Ver. 21. ἢ οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν 6 κερα- μεὺς τοῦ πηλοῦ κ.τ.λ. ΤΠεῆ puts this as the alternative. Either you must recognise this absoluteness ot God in silence, oy you must make the pre- posterous assertion that the potter has not power over the clay, ete. The power of the potter over the clay is of course undoubted: he takes the same lump, and makes one vessel for noble and another for ignoble uses; it is not the quality of the clay, but the will of the potter, that decides to what use each part of the lump is to be put. True, the objector might say, but irrelevant. For man is
664
b2 Tim. il. τιμὴν σκεῦος, ὃ δὲ εἰς ἀτιμίαν ; > 22, εἰ δὲ θέλων ὁ Θεὸς ἐνδείξασθαι '
20 Ε. c Verse 17. d Here
, LA A . ‘ a ~ τὴν ὀργήν, καὶ γνωρίσαι τὸ δυνατον ἆ αὑτοῦ, ἤνεγκεν " ἐν πολλῇ µακρο-
only; ε/. θυµίᾳ σκεύη ὀργῆς κατηρτισµένα εἰς ἀπώλειαν '' 23. καὶ iva yywpion
ch. vili. 5. |
e Heb. xii, τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ σκεύη ἐλέους, ἃ προητοίµασεν " eis
20.
f Matt. vii. 13; John xvii. 12; Phil. iii. 19.
g Eph. ii. ro.
1 και wa γνωριση; the και is omitted by W. and H. following B 37, 39, 47, vulg.,
Copt., etc.
Treg. brackets it in marg. Weiss thinks it was omitted because the
transcriber could not see the point of it, and felt it easy to connect wa with the
principal verb.
not clay, and the relation of God to man is not that of the potter to dead matter. To say that it is, is just to concede the objector’s point—the moral significance is taken out of life, and God has no room any longer to pronounce moral judgments, or to speak of man in terms of praise or blame.
Vv. 22-29. Paul’s argument, to speak plainly, has got into an impasse. He is not able to carry it through, and to maintain the sovereign freedom of God as the whole and sole explanation of human destiny, whether in men or nations. He does, indeed, assert that freedom to the last, against the pre- sumptuousness of man; but in this third section of his theodicy, he begins to withdraw from the ground of speculation to that of fact, and to exhibit God’s action, not as a bare unintelligible exer- cise of will, which inevitably provokes rebellion, but as an exercise of will of such a character that man can have nothing to urge against it. et δὲ: the $2 marks the transition to the new point of view. It is as if Paul said: You may find this abstract presentation of God’s relations to man a hard doctrine, but if His-actual treatment of men, even of those who are σκεύη ὀργῆς κατ. εἰς ἀπώλειαν, is distinguished by longsuffer- ing and patience, what can you say against that? θέλων has been rendered (x) because it is His will; (2) although it is His will. In the former case, God bears long with the vessels of wrath in order that the display of His wrath and power may be more tremendous at last. But (a) such an idea is inconsistent with the contrast implied in δέ: it is an aggra- vation of the very difficulty from which the Apostle is making his escape ; (0) it is in- consistent with the words ἐν πολλῇ µακρο- θυµίᾳ; it is not longsuffering if the end in view is a more awful display of wrath ; there is no real longsuffering unless the end in view is to give the sinner place for repentance. Hence the other view (2) is substantially right. Although it is
God’s will to display His wrath and to show what He can do, still He does not proceed precipitately, but gives ample opportunity to the sinner to repent and escape. We are entitled to say ‘the sinner,’ though Paul does not say so explicitly, for ἡ ὀργή, the wrath of God, is relative to sin, and to nothing else: except as against sin, there is no sucl thing as wrath in God. In σκεύη ὀργῆ» the word σκεύη is perhaps prompted by the previous verse, but the whole associa- tions of the potter and the clay are not to be carried over: they are expressly pre- cluded by ἤνεγκεν ἐν πολλῇ paxpobupia. Paul does not say how the σκεύη ὀργῆς came to be what they are, the objects upon which the wrath and power of God are to be revealed; he only says that such as they are, God has shown great patience with them. It seems a mistake in W. and H. to print oxevy ὀργῆς as a quotation from Jer. Ἱ. (LXX xxvii.) 25; for there the words mean “the in- struments by which God executes His wrath,” les armes de sa colére (Reuss). κατηρτισµένα εἰς ἀπώλειαν : ἀπώλεια (Phil. i. 28, iii. το) means perdition, final ruin; by what agency the persons re- ferred to have been fitted for it Paul does not say} what he does say is, that fitted for such a doom as they are, God has nevertheless endured them in much longsuffering, so that they at least can- not say, Why dost thou find fault? For κατηρτισµένος = perfected, made quite fit or ripe, see Luke vi. 49, 1 Cor. i. 1Ο: cf. also 2 Tim. itl. 7.