Ver. 18. The passage extending from this verse to ver. 27 is described by Lipsius as a *‘ threefold testimony to the future transfiguration which awaits suf- fering believers’’. Im vers. 19-22 there is the first testimony—the sighing of creation ; in vers. 23-25 the second, the yearning hope of Christians themselves, related as it is to the possession of the first fruits of the Spirit ; and in vers. 26f. the third, the intercession of the Spirit which helps us in our prayers, and lends words to our longing. λογιζόµμεθα yap κ.τ.λ. λογίζομαι is a favourite word with Paul: the instance most like this is the one in iii. 28. It does not suggest a more or less dubious result of calculation ; rather by litotes does it express the strongest assurance. The insignificance of present suffering compared with future glory was a fixed idea with the Apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 17 Εξ. For οὐκ ἄξια . . . πρὸς see Winer, 505 (d). With τὴν µέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι cf. in Gal. iii. 23
16-21.
(μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι eis ἡμᾶς.
649
19. Ἡ γὰρ ἀποκαρα-
δοκία τῆς κτίσεως τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ "Θεοῦ ἀπεκδέχεται. 20. 4 Ver. 14
“TH γὰρ ” µαταιότητι ἡ κτίσις ὑπετάγη, οὐχ ἑκοῦσα, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὑπο- r Eph. ἵν.τλ
τάξαντα, ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι,ὶ 21. ὅτι 2
καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις ἐλευθερωθήσεται ἀπὸ
“THs δουλείας τῆς φθορᾶς εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέκνων τοῦ
1 επ ελπιδι. In NBDFG we find εφ ελπιδι, and this is printed by Tischdf. and W.and H. The same mistake (?) occurs Rom. iv. 18 in CDFG, Rom. v. 2in DFG,
and Tit. i. 2in D; cf. also αφηλπικοτες in FG Eph. iv. το.
In these circumstances
it seems doubtful whether εφ᾽ ελπιδι should be put in the text.
2 For οτι DFG read διοτι.
The δι may easily have been omitted after ελπιδι,
and therefore Tischdf. and Weiss read διοτι, though most edd. οτι.
τὴν µέλλ. πίστιν ἀποκαλ. The unusual -order emphasises the futurity. ets ἡμᾶς = toward and upon us. The glory -comes from without, to transfigure them. It is revealed at the ἀποκάλυψις (1 Cor. ο ΤΗ ιτ ρες 1897, (3, tive. 3); ‘the glorious second coming, of Christ, and is indeed His glory of which they are made partakers.
Ver. το. First testimony to this glorious ‘future: creation sighs for it. In some sense the hope and promise of it is involved,in the present constitution of ‘the world. Fora fine speculative inter- pretation see E. Caird’s Evolution of Religion, Π., 124 f. In Paul, however, the spirit of the passage is rather poetic than philosophical. Its affinities are with Gen. ili. 17, where the ground is cursed for man’s sake: he conceives of all creation as involved in the fortunes of humanity. But this, if creation be personified, naturally leads to the idea of .a mysterious sympathy between the -world and man, and this is what the Apostle expresses. Creation is not inert, utterly unspiritual, alien to our life and its hopes. It is the natural ally of our souls. What rises from it is the music of humanity—not apparently so still and -sad to Paul as to Wordsworth, but with a note of hope in it rising trium- phantly above all the pain of conflict. :ἀποκαραδοκία (Phil. i. 20) denotes ab- sorbed, persistent expectation—waiting, .as it were, with uplifted head. ἡ κτίσις is the world and all that it contains, animate and inanimate, as distinguished from man. τὴν ἄποκ. τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ θεοῦ: cf. 1 John iii. 2. With the revelation of the sons of God humanity would attain its end, and nature too.
Ver. 20. For creation was subjected to vanity, etc. µαταιότης is not classi- ‘cal, but is often used in the LXX, especi-
ally for 5554, The idea is that of look-
ing for what one does not find—hence of futility, frustration, disappointment. µαταιότης µαταιοτήτων is the “ vanity of vanities” in Eccl., the complaint of the utter resultlessness of life. Sin brought this doom on creation; it made a pessi- mistic view of the universe inevitable. ὑπετάγη: the precise time denoted is that of the Fall, when God pronounced the ground cursed for man’s sake. Crea- tion came under this doom οὐχ ἑκοῦσα ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὑποτάξαντα: the last words seem best referred to God: it was on account of Him—that His righteousness might be shown in the punishment of sin—that the sentence fell upon man, carrying consequences which extended to the whole realm intended originally for his dominion. The sentence on man, however, was not hopeless, and creation shared in his hope as in his doom. When the curse is completely removed from man, as it will be when the sons of God are revealed, it will pass from crea- tion also ; and for this creation sighs. It was made subject to vanity on the footing of this hope; the hope is latent, so to speak, in the constitution of nature, and comes out, in its sighing, to a sympa- thetic ear.