πρώτη ἐν ἐπαγγελίᾳ, 3 ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται, καὶ ἔσῃ μακροχρόνιος ἐπὶ ς Gen. 13.19. τῆς γῆς.

4 Καὶ οἱ πατέρες, μὴ παροργίζετε τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσία Κυρίου.

ἐν

5 * Οἱ δοῦλοι, ὑπακούετε τοῖς κυρίοις κατὰ σάρκα μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, ἁπλότητι τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν, ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ· 6 μὴ κατ ̓ ὀφθαλμοδουλείαν ὡς ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι, ἀλλ ̓ ὡς δοῦλοι Χριστοῦ, ποιοῦντες τὸ θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ ψυχῆς 7 μετ ̓ εὐνοίας δουλεύοντες ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώποις, 8 εἰδότες ὅτι ἕκαστος ὃ ἐάν τι ποιήσῃ ἀγαθὸν τοῦτο κομιεῖται παρὰ Κυρίου, εἴτε εἴτε ἐλεύθερος.

f

e

δοῦλος

9' Καὶ οἱ κύριοι τὰ αὐτὰ ποιεῖτε πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἀνιέντες τὴν ἀπειλήν· εἰδότες ὅτι καὶ αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν ὁ Κύριός ἐστιν ἐν οὐρανοῖς, καὶ προσωποληψία οὐκ ἔστι παρ ̓ αὐτῷ.

h

ὑμᾶς

Exod. 12. 26, 27.
& 13. 14, 15.
Deut. 6. 7, 20-24.
& 11. 19-21.
Ps. 78. 4-7.
Prov. 19. 18.
& 29. 17.
Ecclus. 7. 23.

τοι 3 21

d Col. 3. 22.

.. Tit. 2. 9.

e Rom. 2. 6-10.
2 Cor. 5. 10.
Col. 3. 24.
Lev. 25.
Deut. 10. 17.

105 35 43

του 19.7.

Job 34. 19.
Wisd. 6. 7.
Col. 3. 24, 25.

2 Cor. 6. 7. 1 Thess. 5. 8. i Luke 22. 53. John 12. & 14. 30. & 16. 11. Acts 28. 16. ch. 2. 2. Col. 1. 13. k 2 Cor. 10. 4. Rev. 3. 10. & 6. 17. 1 Isa. 11. 5. & 59, Luke 2 Cor. 6. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 13.

10 5 Τὸ λοιπὸν, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν Κυρίῳ, καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ· 11 " ἐνδύσασθε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι στῆναι πρὸς τὰς μεθοδείας τοῦ Διαβόλου, 12 : ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη προς τι αἷμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτηκε το τορας τοῦ σκότους, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις. 13 * Διὰ τοῦτο ἀναλάβετε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα δυνηθῆτε ἀντιστῆναι εἰκε 17. 35. ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πονηρᾷ, καὶ ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι στῆναι. Στῆτε οὖν ἡ Thess. 5. 8.

3. ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται γῆς] in order that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. This is not to be limited to temporal life in this world. But the Apostle here gives an exposition of the true spiritual meaning and universal application of the Fifth Commandment; as our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount expounds the true significance of the whole Decalogue. See on Matt. v. 17. 21. 31. Cp. Matt. xxii. 37. 40. Compare specially our Lord's promise to the meek, that they should inherit the earth, Matt. v. 5, and note.

4. παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσία] discipline (implying strictness and severity, cp. Heb. xii. 5. 7, 8. 11) and admonition,-the former applicable specially to the body, the latter to the mind.

S. Barnabas (Epist. 19) has a passage which bears on the same social and domestic duties in what is there called "the Way of Light,” as opposed to "the Way of Darkness,” - οὐ μὴ ἄρῃς τὴν χεῖρά σου ἀπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ σου, ἀλλὰ ἀπὸ νεότητος διδάξεις φόβον Κυρίου, ὑποταγήσῃ κυρίοις ὡς τύπῳ Θεοῦ ἐν αἰσχύνῃ καὶ φόβῳ· οὐ μὴ ἐπιτάξῃς παιδίσκῃ ἢ δούλῳ σου ἐν πικρίῳ, ὅτι ἦλθεν (ὁ Θεὸς) οὐ κατὰ πρόσωπον καλέσαι ἀλλ ̓ ἐφ' οὓς τὸ Πνεῦμα ἡτοίμασεν. (See below, v. 9.)

