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μόνον Ἰ Ῥπαραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς 3- 23. “ ὅτι 3 εἴ τις * ἀκροατὴς p Col. ii. 4.
Ν “ λόγου { ἐστὶν καὶ οὐ ποιητής," οὗτος ἔοικεν ἀνδρὶ κατανοοῦντι ὅ τὸ
1 µονον ακροαται ΦΑΟΚΙ;Ρ, Oec.,
3 Om. A, 13.
highest expression of loyalty towards God. Jews who had from childhood been taught to regard the Torah in this light would have found it very difficult to dis- card the time-honoured veneration ac- corded to it, and there was no need to do So, seeing the place that Christ Himself had given to it (Matt. v. 17-18, vii. 12, κι. 5, xix. 17» xxi. 3; Luke x, 26, xvi. 17, 29), and provided that its teaching in general was regarded as preparatory to the embracing of Christianity. The in- tensely practical writer of this passage realised that those to whom he was writ- ing must be drawn gently and gradually, without unduly severing them from their earlier belief, which, after all, contained so much which was identical with the new faith. The Torah, which had been rooted in their hearts and which was to them, in the most literal sense, the word of God, was the point of attachment be- tween Judaism and Christianity; it was utilised by the writer in order to bring them to Christ, the “ Word” of God in a newer, higher sense. All that he says here about the Adyos was actually the teaching of the Jews concerning the Torah, the revealed word of God; and all that he says was also equally true, only in a much higher sense, of the teach- ing of Christ, the “Word” of God,— this latter, higher conception of the
“Word of God,” the ΠΣ, was one with which Hellenistic Jews were quite familiar;—what has been said can be illustrated thus :—
In ver. 18 it is said, “Οὐ his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth”; the Jews taught that they were the children of God by virtue of the Torah. In ver. 21 it is said, “ Wherefore putting away all filthiness . . . receive the rooted word” ; according to Jewish ideas, purity and the Torah were inseparable, it was an ancient Jewish belief that the Torah was the means whereby lust was annihil- ated inaman. In the same verse, the expression ἔμφυτος λόγος can have a two-fold meaning in reference to the Torah ; either it contains an allusion to the belief that the Torah was implanted, like Wisdom, in God Himself from the very beginning, hence the expression