Ver. 19. The blood of Christ, the true paschal lamb, was the (means or) agent of your redemption. The type contem- plated is composite; the lamb is the
yearling sheep (Xt? πρόβατον, but Targum-Onkelos has “\WS lamb and
στυλ is rendered ἀμνός in Lev. xii. 8; Num. xv. 11; Deut. xiv. 4) prescribed for the Passover (Exod. xii. 5). But the des- cription perfect (τέλειον Dn) is glossed by Gpopov (cf. Heb. xii. 14), which is the common translation of DWM in this connection, and ἁἀσπί- λου which summarises the description of sacrificial victims generally (v. Lev. xxli. 22, etc.). ἅμωμος would be unintel- ligible to the Gentile, because it has acquired a peculiar meaning from the
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15-21.
XU προεγνωσ ῥωθέντος δὲ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχά
Hebrew DD blemish. ἄσπιλος is used by Symmachus in Job xv. 15, for 757 Hesychius treats ἄσπιλος. ἅμωμος and καθαρός as synonyms.—ripiq is set over against φθαρτοῖς as πολντιµ. against ἀπολλυμένου; cf. Ps. cxvi. 15, τίμιος ἐναντίον Κυρίου 6 θάνατος τῶν ὁσίων and λίθον . . . ἔντιμον (ii. 4).
Ver. 20. As the paschal lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month (Exod. xiii. 3) so Christ was foreknown before the creation and existed before His manifestation. The preexistence of Moses is stated in similar terms in As- sumption of Moses, i. 12-14, “* God created the world on behalf of His people. But He was not pleased to manifest this pur- pose of creation from the foundation of the world in order that the Gentiles might thereby be convicted... . Ας- cordingly He designed and devised me and He prepared me before the founda- tion of the world that I should be the mediator of His Covenant.” So of the Messiah, Enoch (xlviii. 3, 6) says: ‘‘ His name was called before the Lord of spirits before the sun and the signs of the zodiac were created.... He was chosen and hidden with God before the world was created. At the end of time God will reveal him to the world.” Alex- andrian Judaism took over from Greek philosophy (Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle) the doctrine of the preexistence of all souls. Soin the Secrets of Enoch (xxiii. 5) it is said ‘‘Every soul was created eternally before the foundation of the world”. The author of Wisdom was a goodly child and obtained a good soul or vather being good came into a body unde- filed (Sap. viii. το f.); and Philo found Scriptural warrant in the first of the two accounts of Creation (Gen. i. 264). Out- side Alexandria, apart from the Essenes (Joseph, B. J., ii. 154-157) the general doctrine does not appear to have been accepted. But the belief in the preexist- ence of the Name of the Messiah if not the Messiah Himself was not unknown in Palestine and was latent in many of the current ideals. The doctrine of Trypho was probably part of the general reaction from the position reached by the Jewish thinkers (Α.Ρ.) and appropriated by the Christians, There are many hints in the Ο.Τ. which Christians exploited without violence and the development of angel- ology offered great assistance. Current