Ver. 15. εἶτα: continuing the des- cription of the method of the working of ἐπιθυμία.-- ἣ ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦ- σα τίκτει ἁμαρτίαν: With this idea of personification, cf. Zech. ν. 5-11, where the woman “sitting in the midst of the ephah” is the personification of Wickedness; and for the metaphor see Ps. vii. 15 (Sept.), ἰδοὺ ὠδίνησεν ἀνομίαν, συνέλαβεν πόνον καὶ ἔτεκεν ἀδικίαν. Since ἐπιθυμία is represented as the parent of ἁμαρτία it can hardly be re- garded as other than sinful itself; indeed, this seems to be taught in the Targum of Jonathan (a Targum which had received general recognition in Babylonia as early as the third century Α.Ὀ., and whose ele- ments therefore go back to a much earlier time) in the paraphrase of Isa. Ixii. ΤΟ.
16. Μὴ1 "πλανᾶσθε, ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί.
ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα
iv. 19; John iii. 27; 1 Cor. iv. 7. 11, 15,17; John iii. 3.
1 unde 13.
where it says that the imagination of sin is sinful, cf. Jer. Targ. i. to Deut. xxiii. II; this is evidently the idea in the words before υ8..--᾿άποτελεσθεῖσα : this word does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., and only very rarely in the Septua- gint, cf. 1 Esdras, v. 7, ἀπεκώλυσαν τοῦ ἀποτελεσθῆναι (A reads ἐπιτελεσθ.) τὴν οἰκοδομήν; 2 Macc. xv. 39... . οἶνος ὕδατι συνκερασθεὶς ἤδη καὶ ἐπιτερπῆ τὴν χάριν ἀποτελεῖ . . .; it refers here to sin in its full completeness, Vulg., cum consummatum fuerit. The passage τε- calls Rom. vi. 28, Ta yap ὀψώνια τῆς ἁμαρτίας θάνατος. Mayor quotes the appropriate passage from Hermas, Μαμᾶ., iv. 2. ἡ ἐνθύμησις αὕτη Θεοῦ δούλῳ ἁμαρτία µεγάλη”: ἐὰν δέ τις ἐργάσηται τὸ ἔργον τὸ πονηρὸν τοῦτο, θάνατον ἑαυτῷ κατεργάζεται. Just as ἐπιθυμία and θάνατος belong together, and the latter testifies to the existence of the former, so πίστις and ἔργα belong to- gether, and the latter proves the existence of the former; see ii. 22, ἐκ τῶν ἔργων ἣ πίστις ἐτελειώθη.- ἁποκύει: Only here and in ver. 18 in the N.T., it only occurs once in the Septuagint, 4 Macc. xv. 17, ὦ μόνη γύναι τὴν εὐσέβειαν ὁλόκληρον ἀπο- κυήσασα.- θάνατον: in Tanchuma, Bereshith, 8, it is taught that Adam’s sin was the means of death entering into the world, so that all generations to the end of time are subject to death; this teach- ing is, of course, found in both early and late Jewish literature; but it probably is not this to which reference is made in the passage before us. In seeking to realise what the writer meant by death here one recalls, in the first place, such passages as Rom. ν. 21: As sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through right- cousness unto eternal life through Fesus Christ our Lord; cf. vi. 21, vii. 24; John v. 24: He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life. and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life ; cf. viii. 51, 52; I John iii. 14: We know that we have passed from death unto life: see also Rom. vii. 24; 2 Cor. 1.9, 10; 2 Tim. i. 10; and Jas. v. 20, . . . shall save a soul from death , . .; it seems clear that