κατὰ σάρκα] Earthly, as distinguished from heavenly. Be obedient, not only to God your heavenly Master, but to your earthly masters, as to Christ.

We may have masters according to the flesh upon earth, to whom we may and must give reverence upon earth; but of our souls, and spirits, and consciences, as we have no fathers upon earth, so we may have no Masters, but only our Father in heaven. (Matt. xxiii. 9.) Bp. Sanderson (iii. 279).

ἁπλότητι] With a single eye to what is good and right, not with sinister respects to our own interests. See above on Rom. xii. 8.

6. μὴ κατ' ὀφθαλμοδουλείαν] not with eye-service; “ non ad oculum servientes.” (Vulg.) Cp. Col. iii. 22, 23.

Many servants 'there are, who will work hard as long as their master's eye is upon them, but when his back is turned, can be content to go on softly. Such ὀφθαλμοδουλεία the Apostle condemns. Sanderson (iii. p. 32).

ὡς δοῦλοι Χριστοῦ] as servants of Christ. Who is never absent from you, and Whose eye is ever upon you at your work, and Who will judge you according to your works at the Great Day.

14 1

what precedes in the Vulgate, Æthiopic, and Arabic Versions, and by Meyer and Ellicott.

8. ἕκαστος-ποιήσῃ] So A, D, E, F, G.-Elz. has ἐάν τι ἕκαστος, and so the majority of recent Editors. But ἕκαστος is the emphatic word; each person, whether bond or free, and properly stands first. Whatsoever each person shall have done, that he shall receive again from God. A religious comfort to slaves, who when they "did well and suffered for it" (1 Pet. ii. 20) from their earthly masters, might thence take consolation in the reflection, that the more they did and suffered for God, the more they would receive hereafter from God; and so they might even rejoice in their sufferings on earth as leading to an increase of heavenly glory. See Chrys. here.

τοῦτο κομιεῖται] that he will receive back again,—as a deposit, or as seed sown. See 2 Cor. v. 10, and Gal. vi. 8. 2 Cor. ix. 6. A, B, D*, F, G, have κομίσεται here, but in Col iii. 25, A, C, D*, have κομιείται, and D***, Ε, Ι, Κ, have κομιεῖται here.

9. καὶ αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν] the Master both of them and you. So A, B, D, F, G, and most of the recent Editors.-Elz. has kal ὑμῶν αὐτῶν.

11. μεθοδείας] μηχανήματα (Theodoret); Tertullian c. Marcion. v. 18. See above, iv. 14. 12. ἡ πάλη] our wrestling, our warfare, is not like that of the soldiers of this world, but far more perilous and glorious. He had been speaking of armour, and is going to speak of it more in detail. He addresses them as soldiers, and now reveals to them who and where their enemies are.

κοσμοκράτορας] He calls them rulers of this world,not because they have received any such rule from God, but because the world submits itself to their rule, and eagerly sells itself into slavery to them. Theodoret.

τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας] the spiritual powers of wick. edness: spiritualia nequitiae (Vulg.); i. e. whose essence it is to work wickedness. As to this use of the neuter plural in a collective sense (the spiritualty or spiritualhood), and on the genitive, see Winer, § 34, p. 212, 13.

13. πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ] So Ignatius to the Ephesians, c. 6 : "Let none of you be called a deserter; let your Baptism abide with you as your arms, Faith as your Helmet, Love as your Spear, Patience as your Panoply."

m Isa. 52. 7.

Rom. 10. 15.

n Isa. 59. 17.

1 Thess. 5. 8. Heb. 4. 12.

Rev. 1. 16.

o Matt. 26. 41.
Col. 4. 2.
Luke 18. 1.

1 Thess. 5. 17.

p Acts 4. 29. Col. 4. 3.

q Acts 28. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 20.

r Acts 20. 4. Col. 4. 7, 9.

2 Tim. 4. 12. Tit. 3. 12.

s 2 Tim. 4. 12.

t 1 Cor. 16. 23. 2 Cor. 13. 14.

