A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Nicoll, W. Robertson (editor), 1851-1923 • SECTION 418

Προς Εφησιους

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again, the prevailing idea is that of the changed, rectified relation to God. The two ideas probably are not sharply divided in the writer’s mind. They are brought together again, both as definite acts of the past, in 1 Cor. vi. 11, ἀλλὰ ἀπελού- σασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώ- θητε. But the effect on standing appears to be the thing immediately in view here. In classical Greek, too, the term καθαρμός is used in the sense of a purification from guilt (e.g., Soph., O. T., 1228). The participle is taken by many as, in relation to ἁγιάσῃ» a proper past = “that he might sanctify it after cleansing it” (Μεγ., Alf., Ell. ; RV “having cleansed it,” etc.). The purification in view is thus made some- thing prior to the sanctifying. But καθαρίσας, as is often the case with aor. participles connected with a fin. aorist (Bernh., Synt., x. 9, ᾿ 383), may also be of the same time as ἁγιάσῃ and express the way in which the sanctifying takes effect. The latter is the more probable view here (Syr., Vulg., Harl., Abb., etc.), especially as the aor. ἁγιάσῃ points toa single, definite act, and one predicated of the Church as a whole.—t@ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος: by the bath of the water. Desig- nation of the means by which the purifi- cation takes place. The phrase is a difficult one. The word λουτρόν occurs only once again in the NT (Tit. iii. 5). It is used in both cases with reference to baptism (although some do not admit this), and it is so used in eccles. Greek. In classical Greek it has the occasional, secondary sense of a libation for the dead (Soph., El., 84, 434; Eurip., Phoen., 1667), but is used properly as = “ bath, bathing-place (e.g., Homer's θερμὰ λοε- τρά, 1]., xiv., 6; λοετρὰ ᾿Ωκεανοῖο, 1]., xviii., 489, etc.) ; bathing (Herod., vi., 52: Xen., Cyr., vii., 5, 20); or the water for bathing or washing (Soph. Oed. Col., 1599)". It is doubtful whether any clear instance can be found of its use as = washing. The ὕδατος is prob. the gen. materia, and the articles mark the Aov- τρόν as the well-known bath of the (bap- tismal) water. The Versions vary in their renderings. The Vulg. gives lavacrum, and similarly the Syr. and the Goth. The Rhem. follows the Vulg. and renders laver. But the other old English Versions have either “ the washing" or ‘‘ the fountain” of water. The RV gives ‘the washing of water” in the text, but “the laver” in the margin. But “ laver,’’ in the sense of the vessel, does not appear to be a legitimate translation. The only legitimate rendering is “the bath of water,” i.c., the bath of the baptismal

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