711
14. Πέπεισμαι δὲ, ἀδελφοί µου, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ περὶ ὑμῶν, Gre € Ch. i. 29;
καὶ αὐτοὶ ” µεστοί ἐστε ἀγαθωσύνης. πεπληρωμένοι πάσης 1 γνώσεως. **ii. 25.
Ver. 245
- / , ” h δυνάµενοι καὶ ἀλλήλους νουθετεῖν. 15. τολμηρότερον 2 δὲ ἔγραψα Ch. xi.
ὑμῖν, ἀδελφοὶ, ἀπὸ " μέρους, ὡς ἐπαναμιμνήσκων ὑμᾶς, διὰ τὴν χάριν
25; 2 Cor. Taras 1135.
} After πασης ins. της NBP, Clem.; om. ACDFL.
Ἕτολμηροτερον NCDFLP; τολµήηροτερως AB. The latter is read by Weiss, W. and H., and Treg. A similar change (ftom σπονδαιοτερως into σπουδαιοτερον) is
made by DFG in Phil. ii. 28. τον θεου ΝΒΕ and most edd.
xi, 10. Paul again follows the LXX, only omitting ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ after ἔσται. The words are meant to describe the Messianic kingdom and its Davidic head. It is a universal kingdom, and the nations set their hope in its King, and therefore in the God of salvation whose representative He is. Such a hope in God, the Apostle’s argument implies, will result in the praise which glorifies Him for His mercy (ver. 9).
Ver. 13. Prompted by ἐλπιοῦσιν, the Apostle closes this section, and the body of the epistle, by calling on ‘‘the God of hope”’ to bless those to whom it is addressed. For the expression 6 θεὸς τῆς ἐλπίδος cf. ver. 5: it means the God Who gives us the hope which we have in Christ. The joy and peace which He imparts rest on faith (ἐν τῷ πιστεύειν). Hence they are the joy and peace specially flowing from justification and acceptance with God, and the more we have of these, the more we abound in the Christian hope itself. Such an abounding in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 8, Luke iv. 14), is the end contemplated in Paul’s prayer that the God of hope would fill the Romans with all joy and peace in be- lieving. For the kind of supremacy thus given to hope compare the connec- tion of ver. 5 with ver. 2 in chap. v.
The rest of this chapter is of the nature of an epilogue. It falls into two parts: (1) vers. 14-21, in which Paul, while apologising for the tone which he has occasionally employed, justifies himself for writing to the Romans by appealing to his vocation as an Apostle; and (2) vers. 22, 33, in which he explains to them the programme of his future work, in- cluding his long-deferred visit to them, and begs their prayers for a successful issue to his visit to Jerusalem,
Ver. 14. πέπεισμαι δέ: the tone in which he has written, especially in chap. xiv., might suggest that he thought them very defective either in intelligence,
αδελφοι om. SABC.
υπο tov @eov ACDLP; απο
or love, or both; but he disclaims any such inference from his words. ἀδελφοί pov has a friendly emphasis: cf. vii. 4. καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ cf. vii. 25: it means ‘even I myself, who have taken it upon me to address you so plainly”. ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ µεστοί ἐστε ἀγαθωσύνης: that even of yourselves ye are full of good- ness, 1.ε., without any help from me. ἀγαθωσύνη in all N.T. passages (Gal. v. 22, Eph. v. 9, 2 Thess. 1. 11) seems to have an association with ἀγαθὸς in the sense of “kind”: the goodness of which Paul speaks here is probably therefore not virtue in general, but the charity on which such stress is laid in chap. xiv. as the only rule of Christian conduct. memAnpwpévor πάσης γνώσεως: filled full of all knowledge—“ our Chris- tian knowledge in its entirety’? (Sanday and Headlam). This, again, may refer to the comprehension of Christianity shown by the strong of chap. xiv.: or it may be intended to apologise for the unusually doctrinal character of the epistle. Both µεστοί and πεπληρωμένοι occur also ini. 29. δυνάµενοι κ. ἀλλή- λους νουθετεῖν: in a sense therefore self- sufficient.