τί por τὸ “Shehos; εἰ ' νεκροὶ οὖκ
t> , 9 ‘ ΄ ft =| ‘ > , ἐγείρονται, "Φάγωμεν καὶ πίωµεν, ᾿ αὔριον γὰρ ἀποθνήσκομεν.
f Adv., Jas. iv. 13; Acts xxiii. 20, xxv. 22; Lk. xii. 28,
in the strain of iv. 9 (see note); cf. also Ps. xxii. 42, 16, etc., and the use of θηρίον in the Rev.—In view of this last parl. and of 2 Tim. iv. 17, Krenkel in his Bettrdge, V., finds the “‘ wild beast” of Paul’s struggle in the Imperial Power, which K. thinks was already so designated **in the secret language of Christians ” (cf. 2 Thess. ii. 5 f.). But nothing in Acts xix. indicates conflict on P.’s part with the magistrates of Eph. (and Lk. habit- ually traces with care his relations with Roman authorities) ; it was the city-mob, instigated by the shrine-makers, which attacked him; before the riot he had been probably in danger of assassination from this quarter, as well as from ‘the Asian Jews,” who set upon him after- wards in Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 27 ff.). Bt. observes the climax: κινδυνεύω, ἀποθνήσκω, Onpropaya.
Ver. 325 states in words of Scripture the desperation that ensues upon loss of faith in a tuture life: “If (the) dead are not raised (the Sadducean dogma repeated a sixth time), ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!’” e νεκροὶ κ.τ.λ. is rightly attached by the early Gr. and most modern commentt. to the following clause. Paul is not drawing his own conclusion in these words, nor suggesting that the resurrec- tion supplies the only motive against a sensual life; but he points out (cf. 33 f.) the patent fruit of the unbelief in ques- tion. This is just what men were saying on all sides; the words quoted voice the moral recklessness bred by loss of hope beyond death. Gr. and Rom. literature teem with examples of this spirit (see Wisd. ii. 6; Herod., ii., 78, Thuc., ii., 53, and other reff. furnished by Ed. ad loc.) ; indeed Paul’s O.T. citation might have served for the axiom of popular Epicur- eanism. Hn. describes ancient drinking- cups, recently discovered, ornamented with skeleton figures wreathed in roses and named after famous philosophers, poets, and gourmands, with mottoes at- tached such as these: τὸ τέλος ἡδονή, τέρπε Cav σεαυτόν, σκηνἡ βίος, ToT ἄνθρωπος (written over a skeleton hold- ing a skull), ζῶν µετάλαβε τὸ γὰρ αὔριον ἄδηλόν ἐστιν. Cf. our own miserable adage, ‘‘ A short life and a merry one!”
Vv. 33, 34 deliver Paul’s judgment
99 35.
44. = μὴ Επλανᾶσθε: ““Ἀφθείρουσιν | ἤθη "χρήσθ’ 1 Ἰ ὁμιλίαι κακαί”