4/5
16. 3 ἐξομολογεῖσθε οὖν 1 ἀλλήλοις τὰς ἁμαρτίας,” καὶ προσ- x Sir. iv. 26.
y Matt. κι,
πολὺ ἰσχύει δέησις δικαίου 15; Luke iv. 18;
* ἐνεργουμένη. 17. " Ἡλείας ὅ ἄνθρωπος ἦν ὁμοιοπαθὴς ἡμῖν, καὶ Heb. xii. A μι ᾧ N inl lol 13. . προσευχῇ ” προσηύξατο τοῦ μὴ βρέξαι, καὶ οὐκ ἔβρεξεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς zz Cor.i.6;
aA “ εἰ A ε ἐνιαυτοὺς “ τρεῖς καὶ μῆνας ἕξ - 18. καὶ ὃ πάλιν 1 προσηύξατο, καὶ 6 οὐρανὸς ὑετὸν ἔδωκεν ἴ καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐβλάστησεν τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῆς.
24; 1 Pet. iii. 12.
15; Rev. xi. 6. c Luke iv. 25.
ΑΙ Kgs. xvii. 1, xviii. 1; Acts xiv. 15. di Kgs. xviii. 42, 45; 2 (4) Esdr. vii. 39.
1 Tim. ii. I; cf. Gen. xviii.
Acts viii. b Cf. Sir. xlviii. 2,5, Luke xxii.
10m. L, curss., ff, Arm., Aeth.; δε 107, Pesh. 27a παραπτωματα KL, curss., Pesh., Orig., Thi., Oec.; add vpwv L, 69, a, ο, ff,
Vulg., Syrr., Copt., Aeth.
8ευχεσθε SKLP, curss., Thl., Oec., Treg., Ti., WH (altern. reading).
4 Ut remittatur vobis 7). 6 Sed ff.
him a disease of the liver, “πᾶ had not the prayers of Jacob my father succoured me, it had hardly failed but my spirit had departed”’. That sin brings disease was, likewise in the later Jewish literature, an article of faith, indeed here one finds speci- fied what are the particular sicknesses that particular sins bring in their train. According to Rabbinical teaching there are four signs by means of which it is possible to recognise the sin of which a man has been guilty: dropsy is the sign that the sin of fornication has been com- mitted, jaundice that of unquenchable hatred, poverty and humiliation that of
pride, liver complaint (?) (ΟΜ) that of back-biting. In Shabbath, 55 a, it says : ‘‘ No death without sin, no chas- tisement without evil-doing,’ and in Nedarim, 41 a it says: “No recovery without forgiveness”. Leprosy may be due to one of eleven sins, but most pro- bably to that of an evil tongue (see Weber, Fiidische Theologie, pp. 245 f.). Ver. 16. ἐξομολογεῖσθε . . . ἁμαρτίας: see critical note above. Confession of sins has always played an important part in Judaism; the O.T.
word for confession of sins is ΓΙ the later term, which denotes more par- ticularly the liturgical form of confession,
is ΠῚ: Private as well as public con- fession was enjoined, and many forms of confession, both general and particular, exist, among others one for the sick; it was the duty of the Rabbis to urge the sick person to confess his sins. Confes- sion is regarded as a meritorious act:
ὅἨλιας SAB KLP, curss. 7 eSwxev νετον A, 13, 73, Latt., Treg., Ti., WHmsg,; εδ. τον νετ. Ν.
according to Sanhedrin, 103 a, it has the effect of enabling the worst sinners to inherit everlasting life (see, among other authorities, Hamburger’s Realencycl. des Fudent, article ‘‘Siindenbekenntniss ”’.). For the custom of the early Church cf. Didache, iv. 14, xiv. 1.--προσεύχ ε- σθε ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων: the need of in- tercessory prayer is strongly emphasised in O.T., N.T. and the later Jewish litera- ture, see above and the next note.— πολὺ ἰσχύει δέησις δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη: one is reminded of the well-known instance of Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai (end of first century, A.D.) who, when in need of the prayers of a righteous man on behalf of his sick child, said, ‘‘ Although I am greater in learning than Chaninah, he is more efficacious in prayer; I am, indeed, the Prince, but he is the steward who has constant access to the King ” (Berachoth, 34 b). A curious saying of Rabbi Isaac is contained in Febamoth, 64a: ‘The prayer of the righteous is comparable to a pitchfork; as the pitchfork changes the position of the wheat so the prayer changes the dis- position of God from wrath to mercy” (quoted in fewish Encycl., x. 169). With δικαίου cf. δίκαιον in ver. 6. On évep- γουμένη see Mayor’s elaborate note.