‘only,” “if at all events,” “ΙΓ at least”’.
This clause is added not as if the writer had any doubt of God’s willingness, but because he is conscious that his success depends wholly on God’s will. Cf. Cor. ΧΥΙ. 7.
Vy. 4-6 give the writer's reason for not attempting again to lay a foundation. It is, he says, to attempt an impossibility. The statement falls into three parts : (1) A description of a class of persons τοὺς ἅπαξ Φωτισθέντας . . . καὶ παραπ- εσόντας. (2) The statement οὗ a fact re-
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garding these persons ἀδύνατον πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν. (3) The cause of this fact found in some further char- acteristics of their career ἀνασταυροῦντας . « παραδειγµατίζοντας.
Ver. 4. First, the description here given of those who have entered upon the Christian life is parallel to the de- scription given in vv. 1, 2 of elementary Christian teaching; although the par- allel is not carried out in detail. The picture, though highly coloured, is some- what vague in outline. ‘‘ The writer’s purpose is not to give information to ws, but to awaken in the breasts of his first readers sacred memories, and breed godly sorrow over a dead past. Hence he ex- presses himself in emotional terms such as might be used by recent converts rather than in the colder but more exact style of the historian” (Bruce). ἀδύνα- tov yap: The yap does not refer to the immediately preceding clause (Delitzsch) but points directly to τοῦτο ποιήσομεν and through these words to ἐπὶ τὴν Ted. φερώμεθα, the sense being ‘Let us go on to perfection and not attempt to lay again a foundation, for this would be vain, seeing that those who have once begun and found entrance to the Chris- tian life, but have fallen away, cannot be renewed again to repentance, cannot make a second beginning. τοὺς ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας, “those who were once enlightened”’. τοὺς includes all the par- ticiples down to παραπεσόντας, which therefore describe one class of persons; and it is governed by ἀνακαινίζειν. ἅπαξ : “once for 411 semel (not πότε = quondam) may be taken as remotely modifying the three following participles as well as φωτισθ. Its force is that ‘‘once” must be enough; no πάλιν can find place; and it refers back tc πάλιν of ver. 1, and forward to πάλιν of νετ. 6. φωτισθέντας is used in this absolute way in x. 32 where a comparison with ver. 26 indicates that it is equivalent to τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας. Cf. also 2 Cor. iv. 4and Eph.i. 18. ὙΠεβοῦτοε of the enlightenment is τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, the result is repentance and faith, ver. 1. Hatch re- fers to this passage in support of his con- tention that the language and imagery of the N.T. are influenced by the Greek mysteries (Hibbert Lect., pp. 295-6). ‘‘So early as the time of Justin Martyr we find a name given to baptism which comes straight from the Greek mysteries —the name ‘enlightenment ’ (φωτισμός, φωτίζεσθαι). Itcame to be the constant