5 Gr. Economy, see p. 338, note 3.
6 Or "marked out." protetupwsqai.
7 See Sir Thomas Brown, Rel. Med. pt. i. p. 22.
8 Chrys. apprehends well the practical purpose for which the apostle introduced verses 28-30. Notwithstanding all the imperfections of the Christian's spiritual life (26, 27) and the trials which have been so fully described (1-24) we have the assurance that all these things are working in accordance with God's gracious plan for his ultimate good. In passing over from the idea of believers as those who love God to its counterpart that they are those called according to His purpose (not to be taken of the believer's purpose, as Chrys.) the apostle develops from this idea of purpose a series of conceptions designed to emphasize the believer's security. "You who love God can be sure of the outcome of all suffering in good for you are included in God's purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Eph. iii. 11.) You have all the strength and solidity of God's eternal plan on your side. When the divine purpose of redemption was before the mind of God in eternity, you were the prospective participants in it, as truly as you now are the real participants. What you are God from eternity intended you to be. The stability of his immutable counsel is pledged to you."-G. B. S.
9 The argument of vv. 33, 34 which is so condensed in form, may be paraphrased thus: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No one shall. Why? Because their justifier is God himself. No one may accuse whom He acquits. Who, then, can appear against them and condemn them? No one can, for it is no less a person than Christ who died and rose on their behalf."-G. B. S.
10 Theodoret notices the same thing, ad loc. St. Basil, De Sp. S. c. xx. answers a similar argument against the equal Divinity of the Holy Spirit, by showing that it would apply to the Son if at all.
11 Shakespeare, Lear, act ii. sc. iv. "We are not ourselves when nature being oppressed commands the mind to suffer with the body," etc.
12 Intelligible is used in old Platonist writers for invisible, as in German.
1 So Field from one Ms. Vulg. "what has been read to-day, as it reached my ears."
2 Chaps. ix. x. and xi. may be viewed as a kind of appendix to the doctrinal pan of the epistle, in which the apostle considers the problems to which the unbelief and rejection of the Jews gave rise. It is Paul's purpose in these chapters to show that his doctrine does not contradict God's promises to the Jews. Chap. ix. contains strong assertions that the providential dealing of God with the Jews is not to be called in question. It is evident from the gradual approach of the apostle to this theme, how painful it was to him to be compelled to contemplate it.-G. B. S.
3 Thus sacer is used in both senses, and devoted in our own language somewhat similarly.
4 The force of huxomhn here is: "I would wish, if it were a thing which could possibly be realized for the advantage of my brethren." The word anaqema means anything devoted to God and then (as in the N. T.) something devoted to his wrath, i.e. accursed. The expression is to be understood as the language of intense passion and can scarcely mean anything less than a readiness to perish if by so doing he could save his people Israel.-G. B. S.
5 Aug. de Civ. Dei, i. 21. Butler, Anal. p. 262, ii. 3, v. fin.
6 This was sometimes done; but the mss. vary unusually in this word, and three different readings mean, "if ye are not disturbed." See Twining on Arist. Poet. note 22, and Gaisf. on Rhet. p. 46.
7 As galled at the blasphemies against Him for breakings His promise.
8 This passage makes, perhaps, a comment on the words, Luke ix. 24, Whosoever will lose his life (thn yuxhn), the same shall save it.
9 So all copies of St. Chrys. The following words, however, imply that this was not his reading of the text, (which had before been read at length, as the first words of this Homily show, see p. 459), he quotes it as in our text, in Hom. xx. on 1 Cor. viii. 5, p. 266 O. T. and elsewhere. See note in Mill's G. T. All mss. agree with the rec. text.
10 1 Ms. he is aware of their way of thinking, epistatai, this gives a more common sense to dianoian.
11 At v. 6 begins Paul's theodicy in view of the lapse of the Israelites. The argument of vv. 6-13 is: God's promise cannot fail because it applies to the true Israel. This point he illustrates from Old Testatment examples. The argument throughout this chapter is conducted from the point of view of God's sovereign election. In the two subsequent chapters, other considerations drawn from the freedom and disobedience of the people are introduced. It is as if the apostle had said: God has done according to His sovereign good pleasure. We might leave the matter there. To one who should say: why then does he blame me? (v. 19), or: why has he made me thus? (23), we might reply: who art thou to reply against God? The apostle does not rest the consideration of the case with the presentation of this view. In the closing verses of the chap. he shifts the point of view and asks: why did Israel fail? why was she cut off and the Gentiles chosen? (31). He answers, because they did not seek righteousness by faith; they were not trustful and obedient, and hence they found the Messiah a stone of stumbling and failed to realize the ideal of their prophetic history.-G. B. S.
12 i.e. the true Seed of promise.
13 Didymus in Psalm xcvii. 3, and Hesych. ps. lii. 7, ap. Corderium, t. 2.
14 Gr. to them, i.e. to them considered as objections. Compare Matt. xxi. 27. "Neither tell I you by what authority 1 do these things.
15 If this is to be read interrogatively, so as to imply the negative, it must be understood of that time exclusively, as the context shows.
16 He refers to the occasion on which the words next quoted were spoken, viz. when Moses interceded for them after that sin.
17 This expression supports St. Augustine's interpretation of Rom. viii. 28.
18 Perhaps alluding to the supplanting of Esau.
19 Literally under some circumstance, but peristasiz implies. surrounding and assault.
20 One Ms. adds, "Isaac, for his part, wished to bless Esau, he ran to the field (paidion, by a common mistake for pedion) to do his father's bidding, desirous of the blessing. But God brought in Jacob who was worthy, and by a just judgment declared him deserving of the blessing."
21 Such is plainly the sense, but most mss. have to auto furama thj ousiaj esti, it is the same lump in regard of the substance.