΄ --
water. Many interpreters find in the phrase an allusion to the bath taken by a bride before her wedding. The subse- quent imagery, and especially the ας <a στῆσαι, may favour τονε bat the fact that the Subject here who cleanses by the bath of the water is Christ, while it was not the bridegroom who administered the pre-nuptial bath to the bride, makes that doubtful.—év ῥήματι : with (or pwone®) the word. In respect both of sense an of connection this is a peculiarly difficult phrase. With respect to the fatter the ἐν ῥήματι is connected by some with the ἁγιάσῃ = ‘sanctify it by the word,” ἐν being taken as the instrum. dat. (Winer, Riick., Bisp., Bleek, Mey., etc. ; cf. Win.- Moult., p. 172). The objection to this is the remoteness of the defining phrase from the verb. On the other hand it ma be the case that the order is selected wi a view to bringing things together, first the two verbs and then the two defining terms (so Meyer). The analogy of John xvii. 17, ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, is also urged. Others connect it with the λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος, --'' the bath of water in or by the word". But to this there is the serious objection that the ἐν ῥήματι is anarthrous. The Greek would require either τῷ or τοῦ ἐν ῥήματι, the phrase not being one of the kind (like τῶν λῶν ἐν δόγμασι, chap. ii. 15 above) to make a single idea with the λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος and so dispense with the article; cf on chap. i., 17 above. There remains the third course—to connect it with καθαρί- σας, or with the idea expressed by the clause καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ Tod ὕδατος as a whole. This on the whole is the connection freest from difficulty, and it gives a congruous idea, which may take more than one form, ¢.g., that the puri- fication is effected by the ῥῆμα; that it is accompanied by it; or that it takes lace in it as its element or condition. ut what of the sense of the ῥήματι ἢ How difficult it is to obtain a satisfactory meaning appears at once from the variety and the peculiarity of the interpretations pare τ Some, ¢.g., take it to refer to the baptismal formula, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” or “in the name of Jesus” (Chrys.); in which case, however, we should expect either καὶ ῥήματος or ἐν τῷ ῥήματι. Others give the noun the simple sense of “an utterance”’ and take the phrase to mean “ attended or conditioned by an utterance"; with the explanation that the particular utterance in view is “the revelation of salvation embodied in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
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