y—y Quoted from Gen. xv.
1:
ἔργων “i πίστις ἐτελειώθη, 23. καὶ ἐπληρώθη ἡ "γραφὴ ἡ
᾽Αβραὰμ τῷ Θεῷ,8 καὶ ἐλογί- 24.
6; cf. τ Macc. ii. 52; Rom. iv. 3; Gal. iii. 6”
2 Om. δε L, latt. (hab 5). 4 δουλος 69.
cepts of the Torah; the man who has acquired sufficient merit is in a state of Zecith, 1.ε., in that state of righteousness, attained by good works, wherein he is in a position to claim his reward from God. Very pointed, in this connection, are the reiterated words of Christ in Matt. vi. 5, 16, ‘‘ Verily, I say unto you, they have received their reward”.—otdAos θεοῦ: Gf, 2) Chron, xx. 7: Isa. ἴδ: Danae 35 (Septuagint); in Sr. vi. 17 the Septu- agint reads: ὃ φοβούμενος Κύριον εὐθύ- νει φιλίαν αὐτοῦ, ὅτι κατ᾽ αὐτὸν οὕτως καὶ ὁ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ; the Hebrew has; “Por as He Himself is, so is His friend, and [as is His name, so are his works” (‘‘works”” must refer, most likely, to the ‘‘ friend,” not to God); the Syriac runs: “They that fear God show genuine friendship, for as He Himself is, so are His friends, and as is His name, so are His works”. In the Book of $ubilees, xix. 9, it says in reference to Abraham: ‘For he was found faithful (believing), and was written down upon the heavenly tablets as the friend of God”; this is repeated in xxx. 20, but from what is said in the next verse it is clear that all those who keep the covenant can be inscribed as “friends” upon these tablets. Deiss- mann (Bibelstudien, pp. 159 f.) points out that at the court of the Ptolemies φίλος was the title of honour of the highest of the royal officials. In Wisd. vil. 27 the ‘friends of God” is an ex- pression for the ‘‘righteous”. The phrase φίλος Θεοῦ, therefore, while in the first instance probably general in its application, became restricted, so that finally, as among the Arabs, ‘the friend οἱ God,” Khalil Allah, or simply El Khalil, became synonymous with Abra- ham. Irenzeus, iv. 16, iv. 34, 4, refers to Abraham as ‘‘the friend of God,” but he does not mention our Epistle; if a refer- ence to this was intended it is the earliest trace of an acquaintance with it. See, further, an interesting note of Nestle’s in the Expository Times, xv. pp. 46 f.; cf. Gen. xviii. 17 where the Septuagint
23—26. ΤΠ. τ.