Ver. 24 f. This sentence explains why Paul can speak of Christians as waiting for adoption, while they are nevertheless in the enjoyment of sonship. , It is because salvation is essentially re- lated to the future. ‘We wait for it: for we were saved in hope.” The dat. τῇ ἐλπίδι is that of mode or respect.
Our salvation was qualified from the ὴ
beginning by reference to a good yet to be. Weiss argues that the sense of ἐλπὶς in the second clause (res sperata) makes it ‘‘ absolutely necessary” to take it so in the first, and that this leaves no alternative but to make τῇ ἐλπίδι dat. comm. and translate: ‘ for, for this object of hope—eternal life and glory—were we delivered from eternal destruction”. But the ‘“‘absolute necessity” is imaginary ; a word with the nuances of ἐλπίς in a mind with the speed of Paul’s need not be treated so rigorously, especially as the resulting construction is in itself ex- tremely dubious. “Hope, the Apostle argues, is an essential characteristic of our salvation; but hope turned sight is hope no more, for who hopes for what he sees? We do not see all the Gospel held out to us, but it is the object οἱ our Christian hope nevertheless; it is as true
22—28.
δι΄ ὑπομονῆς ἀπεκδεχόμεθα.
651
26. Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ to Πνεῦμα
"συναντιλαμβάνεται ταῖς ἀσθενείαις | ἡμῶν ' τὸ γὰρ τί προσευξώµεθα ν Luke x.40. καθὸ δεῖ, οὐκ οἴδαμεν, GAN αὖτο τὸ Πνεῦμα " ὑπερεντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ν Here only:
ἡμῶν στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις: 27. ὁ δὲ ἐρευνῶν τὰς καρδίας olde τί
1ςΝ.ξ,
‘ / a , a ‘ > , {aca oP, TO φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅτι κατὰ Θεον ἐντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ἁγίων.
28. Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν Θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ” εἰς ἀγαθόν,
1 For ταις ασθενειαις ΝΑΕΒΕΟΡΓ have τῃ ασθενειᾳ.