in 2 Cor. iii. 14 the Mosaic covenant is spoken of as ἡ παλαιὰ διαθήκη cf. viii. 13. Here πάλαι is contrasted with ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων, “at the last of these days,” [‘‘Aufs Ende dieser Tage,” Weizsacker], i.e., in the Messianic time at the close of the period known to the Jews as ‘“‘this present time or age”’. The expression is used in the LAX indifferently with ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων τ. ἡμερῶν οἵ ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις to translate Band KY VWINA (see Isa. ii. 2
Gen. xlix. 1; Num. xxiv. 14), which was used to denote either the future indefin- itely or the Messianic period, ‘“ the latter days” in which all prophecy was to find its fulfilment. Bleek quotes Kimchi as saying: “ Ubicunque leguntur ‘Beaharith Hayamim’ ibi sermo est de diebus Messiae”. And Wetstein quotes R. Nachman: “ Exivemum dierum con- sensu omnium doctorum sunt Dies Messiae”. It was this Jewish usage which the N.T. writers followed in speaking of their own times as “the last days;” ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τ. χρόνου (Jude 18); ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων τ. ἡμερῶν (2 Pet. iii, 3); ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τ. χρόνων (1 Pet. i. 20); and in this Epistle, ix. 26, Christ is said to have appeared ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων. The first Advent as terminating the old world and in- troducing the Messianic reign was considered the consummation. The introduction of the word τούτων is suggested by the Jewish division of the world’s course into two periods: ‘ This Age” (Ha-Olam WHazzeh) and The Coming Age (Ha-Olam Habbah). The end of ‘this age”’ or ‘“‘these days” was signalised by the coming of the Messiah, the new revelation in Christ. More effectually than the Jews themselves expected has the Advent of the Messiah antiquated the old warld and opened a new period.
The temporal contrast is further marked by the words rots πατράσιν (νετ. 1) and 4p tv (νετ. 2). Former revela- tions had been made to “ the fathers,” z.e., of the Jewish people, as in John vii. 22; Rom. ix. 5, xv. 8; 2 Pet. iii. 4. More frequently “our” “your” “their” is added, as in Acts fii. 13, 25; Luke vi. 53. But it is idle to urge, with von Soden, the absence of the pronoun as weighing against the restriction of the term in this place to the Jewish fathers. ἡμῖν ‘to us” of these last days, of the Christian dispensation.
The determining contrast between the