4. ὅτι πᾶν "κτίσμα.
καὶ οὐδὲν “ ἀπόβλητον μετὰ εὐχαριστίας ἢ λαμβανόμενον -
6. Ταῦτα.
q See 1 Tim. ii. 1.
mand of the Mosaic Law. St. Paul replies that thanksgiving disannuls the Law in each particular case. Nothing over which thanksgiving can be pro- nounced is any longer included in the category of things tabooed. It is evident, from the repetition of the condition, μετὰ. εὐχαριστίας λαμβ., that St. Paul re- garded that as the only restriction on Christian liberty in the use of God’s creatures. Is it a thing of such a kind that I can, without incongruity, give thanks for it?
Field regards οὐδὲν ἀπόβλητον here as a proverbial adaptation of Homer's saying (11. Γ. 65): οὔτοι ἀπόβλητ᾽ ἐστὶ. θεῶν ἐρικυδέα δῶρα.
For κτίσμα see reff. κτίσις is found in Rom. (7), 2 Cor. (1), Gal. (1), Col. (2) ; but in these places creation is the best or a possible rendering. κτίσμα means. unambiguously thing created.
Ver. 5. ἁγιάζεται: The use of the pre- sent tense here supports the explanation given of ver. 4, and helps to determine- the sense in which λόγος θεοῦ is used. The food lying before me at this moment, which to some is ἀπόβλητος, is sanctified
here and now by the εὐχαριστία. See t Cor. x. 30. λόγος θεοῦ and ἔντευξις (see note
on il. I) are in some sense co-ordinate (almost a hendiadys), and together form. elements in a εὐχαριστία. If St. Paul had meant by λόγος θεοῦ, the general teaching of Scripture, or the particular text, Gen. i. 31, he must have said ἡγίασται. At the same time, the written word was an element in the notion of the writer. λόγος θεοῦ has not here merely its general sense, a divine com- munication to man; it rather determines the quality of the ἔντευξις, as a scriptural prayer; a prayer in harmony with God's revealed truth. The examples that have come down to us of grace before meat are, as Dean Bernard notes here, “ packed with scriptural phrases ”’. φ
The best commentary on this verse is the action of St. Paul himself on the ship, when, having ‘taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all; and he brake it, and began to eat”’ (Acts xxvii. 35).
Although there is not here any direct
4—7.
r 8
“2
ἡ ὁ "παρηκολούθηκας.3
2 Tim. iii. 10.