κατὰ wpdyvwotv.... The noun occurs only in Acts ii. 23 (speech of St.
Peter) in reference to the slaying of Christ τῇ ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ, cf. i. 20. The use of nouns instead of verbs is characteristic of this Epistle. The same idea is expressed more elaborately by St. Paulin Rom. viii. 29 (g.v.). Cf. Origen, Philocalia, xxv. Oecumenius infers that the Apostle is thus. the equal of the prophets, especially Jeremiah (ο. Jer. i. 5).—@€v ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος, subjective genitive like θεοῦ, being elect they are within the sphere of the proper work of the Holy Spirit. The context excludes the render- ing hallowing of the (human) spirit. Peter uses the stereotyped phrase; cf. 2 Thess. ii. 13 (which corresponds exactly to the whole context) εἵλατο ὑμᾶς 6 θεὸς an” ἀρχῆς (κατὰ πρ. 0. π.)... ἐν aye ασμῷ πνεύματος καὶ πίστει ἄλη- θείας (εἰς ὑπ.).--εἰς ὑπακοὴν .. . |. Χριστοῦ, the goal or purpose of their election. Obedience is a technical term : sc. to God; cf. i. 14, where it is con- trasted with the ignorant disobedience of their past lives (i. 22). As Christians, they obeyed God and not men (Acts iv. το, ν. 29) ; God gives His Holy Spirit to them that obey Him (Acts v. 32). Com- pare the Pauline obedience of faith. This obedience implies a change of mind in Jew and in Gentile, which is effected by the sprinkling of blood of Ὕεσις Christ. They are now cleansed from sin, which is disobedience in Jew or Gentile. Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, sprinkles those whom God selected with His own blood, as Moses sprinkled the children of Israel who had promised obedience with the blood of oxen (Exod. xxiv. 7 £.; cf. Heb. ix. το). But refer- ences to other sprinklings of the Ο.Τ., unconnected with obedience, must not be excluded. The word ῥαντισμός is appro- priated, for example, to the water in which the ashes of the heifer were dis- solved (Num. xix.); and a less obvious explanation is supported by Barnabas, ‘that by the remission of sins we might be purified, that is in the sprinkling of His blood for it stands written... by His bruise we were healed (Isa. ΠΠ. 5)’. Indeed the best commentary is supplied by the Epistle to the Hebrews in which evidence of the O.T. is reviewed and the conclusion drawn that according to the:
2—3. πληθυνθείη. εὐλογητὸς 6 OS! καὶ πα Xd 6 κατὰ τὸ πολὺ αὐτοῦ