Col. 4. 18.

2 Tim. 4. 22.

Tit. 3. 15.
Heb. 13. 25.

περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφῦν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης, 15 m καὶ ὑποδησάμενοι τοὺς πόδας ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς εἰρήνης· 16 ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἀναλαβόντες τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως, ἐν ᾧ δυνήσεσθε πάντα τὰ βέλη τοῦ πονηροῦ τὰ πεπυρωμένα σβέσαι· 17 " καὶ τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου δέξασθε, καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα Θεοῦ· 18 ° διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως προσευχόμενοι ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ ἐν πνεύματι, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἀγρυπνοῦντες ἐν πάσῃ προσκαρτερήσει καὶ δεήσει περὶ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων, 19 ° καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ, ἵνα μοι δοθῇ λόγος ἐν ἀνοίξει τοῦ στόματός μου ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ γνωρίσαι τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, 20 ' ὑπὲρ οὗ πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει, ἵνα ἐν αὐτῷ παῤῥησιάσωμαι, ὡς δεῖ με λαλήσαι.

S

21 ' Ινα δὲ εἰδῆτε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ κατ ̓ ἐμὲ τί πράσσω, πάντα ὑμῖν γνωρίσει Τύχικος ὁ ἀγαπητὸς ἀδελφὸς καὶ πιστὸς διάκονος ἐν Κυρίῳ, 22 · ὃν ἔπεμψα πρὸς ὑμᾶς εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ἵνα γνῶτε τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν, καὶ παρακαλέσῃ τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν.

23 Εἰρήνη τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς καὶ ἀγάπη μετὰ πίστεως ἀπὸ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

24 Η χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ· ἀμήν.

14. περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφῦν] Seel Pet. i. 13. Polycarp ad Philipp. 2.

15. ὑποδησάμενοι-ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ κ.τ.λ.] An allusion to the attitude and attire of the Israelites eating the Passover in a state of preparation, or rather preparedness to quit Egypt, and to march "harnessed" (Exod. xiii. 18) to Canaan. See Exod. xii. 11: “ Thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, ye shall eat it in haste."

It was a sign of haste to eat standing, with their feet shod, in preparation for the journey, that, being strengthened with the Paschal food, they might pass through the vast and terrible wilderness in their way to the promised land.

So the Christian, when he sets forth from the Egypt of spiritual darkness, is fortified with the "true Passover" sacrificed for him (1 Cor. v. 7), and he goes forth "harnessed," and has his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, and so is equipped for the march through the wilderness of this world to his heavenly rest.

Let no one therefore of the true Israelites look back and yearn for Egypt, but let all press onward toward the heavenly Jerusalem. See Origen, Chrys., and Jerome here.

16. θυρεόν] the large oblong or oval shield,properly like a θύρα, or door; scutum (Vulg.); differing from the lighter ἀσπὶς or clypeus. Ellicott.

-

· τὰ πεπυρωμένα] Tipt with some combustible material which was ignited in the projection (Ps. vii. 14; exx. 4), where the Psalmist speaks of arrows sharpened with coals of "Rethen." Veget. de Re Mil. iv. 18. Winer, R. W. B. p. 190, Art. Bogen.

17. ῥῆμα Θεοῦ] The Word of God, wherewith the Captain of your salvation defeated the Evil One at the Temptation. See on Matt. iv. 4. 7. 10.

20. πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει] See Acts xxvi. 29. Ambassadors of kings are inviolable. I, the ambassador of the King of Kings, deliver my message in bonds! But the Gospel which I preach is not bound (2 Tim. ii. 9), nor can be : but will bind Satan and liberate the world.

21. καὶ ὑμεῖς] ye also as well as others, perhaps the Colossians. See Col. iv. 16.

τί πράσσω] how I fare.

Τύχικος] Tychicus of Asia. See on Acts xx. 4, where Trophimus is mentioned with him as an 'Ασιανός. Trophimus was of Ephesus. (Acts xxi. 29.)

Tychicus was the bearer of this Epistle, probably to various Churches of Asia (see Introduction to this Epistle), and of that to the Colossians. (Col. iv. 7.) He seems to have been with St. Paul when he wrote the Epistle to Titus (iii. 12), and was sent again to Ephesus by St. Paul a little before his death. (2 Tim. iv. 12.)

