα- τώθητε) to the first (καρποφορήσωμεν) shows that he is contemplating the end of the Christian life quite apart from the suggestions of the metaphor. Christ is
described as τῷ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγερθέντι, because we can only belong to a living person. τῷ θεῷ is dat. comm. God is the person interested in this result.
Ver. 5. Contrast of the earlier life. κ ἐν τῇ capKxi’”’ is materially the same as ‘‘ ὑπὸ τὸν vopov”; the same state of the soul is described more from within and more from without. The opposite would be ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, Or ὑπὸ χάριν. τὰ παθή- Para τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν are the passions from which acts of sin proceed: Gal. v. 24. τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόµον: it is through the law that these passions become actualised : we would never know them for what they are, if it were not for the law. εἰς τὸ καρποφορῆσαι τῷ θανάτῳ: there is no allusion to marriage here any more than in ver. 4. Death is personified here as in v. 17: this tyrant of the human race is the only one who profits by the fruits of the sinful life.