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and that not in respect of other qualities in God Himself, but in respect of what it does for us. Hence most (Harl., Mey., Ell., Abb., Haupt, etc.) understand the clause to refer not to God the Giver, but to us the receivers. This is borne out also by the ἵνα πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ συνέσει of Col. i. 9; by the place assigned to Christian wisdom in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colos- sians; and also to some extent by such partial parallels as these: ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ (Col. iii. 16); ἐπλουτίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει (1 Cor. 1. 9), δία:
There remains, however, the question as to the precise sense of the two nouns. Σοφία is of frequent occurrence in the NT generally and in the Pauline writings in particular ; φρόνησις occurs only twice in the whole NT, viz., in Luke i. 17 (where the RV renders it ‘‘ wisdom”) and here. As in the present passage the two nouns are also conjoined in 1 Kings Lite το ἵν. 20} Ἐτονια ο Ville τ. Dane 1: 1) 1 21, 23: 85:0; ἴου, Ἱπ Ιοξερῃ., πιο 11,9) ο ο, Villy, 7, 5. πεις is. a distinction between them which is vari- ously put in Greek and Roman literature. Aristotle, e.g., defines σοφία as ἐπιστήμη καὶ νοῦς TOV τιμιωτάτων τῇ φύσει, and φρόνησις 45 περὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα καὶ περὶ ὧν ἔστι βουλεύσασθαι (Eth. Nic., vi., 7). Plato deals with φρόνησις as the wis- dom of action, prudential wisdom or sagacity (Laws, i., 631 C; 632 E, etc.), and as the faculty by which we judge τί πρακτέον καὶ τί ov πρακτέον ([Plato], Def., 411). Philo takes σοφία to relate πρὸς θεραπείαν Θεοῦ and φρόνησις to relate πρὸς ἀνθρωπίνου βίου διοίκησιν (De Prom. et Poen., 14). Cicero again describes the former as rerum divinarum et humanarum scientia and the latter as rerum expetendarum fugiendarumque scientia (Off., i. 43); while others ex- plain σοφία as ἐπιστήμη θείων τε Kal ἀνθρωπίνων and φρόνησις as ἐπιστήμη ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν (Sext. Emp., p. 720; Plut., Mor., 1066 D). In all these defini- tions σοφία is the larger idea, wisdom in the most general sense, and φρόνησις is the secondary idea, expressing a par- ticular result or application of σοφία. So it seems to be also substantially with the Biblical use of the terms. Σοφία is the collective moral intelligence, “insight into the true nature of things’’ (Light.), and in the Pauline Epistles it is this intelli- gence in especial as knowledge of the Divine plan of salvation long hidden and now revealed; while φρόνησις is the prac-
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δ.