Ver. 6. ὃς καὶ ἱκάνωσεν κ.τ.λ.: who also (‘‘ qui idem”; cf. 1 Cor. i. 8) made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant—{ministers] not of the letter (i.e., the Law), but of the Spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. The Apostle’s opponents at Corinth were probably Judaisers (xi. 22), and thus the description of his office as the διακονία καινῆς διαθήκης leads him to a compari- son and a contrast of the Old Covenant and the New. The ‘‘covenants” (Rom,
54 r John vi. 63; Rom.
patos: τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτείνει, τὸ δὲ " πνεῦμα " ζωοποιεῖ. 7.
wit 115 Tel δὲ ἡ διακονία τοῦ θανάτου ἐν γράμμασιν,32 " ἐντετυπωμένη ἐν ὃ
43; Ch. = ί
δι Gi ε λίθοις, Viii. 10.
s Here only.
t Exod. xxxiv. 40-35.
ἐγενήθη ἐν δόξῃ, ᾿ ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι " ἀτενίσαι τοὺς υἱοὺς and Kom. Ἰσραὴλ "εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον Μωσέως ὁ διὰ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ προσώπου
Ὁ Acts i. το, iii. 4, Vi. 15, Vii. 55, xi. 6, xfii. 9.
1B has αποκτεινει; but NGKP 17 have αποκτεννει, and ACDEL αποκτενει;
Lachmann conjectured αποκταινει.
2 BD*G and the Peshitto have γραμματι. 5 SycDbcEKL, d, e, f support εν λιθοις; om. εν N*ABCD*GP 17, g. 4 The more accurate spelling is Μωνσεως (NBCGKL, etc.) ; and so at wv. 13, 15.
ix. 4, Eph, ii. 12) between Jehovah and Israel were the foundation of Judaism. They began (not to speak of the Covenant with Noah) with the Covenant of Circum- cision granted to Abraham (Gen. xvii. 2) and repeated more than once (Gen. xxii. 16, xxvi. 3), which is often appealed to in the N.T. (Luke i. 72, Acts iii. 25, vii. 8, etc.). This was not abrogated (Gal. iii. 17) by the Covenant of Sinai (Exod. xix. 5; cf., for its recapitulation in Moab, Deut. xxix. 1), which, as the National Charter of Israel, was pre-eminently to a Hebrew “the Old Covenant”. The
eat prophecy of a Deliverer from Zion fisa. lix. 21) is interpreted by St. Paul (Rom. xi. 27) as the ‘‘covenant” of which the prophet spoke in the next verse ; and Jeremiah, in a passage (xxxi. 31-33) from which the Apostle has just now (ver. 3 above) borrowed a striking image, had proclaimed a New Covenant with Israel in the future. The phrase had been consecrated to the Gospel, through its employment by Christ at the Institution of the Eucharist (Matt. xxvi. 28, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25); and in that solemn context it bore direct allusion to the Blood of Sprinkling which ratified the Old Covenant of Sinai (Exod. xxiv. 8). Itis of this ‘‘ New Covenant” that St. Paul is a διάκονος (Christ is its μεσί- της, Heb. ix. 15); #.¢., he is a διάκονος ov γράμματος ἀλλὰ πνεύματος, not of the letter of the Law (as might be wrongly inferred from his statement in ver. 3 that the ἐπιστολὴ Χριστοῦ was ‘ministered 'Γδιακονηθεῖσα] by him), but of the “ Spirit of the living God” (ver. 3). This is a much more gracious διακονία, inasmuch as the Law is the instrument of Death (cf. Rom. v. 20, vii. 9, viii. 2, in all which passages the Apostle brings into closest connexion the three thoughts of the Law, Sin, and Death), but the Spirit of God is the Giver of Life (see reff. and
cf. Gal. iii. 21, where he notes that the law is not able, ζωοποιεῖν, '' to give life ΓΝ It will be observed that the article is wanting before καινῆς διαθήκης, as it is before γράμματος and πνεύματος ; but we need not on that account with the Revisers translate ‘‘a new covenant”. The expression ‘‘ New Covenant,”’ like the words “ Letter’ (for the Law) and ‘*Spirit” for the Holy Spirit, was a technical phrase in the theology of the day; and so might well dispense with the article. The contrast between “letter” and ‘Spirit’’ here (so often misunder- stood, as if it pointed to a contrast be- tween what is verbally stated and what is really implied, and so justified an appeal from the bare ‘‘letter’’ of the law to the principles on which it rests) is exactly illustrated by Rom. vii. 6, where St. Paul declares that the service of a Christian is ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος kal οὐ παλαιό- THT: γράμματος, {.ε., in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter”. And (though not so plainly) the same contrast is probably intended in Rom. ii. 29. In St. Paul's writings πνεῦμα, when used for the human spirit, is contrasted with σῶμα (1 Cor. v. 3), σάρξ (2 Cor. vii. 1) and νοῦς (1 Cor. xiv. 14), but never with γράμ, This is a technical term for the "" Law” (like γραφή, Scripture; cf. ver. 7, ἐν γράμμασιν), and is properly set over against the ‘Spirit " of God, whose office and work were first plainly revealed in the Gospel.