Ver. 32. As in the parallel passage in chap. 6, the writer at ver. 9 suddenly turns from the presentation of the terri- fying aspect of apostasy to make appeal to more generous motives, 50 here he now encourages them to perseverance by reminding them of their praiseworthy past. As Vaughan remarks, the thought is that of Gal. iii. 3. ἀναμιμνήσκε- σθε δὲ τὰς πρότερον ἡμέρας.
on
2 ao
s Phil. i. 7, et iv. 14.
t Matt. v. 12, et vi.
ἄθλησιν ὑπεμείνατε παθημάτων - 33. "τοῦτο μὲν, ὀνειδισμοῖς τε καὶ θλίψεσι θεατριζόμενοι - τοῦτο δὲ, κοινωνοὶ τῶν οὕτως ἀναστρεφομένων
3 / t ‘ A ον ὃ cra | , Ν ‘ 20, et xix. γενηθέντες - 34. “Kat γὰρ τοῖς δεσμοῖς | µου συνεπαθήσατε, καὶ τὴν
215 Luc. ἘΠῚ ο. Acts v.
” ~ , ~ 41, et xxi. ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς κρείττονα ὕπαρξιν ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ μένουσαν.
333 1
ἁρπαγὴν τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ὑμῶν μετὰ χαρᾶς προσεδέξασθε, γινώσκοντες
35"
rhess. ii," μὴ ἀποβάλητε οὖν τὴν παρρησίαν ὑμῶν, ἥτις ἔχει μισθαποδοσίαν
Tim. vi. 19; Jac. i. 2. u Matt. x. 32.
1 Τ.Ε. in DcEHKLP, ἆ, e,,Aeth.; δεσµιοις AD* f, vg., Syrutr, Copt., Arm.
... ‘But recall the former days, in which after being enlightened ye endured much wrestling with sufferings”. dva- pip, ‘‘remind yourselves,” as in 2 Cor. vil. 15. See Wetstein’s examples, where the genitive not the accusative follows the verb, and M. Aurelius, v.31. τὰς πρό- τερον ἡμ. [as in Thucyd., vi. 9 ἐν τῷ πρότερον χρόνῳ.] days separated from the present by some considerable interval, as is implied in v.12. They are further described as ἐν αἷς φωτισθέντες as ἴῃ vi. 4; equivalent to “receiving the knowledge of the truth,’ ver. 26. It was the new light in Christ, shed upon their relation to God and on their prospects, which enabled them to endure much wrestling or conflict with sufferings. ἄθλησις in the next generation came to mean “martyrdom,” as in Mart. of S. Ignatius, chap. 4. [For the genitive cf. “‘certamina divitiarum,” Hor. Epp., 1. 5 8.] What these sufferings were is described in two clauses, they were partly in their own persons, partly in their sympathy and voluntary sharing in the suffering of others, τοῦτο μὲν . .. θεατριζόμενοι, τοῦτο δὲ κοινωνοὶ . .. For the distributive formula, ‘“‘ partly,”... “ partly,” see abundant examples from the classics in Wetstein. See also Plutarch’s Them., v. 4. It may be rendered ‘as well Όσιο ας “by 77. ‘made a spectacle,” [ὥσπερ ἐπὶ θεάτρου παραδειγματιζόμενοι, Theophyl., cf. τ Cor. iv. 9], literally true of the Christians who were expose to wild beasts in the amphitheatre. See Renan’s L’Antéchrist, pp. 162 ff., “A la barbarie des supplices on ajouta la dérision”. But here it was not by lions and leopards and wild bulls they were attacked, but ὀνειδισμοῖς τε kat θλίψεσιν, “reproaches and distresses,” ‘“‘opprobriis et tribulationi- bus” (Vulg.). ὀνειδισμός is frequent in LXX, and several times in the phrase λόγοι ὀνειδ. In this Epistle it occurs again in xi. 26 and xiii. 13, and cf. τ Pet. iv. 14. Some who have not directly suf- tered persecution in these forms suffered
θεατριζόµενοι, .
by sympathy and by identifying them- selves with those who were experiencing such usage, τῶν οὕτως ἀναστρε- φομένων. Cf. Phil. iv. 14. Farrar renders well, ‘‘who lived in this condi- tion of things”. In what sense they became κοινωνοί is immediately ex- plained; they sympathised with those who were imprisoned and welcomed the violent seizure of their possessions. «at yap, as always, must here be rendered “For indeed,” “for in point of fact,” proving by more definite instances that they had become partakers with the per- secuted. They had felt for the im- prisoned, as was possibly alluded to in vi. 10,and as they are in xiii. 3 exhorted still to do. Cf. Mat. xxv. 36, which pro- bably formed a large factor in the pro- duction of that care for the persecuted which characterised the early Church. They had also suffered the loss of their goods. ἁρπαγὴν, the violent and unjust seizure, as in Mat. xxii. 25, Luke x1. 39. ἁρπαγὴ ὑπαρχόντων occurs in Lucian and Artemidorus. SeeStephanus. That which enables them to take joyfully the loss of their possessions is their con- sciousness that they have a possession which is better and which cannot be taken away. γινώσκοντες ἔχειν ἑαυτοὺς [for ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς]. If the true reading is ἑαυτοῖς then the meaning is easy ‘‘knowing that you have for yourselves”. If we read ἑαυτοὺς, this may mean, as Davidson, Westcott and others suppose, ‘‘ knowing that you have yourselves a better possession”. But this seems not very congruous with the writer’s usual style. Itis more likely that the writer uses the emphatic “‘you your- selves” in contrast to those who had robbed them and now possessed their goods. Sovon Soden. Or it may mean “γε yourselves” in contrast to the pos- session itself of which they have been deprived, ye yourselves however stripped of all earthly goods.