but in the LXX it represents OFT, and
in the NT it has these senses, and also once that of instructing (Tit.i.9). Here it means to comfort, or to encourage ; probably the former, with respect both to Paul’s troubles already mentioned (iii. 13 above) and their own.
Vv. 23-24. Closing Benediction.
Ver. 23. εἰρήνη τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς καὶ ἀγάπη μετὰ πίστεως: peace be to the brethrenand love with faith. Paul’s bene- dictions are usually addressed directly to the reader, μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν or some similar form being employed. This one is addressed to the brethren in the third person, as is perhaps more appropriate in a circular letter, There is nothing to favour Wiese-
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5. Rom. ii. πατρὸς καὶ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ χριστοῦ.
vi.
24. ἡ χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν
ἄν, 43, 50, ἀγαπώντων τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦν χριστὸν ἐν " ἀφθαρσίᾳ."
53, 54} 2 iin, i. 16; (Tit. ii. 7 var. read.).
1 Add αμην $*DEKLP, etc., Vulg., Syr., Copt., Goth., Eth., Thdrt., Victorin., Ambrst.; om. αµην ΑΒΕΕ 17, 73, f, g, Arm., Euth., Orig.
ler’s notion that in the ἀδελφοῖς Fewish Christians are saluted, while the πάντων in ver. 24 refers to Gentile Christians. εἰρήνη, not = concord one with another,
but = the OT ο σύ in salutations or
farewells, = ‘‘ may it be well with the brethren”; with the Christian connota- tion, however, of well-being as mental peace and good due to reconciliation with God. In his expression of what he would have them enjoy he couples with the blessing of a new mental peace that also of love—the Christian grace of love, that is to say, and such love as is associated with faith (μετὰ πίστεως). μετά, as distin- guished from σύν, expresses the simple idea of accompanying. So here it is not ‘love and faith,’ but, faith being pre- supposed as making the Christian, it is love which goes with faith, not the Divine love (Beng., etc.), but the brotherly love which shows itself where faith is and by which faith works (Gal. v. ϐ).---ἀπὸ Θεοῖ πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίον ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ: from God the Father and the Lord Fesus Christ. The two-fold source of the blessings de- sired for the reader—God as Father, the Father of Christ Himself, the causa prin- cipalis and fons primarius ; Christas Lord, ead over all with a sovereignty which is founded in God (1 Cor. xi. 3; Phil. ii. 9; Eph. i. 17), as causa medians and fons secundarius. The phrase occurs again (though with some variations in the readings) in 2 Tim. i. 2; Tit. i. 4. In the opening salutation it is “God our Father”. Here the relation of God to Christ is more in view, in respect of their joint-bestowal of spiritual blessings.
Ver. 24. ἡ χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγα- πώντων τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ. [ἀμήν]: Grace be with all them that love our Lord Fesus Christ in reigns hearse As in Colossians, the three Pastoral Epistles, andalso in Hebrews, we have here ἡ χάρις, '' the grace,” the grace beside which there is none other, the grace of God in Christ of which Christians have experience. In the closing benedictions of Cor., Gal., Philip., Thess., Philem. (as also in Rev.), we have the fuller form 4 χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, or ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίον ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ;
also in Romans according to the TR, the verse, however, being deleted by the best critics. The former benediction was for the brethren, probably those in the Asiatic Churches. his second benediction is of widest scope—for al! those who love Christ. The difficulty is with the un- usual expression ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, both as to its sense and its connection. The noun
is used in Plutarch of τὸ θεῖον (Arist., c. 6), in Philo of the κόσμος (De incorr. Mundi, § 11), in the LXX and the Apocr. of immortality (Wisd. ii. 23, vi. 19; 4 Mace. xvii. 12). In the NT it is found, in addition to the present passage, in Rom. ii. 7 of the ‘ incorruption”” which goes with the glory and honour of the future; in 1 Cor. xv. 42, 50, 53, 54, Of the “incorruption”’ of the resurrection- body ; in 2 Tim. i. το, of the life and **in- corruption" brought to light by Christ. The occurrence in Tit. ii. 10 must be dis- counted in view of the adverse diplomatic evidence. The Pauline use, therefore, is in favour of the idea of “ incorruption,” ‘‘imperishableness,”’ the quality of the changeless and undecaying ; and that as belonging to the future in contrast with There