clear distinction is drawn between the διάκ. and the ἐπίσκ. In the early Church the most necessary Christian service would be the care of the sick and poor. So the deacon must neither be double- tongued (δίλογος) nor a “lover of dirty gain” (so Gwatk. tr. αἰσχροκερδής), for in his work of visiting he would have temptations to ‘“ gossip and slander ”’ on the one hand, and to “ picking and steal- ing from the alms”’ on the other (Gwatk.. loc. cit.). Many reasons are assigned for the mention of these officers here. But it seems quite natural that Paul should specify those who stood in the forefront of the Church’s work and life, more especially as the letter is one of thanks for the gift which has been sent to him, a gift the management of which would be in the hands of the controlling author- ities in the Church.
Ver. 2. Paul feels that the ordinary Greek salutation χαίρειν or the Eastern εἰρήνη σοι is too meagre for Christian intercourse. But closely connected with χαίρειν is his own great watchword χάρις, a word which, perhaps, above all others, shows the powerful remoulding of terms by Christian thought and feeling. χάρις for Paul is the central revelation of the fatherly heart of God in the redemp- tion which Christ has accomplished for unworthy sinners. And its direct resuit is εἰρήνη» the harmony and health of that life which is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ ; see an interesting discus- sion of the Apostolic greeting by F. Zimmer, Luthardt’s Zeitschy., 1886, p. 443 ff. Of course ἀπό governs Κυρίου. The Socinian exegesis which makes K. depend on πατρός is impossible in view of Tit. i. 4 (so Gw. ad loc.).—Kvplov. The favourite designation of Jesus Christ in the early Church. See on chap. ii. 11 infr. Cf. the extraordinary frequency of the term δεσπότης as applied to God in Apostolic Fathers, etc. On the whole subject see Harnack, Dogmen-Geschichte,,
i., pp. 153-158.
27
418
Β Rom. xv. 26; 2 ix. τῇ.