(4) of the Second Coming, which will be, as far as man can tell, His final manifestation: Col. iii. 4, 1 Pet. v. 4, I John ii. 28, iii. 2.
ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι: proved or pronounced to be righteous in His higher nature. The best parallel to this use of δικαιοῦν is Ps. 1. (li.) 6, ὅπως ἂν δικαιω- θῇς ἐν τοῖς λόγοις σου, also Matt. xi. 19 = Luke vii. 35. We are not entitled to assume that the ἐν has the same force before πνεύματι that it has before σαρκί; the repetition of the preposition is due to a felt need of rhythmic effect. If we are asked, When did this δικαίωσις take place? we reply that it was on a review of the whole of the Incarnate Life. The heavenly voice, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα, heard by human ears at the Baptism and at the Transfiguration, might have been heard at any moment during the course of those “sinless years”. He was emphatically 6 δίκαιος (Acts iii. 14, xxii. 14; I John ii. 1. See also Matt. iii. 15; John xvi. 10.) It is enough to mention without discussion the opinions that πνεύματι refers (a) to the Holy Spirit, or (b) to the Divine Personality of Christ.
ὤφθη ἀγγέλοις: Ellicott points out that in these three pairs of clauses, the first member of each group points to earthly relations, the second to heavenly. So that these words ὥφθη ἀγγέλοις refer to the fact that the Incarnation was “Δ spectacle to angels”’ as well as ‘‘to men’’; or rather, as Dean Bernard notes (Comm. in loc.), ὥφθη and ἐκηρύχθη mark the difference in the communica- tion of the Christian Revelation to angels—the rational creatures nearest to God—and to the Gentiles—farthest from God. ‘The revelation to Gentiles is mediate, by preaching. . .; the revela- tion to the higher orders of created intelligences is immediate, by vision.” It was as much a source of wonderment to the latter as to the former. See 1 Pet. 1. 12. The angels who greeted the Birth (Luke ii. 13), who ministered at the temptations (Matt. iv. rz, Mark i. 13), strengthened Him in His agony (Luke xxi. 43), proclaimed His Resur- rection and stood by at the Ascension, are only glimpses to us of ‘‘a cloud of witnesses ”’ of whose presence Jesus was always conscious (Matt. xxvi. 53).
ὤφθη is usually used of the post- resurrection appearances of Christ to men. See reff.
ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ: This was in itself a miracle. See 2 Thess. i. Io, John xvii. 21.
120
aHere only, ὃ Φό not LXX. δη:
b Matt. xxi. 31 only, Να.
c Luke viii. 13,2 Tim. 11, τοι Heb. ili. 12.
2 Thess. ii. 11. g Here only, not LXX.
d See x Tim. i. 4.