Ver. 21. Contents of the hope. It makes no difference in meaning, whether we read ὅτι or διότι. αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις: creation as well as πιαη. ἡ δουλεία τῆς φθορᾶς: a system in which nothing con- tinues in one stay, in which death claims everything, in which there is not even an analogy to immortality, is a system of slavery—in subjection to ‘“ vanity,”’ with no high eternal worth of its own. Frém such a condition creation is to be eman- cipated ; it is to share in the liberty which belongs to the glory of the children of God. When man’s redemption is com- plete, he will find himself in a new world matching with his new condition (Isa. Ixv. 17, 2 Pet. iii. 13, Rev. xxi. 1): this is
8 Mark xvi. Θεοῦ.
k xvi 22. οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι πᾶσα ἡ " κτίσις συστενάζει καὶ συνωδίνει 15; Col.i.
ἄχρι τοῦ νῦν" 23. οὐ µόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ η a fe a Πνεύματος ἔχοντες, καὶ ἡμεῖς ] αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς στενάζοµεν, υἱοθεσίαν - ‘ 24. TH yap
tr Cor. i.7; ἀπεκδεχόμενοι τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν. Gal. v. 5;
Phil. iii, | ἐλπίδι ἐσώθημεν. ἐλπὶς δὲ βλεπομένη οὐκ ἔστιν ἐλπίς: ὃ γὰρ 20; Heb. , > ix'28, | βλέπει τις, τί καὶ €AmiLer?; 25. εἰ δὲ ὃ οὗ βλέπομεν ἐλπίζομεν,
1 ηµεις om. B 31, 73, 93, vulg. Therec. textisthatof DFKLP. In $§AC 47 the order of the words is εχοντες Ίμεις και αυτοι. This is followed by Tischdf. Lachm., Treg. and W. and H. bracket npes in this position; Weiss omits it altogether.
? The reading of B is ο γαρ βλεπει τις eAmmiLer. This is adopted by W. and H., Weiss. Of the received text—o yap βλεπει τις τι και ελπιζει---τι is wanting in δν; and και in DFG, vulg., Pesh. The reading of B is difficult, and seems to have been partially amended in different ways which are combined in the received text. For ελπιζει ΝΑ 47, marg., have υποµενει, and W. and H. give a place to this, as
well as to the received text, in their margin.
Paul’s faith, and the sighing of creation attests it.
Ver. 22. οἴδαμεν yap κ.τ.λ.:;: How Christians know this Paul does not say. Perhaps we may say that the Christian consciousness of sin and τε- demption is in contact with the ultimate realities of the universe, and that no in- terpretation of nature can be true but one which, like this, is in essential harmony with it. The force of the preposition in συστενάζει and ovvwoiver is not that we sigh and are in pain, and creation along with us; but that the whole frame of creation, all its parts together, unite in sighing and in pain. Weiss is right in saying that there is no reference to the dolores Messiae; but in συνωδίνει there is the suggestion of the travail out of which the new world is to be born. ἄχρι τοῦ vuv means up till now, without stop- ping, ever since the moment of ὑπετάγη.
Ver. 23. Second testimony to the glorious future. οὐ µόνον δὲ sc. ἡ κτίσις —not only all creation, but we Christians: we ourselves, τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες. τοῦ πνεύματος is gen. of ap- position: the spirit which Christians have received is itself the first fruits (else- where, the earnest: see on ver. 17) of this glory; and because we have it (not although: it is the foretaste of heaven, the heaven begun in the Christian, which intensifies his yearning, and makes him more vehemently than nature long for complete redemption), we also sigh in ourselves υἱοθεσίαν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι, τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν. The key to these words is found in i. 4. Christ was Son of God always, but was only declared to be so in power ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν, and so it is with
believers. They have already received adoption, and as led by the spirit are sons of God; but only when their mortal bodies have been quickened, and the corruptible has put on incorruption, will they possess all that sonship involves. For this they wait and sigh, and the inextinguishable hope, born of the spirit dwelling in them, guarantees its own fulfilment. Cf. Phil. iii. 21; 1 Cor. xv. 51; 2 Cor. v. 2; and for ἀπολύτρωσις in this sense, 1 Cor. i. 30.