25---31.
ἵνα μὴ ὁ ὀλοθρεύων τὰ πρωτότοκα θίγῃ αὐτῶν. έβησαν τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν ὡς διὰ ξηρᾶς - ἧς πεῖραν λαβόντες οἱ
> Αἰγύπτιοι κατεπόθησαν.
κυκλωθέντα ἐπὶ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας.
261
, . 20. ἡ Πιστει δι- ν Exod.xiv. 21, 22.
, , . 30. "Πίστει τὰ τείχη Ἱεριχὼ ἔπεσε,2 w Jos. vi. 20.
, ες ss 31. " Πίστει Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη οὐ συν- x Jos. ii. 1,
et νι. 23;
απώλετο τοῖς ἀπειθήσασι, δεξαμένη τοὺς κατασκόπους μετ᾽ εἰρήνης. Jac. ii.25.
1ολεθρευων in ADE.
Him as unable to avenge and deliver His people”. To say that it means merely ‘the same reproach that Christ bore” scarcely satisfies the expression. The ‘‘ treasures of Egypt” must be sup- posed to include all that had been ac- cumulated during centuries of civilisa- tion. ἀπέβλεπεν, he habitually kept in view the reward. Cf. Xen., Hist., vi. τ, ὃ ἡ σὴ πατρὶς cis σὲ ἀποβλέπει, also Ps. xi. 4, Philo, De Ofif., p. 4. κατέλιπεν Αἴγυπτον, “he forsook Egypt,” and fled to Midian. That this flight and not the Exodus is meant appears from the con- nection of the clause both with what precedes and with what follows. It ex- hibits the result of his choice (ver. 26), and it alludes to what preceded the Passover (ver. 28). The word ἐκαρ- τέρησεν, denoting long continued endur- ance also suits better this reference. The only difficulty in the way of accept- ing this interpretation is found in the words μὴ φοβηθεὶς τὸν θυμὸν τοῦ βασιλ- έως, because, according to Exod. il. 15, the motive of his flight was fear of the king. ἐφοβήθη δὲ Μωυσῆς. But what is in the writer’s mind is not Pharaoh’s wrath as cause but as consequence of Moses’ abandonment of Egypt. His flight showed that he had finally re- nounced life at court, and in thus indi- cating by this decisive action that he was an Israelite, and meant to share with his people, he braved the king’s wrath. This he was strengthened to do because he saw aninvisible monarch greater than Pharaoh. Vaughan seems the only in- terpreter who has precisely hit the writer’s meaning: ‘the two fears are different, the one is the fear arising from the discovery of his slaying the Egyptian, the other isthe fear of Pharaoh’s anger on discovering his fight. He feared and therefore fled: he feared not, and there fore fled.” Waving fled and so cutting himself off from all immediate oppor- tunity of helping his people, ἐκαρτ- έρησεν, “he steadfastly bided his time,” because he saw the Invisible, being thus an eminent illustration of faith as ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων. The
2 ereoav in ΜΑΡ", 17, 23, 71.
aorist gathers the forty years in Midian into one exhibition of wonderful per- severance in faith. It was the upper form of the school which disciplined Moses and wrought him to the mould of a hero. Another point in his career at which faith manifested itself was the Exodus, πεποίηκεν τὸ πάσχα, ‘‘ he hath celebrated the Passover”. Alford says the perfect is used on account of the Passover being ‘‘a still enduring Feast”. But it is Moses’ celebration of it that the perfect represents as enduring. The classical treatment of the question, Has ποιεῖν a Sacrificial meaning in the N.T.? will be found in Prof. T. K. Abbott’s Essays. ποιεῖν is regularly used of ‘(keeping ” a feast; and this is a classical usage as well. Cf. Exod. xii. 48, xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxv. 17-19. τὸ πάσχα originally the paschal lamb, Exod. xii. 21, καὶ θύσατε τὸ πάσχα, Mark xiv. 12 τὸ πάσχα ἔθυον, hence the feast of Passover as in Luke xxii. 1. It is written φασέκ throughout 2 Chron. ΧΧΧ. and xxxv., also in Jer. xxxvili. 8. καὶ τὴν πρόσχυσιν τοῦ αἵματος, “and the affusion of the blood” the sprinkling of the blood on the door posts as com- manded in Exod. xii. 7, 22, the object being that the destroyers of the first- borns might not touch them. As θιγγάνω is followed by a genitive in xii. 20 it is probable that the writer here also meant it to govern αὐτῶν while πρωτότοκα fol- lows ὀλοθρεύων. SoR.V. ὁ ὀλοθρεύων is taken from Exod. xii. 23. πρωτότοκα, first-borns of man and also of beasts, Exod. xii. 12. αὐτῶν is naturally re- ferred to ‘tthe people of God,” ver. 25. It was a noteworthy faith which enabled Moses confidently to promise the people protection from the general destruction. On their part also there was the mani- festation of a strong faith. διέβησαν τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν . - . ‘‘they passed through the Red sea as if on dry land”. The nominative must be taken out of αὐτῶν. διέβησαν, the usual term for crossing a river or a space. The Red sea is in Hebrew ‘‘the Sea of [red] weeds”. διὰ ξηρᾶς γῆς as in