The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 16

tended to be inoluded among "'EM,wn, preaching-he does aet forth the DlTlne being pe.rtakerB in Hellenic <'ulture, and pbiloBOphy of tho gospel. Dut the mes- in fact at that time its prominent repre- sage, he adds, is "to the Jew first," be- l!lentsti'l'es (of. "Non BOlnm Grlf!Cia et oauee it was to the people of the covenant RaUa, l!ed etiam omnie barbaria," Cioero, (of. oh. ix. ~. ct.o.) tha.t the eal vntion in • DC' Fin.; ii. 15). Of (.'(lun,e, o-<>4>ol aleo in- Ohrist WI\B in the first place to be offered. <'lndet1 them. The obtlous intention of the Henoe also, in o.11 his miaeiona.ry work, he writer is t.o plaoe them in eaoh of the higher first addressed himself to the synagogue, mt;egori5, and 80, while n.fter hie manner o.nd only when he was rejeoted there, be paya hie expe<,ted readere a delioate turned exolusively to the Gentiles. So a.t oomplimen\, to insist thM ii.is mission is to Rome too, when he a.fterwards went there the highest in position and onlture aa well (Aots x:a:viii 17-29). ae the loweet, and that, bold in hie convic- tions, be is not ashamed to pr880h the crose Ver. 17--ch. :d. S6.-Il. THB DOO'rRINAt. even to them. "Anda.J: facinue ad oruoem PART OJI' THB EPIBTLlD. ~ tierr&rlllil Dominos" (Alex. More. quoted by Olehausen). Ver. 17--ch. viii. S9.-C. The dootrine of Ver. 16.-For I am not uha.med of the flu! righte.oUSlle8s of God propounded, eatab- gospel ( of Chrut, in the Authorized Vereion, lished, and e:iplai11ed. is very weakly supported by manuscripts; neither is it requil"E'<i), for it is the power Ver. 17.-Thisverse, though connected in of God unto BBlvation to every one that sequence of thought with the preceding believeth; to the 1ew first, and to the verse, mo.y properly be taken in conjunction Greek. In saying he was "not a.shamed,'' with the doctrinal nrgnment which follows, St. Paul may have had in hie mind our serving, in fact, 88 its thesis. For the Lord's own words (Mark viii. 38 and Luke righteousness of God is therein revealed from ix. 26.) We are reminded in this veree of (or, by) faith unto faith: 88 it is written, But the passage., l Cor. i. 17-31, where the the righteoue by (or, from) faith shall live. idea here shortly intimated is enlarged on. It is to be observed that <t< is the preposition He was fully awe.re that the pride of Greek before ,r(o-n"'s in both clauses of the sentence, philosophy would be likely to despiee the though our Authorized Version makes a m«-ge of the cross ae " foolishness." It difference. Further, we render, with the would be strange to them at first, and out Authorized Version, "the righteousness of of e.coord with their intellectual speculations. God," rather than "a righteousness," as iii the But he was convinced too that in it was Revieed Version, notwithstanding the absence contained the one view of things to meet of the o.rticle. For what ie meant is the hmnan needs, and such 88 t.o oommend definite conception, pervading the Npistle, of itself in the end to thinkers, if their eon- God', righteouaness. If there were room for llCienoes could be roused. In preaching doubt, it would surely be removed by lip"/4 tD the Corinthians he had indeed purposely 0,oii, e.leo without the article, immediately refmined from presenting the gospel to following, and with the ea.me verb, a,ro1<a• them in " words of man's wisdom,'' lest the Ame.-a,. The Revisers, tranala.ting hero simple message, addressed alike to all, "the wrath," ha.vo given in the ma.rgin os should lose any of its essential power, or tenable "a wrath," apparently for the sa.ko be confounded with the hn.ma.n philoso- of consistency with their rendering of lil1<a1• phieB of the day. But to them also, in hie oa-6,,,,. But " a wrath of God" has no in- First Epistle, he declares that thie.was not telligible meaning. The expressions seem bece.lllE: it was not "wisdom," as well as simply to mean God's righteousness and "power," tD snob as could 110 receive it. God's tllf"ath. This expression, "the Among the more advanced, and therefore righteouenese of God," has been disCUBsed more rf:"...eptive (,v -rois -rEll.Elo1s), he does, in the Introduction, to which the rea.der is be MYS.. " Bpe&k wisdom" (1 Cor. ii 6), referred. Its intrinsic meaning is there Ohristianily haring, in fact, its own philo- taken to be God's own eternal righteoue- a,phy, appreciable by them. AJJ is well 11aid neas, revealed in Christ for reoonciling the in the E:a:position of 1 Corinthians in the world to himself, rather than (a.s commonly • Speaker's Commentary,' "No contrast is interpreted) the forensio righteousness (so here e.t all between rea.eon and reyelation, called) imputed to man. Thus there is no • BOU1e t.b.i.uk, but strictly between two need to understand the genitive e,oii as philol!ophies-the philoeophy of God and gen. auctoris, or as equivalent to bdnr,011 ihf> ph.ilollophy of tl,e world." Therefore 0•oii. The phrase is understood in the to the Greek, 11 weU as tD the Jew, be ie sense that would be familiar to St. Paul and DOt ashamed to pree.cl, the cro811 ; and in his reu.Jerd from the 01,1 'festrunent; a.nd tbie Epistle, suit.ably to its purpoae-more, it is conceived that this intrinsic sense ii may be suppoaed, than bis ,rdiu.e.ry pervadCII tlw whole Epistle even when 11 ob. 1, 1---32,) THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 9