22. ἔπεμψα] I send now with this Epistle. The Epistolary aorist. See Acts xxiii. 30. Phil. ii. 28. Philem. 11. 2 Cor. viii. 18. Winer, p. 249.

It was a blessed consolation for them to hear, that Paul at Rome, the metropolis of the Roman empire, was triumphing over his prison and his chains. And this was the consolatory intelligence which they would receive by Tychicus. Jerome.

23. τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς] the brethren generally. As to the question why he sends no special greetings to any individuals in this Epistle, although he had spent three years at Ephesus (Acts xix. 10; xx. 31), see above, Introduction.

On this text see Augustine, Serm. 168, Vol. v. p. 1163; and Retract. lib. i. c. 23.

24. Η χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τ. Κ. ἡ. I. Χ.] The converse of the Anathema, Maranatha in 1 Cor. xvi. 22.

ἐν ἀφθαρσία] in incorruptibility; that is, who love Him with a love that is not corrupted by any evil admixtures and deleterious influences, or impaired by change of circumstances or lapse of time, but is pure and immarcescible, αμίαντος καὶ ἀμάραντος.

The Apostle had been speaking of conjugal union and love, and he had represented it as a figure of the spiritual marriage and love between Christ and His Church (ν. 22. 32).

He now says, "Grace be with all that love the Lord Jesus Christ ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ :” that is, Grace be with every Christian soul that has been espoused to Christ in spiritual wedlock in baptism, and who loves her Lord Jesus Christ with a pure love, unadulterated with any admixtures of carnal affection for any worldly object (as the old man was corrupted, see iv. 22), and untainted by heretical pravity of unsound doctrine, or by schismatical pride of sectarian strife. Grace be to them who love Him alone with their whole heart fervently.

This meaning of the Apostle may be illustrated by his words to the philosophical, carnally-minded, and schismatical members of the Corinthian Church, who did not love Christ ἐν ἀφθαρσία: "I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted (φθαρῇ) from the simplicity' (or singleness, oneness, and pureness) of love in Christ."

The word φθαρῇ, as there used, explains the sense of its opposite ἀφθαρσία here; and this sense is approved by ancient Expositors (Chrys., Jerome, Theophyl.) and Versions, especially the Vulg., Syriac, Gothic, and Arabic, which thus paraphrases the word, "with a love free from blemish or corruption." Hence this word may well be supposed here to signify the incorruptibility of a spiritual and eternal love,-a love which flows forth from the pure well-spring of the inner man of the heart, in the incorruptible (ἀφθάρτῳ) element of the meek and quiet spirit described by St. Peter (1 Pet. iii. 4),- -a love which knows no decay, and is not affected by time,-a love which is never blighted or withered, but is as undying and unfading as the crowns of glory which it will one day wear.

This is the sense in which the words of St. Paul seem to have been understood by an Apostolic Father and Martyr, who says in

|

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.

THE Epistle to the Colossians, like the other Epistles of St. Paul, holds its own peculiar place, and performs its own special work, in the system of Christian Teaching, which has been vouchsafed by the Holy Spirit, operating by the ministry of the Apostle.

This Epistle may best be considered in connexion with that to the neighbouring Church, and great City, of Ephesus.

Both these Epistles were written by St. Paul, at the same place, Rome, and about the same time; that is, in his first imprisonment in that City (A.D. 61-63), and appear to have been conveyed by the same person, Tychicus'.

The Epistle to the Colossians, in its plan and substance, may be regarded as following, by a natural sequence, the Epistle to the Ephesians.

If the comparison may be allowed, the divine Apostle, bearing in his hand these two Epistlesthat to the Ephesians, and that to the Colossians-may be likened to the builders of the literal Temple of God, of whom we read in the book of Nehemiah, "Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held a weapon. The builders every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded"."

So the Apostle here. He is both a builder and a soldier. He has his sword girded by his side, and so builds. He builds up the Truth in one Epistle; and he wars against Error in the other. He builds in the Epistle to the Ephesians, He has his sword girded at his side in the Epistle to the Church of Colossæ.

