ἑκαταργουμένων: 7. ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν "σοφίαν 1 " Θεοῦ 1 ἐν "μυστηρίω,.
“ ἀποκεκρυμμένην, ἣν προώρισεν 6 Θεὸς " πρὸ τῶν 7 αἰώνων
x Rom. ; of.2 Tim. ig; Tit. i. 2; also Eph. i. 4; 1 Pet.
1@cov σοφιαν: NABCDGP, 15 minuscc. σοφιαν Θ., L, etc. ; a Syrian emen-.
dation ; cf. ver. 6.
wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, that are being brought to nought”. For αἰών, see note to i. 20; it connotes the transitory nature of the world-powers (i. 1ο, 28; ¢f. vil. 31, 2 Cor. iv. 18; also 1 John ii. 17, 1 Peter i. 24 ff.). The ἄρχοντες τ. αἰῶνος τούτου were taken by Marcion, Or., and other ancients, to be the angelic, or demonic (Satanic), rulers of the nations—sc, the “princes” of Dan. x.-xii., and Jewish angelology, the κοσµοκράτορες τ. σκό- τους τούτον of Eph. vi. 12 (cf. 2 Cor. iv. 4, Eph. ii. 2, John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. II—where ἄρχων is applied to Satan; also Gal. iii. το, Acts vii. 53, touching the office of angels in the Lawgiving): so Sm., after F. C. Baur—‘‘the angels who preside over the various departments of the world, the Law in particular, but possess no perfect insight into the coun- sels of God, and lose their dominion— from which they take their name of ἀρχαί (= a&pxovres)—with the end of the world (xv. 24)’’; see also, at length, Everling, Die Paulin. Angelologie u. Damonologie, pp. 11 ff. But these super-terrestrial potentates could not, without explanation, be charged with the crucifixion of Christ (8); on the other hand, i. 27 ff. shows P. to be thinking in this connexion of human powers. Unless otherwise de- fined, ot ἄρχοντες denotes ‘‘ the rulers” of common speech, those, ¢.g., of Rom. xiii. 3, Luke xxiii. 35. On τῶν καταργον- µένων, see note to i. 17 (κενόω), 28, xv. 24, and other parls. The Fewish rulers, whose overthrow is certain and near (x Thess. ii. 16, Rom. ix. 22, xi.), are aimed at, as being primarily answerable for the death of Jesus (cf. Acts κ. 27 f.) ; but P. foresaw the supersession of all existing world-powers by the Messianic kingdom (xv. 24; cf. Rom. xi. 15, Acts xvii. 7); the pr., ptp., perhaps, implies a “‘sradual nullification of their potency brought about by the Gospel” (El.). P. cannot have meant by ot ἄρχοντες the leaders of thought (as Thd., Thp., Ne- ander suppose, because of the association with σοφία); he held a broad, practical
conception of wisdom (sagacity) as shown in power ; the secular rulers, wise in their own way but not in God’s, must come to nought. Statecraft, equally with phil- osophy, failed when tested by the cross. Ver. 7. ‘(We speak... a wisdom not of this world . . .) but (ἀλλά, of diametrical opposition) a wisdom of God, in (shape of) a mystery.”—év pvotnpio qualifies λαλοῦμεν, rather than σοφίαν (as Hn., Ev., Lt. read it—‘‘couched in mystery’), indicating how it is that the App. do not speak in terms of worldly wisdom, and express themselves fully to the τέλειοι alone: their message is a Divine secret, that the Spirit of God reveals (το f.), while “‘the age” pos- sesses only ‘‘the spirit of the world”’ (12). Hence to the age God’s wisdom is uttered “in a mystery” and remains ‘“‘the hidden (wisdom)”’; cf. 2 Cor. iv. 4; also Matt. xiii. 13 ff. (ἐν παραβολαϊς - « « λαλῶ), Luke x. 21 f.: λαλῶ ἐν µυστηρίῳ-- ἀποκρύπτω.--μυστήριον (cf. xy. 51) has ‘“‘its usual meaning in St. Paul’s Epp.,—something not compre- hensible by unassisted human reason” (El.; for a full account see Ed., or Bt., on the term). The Hellenic ‘‘ mysteries,” which flourished at this time, were prac- tised at night in an imposing dramatic form; and peculiar doctrines were taught in them, which the initiated were sworn to keep secret. This popular notion of “mystery,” as a sacred knowledge dis- closed to fit persons, on their subjecting themselves to prescribed conditions, is appropriated and adapted in Bibl. Gr. to Divine revelation. The world at large does not perceive God’s wisdom in the cross, being wholly disqualified; the Cor. believers apprehend it but partially, since they have imperfectly received the reveal- ing Spirit and are ‘‘ babes in Christ”’ (iii. 1 ff.); to the App., and those like them (το ff.), a full disclosure is made. When he ‘‘speaks wisdom among the ripe,” P. is not setting forth esoteric doctrines diff. from those preached to beginners, but the same “word of the cross”—for he knows nothing greater or higher (Gal.