7-9.
453
κερδήσω, 9. καὶ "εὑρεθῶ ἐν αὐτῷ, μὴ ἔχων ἐμὴν ! δικαιοσύνην τὴν 2 Luke xvii.
18; Rom,
ἐκ νόμου, ἀλλὰ τὴν διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ, τὴν ἐκ Θεοῦ δικαιοσύνην ἘΣ 10; 1
or. iv. 2 al.
Ν΄ places ep. after Sux.
tives from adjectives and participles. Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 17, τὸ . . . ἐλαφρὸν τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν. Probably = “the sur- passing (or supreme) thing which con- sists in the knowledge,” etc. ‘‘ We be- held His glory.” That glory outshines all this earth’s guiding-stars.—r. γνώσεως. This knowledge on which Paul is so fond of dwelling is, as Beysch. well expresses it, ‘‘ the reflection of faith in our reason ”’ (op. cit., ii., p. 177). It is directly con- nected with the surrender of the soul to Christ, but, as Paul teaches, that always means a close intimacy with Him, from which there springs an ever-growing knowledge of His spirit and will. Such knowledge lays a stable foundation for the Christian character, preventing it from evaporating into a mere unreason- ing emotionalism. The conception,which is prominent in Paul’s writings, is based on the O.T. idea of the knowledge of God. That is always practical, religious, To know God is to revere Him, to be godly, for to know Him is to understand the revelation He has given of Himself. Cf. Isa. xi. 2, Hab. ii. 14. It is natural that in the later Epistles this aspect of the spiritual life should come into the foreground, seeing that already the Christian faith was being confronted by other explanations of man’s relation to God. To know Christ, the Apostle teaches, is to have the key which will unlock all the secrets of existence viewed from the standpoint of religion.—rod Κυρίου p. It was as Κύριος, the ex- alted Lord, that Paul first knew Christ. And always it is from this standpoint he looks backwards and forwards. To recognise this is to understand his doc- trinal teaching.—8v ὃν τ. πάντα ἐζη- μιώθην. τὰ πάντα = “ the sum-total”’ as opposed to a part. (So also Holst.) Perhaps in contrasting ἐζημ.απἀκερδήσω, as in the similar contrast in ver. 7, he may have in view our Lord’s words in Matt. xvi. 26. In N.T. only the passive of ζημιόω is used with various construc- tions. [It gives good sense to regard καὶ ἡγ. σκύβ. as a parenthesis, and thus to make ἵνα κερδ. along with its parallel τοῦ γνῶναι depend on ἐζημ. In this case the Apostle speaks from the standpoint of his conversion. See J. Weiss, Th. LZ.,
1899, col. 264.]--σκύβαλα. The deri- vation is uncertain. It is most probably connected with σκῶρ, “dung”. It is often used in this sense itself, but also in the wider meaning of any “ refuse,’ such as the remains of a banquet. See a large collection of exx. from late writers in Wetstein and Lft., and cf. the apt parallel in Plautus, Truc., ii., 7, 5, Ama- tor qui bona sua pro stercore habet. Pro- bably εἶναι ought to be omitted, although there is great divergence in the authori- ties. (See crit. note supr.) It might easily be inserted as parallel to the pre- ceding εἶναι.- ἵνα Χ. κερδήσω. “ That I may win Christ.” There is nothing mechanical or fixed about fellowship with Christ. It may be interrupted by decay of zeal, the intrusion of the earthly spirit, the toleration of known sins, the easy domination of self-will, and countless other causes. Hence, to maintain it, there must be the continuous estimating of earthly things at their true value. Ac- cordingly he looks on ‘‘ winning Christ” as something present and future, not as a past act. (As to the form, an aorist ἐκέρδησα is found in Herod., Joseph., LXX, etc. See Kihner-Blass, Gramm., Πρ Ps 457.)
Ver. 9. εὑρεθῶ. It is probably used here in the semi-technical sense which it received in post-classical Greek = τυγχάνω with participle (French se trou- ver), ‘turn out actually to be”. ‘‘And actually be in Him,” from the eschato- logical standpoint (see Viteau, Le Verbe, Ῥ. 192). The idea is involved of a re- velation of real character. Cf. Gal. ii. 17, εἰ δὲ . . . εὑρέθημεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἁμαρτωλοί.---ἐν αὐτῷ. The central fact of Paul’s religious life and thought, the complete identification of the believer with Christ—py ἔχων. μή either de- pends directly on ἵνα or is used to express Paul’s own view of what is implied in εὗρεθ. ἐν a. This last thought must be regarded as the basis on which the clauses immediately following rest. — ἐμὴν Sux. ‘* A righteousness of my own.” Cf. Apoc. of Bar., Γκ. 3, “then Hezekiah trusted in his works and had hope in his righteousness”. The noun δικ. is anarthrous to emphasise the idea belong- ing to it in its essential force. ἐμήν is