He has thus left a practical lesson to the Church, and to every Christian. The Church on earth is ever militant; and she has also ever her work of edification. She must build as well as fight; and she must fight as well as build. And every Christian is a soldier; but he must also be a builder. The soldiers of Nehemiah, with a trowel in their hand, and a sword girded at their side, and so building the fabric of God's Temple, and the Apostle St. Paul building up the Church with one Epistle, and at the same fighting against her enemies with another, are examples for every Christian in every age.

The similarity of thought and language between these two Epistles' proclaim the connexion of the Subject and the identity of the Author.

1 Eph. vi. 24. Col. iv. 7. Compare Davidson's Introduction, ii. p. 346-350, and Alford's Prolegomena, iii. p. 18–23. Guerike, Einleitung, p. 368–383. Kirchofer, Quellensammlung, p. 208. 211.

The Epistle to the Ephesians, with its constructive character, and the Epistle to the Colossians, with its polemical protests, and denunciatory refutations, have each their respective office and

use.

Both are grounded on the foundation of the same doctrines, especially that of the Divine Love in the Mystery of the Incarnation. Both were written at the same time by the same Apostolic hand, that of Paul the prisoner of Christ; they were both sent into Asia by the same messenger, the beloved Tychicus. The Ephesian Epistle was to be communicated to the Colossians, and the Colossian Epistle was to be communicated to the Ephesians; the Apostle himself (it would seem) gave a special direction to that effect'. Each of the two Epistles would afford salutary instruction to the readers of the other, in that age, and in every succeeding generation; and in these two Epistles, written and sent simultaneously, the Church Universal would recognize a beautiful example of her own duty, to drive away dangerous errors, especially those which assail Christ's Incarnation and Atonement, while at the same time she builds up her people on the only solid foundation and immoveable Rock of Truth, Christ Jesus, confessed to be Very Man, and to be the Son of the Living God'.

Let us consider, a little more at large, the evidence of these propositions.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, as we have already seen, the holy Apostle, as a wise masterbuilder, had laid deep and strong the groundwork of the Christian Church upon Christ, acknowledged to be GOD, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, the King and Lord of Angels, Creator and Ruler of the world; and upon the same Christ, condescending to become Man, and by His Incarnation uniting Human Nature in His own Person to the Divine Nature, and offering Himself on the Cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and reconciling God to man in Himself, and purchasing to Himself an Universal Church by His own Blood, and vanquishing the Principalities and Powers of this world by His Death, and abolishing the enmity between Angels and Men, and between Men and Men, knitting together both Jews and Gentiles as fellowmembers in His own Mystical Body, the Church, by the profession of One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; and thus harmonizing and restoring, consecrating and summing-up all in one; and proclaiming and establishing an Universal and Everlasting Peace, and blending every thing, and bringing all persons to dwell together in Unity, in Himself, God and Man, and through Himself, in the Father, the Sovereign Author of all, and the Fountain and Well-Spring of Love; and having ascended up on High, and given gifts to men, as a divine boon and royal largess to the World, on the glorious occasion of His Coronation and Inauguration, as Man, in Heaven, and of His Session as our King and Head at the Right Hand of God; and by these Gifts of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, providing for the organization and consolidation, as also for the continual growth and enlargement of the living fabric of His Church, till it expands to its full stature, to the perfectness of its growth in Christ.

These mysterious truths, to the height of which no human Intelligence can climb, the depth of which no human Reason can fathom, and the length and breadth of which no human Capacity can comprehend, and which, even the Angels of heaven themselves did not know, and had been dimly seen by the Prophets, and prefigured by the types and shadows of the Levitical Law, are now revealed by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and are displayed to the eyes of Angels and of Men, by the Church, as in a clear mirror, where all may contemplate the beauty and glory of the Love of God in Christ.

From these transcendent truths, fully developed, the Apostle had proceeded to enforce the practical duties of Unity in the Faith, of Truth', of Charity, of Holiness. He had shown in the Epistle to the Ephesians, how the daily duties of domestic and social life, the duties of Wives to Husbands, and Husbands to Wives; the duties of Children to Parents, and of Parents to Children; the duties of Slaves to Masters, and of Masters to Slaves, all grow out of this one Root, and flourish