Ver. 23 f. The sentence beginning with εἰ δὲ θέλων is not grammatically completed, but ver. 23 is an irregular parallel to ver. 22. God’s purpose is regarded as twofold. It is on the one hand to show His wrath and make known His power; it is on the other hand to make known the riches of His glory (cf. Eph. iii. 16). The first part of it is carried out on those who are σκεύη ὀργῆς, the latter on those who are σκεύη ἐλέους; but, in carrying out both parts
22—27.
665
δόξαν ΄ 24. οὓς καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς οὐ µόνον ἐξ Ιουδαίων, ἀλλὰ καὶ
ἐξ ἐθνῶν' 25. (ὡς καὶ ἐν τῷ Ὠσηὲ λέγει, '' Καλέσω τὸν οὐ λαόν µου,
λαόν pou’ καὶ τὴν οὐκ ἠγαπημένην, ἠγαπημένην”.
26. “Kat
ἔσται, ἐν τῷ τόπῳ οὗ ἐῤῥήθη αὐτοῖς,ὶ OF λαός µου ὑμεῖς, ἐκεῖ κληθή-
ee," ” ~ 12 σονται υἱοι Θεού ζῶντος.
“Edv ᾖ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ισραὴλ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ
27. Ἡσαΐας δὲ κράζει ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ισραήλ, h Is. x. 111.
Cor. 1.6 (end).
,i2
auTo.s is wanting in BFG and the best MSS. of the vulg. As no reason can be suggested for its omission, if it were original, Weiss supposes it was added in con- formity with the LXX. He therefore omits it altogether; W. and H. bracket.
alike, God acts in a way which is so far from giving man room to complain that it commands his wonder and adoration; for the σκεύη ὀργῆς there is much long- suffering, for the σκεύη ἐλέους a prepara- tion and a calling in which God’s free unmerited mercy is conspicuous. καὶ ἵνα yvwpioy : This is mentioned as a principal purpose of God. ἐπὶ σκεύη ἐλέους: the glory is conceived as some- thing shed upon the persons concerned ; they are irradiated with the Divine brightness. Cf. 2 Thess. i. 10. δόξα in such connections has usually a super- sensible eschatological “meaning ; its content was fixed for Paul by his vision of Christ as Lord of Glory. The end of God’s ways with the vessels of mercy is to conform them to the image of His exalted Son. & προητοίµασεν εἰς δόξαν: Paul does not shrink from introducing God as subject here. The vessels of mercy, in whom the Divine glory is to be revealed, are such as God prepared before for that destiny. That Paul is not speaking here abstractly, as in his discussion of the relations of creature and Creator in ver. 21 f., but on the basis of experience, is shown by the words which immediately follow: οὓς καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς = whom he also called in us. The σκεύη ἐλέους, in other words, are not a mere theological conception = ‘‘God’s elect ”: they are the actual members of the Christian Church, Jew and Gentile; and it is not a deduction from the necessities of the Divine nature, but an account of real experiences of God’s goodness, which is given both in προητοίµασεν and in ἐκάλεσεν. How much is covered by προητοίµασεν is not clear, but the text presents no ground whatever for import- ing into it the idea of an unconditional eternal decree. Those who are called know that the antecedents of their call- ing, the processes which lead up to and prepare for it, are of God. They know that in all these processes, even in the
remote initial stages of them, to the significance of which they were blind at the time, glory was in view. The fact that both Jews and Gentiles are called shows that this preparation is not limited to any one nation; the fact that the called are from among both Jews and Gentiles shows that no one can claim God’s mercy as a right in virtue of his birth in some particular race.
Ver. 25 f. This result of God’s ways with man—His calling not only from the Jews but from the Gentiles—agrees with His own declarations in Scripture. Ver. 25 answers roughly to Hos. ii. 23, LXX: I will love her who was not beloved, and will say to that which was not My people, Thou art My people. Not My people (= Lo-ammi) and Not beloved ( = Lo- tuhamah) were the names of a son and a daughter of Hosea, who symbolised the kingdom of Israel, rejected of God but destined to share again in His favour. Paul here applies to the calling of the Gentiles words which spoke originally of the restoration of Israel—an instance which shows how misleading it may be to press the context of the other passages quoted inthis chapter. Ver. 26 is alsoa quotation from Hos. i. 10 (LXX): the éxet is supplied by Paul. The applica- tion of it is similar to that of ver. 25. In Hosea the promise is that the Israelites who had lost their standing as God’s people should have it given back to them, in all its dignity. This also Paul reads of the calling of the Gentiles. They were once no people of God’s, but now have their part in the adoption. But what is the meaning of ‘in the place where . . . there shall they be called’)? It is not certain that in Hosea there is any reference to a place at all (see margin of R.V.), and it is not easy to see what Paul can mean by the emphatic ἐκεῖ. The ordinary explanation—the Gentile lands—is as good as any, but seems hardly equal to the stress laid on ἐκεῖ,