467
Matt. vi.
25, 27, 31; Luke ‘di, 22, 25, 26
7. καὶ ἡ " εἰρήνη τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ ὑπερέχουσα πάντα ἢ νοῦν, ἢ φρουρήσει αἱ
τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ ἢ νοήματα 2 ὑμῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
m See note infr.
n Frequent in N.T.
ο Cf. Col. iii. 15. Ρ See note infr
1 του Χριστου A, syrP- mg-, Cyr., Proc., Ambr., Pelag. 2 σωματα Fer-G, d, e, 6, m, Victorin., Chrom,
note on chap. ii. 20 supr.—mpogev. κ. τ. δεήσ. προσευχή emphasises prayer as an act of worship or devotion; δεήσις is the cry of personal need. See on chap. i. 4 supr. Curare et orare plus inter se pugnant quam aqua et ignis (Beng.).— μετὰ εὐχ. The word is rarely found in secular Greek (e.g., Hippocr., Polyb., Diod. ; see Rutherford, New Phrynichus, Ῥ. 69), or LXX. Paul uses it twelve times, but only twice with the article. Does not this imply that he takes for granted that thanksgiving is the back- ground, the predominant tone of the Christian life? To pray in any other spirit is to clip the wings of prayer.— αἴτημα is found three timesin N.T. It emphasises the object asked for (see an important discussion by Ezra Abbot in N. Amer. Review, 1872, p. 171 ff.). ‘Prayer is a wish referred to God, and the possibility of such reference, save in matters of mere indifference, is the test of the purity of the wish” (Green, Two Sermons, p. 44).—mpds τ. Θεόν. ‘In the presence of God.” A delicate and sug- gestive way of hinting that God’s pre- sence is always there, that it is the atmosphere surrounding them. Anxious foreboding is out of place in a Father’s presence. Requests are always in place with Him. With this phrase cf. Rom. xvi. 26.
Ver. 7. Hpt. would put no stop at the close of ver. 6. Whether there be a stop or not, this verse is manifestly a kind of
apodosis to the preceding. “If you make your requests, etc., . . . then the peace . . . shall guard,” etc. ἡ εἰρ. τ.
©. Paul’s favourite thought of that health and harmonious relation which prevail in the inner life as the result of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Cf. Matt. xi. 28. It would be an undue restriction of his thought to imagine that he only refers to agree- ment between members of the Church, although, no doubt, that idea is here in- cluded. ‘‘ This peace is like some magic mirror, by the dimness growing on which
we may discern the breath of an unclean spirit that would work us ill” (Rendel Harris, Memoranda Sacra, p. 130; the quotation skilfully catches the spiritual conception before Paul’s mind). To share anxiety with God is to destroy its corroding power and to be calmed by His peace. Peace is used as a name of God in the Talmud (see Taylor, Yewish Fathers, pp. 25-26).--ἡ ὑπερέχ. πάντα νοῦν. ‘* Which surpasses every thought, all our conception.” (So also Chr., Erasm., Weizs., Moule, Von Soden, etc.). This meaning seems inevitable from the parallel in Eph. iii. 20, τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ ὑπὲρ πάντα ποιῆσαι ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ὧν αἰτούμεθα ἢ νοοῦμεν, and cf. ver. 19, τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χ. Space forbids the enumeration of the many interpretations given. Words- worth (Prelude, Bk. 14) defines this peace as ‘repose in moral judgments ”.—yody
. καρδίας . . . νοήματα. νοῦς, very much what we call “reason,” in Paul’s view, belongs to the life of the σάρξ, It is the highest power in that life, and affords, as it were, the material on which the Divine πνεῦμα can work. It remains in those who possess the πνεῦμα as that part of the inner man which is exposed to earthly influences and relations. (See an admirable note in Ws.) καρδία is “a more undefined concept, side by side with νοῦς ” (so Liidemann, Anthropol., p. 16 ff.). It hasto do not merely with feel- ings but with will. νοήματα are products of the νοῦς, thoughts or purposes. Paul would probably regard them as being con- tained in the καρδία. The word is found five times in 2-Cor. and nowhere else in Ν.Τ.---φρουρήσει. A close parallel is x Peter i. 5, τοὺς ἐν δυνάμει Θεοῦ φρουρου- μένους διὰ πίστεως εἰς σωτηρίαν. Hicks (Class. Review, i., pp. 7-8) presses the figure of a garrison keeping ward over a town, and observes that one of the most important elements in the history of the Hellenistic period was the garrisoning of the cities both in Greece and Asia Minor by the successors of Alexander the Great.