4 vopov 83.
4
q—q Cf. ii.
24-27; τ Rom, ii. 13.
? Aliter consiliantes /f. ὅκατανουντες (sic) δ 41,
ΓΜ (“beginning”) used of the Torah ; or else the writer is referring to the teaching of the Torah which was implanted, and therefore rooted, in every Jew from the earliest years. Once more, it is said that this word is able to save souls. Among the Jews it was an axiom that the Torah was the means of salvation; to give but one quotation illustrative of this ancient belief, in Wajjikra Rabba, 29 it is written:
min wos OMT ΤῸΝ ΓΝ
(“Torah is the only way that leadeth to life”). And finally, as already re- marked, the necessity of being doers as well as hearers of the Torah is a common- place in Jewish literature. For many illustrations showing the correctness of what has been said, see Weber, ¥iidische Theologie (2nd Ed.), pp. 14-38, Bousset, Die Religion des Fudenthums (1st Ed.), ΡΡ. 87-120, the various editions of Midva- shim translated by Wiinsche in “ Biblio- theca Rabbinica,” and the handy collection being issued under the editorship of Fie- big, entitled “ Ausgewahlte Mischnatrac- tate”. It will have been noticed that all that the writer of this passage says about λόγος as applicable to the Law, or Torah, is equally applicable, only in a much higher sense, to Christ; this will be obvious and need not be proved by quotations. But it is interesting to observe that apparently precisely the same thing was done by our Lord Himself, as recorded by St. John in the fourth Gospel; He adapted Jewish teaching on the Torah and ap- plied it to Himself; for details of this, see Oesterley and Box, of. cit., pp. 139 ff. It will be noticed that in our Epistle the writer presently goes on to substitute νόμος (Torah) for λόγος, ver. 25; this is very significant; the “perfect law of liberty,” and the “royal law,” both refer to the Torah as perfected by the “ King of the ]εννς”.- παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς: i.c., deceiving the heart, as it is expressed in ver. 26; the rebuke shows the intimate knowledge on the part of the writer of the spiritual state of those to whom he is writing. Ver. 23. οὗτος ἔοικεν ἀνδρὶ.
ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ: With the thought here
Luke vi. 46-49. πα.
28
434
s1 Cor. 1
Xili. 12; 2 Cor. iii. 8. ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀπελήλυθεν, t 1 Pet.i.12.
πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως
u Cf. ii, το; ᾿ παρακύψας εἰς νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς