Vv. 14-21. In the second part of his theodicy Paul meets the objection that this sovereign freedom of God is essenti- ally unjust.
Ver. 14. τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; cf. vi. 1, vii. 7, vill. 31. It is Paul who speaks, anticipating, as he cannot help doing, the objection which is sure to rise, not only in Jewish minds, though it is with them he is directly concerned, but in the mind of every human being who reads his words. Yet he states the objection as one in itself incredible. μὴ ἀδικία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ; surely we cannot say that there is unrighteousness with God? This is the force of the μὴ, and Paul can answer at once py Ὑένοιτο: away with the thought! God says Himself that He shows mercy with that sovereign freedom which Paul has ascribed to Him; and the principle of action which God announces as His own cannot be unjust.
Ver. 15. τῷ Μωυσεῖ γὰρ λέγε. τῷ Μωνυσεῖ is emphatic by position: the person to whom this declaration was
> , 5» . οικτειρω .
τοῦ ἐλεοῦντος ! Θεοῦ.
ur Tim.1 16. a ‘Ge Av , 9” , 3 , ~ - 32 ν Luke ix. καὶ ὅπως διαγγελῇ ” TO ὄνομά µου ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ”. ; Act A 60: ASS θέλει, ἐλεεῖ" ὃν δὲ θέλει, σκληρύνει.
16. ἄρα οὖν ob τοῦ θέλοντος, οὐδὲ τοῦ τρέχοντος." ἀλλὰ 17. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ τῷ Φαραὰ, "' Ὅτι eis αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐξήγειρά σε, ὅπως ἐνδείξωμαι " ἐν gol τὴν δύναμίν µου,
18. ἄρα οὖν ὃν
19. Ἐρεῖς οὖν pou,” Τί ἔτι
1 For ελεουντος read ελεωντος with ΦΑΒΙΡΕ.,
2 For ουν pot ΔΔΒΡ 47 read por ουν. µεμφεται BDFG, Orig.-inter.
τι ετι µεμφεται SRAKLP, but τι ουν ett
This ουν is inserted by Lachm. and Weiss, bracketed
in marg. by Treg., simply omitted (on the principle of judging referred to in note *,
page 589) by W. and H.
made, as well as the voice which made it, render it peculiarly significant to a Jew. The words (exactly as LXX, Exod. xxxiii. 1ο) occur in the answer to a prayer of Moses, and may have been regarded by Paul as having special reference to him; as if the point of the quotation were, Even one who had deserved so well as Moses experienced God’s mercy solely because God willed that He should. But that is not necessary, and is not what the original means. The emphasis is on ὃν ἂν, and the point is that in showing mercy God is determined by nothing outside of His mercy itself. οἰκτείρειν is stronger than ἐλεεῖν; it suggests more strongly the emotion attendant on pity, and even its expres- sion in voice or gesture.
Ver. 16. Conclusion from this word of God. It (namely, the experience of God’s mercy) does not depend on man’s resolve or effort (for τρέχειν cf. 1 Cor. ix. 24 ff.), but on God’s merciful act. This, of course, merely repeats vers. 12, 13, buttressing the principle of God’s sove- reign freedom in the exercise of mercy by reference to His own word in Exod. XXxiii. 19.
Ver. 17 f. But Paul goes further, and explains the contrary phenomenon—that of a man who does not and cannot receive mercy—in the same way. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή: it is on Scripture the burden of proof is laid here and at ver. 15. A Jew might answer the arguments Paul uses here if they were the Apostle’s own ; to Scripture hecan make no reply ; it must silence, even where it does not convince. τῷ Φαραὼ: All men, and not those only who are the objects of His mercy, come within the scope of God’s sovereignty. Pharaoh as well as Moses can be quoted to illustrate it. He was the open adversary of God, an avowed, implacable adversary ; yet a Divine pur- pose was fulfilled in his life, and that
purpose and nothing else is the explana- tion of his very being. ets αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐξήγειρά σε. The LXX in Exod. ix. 16 read: καὶ ἕνεκεν τούτου διετηρήθης, the last word, answering to the Hebrew