Ver. 10. δοκ. τὰ διαφ. Cf. Rom. ii. 18, δοκιμάζεις τὰ διαφ. Two possible renderings. (1) ‘‘Approve things that are excellent.’ (2) “Test things that
422
ἃ Rom.i.11, xii. 2 αἱ. TO.
4 εἰς τὸ δοκιμάζειν ὑμᾶς τὰ διαφέροντα, ἵνα ἦτε " εἰλικρινεῖς καὶ
e2 Ῥεῖ. ili. ἕἀπρόσκοποι εἰς ἡμέραν Χριστοῦ, 11. πεπληρωμένοι * καρπῶν !
1 Wisd.
vii.25. δικαιοσύνης tav? διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ," εἰς δόξαν καὶ " ἔπαινον Θεοῦ.
Noun, Cor. v. 8; 2 Cor. ii. 17.
iii. 18; Prov. xi. 30 al. 22, xxv. 14; Eph. vi. αι.
12. Γινώσκειν δὲ ὑμᾶς ᾿ βούλομαι, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι ἢ τὰ κατ᾽ ἐμὲ
f Acts xxiv. 16; 1 Cor. x. 32. Scarcely found in secular writers. h Chap. ii. 11; Rom. xv. 7; Eph. i. 6, 14.
g Heb. xii. 11; Jas. i Jude 5. k Acts xxiv.
1 So P, syrr. cop, Chr., Thphyl. xapwov... τον. All edd. with NABDEFGKL
O.L. sah., Thdrt., Ambrst. who assigns the omission to carelessness.
B (with 116,
122) om. τον. See Ws., TK., p. 78 fin.,
2 The important cursive 37 reads Χ. |. with amiat.
differ,” i.¢., good and bad. Lft. opposes (2) on the ground that “it requires no keen moral sense to discriminate between good and bad”. But was not this pre- cisely the great difficulty for heathen- Christians? Theophyl. defines τὰ διαφ. by τί δεῖ πρᾶξαι καὶ ri Set μὴ πρᾶξαι. The idea seems to be borne out by the following εἴλικρ. and ἀπρόσκ. We are therefore compelled to decide for (2). “The fundamental choice arrived at in believing has to be reiterated continually in a just application of it to a world of varying and sometimes perplexing cases” (Rainy, Exfos. Bib., p. 37). There are exx. of τὰ διαφ. in chap. iii. passim. Of course this ϑοκιμάζειν is made possible by the guidance of the indwelling Spirit. It shows us “the highest point which Paul reaches in his treatment of moral questions" (Hitzm., Ν.Τ. Theol., ii., p. 149, who points out as instances of his délicate moral tact the pre- cepts given in r Cor. viii.-x., Rom. xiv.). --εἰλικρ. κ. ἀπρόσκ. There is no war- rant for adhering to the comm °n deriva- tion of εἰλικρ. from κρίνω co npounded with either εἵλη (‘heat of sun”) and so = “tested by sunbeam,” or εἴλη ( = ἴλη “troops "’) and so “ separated into ranks”’. The word is the equiv. of Lat. sincerus, “pure,” “ unmixed”. A favourite term in Plato for pure intellect and also for the soul purged from sense. Cf. Phaedo, 66 A, 67 A, 81 B. Naturally transferred to the moral sphere. T. H. Green (Two Sermons, p. 41) describes εἰλικρίνεια as ‘perfect openness towards God”, ἀπρόσκ. will then mean, in all proba- bility, “ποῖ giving offence” to others, the obverse side of εἶλικρ. This sense seems to us to be proved by 1 Cor. x. 32 with the context, which is simply an expansion of Paul’s thought here. Cf. also 1 John ii. 10.—els ἡμέραν Xp. els has the meanings “with a view to” and “until,” which here shade off into
each other. The conception of ἡμ. Χ. “grew in Paul’s hands to a whole zon, lasting from the π to the tédo0g" (Beysch., N.T. Th., ii., p. 273). Ver. 11. Critical evidence (see above) fixes καρπὸν . . . τόν as the correct reading. We should, of course, expect the gen. (see the v./.), but one of the most marked features in later Greek is the enlarging of the sphere of the accus. It is quite common to find it with verbs like κληρονομεῖν and κρατεῖν κ.τ.λ. Cf. in modern Greek γέμω χρήματα, “1am full of possessions "’ (see Hatz., Einl., pp. 220- 223; F. Krebs, Rection d. Casus in d. spateren histor, Grdacitat, Heft i., pp. 3-4, i., Ῥ. 3 ἢ). τικαρπ. δικ. A frequent phrase in Prov. (LXX). A showing forth of the results of righteousness. There is nothing here about justification, as Moule supposes. It is right conduct the Apostle has in view. But it is hardly needful to note that with Paul there can be no dissociation of the two ideas. δικαιοσύνη is always with him the right relation between God and man, made possible through Christ, which asserts itself, under the Holy Spirit’s influence, in righteous conduct.—&ia Ἰ. X. The καρπός as well as the δικ. is due to Christ (cf. chap. iv. 13).—els δ. κ. ἔπ. ©. Cf. the refrain in Eph. i. 6, 12, 14, “inst hrist’s words in John xvii. 4, ἐγώ σε ἐδόξασα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. The disciple must be as the Meee Vv. 12-14. HIS PRESENT SITUATION. —Ver. 12. γινώσκ. δὲ ὑ. B. A common epistolary phrase. Cf. ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι βον- λόμεθα in a Letter to the magistrates of Oropus from the Roman Consuls, 73 B.c. (Viereck, Sermo Graecus, etc., Gdtt., 1888, Ρ. 36). δέ, as so frequently, is transi- tional.—ra κατ᾽ ἐμέ = my circumstances. In later Greek κατά came to be a Me gy 3 periphrasis forthe gen. W. Schmidt (de elocut. Fosephi, pp. 21-22) gives striking exx. from Josephus, ¢.g., Antt., i., 296, τοῦ κατ᾽ ἐκείνους συγγενοῦς, where κατ᾽ ἐκ.