25—26.
681
ἐθνῶν εἰσέλθῃ ᾽ 26. καὶ οὕτω twas ᾿Ισραὴλ σωθήσεται, καθὼς γέ-
γραπται, “΄ Ἠξει ἐκ Σιὼν 6 ῥυόμενος, καὶ
1 ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ
1 και before αποστρεψει om. ΝΑΒΟΡΛΕ,
of them salvation comes; and it is at least as credible as the reverse (without considering Paul’s arguments at all) that Providence is not preserving them for nothing, and that in some such way as is here indicated there is a close connec- tion between their salvation and the sal- vation of the world.
Ver. 25. οὐ γὰρ θέλω ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν: λα στο αν αν σπα, ὁ οτε. ἃ, but especially 1 Thess. iv. 13, where as here it is used to introduce a re- velation. An often-repeated phrase tends to be formal, but the thing of which Paul would not have his readers ignorant is usually important. As the phrase is invariably followed by ἀδελφοί, the latter also tends to be formal: it is at least a mistake to see anything of peculiar intimacy or affection in it in such connections. As ver. 28 and ver. 30 prove, in which they are con- trasted with the Jews, the ἀδελφοί are Gentiles, and they are practically identi- cal with the Roman Church. τὸ µυστή- ptov τοῦτο: the word µυστήριον only occurs once in the Synoptical Gospels
- (Mark iv. 11 and parallels) and not at all in John; but Paul uses it often (twenty- one times, including two in 1 Tim.). It always refers to something which though once hidden, or in its nature a secret, is now revealed. In some passages it is applied to the Christian revelation as a whole (e.g., in Rom. xvi. 25, 1 Cor. ii. 1, Eph. i. 9, Col. ii. 2: in the last it is identified simpliciter with Christ). In others it is applied to the Christian revelation as a whole, but with some special aspect of it in view: thus in Eph. iii. 3 the special aspect of ‘‘revelation”’ or ‘‘mystery”’—for it is all one—in the Gospel is the destined inclusion of the Gentiles among the people of God, while in Col. i. 26 f. it is the indwelling Christ, as the pledge of immortality. In others, again, any particular element in the great revelation is called a ‘mystery’. Thus in 1 Cor. xv. 51 the truth communicated about those who live to see the second advent is described by this name, and it might have been used in the similar passage in 1 Thess. iv. 15, where Paul says instead that he speaks ἐν λόγῳ κυρίου. This is merely to claim for his words the authority of revelation in
another way. The passage before us comes under this last head. It is a piece of revelation — something which has been communicated to Paul év ἀποκαλύψει for the good of the Church —that hardening in part has come upon Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. The mew ideas in this revelation are the limits in extent (ἀπὸ pépovs) and in time (ἄχρι οὗ). ἵνα μὴ ἦτε ἐν ἑαυτοῖς φρόνιµοι: it would tend to self-conceit if the Gentiles in ignor- ance of this Divine appointment con- cluded off-hand that the Jews could never be converted as a whole, and that they themselves therefore were in a place of permanent and exclusive privilege. For ἐν ἑαυτοῖς (AB) map’ ἑαυτοῖς is found in $§CDL, etc. Both occur in LXX but the former is much more likely to have been changed. τὸ πλή- ρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν = the full number, to- tality, of the Gentiles. It does not mean a number pre - determined beforehand, which has to be made up, whether to answer to the blanks in Israel or to the demands of a Divine decree, but the Gentiles in their full strength. When the Gentiles in their full strength have come in, the power which is to provoke Israel to jealousy will be fully felt, with the result described in ver. 26.