ἃ 6 θεὸς ἔκτισεν, κ.τ.λ.: It has been asked why St. Paul does not justify by specific reasons the use of marriage, as he does the use of food. The answer seems to be that the same general argu- ment applies to both. The final cause of both is the same, 1.ε., to keep the race alive; and man is not entitled to place restrictions on the use of either, other than those which can be shown to be in accordance with God’s law.
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mCf.1Tim. πιστοῖς καὶ "' ἐπεγνωκόσι ™T
1 ἃ. τὴ
n Jas. 1.18. Θεοῦ καλόν, Rev. v. 13, Viii. 9.
ο Here only, not LXX.
p Mark xv. 23, John xiii. 30, xix. 30, Acts ix. 19, Rev. xxii. 17.
μετάλημψιν μετὰ εὐχαριστίας is one complex conception. ‘This expresses the ideal use, truly dignified and human, of food. See Rom. xiv. 6, 6 ἐσθίων κυρίῳ ἐσθίει, εὐχαριστεῖ yap τῷ θεῷ; and τ Cor. Χ. 30, εἰ ἐγὼ χάριτι μετέχω, τί βλασφη- μοῦμαι ὑπὲρ οὗ ἐγὼ εὐχαριστῶ; St. Paul of course does not mean that believers only are intended by God to partake of food. His argument is an a fortiori one. ‘‘Those that believe,”’ etc., are certainly included in God’s in- tention. He who makes His sun to rise on the evil is certainly well pleased to make it rise on the good.
Again, St. Paul does not merely desire to vindicate the use of some of God’s creatures for them that believe, but the use of all of God’s creatures, so far as they are not physically injurious. ‘‘ God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good,” καλὰ λίαν (Gen. i. 31).
For the association of μετάλημψις compare the phrase μεταλαμβάνειν τρο- 7s, Acts ii. 46, and reff. on 2 Tim. ii. 6.
τοῖς πιστοῖς : dat. commodi, as in Tit. i. 15, where see note.
τὴν ἀλήθειαν means, as elsewhere in these epistles, the Gospel truth in gene- ral, not the truth of the following state- ment, πᾶν κτίσμα, κ.τ.λ.
Ver. 4. ὅτι wav κτίσμα: This is the proof of the preceding statement, con- sisting of (a) a plain reference to Gen. i. 31, (0) α πο less clear echo of oureLord’s teaching, Mark vii. 15 (Acts x. 15), also re-echoed in Rom. xiv. 14, Tit. i. 15.
λαμβανόμενον: This verb is used of taking food into one’s hand before eat- ing (in the accounts of the feeding of the multitudes, Matt. xiv. 1g=Mark vi. 41; Matt. xv. 36= Mark viii. 6, also Luke xxiv. 30, 43) as well as of eating and drinking. see reff. Perhaps it is not fanciful to note its special use in connexion with the Eucharist (1 Cor. xi, 23; Matt. xxvi. 26 (bis) 27; Mark xiv. 22, 23; Luke xxii. 10).
καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπόβλητον: The statement of Gen. i. 31 which is summed up in Every creature of God is good might be met by the objection that nevertheless certain kinds of food were, in point of fact, to be rejected by the express com-
ΠΡΟΣ ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΝ A ἣν ™ ἀλήθειαν.
5. ἁγιάζεται γὰρ διὰ λόγου Θεοῦ καὶ “ ἐντεύξεως.