αὐτῆς ἀποθανὼν ἔτι λαλεῖται.
5. ἧ Πίστει ᾿Ενὼχ μετετέθη
> , οὐχ εὑρίσκετο,! διότι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ A ~ / > lol εός ᾿ πρὸ γὰρ τῆς μεταθέσεως αὐτοῦ μεμαρτύρηται ““ εὐηρεστηκέναι x κ᾿ , a Α 6. χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι : πιστεῦσαι ᾿ ῃ A me τον \ \ a - δε τὸν προσερχόμενον τῷ Θεῷ, ὅτι ἐστὶ, καὶ τοῖς ἐκζητοῦσιν αὐτὸν μισθαποδότης γίνεται.
7. “Πίστει χρηματισθεὶς Νῶε περὶ
1 ηνρισκετο in SADE.
death. His death was not the end of him as Cain expected it to be. Abel’s blood cried for justice. The words of xii. 24 are at once suggested, αἵματι ῥαντισμοῦ κρεῖττον λαλοῦντι παρὰ τὸν “ABeA, where the blood of sprinkling is said to speak to better purpose than the blood of Abel. This again takes us back to Gen. iv. το. “The voice of thy brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.” The speaking re- ferred to, therefore, is not the continual voice of Abel’s example but the voice of his blood crying to God immediately after his death.) Cf. Ps. ix. 12 and cxvi. 15. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” In the case of Abel, then, the excellence of faith was illustrated in two particulars, it prompted him to offer a richer, more acceptable offering, and it found for him a place in God’s regard even after his death.
Ver. 5. Πίστει Ἐνὼχ μετετέθη. ..- ‘ By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had witness borne to him that he had pleased God well; but without faith it is impossible to please Him well.” In the dry cata- logue of antediluvian longevities a gem of faith is detected. What lay at the root of Enoch’s translation? Faith, because before he was translated he was well- pleasing to God, which implies that he believed in God, or as Chrysostom neatly puts it: πῶς δὲ πίστει μετετέθη 6 ᾿Ενώχ ; ὅτι τῆς μεταθέσεως 7 εὐαρέστησις αἰτία, τῆς δὲ εὐαρεστήσεως ἣ πίστις. In Ecclus. xliv. 16 he is exhibited as ὑπό- δειγμα μετανοίας ταῖς γενεαῖς. μετετέθη ‘“‘was transferred,” removed from one place to another, as in Acts vii. 16, cf. also Gal. i. 6, Jude 4. In Ecclus. Ixix. 14 it is represented by ἀνελήφθη ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. The succeeding clauses imply that his body disappeared. How the tradition arose we have no means of knowing, cf. Suicer, i. 1130, and the Bible Diction- aries. τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν may either imply purpose or result. For the former see Mat. ii. 13, Luke ii. 24, Phil. iii. το; for
σαι.
the latter, Mat. xxi. 32, Acts vii. 19, Rom. vii. 3, Heb. x. 7. The use of the passive μετετέθη favours the supposition that result is here expressed, and throughout the sentence it is the translation that is prominent rather than the escape from death, which is introduced rather as an explanation of μετετέθη. καὶ οὐχ ηὗρ- ίσκετο. .. . These words are verbatim from the LXX of Gen. v. 24, and are quoted for the sake of bringing out clearly that God was the author of the transla- tion. (Cf. the misquotation in Clem. Εῤ., chap. 9, οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῦ θάνατος.) God translated him, and this is proved by the fact that preceding the statement of his translation Scripture records that he pleased God well, where the Hebrew has “he walked with God”. χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆ- “ But without faith it is impossible to please Him well.” The ground of this proposition is given in the following words: πιστεῦσαι yap Set τὸν προσερχόμενον. . - - “For he who cometh to God must believe that He ex- ists and that to those who seek Him He turns out to be a rewarder.” To please God one must draw near to Him (τὸν προσερχόμενον in the semi-technical sense usual in the Epistle), and no one can draw near who Παδ not these two beliefs that God is and will reward those who seek Him. So that Enoch’s faith, and the faith of every one who approaches God, verifies the description of ver. 1: the unseen must be treated as sufficiently demonstrated, and the hoped for reward must be considered substantial.