Ver. 18. ἔργου πονηροῦ: The form of the clause may be modelled on the peti-
17--21.
183
“- 5 / 3 καὶ σώσει εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐπουράνιον - ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς | See ver.13.
~ A / τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων' ἀμήν.
m 566 2 Tim.1i.15.
a 9 x > / 3 19. Ἄσπασαι Πρῖσκαν καὶ ᾿Ακύλαν καὶ τὸν ᾿Ονησιφόρου οἶκον.
20. Ἔραστος ἔμεινεν ἐν Κορίνθῳ - Τρόφιμον δὲ ᾿᾿ἀπέλιπον 21. "' σπούδασον πρὸ χειμῶνος ἐλθεῖν.
Μιλήτῳ ἀσθενοῦντα.
1 ἐν
1 50 SDFGKsil., most cursives; ἀπέλειπον CLP, 17, 31, 47”, one other.
tion in the Lord’s Prayer, ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ; but the addition of ἔργου proves that the deliverance spoken ofis not from an external Evil Personality, but from a possible evil deed of the apostle’s own doing. The expression has always a subjective reference. See reff. This exegesis is in harmony with the view taken above of ‘‘the mouth of the lion”. Failure to be receptive of the strengthening grace of the Lord would have been, in St. Paul’s judgment, an “ evil deed,” though others might easily find excuses for it. Chrys. takes a similar view of ἔργου πονηροῦ, but gives it a wider application: ‘He will yet again deliver me from every sin, that is, He will not suffer me to depart with con- demnation”. This view is also sup- ported by what follows, σώσει, κ.τ.λ. At one moment the apostle sees the crown of righteousness just within his grasp, at another, while no less confi- dent, he acknowledges that he could not yet be said ‘‘to have apprehended ”’.
σώσει εἰς: shall bring me safely to, salvum factet (Vulg.). ‘‘Dominus est et Liberator, 1 Thess. i, 10, et Salvator, Phil. iii. 2ο”) (Bengel).
βασιλείαν... ἐπουράνιον: That the Father’s kingdom is also the Son’s is Pauline doctrine. ἐπουράνιος became a necessary addition to βασιλεία as it be- came increasingly evident that the king- dom of heaven which we see is very different from the kingdom of heaven to be consummated hereafter. It is difficult not to see a connexion between this passage and the doxology appended in primitive times to the Lord’s Prayer, ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.
ᾧ ἡ δόξα: The doxology, unmistakably addressed to Christ, need only cause a difficulty to those who maintain that “(οὐ blessed for ever” in Rom. ix. 5 cannot refer to Christ, because St. Paul was an Arian. Yet Rom. xvi. 27, 1 Pet. iv. II, not to mention 2 Pet. iii. 18, Rev. i. 6, v. 13,.are other examples of doxo- logies to the Son.
Vv. 19-22. Final salutations.
Ver. 1ο. Πρῖσκαν καὶ ᾽Ακύλαν: The
same unusual order, the wife before the husband, is found in Rom. xvi. 3, Acts xvili. 18, 26, but not in Acts xviii. 2, 1 Cor. xvi. το. ‘‘ Probably Prisca was of higher rank than her husband, for her name is that of a good old Roman family [the Acilian gens}. Aquila was probably afreedman. The name does indeed occur as cognomen in some Roman families ; but it was also aslave name, for a freedman of Maecenas was called (C. Cilnius) Aquila ”’ (Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, pp. 268, 269; see also Sanday and Headlam, Romans, p. 118 sqq.).
τὸν Ὀνησιφόρου οἶκον: Their names are inserted after ᾿Ακύλαν from the Acts of Paul and Thecla, by the cursives 46 and 109: Λέκτραν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ Σιμαίαν καὶ Ζήνωνα τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ.
Ver. 20. Ἔραστος ἔμεινεν: The name Erastus is too common to make probable the identification of this companion of St, Paul’s and the οἰκονόμος, treasurer, of Corinth, who joins in the apostle’s salu- tation in Rom. xvi. 23. It is not ante- cedently likely that a city official couid travel about as a missionary. On the other hand, it is probable that this Eras- tus is the same as the companion of Timothy mentioned in Acts xix. 22. It is to be observed that St. Paul here re- sumes from ver. 12 his explanation of the absence from Rome of members of his company whose presence with their master at this crisis would have been natural. It is possible that Erastus and Trophimus were with St. Paul when he was arrested the second time, and that they remained in his company as far as Miletus and Corinth respectively.