282
ιν.
ε Ps. xxxiii- μυελῶν, καὶ κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας: 12. "καὶ οὔκ
13, 14, 15,
ΥΥΪ , lol etxxxiv. ἐστι κτίσις ἀφανὴς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, πάντα δὲ
15, ef xc. 8, et CXXXiIX. It, 125 Ecclus. xv. το.
himself μάχαιραν δίστομον a span long, and cf. Eurip., Helena, 983), but it was a common simile for sharpness as in Prov. V. 4, ἠκονημένον μάλλον μαχαίρας δισ- τόμου, whetted more than a two-edged sword; and Rev. i. 16, ῥομφαία δίστομος ὀξεῖα. The same comparison is used by Isaiah (xlix. 2) and by St. Paul (Eph. vi. 17); but especially in Wisdom xviii. 15, ‘*Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven .. . and brought thine un- feigned commandment as a sharp sword, This sharpness is illustrated by its action, διϊκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶντε καὶ μυελῶν, an expression which does not mean thatthe word divides the soul from the spirit, the joints from the mar- row, but that it pierces through all that isin man to that which lies deepest in his nature. ‘‘It is obvious that the writer does not mean anything very specific by each term of the enumeration, which produces its effect by the rhetorical fullness of the expressions ” (Farrar). For the expression cf. Eurip., Hippol., 255 πρὸς ἄκρον μυελὸν ψυχῆς. But it is in the succeeding clause that the significance of his description appears; the word is Κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐνν- οιῶν καρδίας “judging the concep- tions and ideas of the heart’’. The word of God coming to men in the offer of good of the highest kind tests their real desires and inmost intentions. When fellowship with God is made possible through His gracious offer, the inmost heart of man is sifted; and it is infallibly discovered and determined whether he truly loves the good and seeks it, or shrinks from accepting it as his eternal heritage. The terms in which this is conveyed find a striking analogy in Philo (Quis. Rer. Div. Haer., p. 491) where he speaks of God by His Word “' cutting asunder the constituent parts of all bodies and objects that seem to be coherent and united. Which [the word] being whetted to the keenest possible edge, never ceases to pierce all sensible objects, and when it has passed through them to the things that are called atoms and indivisible, then again this cutting instrument begins to divide those things which are contemplated by reason into
γυμνὰ καὶ τετρα-
χηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ, πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος.
untold and indescribable portions.” Cf. Ῥ. 506. In addition to this (καὶ), the inward operation of the word finds its counterpart in the searching, inevitable inquisition of God Himself with whom we have to do. ‘‘ No created thing is hidden before Him (God) but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” τετραχηλισμένα has created diffi- culty. τραχηλίζω is a word of the games,. meaning “to bend back the neck” and so ‘to overcome”. In this sense of overmastering it was in very common use. In Philo, e.g., men are spoken of as τετραχηλισμένοι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις. This meaning, however, gives a poor sense in our passage where it is followed by τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς. Chrysostom says the word is derived from the skinning of animals and Theophylact, enlarging upon this interpretation, explains that when the victims had their throats cut, the skin was dragged off from the neck downwards exposing the carcase. No confirmation of this use of the word is given. Perizon- ius in a note on A¢lian, Var., Hist., xii. 58, refers to Suetonius, Vitell., 17, where Vitellius is described as being dragged into the forum, half-naked, with his hands tied behind his back, a rope round his- neck and his dress torn; and we are further told that they dragged back his head by his hair, and even pricked him under the chin with the point of a sword as they are wont to do to criminals, that he- might let his face be seen and not hang his head. [So, too, Elsner, who refers to Perizonius and agrees that the word means resupinata, manifesta, eorum quasi cervice ac facie reflexa, atque adeo intuentium oculis exposita, genere loquendi ab iis petito, quorum capita reclinantur, ne intuentium oculos fugiant et lateant; quod hominibus qui ad’ supplicium ducebantur, usu olim accid- ebat.” Cf. “Sic fatus galeam laeva: tenet, atque reflexa Cervice orantis capulo tenus applicat ensem. Virgil, Zn. x. 535.] Certainly this bending back of the head to expose the face gives an excellent and relevantsense here. The rea- son for thus emphasising the penetrating and inscrutable gaze of God is given in: the description appended in the relative