Stood not (ov« éornxev). This may be explained intwo ways. The verb may be taken as the perfect tense of ferns, which is the form for the English present tense, J stand. In that case it would describe Satan’s presen¢ standing in the element of falsehood : he standeth not in the truth. Or it may be taken as the imperfect tense of otjxw, I keep my standing, or simply, T stand, in which case the form will be éornxev, and it will mean that even before his fall he was not true, or that he did not 7e- main true to God, but fell. Meyer, who takes it in the former sense, observes: “ Truth is the domain in which he has not his footing; to him it is a foreign, heterogeneous sphere of life.
The lie is the sphere in which he holds his place.” So Mephistopheles in Goethe’s “ Faust” :
‘<7 am the spirit that denies! And justly so ; for all things from the void Called forth, deserve to be destroyed ; "Twere better, then, were naught created. Thus, all which you as sin have rated,— Destruction,—aught with evil blent,— That is my proper element.”
When he speaketh a lie (érav Aadi To areddos). More atrictly, whenever—the lie, as opposed to the truth, regarded as a whole. Two interpretations are given. According to one, the Devil is the subject of speaketh: according to the other, the subject is indefinite; “when one speaketh;” stating a general proposition.
Of his own (é« Tav idlwv). Lit., out of the things which are his own. ‘That which is most peculiarly his ethical nature ” (Meyer).
For he is a liar, and the father of it (dre wedorns éori Kal 6 rathp aitod). Three interpretations are given. 1. That of the A. V.and Rev. “He isa liar, and the father of the lie.” 9. “He is a liar, and the father of the liar (since of wt may also be rendered of Aim).” 3. Making 6 raryp abrod, his fa- ther, the subject of the sentence, and referring his to one, the indefinite subject of speaketh (“when one speaketh a lie”).
Vou. II.—12